The Jefferson Madison Letters
For fifty years, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison wrote to each other — across an ocean, across a revolution, across the whole experiment of building a republic. Theirs was the most consequential friendship in American history, and most of it survives on paper: nearly 1,250 letters, written between 1776 and Jefferson's death in 1826.
We can't read all 1,250 together. So I've chosen thirty — the ones that carry the essentials: the argument that produced the Bill of Rights, the exchange over whether the earth belongs to the living, the building of a political party, two presidencies, the Missouri crisis, and the founding of the University of Virginia.
This is not a series about two men arguing. It is a series about two men building. When they disagreed — over a bill of rights, over how far one generation may bind the next — they did it as allies who trusted each other completely. And we do not look away from the contradiction at the center of it: they built a republic of liberty while living inside a republic of slavery.
In each episode, host Charlie Jett reads a single letter, sets its scene, and asks what it still has to teach us. A history lesson, from the founders themselves — one letter at a time.
The Jefferson Madison Letters
13 Jefferson on a Perfect Parity and the Scheme to Prevent an Election
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On December 26, 1800, Vice President Jefferson reports to Madison that the electoral count stands at “a perfect parity between the two republican characters” — a tie with his own running mate, Aaron Burr — and that Federalists in the lame-duck Congress appear determined to “prevent an election” and vest the government in John Jay or John Marshall by statute. Above every scheme, Jefferson dreads the pending judiciary bill, “because appointments in the nature of freehold render it difficult to undo what is done.” The unsigned letter blends crisis arithmetic with the small accounting of friendship, and closes Act I's turn into the Revolution of 1800: the first contested transfer of power in the republic's history, with the outcome genuinely unknown.
Key Themes
• The electoral tie of 1800 and the original Constitution's double-vote flaw
• Rumored Federalist plans to block the election or govern by statute
• The judiciary as the deepest fear: life tenure as “freehold”
• Crisis and friendship in one envelope: whip counts beside a friend's small errand
• An unsigned letter in an untrusted post — surveillance shaping the correspondence
Welcome! I'm Charlie Jett coming to you from our studio in beautiful downtown Chicago. This is the Jefferson Madison Letters, a history lesson from the Founders, one letter at a time. Fifty years of correspondence between Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, and every word you'll hear from them is verified against the original manuscripts at Founders Online, the Digital Archive of the National Archives. Well it is late december eighteen hundred, in a capital that is barely a city. Washington is mud streets and unfinished stone. Jefferson, fifty seven, vice president still, boards near the Capitol. Madison is at Montpelier, where his father is failing. The election has been fought and everyone assumed one. The Republican ticket of Jefferson and Burr has beaten Adams. But the Constitution, as it stands, gives each elector two votes and no way to mark which man is meant for president, and the Republican electors, disciplined to a fault, have all voted for both. The result is arithmetic no one has ever had to do before. A tie throws the choice into the House of Representatives, voting by states, and it is the old house that votes, the lame duck house, controlled by the party that just lost. Rumor says that the Federalists will elect Burr. Darker rumor says they will elect no one and by statute hand the government to an officer of their own choosing. Meanwhile, Adams Congress is moving a judiciary bill that would multiply the courts and fill them on the way out the door. Our last episode ended with two friends drafting resistance in secret. Two years later, the party they built stands at the door of power, if the door opens. As Jefferson sits down on december twenty sixth, the votes of Vermont and Kentucky have not even arrived. No one, not Jefferson, not Madison, not anyone in America knows whether there will be a president on the fourth of March. So here is the moment live. The day after Christmas in an unfinished capital and the vice president is doing election math with a steady hand. The letter is short. We'll read it in full. It begins with the count. All the votes are now come in except Vermont and Kentucky, and there is no doubt that the result is a perfect parody between the two Republican characters. A perfect parody seventy three and seventy three. And then without raising his voice the threat. The feds appear determined to prevent an election and to pass a bill giving the government to mister J, appointed Chief Justice or to Marshall as Secretary of State. Prevent an election and install John J. or John Marshall by statute. Yet in the same breath the cool assessment. Yet I am rather of opinion that Maryland and Jersey will join the seven Republican majorities. Then the fear that he ranks above every other. They have got their judiciary bill forwarded to commitment. I dread this above all the measures meditated, because appointments in the nature of freehold render it difficult to undo what is done. Appointments in the nature of freehold, life tenure, like land you cannot take back. He adds one more dry line about the capital's governance, a report that is expected for a territorial government, which is to pay little respect to the rights of man. And then mid-crisis, the ledger of friendship, an old errand about money Madison once sent along for a man named Lyon. I am almost certain that you sent money by me to Lyon. As I was merely the bearer, I did not take a receipt. I will inquire into it and do what is necessary. The Republic's future in one paragraph a friend's small account squared in the next. He signs off cordial and affectionate salutations adieu. And tellingly he does not sign his name. The letter goes into a post he does not trust, unsigned. So what does the author assume? Jefferson assumes the machinery will probably hold. He assumes Madison needs exactly this the numbers, the schemes, the state by state map. He writes to his campaign manager of record, and notice what he does not assume treachery from Burr. The danger in this letter is entirely Federalist usurpation. The other Republican character is a mathematical fact, not yet a rival. So what does the author fear? The courts, above everything. Not the tie, not J, not Marshall. The judiciary bill. An election can be refought in four years. A life appointment cannot. Difficult to undo what is done is as close to dread as this steady letter comes. We know from the balcony how right the instinct was, the bill he dreads becomes the Judiciary Act of eighteen oh one, the Midnight Judges, and a court fight that will define his first term. And he can see the shape of it before it has a name. So what do they take for granted that we no longer do? That electors are party soldiers whose identical double votes could tie a presidential election, a flaw so obvious to us that it is hard to remember no one had fixed it. The Twelfth Amendment is four years away. Jefferson and Madison are living in the last election of the original design. They also take for granted that prevent an election by statute is a colorable move, that the peaceful transfer of power is not yet a norm anyone can rely on, merely one possible outcome among several. So what is missing? Burr's name, the other half of the perfect parody that is never named here or in the letters that follow. He is B at most. Missing too is any plan for the worst case. If the Federalists do install J or Marshall, the letter offers no answer. And missing entirely is panic. The tone is inventory, votes, bills, treaties, a friend's errand. As if the way to keep a republic steady is to keep your ledger steady. We know it will take thirty six ballots to break this tie. He doesn't. He counts what can be counted and posts the letter unsigned. Well in closing, Jefferson's nightmare in this letter isn't losing the presidency. It's the courts. He can outorganize a usurper. He cannot outwait a life appointment. The election will resolve itself in weeks. The judiciary, he dreaded, would outlast every man in the story. So that's our episode. These letters remind us that self-government has always run on arithmetic and nerve, on people who counted the votes, watched the courts, and kept faith with their friends while the outcome hung in the air. So stay informed, stay engaged, and above all, stay curious. Today's letter is verified against founders online, the papers of James Mendison. I'm Charlie Jett, and thank you for listening.