#1548 Ten Things about Thomas Jefferson’s First Inaugural Address

Welcome everyone to this podcast introduction to the Thomas Jefferson Hour. My conversation with Dr. Lindsay Chervinsky. Ten things about Jefferson's first inaugural address Fascinating. You know, she's not a great fan of Thomas Jefferson, right? That's not really fair, but she's she has some skepticism about Jefferson, as I do too.

You didn't hear my voice first because I would have really have loved to see a reaction of, like, hearing my voice and then being like, Where is she? why is she here? Um, yeah, you could never get away from me, um, so as part of my, uh, many multifaceted career, um. One of the things that I've been doing has been media commentary. And providing quotes and resources and information for reporters when they call, providing, uh, feedback and and expertise for different TV and radio channels. And I enjoy it a lot.

I was so pleased about that. Well, I'm watching. I don't know what you said because they had the sound turned off. But and then Dennis says, he gets up out of our table and walks under. He's that is, that is Lindsey Travinsky, and so, and you got a lot of time on that one.

So what were you talking about? Yeah, so, um, that that slew of. I did a slew of interviews, um, after the, uh, Trump indictment, and talking about just sort of the historic nature of what that meant. And you know how we should think about it and how we should put it in historic context. And have we been anywhere, you know, like this before? So, um, you know, I I try really hard not to speak about the actual legal legal case because I am a not a lawyer. And, uh, b. I think it's inappropriate to comment on things before we have the evidence. But I'm happy to speak about whether or not we've ever been in a place close to this in terms of a president actually being indicted.

So you were in your home or in a studio, that particular one was in studio.

I went into the D.C. bureau and they have these little. It's interesting because I've now done. I've done a bunch in my home and then I've done one in the D.C. Bureau, which was a little. It's called a flash studio and so it's basically like this closet where you know, it's soundproofed. And they have all this lighting set up. And they have a TV in front of you so you can see what things look like, and they have the camera and then the face.

So Easter face the nation, uh, with Douglas Brinkley, Richard Norton Smith, John Meacham, that's a pretty.

Heavyweight group of, uh, historians. Yeah, I was pretty pumped to be included in that. That was, um, it was, uh. It was an honor to be among them.

I know two of them, Douglas Brinkley's, a friend of mine, and Richard Norton Smith I've had some encounters with over the time. I've never met John Meacham. I won't ask you to rank them. I. I'd love to rank them myself, but I'm not going to, of course.

So we did a presidential sort of history panel and it was looking at the challenges facing President Biden and putting them in context with past challenges facing the president. And what we should think about, in terms of, you know, how, history might guide us going forward. So one of the questions that I answered was, you know, we've seen a rise of nationalism, and what does that mean, both both domestically and national internationally? And what should we sort of think about that? And what were some of the parallels?

Amazing. So I will go see it and I urge our, our, um, our listeners to watch it. So we'll probably lose you to major media here shortly. You know, once this phone starts ringing, you know? And now that, thanks to the pandemic, you can broadcast from home, used to be. I always used to think, poor Doug Brinkley, he's on the plane every single day, getting to a studio, but now not necessarily so.

It does make it easier. The advent of technology has certainly made some of these hits more more accessible. But no, I. I will continue to be a an avid. Thomas Jefferson on Listening to America as a person, because the audience not only are are they so in tune, but they also watch CNN. I got a lot of messages from listeners, which was delightful of them. And I have yet to go to an event where someone has not mentioned that. They are a listener and they are always my favorite interactions, so keep them coming.

We'll hope, we'll hope that we can keep you in the face of what appears to be greater and greater. Celebrity. Well deserved and congratulations. And I know how tough that is because I've done some major television and, of course, I've done all these Ken Burns films. And you feel all alone in the universe, especially when you're at home and you can't even see what's going on. And then they say, go and and you know that, and maybe the producer says, No, we really. We only got 22 seconds, so, you know, tell the tell the tell the story of the civil war in 22 seconds.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, of all the places I would have thought I might have a Lindsey Travinsky encounter, Marble Canyon of the Colorado River Basin was not one of them. And it lit up our day, and I think, in terms, um, it lit up yours in a certain way, so thank you. So, um, I do think we're likely to lose Lindsey Travinsky to major media. She's a rising star. And once you crack that nut of getting calls from CNN and MSNBC and so on, um, unless you screw up, or unless you know the world changes. Um, that's going to lead to greater and greater things. Because television remains the most visible thing we do, uh, as a people, so we're lucky to have her.

Well, I think they came at it from different perspectives, so there is a lot of evidence to suggest that. During the war, Washington was quite loud. His voice could carry when he wanted it to, and he was especially loud when he was angry. When he's mad, yeah, there are moments when he absolutely lost his temper, and, you know, when he shouted, everyone heard him. I think in formal settings like the inauguration, there are probably two things that contributed to perhaps a quieter voice. One was he did not have Jefferson's education.

They didn't have the the adhesives for the dentures at the time, so his dentures were on springs. Every time he relaxed his mouth, his mouth would open up and they didn't fit right. And the subject of Washington's dentures as a whole monograph, really, for somebody.

I think Washington didn't quite feel that. No, I think Washington had no problem. Feeling as though he was a strong presence. I think that was something he cultivated and he didn't mind being louder. I do think Jefferson's conception of masculinity and Republican virtue, and again, this is little R Republican virtue, called for a quieter, softer version of presentation.

Masculinity, his concept of masculinity, and then small R Republican virtue. You see that at least three times in it, he says. Effectively, I'm not sure I'm really worthy of being the president of the United States three times. I mean, he goes way out of his way to say this. To be the the first officer of a republic is such a extraordinary thing that I don't know if I have the right stuff.

You gag at that, yeah, listeners, I'm rolling my eyes. Um, I do think that a certain sense of humility coming into this office is appropriate and required. And we have seen over the course of American history that humanity is rarely up to the task. Because it is such an enormous job. And so, presidents should be humble about their abilities in the face of this office. And so I just, I don't feel like.

Well, first of all, there's the trope of Cincinnatus that you're really just a quiet farmer and you've been called into this office. And yes, of course, you'll try to do the best that you can, but you're pretty well aware of your inadequacies. I think that's required. I think Jefferson also felt he was maybe a little too old.

His enemies attacking him as president. Well, that's certainly rational. And I think that a lot of the politicians at the time, and I think politicians today also are aware of that and fear that. And I don't blame them. And I think that's a big reason that a lot of people.

Don't want to run for office? I'm asking you to read certain sections of this that we'll be able to do it in the course of this hour. And the first one is his first expression of inadequacy. So here we go with the beginning of Jefferson's first inaugural address by Dr.

Lindsay Trivinsky called upon to undertake the duties of the first Executive Office of our country. I avail myself of the presence of that portion of my fellow citizens, which is here assembled to express my grateful thanks for the favor with which they have been pleased. To look toward me to declare a sincere consciousness that the task is above my talents, and that I approach it with those anxious and awful presentiments which the greatness of the charge and the weakness of my powers so justly inspire.

So there's where you roll your eyes that, uh, that the task is above my talents. If anyone was talented enough to administer a small, little agrarian country, it was certainly Thomas Jefferson.

It's also not exactly an inspiring way to start just as a writer. Note as a small editorial, you know, comment.

Oh, great. So Lindsay is now correcting the pros of one of the finest inaugural addresses.

Not the pros, just the way in which he's chosen to organize, maybe maybe a different sentiment to begin.

So okay, so just a few details in our 10 things about Thomas Jefferson's first inaugural address.

He walked to his inaugural. One of the ways with which Jefferson chose to distinguish himself from the people that came before him was he was staying at a boarding house on Capitol Hill prior to his inauguration. Conrad's Yes, Conrad and McMunn. He had breakfast that morning with everyone else that was at the boarding house. They offered him the head of the table.

Adams some ceremony.

Yes, and so Jefferson wanted no ceremony, and Jefferson is again.

A small Republican wanting to bring down the the ceremonial temperature to make sure people know that that. He's the first officer, but he's not the king. And he felt that both of his predecessors had sort of erred on the side of monarchical trappings and accoutrements. So Jefferson not only walks, but he doesn't carry a ceremonial sword, he wears plain gentlemen's clothing.

This is political theater, isn't it? Yes, it is, I mean, and they were all they all attempted a form of political theater. So, for example, when Adams was selecting his outfits, he selected a pearl gray velvet suit because Washington was known at this point for wearing a black velvet suit.

But Thomas Jefferson believed that we were engaging in an unprecedented experiment in self-government. That this was a kind of utopian moment in human history and that it was really important to get it right. And so it's theater, but it's also a philosophical statement about the nature of America, right?

It is, and I think that the presentation and the. The values that he's trying to present as the philosophical statement of America that you're suggesting is something that we still grapple with. It's when, you know, when you're forming something new, you're not only forming it in juxtaposition to what has come before. So, in comparison to a monarchy. But you're trying to craft something from scratch, and that's really hard. And, and should, I think, evolve over time to resemble the society and what it stands for?

I think if John Adams had been there, and as you know, he skulked out of Washington at dawn on the public stage, uh, not wishing to be there to see the torch passed to Mr. Jefferson, his old friend and rival. If John Adams had been there, he would have certainly behaved like a gentleman. But I think he would have inwardly rolled his eyes a little at this theater, I think he would have said, All right, we get it. You're breaking with us that Washington and I are regarded as monarchical.

But you're laying it on a little thick. I think he thought that about a lot of things Jefferson did.

You've heard me talk before about the Jefferson music. I use that as a phrase like, what? And I think you agree that he, if any one of the founders, knew how to to to really sing the Song of America, it was Thomas Jefferson. So then, right after that little self-depreciating start, he says. A rising nation spread over a wide and fruitful land, traversing all the seas, with the rich productions of their industry. Engaged in commerce. With nations who feel power and forget, right? Advancing rapidly to destinies beyond the reach of mortal eye. And then another apology. When I contemplate these transcendent objects and see the honor, the happiness and the hopes of this beloved country committed to the issue and the auspices of this day.

Oh, absolutely. And while there are a lot of things that Jefferson does in this inauguration that are different than the people that came before him or the people that came after him. The proclamation of the the beauty and the potential of the nation, and and the hope and the prayer, the prayer that, you know that. Not not a religious prayer, but a a symbolic prayer for what the nation can be, is a consistent theme through almost all inaugural addresses.

We need to take a short break. We're talking about 10 things. With respect to Jefferson's first inaugural address, Dr. Lindsay Chervinsky is my special guest.

I think that it's almost impossible to place anything first other than Lincoln's second inaugural, but I certainly think that this is this is up there. And and partly because of what it stood for in the moment it stood for. In terms of all of the importance of the transfer of power and the peaceful transition, and all of those things and the historic nature of it. And then, of course, the line We are all Republicans, we are all federalists is, I think, an essential contribution to American political thought. And, of course, your man.

Washington sort of gave one and a half inaugural addresses. But I love the second one. And it was also almost identical with Franklin Roosevelt's fourth. In which they say, If you don't know me by now, I got nothing more to say here, you know who I am. Let's get on with it.

Yeah, it's, you know, I really admire when politicians have the opportunity to say a lot and they choose not to. I think brevity is a kind of a lost art in politics, you know? His first inaugural was not particularly long either. He basically says, I know the Constitution calls upon me to make recommendations to you, but I haven't really been in office. So why don't I get back to you on that, which I think is amazing, you know? So I just, I think that brevity is, as I said, it's a lost art.

So those are two of the shortest Washington's second and Franklin's Roosevelt's fourth. But Lincoln, at 700 or 702 words. Second inaugural address One of the finest pieces of American writing, forget presidential inaugural addresses. If you had to put one or two things in a time capsule to say, What is America? you would want the second inaugural address? Certainly. Wow.

He gets, you know, the second inaugural in the Emancipation Proclamation and IT and Gettysburg address, the Gettysburg address. And boy did he know how to write, like the peak of American rhetoric.

So, Lindsey, back to our 10 things about this extraordinary inaugural address by Thomas Jefferson. We're agreeing. It's top five. Adams chooses not to be present.

Unpack that. For us, this moment is a little bit more complex than people like to suggest in history books. That makes for a good joke, and because Adams did tend towards crotchety, it it makes for an easy joke. He was bitter about the loss, he was resentful about the way Americans regarded his service. He was also mourning the death of his son.

Adams writes a letter to Jefferson, saying, Oh, there's the horses, you can have the horses, and there's the carriage, but all that. But you know, I left them behind for you. And it's not like an enemy. He's not resisting, but you could even make the case that Adams withdrawing is a small our Republican gesture, too. Like, I've had my time.

Yeah, you know, and I, I don't know how much of that is trying to move past the political rancor of the moment, trying to. There was no doubt that Jefferson obviously disagreed with a whole lot that happened during the Adams administration. And and how much was trying to sort of put Washington in the pantheon of sort of a unanimous figure and a non-political figure, and, of course, Washington had died at this point. So he had, you know, ascended into the the holiness of the other. And, um, was very much treated as this, some sort of like holy being, as opposed to a normal politician or president.

Well, you can see the arch federalist going out for a cup of grog after this speech and thinking, pretty rich. Coming from Jefferson, I mean, he trashed Washington, he undercut his administration. Jefferson was not a loyal person of the Washington administration. Now, here, he is laying out this sort of, oh, the illustrious first character.

Oh, definitely. I mean, there's no doubt that it's kind of hypocritical in that. Jefferson referred to Washington when it was useful for him, but then also was very quick to criticize.

When he disagreed. So, Lindsay, we better move back into the inaugural address. If we're going to finish it, give us the next paragraph. Utterly indeed.

Should I despair? Did not? The presence of many whom I here see remind me that? In the other high authorities provided by our Constitution, I shall find resources of wisdom, of virtue and of zeal on which to rely under all difficulties. To you, then, gentlemen, who are charged with the sovereign functions of legislation, and to those associated with you. I look with encouragement for that guidance and support which may enable us to steer with safety. The vessel in which we are all embarked amidst the conflicting elements of a troubled world.

Two things there one is Jefferson's acknowledged acknowledging legislative supremacy. That was his theory, that of the three branches, the legislature was the one closest to the people. And therefore we bow to it and their greater wisdom. Fair enough, but then he uses his trope.

Well, it just lends to so many excellent, you know, choppy waters and storms and winds and forces and gales, and you know, there's just so much there.

Finally, at port after the after, our Argosy has been racked by, you know.

That sort of thing, and there's a captain and there's a crew, and there's all these things, it's just so useful.

I'll start with this next one because I want you to get the great one during the contest of opinion through which we have passed. The animation of discussions and of exertions has sometimes worn. An aspect which might impose on strangers, unused to think freely and to speak and to write what they think. But this now being decided by the Voice of the Nation, announced according to the rules of the Constitution. All will, of course, arrange themselves under the will of the law and unite in common efforts for the common good. So it's been a really a rugged election. 36 ballots in the House of Representatives.

Absolutely, and I think this is perhaps one of the most important contributions because it establishes or reaffirms the concept.

That.

In a democracy or republic, you settle your differences at the ballot box, and then you accept that outcome. And all parties move forward with the understanding that you will have the opportunity to again settle differences in a set period of time. And so Jefferson sets the expectation that all presidents, therefore, going forward, will continue to abide by that base rule. And even presidents that we've had trouble with in the past, like Nixon, have abided by that rule, even when they had maybe reason to be uncomfortable with it. And so I think that that contribution, that that cornerstone.

Of the American system is so essential through the whole course of American history, this paragraph has defined the way we do things. The gravity of this can best be seen by a historian like yourself, who knows what's at stake. How many times in American history there have been heavily contested elections when there's an enormous amount of political and social tension in the country? And yet this transfer of power has characterized our system. And you would think that nobody, under any circumstances, would ever mess with that.

The constitution and the electoral system is bigger than any one person, matters more than any one person, matters more than any political party. Because it is supposed to be for a duration, that outlives us all, all politicians. Even if they had again, even if they had reason, sometimes to be uncomfortable, Nixon certainly had reason to be uncomfortable, Samuel Tilden certainly had reasons to be uncomfortable. Al Gore. And they all said no, they said, this is. This is way more important than me and my political ambitions and my presidency and my political party.

All right, so now we come to one of the greatest passages in American political discourse.

And you get to read it, it's very kind of you to let me read it. I hope I can do it. Do Jefferson's words a little bit of justice?

Tumble over your words and have a really a wispy voice and and be too gentlemanly to do it.

Definitely not going to do that, but I will do my best. Let us, then, fellow citizens, unite with one heart and one mind. Let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty and even life itself are but dreary things. And let us reflect that. Having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little. If we countenance a political intolerance. As despotic, as wicked, as capable of, as bitter and bloody persecutions during the throes and convulsions of the ancient world, during the agonizing spasms of infuriated men seeking through blood and slaughter his long lost liberty. It was not wonderful that the agitation of the billows should reach even this distant and peaceful shore. That this should be more felt and feared by some and less by others, and should divide opinions as to measures of safety. But every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by different names brethren of the same principle.

One of the three or four best things Jefferson ever wrote. I think the line that often doesn't get credit.

But deserves it is, every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. That matters so much. Because what he's saying is that we can disagree and we're not enemies, we can disagree, and we're all still Americans. That's so important and so essential to a nation that is going to have differences of opinion, is going to have different perspectives. But should remain under the American auspice. And that should be the most important identifying.

Part of our identity. Do you think he meant it?

That's a good question, um?

I love your broad smile on that one. I. I don't want us to be cynical. I think this is magnificent. But. But there's at least some question about whether he really thought we're all federalists, we're all Republicans.

Yeah, I don't want to be cynical because it is such a glorious paragraph. But if you read the things that he was writing in private in 1798 and 1799, it's hard to then think that he actually really meant it because he was so angry and he hated so much what the Federalists were doing, or at least some of the Federalists. And he did draw with a broad brush, so I don't know that he meant it.

I think he means it in the in the, in the usual Jeffersonian sense. That when he envisions the ideal world, this is how it looks, and the world he happens to live in is not quite the ideal world. But we won't get there unless we articulate that vision of harmony and so on. But here's the sentence that really works best for me in that, let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty and even life itself are but dreary things. That's Jefferson, that's not Washington, that's not Adams.

I think that if you can't live in a place where there is there's conflict. There's sometimes reason for conflict and there are good things that can come out of it. And I think that his desire to promote harmony, above all, was for him a vice.

I think that he didn't have the right stuff to be a power politician, you know? He's like L.B.J. duking it out with his friends and enemies in the Senate. There's a little Barack Obama in this, that kind of that unwillingness to engage in the in the really ugly, Hugger Mugger conflict driven world of hard politics. That's where it is, that's where where republics work things out. Because we're not killing each other with AR-15s, we're duking it out in debate.

No, I think that that's right, and I think that it worked for him when he had people who could then fight on his behalf. And get this. Get stuff done, because stuff does get done in that messy, brawling, muddy sort of way. Legislative process, if you're going to have a legislative process, is going to require compromise and require that sort of dealing. That he was uncomfortable with. So as long as there were other people that could do it for him, it was fine-ish it just when it came, especially to like his own personal affairs. There was no one else to do that. And so I think that that's where the always leaving the room is his problem.

He also makes a reference to the French revolution, so the ancient world of spasms, of infuriated man. What he's basically saying, I think Lindsey, is that, look, we get it. The French revolution washed over into America and really screwed things up and made for some awful, awful years. Thank goodness, that wave has passed.

Yeah, and I think he was in alluding to this, he's trying to distinguish. There was a. There was a real concern among a lot of Americans, especially the federalists, that there was this radical force that had come over from France and from Haiti. That was going to bring republic, that was going to bring revolution and anarchy in the same way that they had seen, and therefore bring extraordinary violence and destruction. And at times, there appeared to be a relationship, or at least some sort of working nub, between the Republican Party and those forces. And so Jefferson is trying to draw a distinction between his version of the Republican Party and what he is trying to do. And and separate it from that violence and that anarchy that was so feared.

I think it's almost an apology, and he's basically saying, the French Revolution just created a tsunami of disruption in the world, including here. We were all drawn into it. It's over now. Uh, thank goodness. I think he realizes, as you say, that his party cozied up to the French revolution in ways that that increased the disruption.

It's way stronger than you have thought. And I think he was also he was relying on two additional principles. So one of the things that holds together a nation is its shared history, it's shared past. It's reluctance to depart from something that they have had for a long time.

And of course, he's also saying, the fact that I was elected president proves that this works, right. I mean, truly, because he's saying, look, we've been through this really, uh, wild last decade of craziness and everyone's about eight of the throats. And there were militias forming during the election crisis of 1801, and everyone, a lot of us, thought this thing might collapse. But the fact that this country could then make me its president a mild philosophical farmer proves that we can survive these storms.

And more specifically, the fact that he was the person that had was intended as the Republican presidential candidate and then actually came into office. Proved that. If you give the democratic process a chance, the intended outcome would succeed.

So read the next passage, which is another one of the greatest hits of the of the first inaugural address.

I believe this, on the contrary, the strongest government on Earth, I believe it. The only one where every man at the call of the law would fly to the standard of the law and would meet invasions of the public order as his own personal concern. Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to govern him?

Fabulous. Some people think that humans are not up to it, so what? You're gonna choose some guardians to do it on your? And, of course, behind this little sentence, do you want Hamilton to run the thing you know you want, you want a power politician?

It is both a statement of extreme pessimism about humanity if you put power in the hands of one person, but also a statement of extreme optimism of humanity. If you put it collectively, which I think is is interesting because it comes at it from such different angles.

I think that the phrasing here is as important as the sentiment. Jefferson is a prose style genius. And sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government himself. Can he then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to govern him? Fabulous, just so well written, you know? Madison is the one who said in the federalist of men were angels, no government would be necessary.

A lot of times, great writing borrows on the ideas of others, or we stand on the shoulders of the great, the great rhetoricians or prose stylists that have come before us. And he certainly borrows from Madison's ideas, just as Madison borrowed from him. Madison was no Jefferson, let's put it that way.

So I'll read this next one. It's a little bit long. But at some point, in an inaugural address, you have to sort of say what you're going to do, or what. You know, what, what your plan is. Let us then, with courage and confidence, pursue our own federal and Republican principles, our attachment to union and representative government. And now this, another piece of the Jefferson music, kindly separated by nature into wide ocean from the exterminating havoc of one quarter of the globe. Too high-minded to endure the degradations of the others. Possessing a chosen country with room enough for our descendants, to the thousands and the thousands generation, entertaining a due sense of our equal right.

With all these blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy and a prosperous people? Still, one thing more, fellow citizens, a wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another. Shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement. And shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities.

It's so magnificent because, you know, it's a libertarian manifesto. Just all the governments, government's just a little umpire, it's just a mild-mannered little umpire. We don't take any anyone's tax money if we, unless we absolutely have to.

This is another point that comes up again and again in in almost all presidential addresses is. Although we as a nation have pretty strict rules about the separation of church and state, we also have certain expectations of the faith and the religious lives of our leaders. And those, of course, have changed and evolved over time. But Jefferson was keenly aware that Americans were wary of his religious life. And it had been a feature in the election, it continues to be a feature in our elections. And so the first three presidents all include some mention, especially at the end. They usually include some call to a higher power, and and Jefferson is the same. He often uses these calls to one. What one might think of as some sort of higher protector. That gives a lot of space for people to interpret. However, they are most comfortable doing so.

I want to, I want to co-read this paragraph with you. He's now going to lay out his program. This is what I stand for equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political peace.

Commerce and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances, with none. The support of the state governments in all their rights, as the most competent administrations for our domestic concerns.

And the surest bulwarks against anti-Republican tendencies the preservation of the general government in its whole constitutional vigor. As the sheet anchor, another ship metaphor is the sheet anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad.

A jealous care of the right of election by the people. A mild and safe corrective of abuses which are lopped by the sword of revolution where peaceful remedies are unprovided.

Absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority. The vital principle of republics from which is no appeal but to force, from which is no appeal but to force the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism.

A well-disciplined militia, our best reliance in peace and for the first moments of war. Till regulars may relieve them the supremacy of the civil over the military authority economy in the public expense that labor may be lightly.

Burdened the honest payment of our debts and the sacred preservation of the public faith. Encouragement of agriculture and of commerce as its handmade. The diffusion of information and arraignment of all abuses at the bar of the public reasons.

Freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and freedom of person under protection of the habeas corpus and trial by juries.

Impartially selected. And then, he concludes, These principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation. So, Lindsey, an amazing litany there. But what he says that really struck me in reading it this week to prepare for our conversation was a jealous care of the right of election by the people. His view is we have got to settle our disputes in this republic at the ballot box, that we have to protect that.

Absolutely, and what I like about this section is that, on one hand, it is very finely tuned to the battles of the 1790s. So so many of these phrases are explicit rejections of federalist principles or policies or legislation, and so many are explicit principles that the Republicans ran on. And yet, a lot of them are also timeless. So paying off our debts is something that is going to be in the news a lot in the next couple of months. Freedom of the press is something that's essential.

These are the ideals of a free society. He states them with such confidence here and such clarity that he's basically saying, who, who can disagree with this set of principles.

Yeah, he phrases it in such a way that makes it really hard to disagree with. Um, really, really, really difficult to say that he's wrong. It's amazing.

And he says, entangling alliances with none, a phrase often attributed to your man. Washington.

This is true now. The principle I do think applies, and was a principle that was shared by, I think, a lot of the founding generation. Certain, not all, but certainly a lot of them. You know, Washington, Adams and Jefferson all agreed that neutrality was essential, but the phrase was Jefferson's.

Extraordinary piece of work. So then let's go to the end here and you read it.

Please, I repair them, I repair then. Fellow citizens to the post you have assigned to me, with experience enough in subordinate offices to have seen the difficulties of this. The greatest of all, I have learned to expect that. It will rarely fall to the lot of imperfect men to retire from the station with the reputation and the favor which bring him into it without pretensions. To that high confidence, you were posed in our first and greatest. Revolutionary character, whose preeminent services had entitled him to the first place in his country's love and destined for him the fairest page in the volume.

Moment of praise for the Father of the country, George Washington. But what I love are two other passages here. First of all, I repair them to the post you have assigned to me. Oh, I thought you ran for the presidency and attacked your political enemies and undercut John Adams. Yeah, he worked darn hard for that post.

This was not something that was a surprise in any way to him. What you want me to be president?

I, I'd rather be farming. So a wonderful thing to say for Jefferson. But then he said, something that you, you surely must agree is that is is the absolute truth. I've learned to expect that. It will rarely fall to the lot of imperfect man to retire from this station with the reputation and the favor which bring him into it. That characterizes most presidencies, it's true.

And it also parallels Washington expressed these same concerns as he was coming into office, both privately and publicly. Most presidents have this experience, there are a few presidents that leave office with the same sort of approval as they have coming into it. And now maybe they might gain it later, as, like, you know, history sort of reconsiders their interpretation of them. But most presidents go out, uh, more unpopular than they do come in.

Absolutely, it's a very wise thing that Jefferson understood his third apology, his third self-depreciative statement in the course of this inaugural address. But also, you know, when you look at, like, the photographs today of presidents before and after their presidency, they've aged 35 years. I remember seeing Barack Obama photograph when he left, and he's gray and grizzled, and he's got some wear on the tires. And you and I probably have no way to understand. With the pressure of being the president of the United States, no, it's impossible.

I mean, and I think it was maybe actually Obama who said this. That there are no easy decisions that get to the president's desk, because the easy decisions are taken care of long before they reach the Oval Office. And so if you're doing the presidency right? Or even if you are doing it to the best of your ability and with a good faith effort, you are working incredible hours. You are never really off because even when you're on vacation, you have to be aware of certain things.

Every presidential act immediately has a barrage of pushback and vilification and cynicism and undermining and deliberate misrepresentation. No matter what, you wonder why any human being would be willing to do this? Uh, we're almost out of time. I just want to read one more. I shall often go wrong through defective judgment, when right, I shall often be thought wrong by those whose positions will not command a view of the whole ground.

Even for historians who often read these things, we often don't say them aloud. And I do think that there is interesting understanding and comprehension and emphasis that we gain when we actually speak the words, especially if something was intended to be spoken.

I think it's important to do. I agree with you, and and I also think that you need to read it in its entirety. Because you know Jefferson, we know this much, he worked on this. This was not a throwaway piece.

To calm those waters, that's right, and I think, you know, we. We often look back on the concerns that people had with the benefit of hindsight, and we think that they were foolish. But people did have concerns that that Jefferson would destroy the financial system, which would destroy the economy. That had just really started to kind of get its foothold again in the international world. And those contributions in the national credit and the economy and the banking system, they were really important.

Generous you were to the third President of the United States. Today. We're out of time. We'll be back with Lindsey Czerwinski in a few weeks. Thank you all for listening.

The Thomas Jefferson Hour is brought to you each week by Dakota Sky Education. The program is distributed nationally by Prairie Public. President Thomas Jefferson lived from 1743 to 1826, and this program presents his views. President Jefferson is portrayed by the award-winning humanities scholar and author Clay S. Jenkinson. This program is also available online at jeffersonhour..com and on Apple Podcasts.