Jefferson in His Own Time: A Biographical Chronicle of His Life, Drawn from Recollections, Interviews, and Memoirs by Family, Friends, and Associates

Recollections of President Jefferson (1828)

[107] kkk Recollections of President Jefferson (1828) John Bernard John Bernard (1756–1828) established himself as a leading comedian on the British stage during the last third of the eighteenth century. In 1797, Thomas Wignal, proprietor of the Chestnut Street Theater in Philadelphia, invited him to America. Bernard accepted the lucrative offer, reached Philadelphia later that year, and quickly emerged as one of the finest comedians on the American stage. He remained in the United States for over two decades before returning to England. Though he had an excellent contemporary reputation as a comedic actor, Bernard’s most lasting contribution is Retrospections of America, a reminiscence presenting a vivid picture of American society and culture of the early nineteenth century. Few commentators are more observant or perceptive; few provide as insightful a view of Jefferson. Bernard’s time in Philadelphia coincided with Jefferson’s time as vice president , and the two became friends. Bernard established a Beefsteak Club in Philadelphia, which Jefferson sometimes visited. Bernard occasionally dined at the White House during the Jefferson administration, and Retrospections of America testifies to the conviviality of President Jefferson’s dinner gatherings . Besides contributing his own witticisms to the dinner conversation, Bernard enjoyed the president’s. His memoirs provide a general overview of Jefferson’s manner of speaking and record many snippets of conversation that occurred at the president’s table: Bernard’s memoirs are the source for several quips and anecdotes unrecorded elsewhere. In Bernard’s presence, Jefferson retold some of his favorite stories. through the kindness of General Washington I was introduced to Mr. Jefferson , who proved one of my sincerest, though not most fortunate, friends. The coupling of his acquaintance with a speculation involving considerable loss and chagrin cannot, however, prevent my recurring to the period with a degree of pleasure which I trust may prove communicable to the reader. In all the chief requisites of the social character Mr. Jefferson appeared to me to possess few equals. His heart was warmed with a love for the whole human race; a bonhomie which fixed your attention the instant he jefferson in his own time [108] spoke. His information was equally polite and profound, and his conversational powers capable of discussing moral questions of deepest seriousness , or the lightest themes of humor and fancy. Nothing could be more simple than his reasonings, nothing more picturesque and pointed than his descriptions. On all abstract subjects he was plainness itself—a veritable Quaker; but when conveying his views of human nature through their most attractive medium—anecdote—he displayed the grace and brilliance of a courtier. His talents may suggest some idea of his manners. Though, like taste and beauty, manners have no general standard, so that refinement in France is frivolity in Holland, and frankness in Holland is boorishness in France, the citizen of the world perceives that an excess of artificiality is as opposed to human happiness as utter barbarity. But if manners be brought to the one test of general consideration for others, my good friend, the President , would certainly not have been judged deficient by any one. To a just balance of qualities his residence in France had no doubt contributed. He had witnessed an extraordinary contrast—the extremes of society under a polished despotism and in a young republic—and tracing their respective effects on the national welfare, the rooting of his convictions had led to the branching out of his sympathies. During the many pleasant evenings I spent in his society at Washington and Philadelphia, I chiefly attempted to draw out his observations upon the period he had passed in France, where his official situation placed him in juxtaposition with the leading characters of the court, as well as most of the agents of the Revolution. Amid this group he was equally intimate with [Jacques] Neckar and [Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de] Mirabeau, the Duc de Lauzun, and the Abbé Sieyès. Six years a spectator of the gathering of that tornado which began in tears and ended in blood, no man could have written a more animated account of the organization of the Tree of Liberty. Adams, in his boyhood (1755), detected its first shoots in America in the all-engrossing interest of political conversations . Jefferson was destined to witness the effect of its transplantation to Gallic soil. The two great accessories of the French Revolution were the encyclopedists and the patriots, the latter of whom returned from America to make known to their countrymen...