Martha Washington had little affection for Thomas Jefferson toward the end of her life

Thomas Jefferson, a Founding Father of the United States like Martha Washington's husband, was the one person she detested the most. Martha Washington had little affection for Thomas Jefferson toward the end of her life. "She talked of the election of Mr. Jefferson, whom she thought to be one of the most odious of humanity, as the worst catastrophe our nation had ever seen". Thomas Jefferson's visit to Mount Vernon in 1801 was "the most terrible experience of her life," according to Connecticut governor John Cotton Smith, second only to the loss of her husband. Eleanor Parke Custis Lewis, a descendant of Martha Washington, also disliked Jefferson. After Jefferson was elected, she jokingly remarked that perhaps the world was now prepared for the end of the world.

The reasons Martha Washington felt this way are likely quite clear to those who are aware of the 1800 presidential election; hostilities between Jefferson and the Washington family had been growing for some time. She undoubtedly developed such a strong dislike for her husband due to Jefferson's and his newspaper's political assaults on him in the National Gazette. However, it might still come as a shock to watch Martha Washington, who is often seen in American culture as a kind of kindly, grandmotherly character, be so frank.