US Journal: Preserving An Unblemished Jefferson at Monticello

It is right and proper that Americans should revere their former leaders. After all, in England we do the self-same thing in spades. We visit their stately homes, look at statues and memorabilia, and help the local economy with the consumption of tea and cakes and the purchase of tea-towels.

Rarely, however, do we get a real insight into the nonoured person honoured. A possible British exception is Chartwell, the home of Winston Churchill. Its grounds feature the personal fish pond stocked with koi carp, the art studio where Winston painted, and the famous wall that the man built whilst in his “wilderness years".

One wonders whether Churchill ever visited Monticello, the Virginia home of Thomas Jefferson, and fell under its spell. Like Chartwell, Monticello is a home, not a stately pile of bricks which were hardly occupied.

Monticello’s grounds were a working farm. Jefferson, an architect and designer, created the house and its furnishings, including a 24-hour clock. He was an inventor, devising a water system to provide running water all year for both the house and farm. (He is also said to have created the “polygraph,” a device which made copies of letters, although the likely story is that he bought the device from England.)

Jefferson was an horticulturist, experimenting and developing the best methods to grow produce on his farm. Sadly, for a man who was something of an epicure, he never drank any wine from his own vineyard --- it seems his vintage was undrinkable.

In Britain's Chartwell, no mention is made of Churchill’s bouts of self-doubt, his alcohol consumption starting at breakfast time, and his terrible temper. At least at Monticello, some mention is made of the Jefferson conflict, namely that the man who proclaimed the self-evident truths of equal creation, the right to liberty, and the pursuit of happiness also found no difficulty in upholding the institution of slavery on his farm.

But that Jefferson conflict is left hanging in the air. No attempt is made to explain, let alone justify.

Why do the guardians of our heroes prefer them unblemished with no discernible flaws? Not only did Jefferson own more than 600 slaves in his lifetime, there is also ample evidence to believe he had six children with one of them, Sally Hemmings. In his last Will, Jefferson freed only five slaves out of almost 150. The rest were sold to pay Jefferson’s huge debts. He had lived beyond his means for so long that economics caught up with him.

Surely here is the explanation for the Jefferson conflict. When the economics of real life faces theoretical morality, economics prevails. Without slaves, the Jefferson farm would not have survived.

This explanation never troubles the day at Monticello. Jefferson, rather than the flaws and blemishes of the human, is left sanctified.