Another book on the founding fathers? Even though the two covered here were back-to-back presidents, and 2026 marks the 200th anniversary of the death of Thomas Jefferson, and the 190th of James Madison? The answer, to judge from Distinguished Professor of History at Rutgers University, Louis Masur’s short, lively, tidbit-loaded history, A Journey North. is definitely yes.
Even the subtitle has important, if subtle meaning: “Jefferson, Madison, & the Forging of a Friendship.” The key word is “forging.” These two political powerhouses admired each other before they decided to take a 33-day trip through New England and New York in the late spring of 1791. What happened on the trip “forged” their affection and intellectual agreements, a bonding that strengthened their contributions to the new nation.
Tested in the furnace of post-Revolutionary discord over states rights, race and the influence of religion, they found in each other a mutual comfort that lasted 50 years. Masur’s book is a tribute to their shared, if slightly different, views, to their individual quirks and most of all to their friendship, “unique” he says in the annals of American history.
Theirs was a heady time when discourse could be sharp; when history could be made not only by enacting laws but by following intellectual passions that held promise to improve the country’s economy and culture. Madison called Jefferson “a walking library.” It was an understatement. Who would have thought that what might seem like incidental matters and curiosities about the natural world could have important national consequences: interest in the Hessian Fly, destroying wheat; a freed Black farmer in the North being a successful entrepreneur; the sugar maple tree offering an alternative to West Indies sugar cane, and thus, possibly, to slavery; the language of dying Indian tribes that might deepen studies in linguistics and anthropology? Masur is almost invisible here, mainly letting the men speak through their exchanges with each other and mutual friends, publications, journals and – most important - letters especially with President George Washington.
Washington has been emerging over the years from his fuddy-duddy portrait by Gilbert Stuart to being seen as a shrewd, diplomatic leader who, a Federalist, was a good friend to both Jefferson and Madison who were Democratic-Republicans. He was certainly a more reasonable adversary than Jefferson’s lifelong foe, the fiery Alexander Hamilton. Masur is “almost” invisible, however, because when he isn’t, it’s to assert in unambiguous terms the failings of both men – of most men at the time – on the subject of equality for freed Blacks. Both supporters of abolition, they were against incorporating freed slaves into the American landscape, preferring instead to have them emigrate to Africa.
The country was barely into ratification of The 1789 Constitution when the friends took off on their journey into Federalist New England and Long Island, weary from political infighting, needing a respite, and primed to conduct research, especially on the Hessian Fly, fast destroying crops and exports - though conspiracy theorists said that the real reason for their trip was to undermine the opposition (Massachusetts ratified The Constitution only by a vote of 187-168.) Pro-British and anti-British sentiments were still raw, especially in the regions where they travelled,
So, yes to this book, with a suggestion to pass it on to children, grandchildren and grade-school teachers, as celebrations of the nation’s 250th founding get under way.
