Thomas Jefferson accused of having an affair, Oct. 19, 1796
On this day in 1796, during the nation’s first contested presidential election, the Gazette of the United States published an article accusing Thomas Jefferson, a former secretary of state, of carrying on an affair with Sarah “Sally” Hemings, one of his slaves.
At the time, Jefferson was seeking the presidency as a Democratic-Republican, a political party he had co-founded with James Madison. His rival for the office was John Adams, vice president during George Washington’s two terms and a Federalist.
The article was the work of Alexander Hamilton, Washington’s former treasury secretary. It was one of 25 that Hamilton wrote for the newspaper from Oct. 15 to Nov. 24, assailing Jefferson and the Democratic-Republicans. They appeared under the byline of Phocion, an ancient Athenian politician.
During the American Revolution, Jefferson, Madison, Adams and Hamilton had worked in tandem to end British colonial rule and found the new nation. But after Washington declined to serve a third term, the political climate turned nasty. The Federalists accused the Democratic-Republicans of supporting the French Revolution, which had grown violent, while their rivals accused the “aristocratic” Federalists of favoring monarchism.
Adams won the election, carrying nine states to Jefferson’s seven, with 71 electoral votes to Jefferson’s 68. Having come in second, Jefferson became vice president. The contest was the only one in U.S. history in which a president and vice president were elected from opposing tickets. Subsequently, adoption of the 12th Amendment to the Constitution precluded this procedure from occurring again.
Hemings was the half-sister of Jefferson’s late wife, Martha, by their father, John Wayles. Most historians have concluded that, as a widower, Jefferson may have had as many as six children with Hemings, maintaining a 38-year relationship with her until his death in 1826.
Hemings (1773-1835) lived in Paris with Jefferson and two of his daughters from 1787 to 1789, while he was the American envoy to France. Her duties included serving as a nursemaid-companion to Jefferson’s daughter Maria (1784-1787), lady’s maid to daughters Martha and Maria (1787-1797), and working as chambermaid and seamstress for the Jefferson family.
The account of their illicit relationship re-entered the public arena during Jefferson’s first term as president, which began in 1801. It has since remained a subject of discussion for more than two centuries.
In September 1802, James Callender, a political journalist, a disaffected former ally of Jefferson, wrote in a Richmond, Virginia, newspaper that Jefferson had for many years “kept, as his concubine, one of his own slaves.” “Her name is Sally,” Callender continued, adding that Jefferson had “several children” by her. The Federalist camp picked up the story and disseminated it widely, hoping in vain to deny Jefferson a second presidential term. Jefferson offered no public response to the accusation and, so far as is known, made no public or private comments about it.
SOURCE: “ALEXANDER HAMILTON,” BY RON CHERNOW (2004)