Founding Fathers ~ #3 Jefferson
The third president of the United States and the third man on my list of Founding Fathers is Thomas Jefferson. Many modern political philosophers have tried to portray Jefferson as atheist and not a believer. I do not agree. The father and author of the Declaration of Independence, in my estimation, could not have written by a man who did not believe in a Divine Creator.
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal. That they are endowed by their Creator - - -
He went on to detail what he called to be God-given, unalienable rights, including Life; Liberty; and the Pursuit of Happiness. My personal religious convictions have taught me that when we are born into this life, we come with two precious gifts: our physical bodies - life itself - and our individual agency - the freedom and liberty to make choices for our own lives. I see this statement in the Declaration as Divinely inspired.
Jefferson was born in Virginia in 1743. He attended William and Mary University and briefly practiced law in his home colony, where he focused on defending the rights of slaves seeking freedom. Like Adams' defense of British soldiers in Boston, Jefferson's defense of black slaves in the south is an indication of his honor and character.
He married Martha Whales Skelton in 1772. Like Washington's wife, Martha, Jefferson's Martha was also a young widow when they married. Together, they had six children, four of whom died young. Jefferson, according to historians, adored his wife and felt that their time together was the happiest season of his life. When she died in 1782 following years of ill health and recent childbirth, Jefferson was devastated.
He promised Martha on her deathbed that he would never remarry (which had been her dying request.) Later in life, he carried on a long-term affair with one of his slaves, Sally Hemmings. It is interesting that Sally was actually Martha's half-sister! Martha's father had an affair with Sally's mother. Even more complex was the fact that Sally's mother was herself half white being the offspring of an affair of Martha's grandfather with Sally's grandmother. Sally bore Jefferson six children in their years together. Jefferson's progeny with Martha fought against his progeny through Sally for generations, refusing to acknowledge them as Jefferson's descendants. With the advent of DNA testing, several years ago the Jefferson descendants organization finally recognized the descendants of Sally Hemming as Jefferson's progeny. I think that Hemmings reminded Jefferson in many ways of his first wife and I believe that he loved her. Had circumstances been different, I believe he would have married Sally.
In additions to being a powerful political figure, Jefferson had a very creative nature. He often played his violin while Martha accompanied him on the piano. He was also an architect who designed Monticello (Italian for "Little Mountain") on his 5,000 acre plantation in Virginia.
One could go on for pages about Jefferson's accomplishments. In addition to being the third president of our nation, he was the second vice-president under John Adams. He was a state legislator and governor of Virginia. He was the U.S. Secretary of State. He served as minister to France, where he built a strong and lasting friendship with the Marquis de Lafayette. While President, his concluded a treaty with France which resulted in the United States purchasing the huge amount of land known as Louisiana, which purchased more than doubled the size of the United States. He commissioned the Louis and Clark expedition to explore this territory and to go on to the Pacific Ocean.
Returning to his religious views, Jefferson was baptized into the Episcopal Church as a child. He was a voracious reader on many subjects, including philosophy and religion. He felt that clergy in the churches had been historically hostile to liberty. [1] He became anticlerical and found his faith in pure Christianity. He considered himself to be Christian in belief and ethics, but did not support some of the traditional tenets of the Christian churches of his day, such as the notion of the Trinity.
His religious curiosity was peaked when, during his presidency, he had inherited a problem of the Barbary Pirates. These Islamic pirates sailed the Mediterranean and captured ships of all nationalities. The captain and crew were then given three choices: 1) become Muslim; 2) pay a tribute (only allowed to those who were "people of the book," i.e., Jews or Christians; or 3) be killed (usually by beheading.) When Jefferson became president, the U.S. was paying the pirates a huge annual tribute to leave U.S. ships alone. When the pirates requested an increased tribute, President Jefferson asked the pasha of Turkey how they could justify such behaviors and was told that it was sanctioned, even encouraged, by the book of their prophet. Jefferson acquired a copy of the Koran and read it. His opinion of the book and of the Islamic behavior in the Mediterranean was clear - he refused to continue the tribute and declared war on the pirates. He sent the U.S. Marines to "the shores of Tripoli." Marines were required to wear a heavy leather collar to protect them from beheading. To this day, Marines are called by the nickname Leatherneck.
During his election campaign, his opponents criticized his unorthodox religious views, calling him an atheist. His reply was that he was a Christian in any sense in which He wished anyone to be: sincerely attached to His doctrines in preference to all others.[2] He sought throughout his life to follow divine guidance as he understood it. I personally believe that he was inspired as a Founding Father and I look to him as one of the Fathers of our Liberty, a staunch supporter of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
He did not believe that the government had the right to declare one set of religious belief to be preferable over another. He coined the term, separation of church and state based on this interpretation of the First Amendment. However, he never said that meant that government had the right to force a system of non-belief on anyone either. He meant that a man could worship however he pleased, according to the dictates of his conscience. Supreme Court use of this term, as if it were part of the Constitution, is erroneous. It is never stated in the Constitution. It was Jefferson's understanding of his own position.
Jefferson believed in God, of this I have no doubt. He just believed in a God that differed from the mainstream religions of his day. He strove all of his life to live in harmony with the teachings of Jesus Christ. His words speak loudly from history. His behaviors speak even more loudly that he was - and is - a man of God.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson#Monticello.2C_marriage_and_family
[2]https://images.search.yahoo.com
During his election campaign, his opponents criticized his unorthodox religious views, calling him an atheist. His reply was that he was a Christian in any sense in which He wished anyone to be: sincerely attached to His doctrines in preference to all others.[2] He sought throughout his life to follow divine guidance as he understood it. I personally believe that he was inspired as a Founding Father and I look to him as one of the Fathers of our Liberty, a staunch supporter of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. 
No comments:
Post a Comment