The legislation had passed quickly, and Jefferson signed the embargo on Tuesday, December 22, 1807.35 It was a breathtaking bill, a projection of governmental power that surpassed even the hated Alien and Sedition Acts. After signing it, Jefferson was struck by “a tooth-ache … which brought on a very large and hard swelling of the face, and that produced a fever which left me last night,” he wrote Patsy on Tuesday, December 29.36 He felt the burdens of office as never before.
