The Character of Thomas Jefferson: America's 'Everyman'

On this episode of Our American Stories, Thomas Jefferson is America’s “everyman” because he has been embraced at one time or another by nearly everyone. Historian and acclaimed author of American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, Joseph E. Ellis, shared the story of Jefferson’s journey through American history at the U.S. Library of Congress.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American stories. Thomas Jefferson has
become today's everyman due to his paradoxical nature, and like us,
he is neither purely heroic nor a villainous figure. You
to tell the story is Pulitzer Prize winning historian Joseph Ellis,
author of American Sphinx, the Character of Thomas Jefferson, and

(00:32):
we gathered this audio thanks to the Library of Congress.
Let's take a listen.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
In the Lincoln Douglas debates Abraham Lincoln Stephen Douglas, both
Lincoln and Douglas believe Jefferson agrees with them. When Herbert
Hoover runs against Franklin Delano Roosevelt for the presidency of
the United States in nineteen thirty two, both of them

(00:59):
think they are Jeffersonians. When Ronald Reagan is elected president
in his inaugural address, who says we must pluck a
rose from Jefferson's garden and wear it in our lapels forever,
and William Jefferson Clinton starts his inaugural parade in Monticello.

(01:24):
He is America's everyman. He's all things to all people,
and it's not just any man who can be everyman, Hey,
do you do that well? I was asking that question
in a context in which the dominant point of view

(01:51):
was established by Franklin Roosevelt. In nineteen forty three, Franklin
Roosevelt rode out of the White House the limo, went
to the National Archives, and he picked up the portable
desk that Jefferson allegedly used to write the first draft
of the Declaration. It was a desk made custom made

(02:14):
for him by a former slave. Where on in the
third week of June of seventeen seventy six, that the
second floor apartment of seventh and Market Street, he wrote
the magic words of American History. And they are the
magic words of American history. These fifty five words are

(02:34):
the most important words in American and maybe in modern
world history. If you're looking for a secret to the
well spring, this is it. These words mean so much
and different things to different people. We hold these truths

(02:56):
to be self evident, that all men are created, that
they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights,
That among these rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit
of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted
among men, deriving their wetherlone justification. I got it wrong

(03:20):
every time I get it wrong, but it is, you know,
like think about this, you know, like when Ho Chi
Minh wrote the Constitution for Vietnam in nineteen forty six,
how does it begin? We hold these truths to be
self evident, that all men are created equal. Now later

(03:42):
on it says, workers of the world unite. You have
nothing to lose but your change. So it's a nice
blend of Jefferson and Marx, you know. And when the
women gathered together at Seneca Falls in eighteen forty eight,
how did they begin? We hold these truths to be

(04:03):
self evident, that all men and women are created. I
think Jefferson men, men and women, don't you Yes, what
he really meant was that all of us that are
human beings possess a soul and that separates us from
other creatures as human beings. And if American history were
a casino, nobody that's bet on. Jefferson, as far as

(04:28):
I can tell, has ever lost. You want him. He's
like an ace in the hole. You want him right
until now maybe you don't want him. The Democratic Party
is not so sure. The Democratic Party in Ohio as well,

(04:53):
as several other states have just said that they're going
to drop Jefferson's name from the annual Jefferson Jackson Dinner,
going to jack to drop Jackson's name too. Jackson did
the Indians bed and Jefferson did the black Man Bad.
Now I don't see anybody with any Stone Mason's up

(05:13):
there ready to knock Jefferson's image off Mount Rushmore. But
there are people that have actually written books calling for
the Jefferson memorial to be replaced by a memorial to
Frederick Douglas. And if you are a historian and you

(05:35):
want to get a PhD, and like I had a
wonderful student named Chandra, I won't tell your last name.
She went to Harvard and she said, I want to
write about Jefferson. They said, what you can't do that,
He's the dead, wettest mail you can possibly imagine. You

(05:55):
can finish your career if you've finished, if you do that,
and that's you know. So within the profession there is
a set of assumptions, and a lot of people are
playing their politics on the past, a lot of political
correct nonsense. People are doing their political isometric exercises against

(06:19):
Thomas Jefferson and I don't think that's a good idea.
And I want to conclude with trying to make the
point I want to end with in terms of the
occasion for this moment, It's eighteen fifteen and Thomas Jefferson
agrees to sell his books to what becomes the Library

(06:40):
of Congress for twenty three, nine hundred and fifty dollars.
He makes this contribution, and the seeds that he plants
become the greatest library in the world. This is good news. Okay,
now you could go the other way. However, why is

(07:01):
Jefferson selling these books in the first place. When he dies,
he's going to be about ten million dollars in debt.
Now here is the thought which I suggested we mention.

(07:21):
People wanted him to free his slaves. Right, he owned
about two hundred slaves, one hundred of them in Monticello,
another and another plantation down the road ninety miles. Jeffer
didn't own his slaves. His creditors owned his slaves.

Speaker 1 (07:38):
He couldn't free him.

Speaker 2 (07:40):
But in the six months after the Ghules descend upon Monticello,
it's dismembered of all the furnishings and one hundred and
thirty African Americans whom he is promised will not be
sold down the river are sold down the And that's

(08:03):
not just a euphemism. If you get sold to Mississippi
or Louisiana, you're in deep trouble. Your lifespan is very short.
And there were promises he made that he couldn't keep.
So that's the other way to tell the story, that
the gift is itself an indication of his bankruptcy. And

(08:25):
then you could say his moral bankruptcy and his inability
to take a strong stand against slavery in his latter years.
Here's where I want to leave you, and I hope
this prompts some questions. We need imperfect, flawed founders. In fact,

(08:47):
if they were perfect, what in Heaven's name would we
have to learn from them. Let's leave Jefferson in the conversation.

Speaker 1 (08:57):
And a terrific job on the editing enduction by our
own Greg Hangler. And you've been listening to the Pulitzer
Prize winning historian Joseph Ellis, author of American Sphinx, the
Character of Thomas Jefferson. He gave this speech in, of
all places, the very place Jefferson sold his books to
the Library of Congress special thanks to all that the

(09:20):
folks do at the Library of Congress. If you ever
get a chance, visit the building and just imagine. In
the Lincoln Douglas debates, both men believe Jefferson agreed with them,
and the same with Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, and
the same throughout history until relatively recently. And the fact
of the matter is he was America's everyman, and he

(09:41):
wrote those fifty five words that may be the most important.
And not just political history, and not just modern history,
but world history. The story of America's everyman, Thomas Jefferson.
Here are now American stories.