Series known as the peters rushton seminars, a series that i am john obrien from the department of english and im happy to kick things off. Todays lecture is part of an English Department lecture series known as the peters rushton seminars, series that goes back to 1950. It is a series that is including speakers, such as brooks, randall jerrell, wh and shamus heaney. Today, we are happy to help fred kaplan over the return to speak on his designer Thomas Jefferson. Fred kaplan is a distinguished professor of Queens College and the Graduate Center of the city of university of new york. A scholar in 19th century literature has become best nose is one of the most distinguished biographers of our era. He has published biographies of thomas carlyle, mark twain, henry james, charles dickens, john quincy adams, abraham lincoln, gore vidal and Thomas Jefferson. In his masterly pen, offers a biography of Thomas Jefferson by giving an english professors kind of attention to jeffersons written words. Jefferson only published one book in his lifetime, notes on the state of virginia. Of course, he wrote constantly. Treat this as a view of british america, legal briefs, memoranda , declaration of independence and above all, letters. Thousands of them. He calls among his most part all and revealing writings. Throughout it, he brings a skilled biographers attention to how jefferson reveals himself through his writing often without intending to. On the state of virginia, it is a book about jefferson partly because jefferson did not want to be a book about himself. The jefferson we meet here is, and not surprisingly, precise and forceful. He also shows as a writer who is evasive withholding, anxious, self protective and inconsistent. Eager to shield himself from responsibility. His biography is a great read. Jefferson is not the only one with a masterly pen around here. Please join me in welcoming fred kaplan. [ applause ] thank you, john. Thank you for being such an attentive and kind host and arranging my opportunity to be here and to talk about jefferson. I also want to thank the English Department and History Department for being cohost of this event. I had an extraordinarily warming welcome to virginia yesterday when i stepped off the plane and discovered that i was in a different country from where i had departed in the morning. I had departed from maine and the temperature was considerably different. Jefferson did notice typically had something very interesting to say about the difference between the climate of Northern New York and the climate of new england on one hand and the climate of virginia on the other hand. With the exception of harris, no matter where jefferson travels every virginia and everything about it was always better. In 1791, jefferson with his friend and colleague James Madison went on a combined travel adventure, but mostly political drift to Northern New York and Lake Champlain in particular and into new england. When he arrived in the Lake Champlain area, he made comparative notes about the difference in the climate between Lake Champlain, Northern New York, new england and virginia. He made it much to virginias advantage, even at that time of the year. He arrived in Northern New York, new england and late may early june. He wrote that the summer in Northern New York state and new england was not only to hot, but as hot as could be found in carolina or georgia. I suspect that the heaps of northern climates may be more power than those of southern one and proportion as they are shorter. There is as much fever and other complaints on Lake Champlain as on the swamps of carolina. Find nothing anywhere else in the climate, which virginia made in the two part of the world. I didnt quite feel that yesterday when i got off the plane. What was going on . We know what was going on in jeffersons. I do have to remark that i have some similar neighbors in maine who live a good part of the year and not too far from here, but they always come to maine for the summer even though jefferson thinks or thought that the weather obviously in virginia was always superior. It is just an example of jeffersons wonderful ability to evade or to make a point that is really about his own emotional and ideological self interest and even about the superiority of virginia whether to new england weather without a single qualification. I am happy to be here even in this mild weather and to see the lovely foliage bloom where i live. The grass is just about to turn green, but not quite yet. As we all know, jefferson is our most controversial president. I take that back. Not our most controversial president , but are most controversial founding. Mostly because of his relationship with slavery. He inherited slaves, bought and sold slaves after the death of his wife and he had six children by Sally Hemmings who was a slave woman, three quarters wife and the halfsister of his own wife. There is a part of his life that a lot of attention has been focused on recently, which is certainly part of his life that we now condemn or at least wish had been different. I condemn slavery and so did jefferson. I dont condemn jefferson. I dont know that i would have done any better if i had been in jeffersons position, born into his virginia and family. I dont find it easy to put myself into the shoes of someone from the past and to be judgmental, because i know we are all a product of circumstances considerably beyond our control. Jefferson was hated in his own time to some extent. He is hated now and being revolutionary, atheist, agnostic , popular demagogue and also a president who preached against strong executive power and exercised strong executive power when he felt that it was in his ideological and view of the nations self interest to do so, for example, the louisiana purchase. He was a man who preached against and tested he detested a lot of things we take for granted as desirable, like banks and banking, wall street, industry and he certainly detested organization , foul pet of an equity and disease and that came to mind immediately about baltimore or philadelphia. We were walking early as we were talking. The one city that never had anything harsh was paris. That is where he spent five years and was in fact expecting to go back to when she returns to the u. S. On the mission to bring his two daughters back, so he brought up not his french women, but proper virginia ladies and planning to return to paris unfortunately or fortunately. President washington, newly elected, decided that he would enlist jefferson who had mixed feelings about it and probably regret his agreement to become the first u. S. Secretary of state. The controversial president and attitudes will be divided about him and contested about him for as long as we read about him and study history. Jefferson, as john eloquently remarked, gave eloquent articulation to the founding ideas of the u. S. Many of which are still the values of the country. He helped channel be said to over 1 billion into declaration first paragraph became a worldwide affirmation of personal liberty and republican government. The country would eventually embrace his proposals on religious liberty, inheritance reform and confederation of congress. He did a herculean job and his writing talent went to great effect and was used to great effect. After he became the first secretary of state and skipping his unhappy vice presidency, he became twoterm president. Washington was our first two term president. One term as president and off he went. In came jefferson with the notion, as many historians credit him for of introducing the revolution of 1801, jeffersonian revolution. I dont see it that way, but there is lots of room for looking at things differently. As john remarked his greatest strength was his path. He was reluctant and poor public speaker and he spent more time writing and putting aside things like sleeping and eating. In his active life, he spent more time writing than any other activity. The relationship between his writing, personal life and public life would have been inseparable. He was constantly in the act of defying himself by literary acts. 10,001 letters that you refer to, there is an actual count. I dont remember what it is, but it is huge. In a summary view of british america or notes of the state of virginia is an extra ordinary book in which i considered talking about today, but decided that i would probably talk about the declaration of independence, because i could count on some familiarity with the most important phrases in the declaration of independence were asked to talk about notes on the state of virginia would take me longer, because i would have in a sense more to say, but i would also have to prepare the ground a little more than i would have to in talking about the declaration of independence. To approach jefferson through his writing helps us get into his mind and feeling that contributes to understanding of his strengths and limitations. It fosters an appreciation of his role as propaganda of the revolution. That is how he made and recorded crucial aspects of the first years of our republic. It shows how jefferson wrote in different voices to different constituencies. It also helps to enable us to see how he was a revision as to himself and attempting to do his best to both select the select and selectively rewrite the history of the world that he had played such an Important Role in. This is important to me. It helps us read and appreciate prose of the highest literary and intellectual quality. It bookmarks jefferson with lincoln as a master of the english language. The jefferson we all know best is the author of the declaration of independence. To me, there are other writings of equal power and literary finesse. Some which have been mentioned and on the state of virginia, which has been mentioned. His first inaugural address, which isnt addressed enough, but deserves considerable attention. It led us to his paris lover, maria causeway. We dont know exactly the intimacy of that relationship, but it was not a love relationship. It was certainly a love relation of the heart and in his letters to maria causeway, famous and longest of them. It is called a dialogue between the head and heart. There are other wonderful and relatively writings of jefferson selectively from the letters and particularly his letters to his grandchildren, because he was a doting grandfather and had a wonderful grandfatherly voice with a few selections that i will regale you with. Im going to focus today on the declaration of independence. Of course, best known contribution to the american historical consciousness and its something that we are a millionaire with. It is something that still intrigues those of us who rated not only the preamble, but the entirety of the declaration of independence. As you know, he wrote it in philadelphia via in 1776 and he was a reluctant attendee at the Confederation Congress in june and july of 1776 and he heard to be in williamsburg where the house out of being the house of burgesses into readiness case legislature and so one in the transitional period was writing a constitution for the state of virginia and he really wanted to be there. He wanted to participate in the writing of that constitution. He dealt himself to be a constitution maker and a constitutional writer. That was something he felt destined to do and he already has significant experience rerunning the laws for the state of virginia, which had been in progress and continues to be in progress for some time. He listens to debates and hardly said a word. He much preferred to be in williamsburg and he wrote to williamsburg suggesting to one of the movers and shakers that wanted to be a good idea for some of the virginia delegation to the confederation of congress and be called back and work on the Virginia State constitution. By that, he meant himself and he was told, no. We have this under control and so on. You stay there for a while longer and we will get you back to virginia as soon as we can. On june 6, 1776, a member of the virginia delegation was acting on instructions from the Virginia Legislature itself and stood up and seek confederation of congress and proposed that the resolution declaring independence and congress immediately appointed a committee of five and most members of the congress are not eager, some were eager, less eager or reconciled to hearing that. The committee that was nominated was lee himself, of course. Benjamin franklin, john j adams , livingston and jefferson. He was busy with work on the articles of confederation. The elderly franklin was the committees most famous writer and personality. He recently returned from london where they represent pennsylvania. Smart, crafty and he wasnt interested in a writing assignment. John adams was a passionate participant and a talented writer. He however felt overburdened with Important Committee work. The other two appointments, livingston from new york and sherman from connecticut had no special interest in or talent as writers. All five are at the same and so is congress. He wanted another summary document. This one is a conclusive statement of almost every delegate and the declaration of the colonies one out. It was to be a document justifying to the world and extraordinary exertion was to be a collective state meant. Some review of british america. One of the two tales with the colonies and every member of Congress Said that he would have a chance at a later stage in the process to participate in revising the committees document. At a later date, he wrote that he and jefferson had a conversation about which one of them should write the draft. They each deferred to the other. Adams felt that he had more important work to do. Jefferson had no competition and no one else wanted him. Jefferson immediately agreed to take it on, the conversation that may or may not have happened, or at least the way that adam reported that some years later. He viewed it as one of the greatest mistakes of his life. He would have decided differently if he anticipated that the statement of First Principles would become with the preamble to the constitution and say what the gettysburg address, one of the three most widely quoted statements by any american writer. Of course, adams couldnt have anticipated that at a much later date it would become one of the most controversial in its claim that all men are created equal. Adams never got over it. He never got over it. Why didnt i do it . Jefferson was pressured to get it written quickly. There wasnt much time. We dont know much about it or what days he wrote or how much in each sitting or how many days he spent revising and what papers or books he had with him is partly known. He had a copy of course of henry lees june 6 declaration and resolution of defendants. He had a copy of the draft constitution he had written before leaving williamsburg to come to philadelphia in june, which with that draft he hopes to get back as quickly as possible and his draft would become the dominant draft. He had that with him and that contained forensic indictment of georgia. An amplified list of grievances and clearly jefferson drew extensively on his draft for the constitution. He drew on his own sub review of british america and he also drew on his virginia colleague george masons declaration of rights, which the Virginia Legislature had passed in june and jefferson had a copy of it. George nations declaration of rights had a phrase in it that is almost familiar, but not in totality, because masons draft and emphasized life, liberty and pursuit of property. That is an interesting change that is of great interest, of course. Jefferson and his colleagues changed pursuit of property to pursuit of happiness. Jefferson and his Confederation Congress colleagues were on the home. Not all of them, but they were wealthy landowners and slaveowners. Rich people on the whole. Why the change from property to happiness . My speculation, not a must, but they may. It is that they wanted the emphasis to transcend the limitations of class and social status, wealth and so on. They wanted it to be a document that didnt express selfserving , but still consuming, but not explicitly selfserving of ownership of property of which they were the leading citizens of the country. Now, jeffersons declaration of course has a strong emphasis on the separation from the British Empire being forced on the colonies. Not a choice that the colonies voluntarily let alone initially with any enthusiasm made. Of course, the words are as the committee and Congress Went through it sentence by sentence and with some alterations went into the course and it becomes necessary for people to dissolve the political bands, which connected them with another. This dissolution of separation of jeffersons claims have been forced on the colonies. They hadnt sought an accessory that forced it on them. It foisted on them to assume among the powers of the earth that are separate and equal to which the laws of nature and of natures god entitle them. The phrase is that the laws of nature and natures god to a particular residence for jeffersons contemporaries. They included natural rights. It wasnt a residence that they could attach to any specific theology or body of philosophy. It was a broad raise that had a kind of tentative association with dsm, but not with any religious act and not specifically with a protestant view of the world or a catholic view of the world. They have a history and that history mainly came out of english history and the glorious resolution revolution of 1688 and the attempt of the aristocracy of Great Britain to free itself. It is considerably dependent on the royal. In jeffersons declaration, whoever and whatever that god is has nothing to do, as i said, with any religion or theology. To me, it seems likely that jefferson, as colleagues, wanted this to be a secular document. Most europeans and Anglo American would have been at a loss to define natural rights in a rigorous way. At best, they could to find them in language that evaded the crucial questions. Do these natural rights of nature exist . I do know that . Where did they come from . Who gets to defined them . Who gets to implement them . How would different recognitions be reconciled . King george and his ministers would have had a different set of terms and values to bring on the language and issues. They would have been appropriated to claim that Great Britain and not the colonies occupied the moral and legal high ground. Different people and governments. The definition and implementation would have risen from particular religious secular histories. Jefferson of course was not a scholar in our sense interested in an objective, fair and valid presentation of on the one hand this and on the one hand that. Lets work our way through a consensus conclusion. His creative literature of a particular kind, literature as propaganda, form of argument that declares truth rather than proves it. He read the most successful 18thcentury example of Thomas Paines common sense. Recently published and had no direct influence on jeffersons language. Jefferson was an admirer of pain and he was to write later on that no writer has exceeded pain and ease in similarity style and perspicuity of expression, happiness of elucidation, simple and unassuming language. He wrote directly to the american ear and heart. His attention was to strengthen revolutionary morale at the start of the war. Jeffersons immediate audience was congressional. His audience was angloamerican and european world that jefferson refers to as mankind, but particularly france. Jefferson doesnt know that he will become for five years a citizen, so to speak and an honorary citizen of paris. He and all of his colleagues know that their chances of being successful in pledging the sacred honors in this cause of revolution are heavily dependent on getting assistance and aid from france. The declaration exists, because a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires the colonies to declare the causes and propels them to acceleration. Get rid of george iii and what about louis over there quick so we have to be careful. They are being very careful about this i think. It is directed towards and among others. To all other enemies of Great Britain who ought to conclude that the enemy of lying my enemy is my friend. The declaration is not written to stir the hearts and minds of the american soldiers. They have that effect to some extent, but thats not why its there. The most influential sentence in the preamble states the truth that all men are created equal, but by the creator, we all know these words. Life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. Again, this is an innovation. Not the pursuit of property, but a country amongst colonies and amongst the new nation that is to become a bigger nation and bigger nation and not the pursuit of happiness. George mason is really on target and jeff and is is just throwing in a feelgood with happiness. Property, property, property. Real estate, real estate, real estate. Property ownership makes citizenship. Property ownership was sacred. The mission and declaration was an interest of tact. Again, preamble rising above class issue status issues, wealth issues, elite power issues and so on. That is further emphasized by by jefferson and his colleagues with his consensus document and stating that one of the charges against the king is that he is attempting to take away abolishing almost valuable laws and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments. I think that it implies to deprive americans of their present and future ownership of property. It is an issue of serious concern, because where does jefferson and his father Peter Jefferson and all of these folks in virginia and massachusetts and so on get their legal rights ownership of this property . In most cases, it comes from oil charters. There are variations on that and it comes from oil charges. We are saying that with we are renouncing as a sort of expressive and aggressive, but well raised of your ownership, even if we were on the spot holders and on your behalf. We are taking over ownership of this property that any colonist or not to be american stands on. He and his eye tearing up the royal charges, which they had previously held to be law. Virginia no longer belongs to the crowd. It is a nice way to do things. You under before and now we own it. Lets see what you can do about that. Does it affect what jefferson and his colleagues are saying . Not only did virginia no longer belong to the crowd, but neither did the land to the west. Jefferson had in mind, land from sea to shining sea, including canada, cuba, land and wealth of the land and belongs to those who lived on it. The land as we well know included every aspect of property, which not only soil, but the labor force and slaves that work the soil. What jefferson didnt have from his sources is the claim that all men are created equal. The angloamerican world agreed that all englishmen were created equal. They possess the same legal rights. But the colonists were claiming were no right by other components of the empire. The right not to be taxed or regulated by parliament. That has become Good American bedrock policy. At best, no taxes and worse as possible. Jefferson and his colleagues did it mean that women are critical. They did not believe that women were created equal or slaves were created equal and that nonwhite races were created equal. Catholics are not created equal. This is a protestant revolution. Not a christian revolution in a broad sense. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Those were not to be constrained. These are exercised in the ideal and not necessarily always practiced. Certainly louis xvi would have had a different view of what his subjects were born with. The frenchmen were londons point of view and not born with the same right to fight englishmen and put aside everything else. The work of literary art and declaration is mostly known by its preamp. When you look at the entirety, it is structurally unbalanced. A c at best and introductory composition of course simply on the basis of structure. The opening paragraph, everybody more or less knows that it has become a basic founding text and that the only significant changes that the committee in congress as a whole made was one or two of the long list of accusations against george that made up sweet quarters. More than three quarters of the text of declaration of independence. The one substantial paragraph that to the congress omitted that was in jeffersons text was the paragraph in which she is inciting the infractions that george iii and crimes of george iii had committed against the colonist. His predecessors. Loyalty had imposed slavery. Jefferson desired to keep into the text, but his fellow congress had said, that has to go. It is too contentious and it will raise issues. We would rather not raise them, because whatever their rationalization and evasion and so one, they all knew that the crown was not responsible for the existence of slavery and the colony that had no basis in fact that the colonists from the start had been complicit in the importation of slaves and that the colonists and the northern and southern colonies had worked the International Slave trade and provided labor force in the south that was one of the bases of colonial wealth and that it would have been a little in your face in a way that could readily be denied to claim the body of the declaration consists of a list of offenses against the rights of the colonists. And justifying why the colonies warned separation, and create an established new and independent government. Is a list of about 30 accusations. And they summarize a legal and forensic structure, the grievances his contemporaries had been accumulated. And as i remarked most had already appeared in summary. And in jeffersons draft of the constitution for virginia. They are a powerful list. And jeffersons list gains power from concise inclusiveness. It takes it special rhetorical and argumentative effectiveness in being exclusively directed against george iii. The king seems the handiest personification of what americans were rebelling against. Jefferson transformed george iii rhetorically, psychologically, politically into a tyrant whose command determined american law. He stands in for and represents all the alleged crimes committed against american interests and rights. And every indictment in the first half of the indictments begins with he has, he has, he has than this, he is than that, he has than the other thing. And jefferson has great talent for forensic conciseness, for brief and powerful and emotionally resonant accusations like a brilliant trial lawyer standing before a jury. And of course hoping that his words are being heard across the atlantic by the allies and financial supporters that the colonies need. So, the declaration is like much good literature, simple in structure. Divided into three parts. The beginning, the abstract preface, followed by a statement of theme and purpose, middle, and reemphasis and reprise as a conclusion being perfect to demonstrate the sort of story you stereotypical patterns for a good composition without obviously paying attention to the degree to which composition has other merits as well. So theres nothing original about the structure of the declaration. In essence its a powerful document, but its a document dedicated to, if not a single and overwhelmingly main purpose , what jefferson wrote was revised partly, as i have indicated. And, the Congress Said unanimously passed it. Jefferson forever resented that the committee and the congress as a whole had dared to make any adjustments, to tinker with his perfect prose. Well, obviously the declaration of independence deserves our attention always. And once was the case that every fourth of july the New York Times at least published the entire declaration. And a copy of the actual script of one of the surviving manuscripts on, i guess it was the back of the front section. I dont think that is happening anymore. Its not my favorite exemplification of jefferson as a writer, but its one worth paying, of course, special attention to. So, lets skip 25 years. 1776 to 1801. Jefferson at first disliked and hated being president. At the end of his second term he couldnt leave washington fast enough. In fact, he got away with what no modern american president could get away with, he sort of stopped acting as president for the last six months of the second term since his friend and colleague James Patterson was a shoe in to be elected the next president. And he turned over the duties of the office mostly to James Madison and he sat in the white House Reading newspapers and twiddling his thumbs and looking forward to going home to monticello. Well, one of the reasons he also was eager to leave the white house is he had intimations of american future he didnt approve of. He disapproved of the federal court system. Especially the Supreme Court. He hated John Marshall. He was, in 1806, to have salt rubbed into the John Marshall wound because in 1806 jefferson eagerly looked to richmond, virginia where ehrenberg was on trial for treason which jefferson thought was definitely guilty of and the look of the assignment of the Supreme Court judges to the various outlying districts, John Marshall was the judge at aaron burrs trial in richmond and instructed the jury exactly as to what the treason clause in the constitution meant. And the jury, may or may not like jeffersons former Vice President , who jefferson hates, but he aint guilty. So jefferson hated a number of people. One of the most marshall. Another was aaron burr. And of course another one was alexander hamilton, who, though he was dead by the end of jeffersons first term, in the presidency, by the time jefferson was leaving office in march 1809 he knew that his own pastoral vision of an america of farmers, small farmers, big farmers, people close to the earth who were by that very fact morally superior to people who are not close to the earth, lived in cities, and he knew that hamilton washingtons vision of a commercial america, of america with a big bank and lots of banks and script and stock market and all of those things that didnt come from the soil, and that for Jefferson Monticello was the exact opposite. He also wasnt happy because a little later on Andrew Jackson was on the horizon. And some years before jeffersons death he was still paying attention. It seemed likely that Andrew Jackson would soon become president of the united states. He detested jackson. He still was an idealist enough to think that the American Ship sailing through turbulent waters would come out into a calm or sea. It still unnerved him considerably that what he had always believed would be the case did not seem it would be the case. Jefferson always believed that jefferson is the paradox of an elitist leader with populist ideas who always believed that the population would elect superior leaders like himself. And it didnt seem like that was going to happen. Let me provide a lighter note. From washington, he wrote in 1805, a charming letter to his eldest granddaughter. Is very long, my dear, since i have received a letter from you. When was it . In the meantime, versus, which she clipped from newspapers have been accumulated so i find it necessary to get them off my hands without further waiting. With them i send an abc for ms. Cornelia, another granddaughter, four years old, the little recipe about charcoal is worth your mom is notice. Here we have frost, ice and snow and great damage in the gardens and orchards. How stands the fruit with you at monticello and in the neighborhood . And particularly the teachers . What will be in season when i come home . The figs also, have they been hurt . You must right over to monticello to inform yourself or collect information from good authorities. And let me have it by the next post. Resent my tenderest affections to your mama, accept my kisses for yourself and the little ones. You dont have much of an image of jefferson sending kisses and kissing the little ones and so forth. In a letter to his granddaughter, ellen, he began with an account of how many letters she had written to him in a 15 week period. Then agreed that they would exchange letters every three weeks. Alas, he wrote, there was a balance due. So stands the account for this year, my dear ellen, between you and me. Unless it be soon paid off, i shall send the sheriff after you. I enclose you an abundant supply of poetry. I will think you if you will put on your boots and spurs and ride to monticello and informed me how might flowers live. This part of the country is beautifying with them so fast that every time, every ride i take makes me anxious for those at monticello. I dont know whether it is owing to your laziness, or mine, that our letters have been so long intermediate. I assure you, it is not to my want of love to you, and to all of those about you whose welfare i am always so anxious to learn. But, it is useless to discuss old bankrupt scores. We will therefore burn our old accounts and begin a new one. Deliver my endurance to all family and above all to your mama. And except kisses and salutations for yourself. He hoped he wrote, he would soon see a letter from her. Hope is so much pleasanter than despair that i always prefer looking into futurity through her glass. It was his his predilection, it was his personality, the use of word indebtedness and that letter to his granddaughter, hes a man going bankrupt at the time and that hes able to play with that word probably without any selfconsciousness of what he is doing in this lovely letter to his granddaughter. Well, in april 18, hundred nine he wrote an address to the people of albemarle county, a touching, eloquent and usually personal expression of relief and happiness in his return to his native country. I think the single passage of his pen captures, encapsulates jeffersons heart and mind and values. I think it is a beautifully written expression of defining characteristics, the tension he felt between Public Service and private life. His internal dialect in the head and heart. His belief in the sustaining and redeeming power of social harmony. His selfserving belief is his own moral selfworth. And rectitude. s tendency to avoid self examination in his personal and political life. His frequent evasion of painful subjects like slavery, indian genocide, his neediness for approbation. His fundamental attachment to home, land, family , as the touchstones of a happy life. And his brilliance as a writer using words to sustain the life that he felt most happy with. Returning to the scenes of my birth and early life, he wrote, to the society of those with whom i was raised and who have been ever dear to me, i receive with inexpressible pleasure the cordial welcome youre so good as to give me. Log long absent onduty which the history of a wonderful era made incumbent upon those called to them, the pump, turmoil, bustle and splendor of office have drawn but deeper size for the tranquil and irresponsible occupations of private life. For the enjoyment of an affectionate intercourse with you, my neighbors and friends, and the endearments of family love which nature has given us all as a sweetener of every hour. For these i gladly lay down the distressing burdens of power and seek with my fellow citizens repose and safety under the watchful care of the labors and complexities of younger and abler minds. The anxiety you express to administer to my happiness do of themselves confer that happiness and the measure will be complete if my endeavors to fulfill my duties and to several public stations to which i have been called, have obtained for me the approbation of my country. The part which i have acted on the theater of public life has been before, and to their sentence i submitted. But, the testimony of my native country, of the individuals who have known me in private life. To my conduct in its various duties and relations, is the more grateful is proceeding from eyewitnesses and observers on your verdict i rest the conscious security, your wishes for my happiness are received with a just sensibility. And i offer sincere prayers for your own welfare and prosperity. But we wish for one another. I will stop here, because you have been attentive and patient and i like to end on a note of the personal jefferson. Two way into the larger balance the totality of jefferson. And in that totality was an extraordinary and brilliant intellect, writer, contributor to who we are today. For better and for worse. And a man who was a person, just like you, and just like me. A founding father, father. Most importantly, a human being. So thank you. I will stop here. [ applause ] and i am happy to answer any questions or here you make any remarks you would like to make about jefferson or about me. I assume they will all be remarks of affirmation. At least about me, i dont know about jefferson. Okay. Sir, thank you for coming. What first drew you to write about jefferson as a writer . And how did your assessment of him evolve in the process of reading more of his writing . Yeah, well, i was first attracted to lincoln as a writer. And i was partly attracted to lincoln as a writer because of course the gettysburg address, the second inaugural address, somehow are part of the schooling with which i was brought up. And, also because my father had on his bookshelf, a little book called the perfect attribute which had been given to him, so i read in the inscription, by his fourth grade teacher in a Public School on the Lower East Side for department. Department. And so somehow that got me thinking about my father, and about other fathers and about lincoln. And about lincoln as a writer. And you know, when you have a life of your own and you are a scholar or writer, you are always looking for subjects, whether youre thinking, consciously or not, what can you do the can bring a contribution that will be distinctive. So i wrote a biography, lincoln the biography of a writer. A lot of people like it. Thats nice. They like that book, maybe i can do another one. Who else is a writer who is not a writer by profession like dickens and twain and so on, everyone out there in our great and glorious country, they are fascinated by president s. And of course, writing about lincoln, i became very conscious of john quincy adams. And that had to do of course with lincoln as the great emancipator. And is adams as someone who went through a long life, born into the revolution and almost leading to the civil war. You wont know all of this. So i became enthralled with adams diaries. Some of the great literature of our literary writers and are historical president ial writers, the diaries are so vivid and alive. That i did that book and i thought, the only other president who i have any interest in as a writer is jefferson. Hes the only other president who has contributed data whose language, own self created language has contributed to the american historical consciousness so we carried with us. And so i said, why not. I will learn something about the 18th century. And again, this is the biographer at work rather than the historian. So as a biographer, ive also had to become a historian. Some people think i am a historian and i can get away with it to a point. And their various devices i can use to get away with it. Never say he must when i can say he may have been thinking, and be careful to check the works of those who have been devoting their lives to the subject into the period. To make sure i make as few errors as possible. So that is how i got to jefferson. The last of the president s i could feel i have something distinctive and special to say about. Because i could bring to bear on him whenever Historical Context i was capable of being trustworthy about, i could also bring to writing about jefferson , john quincy and about lincoln my training as a literary scholar, that sounds a little heavy, as someone who is immensely involved with language and literature and languages literature and literature as language, and who would like to be a writer. So okay, little bit of reflective glory. I can try to write as well as i possibly can so at least i dont embarrass the writers i am writing about by writing so poorly that they would be a shame to have me write about them. Theres not really good answer to your question, but its the best, its the best i can do. And yeah, and there are other things, i like narrative. I like personality. I like character. I lecturing to find out what makes us tick, what makes people tick, what makes people from the past. I wrote a biography of one living person, corporate all of it all, and i began the biography with the preface saying i prefer that my subjects be dead, but in this case, im making an exception. Et cetera. So you know, to try to exercise a leap of the human and humane and historic imagination and put yourself into the shoes as much as you can, you can never do it totally and completely, of certain figures from the past. Its exciting. And its fun. And its something i can do. What else am i going to do . You know . Okay. So, any other questions or comments . The jefferson you presented today was very drawn to a domestic, he always seems to want to go home writing to his grandchildren, kind of a drawback to williamsburg. I mean if you can talk a little about the tension, is that part of the jefferson you see, he is driven in one way to this kind of private life and domesticity in the family, and yet there is something driving him in the opposite direction. You want to say a little more about that . He obviously is a workaholic in certain ways and an amount of energy or man of doing Public Service all his life. And yet, this is the operative tension . Yes, he also gets tension headaches. I very much identify, you know. He said in the white house, he closes the shades, blinds, whatever they were in those days, and stays in a darkened room for days and days because of this tension headaches. And he is always a man torn. In that sense. Hes a man of immense ambition. And he always claims his ambition not for his own self, gratification, and ego expansion, its always in a service of ideals. And he always would much prefer to be at home. Their beautiful passages about his longing to be home for years ago by for man that somos never home. Except for one assignment after another. This topic is one that jeffersonians have written about, how to reconcile this obvious engagement with attraction to engagement with power on behalf of what he thinks is a good life and the right life for himself and his countrymen. And, his attachment to place, to home, to family, to the soil , to his gardens, to his flowers and so forth. And so its just, you know, sometimes you can suspect that hes a little selfaware, that theres something not quite, you know, smooth about this. And other times it seems as if hes perfectly capable of holding both of these inconsistent things simultaneously. And why not . You know, im sure i and maybe not you, but im sure i can hold inconsistent and contradictory things simultaneously when it suits my needs. So, i dont try to i dont think this can be reconciled in some way. Thank you for your attention and questions. I appreciate it very much. The cspan bookshelf podcast feed makes it easy for you to look for the podcasts that feature nonfiction books in one place. You can discover new authors and ideas. Each week we make it convenient for you to listen discussing history, biography, Current Events and culture. From her Signature Program afterwards book notes plus and q a. Listen to cspan bookshelf cad podcast feed and a podcast on the free mobile video app or wherever you get your podcasts. And on our website. Cspan. Org podcasts. If you ever miss any of c spans coverage you can find it anytime online at cspan. Org. Video to key hearings and debates future markers that guide you to interesting and newsworthy highlights. These points of interest markers appear on the right hand side of your screen when you hit play on selected video. This timeline mix it easy to quickly get an idea of what was debated and decided in watching them. Scroll through and spend a few minutes on cspan points of interest. Weekends ons be spent