"A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt.... If the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at stake."
--Thomas Jefferson, 1798
-------
"I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny imposed upon the mind of man."
--Thomas Jefferson (inscribed inside the rotunda around his statue in Washington DC)
-------
Thomas Jefferson wished to be remembered for three achievements in his public life. He had served as governor of Virginia, as U.S. minister to France, as secretary of state under George Washington, as vice-president in the administration of John Adams, and as president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. On his tombstone, however, which he designed and for which he wrote the inscription, there is no mention of these offices. Rather, it reads that Thomas Jefferson was "author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom, and Father of the University of Virginia" and, as he requested, "not a word more." Historians might want to add other accomplishments--for example, his distinction as an architect, naturalist, and linguist--but in the main they would concur with his own assessment.
http://sc94.ameslab.gov/TOUR/tjefferson.html-------
Few people know that Jefferson wrote an anti-slavery provision into the Declaration of Independence, but could not get his fellow southerners to approve it. In his chronicles of Virginia, he wrote that slavery corrupts the slavemaster as well as harming the slave. He knew that slavery must end, and feared the civil war that he saw coming. I don't know if it occurred to him to free his own slaves, but, if he had done so, they could not have remained in Virginia as free people. The law said they would have to leave the state. There is strong evidence now that Jefferson had a slave mistress, and fathered children by her. To free them would have been to lose them. We look back on this today with 262 years of history between us and him, and some of us can't fathom why he didn't free his slaves anyway. We forget that even great people can be trapped within their time and culture, and that the compromises they sometimes make with their time and their culture are the stuff of tragedy. Look at Galileo--a great hero of science--and what he had to do, to stay alive under Vatican sanction of his scientific works. He had to disavow the scientific truths that he had discovered.
On the other hand, in that singular and amazing mind--Jefferson's--an idea was born that shines like a laser light to us and to everyone else in the world today, that all men are created equal, and that government exists by and for the people. He believed that with a free press, good schools and libraries (he was founder of the Library of Congress), and the balances of power that he, Madison and the others built into the Constitution, democracy had a chance to survive.
He is famous for having said that we would probably need a revolution every twenty years or so to keep ourselves free.
We now need to prove ourselves worthy of the legacy that this man and other far thinking and brave people tried to pass down to us. We and other Americans have added to that legacy as recently as the 1960s, for instance, with the civil rights movement and the enfranchisement of black citizens, and the end of legal segregation, with other movements for equality and fairness, and with the great progressive programs of the New Deal.
As Jefferson knew would happen, tyranny has reared its ugly head. He did everything in his power to bolster the strength of this democratic nation against the inevitable tyrannical behavior of greedy and power-hungry men. We have for too long taken those principles, laws and institutions for granted. And now the greedy and the power-hungry have taken over, and are corrupting our country almost beyond recognition.
It is up to us, to this generation of living Americans, to restore democracy in the United States. I never in my life thought that 21st century Americans would face such a formidable task. I have taken it all for granted myself, in some ways. But here we are, at this pivotal point in American history, with our democratic heritage poised in the balance. Will we be able to pass this legacy along to the future, as it was passed by others to us?
I am thinking of you tonight, Mr. Jefferson. Happy birthday! I hope that we will be able to preserve the great gift that you tried to give us--this fabulous notion of democracy--and deliver it to the future, and add something of ourselves to it. And I hope and trust that you are watching over us from somewhere in the Great Universe.
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
