MaxPower
07-04-2020, 09:51 PM
Having seen Thomas Jefferson's legacy come under particularly heavy recent attack, and in honor of Independence Day, here is my freshly arranged personal piano/vocal rendition of a first-generation American song by poet and ornithologist Alexander Wilson, who was a correspondent of Thomas Jefferson:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aAL6-Id27zwXFUuUQcTo2z1y1bRMbepS/view?usp=sharing
Lyrics (incidentally, I wrote one of these verses; feel free to guess at which one, as I am curious whether I convincingly imitated Wilson's style):
O'er vast Columbia's varied clime
Her cities, forests, hills, and dales
In rolling majesty sublime
Let sacred liberty prevail
His country's glory, hope, and stay
In virtue and in talents tried
Now rises to assume the sway
O'er freedom's temple to preside
So rejoice, Columbia's sons, rejoice
To tyrants never bend the knee
But join with heart and soul and voice
For Jefferson and liberty
Here strangers from a thousand shores
By tyranny compelled to roam
Will find amidst abundant stores
A nobler and a happier home
Man's conscience on Columbia's shores
In speech and worship shall be free
And halted, shipments filled with scores
Of captives bound for slavery
So rejoice, Columbia's sons, rejoice
To tyrants never bend the knee
But join with heart and soul and voice
For Jefferson and liberty
Let foes to freedom dread the name
For should they touch the sacred tree
Twice-fifty-thousand swords would flame
For Jefferson and liberty
So rejoice, Columbia's sons, rejoice
To tyrants never bend the knee
But join with heart and soul and voice
For Jefferson and liberty
Along with it, here is something I wrote to a school board in my area recently, in response to an effort to change the name of a local "Jefferson Elementary" because Jefferson owned slaves:
While Jefferson was a slaveholder by inheritance from his father and father-in-law, he strongly believed that slavery should ultimately be abolished, and accomplished more than nearly any other person in American history to put it on the path to extinction. Not only did his draft of the Declaration of Independence contain a passage denouncing the slave trade as "cruel war against human nature" (this was deleted by the assembly, though Jefferson's phrase "all men are created equal" remained and, among other things, became a rallying cry for abolitionists), but he introduced proposals in the Virginia legislature to loosen restrictions on manumission and permit slaveholders to free slaves (they were prohibited from doing so without a special grant from the state legislature naming a specific slave to be freed up until the late 18th century), to prevent importation of slaves into Virginia, and to gradually abolish slavery in the state by stipulating that all persons born to slaves after the year 1800 would go free (with their children thereafter being born free), though this last initiative was never passed. As president, he advocated for and signed the ban on United States participation in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, which (by acting to close off the influx of new slaves from abroad) was seen as a key milestone en route to ultimately ending slavery domestically.
Now, we should consider his other prodigious contributions in advancing key principles of a free society (writing one of the greatest-ever clarion calls for liberty in the Declaration of Independence; drafting and passing the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, which was a historic landmark document ensuring the freedom of conscience against state compulsion, predating and influencing the eventual adoption of the First Amendment in the national Constitution; etc.), advancing and promoting science (inventor of the first known swiveling chair; pioneer of American botany, paleontology, etc.-- and he never tried to patent or profit off his scientific innovations, but promulgated them freely for the public benefit), fostering education (founder of the University of Virginia; provided his personal library, which amounted to one of the largest, intellectually richest, and most varied book collections in North America, to form the backbone of the Library of Congress; advocated education for poor people; etc.), and many other things (being one of the most widely accomplished individuals ever, with most of his public work done philanthropically at little to no financial gain). I do not object to removing monuments or renaming institutions dedicated to Confederate generals whose primary contribution to history came in the form of a war effort that was undertaken largely to preserve and perpetuate slavery, but Jefferson is not remotely such a case, and should not be reduced to his personal shortcomings and skeletons-in-the-closet (failing to bring about the freedom of his own slaves; likely fathering illegitimate children by Sally Hemings after his wife died; etc.). I think it can be recognized in a sober assessment that in spite of his real faults, Jefferson was a remarkable force for good in human history and was the kind of figure for whom schools are validly named.
For reference, here is the text of Jefferson's draft of the Declaration of Independence, containing among other things the anti-slavery passage I described above (it is the last and longest in the list of "he has" grievances):
https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/declara/ruffdrft.html
Here is his 1783 draft for a Virginia constitution, which if adopted would have banned "the continuance of slavery beyond the generation which shall be living on the 31st. day of December 1800; all persons born after that day being hereby declared free":
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-06-02-0255-0004
Here is President Jefferson's 1806 message to Congress, which called for the (soon-thereafter-passed) end of U.S. participation in the slave trade (he advises them to "withdraw the citizens of the United States from all further participation in those violations of human rights which have been so long continued on the unoffending inhabitants of Africa"):
https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/december-2-1806-sixth-annual-message
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aAL6-Id27zwXFUuUQcTo2z1y1bRMbepS/view?usp=sharing
Lyrics (incidentally, I wrote one of these verses; feel free to guess at which one, as I am curious whether I convincingly imitated Wilson's style):
O'er vast Columbia's varied clime
Her cities, forests, hills, and dales
In rolling majesty sublime
Let sacred liberty prevail
His country's glory, hope, and stay
In virtue and in talents tried
Now rises to assume the sway
O'er freedom's temple to preside
So rejoice, Columbia's sons, rejoice
To tyrants never bend the knee
But join with heart and soul and voice
For Jefferson and liberty
Here strangers from a thousand shores
By tyranny compelled to roam
Will find amidst abundant stores
A nobler and a happier home
Man's conscience on Columbia's shores
In speech and worship shall be free
And halted, shipments filled with scores
Of captives bound for slavery
So rejoice, Columbia's sons, rejoice
To tyrants never bend the knee
But join with heart and soul and voice
For Jefferson and liberty
Let foes to freedom dread the name
For should they touch the sacred tree
Twice-fifty-thousand swords would flame
For Jefferson and liberty
So rejoice, Columbia's sons, rejoice
To tyrants never bend the knee
But join with heart and soul and voice
For Jefferson and liberty
Along with it, here is something I wrote to a school board in my area recently, in response to an effort to change the name of a local "Jefferson Elementary" because Jefferson owned slaves:
While Jefferson was a slaveholder by inheritance from his father and father-in-law, he strongly believed that slavery should ultimately be abolished, and accomplished more than nearly any other person in American history to put it on the path to extinction. Not only did his draft of the Declaration of Independence contain a passage denouncing the slave trade as "cruel war against human nature" (this was deleted by the assembly, though Jefferson's phrase "all men are created equal" remained and, among other things, became a rallying cry for abolitionists), but he introduced proposals in the Virginia legislature to loosen restrictions on manumission and permit slaveholders to free slaves (they were prohibited from doing so without a special grant from the state legislature naming a specific slave to be freed up until the late 18th century), to prevent importation of slaves into Virginia, and to gradually abolish slavery in the state by stipulating that all persons born to slaves after the year 1800 would go free (with their children thereafter being born free), though this last initiative was never passed. As president, he advocated for and signed the ban on United States participation in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, which (by acting to close off the influx of new slaves from abroad) was seen as a key milestone en route to ultimately ending slavery domestically.
Now, we should consider his other prodigious contributions in advancing key principles of a free society (writing one of the greatest-ever clarion calls for liberty in the Declaration of Independence; drafting and passing the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, which was a historic landmark document ensuring the freedom of conscience against state compulsion, predating and influencing the eventual adoption of the First Amendment in the national Constitution; etc.), advancing and promoting science (inventor of the first known swiveling chair; pioneer of American botany, paleontology, etc.-- and he never tried to patent or profit off his scientific innovations, but promulgated them freely for the public benefit), fostering education (founder of the University of Virginia; provided his personal library, which amounted to one of the largest, intellectually richest, and most varied book collections in North America, to form the backbone of the Library of Congress; advocated education for poor people; etc.), and many other things (being one of the most widely accomplished individuals ever, with most of his public work done philanthropically at little to no financial gain). I do not object to removing monuments or renaming institutions dedicated to Confederate generals whose primary contribution to history came in the form of a war effort that was undertaken largely to preserve and perpetuate slavery, but Jefferson is not remotely such a case, and should not be reduced to his personal shortcomings and skeletons-in-the-closet (failing to bring about the freedom of his own slaves; likely fathering illegitimate children by Sally Hemings after his wife died; etc.). I think it can be recognized in a sober assessment that in spite of his real faults, Jefferson was a remarkable force for good in human history and was the kind of figure for whom schools are validly named.
For reference, here is the text of Jefferson's draft of the Declaration of Independence, containing among other things the anti-slavery passage I described above (it is the last and longest in the list of "he has" grievances):
https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/declara/ruffdrft.html
Here is his 1783 draft for a Virginia constitution, which if adopted would have banned "the continuance of slavery beyond the generation which shall be living on the 31st. day of December 1800; all persons born after that day being hereby declared free":
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-06-02-0255-0004
Here is President Jefferson's 1806 message to Congress, which called for the (soon-thereafter-passed) end of U.S. participation in the slave trade (he advises them to "withdraw the citizens of the United States from all further participation in those violations of human rights which have been so long continued on the unoffending inhabitants of Africa"):
https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/december-2-1806-sixth-annual-message