No surprise that Leftists have turned Monticello into a bash Jefferson platform. One can have many criticisms of Jefferson, from his hypocrisy on slavery, to his juvenile infatuation with the French Revolution and the glibness with which a man who never served a day in the Continental Army wrote about bloodshed. However we do not remember Jefferson for his common flaws but for his uncommon accomplishments, the Declaration of Independence being only one. A nation that damns its heroes has no future.
Thomas Jefferson
1743-1826
Thomas Jefferson,
What do you say
Under the gravestone
Hidden away?
“I was a giver,
I was a molder,
I was a builder
With a strong shoulder.”
Six feet and over,
Large-boned and ruddy,
The eyes grey-hazel
But bright with study.
The big hands clever
With pen and fiddle
And ready, ever,
For any riddle.
From buying empires
To planting ‘taters,
From Declarations
To trick dumb-waiters.
“I liked the people,
The sweat and crowd of them,
Trusted them always
And spoke aloud or them.
“I liked all learning
And wished to share it
Abroad like pollen
For all who merit.
“I liked fine houses
With Greek pilasters,
And built them surely,
My touch a master’s.
“I liked queer gadgets
And secret shelves,
And helping nations
To rule themselves.
“Jealous of others?
Not always candid?
But huge of vision
And open-handed.
“A wild-goose-chaser?
Now and again,
Build Monticello,
You little men!
“Design my plow, sirs,
They use it still,
Or found my college
At Charlottesville.
“And still go questing
New things and thinkers,
And keep as busy
As twenty tinkers.
“While always guarding
The people’s freedom
You need more hands, sir?
I didn’t need ’em.
“They call you rascal?
They called me worse.
You’d do grand things, sir,
But lack the purse?
“I got no riches.
I died a debtor.
I died free-hearted
And that was better.
“For life was freakish
But life was fervent,
And I was always
Life’s willing servant.
“Life, life’s too weighty?
Too long a haul, sir?
I lived past eighty.
I liked it all, sir.”
Stephen Vincent Benet
Not surprising. I’ve written before on the shocking change at Colonial Williamsburg from the first time we visited back in the 90s and the last time in the 2010s. My second oldest quipped as we left for home the last time that between abusing women, murdering Indians and beating slaves, it’s shocking they found time to fight a revolution. Not only the content, but the general disinterest among many (not all, but many) of the reenactors compared to our first couple visits was also telling. The most passionate ones were those who seemed to take great glee in pointing out the racist, slave based genocide that market the colonial era.
Sadly, not surprised– the Monticello site supported the scientifically baseless claim that Jefferson was the father of several children with slaves.
For those interested:
https://jeffersondnastudy.com/background-dna-study/
This is the liberal-progressive way of doing penance for establishing the democrat Jefferson-Jackson Day a century ago. Both of these men had flaws, Jackson arguably more so and both had accomplishments. There are times when the advice of Mark Antony’s eulogy of Ceasar is truly appropriate.