RETHINKING JEFFERSON’S PRIVATE SUITE PAGE 6

FALL/WINTER 2016 monticello.org VOLUME 27, NUMBER 2

THE ROOM WHERE IT H PPENED

GAYLE JESSUP WHITE Known in history as the Great Compromise of 1790, Jefferson’s most Community Engagement Officer famous power dinner happened when the United States was a young and fragile Thomas Jefferson’s tombstone listed union of 13 states that, in spite of the the achievements for which he wanted recent signing of the U.S. Constitution, to be remembered — author of the was decidedly un-united. Adding to Declaration of Independence and the the turmoil, the founders had radically Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, different visions for America’s future, and father of the University of Virginia. threatening the nation’s very survival.

But the Sage of Monticello probably The stakes were high in June 1790 wouldn’t have imagined that 190 when Jefferson invited Treasury years after his death he would also Secretary Alexander Hamilton and be celebrated as one of America’s first Virginia Congressman and future “foodies,” popularizing delicacies he president James Madison to dine at his imported from Europe, like ice cream home in New York City, then the nation’s and macaroni. Now, thanks to the temporary capital. Jefferson hoped success of the Broadway sensation that the dinner would help solve the Hamilton: An American Musical, many legislative gridlock about the new federal are learning that Jefferson also hosted government’s role and scope. America’s most famous “power dinner,” “The Room Where It Happens,” the hip- Even the threat of bankruptcy didn’t a probable precursor to today’s “power After enjoying copious French wine and a meal prepared by the enslaved hop interpretation of how the founders stop Jefferson from hosting elaborate — lunch,” in “the room where it happened.” negotiated the compromise that is now and frequent — dinner parties. In fact, Jefferson was always playing politician at French-trained chef James Hemings, the three men struck a deal. To appease part of American mythology. after Lafayette’s visit, Jefferson wrote to his gatherings, says Monticello historian his agent, “During Genl La Fayette’s stay, Christa Dierksheide. However, she adds, Hamilton and proponents of a powerful fiscal and centralized state, the federal While the 1790 Great Compromise was at Monto, I was obliged to have so much Jefferson’s most famous power dinner, it company that we got all but thro’ our “there was probably more government would assume the states’ war debts, totaling some $25 million. was not his first. As Virginia’s governor stock of red wine.” Jefferson lost no time urgency to the dinners in To appease southern constituents who during the American Revolution, in replenishing the “stock,” using credit wanted to delegate power to individual Jefferson hosted English and German to finance a new supply of wine. the 1790s and during his states, the nation’s new capital would Convention Army officers who had been presidency when the nation move south to what is now Washington, imprisoned near Charlottesville. And as Jefferson’s last Monticello power D.C. the French Revolution unfolded in 1789, dinners were for University of Virginia was so divided and its future Jefferson, then U.S. Minister to France, students and faculty. Former student uncertain.” The evening that charted America’s hosted a power dinner for several Henry Tutwiler offered this description future has been immortalized most National General Assembly members in of his 1825 visit: “Mr. Jefferson had hopes of settling economic issues with a wonderful tact in interesting his recently in Hamilton and in the hit song King Louis XVI. Unfortunately for the youthful visitors, and making the most king, the results were short-lived. diffident feel at ease in his company.”

President Jefferson regularly hosted power dinners that, while primarily social, were “power” events, according to SUPPORT scholar and Interim President and CEO MONTICELLO of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania Charles Cullen. Guests were “influenced by the power of personality, if nothing Make a donation or get in touch: else, over the dinner table,” he says. Monticello When he retired to Monticello in P.O. Box 217 1809, Jefferson continued hosting power Charlottesville, VA 22902 dinners, at times entertaining 50 visitors (434) 984-9820 at once. The most memorable — and email: [email protected] perhaps most lavish — was in 1824, when You can also make a secure online he hosted a series of dinners for visiting donation atmonticello.org/give . Revolutionary War hero the Marquis de Lafayette. Thank you for helping us in our mission of education and preservation!

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