Patriot; born in
Tuscany in 1730; was a practising physician at
Smyrna for a while, and was engaged in mercantile business in
London in 1755-73.
He came to
America in December, 1773, with a few of his countrymen, for the purpose of introducing into
Virginia the cultivation of the grape, olive, and other fruits of
Italy.
He formed a company for the purpose.
Jefferson was a member of it, and
Mazzei bought an estate adjoining that of
Monticello to try the experiment.
He persevered three years, but the war and other causes made him relinquish his undertaking.
Being an intelligent and educated man, he was employed by the
State of Virginia to go to
Europe to solicit a loan from the Tuscan government.
He left his wife in
Virginia, when he finally returned to
Europe, in 1783, where she soon afterwards died.
He revisited the
United States in 1785, and in 1788 wrote a work on the
History of politics in the United States, in 4 volumes.
In 1792
Mazzei was made privy councillor to the
King of
Poland; and in 1802 he received a pension from the Emperor Alexander, of
Russia, notwithstanding he was an ardent republican.
During the debates on
Jay's treaty,
Jefferson watched the course of events from his home at
Monticello with great interest.
He was opposed to the treaty, and, in his letters to his partisan friends, he commented freely upon the conduct and character of
Washington, regarding him as honest but weak, the tool and dupe of rogues.
In one of these letters, addressed to
Mazzei, he declared that “in place of that noble love of liberty and republican government” which carried the
Americans triumphantly through the late struggle, “an Anglican, monarchical, aristocratic party” had sprung up, resolved to model our form of government on that of
Great Britain.
He declared that the great mass of citizens, the whole landed interest, and the talent of the country, were republicans; but opposed to them were the executive (
Washington), the judiciary, two out of three of the national legislature, “all the officers of the government, all who want to be officers, all timid men who prefer the calm despotism to the boisterous sea of liberty, British merchants and
Americans trading on British capital, speculators and holders in the banks and public funds—a contrivance invented for the purpose of corruption, and for assimilating us in all things to the rotten as well as the sound parts of the
British model.”
“It would give you a fever,” he continued, “were I to name to you the apostates who have gone over to these heresies—men who were Samsons in the field and
Solomons in the
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council, but who have had their heads shorn by the harlot of
England.”
This letter was dated April 24, 1796.
Mazzei published an Italian translation of it in
Florence, Jan. 1, 1797.
Thence it was retranslated into
French, and published in the
Moniteur, Jan. 25.
Translated a third time, into
English, it made its way to the
American newspapers, through the
London press, in the beginning of May, and produced a most profound sensation in the
United States.
Jefferson first saw it on May 9, at
Bladensburg, while on his way to
Philadelphia to take his seat as president of the Senate, having been chosen
Vice-President of the
United States.
The administration newspapers and pamphleteers attacked
Jefferson with energy, but he kept silent on the subject.
This letter caused
Washington to lose faith in
Jefferson, and it was never restored.
It was used as political capital by the Federalists until the election of
Jefferson to the Presidency of the
United States in 1800.
Mazzei died in
Pisa, March 19, 1816.
