Last updated: April 5, 2024
Article
Portraits as Politics
Collection of Belle Grove Plantation, Middletown, Virginia. Used with permission.
In 1799, Isaac Hite, Jr. commissioned seven portraits of members of his family. These portraits preserved the family's likenesses before photography was common. They also showed the family's values and concerns. The portraits made strong political statements.
Four of these portraits, and a replica of a fifth, hang in the parlor of the manor house at Belle Grove Plantation. The portraits of Isaac Hite, Jr., and of his first wife, Nelly Conway Madison Hite, hang on each side of the fireplace. Portraits of Nelly's parents hang on each side of the hallway door. They are Eleanor Conway Madison and James Madison, Sr. A smaller replica portrait of Thomas Jefferson hangs over the hallway door. Jefferson was vice-president of the United States then. Two of the seven paintings are missing. They were of Isaac's daughter and sister-in-law. Isaac's daughter Nelly Conway Hite would have been 9 years old in 1799.
Charles Peale Polk & the Peale Family
Charles Peale Polk painted the portraits. Polk was the nephew and student of his far more famous uncle Charles Willson Peale. Peale painted portraits of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Henry Knox, and others. Today Peale is best remembered for his painting of George Washington at Princeton. In this full-length portrait, Washington is in his military uniform. He poses with his left hand resting on a cannon, his right on his hip and his legs crossed. Peale was the father of four sons named for famous artist of the past: Rembrandt, Raphael, Rubens and Titian.
Charles Peale Polk is best known for a series of portraits of George Washington. He copied them from earlier portraits rather than from life. One of these Washington portraits is at Fort Ticonderoga in upstate New York. Nearer to Belle Grove are his portraits of Judge Robert White and his wife. Those are at Abram's Delight, a 1750s house in Winchester, Virginia.
Isaac & Nelly Hite
These portraits show Isaac's wealth and status. The very fact that he could afford seven new paintings at one time proved his prosperity. So do the fancy clothes that he wears, like his silk stockings and silk vest. His personal seal hangs at his side, showing that he used it on important documents.
Nelly's portrait shows what is most important to her. First, it shows her with one of her three children. He was her only surviving son, James Madison Hite, called Madison. The Hites named Madison for his grandfather James Madison Sr. She holds a book on proper behavior, showing us her interest in her children's role in society.
The Madisons
The portraits of Nelly and James Madison also give us some insight into the things that they value. Nelly has two noteworthy items with her. She is holding a pair of spectacles, even though she had excellent eyesight even into her old age. The artist painted the glasses to show that she is literate person. The Bible lying open on the table beside her also shows her literacy. It is open to Psalms 107 and 108. One or both of these must have had some special significance for her. Her choice to have a Bible in her portrait tells us that she wanted us to know that she was a religious woman.
James Madison Sr.'s portrait also shows that he is a prosperous man. His fancy suit and shirt prove his wealth. As with Isaac, the personal seal hanging at his side shows that he deals with important documents. The books on the table beside him show his literacy. One of the books makes a political statement.
Drapery
The drapery in the background of the four paintings has an important meaning. Isaac and Nelly wanted to show their portraits together on the same wall. Putting drapery in opposite corners of the husband-and-wife paintings makes a joint frame.
Polk used the same or similar drapery in many of his portraits. For example, the paintings at Abram's Delight uses this form of background. Those portraits lack the details that make the Belle Grove portraits more intriguing.
Dining Room Portraits
Besides the portraits in the parlor, there is also a pair of portraits hanging in the dining room. The first shows Madison Hite (the little boy shown with his mother in the parlor) as an adult. The other is his wife, Caroline Matilda. The artist is unknown. The artist may have painted them at Madison Hite's plantation in neighboring Clarke County, Virginia.
Each of these shows the person holding a gold-colored object. In Caroline's case it appears to be a snuff box. Madison's is a handkerchief. Family lore says that these were gifts that they had exchanged. The painting uses them as symbols of their mutual devotion.
Collection of Belle Grove Plantation, Middletown, Virginia. Used with permission.
Art & Politics
All four of the portraits at Belle Grove show the Hites and Madisons were literate men and women. The booksin the portraits also make strong and courageous political statements. Knowing about party politics and journalism in the late 1700s helps us understand the symbolism.
Beginnings of Party Politics in America
When the U.S. Constitution was written in 1787, political parties as we know them today did not exist. Americans considered factions of narrow interests to be against the general welfare. But in the first few sessions of Congress groups formed. They were either for or against the policies of Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton. By the election of 1796 men ran for office as members as one or the other of these groups. Supporters of Hamilton ran as Federalists, opponents as Democratic-Republicans.
Federalists supported a stronger central government. Federalist represented commercial and manufacturing interests. They were strongest in New England and the Middle Atlantic states. Democratic-Republicans favored more power retained by state governments. They were more likely to favor agricultural interests. They were strongest in the South. Conflicts in Europe between England and France aggravated the political split. Federalists favored England. England was America's opponent in the Revolution but still America's main trading partner. Democratic-Republicans favored France, America's ally during the Revolution.
Journalism in Early America
Most newspapers at the end of the 1700s were partisan. Politicians and political groups founded, owned, or supported many newspapers. They printed outrageous slander of the opposition. They also glorified the favored party as objective truth.
One of the most vigorous supporters of the Democratic-Republicans was the Philadelphia Aurora. Benjamin Franklin's grandson Benjamin Franklin Bache founded the Aurora. Bache criticized Federalists like George Washington and John Adams. Abigail Adams said that Bache possessed the "malice and falshood of Satan."
The Sedition Act of 1798
Federalists in Congress grew tired of slander in the opposition press. In 1798 they passed the Sedition Act which made it a crime to
Write, print, utter, or publish, or… cause or procure to be written, printed, uttered, or published or … knowingly and willingly assist or aiding writing, printing, uttering, or publishing any false, scandalous and malicious writing or writings against the government of the United States, or either House of the Congress of the United States, or the President of the United States, with intent to defame the said government, or either House of the said Congress, or the said President, or to bring them, or either of them, into contempt or disrepute; or to excite against them, or either or any of them, the hatred of the good people of the United States…
Courts could fine violators of this act could up to $2000 and imprison them for up to two years. Federalist judges refused to allow evidence of the truth in the libelous statements. The law did not apply to malicious statements made against the Vice President. Thomas Jefferson, leader of the Democratic-Republican party, was president at that time. He was their expected presidential candidate in the election of 1800. The law was set to expire on March 3, 1801, at the end of the current Presidential term. If the Democrats won the election, they could not use it against Federalist newspapers.
Sedition & the Aurora
Before Congress passed the Sedition Act, Bache was arrested under an earlier law. He died of cholera before coming to trial. Bache's associate William Duane took over the Aurora. Duane continued its editorial policy with unabated vigor. In the summer of 1799 Duane was arrested for violation of the Sedition Act. While awaiting trial, he wrote an article attacking the Senate. The Senate found him in contempt of the Senate and was again arrested. Duane continued to publish the Aurora until Jefferson became President.
Political Symbols in the Belle Grove Portraits
What does this have to do with the Belle Grove portraits? In his portrait, Isaac Hite is resting his left arm on a table, on top of a newspaper. The newspaper is Bache's Philadelphia Aurora. Isaac Hite showed in his portrait his support of that paper while the publisher was under arrest. It is a strong statement of support of both his party and of freedom of the press. It is a defiance of President John Adams and the Congress of the United States.
James Madison Sr. also made a political statement with the symbols in his portrait. Like Isaac in his portrait, Madison's left arm is resting on a table with three books on it. The book at the back of the table has a brown and red binding. If one stands close to the painting it is possible to read the title of that book. It is "The Rights of Man." In it, Thomas Paine offered his pen to the support of the French Revolution. "The Rights of Man" is a defense of that revolution. Paine wrote it in reply to Edmund Burke's attack on it in "Reflections on the Revolution in France." Paine made a fervent defense of revolution national independence. He also defended revolution for democracy and political, economic and social justice. Conservatives in the United States saw it a radical and dangerous document. Madison's inclusion of it in his portrait is an unmistakable statement of support.
James Madison Sr. and Isaac Hite were natural supporters of the Democratic-Republican party. James Madison Jr., Isaac's brother-in-law of the other, was one of the founders and leaders of that party. Thomas Jefferson was another.
One final political statement lies the seventh painting in this portrait group. The portrait of Thomas Jefferson is the only one that does not show members of Isaac's or Nelly's family. There is no evidence that Isaac actually knew Jefferson. In 1799, Jefferson was the leader of the Democratic-Republican party. He was also their presumed candidate for President in the next year's election. To include his portrait as the only person outside the family is a political statement.
By Wayne Sulfridge, Volunteer-in-Parks