Reviews for Thomas Jefferson, 1743-1826

The average rating for Thomas Jefferson, 1743-1826 based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-01-20 00:00:00 Tina Nelson An inaugural address by an incoming U.S. President is always a momentous occasion for the citizens of the United States of America. A new president raises their hand and takes a short and yet daunting oath: stating their name and then swearing or affirming “that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.” And then the new President has the comparably daunting task of stating, in a brief and accessible manner, their hopes for the upcoming term. In this time of division within the American body politic, I find it comforting to turn back to the time when the man who may have been this nation’s smartest president, and was certainly one of its most eloquent, used his inaugural address to begin healing a divided nation. This edition of The Inaugural Addresses of President Thomas Jefferson, 1801 and 1805 benefits from the scholarly perspective of Noble E. Cunningham Jr. Cunningham, a professor of history at the University of Missouri, has written frequently about Jefferson, as with his book In Pursuit of Reason: A Life of Thomas Jefferson (1987), a well-written and accessible one-volume biography that provides a fine introduction to Jefferson’s life and work for any reader who does not have time to read, say, the 6 volumes (!) of Dumas Malone’s Jefferson and His Time (1948-81). Jefferson’s First Inaugural Address was a first in many ways. It was the first presidential inaugural address to be delivered at the nation’s new capital at Washington, D.C. It was also the first inaugural address marking a transfer of power from one party to the other, as Jefferson, the candidate of the Democratic-Republican party, had defeated incumbent president John Adams, the candidate of the Federalist party, in a fiercely contested election. Jefferson knew that he had to appeal to national unity while still setting forth the democratic principles in which he believed. And Jefferson rose to the rhetorical occasion once again, as he had with his tract The Rights of British America (1774), and with the Declaration of Independence (1776), and with the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1779). The inaugural address is probably best known for Jefferson’s declaration that “We are all republicans; we are all federalists” (p. 5) – directly invoking the names of the two major parties of the time, in order to remind listeners from both parties that “every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by different names brethren of the same principle” (p. 5). It is a powerful way of setting forth the principle that shared American identity, shared commitment to the United States of America as both a nation and a new idea for how to organize and administer a national government, is something far more important than party affiliation. Jefferson’s inaugural address was widely reprinted and distributed across the young nation, reaching even into areas of the recently organized Northwest Territory that had not yet achieved statehood. Among the many figures with which this book is richly illustrated, I was struck by an issue of the cover of The Baltimore Weekly Magazine for May 13, 1801. As a Marylander, I imagined being a Baltimorean of those times, picking up a copy of the magazine. The address, in two columns, takes up the entire front page of the magazine, and the editors have italicized and capitalized the key words from Jefferson’s address: We are ALL Republicans – We are ALL Federalists. (p. 25) Cunningham also devotes helpful attention to the way in which Jefferson’s inaugural address was received across the country. The new president’s Democratic-Republican allies were pleased with his presentation of their principles, while his Federalist readers were generally mollified by the mild and rational tone of the address. No less a Federalist than Alexander Hamilton, Jefferson’s longtime rival and sometime nemesis, noted in his Address to the Electors of the State of New-York in late March of 1801, that “We view [the speech] as virtually a candid retraction of past misapprehensions, and a pledge to the community that the new President will not lend himself to dangerous innovations, but in essential points will tread in the steps of his predecessors” (p. 41). For Thomas Jefferson to get such a good review from Alexander Hamilton is truly an impressive thing. Jefferson’s first inaugural address also received worldwide attention, as individuals and government around the world, whether they wished the young U.S.A. well or ill, were interested in the transfer of power within the new republic. Another of the figures included in this book is a page from the Courier de Londres, a French-language London newspaper, wherein one can see the words, “Nous sommes tous républicains, tous fedéralistes” (p. 50). The address was reprinted not only in Great Britain, but also in Canada, France, Spain, Holland, and Chile, and in various states of pre-unification Germany and Italy – evidence of how people all over the world were interested in hearing what Thomas Jefferson had to say. A president’s second inaugural address is usually (with the notable exception of Abraham Lincoln’s) considered less interesting than their first – as, of necessity, any president fortunate enough to be elected to a second term will be looking backward to the last term as much as forward to the next one. Yet Jefferson’s second inaugural address from 1805 still commands interest, for a number of reasons. The Jefferson Administration’s first term was marked most strongly by the Louisiana Purchase of 1803; President Jefferson overcame his small-government scruples and purchased the entire Louisiana Territory from France, thus doubling the size of the young nation. It was inevitable that Jefferson would mention the Louisiana Purchase, and would try to address any anxieties from Americans who had been surprised by this dramatic change in the life of the United States: I know that the acquisition of Louisiana has been disapproved by some, from a candid apprehension that the enlargement of our territory may endanger its union. But who can limit the extent to which the federative principle may operate effectively? The larger our association, the less will it be shaken by local passions. And in any view, is it not better that the opposite bank of the Mississippi should be settled by our own brethren and children, than by strangers of another family? With which shall we be most likely to live in harmony and friendly intercourse? (p. 77) Jefferson’s Second Inaugural is also noteworthy for its defense of religious freedom, and for its advocacy of continued protection of the freedom of the press – even though, like every other U.S. president before and since, Jefferson had experienced plenty of harsh press criticism. Additionally, President Jefferson expressed concern for the plight of Native Americans: “The aboriginal inhabitants of these countries I have regarded with the commiseration their history inspires” (p. 77). These are noble sentiments – and yet Cunningham points out something that is, tragically, missing from both of Jefferson’s inaugural addresses: [N]owhere in either inaugural address did he address the issue of slavery in the United States. While recognizing the condition of Indians as a national concern, he regarded slavery as subject to the authority of the states, which had the power to prohibit or to protect slavery. Himself a slaveholder who opposed slavery but continued to own slaves, Jefferson as president offered no national leadership toward dealing with the future of slavery in the United States. (p. 113) One can regret that, with regard to race and slavery, Thomas Jefferson failed to live up to his own noble ideas regarding human equality and inalienable natural rights – while acknowledging the extraordinary quality of his intellect, and the breadth of his achievements. I am posting this review to Goodreads on January 20, 2021 – a new Inauguration Day. Like Thomas Jefferson 220 years ago, Joe Biden today takes office after an exceptionally contentious and difficult election. I anticipate that President-Elect Biden, when he takes the oath of office later today, will appeal for national unity as President Jefferson did. President Jefferson said, “We are all republicans; we are all federalists.” President-Elect Biden may say something along the lines of, “We are all democrats; we are all republicans.” And indeed, throughout the United States of America, we are all democrats, inasmuch as we all believe in democracy – the idea that ultimate power resides with the people, that leaders serve rather than rule the people, that each citizen gets one vote and no more. We are all republicans, in that we all believe in republican institutions – in the idea that each citizen enjoys equal protection under the laws, and is equally bound by the laws. Published by the University of Missouri Press, with the aid of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, The Inaugural Addresses of President Thomas Jefferson, 1801 and 1805 is well-illustrated with figures that include not only various newspaper and magazine reprints of the two inaugural speeches, but also Jefferson’s own handwritten drafts. One notes the president’s graceful and flowing cursive handwriting, almost mathematical in its precision. It is also interesting to observe the manner in which, like any good writer, Jefferson was constantly revising – crossing things out, moving passages around, incorporating new wordings. Any president-elect, whether their party registration is Democratic or Republican, would do well to look to Thomas Jefferson’s inaugural addresses as a rhetorical model to be followed.

Review # 2 was written on 2020-05-21 00:00:00 William Hill Thomas Jefferson’s says in his First Inaugural Address of March 4, 1801 he humbly undertakes the office of Presidency in a “troubled world”, calls for union in a common effort for the common good, protection of minorities, “wise and frugal government, freedom of religion, freedom of the press and protection of the person under habeas corpus, and trial by jury impartially selected”.