Jefferson Today http://www.jeffersontoday.org Revolutionary Ideas, Contemporary Issues Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:31:23 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7.1 en hourly 1 Jefferson quoted in GOP response to State of the Union Address http://www.jeffersontoday.org/2010/01/28/jefferson-quoted-in-gop-response-to-state-of-the-union-address/ http://www.jeffersontoday.org/2010/01/28/jefferson-quoted-in-gop-response-to-state-of-the-union-address/#comments Thu, 28 Jan 2010 21:24:29 +0000 CAW http://www.jeffersontoday.org/?p=1371 More » No related posts.]]> Gov. Bob McDonnellImmediately following President Obama’s State of the Union address, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell delivered the Republican response  and quoted Jefferson’s First Inaugural Address in making the party’s case that “the federal government is simply trying to do too much.”

No related posts.

]]> http://www.jeffersontoday.org/2010/01/28/jefferson-quoted-in-gop-response-to-state-of-the-union-address/feed/ 83 Percent of U.S. Adults Fail Test on Nation’s Founding http://www.jeffersontoday.org/2009/12/04/83-percent-of-us-adults-fail-test-on-nations-founding/ http://www.jeffersontoday.org/2009/12/04/83-percent-of-us-adults-fail-test-on-nations-founding/#comments Fri, 04 Dec 2009 16:38:17 +0000 EDMJ http://www.jeffersontoday.org/?p=1367 A recent national survey by the American Revolution Center turned up some pretty grim statistics about the state of knowledge about the Revolution.  Among the findings, “Many more Americans remember that Michael Jackson sang ‘Beat It’ than know that the Bill of Rights is part of the Constitution.”

Read more about the survey and its results.

No related posts.

]]> http://www.jeffersontoday.org/2009/12/04/83-percent-of-us-adults-fail-test-on-nations-founding/feed/ ‘Self-evident’? Americans’ perceptions of liberty vary http://www.jeffersontoday.org/2009/11/19/self-evident-americans-perceptions-of-liberty-vary/ http://www.jeffersontoday.org/2009/11/19/self-evident-americans-perceptions-of-liberty-vary/#comments Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:29:12 +0000 EDMJ http://www.jeffersontoday.org/?p=1361 Peter Onuf, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Professor of History at the University of Virginia (and a great friend of Monticello) wrote a thought-provoking piece in the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star about the nature of Americans’ views of liberty from the earliest days of the republic:

We Americans live in a “land of liberty” where we may pursue happiness in our own ways, without a powerful state prescribing the routes we take. We may not get there in the end, for “happiness” is not specific. But as authors of our own stories we exult in the journey itself. The Declaration of Independence sets forth “self-evident” truths: “that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, & the pursuit of happiness.”

In theory, liberty comes first; governments, “deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,” are “instituted among men” in order “to secure these rights.” This is the American creed, the language that makes us a people. It is also a language that can tear us apart, for liberty can mean - and has meant - very different, sometimes irreconcilable, things to Americans. These differences pivot on the role of government. Jefferson and his fellow congressmen knew that Americans had a war to win. As a practical matter, government - the successful exercise of power - came first and liberty followed.

Read the rest of the column in the Free Lance-Star.

No related posts.

]]> http://www.jeffersontoday.org/2009/11/19/self-evident-americans-perceptions-of-liberty-vary/feed/ Ben Franklin (and Thomas Jefferson) on global warming http://www.jeffersontoday.org/2009/11/18/ben-franklin-and-thomas-jefferson-on-global-warming/ http://www.jeffersontoday.org/2009/11/18/ben-franklin-and-thomas-jefferson-on-global-warming/#comments Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:36:24 +0000 EDMJ http://www.jeffersontoday.org/?p=1357 Ben Gelber, meteorologist and author of The Pennsylvania Weather Book, wrote an op-ed piece in today’s New York Times in which he examines how Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and other luminaries of 18th-century science debated issues of climate in their own day.

Read the piece at The New York Times.

No related posts.

]]> http://www.jeffersontoday.org/2009/11/18/ben-franklin-and-thomas-jefferson-on-global-warming/feed/ Tip of the hat to the Onion http://www.jeffersontoday.org/2009/11/17/tip-of-the-hat-to-the-onion/ http://www.jeffersontoday.org/2009/11/17/tip-of-the-hat-to-the-onion/#comments Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:39:43 +0000 CAW http://www.jeffersontoday.org/?p=1347 onion1Monticello staff members were tickled to see Thomas Jefferson and James Madison referred to (and accurately, we might add) in a recent article  in the satirical online “news source,” the Onion.

We hope you enjoy it as much as we did:)

Area Man Passionate Defender Of What He Imagines Constitution To Be


No related posts.

]]> http://www.jeffersontoday.org/2009/11/17/tip-of-the-hat-to-the-onion/feed/ Reporter asks what Jefferson would think about the balloon boy http://www.jeffersontoday.org/2009/10/21/reporter-asks-what-jefferson-would-think-about-the-balloon-boy/ http://www.jeffersontoday.org/2009/10/21/reporter-asks-what-jefferson-would-think-about-the-balloon-boy/#comments Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:35:40 +0000 CAW http://www.jeffersontoday.org/?p=1333 Ted Anthony, who covers American culture for The Associated Press, wonders what Thomas Jefferson would think about the nation he helped found if he had returned earlier this week and followed, like most Americans did, the story of the Heenes.
A 1786 depiction of the Montgolfier brothers' historic balloon with engineering dat

A 1786 depiction of the Montgolfier brothers' historic balloon with engineering data. Jefferson witnessed a flight of a Montgolfier balloon in Paris while serving as Minister to France.


Read the story at cbsnews.com.


No related posts.

]]> http://www.jeffersontoday.org/2009/10/21/reporter-asks-what-jefferson-would-think-about-the-balloon-boy/feed/ Lou Ureneck on Jefferson and the sorry state of civic affairs http://www.jeffersontoday.org/2009/10/12/lou-ureneck-on-jefferson-and-the-sorry-state-of-civic-affairs/ http://www.jeffersontoday.org/2009/10/12/lou-ureneck-on-jefferson-and-the-sorry-state-of-civic-affairs/#comments Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:49:31 +0000 EDMJ http://www.jeffersontoday.org/?p=1330 In an op-ed piece in today’s Boston Globe, Lou Ureneck takes to task the sorry state of modern-day civic affairs.  He begins by describing Jefferson, in France in 1787, writing to fellow Virginian Edward Carrington while pondering “the problems of government that guaranteed freedom and ensured the people’s well-being” in the aftermath of  Shays’ Rebellion.

“The way to prevent these irregular interpositions of the people [wrote Jefferson to Carrington] is to give them full information of their affairs thro’ the channel of the public papers, and to contrive that those papers should penetrate the whole mass of the people. The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But I should mean that every man should receive those papers and be capable of reading them.’’

Ureneck continues:

The letter is remarkable for the faith it expresses in national literacy, the press and public opinion. From today’s vantage, we can only wonder what has gone wrong. For those of us who have lived our lives in either journalism or education, there needs to be serious self-examination of our methods and results.

What accounts for the sorry state of the nation’s civic health and to what extent do the better-or-worse evolution of the media and education share in the problem? I tilt the blame in that direction because our entire system of government rests on the presumption that people with good information make good choices about their governance. To assert otherwise undermines the argument for democratic government.

No related posts.

]]> http://www.jeffersontoday.org/2009/10/12/lou-ureneck-on-jefferson-and-the-sorry-state-of-civic-affairs/feed/ More on the wall of separation http://www.jeffersontoday.org/2009/10/07/more-on-the-wall-of-separation/ http://www.jeffersontoday.org/2009/10/07/more-on-the-wall-of-separation/#comments Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:44:38 +0000 EDMJ http://www.jeffersontoday.org/?p=1323 USATODAY columnist Oliver Thomas writes “And the wall . . . comes tumbling down.”

Visit Monticello in Virginia this fall and if you listen carefully, you might hear something out of the ordinary: Thomas Jefferson spinning in his grave.

In a series of 5-4 decisions, the Supreme Court appears determined to turn Jefferson’s wall of separation between church and state into a picket fence.

No related posts.

]]> http://www.jeffersontoday.org/2009/10/07/more-on-the-wall-of-separation/feed/ The artist speaks: SFMOMA murals of Monticello and Mount Vernon http://www.jeffersontoday.org/2009/10/01/the-artist-speaks-sfmoma-murals-of-monticello-and-mount-vernon/ http://www.jeffersontoday.org/2009/10/01/the-artist-speaks-sfmoma-murals-of-monticello-and-mount-vernon/#comments Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:33:41 +0000 EDMJ http://www.jeffersontoday.org/?p=1318 Kerry Marshall discusses his Founders murals.

In February, we discussed recently unveiled murals of Monticello and Mount Vernon by artist Kerry Marshall in the atrium of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.  In this video, Marshall discusses the murals and his use of games and puzzles to point out the hidden aspects and challenges inherent in interpreting the founders today.

No related posts.

]]> http://www.jeffersontoday.org/2009/10/01/the-artist-speaks-sfmoma-murals-of-monticello-and-mount-vernon/feed/ A religious conscience http://www.jeffersontoday.org/2009/09/25/a-religious-conscience/ http://www.jeffersontoday.org/2009/09/25/a-religious-conscience/#comments Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:39:06 +0000 Administrator http://www.jeffersontoday.org/?p=1234 While Jefferson remained a practicing Episcopalian, his personal faith veered towards Unitarianism. He believed Jesus was an exemplary mortal, but not a divine being; Jesus’ moral teachings, not his death on the cross, comprised “salvation.” Indeed, Jefferson spent some presidential evenings compiling The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, rearranging the four New Testament gospels to craft a single narrative of Jesus’ life without any supernatural content. For example, Jefferson’s version contains no walking on water, no last supper, and no resurrection.

Jefferson mostly kept his theology to himself, both out of principle and political pragmatism. He did not wish to see his religious views exploited for political gain. If a leader’s religion became an object of debate, Jefferson worried it would result in “that inquisition over the rights of conscience, which the laws have so justly proscribed. It behooves every man who values religious conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others.”  Jefferson was that man who valued religious conscience, and constructed the “wall of separation between Church & State” to protect the rights of believers from public invasion–and to protect his own unorthodox Christianity from political punditry.

Questions of faith ought to remain between God and the believer. Thus, Jefferson sought to protect all American religious beliefs–including his own unorthodox Christianity.

Adam Jortner is an assistant professor of history at Auburn University.

No related posts.

]]> http://www.jeffersontoday.org/2009/09/25/a-religious-conscience/feed/