A few thoughts on the Founding Fathers and Monticello

We’ve been in Virginia two weeks now. During our time at Colonial Williamsburg, and now being up in the Shenandoah Valley I am frequently reminded just how much the Founding Fathers sacrificed and what a good job they did.

I have great respect for George Washington. The Founding Fathers created the Constitution in an effort to have a more perfect government, and I think they did a remarkably good job. Even with all the efforts to turn the colonies into a republic, I think George Washington could have turned being the first president into being a king. The colonists had fought against the tyranny of a bad king, but many of them were still comfortable with the monocracy form of government.

A few years ago I read John Adams by David McCullough. I was greatly impressed by John Adams. Up until this book John Adams had been someone I knew little about. After reading about John Adams I felt he was in same league as George Washington.

In reading the book I was sad to learn that Thomas Jefferson in the 1800 campaign introduced dirty politics to the presidential campaign. Thomas Jefferson had his supporters spread lies about John Adams.

The means we use to accomplish an end are as important as the goal, and in many ways will determine the true success of a goal. Using evils means to try to accomplish a good goal will often corrupt the end goal. I lost a lot of respect for Thomas Jefferson.

Last Friday as we would be driving Charlottesville we thought about stopping to see Monticello. My first response was I didn’t want to go, and then I decided to go, largely because it was a good place to stop and let our daughters run around, and it might be interesting.

Monticello is interesting. It is worth a stop. It gave me a little insight into Thomas Jefferson. I still don’t have a good sense as to the overall character of the man, but from Monticello I learned that he was organized and was trying to do some good things.

Monticello is a scaled down colonial version of Hearst Castle. There was a garden, places for guests to stay, things for guests to do, a library, and many works of art.

We enjoyed the garden. Thomas Jefferson recorded in great detail many aspects of Monticello. As Monticello was being rebuilt the journals told where the fish pond was, where certain flowers had been planted, where the garden was, where the fruit trees had been, and so on. We had a better understanding of life in Virginia two hundred years ago.

The tour through the house was also enlightening. I liked the library, thousands of old books. I’m always amazed at how small the beds were back then. I would have trouble getting a good night’s sleep in those small beds.

I enjoyed Monticello. It was educational, but I don’t feel I got to know the character of Thomas Jefferson any better.

Update I - 21 Mar 08
A reader pointed out that my comparison to Hearst Castle was misleading. My wording implied that Monticello was patterned after Hearst Castle. Which would be hard to do since Hearst Castle was created over a hundred years after Monticello.
I was trying to say that Monticello was like an East Coast Hearst Castle, a large elaborate building for a wealthy man.


----------
Technorati tags: Founding Fathers, George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson