Jefferson and the Ordeal of Liberty - Volume III

This book is the third volume in Dumas Malone's six volume biography called "Jefferson and His Time" covering the period in Jefferson's life from the end of his tenure as Secretary of State under George Washington to his contentious election as President in early 1800/1801. In this volume Mr. Malone seems to perfect his intended writing and presentation style resulting in the most consistently written volume yet in the series. The organization of chapters by topics, instead of a chronological narrative, is much more pronounced than in the second volume and each 10 to 20 page chapter usually covers at least two to three years of events (as part of a 500 page volume encompassing a mere eight years of Jefferson's life) with considerable chronological overlap from chapter to chapter. This seems appropriate enough for a scholarly, analysis based, biography but requires the reader's continued focus to reconstruct the correct timeline of events. This volume is, overall, an enjoyable read and at moments gives the reader considerable insight into Jefferson's true character, a tough task for such an elusive subject. I must admit, however, at times Mr. Malone's lenghty analyses make parts of this work tough to traverse and I often wanted to skim ahead to the next topic. This seems to be a byproduct of the topic based chapters, with each chapter being a self contained research article on a particular topic of Jefferson's life. I fully concede that this is entirely appropriate for a biography of this depth and length, but at times I miss the narrative based biography that Mr. Malone began with in the first volume.

Jefferson and the Ordeal of Liberty written by Dumas Malone is the third installment of six in the life and times of Thomas Jefferson and according to the author the most arduous to write. The time frame of this segment starts where the second volume left off and continues to the election of Thomas Jefferson to his first term as President of the United States, (1792 - 1801).This volume is divided into four seperate sections of Jefferson's life in this series of years, but Jefferson as Secretary of State, has frustrations in Philadelphia and as we see most of them are Hamilton in origin. Begining the first segment we see Jefferson completing his secretaryship of state, the second deals with his early retirement to Monticello, third section deals with the growth of political parties and Jefferson's reluctance to be the head of the opposition to the Federalists, and the fourth segment deals with the basic individual freedoms of the people being seriously imperiled.Even though the author stated than this was a difficult time to write about Thomas Jefferson, it is apparent, through the tone of this book that great care was given to portray Jefferson as he was in life... we even get to glimpse at a dark side of Jefferson as the heated frustration with Hamilton begins its culmination, as Jefferson relies on James Madison to do the "dirty work." This is a fascinating and controversial time in Jefferson's life and the author tells the story well. The Giles Resolutions and the Citizen Genet stories were extremely well written.

Jefferson and the Ordeal of Liberty written by Dumas Malone is the third installment of six in the life and times of Thomas Jefferson and according to the author the most arduous to write. The time frame of this segment starts where the second volume left off and continues to the election of Thomas Jefferson to his first term as President of the United States, (1792 - 1801).This volume is divided into four seperate sections of Jefferson's life in this series of years, but Jefferson as Secretary of State, has frustrations in Philadelphia and as we see most of them are Hamilton in origin. Begining the first segment we see Jefferson completing his secretaryship of state, the second deals with his early retirement to Monticello, third section deals with the growth of political parties and Jefferson's reluctance to be the head of the opposition to the Federalists, and the fourth segment deals with the basic individual freedoms of the people being seriously imperiled.Even though the author stated than this was a difficult time to write about Thomas Jefferson, it is apparent, through the tone of this book that great care was given to portray Jefferson as he was in life... we even get to glimpse at a dark side of Jefferson as the heated frustration with Hamilton begins its culmination, as Jefferson relies on James Madison to do the "dirty work." This is a fascinating and contriversial time in Jefferson's life and the author tells the story well.

This volume continues to explore Jefferson's tenure as Secretary of State and his battles with Hamilton. What's interesting is the effect Hamilton's assaults had on Jefferson's reputation: by imbuing him with every quality from limitless guile to "great passion," Hamilton makes Jefferson into a colossus in the public eye. Jefferson was more passive than Hamilton thought. One interesting thing about this book is that you get glimpses of Jefferson's dark side. In one letter to Madison, Jefferson asks Madison to "cut [Hamilton] to pieces in the face of the public." Ouch.Also, the story of Citizen Genet is pretty funny. Genet thought he could somehow go above the head of the Washington administration and appeal directly to the American people. Genet is quickly recalled by France.