1 00:00:00,680 --> 00:00:04,560 Speaker 1: On this episode of Newsworld, as part of Founding Father's Week, 2 00:00:04,880 --> 00:00:07,480 Speaker 1: I'm talking about the lives and legacies of our original 3 00:00:07,520 --> 00:00:20,040 Speaker 1: founders and the impact they've had in our country. On 4 00:00:20,120 --> 00:00:22,360 Speaker 1: this episode of news World, we're going to deal with 5 00:00:22,400 --> 00:00:26,960 Speaker 1: somebody who's truly immortal and who has become surprisingly controversial, 6 00:00:27,520 --> 00:00:31,200 Speaker 1: which tells you more about the time we live in. 7 00:00:31,200 --> 00:00:35,520 Speaker 1: In April nineteen sixty two, President John F. Kennedy hosted 8 00:00:35,560 --> 00:00:39,280 Speaker 1: a Nobel Prize dinner at the White House. He said, quote, 9 00:00:39,920 --> 00:00:43,000 Speaker 1: I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent 10 00:00:43,600 --> 00:00:46,760 Speaker 1: of human knowledge that has ever been gathered together at 11 00:00:46,760 --> 00:00:50,440 Speaker 1: the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas 12 00:00:50,520 --> 00:00:55,280 Speaker 1: Jefferson dined alone. Now think about that tribute. It's a 13 00:00:55,280 --> 00:00:59,840 Speaker 1: little bit exaggerated. Jefferson was one of the most extraordinary 14 00:01:00,040 --> 00:01:05,040 Speaker 1: Founding fathers, not only very, very smart, the great writer, 15 00:01:05,600 --> 00:01:09,679 Speaker 1: but somebody who had an almost universal interest in knowledge. 16 00:01:10,240 --> 00:01:12,200 Speaker 1: In a different era, he might have been considered a 17 00:01:12,240 --> 00:01:17,840 Speaker 1: renaissance man, but in the colonial period of America people 18 00:01:17,840 --> 00:01:21,920 Speaker 1: didn't even think like that. So Jefferson is fascinating. He 19 00:01:22,000 --> 00:01:25,840 Speaker 1: was controversial in his lifetime, and he is controversial today. 20 00:01:26,720 --> 00:01:31,280 Speaker 1: He's the founder of the Democratic Republican Party, which is 21 00:01:31,319 --> 00:01:35,880 Speaker 1: today the oldest political institution in the world. He created 22 00:01:36,360 --> 00:01:41,040 Speaker 1: the first really competitive presidential race and broke with many 23 00:01:41,080 --> 00:01:45,840 Speaker 1: of the norms of the British system. He distrusted government, 24 00:01:45,840 --> 00:01:48,600 Speaker 1: which is what's really remarkable when you look at the 25 00:01:48,600 --> 00:01:51,440 Speaker 1: people who today criticize him and are opposed to him. 26 00:01:51,960 --> 00:01:58,560 Speaker 1: Jefferson somehow came to this belief that freedom was based 27 00:01:58,600 --> 00:02:02,520 Speaker 1: on the individual and on the individual's relationship with God, 28 00:02:03,320 --> 00:02:07,800 Speaker 1: and he insisted that on his tombstone they would only 29 00:02:07,840 --> 00:02:10,080 Speaker 1: mention three things. This is a man who would spend 30 00:02:10,120 --> 00:02:14,040 Speaker 1: a lifetime achieving things. He was quote author of the 31 00:02:14,080 --> 00:02:17,799 Speaker 1: Declaration of American Independence, of the Statue of Virginia for 32 00:02:17,919 --> 00:02:35,200 Speaker 1: religious freedom, and father of the University of Virginia. I 33 00:02:35,240 --> 00:02:41,840 Speaker 1: would argue that in many ways Jefferson personified the spirit 34 00:02:41,880 --> 00:02:47,400 Speaker 1: of freedom and had developed out of it something much 35 00:02:47,440 --> 00:02:51,000 Speaker 1: more profound than most of his colleagues as founding fathers. 36 00:02:51,520 --> 00:02:56,200 Speaker 1: He deeply distrusted all governments. He didn't just deeply distrust 37 00:02:56,240 --> 00:03:00,200 Speaker 1: the British government. He deeply distrusted the American government, and 38 00:03:00,320 --> 00:03:04,840 Speaker 1: as a result, while he was the ambassador in Paris, 39 00:03:05,960 --> 00:03:10,560 Speaker 1: as the American Constitution was being developed. He wrote his 40 00:03:10,760 --> 00:03:15,200 Speaker 1: very very close friend James Madison and said that he 41 00:03:15,240 --> 00:03:22,120 Speaker 1: would oppose the adoption of the Constitution unless they added 42 00:03:22,160 --> 00:03:26,680 Speaker 1: a Bill of Rights. And the whole fabric of American 43 00:03:26,760 --> 00:03:31,440 Speaker 1: life has revolved around these ten amendments that came to 44 00:03:31,520 --> 00:03:35,160 Speaker 1: define our rights. And remember this is always one of 45 00:03:35,160 --> 00:03:38,800 Speaker 1: the most difficult things to get across, because it's counterintuitive. 46 00:03:39,520 --> 00:03:43,400 Speaker 1: The Bill of Rights are designed to limit government, not 47 00:03:43,520 --> 00:03:46,440 Speaker 1: to limit people. The Bill of Rights came out of 48 00:03:46,440 --> 00:03:49,520 Speaker 1: a belief that in fact, virtue resides in the people, 49 00:03:50,280 --> 00:03:55,320 Speaker 1: but the government was always dangerous. Now. Jefferson at the 50 00:03:55,320 --> 00:03:58,280 Speaker 1: time was the ambassador of France as the French monarchy 51 00:03:58,360 --> 00:04:02,680 Speaker 1: was collapsing and they were inexorably moving towards the French Revolution, 52 00:04:03,360 --> 00:04:08,160 Speaker 1: which is a classic case study of a system that 53 00:04:08,200 --> 00:04:12,920 Speaker 1: can't control itself. The American Revolution was a fight over 54 00:04:13,480 --> 00:04:17,839 Speaker 1: who would govern in America, and it was between basically 55 00:04:18,320 --> 00:04:24,200 Speaker 1: Americans who saw themselves as successful independent standing on their 56 00:04:24,240 --> 00:04:28,200 Speaker 1: own achievement, and Americans who still were comfortable operating within 57 00:04:28,640 --> 00:04:31,680 Speaker 1: the framework of the British king and the British government. 58 00:04:32,160 --> 00:04:36,000 Speaker 1: And that fight ultimately was very controlled. If you go 59 00:04:36,080 --> 00:04:39,400 Speaker 1: back and you look when the founding Fathers won, they 60 00:04:39,440 --> 00:04:43,200 Speaker 1: were very cautious about what they were trying to set up, 61 00:04:43,200 --> 00:04:45,480 Speaker 1: and they had a lot of experience. Remember their thirteen colonies, 62 00:04:45,720 --> 00:04:49,200 Speaker 1: which means they are thirteen constitutions. In several of the colonies, 63 00:04:49,400 --> 00:04:53,039 Speaker 1: the constitutions fail, so they write more constitutions by the 64 00:04:53,080 --> 00:04:56,120 Speaker 1: time they get to Philadelphia to write the Constitution the 65 00:04:56,160 --> 00:04:59,359 Speaker 1: United States, these folks that had more experience at writing 66 00:04:59,400 --> 00:05:04,080 Speaker 1: constitution than any generation in history, and all of them 67 00:05:04,160 --> 00:05:08,320 Speaker 1: was aimed at a very core principle because they understood 68 00:05:08,320 --> 00:05:11,760 Speaker 1: a world different than we do. They knew that the 69 00:05:11,800 --> 00:05:14,599 Speaker 1: world was dangerous. It was dangerous to their west because 70 00:05:14,680 --> 00:05:19,560 Speaker 1: Native Americans were still independent, armed and capable of causing 71 00:05:20,120 --> 00:05:23,560 Speaker 1: enormous casualties in the constant struggle over who was going 72 00:05:23,600 --> 00:05:26,800 Speaker 1: to dominate. And remember the west in this period is 73 00:05:26,839 --> 00:05:31,400 Speaker 1: around Pittsburgh. We're not talking about the west of Cheyenne, Wyoming. 74 00:05:31,839 --> 00:05:35,840 Speaker 1: So they're looking at one direction at Native Americans, many 75 00:05:35,880 --> 00:05:37,880 Speaker 1: of them armed both by the British and the French, 76 00:05:38,279 --> 00:05:42,239 Speaker 1: and the British, of course loved to subsidize the arming 77 00:05:42,279 --> 00:05:44,880 Speaker 1: of the Native Americans so that they would harass and 78 00:05:44,960 --> 00:05:49,159 Speaker 1: torment the new United States at the same time, they 79 00:05:49,160 --> 00:05:51,919 Speaker 1: were vividly aware of the great power struggle that was 80 00:05:52,000 --> 00:05:55,040 Speaker 1: underway to see who would dominate Europe. So they knew 81 00:05:55,560 --> 00:06:00,000 Speaker 1: that between the French, the Spanish, the British, the Prussian 82 00:06:00,760 --> 00:06:04,239 Speaker 1: of the Dutch, that there was this ongoing, very deep 83 00:06:04,360 --> 00:06:08,960 Speaker 1: and very powerful struggle of systems much bigger than the 84 00:06:09,000 --> 00:06:13,280 Speaker 1: current a military of the current American Navy. So, on 85 00:06:13,320 --> 00:06:17,320 Speaker 1: the one hand, in order to protect our freedom, they 86 00:06:17,320 --> 00:06:21,400 Speaker 1: wanted a government strong enough to offset these dangerous countries. 87 00:06:22,120 --> 00:06:25,120 Speaker 1: On the other hand, in order to protect our freedom, 88 00:06:25,520 --> 00:06:27,120 Speaker 1: they want to make sure that the government that was 89 00:06:27,120 --> 00:06:30,600 Speaker 1: strong enough to protect our country couldn't then take over 90 00:06:30,760 --> 00:06:36,400 Speaker 1: and control us. And in this effort to find a 91 00:06:36,520 --> 00:06:41,080 Speaker 1: path between the two the future of domination by foreigners 92 00:06:41,160 --> 00:06:44,320 Speaker 1: and the future of domination by bureaucracy and government at home, 93 00:06:45,000 --> 00:06:47,800 Speaker 1: Jefferson was one of the leaders in trying to find 94 00:06:47,839 --> 00:06:52,560 Speaker 1: a way to have us be a genuinely free country, 95 00:06:52,720 --> 00:06:55,960 Speaker 1: which meant freedom for the individual, not just freedom for 96 00:06:56,000 --> 00:06:59,360 Speaker 1: the king or the president. Presidents basically are just temporarily 97 00:06:59,360 --> 00:07:02,400 Speaker 1: elected king, And it's the House and the Senate that 98 00:07:02,520 --> 00:07:06,520 Speaker 1: make America so much different from the European monarchies. But 99 00:07:07,080 --> 00:07:13,160 Speaker 1: Jefferson himself had spent a long and really quite curious life. 100 00:07:13,600 --> 00:07:17,600 Speaker 1: I'm an amateur paleontologist, and when you visit Manicello, you 101 00:07:17,640 --> 00:07:21,640 Speaker 1: will find, for example, teeth from mastodons and mammoths. You'll 102 00:07:21,640 --> 00:07:25,440 Speaker 1: find part of the skeleton of a giant sloth that 103 00:07:25,480 --> 00:07:28,160 Speaker 1: had gone extinct sometime in the place to see. You'll 104 00:07:28,200 --> 00:07:32,560 Speaker 1: find that Jefferson is collecting everything. He's fascinated by the world, 105 00:07:33,120 --> 00:07:35,440 Speaker 1: and that you know, I always tell people I'm willing 106 00:07:35,480 --> 00:07:38,480 Speaker 1: to be a Jeffersonian, by which I mean that I 107 00:07:38,520 --> 00:07:41,280 Speaker 1: will not buy more than half a continent at any 108 00:07:41,280 --> 00:07:44,320 Speaker 1: one time. So think of that as limited government. And 109 00:07:44,400 --> 00:07:47,280 Speaker 1: I won't do more than send the Marines to Tripoli 110 00:07:47,360 --> 00:07:49,640 Speaker 1: without telling the Congress. And by the way, when he 111 00:07:49,720 --> 00:07:52,320 Speaker 1: bought half a continent, he bought it and then told 112 00:07:52,320 --> 00:07:55,360 Speaker 1: the Congress. One of the reasons I find Jefferson so 113 00:07:55,440 --> 00:07:59,840 Speaker 1: complicated to talk about is that he's this massive contradiction. 114 00:08:00,640 --> 00:08:02,920 Speaker 1: On the one hand, he wants limited government unless he 115 00:08:03,640 --> 00:08:07,920 Speaker 1: decides he wants unlimited government, in which case he briefly deviates, 116 00:08:08,160 --> 00:08:11,679 Speaker 1: buys the whole area that is the Mississippi River basin, 117 00:08:12,000 --> 00:08:14,440 Speaker 1: and then he reversed back to Wan inglimited government. He 118 00:08:14,600 --> 00:08:18,480 Speaker 1: vetos a bridge over the Potomac as not the business 119 00:08:18,480 --> 00:08:21,520 Speaker 1: of government because he's frugal. But then he spends millions 120 00:08:21,920 --> 00:08:24,840 Speaker 1: buying the West from the French. Trying to fit all 121 00:08:24,840 --> 00:08:28,080 Speaker 1: this into one personality, he began to realize that if 122 00:08:28,080 --> 00:08:30,320 Speaker 1: he'd been your uncle, he would have been a very 123 00:08:30,360 --> 00:08:34,400 Speaker 1: complicated uncle. He also was a polymath, in the sense 124 00:08:34,440 --> 00:08:37,720 Speaker 1: that he learned everything in every direction. On one of 125 00:08:37,800 --> 00:08:40,439 Speaker 1: his trips to Europe. Member back then, if you say 126 00:08:40,480 --> 00:08:42,520 Speaker 1: I think I'll go to Europe, it was a long 127 00:08:42,679 --> 00:08:45,840 Speaker 1: voyage by sailing ship. On one of his trips to Europe, 128 00:08:46,000 --> 00:08:51,040 Speaker 1: he taught himself Spanish by reading Spanish novels. And you 129 00:08:51,120 --> 00:08:54,000 Speaker 1: said this image of Jefferson wrapped up in a blanket 130 00:08:54,080 --> 00:08:58,280 Speaker 1: sitting on the deck of the ship gradually going east 131 00:08:58,600 --> 00:09:02,600 Speaker 1: towards Europe literally teach himself Spanish. He already had French. 132 00:09:02,960 --> 00:09:07,800 Speaker 1: He also was a person who had a very complicated 133 00:09:07,920 --> 00:09:12,960 Speaker 1: vision of religion. Jefferson had written at one point that 134 00:09:13,080 --> 00:09:18,760 Speaker 1: there should be a wall between government and religion. Now 135 00:09:19,000 --> 00:09:21,280 Speaker 1: people that interpreted that to mean the government should be 136 00:09:21,320 --> 00:09:25,079 Speaker 1: anti religious. That's not what Jefferson said. Jefferson was living 137 00:09:25,080 --> 00:09:27,840 Speaker 1: in an era when the Church of England was paid 138 00:09:27,880 --> 00:09:31,680 Speaker 1: for by the government, when the Catholic Church in France 139 00:09:31,760 --> 00:09:34,520 Speaker 1: was getting government money, And what he was saying was 140 00:09:34,920 --> 00:09:39,080 Speaker 1: that no religion should get money from the government. But 141 00:09:39,240 --> 00:09:41,960 Speaker 1: he did not intend in any way to have government 142 00:09:42,000 --> 00:09:44,840 Speaker 1: be hostile to religion. In fact, while Jefferson was president, 143 00:09:45,200 --> 00:09:48,120 Speaker 1: he signed a bill to send missionaries to the Indians. 144 00:09:48,200 --> 00:09:50,560 Speaker 1: He allowed the Treasury Building to be used as a 145 00:09:50,640 --> 00:09:53,520 Speaker 1: church because there were no very large buildings in Washington 146 00:09:53,520 --> 00:09:56,360 Speaker 1: at that time. And the week that he signed the 147 00:09:56,480 --> 00:09:59,640 Speaker 1: letter explaining that there would be a wall of separation 148 00:09:59,679 --> 00:10:02,680 Speaker 1: between church and state, that week he got into a 149 00:10:02,800 --> 00:10:05,679 Speaker 1: carriage and went up to the Capitol, where the Capitol 150 00:10:05,760 --> 00:10:08,720 Speaker 1: was actually used as a church until the eighteen forties. 151 00:10:09,559 --> 00:10:11,920 Speaker 1: So it's a little hard to say that he wanted 152 00:10:12,120 --> 00:10:15,520 Speaker 1: total separation. What he did one is for people to 153 00:10:15,520 --> 00:10:18,320 Speaker 1: be able to worship freely. He was very open to 154 00:10:18,360 --> 00:10:21,079 Speaker 1: people finding God in their own way, and he wanted 155 00:10:21,120 --> 00:10:23,600 Speaker 1: to make sure that the government wouldn't put its thumb 156 00:10:23,600 --> 00:10:26,800 Speaker 1: on the scales in one direction or another. One of 157 00:10:26,800 --> 00:10:28,600 Speaker 1: the places I go when I want to think about 158 00:10:28,640 --> 00:10:32,319 Speaker 1: the Founding Fathers, they're really in my mind. Three great centers. 159 00:10:32,800 --> 00:10:34,920 Speaker 1: One is to go to Boston and look at the 160 00:10:34,960 --> 00:10:39,160 Speaker 1: Adams family, Samuel and John and others, and think about 161 00:10:39,200 --> 00:10:42,079 Speaker 1: what that whole experience was like there. The second is 162 00:10:42,120 --> 00:10:45,040 Speaker 1: to go to Philadelphia and to stand in the shadow 163 00:10:45,520 --> 00:10:49,120 Speaker 1: of Benjamin Franklin. The third is to go to Williamsburg. 164 00:10:49,760 --> 00:10:53,920 Speaker 1: The Rockefeller Foundation rebuilt Williamsburg in the nineteen thirties. I 165 00:10:53,960 --> 00:10:56,880 Speaker 1: find every time I go there that the historic part 166 00:10:56,960 --> 00:10:59,880 Speaker 1: of my soul gets renewed and refreshed. They've done an 167 00:11:00,000 --> 00:11:04,720 Speaker 1: amazing job. And you can imagine yourself walking down the 168 00:11:04,760 --> 00:11:08,840 Speaker 1: street where mister Jefferson is studying and reading law under 169 00:11:08,880 --> 00:11:11,440 Speaker 1: mister Wyatt's one of the great lawyers of that generation, 170 00:11:12,080 --> 00:11:15,320 Speaker 1: and then going down to one of the taverns which 171 00:11:15,320 --> 00:11:19,839 Speaker 1: are still there, and having a libation and talking about 172 00:11:19,840 --> 00:11:22,079 Speaker 1: the law, and talking about what's going on in Europe, 173 00:11:22,280 --> 00:11:26,600 Speaker 1: and talking about the theoretical principles on which freedom should 174 00:11:26,600 --> 00:11:31,480 Speaker 1: be based. And you have this whole notion that Jefferson 175 00:11:32,160 --> 00:11:37,160 Speaker 1: was capable of talking about almost anything. Jefferson, first of all, 176 00:11:37,280 --> 00:11:39,960 Speaker 1: is a reader. He loved to read so much that 177 00:11:40,040 --> 00:11:43,320 Speaker 1: he actually built a movable desk so that he could 178 00:11:43,840 --> 00:11:46,160 Speaker 1: if he was going to go safe to Philadelphia, which 179 00:11:46,160 --> 00:11:48,640 Speaker 1: back then was a long trip. He had a desk 180 00:11:48,679 --> 00:11:52,160 Speaker 1: that he could put in the carriage so that he 181 00:11:52,200 --> 00:11:56,600 Speaker 1: could work both reading and writing while he traveled, And 182 00:11:56,679 --> 00:12:00,240 Speaker 1: in that sense, he was constantly trying to improve. She 183 00:12:00,280 --> 00:12:02,520 Speaker 1: was constantly looking can I do it better? Can I 184 00:12:02,559 --> 00:12:08,000 Speaker 1: do it faster? And Jefferson, I've always thought, was very 185 00:12:08,040 --> 00:12:12,240 Speaker 1: happy learning and very happy thinking. And if he also 186 00:12:12,240 --> 00:12:14,439 Speaker 1: had to deal with people, that was all right, but 187 00:12:14,520 --> 00:12:37,640 Speaker 1: that was not his primary focus. Jefferson had grown up 188 00:12:37,679 --> 00:12:40,640 Speaker 1: in what then was sort of the western part of Virginia. 189 00:12:40,640 --> 00:12:42,480 Speaker 1: If you look at a map, we were talking about 190 00:12:42,720 --> 00:12:46,920 Speaker 1: central Virginia today, but back then, unlike Washington, who had 191 00:12:46,920 --> 00:12:50,560 Speaker 1: grown up in the planter part of the state with 192 00:12:50,679 --> 00:12:54,840 Speaker 1: large homes and elegant dances and people who wore fancy clothes, 193 00:12:55,280 --> 00:12:59,160 Speaker 1: Jefferson was much closer to the frontier, and he loved 194 00:12:59,240 --> 00:13:02,120 Speaker 1: the frontier. He loved farmers as a group, and he 195 00:13:02,160 --> 00:13:05,320 Speaker 1: really felt that virtue was to be found in small 196 00:13:05,360 --> 00:13:08,120 Speaker 1: towns in many ways. I think that you would find 197 00:13:08,800 --> 00:13:12,120 Speaker 1: that in eighteen ninety six, when William Jennings Bryan gave 198 00:13:12,160 --> 00:13:15,720 Speaker 1: his speech about mankind being crucified on the cross of gold. 199 00:13:16,080 --> 00:13:19,400 Speaker 1: He was, in a sense channeling Jefferson. Part of the 200 00:13:19,400 --> 00:13:23,199 Speaker 1: reason that the bitterness between Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton is 201 00:13:23,240 --> 00:13:27,720 Speaker 1: that Hamilton represents the cities, the moneyed class, bankers, and 202 00:13:27,840 --> 00:13:31,320 Speaker 1: Jefferson represents all the people who owe money to the cities, 203 00:13:31,320 --> 00:13:34,400 Speaker 1: the banker class, etc. So there's a deep sense in 204 00:13:34,480 --> 00:13:39,640 Speaker 1: Jefferson's mind that virtue comes from being close to the land, 205 00:13:40,120 --> 00:13:43,679 Speaker 1: and that a nation made up of farmers would by 206 00:13:43,760 --> 00:13:48,200 Speaker 1: definition be freer and more virtuous than a nation that 207 00:13:48,400 --> 00:13:51,640 Speaker 1: was made up of manufacturers, or of bankers, or of 208 00:13:51,640 --> 00:13:58,960 Speaker 1: big cities. Jefferson learned enormously fast. He went to school 209 00:13:58,960 --> 00:14:02,040 Speaker 1: in English at five, he went in Latin and nine. 210 00:14:02,480 --> 00:14:08,320 Speaker 1: He really constantly was learning, and he learned basically from 211 00:14:08,320 --> 00:14:11,520 Speaker 1: a tutor, a mister Douglas, who was a clergyman from Scotland. 212 00:14:12,000 --> 00:14:16,840 Speaker 1: He learned every day, He read constantly. He built a 213 00:14:16,920 --> 00:14:19,160 Speaker 1: huge library. In fact, the base of the Library of 214 00:14:19,200 --> 00:14:24,080 Speaker 1: Congress was Jefferson's library, about four thousand volumes at the time, 215 00:14:24,520 --> 00:14:27,560 Speaker 1: which was a huge library back then. Being Jefferson, of course, 216 00:14:27,960 --> 00:14:31,200 Speaker 1: he sold it to the Congress. It wasn't an act 217 00:14:31,200 --> 00:14:33,840 Speaker 1: of civic goodwill. He was trying to pay off some debts, 218 00:14:34,320 --> 00:14:37,480 Speaker 1: and so he sold the library, which tragically was burned 219 00:14:37,560 --> 00:14:40,040 Speaker 1: leader but it was the base of having a Library 220 00:14:40,040 --> 00:14:43,040 Speaker 1: of Congress, which is today the largest library in the world. 221 00:14:43,080 --> 00:14:45,520 Speaker 1: So it's come a long way from Jefferson's first four 222 00:14:45,560 --> 00:14:50,200 Speaker 1: thousand volumes. In that era, colleges were being formed, law 223 00:14:50,240 --> 00:14:54,080 Speaker 1: schools are being formed, but he really was largely taught 224 00:14:54,400 --> 00:14:59,080 Speaker 1: directly by tutors. And then he went to George Wythe 225 00:14:59,440 --> 00:15:04,360 Speaker 1: and George Law office still exists at Williamsburg. And you 226 00:15:04,400 --> 00:15:08,000 Speaker 1: can imagine in the morning Jefferson getting up, having a 227 00:15:08,040 --> 00:15:10,960 Speaker 1: cup of tea or coffee, maybe a small piece of bread, 228 00:15:11,400 --> 00:15:14,960 Speaker 1: going in and literally back then they called it reading 229 00:15:14,960 --> 00:15:17,520 Speaker 1: the law because that's what they were doing. This is 230 00:15:17,600 --> 00:15:21,960 Speaker 1: before you got law schools and tenured professors and high 231 00:15:22,080 --> 00:15:26,400 Speaker 1: tuition costs. So Jefferson is living in Williamsburg, which was 232 00:15:26,480 --> 00:15:29,680 Speaker 1: the center of politics in that period for Virginia. So 233 00:15:30,280 --> 00:15:33,600 Speaker 1: when the House of Burgesses, which was their legislature, when 234 00:15:33,600 --> 00:15:36,600 Speaker 1: it was in session, people came from all over the state. 235 00:15:37,320 --> 00:15:39,920 Speaker 1: And if you were a young person studying under George 236 00:15:39,920 --> 00:15:43,480 Speaker 1: with with new everybody, and so you inevitably would end 237 00:15:43,520 --> 00:15:46,640 Speaker 1: up at dinner surrounded by the whole state. Over the 238 00:15:46,680 --> 00:15:50,560 Speaker 1: course of time, Jefferson came naturally to him to be 239 00:15:50,600 --> 00:15:54,680 Speaker 1: engaged in politics, and in seventeen sixty eight he's elected 240 00:15:54,680 --> 00:15:58,200 Speaker 1: to the House of Burgesses. Now he also began, and 241 00:15:58,280 --> 00:16:01,120 Speaker 1: this is very typically Jefferson the end, he began to 242 00:16:01,240 --> 00:16:05,000 Speaker 1: level a mountaintop at Monticello. I mean, this is a 243 00:16:05,000 --> 00:16:07,840 Speaker 1: guy who dreamed being thought being built big and was 244 00:16:07,880 --> 00:16:10,640 Speaker 1: permanently in debt because of all the things he wanted 245 00:16:10,640 --> 00:16:15,400 Speaker 1: to do. And by seventeen eighty he began building Monticello, 246 00:16:15,480 --> 00:16:19,120 Speaker 1: which is one of the most remarkable buildings of the 247 00:16:19,280 --> 00:16:22,960 Speaker 1: eighteenth century. And if you have never been there, it 248 00:16:23,160 --> 00:16:26,480 Speaker 1: is really worth your while to go and to look 249 00:16:26,520 --> 00:16:30,040 Speaker 1: at what he designed, how it was built, the degree 250 00:16:30,080 --> 00:16:33,680 Speaker 1: to which it was at that time a remarkably advanced 251 00:16:34,200 --> 00:16:37,560 Speaker 1: a building. And also little side things you'll notice when 252 00:16:37,560 --> 00:16:41,720 Speaker 1: you tour. For example, Jefferson tended to sleep sitting up. 253 00:16:42,240 --> 00:16:44,640 Speaker 1: People thought it was better for you because if you 254 00:16:44,720 --> 00:16:47,640 Speaker 1: lay down you could get water in your lungs, and 255 00:16:47,680 --> 00:16:50,360 Speaker 1: so it was really sort of a norm. Now, Jefferson 256 00:16:50,400 --> 00:16:53,000 Speaker 1: himself was very tall, so you have this tall guy 257 00:16:53,080 --> 00:16:56,880 Speaker 1: in a long bed sitting up Jefferson finally gets really 258 00:16:56,960 --> 00:17:01,120 Speaker 1: lucky and inherits eleventh and acres of land in one 259 00:17:01,160 --> 00:17:03,800 Speaker 1: hundred and thirty five slaves, which means, of course, he 260 00:17:03,920 --> 00:17:08,320 Speaker 1: quit practicing law. Unlike some people who loved practicing law, 261 00:17:08,680 --> 00:17:10,480 Speaker 1: Jefferson had earned a living. Now he didn't have to 262 00:17:10,520 --> 00:17:14,480 Speaker 1: earn a living, so he didn't. It's interesting that Jefferson 263 00:17:14,520 --> 00:17:18,920 Speaker 1: in that very same time period wrote a article called 264 00:17:18,960 --> 00:17:22,800 Speaker 1: a Summary View of the Rights of British America seventeen 265 00:17:22,840 --> 00:17:25,480 Speaker 1: seventy four, the same year he's inheriting land, and he 266 00:17:25,560 --> 00:17:29,399 Speaker 1: says resolved that it be an instruction to the Deputies, 267 00:17:29,640 --> 00:17:32,760 Speaker 1: when assembled in General Congress, with the deputies from other 268 00:17:32,840 --> 00:17:37,440 Speaker 1: states of British America, to propose to the said Congress, 269 00:17:37,480 --> 00:17:41,760 Speaker 1: that an humble and dutiful address being presented to His Majesty, 270 00:17:41,960 --> 00:17:45,480 Speaker 1: begging leave to lay before him, as Chief Magistrate of 271 00:17:45,480 --> 00:17:49,160 Speaker 1: the British Empire, the United complaints of His Majesty's subjects 272 00:17:49,160 --> 00:17:53,879 Speaker 1: in America, complaints which are excited by many unwarrantable encroachments 273 00:17:54,000 --> 00:17:57,639 Speaker 1: and usurpations attempted to be made by the legislature of 274 00:17:57,680 --> 00:18:00,600 Speaker 1: one part of the Empire upon those rights which God 275 00:18:00,640 --> 00:18:04,520 Speaker 1: and the laws have given equally and independently at all. Now, 276 00:18:04,560 --> 00:18:08,800 Speaker 1: notice the forerunner of the declaration, where did the rights 277 00:18:08,800 --> 00:18:12,679 Speaker 1: come from? Those rights which God and the laws? And 278 00:18:12,760 --> 00:18:16,320 Speaker 1: Jefferson would have argued, as with most of the Founding fathers, 279 00:18:16,760 --> 00:18:20,479 Speaker 1: that the law was in fact the systemic implementation of 280 00:18:20,520 --> 00:18:23,520 Speaker 1: God's will, and therefore that the rule of law was 281 00:18:23,600 --> 00:18:26,800 Speaker 1: central to the rule of freedom, but that they were 282 00:18:26,800 --> 00:18:31,000 Speaker 1: both based on God. This is a radical statement, hard 283 00:18:31,040 --> 00:18:35,119 Speaker 1: to recognize today, how radical it is, because it's saying 284 00:18:35,119 --> 00:18:37,960 Speaker 1: that the rights don't come from the king, the rights 285 00:18:38,000 --> 00:18:41,879 Speaker 1: come from God. And it is the forerunner of what 286 00:18:42,000 --> 00:18:45,320 Speaker 1: he will write two years later. So supportin remember me 287 00:18:45,440 --> 00:18:48,680 Speaker 1: of this sudden explosion of energy in the late seventeen 288 00:18:48,720 --> 00:18:53,479 Speaker 1: sixties early seventeen seventies, partially brought about because in winning 289 00:18:53,520 --> 00:18:55,879 Speaker 1: the Seven Years War, or as we called it in 290 00:18:55,960 --> 00:19:00,720 Speaker 1: the New World, the French and Indian War, the French 291 00:19:00,760 --> 00:19:03,879 Speaker 1: were eliminated as a threat, and now not having to 292 00:19:03,880 --> 00:19:06,960 Speaker 1: be afraid of the French, the Americans looked up and said, well, 293 00:19:07,640 --> 00:19:09,920 Speaker 1: if we don't have to be afraid of the French, 294 00:19:09,920 --> 00:19:11,560 Speaker 1: why are we paying all this money to the British 295 00:19:11,560 --> 00:19:14,840 Speaker 1: Crown and the British crown basically said, well, because we 296 00:19:14,920 --> 00:19:19,600 Speaker 1: own you, and the Americans said, actually, you don't. Our 297 00:19:19,640 --> 00:19:23,480 Speaker 1: patriotism comes from God, not from the court, and we 298 00:19:23,560 --> 00:19:28,040 Speaker 1: repudiate the idea that you owe us. As a great statement. 299 00:19:28,880 --> 00:19:31,199 Speaker 1: A man who was quite elderly by that point, I 300 00:19:31,240 --> 00:19:34,040 Speaker 1: think it is early eighties, who had fought in the 301 00:19:34,040 --> 00:19:39,360 Speaker 1: American Revolution, and somebody came to him and said, why 302 00:19:39,359 --> 00:19:43,960 Speaker 1: did you fight? Was the Tax Act? Was the Stamp Act? 303 00:19:44,160 --> 00:19:47,040 Speaker 1: Was at the imposition of taxes? Why did you end 304 00:19:47,080 --> 00:19:50,919 Speaker 1: up fighting? And he said, young man, we intended to 305 00:19:50,960 --> 00:19:55,359 Speaker 1: be free, and they intended for us not to be free, 306 00:19:56,080 --> 00:20:00,199 Speaker 1: and so we fought, and now we're free. And I 307 00:20:00,200 --> 00:20:04,080 Speaker 1: think it was this sense which you see suddenly coalesce 308 00:20:04,760 --> 00:20:09,439 Speaker 1: between seventeen seventy and seventeen seventy six in ways that 309 00:20:09,560 --> 00:20:12,760 Speaker 1: are amazing. You could not predict in seventeen seventy that 310 00:20:12,960 --> 00:20:17,760 Speaker 1: six short years later they would be passing the Declaration Independence. Now, 311 00:20:18,440 --> 00:20:22,880 Speaker 1: Jefferson was a little bit shy, and he understood that 312 00:20:22,960 --> 00:20:26,400 Speaker 1: his great strength was not as a debater or an arguer. 313 00:20:26,800 --> 00:20:28,600 Speaker 1: He was not a courtier. He was not a man 314 00:20:28,680 --> 00:20:32,040 Speaker 1: who to go around and win over, and in fact, 315 00:20:32,359 --> 00:20:36,800 Speaker 1: John Adams said that he was silent for his entire 316 00:20:36,880 --> 00:20:39,760 Speaker 1: first year. He was elected in seventeen seventy five to 317 00:20:39,800 --> 00:20:42,240 Speaker 1: the Continental Congress, and this is what Adams wrote in 318 00:20:42,280 --> 00:20:46,120 Speaker 1: his autobiography. Mister Jefferson had now been about a year 319 00:20:46,400 --> 00:20:49,320 Speaker 1: a member of Congress, but had attended his duty in 320 00:20:49,320 --> 00:20:51,200 Speaker 1: the House but a very small part of the time, 321 00:20:51,640 --> 00:20:55,080 Speaker 1: and when there had never spoken in public. And during 322 00:20:55,080 --> 00:20:57,399 Speaker 1: the whole time I sat with him in Congress, I 323 00:20:57,520 --> 00:21:00,840 Speaker 1: never heard him under three sentences together. The most of 324 00:21:00,840 --> 00:21:03,080 Speaker 1: a speech he ever made in my hearing was a 325 00:21:03,119 --> 00:21:07,840 Speaker 1: gross insult on religion in one or two sentences, for 326 00:21:07,960 --> 00:21:11,680 Speaker 1: which I immediately gave him the reprehension, which he richly merited. 327 00:21:12,560 --> 00:21:18,280 Speaker 1: So you have the sense of Jefferson being taciturn quiet, watching, learning, thinking. 328 00:21:18,760 --> 00:21:21,960 Speaker 1: And then in seventeen seventy six he is asked to 329 00:21:21,960 --> 00:21:25,960 Speaker 1: help right the declas independence, and there is no question 330 00:21:26,720 --> 00:21:31,640 Speaker 1: that he developed the core language of that declaration. He's 331 00:21:31,680 --> 00:21:34,600 Speaker 1: also elected in seventeen seventy six to the Virginia House 332 00:21:34,640 --> 00:21:38,560 Speaker 1: of Delegates, where he's appointed to revise Virginia law. Remember, 333 00:21:38,720 --> 00:21:41,440 Speaker 1: all thirteen of the colonies are going through the same process. 334 00:21:42,119 --> 00:21:45,960 Speaker 1: He helped create the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. And 335 00:21:46,119 --> 00:21:50,480 Speaker 1: this is extraordinarily important because it moves from just a 336 00:21:50,600 --> 00:21:54,800 Speaker 1: political argument to a profound argument about liberty and a 337 00:21:54,960 --> 00:21:59,600 Speaker 1: profound argument about the very nature of your relationship to 338 00:21:59,640 --> 00:22:03,359 Speaker 1: the King and your relationship to God. The General Assembly 339 00:22:03,440 --> 00:22:08,560 Speaker 1: in Virginia appointed five men to a committee of revisors 340 00:22:08,560 --> 00:22:10,800 Speaker 1: to review the law and to redraft them for the 341 00:22:10,840 --> 00:22:14,800 Speaker 1: independent state. Three of the five men were primarily responsible. 342 00:22:15,119 --> 00:22:20,200 Speaker 1: They included Thomas Jefferson, George Wythe, and Edmund Pendleton. Jefferson 343 00:22:20,280 --> 00:22:23,680 Speaker 1: drafted the majority of the bills, so while he was quiet, 344 00:22:23,720 --> 00:22:26,720 Speaker 1: he was busy, but his strength was in the written word, 345 00:22:27,080 --> 00:22:29,440 Speaker 1: where he had time to think, and where he could 346 00:22:29,480 --> 00:22:32,920 Speaker 1: write with extraordinary elegance in a way that very few 347 00:22:32,920 --> 00:22:36,840 Speaker 1: people have been able to equal. In seventeen seventy nine, 348 00:22:37,320 --> 00:22:40,840 Speaker 1: when Jefferson had been elected Governor of Virginia, the hundred 349 00:22:40,880 --> 00:22:43,720 Speaker 1: and twenty six bills that the committee he served on 350 00:22:43,840 --> 00:22:46,960 Speaker 1: had drafted were presented to the General Assembly. Most of 351 00:22:46,960 --> 00:22:51,080 Speaker 1: them were not adopted or even seriously considered. However, Bill 352 00:22:51,160 --> 00:22:55,359 Speaker 1: eighty two, the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, which called 353 00:22:55,400 --> 00:22:58,480 Speaker 1: for a separation of church and state, was considered and 354 00:22:58,720 --> 00:23:02,400 Speaker 1: finally adopted in seventeen eighty six. Notice, by the way, 355 00:23:02,680 --> 00:23:06,639 Speaker 1: that sometimes these wave effects take time. You have to 356 00:23:06,640 --> 00:23:08,959 Speaker 1: think of them as a video rather than a snapshot. 357 00:23:09,440 --> 00:23:13,840 Speaker 1: And what isn't possible in frame one may be overwhelmingly 358 00:23:13,880 --> 00:23:17,520 Speaker 1: possible by frame thirty. And that's what's happening in this speriod. 359 00:23:18,040 --> 00:23:21,639 Speaker 1: This famous bill, the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, adopted 360 00:23:21,640 --> 00:23:25,159 Speaker 1: in seventeen eighty six, although it had been drafted initially 361 00:23:25,560 --> 00:23:29,200 Speaker 1: a decade earlier, says we, the General Assembly of Virginia, 362 00:23:29,320 --> 00:23:32,320 Speaker 1: do an act that no man shall be compelled to 363 00:23:32,480 --> 00:23:37,240 Speaker 1: frequent or support any religious worship place or ministry whatsoever, 364 00:23:37,720 --> 00:23:41,960 Speaker 1: nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burdened but in 365 00:23:42,040 --> 00:23:45,800 Speaker 1: his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account 366 00:23:45,800 --> 00:23:48,800 Speaker 1: of his religious opinions or belief. But that all men 367 00:23:49,119 --> 00:23:52,040 Speaker 1: shall be free to profess, and by argument, to maintain 368 00:23:52,440 --> 00:23:55,359 Speaker 1: their opinions and matters of religion, And that the same 369 00:23:55,400 --> 00:23:58,720 Speaker 1: shall of no wise diminish and large or affect their 370 00:23:58,720 --> 00:24:02,399 Speaker 1: civil capacities. Now think of it that you and I 371 00:24:02,480 --> 00:24:05,160 Speaker 1: live in a time when there are many countries where 372 00:24:05,240 --> 00:24:07,480 Speaker 1: you can be put to death for believing the wrong things. 373 00:24:08,040 --> 00:24:09,600 Speaker 1: We live in a time when there are many countries 374 00:24:09,600 --> 00:24:11,520 Speaker 1: when you can be put in jail for believing the 375 00:24:11,560 --> 00:24:14,520 Speaker 1: wrong things. And yet here they are in the late 376 00:24:14,560 --> 00:24:19,520 Speaker 1: eighteenth century, laying out a frame of reference that liberates 377 00:24:19,560 --> 00:24:23,520 Speaker 1: people from government and says, your religious beliefs are up 378 00:24:23,560 --> 00:24:26,280 Speaker 1: to you, and you will not be punished. You will 379 00:24:26,320 --> 00:24:28,639 Speaker 1: not be fined, you will not be sent to jail, 380 00:24:29,119 --> 00:24:32,160 Speaker 1: because you are protected in your right to approach God 381 00:24:32,160 --> 00:24:34,960 Speaker 1: as you see fit. When Jefferson learned that the bill 382 00:24:35,040 --> 00:24:38,119 Speaker 1: had passed finally after all those years, he had it 383 00:24:38,160 --> 00:24:42,359 Speaker 1: translated into French and Italian and distributed as widely as possible, 384 00:24:42,840 --> 00:24:45,679 Speaker 1: because he thought that religious liberty was one of his 385 00:24:45,800 --> 00:24:50,439 Speaker 1: greatest achievements. James Madison, his close friend, later wrote that 386 00:24:50,480 --> 00:24:53,800 Speaker 1: the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom quote is a true 387 00:24:53,880 --> 00:24:57,480 Speaker 1: standard of religious liberty. Its principle of the great barrier 388 00:24:57,800 --> 00:25:01,280 Speaker 1: against usurpations on the rights of conscience. As long as 389 00:25:01,280 --> 00:25:04,879 Speaker 1: it is respected, and no longer these will be safe. 390 00:25:05,240 --> 00:25:07,280 Speaker 1: And as we go through some of our current fights, 391 00:25:07,880 --> 00:25:11,199 Speaker 1: and we watched the government encroach upon religious liberty, and 392 00:25:11,359 --> 00:25:14,720 Speaker 1: we watch the woke left trying to impose their radical 393 00:25:14,800 --> 00:25:19,720 Speaker 1: values on people of religion. You can understand how truly 394 00:25:19,880 --> 00:25:55,560 Speaker 1: central Jefferson was in helping develop a very, very different approach. Now, 395 00:25:55,840 --> 00:25:59,760 Speaker 1: Jefferson was involved in much more than just religious liberty. 396 00:26:00,320 --> 00:26:03,120 Speaker 1: He actually believed that something which I wish we could 397 00:26:03,440 --> 00:26:06,439 Speaker 1: get back into the current political environment. He actually believed 398 00:26:06,440 --> 00:26:10,199 Speaker 1: that knowledge mattered, and he actually believed that education mattered. 399 00:26:10,720 --> 00:26:13,280 Speaker 1: In seventeen seventy eight, he drafted a bill in education 400 00:26:13,840 --> 00:26:17,840 Speaker 1: entitled quote a Bill for more General Diffusion of Knowledge. Now, 401 00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:23,080 Speaker 1: this is one of Jefferson's great passions. Here's what Jefferson 402 00:26:23,160 --> 00:26:27,520 Speaker 1: himself wrote. Whereas it appearth that, however, certain forms of 403 00:26:27,560 --> 00:26:31,000 Speaker 1: government are better calculated than others to protect individuals in 404 00:26:31,080 --> 00:26:34,480 Speaker 1: the free exercise of their natural rights, and are at 405 00:26:34,480 --> 00:26:39,520 Speaker 1: the same time themselves better guarded against degeneracy. Yet experience 406 00:26:39,560 --> 00:26:43,520 Speaker 1: has shown that even under the best forms, those entrusted 407 00:26:43,520 --> 00:26:46,800 Speaker 1: with power have, in time and by slow operations, perverted 408 00:26:46,840 --> 00:26:49,960 Speaker 1: it into tyranny. Let me repeat this because it sort 409 00:26:50,000 --> 00:26:52,760 Speaker 1: of fits the world recurrent a living in even under 410 00:26:52,800 --> 00:26:57,000 Speaker 1: the best forms, those entrusted with power have, in time 411 00:26:57,480 --> 00:27:02,360 Speaker 1: and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny. Jefferson goes 412 00:27:02,359 --> 00:27:04,560 Speaker 1: on to say, and it is believed that the most 413 00:27:04,560 --> 00:27:08,119 Speaker 1: effectual means of preventing this would be to eliminate, as 414 00:27:08,160 --> 00:27:11,040 Speaker 1: far as practical, the minds of the people at large, 415 00:27:11,320 --> 00:27:14,840 Speaker 1: and more especially, to give them knowledge of those facts 416 00:27:14,960 --> 00:27:18,879 Speaker 1: which history exhibiteth that possess thereby of the experience of 417 00:27:18,880 --> 00:27:21,840 Speaker 1: other ages and countries, they may be enabled to know 418 00:27:21,920 --> 00:27:25,120 Speaker 1: ambition under all its shapes, and prompt to exert their 419 00:27:25,240 --> 00:27:28,840 Speaker 1: natural powers to defeat its purposes. And whereas it is 420 00:27:28,880 --> 00:27:32,360 Speaker 1: generally true that people will be happiest whose laws are 421 00:27:32,400 --> 00:27:35,280 Speaker 1: best and are best administered, and the laws will be 422 00:27:35,320 --> 00:27:40,399 Speaker 1: wisely formed and honestly administered, in proportion as those who 423 00:27:40,520 --> 00:27:43,520 Speaker 1: form and administer them are wise and honest, whence it 424 00:27:43,600 --> 00:27:47,760 Speaker 1: becomes expedient for promoting the public happiness that those person 425 00:27:48,119 --> 00:27:51,359 Speaker 1: whom nature hath endowed with genius and virtue should be 426 00:27:51,400 --> 00:27:55,239 Speaker 1: rendered by liberal education, worthy to receive and able to 427 00:27:55,280 --> 00:27:58,480 Speaker 1: guard the sacred deposit of the rights and liberties of 428 00:27:58,480 --> 00:28:01,040 Speaker 1: their fellow citizens, And that they should be called to 429 00:28:01,119 --> 00:28:05,639 Speaker 1: that charge without regard to wealth, birth, or other accidental 430 00:28:05,640 --> 00:28:09,160 Speaker 1: condition or circumstance, but the indigence of the greater number 431 00:28:09,200 --> 00:28:12,639 Speaker 1: disabling them from self educating at their own expense, those 432 00:28:12,680 --> 00:28:15,800 Speaker 1: of their children, whom nature have fitly formed and disposed 433 00:28:15,800 --> 00:28:18,679 Speaker 1: to become useful instruments for the public. It is better 434 00:28:18,720 --> 00:28:21,960 Speaker 1: that such should be sought for and educated at the 435 00:28:22,000 --> 00:28:25,000 Speaker 1: common expense of all, than that the happiness of all 436 00:28:25,200 --> 00:28:28,639 Speaker 1: should be confided to the weak or the wicked. Now, 437 00:28:29,359 --> 00:28:32,080 Speaker 1: if you go back and reread that and you realize 438 00:28:32,080 --> 00:28:36,560 Speaker 1: that a current situation schools that don't teach, teachers that 439 00:28:36,600 --> 00:28:41,760 Speaker 1: don't educate, total avoidance of history, dumbing down of mathematics, 440 00:28:42,040 --> 00:28:44,400 Speaker 1: giving people passing grade so they feel good even if 441 00:28:44,440 --> 00:28:48,560 Speaker 1: they know nothing, you can sense that we have arrived 442 00:28:48,600 --> 00:28:53,160 Speaker 1: at a counter Jeffersonian moment when everything Jefferson feared in 443 00:28:53,280 --> 00:28:56,920 Speaker 1: terms of ignorant people giving up their freedoms are far 444 00:28:56,960 --> 00:28:59,680 Speaker 1: too close to giving a reality. And it's why Jefferson 445 00:28:59,720 --> 00:29:03,760 Speaker 1: Has All is worth revisiting and thinking about. Jefferson himself, 446 00:29:03,800 --> 00:29:05,840 Speaker 1: by the way, gets to be elected governor, and a 447 00:29:05,960 --> 00:29:09,880 Speaker 1: terrible governor. He doesn't like power, although he's brilliant at 448 00:29:09,960 --> 00:29:11,760 Speaker 1: using it when he has to, and when he's president 449 00:29:11,800 --> 00:29:15,680 Speaker 1: he's brilliant at using power. But in the period of 450 00:29:15,720 --> 00:29:18,840 Speaker 1: seventeen seventy nine to seventeen eighty one, the British army 451 00:29:18,960 --> 00:29:21,960 Speaker 1: was rampaging through Virginia. There was an effort to crush 452 00:29:21,960 --> 00:29:27,120 Speaker 1: the rebellion, and Jefferson is really put in an awkward position. 453 00:29:27,560 --> 00:29:30,360 Speaker 1: He's not an effective wartime governor. It's not his strength 454 00:29:30,880 --> 00:29:34,360 Speaker 1: and as a result, I think he would say that 455 00:29:34,400 --> 00:29:38,720 Speaker 1: his governorship was one of the least impressive of his activities. However, 456 00:29:39,240 --> 00:29:42,320 Speaker 1: being Jefferson, he's done to stop while he's governor. He 457 00:29:42,400 --> 00:29:45,800 Speaker 1: also writes his only book, Notes on the State of Virginia. 458 00:29:46,000 --> 00:29:48,240 Speaker 1: He didn't intend to write or publish it, and he 459 00:29:48,320 --> 00:29:51,600 Speaker 1: actually worried that their publication would do more harm or good. 460 00:29:52,080 --> 00:29:56,120 Speaker 1: But he says things he really deeply believes it, And 461 00:29:56,160 --> 00:29:58,880 Speaker 1: again he goes back to freedom of religion. In Query 462 00:29:59,040 --> 00:30:03,120 Speaker 1: seventeen religious Jefferson defended separation of church and state, saying 463 00:30:03,440 --> 00:30:06,200 Speaker 1: it does me no injury for my neighbor to say 464 00:30:06,200 --> 00:30:08,920 Speaker 1: there are twenty gods or no gut, and neither picks 465 00:30:08,960 --> 00:30:13,240 Speaker 1: my pocket nor breaks my leg. Again, he's arguing that 466 00:30:13,640 --> 00:30:16,760 Speaker 1: you have freedom, then that you shouldn't be taxed to 467 00:30:16,840 --> 00:30:19,360 Speaker 1: pay for their beliefs, but that they should therefore be 468 00:30:19,400 --> 00:30:22,880 Speaker 1: allowed to have their beliefs without the government interfering. He 469 00:30:22,960 --> 00:30:25,680 Speaker 1: actually took the manuscript to his book to Paris, and 470 00:30:25,760 --> 00:30:29,600 Speaker 1: he contracted a printer who printed two hundred copies. Jefferson's 471 00:30:29,600 --> 00:30:31,720 Speaker 1: Little Book on the Notes in the State of Virginia 472 00:30:31,920 --> 00:30:36,280 Speaker 1: was sufficiently controversial that James Madison and George with put 473 00:30:36,320 --> 00:30:40,320 Speaker 1: copies in the college library rather than giving them to students, 474 00:30:40,360 --> 00:30:44,440 Speaker 1: saying such an indiscriminate gift might offend some narrow minded parents. 475 00:30:45,240 --> 00:30:48,320 Speaker 1: In Paris, Jefferson gave a few copies to close friends 476 00:30:48,320 --> 00:30:52,240 Speaker 1: and confidential persons, writing in each copy a restraint against 477 00:30:52,280 --> 00:30:55,560 Speaker 1: publishing it. However, a copy fell into the hands of 478 00:30:55,560 --> 00:30:59,600 Speaker 1: a bookseller, who, according to Jefferson, employed a hireling translator 479 00:31:00,000 --> 00:31:03,080 Speaker 1: and was about publishing it in the most injurious form possible. 480 00:31:03,800 --> 00:31:06,720 Speaker 1: To keep that from happening, Jefferson entered into agreement for 481 00:31:06,760 --> 00:31:12,800 Speaker 1: the translation into French with the highly respected writer Abbe Motley. Unfortunately, 482 00:31:12,880 --> 00:31:15,000 Speaker 1: Jefferson of Morley had different ideas as to what the 483 00:31:15,040 --> 00:31:18,400 Speaker 1: translation meant. Jefferson wanted the translation of a strict word 484 00:31:18,400 --> 00:31:21,880 Speaker 1: for word translation of his text. Moraley, however, believed that 485 00:31:21,920 --> 00:31:24,720 Speaker 1: the translated's job was to be an active collaborator, and 486 00:31:24,920 --> 00:31:29,320 Speaker 1: ended up changing the work Jefferson was very displeased. Jefferson 487 00:31:29,360 --> 00:31:32,360 Speaker 1: then turned to John Stockdale, an English publisher, agreed to 488 00:31:32,360 --> 00:31:34,760 Speaker 1: print the work, but told Jefferson, I know there is 489 00:31:34,800 --> 00:31:38,000 Speaker 1: some bitter pills relative to our country. After all, this 490 00:31:38,160 --> 00:31:41,080 Speaker 1: was shortly after we had defeated the British and earned 491 00:31:41,080 --> 00:31:46,120 Speaker 1: our independence. On August fourteen, seventeen eighty seven, Jefferson wrote 492 00:31:46,120 --> 00:31:48,920 Speaker 1: to Stockdale that he had received the initial copies. In 493 00:31:49,040 --> 00:31:52,880 Speaker 1: all this period, Jefferson remains active. He has elected delegate 494 00:31:52,880 --> 00:31:56,280 Speaker 1: to Congress in seventeen eighty three. Between seventeen eighty four 495 00:31:56,280 --> 00:32:00,400 Speaker 1: and seventeen ninety serves in France as the Commissioner in US. 496 00:32:00,960 --> 00:32:03,120 Speaker 1: In seventeen eighty seventy, he wrote to a good friend, 497 00:32:03,320 --> 00:32:06,840 Speaker 1: Francis Hopkinson, his desire for this position to be silent 498 00:32:06,840 --> 00:32:09,200 Speaker 1: and to be out of the limelight. And this gives 499 00:32:09,200 --> 00:32:14,200 Speaker 1: you a flavor of Jeffersons so oddly contradictory. He says, 500 00:32:14,840 --> 00:32:16,959 Speaker 1: My great wish is to go on in a strict 501 00:32:17,000 --> 00:32:20,600 Speaker 1: but silent performance of my duty, to avoid attracting notice, 502 00:32:20,920 --> 00:32:23,960 Speaker 1: and to keep my name out of newspapers, because I 503 00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:26,120 Speaker 1: find the pain of a little censure, even when it 504 00:32:26,200 --> 00:32:31,640 Speaker 1: is unfounded, is more acute than the pleasure of much praise. Now, so, hey, 505 00:32:31,640 --> 00:32:34,160 Speaker 1: you have this guy who, on the one hand, really 506 00:32:34,240 --> 00:32:37,320 Speaker 1: is secretive and really doesn't want to be noticed. On 507 00:32:37,360 --> 00:32:40,320 Speaker 1: the other hand, he is active in politics. He's governor 508 00:32:40,320 --> 00:32:42,640 Speaker 1: of the state. He's ultimately going to be Secretary of 509 00:32:42,680 --> 00:32:46,120 Speaker 1: State and vice president and president United States. And that 510 00:32:46,200 --> 00:32:50,959 Speaker 1: sort of captures Jefferson. He is a very complicated person, 511 00:32:51,560 --> 00:32:56,840 Speaker 1: of enormous willpower, great patience and discipline, enormous capacity for work, 512 00:32:57,200 --> 00:33:01,360 Speaker 1: and he's just really really smart. He could probably argue 513 00:33:01,400 --> 00:33:05,120 Speaker 1: that he and Benjamin Franklin were the two smartest of 514 00:33:05,160 --> 00:33:08,840 Speaker 1: the founding fathers. They were both able to learn almost everything, 515 00:33:09,200 --> 00:33:12,840 Speaker 1: and they both made major contributions to knowledge. To give 516 00:33:12,880 --> 00:33:18,200 Speaker 1: an example of Jefferson's genuinely diverse interests, in seventeen ninety one, 517 00:33:18,240 --> 00:33:21,360 Speaker 1: he and his friend James Madison made a botanical tour 518 00:33:21,400 --> 00:33:24,640 Speaker 1: of the Northern Lakes, and his most lengthy journal entries 519 00:33:25,000 --> 00:33:28,560 Speaker 1: was on the fly, but final report was never presented 520 00:33:28,560 --> 00:33:31,240 Speaker 1: to anybody, but it still exists. So again, here's the 521 00:33:31,280 --> 00:33:34,400 Speaker 1: guy who has written a decleation independence, served in the Congress, 522 00:33:34,400 --> 00:33:37,600 Speaker 1: served as governor, served as a vassador, and he's off 523 00:33:38,360 --> 00:33:48,200 Speaker 1: writing a discourse on the nature of the fly. Jefferson 524 00:33:48,280 --> 00:33:51,200 Speaker 1: also served on a committee referred to in the Societies 525 00:33:51,280 --> 00:33:56,320 Speaker 1: Minutes of June sixteenth, seventeen ninety seven as the Bone Committee, 526 00:33:56,680 --> 00:34:00,560 Speaker 1: whose priority was to procure one or more entire skeletons 527 00:34:00,600 --> 00:34:04,880 Speaker 1: of the mammoth. In eighteen oh seven, when Jefferson financed 528 00:34:04,880 --> 00:34:07,960 Speaker 1: the dig conducted by William Clark at Big Bone Lick, Kentucky, 529 00:34:08,440 --> 00:34:11,319 Speaker 1: of the over three hundred bones that Clark sent back, 530 00:34:11,800 --> 00:34:15,839 Speaker 1: Jefferson offered the Society any of the fossils that were 531 00:34:15,840 --> 00:34:20,120 Speaker 1: not already in their collection. On March third, seventeen ninety seven, 532 00:34:20,400 --> 00:34:24,839 Speaker 1: Jefferson became president of the American Philosophical Society, the day 533 00:34:24,880 --> 00:34:28,480 Speaker 1: before he became Vice President of the United States. He 534 00:34:28,640 --> 00:34:31,959 Speaker 1: served as president of the Philosophical Society for the next 535 00:34:32,080 --> 00:34:36,440 Speaker 1: eighteen years. He offered three letters of resignation when the 536 00:34:36,440 --> 00:34:39,719 Speaker 1: government moved to Washington, c when he retired to Manicello, 537 00:34:40,040 --> 00:34:44,840 Speaker 1: but the Society refused to allow his resignation. They finally 538 00:34:44,880 --> 00:34:51,240 Speaker 1: accepted his resignation on January twentieth, eighteen fifteen. And so 539 00:34:51,280 --> 00:34:53,799 Speaker 1: you can see that Jefferson's a complex person with an 540 00:34:53,960 --> 00:34:58,040 Speaker 1: enormous range of interests, And in the next part I'm 541 00:34:58,040 --> 00:35:02,800 Speaker 1: going to talk about Jefferson president and the extraordinary complex 542 00:35:02,920 --> 00:35:05,960 Speaker 1: nature of his presidency and of what he did after that. 543 00:35:06,120 --> 00:35:09,520 Speaker 1: So I hope you'll listen also to Jefferson as an 544 00:35:09,520 --> 00:35:23,399 Speaker 1: American immortal in Part two on Newtsworld. On the one hand, 545 00:35:23,480 --> 00:35:27,360 Speaker 1: Jefferson was a very idealistic person. On the other hand, 546 00:35:27,719 --> 00:35:33,880 Speaker 1: he's a very sophisticated, subtle, and often duplicitous politician, and 547 00:35:34,080 --> 00:35:37,640 Speaker 1: both are somehow captured in the same person. He's a 548 00:35:37,680 --> 00:35:39,759 Speaker 1: man of great principles, but on the other hand, as 549 00:35:39,800 --> 00:35:43,080 Speaker 1: you'll see as president, he sometimes broke those principles in 550 00:35:43,640 --> 00:35:48,560 Speaker 1: amazing ways. The term Jeffersonian Democrat for a very long 551 00:35:48,600 --> 00:35:52,200 Speaker 1: time meant somebody who was for limited government, was for 552 00:35:52,320 --> 00:35:57,920 Speaker 1: lower expenses, and was essentially very very suspicious of power 553 00:35:57,920 --> 00:36:00,840 Speaker 1: in Washington. But at the same time time, as you'll see, 554 00:36:01,160 --> 00:36:04,399 Speaker 1: this is a guy who bought half a continent. He's 555 00:36:04,440 --> 00:36:07,160 Speaker 1: a person who sent the Marines in the Navy to 556 00:36:07,200 --> 00:36:10,600 Speaker 1: the shores of Tripoli without telling Congress, and so on 557 00:36:10,640 --> 00:36:13,400 Speaker 1: the one hand, he was sort of for limited government 558 00:36:13,600 --> 00:36:16,439 Speaker 1: unless he wasn't for limited government. And it's this kind 559 00:36:16,440 --> 00:36:21,040 Speaker 1: of complexity that makes Jefferson so fascinating. He was also 560 00:36:21,160 --> 00:36:24,480 Speaker 1: not only extraordinarily smart, one of the three or four 561 00:36:24,560 --> 00:36:28,000 Speaker 1: smartest of our presidents, but he was, in addition, a 562 00:36:28,080 --> 00:36:34,640 Speaker 1: person of extraordinarily wide eclectic interests. Jefferson read widely, taught 563 00:36:34,719 --> 00:36:38,640 Speaker 1: himself Spanish while on a ship going to Europe by 564 00:36:38,719 --> 00:36:42,800 Speaker 1: reading Don Quixote. He studied fossils collected them. If you 565 00:36:42,880 --> 00:36:45,840 Speaker 1: go to Manicello, his home, you'll see some of the 566 00:36:45,840 --> 00:36:49,080 Speaker 1: fossils that were collected. While he was president, he sponsored 567 00:36:49,120 --> 00:36:52,760 Speaker 1: an expedition which was almost the equivalent of going to Mars, 568 00:36:53,160 --> 00:36:57,040 Speaker 1: and Lewis and Clark crossed the continent to explore the 569 00:36:57,120 --> 00:37:01,000 Speaker 1: territory that Jefferson had just bought from France. Napoleon very 570 00:37:01,040 --> 00:37:03,880 Speaker 1: cleverly sold it because he realized with the Royal Navy 571 00:37:04,360 --> 00:37:07,120 Speaker 1: controlling the ocean, that the French would not be able 572 00:37:07,120 --> 00:37:09,320 Speaker 1: in the long run to keep the western part of 573 00:37:09,320 --> 00:37:12,880 Speaker 1: the United States. So he sold the entire Mississippi Valley 574 00:37:12,920 --> 00:37:17,880 Speaker 1: to Jeffresent In Mississippi, through its tributary, the Missouri really 575 00:37:17,920 --> 00:37:21,440 Speaker 1: goes an amazing distance west, and so they ended up 576 00:37:21,520 --> 00:37:23,440 Speaker 1: more than doubling the size of the United States in 577 00:37:23,440 --> 00:37:26,279 Speaker 1: this one purchase. All of these are things by a 578 00:37:26,360 --> 00:37:30,799 Speaker 1: president who claimed to be for extraordinarily limited government. In 579 00:37:30,920 --> 00:37:34,760 Speaker 1: order to win, he actually had to invent a political party. 580 00:37:35,480 --> 00:37:40,080 Speaker 1: So Jefferson had risen and ultimately had become the Secretary 581 00:37:40,080 --> 00:37:42,960 Speaker 1: of State. Because he had served in France, he had 582 00:37:42,960 --> 00:37:46,040 Speaker 1: a pretty good bit of diplomatic experience, and I think 583 00:37:46,120 --> 00:37:50,000 Speaker 1: Washington thought that he was the right person to try 584 00:37:50,040 --> 00:37:53,880 Speaker 1: to represent the United States in foreign policy. He very 585 00:37:53,960 --> 00:37:59,080 Speaker 1: difficulty coexisted, if that's the right term, with Alexander Hamilton. 586 00:37:59,640 --> 00:38:05,160 Speaker 1: Hamilton represented the commercial interests, had worked out how to 587 00:38:05,200 --> 00:38:07,879 Speaker 1: borrow a huge amount of money from the Dutch, and 588 00:38:08,080 --> 00:38:11,880 Speaker 1: was able to stabilize the American debt, was able to 589 00:38:11,880 --> 00:38:15,960 Speaker 1: create in the first Report on Manufacturers, probably the best 590 00:38:16,080 --> 00:38:19,640 Speaker 1: single statement ever written about why there are times when 591 00:38:19,680 --> 00:38:23,240 Speaker 1: a country with a brand new small industry should protect 592 00:38:23,320 --> 00:38:27,520 Speaker 1: itself as a remarkable statement in favor of tariffs, and 593 00:38:27,600 --> 00:38:30,759 Speaker 1: Hamilton himself was clearly brilliant. I would say that if 594 00:38:30,760 --> 00:38:33,839 Speaker 1: you look at Hamilton, Franklin, and Jefferson, you're looking at 595 00:38:33,840 --> 00:38:36,440 Speaker 1: three of the brightest people ever to be involved in 596 00:38:36,480 --> 00:38:39,920 Speaker 1: American government. But Hamilton's interest in his vision of the 597 00:38:39,920 --> 00:38:45,560 Speaker 1: world was remarkably different from Jefferson. Jefferson really represented a rural, 598 00:38:45,600 --> 00:38:48,840 Speaker 1: agrarian world. He would have said a world of small farmers, 599 00:38:48,880 --> 00:38:51,760 Speaker 1: although the truth was that he owned slaves and basically 600 00:38:51,760 --> 00:38:57,440 Speaker 1: had a plantation. But Jefferson was capable of envisioning this 601 00:38:57,520 --> 00:39:02,240 Speaker 1: world of limited government and presenting the interest of rural America, 602 00:39:02,360 --> 00:39:05,160 Speaker 1: which at that time was the dominant part of America, 603 00:39:05,200 --> 00:39:07,880 Speaker 1: and Virginia at that time was the biggest state in 604 00:39:07,920 --> 00:39:11,880 Speaker 1: the country. On the other hand, Hamilton had this vision 605 00:39:11,920 --> 00:39:16,399 Speaker 1: of a manufacturing and commercial future, of an America which 606 00:39:16,440 --> 00:39:19,719 Speaker 1: would grow strong enough to defend itself, in an America 607 00:39:19,760 --> 00:39:23,120 Speaker 1: which would find its ultimate source of wealth and big 608 00:39:23,160 --> 00:39:28,560 Speaker 1: cities and in factories, things which Jefferson found Abhorn and 609 00:39:28,680 --> 00:39:32,560 Speaker 1: Jefferson wanted a much more rural lifestyle, would claim to 610 00:39:32,600 --> 00:39:36,520 Speaker 1: want a more egalitarian world, although the truth is Jefferson 611 00:39:36,600 --> 00:39:42,080 Speaker 1: himself was clearly aristocratic and not particularly egalitarian. In order 612 00:39:42,120 --> 00:39:48,160 Speaker 1: to seize power, Jefferson and his sidekick James Madison, also 613 00:39:48,239 --> 00:39:51,040 Speaker 1: of Virginia and the author of the Bill of Rights, 614 00:39:51,680 --> 00:39:55,839 Speaker 1: invented the Democratic Party. As John F. Kennedy used to say, 615 00:39:56,320 --> 00:40:00,759 Speaker 1: he was out gathering butterflies because the excuse that Jefferson 616 00:40:00,800 --> 00:40:03,560 Speaker 1: and Madison used for going to New York to meet 617 00:40:03,600 --> 00:40:06,799 Speaker 1: with Aaron Burr was that they were collecting butterflies. In fact, 618 00:40:06,800 --> 00:40:10,120 Speaker 1: what they were doing was plotting with Burr to create 619 00:40:10,520 --> 00:40:14,600 Speaker 1: a party in order to win an election. Jefferson had 620 00:40:14,640 --> 00:40:20,360 Speaker 1: won the vice presidency in seventeen ninety six, with John Adams, 621 00:40:20,400 --> 00:40:25,480 Speaker 1: the former vice president under Washington, becoming president. But Adams 622 00:40:25,480 --> 00:40:29,120 Speaker 1: represented a New England and New York vision of the 623 00:40:29,160 --> 00:40:33,680 Speaker 1: world and was really pretty close to an aristocratic rather 624 00:40:33,719 --> 00:40:39,279 Speaker 1: than egalitarian sense of how America should develop. Jefferson represented 625 00:40:39,600 --> 00:40:44,720 Speaker 1: an up surge of populism and was a brilliant political plotter, 626 00:40:45,400 --> 00:40:50,200 Speaker 1: maintained through correspondence a network across the whole country. Aroused 627 00:40:50,280 --> 00:40:54,160 Speaker 1: people to an effect. Petition against what Adams wanted to 628 00:40:54,200 --> 00:40:57,960 Speaker 1: do got Adams so angry that he passed the Eleen 629 00:40:57,960 --> 00:41:02,280 Speaker 1: and Sedition Acts, which would have hunished people for criticizing 630 00:41:02,280 --> 00:41:05,720 Speaker 1: the government, and those were then thrown out as unconstitutional. 631 00:41:06,160 --> 00:41:10,880 Speaker 1: They were wildly unpopular. Jefferson came along and really was 632 00:41:10,960 --> 00:41:13,640 Speaker 1: in open rebellion. It was the last time that they 633 00:41:13,680 --> 00:41:17,080 Speaker 1: would have a president and vice president of opposite parties. 634 00:41:17,320 --> 00:41:21,760 Speaker 1: It was a totally unwieldy project, and Adams unfortunately totally 635 00:41:21,800 --> 00:41:27,040 Speaker 1: changed American history because Adams and his sidekick Alexander Hamilton, 636 00:41:27,320 --> 00:41:31,600 Speaker 1: who represented the New York Federalists, hated each other and 637 00:41:31,680 --> 00:41:34,840 Speaker 1: the result was their party was totally split. Well faced 638 00:41:34,840 --> 00:41:39,399 Speaker 1: with a split and decaying Federalist Party really representing New 639 00:41:39,520 --> 00:41:43,760 Speaker 1: York and North Jefferson was able to mobilize rural America, 640 00:41:43,800 --> 00:41:46,920 Speaker 1: and as I said earlier, he had the largest state 641 00:41:46,960 --> 00:41:52,280 Speaker 1: in Virginia, and Jefferson won a sweeping election in eighteen 642 00:41:52,360 --> 00:41:56,520 Speaker 1: hundred and it's really the first peaceful transfer of power 643 00:41:57,160 --> 00:42:01,600 Speaker 1: between two clearly opposed sides, and it created a sense 644 00:42:01,640 --> 00:42:06,160 Speaker 1: of stability for the republic. Jefferson would then govern, as 645 00:42:06,239 --> 00:42:10,759 Speaker 1: seen by modern liberals, in an idealistic way, although since 646 00:42:10,840 --> 00:42:14,120 Speaker 1: Jefferson owned slaves, he's now out of fashion with the 647 00:42:14,200 --> 00:42:16,640 Speaker 1: modern left, but for a very long time he was 648 00:42:16,719 --> 00:42:19,200 Speaker 1: kind of their model. But in fact what he was 649 00:42:19,239 --> 00:42:23,759 Speaker 1: doing was very methodically destroying the Federalist Party, and by 650 00:42:24,080 --> 00:42:27,919 Speaker 1: about eighteen twelve, the Federalists disappear and for a brief 651 00:42:27,960 --> 00:42:32,560 Speaker 1: period of time, what we're called the Democratic Republican Party 652 00:42:33,080 --> 00:42:35,680 Speaker 1: was the only major political force in the United States. 653 00:42:36,040 --> 00:42:40,400 Speaker 1: Until it broke down with the populist insurgency of Andrew Jackson, 654 00:42:40,760 --> 00:42:43,920 Speaker 1: who was a Democrat, and that led to the formation 655 00:42:44,000 --> 00:42:46,760 Speaker 1: of the Whigs as the opposing party. But that doesn't 656 00:42:46,800 --> 00:42:49,759 Speaker 1: occur until the late eighteen twenties, so there's about a 657 00:42:49,760 --> 00:42:53,719 Speaker 1: twenty year period where the Jeffersonians are totally dominant. You 658 00:42:53,800 --> 00:42:57,480 Speaker 1: get three presidents in a row from Virginia, he and Jefferson, 659 00:42:57,560 --> 00:43:01,600 Speaker 1: Madison and Monroe. And remember the the first president, George Washington, 660 00:43:01,640 --> 00:43:05,000 Speaker 1: was also from Virginia. So four of the five initial 661 00:43:05,040 --> 00:43:08,520 Speaker 1: presidents in the United States all come from Virginia, which 662 00:43:08,600 --> 00:43:12,880 Speaker 1: was the dominant state, and Virginia represented and a grarian 663 00:43:13,000 --> 00:43:19,520 Speaker 1: interest remarkably different from the commercial and banking and manufacturing 664 00:43:19,560 --> 00:43:25,560 Speaker 1: interests of people like Alexander Hamilton. Jefferson ends up in 665 00:43:25,640 --> 00:43:29,399 Speaker 1: a very strange situation in eighteen hundred because they had 666 00:43:29,440 --> 00:43:33,640 Speaker 1: not quite figured out that if you had the same 667 00:43:33,760 --> 00:43:37,360 Speaker 1: Electoral College votes for both the president and vice president, 668 00:43:37,760 --> 00:43:42,600 Speaker 1: they would be tied. Now, everybody had agreed that Jefferson 669 00:43:42,680 --> 00:43:45,720 Speaker 1: was the candidate for president and Burr was the candidate 670 00:43:45,760 --> 00:43:50,120 Speaker 1: for vice president. But Burr, who is a remarkably despicable 671 00:43:50,160 --> 00:43:53,120 Speaker 1: and dishonest figure, a man who came very close to 672 00:43:53,200 --> 00:43:55,480 Speaker 1: treason later on in his life, and the man who 673 00:43:55,560 --> 00:43:58,960 Speaker 1: shot and killed Alexander Hamilton, and a duel. I mean, 674 00:43:59,000 --> 00:44:02,080 Speaker 1: I always remind people when they worry about how intense 675 00:44:02,080 --> 00:44:05,840 Speaker 1: and how difficult our political process occasionally gets that we 676 00:44:05,880 --> 00:44:09,000 Speaker 1: have not had a former Secretary of the Treasury killed 677 00:44:09,000 --> 00:44:12,359 Speaker 1: by a warmer vice president for over two hundred years. 678 00:44:12,800 --> 00:44:16,000 Speaker 1: So these guys understood a level of toughness, so we 679 00:44:16,239 --> 00:44:20,319 Speaker 1: fortunately have not had repeated But Jefferson and Burr each 680 00:44:20,360 --> 00:44:24,080 Speaker 1: had seventy three electoral votes. Well, there was no provision 681 00:44:24,200 --> 00:44:27,120 Speaker 1: at the time for breaking the tie. Everybody agreed as 682 00:44:27,120 --> 00:44:30,640 Speaker 1: a gentleman's agreement that Jefferson will be president, but there 683 00:44:30,719 --> 00:44:33,239 Speaker 1: was no real proof of what would happen, and it 684 00:44:33,360 --> 00:44:37,840 Speaker 1: actually took thirty six ballots. They started meeting on February 685 00:44:37,920 --> 00:44:42,320 Speaker 1: the ninth, eighteen oh one, and finally on February the seventeenth, 686 00:44:42,840 --> 00:44:48,000 Speaker 1: on the thirty sixth vote, Jefferson was elected outside the Capitol. 687 00:44:48,080 --> 00:44:50,720 Speaker 1: By the way, there were over one hundred thousand people 688 00:44:51,200 --> 00:44:54,200 Speaker 1: who had gathered as a gigantic crowd. It was just 689 00:44:54,280 --> 00:45:27,920 Speaker 1: an amazing moment. Jefferson then is sworn in and on 690 00:45:28,160 --> 00:45:31,200 Speaker 1: March fourth, eighteen oh one. This is all changed after 691 00:45:31,440 --> 00:45:34,680 Speaker 1: FDR becomes president in the nineteen thirties, and they realize 692 00:45:34,680 --> 00:45:37,520 Speaker 1: that there's just too long a period between an election 693 00:45:37,560 --> 00:45:41,120 Speaker 1: in November and the taking of power in March, and 694 00:45:41,160 --> 00:45:43,359 Speaker 1: they bring it up to January twentieth, which has been 695 00:45:43,360 --> 00:45:46,799 Speaker 1: ever since. But notice that in the earlier era, when 696 00:45:46,800 --> 00:45:51,200 Speaker 1: everything is done without a telegraph, without radio, by people 697 00:45:51,360 --> 00:45:54,360 Speaker 1: riding horses, they had allowed a great deal of time 698 00:45:54,719 --> 00:45:57,600 Speaker 1: for the election to occur, the electors to gather, and 699 00:45:57,800 --> 00:46:00,840 Speaker 1: finally the president to be sworn in. So in March fourth, 700 00:46:00,880 --> 00:46:04,480 Speaker 1: eighteen oh one, Jefferson delivered his inaugural address, and he said, 701 00:46:04,520 --> 00:46:09,759 Speaker 1: in part quote, let us, then, fellow citizens, unite with 702 00:46:09,840 --> 00:46:13,960 Speaker 1: one heart and one mind. Let us restore to social intercourse, 703 00:46:14,360 --> 00:46:18,520 Speaker 1: that harmony and affection, without which liberty and even life 704 00:46:18,520 --> 00:46:22,280 Speaker 1: itself are but dreary things. We have called by different names, 705 00:46:22,480 --> 00:46:26,400 Speaker 1: brethren of the same principle. We are all Republicans, we 706 00:46:26,480 --> 00:46:31,440 Speaker 1: are all Federalists. Now he didn't actually mean that. What 707 00:46:31,480 --> 00:46:35,560 Speaker 1: he really meant was, as democratic Republicans, we are going 708 00:46:35,600 --> 00:46:38,200 Speaker 1: to wipe out the Federalists. And in fact, they were 709 00:46:38,520 --> 00:46:43,160 Speaker 1: very aggressive in exerting their power. Jefferson, of course, was 710 00:46:43,800 --> 00:46:46,239 Speaker 1: not a great public speaker, and he knew it, but 711 00:46:46,320 --> 00:46:50,080 Speaker 1: he was a great writer. So when it came time 712 00:46:50,120 --> 00:46:54,560 Speaker 1: to address the Congress, Jefferson decided that he would write 713 00:46:54,560 --> 00:46:58,480 Speaker 1: it and send up his written address, having his secretary 714 00:46:58,560 --> 00:47:02,080 Speaker 1: Meriwether Lewis, who become famous later for the Lewis and 715 00:47:02,120 --> 00:47:06,640 Speaker 1: Clark Expedition, having him deliver the address. And throughout his 716 00:47:06,760 --> 00:47:10,960 Speaker 1: eight years as president, Jefferson never addressed Congress in person, 717 00:47:11,400 --> 00:47:14,319 Speaker 1: instead opting to write it to the Congress, so they 718 00:47:14,360 --> 00:47:19,680 Speaker 1: got written addresses. That continued just as a tradition until 719 00:47:20,000 --> 00:47:23,120 Speaker 1: Woodrow Wilson appeared. And Woodrow Wilson, who had been a 720 00:47:23,160 --> 00:47:28,040 Speaker 1: college professor at Princeton, liked to give speeches, saw himself 721 00:47:28,080 --> 00:47:32,600 Speaker 1: as a great orator, and so in nineteen thirteen, Wilson 722 00:47:32,640 --> 00:47:34,920 Speaker 1: appeared in person to deliver the State of the Union. 723 00:47:35,320 --> 00:47:38,080 Speaker 1: But from the time Jefferson sent up a written version 724 00:47:38,560 --> 00:47:42,760 Speaker 1: until nineteen thirteen, it had always been done in writing. 725 00:47:43,080 --> 00:47:47,200 Speaker 1: For example Lincoln's amazing addresses to the Congress, which were 726 00:47:47,200 --> 00:47:51,080 Speaker 1: among the greatest writing in American presidential history. We're all 727 00:47:51,120 --> 00:47:54,320 Speaker 1: just delivered in writing. They weren't delivered by Lincoln himself. 728 00:47:54,960 --> 00:47:58,319 Speaker 1: Jefferson argued that it wasn't that he didn't like to 729 00:47:58,360 --> 00:48:02,480 Speaker 1: speak in public. He wrote to Benjamin Rush under Summer 730 00:48:02,480 --> 00:48:06,359 Speaker 1: twenty eighteen o one, quote, our winter campaign, the winter 731 00:48:06,440 --> 00:48:09,640 Speaker 1: session of Congress has opened with more good humor than 732 00:48:09,680 --> 00:48:13,000 Speaker 1: I expected. By sending a message instead of making a 733 00:48:13,040 --> 00:48:15,960 Speaker 1: speech at the opening of the session, I have prevented 734 00:48:15,960 --> 00:48:18,960 Speaker 1: the bloody conflicts to which the making an answer would 735 00:48:19,000 --> 00:48:21,799 Speaker 1: have committed them. They consequently were able to set into 736 00:48:21,880 --> 00:48:24,919 Speaker 1: real business at once without losing ten or twelve days 737 00:48:24,920 --> 00:48:28,200 Speaker 1: in combating an answer. In other words, Jefferson figured if 738 00:48:28,200 --> 00:48:31,080 Speaker 1: he showed up in person, he would so irritate some 739 00:48:31,120 --> 00:48:33,759 Speaker 1: of the members of Congress that they would feel compelled 740 00:48:33,800 --> 00:48:37,160 Speaker 1: to spend their time attacking him, and instead, he thought 741 00:48:37,280 --> 00:48:40,400 Speaker 1: that he had diffused the emotional tension by sending the 742 00:48:40,520 --> 00:48:43,680 Speaker 1: document up in writing. He also defended not doing it 743 00:48:43,840 --> 00:48:47,440 Speaker 1: when he wrote John Wale's EPPS on January first, eighteen 744 00:48:47,480 --> 00:48:50,520 Speaker 1: o two, quote, Congress have not yet done anything nor 745 00:48:50,520 --> 00:48:53,840 Speaker 1: passed a vote which has produced a party division. The 746 00:48:54,000 --> 00:48:56,719 Speaker 1: sending a message instead of making a speech to be 747 00:48:56,760 --> 00:48:59,520 Speaker 1: answered is acknowledged to have had the best effect toward 748 00:48:59,560 --> 00:49:04,359 Speaker 1: preserve harmony. So I think it's fair to say that 749 00:49:04,400 --> 00:49:09,400 Speaker 1: from Jefferson's perspective, he's always thinking strategically. Now that he 750 00:49:09,480 --> 00:49:14,440 Speaker 1: has power, he's concerned with relaxing and consolidating the power. 751 00:49:14,840 --> 00:49:17,359 Speaker 1: And he knows that the less he fights with the 752 00:49:17,400 --> 00:49:20,080 Speaker 1: Federalists and the more he allows them to just atrophy 753 00:49:20,080 --> 00:49:23,439 Speaker 1: and gradually disappear, the less friction there is, the less 754 00:49:23,480 --> 00:49:26,520 Speaker 1: fighting there is, the better off he is, because he's 755 00:49:26,600 --> 00:49:29,480 Speaker 1: president and he already has all the power of the presidency. 756 00:49:29,920 --> 00:49:33,360 Speaker 1: The fact is that he also wasn't a great public speaker, 757 00:49:33,400 --> 00:49:36,319 Speaker 1: and in fact, when he gave his second inaugur address 758 00:49:36,360 --> 00:49:38,839 Speaker 1: on March fourth, eighteen oh five, a lot of people 759 00:49:38,880 --> 00:49:41,360 Speaker 1: in the room couldn't even hear him. So the address 760 00:49:41,400 --> 00:49:44,200 Speaker 1: was sent in advanced to the newspapers, and the newspapers 761 00:49:44,200 --> 00:49:47,080 Speaker 1: could publish them even if you couldn't hear him. Now, 762 00:49:47,239 --> 00:49:51,440 Speaker 1: Jefferson had moved west, and it's hard to believe nowadays 763 00:49:51,440 --> 00:49:54,520 Speaker 1: because you don't think of Charlottesville is all that far west. 764 00:49:54,880 --> 00:49:59,400 Speaker 1: But in fact, the tide water farmers, the great planners 765 00:50:00,000 --> 00:50:03,440 Speaker 1: government that had been in Williamsburg, all those things from 766 00:50:03,520 --> 00:50:07,319 Speaker 1: Jefferson's perspective were behind him, and his focus was to 767 00:50:07,360 --> 00:50:10,719 Speaker 1: the west. His father, Peter Jefferson, was one of the 768 00:50:10,719 --> 00:50:13,840 Speaker 1: founding members of the Loyal Company, created to ask for 769 00:50:14,400 --> 00:50:17,560 Speaker 1: grants of land west of the Alleghany Mountains. And remember, 770 00:50:17,560 --> 00:50:22,239 Speaker 1: back then the frontier is the Alleghany Mountains. Nowadays we 771 00:50:22,280 --> 00:50:25,160 Speaker 1: think of that just as eastern and if anything, you 772 00:50:25,239 --> 00:50:29,560 Speaker 1: might think of the Rockies as the frontier. Interestingly, Lewis Meriweather, 773 00:50:30,080 --> 00:50:33,840 Speaker 1: his father, had been a member with Peter Jefferson in 774 00:50:34,000 --> 00:50:37,960 Speaker 1: founding the Loyal Company, which was trying to open up 775 00:50:38,000 --> 00:50:40,880 Speaker 1: the west and asking for land in the west. Now, 776 00:50:41,280 --> 00:50:45,160 Speaker 1: when you look at that period, Jefferson is fascinated with 777 00:50:45,200 --> 00:50:48,560 Speaker 1: the west, but frankly, he personally under that much time 778 00:50:48,880 --> 00:50:52,440 Speaker 1: to go do things. If anything, he's spending time in 779 00:50:52,440 --> 00:50:56,520 Speaker 1: France where he's the minister, he is spending time in Philadelphia, 780 00:50:56,680 --> 00:51:00,920 Speaker 1: and he's helping other people go west, but he is 781 00:51:01,000 --> 00:51:04,719 Speaker 1: not himself able to go west. And in a funny way, 782 00:51:05,120 --> 00:51:09,320 Speaker 1: Washington was more of a frontiersman than Jefferson, and Washington 783 00:51:09,360 --> 00:51:13,520 Speaker 1: really was physically very very active. Washington goes west both 784 00:51:13,520 --> 00:51:17,560 Speaker 1: as a surveyor. He surveys places like Little Washington in Virginia. 785 00:51:17,840 --> 00:51:20,960 Speaker 1: He goes west as a head of the Virginia Militia 786 00:51:21,160 --> 00:51:23,560 Speaker 1: and helped start the French and Indian War what became 787 00:51:23,600 --> 00:51:26,360 Speaker 1: called the Seven Years War in Europe. So Washington was 788 00:51:26,400 --> 00:51:30,520 Speaker 1: a genuine frontiersman and understood a great deal about the frontier. 789 00:51:30,880 --> 00:51:35,680 Speaker 1: Jefferson's really a gentleman, farmer and an intellectual who's fascinated 790 00:51:35,680 --> 00:51:39,200 Speaker 1: with the West as an idea. And interestingly, at one 791 00:51:39,239 --> 00:51:42,640 Speaker 1: point he subsidizes when he's a minister to France, he 792 00:51:42,760 --> 00:51:46,520 Speaker 1: subsidizes a guy named John Ledyard who's an American explorer, 793 00:51:46,880 --> 00:51:49,680 Speaker 1: and their idea is that the way they will explore 794 00:51:49,719 --> 00:51:53,640 Speaker 1: the West is he will go east across Siberia and 795 00:51:53,800 --> 00:51:57,160 Speaker 1: travel to the western coast of North America. However, when 796 00:51:57,200 --> 00:51:59,200 Speaker 1: he tried to do that, he was arrested by the 797 00:51:59,280 --> 00:52:02,400 Speaker 1: Russians and sent back to Europe, so that failed. In 798 00:52:02,480 --> 00:52:07,040 Speaker 1: seventeen ninety three, Jefferson enlisted members of the American Philosophy Society, 799 00:52:07,320 --> 00:52:10,359 Speaker 1: which at that time was the leading kind of intellectual 800 00:52:10,400 --> 00:52:13,120 Speaker 1: gathering in America, and he got a group of them 801 00:52:13,239 --> 00:52:17,960 Speaker 1: to sponsor Andre Michou, a French botanist, to quote find 802 00:52:17,960 --> 00:52:21,799 Speaker 1: the shortest and most convenient route of communication between the 803 00:52:21,920 --> 00:52:24,719 Speaker 1: US and the Pacific Ocean, but it didn't get very 804 00:52:24,719 --> 00:52:28,399 Speaker 1: far and didn't have anything accomplished. In eighteen oh five, 805 00:52:28,880 --> 00:52:33,480 Speaker 1: the Charter of Governor of Louisiana, General James Wilkinson, persuaded 806 00:52:33,560 --> 00:52:37,920 Speaker 1: President Jefferson to authorize an expedition to explore the beginning 807 00:52:38,000 --> 00:52:41,320 Speaker 1: of the Mississippi. Now, interestingly, by the way, I always 808 00:52:41,320 --> 00:52:46,400 Speaker 1: find this fascinating, the Mississippi itself starts in Minnesota, but 809 00:52:46,560 --> 00:52:50,160 Speaker 1: the great source of water is the Missouri, which starts 810 00:52:50,280 --> 00:52:54,279 Speaker 1: much further west and pours into the Mississippi at Saint 811 00:52:54,360 --> 00:52:58,480 Speaker 1: Louis and has dramatically more water than the Mississippi, but 812 00:52:58,719 --> 00:53:01,680 Speaker 1: is subordinated in named to the Mississippi when they joined. 813 00:53:02,239 --> 00:53:05,399 Speaker 1: So they're looking for the origin of the Mississippi, when 814 00:53:05,440 --> 00:53:08,280 Speaker 1: in fact, far more important is to find the origin 815 00:53:08,320 --> 00:53:12,800 Speaker 1: of the Missouri. Jefferson did agree with General James Wilkinson, 816 00:53:12,880 --> 00:53:18,040 Speaker 1: the territorial governor Louisiana, and Lieutenant Zebulin Pike, for whom 817 00:53:18,080 --> 00:53:21,120 Speaker 1: Pike speak was named, was appointed to lead the party 818 00:53:21,440 --> 00:53:24,360 Speaker 1: to negotiate peace cheaties with the Indian tribes they encountered, 819 00:53:24,800 --> 00:53:27,440 Speaker 1: but they reached the present day Canadian border and then 820 00:53:27,480 --> 00:53:30,400 Speaker 1: turned back. A year later, Pike was appointed to lead 821 00:53:30,440 --> 00:53:34,160 Speaker 1: an expedition to explore the Red and Arkansas Rivers. He 822 00:53:34,400 --> 00:53:38,200 Speaker 1: entered Colorado unsuccessfully attempted to scale the mountain that today 823 00:53:38,280 --> 00:53:42,360 Speaker 1: is called Pike's Peak. After entering Spanish control New Mexico, 824 00:53:42,760 --> 00:53:46,600 Speaker 1: he was captured and sent back, but Jefferson still had 825 00:53:46,640 --> 00:53:52,279 Speaker 1: not abandoned the idea. On January eighteen oh three, Jefferson 826 00:53:52,360 --> 00:53:55,920 Speaker 1: sent a letter to Congress asking for twenty five hundred 827 00:53:55,920 --> 00:54:00,200 Speaker 1: dollars to fund an expedition of the Pacific Ocean. They 828 00:54:00,200 --> 00:54:03,440 Speaker 1: approved it, and by the way, the expedition, as often 829 00:54:03,480 --> 00:54:06,719 Speaker 1: happens with government projects, turned out to cost far more 830 00:54:06,960 --> 00:54:10,240 Speaker 1: than twenty five hundred dollars. A year later, about forty 831 00:54:10,239 --> 00:54:14,440 Speaker 1: five men, headed by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, left 832 00:54:14,480 --> 00:54:17,680 Speaker 1: on what became a very very famous expedition. There is 833 00:54:17,719 --> 00:54:23,000 Speaker 1: a remarkable book called Undaunted Courage, which I recommend to everybody. 834 00:54:23,480 --> 00:54:28,200 Speaker 1: It captures day by day this extraordinary expedition, which, as 835 00:54:28,200 --> 00:54:32,000 Speaker 1: I said earlier, is in many ways that Era's equivalent 836 00:54:32,480 --> 00:54:35,720 Speaker 1: of going to Mars. I mean, these guys are leaving 837 00:54:35,760 --> 00:54:39,400 Speaker 1: Saint Louis, They're paddling their way up to Missouri. They 838 00:54:39,400 --> 00:54:44,560 Speaker 1: are crossing over around Yellowstone, they are going down the Columbia. 839 00:54:44,719 --> 00:54:48,239 Speaker 1: They are encountering all sorts of Native American tribes. They 840 00:54:48,239 --> 00:54:53,719 Speaker 1: are encountering grizzly bears and generally roughing. It really an 841 00:54:53,719 --> 00:54:58,160 Speaker 1: expedition that Jess took a level of personal endurance and 842 00:54:58,280 --> 00:55:02,319 Speaker 1: personal courage that is absolutely astonishing. And if you go 843 00:55:02,400 --> 00:55:07,000 Speaker 1: to Philadelphia, the Academy of Natural Sciences, which became the 844 00:55:07,120 --> 00:55:12,400 Speaker 1: repository for the American Philosophical Society, actually has the maturial 845 00:55:12,440 --> 00:55:15,440 Speaker 1: that Lewis and Clark brought back, and so you can 846 00:55:15,480 --> 00:55:18,640 Speaker 1: actually go and see what it was. They were gathering up, 847 00:55:19,000 --> 00:55:22,080 Speaker 1: and they were gathering things about plants and animals, they 848 00:55:22,080 --> 00:55:25,399 Speaker 1: were taking notes about geography, they were reporting on all 849 00:55:25,400 --> 00:55:28,400 Speaker 1: sorts of meetings with different Native tribes, and it is 850 00:55:29,000 --> 00:55:32,959 Speaker 1: one of the great romantic expeditions in American history. They're 851 00:55:33,000 --> 00:55:38,040 Speaker 1: also helped dramatically by Native American woman who both helps 852 00:55:38,080 --> 00:55:41,719 Speaker 1: them talk with tribes and helps them survive. They have 853 00:55:41,760 --> 00:55:45,200 Speaker 1: an African American as part of the expedition has a vote, 854 00:55:45,200 --> 00:55:47,920 Speaker 1: and they said, look, he deserved the vote because his 855 00:55:48,000 --> 00:55:49,759 Speaker 1: life was at risk too. So when they got to 856 00:55:49,800 --> 00:55:52,560 Speaker 1: certain big decision points. They would all talk it out, 857 00:55:52,880 --> 00:56:14,359 Speaker 1: and it was kind of like a traveling democracy. Jefferson 858 00:56:14,560 --> 00:56:20,399 Speaker 1: had a very busy presidency was involved in reshaping the judiciary. 859 00:56:20,680 --> 00:56:24,879 Speaker 1: The Jeffersonians hated the Federalist judges. They saw judges as 860 00:56:25,320 --> 00:56:28,759 Speaker 1: instruments of government to oppress the people, and they very 861 00:56:28,840 --> 00:56:33,000 Speaker 1: much favored a much more popular society in which juries 862 00:56:33,040 --> 00:56:36,719 Speaker 1: played a bigger role and judges were very limited. Lawyers 863 00:56:37,239 --> 00:56:40,760 Speaker 1: will all cite Marlbory versus Madison, which was a major 864 00:56:40,840 --> 00:56:46,200 Speaker 1: decision involving the grant of a certificate to a person 865 00:56:46,239 --> 00:56:49,440 Speaker 1: who had been appointed to a job by the Federalist 866 00:56:49,520 --> 00:56:53,080 Speaker 1: and who, now that the Jeffersonians were taking over, was 867 00:56:53,120 --> 00:56:55,719 Speaker 1: not going to get that job. If you actually read 868 00:56:55,760 --> 00:56:59,160 Speaker 1: the case carefully, what you find is that the new 869 00:56:59,320 --> 00:57:03,400 Speaker 1: chief Judge Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Marshall, is 870 00:57:03,600 --> 00:57:07,600 Speaker 1: very aware that the Jeffersonians hate the Court, and he 871 00:57:07,680 --> 00:57:11,239 Speaker 1: knows that if he takes Jefferson head on immediately after 872 00:57:11,360 --> 00:57:14,680 Speaker 1: Jefferson having won control of the Presidency and control of 873 00:57:14,680 --> 00:57:18,280 Speaker 1: the House and Senate, that they'll simply abolish him. And 874 00:57:18,360 --> 00:57:22,400 Speaker 1: so he maneuvers to maintain the independence of the Court 875 00:57:22,920 --> 00:57:27,720 Speaker 1: without infuriating Jefferson. And it is actually not some key 876 00:57:27,880 --> 00:57:31,640 Speaker 1: moment where the Court stands up boldly, but rather a 877 00:57:31,680 --> 00:57:35,720 Speaker 1: brilliant maneuver to preserve the independence of the Court by 878 00:57:35,800 --> 00:57:40,120 Speaker 1: not standing up boldly. And it's worth your studying because 879 00:57:40,160 --> 00:57:42,840 Speaker 1: it both tells you how lawyers sort of aggrandize their 880 00:57:42,920 --> 00:57:45,560 Speaker 1: role in life, and it tells you that the Court 881 00:57:45,600 --> 00:57:49,160 Speaker 1: has always been inherently political. That's the nature of a 882 00:57:49,240 --> 00:57:52,080 Speaker 1: supreme court in a free society. They have to pay 883 00:57:52,160 --> 00:57:57,360 Speaker 1: some attention to deep popular interests. Jefferson having succeeded in 884 00:57:57,400 --> 00:58:00,680 Speaker 1: eight years, and he did an amazing amount, I said earlier, 885 00:58:01,280 --> 00:58:03,880 Speaker 1: buying half a continent, sending the Marines in the navy 886 00:58:03,920 --> 00:58:09,080 Speaker 1: to Tripoli to defeat the Barbary pirates, organizing the dominant 887 00:58:09,080 --> 00:58:12,600 Speaker 1: majority Party, which is still today the Democratic Party, is 888 00:58:12,640 --> 00:58:17,880 Speaker 1: the longest serving political organization on the planet. It's outlasted 889 00:58:17,920 --> 00:58:22,439 Speaker 1: the Nazis, the Communist, the fascist, it's outlasted most monarchies. 890 00:58:22,880 --> 00:58:27,000 Speaker 1: And it's a remarkable institution. And Jefferson was, in fact, 891 00:58:27,440 --> 00:58:31,400 Speaker 1: along with Madison, at the very center of organizing. In 892 00:58:31,480 --> 00:58:34,960 Speaker 1: eighteen oh nine, Jefferson goes home, he leaves the presidency. 893 00:58:35,040 --> 00:58:38,800 Speaker 1: He leaves public life and he helps found the University 894 00:58:38,840 --> 00:58:42,200 Speaker 1: of Virginia. He was then Central College, but it becomes 895 00:58:42,200 --> 00:58:45,560 Speaker 1: the University of Virginia. Jefferson plays a major role when 896 00:58:45,680 --> 00:58:50,120 Speaker 1: in February fourteenth, eighteen sixteen, the Virginia General Assembly established 897 00:58:50,120 --> 00:58:53,920 Speaker 1: a charter for Central College, which becomes the University of Virginia. 898 00:58:54,040 --> 00:58:57,240 Speaker 1: Jefferson was elected to the college's board of Visitors and 899 00:58:57,440 --> 00:59:00,760 Speaker 1: rector of the college. Jefferson also designed the college, and 900 00:59:00,800 --> 00:59:03,960 Speaker 1: again as an example of his intellectual reach, remember that 901 00:59:04,240 --> 00:59:09,520 Speaker 1: Jefferson is an architect. He designs Manicello, he designs other 902 00:59:09,560 --> 00:59:13,560 Speaker 1: public buildings. He's also a bibliophile. The original Library of 903 00:59:13,600 --> 00:59:17,920 Speaker 1: Congress is Jefferson's personal library, about four thousand volumes, although 904 00:59:17,920 --> 00:59:20,040 Speaker 1: it might be pointed out he sold them to the 905 00:59:20,080 --> 00:59:23,000 Speaker 1: government because he needed the money for his entire life. 906 00:59:23,280 --> 00:59:26,200 Speaker 1: Jefferson is short of money and is constantly trying to 907 00:59:26,200 --> 00:59:29,880 Speaker 1: find sources of additional Revenue's not a particularly great farmer, 908 00:59:29,880 --> 00:59:32,840 Speaker 1: doesn't focus on farming, doesn't make a huge amount of money. 909 00:59:32,840 --> 00:59:35,280 Speaker 1: It's very different, by the way, from George Washington, who 910 00:59:35,360 --> 00:59:38,760 Speaker 1: was a great businessman, a great farmer, and was generally 911 00:59:38,800 --> 00:59:41,680 Speaker 1: competent at everything. He touched. I think it's fair to 912 00:59:41,680 --> 00:59:47,200 Speaker 1: say that Jefferson had a deep passionate interest in education. 913 00:59:47,800 --> 00:59:52,800 Speaker 1: Jefferson was not anti religious. Jefferson did write a letter 914 00:59:52,880 --> 00:59:56,160 Speaker 1: to the Baptist in Connecticut saying that there should be 915 00:59:56,200 --> 00:59:59,080 Speaker 1: a wall of separation between church and state. But what 916 00:59:59,240 --> 01:00:02,520 Speaker 1: Jefferson was saying was in a world where the Anglican 917 01:00:02,640 --> 01:00:06,520 Speaker 1: Church got paid tax money, that he did not think 918 01:00:06,560 --> 01:00:09,960 Speaker 1: any church should get government money. However, he was not 919 01:00:10,080 --> 01:00:13,920 Speaker 1: for an anti religious position. In fact, Jefferson allowed the 920 01:00:13,920 --> 01:00:17,880 Speaker 1: Treasury building to be used as a church. He himself 921 01:00:17,960 --> 01:00:20,520 Speaker 1: went up to the Capital, which was a church up 922 01:00:20,600 --> 01:00:24,560 Speaker 1: until the mid eighteen forties. Jefferson signed a bill to 923 01:00:24,600 --> 01:00:28,000 Speaker 1: send missionaries to the Indians. So the whole notion that 924 01:00:28,080 --> 01:00:32,120 Speaker 1: he was in any way anti religion is just wrong. 925 01:00:32,240 --> 01:00:34,760 Speaker 1: And in fact, if you go to the Jefferson memorial, 926 01:00:35,120 --> 01:00:38,120 Speaker 1: you'll see a great quote from Jefferson where he has 927 01:00:38,160 --> 01:00:41,760 Speaker 1: sworn eternal hostility against all forms of tyranny over the 928 01:00:41,760 --> 01:00:44,360 Speaker 1: minds of man. And I think that that's the heart 929 01:00:44,360 --> 01:00:48,440 Speaker 1: of Jefferson. He really was committed. And to give you 930 01:00:48,480 --> 01:00:51,480 Speaker 1: a sense of the depth of his commitment on education 931 01:00:51,960 --> 01:00:54,880 Speaker 1: and the depth of his commitment on religious liberty. He 932 01:00:55,080 --> 01:00:59,960 Speaker 1: wrote out for his own tombstone. Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, 933 01:01:00,400 --> 01:01:04,120 Speaker 1: author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute 934 01:01:04,120 --> 01:01:08,120 Speaker 1: of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and father of the University 935 01:01:08,120 --> 01:01:12,440 Speaker 1: of Virginia. Born April second, seventeen forty three, old style, 936 01:01:12,960 --> 01:01:17,240 Speaker 1: died July fourth, eighteen twenty six. He thought those were 937 01:01:17,240 --> 01:01:20,120 Speaker 1: the three things he wanted to be remembered for. Not president, 938 01:01:20,240 --> 01:01:23,280 Speaker 1: not vice president, not foreign minister, not ambassador of France. 939 01:01:23,920 --> 01:01:27,880 Speaker 1: Author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute 940 01:01:27,920 --> 01:01:31,760 Speaker 1: of Virginia for religious Freedom, and father of the University 941 01:01:31,760 --> 01:01:35,200 Speaker 1: of Virginia. And he gives you a flavor of what 942 01:01:35,360 --> 01:01:40,200 Speaker 1: he had dedicated his life to. Symbolically, he died on 943 01:01:40,360 --> 01:01:44,080 Speaker 1: exactly the same day, the fourth of July, as John Adams, 944 01:01:44,760 --> 01:01:48,680 Speaker 1: his great rival in developing political power. They had gotten 945 01:01:48,720 --> 01:01:51,240 Speaker 1: to write each other and sort of reconciled over the years, 946 01:01:51,640 --> 01:01:55,240 Speaker 1: and there was something symbolic that on July the fourth, 947 01:01:55,680 --> 01:01:59,480 Speaker 1: the date when Jefferson and Adams had helped author the 948 01:01:59,560 --> 01:02:03,920 Speaker 1: Declaration Independence, they both passed away. He is an immortal. 949 01:02:04,240 --> 01:02:07,800 Speaker 1: There's no question that to understand America you have to 950 01:02:07,840 --> 01:02:11,600 Speaker 1: spend some time trying to understand Thomas Jefferson, and there's 951 01:02:11,640 --> 01:02:15,080 Speaker 1: no question that that time will be well spent because 952 01:02:15,120 --> 01:02:23,080 Speaker 1: he was a remarkable person. Thank you for listening. You 953 01:02:23,120 --> 01:02:26,520 Speaker 1: can read more about Jefferson's life and get links to 954 01:02:26,600 --> 01:02:30,560 Speaker 1: my other Immortals podcast on our show page at newtsworld 955 01:02:30,560 --> 01:02:34,040 Speaker 1: dot com. News World is produced by Gingwish Sweet sixty 956 01:02:34,320 --> 01:02:39,640 Speaker 1: and iHeartMedia. Our executive producer is Debbie Myers, our producer 957 01:02:39,960 --> 01:02:44,320 Speaker 1: is Garnsey Sloan, and our researcher is Rachel Peterson. The 958 01:02:44,480 --> 01:02:48,640 Speaker 1: artwork for the show was created by Steve Penley. Special 959 01:02:48,720 --> 01:02:52,040 Speaker 1: thanks to the team at Gingwish three sixty. If you've 960 01:02:52,080 --> 01:02:54,880 Speaker 1: been enjoying Newtsworld, I hope you'll go to Apple Podcast 961 01:02:55,280 --> 01:02:58,200 Speaker 1: and both rate us with five stars and give us 962 01:02:58,200 --> 01:03:01,080 Speaker 1: a review so others can learn what it's all about. 963 01:03:01,960 --> 01:03:05,280 Speaker 1: Right now, listeners of Newtsworld can sign up for my 964 01:03:05,440 --> 01:03:09,880 Speaker 1: three free weekly columns at Gingridge three sixty dot com 965 01:03:09,920 --> 01:03:14,320 Speaker 1: slash newsletter. I'm newt Gingrich. This is news World.