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