ABSTRACT
When James Madison was inaugurated as president on 4 March 1809, Jefferson refused to ride in his coach or to take a seat with the distinguished guests in the Congress. This chapter analyzes the aspects of his mind and thought which corresponded to the successive phases of his political activity. But in his twilight years his life of action was over and he had the freedom to cultivate all the aspects of his varied interests. One can therefore deal with Jefferson in those years only as a total mind and personality. The story of the correspondence with Adams contains an element of generosity as well as of drama. Jefferson knew how bruised Adams was after the rough handling that the Jeffersonian forces gave him in the election of 1800. On religion, Jefferson took his stance on his familiar ground of seeing Christianity as a "natural religion".
