Thomas Jefferson's 277th Birthday LIVE

good morning to you what a pleasure I beg pardon for the inclemency I can certainly welcome you here to a warm and dry house but there's nothing I can do about the weather I had the pleasure to meet home well welcome mr. light and I welcome the questions but I'm rather curious how would you or anyone else know that this day April the 13th is my birthday because I will tell you I was born on April the 2nd that was back in 17 and 43 oh I was born him Virginia surely yes but we were part of England and Great Britain had not adopted Pope Gregory's Canada as yet now nine years later in 1752 yes then Great Britain adopted the Gregorian calendar and so I have recognised my birthday on the 13th however I can tell you this much many people have wanted to recognize it and in particular a number in Massachusetts in fact my former Attorney General mr. Levi blinken of Massachusetts wrote me back I believe it was August of them of all three and that a number of Massachusetts wanted to know my birthday and I replied that and not approving myself of transferring the honors and the venerations for the birthday of our great Republic to any individual or for dividing them amongst individuals I have declined to let my birthday be known i've even engaged my family not to communicate it but it is my birthday do you have other questions that you might want to ask because I hope people will not be preoccupied with my birthday and forget that the only birthday we should recognize is the birthday of our nation now I will add this if you will merely a soup song mr. Adams might remind us the birthday is July the 2nd he is correct because it is on that day that our Continental Congress in Philadelphia became the Congress of these states United and voted for independence II however do not forget two days later on the 4th of July our Congress voted on our Declaration of American independence I beg your pardon for the ramble great consternation great concern and I will not deny great caution and even fear upon what pathway had we truly embarked our American Revolution did not begin overnight it it had already begun a year before that July in 17 and 76 but we were so bold in that July of 76 to finally take a great step not only on behalf of ourselves but on behalf of the family of man across this globe and the reason is simply that that we became the first nation in the history of man founded upon principle not upon monarchy not upon nobility royalty landed gentry aristocracy ancient principles of Liberty and and freedom through the laws of nature nature's God I take the temperature several times a day and I was reflecting upon the temperatures that July 7 1876 in Philadelphia and you know I realized that it was not so so humid and hot as many would have thought in fact it was a very balmy 75 76 degrees at noon on that July 4th so I've reflect back to those days not only with the remembrance of a bold and and great steps of human imagination but I also look back on those days with regard to the science that we were beginning to pursue in order to establish a foundation if you will of of recognizing the weather's and for recognizing as well that as a people we should continue to pursue science for our improvement you asked me where did the ideas and the words for our declaration of our American independence come from and I can only tell you that though they flowed quite naturally as I took three days to write them on four sheets of paper and mind you three days only because I make mistakes and had to transcribe corrections every evening and continue on I have said that all of it has already been written it has already been argued it has already being debated that you may find it and what I refer to as the elementary books of public right the works of Aristotle and Cicero councilman Sidney John Locke those authors their works perhaps each and every one of you have read and reread well no I beg pardon but I doubt it particularly when we remember in 1776 many Americans could not even read so I realized being invited by President Hancock and the committee because I was one of five men appointed by Hancock to the committee to draft the Declaration I realize that I had to shed the lofty suffice ins of these ancient authors and explain it in clear and simple terms that I considered to be the expression of the American mind mr. light please do not remind me I can only tell you that I felt in in time when I handed the first draft to the committee and they had their own Corrections and particularly Adams he was incessant in what he desired to correct and then the committee to hand it of course to the larger delicate body to the Congress will then the Congress continued to emasculate and mutilate my document however rest you assured I am still very satisfied with it it still puts forth those founding principles of this new world order that is the first nation in the history of man to have the people hold the reins of the government what General Washington referred to as our promise oh now Laura hi I doubt I could possibly refer to one book alone without recognizing so many that I I have read and continue to enjoy reading you know the very first library was my father's library I was blessed to inherit that he passed away when I was only 14 and I was not living here as yet at Monticello I was living at Shadwell farm and so I delighted in his library there were upwards of several hundred books but lamentably that library burned when Shadwell house burned I believe it was February 17 and 70 now I did have a few books that had already brought to a little Hermitage a little cottage that I had built here on the top both of my little mountain and so I with those books there I began a second library in time of course I'm married and that little cottage became my honeymoon cottage and then building the mansion house the library was moved here by 18 and 15 I had accumulated nearly 7,000 books and so at that time realizing that the British had laid waste to our Capitol building in Washington had burned even the president says let alone the Library of Congress I then sold my library to our Congress but rest you assured I cannot live without books I have a canine appetite for books that is a dog's appetite for books so very quickly I began a third library now of the ancient authors I might say old Tacitus lucidity x' euclid newton well newton is i would call him a modern author there differences between the ancient and the more modern authors the ancient authors such as horace and Livy as Salas they all believe that man was prone to fate and that he was continually wrestling with the gods but the modern authors a Newton and Locke and bacon they believed that man had an opportunity to improve his condition and that is what we refer to as the enlightenment of man now if there were any one book that I might consider my favorite throughout all time I believe it would be the work of the Reverend Lawrence turn his life and opinions of Tristram Shandy now you know what is unique about this book is the fact that it's about the life of a young boy named tristram shandy but he is not even born until more than halfway through the book but that is the purpose the purpose of Reverend Lawrence turns work to remind us that we are often prone to put on the seceding generation much of what we have thought is so necessary for our safety and our happiness when the future may have their own opinion and what is unique about the Reverend Lawrence Stearns Burke is that as you read as you're turning the pages suddenly you'll turn a page and there's nothing on either the two pages before you you turn the next page and Reverend Stern informed you I beg your pardon dear reader but my mind drew a blank it reminds us that we should not be too prone to even consider turning the page and having something else written upon it Stern helps us to look outside of the box a big apartment you're telling me that that our nation now is beset with the pestilence that that you're asking me that as so many of our citizens are quarantined at their own homes that they become bored I'm sorry to think that there may be those who might not want to open a book and to enjoy using their own imagination to create pictures within their own minds you know when someone shows you a picture that is precisely what they want you to see but when you open a book and begin to read your imagination goes to work and paints the most marvelous pictures for yourself I think as well to be in the bosom of your family is one of the greatest blessings to have family is to enjoy one and the other and how much we enjoy simply family and people it is who we are blessed if you will not as Hermits continually throughout our lives but to be able to engage and to interact with our fellow man particularly in this nation where as citizens we are want to hold the reins of our government where we are want to if you will to acquaint ourselves with the current events and to remind ourselves of where we have been to have a better understanding of how we can continue forward you know you remind me of a time when you speak of quarantine when I myself had to be quarantined oh yes this was in Philadelphia City this was in the late summer of 17 and 93 during what was known as the yellow fever now the yellow fever had already made itself known in Philadelphia back in 17 and 62 and dr. Benjamin Rush well-acquainted with it at that time was of service to us all when Philadelphia fell prey once more to the yellow fever they called it the yellow fever because those who suffered those who had extensive headaches those who became upset in their stomachs would also turn yellow now much of Philadelphia as they could afford got out of the city and into the country but unfortunately in that city of nearly 50,000 Souls during three months 5,000 of them lost their lives to the yellow fever a quarantined myself in a house which I rented on the banks of the Schuylkill River and do you know surrounded by lovely plain trees I wrote to my daughter mrs. Randolph I have become aware of the beauty the solace the peace and the good healthy of trees imagine here I was born in the forest primeval in the woods of western Virginia and it was suddenly during that time of that yellow fever that I took note of the value of trees I think there is a cure in nature for anything that ails man but do you know that many Philadelphians were not accepted during that time in the cities of Baltimore to the south in New York to the north and if they've dared to venture into each of those cities they had to quarantine themselves for a time so I can well understand the necessity of preserving the health and not inflicting another with with such a disease that many during a time of quarantine I want to pursue education with their own families is your question and what do I recommend if you will s as a resource to to better inform themselves and enlighten themselves well I will tell you firstly I have always believed history history should be our first and foremost read because history by apprising us of the past allows us better to understand where we are in the present and as I mentioned earlier continues to bind us together to move forward together never forgetting we are applauded by sonim I think as well that that mathematics and the pursuit of science are necessary in order that we might better understand how to improve our lives to make things better good heavens as we referred to the yellow fever many had the idea that it came from coffee that they were grounding and drinking that had come in to the part of Philadelphia I am told that science particularly the pursuits of of dr. rush have enabled us to understand that that no it might not have been from the coffee bean but rather from from water that had accumulated on the top of the the barrels that held coffee and that in that water there were mosquitoes bred that thereby transferred the disease so reading science I think is very very important and who could deny as I mentioned earlier the utilizing of imagination read imagination equip yourselves to think further that think of four hand to make things better that is what I verb recommend after all when I was a young boy I learned from my mother and learned from my father first before I ever had the opportunity for a formal schooling well thank you it seems as if I almost have a room equipped with scientific curiosities and I will not deny it you could call this a cabinet of curiosities I call it my Indian Hall and it is nonetheless for I enjoy the study if you will of those who were here long before any European arrived on the continent of North America I consider that we still have much to learn from them and that we could continue to be their friends I have much that was brought to me by them well the great expedition which I commissioned led by captain Meriwether Lewis and supportive with lieutenant Clarke in fact behind me if you will is the great Mandan Indian robe that they sent back to me from their winter encampment I believe that was the of 1804 not five the Mandan suchan's that is the great chieftains wore these Buffalo Rhodes commemorating if you will various battles in which they had been the victim and then of course I have over yonder here some fine elk horns and and moose antlers as well and not only that but also cases in which I'd like to display fossils the jawbone if you will the mandibles of what we refer to as master dance now there is a question as whether we refer to them as woolly mammoths or master tonnes but I prefer master tonnes I have even given a report to the American Philosophical Society upon the same but these fossils were dug up if you will out west in kentuc at a large creek known as Big Lick and the entire excavation was overseen by William Clark for mentioned over Blissett his brother George Rogers Clark there's so many boys in the family I'm confused at times but I do know that I was delighted to receive them here at Monticello and to put them on to put a display so that who come here are engaged with these curiosities and as you've seen had the happy opportunity to explain to them their history and the provenance I can tell you that I could have not been the more delighted the more flattered then the day I was invited to become a member of the American Philosophical Society I became somewhat of what is called a counselor back in about 17 and 80 at the very same time that Colonel Timothy Matlack the gentleman who who wrote our Declaration of American independence that is the formal copy the formally engrossed copy at the time that he became a counselor oh there was so many esteemed gentlemen with scientific curiosity who were members and never let us forget it was originally the junta it was founded by dr. Benjamin Franklin the year I was born 17 and 43 it went out of its usual gatherings for about 20 years was resurrected during the latter 17 and 60s and I became a most attendant and enthusiastic member now unfortunately during the 80s I served our nation as minister to France and was not here but when I returned and when I took up the office of secretary of state government then seated in Philadelphia I had the opportunity to return to its many meetings now I will tell you the more curious I was invited to become a president of the American Philosophical Society on the 3rd of March 1797 the next day March the 4th 1797 there in Philadelphia I was sworn in as the vice president of our nation remained if you will president for a good 18 years made many many friends enjoyed the many meetings that I attended and let us not forget other members of the American Philosophical Society included General Washington John Adams of course dr. Franklin aforementioned Alexander Hamilton Thomas Paine the list is endless and continued so I understand with individuals of great curiosity and enlightenment you have said that our citizens are hearing a lot about General Hamilton these days you're asking that I might share my impressions rather curious as to why they may be hearing so much about him now I would not deny I've heard some whistle as Carrie melodies and that seemed to bespeak well the the illustrious accomplishments and character Verve and vision I will not deny of general Hamilton and well there we are an example that music that alone poetry can carry within it history so vital for individuals to understand who may never have had the opportunity to learn to read or to acquaint themselves otherwise so I'm very much in favor of it and you asked me my opinion upon general Hamilton well I had been concise many times in essences I have written he was a colossus truly a host unto himself he did not even need a party oh he was one too with and how well I came to understand that when we shared President Washington's cabinet he of course was appointed the secretary of the Treasury I was the secretary of Foreign Affairs as it was initially referred to within a few months it became the Department of State and I would say that our great difference of opinion was an ancient difference I say that because of the dichotomy of human nature has been represented by these contesting opinions from time immemorial Aristotle enniaa ago a century before General Hamilton and I were born mrs. Locke and Hobbes wrote about it in Hobbes Leviathan and Locke's essays on government and an interest that that large governments can better engage a people for their improvement as opposed to small governments where that government governs best which governs least now there's the essential difference between general Hamilton and myself and the furthermore the general Hamilton believed that Commerce should always receive the first attention that if you will stop jobbing and speculating encourage an enthusiasm for Congress commerce particularly to engage foreign nations to invest in us no I am of the other opinion I believe that agriculture should receive the first attention Commerce should always be it's handmade now I hope people do not forget in this great contest the general Hamilton and I actually agreed on more than we ever disagreed over never let it be forgotten the general Hamilton and I together created our nation's coastguard oh yes general Hamilton may have referred to it as the necessity of revenue cutters I referred to it as the necessity of militia boats but we we both agreed our nation needs a coach we also agreed that that our nation ought to engage a universal system of education and particularly that our nation should have a standard occurrence in north and south that the value of money in every one of our states should be the same and so therefore he allowed me to create the decimal system for the creation of our nation's currency in tenths of a hundred and a Cosi helped to establish our nation's mint for that carnage and furthermore though I disagreed with him with for the necessity of a standing army I did not believe that we ought to suffer the expenditure in our treasury to provide for the support of an army I thought we should continue with our state militias and if there were any occasion in which our nation might be attacked well then yes yes then the people were rally forth and we ought to create an army out of those militias and wooden foreign nations wonder what we're up to if we had a standing army in times of peace well never let it be forgotten I I felt of necessity to reconcile compromise and resolution is a founding principle of our nation so I accepted the idea for a standing army so long as it was led by an enlightened officer corps and I will ever be grateful the general Hamilton lived to see when I was president the commissioning of our nation's Military Academy at West Point I consider that a great accomplishment by myself and by my collaboration with general Hamilton I hear you Jillian I have this from many people asking continually mr. Jefferson why do you not free your own people I rarely refer to them as slaves they are my people and I've been acquainted of course with this institution from birth as my parents were my grandparents before me and therein of course is something we should never forget we have continued to inherit this I live in a nation in which our own constitution is want to support it that does not mean it is right it is an amoral abomination and we should never forget God is a just God and when do we begin to tremble and recognition his justice will not sleep forever I have become renowned as as pursuing and desiring abolition the emancipation of this barbarous Commerce and yet I fierce I have written as well I will not live to see it I I do not know what I would do were I to to continue to live without those who labor for my happiness and and how might this immediately be accomplished particularly when so many of the property of my creditors I have been besieged with questions by my own family my cousin's the coals brothers Edward calls his brother Isaac Cowles who was my personal secretary they asked why why should I not lead a movement towards abolition and I pondered that here and my my daughter's my holder age as I enter into my eighth decade whether it is feasible and eyes just to them that this is a subject that now is on the shoulders of the younger generation that you must continue to pursue this abolition and this imagination may emancipation it well it is an imagination is it not that we can all live free someday each and every one of us this must be for the future I make no excuses mind you that I cannot excuse this I can only hope and pray that it may be peaceably rectified someday Emily I will tell you this I was forty years in public service I entered when I was a young man 26 years of age the spring of 1769 ice at the old Virginia House of Burgesses in Williamsburg Virginia I would have never thought that forty years later in March of 18.9 I would hand the gavel to mr. Madison and finally retire happily sold here to my little Mountain amongst my native woods and fields but you asked me about the presidency and I will tell you those last eight years in public service were for me a splendid misery I lost many friends most of them owners of newspapers you know whereas I used to read several newspapers a day I've given them up almost entirely and have resorted to reading Tacitus through cities Euclid Newton I and much the happier for it but public service is a necessity in a democratical Republic particularly in a nation governed by the citizen body and so therefore let us deny that that politics is a high calling it is the art of compromise and resolution on behalf of the common good so one is to expect as they enter there upon such public service and its honorariums that they will be beset by ancient arguments and contentions you ask me what are the challenges of every presidential administration and you suggest that they are different for each successive one I could not agree more who would have thought that when I was first asked to stand for the office of president in 1796 at a time when his Excellency President George Washington said he would not suffer a third term and we ought to remind ourselves General Washington could have been president for life well who would have thought that I would be standing opposed to my old friend John Adams our vice president at that time who would have thought that I would lose in that presidential election and during the next four years after well as I have written suffered the office of the vice president I hardly had anything to do I spent most of my time here at Monticello and a good read though I did preside over the Senate in Philadelphia and the arguments did not end I was not a quiet vice president I contested with my own president arguments over the growing deficit of spending in our nation arguments over our treatment of our former ally the French and so there it is who would have thought that in 1800 I'd be invited to stand for the office of President once more and I can tell you that presidential of eight election in 1800 was the most content this presidential election I think that modern man had ever witnessed had ever witnessed any election for a high office of such vitriol accusations heresies heard between the candidates the newspapers were right if you will with all sorts of extraordinary stories of denigrating the other character that the other the esteem of each of the the candidates was at a loss in fact there were not two candidates there were four that was standing for that office of President my own political platform their anti federalists the democratic or Republican platform was divided by a former Federalist Colonel Aaron Burr and yet John Adams was was not safe his federalist platform was divided by a great hero of our American Revolution General pinckney charles cotesworth pinckney a south carolina and who would have thought when the electoral votes came in to washington city that february of eighteen aught one they did not result in a victory they resulted in a tie and not for president adams in fact the tab was seventy three electoral votes each for Aaron Burr and Thomas Jefferson and for many many days our nation did not know who would be the next president mercy could you ever imagine such a thing happening to us again but citizens never let us forget we rectified that electoral vote we compromised we resolved our differences and so it was finally that I was elected our nation's third president when I took the oath of office that marks the fourth eighteen not one they are in the old Senate chamber in the north wing of our Capitol building the Capitol not yet completed I stated clearly that as Americans a difference of opinion must never be a difference of principle that we are all Federalists we are all Republicans and so therefore we must remain together for the common good so you asked me my greatest concern my greatest accomplishment during two administrations eight years I consider it to be the reconciling about political antagonisms of that election of 1800 that is what occupied me that first administration to bring us back together again now I will not deny yes we succeeded in the tripoli tune whoa we succeeded if you will and doubling some say tripling the size of our nation with the purchase of New Orleans and Louisiana we've succeeded in the commissioning of an extraordinary scientific expedition to the west but I think my upholding the principles upon which our nation was founded and reminding us that we showed the rest of the world we could bring 13 individual nations together to form a pluribus unum was something for which I will ever be proud you asked whether the correspondence initiated by dr. Benjamin Rush of Philadelphia between mr. Adams and myself has been of the greatest pleasure these last several years and I can assure you that friendship is an old man's milk indeed we enjoy correspond in between one and the other and we had not been able to do so for nine eleven years remember he lost that presidential election of 1800 he would not even stay for my inauguration I thought that we would never be able to reconvene that friendship and indeed it has remained a friendship with me I'll never forget when we first met they in Philadelphia of the spring of 1775 and no two men could be the more different not only in stature but in vernacular and of particular opinions and where we were born and where we grew up mr. Adams in the north myself here in the same but do you know that dr. rush referred to the two of us as the north and the south of our nation and the fact that we came together as so many did to create a remarkable union I look forward to every letter that I've received from mr. Adams I understand he does so in my correspondence that arrives at his doorstep there in Quincy Massachusetts I'm hopeful that we might be able to see one the other someday particularly that I might reconvene conversation with his delightful lady Abigail Adams perhaps old age will be more of a deterrent for that and I mean not only for Michelle but for mr. Adams as well then mrs. Adams too but I will tell you there's just one hour of conversation with the two of them personally would mean more to me than any any gathering or compilation of our letters unfortunately distance is want to separate us so widely well mr. light as I said at the very beginning let us never forget the birthday of our nation and and I hope if I am to be remembered in the future that it would be for what I had been able to accomplish on behalf of the further happiness safety and security have not only my fellow Americans but for the family man across the globe I would like to be remembered as the author the Declaration of American Independence of the statute of Virginia for religious freedom and as father of the University of Virginia not one word more by these three as testimonials that I had lived I wish most to be remembered well thank you mr. light i i certainly do as as i want to take leave now and and that is to perhaps reiterate what I have written to mr. Adams that at present distance unfortunately keeps us apart so widely but I am very much looking forward to when I can personally greet each and every one of you once more here in our house at Monticello so be well stay safe and recognize that you will always have in me your humble and obedient servant Godspeed

Channel: Thomas Jefferson's Monticello

Views: 14,441

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Keywords: Thomas Jefferson, President, POTUS, Monticello, Virginia, Live

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Length: 43min 0sec (2580 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 17 2020