Episodes

> Prologue Episode 1 Episode 2 Episode 3 Episode 4 Episode 5 Episode 6 Episode 7 Episode 8 Episode 9 Episode 10 Episode 11 Episode 12 Episode 13 Episode 14 Episode 15 Episode 16 Epilogue

> Overview Primary Sources Secondary Sources Clippings Commentary Essays Teaching Images

1) And be it farther enacted, That if any person shall write, print, utter or publish, or shall cause or procure to be written, printed, uttered or published, or shall knowingly and willingly assist or aid in writing, printing, uttering or publishing any false, scandalous and malicious writing or writings against the government of the United States, or either house of the Congress of the United States, or the President of the United States, with intent to defame the said government, or either house of the said Congress, or the said President, or to bring them, or either of them, into contempt or disrepute; or to excite against them, or either or any of them, the hatred of the good people of the United States, or to stir up sedition within the United States, or to excite any unlawful combinations therein, for opposing or resisting any law of the United States, or any act of the President of the United States, done in pursuance of any such law, or of the powers in him vested by the constitution of the United States, or to resist, oppose, or defeat any such law or act, or to aid, encourage or abet any hostile designs of any foreign nation against United States, their people or government, then such person, being thereof convicted before any court of the United States having jurisdiction thereof, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars, and by imprisonment not exceeding two years.
Sedition Act, 1798

2) The design of this book is to exhibit the multiplied corruptions of the Federal Government, and more especially the misconduct of the President, Mr. Adams.
James Thomson Callender, Prospect 3

3) Go scan, Philosophist; thy ****** charms, / And sink supinely in her sable arms; / But quit to abler hands, the helm of state, / Nor image ruin on thy country's fate.
William Cullen Bryant 7

4) I have never felt any enmity towards you Sir for being elected president of the United States. But the instruments made use of, and the means which you have practiced a change, have my utter abhorrence and detestation, for they were the blackest calumnyes and foulest falsehoods.
Abigail Adams to Jefferson, 1 July 1804; Ford 42

5) Mr. Jefferson had been raised from a private station. He had been indebted for his exultations to comparative opulence to the extensions of a numerous body of republican partisans. As an individual, he had done nothing. It forms one of the toothpicks of Mr. Jefferson's self approbation that, in his whole life, he never wrote a single article for a newspaper. His duty, therefore, was to be thankful to the persons who did for the public, what he could have done so much better . . . if he chose to shut his eyes, while public interest went to ruin, decency required that he should at least have thanked those more adventurous and estimable citizens, who rushed to the defense of the ramparts of liberty. . . . In this point of view the vice president deserved infinite thanks from the republicans; while the systematic and even ostentations indifferences of Mr. Jefferson deserved none. . . . Mr. Adams would at this day have been president; or the country might have been consumed in the flames of a civil war.
James Thomson Callender, September 1, 1802; McMurry and McMurry 14-15

6) Certes, a wench, though strait and tall, / With lips so large and teeth so small, / Though lively / plump and mellow, / Descended of ignoble race, / Would ne'er be suffer'd to solace / The sage of Monticello.
"Another Imitation of Horace," Port-Folio, October 30, 1802

7) By this wench Sally our president has had several children. There is not an individual in the neighborhood of Charlottesville who does not believe the story and not a few who know it.
James Thomson Callender, September 1, 1802; McMurry and McMurry 17

8) Mr. Hamilton, referring to Reynolds and his wife, calls this an abominable attempt. Granted. But, since the measures of himself and his party, on the affair of certificates, had excited a very general and violent suspicion, and since he well knew that the gentlemen who came forward, were supposed to be in the number of those who entertained it, every motive of self-love, and of zeal for the honour of his partizans, should have prompted Mr. Hamilton to tear up the last twig of jealousy. In place of smothering testimony, he should have courted it. In place of burning letters, he should have printed them. Publicity was the only basis by which he could maintain the ground that he was in danger of losing. Yet this was the very mode of defence which he chose to avoid.
James Thomson Callender, History 229

9) In the third session of my attendance on Congress, circumstances which I could neither foresee nor prevent made my situation there extremely unenviable. I came to this place, on an offer made in the most liberal terms, and with the most solemn assurances that it would be punctually fulfilled. My efforts have been attended with as much success as I could reasonably expect; and the gentleman with whom I engaged, who is a sober honest character, gives me full confidence. But he has not that regularity in conducting business which I wish to see, and I have reason to fear that he is incapable of fulfilling his engagements, though a farther trial might prove me to be mistaken. My wishes in life are of the humblest kind. It is very long since I envied the independence of a journeyman carpenter. But I am now in my thirty-ninth year, with a wife and four young children; and it is too late to think of anything of that sort by at least a dozen years.
Callender to Madison, 28 May 1796; Ford 7

10) The sufferers of the sedition act . . . should have received a statutory compensation for the fines of which they were robbed, for the calumny, they suffered. . . . For this ungrateful and atrocious omission, as well as for many other reasons, the present republican leaders, with Jefferson and Madison in the front of them, have forfeited the just confidence of their adherents. They deserve to be deserted, and discharges, to be dispelled as weak, and to be detested as worthless.
James Thomson Callender, September 1, 1802; McMurry and McMurry 15-16

11) Dear Thomas, deem it no disgrace / With slaves to mend thy breed, / Nor let the wench's smutty face / Deter thee from the deed.
"Original Poetry" ("Horace, Book II, Ode 4") Port-Folio, October 30, 1802

12) How can any Christian American support the present administration of the United States? Again, as to Mr. Jefferson's morality, two charges have lately been made against him which his friends would certainly be bound to contradict, if they could do it with truth -- Their silence, however, seems to contest his guilt. It has been said, that for a number of years Mr. Jefferson, the father of a family, has been living in cohabitation with one of his own mulatto slaves, against all law divine or human.
James Thomson Callender, December 8, 1802; McMurry and McMurry 94

13) The reign of Mr. Adams has, hitherto, been one continued tempest of malignant passions. As president, he has never opened his lips or lifted his pen, without threatening and scolding. The grand object of his administration has been to exasperate the rage of contending parties, to calumniate and destroy every man who differs from his opinions. Mr. Adams has labored, and with melancholy success, to break up the bonds of social affection, and, under the ruins of confidence and friendship, to extinguish the only beam of happiness that glimmers through the dark and despicable farce of life.
James Thomson Callender, Prospect 30-31

14) Tis fit that villainy so superlative and novel as yours [Callender's] should be arrested. The world hates you. Wherever your name travels, it carries with it that repulsive chill, which hurries our retreat from a vault of putrid human mortality! Disgusted with your trite nonsense, those who have counted upon the unfolding of a heart, which had the terrible task of showing its cold black interior, while it betrayed a few artless secrets gained in purer blood are now drawing from your stench, and with frightful frowns wave their hands as they recede from your contagion. Go where you will, I will lacerate you. There is no spot upon American soil where three years hence your traitorous feet shall leave their obnoxious impression. The food of this pure climate shall not form chyle for the nourishment of a queer lump of flesh, which moves but to blur the fairest characters that Virginia has reared. Thou liar in bronze, stand forth!
Meriwether Jones, September 22, 1802; McMurry and McMurry, 45

15) If the friends of Mr. Jefferson are convinced of his innocence, they can make an appeal of some sort. If they can rest in silence, or if they content themselves with resting upon a general denial, they cannot hope for credit. The allegation is of a nature too black to be suffered to remain in suspence. We should be glad to hear of its refutation. We give it to the world under the firmest belief that such a refutation never can be made. The AFRICAN VENUS is said to officiate as housekeeper at Monticello. When Mr. Jefferson has read this article, he will find leisure to estimate how much has been lost or gained by so many unprovoked attacks upon.
James Thomson Callender, September 1, 1802; McMurry and McMurry 17

16) I am really mortified at the base ingratitude of Callendar. It presents human nature in a hideous form. It gives me concern, because I perceive that relief, which was afforded him on mere motives of charity, may be viewed under the aspect of employing him as a writer. When the Political Progress of Britain first appeared in this country, it was in a periodical publication called the Bee, where I saw it. I was speaking of it in terms of strong approbation to a friend in Philadelphia, when he asked me if I knew that the author was then in the city, a fugitive from prosecution on account of that work, and in want of employ for his subsistence. This was the first of my learning that Callendar was the author of the work. I considered him as a man of science fled from persecution, and assured my friend of my readiness to do whatever could serve him. It was long after this before I saw him; probably not till 1798. He had, in the meantime, written a second part of the Political Progress, much inferior to the first, and his History of the United States. In 1798, I think, I was applied to by Mr. Lieper to contribute to his relief. I did so. In 1799, I think, S.T. Mason applied for him. I contributed again. He had, by this time, paid me two or three personal visits. When he fled in a panic from Philadelphia to General Mason's, he wrote to me that he was a fugitive in want of employ, wished to know if he could get into a counting-house or a school, in my neighborhood or in that of Richmond; that he had materials for a volume, and if he could get as much money as would buy the paper, the profit of the sale would be all his own. I availed myself of this pretext to cover a mere charity, by desiring him to consider me a subscriber for as many copies of his book as the money enclosed (fifty dollars) amounted to; but to send me two copies only, as the others might lay till called for. But I discouraged his coming into my neighborhood. His first writings here had fallen far short of his original Political Progress, and the scurrilities of his subsequent ones began evidently to do mischief. As to myself, no man wished more to see his pen stopped; but I considered him still as a proper object of benevolence. The succeeding year, he again wanted money to buy paper for another volume. I made his letter, as before, the occasion of giving him another fifty dollars. He considers these as proofs of my approbation of his writings, when they were mere charities, yielded under a strong conviction that he was injuring us by his writings. It is known to many that the sums given to him were such, and even smaller than I was in the habit of giving to others in distress, of the federal as well as the republican party, without attention to political principles. Soon after I was elected to the government, Callendar came on here, wishing to be made postmaster at Richmond. I knew him to be totally unfit for it; and however ready I was to aid him with my own charities, (and I then gave him fifty dollars) I did not think the public offices confided to me to give away as charities. He took it in mortal offence, and from that moment has been hauling off to his former enemies, the federalists. Besides the letter I wrote him in answer to the one from General Mason's, I wrote him another, containing answers to two questions he addressed to me. 1. Whether Mr. Jay received salary as Chief Justice and Envoy at the same time; and 2, something relative to the expenses of an embassy to Constantinople. I think these were the only letters I ever wrote him in answer to volumes he was perpetually writing to me. This is the true state of what has passed between him and me. I do not know that it can be used without committing me in controversy, as it were, with one too little respected by the public to merit that notice. I leave to your judgment what use can be made of these facts. Perhaps it will be better judged of, when we see what use the tories will endeavor to make of their new friend.
Letter of Jefferson to Monroe, July 15, 1802

17) It is well known that the man, whom it delighteth the people to honor, keeps and for many years has kept as his concubine, one of his own slaves. Her name is SALLY. The name of her eldest son is TOM. His features are said to bear a striking although sable resemblance to those of the President himself. The boy is ten or twelve years of age. His mother went to France in the same vessel with Mr. Jefferson and his two daughters. The delicacy of this arrangement must strike every person of common sensibility. What a sublime pattern for an American ambassador to place before the eyes of two young ladies.
James Thomson Callender, September 1, 1802; McMurry and McMurry 16

18) When press'd by loads of state affairs, / I seek to sport and dally, / The sweetest solace of my cares / Is in the lap of Sally.
"A Song, Supposed to Have Been Written by the Sage of Monticello," Port-Folio, October 2, 1802

19) AFTER we thought that the public had enough upon the remission business, Mrs. SARAH JEFFERSON, was brought forward. . . . In a word, the political character of Thomas Jefferson has been safely deposited in its grave, and The Recorder shall take the trouble of erecting its tomb-stone. What would Mr. Madison at this moment give that he had behaved to a certain person with a little more of the outside of gratitude? The secretary of state cannot come upon the carpet, at least as we conjecture, till Christmas. The explanation as to the philosopher himself is the first object. To borrow the language of Junius, "that, is at this time, the pillow, upon which our indignation reposes." It is only doing Justice to the character of Virginia to say that his negro connection has [ ] defender , or apologist in Richmond. Any man, that even looks through a spyglass at the hope of a decent character, would think himself irretrievably blasted, if he lisped a syllable in defence of the president's mahogany coloured propagation. Mr. Jefferson was a man of fortune! A man, of admitted abilities! A man who stood in the very first rank of political characters! A man, who had been in possession of a virtuous and amiable wife! He was a man, who had daughters to be educated, and who can hardly have forgot the name of their mother! He could almost have commanded whatever his utmost ambition desired, as to the female sex, in the state of Virginia. He plunged at once into a connection, from which, the debauchee, that prowls St. Gile's would have shrunk with horror.
James Thomson Callender, September 29, 1802; McMurry and McMurry 57

20) The inquest, which was held over Callender's body, resulted in a verdict by the Jury of accidental drowning, proceeding from intoxication, as published in last Wednesday's Examiner. The Jury, no doubt, had evidence, satisfactory to their minds, of this fact. But we may be permitted to differ from them. Callender had threatened to put an end to his existence, by drowning himself, for several weeks previous to his actual death, and he was found dead in water not exceeding a depth of three feet; from these circumstances it may be inferred that he got excessively drunk, for the express purpose, of putting an easy end to his life, in this way, by shortening his struggles. However, it is impossible to arrive at any certainty on the subject; nor is it of consequence that we should. We shall leave the matter in the doubt which seems to rest upon it. --Our own opinion is, as stated before, that his death was voluntary.--
Meriwether Jones, July 27, 1803; McMurry and McMurry, 100

21) Let me then ask, What could induce him [Callender] to come a' the wa' from Edinhorough to Philadelphia to make an attack upon poor Old England? And, if this be satisfactorily accounted for, upon principles of domestic philosophy, which teaches us, that froth and scum stopped in at one place, will burst out at another, still I must be permitted to ask, What could induce him to imagine, that the citizens of the United States were, in any manner whatever, interested in the affair? What are his adventures in Scotland, and his "narrow escape," to us, who live on this side the Atlantic? . . . What are his debts and his misery to us? Just as if we cared whether his posteriors were covered with a pair of breeches, or a kilt, or whether he was literally sans culotte? In great Britain, indeed, his barking might answer some purpose; there he was near the object of his fury; but here he is like a cur howling at the moon.
William Cobbett 8-9

22) 'Tis supposed, that, at the time when Mr. Jefferson wrote so smartly concerning negroes, when he endeavored so much to belittle the African race, he had no expectation that the chief magistrate of the United States was to be the ringleader in shewing that his opinion was erroneous; or, that he should chuse an African stock whereupon he was to engraft his own descendants.
James Thomson Callender, September 1, 1802; McMurry and McMurry 17

23) In the days of yore, as poets tell, / When Jove in love with mortals fell, / He stripp'd off dignity and pride, / Laid all his thunder-bolts aside; / From high Olympus made escape / To beastly deeds, in beastly shape. . . . / By turns, as lewdness spurr'd him on, / A bull, a serpent or a swan. . . . / yet, when the lustful fit was o'er, / He rose, resplendent, as before: / Ascended heav'n's bright throne again, / Majestic king of gods and men!
"The Metamorphosis," Port-Folio, December 18, 1802

24) But it is said, in support of this slander, by some individual sticklers of this new fangled Federalism, that travelers in the southern states, of respectability! --seldom put up at a publick house of entertainment, without being presented with a negro wench to cherish him through the night! Respectable travellers may, therefore, come forward, if they please, and attest to this fact from experience!
Columbian Minerva, October 26, 1802; McMurry and McMurry 76

25) The charge of Reynolds wears a more serious aspect. If he was one agent for the purchase of certificates, it may well be conceived, though it cannot yet be proved, that our secretary had twenty others. Physician! heal thyself. Before Mr. Hamilton prints any farther defences of other people, before he again arraigns one-half of his fellow citizens as cut-throats, let him tell us what has become of Reynolds. Let him observe that this narrative is explicit; and that, under all the circumstances of the affair, silence will be more fatal to his character, than the most feeble vindication.
James Thomson Callender, History 230

26) But as Duane continues to deny the existence of black Sally, and her children; as he affects to disbelieve the account of Mr. Jefferson's attempt to seduce Mr. Walker's lady, he shall have another small anecdote, concerning his favorite hero. And to put an end at once, to all this nonsense of denials, I profess myself prepared to meet Mr. Jefferson in a court of justice and to prove, by a dozen witnesses, the family conviction, as to the black wench and her mulatto litter. I offer to prove, by the evidence of Mr. Walker, and by the hand writing of Thomas Jefferson himself, the odious and disgusting detail, at which decency and virtue shudder. And as I do not wish to come in by the back track, the name of the writer of this article is inscribed to it.
James Thomson Callender, December 8, 1802; McMurry and McMurry 95

27) In gentlemen's houses every where, we know that the virtue of unfortunate slaves is assailed with impunity. White women in these situations, whose educations are better frequently fall victims: but the other class are attempted, without fear, having no defender, and yield most frequently. Is it strange therefore, that a servant of Mr Jefferson's, at a house where so many strangers resort, who is daily engaged in the ordinary vocations of the family, like thousands of others, should have a mulatto child? Certainly not --And if Callender had not sworn to wickedness, he never would have twisted this occurrence into a serious accusation. Mr. Jefferson has been a Bachelor for more than twenty years. During this period, he reared with parental attention, two unblemished, accomplished and amiable women, who are married to estimable citizens. In the education of his daughters, this same Thomas Jefferson, supplied the place of a mother -- his tenderness and delicacy were proverbial -- not a spot tarnished his widowed character, until this frightful sea calf, in his wild frenzy, thought proper to throw his phlegm at him. Are you not afraid Callender that some avenging fire will consume your body as well as your soul? Stand aghast thou brute, thy deserts will yet o'ertake thee.
Meriwether Jones, September 25, 1802; McMurry and McMurry, 53-54

28) Since mine of the 26th Callender is arrived here. He did not call on me; but understanding he was in distress I sent Captain Lewis to him with 50. D. to inform him we were making some inquiries as to his fine which would take a little time, and lest he should suffer in the meantime I had sent him &c. His language to Captain Lewis was very high-toned. He intimated that he was in possession of things which he could and would make use of in a certain case: that he received the 50. D. not as a charity but a due, in fact as hush money; that I knew what he expected, viz. a certain office, and more to this effect. Such a misconstruction of my charities puts an end to them forever. You will therefore be so good as to make no use of the order I enclosed you. He knows nothing of me which I am not willing to declare to the world myself. I knew him first as the author of the Political Progress of Britain, a work I had read with great satisfaction, and as a fugitive from persecution for this very work. I gave to him from time to time such aids as I could afford, merely as a man of genius suffering under persecution, and not as a writer in our politics. It is long since I wished he would cease writing on them, as doing more harm than good.
Letter of Jefferson to Monroe, May 29, 1801

29) The design of this book is to exhibit the multiplied corruptions of the Federal Government, and more especially the misconduct of the President, Mr. Adams.
James Thomson Callender, Prospect 3

30) To say we are sorry at any thing, which may open the eyes of the people at large to the true character of a man, of whose unworthiness we have long made up our own opinions, would be weak hypocrisy: -- We will not even pretend, that we have any great wish that Mr. Jefferson should be proved innocent. -- But it does not thence follow, that in this, or any other instance, we would be capable of doing willful injustice. Let him stand or fall according to his own merits. --Why should any one wish to make him appear worse than he is, since he is really bad enough for the purpose of his bitterest enemy.
James Thomson Callender, December 8, 1802; McMurry and McMurry 94

31) And now Sir I will freely disclose to you what has severed the bonds of former Friendship, and placed you in a light very different from what I once viewed you in. One of the first acts of your administration was to liberate a wretch who was suffering the just punishment of the Law due to his crimes of writing and publishing the basest libel, the lowest and vilest slander, which malice could invent, or calumny exhibit against the character and reputation of your predecessor, of him for whom you profest the highest esteem and friendship, and whom you certainly knew incapable of such complicated baseness. The remission of Callendar's crime was a public approbation of his conduct. Is not the last restraint of vice, a sense of shame, rendered abortive if abandoned characters do not excite abhorrence? If the chief Magestrate of a nation, whose elevated station places him in a conspicious light, and renders his every action a concern of general importance, permits his public conduct to be influenced by private resentment, and so far forgets what is due to his character as to give countenance to a base calumniator, is he not answerable for the influence which his example has upon the manners and morals of the community?
Abigail Adams to Jefferson, 1 July 1804; Ford 42-43

32) It is impossible to reflect upon what Callender was, and what he might have been, without emotions of pity and regret.-- Endowed by nature with the most admirable talents; possessing by accident the advantages of classical and liberal education -- his ardent, inquisitive and penetrating mind seems early to have acquired a strong and unconquerable bias towards political discussion. The continued persecution which he had experienced in America appears to have soured his temper, and produced that disgusting mixture of falsehood, detraction and personal abuse, which less or more characterized all his writings.
Meriwether Jones, July 27, 1803; McMurry and McMurry, 101

33) He [Jefferson] either found out, that [missing] proclaim an enshield beauty e'en ten times louder, Than beauty could displayed."-or else he esteemed his sable Helen an exception to his general rule. Perhaps she is favoured with peculiar charms and graces-- --Perhaps Mr. Jefferson discovered, that her "love" was something more than "an eager desire:" That it was "a tender delicate mixture of sentiment and sensation!!" Perhaps she understands "Euclid" -- --or she may be "a poet;" faculties, which, he says in his "Notes on Virginia," that none of our Africans had ever then attained. Perhaps too that "disagreeable odour," -- --But oh fie! Whither are we following Mr. Jefferson? Into what indelicate speculations would he conduct us. Modesty orders us to drop the curtain for surely "it were to consider too curiously" to probe this matter to the bottom. We therefore assign it over to less scrupulous hands; confessing at the same time, that there is a merriment in the subject, which we should be graceless enough to pursue at the President's expence, were it less offensive to serious and decent contemplation.
James Thomson Callender, September 29, 1802; McMurry and McMurry 57

34) No blasted brood of Afric's earth / Shall boast the glory of her birth / And shame thy daughter's brother, / To prove thy panders shall conspire / Some king of Congo was her sire -- / Some Ethiop Queen her mother.
"Horace, Book II, Ode 4," Port-Folio, October 30th, 1802

35) PRINT I. Will exhibit an afflicted and, disconsolate widower, a stout, well built, healthy man, about the age of forty. He is delineated as sitting in his parlour, and in the act of perusing some passages in the poems of Ossian. (Mr. Jefferson has or he sometime since had by heart, a part of the poems of the Celtic bard. Buchanan's poems are in his library. Whether Mr. Jefferson ever read them, or whether he chuses to read them, we do not pretend to say.) It is supposed his attention is particularly impressed by the lamentations of the bard of Morven, for the death of his spouse, Evirallin. From his mouth issues a label, with this inscription: "Our hearts were one. Our souls grew together, and how can I survive, when they are now divided." In the back ground of this picture, there appears a stout African wench, with a complexion, which in the original canvas, halts, between a mahogany colour and a dirty greasy yellow. She is holding a mop-stick in one hand, and a pair of black silk breeches in the other. She stands in a profile attitude towards the president, sobbing.
James Thomson Callender, September 15, 1802; McMurry and McMurry 40

36) I shall inclose you a paper, which shows the Tories mean to pervert these charities to Callender as much as they can. They will probably first represent me as the patron and support of the Prospect before Us, and other things of Callender's; and then picking out all the scurrilities of the author against General Washington, Mr. Adams, and others, impute them to me. I, as well as most other Republicans who were in the way of doing it, contributed what I could afford to the support of the Republican papers and printers, paid sums of money for the Bee, the Albany Register, etc., when they were staggering under the sedition law; contributed to the fines of Callender himself, of Holt, Brown, and others, suffering under that law. I discharged, when I came into office, such as were under the persecution of our enemies, without instituting any prosecutions in retaliation. They may, therefore, with the same justice, impute to me, or to every Republican contributor, everything which was ever published in those papers or by those persons.
Letter of Jefferson to Monroe, July 17, 1802

37) I think myself capable of teaching what is commonly expected from a country schoolmaster, viz. English grammar, writing, arithmetic, and if required Latin; none of them with eminent skill but not I think below mediocrity; for I know persons whom I hardly think my superiors, who have earned a subsistence in that way. And whose peaceful situation I have invariably regarded as much better than mine, while they in turn wondered how rich I was growing on seven or eight hundred dollars a year.
Callender to Madison, 28 May 1796; Ford 7

38) PRINT II. The widower appears sitting at a table, with "the Notes of Virginia" lying before him. The book is shut and a part of the leaves folded inward. The folding is conjectured to be at those passages where the writer has described the interior and degraded state of an African intellect; and the ruinous and infamous consequences of the importation of that people into Virginia. The words on the label are: "I cannot but remember such things were / That were most dear to me." Sally appears again upon the black ground much better dressed and in much better spirits than before.
James Thomson Callender, September 15, 1802; McMurry and McMurry 40

39) You will have seen by our newspapers, that with the aid of a lying renegado from republicanism, the federalists have opened all their sluices of calumny. They say we lied them out of power, and openly avow they will do the same by us. But it was not lies or arguments on our part which dethroned them, but their own foolish acts, sedition laws, alien laws, taxes, extravagances and heresies. Porcupine, their friend, wrote them down. Callendar, their new recruit, will do the same. Every decent man among them revolts at his filth.
Letter of Jefferson to Livingston, October 10, 1802

40) I would not have intruded on you at this time about that; but am to request your indulgence for a few moments. I have begun another volume on American history; and it will be ready for the press in about a month. Having been in bad health, for a time, now better, having by the desertion of the town been reduced to some inconvenience, & having a small family, I laid my plan before Mr. Leiper & Mr. Dallas, who handsomely gave me most effectual assistance till the time of printing & selling the book. In this dilemma, I recollected something that dropt from you, when I had the honor of seeing you at Francis's hotel. It related to some assistance in a pecuniary way, that you intended to make me on finishing my next volume.
Callender to Jefferson, 28 September 1797; Ford 8

41) Since Jove could make himself a beast, / On Grecian beauty's charms to feast; / If he, whom jacobins adore, / Should lust to kennel with a Wh….e, / If, scorning all his country' dames, / No tint, but jet, his blood inflames, / Why should our demi-god forbear / A transient veil of soot to wear, / Why not his godship put away, / Invest himself in Afric's clay, / Smear with lamp-black his pallid wax, / And look and smell like other blacks, / To charm the lovely Sally's eye, / And wallow in a negro-sty.
"Original Poetry" ("In Thoman, Jen Senem"), Port-Folio, January 22, 1803

42) Let Yankey parsons preach their worst-- / Let tory Wittling's rally! / You men of morals ! And be curst, / You would snap like sharks for Sally!
"A Song, Supposed to Have Been Written by the Sage of Monticello," Port-Folio, October 2, 1802

43) He [Callender] says -- that Mr. Jefferson, late American Secretary of State, spoke of his work, on different occasions, in respectful terms; and that he declared "it contained" the most astonishing concentration of "abuses, that he had ever heard of." As to Mr. Jefferson, I must suppose him entirely out of the Question, for nobody that has the least knowledge of the talents, penetration and taste of that Gentleman, will ever believe, that he could find any thing worthy of respect in a production, evidently intended to seduce the rabble of North Britain. Besides, upon looking a second time over the words attributed to Mr. Jefferson, I think, it is easy to discover that the quotation is erroneous: the word abuses, I am pretty confident, should be abuse; and thus, by leaving out an s, the sentence expresses exactly what one would expect from such a person as Mr. Jefferson: " that "the work contained the most astonishing concentration of abuse, that he had ever heard of."
William Cobbett 9-10

44) You [Callender] have drawn down upon yourself this public exposition, by attacking indiscriminately with reckless and prodigal contumely, not only every man who has extended relief to you, when surrounded by accumulated wretchedness, but on every man admired or loved for his talents or his virtues in society.
William Duane, September 1, 1802; McMurry and McMurry, 27

45) PRINT III. Scene: - the inside of a negro cabin. Sally is seen romping with half a dozen black fellows. The upper part of the print has this inscription: All's fish that comes in the net.
James Thomson Callender, September 15, 1802; McMurry and McMurry 40

46) Until I read Callendar's seventh letter containing your compliment to him as a writer, and your reward of 50 dollars, I could not be made to believe, that such measures could have been resorted to; to stab the fair fame, and upright intentions of one, who to use your own language, "was acting from an honest conviction in his own mind that he was right." This sir, I considered as a personal injury. This was the sword that cut asunder the Gordian knot, which could not be untied by all the efforts of a party spirit, by rivalship, by jealousy or any other malignant fiend. The serpent you cherished and warmed, bit the hand that nourished it, and gave you sufficient specimens of his talents, his gratitude, his justice, and his truth. When such vipers are let loose upon society: all distinction between virtue and vice are leveled, all respect for character is lost in the overwhelming deluge of calumny, that respect which is a necessary bond in the social union, and which gives efficacy to laws, and teaches the subject to obey the magestrate, and the child to submit to the parent.
Abigail Adams to Jefferson, 1 July 1804; Ford 43

47) What though my Sally's nose be flat / 'Tis harder, then, to break it-- / Her skin is sable--what of that? / 'Tis smooth as oil can make it. / If down her neck, no ringlets flow, / A fleece adorns her head-- / If on her lips no rubies glow, / Their thickness serves instead. / Thick pouting lips! how sweet their grace! / When passion fires to kiss them! / Wide spreading over half the face / Impossible to miss them.
"A Philosophic Love-Song to Sally," Port-Folio, November 6, 1802

48) In his letter last copied, Mr. Hamilton speaks of an explanation. He gave nothing meriting that name. The short way to exculpate himself was, by confronting Reynolds and his wife, who accused him of fraud, with the gentlemen who undertook the enquiry. Instead of that, he sent Reynolds and his wife out of the way, to prevent any such personal exculpation. That he packed them off, there can be little doubt, since the suddenness of the disappearance of Reynolds can be accounted for upon no other ground. The letter from Reynolds to Clingman mentions a promise of that kind, and Mrs. Reynolds had previously declared, that this was a scheme in contemplation. Reynolds could not fly from fear. The prosecution against him was closed, and his chief resource for subsistence had been by applying to Mr. Hamilton. That he was removed, to keep him from a meeting with Mr. Monroe and his friends, bears the strongest marks of probability.
James Thomson Callender, History 228

49) If, from the little that you know of me, you think me capable of such a task, and that in your part of the country, you could find me any vacancy of this kind, and that it is worth your while to take the trouble of doing so, I promise that I ask for nothing but a decent subsistence for myself and my family, who are at present entirely incapable of aiding themselves.
Callender to Madison, 28 May 1796; Ford 7

50) PRINT IV. Sally at tea upon her voyage to France. -- She is in dalliance with a certain captain of the vessel. The jolly tar is approximating to what Henry Fielding calls very ordinary occurrences.
James Thomson Callender, September 15, 1802; McMurry and McMurry 40

51) The contriver of this peace has been suddenly converted, as he said, to the presidential system, that is to a French war, an American navy, a large standing army, an additional load of taxes, and all the other symptoms and consequences of debt and despotism. The same system of persecution has been extended all over the continent, every person holding an office must either quit it, or think and vote exactly with Mr. Adams.
James Thomson Callender, Prospect

52) Print the above, that it may fly as far as the four winds can carry it; and fan the flame of patriotism that glows in every republican breast. Let us, by one grand effort, snatch our country from that bottomless vortex of corruption and perdition which yawn before us. The more violence, the more prosecutions form the treaty, so much the better. Those of yourself and Cooper will be of service. You know the old ecclesiastical observation, that the blood of the martyrs was the seed of the church.
Callender to Duane, 27 April 1800; Ford 22

53) N.B. Jones is as dumb as death about the affair of Mr. Walker's lady. It is said, but we do not believe a word of it, that some people affect to deny the truth of the story concerning a great personage [Jefferson] and Mr. Walker's lady. Jones is silent; but the demos continue to prattle in conversation. They say that, if the matter had really happened, the injured friend was bound to have exposed the culprit to public execration. Once for all, let it be known that the injury was not passed over with impunity. Satisfaction was demanded, as much satisfaction was given as could be put upon paper.
James Thomson Callender, November 17, 1802; McMurry and McMurry 87

54) His infamy shall ride on the [ ] of eternal space. It shall petrify with horror every heart. The very BEASTS shall feel its force, and h-o-w-l at the name of Callender.
Henry Pace, June 13, 1803; McMurry and McMurry, 98

55) PRINT V. The French American ambassador returning to Monticello, sitting in a private room with his mistress. Five healthy mahogany children frisking about the floor.
James Thomson Callender, September 15, 1802; McMurry and McMurry 40

56) As to federal slanders, I never wished them to be answered, but by the tenor of my life, half a century of which has been on a theater at which the public have been spectators and competent judges of its merit. Their approbation has taught a lesson, useful to the world, that the man who fears no truths has nothing to fear from lies. I should have fancied myself half guilty had I condescended to put pen to paper in refutation of their falsehoods, or drawn to them respect by any notice from myself.
Letter of Jefferson to Logan, June 20, 1816

57) In glaring red and chalky white, / Let others beauty see; / Me no such tawdry tints delight -- / No Black's the hue for me!
"A Philosophic Love-Song to Sally", Port-Folio, November 6, 1802

58) It has not, however, been from a fear, that the giving publicity to this kind of scurrility, invective and shameless abuse, would injure, eventually, the cause of republicanism; or destroy, or even slur the irreproachable character, either private or public, of the personage, at whom these filthy, poisoned, but blunted shafts are flying thick: But it is from a moral certainty that these evil deeds will be found barriers in their own road to glory, and they be left to sigh in solitude the other maxim-- "It is a base bird that fouls its own nest!"
Columbian Minerva, October 26, 1802; McMurry and McMurry 76-77

59) In Europe it is understood, that if a political party does not support their assistant writer, they at least do not crush him, whereas I have been crushed by the very Gentry whom I was defending. I have actually vindicated the political character of a man, after I knew that he was in his private capacity, doing his utmost to injure me, and of course a dying woman and 4 innocent children, and I did so, because though I knew him to be in private a rascal, yet I knew him to be an useful public character, and in that light an injured man. This shews that I was superior to personal revenge.
Callender to Jefferson, 26 October 1798; Ford 11

60) PRINT VI. The vice president at Philadelphia, in the summer of 1797. He is seen in a printing office, enquiring for the history of 1796, which was then in the [ ] that office. He is in the act of observing to the author the great advantages that were likely to result to the United States from Callender's prosecution of his historical studies.
James Thomson Callender, September 15, 1802; McMurry and McMurry 40

61) You will perceive that I plead guilty to one of their charges, that when young and single I offered love to a handsome lady. I acknowledge its incorrectness. It is the only one founded in truth among all their allegations against me.
Letter of Jefferson to Smith, July 1, 1805

62) In foul pollution steep his life, / Insult the ashes of his wife: / All the paternal duties smother / Give his white girls a yellow brother; / Mid loud hosannas of his knaves, / From his own loins raise herds of slaves / With numbers to outvote the free, /And smoke the yankies, five for three.
"The Metamorphosis," Port-Folio, December 18, 1802

63) While I was supporting my family by laborious employment from sun-rise to midnight--you [Callender] wasted a life of laziness in prostitution and intemperance--from the exertions of my mind, and the labor of my hands, I drew sustenance for a young family--from the pockets of the generous and the charitable you procured the greater part of the funds upon which you rioted in intoxication, while your wife lay overwhelmed in wretchedness, and your children abandoned to want, and the horrible example of your domestic vices.
William Duane, September 1, 1802; McMurry and McMurry, 28

64) We are told, that there is, or ought to be, about every human body, a certain part called the crumena, upon which depends the whole oeconomy of the intestines. When the crumena is full, the intestines are in a correspondent state; and then the body is inclined to repose, and the mind to peace and good neighbourhood: but when the crumena becomes empty, the sympathetic intestines are immediately contracted, and the whole internal state of the patient is thrown into insurrection and uproar, which, communicating itself to the brain, produces what a learned state physician calls, the mania reformatto; and if this malady is not stopped at once, by the help of an hempen necklace, or some other remedy equally efficacious, it never fails to break out into Atheism, Robbery, Unitarianism, Swindling, Jacobinism, Massacres, Civic Feasts and Insurrections. Now, it appears to me, that our unfortunate Author [Callender] must be afflicted with this dreadful malady, and if so, I will appeal to any man of feeling, whether his friends would not have shewn their humanity, in relieving him by other means than those they have encouraged him to employ; which, besides being unproductive, have exposed both him and them to the birch of public opinion.
William Cobbett 11-12

65) Print VII. A consultation with Levi Lincoln, concerning the remission of the 200 dollars. In the back ground appears a young gentleman with this message on his lips:- - Callender vows that he will ADVERTISE you.
James Thomson Callender, September 15, 1802; McMurry and McMurry 41

66) Jefferson he say, Dat all mans free alike are born; / Den tell me, why should Quashee stay, / To tend de cow and hoe de corn? / Huzza for massa Jefferson! / For Make all like, let blackee nab / De white womans…dat be de track! / Den Quashee de white wife will hab, / And Massa Jef. / Shall hab de black. Huzz, &c.
Original Poetry, Port-Folio, July 10, 1802

67) For Sal, Peg, and Quash, my inconsistency burns; / Though I'll take Sal the first, they shall all have their turns.
Levity ("A Piece of an Ode to Jefferson"), Port-Folio, March 19, 1803

68) The profligate manners of the accuser afforded an additional reason why Mr. Hamilton, if innocent, should have brought him forward, since it would have been proportionably a more easy task to convince Mr. Monroe of his falsehood. But the secretary sealed the importance of the accuser's testimony, by forbearing to produce him to the gentlemen enquiring after him. When persons of so much weight and respectability had entered upon this business, every principle of common sense called for the clearest explanation. In place of that the chief evidence was concealed, and sent off, while the mass of his correspondence with Mr. Hamilton was, by desire of the latter, abruptly committed to the flames. You will determine whether these fugitive measures look most like innocence, or like something else.
James Thomson Callender, History 229

69) Sir,--By a want of arrangement in a neighboring post-office during the absence of the postmaster, my letters and papers for two posts back were detained. I suppose it was owing to this that your letter tho' dated Aug. 10, did not get to my hand till the last day of the month, since which this is the first day I can through the post office acknowledge the receipt of it. Mr. [George] Jefferson happens to be here and directs his agent to call on you with this and pay you 50 dollars, on account of the book you are about to publish. When it shall be out be so good as to send me 2. or 3. copies, and the rest only when I shall ask for them.
Jefferson to Callender, 6 September 1799; Ford 16

70) FOR two days after the publication of the Recorder of September 1st. the democrats were at a lost what to say or think. The Philistine priesthood were not more confounded, when they saw their idol Dagon prostrate and broke to pieces. The Demos set out with a sturdy denial of Sally's existence. They had been in this country during their whole lives. They had never heard a word of her. How then should Callender get a hold of this story? Depend upon it, sir, the whole must be a lie. It cannot possibly be true. A thing so brutal, so disgraceful! A thing so foreign to Mr. Jefferson's character! The scoundrel has been disappointed and affronted, you know, and this, way he seeks revenge. The Recorder was published on the same day when the district court was full of people. Not one person at first would venture to say that he had ever heard a sentence of the matter. The Democrats considered this silence as the signal of victory, and rising in their tone, affirmed that the author of so vile a slander should get his ears cut off. Others were for hanging him. The house rung with clamours of execration and revenge. But alas! Their triumph was very short. There was only one part of the statement wherein Callender was wrong. The negro wench did not go to France in the same vessel as the president, Mr. Jefferson [ ] younger miss Jefferson [ ] female in another vessel, with the black wench as her waiting maid.
James Thomson Callender, September 22, 1802; McMurry and McMurry 48

71) The object with Mr. Adams was to recommend a French war, reportedly for the sake of supporting American commerce, but in reality for _____ of yoking us into an alliance with the British tyrant.While such ____ of the effective agents of the revolution languish in obscurity, or in want, ask Mr. Adams whether it was proper to heap so many ______ of dollars upon William Smith, upon a paper jobber, who, next to _____ and himself is, perhaps, the most detested character on the continent, will then make your choice between innocence and guilt, between freedom and slavery, between paradise and perdition; you will choose between the _______ has deserted and reversed all his principles, and that man whose own _____ strengthens all his laws, that man whose predictions, like those of ______ have been converted into history. You will choose between that man _______ is unspotted by a crime, and that man whose hands are reeking _______ blood of the poor, friendless Connecticut sailor: I see the tear of _____ starting on your cheeks! you anticipate the name of John Adams. _____ feature in the conduct of Mr. Adams, forms a distinct and additional _____ that he was determined at all events to embroil this country with _____.
James Thomson Callender, Prospect

72) P.S. In one end of the lower story, the blacks are singing psalms. In the other, a boy, who has gone crazed, is shrieking in lunacy. The sailors laughing. sic transit mundus. Chase has sent me a letter that he will beat me; and I have advertised that, in case of an attack, I'll shoot him.
Callender to Jefferson, Richmond Jail, 27 October 1800; Ford 30

73) Mr. W. [Walker] was not at home, when the attempt was made upon his domestic peace [by Jefferson]. He did not learn the particulars until after the great personage had gone to France, as an ambassador. He then wrote a letter to this inestimable representative of the new world. The answer has been read by dozens. We should be very well satisfied, if Jones would deny the existence of it, for this would afford us a handsome apology for publishing our old friend's letter to Mr. Walker. In that letter, the great personage confessed that his fault was such that it was impossible for the injured husband ever to forgive him. He said that he felt the justice of Mr. Walker's resentment. He completely acknowledged his own baseness.
James Thomson Callender, November 17, 1802; McMurry and McMurry 87

74) Dear Madam, --Your favor of the 1st instant was duly received, and I would not have again intruded on you, but to rectify certain facts which seem not to have been presented to you under their true aspect. My charities to Callendar are considered as rewards for his calumnies. As early, I think, as 1976, I was told in Philadelphia that Callendar, the author of the Political Progress of Britain, was in the city, a fugitive from persecution for having written that book, and in distress. I had read and approved the book; I considered him as a man of genius, unjustly persecuted. I knew nothing of his private character, and immediately expressed my readiness to contribute to his relief, and to serve him. It was a considerable time after, that, on application from a person who thought of him as I did, I contributed to his relief, and afterwards repeated the contribution. Himself I did not see till long after, nor ever more than two or three times. When he first began to write, he told some useful truths in his coarse way; but nobody sooner disapproved of his writing than I did, or wished more than he would be silent. My charities to him were no more meant as encouragements to his scurrilities, than those I give to the beggar at my door are meant as rewards for the vices of his life, and to make them chargeable to myself.
Jefferson to Mrs. Adams, 22 July 1804; Ford 43

75) Mr. Jefferson is just in the condition of the prophet Jonah. Unless the republicans cast him overboard, the universal horror of mankind will sink their vessel. It is at present something more than two year till the next election for president. If this disclosure had been reserved for eighteen months longer, if it had been suffered to explode in the bustle of an approaching election, it must, with the velocity of a thunder-bolt, have smote and shivered the Republican interest. Their enemies must have dubbed them the Mulatto party. Every store would have been decorated with prints of president TOM, and his mother, who is a slut as common as the pavement. Mr. Jefferson himself would have been exhibited with a whole forest of black and yellow horns, nodding upon his brows, and large enough to have embraced a mammoth. The arms of a Roman legion were useless without Romans to handle them. But under the management of a master-pen, a tale so hideous like this, and exploding, like vesuvious, in the focus of an election, would be quite sufficient for sinking any party.
James Thomson Callender, September 22, 1802; McMurry and McMurry 48

76) The public, Callender, do not yet know you. You have not, however, obtained that reputation as a writer which you suppose; and you want, what no man who attempts to write for a free people should be destitute of moral character. The first act of your life was an attempt to destroy your benefactor --lord Gardenstone. You had the baseness to threaten him with an information for the share which he had in the Political Progress, in order to extort money from him. The last corresponds with the first acts of your notoriety. It is with infinite reluctance that I am induced to take any notice of you. But there is a duty to the public as well as to my self which renders it excusable though mortifying. There are certain conditions in which to touch is infection. It is not possible to approach your person without apprehension; & the examination of your character, leads to an unfavorable opinion of human nature. No expectation is entertained of working a reformation in you. The fine nerves which communicate the generous emotions of innocence and delicacy to the visage, have long ceased from under the action of Alcohol, and your mind sunk by the consciousness of depravity, have long been insensible to shame or self respect.
William Duane, August 4, 1802 [McMurry and McMurry 1-2]

77) She's black you tell me -- grand she be -- / Must colour always tally? / Black is love's proper hue for me -- / And white's the hue for Sally. /Yankee doodle, &c / What though she by the glands secretes; / Must I stand shil-I-shall-I? / Tuck'd up between a pair of sheets / There's no perfume like Sally. / Yankee doodle, &c / You call her slave --and pray were slaves / Made only for the galley? / Try for yourselves, ye witless knaves - - / Take each to bed your Sally.
"A Song, Supposed to Have Been Written by the Sage of Monticello," Port-Folio, October 2, 1802

78) But if the gentleman must have a bit of our mind, we make no scruple of acknowledging and asserting that we have done more harm to the political importance of Mr. Jefferson within the last five months than all the rest of his criticks, collectively, had been able to accomplish in ten years. The circulation of a single paper could not, to be sure, have effected this. But our articles have been quoted by both parties.
James Thomson Callender, November 17, 1802; McMurry and McMurry XX

79) If I could dispose of as (many ?) copies of 3 successive volumes in the course of 18 months, I should (save?) some money, and then come up James River, (which, by the healthy (?) of the people who come down, I take to be one of the paradises of (?ure),) and try to find 50 acres of clear land, and a hearty Virginian female, (who/that?) knows how to fatten pigs, and boil hommony, and hold her tongue; and (?) adieu to the rascally society of mankind for whom I feel an indifference which increases per diem.
Callender to Jefferson, 26 September 1799; Ford 17

80) The timely disruption of this unhappy secret gives room for the republicans to desert their chieften, and to rally round the standard of a more decent leader. But if they hesitate, and trim, if they pretend to paliate or deny the change, if they shall be mad enough to afford leisure for public suspicion and detestation to rush into battle against them, the republican party are gone forever.
James Thomson Callender, September 22, 1802; McMurry and McMurry 48

81) In glee, jig, and merriment the moments shall fly, / Fal de rol de rol de ri do, / While whiskey in bumpers brighten's Sally's eye, / Oh damme, charmer, giv's your hand, / My purse you know you can command, / In pleasure, joy, and gay delight, / Another glass and then, the night, / Will pass in extacy and carnal joys, / For I've come home to be jolly.
"From the Anti-Democrat" ("A New Song, Being a Parody on an Old One"), Port-Folio, November 13, 1802

82) Take partners, od zooks, ne'er shilly shally stand, / Lead up, cast down, hands across, / Now Tom, another bumper toss, / Here's to the man that I love most, / Join Sal and brats -- my fav'rite toast (Tom Paine) / For I've come home to be jolly jolly boys, / For I've come home to be jolly.
"From the Anti-Democrat" ("A New Song, Being a Parody on an Old One"), Port-Folio, November 13, 1802

83) Mr. Jefferson, we dare say, will never descend to crush this monster of ingratitude [Callender].
William Duane, September 11, 1802; McMurry and McMurry, 37

84) I would ask the lovers of their country, if such there are among the encouragers of this author [Callender], what good they could intend to render it by such a step; I think they would be puzzled for an answer. Did they imagine, could they imagine, that his having narrowly escaped transportation, in his own country, was a sufficient security for his being a most excellent citizen in this? Because his book had been burnt by the hands of the common hangman in Scotland, did they imagine that it was calculated for the edification of the people of the United States? That the author believed this to be the case is clear, otherwise he would not have introduced himself by exposing that, which he certainly would have kept out of sight, if he had been appealing to virtue or reason, instead of prejudice.
William Cobbett 69-70

85) [If?] every white man in Virginia had done as much as Thomas Jefferson has done towards the utter destruction of it's happiness, that eighty thousand white men had each of them, been the father of five mulatto children. Thus you have FOUR HUNDRED THOUSAND MULATTO CHILDREN in addition to the present swarm. The country would no longer be habitable, till after a civil war and a series of massacres. We all know with absolute certainty that the contest would end in the utter extirpation both of blacks and mulattos. We know that the continent has as many white people, as could eat the whole race for breakfast. In Pennsylvania, you may travel ninety miles, as I once did, without meeting a single black face. The whole state does not contain half as many black people as the single country of Henrico. But these ignorant simple creatures do not know one word of all this. Even very few of the white people know that blacks and mulattoes, taken together are but as two to every three white persons in a state. This comfortable truth appears by every census; and we have had three, that I know of; within these twenty five years. A reinforcement of four hundred thousand mulattoes to the population of this state would indeed be a valuable thing. At least, Mr. Jefferson is of that option. His personal exertions have produced his proportions of the number. And the man has gone such lengths towards the ruin of his country is himself, the very flower and gem of republican principles.
James Thomson Callender, September 22, 1802; McMurry and McMurry 49

86) An uncommon alarm has been spread here that Congress were to annul the Presidential election. I had sent the Examiner a piece on that business, when upon the arrival of this news, I was advised to withdraw it, until I should see if it was true. My answer was: "It is a part of my constitution, it is interwoven with my intellectual existence that the greater opposition is, I become the more determined to strike it in the face; and I shall let the world see that if I were to stay here for thirty years, I shall not be moved by one hair's breadth from the prosecution of my purpose."
Callender to Jefferson, Richmond Jail, 5 January 1801; Ford 31

87) Yankee doodle, whose the noodle? / Wine's vapid, tope me brandy -- / For still I find to breed my kind, / A negro-wench the dandy!
"A Song, Supposed to Have Been Written by the Sage of Monticello," Port-Folio, October 2, 1802

88) If we combine the diversified ravages of famine, pestilence, and the sword, it can hardly be supposed that in these transactions less than fifteen hundred thousand of our countrymen have perished; a number equal to that of the whole inhabitants of Britain who are at present able to bear arms. In Europe, the havoc of our antagonists has been at least not inferior to our own, so that this quarter of the world alone has lost by our quarrels, three millions of men in the flower of life; whose descendants, in the progress of domestic society would have swelled into multitudes beyond calculation. The persons positively destroyed must, in whole, have exceeded twenty millions, or two hundred thousand acts of homicide per annum. These victims have been sacrificed to the balance of power, and the balance of trade, the honour of the British flag, the universal supremacy of parliament, and the security of the Protestant succession. If we are to proceed at this rate for another century, we may, which is natural to mankind, admire ourselves, and our atchievements, but every other nation in the world must have a right to wish that an earthquake or a volcano may first bury both islands together in the centre of the globe; that a single, but decisive exertion of Almighty vengeance may terminate the progress and the remembrance of our crimes.
James Thomson Callender, Political 3-4

89) I thank you for the proof sheets you inclosed me. Such papers cannot fail to produce the best effect. They inform the thinking part of the nation; and these again supported by the tax-gatherers as their vouchers, set the people to rights. You will know from whom this comes without a signature; the omission of which has rendered almost habitual with me by the curiosity of the post offices. Indeed a period is now approaching during which I shall discontinue writing letters as much as possible, knowing that every snare will be used to get hold of what may be perverted in the eyes of the public.
Jefferson to Callender, 6 October 1799; Ford 19

90) Sally's business makes a prodigious noise here you may save yourself the trouble of a moment's doubt in believing the story. But what will your pious countrymen upon the Connecticut say to African amours? After this discovery I do not believe that, at the next election of 1804 Jefferson could obtain two votes on the Eastern side of the Susquehanna; and, I think hardly four upon this side of it. He will, therefore, be laid aside.
James Thomson Callender, September 22, 1802; McMurry and McMurry 49

91) In the midst of such a profligacy and of usury the President has persisted as long as he durst, in his utmost efforts for provoking a French war. For although Mr. Adams were to make a treaty with France, yet such is the grossness of his and so great is the violence of his passions, that under his administration America would be in constant danger of a second quarrel. When a chief magistrate both in his speeches and newspapers, is constantly reviling France, he can neither expect or desire to live long in peace with her. Take your choice, then, between Adams, war and beggary, and Jefferson, peace and competency.
James Thomson Callender, Prospect

92) I FEEL indignant and humiliated at the degeneracy of the press. I adore its liberty; but I detest its licentiousness. To the former freemen are indebted for their rights: and the obligation of gratitude should never be forgotten. But while the public sentiment consecrates its virtues, shall its vices be countenanced, palliated, and supported? Are my countrymen prepared with undiscriminating judgment to applaud no less its meanest vulgarity than its noblest effusion?-- Shall the lofty flights of genius, the clear inductions of science, the philosophic language of forbearance, share no better fate than stupid invective, and indecent calumny? Now is the time to decide the question. Disappointed ambition stalks abroad. It insults all that is virtuous, wise, or honorable in the eyes of men. Regardless of truth, its calumny is as ceaseless as it is gross. The discussion of principle is abandoned for the attack of men, not only in their public, but in their private character.
Cato [Thomas Jefferson?], October 8, 1802; McMurry and McMurry, 62

93) If the reader happens to be married it is needless to ask him what he would think, or say, or do, if his [?] friend attempted to dishonor him. He would declare that he did not know whether such a wretch was fitted for being hanged or drowned. He would say that such a person [Jefferson] was not very proper for being the chief magistrate of a Republic.
James Thomson Callender, November 17, 1802; McMurry and McMurry 87

94) President JEFFERSON had the misfortune early to part with the Partner of his youth, the object of his natural, and of course of his greatest love. He has since revered her memory by living to himself, a single life. To the best education of two lovely daughters, pledges of their mutual affection, he has constantly devoted his talents and his interest. For the sake of them alone, of whom he is passionately fond, he would have preserved his own chastity, both of mind and of behaviour. With a refined education, they live, the delight of the most illustrious Parent, by exhibiting every filial and tender attachment; ornaments to their sex, and blessings in a land of freedom and independence.
Columbian Minerva, October 26, 1802; McMurry and McMurry 77

95) Put the case, that the sex were to be reversed. We do not know how to get forward with the grossness of the supposition but, putting the case, that the two sexes are to be reversed, and that (we must again beg pardon of our readers) a widow lady had brought a negro gallant into her house, and that in the presence of her family, she had pressed him to her bosom. We do not believe that such a female character ever existed. When a lady could have selected from whatever was estimable, or attractive in the commonwealth; when it was in her power to have selected a husband, the association of whose name would have added dignity to hers, we say, [ ] lowest drab of the sex would not have sent to her stable for a black fellow, as Jefferson before the eyes of his two daughters, sent to his kitchen, or perhaps, to the pigstye, for his mahogany coloured charmer.
James Thomson Callender, September 29, 1802; McMurry and McMurry 57-58

96) I address this letter to you, by the advice of Mr. Edmund Randolph. It had been understood that my fine of two hundred dollars was to be remitted. The late marshal refused to return the money. It would be unnecessary to repeat the particulars of his refusal; because they were communicated some weeks ago, to Mr. Lincoln; and because Mr. Randolph has undertaken to explain them to you. I should not have intruded upon you with this application, if I had not lost all reasonable hopes of an answer from the Secretary.
Callender to Jefferson, 12 April 1801; Ford 33

97) When the adoption of the federal constitution was agitated in the convention of Richmond, there was produced a letter from Mr. Jefferson, who was then in France, along with his two daughters, and his wooly-headed concubine.
James Thomson Callender, September 1, 1802; McMurry and McMurry, 25

98) By the report above quoted, we learn, that in 1783, the interest of our public debts extended to nine millions, and five hundred thousand pounds, which is equivalent to an annual tax of twenty millings per head, on every inhabitant of Britain. The friends of our intelligent and respectable minister, Mr. Pitt, make an infinite bustle about the nine millions of debt which his ingenuity has discharged. They ought to arrange in an opposite column, a list of the additional taxes, which have been imposed, and of the myriads of families, whom such taxes have ruined. At best, we are but as a person transferring his money from the right pocket to the left. Perhaps a Chancellor of Exchequer might as well propose to empty the Baltick with a tobacco pipe. Had the war with America lasted for two years longer, Britain would not at this day have owed a shilling; and if we mall persist in rushing into carnage, with our former contempt of all feeling and reflection, it may still be expected that according to the practice of other nations, a sponge or a bonefire will finish the game of funding.
James Thomson Callender, Political 5

99) The story of Sally and the president, when, I first saw it, afforded me considerable diversion, because I then believed it took its rise from the virulence of Callender's disposition, but when the truth had been so well attested as to admit of no doubt, I became seriously concerned for the welfare of our country. I once thought Mr. Jefferson a man of some virtue, or at least, did not suppose he would openly violate the common laws of decorum. But when it has been proved, that he ventured to take up with this negro woman, Sally, in the face of the world, that she and her son Tom, the fruit of their unlawful commerce, accompanied him to France; and there felt the benign effects of his friendship, in sport, that he has not been ashamed to treat her in all, or nearly in all respects, even before his lawful daughters, in the same manner, as he formerly treated their mother; what opinion must the world entertain of him? Those daughters, who should have been the principal objects of his domestic concern, have had the mortification to see illegitimate, mulatto sisters, and brothers, enjoying the same privileges of parental affection with themselves. Alas! Mr. J, did not your philosophy teach you the impropriety of such proceedings? Did not the holy scriptures shew you the sin, which your were thus heaping upon your own soul, against the day of wrath?|
James Thomson Callender, November 3, 1802; McMurry and McMurry, 81-82

100) Of all the damsels on the green / On mountain, or in valley, / A lass so lucscious ne'er was seen / As Monticellian Sally.
"A Song, Supposed to Have Been Written by the Sage of Monticello," Port-Folio, October 2, 1802

101) We have already noticed, that we have something to say concerning Mr. James Madison. . . . Mr. Madison considered himself as upon strong ground. He answered, with briskness, that he had known Mr. Jefferson for the greater part of his life; and that he knew so much about the excellence of his heart, as to make this allegation incredible. . . . Madison must have known all about Sally, and when he assisted, in passing off the president as a prodigy of virtue, he differed from the president himself as precisely as much as the man who circulates copper dollar, differs from the man who forged it.
James Thomson Callender, September 29, 1802; McMurry and McMurry 58

102) It is already said that trepidation and lassitude more than common have affected your [Callender] mind and body, since these letters have appeared; and that double libations of brandy have not been as successful as you have heretofore boasted, in restoring you from the state of idiocy to the tone of mind necessary for your mode of writing. It is certain that your lucubrations sink lower in every respect--seldom coherent, they now exhibit a perfect chaos: A commixture of internal contradictions, loose and disjointed invectives against your benefactors and friends.
William Duane, September 1, 1802; McMurry and McMurry, 27

103) What signify two dollars per annum, compared with the transcendent enjoyment of hearing as how, a French ambassador [Jefferson] borrowed five hundred pounds currency of a gentleman during the war; and how he proposed to repay, when your admirable revolutionary certificates were at eight hundred and fifty for one, and how the gentleman would not accept of such payment.
James Thomson Callender, November 17, 1802; McMurry and McMurry 87

104) Let us suppose a case in this new system of ethics. Let us suppose a hapless woman languishes upon the bed of sickness, from which she was never moved but to her grave; that a nurse, hired by a charitable hand attend her, should abandon the miserable female; that, while living, she should become putrid, in her own filth, --to such a degree corrupted, that the maggots should penetrate along her spine; that she should be suffered, by her husband, to starve out the remainder of her wretched existence; that during this hateful scene her HUSBAND, should, in the adjoining room, be wallowing in adultery and intoxication;--and, finally, to close this transcript of human depravity, that on the attendance of a humane physician he should find that a created disease was one among the complication of distempers which this diabolical husband had inflicted. Is there such a wretch breathing? Yes, Richmond contains that wretch! The Philadelphia-twelfth-street mahogany stealer is that wretch! Callender is that wretch! Yet, this is the defender of the rights of MARRIED WOMEN!!!
William Duane, September 11, 1802; McMurry and McMurry, 37

105) Such was Mr. Jefferson's text [Notes from the State of Virginia] in the year 1781; which [stained] can be no indecorum in publishing because it is all in his own words . . . And perhaps the circumstance, which that sad fellow Callender has related, has been merely the a course of practical experiments, by the result of which Mr. Jefferson was moved to alter his first opinions. At any rate, it must have convinced him from his own case, that he was mistaken in laying such stress on the "preference of the blacks for the whites, as a proof of the inferiority of the former; because by the same criterion, he might be making himself out to be an "Oranootan." For he seems all at once to have laid aside all his fear about the "beauty" of our race, suffering by a "mixture" with the other, or, of the negro "staining the blood of the master."
James Thomson Callender, September 29, 1802; McMurry and McMurry 57

106) I mention these particulars as this is probably the close of my correspondence with you, that you may not suppose that I, at least, have gained anything by the victories of Republicanism. Governor Monroe knows much more which I would be ashamed to put upon paper of the unexampled treatment which I have received from the party. This was because I had gone farther to serve them than some dastards durst go to serve themselves; and they wished, under all sorts of bad usage, to bury the memory of offensive obligations. By the cause, I have lost five years of labor; gained five thousand personal enemies; got my name inserted in five hundred libels, and have ultimately got something very like a quarrel with the only friend I had in Pennsylvania. In a word, I have been equally calumniated, pillaged, and betrayed by all parties. I have only the consolation of reflecting that I had acted from principle, and that with a few individual exceptions, I have never affected to trust either the one or the other.
Callender to Jefferson, 12 April 1801; Ford 34

107) Yankee doodle, who's the noodle? / What wife were half so handy? / To breed a flock, of slaves for stock, /A blackamoor's the dandy.
"A Song, Supposed to Have Been Written by the Sage of Monticello," Port-Folio, October 2, 1802

108) What advantage has resulted to Britain from such incessant scenes of prodigality and of bloodshed? In the wars of 1689, and 1702, this country was neither more nor less than an hobby horse for the Emperor and the Dutch. The rebellion in 1715 was excited by the despotic insolence of the Whigs. The purchase of Bremen and Verden produced the Spanish war of 1718, and a squadron dispatched for six different years to the Baltick. Such exertions cost us an hundred times more than these quagmire Dutchies are worth, even to the Elector of Hanover; a distinction which on this business becomes necessary, for as to Britain, it was never pretended, that we could gain a farthing by such an acquisition. In 1727, the nation forced George the First into a war with Spain, which ended as usual with much mischief on both fides. The Spanish war of the people in 1739, and the Austrian subsidy war of the crown which commenced in 1741, were absurd in their principles, and ruinous in their consequences.
James Thomson Callender, Political 5-6

109) It is well known to the subscribers to the Recorder, in this city, that, till about four weeks past, Callender had been regularly drunk, for the eight preceding weeks.
Henry Pace, June 13, 1803; McMurry and McMurry, 98

110) Other Information assures us, that Mr. Jefferson's Sally and their children are real persons, that the woman, herself has a room to herself at Monticello in the character of sempstress to the family, if not as housekeeper. . . . her intimacy with her master is well known, and that on this account, she is treated by the rest of the house as one much above the level of his other servants. Her son, whom Callender calls president Tom, we are also assured, bears a strong likeness to Mr. Jefferson.
James Thomson Callender, December 8, 1802; McMurry and McMurry 94

111) We possess within this single island, every production both of art and nature, which is necessary for the most comfortable enjoyment of life; yet for the sake of tea, and sugar, and tobacco, and a few other despicable luxuries, we have rushed into an abyss of blood and taxes. The boasted extent of our trade, and the quarrels and public debts which attend it, have raised the price of bread, and even of grass, at least three hundred per cent.
James Thomson Callender, Political 7-8

112) Air; Poor Negro hoe tobacco hill / Ah! Massa Tom, you litty tink / When Mungro work all de day, / Midout one drop of rum to drink / Dat Mungo wish to run away / Though you born here, and white as snow; / Poor Mungo black , from Guinea shore; / Yet both alike -- for Mungo know, /All white mans are all blackamoor. / War, is but a peck of troubles; / Honour, virtue -- empty bubbles; / Ne'er will I, for either sighing, / Slight my Sal -- though love is cloying, / If the wench is worth the buying, / Surely she is worth enjoying: / Lovely Sally stands beside me, /She's the girl my purse provides me.
Levity ("A Piece of an Ode to Jefferson"), Port-Folio, March 19, 1803

113) It never was our serious attention to have meddled with Mrs Walker, but the president's felo de se defenders insulted the public with a denial of the fact. This compelled us to knock them down with the hammer of truth.
James Thomson Callender, November 17, 1802; McMurry and McMurry 88

114) I had once entertained the romantic hope of being able to overtake the Federal Government in its career of iniquity; but I am now satisfied that they can act much faster than I can write after them. I will send you the continuation of the second part of the Prospect, and I am sir &c.
P.S. Every engine has been set at work to do me all kinds of mischief since I came here; the satisfaction of knowing that they are exceedingly provoked is to me a partial compensation for the inconvenience of being belied and stared at, as if I was a Rhinoceros. They are chop fallen, and many turn round that were very bitter against me at first.
Callender to Jefferson, 10 March 1800; Ford 20

115) Search every town and city through, / Search market, street and alley; / No dame at dusk shall meet your view, / So yielding as my Sally.
"A Song, Supposed to Have Been Written by the Sage of Monticello," Port-Folio, October 2, 1802

116) It is now seven weeks since I had a written message from Mr. Jefferson with a solemn assurance that he "would not lose one moment" in remitting my fine. Upon Wednesday was a week, a very eminent character in Richmond, whom you know as well as you can know anybody, spoke to Mr. Jefferson about it in Charlottesville. He has since wrote me the answer which he received, and which in fact had no meaning. Upon the faith of the first promise, I wrote up to Mr. Leiper that I would send him this money in part for the boys. I have now found it necessary to write him an explanatory card, which contained only these words: "Mr. Jefferson has not returned one shilling of my fine. I now begin to know what Ingratitude is."
Callender to Madison, 27 April 1801; Ford 35

117) Why not have married some worthy woman of your own complexion, who, while she guarded over the education of your [Callender] children, might have afforded you consolation in your advanced years? Instead of acting in this prudent manner, you chose to take to your bosom, a sooty daughter of Africa, and thus to incur the disrespect of your children, and the general detestation of mankind. Alas! Alas! Of how little avail, or rather, how injurious are talents without a good heart. You, Mr. Jefferson, have talents which would have been an honor to America, had they been employed in a proper manner, but you have prostituted them to the basest purposes. Instead of being beneficial to our country, I fear they will only serve to accelerate her downfall. Ye zealous defenders of Mr. Jefferson! Look at his conduct and blush.
James Thomson Callender, November 3, 1802; McMurry and McMurry, 82

118) Such, sir, is the language of Mr. Jefferson's own most intimate friend, and of his warmest admirers! What then will be the language of the world? And all, President as he is, he may trust me if he pleases, that I am not the man, who is either to be oppressed or plundered with impunity. Mr. Jefferson has repeatedly said that my services were considerable; that I made up the best newspaper in America; (He could not mean that the Examiner was of equal importance as the Aurora) with other things of that kind; I could wish him to reflect that my services may be wanted again; that Charles the Second, by his treatment of Butler, (who never was nine months in prison on account of his Majesty) has covered his name with a super addition of ignominy. I had no more idea of such mean usage than that mountains were to dance a minuet. I am not, to be sure, very expert in making a bow, or at supporting the sycophancy of conversation. I speak as well as write what I think; for God, when he made me, made that a part of my constitution. But Mr. Jefferson should recollect that it is not by beaux, and dancing masters, by editors, who would look extremely well in a muslin gown and petticoat, that the battles of freedom are to be fought and won.
Callender to Madison, 27 April 1801; Ford 35-36

119) If ever a nation was debauched by a man, the American nation has been debauched by Washington. If ever a nation has suffered from the improper influence of a man, the American nation has been deceived by Washington. Let his conduct then be an example to future ages. Let it serve to be a warning that no man may be an idol. And that a people may confide in themselves rather than in an individual. Let the history of the federal government instruct mankind, that the marquee of patriotism may be worn to conceal the foulest designs against liberties of the people.
James Thomson Callender, Prospect, qtd. in Durey 95

120) As it was probably to be the last which I should write Mr. Jefferson I took unusual pains to make it both guarded and explicit. It had not a syllable which could give ground for offence; and while I described the treatment which I had received in Richmond, and the situation into which my exertions in the cause had brought me, I think the story should have reached the heart of a millstone. I might as well have addressed a letter to Lot's wife. I am obliged to speak plain, for necessity has no law. Does the president reflect upon the premunire into which he may bring himself, by the breach of an unqualified, and even a volunteer promise? For, as I said to you in my last letter, in february, I neither demean myself to ask the remission as a favor nor did I think it proper to claim it as a right. Does he reflect how his numerous and implacable enemies would exult in being masters of this piece of small history? I will not injure him by supposing that he cares a farthing for anything which I feel.
Callender to Madison, 27 April 1801; Ford 35

121) And quitting a subject that must hurt your feelings, I have only to add that I have just heard that Mr. Davis of Richmond, has got notice that he is to quit his situation in the Post office; that this is one of the few situations which I would think myself qualified to fill; and that it would just about afford a genteel living for an economical family. I cannot be pretended that I am too late in application. But, indeed, my dear sir, I have gone such desperate lengths to serve the party, that I believe your friend designs to discountenance and sacrifice me, as a kind of scapegoat to political decorum as a kind of compromise to federal feelings. I will tell you frankly that I have always suspected that he would serve me so; and so rooted has been my jealousy upon this head, that if ever I am to be the better of the new administration, I shall be much disposed to ascribe it entirely to you. I cannot reconcile this non-remission with the high idea of the president's wisdom which I have always had; for surely a wiser man, or one more likely to make an excellent magistrate, does not exist. His probity is exemplary. His political ideas, are, to the minutest ramification, precisely mine. I respect and admire him exceedingly; but although I have exhausted all my humble arts of insinuation, he has on various occasions treated me with such ostentatious coolness and indifference, that I could hardly say that I was able to love or trust him. I never hinted a word of all this to any human being but yourself; for notwithstanding the occasional rattle of my tongue, I can keep, what I design to keep, as well as anybody. You can take your own time to think of what has been said respecting Richmond Post office. I need not add, I am sure, that I would pay the strictest attention to every part of the duty. And surely, sir, many syllogisms cannot be necessary to convince Mr. Jefferson that, putting feelings and principles out of the question, it is not proper for him to create a quarrel with me.
Callender to Madison, 27 April 1801; Ford 36

122) He knew that, if he should refuse to receive the money, Mr. Jefferson would have it in his power to raise a hue and cry against him, that might be much more to his injury than his being swindled out of five hundred pounds. He judged, also, from this barefaced act, that Mr. Jefferson would stop at nothing. Mr. Jones, therefore, adopted a plan, which saved himself from that calamity, and shewed to Mr. Jefferson the contempt, in which he held him. Mr. Jones returned both bond and pasteboard dollars to Mr. Jefferson, by the person who brought them, accompanied with a message of execration. He protested that, the very first time he met our beloved chief magistrate, he would shoot him; and since that time, he speaks of Mr. Jefferson, as one of the dirtiest rascals that ever disgraced human nature. After the end of the war, Mr. Jefferson sent the full amount of the debt. He did so, because he felt the odium which would be attached to his character by his having tendered pasteboard.
James Thomson Callender, December 8, 1802; McMurry and McMurry 96

123) The question to be decided is, are we to proceed with the war system? Are we, in the progress of the nineteenth century, to embrace five thousand fresh taxes, to squander a second five hundred millions Sterling, and to extirpate twenty millions of people?
James Thomson Callender, Political 8

124) The charge against me is a connection with one James Reynolds for purposes of improper pecuniary speculation. My real crime is an amorous connection with his wife, for a considerable time with his privity and connivance, if not originally brought on by a combination between the husband and wife with the design to extort money from me. This confession is not made without a blush. I cannot be the apologist of any vice because the ardour of passion may have made it mine. I can never cease to condemn myself for the pang, which it may inflict in a bosom eminently intitled to all my gratitude, fidelity and love. But that bosom will approve, that even at so great an expence, I should effectually wipe away a more serious stain from a name, which it cherishes with no less elevation than tenderness. The public too will I trust excuse the confession. The necessity of it to my defence against a more heinous charge could alone have extorted from me so painful an indecorum.
Alexander Hamilton, "Observations" 9-10