A letter from George Washington awaited Jefferson upon his return home in 1789. That spring, Washington had become our first President. He wanted Jefferson to become his Secretary of State. This meant that he would head the Department of State, which oversees the United States’ relations with other countries. Jefferson wrote back refusing the job. He was now forty-six years old. He hoped to relax for a year. But Washington didn’t give up. He sent a second letter. He couldn’t do without him, Washington insisted. Jefferson couldn’t say no a second time to the hero of the Revolution. He waited until his daughter Patsy was married in February 1790. The next month, he went to New York City—then the nation’s capital—to join Washington’s cabinet.
Jefferson served as Secretary of State for almost four years. Afraid that spies would open his letters, Jefferson invented a device to keep his messages private. Called a “cipher wheel,” it enabled him to write in a secret code.
As Secretary of State, Jefferson helped the nation avoid conflicts with Britain, France, and Spain. But he and Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton had conflicts of their own. The two men disagreed about the country’s future. Hamilton wanted the United States to become a nation of big business and big cities. He favored a strong U.S. government that told the states what they could and couldn’t do. Jefferson wanted a nation of small farmers and small towns. He favored a government that stayed out of people’s lives as much as possible. The Jefferson-Hamilton clash helped spark the creation of political parties. Jefferson became a leader of the Democratic-Republican Party. Hamilton became a leader of the Federalist Party. We still have two main political parties today. However, they are not the same as those led by Jefferson and Hamilton.
Political differences weren’t the only problem between the two men. Jefferson and Hamilton really disliked each other. They argued in cabinet meetings. They fought in the newspapers. Jefferson finally grew weary of the arguing. He resigned from Washington’s cabinet at the end of 1793. Early the next year, he returned to Monticello.
Jefferson spent the next three years quietly, at home. He read. He remodeled Monticello, which he continued to do for another fifteen years. He worked at improving his farm. He had his slaves plant trees, flowers, and various crops. Among his many interests was fossil collecting. He was even nicknamed “Mr. Mammoth” because he gathered fossils of those elephant-like animals of long ago. Jefferson also liked to invent new gadgets. Over the years his creations included a new kind of plow and an improved type of sundial. Yet, as always seemed to happen, he couldn’t stay away from politics for very long.
George Washington retired as President after his second four-year term was over. John Adams, Vice President under Washington, hoped to win the nation’s highest office in the 1796 election. Adams became the Federalist candidate. The Democratic-Republicans chose Jefferson.
Rarely has a candidate done so little as Jefferson did in 1796. He made no speeches. Jefferson even told his son-in-law that he wanted John Adams to win.
The election was very close. Adams won with seventy-one electoral votes. According to the law of the time, the person with the second-most votes became Vice President. That was Thomas Jefferson, with sixty-eight. He moved to Philadelphia, the United States capital, and in 1797 began serving as Vice President.
Jefferson and Adams were old friends. At first they got along well enough. But in time, the President and Vice President clashed. Jefferson was hurt that President Adams didn’t even consult him on most issues. To his daughter Patsy, he wrote: “It gives me great regret to be passing my time so uselessly when it could have been so importantly employed at home.”
John Adams ran for the presidency again in 1800. So did Thomas Jefferson. And this time, he very much wanted to win.
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