Why I Can't Stand Thomas Jefferson
In this week's Informer, my colleague Pete Terenzio gives a well-deserved thrashing to our nation's third president. The reason? A relatively obscure episode from Jefferson's later life that is quite revealing of his character. The short version of the story is that Jefferson borrowed an absurd amount of money from William & Mary and never paid it back, so yes, this is personal. Terenzio writes:
First, he took almost a fifth of the College’s endowment (around $20,000) by securing a corrupt loan in the late 1810’s. This loan, which allowed Jefferson to live comfortably in his old age and then was passed on to his grandson, was never collected upon by the College.
So yes, Jefferson borrowed a large sum from the institution, and used the money to fuel his own personal profligacy. He was so indebted that his heirs were forced to sell Monticello. It gets worse.
Jefferson, who owed his continued financial survival to the College, criticized the institution, saying that it had been “much reduced by ill management of its funds.” Of course, Jefferson neglected to point out that he had gained much from this “ill management.” Meanwhile, the College was virtually in ruins by 1824, and there were only eight students enrolled.
I bring up this episode because Jefferson could use being knocked down a notch or two. The Declaration was a brilliant document to be sure, but the man was no saint. Ricochetistes are well aware of his slave-holding for which he is today still criticized endlessly, and for which I think conservatives too easily forgive him. He was a vocal opponent of slavery who nonetheless perpetuated the practice, and an advocate of limited government and fiscal restraint who couldn't be bothered to keep his own house in order. In an age in which the Tea Party returns us to the founding documents and rediscovers the wisdom of the Founders, it is healthy to remember that even a man as exceptional as Jefferson was human, and thus capable of indecency and hypocrisy.
If you're curious about this bizarre drama, check Ludwell H. Johnson III's Sharper than a Serpent's Tooth: Thomas Jefferson and His Alma Mater, published in the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, and available on JSTOR.
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Oct '10
Re: Why I Can't Stand Thomas Jefferson
I remember visiting Monticello about a decade ago and thinking, 'no wonder he didn't free his slaves, it would have meant a dramatic change in his lifestyle'. We celebrate the fact that he wrote all of these wonderful letters and invented all of these interesting contraptions, but the only reason he had time to do those things is because he owned a bunch of slaves.
He's was a great thinker though.
Jul '10
Re: Why I Can't Stand Thomas Jefferson
An indispensable man of dubious personal integrity and morals. Still, I would have taken him any day over his contemporary demagogic loons in France at the time like Jean Paul Merat and Robespierre. One of my all time favorite Americans was John Quincy Adams, who, after reading a biography of him, I think was nothing short of a prophet. One of the most articulate anti-slavery legislators of his day, basically proposed a prototype of the Emancipation Proclaimation, and who wrote extensively on free speech and even Islam.
Re: Why I Can't Stand Thomas Jefferson
I will always love Thomas Jefferson, warts and all, for the powerful influence he had on this nation's founding.
However, you are in good company, Eric, in your dislike of Thomas Jefferson. Check out these posts by Ricochet's own John Yoo:
Why the Housing Crisis is Jefferson's Fault -- and 8 Other Reasons to Hate TJ
The Overrated Thomas Jefferson
Jun '10
Re: Why I Can't Stand Thomas Jefferson
I think Jefferson genuinely believed that slavery was immoral, but his slaves were also a significant part of the collateral on his loans. Freeing them would send him to the poorhouse. That's why we'll never call him Saint Thomas--just Thomas.
Sep '10
Re: Why I Can't Stand Thomas Jefferson
Damning Jefferson for his real faults is easy enough and probably better for our citizenry than polluting his image with movies like the one with Nick Nolte a while back, however, it is ironic that at lunch today, perhaps not surprisingly in Richmond, a friend brought up the fact that even though Jefferson wrote the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom it was brought through the Legislature while Jefferson was in Paris by James Madison. Perhaps we should spend more time raising Madison up more than tearing Jefferson down, even though, in any contest I'm for the Tribe over the Dukes by a mile.
Jul '10
Re: Why I Can't Stand Thomas Jefferson
[Removed for CoC violation]
Edited on September 16, 2011 at 8:57pmDec '10
Re: Why I Can't Stand Thomas Jefferson
Something else that is often forgotten about Jefferson - he had a lot of help in drafting the Declaration. Lip service is often given to John Adams & Benjamin Franklin, but George Mason and his work (with Jefferson) in drafting the Virginia Constitution had a pretty profound impact on the Declaration itself. I'd rank Tom behind Washington, Lincoln, Reagan, probably Madison. I'd say behind John Adams as well, but I often think of the first Adams as being a little over his head in the presidency.
Apr '11
Re: Why I Can't Stand Thomas Jefferson
I still greatly appreciate the founding fathers, with all their flaws. In modern times we seem to have a delight at picking out the flaws of our founders and putting them on display for all to see. In many ways it's done to create associations with their works. Our founding fathers were flawed, and therefore their founding documents are flawed as well.
There's an unspoken assumption there that I disagree with: We are, morally and socially speaking, an improvement from our founding fathers. Then we get to where we are now, with a president and congress that give lip service, at best, to the constitution secure in their knowledge that they are somehow superior enough in their judgement.
Thomas Jefferson could be a jerk, and there's enough historical documentation to collaborate that he was indeed a jerk. He was also a brilliant jerk, and even at times could recognize his own flaws and weaknesses, his moral failings, and those of society around him.
Jun '11
Re: Why I Can't Stand Thomas Jefferson
If you are going to indict a famous person from history based on the fact that they owned slaves, why stop at Jefferson? And sharpen your pencil - it will be a long, long list.
If you are going to indict based on personal economic difficulties, sharpen another pencil.
May '11
Re: Why I Can't Stand Thomas Jefferson
Slavery was not regarded then as it is today (at least here in the USA).
Asking Jefferson to get rid of his slaves would be like asking you to get rid of all your cars. (As greenies do today.)
First, it would be a devaluation of your wealth to do so. Especially if you still owed on them.
Second, it would be highly inconvenient for you and would probably make it a great deal harder to advance yourself due to a limited travel distance.
Slaves were property. It was wrong but it was the way it was.
Aug '11
Re: Why I Can't Stand Thomas Jefferson
Whatever his faults, Thomas Jefferson is deserving of appreciation and reverence for his contributions to the founding of a great nation.
Jun '10
Re: Why I Can't Stand Thomas Jefferson
This is probably unfair, but another reason I've always disliked Jefferson is that he never got anywhere near the whiff of gunpowder (Washington, Hamilton, and Monroe distinguished themselves). I give Adams a pass because he was old. TJ could have been there.
Jul '10
Re: Why I Can't Stand Thomas Jefferson
When history views a man, the equation is how was the world when he found it, how was the world when he left it, and what part of that difference did he influence? TJ, along with Benjamin Franklin, are the icons of the American Enlightenment for a reason.
Who now teaches Julius Caesar's youthful escapades with the gangster element in Rome or how that experience made him a populist favorite in the rough and tumble of Roman politics?
tabula: TJ saw his action as a captain in the French and Indian War. He was a painfully shy, soft spoken man, so probably not the best officer to keep in the field. The British assigned a cavalry team to take him at Monticello one year as he hosted lawmakers. A bar owner caught on and rode all night to beat out the Brits and warn TJ.
As the putative author of the Declaration of Independence he was no more to be risked in uniform than NASA was going to send Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin into space again. They had faced their hazard, done their duty, and were more valuable safely in other roles serving as icons.
Jul '10
Re: Why I Can't Stand Thomas Jefferson
Pilli: Slavery was not regarded then as it is today (at least here in the USA).
Asking Jefferson to get rid of his slaves would be like asking you to get rid of all your cars. (As greenies do today.)
First, it would be a devaluation of your wealth to do so. Especially if you still owed on them.
Second, it would be highly inconvenient for you and would probably make it a great deal harder to advance yourself due to a limited travel distance.
Slaves were property. It was wrong but it was the way it was.
And yet, there were some who did indeed free their slaves. But one could not do so and continue to exercise political influence in the South.
Re: Why I Can't Stand Thomas Jefferson
I believe it was Bernard Bailyn who said that it is unreasonable to expect historical figures to transcend their places in time, and he was basically correct. I'm not of the "Jefferson owned slaves and therefore had nothing important to say" camp, nor do I believe abandoning slavery would have been easy. I do think, however, that we are engaging in a curious form of relativism by declaring Jefferson a "product of his time." We all fail to live up to some of our own expectations, but when we paper over Jefferson's slave-holding by saying that it was the way things were, how different are we from the aging hippie sociology professor who insists that petty criminals do what they do because of their disadvantaged status? How to view people who lived in conditions completely different from our own is a difficult question, and not one to which I can claim to have an answer.
Re: Why I Can't Stand Thomas Jefferson
The best example is probably Robert Carter III of Westmoreland County, who, inspired by a religious revival, freed some 500 slaves. Manumission did happen, but it happened with tremendous personal risk.
Apr '11
Re: Why I Can't Stand Thomas Jefferson
Even then, there were rumblings that liberty could not long coexist with the concept of slavery. However, recognizing immorality and getting rid of one's immorality are two different things: one is a beginning, the other an end.
I see Thomas Jefferson as a great man of a great mind but also of great flaws.
And now, one of my favorite TJ quotes from the renowned deist:
"I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever."
Aug '10
Re: Why I Can't Stand Thomas Jefferson
Let me get this straight, you hold personal animosity toward a man who has been dead for 185 years, because he borrowed money from your alma mater and never paid it back.
Oh and he owned slaves too.
Despite the Declaration of Independence.
Yeah, I am just not feeling your righteous indignation. There are plenty of people still living that consume my wrath - I have none to spare for a man long gone to his reward.
I would leave you this quote, however.
"If men were Angels no government would be necessary. If Angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary." - James Madison
Jul '10
Re: Why I Can't Stand Thomas Jefferson
George Wythe, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe were effectively three generations of hoary Whig/Patriot philosophy and activism rooted in Wythe's tutoring practice for young lawyers in Williamsburg, the Virginian capitol at the start of their war. They frequently worked as a team. Jefferson was the most brilliant of the group and had the advantage of being a Randolph on his mother's side, but these were all potent men ready and willing to take the lead if necessary, and all of them did in their time.
Jul '10
Re: Why I Can't Stand Thomas Jefferson
Eric Ames
The best example is probably Robert Carter III of Westmoreland County, who, inspired by a religious revival, freed some 500 slaves. Manumission did happen, but it happened with tremendous personal risk.
Yes, thank you. This is an aspect to remember as well. The times were rough and tumble and if the local planters decided you were an abolitionist, things could get dicey pretty fast. Today, of course, we have national unions and retagged ACORNs coordinated by Obama's OFA working the game. The more things change...