The Missouri Crisis (1)

At the start of 1819 Thomas Jefferson, patron saint of American Democracy, remarked that he now had a greater interest in the ancient than in the modern world. Events at Washington were, he declared, of little immediate concern to him. But 1819 was to be a portentous year for the former president. First his financial condition deteriorated sharply, partly as a consequence of the nation-wide economic crisis of that year. Equally important, Jefferson began to voice renewed concern about the imperialistic, centralizing tendencies of the Supreme Court which, he feared, threatened to make the entire constitution a complete felo de se. Most important of all, however, were events in Missouri, or rather the reaction to them at Washington. By the end of the year Jefferson was warning his old friend and adversary, John Adams, that a crisis was looming, one more ominous than any the two old men had faced even during the Revolution. What Jefferson had discerned was the specter of sectional conflict and even civil war. The root of the problem was that “a geographical line”, had come into existence. “Once conceived and held up to the angry passions of men”, he warned, “it will never be obliterated; and every new irritation will mark it deeper and deeper”. In the most celebrated phrase of his retirement Jefferson referred to the Missouri Crisis as a “firebell in the night”.