Sex and the Founding Fathers: The American Quest for a Relatable Past (Sexuality Studies) (12 page)

Parton also includes the cozy story of Jefferson and Martha's first
approach to Monticello as a married couple: "No voice welcomed them. No
door opened to receive them. The servants had given them up long before,
and gone home to bed. Worst of all, the fires were out, and the house was
cold, dark, and dismal. What a welcome to a bride on a cold night in January!" This version leaves out the bottle of wine and focuses solely on the couple's exuberance: "They burst into the house, and flooded it with the
warmth and light of their own unquenchable good-humor!" Parton remarks,
"Who could wish a better place for a honeymoon than a snug brick cottage, lifted five hundred and eighty feet above the world, with half a dozen
counties in sight, and three feet of snow blocking out all intruders?"37 The
scene delightfully emphasizes their privacy while providing for the reader an
exceptional vantage point from which to view their love.

For Parton, the marriage brought Jefferson great joy: "The year 1772,
which was the first of Jefferson's married life, I think he would have ever
after pronounced the happiest of all his years." But as we know, the joy
would not last forever. Jefferson's painful deathbed promise to Martha is
described in detail and yoked to the pleasure of their love: "At last she said
that she could not die content if she thought her children would ever have a
step-mother; and her husband, holding her hand, solemnly promised that he
would never marry again." But Parton adds what would become a romanticized barometer of the depths of his love for his wife, his terrible grief at
her passing. Parton explains, "Towards noon, as she was about to breathe
her last, his feelings became uncontrollable. He almost lost his senses. His
sister, Mrs. Carr, led him staggering from the room into his library, where he
fainted, and remained so long insensible that the family began to fear that
he, too, had passed away. They brought in a pallet, and lifted him upon it.
He revived only to a sense of immeasurable woe."38

Other writers read deeply into his wife's death and her deathbed scene,
yoking them to his faithfulness to her after her death. Describing the scene
in tender prose, one account explains, "Holding her other hand in his, Mr.
Jefferson promised her solemnly that he would never marry again. And he
never did. He was then quite a young man, and very handsome, and I suppose he could have married well; but he always kept that promise."" As Linn
writes, the marriage would end in tragedy: "Its duration, however, was but
short; in little more than ten years, death deprived him of his wife, and
left him the sole guardian of two infant daughters; to whose education he
devoted himself with a constancy and zeal, which might, in some measure,
compensate for the want of a mother's care and instruction."4o

In early-twentieth-century biographies, Jefferson's marriage emerges as,
above all else, the most important aspect of the view of him as a red-blooded
American man. One biographer concedes that "the general poverty of fact and
record concerning Mr. Jefferson's early years is threadbare in the matter of his
marriage. No one knows how he met his wife or what she was like."" And
another explains, "He saw to it that no mementos of hers were preserved for
posterity. There are many relics of the Jefferson family, but none of Martha not one ringlet of her hair, not a garment she may have worn, not a piece of
jewelry she may have prized."42 But many of the same biographers nonetheless
claim to know the most intimate and hard-to-document aspect of the relationship-their true regard for each other. One writer captures the essence of
how public memory has revered the marriage: "Mr. Jefferson's marriage was
one of the most successful known to biographical literature." But the author
does not stop there: "In the harmony of the relation between himself and wife
there never seems to have been a discord. No shadow ever fell between them
chilling their perfect, trustful devotion."" Another notes, "The wooing had
not been perfunctory nor cold," although we have no evidence either way, and
continues, "The profound love that marked their married life makes more
than questionable any such conclusion."44 Through the century, the depiction
remains largely unchanged. According to one typical account, "For a decade,
all their dreams had come true."45 Writes another, "They were to remain lovers
to the end. It was a happy household."46 This depiction would only strengthen
as the century passed. The 1969 musical 1776, which was so successful that
it became a popular film in 1972, depicts Jefferson and Martha as nearly sexcrazed and utterly in love. Although we know that she was suffering from a
difficult pregnancy at the time, in the film they cannot contain their passion: Jefferson is shown actually taking a break from writing the Declaration of Independence to make love. In addition to celebrating his virility, the
film suggests that sex not only served as a distraction from his work but also
informed his belief in individual liberty and pursuit of happiness. This depiction delighted fans of the musical, who saw the presentation as echoing that
generation's view of sexual desire as natural and the censorship of the 1950s
as an allegory for Victorianism. The image of the Jeffersons as exceptionally
loving has remained constant, and the bond was poignantly underscored by
Martha Jefferson's death in 1782 at the age of thirty-three.

In the late twentieth century, many biographers repeat the oft-told story
of the Jeffersons' first arrival to Monticello as husband and wife "snug in
their picturesque honeymoon retreat" and just at the "start of their domestic
life." "Whether it be fact or fiction," explains one author, it "properly conveys the spirit of their marriage."47

As is typical of such accounts, an emphasis on her attractiveness helps
establish his credentials as a desirable man and as one whose desires were
consistent with societal norms. "She was beautiful" writes one authoralthough we have no contemporary images of her and we should ask the
relevance-" better educated than the average Virginia belle of the day and
her mind was superior."48

Given the general paucity of information about how the Jeffersons met or how their relationship developed, biographers mobilize his reaction to the
loss of his wife as evidence of their bond. One turn-of-the-twentieth-century account, typical of most, remarks, "Undoubtedly Mr. Jefferson loved
his wife with an extraordinary depth of devotion. It must have been so, for
there is a clear record that when she died, he was inconsolable, and that he
remained always quietly faithful to her memory, never finding room in his
heart for any other woman."49 A 1960s account notes that he never found
another: "Jefferson's affection for Martha was as deep as it was exclusive.""
By the 1990s, the depiction of Jefferson's love for Martha continues to be
evidenced by courtship tales of when they "fell in love," the threadbare lore
about their first arrival to Monticello, and the alleged deathbed promise that
Mrs. Jefferson solicited from her husband before passing away.51

In his review of The Hemingses ofMonticello, preeminent historian Edmund
Morgan writes of the marriage (with veiled contrast to George Washington),
"No one believes that dynastic succession was of huge importance to Jefferson.
He married for love." He also states, "Fidelity and felicity were the themes
of the married life of Thomas and Martha Jefferson. When she died he was
utterly undone. It is said, and there is no reason to doubt it, that the happy
intimacy of this marriage was so nearly complete that he promised Martha
to take no wife in her place. And to that he held."52 Other academic historians confidently assert the same, despite the lack of complex documentation.
"Thomas Jefferson loved his wife with all his heart," assures one historian.53

Cosway: A "Legitimate" Object of Affection

Twentieth-century writers also add descriptions of a new romance with
Maria Cosway. In the nineteenth century, biographers depict Cosway as a
friend, but for most twentieth-century biographers, Cosway is a woman with
whom Jefferson fell passionately in love. Jefferson met her while a relatively
young widower in Paris, and although their story is generally discussed as a
scandal, it is worth noting that she was married at the time of their association. His earliest biographers avoid discussion of Maria Cosway as a romantic relationship, focusing instead on only his wife, Martha. The evidence
for the relationship comes to us from eighteenth-century correspondence,
and many early biographers, perhaps finding a relationship with a married
woman distasteful, dismiss it as "flirtation." Only later would the letters
serve as evidence for an entirely new interpretation-that she became his
"lover and mistress."54 Jefferson famously broke his wrist while with Cosway,
and (in the absence of any evidence) many paint romantic visions of the
scene-his gallantly dashing over a fountain to impress her or leaping a log. By the 1940s, there is division among biographers about how to treat the
relationship-as flirtation or a clear signal of "adultery."

But this omission would end by the mid-twentieth century. Although
recent accounts also point out that Jefferson began his relationship with the
enslaved Herrings while in Paris, virtually all twentieth-century biographers
highlight Cosway as the Paris romance. Undoubtedly, this is in part because
Cosway was white and Herrings was black. Biographers often assert that
this relationship was intensely passionate and punctuate the story with an
image of the "beautiful" Cosway. Recently the affair has been unequivocally
embraced and sincere love declared. "If ever a man fell in love in a single
afternoon it was he," writes one biographer about Jefferson's instant emotional state after meeting Cosway.55

Highlighting a relationship with a married woman could have backfired
but for the story's ability to compensate for Hemings, lurking in the background, and for the added bonus of its showing Jefferson as besting another
man. The relationship with Cosway thus could also serve Jefferson's image in
that it could be fashioned to indicate his cuckolding of her husband. Although
nearly the same age as Jefferson, Cosway's husband is described as a man
whose "foppishness and affectation made him less than pleasing as a man,
and his vanity was immeasurable."56 Brodie notes that he was "mocked for
his pretentiousness in dress, especially a mulberry silk coat ornamented with
strawberries."57 Out-manning such a husband might not have been very challenging, but nonetheless his biographers take note of Cosway's eagerness to fall
in love with Jefferson, whom they imply cut a sharp contrast to her husband.

In the hands of late-twentieth-century Jefferson image makers, Cosway's
being married is far from a liability; the detail is reworked to highlight
his attractiveness to women in addition to his superiority to other men.
All the women in his life are noted as pretty or extraordinarily beautiful,
with Cosway as the pinnacle. That Jefferson outmans her husband in some
biographies is underscored through their emphasis on Cosway's desirability. She is always described as an extraordinary beauty. One typical account
includes, for example, such descriptors as "very pretty, slender" and "great
expressive soft blue eyes that smiled readily, and a great quantity of beautiful blond hair"-"her most noticeable feature."58 Another describes her as
"small, exquisite, and feminine," "a fragile, languorously feminine woman of
twenty-seven, with luminous blue eyes, exquisite skin, and a halo of golden
curls."59 Still another describes her as "beautiful" and as "charming, blond,
blue-eyed, and lovely."60 Such references are, of course, loaded with racialized connotations, and these glowing descriptions of hair and eye color are
used disproportionately to describe women of European descent.

For biographers, her beauty could shore up his credentials as a properly
sexual man-one with healthy, normative desires. One biographer imagines,
"Her voice was soft and alluring, and at times it took on overtones that set
him all atremble." Jefferson, he writes, felt "many spasms of the heart when
he looked at Maria Cosway."61 Chroniclers through the twentieth century
have made use of the Cosway story to highlight the Jefferson's romantic side.
As Joseph Ellis explains, "The Cosway affair is significant not because of
the titillating questions it poses about a sexual liaison with a gorgeous young
married woman but because of the window it opens into Jefferson's deeply
sentimental soul and the highly romantic role he assigned to women who
touched him there."62

Biographers have been gushing over Jefferson's "Head and Heart" letter
to Cosway (an extended dialogue between rational and romantic sides) for
nearly two centuries now-perhaps because we have so little from him to
use. It has been called the "greatest love letter in history." Biographers who
discredit the letter and portray it as merely eighteenth-century romantic prose
have been taken to the woodshed by others. Jefferson's mid-twentieth-century
biographer Charles Tansill, for example, points out that Julian Boyd, editor
of Jefferson Papers, is gravely mistaken when he characterizes the "Head and
Heart" letter as romantic but asserts that Jefferson had "control of his passions." Taking issue with it as an understatement, Tansill argues, "It is apparent that Dr. Boyd knows little about Jefferson's emotional balance and less
about the way of a maid with a man." And he asserts, "Jefferson's October
12 missive to Maria Cosway is, indeed, `one of the notable love letters in
the English language.' It has all the earmarks of sincerity and could hardly
have been part of a game of make-believe."63 Thomas Fleming, for example,
in his 2009 collection of biographies on the romantic lives of the Founders
describes the head and heart letter to Cosway as "twelve electrifying pages."64

As previously mentioned, Jefferson's growing number of romances often
lent support to each other-that is, each one became more plausible than
the last as a case was made for the depiction of Jefferson as a man of passion and desires rather than merely a bookish, chaste widower. The above
interpretation of Jefferson's "Head and Heart" letter illustrates this point
once more. The author continues, "If in Jefferson's case the head had really
been sovereign, there might never have been the attempted intimacies with
Betsy Walker." Here the scandal of Walker works to support the claim of
Jefferson as having normal desires and lends credence to the claim that his
attraction to Cosway was genuine and had been acted on.65 In 1993, journalist Willard Sterne Randall continues the emphasis on depicting Cosway
as someone Jefferson "would fall in love with" while in Paris-indeed, for Randall, Jefferson "fell in love with Maria Cosway from the moment he met
her" and she became someone with whom he would want to "spend every
possible moment."66