Really Cool Stuff about Jefferson:
1. He sang or hummed softly to himself all the time. “He sang whenever he was walking or riding, sometimes when he was reading” (p. 26). It was to be a distinct characteristic of his his entire life.
2. He explained America’s rights through an interpretation of Whig philosophy he called “expatriation.” Basically the Whigs' “romantic endorsement of a pristine past, a long-lost time and place where men had lived together in perfect harmony without coercive laws or predatory rulers, gave narrative shape to his [Jefferson’s] fondest imaginings and to utopian expectations with deep roots in his personality” (p. 32). The expatriation theory then developed into an idea that America was the true inheritor of the original Saxon lifestyle even though this perfect past, which, as history, was completely false.
3. Jefferson had a rather comical vendetta against Georges de Buffon, the leading French naturalist at the time. Buffon believed that plants and animals in North America were inferior to their European counterparts because of the unpropitious land in America. Jefferson, living in France at the time, tried to refute Buffon by sending expeditions out in the United States to look for large animals. A couple animals were killed and sent over to Jefferson but when he showed them off to Buffon, Buffon said that nothing could be concluded from such carcasses.
4. Jefferson was a firm believer in revolutions. Jefferson remarked (upon hearing of Shays Rebellion) “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure” (p. 100).
5. While living in France, he carried on a successful flirtation with a couple of women, even going so far as showing a decided partiality for Maria Cosway, a married woman. It was rumored that Jefferson broke his wrist at one point from showing off for her by trying to jump a fence.
6. It is true that there is no evidence supporting the theory that Thomas Jefferson fathered Sally Heming’s children. In recent DNA testing, the only conclusion that scientists could discover was that someone in Thomas Jefferson’s line (not necessarily himself) had fathered children on someone in Sally Hemings’ line. It’s confusing, true, but rather indicative. I tend to think that there was no way Jefferson would have done it…there’s a sort of asexual-ness to him.
7. He coined the phrase “splendid misery.” Upon becoming Vice President, Jefferson wrote “The second office of this government is honorable and easy, the first is but a splendid misery.”
8. His utopian radicalism was best typified by his “generational sovereignty” concept. Basically he decided that the world belongs to the living so we should all try to “live in the now” and not deal with the laws and precedents that dead people have passed down to us. Thus all “personal and national debts, all laws, even all constitutions, should expire after that time” (p. 111), leaving the present to fend for itself. Madison was the recipient of these ideas and promptly told his mentor that this concept was really close to anarchy and chaos and that it should never be brought up again.
9. Jefferson was one enormous contradiction. It is as if his whole personality was being pulled in two opposite directions and each was fighting for its existence. For instance, his whole life was a struggle between his desire to be at Monticello and his need to be in public view. Another contradiction was his lifestyle in general. He took meticulous notes on every single purchase he ever made but overspent himself regularly. He hated to be in debt but at every place he lived (Philadelphia, France, Monticello, White House), he renovated the places almost as soon as he moved in. His debt was so large by the time that he reached the presidency that he felt compelled to frenetically work on the national debt. On the political side of things, he was an acknowledged anti-federalist but his treatment of the Louisiana Purchase suggests otherwise. “He violated his most cherished political principles several times over in order to guarantee the most expansive version of the ‘noble bargain,’ and he temporarily made himself into just the kind of monarchical chief magistrate he had warned against” (p. 208). His views on slavery were also contradictory for he did not like the institution of it but until there was a way to get rid of the slaves (to another country perhaps), they would have to be left where they were. “The unavoidable conclusion, then, was that slavery was morally wrong, but racial segregation was morally right. And until a practical solution to the problem of what to do with the freed slaves could be found, it made no sense to press for emancipation” (p. 147).
I rather enjoyed this book. First of all, it wasn’t long! In the amount of pages that it used, Ellis’ did a great job of giving us a good idea of what made Jefferson who he was. Since Jefferson was a complete enigma (internally) in nearly every facet of his life, it probably wasn’t easy for the author to come to some sort of conclusion about him. Ellis gave us the good and bad about Jefferson, allowing us to make up our minds about him and not letting the author’s feelings on the subject cloud our unbiased viewpoint. The more I read about the presidents, the more I find this truly remarkable.
On the other hand, I had some issues with this work This may sound silly but he used the word “dichotomies” like one million times. Actually it was more like 10 times but in a 300 page book that word sticks out a mile and it bothered me that he continued to use it over and over again. Also if you plan on reading this book in the future, be aware that it is mainly a character study of Jefferson and not a simple biography. Since the book is character-based, Ellis can kind of pick and choose what aspects of Jefferson he wishes to discuss. For example, Ellis spends a whole chapter on Jefferson’s first term of the presidency (which was a relatively good time for Jefferson) and then barely mentions his second term, a disaster for Jefferson. Now I don’t think that Ellis did this because he loves Jefferson so much that he is willing to smudge the facts but I do think that maybe he didn’t want to dwell on the second term and its effect on Jefferson character. As an unbiased reader, however, I would like to hear more about Jefferson’s second term, good or not. It was, after all, an extension of Jefferson’s policies and of himself.
In the end, though, I don’t hate Jefferson as much as I used to. Although he was born to privilege and had a relatively cushy life, even during a national revolution and multiple disturbances, I think that he didn’t have it easy at all. During Jefferson’s lifetime, there was a strict code of conduct operating in Virginia and it left little room for error or, even, controversy of any kind. Southern gentlemen were held to a very high level of behavior that produced extreme indebtedness, enabling of disrespectable family members or friends, secrecy, double standards, and polite backstabbing. At that time, you did not talk about your problems and by all means, you had to prove that you were a propertied man, even if that meant going into debt. You were not allowed to show emotion or stoop to telling people what you actually wanted, thus you had to use backhanded channels of acquiring things (or of being elected.) If there was a black sheep in the family, it was up to you to save them, even if they got worse and worse; it was your responsibility.
It’s easy to see how Jefferson turned out the way he did. There was much personal tragedy in his life, starting with the death of his mother and weaving its way through the loss of his wife and all of his children but one. He practically began life in debt because that was what you did to uphold public opinion. He had slaves because they were always there and he tried to make the United States into a viable country because he was well-read enough to realize it could be done. Most of Jefferson’s delusions are a direct result of his upbringing—it was the only way he could bear life. The ultimate tragedy here though was that Jefferson bought into the southern way of life and remained an adherent to it even to the end when he had to sell his beloved Monticello.
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