Jefferson’s Inaugural

I’m careening through Joseph Ellis’ American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson – (alongside my re-reading of East of Eden). Ellis’ book is not really a traditional biography. He breaks up the chapters into separate and distinct time-spans in Thomas Jefferson’s life. The chapter titles are:

1. Philadelphia: 1775-1776
2. Paris: 1784-1789
3. Monticello: 1794-1797
4. Washington DC: 1801-1804
5. Monticello: 1816-1826

See what I mean? Each chapter a discreet and individual time-span. Of course, the gaps in the timeline are filled in and fleshed out within each chapter – but Ellis is primarily interested in “the character of Thomas Jefferson”, and he believes that these 5 time-spans are crucial to understanding the elusive contradictory character of Jefferson. Those are the times when Jefferson’s political theories were formed, tried, tested, under fire, or in retreat – whatever. I like the structure of the book a lot.

I’m now in the 4th chapter, where Jefferson’s presidency is discussed. As is probably obvious, if you read my site all the time, I know the story already. I know the characters, the villains, the plot points, the set pieces, the various arguments. But Ellis goes at all of this in a very different way, a way I find extremely refreshing. I don’t quite know how to describe it – perhaps I would say that Ellis’ book is an intellectual biography, or not a biography at all, even. It is more of a contemplation. An investigation. Not on the facts of Jefferson’s life, although those come into it. But an investigation into how Jefferson’s mind MIGHT have worked, what clues he left behind in this regard, what were his intellectual reference-points, who did he admire, who was he reading, what was the genesis of some of his ideas, what clues MADISON left behind about Jefferson’s character (very important – nobody understood Jefferson better than Madison) … The book is really fun to read.

Ellis busts up a lot of the Jeffersonian myths because ultimately he finds the truth more interesting. And if the truth can’t be known, then Ellis is perfectly fine with admitting: I don’t know what REALLY went on. There’s a lot of surmising, a lot of conclusions drawn … but only from what is down in the public record. What did Jefferson write? How can we analyze his letters? What did THIS sentence mean? What were Jefferson’s hidden meanings (because there were always hidden meanings with this bloke – sometimes hidden even to himself!) Ellis, as much as is possible, uses primary sources.

I just completed Ellis’ analysis of Thomas Jefferson’s inaugural address (written by him – and, unlike the Declaration of Independence, untouched by the editorial pen of others) – and found it fascinating.

I’ll post some excerpts. It’s juicy stuff.