| Episodes |
1) The great Jefferson Memorial now being completed in Washington, the reawakened cult at Monticello, the three-cent stamp, the new Jefferson nickel, and the massive face which Gutzon Borglum has carved upon Mount Rushmore -- all proclaim that he is our newest Federal god in the highest degree.
Dixon Wecter 175
2) Mr. Parton has not kept up to this standard of excellence in the Life of Jefferson.
"Critical Notices" 405
3) In the exposure of "pious frauds," we take the same satisfaction, out of regard to the memory of the dead and the welfare of the living, as in the detection and punishment of a crime -- and with the same end in view, which is understood to be not suffering but admonition.
E. O. Dunning 673
4) It is a curious fact, that the hatred of individuals on account of their opinions has always exceeded in intensity that resulting from any other cause. In proof of this the burnings, massacres, and executions perpetrated in religious persecutions may be cited, as also the rancorous aversion which has separated neighbors and fellow-citizens from one another in political contests. It may be doubted whether even a personal injury sustained from Mr. Jefferson would have wrought in some minds such detestation of him as was caused by the knowledge or supposition that he held certain obnoxious theoretical views. This feeling is not unfruitful; it cannot find vent in action, but it does in words; and the consequence in Mr. Jefferson's case, was, that the most atrocious charges were made and admitted against his personal character. We do not attribute such slanders to intentional misrepresentation. They are first hinted as legitimate inferences from avowed opinions, then repeated as current reports, and finally asserted as facts.
"Jefferson's Private Character" 109
5) We would not by this general comparison press the portrait of the third president of the United States into such companionship, but would have it remain in the gallery of American Statesmen. Our complaint, however, begins when he is not truly represented; when through the laborious performance of Dr. Randall, --who, in his portraiture, viewed as a work of art, has mixed ample materials without seeming to know exactly how to use his brush,--assisted by the graceful sketching of the Review, the old and familiar character of Thomas Jefferson comes up with a new and radiant face; when qualities are ascribed to him which he never had; opinions which he never held; sentiments which he never uttered; when on account of his strong intellect, eminent services in behalf of his country, courteous manners and domestic attachments, he is projected in such gigantic proportions of moral excellence that all his imperfections fade away; when having filled one high office as chief of a party or chief of the state, he is exalted to another, and when this hero, as high priest of democracy, becomes ex officio a high priest in holy orders.
E. O. Dunning 650-51
6) The moment of Jefferson's ascent into the American version of political heaven can be dated precisely: April 13, 1943, the day that Franklin Roosevelt dedicated the Jefferson Memorial on the Tidal Basin. . . . Jefferson was no longer just an essential ingredient in the American political tradition; he was the essence itself, a kind of free-floating icon who hovered over the American political scene like one of those dirigibles cruising above a crowded football stadium, flashing words of inspiration to both teams.
Joseph J. Ellis, "Jeffersonian Surge: America, 1992-93" (in American Sphinx) 9
7) And when his friends exhibit him for unmixed admiration with a showy exterior, they would impose upon our credulity, beguile our reserved judgments by false pretences, and give us the apples of Sodom for the promised fruit of that "good" tree -- "the only one in this world capable of bearing such fruit." Such misrepresentations have become patent to biography, in remodeling other historic personages.
E. O. Dunning 672
8) But it does not excuse Mr. Parton for playing so often to the gallery with inflated rhetoric and spread-eagleism.
"Critical Notices" 406
9) Lord North's antagonist, Mr. Jefferson, has been viewed with even more bitter feelings, in virtue of the law above alluded to, according to which hatred for opinion's sake exceeds in intensity all other hatred. And yet it is hard it should be so, in his case especially; for he was the first of all men in authority to announce the sentiment that "error of opinion may be safely tolerated if reason is left free to combat." He has been represented as a demagogue and intriguer, in fine, a person imbued with French principles, which in that day were interpreted to mean atheism in religion, mob-rule in politics, and dissoluteness in morals. On this foundation was built up a conception of him in which no feature of atrocity was wanting; and though this language is strong, those who remember the party literature of fifty years ago will acknowledge that it is not exaggerated.
"Jefferson's Private Character" 111
10) For our pains in telling the truth, we may be accused of making a malicious assault upon one who was honored in public and esteemed in social life -- of going about to pick up scandal from love of the thing and indifference to the memory of the dead and the feelings of the living. But flourishing on offensive weapons, we stand in defense of private judgment, popular opinion, traditions, history, good morals, and to save the writers of the New Testament from the unhallowed embrace of "their friends." With such ends in view, if to express reasonable doubts as to the holy living of Thomas Jefferson, if to refer to transactions, that everybody believed fifty or sixty years ago, without "complying with times," or flattering his relatives, is reproachful, we patiently submit to partisan abuse.
E. O. Dunning 672
11) The rankest canard which flew about Jefferson was that his taste ran to colored mistresses. It seems to have been invented in the North, where to some Federalists the fact was perhaps incredible that a Southern gentleman might own a hundred female slaves without claiming a droit de seigneur.
Dixon Wecter 165-66
12) In some old pamphlets before us relating to Jefferson's personal history, though particular instances of disgraceful conduct or impious speech are affirmed or denied, his reputation for free thinking and loose morality is admitted. The wonder seems to be that the good people of the country should make such an ado about the private failings of a public man exposed to peculiar temptations. What contemporaneous writers and speakers affirmed, posterity has believed. Rumor has been very communicative on the subject. The offensive tales afloat now, particularly in the region of Monticello, concerning the practices of the great statesman during his repose from official duties and after his final retirement to private life, would fill two or three volumes as bulky as Dr. Randall's. Many of these anecdotes are probably false or exaggerated statements of facts generally credited. It will require, however, more than one short Article, even though endorsed by so respectable a Review as the North American, and founded on a granddaughter's recollections of her "dear grandfather," wholly to relieve the public mind of its settled convictions.
E. O. Dunning 648-49
13) The myth of Jefferson had taken on a life of its own. Lots of Americans cared deeply about the meanings of his memory.
Joseph J. Ellis, "Jeffersonian Surge: America, 1992-93" (in American Sphinx) 12
14) But his own view of himself [Jefferson] was quite as far from the real man as theirs. His sanguine disposition and his vanity made him feel sure that he was right. All was for the best, --at least, all that he did. His first impulse was to object to any measure which did not originate with himself, or had not been submitted to his judgment. Contradiction he could not bear. Opposition of any kind produced a bitter feeling that corroded his judgment of his adversaries and of their partisans.
"Critical Notices" 408
15) Dr. Johnson, in "Lives of the Poets," says in substance that compliance with times, and desire to please friends, constitute the great bane of biography. . . . Everything, in short, in these Memoirs [Randall's] seems to be explained in a way most satisfactory to the surviving friends and relations of the great statesman, from grave questions in politics and theology, down to his predilections for "red breeches," for which he was distinguished as our minister near the court of France.
E. O. Dunning 651-53
16) Mr. Parton has made the mistake as an artist of painting his angel all white and his devil all black. There are but two characters in his piece: Hamilton, the villain of the drama, the evil genius of America; and the godlike Jefferson, who overthrows him; and stands, all sweetness and light, upon this prostrate form, like St. Michael in Guido's picture.
"Critical Notices" 406
17) The North American Review, following the partisan biography of Dr. Randall, has undertaken to defend the private character of Thomas Jefferson. Over confident in hasty conclusions, and disposed to cast "theological odium" upon the religion of New England fifty years ago, it has stepped forth with the alacrity of an accepted champion to vindicate the private character of a man, who, whatever may be said of his intellectual eminence or distinguished public services, has, certainly, never been esteemed for moral purity or practical piety.
E. O. Dunning 648
18) The characters of her great men are a part of the nation's wealth. For a time, while party conflict rages, the people may seem indifferent to this portion of their possessions: nay, one half of them may appear to take pride in destroying it. But the lapse of a generation or two removes much that is extraneous and accidental from the history of the conspicuous agents in public events; charges that were based not on facts but on inferences, pass into oblivion; and acts that were viewed with abhorrence when recent are seen in retrospect to have been excusable, innocent, and even praise worthy. Such has been the case with regard to Mr. Jefferson. It is not to be denied, that in this part of the country, fifty years ago, by many whose opinion was entitled to respect, he was held in very low esteem; and that the usual bitterness of political animosity was increased in regard to him by an infusion of theological odium. He was considered as a representative of that school of infidel philosophers whose writings were thought to have been chiefly instrumental in producing the French Revolution, with all its horrors. Those horrors were so atrocious as to alienate from the side of the reformers almost all those Englishmen and Americans who had hailed the dawning of the Revolution with delight.
"Jefferson's Private Character" 108
19) The palace of Sardanapalus could not have contained more incentives to unlawful gratifications than the dwelling which fancy has built for the voluptuary of Monticello. All these tales cannot pass for fables springing out of the brains of his political enemies. If some of them are embellished, they show the current of public opinion and furnish presumptive proof of the impurity of the person to whom they relate.
E. O. Dunning 668
20) The enemies of Jefferson are dead, or in hiding.
Dixon Wecter 176
21) Now if these extracts [from Randall] and our comments upon them seem to any person to be frivolous, we reply that in our opinion they are necessary to a correct understanding of the motives of the committee of conference and adjustment over the dilapidated condition of the character before us, and as preliminary to what we have chiefly in view in writing this Article -- the religious opinions of Thomas Jefferson. Some of our readers may not be aware of the serious and combined efforts of his friends to exalt him in the estimation of his countrymen as having been eminent in piety, and in case of a failure to deliver him from the charge of free-thinking or unbelief.
E. O. Dunning 653-54
22) But something was yet wanting. It was possible for a skillful hypocrite to veil his baseness during almost incessant communications by the pen, but it would still be a question whether those who lived in constant intercourse with him might not tell, if they would, a different story. Bad temper, bad morals, bad ends sought by bad means, would make themselves visible in private life, though not on the written page. Could we have the testimony of those who saw the man most closely and for the longest time, we should then have the means of knowing his true character. We now have this testimony. Mr. Randall has produced it for us, by direct questioning of Mr. Jefferson's descendants, whose replies are spread before us in his book. The principal of these replies are from Mr. Jefferson's granddaughters, who were brought up by him, and grew to maturity in habits of daily intercourse with him. To one of these ladies in particular, who resides in this city, we are indebted for the most ample and most minute portraitures of her grandfather's habits, thoughts, and feelings. These pictures are of an historical value; it is of incalculable importance to the true representation of that momentous era, that they should have been drawn, and placed, before it was too late, where they will be preserved for the student of our history in future times. They are of the highest interest, and exhibit precisely such aspects of the individual as we need for forming a judgment of his actual self. It is vain to say that they are colored by personal partiality, for whence could that personal partiality have arisen, except from the very traits of character which the letters describe?
"Jefferson's Private Character" 111-12
23) To form a correct opinion of Jefferson's moral character, however, we are not entirely dependent upon published accounts, or public rumor prolonged with echoes to our times, since there are living witnesses competent the prove the facts preferred against him by his contemporaries. We are prevented by the space at our command, as well as by the nature of the subject, from specifying these charges any further than to say, that we have at hand statements of an occurrence which excited much attention at the time, and which, by the recital, would have relieved Mr. Randall of the "serious misfortune" which he so much laments as a writer of Jefferson's Life. Our information comes from one greatly distinguished in a past age, who had personal knowledge of the affair.
E. O. Dunning 669-70
24) Hamilton hit the mark when he said that "Jefferson had a womanish attachment to France, and a womanish resentment against Great Britain." Jefferson followed up his schemes with the headlong eagerness of women. Like them he had plenty of reasons, often illogical and inconsistent, for doing as he wished, and was sometimes not too scrupulous as to the means he adopted to attain his object. And like them he abused the privilege, generally granted to the sex, of changing their mind. Mr. Parton says, "it is permitted to every man to change his mind." No doubt. Time and experience act upon the views of men of sense: but is it usual for sensible men to hold and to express diametrically different opinions on almost every important question they have had to deal with? This, however, was the case with Jefferson.
"Critical Notices" 412
25) In the region where he [Jefferson] lived, the traveler now can hardly fail to hear the most unfavorable reports touching his private history, narrated in detail, and specifically as to persons and circumstances.
E. O. Dunning 668
26) This radical weakness, a natural tendency to exaggeration in expression, and a fondness for antithetical and inflated rhetoric, led him [Jefferson] to say many foolish things. He was a great phrase-maker, and loved the "jingling of formulas," like any second-rate French philosopher. Phrases were to him an argument, a proof, or an excuse, as the occasion might require. He fed this mind with them to the end. When an old man, several thousands of dollars were raised in New York and Philadelphia to relieve his wants. He accepted the gift with alacrity, saying, by way of apology for taking the money, "No cent of this is wrung from the tax-payer. It is the pure and unsolicited offspring of love."
"Critical Notices" 408
27) Dependents, from a tender age, upon the bounty of a grand-parent, acknowledged to have been indulgent in his family, are not presumed to cherish towards him unfavorable opinions, or to publish them if they do. But their recollections could embrace only a small portion of his history. He was nearly seventy years of age when his eldest grandson, the chief assistant of Dr. Randall in the compilation of the personal part of his narrative, had reached his majority! How could he speak, from his own observations, of the life-long habits of a man who was so much older than himself? How could he say with certainty, that "Mr. Jefferson never uttered an untruth in his life, nor practiced deception?" Col. Thomas Jefferson Randolph is, of course, to be believed when he says, "I never heard my grandfather use a profane expression," but it does not follow that he never used a profane expression. If our informant should turn to the "voluminous collection" of letters, of which he was editor, he would discover, although his grandfather may have been distinguished for propriety of speech in old age, that the taking of God's name in vain was one of the sins of his youth. We are not disposed to dwell upon these "faults, foibles, and even serious errors," topics which are distasteful to ourselves and to our readers, but they have been forced upon our attention by the attempt to throw an extraordinary sanctity around the private character of Mr. Jefferson.
E. O. Dunning 671
28) No man in our history has been so utterly misunderstood and so thoroughly misrepresented as Thomas Jefferson. During much of his public career party spirit was virulent to a degree even beyond any thing that we now know. The partisan newspapers of 1871 look almost decent when compared with those of 1811. Jefferson was the especial mark of obloquy. He was set forth as a demagogue, a gambler, an infidel, a libertine. Authentic history has, to a good degree, dispelled these charges, but the echo of them is yet sometimes heard. It is not many years since it was asserted in the newspapers that direct descendants of Thomas Jefferson, of mixed blood, were to be found among the slaves on Southern plantations; and within a week the writer of this has been told by one who received his information from men still living, who professed to speak from actual knowledge, that Jefferson was the most notorious and unlucky gambler of his day.
A. H. Guernsey 366-67
29) The new Jefferson who appears in these books looms larger as a hero and as a symbol of Americanism than the Jefferson whom earlier generations of scholars discussed. It was only during the last decade that Thomas Jefferson's fame came to full flower. Today for the first time since his death he has achieved symbolic status as a national hero of the highest order, ranking next to the myth-encrusted figures of Washington and Lincoln. Since this apotheosis is of so recent a date, and since it will inevitably condition all future consideration of Jefferson's career, it is pertinent to review the history of his reputation in some detail.
Douglass Adair
30) How are the representatives of our race to be known, and profitable lessons taught, by their wisdom or their wickedness, if all their peculiarities are not brought to light, however repulsive they may be [speaking of Jefferson]?
E. O. Dunning 673
31) There is much conflict of opinion as to the character of Jefferson, and the value of his services. We doubt whether there is another person in our history, as to whom there still exists so strong a feeling of dislike on the one hand, and of admiration on the other. By some he is regarded as a theorist and a demagogue, who, for selfish purposes, opposed the purest patriots, and disseminated doctrines which will pervert our institutions and destroy our social fabric; by others he is revered as the philosopher who first asserted the rights of man, and the statesman who first defined the functions of our government and demonstrated the principles upon which it should be administered.
William Dorsheimer 707
32) Dependents, from a tender age, upon the bounty of a grandparent, acknowledged to have been indulgent in his family, are not presumed to cherish towards him unfavorable opinions, or to publish them if they do.
E. O. Dunning 670
33) This kind of historical criticism is not very flattering to the intelligence and culture of Mr. Parton's readers. . . . Jefferson, on the other hand, is the perfect man,--great as a philosopher and a statesman; great in science, literature, music, and farming; the model husband, father, and friend. . . . Hero worship so unqualified naturally provokes contradiction. Rejecting as beneath notice all the stories of the "Black Sally" and "Atheist" class, let us consider what an advocatus diabolic might say in opposition to the proposed canonization of Jefferson.
"Critical Notices" 407
34) The drafter of documents and policies that stand beside the well-spring of our national life, Jefferson remains (as his most scholarly biographer Gilbert Chinard calls him) "the apostle of Americanism." He is the first great democrat, the people's friend. The stature of no traditional figure has grown taller than his, in the last generation.
Dixon Wecter 180
