[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 6352-6354]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




COMMEMORATION OF THE 265TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIRTH OF THOMAS JEFFERSON

  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, on April 13, 2008, America celebrated the 
265th anniversary of the birth of Thomas Jefferson, who first served as 
Vice President and then subsequently was elected as the Nation's third 
President in 1801. He deemed his proudest achievement to be the 
``Father of the University of Virginia.''
  As part of the national celebration, President and Mrs. Bush invited 
distinguished scholars and others to pay tribute to the extraordinary 
achievements of this great American. I was privileged to attend along 
with John Casteen, current president of the University of Virginia, and 
many other invited guests from the Commonwealth of Virginia.
  Given the importance of this occasion and the respectful tributes 
delivered by the President, the First Lady, and two eminent scholars, I 
wish to record this event for the American people.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in today's 
Record a detailed speech. I was privileged to go to the White House on 
Monday, when the President celebrated, with many others, the 265th 
anniversary of Thomas Jefferson. Those remarks are so prized, 
particularly in my State, but all across America, that I wish to put 
the content of those speeches in today's Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                                                  The White House,


                                Office of the Press Secretary,

                                                   April 14, 2008.

Remarks by the President and First Lady in Honor of Thomas Jefferson's 
                             265th Birthday

       THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all. Thanks for coming. Please be 
     seated. Welcome to the White House. Laura and I are so 
     honored you are here. I welcome members of my Cabinet, 
     members of the United States Senate, folks who work in the 
     White House, the Governor of Virginia and Anne Holton. Thank 
     you all for coming. We're really happy you're here.
       We're here tonight to commemorate the 265th birthday of 
     Thomas Jefferson, here in a room where he once walked and in 
     a home where he once lived. In this house, President 
     Jefferson spread the word that liberty was the right of every 
     individual. In this house,

[[Page 6353]]

     Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark off on the mission that helped 
     make America a continental nation. And in this house, 
     Jefferson was known to receive guests in his bathrobe and 
     slippers. (Laughter.) Laura said no. (Laughter.) I don't have 
     a bathrobe. (Laughter.)
       With a single sentence, Thomas Jefferson changed the 
     history of the world. After countless centuries when the 
     powerful and the privileged governed as they pleased, 
     Jefferson proclaimed as a self-evident truth that liberty was 
     a right given to all people by an Almighty.
       Here in America, that truth was not fully realized in 
     Jefferson's own lifetime. As he observed the condition of 
     slaves in America, Jefferson said, ``I tremble for my country 
     when I reflect that God is just'' and ``that his justice 
     cannot sleep forever.'' Less than 40 years after his death, 
     justice was awakened in America and a new era of freedom 
     dawned.
       Today, on the banks of the Tidal Basin, a statue of Thomas 
     Jefferson stands in a rotunda that is a memorial to both the 
     man and the ideas that built this nation. There, on any day 
     of the week, you will find men and women of all creeds, 
     colors, races and religions. You will find scholars, 
     schoolchildren and visitors from every part of our country. 
     And you will find each of them looking upward in quiet 
     reflection on the liturgy of freedom--the words of Thomas 
     Jefferson inscribed on the memorial's walls.
       The power of Jefferson's words do not stop at water's edge. 
     They beckon the friends of liberty on even the most distant 
     shores. They're a source of inspiration for people in young 
     democracies like Afghanistan and Lebanon and Iraq. And they 
     are a source of hope for people in nations like Belarus and 
     Burma, Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, Syria, North Korea and 
     Zimbabwe, where the struggle for freedom continues.
       Thomas Jefferson left us on July 4, 1826--fifty years to 
     the day after our Declaration of Independence was adopted. In 
     one of the great harmonies of history, his friend and rival 
     John Adams died on the very same day. Adams' last words were, 
     ``Thomas Jefferson survives.'' And he still does today. And 
     he will live on forever, because the desire to live in 
     freedom is the eternal hope of mankind.
       And now it's my pleasure to welcome Wilfred McClay to the 
     stage. (Applause.)

                           *   *   *   *   *

       MRS. BUSH: Thank you very much, Mr. McClay and Mr. Wilson. 
     Thank you so--for your reflections on Thomas Jefferson's life 
     and his contributions to our nation, and thanks to each of 
     you for joining us today so we can learn more about the 
     legacy of one of America's most influential founding fathers.
       Thomas Jefferson believed that education is the cornerstone 
     of a free society, so it's therefore little surprise that he 
     viewed the founding of the University of Virginia as one of 
     his top achievements, as we know from both of your talks. He 
     called the building of this school the last service he could 
     render his country, saying, ``Could I see it open? I would 
     not ask an hour more of life.''
       But in fact Thomas Jefferson lived a little over a year 
     after the University of Virginia opened its doors. During 
     this time he was involved in the University activities, and 
     he invited students, including a young Edgar Allan Poe, to 
     dine with him each Sunday at nearby Monticello.
       Today, Jefferson still shapes the lives of the students at 
     the school he founded. The architecture of his academical 
     village encourages free study in a collaborative environment, 
     and UVA's philosophy of student self-governance epitomizes 
     our third President's democratic ideals.
       The 18 men I now introduce are heirs to this tradition. The 
     Virginia Gentlemen are UVA's oldest a cappella vocal 
     ensemble. They perform for distinguished audiences across the 
     country and around the world. Tonight is their first 
     performance at the White House, and we're happy to have them.
       Here to perform a few musical selections, including the 
     University of Virginia's school song, please welcome the 
     Virginia Gentlemen. (Applause.)
                                  ____

                                               Richard Guy Wilson,


                Commonwealth Professor, Architectural History,

                                           University of Virginia.
       Mr. President, Mrs. Bush, and Ladies and Gentlemen: Thank 
     you--an honor to speak on Thomas Jefferson and his 
     architectural accomplishments. Thomas Jefferson knew this 
     house very well,--he was the first full time occupant--John 
     Adams resided here for barely 4 months. The house remained 
     unfinished, many rooms--such as this one, were large bare 
     brick caverns, there was no grand staircase, and the floors 
     were rough. Visitors recalled that Jefferson kept several 
     tables of tools . . . one apparently in this room . . . 
     described as ``a long table'' that contained hammers, 
     chisels, and other implements, and the visitors remember him 
     taking the tools to fix locks, pound in nails in window 
     moldings as well as work in the garden.
       Jefferson had offered his own designs for the Executive 
     Mansion or President's house as it was known back in 1791-92, 
     along with plans for the U.S. Capitol; this he projected as a 
     great domed structure. But Washington, apparently, rejected 
     his schemes and competitions were held. Jefferson served as 
     secretary of state in the 1st Washington administration and 
     that office--Secretary of State--was a bit different than 
     today, since it included internal administration as well as 
     foreign affairs. Jefferson also offered his scheme for laying 
     out Washington, D.C., (remember this is a ``new city'' and 
     created in the 1790s) and Jefferson's advice . . . not to 
     mention his loan of maps . . . is fundamental to the plan 
     along with the great mall developed by Major Pierre Charles 
     L'Enfant.
       To return here to this building--the White House--
     (officially so named in 1901), Jefferson while president 
     designed a number of additions including wings, the gardens, 
     and then he commissioned his close friend Benjamin Henry 
     Latrobe--who he also appointed in 1803 as the Architect of 
     the Capitol--to design both the north and south porticos; 
     Latrobe's porticos are the most distinguishing external 
     element of the building. It took many years to get the 
     porticos built . . . things were not that different then as 
     now on getting government projects underway, and finished.
       I have outlined Thomas Jefferson's involvement in this 
     building to make a point,--the buildings he lived in, their 
     style, appearance, the furnishings--rugs, drapes, chairs--and 
     gardens were critical to him. As he once said: ``Architecture 
     is my delight, and putting up and pulling down one of my 
     favorite amusements.'' Jefferson was obsessed, wherever he 
     lived, whether in Charlottesville, Williamsburg, or Poplar 
     Forest, all in Virginia, or in Philadelphia during the 1770s, 
     New York, 1790s, or Paris, 1784-89. When he was the American 
     Ambassador to the Court of Louis XVI, he remodeled his 
     quarters even though he didn't own them. Monticello was in a 
     constant state of construction, and if any of you have lived 
     through a house remodeling, you know how conducive that is to 
     family harmony. Right? Jefferson lived in a construction zone 
     his entire life.
       What were Jefferson's architectural achievements? He wrote 
     to his close friend James Madison (later an occupant of this 
     building):
       ``But how is a taste in the beautiful art to be formed in 
     our countrymen, unless we avail ourselves of every occasion 
     when public buildings are to be erected, of presenting to 
     them models for their study and imitation? . . . . You see I 
     am an enthusiast on the subject of the arts. But it is an 
     enthusiasm of which I am not ashamed, as its object is to 
     improve the taste of my countrymen, to increase their 
     reputation, to reconcile them to the rest of the world, and 
     procure them its praise.'' TJ to James Madison, September 20, 
     1785.
       This letter of 1785 was on the occasion of his design of 
     the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond. I would argue the 
     Virginia Capitol--or state house--is his most important 
     building, a large Roman temple that stands on Shockoe Hill in 
     Richmond--originally overlooking the James River. The 
     Virginia Capitol is one of the first major public building 
     constructed after the Revolution, and its classical ancestry 
     helped to determine the look of American governmental 
     architecture for the next several centuries. Instead of red 
     brick and skimpy classical details Jefferson gave us a 
     governmental image.
       Thomas Jefferson is sometimes labeled a ``gentleman'' or an 
     ``amateur'' architect but this is a misnomer. Yes, he was 
     self-trained, but there were no architectural schools (they 
     were not invented in this country until the 1860s), rather he 
     learned from books and he had the largest architectural 
     library in the young republic, and he did the drawings, he 
     figured the specifications . . . How many bricks? How much 
     timber? How much glass to order, and he superintended the 
     construction. Jefferson designed houses, his own and those 
     for friends, utilitarian buildings such as shops, farm 
     structures, court houses, a jail (we think) and he frequently 
     offered his wisdom to his colleagues (he was ``Mr. Suggestion 
     Box''). But . . . and this makes him an amateur . . . he was 
     never paid, he did it all gratis.
       Although the Virginia State Capitol is his most important 
     building--because of its legacy. . .his greatest I would 
     argue--is the ``academical village,'' of the University of 
     Virginia. It is totally his creation--yes . . . he did ask 
     for suggestions and advice--as any wise person does--but it 
     was or is his concept of what is the appropriate setting for 
     education. Jefferson felt that one learned as much from your 
     environment as from the professor gabbing away in a class 
     room. The University is great lawn enclosed on 3 sides and 
     open at the end. Pavilions for the professors and dormitory 
     rooms for the students on the two long sides are tied 
     together by colonnades of classical columns of various orders 
     and sizes. Dominating the composition at one end is the 
     Rotunda, a great domed building that housed the library. 
     Based upon the Pantheon in Rome, considered one of the great 
     and most perfect monuments of antiquity, Jefferson has taken 
     an ancient symbol, the dome of the cosmos to the Romans, the 
     dome of the heavens to Christianity, unity for our Capitol, 
     and transformed it once again, it becomes the dome of 
     enlightenment, of reason, it is the library, the mind of the 
     university. In his hands the library became the central 
     element--symbol of the modern university.

[[Page 6354]]

       Jefferson saw his accomplishments in a very particular way, 
     and he both designed his obelisk shaped tombstone at 
     Monticello and ordered it would contain a very particular 
     statement . . . (He was ``Mr. Control'' to the end). It 
     contains nothing, nothing . . . about public offices he had 
     occupied. What it does say is: ``Here was buried Thomas 
     Jefferson Author of the Declaration of American Independence 
     of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom and Father 
     of the University of Virginia.'' Two writings which are 
     fundamental to our American freedoms and the institution by 
     which they would be carried out.
                                  ____


                 Jefferson Birthday Celebration Remarks

                 (By Wilfred M. McClay, Apr. 14, 2008)

       Thank you, Mr. President, for your warm welcome, and for 
     the great honor of taking part in this celebration of Thomas 
     Jefferson's life.
       It is always hard to know where to begin with Thomas 
     Jefferson. His early biographer James Parton described 
     Jefferson in 1775--one year before he wrote the Declaration 
     of Independence--as ``a gentleman of thirty-two, who could 
     calculate an eclipse, survey an estate, tie an artery, plan 
     an edifice, try a cause, break a horse, dance a minuet, and 
     play the violin.'' And at that point in his life, he was just 
     getting warmed up.
       So how can we take his measure? Should we start by 
     recounting his political accomplishments over four decades of 
     public service, ranging from his entry into the Virginia 
     House of Burgesses in 1769 to his retirement from public life 
     in 1809, after two terms as the third President of the United 
     States?
       Or do we stress instead his influence in the world of 
     ideas, through his powerful writings in support of American 
     independence--the greatest of these being, of course, the 
     Declaration of Independence itself, with its stirring 
     invocation of the God-given rights of every individual human 
     being--words that changed the course of human history, and 
     continue to do so today?
       Or Jefferson's keen and unflagging interest in natural 
     science, as evidenced by his service as president of the 
     American Philosophical Society from 1797 to 1815, years that 
     overlap his entire tenure as President of the United States?
       Or his love of architecture, as embodied in the graceful 
     neoclassical home Monticello that he designed and built for 
     himself near his Virginia birthplace on what was then the 
     western edge of settlement?
       Not to mention his overwhelming passion for gadgetry, which 
     invariably impresses visitors to Monticello, who nearly 
     always remember the revolving bookstand, the dumbwaiter, the 
     copying machine, the automatic double doors, the Great Clock, 
     the triple-sash window, and countless other gizmos that the 
     ever-inventive Jefferson himself either designed or adapted.
       And what about his founding of the University of Virginia 
     in nearby Charlottesville, whose serenely beautiful central 
     grounds he also designed? Or his great contributions to the 
     cause of religious and intellectual liberty, which for him 
     were essential to the dignity of the individual person, and 
     central to the work of a great university?
       You all probably know that Jefferson, that inveterate 
     designer, even designed his own tombstone, and specified the 
     only things it was to say about his life: that he wrote the 
     Declaration and Virginia's Statute of Religious Freedom, and 
     that he was Father of the University of Virginia. Of how many 
     other men can it be said that their having served two full 
     terms as President of the United States--which I think we all 
     agree is no shabby achievement!--was in the second or third 
     tier of their accomplishments?
       Some will object that all this praise fails to do justice 
     to the flaws in our subject. And that is true enough. Should 
     we then begin, as is overwhelmingly the fashion today, by 
     emphasizing Jefferson's complexity, his contradictions, his 
     shortcomings? That might not seem very charitable, or in 
     keeping with the spirit of the occasion. But it would have 
     the Jeffersonian virtue of honesty. And there are negative 
     aspects of Jefferson's life and career that simply cannot be 
     denied.
       No one can deny that although Jefferson opposed slavery in 
     theory, he consistently failed to oppose it in practice, 
     including notably in the conduct of his own life at 
     Monticello.
       No one can deny that Jefferson's racial views, particularly 
     as expressed in his book Notes on the State of Virginia, are 
     appalling by today's standards.
       No one can deny that Jefferson often practiced a very harsh 
     brand of politics. His famously conciliatory words ``We are 
     all Republicans, we are all Federalists'' in his First 
     Inaugural Address were quickly belied by his ferocious 
     partisanship, which was relentlessly aimed at stigmatizing 
     the Federalist party and driving it out of existence.
       Nor can one deny that his greatest act as President, the 
     Louisiana Purchase, and his worst, the Embargo Act, both 
     represented a complete repudiation of his most basic 
     principles about the dangers of big government and strong 
     executive authority.
       These are not small flaws, nor are they the only ones. We 
     are not wrong to insist upon their being remembered, even on 
     this day. Still, the compulsion to criticize Jefferson has 
     gone too far. Jefferson is, I believe, one of the principal 
     victims of our era's small-minded rage against the very idea 
     that imperfect men can still be heroes--and that we badly 
     need such heroes. We have been living through an era that 
     feels compelled to cut the storied past down to the size of 
     the tabloid present. Perhaps the time has come for that to 
     change.
       For when all is said and done, Thomas Jefferson deserves to 
     be remembered and revered as a great intellect and great 
     patriot, whose worldwide influence, from Beijing to Lhasa to 
     Kiev to Prague, has been incalculable, and whose belief in 
     the dignity and unrealized potential to be found in the minds 
     and hearts of ordinary people is at the core of what is 
     greatest in the American democratic experiment. It is in this 
     sense that James Parton was absolutely correct in making the 
     following proclamation: ``If Jefferson is wrong, America is 
     wrong. If America is right, Jefferson was right.''
       Of course, we want to know more than Jefferson's words; we 
     want to feel that we know the man himself. But that is 
     exceptionally hard with Jefferson. He eludes our grasp. He 
     may well have been the shyest man ever to occupy the office 
     of President, awkward and taciturn except in small and 
     convivial settings, such as small dinner parties, where he 
     could feel at his ease, and shed some of his reticence.
       He loathed public speaking, giving only two major speeches 
     while President, and none on the campaign trail. He often 
     felt that the work of politics ran against his nature, and 
     complained that the Presidency was an office of ``splendid 
     misery,'' which ``brings nothing but increasing drudgery & 
     daily loss of friends.''
       Add to that the fact that he had more than a little bit of 
     the recluse in him. Twice he withdrew entirely from public 
     life, first in the 1780s, after a disappointing term as 
     governor of Virginia, then the second time at the conclusion 
     of his presidency, when he left Washington disgusted and 
     exhausted, anxious to be rid of the place. As he wrote a 
     friend, ``Never did a prisoner, released from his chains, 
     feel such relief as I shall on shaking off the shackles of 
     power.'' Never was he happier than when ensconced in his 
     Monticello retreat, his ``portico facing the wilderness'' 
     that he loved and found renewal in.
       At bottom, I think Jefferson is best understood as a man of 
     letters. Literally. Jefferson wrote almost 20,000 letters in 
     his lifetime, and it is in these letters that he seems to 
     have felt freest and most fully himself. Although he 
     complained to John Adams that he suffered ``under the 
     persecution of letters,'' the opposite seems to have been the 
     case. This was a man who lived much of his life inside his 
     own head, and it is in these letters that he comes most fully 
     alive for us. He seems to have needed the buffer of letters 
     interposed between himself and the world; but with that 
     buffer in place, the otherwise awkward and taciturn Jefferson 
     became more open, wonderfully expressive and responsive to 
     his correspondents.
       It was in his letters to Maria Cosway that we glimpse his 
     passionate nature, and the struggles between head and heart 
     that preoccupied much of his inner life. It is in his letters 
     to his nephew Peter Carr that we see his thoughts as a 
     preceptor and wise guide to the world's ways. And it was in 
     his magnificent correspondence with his old rival John Adams, 
     a dialogue that spanned fifty years until their deaths in 
     1826, that Jefferson most fully explored the deeper meaning 
     of the American experiment. He was constantly using his 
     correspondence to organize and sharpen his thinking, and it 
     is there that we see him most fully and vividly.
       In any event, it is for his ideas, above all else, that we 
     honor Jefferson; and for the cause of human freedom and human 
     dignity that he so eloquently championed. His failings may 
     weigh against the man, but not against the cause for which he 
     labored so mightily. That should be a lesson to us today. 
     Like Jefferson, we are carriers of meanings far larger than 
     we know, meanings whose full realization cannot be achieved 
     in our lifetime, or even be fully understood by us, but which 
     we are nevertheless charged to carry forward as faithfully as 
     we can.
       But unlike Jefferson, we have the benefit of being able to 
     stand on his shoulders, with his words to direct and inspire 
     us. ``We knew'' about Jefferson's faults, said the civil 
     rights leader, Representative John Lewis. ``But we didn't put 
     the emphasis there. We put the emphasis on what he wrote in 
     the Declaration. . . . His words were so powerful. His words 
     became the blueprint, the guideline for us to follow. From 
     those words you have the fountain.''
       It is the same fountain that today, 265 years after 
     Jefferson's birth, still nourishes our lives, and shows no 
     sign of running dry. Today is a good day to drink from it 
     anew.

                          ____________________