For better than 10 years, I’ve lived just 3 miles from from Monticello here in Charlottesville Virginia, and the more I know about the man, the less impressed I am. I think the Declaration was the high point, and it was all down hill from there, and I care not at all about his involvement with Hemmings.
He was Governor of Virginia during the Revolution and was actually impeached by the State Assembly in early 1781 because of the mess he had made in the state, and because of the unseemly way he had abandoned the state capital to the British. Following his flight to Monticello, he foolishly came within minutes of being captured there by the Redcoats. He was only saved from conviction when the tide turned in favor of the Colonists when Cornwallis was trapped and eventually defeated at Yorktown that fall.
Following the Revolution, Jefferson was sent to Paris by Congress to serve as “Minister Plenipotentiary” between 1784 and 1789. He was in France at the start of their Revolution and became so drawn to those events that he surreptitiously authored a charter of rights to be presented to King Louis XVI, and hosted a meeting of French revolutionary leaders to discuss plans for the new government. As History records, the French Revolution spun out of control after Jefferson left, but his enthusiasm hardly cooled over the years. Many consider the mass hysteria in France at the time to be a prime cause of the radicalism that we still suffer from to this day.
When he returned to the US and became Washington’s Secretary of State, the revolutionary government of France sent diplomat Edmond-Charles Genêt, better known to history as “Citizen Genêt,” to America. Genêt’s mission was to drum up support for the French cause, but Washington was deeply concerned by his subversive activities, and during cabinet meetings would stress that the American position was to be kept secret and guarded from Genet. On a regular basis, Jefferson would pay lip service to Washington’s instructions, and then hours later over a late lunch, share with Genet everything that Washington had asked be kept secret.
As President, Jefferson did what he could to hobble and diminish the third branch of government by pursuing the impeachment of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase for purely political reasons. Impeached by the House, it was only the even handed actions of his lame duck Vice-President, Aaron Bur that prevented Chase’s conviction in the Senate.
As payback, the bitter Jefferson declared jihad on Burr and later had him arrested and tried for treason. The trial was heard in Richmond and was the trial of the century. The circuit judge that oversaw the trial was Chief Justice John Marshall who detested Jefferson even though they were cousins. Despite underhanded moves by Jefferson, a jury acquitted Burr, but he never regained his reputation, although the charges were trumped up. Burr was no traitor.
As I mentioned, I credit Jefferson for the brilliance of the Declaration (the product of a committee really), with the bold decision to go forward with the Louisiana purchase (unconstitutional though it was), with the occasional flashes of political genius, and with having lived an interesting life.
Unlike Washington, who had come to recognize the evils of slavery and who freed his slaves in his will, Jefferson freed not a one, and in fact they were all auctioned off to attempt to pay his debts upon his death. He always lived beyond his means and was always so deeply in debt that the State of Virginia established a special lottery of which all the proceeds were sent to the third President to help him pay his creditors. Unfortunately, influential as he was, his tepid popularity made the lottery less than successful.
I believe that Jefferson is properly remembered as one of the fathers of the Democrat party because he has so much in common with the modern party. Had he not lived such a long life and spent so many years crafting his image for history, he would not enjoy the gilded reputation he has today.
