1 00:00:00,840 --> 00:00:04,680 Speaker 1: On this episode of Newtsworld, as part of Founding Fathers Week, 2 00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:07,560 Speaker 1: I'm talking about the lives and legacies of our original 3 00:00:07,600 --> 00:00:16,840 Speaker 1: founders and the impact they've had in our country. On 4 00:00:16,880 --> 00:00:19,480 Speaker 1: this episode of Newtsworld, we're going to deal with somebody 5 00:00:19,480 --> 00:00:24,520 Speaker 1: who's truly immortal and who has become surprisingly controversial, which 6 00:00:24,560 --> 00:00:28,240 Speaker 1: tells you more about the time we live in. In 7 00:00:28,320 --> 00:00:32,400 Speaker 1: April nineteen sixty two, President John F. Kennedy hosted a 8 00:00:32,440 --> 00:00:36,000 Speaker 1: Nobel Prize dinner at the White House. He said, quote, 9 00:00:36,680 --> 00:00:39,720 Speaker 1: I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent 10 00:00:40,360 --> 00:00:43,479 Speaker 1: of human knowledge that has ever been gathered together at 11 00:00:43,520 --> 00:00:47,159 Speaker 1: the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas 12 00:00:47,240 --> 00:00:52,000 Speaker 1: Jefferson dined alone. Now think about that tribute. It's a 13 00:00:52,000 --> 00:00:56,600 Speaker 1: little bit exaggerated. Jefferson was one of the most extraordinary 14 00:00:56,600 --> 00:01:01,080 Speaker 1: of the Founding Fathers, not only very, very smart, the 15 00:01:01,200 --> 00:01:05,759 Speaker 1: great writer, but somebody who had an almost universal interest 16 00:01:05,800 --> 00:01:08,440 Speaker 1: in knowledge. In a different era, he might have been 17 00:01:08,440 --> 00:01:13,080 Speaker 1: considered a renaissance man, but in the colonial period of 18 00:01:13,120 --> 00:01:18,399 Speaker 1: America people didn't even think like that. So Jefferson is fascinating. 19 00:01:18,560 --> 00:01:22,600 Speaker 1: He was controversial in his lifetime, and he is controversial today. 20 00:01:23,480 --> 00:01:28,040 Speaker 1: He's the founder of the Democratic Republican Party, which is 21 00:01:28,080 --> 00:01:32,680 Speaker 1: today the oldest political institution in the world. He created 22 00:01:33,160 --> 00:01:37,800 Speaker 1: the first really competitive presidential race and broke with many 23 00:01:37,840 --> 00:01:42,560 Speaker 1: of the norms of the British system. He distrusted government, 24 00:01:42,600 --> 00:01:45,319 Speaker 1: which is what's really remarkable when you look at the 25 00:01:45,319 --> 00:01:48,160 Speaker 1: people who today criticize him and are opposed to him. 26 00:01:48,720 --> 00:01:55,320 Speaker 1: Jefferson somehow came to this belief that freedom was based 27 00:01:55,360 --> 00:01:59,240 Speaker 1: on the individual and on the individual's relationship with God, 28 00:02:00,160 --> 00:02:04,560 Speaker 1: and he insisted that on his tombstone they would only 29 00:02:04,600 --> 00:02:06,760 Speaker 1: mention three things. This is a man who had spent 30 00:02:06,880 --> 00:02:10,800 Speaker 1: a lifetime achieving things. He was quote author of the 31 00:02:10,840 --> 00:02:14,560 Speaker 1: Declaration of American Independence, of the Statue of Virginia for 32 00:02:14,639 --> 00:02:31,920 Speaker 1: religious freedom, and father of the University of Virginia. I 33 00:02:31,960 --> 00:02:38,560 Speaker 1: would argue that in many ways Jefferson personified the spirit 34 00:02:38,600 --> 00:02:44,119 Speaker 1: of freedom and had developed out of it something much 35 00:02:44,160 --> 00:02:47,720 Speaker 1: more profound than most of his colleagues as founding fathers. 36 00:02:48,280 --> 00:02:53,000 Speaker 1: He deeply distrusted all governments. He didn't just deeply distrust 37 00:02:53,000 --> 00:02:56,959 Speaker 1: the British government. He deeply distrusted the American government, and 38 00:02:57,080 --> 00:03:01,600 Speaker 1: as a result, while he was the ambassador in Paris, 39 00:03:02,760 --> 00:03:07,320 Speaker 1: as the American Constitution was being developed. He wrote his 40 00:03:07,480 --> 00:03:11,920 Speaker 1: very very close friend James Madison and said that he 41 00:03:11,960 --> 00:03:18,840 Speaker 1: would oppose the adoption of the Constitution unless they added 42 00:03:18,880 --> 00:03:23,440 Speaker 1: a Bill of Rights. And the whole fabric of American 43 00:03:23,480 --> 00:03:28,200 Speaker 1: life has revolved around these ten amendments that came to 44 00:03:28,280 --> 00:03:31,880 Speaker 1: define our rights. And remember this is always one of 45 00:03:31,919 --> 00:03:35,480 Speaker 1: the most difficult things to get across because its counterintuitive. 46 00:03:36,280 --> 00:03:40,160 Speaker 1: The Bill of rights are designed to limit government, not 47 00:03:40,240 --> 00:03:43,160 Speaker 1: to limit people. The Bill of Rights came out of 48 00:03:43,160 --> 00:03:46,240 Speaker 1: a belief that in fact, virtue resides in the people, 49 00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:52,040 Speaker 1: but the government was always dangerous. Now. Jefferson at the 50 00:03:52,040 --> 00:03:55,000 Speaker 1: time was the ambassador of France as the French monarchy 51 00:03:55,120 --> 00:03:58,600 Speaker 1: was collapsing and as they were inexorably moving towards the 52 00:03:58,600 --> 00:04:03,560 Speaker 1: French Revolution, which is a classic case study of a 53 00:04:04,400 --> 00:04:08,920 Speaker 1: system that can't control itself. The American Revolution was a 54 00:04:09,000 --> 00:04:13,440 Speaker 1: fight over who would govern in America, and it was 55 00:04:13,480 --> 00:04:20,719 Speaker 1: between basically Americans who saw themselves as successful independent standing 56 00:04:20,720 --> 00:04:24,080 Speaker 1: on their own achievement, and Americans who still were comfortable 57 00:04:24,120 --> 00:04:27,599 Speaker 1: operating within the framework of the British king and the 58 00:04:27,600 --> 00:04:32,480 Speaker 1: British government. And that fight ultimately was very controlled. If 59 00:04:32,480 --> 00:04:35,520 Speaker 1: you go back and you look when the Founding Fathers won, 60 00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:39,520 Speaker 1: they were very cautious about what they were trying to 61 00:04:39,560 --> 00:04:41,120 Speaker 1: set up, and they had a lot of experience. Remember 62 00:04:41,120 --> 00:04:44,960 Speaker 1: their thirteen colonies, which means there are thirteen constitutions in 63 00:04:45,040 --> 00:04:47,920 Speaker 1: several of the colonies. If the constitutions fail, so they 64 00:04:47,920 --> 00:04:51,360 Speaker 1: write more constitutions by the time they get to Philadelphia 65 00:04:51,480 --> 00:04:54,320 Speaker 1: to write the Constitution of the United States, these folks 66 00:04:54,360 --> 00:04:58,200 Speaker 1: that had more experience at writing constitutions than any generation 67 00:04:58,279 --> 00:05:01,520 Speaker 1: in history, and all of them was aimed at a 68 00:05:02,120 --> 00:05:06,080 Speaker 1: very core principle because they understood a world different than 69 00:05:06,120 --> 00:05:09,800 Speaker 1: we do. They knew that the world was dangerous. It 70 00:05:09,880 --> 00:05:13,919 Speaker 1: was dangerous to their west because Native Americans were still independent, 71 00:05:14,480 --> 00:05:19,240 Speaker 1: armed and capable of causing enormous casualties in the constant 72 00:05:19,240 --> 00:05:21,800 Speaker 1: struggle over who was going to dominate. And remember the 73 00:05:21,839 --> 00:05:25,760 Speaker 1: west in this period is around Pittsburgh. We're not talking 74 00:05:25,800 --> 00:05:30,040 Speaker 1: about the west of Cheyenne, Wyoming. So they're looking at 75 00:05:30,040 --> 00:05:33,400 Speaker 1: one direction at Native Americans, many of them armed both 76 00:05:33,440 --> 00:05:36,159 Speaker 1: by the British and the French, and the British, of course, 77 00:05:36,279 --> 00:05:40,200 Speaker 1: loved to subsidize the arming of the Native Americans, so 78 00:05:40,320 --> 00:05:44,200 Speaker 1: they would harass and torment the new United States. At 79 00:05:44,200 --> 00:05:47,640 Speaker 1: the same time, they were vividly aware of the great 80 00:05:47,680 --> 00:05:51,160 Speaker 1: power struggle that was underway to see who would dominate Europe. 81 00:05:51,200 --> 00:05:56,200 Speaker 1: So they knew that between the French, the Spanish, the British, 82 00:05:56,320 --> 00:06:00,599 Speaker 1: the Prussians, the Dutch, that there was this ongoing, very 83 00:06:00,680 --> 00:06:05,200 Speaker 1: deep and very powerful struggle of systems much bigger than 84 00:06:05,640 --> 00:06:09,880 Speaker 1: the current American military of the current American Navy. So, 85 00:06:09,920 --> 00:06:13,320 Speaker 1: on the one hand, in order to protect our freedom, 86 00:06:13,920 --> 00:06:18,160 Speaker 1: they wanted a government strong enough to offset these dangerous countries. 87 00:06:18,880 --> 00:06:22,000 Speaker 1: On the other hand, in order to protect our freedom, 88 00:06:22,279 --> 00:06:23,880 Speaker 1: they want to make sure that the government that was 89 00:06:23,880 --> 00:06:27,320 Speaker 1: strong enough to protect our country couldn't then take over 90 00:06:27,560 --> 00:06:33,160 Speaker 1: and control us. And in this effort to find a 91 00:06:33,279 --> 00:06:37,680 Speaker 1: path between the two the future of domination by foreigners 92 00:06:37,960 --> 00:06:41,040 Speaker 1: and the future of domination by bureaucracy and government at home, 93 00:06:41,760 --> 00:06:44,520 Speaker 1: Jefferson was one of the leaders in trying to find 94 00:06:44,560 --> 00:06:49,280 Speaker 1: a way to have us be a genuinely free country, 95 00:06:49,480 --> 00:06:52,680 Speaker 1: which meant freedom for the individual, not just freedom for 96 00:06:52,760 --> 00:06:56,040 Speaker 1: the king or the president. Presidents basically are just temporarily 97 00:06:56,120 --> 00:06:59,159 Speaker 1: elected kings, and it's the House and the Senate that 98 00:06:59,240 --> 00:07:03,159 Speaker 1: make Americas say much different from the European monarchies. But 99 00:07:03,839 --> 00:07:09,760 Speaker 1: Jefferson himself had spent a long and really quite curious life. 100 00:07:10,360 --> 00:07:14,360 Speaker 1: I'm an amateur palaeontologist, and when you visit Monticello, you 101 00:07:14,400 --> 00:07:18,360 Speaker 1: will find, for example, teeth from mastodons and mammoths. You'll 102 00:07:18,360 --> 00:07:22,160 Speaker 1: find part of the skeleton of a giant sloth that 103 00:07:22,240 --> 00:07:24,920 Speaker 1: had gone extinct sometime in the place to see. You'll 104 00:07:24,920 --> 00:07:29,280 Speaker 1: find that Jefferson is collecting everything. He's fascinated by the world, 105 00:07:29,920 --> 00:07:32,200 Speaker 1: and that you know, I always tell people I'm willing 106 00:07:32,240 --> 00:07:35,240 Speaker 1: to be a Jeffersonian, by which I mean that I 107 00:07:35,240 --> 00:07:38,000 Speaker 1: will not buy more than half a continent at any 108 00:07:38,000 --> 00:07:41,080 Speaker 1: one time. So think of that as limited government. And 109 00:07:41,120 --> 00:07:44,040 Speaker 1: I won't do more than send the Marines to Tripoli 110 00:07:44,120 --> 00:07:46,400 Speaker 1: without telling the Congress. And by the way, when he 111 00:07:46,440 --> 00:07:49,040 Speaker 1: bought half a continent, he bought it and then told 112 00:07:49,080 --> 00:07:52,120 Speaker 1: the Congress. One of the reasons I find Jefferson so 113 00:07:52,200 --> 00:07:56,800 Speaker 1: complicated to talk about is that he's this massive contradictions. 114 00:07:57,400 --> 00:08:00,320 Speaker 1: On the one hand, he wants limited government unless he 115 00:08:00,360 --> 00:08:03,800 Speaker 1: decides he wants unlimited government, in which case he briefly 116 00:08:03,840 --> 00:08:08,480 Speaker 1: deviates buys the whole area that is, the Mississippi River, Basin. 117 00:08:08,840 --> 00:08:11,880 Speaker 1: Then he reversed back to wanning limited government. He vetos 118 00:08:12,320 --> 00:08:15,320 Speaker 1: a bridge over the Potomac as not the business of 119 00:08:15,360 --> 00:08:19,040 Speaker 1: government because he's frugal. But then he spends millions buying 120 00:08:19,080 --> 00:08:21,600 Speaker 1: the West from the French. You're trying to fit all 121 00:08:21,600 --> 00:08:25,000 Speaker 1: this into one personality. Began to realize that if he'd 122 00:08:25,000 --> 00:08:28,080 Speaker 1: been your uncle, he would have been a very complicated uncle. 123 00:08:28,560 --> 00:08:31,640 Speaker 1: He also was a polymath, in the sense that he 124 00:08:31,760 --> 00:08:35,120 Speaker 1: learned everything in every direction. On one of his trips 125 00:08:35,120 --> 00:08:37,439 Speaker 1: to Europe. Remember back then, if you say I think 126 00:08:37,480 --> 00:08:39,959 Speaker 1: I'll go to Europe, it was a long voyage by 127 00:08:40,000 --> 00:08:42,880 Speaker 1: sailing ship. On one of his trips to Europe, he 128 00:08:42,960 --> 00:08:48,080 Speaker 1: taught himself Spanish by reading Spanish novels. And you said 129 00:08:48,080 --> 00:08:51,120 Speaker 1: this image of Jefferson wrapped up in a blanket, sitting 130 00:08:51,120 --> 00:08:55,720 Speaker 1: on the deck of the ship, gradually going east towards 131 00:08:55,760 --> 00:08:58,839 Speaker 1: Europe and trying to literally teach himself Spanish, she already 132 00:08:58,880 --> 00:09:03,839 Speaker 1: had French. Also was a person who had a very 133 00:09:03,880 --> 00:09:09,160 Speaker 1: complicated vision of religion. Jefferson had written at one point 134 00:09:09,640 --> 00:09:14,280 Speaker 1: that there should be a wall between government and religion. 135 00:09:15,200 --> 00:09:17,960 Speaker 1: Now people that interpreted that to mean the government should 136 00:09:17,960 --> 00:09:21,520 Speaker 1: be anti religious that's not what Jefferson said. Jefferson was 137 00:09:21,559 --> 00:09:24,240 Speaker 1: living in an era when the Church of England was 138 00:09:24,280 --> 00:09:28,000 Speaker 1: paid for by the government, when the Catholic Church in 139 00:09:28,040 --> 00:09:30,959 Speaker 1: France was getting government money, and what he was saying 140 00:09:31,160 --> 00:09:34,440 Speaker 1: was that no religion should get money from the government. 141 00:09:35,800 --> 00:09:38,280 Speaker 1: But he did not intend in any way to have 142 00:09:38,320 --> 00:09:41,560 Speaker 1: government be hostile to religion. In fact, while Jefferson was president, 143 00:09:41,960 --> 00:09:44,520 Speaker 1: he signed a bill to send missionaries to the Indians. 144 00:09:45,000 --> 00:09:47,280 Speaker 1: He allowed the Treasury Building to be used as a 145 00:09:47,400 --> 00:09:50,240 Speaker 1: church because there were no very large buildings in Washington 146 00:09:50,280 --> 00:09:53,120 Speaker 1: at that time, And the week that he signed the 147 00:09:53,200 --> 00:09:56,360 Speaker 1: letter explaining that there would be a wall of separation 148 00:09:56,480 --> 00:09:59,440 Speaker 1: between church and state, that week he got into a 149 00:09:59,520 --> 00:10:02,400 Speaker 1: carriage and went up to the Capitol, where the Capitol 150 00:10:02,480 --> 00:10:05,439 Speaker 1: was actually used as a church until the eighteen forties. 151 00:10:06,320 --> 00:10:08,680 Speaker 1: So it's a little hard to say that he wanted 152 00:10:08,880 --> 00:10:12,199 Speaker 1: total separation. What he did want is for people to 153 00:10:12,240 --> 00:10:15,040 Speaker 1: be able to worship freely. He was very open to 154 00:10:15,080 --> 00:10:17,839 Speaker 1: people finding God in their own way, and he wanted 155 00:10:17,880 --> 00:10:20,360 Speaker 1: to make sure that the government wouldn't put its thumb 156 00:10:20,360 --> 00:10:23,520 Speaker 1: on the scales in one direction or another. One of 157 00:10:23,520 --> 00:10:25,400 Speaker 1: the places I go, what I want to think about 158 00:10:25,400 --> 00:10:28,280 Speaker 1: the founding fathers. They are really, in my mind three 159 00:10:28,320 --> 00:10:31,320 Speaker 1: great centers. One is to go to Boston and look 160 00:10:31,320 --> 00:10:35,080 Speaker 1: at the Adams family, Samuel and John and others, and 161 00:10:35,280 --> 00:10:38,320 Speaker 1: think about what that whole experience was like there. The 162 00:10:38,400 --> 00:10:41,200 Speaker 1: second is to go to Philadelphia and to stand in 163 00:10:41,240 --> 00:10:45,080 Speaker 1: the shadow of Benjamin Franklin. The third is to go 164 00:10:45,120 --> 00:10:49,920 Speaker 1: to Williamsburg. The Rockefeller Foundation rebuilt Williamsburg in the nineteen thirties. 165 00:10:50,480 --> 00:10:53,360 Speaker 1: I find every time I go there that the historic 166 00:10:53,440 --> 00:10:56,559 Speaker 1: part of my soul gets renewed and refreshed. They've done 167 00:10:56,559 --> 00:11:01,320 Speaker 1: an amazing job. And you can imagine yourself walking down 168 00:11:01,360 --> 00:11:05,000 Speaker 1: the street where mister Jefferson is studying and reading law 169 00:11:05,360 --> 00:11:07,480 Speaker 1: under mister Wyath, who's one of the great lawyers of 170 00:11:07,520 --> 00:11:11,120 Speaker 1: that generation, and then going down to one of the 171 00:11:11,160 --> 00:11:15,800 Speaker 1: taverns which are still there, and having a libation and 172 00:11:15,920 --> 00:11:18,200 Speaker 1: talking about the law, and talking about what's going on 173 00:11:18,280 --> 00:11:22,640 Speaker 1: in Europe, and talking about the theoretical principles on which 174 00:11:22,679 --> 00:11:25,840 Speaker 1: freedom should be based. And you have this whole notion 175 00:11:26,559 --> 00:11:33,400 Speaker 1: that Jefferson was capable of talking about almost anything. Jefferson, 176 00:11:33,440 --> 00:11:35,960 Speaker 1: first of all, is a reader. He loved to read 177 00:11:36,080 --> 00:11:39,360 Speaker 1: so much that he actually built a movable desk so 178 00:11:39,400 --> 00:11:41,800 Speaker 1: that he could if he was going to go, say 179 00:11:41,960 --> 00:11:44,560 Speaker 1: to Philadelphia, which back then was a long trip, he 180 00:11:44,679 --> 00:11:47,880 Speaker 1: had a desk that he could put in the carriage 181 00:11:48,520 --> 00:11:52,120 Speaker 1: so that he could work both reading and writing while 182 00:11:52,120 --> 00:11:55,920 Speaker 1: he traveled. And in that sense, he was constantly trying 183 00:11:55,960 --> 00:11:58,560 Speaker 1: to improve things. He was constantly looking can I do 184 00:11:58,640 --> 00:12:01,720 Speaker 1: it better? Can I do it faster? And Jefferson, I've 185 00:12:01,720 --> 00:12:07,559 Speaker 1: always thought was very happy learning and very happy thinking. 186 00:12:08,240 --> 00:12:09,840 Speaker 1: And if he also had to deal with people, that 187 00:12:09,920 --> 00:12:14,040 Speaker 1: was all right, but that was not his primary focus. 188 00:12:33,080 --> 00:12:35,960 Speaker 1: Jefferson had grown up in what then was sort of 189 00:12:36,000 --> 00:12:38,200 Speaker 1: the western part of Virginia if you look at a map, 190 00:12:38,440 --> 00:12:41,760 Speaker 1: we were talking about central Virginia today, but back then, 191 00:12:42,360 --> 00:12:46,120 Speaker 1: unlike Washington, who had grown up in the planter part 192 00:12:46,160 --> 00:12:50,000 Speaker 1: of the state with large homes and elegant dances and 193 00:12:50,040 --> 00:12:53,640 Speaker 1: people who wore fancy clothes, Jefferson was much closer to 194 00:12:53,640 --> 00:12:57,560 Speaker 1: the frontier, and he loved the frontier. He loved farmers 195 00:12:57,600 --> 00:13:01,080 Speaker 1: as a group, and he really felt that rhoe was 196 00:13:01,120 --> 00:13:03,079 Speaker 1: to be found in small towns in many ways. I 197 00:13:03,120 --> 00:13:06,960 Speaker 1: think that you would find that in eighteen ninety six, 198 00:13:07,400 --> 00:13:10,800 Speaker 1: when William Jennings Brian gave his speech about mankind being 199 00:13:10,840 --> 00:13:13,360 Speaker 1: crucified on the cross of gold. He was, in a 200 00:13:13,440 --> 00:13:17,160 Speaker 1: sense channeling Jefferson. Part of the reason that the bitterness 201 00:13:17,400 --> 00:13:21,800 Speaker 1: between Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton is that Hamilton represents the cities, 202 00:13:22,240 --> 00:13:26,199 Speaker 1: the moneyed class, bankers, and Jefferson represents all the people 203 00:13:26,200 --> 00:13:29,080 Speaker 1: who owe money to the cities, the banker class, etc. 204 00:13:29,679 --> 00:13:34,040 Speaker 1: So there's a deep sense in Jefferson's mind that virtue 205 00:13:34,120 --> 00:13:37,920 Speaker 1: comes from being close to the land, and that a 206 00:13:38,000 --> 00:13:42,280 Speaker 1: nation made up of farmers would by definition be freer 207 00:13:42,640 --> 00:13:46,160 Speaker 1: and more virtuous than a nation that was made up 208 00:13:46,200 --> 00:13:50,240 Speaker 1: of manufacturers, or of bankers, or of big cities. Jefferson 209 00:13:51,120 --> 00:13:56,679 Speaker 1: learned enormously fast. He went to school in English at five, 210 00:13:57,160 --> 00:14:02,520 Speaker 1: he went in Latin at nine. He constantly was learning, 211 00:14:03,120 --> 00:14:06,679 Speaker 1: and he learned basically from a tutor, a mister Douglas, 212 00:14:06,679 --> 00:14:10,640 Speaker 1: who was a clergyman from Scotland. He learned every day, 213 00:14:11,160 --> 00:14:14,800 Speaker 1: He read constantly. He built a huge library. In fact, 214 00:14:14,840 --> 00:14:18,160 Speaker 1: the base of the Library of Congress was Jefferson's library, 215 00:14:19,000 --> 00:14:21,640 Speaker 1: about four thousand volumes at the time, which was a 216 00:14:21,720 --> 00:14:25,320 Speaker 1: huge library back then. Being Jefferson, of course, he sold 217 00:14:25,360 --> 00:14:28,360 Speaker 1: it to the Congress it wasn't an act of civic 218 00:14:28,400 --> 00:14:30,640 Speaker 1: good will. He was trying to pay off some debts. 219 00:14:31,400 --> 00:14:34,480 Speaker 1: So he sold the library, which tragically was burned later, 220 00:14:34,800 --> 00:14:37,240 Speaker 1: but it was the base of having a Library of Congress, 221 00:14:37,280 --> 00:14:39,960 Speaker 1: which is today the largest library in the world. So 222 00:14:40,160 --> 00:14:43,120 Speaker 1: it's come a long way from Jefferson's first four thousand volumes. 223 00:14:43,480 --> 00:14:47,480 Speaker 1: In that era, colleges were being formed, law schools are 224 00:14:47,520 --> 00:14:52,400 Speaker 1: being formed, but he really was largely taught directly by tutors, 225 00:14:52,680 --> 00:14:57,360 Speaker 1: and then he went to George With and George With's 226 00:14:57,640 --> 00:15:01,840 Speaker 1: law office still exists at Williamsburg, and you can imagine 227 00:15:01,840 --> 00:15:05,120 Speaker 1: in the morning Jefferson getting up, having a cup of 228 00:15:05,120 --> 00:15:08,440 Speaker 1: tea or coffee, maybe a small piece of bread, going 229 00:15:08,480 --> 00:15:11,800 Speaker 1: in and literally, back then they called it reading the 230 00:15:11,880 --> 00:15:14,680 Speaker 1: law because that's what they were doing. This is before 231 00:15:15,080 --> 00:15:19,840 Speaker 1: you got law schools and tenured professors and high tuition costs. 232 00:15:20,160 --> 00:15:23,640 Speaker 1: So Jefferson is living in Williamsburg, which was the center 233 00:15:23,720 --> 00:15:27,480 Speaker 1: of politics in that period for Virginia. So when the 234 00:15:27,600 --> 00:15:30,640 Speaker 1: House of Burgesses, which was their legislature, when it was 235 00:15:30,680 --> 00:15:34,240 Speaker 1: in session, people came from all over the state. And 236 00:15:34,280 --> 00:15:37,120 Speaker 1: if you were a young person studying under George with 237 00:15:37,120 --> 00:15:40,320 Speaker 1: With knew everybody, and so you inevitably would end up 238 00:15:40,320 --> 00:15:43,680 Speaker 1: at dinner surrounded by the whole state. Over the course 239 00:15:43,680 --> 00:15:47,760 Speaker 1: of time, Jefferson came naturally to him to be engaged 240 00:15:47,760 --> 00:15:51,520 Speaker 1: in politics, and in seventeen sixty eight he's elected to 241 00:15:51,520 --> 00:15:55,080 Speaker 1: the House of Burgesses. Now he also began, and this 242 00:15:55,200 --> 00:15:59,440 Speaker 1: is very typically Jeffersonian, he began to level a mountaintop 243 00:15:59,480 --> 00:16:02,840 Speaker 1: at monitor. I mean, this is a guy who dreamed big, 244 00:16:02,880 --> 00:16:06,280 Speaker 1: thought big, built big, and was permanently in debt because 245 00:16:06,280 --> 00:16:09,200 Speaker 1: of all the things he wanted to do. And by 246 00:16:09,280 --> 00:16:13,680 Speaker 1: seventeen eighty he began building Monticella, which is one of 247 00:16:13,720 --> 00:16:17,680 Speaker 1: the most remarkable buildings of the eighteenth century, and if 248 00:16:17,720 --> 00:16:20,920 Speaker 1: you have never been there, it is really worth your 249 00:16:21,040 --> 00:16:24,920 Speaker 1: while to go and to look at what he designed, 250 00:16:25,000 --> 00:16:27,480 Speaker 1: how it was built, the degree to which it was 251 00:16:27,520 --> 00:16:32,920 Speaker 1: at that time a remarkably advanced building. And also little 252 00:16:33,080 --> 00:16:37,119 Speaker 1: side things you'll notice when you tour. For example, Jefferson 253 00:16:37,160 --> 00:16:40,120 Speaker 1: tended to sleep sitting up. People thought it was better 254 00:16:40,160 --> 00:16:42,800 Speaker 1: for you because if you lay down you could get 255 00:16:42,840 --> 00:16:45,560 Speaker 1: water in your lungs, and so it was really sort 256 00:16:45,560 --> 00:16:48,760 Speaker 1: of a norm. Now, Jefferson himself was very tall, so 257 00:16:48,800 --> 00:16:51,480 Speaker 1: you have this tall guy in a long bed sitting up. 258 00:16:51,760 --> 00:16:57,240 Speaker 1: Jefferson finally gets really lucky and inherits eleven thousand acres 259 00:16:57,280 --> 00:17:00,000 Speaker 1: of land and one hundred and thirty five slaves, which means, 260 00:17:00,120 --> 00:17:03,880 Speaker 1: of course, he quit practicing law. Unlike some people who 261 00:17:03,920 --> 00:17:06,879 Speaker 1: loved practicing law, Jefferson had earned a living. Now he 262 00:17:06,920 --> 00:17:09,000 Speaker 1: didn't have to earn a living, so he didn't. It's 263 00:17:09,119 --> 00:17:13,639 Speaker 1: interesting the Jefferson in that very same time period wrote 264 00:17:14,040 --> 00:17:17,560 Speaker 1: an article called a Summary View of the Rights of 265 00:17:17,600 --> 00:17:21,400 Speaker 1: British America. So seventeen seventy four, the same year he's inheritingland, 266 00:17:22,040 --> 00:17:25,359 Speaker 1: and he says resolved that it'd be an instruction to 267 00:17:25,440 --> 00:17:29,200 Speaker 1: the Deputies, when assembled in General Congress with the deputies 268 00:17:29,240 --> 00:17:33,000 Speaker 1: from other states of British America, to propose to the 269 00:17:33,119 --> 00:17:36,920 Speaker 1: said Congress that an humble and dutiful address be presented 270 00:17:37,080 --> 00:17:41,080 Speaker 1: to His Majesty begging leave to lay before him as 271 00:17:41,200 --> 00:17:44,720 Speaker 1: Chief Magistrate of the British Empire the United complaints of 272 00:17:44,760 --> 00:17:48,880 Speaker 1: His Majesty's subjects in America, complaints which are excited by 273 00:17:48,920 --> 00:17:53,560 Speaker 1: many unwarrantable encroachments and usurpations attempted to be made by 274 00:17:53,560 --> 00:17:56,360 Speaker 1: the legislature of one part of the empire upon those 275 00:17:56,440 --> 00:17:59,639 Speaker 1: rights which God and the laws have given equally in 276 00:17:59,680 --> 00:18:04,040 Speaker 1: an a lead all. Now notice the forerunner of the declaration, 277 00:18:04,800 --> 00:18:07,800 Speaker 1: where did the rights come from? Those rights which God 278 00:18:08,000 --> 00:18:10,960 Speaker 1: and the laws? And Jefferson would have argued, as with 279 00:18:11,119 --> 00:18:14,720 Speaker 1: most of the founding fathers, that the law was in 280 00:18:14,760 --> 00:18:19,359 Speaker 1: fact the systemic implementation of God's will and therefore that 281 00:18:19,400 --> 00:18:22,439 Speaker 1: the rule of law was central to the rule of freedom, 282 00:18:22,840 --> 00:18:25,399 Speaker 1: but that they were both based on God. This is 283 00:18:25,440 --> 00:18:29,720 Speaker 1: a radical statement, hard to recognize today how radical it is, 284 00:18:30,160 --> 00:18:33,480 Speaker 1: because it's saying that the rights don't come from the king, 285 00:18:34,280 --> 00:18:38,359 Speaker 1: the rights come from God, and it is the forerunner 286 00:18:38,440 --> 00:18:41,119 Speaker 1: of what he will write two years later. So support 287 00:18:41,160 --> 00:18:44,520 Speaker 1: and remember you have this sudden explosion of energy in 288 00:18:44,560 --> 00:18:48,920 Speaker 1: the late seventeen sixties early seventeen seventies, partially brought about 289 00:18:49,320 --> 00:18:52,040 Speaker 1: because in winning the Seven Years War, or as we 290 00:18:52,160 --> 00:18:55,440 Speaker 1: called it in the New World, the French and Indian War, 291 00:18:57,040 --> 00:19:00,520 Speaker 1: the French were eliminated as a threat and not having 292 00:19:00,560 --> 00:19:03,080 Speaker 1: to be afraid of the French. The Americans looked up 293 00:19:03,119 --> 00:19:06,240 Speaker 1: and said, well, if we don't have to be afraid 294 00:19:06,280 --> 00:19:07,800 Speaker 1: of the French, why are we paying all this money 295 00:19:07,800 --> 00:19:11,160 Speaker 1: to the British crown, and the British Crown basically said, well, 296 00:19:11,200 --> 00:19:15,200 Speaker 1: because we own you. And the Americans said, actually you don't. 297 00:19:16,200 --> 00:19:20,040 Speaker 1: Our patriotism comes from God, not from the court, and 298 00:19:20,080 --> 00:19:23,840 Speaker 1: we repudiate the idea that you owe us. There's a 299 00:19:23,880 --> 00:19:27,800 Speaker 1: great statement a man who was quite elderly by that point, 300 00:19:27,840 --> 00:19:30,679 Speaker 1: I think, in his early eighties, who had fought in 301 00:19:30,720 --> 00:19:35,040 Speaker 1: the American Revolution, and somebody came to him and said, 302 00:19:35,880 --> 00:19:38,840 Speaker 1: why did you fight? Was it the Tax Act? Was 303 00:19:38,880 --> 00:19:42,639 Speaker 1: it the Stamp Act? Was it the imposition of taxes? 304 00:19:43,080 --> 00:19:46,240 Speaker 1: Why did you end up fighting? And he said, young man, 305 00:19:46,800 --> 00:19:50,399 Speaker 1: we intended to be free, and they intended for us 306 00:19:50,520 --> 00:19:55,000 Speaker 1: not to be free, and so we fought, and now 307 00:19:55,040 --> 00:19:58,640 Speaker 1: we're free. And I think it was this sense which 308 00:19:58,680 --> 00:20:04,600 Speaker 1: you see suddenly coalesce between seventeen seventy and seventeen seventy 309 00:20:04,640 --> 00:20:07,879 Speaker 1: six in ways that are amazing. You could not predict 310 00:20:07,880 --> 00:20:11,800 Speaker 1: in seventeen seventy that six short years later they would 311 00:20:11,800 --> 00:20:17,480 Speaker 1: be passing the decreation independence. Now, Jefferson was a little 312 00:20:17,480 --> 00:20:20,840 Speaker 1: bit shy, and he understood that his great strength was 313 00:20:20,880 --> 00:20:24,000 Speaker 1: not as a debater or an arguer. He was not 314 00:20:24,119 --> 00:20:26,280 Speaker 1: a courtier, he was not a man who to go 315 00:20:26,359 --> 00:20:30,399 Speaker 1: around and win over, And in fact, John Adams said 316 00:20:30,920 --> 00:20:34,320 Speaker 1: that he was silent for his entire first year. He 317 00:20:34,320 --> 00:20:37,600 Speaker 1: was elected in seventeen seventy five to the Continental Congress, 318 00:20:37,840 --> 00:20:40,800 Speaker 1: and this is what Adams wrote in his autobiography. Mister 319 00:20:40,880 --> 00:20:44,200 Speaker 1: Jefferson had now been about a year a member of Congress, 320 00:20:44,600 --> 00:20:46,720 Speaker 1: but had attended his duty in the House, but a 321 00:20:46,800 --> 00:20:49,400 Speaker 1: very small part of the time, and when there had 322 00:20:49,440 --> 00:20:52,560 Speaker 1: never spoken in public. And during the whole time I 323 00:20:52,560 --> 00:20:55,280 Speaker 1: sat with him in Congress, I never heard him utter 324 00:20:55,320 --> 00:20:58,320 Speaker 1: three sentences together. The most of a speech he ever 325 00:20:58,359 --> 00:21:01,360 Speaker 1: made in my hearing was a great insult on religion 326 00:21:01,720 --> 00:21:06,160 Speaker 1: in one or two sentences, for which I immediately gave him 327 00:21:06,280 --> 00:21:10,000 Speaker 1: the reprehension which he richly merited. So you have the 328 00:21:10,080 --> 00:21:15,679 Speaker 1: sense of Jefferson being taciturn quiet, watching, learning, thinking. And 329 00:21:15,720 --> 00:21:18,880 Speaker 1: then in seventeen seventy six he is asked to help 330 00:21:18,920 --> 00:21:23,560 Speaker 1: write the Declaration of Independence, and there is no question that 331 00:21:23,720 --> 00:21:28,680 Speaker 1: he developed the core language of that declaration. He's also 332 00:21:28,680 --> 00:21:32,040 Speaker 1: elected in seventeen seventy six to the Virginia House of Delegates, 333 00:21:32,280 --> 00:21:36,200 Speaker 1: where he's appointed to revise Virginia law. Remember all thirteen 334 00:21:36,240 --> 00:21:39,080 Speaker 1: of the colonies are going through the same process. He 335 00:21:39,080 --> 00:21:42,960 Speaker 1: helped create the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, and this 336 00:21:43,119 --> 00:21:48,000 Speaker 1: is extraordinarily important because it moves from just a political 337 00:21:48,080 --> 00:21:52,200 Speaker 1: argument to a profound argument about liberty and a profound 338 00:21:52,320 --> 00:21:56,480 Speaker 1: argument about the very nature of your relationship to the 339 00:21:56,560 --> 00:22:00,280 Speaker 1: King and your relationship to God. The General Assembly in 340 00:22:00,600 --> 00:22:05,399 Speaker 1: Virginia appointed five men to a committee of revisers to 341 00:22:05,480 --> 00:22:08,320 Speaker 1: review the law and to redraft them for the independent state. 342 00:22:09,280 --> 00:22:12,440 Speaker 1: Three of the five men were primarily responsible. They included 343 00:22:12,480 --> 00:22:17,480 Speaker 1: Thomas Jefferson, George W And Edmund Pendleton. Jefferson drafted the 344 00:22:17,520 --> 00:22:20,640 Speaker 1: majority of the bills, so while he was quiet, he 345 00:22:20,720 --> 00:22:23,680 Speaker 1: was busy, But his strength was in the written word, 346 00:22:23,840 --> 00:22:26,200 Speaker 1: where he had time to think, and where he could 347 00:22:26,240 --> 00:22:29,640 Speaker 1: write with extraordinary elegance in a way that very few 348 00:22:29,680 --> 00:22:33,679 Speaker 1: people have been able to equal. In seventeen seventy nine, 349 00:22:34,119 --> 00:22:37,199 Speaker 1: when Jefferson had been elected Governor of Virginia, the one 350 00:22:37,280 --> 00:22:40,400 Speaker 1: hundred and twenty six bills that the committee he served 351 00:22:40,440 --> 00:22:43,600 Speaker 1: and had drafted were presented to the General Assembly. Most 352 00:22:43,600 --> 00:22:46,600 Speaker 1: of them were not adopted or even seriously considered. However, 353 00:22:47,600 --> 00:22:51,840 Speaker 1: Bill eighty two, the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, which 354 00:22:51,880 --> 00:22:54,879 Speaker 1: called for a separation of church and state, was considered 355 00:22:55,160 --> 00:22:58,919 Speaker 1: and finally adopted in seventeen eighty six. Noticed by the 356 00:22:58,920 --> 00:23:03,240 Speaker 1: way that sometimes these wave effects take time. You have 357 00:23:03,320 --> 00:23:06,040 Speaker 1: to think of them as a video rather than a snapshot. 358 00:23:06,240 --> 00:23:10,600 Speaker 1: And what isn't possible in frame one may be overwhelmingly 359 00:23:10,640 --> 00:23:14,360 Speaker 1: possible by frame thirty. And that's what's happening in this period. 360 00:23:14,800 --> 00:23:18,400 Speaker 1: This famous bill, the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, adopted 361 00:23:18,400 --> 00:23:21,879 Speaker 1: in seventeen eighty six, although it had been drafted initially 362 00:23:22,320 --> 00:23:25,960 Speaker 1: a decade earlier. It says, we, the General Assembly of Virginia, 363 00:23:26,040 --> 00:23:29,080 Speaker 1: do an act that no man shall be compelled to 364 00:23:29,240 --> 00:23:33,960 Speaker 1: frequent or support any religious worship place or ministry whatsoever, 365 00:23:34,440 --> 00:23:38,720 Speaker 1: nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burdened but in 366 00:23:38,760 --> 00:23:42,520 Speaker 1: his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account 367 00:23:42,560 --> 00:23:45,719 Speaker 1: of his religious opinions or belief. But that all men 368 00:23:45,880 --> 00:23:48,760 Speaker 1: shall be free to profess, and by argument, to maintain 369 00:23:49,200 --> 00:23:52,080 Speaker 1: their opinions and matters of religion, And that the same 370 00:23:52,160 --> 00:23:55,439 Speaker 1: shall of no wives diminish and large or affect their 371 00:23:55,440 --> 00:23:59,320 Speaker 1: civil capacities. Now think about that, you and I live 372 00:23:59,359 --> 00:24:01,920 Speaker 1: in a time when the there are many countries where 373 00:24:02,000 --> 00:24:04,280 Speaker 1: you can be put to death for believing the wrong things. 374 00:24:04,760 --> 00:24:06,320 Speaker 1: We live in a time when there are many countries 375 00:24:06,359 --> 00:24:08,280 Speaker 1: when you can be put in jail for believing the 376 00:24:08,280 --> 00:24:11,240 Speaker 1: wrong things. And yet here they are in the late 377 00:24:11,280 --> 00:24:16,240 Speaker 1: eighteenth century, laying out a frame of reference that liberates 378 00:24:16,280 --> 00:24:20,280 Speaker 1: people from government and says, your religious beliefs are up 379 00:24:20,280 --> 00:24:23,080 Speaker 1: to you, and you will not be punished, You will 380 00:24:23,080 --> 00:24:25,399 Speaker 1: not be fine, you will not be sent to jail, 381 00:24:25,880 --> 00:24:28,880 Speaker 1: because you are protected in your right to approach God 382 00:24:28,920 --> 00:24:31,720 Speaker 1: as you see fit. When Jefferson learned that the bill 383 00:24:31,800 --> 00:24:34,879 Speaker 1: had passed finally after all those years, he had it 384 00:24:34,920 --> 00:24:39,080 Speaker 1: translated into French and Italian and distributed as widely as possible, 385 00:24:39,600 --> 00:24:42,439 Speaker 1: because he thought that religious liberty was one of his 386 00:24:42,560 --> 00:24:47,199 Speaker 1: greatest achievements. James Madison, his close friend, later wrote that 387 00:24:47,240 --> 00:24:50,520 Speaker 1: the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom quote is a true 388 00:24:50,600 --> 00:24:54,879 Speaker 1: standard of religious liberty. Its principle the great barrier against 389 00:24:55,000 --> 00:24:58,159 Speaker 1: usurpations on the rights of conscience as long as it 390 00:24:58,200 --> 00:25:02,119 Speaker 1: is respected, and no longer these will be safe. And 391 00:25:02,160 --> 00:25:04,800 Speaker 1: as we go through some of our current fights, and 392 00:25:04,840 --> 00:25:08,159 Speaker 1: we watched the government encroach upon religious liberty, and we 393 00:25:08,280 --> 00:25:12,040 Speaker 1: watch the woke left trying to impose their radical values 394 00:25:12,480 --> 00:25:17,040 Speaker 1: on people of religion. You can understand how truly central 395 00:25:17,080 --> 00:25:52,399 Speaker 1: Jefferson was in helping develop a very, very different approach. Now, 396 00:25:52,600 --> 00:25:56,480 Speaker 1: Jefferson was involved in much more than just religious liberty. 397 00:25:57,080 --> 00:25:59,880 Speaker 1: He actually believed that's something which I wish we could 398 00:26:00,200 --> 00:26:03,160 Speaker 1: get back into the current political environment. He actually believed 399 00:26:03,200 --> 00:26:06,919 Speaker 1: that knowledge mattered, and he actually believed that education mattered. 400 00:26:07,480 --> 00:26:09,960 Speaker 1: In seventeen seventy eight, he drafted a bill in education 401 00:26:10,600 --> 00:26:14,600 Speaker 1: entitled quote a Bill for more General Diffusion of Knowledge. Now, 402 00:26:14,760 --> 00:26:19,800 Speaker 1: this is one of Jefferson's great passions. Here's what Jefferson 403 00:26:19,880 --> 00:26:24,240 Speaker 1: himself wrote. Whereas it appears that, however, certain forms of 404 00:26:24,280 --> 00:26:27,800 Speaker 1: government are better calculated than others to protect individuals in 405 00:26:27,840 --> 00:26:31,199 Speaker 1: the free exercise of their natural rights, and are at 406 00:26:31,240 --> 00:26:36,280 Speaker 1: the same time themselves better guarded against degeneracy. Yet experience 407 00:26:36,320 --> 00:26:40,240 Speaker 1: has shown that even under the best forms, those entrusted 408 00:26:40,280 --> 00:26:43,520 Speaker 1: with power have, in time and by slow operations, perverted 409 00:26:43,560 --> 00:26:46,680 Speaker 1: it into tyranny. Let me repeat this because it sort 410 00:26:46,720 --> 00:26:49,520 Speaker 1: of fits the world recurrent to living in. Even under 411 00:26:49,560 --> 00:26:53,720 Speaker 1: the best forms, those entrusted with power have, in time 412 00:26:54,280 --> 00:26:59,120 Speaker 1: and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny. Jefferson goes 413 00:26:59,119 --> 00:27:01,280 Speaker 1: on to say, and it is believed that the most 414 00:27:01,280 --> 00:27:04,879 Speaker 1: effectual means of preventing this would be to eliminate, as 415 00:27:04,880 --> 00:27:07,760 Speaker 1: far as practical, the minds of the people at large, 416 00:27:08,119 --> 00:27:11,400 Speaker 1: and more especially, to give them knowledge of those facts 417 00:27:11,680 --> 00:27:15,600 Speaker 1: which history exhibiteth that possess thereby of the experience of 418 00:27:15,640 --> 00:27:18,600 Speaker 1: other ages and countries, they may be enabled to know 419 00:27:18,680 --> 00:27:21,920 Speaker 1: ambition under all its shapes, and prompt to exert their 420 00:27:22,000 --> 00:27:25,560 Speaker 1: natural powers to defeat its purposes. And whereas it is 421 00:27:25,640 --> 00:27:29,120 Speaker 1: generally true that people will be happiest whose laws are 422 00:27:29,119 --> 00:27:31,960 Speaker 1: best and are best administered, and that laws will be 423 00:27:32,040 --> 00:27:37,159 Speaker 1: wisely formed and honestly administered, in proportion as those who 424 00:27:37,280 --> 00:27:40,280 Speaker 1: form and administer them are wise and honest. Whence it 425 00:27:40,359 --> 00:27:44,480 Speaker 1: becomes expedient for promoting the public happiness that those person 426 00:27:44,880 --> 00:27:48,119 Speaker 1: whom nature hath endowed with genius and virtue should be 427 00:27:48,119 --> 00:27:51,960 Speaker 1: rendered by liberal education, worthy to receive and able to 428 00:27:52,000 --> 00:27:55,240 Speaker 1: guard the sacred deposit of the rights and liberties of 429 00:27:55,240 --> 00:27:57,800 Speaker 1: their fellow citizens, and that they should be called to 430 00:27:57,840 --> 00:28:02,320 Speaker 1: that charge without regard to wealth, birth, or other accidental 431 00:28:02,400 --> 00:28:05,880 Speaker 1: condition or circumstance, but the indigence of the greater number, 432 00:28:05,920 --> 00:28:09,399 Speaker 1: disabling them from self educating at their own expense, those 433 00:28:09,440 --> 00:28:12,520 Speaker 1: of their children, whom nature hath fitly formed and disposed 434 00:28:12,560 --> 00:28:15,399 Speaker 1: to become useful instruments for the public. It is better 435 00:28:15,440 --> 00:28:18,720 Speaker 1: that such should be sought for and educated at the 436 00:28:18,760 --> 00:28:21,800 Speaker 1: common expense of all, than that the happiness of all 437 00:28:21,960 --> 00:28:25,439 Speaker 1: should be confided to the weak or the wicked. Now, 438 00:28:26,160 --> 00:28:28,800 Speaker 1: if you go back and reread that, and you realize 439 00:28:28,840 --> 00:28:33,280 Speaker 1: that our current situation schools that don't teach, teachers that 440 00:28:33,320 --> 00:28:38,240 Speaker 1: don't educate, total avoidance of history, dumbing down of mathematics, 441 00:28:38,760 --> 00:28:41,160 Speaker 1: giving people passing grades so they feel good even if 442 00:28:41,160 --> 00:28:45,320 Speaker 1: they know nothing, you can sense that we have arrived 443 00:28:45,360 --> 00:28:49,920 Speaker 1: at a counter Jeffersonian moment when everything Jefferson feared in 444 00:28:50,000 --> 00:28:53,640 Speaker 1: terms of ignorant people giving up their freedoms are far 445 00:28:53,720 --> 00:28:56,480 Speaker 1: too close to giving a reality. And it's why Jefferson 446 00:28:56,520 --> 00:29:00,920 Speaker 1: is always worth revisiting and thinking about himself. By the way, 447 00:29:01,120 --> 00:29:03,400 Speaker 1: guests to be elected governor and is a terrible governor. 448 00:29:03,880 --> 00:29:06,960 Speaker 1: He doesn't like power, although he's brilliant at using it 449 00:29:07,000 --> 00:29:09,240 Speaker 1: when he has to, and when he's president, he's brilliant 450 00:29:09,760 --> 00:29:13,160 Speaker 1: at using power. But in the period of seventeen seventy 451 00:29:13,240 --> 00:29:16,360 Speaker 1: nine to seventeen eighty one, the British Army was rampaging 452 00:29:16,400 --> 00:29:19,320 Speaker 1: through Virginia. There was an effort to crush the rebellion, 453 00:29:19,840 --> 00:29:24,520 Speaker 1: and Jefferson is really put in an awkward position. He's 454 00:29:24,560 --> 00:29:27,920 Speaker 1: not an effective wartime governor. It's not his strength and 455 00:29:28,000 --> 00:29:31,280 Speaker 1: as a result, I think he would say that his 456 00:29:31,320 --> 00:29:35,440 Speaker 1: governorship was one of the least impressive of his activities. However, 457 00:29:36,000 --> 00:29:39,080 Speaker 1: being Jefferson, he's done to stop while he's governor. He 458 00:29:39,160 --> 00:29:42,560 Speaker 1: also writes his only book notes on the State of Virginia. 459 00:29:42,760 --> 00:29:45,000 Speaker 1: He didn't intend to write or publish it, and he 460 00:29:45,080 --> 00:29:48,240 Speaker 1: actually worried that their publication would do more harm or good. 461 00:29:48,840 --> 00:29:52,840 Speaker 1: But he says things he really deeply believes in. And 462 00:29:52,840 --> 00:29:55,640 Speaker 1: again he goes back to freedom of religion. In Query 463 00:29:55,800 --> 00:29:59,880 Speaker 1: seventeen Religion, Jefferson defended separation of church and states, saying 464 00:30:00,240 --> 00:30:02,920 Speaker 1: it does me no injury for my neighbor to say 465 00:30:02,960 --> 00:30:05,680 Speaker 1: there are twenty guides or no guid It neither picks 466 00:30:05,720 --> 00:30:09,920 Speaker 1: my pocket nor breaks my leg. Again, he's arguing that 467 00:30:10,400 --> 00:30:13,520 Speaker 1: you have freedom and that you shouldn't be taxed to 468 00:30:13,600 --> 00:30:16,120 Speaker 1: pay for their beliefs, but that they should therefore be 469 00:30:16,160 --> 00:30:19,640 Speaker 1: allowed to have their beliefs without the government interfering. He 470 00:30:19,720 --> 00:30:22,440 Speaker 1: actually took the manuscript to his book to Paris, and 471 00:30:22,520 --> 00:30:26,320 Speaker 1: he contracted a printer who printed two hundred copies. Jefferson's 472 00:30:26,360 --> 00:30:29,320 Speaker 1: Little Book on Notes in State of Virginia was sufficiently 473 00:30:29,360 --> 00:30:33,600 Speaker 1: controversial that James Madison and George with put copies in 474 00:30:33,680 --> 00:30:37,400 Speaker 1: the college library rather than giving them to students, saying 475 00:30:37,840 --> 00:30:41,120 Speaker 1: such an indiscriminate gift might offend some narrow minded parents. 476 00:30:42,000 --> 00:30:45,080 Speaker 1: In Paris, Jefferson gave a few copies to close friends 477 00:30:45,080 --> 00:30:48,920 Speaker 1: and confidential persons, writing in each copy a restraint against 478 00:30:49,000 --> 00:30:52,280 Speaker 1: publishing it. However, a copy fell into the hands of 479 00:30:52,320 --> 00:30:56,400 Speaker 1: a bookseller who, accorded to Jefferson, employed a hiring translator 480 00:30:56,640 --> 00:30:59,840 Speaker 1: and was about publishing it in the most injurious form possible. 481 00:31:00,560 --> 00:31:03,440 Speaker 1: To keep that from happening, Jefferson entered into agreement for 482 00:31:03,480 --> 00:31:09,560 Speaker 1: the translation into French with the highly respected writer Abbe Morelais. Unfortunately, 483 00:31:09,600 --> 00:31:11,760 Speaker 1: Jefferson and Morlay had different ideas as to what the 484 00:31:11,760 --> 00:31:15,120 Speaker 1: translation meant. Jefferson wanted the translation of his strict word 485 00:31:15,160 --> 00:31:18,640 Speaker 1: for word translation of his text. Morlay, however, believed that 486 00:31:18,680 --> 00:31:21,520 Speaker 1: the translated's job was to be an active collaborator and 487 00:31:21,640 --> 00:31:26,080 Speaker 1: ended up changing the work. Jefferson was very displeased. Jefferson 488 00:31:26,120 --> 00:31:29,080 Speaker 1: then turned to John Stockdale, an English publisher, agreed to 489 00:31:29,120 --> 00:31:31,520 Speaker 1: print the work and told Jefferson, I know there is 490 00:31:31,560 --> 00:31:34,760 Speaker 1: some bitter pills relative to our country. After all, this 491 00:31:34,920 --> 00:31:37,840 Speaker 1: was shortly after we had defeated the British and earned 492 00:31:37,840 --> 00:31:42,840 Speaker 1: our independence. On August fourteenth, seventeen eighty seven, Jefferson wrote 493 00:31:42,840 --> 00:31:45,920 Speaker 1: to Stockdale that he'd received the initial copies. In all 494 00:31:45,960 --> 00:31:49,680 Speaker 1: this period, Jefferson remains active. He is elected delegate to 495 00:31:49,720 --> 00:31:53,120 Speaker 1: Congress in seventeen eighty three. Between seventeen eighty four and 496 00:31:53,160 --> 00:31:57,000 Speaker 1: seventeenighty ninety serves in France as the Commissioner and US Minister. 497 00:31:57,720 --> 00:31:59,960 Speaker 1: In seventeen eighty sevent he wrote to a good friend, 498 00:32:00,120 --> 00:32:03,560 Speaker 1: Francis Hopkinson, his desire for this position to be silent 499 00:32:03,600 --> 00:32:05,920 Speaker 1: and to be out of the limelight. And this gives 500 00:32:05,920 --> 00:32:10,040 Speaker 1: you a flavor of Jefferson. This is so oddly contradictory, 501 00:32:10,520 --> 00:32:13,160 Speaker 1: he says. My great wish is to go on in 502 00:32:13,200 --> 00:32:16,400 Speaker 1: a strict but silent performance of my duty, to avoid 503 00:32:16,400 --> 00:32:19,840 Speaker 1: attracting notice, and to keep my name out of newspapers, 504 00:32:20,240 --> 00:32:22,600 Speaker 1: because I find the pain of a little censure, even 505 00:32:22,600 --> 00:32:25,880 Speaker 1: when it is unfounded, is more acute than the pleasure 506 00:32:25,920 --> 00:32:29,640 Speaker 1: of much praise. Now, so, hey, you have this guy who, 507 00:32:29,960 --> 00:32:32,880 Speaker 1: on the one hand, really is secretive and really doesn't 508 00:32:32,880 --> 00:32:35,480 Speaker 1: want to be noticed. On the other hand, he is 509 00:32:35,520 --> 00:32:38,040 Speaker 1: active in politics. He's governor of the state. He's ultimately 510 00:32:38,040 --> 00:32:40,920 Speaker 1: going to be Secretary of State and vice president then 511 00:32:40,960 --> 00:32:44,720 Speaker 1: president United States, and that sort of captures Jefferson. He 512 00:32:44,880 --> 00:32:50,720 Speaker 1: is a very complicated person, of enormous willpower, great patience 513 00:32:50,760 --> 00:32:55,120 Speaker 1: and discipline, enormous capacity for work, and he's just really 514 00:32:55,320 --> 00:32:59,000 Speaker 1: really smart. You could probably argue that he and Benjamin 515 00:32:59,080 --> 00:33:03,440 Speaker 1: Franklin with the two smartest of the founding fathers. They 516 00:33:03,440 --> 00:33:06,520 Speaker 1: were both able to learn almost everything, and they both 517 00:33:06,560 --> 00:33:10,160 Speaker 1: made major contributions to knowledge. To give an example of 518 00:33:10,240 --> 00:33:15,200 Speaker 1: Jefferson's genuinely diverse interests, in seventeen ninety one he and 519 00:33:15,240 --> 00:33:18,360 Speaker 1: his friend James Madison made a botanical tour of the 520 00:33:18,400 --> 00:33:22,040 Speaker 1: Northern Lakes and his most lengthy journal entries was on 521 00:33:22,080 --> 00:33:25,880 Speaker 1: the fly but final report was never presented anybody, but 522 00:33:26,240 --> 00:33:28,479 Speaker 1: it still exists. So again, here's the guy who has 523 00:33:28,480 --> 00:33:31,960 Speaker 1: written the decoration Independence served in the Congress, served as governor, 524 00:33:32,240 --> 00:33:36,280 Speaker 1: served as a bessitor, and he's off writing a discourse 525 00:33:36,720 --> 00:33:45,720 Speaker 1: on the nature of the fly. Jefferson also served in 526 00:33:45,800 --> 00:33:50,000 Speaker 1: a committee referred in the Society's minutes of June sixteenth, 527 00:33:50,040 --> 00:33:54,360 Speaker 1: seventeen ninety seven as the Bone Committee, whose priority was 528 00:33:54,400 --> 00:33:58,000 Speaker 1: to procure one or more entire skeletons of the mammoth. 529 00:33:58,960 --> 00:34:02,480 Speaker 1: In eighteen oh seven, when Jefferson financed the dig conducted 530 00:34:02,480 --> 00:34:05,480 Speaker 1: by William Clark at Big Bone Lick, Kentucky, of the 531 00:34:05,520 --> 00:34:09,560 Speaker 1: over three hundred bones that Clark sent back, Jefferson offered 532 00:34:09,560 --> 00:34:13,280 Speaker 1: the Society any of the fossils that were not already 533 00:34:13,320 --> 00:34:17,680 Speaker 1: in their collection. On March third, seventeen ninety seven, Jefferson 534 00:34:17,719 --> 00:34:22,040 Speaker 1: became president of the American Philosophical Society, the day before 535 00:34:22,200 --> 00:34:25,720 Speaker 1: he became Vice President of the United States. He served 536 00:34:25,760 --> 00:34:29,600 Speaker 1: as president of the Philosophical Society for the next eighteen years. 537 00:34:30,320 --> 00:34:33,799 Speaker 1: He offered three letters of resignation when the government moved 538 00:34:33,800 --> 00:34:36,880 Speaker 1: to Washington, d c. When he retired to Monticello, but 539 00:34:37,640 --> 00:34:42,080 Speaker 1: the Society refused to allow his resignation. They finally accepted 540 00:34:42,080 --> 00:34:48,120 Speaker 1: his resignation on January twentieth, eighteen fifteen, and so you 541 00:34:48,160 --> 00:34:51,160 Speaker 1: can see that Jefferson's a complex person with an enormous 542 00:34:51,239 --> 00:34:54,960 Speaker 1: range of interests. And in the next part I want 543 00:34:55,000 --> 00:34:59,520 Speaker 1: to talk about Jefferson as president and the extraordinary complex 544 00:34:59,640 --> 00:35:02,759 Speaker 1: nature of his presidency and of what he did after that. 545 00:35:02,920 --> 00:35:06,239 Speaker 1: So I hope you'll listen also to Jefferson as an 546 00:35:06,280 --> 00:35:19,719 Speaker 1: American immortal in Part two on Newt's World. On the 547 00:35:19,760 --> 00:35:23,600 Speaker 1: one hand, Jefferson was a very idealistic person. On the 548 00:35:23,600 --> 00:35:29,799 Speaker 1: other hand, he's a very sophisticated, subtle, and often duplicitous politician, 549 00:35:30,560 --> 00:35:34,279 Speaker 1: and both are somehow captured in the same person. He's 550 00:35:34,320 --> 00:35:36,359 Speaker 1: a man of great principles, but on the other hand, 551 00:35:36,400 --> 00:35:39,759 Speaker 1: as you'll see as president, he sometimes broke those principles 552 00:35:39,760 --> 00:35:45,000 Speaker 1: in amazing ways. The term Jeffersonian Democrat for a very 553 00:35:45,080 --> 00:35:48,799 Speaker 1: long time meant somebody who was for limited government, was 554 00:35:48,840 --> 00:35:54,319 Speaker 1: for lower expenses, and was essentially very very suspicious of 555 00:35:54,360 --> 00:35:57,760 Speaker 1: power in Washington. But at the same time, as you'll see, 556 00:35:57,960 --> 00:36:01,160 Speaker 1: this is a guy who bought half a con He's 557 00:36:01,200 --> 00:36:03,799 Speaker 1: a person who sent the Marines in the Navy to 558 00:36:03,960 --> 00:36:07,319 Speaker 1: the shores of Tripoli without telling Congress, and so on 559 00:36:07,360 --> 00:36:10,080 Speaker 1: the one hand, he was sort of for limited government 560 00:36:10,360 --> 00:36:13,160 Speaker 1: unless he wasn't for limited government. And it's this kind 561 00:36:13,200 --> 00:36:17,800 Speaker 1: of complexity that makes Jefferson so fascinating. He was also 562 00:36:17,880 --> 00:36:21,239 Speaker 1: not only extraordinarily smart, one of the three or four 563 00:36:21,320 --> 00:36:24,759 Speaker 1: smartest of our presidents, but he was, in addition a 564 00:36:24,840 --> 00:36:31,399 Speaker 1: person of extraordinarily wide eclectic interests. Jefferson read widely, taught 565 00:36:31,480 --> 00:36:35,439 Speaker 1: himself Spanish while on a ship going to Europe by 566 00:36:35,440 --> 00:36:39,560 Speaker 1: reading Don Quixote, re studied fossils, collected them. If you 567 00:36:39,640 --> 00:36:42,600 Speaker 1: go to Monticello, his home, you'll see some of the 568 00:36:42,640 --> 00:36:45,840 Speaker 1: fossils that were collected. While he was president, he sponsored 569 00:36:45,840 --> 00:36:49,480 Speaker 1: an expedition which was almost the equivalent of going to Mars, 570 00:36:49,960 --> 00:36:53,799 Speaker 1: and Lewis and Clark crossed the continent to explore the 571 00:36:53,880 --> 00:36:57,759 Speaker 1: territory that Jefferson had just bought from France. Napoleon very 572 00:36:57,760 --> 00:37:00,720 Speaker 1: cleverly sold it because he realized what the Royal Navy 573 00:37:01,120 --> 00:37:03,879 Speaker 1: controlling the ocean, that the French would not be able 574 00:37:03,880 --> 00:37:06,040 Speaker 1: in the long run to keep the western part of 575 00:37:06,080 --> 00:37:09,640 Speaker 1: the United States. So he sold the entire Mississippi Valley 576 00:37:09,680 --> 00:37:14,640 Speaker 1: to Jefferson, and Mississippi through a tributary the Missouri really 577 00:37:14,640 --> 00:37:18,160 Speaker 1: goes an amazing distance West, and so they ended up 578 00:37:18,280 --> 00:37:20,279 Speaker 1: more than doubling the size the United States in this 579 00:37:20,360 --> 00:37:23,480 Speaker 1: one purchase. All of these are things by a president 580 00:37:23,560 --> 00:37:27,919 Speaker 1: who claimed to be for extraordinarily limited government. In order 581 00:37:27,960 --> 00:37:32,040 Speaker 1: to win, he actually had to invent a political party. 582 00:37:32,239 --> 00:37:36,800 Speaker 1: So Jefferson had risen and ultimately had become the Secretary 583 00:37:36,840 --> 00:37:39,719 Speaker 1: of State because he had served in France, he had 584 00:37:39,719 --> 00:37:42,799 Speaker 1: a pretty good bit of diplomatic experience, and I think 585 00:37:43,000 --> 00:37:46,759 Speaker 1: Washington thought that he was the right person to try 586 00:37:46,800 --> 00:37:50,640 Speaker 1: to represent the United States in foreign policy. He very 587 00:37:50,680 --> 00:37:55,840 Speaker 1: difficulty coexisted, if that's the right term, with Alexander Hamilton. 588 00:37:56,400 --> 00:38:01,920 Speaker 1: Hamilton represented the commercial interests, had worked out how to 589 00:38:01,920 --> 00:38:04,640 Speaker 1: borrow a huge amount of money from the Dutch, and 590 00:38:04,880 --> 00:38:08,359 Speaker 1: was able to stabilize the American debt, was able to 591 00:38:08,640 --> 00:38:12,800 Speaker 1: create in the first Report on Manufactures, probably the best 592 00:38:12,840 --> 00:38:16,399 Speaker 1: single statement ever written about why there are times when 593 00:38:16,440 --> 00:38:20,000 Speaker 1: a country with a brand new small industry should protect 594 00:38:20,040 --> 00:38:24,279 Speaker 1: itself as a remarkable statement in favor of tariffs, and 595 00:38:24,320 --> 00:38:27,520 Speaker 1: Hamilton himself was clearly brilliant. I would say that if 596 00:38:27,520 --> 00:38:30,560 Speaker 1: you look at Hamilton, Franklin, and Jefferson, you're looking at 597 00:38:30,560 --> 00:38:33,200 Speaker 1: three of the brightest people ever to be involved in 598 00:38:33,239 --> 00:38:36,640 Speaker 1: American government. But Hamilton's interest in his vision of the 599 00:38:36,680 --> 00:38:42,280 Speaker 1: world was remarkably different from Jefferson. Jefferson really represented a rural, 600 00:38:42,360 --> 00:38:45,600 Speaker 1: agrarian world. He would have set a world of small farmers, 601 00:38:45,600 --> 00:38:48,440 Speaker 1: although the truth was that he owned slaves and basically 602 00:38:48,480 --> 00:38:54,200 Speaker 1: had a plantation. But Jefferson was capable of envisioning this 603 00:38:54,239 --> 00:38:58,560 Speaker 1: world of limited government and representing the interests of rural America, 604 00:38:59,120 --> 00:39:01,440 Speaker 1: which at that time was the dominant part of America, 605 00:39:01,960 --> 00:39:04,640 Speaker 1: and Virginia at that time was the biggest state in 606 00:39:04,680 --> 00:39:08,600 Speaker 1: the country. On the other hand, Hamilton had this vision 607 00:39:08,680 --> 00:39:13,160 Speaker 1: of a manufacturing and commercial future, of an America which 608 00:39:13,200 --> 00:39:16,440 Speaker 1: would grow strong enough to defend itself, in an America 609 00:39:16,520 --> 00:39:19,839 Speaker 1: which would find its ultimate source of wealth and big 610 00:39:19,920 --> 00:39:25,960 Speaker 1: cities and in factories, things which Jefferson found abhorrent. Jefferson 611 00:39:26,000 --> 00:39:29,560 Speaker 1: wanted a much more rural lifestyle, would claim to want 612 00:39:29,560 --> 00:39:33,720 Speaker 1: a more galitarian world, although the truth of Jefferson himself 613 00:39:34,120 --> 00:39:38,799 Speaker 1: was clearly aristocratic and not particularly a galitarian. In order 614 00:39:38,880 --> 00:39:44,920 Speaker 1: to seize power, Jefferson and his sidekick James Madison, also 615 00:39:45,000 --> 00:39:48,440 Speaker 1: of Virginia and the author of the Bill of Rights, 616 00:39:48,440 --> 00:39:52,319 Speaker 1: invented the Democratic Party. As John F. Kennedy used to 617 00:39:52,360 --> 00:39:56,560 Speaker 1: say he was out gathering butterflies, because the excuse that 618 00:39:56,960 --> 00:40:00,120 Speaker 1: Jefferson and Madison used for going to New York to 619 00:40:00,160 --> 00:40:03,120 Speaker 1: meet with Aaron Burr was that they were collecting butterflies. 620 00:40:03,160 --> 00:40:05,840 Speaker 1: In fact, what they were doing was plotting with Burr 621 00:40:06,239 --> 00:40:09,520 Speaker 1: to create a party in order to win an election. 622 00:40:10,320 --> 00:40:15,040 Speaker 1: Jefferson had won the vice presidency in seventeen ninety six, 623 00:40:15,560 --> 00:40:20,800 Speaker 1: with John Adams, the former vice president under Washington, becoming president. 624 00:40:21,520 --> 00:40:25,600 Speaker 1: But Adams represented a New England and New York vision 625 00:40:25,680 --> 00:40:29,160 Speaker 1: of the world and was really pretty close to an 626 00:40:29,200 --> 00:40:33,960 Speaker 1: aristocratic rather than the egalitarian sense of how America should develop. 627 00:40:34,680 --> 00:40:40,200 Speaker 1: Jefferson represented an upsurge of populism and was a brilliant 628 00:40:40,440 --> 00:40:45,640 Speaker 1: political plotter maintained through correspondence and network across the whole country. 629 00:40:46,280 --> 00:40:50,840 Speaker 1: Aroused people to an effect. Petition against what Adams wanted 630 00:40:50,840 --> 00:40:54,359 Speaker 1: to do got Adams so angry that he passed the 631 00:40:54,360 --> 00:40:58,120 Speaker 1: Eleen and Sedition Acts, which would have punished people for 632 00:40:58,280 --> 00:41:02,480 Speaker 1: criticizing the government, and those were then thrown out as unconstitutional. 633 00:41:02,920 --> 00:41:07,640 Speaker 1: They were wildly unpopular. Jefferson came along and really was 634 00:41:07,680 --> 00:41:10,359 Speaker 1: an open rebellion. It was the last time that they 635 00:41:10,400 --> 00:41:13,840 Speaker 1: would have a president and vice president of opposite parties. 636 00:41:14,080 --> 00:41:18,480 Speaker 1: It was a totally unwieldy project, and Adams unfortunately totally 637 00:41:18,560 --> 00:41:23,800 Speaker 1: changed American history because Adams and his sidekick Alexander Hamilton, 638 00:41:24,040 --> 00:41:28,360 Speaker 1: who represented the New York Federalists, hated each other and 639 00:41:28,440 --> 00:41:31,600 Speaker 1: the result was their party was totally split. Well faced 640 00:41:31,600 --> 00:41:36,160 Speaker 1: with a split and decaying Federalist Party really representing New 641 00:41:36,280 --> 00:41:40,120 Speaker 1: York and North Jefferson was able to mobilize rural America, 642 00:41:40,600 --> 00:41:43,640 Speaker 1: and as I said earlier, he had the largest state 643 00:41:43,680 --> 00:41:49,000 Speaker 1: in Virginia, and Jefferson won a sweeping election in eighteen 644 00:41:49,080 --> 00:41:53,280 Speaker 1: hundred and it's really the first peaceful transfer of power 645 00:41:53,920 --> 00:41:58,359 Speaker 1: between two clearly opposed sides, and it created a sense 646 00:41:58,400 --> 00:42:02,919 Speaker 1: of stability for the Republic. Jefferson would then govern, as 647 00:42:03,000 --> 00:42:07,520 Speaker 1: seen by modern liberals, in an idealistic way, although since 648 00:42:07,600 --> 00:42:10,880 Speaker 1: Jefferson owned slaves, he's now out of fashion with the 649 00:42:10,960 --> 00:42:13,400 Speaker 1: modern left, but for a very long time he was 650 00:42:13,480 --> 00:42:15,920 Speaker 1: kind of their model. But in fact what he was 651 00:42:16,000 --> 00:42:20,560 Speaker 1: doing was very methodically destroying the Federalist Party, and by 652 00:42:20,840 --> 00:42:24,680 Speaker 1: about eighteen twelve, the Federalists disappear and for a brief 653 00:42:24,680 --> 00:42:29,280 Speaker 1: period of time what were called the Democratic Republican Party 654 00:42:29,840 --> 00:42:32,400 Speaker 1: was the only major political force in the United States 655 00:42:32,800 --> 00:42:37,120 Speaker 1: until it broke down with the populist insurgency of Andrew Jackson, 656 00:42:37,520 --> 00:42:40,640 Speaker 1: who was a Democrat, and that led to the formation 657 00:42:40,760 --> 00:42:43,520 Speaker 1: of the Whigs as the opposing party. But that doesn't 658 00:42:43,560 --> 00:42:46,480 Speaker 1: occur until the late eighteen twenties, so there's about a 659 00:42:46,480 --> 00:42:50,440 Speaker 1: twenty year period where the Jeffersonians are totally dominant. You 660 00:42:50,560 --> 00:42:54,760 Speaker 1: get three presidents in a row from Virginia in Jefferson, Madison, 661 00:42:55,000 --> 00:42:58,320 Speaker 1: and Monroe. And remember that the first president, George Washington, 662 00:42:58,360 --> 00:43:01,760 Speaker 1: was also from Virginia. So four of the five initial 663 00:43:01,800 --> 00:43:05,279 Speaker 1: presidents of the United States all come from Virginia, which 664 00:43:05,360 --> 00:43:10,160 Speaker 1: was the dominant state, and Virginia represented an agrarian interest 665 00:43:10,719 --> 00:43:16,640 Speaker 1: remarkably different from the commercial and banking and manufacturing interest 666 00:43:17,239 --> 00:43:22,480 Speaker 1: of people like Alexander Hamilton. Jefferson ends up in a 667 00:43:22,680 --> 00:43:26,239 Speaker 1: very strange situation in eighteen hundred because they had not 668 00:43:26,520 --> 00:43:31,040 Speaker 1: quite figured out that if you had the same Electoral 669 00:43:31,080 --> 00:43:34,680 Speaker 1: College votes for both the president and vice president, they 670 00:43:34,719 --> 00:43:39,520 Speaker 1: would be tied. Now, everybody had agreed that Jefferson was 671 00:43:39,520 --> 00:43:42,560 Speaker 1: the candidate for president and Burr was the candidate for 672 00:43:42,640 --> 00:43:46,960 Speaker 1: vice president, but Burr, who is a remarkably despicable and 673 00:43:47,000 --> 00:43:50,320 Speaker 1: dishonest figure, a man who came very close to treason 674 00:43:50,440 --> 00:43:52,600 Speaker 1: later on in his life, and the man who shot 675 00:43:52,640 --> 00:43:56,160 Speaker 1: and killed Alexander Hamilton and a duel. And I always 676 00:43:56,200 --> 00:43:59,120 Speaker 1: remind people, and they worry about how intense and how 677 00:43:59,160 --> 00:44:03,239 Speaker 1: difficult are process, occasionally gets that we have not had 678 00:44:03,280 --> 00:44:06,400 Speaker 1: a former Secretary of the Treasury killed by a former 679 00:44:06,480 --> 00:44:10,320 Speaker 1: vice president for over two hundred years. So these guys 680 00:44:10,680 --> 00:44:13,680 Speaker 1: understood a level of toughness, so we fortunately have not 681 00:44:13,800 --> 00:44:18,120 Speaker 1: had repeated But Jefferson and Burr each had seventy three 682 00:44:18,160 --> 00:44:21,479 Speaker 1: electoral votes. Well, there was no provision at the time 683 00:44:21,560 --> 00:44:24,880 Speaker 1: for breaking the tie. Everybody agreed as a gentleman's agreement 684 00:44:24,920 --> 00:44:28,200 Speaker 1: that Jefferson will be president, but there was no real 685 00:44:28,239 --> 00:44:31,200 Speaker 1: proof of what would happen, and it actually took thirty 686 00:44:31,320 --> 00:44:35,400 Speaker 1: six ballots. They started meeting on February the ninth, eighteen 687 00:44:35,400 --> 00:44:40,360 Speaker 1: oh one, and finally on February seventeenth, on the thirty 688 00:44:40,440 --> 00:44:45,279 Speaker 1: sixth vote, Jefferson was elected. Outside the capital. By the way, 689 00:44:45,640 --> 00:44:48,680 Speaker 1: there were over one hundred thousand people who had gathered 690 00:44:48,680 --> 00:44:52,120 Speaker 1: as a gigantic crowd. It was just an amazing moment. 691 00:45:21,480 --> 00:45:26,040 Speaker 1: Jefferson then is sworn in and on March fourth, eighteen 692 00:45:26,080 --> 00:45:29,440 Speaker 1: oh one. This is all changed after FDR becomes president 693 00:45:29,440 --> 00:45:31,840 Speaker 1: in the nineteen thirties and they realize that they're just 694 00:45:31,920 --> 00:45:35,560 Speaker 1: too long a period between an election in November and 695 00:45:35,680 --> 00:45:38,440 Speaker 1: the taking of power in March, and they bring it 696 00:45:38,520 --> 00:45:41,200 Speaker 1: up to January twentieth, which has been ever since. But 697 00:45:41,760 --> 00:45:44,560 Speaker 1: notice that in the earlier era, when everything is done 698 00:45:44,880 --> 00:45:49,520 Speaker 1: without a telegraph, without radio, by people riding horses, they 699 00:45:49,560 --> 00:45:52,160 Speaker 1: had allowed a great deal of time for the election 700 00:45:52,280 --> 00:45:55,480 Speaker 1: to occur, the electors to gather, and finally the president 701 00:45:55,520 --> 00:45:58,239 Speaker 1: to be sworn in. So in March fourth, eighteen oh one, 702 00:45:58,640 --> 00:46:02,760 Speaker 1: Jefferson delivered his address, and he said, in part quote, 703 00:46:03,200 --> 00:46:07,279 Speaker 1: let us, then, fellow citizens, unite with one heart and 704 00:46:07,360 --> 00:46:11,840 Speaker 1: one mind. Let us restore to social intercourse, that harmony 705 00:46:11,880 --> 00:46:15,920 Speaker 1: and affection, without which liberty and even life itself are 706 00:46:15,920 --> 00:46:19,560 Speaker 1: but dreary things. We have called by different names, brethren 707 00:46:19,600 --> 00:46:23,399 Speaker 1: of the same principle. We are all Republicans, we are 708 00:46:23,440 --> 00:46:28,279 Speaker 1: all federalists. Now he didn't actually mean that. What he 709 00:46:28,320 --> 00:46:32,440 Speaker 1: really meant was, as democratic Republicans, we are going to 710 00:46:32,480 --> 00:46:35,520 Speaker 1: wipe out the Federalists. And in fact, they were very 711 00:46:35,560 --> 00:46:40,640 Speaker 1: aggressive in exerting their power. Jefferson, of course, was not 712 00:46:40,760 --> 00:46:43,239 Speaker 1: a great public speaker, and he knew it, but he 713 00:46:43,280 --> 00:46:47,000 Speaker 1: was a great writer. So when it came time to 714 00:46:47,040 --> 00:46:51,440 Speaker 1: address the Congress, Jefferson decided that he would write it 715 00:46:52,040 --> 00:46:56,200 Speaker 1: and send up his written address, having his secretary Meriwether Lewis, 716 00:46:56,200 --> 00:46:59,719 Speaker 1: who'd become famous later for the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 717 00:47:00,160 --> 00:47:04,040 Speaker 1: having him deliver the address. And throughout his eight years 718 00:47:04,040 --> 00:47:09,120 Speaker 1: as president, Jefferson never addressed Congress in person, instead opting 719 00:47:09,160 --> 00:47:12,239 Speaker 1: to write it to the Congress, so they got written addresses. 720 00:47:12,840 --> 00:47:18,120 Speaker 1: That continued just as a tradition until Woodrow Wilson appeared. 721 00:47:18,440 --> 00:47:21,280 Speaker 1: And Woodrow Wilson, who had been a college professor at Princeton, 722 00:47:21,880 --> 00:47:25,880 Speaker 1: liked to give speeches, saw himself as a great orator, 723 00:47:26,320 --> 00:47:30,440 Speaker 1: and so in nineteen thirteen, Wilson appeared in person to 724 00:47:30,520 --> 00:47:32,839 Speaker 1: deliver the State of the Union. But from the time 725 00:47:32,920 --> 00:47:37,960 Speaker 1: Jefferson sent up a written version until nineteen thirteen, it 726 00:47:38,000 --> 00:47:42,000 Speaker 1: had always been done in writing. For example, Lincoln's amazing 727 00:47:42,360 --> 00:47:45,520 Speaker 1: addresses to the Congress, which were among the greatest writing 728 00:47:45,560 --> 00:47:49,080 Speaker 1: in American presidential history, were all just delivered in writing, 729 00:47:49,280 --> 00:47:53,759 Speaker 1: they weren't delivered by Lincoln himself. Jefferson argued that it 730 00:47:53,840 --> 00:47:56,880 Speaker 1: wasn't that he didn't like to speak in public. Instead, 731 00:47:56,880 --> 00:47:59,840 Speaker 1: he wrote to Benjamin Rush under Summer twenty eight eighteen, 732 00:48:00,440 --> 00:48:04,759 Speaker 1: quote our winter campaign, the winter session of Congress has 733 00:48:04,800 --> 00:48:08,360 Speaker 1: opened with more good humor than I expected. By sending 734 00:48:08,400 --> 00:48:10,560 Speaker 1: a message instead of making a speech at the opening 735 00:48:10,600 --> 00:48:14,239 Speaker 1: of the session, I have prevented the bloody conflicts to 736 00:48:14,320 --> 00:48:17,120 Speaker 1: which the making an answer would have committed them. They 737 00:48:17,160 --> 00:48:19,600 Speaker 1: consequently were able to set into real business at once 738 00:48:20,000 --> 00:48:22,880 Speaker 1: without losing ten or twelve days in combating an answer. 739 00:48:23,080 --> 00:48:25,960 Speaker 1: In other words, Jefferson figured if he showed up in person, 740 00:48:26,360 --> 00:48:28,960 Speaker 1: he would so irritate some of the members of Congress 741 00:48:29,200 --> 00:48:32,080 Speaker 1: that they would feel compelled to spend their time attacking him, 742 00:48:32,400 --> 00:48:35,799 Speaker 1: and instead, he thought that he had diffused the emotional 743 00:48:35,840 --> 00:48:39,320 Speaker 1: tension by sending the document up in writing. He also 744 00:48:39,400 --> 00:48:42,640 Speaker 1: defended not doing it when he wrote John Wales's EPs 745 00:48:42,719 --> 00:48:46,080 Speaker 1: on January first, eighteen oh two, quote, Congress have not 746 00:48:46,200 --> 00:48:48,960 Speaker 1: yet done anything or passed a vote which has produced 747 00:48:49,000 --> 00:48:52,759 Speaker 1: a party division. The sending a message instead of making 748 00:48:52,840 --> 00:48:55,279 Speaker 1: a speech to be answered is acknowledged to have had 749 00:48:55,320 --> 00:48:59,439 Speaker 1: the best effect toward preserving harmony. So I think it's 750 00:48:59,640 --> 00:49:05,240 Speaker 1: fair to say that from Jefferson's perspective, he's always thinking strategically. 751 00:49:05,640 --> 00:49:09,719 Speaker 1: Now that he has power, he's concerned with relaxing and 752 00:49:09,800 --> 00:49:12,880 Speaker 1: consolidating the power. And he knows that the less he 753 00:49:12,960 --> 00:49:16,000 Speaker 1: fights with the Federalists and the more he allows them 754 00:49:16,000 --> 00:49:19,799 Speaker 1: to just atrophy and gradually disappear, the less friction there is, 755 00:49:19,800 --> 00:49:22,040 Speaker 1: the less fighting there is, the better off he is, 756 00:49:22,719 --> 00:49:25,440 Speaker 1: because he's president and he already has all the power 757 00:49:25,440 --> 00:49:28,879 Speaker 1: of the presidency. The fact is that he also wasn't 758 00:49:28,920 --> 00:49:31,359 Speaker 1: a great public speaker, and in fact, when he gave 759 00:49:31,440 --> 00:49:34,640 Speaker 1: his second inaugural address on March fourth, eighteen oh five, 760 00:49:35,040 --> 00:49:36,920 Speaker 1: a lot of people in the room couldn't even hear him. 761 00:49:37,400 --> 00:49:39,920 Speaker 1: So the address was sent in advance to the newspapers, 762 00:49:40,160 --> 00:49:42,680 Speaker 1: and the newspapers could publish them even if you couldn't 763 00:49:42,719 --> 00:49:47,319 Speaker 1: hear them. Now, Jefferson had moved west, and it's hard 764 00:49:47,320 --> 00:49:50,319 Speaker 1: to believe nowadays because you don't think of Charlottesville as 765 00:49:50,320 --> 00:49:54,840 Speaker 1: all that far west, But in fact, the tide water farmers, 766 00:49:55,200 --> 00:49:58,200 Speaker 1: the great planters, the government that had been in Williamsburg, 767 00:49:58,719 --> 00:50:02,920 Speaker 1: all those things from Jefferson's perspective were behind him, and 768 00:50:03,000 --> 00:50:07,000 Speaker 1: his focus was to the west. His father, Peter Jefferson, 769 00:50:07,120 --> 00:50:09,640 Speaker 1: was one of the founding members of the Loyal Company, 770 00:50:09,640 --> 00:50:12,560 Speaker 1: created to ask for grants of land west of the 771 00:50:12,560 --> 00:50:16,840 Speaker 1: Alleghany Mountains. And remember, back then the frontier is the 772 00:50:16,840 --> 00:50:20,360 Speaker 1: Alleghany Mountains. Nowadays we think of that just as eastern 773 00:50:20,840 --> 00:50:23,200 Speaker 1: and if anything, you might think of the Rockies as 774 00:50:23,200 --> 00:50:27,960 Speaker 1: the frontier. Interestingly, Lewis Meriwether, his father, had been a 775 00:50:28,120 --> 00:50:32,680 Speaker 1: member with Peter Jefferson in founding the Loyal Company, which 776 00:50:32,840 --> 00:50:35,799 Speaker 1: was trying to open up the west and asking for 777 00:50:35,880 --> 00:50:39,560 Speaker 1: land in the west. Now, when you look at that period, 778 00:50:40,239 --> 00:50:44,240 Speaker 1: Jefferson is fascinated with the West, but frankly, he personally 779 00:50:44,280 --> 00:50:47,480 Speaker 1: don't know that much time to go do things. If anything, 780 00:50:47,520 --> 00:50:51,359 Speaker 1: he's spending time in France where he's the minister, He's 781 00:50:51,440 --> 00:50:56,320 Speaker 1: spending time in Philadelphia, and he's helping other people go west, 782 00:50:57,080 --> 00:51:00,719 Speaker 1: but he is not himself able to go. And in 783 00:51:00,760 --> 00:51:05,400 Speaker 1: a funny way, Washington was more of a frontiersman than Jefferson. 784 00:51:05,640 --> 00:51:09,960 Speaker 1: Washington really was physically very very active. Washington goes west 785 00:51:10,040 --> 00:51:13,680 Speaker 1: both as a surveyor. He surveys places like Little Washington 786 00:51:13,680 --> 00:51:16,480 Speaker 1: in Virginia. He goes west as a head of the 787 00:51:16,600 --> 00:51:19,759 Speaker 1: Virginia Militia and helped start the French and Indian War 788 00:51:19,840 --> 00:51:22,279 Speaker 1: what became called the Seven Years War in Europe. So 789 00:51:22,520 --> 00:51:26,399 Speaker 1: Washington was a genuine frontiersman and understood a great deal 790 00:51:26,440 --> 00:51:30,440 Speaker 1: about the frontier. Jefferson's really a gentleman, farmer and an 791 00:51:30,480 --> 00:51:35,239 Speaker 1: intellectual who's fascinated with the West as an idea. And interestingly, 792 00:51:35,520 --> 00:51:38,920 Speaker 1: at one point he subsidizes when he's a minister to France, 793 00:51:39,360 --> 00:51:43,239 Speaker 1: he subsidizes a guy named John Ledyard who's an American explorer, 794 00:51:43,680 --> 00:51:46,440 Speaker 1: and their idea is that the way they will explore 795 00:51:46,480 --> 00:51:50,440 Speaker 1: the West is he will go east across Siberia and 796 00:51:50,560 --> 00:51:53,919 Speaker 1: travel to the western coast of North America. However, when 797 00:51:53,920 --> 00:51:55,920 Speaker 1: he tried to do that, he was arrested by the 798 00:51:56,000 --> 00:51:59,120 Speaker 1: Russians and sent back to Europe, so that failed. In 799 00:51:59,200 --> 00:52:02,600 Speaker 1: seventeen ninety three three Jefferson enlisted members of the American 800 00:52:02,600 --> 00:52:06,279 Speaker 1: Philosophy Society, which at that time was the leading kind 801 00:52:06,320 --> 00:52:09,319 Speaker 1: of intellectual gathering in America, and he got a group 802 00:52:09,400 --> 00:52:13,600 Speaker 1: of them to sponsor Andre Micheaux, a French botanist, to 803 00:52:13,719 --> 00:52:17,919 Speaker 1: quote find the shortest and most convenient route of communication 804 00:52:18,080 --> 00:52:21,040 Speaker 1: between the US and the Pacific Ocean, but it didn't 805 00:52:21,040 --> 00:52:24,680 Speaker 1: get very far and didn't have anything accomplished. In eighteen 806 00:52:24,719 --> 00:52:29,200 Speaker 1: oh five, the Territorial Governor of Louisiana, General James Wilkinson, 807 00:52:29,640 --> 00:52:34,239 Speaker 1: persuaded President Jefferson to authorize an expedition to explore the 808 00:52:34,239 --> 00:52:37,719 Speaker 1: beginning of the Mississippi. Now, interestingly, by the way, I 809 00:52:37,719 --> 00:52:42,319 Speaker 1: always find this fascinating, the Mississippi itself starts in Minnesota, 810 00:52:43,080 --> 00:52:46,480 Speaker 1: but the great source of water is the Missouri, which 811 00:52:46,520 --> 00:52:50,719 Speaker 1: starts much further west and pours into the Mississippi at 812 00:52:50,800 --> 00:52:54,760 Speaker 1: Saint Louis and has dramatically more water than the Mississippi, 813 00:52:55,160 --> 00:52:58,399 Speaker 1: but is subordinated and named the Mississippi when they join. 814 00:52:59,040 --> 00:53:02,160 Speaker 1: So they're looking for the origin of the Mississippi, when 815 00:53:02,160 --> 00:53:05,040 Speaker 1: in fact, far more important is to find the origin 816 00:53:05,120 --> 00:53:09,560 Speaker 1: of the Missouri. Jefferson did agree with General James Wilkinson. 817 00:53:09,600 --> 00:53:14,440 Speaker 1: The Territorial Governor of Louisiana and Lieutenant Zebulen Pike, for 818 00:53:14,520 --> 00:53:17,440 Speaker 1: whom Pike's Peak is named, was appointed to lead the 819 00:53:17,480 --> 00:53:21,120 Speaker 1: party to negotiate peace treaties with the Indian tribes they encountered, 820 00:53:21,560 --> 00:53:24,160 Speaker 1: but they reached the present day Canadian border and then 821 00:53:24,200 --> 00:53:27,160 Speaker 1: turned back. A year later, Pike was appointed to lead 822 00:53:27,160 --> 00:53:31,000 Speaker 1: an expedition to explore the red in Arkansas Rivers. He 823 00:53:31,160 --> 00:53:34,960 Speaker 1: entered Colorado unsuccessfully attempted to scale the mountain that today 824 00:53:35,040 --> 00:53:39,080 Speaker 1: is called Pike's Peak. After entering Spanish controlled New Mexico, 825 00:53:39,520 --> 00:53:43,359 Speaker 1: he was captured and sent back, but Jefferson still had 826 00:53:43,360 --> 00:53:48,080 Speaker 1: not abandoned the idea. On January eighteenth, eighteen o three, 827 00:53:48,480 --> 00:53:52,200 Speaker 1: Jefferson sent a letter to Congress asking for twenty five 828 00:53:52,280 --> 00:53:56,000 Speaker 1: hundred dollars to fund an expedition of the Pacific Ocean. 829 00:53:56,760 --> 00:53:59,719 Speaker 1: They approved it, and by the way, the expedition, as 830 00:53:59,760 --> 00:54:02,680 Speaker 1: all often happens with government projects, turned out to cost 831 00:54:02,880 --> 00:54:06,279 Speaker 1: far more than twenty five hundred dollars. A year later, 832 00:54:06,360 --> 00:54:10,480 Speaker 1: about forty five men, headed by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, 833 00:54:10,920 --> 00:54:14,279 Speaker 1: left on what became a very very famous expedition. There 834 00:54:14,360 --> 00:54:19,000 Speaker 1: is a remarkable book called Undaunted Courage, which I recommend 835 00:54:19,000 --> 00:54:24,799 Speaker 1: to everybody. It captures day by day this extraordinary expedition, which, 836 00:54:24,800 --> 00:54:28,040 Speaker 1: as I said earlier, is in many ways that era's 837 00:54:28,120 --> 00:54:32,080 Speaker 1: equivalent of going to Mars. I mean, these guys are 838 00:54:32,160 --> 00:54:35,640 Speaker 1: leaving Saint Louis. They're paddling their way up the Missouri, 839 00:54:36,040 --> 00:54:40,160 Speaker 1: they are crossing over around Yellowstone, they are going down 840 00:54:40,200 --> 00:54:44,360 Speaker 1: the Columbia. They're encountering all sorts of Native American tribes. 841 00:54:44,840 --> 00:54:49,880 Speaker 1: They are encountering grizzly bears and generally roughing it and 842 00:54:50,040 --> 00:54:53,680 Speaker 1: really an expedition that just took a level of personal 843 00:54:54,280 --> 00:54:58,799 Speaker 1: endurance and personal courage that is absolutely astonishing. And if 844 00:54:58,840 --> 00:55:03,080 Speaker 1: you go to Philadelphia, the Academy of Natural Sciences, which 845 00:55:03,160 --> 00:55:07,759 Speaker 1: became the repository for the American Philosophical Society, actually has 846 00:55:08,440 --> 00:55:11,799 Speaker 1: the material that Lewis and Clark brought back, and so 847 00:55:11,880 --> 00:55:14,520 Speaker 1: you can actually go and see what it was they 848 00:55:14,520 --> 00:55:17,720 Speaker 1: were gathering up. And they were gathering things about plants 849 00:55:17,760 --> 00:55:21,359 Speaker 1: and animals, they were taking notes about geography, they were 850 00:55:21,360 --> 00:55:24,240 Speaker 1: reporting on all sorts of meetings with different Native tribes, 851 00:55:24,640 --> 00:55:28,239 Speaker 1: and it is one of the great romantic expeditions in 852 00:55:28,239 --> 00:55:33,040 Speaker 1: American history. They're also helped dramatically by a Native American 853 00:55:33,120 --> 00:55:37,040 Speaker 1: woman who both helps them talk with tribes and helps 854 00:55:37,040 --> 00:55:39,920 Speaker 1: them survive. They have an African American as part of 855 00:55:39,960 --> 00:55:42,640 Speaker 1: the expedition who has a vote, and they said, look, 856 00:55:42,920 --> 00:55:45,839 Speaker 1: he deserved the vote because his life was at risk too, 857 00:55:45,880 --> 00:55:48,239 Speaker 1: so when they got to certain big decision points, they 858 00:55:48,280 --> 00:55:50,279 Speaker 1: would all talk it out, and it was kind of 859 00:55:50,320 --> 00:56:14,080 Speaker 1: like a traveling democracy. Jefferson had a very busy presidency 860 00:56:14,719 --> 00:56:18,920 Speaker 1: was involved in reshaping the judiciary. The Jeffersonians hated the 861 00:56:18,960 --> 00:56:23,440 Speaker 1: Federalists judges. They saw judges as instruments of government to 862 00:56:23,520 --> 00:56:26,959 Speaker 1: oppress the people, and they very much favored a much 863 00:56:26,960 --> 00:56:30,759 Speaker 1: more popular society in which juries played a bigger role 864 00:56:31,080 --> 00:56:35,200 Speaker 1: and judges were very limited. Lawyers will all cite Marlbori 865 00:56:35,320 --> 00:56:39,800 Speaker 1: versus Madison, which was a major decision involving the grant 866 00:56:39,880 --> 00:56:44,080 Speaker 1: of a certificate to a person who had been appointed 867 00:56:44,120 --> 00:56:47,600 Speaker 1: to a job by the Federalists and who, now that 868 00:56:47,640 --> 00:56:50,480 Speaker 1: the Jeffersonians were taking over, was not going to get 869 00:56:50,480 --> 00:56:54,160 Speaker 1: that job. If you actually read the case carefully, what 870 00:56:54,280 --> 00:56:57,319 Speaker 1: you find is that the new Chief Justice of the 871 00:56:57,360 --> 00:57:02,320 Speaker 1: Supreme Court, Justice Marshall, he very aware that the Jeffersonians 872 00:57:02,360 --> 00:57:05,560 Speaker 1: hate the Court, and he knows that if he takes 873 00:57:05,640 --> 00:57:09,680 Speaker 1: Jefferson head on immediately after Jefferson having won control of 874 00:57:09,719 --> 00:57:12,799 Speaker 1: the Presidency and control of the House and Senate, that 875 00:57:12,880 --> 00:57:17,640 Speaker 1: they'll simply abolish him, and so he maneuvers to maintain 876 00:57:17,720 --> 00:57:22,400 Speaker 1: the independence of the Court without infuriating Jefferson. And it's 877 00:57:22,440 --> 00:57:27,120 Speaker 1: actually not some key moment where the Court stands up boldly, 878 00:57:27,600 --> 00:57:31,520 Speaker 1: but rather a brilliant maneuver to preserve the independence of 879 00:57:31,560 --> 00:57:35,400 Speaker 1: the Court by not standing up boldly. And it's worth 880 00:57:35,440 --> 00:57:38,640 Speaker 1: your studying because it both tells you how lawyers sort 881 00:57:38,640 --> 00:57:41,360 Speaker 1: of aggrandize their role in life, and it tells you 882 00:57:41,440 --> 00:57:44,960 Speaker 1: that the Court has always been inherently political. That's the 883 00:57:45,080 --> 00:57:48,320 Speaker 1: nature of a supreme court in a free society, they 884 00:57:48,320 --> 00:57:52,560 Speaker 1: have to pay some attention to deep popular interests. Jefferson 885 00:57:53,080 --> 00:57:55,880 Speaker 1: having succeeded in eight years, and he did an amazing amount. 886 00:57:55,960 --> 00:57:58,640 Speaker 1: I mean, as I said earlier, you know, buying half 887 00:57:58,640 --> 00:58:01,800 Speaker 1: a continent, sending the Marines than the Navy to Tripoli 888 00:58:01,920 --> 00:58:06,640 Speaker 1: to defeat the Barbary pirates, organizing the dominant majority Party, 889 00:58:06,640 --> 00:58:10,080 Speaker 1: which is still today the Democratic Party, is the longest 890 00:58:10,280 --> 00:58:15,360 Speaker 1: serving political organization on the planet. It's outlasted the Nazis, 891 00:58:15,400 --> 00:58:20,200 Speaker 1: the Communists, the fascist it's outlasted most monarchies. And it's 892 00:58:20,280 --> 00:58:25,440 Speaker 1: a remarkable institution. And Jefferson was, in fact, along with Madison, 893 00:58:25,800 --> 00:58:28,960 Speaker 1: at the very center of organizing in eighteen oh nine, 894 00:58:29,080 --> 00:58:33,000 Speaker 1: Jefferson goes home, he leaves the presidency, he leaves public life, 895 00:58:33,320 --> 00:58:36,720 Speaker 1: and he helps found the University of Virginia. He was 896 00:58:36,760 --> 00:58:39,920 Speaker 1: then Central College, but it becomes the University of Virginia. 897 00:58:40,000 --> 00:58:44,520 Speaker 1: Jefferson plays a major role when in February fourteenth, eighteen sixteen, 898 00:58:44,880 --> 00:58:48,800 Speaker 1: the Virginia General Assembly established a charter for Central College, 899 00:58:48,800 --> 00:58:52,080 Speaker 1: which becomes the University of Virginia. Jefferson was elected to 900 00:58:52,120 --> 00:58:55,400 Speaker 1: the college's board of Visitors and rector of the college. 901 00:58:55,680 --> 00:58:58,800 Speaker 1: Jefferson also designed the college and again as an example 902 00:58:58,840 --> 00:59:03,000 Speaker 1: of his intellectual reas remember that Jefferson is an architect. 903 00:59:03,560 --> 00:59:07,959 Speaker 1: He designs Monticello, he designs other public buildings. He's also 904 00:59:08,200 --> 00:59:12,800 Speaker 1: a bibliophile. The original Library of Congress is Jefferson's personal library, 905 00:59:12,800 --> 00:59:15,560 Speaker 1: about four thousand volumes, although it might be pointed out 906 00:59:15,600 --> 00:59:18,080 Speaker 1: he sold them to the government because he needed the 907 00:59:18,120 --> 00:59:21,480 Speaker 1: money for his entire life. Jefferson is short of money 908 00:59:21,760 --> 00:59:24,920 Speaker 1: and is constantly trying to find sources of additional revenue. 909 00:59:25,160 --> 00:59:27,920 Speaker 1: He's not a particularly great farmer, doesn't focus on farming, 910 00:59:28,280 --> 00:59:30,240 Speaker 1: doesn't make a huge amount of money. It's very different, 911 00:59:30,240 --> 00:59:33,160 Speaker 1: by the way, from George Washington, who was a great businessman, 912 00:59:33,200 --> 00:59:37,120 Speaker 1: a great farmer, and was generally competent at everything he touched. 913 00:59:37,680 --> 00:59:40,240 Speaker 1: I think it's fair to say that Jefferson had a 914 00:59:40,280 --> 00:59:46,720 Speaker 1: deep passionate interest in education. Jefferson was not anti religious. 915 00:59:47,320 --> 00:59:51,600 Speaker 1: Jefferson did write a letter to the Baptist in Connecticut 916 00:59:52,040 --> 00:59:54,360 Speaker 1: saying that there should be a wall of separation between 917 00:59:54,440 --> 00:59:57,840 Speaker 1: church and state. But what Jefferson was saying was in 918 00:59:57,880 --> 01:00:02,280 Speaker 1: a world where the Anglican Church got paid tax money, 919 01:00:02,400 --> 01:00:06,080 Speaker 1: that he did not think any church should get government money. However, 920 01:00:06,120 --> 01:00:09,320 Speaker 1: he was not for an anti religious position. In fact, 921 01:00:09,680 --> 01:00:13,240 Speaker 1: Jefferson allowed the Treasury building to be used as a church. 922 01:00:13,880 --> 01:00:16,720 Speaker 1: He himself went up to the Capitol, which was a 923 01:00:16,800 --> 01:00:21,000 Speaker 1: church up until the mid eighteen forties. Jefferson signed a 924 01:00:21,000 --> 01:00:24,240 Speaker 1: bill to send missionaries to the Indians. So the whole 925 01:00:24,280 --> 01:00:28,280 Speaker 1: notion that he was in any way anti religion is 926 01:00:28,440 --> 01:00:30,520 Speaker 1: just wrong. And in fact, if you go to the 927 01:00:30,600 --> 01:00:34,600 Speaker 1: Jefferson memorial, you'll see a great quote from Jefferson where 928 01:00:34,600 --> 01:00:38,200 Speaker 1: he has sworn eternal hostility against all forms of tyranny 929 01:00:38,240 --> 01:00:40,680 Speaker 1: over the minds of man. And I think that that's 930 01:00:40,720 --> 01:00:44,840 Speaker 1: the heart of Jefferson. He really was committed, and to 931 01:00:44,880 --> 01:00:47,480 Speaker 1: give you a sense of the depth of his commitment 932 01:00:47,520 --> 01:00:51,080 Speaker 1: on education, and the depth of his commitment on religious liberty. 933 01:00:51,560 --> 01:00:55,800 Speaker 1: He wrote out for his own tombstone. Here was buried 934 01:00:55,840 --> 01:01:00,200 Speaker 1: Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of American Independence, of 935 01:01:00,240 --> 01:01:04,160 Speaker 1: the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and father of 936 01:01:04,200 --> 01:01:08,560 Speaker 1: the University of Virginia. Born April second, seventeen forty three, 937 01:01:08,560 --> 01:01:13,560 Speaker 1: old style, died July fourth, eighteen twenty six. He thought 938 01:01:13,600 --> 01:01:15,720 Speaker 1: those were the three things he wanted to be remembered for. 939 01:01:16,160 --> 01:01:19,560 Speaker 1: Not president, not vice president, not foreign minister, not ambassador 940 01:01:19,600 --> 01:01:23,920 Speaker 1: of France. Author of the Declaration of American Independence, of 941 01:01:23,960 --> 01:01:27,880 Speaker 1: the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and father of 942 01:01:27,920 --> 01:01:30,880 Speaker 1: the University of Virginia. And he gives you a flavor 943 01:01:31,520 --> 01:01:35,560 Speaker 1: of what he had dedicated his life to. Symbolically, he 944 01:01:35,720 --> 01:01:39,160 Speaker 1: died on exactly the same day, the fourth of July, 945 01:01:39,800 --> 01:01:44,440 Speaker 1: as John Adams, his great rival in developing political power. 946 01:01:44,800 --> 01:01:46,680 Speaker 1: They had gotten to write each other and sort of 947 01:01:46,720 --> 01:01:50,760 Speaker 1: reconciled over the years, and there was something symbolic that 948 01:01:50,880 --> 01:01:54,919 Speaker 1: on July fourth, the date when Jefferson and Adams had 949 01:01:54,920 --> 01:01:58,920 Speaker 1: helped author the Declaration of Independence, they both passed away 950 01:02:00,120 --> 01:02:04,160 Speaker 1: an immortal there's no question that to understand America, you 951 01:02:04,280 --> 01:02:07,520 Speaker 1: have to spend some time trying to understand Thomas Jefferson. 952 01:02:07,960 --> 01:02:10,680 Speaker 1: And there's no question that that time will be well 953 01:02:10,680 --> 01:02:18,360 Speaker 1: spent because he was a remarkable person. Newtsworld is produced 954 01:02:18,360 --> 01:02:22,040 Speaker 1: by Gingish three sixty and iHeartMedia. Our executive producer is 955 01:02:22,040 --> 01:02:25,840 Speaker 1: Guernsey Sloan. Our researcher is Rachel Peterson. The artwork for 956 01:02:25,880 --> 01:02:29,440 Speaker 1: the show was created by Steve Penley. Special thanks to 957 01:02:29,440 --> 01:02:32,480 Speaker 1: the team at Gingish three sixty. If you've been enjoying Newtsworld, 958 01:02:32,800 --> 01:02:35,600 Speaker 1: I hope you'll go to Apple Podcasts and both rate 959 01:02:35,640 --> 01:02:38,480 Speaker 1: us with five stars and give us a review so 960 01:02:38,560 --> 01:02:41,680 Speaker 1: others can learn what it's all about. Right now, listeners 961 01:02:41,680 --> 01:02:45,240 Speaker 1: of Newtsworld can sign up for my three free weekly 962 01:02:45,360 --> 01:02:50,600 Speaker 1: columns at gingersthree sixty dot com slash newsletter. I'm new Gingrish. 963 01:02:50,880 --> 01:03:02,440 Speaker 1: This is Newsworld.