Drinks at the Randolphs

On Monday evening went across to the very fine house that is Tufton Farm to meet with Professor Iain McLean of Oxford University. Amongst many things, he is studying the links between the Scottish enlightenment and America. Sat outside on the beautiful porch - still warm enough in the evenings.

Tufton Farm was given by Jefferson to his daughter Martha - who married Thomas Man Randolph in February 1790. In April 1790, Alexander wrote to Jefferson:

I had the pleasure of dining yesterday with Colo. Randolph, and of seeing your Daughters, who were in good health, as well as the rest of the Family. 

And in May 1790 he wrote:

I have only time to inform you that your Son Mr. Randolph called upon me the forenoon, that he was well, and told me that Mrs. Randolph and Miss Polly were also in good health.

So whilst not exactly a house that Alexander visited - he certainly had connections. Actually, I think it was built quite a long time after he died, but never mind - Martha only moved there after she was kicked out of Monticello when Jefferson died due to the large debts of the estate.

Alexander did come very close to where I am at the moment - which is quite far from Richmond - or certainly was in the 1789s. In 1787 he wrote to Jefferson:

Last Fall I was up in Albermarle and passed a very happy week with our Friend Jack Walker, and his Cara Sposa. I had the Honour of forwarding a letter to you lately from him. 

Jack Walker lived at Castle Hill - just the other side of Charlottesville. Maybe worth asking them kindly?

Spent Tuesday in the library. Was pulling all the research together, but then of course I find other things I want to go and look at. The biggest collections that I know of so far that I haven't dived into are:

1. The Patrick Henry collection at the Valentine Museum in Richmond
2. The John Norton and Sons papers in the Rockefeller Library in Williamsburg
3. The William Short Papers - wherever I can get hold of the microfilm for those as UVAs are out
4. New addition - the Alexander Hamilton Papers. I came away disappointed the other day that I hadn't found letters to and from Alexander about William Heth - but now I have new references to letters between them - Donald writing to Hamilton about his father apparently, describing trade in Virginia to Hamilton and from London describing the possibility of London lending the US money. So I need to track down the complete Hamilton Papers - which I think are on the 5th floor of the library in UVA, which apparently is hard to get into, but I am sure I will find a way.

Plan to visit Williamsburg tomorrow - then to the Hamilton Papers on Thursday morning first thing in the UVA library - and Friday down to Richmond again to try and go through the Patrick Henry and William Short papers. Would make more sense to stay down at Williamsburg and go to Richmond on the way back - but on Thursday there is a video link apparently with Edinburgh university and Frank Cogliano from UVA that Peter Onuf - Mr History himself - has suggested I go to - and then a very good book launch on Thursday evening. TV cameras are coming and the ICJS board, so have to be here for that looking keen and fellowy. Obviously I shall be asking a pointed question about quite how vital the letter from Jefferson to Alexander was to the relationship between Madison and Jefferson.

Mistimed my walk this evening so came down the hill in the pitch dark - went to supermarket and when came back about 8 deer standing on the lawn outside the garage.

Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies

Andrew Burstein and Nancy Isenberg
Book launch on October 14 in the Reading Room of the Jefferson Library; presentation at 4:00 p.m. and reception following

Madison and Jefferson (Random House, 2010) is a dual biography and a major reappraisal of the partisan world of post-Revolutionary America. Jefferson comes across as a figure even more controversial than most imagine. Madison is neither dull nor empty of emotion either. In fact, though warm friends, Madison talks tough, disagrees with Jefferson, and prods him to act to a far greater extent than history recalls. The composite picture of the two presidents is one of militancy as much as enlightened thinking. In a new book bound to make waves, Burstein and Isenberg show that "Tall Tommy and Little Jemmy," as critics lampooned them, were canny and confident political operatives and Virginians more than they were nationalists.

Andrew Burstein is Charles P. Manship Professor of History and Nancy Isenberg is Professor of History at Louisiana State University. Among Burstein's books areJefferson's Secrets (2005), The Inner Jefferson (1995), and the Monticello monographLetters from the Head and Heart: Writings of Thomas Jefferson (2002). Isenberg's most recent book is Fallen Founder: The Life of Aaron Burr (2007).