no Big Macs

Not Static

Founding Father Benjamin Franklin [1706-1790] owned at least one slave and ran advertisements to sell slaves in his newspapers, but ultimately funded schools for freed slaves.

John Adams [1735-1826] was the only founder who never had slaves, which was then common in Massachusetts. Alexander Hamilton [1755-1804] is thought to have had slaves in the West Indies. James Madison [1751-1836] occasionally condemned the institution of slavery and opposed the international slave trade, but he also vehemently opposed any attempts to restrict its domestic expansion. Madison did not free his slaves during his lifetime or in his will.

George Washington [1732-1799] married into wealth and a continuing income stream derived from at least one hundred slaves. Thomas Jefferson [1743-1826] maintained slaves to his death even though he wrote that all men are created equal. 

Franklin was the truly Enlightened one as he changed his positions throughout his life like a tax accountant he recorded in ledgers his failings and his "corrections," perhaps because he was a generation older and more inclined to reflection. He gave away part of his fortune to have all religions represented in Philadelphia - 35 representatives from Islam to Judaism to various Christian sects attended his funeral. He could have been wealthier than Washington but he didn't patent many of his inventions including his stove as he wanted the masses to afford it and stay warm. But he was alienated from wife for 14 years and didn't attend her funeral, and his son William Franklin [1730-11813] who remained a staunch Loyalist and died in London.

Priests and Kings

... until this:

polymath

"I want to tell you how welcome you are to the White House. 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."
- JFK at a Dinner Honoring Nobel Prize Winners of the Western Hemisphere.April 29, 1962

Flaws

"An entirely virtuous person is not interesting."
- David McCullough

Albemarle

"I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.“

– Thomas Jefferson [1743-1826]

July 2nd

Part 1



Part 2

A place to eat and drink in Philadelphia

http://www.citytavern.com

Where Adams met Jefferson, and where beer is based upon Washington's recipe.

"They call it Bird Pepper because it's so hot only birds can eat it because they don't have taste buds."
- Gardener at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello

"... the greatest service which can be rendered any country is to add an useful plant to it's culture; especially a bread grain. Next in value to bread, is oil."
- Thomas Jefferson

the harder I work the luckier I get

Q: How do you do so many things at once and how do you cope with it?

A: I'm going to let the universe bring to me whatever. I'm going to be open to receive it. But I'm also going to be prepared to change direction. I'm not going to be all locked down and closed and trying to control every moment of the day.

Architectural Declaration of Independence

Monticello

Honor Code

"Cadets will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do."
- United States Military Academy at West Point motto

Image source here.

oculus

"The light of reason to banish superstition."

An earlier reference to the Pantheon's oculus here.

University of Virginia image source here.

his favorite vegetable was peas

A cool history of Thomas Jefferson here.

An earlier reference to Jefferson here.

Thomas Jefferson's Koran

In 1765, a 22-year-old Thomas Jefferson bought a copy of the Koran while studying law at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. As a Deist, he was interested in all religions including Islam. As President, he studied his Koran to better understand the Ottoman Empire during the Barbary Wars.

In 2007, Jefferson's copy of the Koran was used by Representative Keith Ellison (D-MN) to take his oath of office.