Editor's Note: This is a backdrop for The TJ Class of 67 Monticello-Washington DC field trip, July, 2008.

Our 3rd President, Enlightenment Philosopher, European Emissary, Author of the Declaration of Independance, Deist, Surveyor. Influenced the US Constitution's system of Checks and Balances, promoted State' rights, personal property rights and open representative government: by the people and for the people - Sealed America's lasting union as a Constitutional Republic

All the Questions You Thought Of Since Graduating 4 decades ago
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  • Although he wrote the Declaration of Independence almost by himself, what kept Jefferson from writing much of the US Constitution?
  • We revolted first. 232 years later, our republic thrives. After Franklin showed France how we did it, in three years Glorious Revolution became a Reign of Terror. In less than a decade, citizens, weary of absolute democracy, installed Napoleon, who turned into an absolute tyrant. How come wise old Benjamin couldn't see it coming?
  • Jefferson knew that Louis XVI wanted to bypass Spanish holdings and had sent a fleet to find the far Pacific Coast Passage . What stalled their discovery until after we bought Louisiana? Who told TJ that Mexico was about to revolt, eventually giving us all our western territory?.
  • How come Lewis & Clark got all the glory but Zebulon Pike and his mountain have little mention in Monticello?

    - AND the most baffling of all ...

  • How did they let me graduate without knowing any of this?
    Thomas Jefferson
    As much as we desire to control all of one's destiny, we exert very slight influence on the events around ourselves, let alone hope to leave any lasting effect on successive generations. Locke, Hobbes, Newton and others 'enlightened' the western world, elevating the stature of common, ordinary citizens. Jefferson was able to link the Enlightenment's diverse philosophers in a way no other man could (Kennedy and Reagan may have come close). And so we set out - a nation independent of overseas control, ignoring the risks as if orphans in the wilderness. By all accounts we succeeded. America matured and prospered. The French tried and failed miserably; as Adams, Madison and Franklin hammered our constitution, Jefferson made sure we didn't repeat the mistakes of the French.
    Taking cues from our revolution, commoners took on Voltaire's idealism, Ben Franklin's hyperbole, Lafayette's legend, and French mercenary zeal. Robespierre and others led the charge on Versailles, beheaded the ruling elite, stormed the Bastille but - in the end, many were themselves swallowed up - guillotined by the very same crowds they empowered. Franklin didn't see this coming; was he the right guy at the wrong time in the wrong place (had he not returned early, he may not have invented lightning or the US Post office). Much later, those two inventions (electricity and snail mail) were combined to form email. Al Gore, you stole Ben's brainchild. FRANKLIN INVENTED the INTERNET, not you!!

    Where were we? Ah yes, Thomas Jefferson took over as French emissary. Given better vision (Ben needed eyeglasses-on-a-string), he saw historical tidal waves approach that Franklin missed. His boat arrived in time to watch King Louie's secret expedition leave - to find the Pacific Coast of the New World. Nobody knew the fleet would be lost in storms near Botany Bay, New Zealand. Even if they made it to the mouth of the Columbia, by the time they returned, no French nobleman was left to alive to claim the passage for France.

    In the first month of his presidency, Jefferson sent Madison to purchase a Mississippi frontier, a buffer from hostile Spain and an interior water trade route. Before Madison arrived, Napoleon tricked the Spanish into selling both Florida and New Orleans: suddenly the entire Mississippi and its gulf port became accessible real estate. Georgia and the Savannah colony were no longer at risk of Spanish invasion. But France her holdings were in chaos: British soldiers, French colonists, trappers and native Indians traded alliances weekly. Napoleon, blinded by ego, losing Canada to England, quashing rebellion at home and insurrection in the colonies, stunned Madison with an offer to sell ALL of Louisiana, not just the river corridor. Jefferson called Congress back in emergency session to justify an increased purchase for 1803: 8 times the land (at least: no one knew how vast) at a fraction of the 1800 cost-per-acre.

    By 1807, Lewis & Clark opened the Gateway to the West all the way to the pacific. Pike quietly told TJ that Mexico was ready to split from Spain. Jefferson retired the next year, but he advised Madison & Jackson on later acquisitions, eventually giving us California, the southern Rockies, Rio Grande territory, etc.

    Continue with our National Hymn, America the Beautiful written on America's Mountain, Pikes Peak, Colorado. (Click on the links below.)
    Oh Beautiful...   Jefferson's vision   Colonel Pike     Home Page