Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson. It's difficult to follow Benjamin Franklin with Thomas Jefferson. It's somewhat of a mental strain to try and stretch one's mind out to encompass two individuals like this in a row. But I will try. I showed you a book two lectures ago the first lecture in the series Wilderness in the American Mind and brought out the tremendous character that this continent presented to the European mind the enormous expanses of wilderness stretching indefinitely into range upon range of mountains. The colossal scale of nature seemed to intimidate the first generations of Americans who were here. And it was only certain individuals like Benjamin Franklin in his time who were able to begin to form some kind of initial flashes of insight about the nature of this tremendous undertaking and enterprise. But it was really Thomas Jefferson who was the first American to conceive of what we would call today the United States. He was really the first mine to open up and entertain a vision and the complex capacity to bring it to fruition through more than 60 years of public work and travail. Because even with Franklin he was more at home in Europe than he was in America. Finally he was the darling of the French court. But with Jefferson we find someone who has both feet on American soil whose mind has been opened up by early personal experiences with the Indian natives of the United States. Early personal experiences of the wilderness not as an intimidating nightmare that might threaten one something which had to be carefully controlled and Investigated in small bits.

But with Jefferson this tremendous wilderness opened up as a context. A matrix of freedom wherein the individual could literally step out of the framing bounds of the past and float free in the present and pick and choose his own future and bring that as best he may with his companions and those of his time bring into manifestation the future so envisioned. So that from wilderness and the American mind we have a transformation in the life and the lifetime of Thomas Jefferson to something that might be described as Henry Nash Smith once did Virgin Land: the American West as Symbol and Myth. And by the time TJ was president in his second term this tremendous fear and reluctance to look at the United States as it was had transformed. And one of the largest alchemical experiments ever conducted on the planet into a wide open threshold through which man's nature freed of all kinds of encumbrances which had been on him since early pharaonic times in the Nile Delta suddenly melted away and under the great eagle aegis of Thomas Jefferson's spirit the United States opened up in 30,000 people a month poured through the Cumberland Gap areas to begin to populate the vast areas. And they went with joy and expectation and there was no trepidation. The only concerns of course were with the machinations of European powers like Spain and France.

But even with a mastermind like Napoleon in France he was no master for the mind of Thomas Jefferson. And we actually as a people are greatly indebted to having had a genius of his caliber to balance off the tremendous designs that Napoleon had for North America. But TJ was up to it and in fact he was already on the move as we will see. 30 years before the Louisiana Purchase. Amazing figure. Now Jefferson was born in 1743 April 13th. It's a matter of fact not too long ago. So maybe next year at PRS we can celebrate his 240th birthday out on the patio. He was 239 this year. That's why we're burning candles tonight. A little candle here I guess. So maybe next next year we'll have it. He did not like to have his birthday celebrated. He thought all this pomp and circumstance was okay for Washington. Washington deserved it. He was a model of dignity for the Republic. And maybe John Adams too because he had such a bad memory and was actually such a basically honest individual that no one could get excited over elevating John Adams into the temple of the gods. But for Jefferson in fact one of the big changes he made in the White House was all the yes men were shuffled out. And in fact he set a great precedent when he received the Minister of France President of the United States in his bedroom slippers. It caused a great sensation. Of course news went back that there was a new man in the house. Washington used to be addressed as His Royal Highness the President. And Jefferson very quickly got rid of anybody who had these kinds of pretensions. Well he was born in Virginia. Shadwell a little town. Actually just a plantation not far from Charlottesville where the university that he founded is located. And his earliest memories he said were at the age of two being carried on a big huge pillow. And he was being carried from Shadwell to another estate called Tuckahoe. Further on in towards Charlottesville. And the reason for this Jefferson's father Peter his mother died very early but Jefferson's father Peter received a last will and testament call from one of the good friends of his William Randolph who upon his deathbed gave his estate Tuckahoe to Peter Jefferson asking him if he would not move his family there and take care of the three children small children who were there. And by this time of course besides Tom there was a couple of sisters. So it meant that there would be 6 or 7 children there at Tuckahoe and they could be educated together. So TJ's earliest memory is being carried by one of the black servants on this huge pillow on a horse. I believe it's about 50 miles down to Tuckahoe.

I think the school is still there. It's a one room affair about the size of as they used to say where I was brought up a four holer an outhouse that has four holes in it. And that was his earliest education. He also at the same time was the typical kind of boy who loved to go and explore. He could ride pretty well and he recounted in some of his writings how he explored a deserted Indian village and found arrowheads and various other artifacts. And it was the beginnings of Jefferson's lifelong passion with archaeology actually of digging things up. And much later on in his life when he was really spreading his wings and going to town he had his great artist friend Charles Willson Peale financed and and ordering an expedition to dig up a huge mastodon's bones that Jefferson was just really glad to have. And in fact he made great contributions of these archaeological skeletons to the American Philosophical Society and other societies. And he was derided at some times when he was in political office as someone would be as being Mr. Mammoth or Mr. Dinosaur that sort of thing. He once even sent a skeleton and the horns and the skin of a moose all the way to Europe at a great expense 150 English pounds just to show the Europeans that American animals were of good size. He was able to go out into the wilderness then from very very early birth and position himself as a free spirit what we would call today as a free spirit.

And some of his descriptions of nature later on in his life have that peculiar poetic visionary quality which we always associate with the romantic poets who were contemporaries of his who were visionaries of the highest order. Shelley sometimes. Blake not so much. Coleridge occasionally. Wordsworth for sure. And it's strange to think of Jefferson who was just the epitome of the taciturn stable helmsman to be describing these disappearing ridges of the Blue Ridge Mountains with these glowing accounts. And suddenly in the syntax of what he's writing you realize that he was there. And very special quality a very special way. And in fact one of the sublimest places on Earth according to TJ was this rock bridge about 200 feet high this natural arched rock bridge that he actually owned that property later on. And he said in one account that it takes a really brave man to go up there on the top and peer over into that abyss. And that once he did it for a whole minute and got a headache out of it but that he had a tremendous view. And what he meant was not just a view of down there but a vision of the capacities of nature to open up her possibilities of form for man's mind because at the same time that Jefferson was studying Latin and Greek and Spanish and French and Italian law and all these things he had this other under-side opening up all the time these natural structures and forms so that he constantly integrated all along the way the differentiation of his rational mind with the breadth of vision that a natural aesthetic allows. So that by the time Jefferson was I think he was let's see he was 14 and a half when his dad died. He was capable of taking care of the family estate the plantation at least enough so that it kept running. And within a year and a half after his father's death he decided that he would go to William and Mary University in Williamsburg. And so in January of 1760 he was that would make him what 16 Almost 17. He started in on a two year course. Now when he arrived there Williamsburg very very very small. You could have walked in and out of Williamsburg 15 minutes. But he fell in with a very interesting triad of individuals who challenged Jefferson in the way that good educators not teachers but good educators always do. They lay out an enormous banquet of possibilities and let the student pick what he can put on his plate and take with him. And so a real good educator always is laying out many things that are not in a categorical pattern but are in sort of a smorgasbord free for all and inviting constantly for you to pick and choose whatever you can use to take with you.

One of those individuals was a man named Small Doctor Small and he was actually the only Non-clerical faculty member of William and Mary College at the time. Most of the others were ministers and in fact the ministers had been so upset about the economics the pay and so forth that they were on strike a great deal of the time and in fact even took off for London to try and press their demands so that this fellow Small found himself teaching maybe 15 different subjects instead of the 1 or 2 that he was trained. But he liked Jefferson. He liked the kind of mind and spirit that Jefferson focused in himself and brought to bear on his studies. So that Small very very quickly introduced Jefferson to his two best friends in town. One was the royal governor Fauquier was his name and the other was a very successful lawyer named George Wythe W-Y-T-H-E. So that the four of these gentlemen Jefferson and Small Wythe Fauquier would form a quartet of companionability intrigues. They would play music together. Jefferson was a great violinist. They would dine together and in this kind of informal fashionable interplay over elegant wine and excellent manners beautiful meals excellent conversation. The three older men were able to hone Jefferson very very quickly into really what we would call a phenomenon somebody who could hold his own socially very casually.

And yet behind this equilibrium his mind was free to think of what was going on and free to be there either in a charming social way or free to think in depth in terms of the structure of the interplay or free even further behind that in his spirit to get the insights and the intuitions of directions and vectors and purposes that even rational plans would not tell. That is to say by the time that Jefferson was 19 and was graduated from William and Mary he was really a phenomenon already. He was an extraordinary individual and he decided that he would study law with George Wythe. And for five years in 1762 to 1767 TJ studied with Wythe. And the way that you would study law. At that time there were no law schools. You would go to court you would go to the place where law was conducted. And you would go there every day that it would be in session and you would learn that way. And in the evening times you would read law. Now Jefferson being the kind of man that he was infinitely curious about details when he would find an issue in law he would go back to the historical developments of the law. And if it were in the Saxon language he would get himself instruction. If it were in the Latin language he would go back and read the original Latin laws.

And then he would read all the corollary literature so that by the time he was 26 Jefferson was not only a phenomenon he was probably the best educated man in that whole area of the world. He was extraordinarily capable. Now this development of his capacities very very quickly brought him a tremendous legal business. After he left Wythe as a student and entered into practice for himself in the first year he had 68 law cases which is phenomenal to start from scratch in Colonial Williamsburg. It means that people were by word of mouth clamoring to get to this young man because he was able to cut it. And in fact as Jefferson began to think of himself in terms of wider capacities he ran the next year for a seat in the House of Burgesses and he won one of the outstanding events that he had done. Besides his law practice besides his astonishing ability as an individual he realized that some of his own family lands and plantations were unable to get their tobacco and their other crops quickly down to wharves where oceangoing boats could come in. So he got a plan in operation and executed where the rocks in the Rivanna River were taken out so that ships could come up the James River and then go up the Rivanna River and load directly at all these plantations up along the way. His being one of them.

Well this clearing of the rocks in the Rivanna getting it organized and getting it done. And Jefferson of course being an extraordinarily curious individual was interested in the engineering of how are we going to do this. Interested in the surveying of laying it out and so forth. And he actually was one of the people not only who designed it in his mind and politically got it done but he was somebody who could have in effect occupied all of the roles in getting this operation done. It was a feat of extraordinary capacity from one individual. And later on in his life at the end of his life Jefferson like a movement out of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony did the very same thing only in very large. When he built the University of Virginia he conceived of the curriculum. He was the architect for the buildings. He was the engineer. He was the contractor. In other words he did it all. And he was there every day. And when he wasn't of course he was up in Monticello with the within looking distance on the top of the hill with his telescope watching what was going on. So the University of Virginia was laid down right. later on in this series when we get to William Faulkner one of Faulkner's only times that he agreed to come out of his shell and be interviewed was when the University of Virginia invited him and he wrote back he said any place that started with the blessings of a man like Thomas Jefferson has a right to hook me in and I'll go.

So Jefferson had cleared the Rivanna River of rocks. And on the strength of this of course his name was well known all through that area of Virginia and he was elected to the House of Burgesses. He spent some time there and in fact he began about that time 1768 1769 to build Monticello. And he began laying out in his mind this idea that instead of having something down on the river one would have it up on a hill. One is almost reminded of Frank Lloyd Wright. Only Wright said don't build on top of the hill. Build on the brow of the hill and you have the eminence you see. But you don't destroy the hill. Monticello is on top but there are other hills around Brown's Mountain and so forth that are higher. About this time of course Jefferson being in his late 20s and having had a couple of flirtations but nothing really interesting met a widow Martha Wayles Skelton and he pursued her very shyly. She had to encourage him a lot. Sometimes the ladies have to understand that he's all right. He just can't say it today. And she agreed to get married again. And they were married. I believe it was on New Year's Day of 1772. And about that time Monticello had the cottage built so that he was later able to take her up there and live there.

Now all of this time from 1743 up until 1773. And those 30 years first 30 years of Jefferson's life of course the tremendous events of history were unfolding and the old order which had wound itself up like a clock. With the labyrinthine intrigues of the 18th century and this tremendous labyrinthine clock set on new shores where it didn't really relate to anything going on was becoming a bomb and Jefferson being in the forefront of Virginia society as a political as a social as an intellectual phenomenon really knew just about everybody. And one of the individuals that he admired although he was the exact opposite of him was Patrick Henry. Patrick Henry said narrow for natural and other kinds of slurs in his language and he was a rough and tumble sort of character but he was honest and sharp as a tack. And it was watching Patrick Henry in action. In fact in a couple of court cases Jefferson was astounded that sometimes reason would not prevail even when it was apparent to everyone that sometimes a great sharp lawyer can carry the day just by sheer wanting to do it and having the panache to be able to carry it out. Patrick Henry was beginning to deliver tremendous speeches in Virginia. The House of Burgesses had closed down had ended its days. There were all kinds of meetings and conventions in Virginia.

And Patrick Henry of course gave his is great Give me liberty or give me death Speech and to persons like Jefferson it just seemed to ring in their minds that the truth of a moment of history had arrived that there was no way whatsoever to go back that someone had touched the heart string of reality and that those vibrations were in motion and that they had better take those and shape a life out of those because there was nothing left of the old way. And very quickly in the year 1773 1774 various organizations were set up. For instance there was a there were committees of correspondence in all the colonies who would keep everybody in touch with what was going on. And then of course when the Continental Congress began to meet in Philadelphia it was just a matter of form really that Jefferson would be one of those delegates to be chosen to go along. He had traveled once to Philadelphia and New York. He was about 23 at the time and was astounded at how difficult it was to get from place to place. Every place had different laws. Every place had different money. Accommodations were difficult. It was just an impossibility. So this time he set out very early. He took a servant of his named Bob and in fact got him inoculated against smallpox. It was a strange thing. Many people were afraid of inoculation but Jefferson believed in it and every chance he had he spread the word that inoculation was a good thing.

So he had his servant inoculated against smallpox and he left on the 7th of May 1774 for Philadelphia the Continental Congress the second a week later in Virginia in the Bruton Parish Church the bell of the church rang and the Virginia delegates proclaimed independence with Patrick Henry's fiery speech that Virginia was no longer a colony of England but it was an independent political entity and this message of course seemed to follow the actual footsteps of Jefferson who was just approaching Philadelphia so that when he arrived there in May of 1776 he was filled with this kind of enormity of purpose that seemed to hover around him as if in a cloud and almost like as if it were in a dream sequence Franklin remembered had come back just in time from his European sojourns. The delegates had come together from all the various parts of the colonies and just in the unfolding of a moment there was the opportunity suddenly on the 11th of June that a small group were set aside John Adams Robert Livingston Roger Sherman Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson to prepare a document that would state unequivocally to England the position of independence of the thirteen colonies. And of course Adams was a terrible speller and writer. Livingston and Sherman were having some problems with various things.

So it fell to conversations between Franklin and Jefferson and Franklin the older man sensing in Jefferson there was a great affection between them sensing his well-honed capacity stepped aside. And he said in effect take the seat at the table with the pen. I'll be here. You can ask any time anything. You write it. And so Jefferson sat down. And in the time of the summer solstice of 1776 from the 11th of June to the 28th of June Jefferson every day for about 15 hours a day used this great natural capacity to envision not just the independence of the moment but a document which would speak to the universal destiny of the human spirit and the unfolding natural vision which he had in terms of his well-honed rational mind to conceive of a structure within which to manifest it. And the Declaration of Independence is one of the outstanding documents of mankind. It has within its language and imagery the power and the lightning to illuminate and make enthusiastic generations of individuals who have no idea of its context or its background no idea of its incredible visionary purposes. And yet they feel the tug the encouragement the nourishment from the words and the syntax of it. I think I have a volume here. Yeah. The outstanding biography of Jefferson in the 19th century was by Randall in three volumes The Life of Thomas Jefferson. It's hard to find around Henry Randall printed in Philadelphia of all places.

We keep in this country coming back to basic geometric structures. It's pretty difficult to lose your way in American history once you know it but you have to know it first. Everyone knows the first words. Let's have them again.

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of Nature's God entitle them. A decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal and that they are endowed by their creator with inherent and inalienable rights that among these are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Life as the context from nature. Liberty as the context from the mind of man and the pursuit of happiness as an enveloping direction by which the two of them in tandem can work and evolve.

That to secure these rights. And one almost might put in is the only reason why there are governments at all. To secure these rights to make sure that human nature has these capacities ensured for them is what a government is all about. It has no other purpose. So this development of Jefferson in writing the Declaration of Independence and he was rightly proud of the document set Jefferson up as one of the founding fathers of the whole enterprise.

But he was gone very quickly. He was only in Philadelphia for a short while and it was almost as if a threshold in history had opened up and the right man prepared all that time strode through got into the situation performed the delicate surgical task that was needed with the right language and the right temper for the right vision for the people. And then was gone. It was back in Virginia. Now Jefferson's wife had died in September of 1772. It had been a real blow to him at the time. He spent three weeks just pacing the floor of his library and it was only after those weeks behind the closed doors that he could even saddle up a horse and ride off into the hills into the forests. He rode to a rock bridge one time and just lay there alongside the stream and just let the passing reflections of clouds pass over his image in the stream. Late in his life when he was 81 he wrote in his letters I think this one was to John Adams. He said that even at 81 he still felt the vision of an individual who had been born on the coast of a continent and had been privileged in his time to watch clouds of light flow over him inland developing carrying man's freedom into a visible manifestation that kind of experience of clouds of light.

Well when he had finished the Declaration of Independence had worked his part in this momentous decision. He went back to Virginia. And it was he was elected to the House of Delegates in Virginia. And in a couple of years 1779 he was suddenly the Governor of the state of Virginia. But all this time the Revolutionary War was raging. And the British Empire of course fighting a war the kind of war which they understood very well which later on they would fight in India and even South Africa various other places. A war of attrition. Instead of bringing to bear their strength at any one point blockade much like England is doing today against the Falkland Islands situation wearing down the enemy by an incessant strategic plan of attack. And of course the early fledgling Republic was being worn down and ground down. But the war had touched the North mainly and it wasn't until New Year's Eve of 1780 that British warships finally entered into Chesapeake Bay and finally began to send troops into Virginia. And very very quickly. The early months of 1781 it became apparent that the Virginia colonists were no match for the tremendous capacities of the British troops. In fact Benedict Arnold famous as a traitor to the American cause was one of the British generals at that time. Jefferson all this time was the governor and one finds in his writings that there were times when he himself and maybe 1 or 2 others convening together were the only government in Virginia.

All the others were scattered various purposes or killed. And there was even a time several times as a matter of fact when Jefferson had to saddle up his horse and ride off into the hills and wade across the river for a sally of British troops to go through the capital and then move on. And then he would ride back in in the night put the papers together carry on the business of government. Finally after the siege of Yorktown and the British surrender the Revolutionary War technically over many people wanted to bring suit against Jefferson. It said that he was incompetent as a governor. And this injured Jefferson very very much as an individual. And it was only years later that he actually began to work in this sense of almost as if the public which he had served had begun to betray him. He was cleared of all charges. In fact there were formal charges brought by a young man who was just fearful of even bringing them up. And Jefferson wrote him a very kind letter saying this is your duty and an opportunity for you to go ahead. And much later on when Jefferson was exonerated he had gone through yet another one of these periods where his character was tempered by the fine ball peen hammer of circumstance so that he felt that he would retire permanently from public life.

He said that he had given 13 years of his life to organizing and helping his man and now he would retire to Monticello and become a gentleman plantation owner and farmer. And he stayed there for a few years. But then his old friend George Washington needed to have someone to succeed Benjamin Franklin in France. He had sent John Adams. And Adams was not the right man. He was not getting along with the French at all so he was sent to England and that made room for Jefferson. And Jefferson of course couldn't turn Washington down. And in fact I think there's a wonderful letter from Jefferson to George Washington April 16th 1784. They had known each other for many years at this time 20 years or more. Washington used to come in and he was a Virginian also and he would participate in some of Governor Fauquier's get togethers and so forth. So Jefferson and Washington went way back even by 1784. So Jefferson wrote to him. He said

Dear sir I have received your favor of the eighth by Colonel Harrison. The subject of it is interesting until you have stood connected with it. It has been a matter of anxiety to me because whatever may be the ultimate fate of course it draws to it some degree of disproportion. I wish to see you stand on ground separated from it and that the character which will be handed to future ages at the head of our revolution may in no instance be compromised in various ways.

And then he goes on to finally say that he could not turn him down that he would accept the post. And so with his daughter Patsy. Patsy had been had been born in September of 17. what was it September of 1772 I believe it was. Yeah. So she would have been about 12 years old. 11 or 12. He set sail and he arrived in France arrived in Paris made his way to Versailles. And of course Franklin had been lionized there and he was still there. And the French minister the Comte de Vergennes said sir you have come to replace Franklin. And Jefferson with his initial statement said sir no one can replace Doctor Franklin. I am here to succeed to the office. And very quickly Jefferson became welcome in the society there. As a matter of fact Franklin and Jefferson having seen eye to eye in many many ways made quite a twosome in Paris. Randall in his biography gives this kind of description. Of course he goes on to describe how Franklin was a cause celebre in France. You remember that his picture was painted on everything sort of like the Star Wars image. Just everywhere you pick up a pencil and it would have Benjamin Franklin that sort of thing.

So Jefferson's popularity grew apace. He had the advantage of starting with Franklin's mantle on his shoulders. There were a few strong points of similarity in their characters and their friendship had early reached the pitch of even affection. Jefferson revered Franklin and Franklin admired and had full confidence in Jefferson. Then Jefferson started to with the unbounded goodwill and applause of the French officers who had served in America. Lafayette was sent by Washington during the siege of Richmond Virginia to help Jefferson to defend Virginia and Lafayette and Jefferson were tremendous friends both highly cultivated individuals. And in fact there's a tremendous story from someone who had seen Lafayette lived a long time had seen the reuniting of old Thomas Jefferson and old Lafayette 40 years or so after the last time they had seen each other just before the French Revolution in 1825. And even though both of them were kind of lame and feeble the description was that their steps quickened almost into a slow trot and they grasp each other. Ah Lafayette. Ah Jefferson. When he was there of course there were many other French soldiers who remembered mostly officers who remembered the great hospitality of Jefferson and the respect for the man who under tremendous fire just his his government existing almost in his own person and yet able to carry on great conversations and tremendous evenings. There was a time when just before the arrival of a certain contingent of British troops that Jefferson was entertaining a bunch of Indian chiefs in his own house there and was enjoying the great oratory of the Indian chiefs as he did all his life one of his earliest memories and schooling him in the art of oratory was the great speech of Chief Hunnisett who actually went to England was a Cherokee chief went to England and on his departure for England gave a great speech in the royal governor's Palace when Jefferson was a student.

And he realized this tremendous capacity for the American Indian to have eloquent oratory. It led Jefferson in a lifelong search to study American Indian languages. And when he gave his library as we'll see later on to Congress it had voluminous volumes of his notes in American Indian languages. Well all of this being able to carry on this tremendous kind of élan under duress impress the French. And when Jefferson arrived succeeding Franklin. And when the French could see that Franklin and Jefferson were really simpatico suddenly Jefferson became fashionable and not only fashionable indispensable because remember Jefferson was one of the highly educated spirits of his age. He was intellectually probably on par with Goethe or any of the geniuses of Europe of that time. And in fact the three years that he was there 1786 to 1789 Jefferson became the place where he was staying in the hotel with the number of suites and so forth became a meeting place for the French intellectuals.

And a lot of the ideas of the French Revolution come from Thomas Jefferson from his integration from his mind and in fact very near the end of his stay there when he was about to leave when events were about to break open Lafayette personally requested Jefferson to hold a dinner for all the top echelon officers so that they could come together under the aegis of his cordiality and his great universal learning to try and work out some resolution before events actually broke. And it was just before Jefferson finally left to go back to the United States in late 1789 that this event happened and it's recorded all over. Lafayette himself is recorded as having been one of the real turning points in his life. Well the French tidal wave was on its way and Jefferson and his daughter were actually on a boat in the harbor of Lahore waiting for the storm to abate when the Bastille was stormed and it was a tremendous explosion because the French Revolution began to convince persons like Jefferson that the events in the United States were indeed of worldwide historical import. And when he returned to the United States it was with the understanding that he would serve as Secretary of State for George Washington's first term of office. And so Thomas Jefferson became the first Secretary of State. And it was with great confidence that Washington had him.

Now this prepared Jefferson for another bout of public life. He had intended to go back as he always did to Monticello to retire to lead the quiet life. He liked to style himself as the hermit of Monticello and in fact from the perspective of those who came to the Asian Spiritual Classics tradition one can understand Thomas Jefferson as being like an old Taoist master very very easily. He has all the earmarks. If he had had a copy of Lao Tzu who knows what would have happened. But he stayed. He stayed with Washington. And then of course he stayed on. After Washington John Adams became President and Jefferson became the Vice President at that time and his wonderful capacities were setting up various things. He was the President after. Remember Franklin setting up the American Philosophical Society. He was the president of that for many many years. He everything that he seemed to touch seemed to go in operation. Then it became apparent to Jefferson by the late 1790s that the Republic had begun to go astray. It had begun to skew off that the Federalists who had been in power had begun to cement their position both in terms of a financial structure by setting up a national bank by setting up various kinds of taxation by using Alexander Hamilton's idea of of money and currency and credit and so forth that the rich individuals powerful individuals were beginning to cement their position. And so Jefferson always with the lure to retire decided that he would not only stay in public life but that he would run for President of the United States. And in a tremendous election in 1800 Jefferson and Aaron Burr who I'll talk about after the break a little bit tied in the number of electoral votes and the election went into the House of Representatives and all day and all night the vote kept coming up the same until finally on the 36th ballot because of the urging finally of Alexander Hamilton Vermont and one other state changed their position and Jefferson was elected the third President of the United States. And the news reached him early early in the morning. And Jefferson of course that morning for breakfast. Later on he was staying in a place called Conrad's which was a hotel in run by a certain Mrs. Brown. They wanted to give him the head seat at the table for breakfast. And Jefferson plain Democrat. No thanks. I'll take my old seat. And then in the morning I'll go over and receive the mantle. Well we've got him to 1800. Let's take a break and then we'll come back.

And I think last week I was somewhat remiss in not showing some of the literature on Franklin. And I'll take a moment to show you on Jefferson. There are many single volume compendiums of Jefferson's writings.

The Portable Thomas Jefferson is available. It has about 700 pages. His first big writing of course was this summary view of the rights of British America. It's complete in here. He has voluminous notes on the state of Virginia is in here the Declaration of Independence and so forth. It's a nominal collection. There are many such things. One of the most esoteric collections of Jefferson. And I think you after you get to understand the how should we say it the occult movements of American history you realize that all along the line our geniuses link up and see each other across the chasms of time over the hills of circumstance. They see each other. One of America's great philosophers John Dewey wrote The Living Thoughts of Thomas Jefferson. Dewey himself lived to be over 90. And this is an excellent wonderful book. And Dewey of course I'm sorry we don't have a chance to get to him in this series but when we do the next series of American Spiritual Classics we'll get to do. I wanted to do Dewey after Frank Lloyd Wright because they really are contemporaries and they get to they get to a certain level of civilization which eventually the rest of us will get to. But Dewey these are some of the quotations that he liked that much to their credit however unshackled by the prejudices which chained down the minds of the common masses of Europe. The experiment has proved that where thought is free in its range we need never fear to hazard what is good in itself.

This sample of the American mind is an additional item for the flattering picture your letter presents of our situation and our prospects. I firmly believe in them all and that human nature has never looked forward under circumstances so auspicious either for the sum of happiness or the spread of surface provided to receive it. And another just a short sentence or two. I look to the diffusion of light and education as the resource most to be relied on for ameliorating the condition promoting the virtue and advancing the happiness of man. Another I am persuaded myself that the good sense of the people will always be found to be the best army. Jefferson incidentally among other things is the founder of the Democratic Party. That sort of attitude that it's the people. And so this little selection in our time. Randall's biography The Life of Jefferson in three volumes has been displaced somewhat although it's a question like the old Britannica and the new one you have to have both really. Dumas Malone has five volumes Jefferson and his time five big volumes. Here's four and was the fifth down there which is the standard biography of Jefferson in the 20th century. There are all kinds of other literatures. I must have 50 or 60 books on Jefferson myself just having things. He's evidently going to be around for some time.

I think if I can encapsulate for you the most outstanding characteristic of Jefferson and the way in which Jefferson brought what Franklin had started as a vision for this country coming into a possibility for maturation. Jefferson took that possibility. He took that capacity of Franklin to envision almost as the classic Greeks were able to those who took the Greek series you remember the Greeks could envision in the pure geometrical air of the mind form and ways in which to manifest it. Jefferson also saw that but with an addition to it something that the Greeks could not do and a reason for their fall they could not see it in motion. They could see the static geometry frozen in the form in the shape of the idea but they couldn't see it in a flow through time space through generations. Manifesting in a living organic way. The great mind could never see that. The classical mind could never see that. And Jefferson more than any revolutionary that the 20th century or the 19th century or the 18th century per year had the capacity to see it in motion. Not just in his lifetime although he was a master of that but he was the master of seeing how this would unfold hundreds of years down the line and setting up the right sorts of nourishing centers the right kinds of communication the right interrelations of living structure so that it would get to stages of maturation yet unimagined by contemporary people.

And thus it would continue. And Jefferson was the mastermind of this technique. One most outstanding example of this was the way in which he doubled the size of the United States and defeated Napoleon. It started with conversations that he had as early as when he was the governor of Virginia 1780 1781. A family friend of his George Rogers Clark very famous general in the Revolutionary War. He fought the battles in the far west. See Jefferson was never thinking of Europe. He was always thinking of the West out there. That's why his home was on the hill. The first mountain range so he could motion people by. Let's go go inside. The form is in there. He and George Rogers Clark decided that the British could always hold a noose around the American neck as long as they control the western frontier and that for the United States to ever have a chance for anything they had to keep that door open that it wasn't the back door it was the front door. And so as early as the early 1780s Jefferson was able to see to it that Clark was given a chance to reconnoiter that whole area. Indiana. Ohio Illinois all the way to the Mississippi River. And when time came he actually thought of mounting an expedition with George Rogers Clark as the head to go all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

Let's open this up all the way. Let's not stop at any particular river or boundary or any comedian. One is reminded you remember of Zeno's paradox that if you only go halfway all the time you'll never get there. So you have to do it in one durational move there. Let's go to the Pacific. And all this time Jefferson kept this suspended in his vision. All the various things that happened to him good and bad. And as soon as he got in as the president He wrote a letter to Meriwether Lewis and he said it's time to start preparing yourself for a big trip to the Pacific and I want you to find someone to go with you. And sure enough who would turn up but the youngest brother of George Rogers Clark who was the clerk of Lewis and Clark. And after 30 years of waiting to do it Jefferson outfitted them and sent them on their way. 43 people in canoes. They left from Saint Louis from old Cahokia from the old spiritual center of America for thousands of years to go and reopen the doors again all the way to the Pacific. Open up the vision. Jefferson at the same time was constantly preparing other expeditions. He sent Zebulon Pike to go up the Arkansas River and the Red River as far as the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. This was 1801 1802 so that by the end of the first term in office Jefferson had little parties of people going all through there and he had outmaneuvered conceptually the designs of the French for an empire in North America because the French hopes were pinned on the city of New Orleans.

And finally through a lot of machinations. And I can't go into here before because of time. In a surprise move unorthodox unauthorized. James Monroe who was a lifelong friend young friend of Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson had raised Madison and Monroe always sending them books always taking care of their education so that they were Jeffersonian minds. And when in Versailles suddenly the French decided that the United States would take it that they would sell the whole kit and caboodle for $15 million Monroe stood up and shook their hand and said damn. Then he said to Jefferson and said well you come up with some money. Jefferson of course loving his boys said we'll do it and we'll get the money. We'll find a way. And suddenly the size of the US was doubled and suddenly the frontiers were open. And the reason why the French had changed their mind was that Jefferson's encouragement of settlers to go in and take up the state that is now Kentucky which runs all the way to the Mississippi River. Kentucky used to be a part of Virginia and Illinois because Illinois and Kentucky together if you look at a map of the US are like a fist up against the Mississippi River right in the center of the continent.

And as long as you hold Kentucky and Illinois you've got two broad front for any effective military action against you unless the whole other side of the Mississippi is heavily populated. And it wasn't. The French had 42,000 people in the Louisiana Territory and Jefferson was sending 30,000 a month through the Cumberland Gap. And when he sent the census statistic that there were 900,000 Americans in that area that fed into the New Orleans area and that they were getting very upset because they couldn't get their crops to market because of various shenanigans like embargoes and so forth. He said it's going to be very hard to keep myself in office unless I satisfy these people and even then I don't know who's going to take care of things. And if they get out of hand what chance do you have. There are more people every month coming through than you have in the whole place. And of course the French understood that it was hopeless already that it was already accomplished that the wonderful ballet of Jefferson's Western vision had been in motion for a generation already even before it began to occur to the empire builders that there was an empire to have. And of course Jefferson not being satisfied with just the Louisiana Purchase. I think we paid $0.03 an acre for the US. $0.03 an acre. He sent Lewis and Clark all the way to the Pacific. And of course as they went along they carried with them the great regards that Jefferson had for the native people. And all the way along they were received by the American Indian people. In fact they wintered the first winter with the Mandan Indian tribes in North Dakota. And when it was 45 below they were really glad to have friends that take them into their homes. And of course an Indian woman Sacagawea was their great guide and led them all the way to the Pacific. And this was shown and so forth helped them all the way. And in fact a great Mandan chief went back to Washington D.C. and visited with Jefferson. Indians were always coming to visit with Jefferson. He was constantly learning their languages so he could talk to them quite a bit. I think at the second inaugural there were five Cherokee chiefs in his living room when this was going on. So he was always the master of the West of the vision of the West. And of course when we look at the possibilities I mean Napoleon had already sent 20,000 troops to put down the West Indies revolt to south and he was planning to send hundreds of thousands over. So that whole imbroglio was forestalled by Jefferson's sense of design and excellence. Really. So the Louisiana Purchase is something also as a part of the intrigues going on at the time.

Jefferson's Vice President in his first term Aaron Burr had been a sharp lawyer from New York had worked his way up and and into Washington's service had run up against the conniving machinations of Alexander Hamilton. There wasn't room for two of them. And finally later on it was Burr who killed Hamilton in the duel at Weehawken New Jersey. Burr also was as he was Vice President was suspected of being a traitor and in fact in cahoots with a General Wilkerson who was the appointed governor for the whole Louisiana Territory who was in the pay of Spain and was trying to work with the Spanish. And Burr and Wilkerson had this fantastic idea that they would go down and they would foment trouble and take over northern Mexico and include Louisiana and make an independent empire for themselves. This was the age France. This was going on in Jefferson's own house all the time and Jefferson was equal to it. He was ready for it. His great equanimity his sense of wonderful humor and intelligence he was able to work with it. In fact one of his responses one time to a situation he got tired of people quoting him and misquoting things. He did his own Bible the Jefferson Bible and passed it out to members of Congress. He said these are the actual words of Jesus and everything else is editorial. Now we have some basis to talk about.

And so the Jefferson Bible is still in print incidentally. Maybe we should send it on to this Congress and see about going there is little rationality. So this was Jefferson's way of not only responding but choreographing the great events of his time. And of course where it had been a close election in 1800 when it came to the second election in 1805 he won in a landslide. I think 15 of the 17 states went for Jefferson. It was just incredible. He was a national institution and he was on the move. And not only was Jefferson president for two terms but his protégés Madison and Monroe. So that for the first quarter of the 19th century the United States became America because of the tremendous energy and capacity of Thomas Jefferson. He was always available. He was always there even after he retired from the presidency. He was always up at Monticello and in fact several times there were national embarrassments because of the way in which Jefferson had been forgotten one time. He was tremendously in debt. And at the end of the War of 1812 and 1814 the British had burned Washington. Burnt the National Library. So he wrote a letter I think. I think we still have his letter. He wrote a letter stated Monticello September 21st 1814 to Samuel H. Smith Librarian of Congress said Dear Sir I presume it will be among the early objects of Congress to recommence their collection.

This will be difficult while the war continues and intercourse with Europe is attended with so much risk. You know my collection its condition and extent. I have been 50 years making it and have spared no pains opportunity or expense to make it what it is. While residing in Paris I devoted every afternoon. I was disengaged for a summer or two in examining all the principal bookstores turning over every book. Does this sound familiar. With my own hand and putting by everything which related to America and indeed whatever was rare and valuable in every science until he had about 10,000 volumes. And so Jefferson helping the United States began his collection became the foundation of the Library of Congress where all of his books are there today and you can see them. Of course he couldn't stand the fact. After he sold them all he started collecting again and his second collection came in handy because it was just a couple of years later that he began talking with a few friends and they decided that Virginia needed a real great school to educate the young. And it was then that the University of Virginia was thought of and promoted and designed and Jefferson's second library went to start the core of the University of Virginia's library. So he was constantly active and available and there were many times when Madison or later on especially Monroe would get into a situation where they needed his sagacity.

One of the great moments of course in American history was when James Monroe received messages that Spain and France and Holland and Russia and one other country were going to go together and form massive invasions in South and Central America. And that Monroe had received a secret letter from England who had been the enemy for 50 years and they'd fought two wars against him to team up together with the United States to stop the rest of Europe coming into the Americas. And Monroe went up to Monticello to see Jefferson and old Jefferson said let's do it now. Let's join with the British and let's keep Europe out of the Americas. So the Monroe Doctrine was born in that late night conversation between Monroe and Jefferson. He was always there. He was there in fact when the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence was coming up and he began to fade pretty fast. And in fact late in the afternoon on the 3rd of July he woke up from a doze weakened saw his physician by his bed stand and blinked awake and said is it the fourth yet. And the doctor said no it will be in a few hours. And the 4th of July dawned and there was tremendous celebrations as you might know or might well imagine around the country but especially there in Virginia especially in Charlottesville where great cannons boomed out at noon and tremendous fireworks and cheering and so forth.

And Jefferson heard it all. And then a half an hour later at about 12:50 p.m. on the 4th of July the seventh and 1826 He died and passed on. Madison lived until 1836. Monroe I think died in 1831. But Jefferson's death was not the close of an era at all because he had considerably worked to transform himself into the institutions into the processes in motion into the spirit of the kind of intelligence that distinguishes this country beyond all others as a mobile mentality for whom nature is an open friend and man's mind is a ship that can be designed and sailed anywhere we'd like to go and any capacity we would like to manifest. And in fact I think when you take a look at the United States space program and the way that it in the 1960s seemed to just sweep up out of nowhere. That really is a Jeffersonian type of dimension that this country has. It's like a treasure. It's like having that capacity. And the only shame that there might be is if we don't use it because having something like that and not using it actually is a disgrace. So Jefferson I think is best seen in this light. I have maybe. What do we have 15 slides. 16 slides. Just some images to give you some images. Let's try those and then we'll call it quits. Let's see.

It's on its side. That's the rock bridge. I'm sorry. The slide is on its side. Oh these are trees growing up towards the right. That's a See That's a river on your left. Okay. So we're seeing Whistler and Fenimore Cooper next week. This is a Whistler composition. Those who've been with me for a while know my relation to machines and they're not supposed to work for me. Thank you so much. These are images of Phantom Jefferson. Again That's his bedroom. He was a great inventor. He was fantastic. He invented the swivel chair for us which every executive has to have now. There's nothing more impressive than swinging into view on your subordinates. Yeah. I'm the. Spirit of Jefferson was to lower the window down to the floor. Let's take it all the way down to the floor. And then of course later on the Frank Lloyd Wright to open it up so you can go right up his bed. You could get out of either side. This is the bed pulls up to it doesn't it Yeah. Let's see if this is good. No the other one. All right. This is Thomas laurel wreath. It's difficult for people to use the origins of this country for propaganda purposes other than for what it was originally intended. Because these guys don't corrupt you. You just can't twist them around. They were very definite about what they were for. And so as long as American history is taught we're going to have I like this view through two windows at Monticello.

Just. And even with the lights in here that's all right too. It's the quality of light the quality of transparency of his sense of architecture. It's like the architecture of good ideas. There's a lot of natural sunlight and fresh air in motion. And yet the form which presents it has a definite geometrical structure topped off of course by a wonderful arch. Jefferson loved arches arches and domes. And you can study this. There are excellent books on the dome as a spiritual form of architecture. I think we have a copy here. And there's the dome. He wanted this to be the president's house. The White House. This was his original design. He spent a lot of time with architecture. He designed Monticello and redesigned it time and time again. This is his own sketch. This was a bust done by a French sculptor. It shows the tenacity imperative. We are over concerned in our time consciousness and hardly realize that consciousness is just what it is. It can't be anything else. But character fascinates all the time and it's character that needs to be tussled with and developed. And Jefferson really is the master of human character. I'll keep it integrated into high pressure situations where everything is at stake. The foyer. The entrance. Monticello. The sense of space and simple elements. Viewed from the outside. Looking up.

The great balconies where you can go around. This is his design sketch for the University of Virginia. You see the dome again. You see the great Greek colonnades the orchestration of form. The actual buildings as they are today. The University of Virginia. And the overall sketch. Monticello. Up on top of the hill. Background. And here the University of Virginia. And this great portrait of Jefferson. I used to have a copy of this up over my desk for many years. The firmness of character doesn't require violence at all just content. This is Bruton Parish and of course those of you who are following the unfolding of the story with Marie Bauer Halls of Foundations Unearthed about how the Elizabethan intellectuals had buried under Bruton Parish in the vault the original materials used for the the Bible the King James Bible and various other things. You might read Marie Jones Foundations Unearthed to the secret setup for the United States sort of a metaphysical time capsule waiting under Bruton Parish. And of course this is in Williamsburg where Jefferson Lincoln School where Jefferson lived. The center of another portrait of him with his signature down below. The equilibrium of the eyes. And I wear my scarf tonight in honor of his scarf. I cannot tie a scarf like Patrick Henry. He's not quite in focus is he I think the glasses on Henrietta above were in effect too. He really was more at home I think with a stein and a pen.

The Jefferson's kitchen in Monticello. It's interesting to see the contrast between the kitchen and the bedroom and the early entrance here. There's nothing basic about the heart like nature of the kitchen. That's right. Is that a brick floor And I don't think it was a case of right now but. I don't think he ever did any cooking. That's right. He was a slave. Yeah. I told him. That's one thing we don't have is a Jefferson cookbook. He was fascinated with this temple down in southern France. It's rather like the Parthenon. And of course he designed a State Capitol Building for Richmond based on that temple. He liked the colonnades but it's almost as if there's a memory of Pericles left in him of the Parthenon and that as soon as he saw this temple in southern France he wrote to a woman in Paris and said I have gazed at this building for hours as if it were my mistress. Every move the form seems to please me with a sublimity that I can hardly place into the ruins. This is Hamilton. I didn't have time to go into Hamilton and Jefferson. Of course they were great antagonists. But someone I think it was Richard Hofstadter the great American historian once said how fortunate we are to have two men of this caliber on opposite sides of the question. We are forever vacillating between the two and will never make a decision one against the other.

So both sides have equal intellects and men to present their views. Hamilton of course for the centralization of power and authority in a federal government. The promoting of a core elite corps that carries things on. Jefferson of course for the people. Let's let's open up the doors and windows. Because when man is free and in motion all things are possible. There's a shot of it on a cellar. Which Mr. Haller He thought this was good. What about his black mistress Pardon His black mistress I don't think there's much to that. No. This photo was pointed out by Mr. Hall this morning. He said it's interesting to see Monticello in nature like this surrounded by the vegetation because really that's the life of Jefferson. His notebooks are filled with drawings of all the various plants. In fact he used to astonish people when he was president and they would be going to Monticello and foreign ministers would come and visit. He loved company. He couldn't stand eating alone. So he was all his life had a crowded house and he would take people on walks. He'd know the name of every bush and every tree and these people to them it was vegetation. And by the time they were through they were wondering you know what they didn't know and what he did.

Well like I said next week we'll carry the story on.