“Tomorrow I go on a sailing party of three or four days with the President,” wrote Thomas Jefferson in a letter to his protégé William Short on June 6, 1790. “I am in hopes of being relieved entirely by the sickness I shall probably encounter.”
At the time, New York served as our nation’s capital, and George Washington was the president. The third person in the boat, according to legend, was Jefferson’s political nemesis, Alexander Hamilton. As members of Washington’s cabinet, each had his own view on our nation’s future, with Hamilton advocating for a strong central government while Jefferson favored states’ rights with limited federal powers.
Perhaps sensing the division between these two founding fathers, President Washington invited both men to join him out of New York Harbor in a sailing party off Sandy Hook to fish for sea bass, perhaps stripers, as well as tautog. While Jefferson’s letter to Short indicates a willingness to sail with President Washington and Treasury Secretary Hamilton, story skeptics note a lack of any follow-up by the meticulous record-keeper Jefferson which would indicate that the trip actually happened.
Could this be the earliest recorded instance of “spot burn” restraint? Did Washington warn Jefferson upon departure, “don’t share this with anyone Tommy, we’re fishing a secret snag of mine.” Or perhaps this particular trip was simply a time when three great minds, all working on the foundation of a new nation, could enjoy a few hours together in a friendly fishing trip, leaving all onboard discussions private. What happens offshore, stays offshore.
“We like the idea of these three men going out and fishing together,” explained historian and author Frank Cogliano in the podcast A Washington Fish Tale as he discussed whether this Jersey Shore fishing charter actually happened. “We also, I think, hope that some sort of political discussions went on, and we can wonder about what they discussed,” Cogliano added.
As Cogliano describes in this 2024 In the Course of Human Events, a Monticello Podcast the timing of the fishing trip does coincide with an historic act of compromise in our nation’s timeline. “This fishing trip took place several weeks before the famous dinner table bargain between Hamilton and James Madison, when in Jefferson’s dining room in New York, Hamilton and Madison supposedly worked out the deal so that Hamilton’s plan for the federal government to assume state debts would go through in exchange for moving the capital, first from New York to Philadelphia, and then from Philadelphia to a site along the Potomac that became Washington DC.”
This week, the United States of America celebrates 250 years; it’s impossible for me to not think about celebrating freedom, patriotism and national pride with rod and reel in hand. Washington was an avid angler, and I like to believe that the Sandy Hook “sailing party” of founding fathers did occur, with our nation’s first president refusing to bring his passengers back to port until they agreed to resolve their political differences.
Boy, if it were only that easy today!
NOAA Fisheries recently released a message of celebration during this U.S. anniversary, noting the significance of recreational fishing as a multi-generational bridge, where conservation ethics are born and shared across the water. The fisheries service also pointed out how recreational fishing is an economic powerhouse. “Saltwater angling contributes $78.4 billion to the U.S. gross domestic product and supports hundreds of thousands of jobs in coastal communities. It fuels everything from small-town bait shops to large-scale boat manufacturing and hospitality industries.”
“Since we were established as the first federal conservation agency in 1871, NOAA Fisheries has been taking action to support fishing as food and recreation,” the agency added. Food and recreation, and perhaps some sensible political discourse while fishing together off the Jersey Coast.
Well, I guess two out of three ain’t bad. Happy birthday U.S.A.
