Thomas Jefferson

I've long had a general admiration for Thomas Jefferson, a Founding Father, author of the Declaration of Independence, and our nation's third President. After reading Jon Meachem's Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power I found that admiration renewed and deepened.

It's easy to find fault with Jefferson. He was a Southern slave owner, seen as his greatest flaw today. He attempted to end slavery in the Virginia House of Burgesses and later at a federal level, but after those attempts were stymied, he gave up. He was a womanizer and fathered several illegitimate children with his slave Sally Hemings, although part of this is rooted in a foolish promise to his dying wife that he would not marry again. He was a poor money manager, leaving his country a great legacy but his family a pile of debts. He is America's leading secular progressive, the opposite of the religious conservative I am. And yet, his positive qualities are so immense and far reaching that I can forgive these faults as being a man of his age.

Jefferson was an eminent Renaissance man. He loved Greek and Roman literature, in the original languages no less. He read philosophy, history and poetry from youth to old age. He was curious about the new science and mathematics of his day. He attempted his own works of architecture and agriculture. And he pursued all this in the isolation of a colonial Virginia farm. In contrast, I have immediate low-cost access to everything he had, and far more, and yet my level of engagement pales in comparison.

Jefferson loved French food and wine and engaging conversation while enjoying that food. He knew the French language and so was ready to live in Paris as our new nation's ambassador. After returning home, he employed a French chef at the White House and back in Monticello. I can imagine sitting down for dinner with him and enjoying the finest food that Western culture has produced, all while talking about a wide range of engaging topics. He understood the beauty and function of food.

Jefferson was the nation's leading champion of democracy. Although there was broad support for becoming independent of Britain, that did not automatically transfer into a desire for rule by the people. We could easily have become another monarchy or some other elitist system of rule. But Jefferson saw that the cause of freedom was best rooted in giving the right to rule to the people. I don't think our Land of the Free, Home of the Brave would exist without Thomas Jefferson.

I chiefly admire Jefferson as the author of our nation's Declaration of Independence. He brought his education and talents to the Second Constitutional Convention and was the obvious choice to write a unifying and decisive statement for a country in peril. He even had to endure the agony of group wordsmithing, yet still we end up with, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."

Our Declaration is a thoroughly Christian statement of politics. One might think it's merely a deistic statement. To his fault, Jefferson loved the morality of Christ but denied the supernatural center of his redemptive work. He was a man of the Enlightenment. The Apostle Paul writes that the cross of Christ is an affront to human reason (1 Cor 1), and it was to Jefferson. Even so, Jefferson saw that the freedom of man is rooted in being created by a freedom-giving God. His vision of religious liberty came from a conviction that God doesn't need the state to promote His ends. True religion comes from free and rational men who believe without state compulsion. These ideas come from Jesus.

Finally, I appreciate Jefferson's friendship with John Adams. They were both there in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776 and they both held on to life until July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the country. They enjoyed comradery in Paris and London, yet fell into opposite sides of the two original political factions of our country, the Federalists and the Republicans. They had plenty of reason to go their separate ways after serving as the second and third Presidents. Yet, at the end of their life, they made a deliberate effort to regain their friendship through persistent correspondence. It is a lovely example of friendship and love that transcends disagreement.