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Thomas Jefferson has always been an interesting subject to me. When speaking to a group of Nobel Prize winners in 1962, John F. Kennedy said "I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone." The Library of Congress purchased his entire collection of books to restore its own collection following the War of 1812.
He was a planter, lawyer, architect, philosopher, writer, and inventor-- though more often a promoter and improver of recently-invented items and many inventions credited to him have been debunked. He loved pasta and was among the first to popularize macaroni, even owning a macaroni making machine acquired from Italy. He was the one who ultimately signed off on the Louisiana Purchase, established the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and reduced the national debt by one-third while also cutting taxes. He was highly anticlerical and enjoyed studying multiple religions, authoring what is now known as the Jefferson Bible (originally The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth). This took the New Testament and focused on Jesus's words and teachings without the supernatural acts, framing Christ in a way that is more compatible with reason rather than simple blind faith. He is largely responsible for the idea of "Separation of Church and State" that has been cited numerous times by the Supreme Court. He disliked formal etiquette and never seemed to enjoy public speaking. He was the first to deliver the State of the Union address in print rather than as a speech, a tradition carried on until the presidency of Woodrow Wilson (and which briefly returned under Hoover).
He invented the swivel chair and took it with him when serving in Washington's cabinet. Anytime Alexander Hamilton rose to speak, Jefferson would turn the chair and face the wall instead. I aspire to that level of pettiness.
There's that whole Declaration of Independence thing that he wrote too. And while he wasn't a writer of the Constitution, he did believe that it belongs to the living and not the dead: that it is a constantly evolving document that will be and should be changed over time to fit the needs of the country as the people see fit.
He has the complicated legacy of being forceful advocate of liberty while also being a slaveholder, along with the probability that he fathered Sally Hemings' children (though the possibility does exist that it was his younger brother Randolph). I'm not going to try to gloss over this at all: humans are often hypocrites. And Jefferson did on multiple occasions publicly call for the abolition of slavery; an early draft of the Declaration of Independence criticized the British Crown for endorsing the slave trade; and he made known his belief that freed slaves should receive training in certain skills with their freedom: though again, he opted not to lead by example in freeing his own (only ten of 600 were freed in his lifetime) but did allow them to learn to read and write, unlike many slave owners of his day. The Jefferson Foundation, who presently maintains his former home of Monticello, is very open about information on his slave owning history-- and they are rightly very critical of his actions and decisions while also providing context for it via the lens of the prevailing attitudes of his day and providing balance to show he was "Neither God Nor Devil" as a 2016 New York Times editorial called him in its headline.
Ironically, despite his reliance on free slave labor at Monticello and his other properties, and his efforts to reduce the country's debt as President, Jefferson died in rather deep debt himself: $3,000,000 in today's money. Freeing his slaves would have eliminated his hypocrisy but it would have been a financial death sentence for him and his progeny.
Jefferson was one of the few of his day to recognize American Indians as being equal in body and mind to all other humans-- though his view of Native culture to be inferior and thus the need for them to be assimilated can certainly be construed as an early influencer of Social Darwinism and today's foolish culture war propagation by the American far-right.
At the end of the day, Jefferson was among my two favorite presidents (Eisenhower being the other), and so in 2024, I decided I would start a collection of his cards as well.
I am currently the #1 Jefferson Collector on TCDB.
P.S. I'm not even going to get into Lin-Manuel Miranda's inaccurate, unfair, propagandized, and all-around crappy characterization of Jefferson in Hamilton. Unfortunately the show has proven to hold a lot of influence over people not-so-well-versed in history and political thought. Frankly, there are better rebuttals out there than anything I care to get into.
CARDS
Year Set Number Notes
1952 Bowman U.S. Presidents #5
1952 Topps Look-N-See #3
1991 Encyclopedia Britanica Presidential #NNO
2001 Inkworks American Pride #25
2004 Upper Deck History of the United States #TP-3
2004 Upper Deck History of the United States #TR-11
2008 Topps Update First Couples #FC3 w/Martha Jefferson
2009 Topps American Heritage Heroes #11
2012 Panini Americana Heroes & Legends #3
2012 Panini Americana Heroes & Legends Color #3
2016 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions Goudey #49
2017 The Bar Pieces of the Past #3
2017 The Bar Pieces of the Past #97
2017 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions #3
2017 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions #53
2017 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions #103
2017 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions Mini #3
2017 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions Mini #53
2017 UD Goodwin Champions Mini Canvas #3
2017 UD Goodwin Champions Goudey Presidents #GP3
2020 Historic Autographs POTUS The First 36 #3
Quotes
"It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." - 1782 "Notes on the State of Virginia"
"The most successful war seldom pays for its losses." - 1785 letter to Edmund Randolph
"Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost." - 1786 letter to Dr. James Currie
"Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear." - 1787 letter to Peter Carr
"Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty." - 1787 letter to Uriah Forrest
"Delay is preferable to error." - 1792 letter to George Washington
"Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct." - 1799 letter to Tench Coxe
"My only fear is that I may live too long. This would be a subject of dread to me." - 1801 letter to Philip Mazzei
"The wise know their weakness too well to assume infallibility; and he who knows most knows best how little he knows." - 1812 Batture Pamphlet
"In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty." - 1814 letter to Horatio Spafford
"I cannot live without books." - 1815 letter to John Adams
"Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe." - 1816 letter to Charles Yancey
"Bigotry is the disease of ignorance, of morbid minds; enthusiasm of the free and buoyant. education & free discussion are the antidotes of both." - 1816 letter to John Adams
"It is the duty of every good citizen to use all the opportunities, which occur to him, for preserving documents relating to the history of our country." - 1823 letter to Hugh Taylor
"Is it the fourth?" - 1826, alleged final words before his death on July 4, 1826, the semicentennial of his Declaration of Independence
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