This is the third volume in Mr. Wibberley's life of Thomas Jefferson. It can be read without reference to volumes I and II because it treats of a complete period of time in Jefferson's life, the time when he served under President Washington as Secretary of State, and under President John Adams as Vice-President. At the book's end, Jefferson has just been elected to the office of the Presidency.

It was during these years, 1789-1801, that two great giants clashed. These were Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. Hamilton was secretary of the Treasury, the chief of the Federalist party, and a man to whom America owes much. But if Hamilton had had his way it is very doubtful that the young United States would have become the democracy that it is. It is to Thomas Jefferson that we owe the rise of true democracy under which the common people had inalienable rights.

Jefferson's opposition to Hamilton was just, profound and unrelenting. Though President Washington begged his two cabinet members to compromise, such was the integrity of each man that compromise was impossible.

It is during these years that the Bank of the United States was founded (a triumph for Hamilton), the scandal of Citizen Genet's actions as the Ambassador of the new French Republic shocked the young nation, and, under President Adams' regime, the much hated Alien and Sedition laws were passed.

Through these difficult times we see Thomas Jefferson indefatigable working and we glimpse many of the great men surrounding him: Washington in terrible anger, Adams, rotund and bitter; there is a charming portrait of James Madison, and a moving one of the dying Benjamin Franklin, along with many other figures important to our history.

The title comes from the fact that these tempestuous years, like the weather in New York and in Philadelphia, where the Congress and Cabinet sat, were unsettled and unpredictable. "These gales of spring," Madison said, "will be followed by a full republican summer." It was due to Thomas Jefferson, more than to any other man, that it so happened.

From the dust jacket