Thomas Jefferson vs. George W. Bush

Much has been written about George W. Bush's 4th of July appearance at Monticello, mainly to report on the protesters who showed up at this event. What hasn't gotten much notice, however, is that Bush added to the audacity of this appearance by having the gall to misquote Thomas Jefferson's last known statement about the Declaration of Independence, editing out what was also Jefferson's last known dig at unions between government and religion.

These were Bush's words: "In one of the final letters of his life, he wrote, 'May it be to the world, what I believe it will be -- to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all -- the Signal of arousing men to burst the chains, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government.'"

The quote butchered by Bush is from a letter written by Jefferson on June 24, 1826 to Roger C. Weightman, declining an invitation to attend a 50th anniversary celebration of the Declaration of Independence in Washington, due to his failing health. Jefferson died on July 4, 1826, less than two weeks after writing this letter.

Here is what Jefferson really wrote: "May it be to the world, what I believe it will be, (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all,) the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government."

Reading about Bush's visit to Monticello reminded me of something I put together a few years ago. Trying to imagine what a conversation between Thomas Jefferson and our current president might be like, I took some of the most profound words of these two great leaders, and assembled this hypothetical little chat.

TJ: "Every one must act according to the dictates of his own reason and mine tells me that civil powers alone have been given to the President of the United States, and no authority to direct the religious exercises of his constituents."

Dubya: "I'm the commander -- see, I don't need to explain -- I do not need to explain why I say things. That's the interesting thing about being the president. Maybe somebody needs to explain to me why they say something, but I don't feel like I owe anybody an explanation."

TJ: "The most effectual means of preventing the perversion of power into tyranny are to illuminate ... the minds of the people at large, and more especially, to give them knowledge of those facts which history exhibits, that they may ... know ambition under all it shapes, and ... exert their natural powers to defeat its purposes."

Dubya: "A dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier, there's no question about it."

TJ: "I am for free commerce with all nations, political connection with none, and little or no diplomatic establishment. And I am not for linking ourselves by new treaties with the quarrels of Europe, entering that field of slaughter to preserve their balance, or joining in the confederacy of Kings to war against the principles of liberty."

Dubya: "My foreign policy is -- Fidel Castro is a dictator."

TJ: "Peace with all nations, and the right which that gives us with respect to all nations, are our object."

Dubya: "But there needs to be a focused, coalition effort in the region against peace."

TJ: "The most successful war seldom pays for its losses."

Dubya: "And by spending enough to win a war, we may not have a war at all."

TJ: "A right to property is founded in our natural wants, in the means with which we are endowed to satisfy these wants, and the right to what we acquire by those means without violating the similar rights of other sensible beings."

Dubya: "All of us here in America should believe, and I think we do, that we should be, as I mentioned, a nation of owners. Owning something is freedom, as far as I'm concerned. It's part of a free society... It's a part of -- it's of being a -- it's a part of -- an important part of America."

TJ: "The interests of the States ought to be made joint in every possible instance in order to cultivate the idea of our being one nation..."

Dubya: "There's an old saying in Tennessee -- I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee -- that says, fool me once, shame on -- shame on you. Fool me -- you can't get fooled again."

TJ: "While there are powers in Europe which fear our views, or have views on us, we should keep an eye on them, their connections and oppositions, that in a moment of need, we may avail ourselves of their weakness with respect to others as well as ourselves, and calculate their designs and movements, on all the circumstances under which they exist."

Dubya: "There I was sitting around the table with foreign leaders looking at Colin Powell and Condi Rice..."

TJ: "Every man is under the natural duty of contributing to the necessities of the society."

Dubya: "And so, in my State of the -- my State of the Union -- or state -- my speech to the nation, whatever you want to call it, speech to the nation -- I asked Americans to give 4,000 years -- 4,000 hours over the next -- the rest of your life."

TJ: "And it is declared and enacted, that no person unborn or under the age of twelve years at the passing of this act...shall, after the age of fifteen years, be a citizen of this commonwealth until he or she can read readily in some tongue, native or acquired."

Dubya: "You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test."

TJ: "Its crowd of skepticism kept me from sleep."

Dubya: "Sometimes when I sleep at night I think of Hop on Pop."

Comments

[davism97]

Comparing W to Thomas Jefferson is like comparing Elmer Fudd to Einstein. It's just sad and pathetic and all you can do is feel sorry for the stupid guy.

[DDeBlaine]

Drjimmy72296: You are so, so right about that. It's a poverty really.

[3fingerbrown]

My favorite Jefferson quotation: the tree of liberty should from time to time be refreshed with the blood of tyrants. I guess he was too polite to say it with Bush in the room.

[standard]

The quote I remembered had the tree watered by the blood of patriots, so I did some quick research.

Bartleby.com, indicates that "The tree of liberty only grows when watered by the blood of tyrants." are the final words of a speech in 1792 by Bertrand Barère de Vieuzac, a French contemporary of Jefferson's, calling for the execution of Louis XVI.

What Jefferson said, per Bartleby.com, was, "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure." In Jefferson's version, patriots must also die. Wikipedia indicates that he said that in letter he wrote to a New York Senator in 1787.

[bgregs]

He also, after the French revolution ended, and the bloodletting continued, refuted his own statement by saying something along the lines of fighting needs to stop.....

[iluvsam]

Man, they just don't make 'em like Jefferson, Adams, Madison, etc. anymore.

[mosh]

What about Kucinich, Feingold and Dodd? Feingold is doing a damn good job. And so is Dodd. And Kucinich is an outstanding defender of our Constitution.

I wonder how Jefferson, Adams, et al would have withstood the 24 hour (faux) news cycle and the American people's three second attention span?

[Chris Rodda - Huffpost Blogger]

What always amazes me is that things like the Federalist Papers were written as newspaper editorials, to be read by the general public. How many Americans today would have the interest and attention span, not to mention the reading comprehension, to pick up a newspaper and read things like that.

[recruitgal]

Wow. That was hilarious and depressing in equal measure.

[jcorrington]

Ditto Recruitgal!

[SouthPrairie]

The juxtaposition is just a wee bit more stark than McCain and Obama; not much though.

[mosh]

Sad but true. Obama would have looked better though.

[dadw5boys]

Jefferson would have gathered a militia and stormed the Whitehouse with news of the first Signing Statement that stopped the implementation of any laws congress passed and the President signed.

[UnknownSoldier]

This was absolutely hilarious.­........ Owning something is Freedom...­..... LOL

[TerroristManGonnaGetYa]

Kris Kristofferson "Freedoms just another word for nothing left to lose."

[Drjimmy72296]

The really, really sad part is, Jefferson may have been one of the 10 or 20 smartest men to ever walk the planet and even he was broken by the job. Statesman, scientist, philosopher, writer and in the end he basically abdicated to Madison and pretended to have a headache for his last year in office.

Why on Earth did anyone ever think a borderline illiterate, recovering coke addict, who'd failed miserably at every thing he'd ever attempted, including running a baseball team, should be the most powerful man in the free world? Oh, that's right. He found Jesus.

Anyone who voted for Bush once, let alone twice, should be deeply ashamed of themselves.

[UnknownSoldier]

We deserved G. W. Bush, now hopefully we all have learned from our mistake

[RedDogBear]

I hope you are right but I doubt it. Here is what I see happening. Obama will win the presidency. Then suddenly the MSM that has been ignoring all the problems that Bush created will suddenly realize that OMG we have a massive deficit owned by China, we have a military that is falling apart. Obama will do some things to help the economy recover a bit but again the MSM will suddenly be tuned in to how bad things are. Obama will be subject to the biggest vilification campaign since Carter and Clinton. There will be some terrorist attack in the US or on US interests somewhere. There will be a "Reagenesque" candidate who proclaims that the US must regain its stature in the world, stop knuckling in to Islamo Facists and terrorist supporters at home and stop letting the global warming enviro nazis ruin our economy. He will be elected in 2012 and... well ever hear of Kristalnacht?

[mosh]

We may have deserved Georgie (since it appears that almost 50% of the American people voted for him) but what did the rest of the world do to deserve him?

[lisakaz2]

Choking on disinformation from the likes of Limpy and the rest. It's scary. It's like they live in Bizarro World.

The best line was Ben Franklin's, as quoted in "1776:" he who would sacrifice liberty in order to gain security deserves neither.

[mosh]

But you forget - Bush is a man of the people - - the people who run Haliburton and Exxon and, let's not forget that oldie but goody, Enron!

[Cathexis]

Drjimmy: I hear myself talking but don't feel my lips moving! Well said!

[davism97]

My only exception here is that Jefferson didn't pretend to have headaches. He suffered from occasionaly migraines through most of his life. Being forced to deal with the Burr conspiracy and the English impressment of Americans in his second term definitely wore the man out though. I can't even imagine how quickly our country would've crumbled if Bush was president back in 1805-1809.