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I’ll be giving another presentation about my book at the Jefferson Library at Monticello tomorrow (Wed. at 4 PM) — if you happen to be in the neighborhood, come on by. Obviously, it’s a wonderful place to be giving a talk about Jefferson, and I’m trying, at least, to match the grandeur of the place with a decent talk . . . I just found out a few days ago that Merrill Peterson, the longtime professor of history at UVA and the dean of living Jefferson scholars, passed away at the end of September at the age of 88, and I am going to dedicate the talk to his memory. I am a law professor, not a professional historian, and I came to Jefferson, and Jefferson scholarship, from a funny direction – working and writing about the developing law of the Internet, and intellectual property law. I spent 15 years working on my book, and one of the many pleasures it gave me was that it caused me to confront some small portion of the vast trove of Jefferson scholarship, of which Peterson’s work was such an important part. When my book was published last Spring Peterson was one of the people I sent a copy to – we had never met, but my respect for him and for his lifetime of work was genuine and very deep; Peterson represented historical scholarship at its best, rich and probing and full of life. He sent me back a lovely handwritten note, thanking me for the book and for, as he put it, “building a bridge between Jefferson’s Notes on Virginia and what you call cyberspace” – though, he added, “I confess ignorance of the latter.” He had actually read (and enjoyed!) the book (“a great read!,” he wrote), which I found, and continue to find, infinitely gratifying. 

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    3 Comments

    1. bpbatista says:

      Jefferson is easily the most over-rated Founder. His career went steeply downhill after July, 1776. He was wrong on virtually ever major issue thereafter. He was a cowardly governor of Virginia during the Revolution and barely lifted a finger to help the Continental Army. He sowed the seeds of secession and civil war with the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions. He emasculated the navy and army which had disasterous consequences in the War of 1812 (where his protoge, James Madison, proved equally incompetent at protecting the country). His embargo of 1807 was the most ruinous economic policy ever enacted (though Obamacare and Cap-and-Trade will be serious contenders for the title). He was an ungracious, two-faced back-stabber who did everything in his power to undermine President Washington as Secretary of State. He openly cheered on Robespiere and the guillotine. He opposed the Constitution. He opposed Hamilton’s economic plan which laid the foundations of the greatest economic powerhouse in human history. The list goes on and on.

      I know that his supporters will point to the Louisiana Purchase, but the truth is that Louisiana almost literally fell into his lap. Napoleon was desperate to sell and, even according to Joseph Ellis, had determined to sell to the U.S. even before Jefforson instructed our emissaries to make the purchase. There can be know doubt that John Adams, Hamilton or any other President would have made the purchase too. It was a no brainer.

      And I haven’t even mentioned his abhorent personal morality and behavior vis-a-vis his slaves.

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      November 3, 2009, 3:02 pm

    3. troll_dc2 says:

      bpbatista, is it true that Jefferson agonized over going through with the Louisiana Purchase because he was concerned that the purchase was not authorized by the Constitution? I recall having read that somewhere. Apparently, he decided to buy the territory because he realized that it would not be good for another country to control the mouth of the Mississippi River.

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      November 3, 2009, 4:17 pm

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