    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2008, Book I)]
    [April 14, 2008]
    [Pages 502-503]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks Honoring President Thomas Jefferson's 265th Birthday
    April 14, 2008

        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, 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, 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, quote, ``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 4th, 1826, 50 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's 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.

    Note: The President spoke at 6:05 p.m. in the East Room at the White
    House. In his remarks, he referred to Gov. Timothy M. Kaine of Virginia
    and his wife Anne Holton; and Wilfred M. McClay, SunTrust Bank chair of
    excellence in humanities and professor of history, University of
    Tennessee at Chattanooga. The transcript released by the Office of the
    Press Secretary also included the remarks of the First Lady.

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