Posted on 11/23/2014 9:33:16 AM PST by Teófilo
Brethren: Peace be with you on this Feast of Christ the King.
Before I launch upon this post, I have a confession to make: I am first and foremost, a monarchist. Yes, I am! Don't feel threatened, though, for neither my King nor his Kingdom are of this world. While on earth, I'm a republican and a constitutionalist, with all the attending messes these typf of government entails. Why am I a republican? Because I agree with the Founding Fathers of the USA, who denied some people were better than others by reason of birth and therefore, some were born to govern, and others were born to serve them.
To be sure, I don't think they understood the full import of their ideas and words. Perhaps in the back of their minds they understood, but never expressed aloud, that the idea of basic human equality translated into civil equality in terms of rights and responsibilities, that an aristocracy of money and class, be they Yankee bourgeois or Southern planters were of no higher human dignity than the free yeoman farmer or the slave hand, or men and women, or of English or Spanish (or German, Irish, etc.) descent. We will never know, to them the realization laid in the far future.
My interest to "reconnect" with the Founding Fathers took me to a wide range of summer readings - which I detailed here and here. As a consequence, I decided to visit Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, who authored among many other things, the U.S. Declaration of Independence. He was also the third President of the United States, first Secretary of State, second Vice President, founder of the University of Virginia and many other things: lawyer, politician, philosopher, scientist, polyglot, dandy, wine-lover, conversationalist, republican, chum...and slaveholder.
We went to Monticello last August. Here's a slideshow consisting of 79 pictures I took during our visit. Like often happens in these locales, we were not allowed to take pictures inside the mansion itself, so these are all outside pictures:
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| Jefferson's Bed - Photo by Monticello.org |
You can also view a panorama view of the chamber and more information, here. You may also see a floor plan of Monticello, here.
A clock hangs on the wall right in front of him, it was the first thing he saw in the morning. If he raised to his right, he would've walked right into his "cabinet" or studio room; to his left, to a fire place and a room to relax. The arrangement gave me the odd impression that I was looking at a Jungian mandala, with Jefferson placed at the center - not of the house, for the bedroom is off-center, but of the entire mountain. Jefferson created a universe with him at its center.Well, himself, and the passage of time. I found it disconcerting and a bit depressing even. The room was a display of the man's ego.
I can talk a lot also about Jefferson's cognitive dissonance. I am sure he penned some of the most eloquent condemnations of slavery ever to come out from the pen of a man while working in that office and looking through the windows, as his slaves worked. His very private - and very public! - love affair with his slave, Sally Hemmings and the children he sired from her in perhaps a very conscious effort to project himself into the future and leave others to solve the moral conundrums he left behind. However, others have addressed this subject better than I have.
I did learn a lesson and that is that a man will always be a man, riddle with contradictions and shortcomings but that his words, if they are good words, will transcend him for all eternity. The words come to be bigger than the man, even if the man was Thomas Jefferson.
To see pictures of my recent visit to the White House, go here.
You are so wrong. The room is a display of his brilliance.
You are so wrong. The room is a display of his brilliance.
...
I tend to agree.
In those days canopy beds were used to fend off bad weather so Jefferson sort of had a canopy bed but of a more architectural form. Doesn’t seem odd to me.
I thought Monticello is very beautiful...a genius lived there. Some of my ancestors were his neighbors and used to stop by for coffee. Can you imagine?
I never said it was “unbrilliant.” Indeed it was...
~Theo
The sources agree in that he was very accessible, sociable, loved to surround himself with people. One can imagine dropping by for coffee with him, but not with say, Washington.
~Theo
“The room is a display of his brilliance.
—
The location of the bed would be awful for the person who has to make the bed and change the linens.
An aristocrat wouldn’t think of that.
.
Jefferson’s bed was actually made to retract into the
ceiling, creating a pass through between the two rooms.
Genius for sure.
Weather vane on roof turns pointer on wall of study.
I was there as a boy.
The location of the bed would be awful for the person who has to make the bed and change the linens.
An aristocrat wouldn’t think of that.
...
Maybe he was thinking of all the hundreds of years that it would be used for display only. ;-)
Bed could easily be changed by 2 maids working together. He had a large staff at the residence.
Has it been truly proven that Thomas Jefferson was the father of Sally Hemmings children? The DNA has “A” Jefferson in her children’s family tree. Was it the Jefferson known to frequent the slave quarters and not Thomas Jefferson?
The preponderance of the evidence certainly points to the fact of Thomas Jefferson’s paternity of Sally Hemmings’ children. It is the nature of the scientific method that moral certainty will never be achieved on this issue. I don’t think moral certainty is needed in order to reach practical conclusions derived from the probable fact.
~Theo
You, sir, are wrong, not matter how eloquently you try to frame your post. There is no proof or fact that Thomas Jefferson had children with Sally Hemmings.
I suggest you read further.
Keep in mind that Thomas was not the only Jefferson.
see post 13 and surf the web for answers. Several people have written about the affair.
Here’s one: http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/coulter062101.asp
What evidence?
I think he could very well be. However, my favorite professor, who was very much an Expert on the life and times of Thomas Jefferson, believed it improbable. The DNA evidence was insufficient. My favorite prof was not a big fan of Jefferson, so he would be inclined to think the worst of the man. But in all of his studies, he determined that the evidence just is not there. Maybe at some future date, the evidence will be uncovered.
http://online.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304211804577500870076728362
This is a very good summation of my favorite professor’s conclusions on this subject. He is one of the professors listed near the end of the article. this takes me back in time to the Clinton-Lewinsky years for some reason.
I'm aware of the controversy and of the emotions it stirs. However, as you can read yourselves in Monticello.org (http://www.monticello.org/site/plantation-and-slavery/sally-hemings), "...based on documentary, scientific, statistical, and oral history evidence, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation and most historians believe that, years after his wife’s death, Thomas Jefferson was the father of the six children of Sally Hemings mentioned in Jefferson's records."
I'm not the only one who does accept Thomas Jefferson's paternity of Sally Hemmings' children as a fact, nor am I the most credentialed person who does either. If you still demand moral certainty on this issue, you must find the evidence that would lead me to see it your way with equal certainty.
~Theo
Lol. I already said I could believe Thomas fathered one of Sally’s children. However, the evidence says otherwise. My desire to believe he fathered one of the children is based on emotion. The facts are contrary to my emotion. And yours. But it does attract controversy and interest in Monticello.
Did you read the link I posted?
Man made global warming is a myth.
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