The Jefferson Lies Read online

  The

  JEFFERSON LIES

  The

  JEFFERSON LIES

  Exposing the Myths You’ve Always

  Believed about Thomas Jefferson

  DAVID BARTON

  © 2012 by David Barton

  All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.

  Thomas Nelson, Inc., titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail [email protected].

  Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from THE ENGLISH STANDARD VERSION. © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Barton, David, 1954-

  The Jefferson lies : exposing the myths you’ve always believed about Thomas Jefferson / David Barton.

  p. cm.

  ISBN 978-1-59555-459-8 (hardback)

  ISBN: 9781595554604 (eBook)

  1. Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826. 2. Presidents--United States--Biography. I. Title.

  E332.B295 2012

  973.4’6092--dc23

  [B]

  2011051543

  Printed in the United States of America

  12 13 14 15 16 QGF 6 5 4 3 2 1

  Contents

  Foreword by Glenn Beck

  Editors’ Notes

  Introduction:

  Rediscovering Thomas Jefferson

  Lie # 1:

  Thomas Jefferson Fathered Sally Hemings’ Children

  Lie # 2:

  Thomas Jefferson Founded a Secular University

  Lie # 3:

  Thomas Jefferson Wrote His Own Bible and Edited Out the Things He Didn’t Agree With

  Lie # 4:

  Thomas Jefferson Was a Racist Who Opposed Equality for Black Americans

  Lie # 5:

  Thomas Jefferson Advocated a Secular Public Square through the Separation of Church and State

  Lie # 6:

  Thomas Jefferson Detested the Clergy

  Lie # 7:

  Thomas Jefferson Was an Atheist and Not a Christian

  Conclusion:

  Thomas Jefferson: An American Hero

  Notes

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Index

  Foreword

  I recently learned that the United States government was actually trying to strip God out of a private homeless shelter for previously incarcerated women struggling in Colorado. That’s right, Marilyn Vyzourek, the woman who runs an organization called Gospel Shelters for Women, was told that she could no longer offer Bible studies at her shelter. Why did they have that ability? Because our government, which happily funds all kinds of programs championed by the secular left, decided that the shelter’s acceptance of two $25,000 federal grants made them subservient to their will.

  It’s not surprising. In fact, it’s just the latest in a decades-old attempt by progressive secularists to keep religion entirely separate from the government. Everyone knows that’s just what Thomas Jefferson intended when he penned the words “separation of church and state,” right?

  Well, not quite.

  My friend, historian David Barton, takes on this long-held falsehood about the separation of church and state and proves once and for all that our Founding Father was no secularist. Not even close. Did you know, for instance, that when Jefferson was president in 1800 he helped start church services inside the US Capitol? Those services grew to include more than two thousand people attending each week, and it became one of the biggest churches in America at the time.

  And that’s just the beginning.

  Why does the Left continue to misquote Jefferson, accuse him of being anti-God, and attribute evil deeds to him? Because they know that if they are able to discredit and dismiss Jefferson and our other Founders, then we are that much closer to surrendering our birthright and our natural freedoms. These myths have flourished in our educational institutions in recent years and have become accepted as truth. It’s a poison in our nation’s system that can only be flushed out by light and truth.

  There are three things I’ve learned from Thomas Jefferson and have tried hard to apply in my own life: (1) Question with boldness, (2) Hold to the truth, and (3) Speak without fear. In The Jefferson Lies, David Barton boldly questions the myths about Jefferson and arms you with the well-researched truth. I ask you to read it, learn from it, and then to go speak without fear.

  Oh, by the way, Marilyn Vyzourek refused to back down from the government’s demands. The government may have stripped her of federal money, but that would not be the end of Gospel Shelters for Women. When I heard about her story I decided to replace the money they’d lost with a personal contribution. After all, sometimes questioning with boldness involves more than just words; it requires action.

  I like to think Thomas Jefferson would have smiled just a little if he were still around.

  GLENN BECK

  Editors’ Notes

  Many early American historical quotes have been used in this book—quotes made at a time when grammatical usage and spelling were quite different from what is practiced today. In an effort to improve readability and flow, we have modernized all spellings and puncuations in the historical quotes used throughout this work, leaving the historical content unimpaired.

  As an example of the very different colonial spelling of words, consider the opening language of the Pilgrims’ Mayflower Compact of 1620 (the words misspelled by today’s standards are underlined):

  We whose names are underwriten, the loyall subjects of our dread soveraigne Lord King James, by the grace of God, of Great Britaine, Franc, & Ireland king, defender of the faith, &c., haveing undertaken, for the glorie of God, and advancemente of the Christian faith, and honour of our king & countrie, a voyage to plant the first colonie in the Northerne parts of Virginia, doe by these presents solemnly & mutualy in the presence of God, and one of another, covenant & combine our selves togeather into a civill body politick.

  The use of modern spellings will not change any meanings in the quotes. By referring to the sources in the footnotes, the reader will be able to examine the original spelling should he or she so desire.

  Similarly distracting to today’s readers is the early use of capitals and commas. For an example of the copious use of commas, refer to the previous example; to see the excessive use of capitals, notice this excerpt from a 1749 letter written by signer of the Declaration Robert Treat Paine (underlined words would not be capitalized today):

  I Believe the Bible to be the written word of God & to Contain in it the whole Rule of Faith & manners; I consent to the Assemblys Shorter Chatachism as being Agreable to the Reveal’d Will of God & to contain in it the Doctrines that are According to Godliness. I have for some time had a desire to attend upon the Lords Supper and to Come to that divine Institution of a Dying Redeemer, And I trust I’m now convinced that it is my Duty Openly to profess him least he be ashamed to own me An Other day; I humbly therefore desire that you would receive me into your Communion & Fellowship, & I beg your Prayers for me that Gr
ace may be carried on in my soul to Perfection, & that I may live answerable to the Profession I now make which (God Assisting) I purpose to be the main End of all my Actions.

  In a further effort to improve readability, the modern rules of capitalization and punctuation have also been followed in the quotes throughout this book. These changes will not affect or alter the meaning of the content in the quotes.

  Finally, the author, a professing Christian, personally chooses to capitalize all nouns or pronouns referring to God, Biblical Deity, or the Bible as a sign of his personal respect for his Biblical faith.

  INTRODUCTION

  Rediscovering Thomas Jefferson

  When I speak at universities and law schools across the nation, schools full of America’s best and brightest students, I like to display a slide of the famous painting of the signers of the Declaration of Independence that hangs inside the Rotunda of the US Capitol. While displaying that slide, I often comment that it is unfortunate that the Founding Fathers were a collective group of racists, bigots, and slaveholders. Almost always I receive nods of sad affirmation from the students.

  I then ask them to identify which signers in the painting owned slaves. Everyone immediately points to Thomas Jefferson, but to date no one has ever pointed out a second example. They have been taught that the Founding Fathers were racists. They know that Jefferson owned slaves; apparently that is all that is necessary to prove that the rest of the fifty-six also owned slaves. Yet a large majority of the Declaration signers were antislavery, introduced or passed antislavery legislation, or founded or led antislavery societies (including Jefferson—something students are never told).

  Because of the many modern disparagements, these students have no idea that very few individuals in history have received as many titles of honor as Thomas Jefferson, including “Apostle of Liberty,”1 “Man of the People,”2 “Pen of the Revolution,”3 “father of the Declaration of Independence,”4 “the defender of the rights of man and the rights of conscience,”5 the “Sage of Monticello,”6 and “the apostle of Democracy.”7

  Jefferson was truly a visionary and an innovator—a Renaissance man in the classical sense of the term. He was masterful and skilled in diverse areas, and his multidimensional abilities were profusely praised by those who knew him. For example:

  • Marquis de Chastellux, a French general who served with Jefferson during the American Revolution, described him as “a musician, skilled in drawing, a geometrician, an astronomer, a natural philosopher, legislator, and statesman.”8

  • Dr. Benjamin Rush, one of Jefferson’s fellow signers of the Declaration of Independence, said he was “enlightened at the same time in chemistry, natural history, and medicine.”9

  • John Quincy Adams knew him as “a man of very extensive learning and pleasing manners.”10

  • The Reverend Ezra Stiles, a military chaplain in the Revolution and the president of Yale, called him a “naturalist and philosopher, a truly scientific and learned man.”11

  • General Marquis de Lafayette considered him a “great statesman, zealous citizen, and amiable friend.”12

  • Alexis de Tocqueville, historian and political leader who penned the famous Democracy in America as a result of his visit to America in 1831, called Jefferson “the greatest [man] whom the democracy of America has as yet produced.”13

  Perhaps the best summation was given by President John F. Kennedy, who once quipped to a group of Nobel Prize winners dining with him at 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. Someone once said that Thomas Jefferson was a gentleman of 32 who could calculate an eclipse, survey an estate, tie an artery, plan an edifice, try a cause, break a horse, and dance the minuet.14

  Jefferson was a remarkable man, and it is an understatement to say that his positive influence was enormous. He indisputably helped shape America for the better, and he exerted a positive influence on nations across the world. Wherever tyranny is opposed and freedom pursued, Jefferson and his words are held forth as the embodiment of liberty and limited government—a fact especially reaffirmed in the latter part of the twentieth century.

  For example, Chinese students who strove to force democratic reforms under their totalitarian government regularly invoked Jefferson, even as the world watched the Communist tyrants massacre those students at Tiananmen Square.15

  When Czechoslovakians rose to throw off forty years of Soviet Communist tyranny, Czech leader Zdenek Janicek quoted Jefferson and his words to encourage the revolting Czech workers,16 and after Vaclav Havel became the first president of the freed Czech Republic, he, too, pointed to Jefferson and his governing philosophy as the standard for his new nation.17

  During Poland’s struggle for independence from the Soviet Union, Jefferson was invoked so often that award-winning Polish author Jerzy Kosinski observed, “In every Pole, there is Jefferson more than anyone else.”18

  Reform-minded Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev spoke openly of Jefferson’s positive influence upon him, explaining: “For myself, I found one thing to be true: having once begun a dialogue with Jefferson, one continues the conversation with him forever.”19

  When the Soviet Union fell in 1991 and Russia became free from its Communist oppressors, Andrei Kozyrev, the foreign minister of the new Russian republic, openly acknowledged that he was indebted to Jefferson and his governing philosophy.20

  This pattern has been repeated around the globe. As former prime minister of England Lady Margaret Thatcher affirmed, “[I]n the history of liberty, he’s a great figure everywhere in the world.”21

  Jefferson and his ideas of liberty, freedom, limited government, and God-given inalienable rights literally changed the world, and historians across the generations consistently praised his contributions and influence.

  American history presents few names to its students more attractive and distinguished than that of Thomas Jefferson, and rarely has a single individual, in civil station, acquired such an ascendancy over the feelings and actions of a people.22

  —BENSON LOSSING, 1848

  Thomas Jefferson . . . [was] singled out to draft the confession of faith of the rising empire. He owed this distinction to . . . that general favor which follows merit, modesty, and a sweet disposition. . . . No man of his century had more trust in the collective reason and conscience of his fellow-men, or better knew how to take their counsel.23

  —GEORGE BANCROFT, “Father of American History,” 1864

  [He] had a faith in humanity that never wavered. He aimed to secure for it law that should deal out equal and exact justice to all men, and he sought to lift all men up to their native dignity by life-long labor in the cause of education.24

  —RICHARD FROTHINGHAM, 1872

  Few men have exerted as much influence in establishing the free institutions of the United States as Thomas Jefferson.25

  —BENSON LOSSING, 1888

  Of all the men of that time, there was, perhaps, none of wider culture or keener political instincts.26

  —JOHN FISKE, 1891

  [O]ne of the finest traits of his character was his magnanimity. . . . His dearest aim was to bring down the aristocracy and elevate the masses.27

  —EDWARD ELLIS, 1898

  Jefferson often made mistakes, but, as he said of Washington, he “erred with integrity.” If he changed his mind, it was because he had new light or a clearer understanding; if he altered his course, it was because he believed he could accomplish greater good.28

  —WILLIAM ELEROY CURTIS, 1901

  Democracy has won in the United States, and the spirit of its founder lives in all our political parties. He has stamped his individuality on the American government more than any other man.29

  —HENRY WILLIAM ELSON, 1904

  [Jefferson] is a kind of Rosetta Stone of the American experience, a massive, tectonic inte
lligence that has formed and rattled the fault lines of our history, our present moment, and, if we are lucky, our future.30

  —KEN BURNS, 1996

  Regrettably, this once universal praise of Jefferson has diminished in recent years. Mention Jefferson today and most Americans who have been through American history classes since the 1960s will retort, “Yeah, he may have done some of those things, but he was also a racist and a bigot—a slaveholder. And he slept with his fourteen-year-old slave Sally Hemings and made her pregnant. And he hated religion so much that he founded the first secular university in America, even writing his own Bible from which he cut out scriptures with which he disagreed.”

  Why can today’s Americans list so many negatives about Jefferson but so few positives?

  The answer is found in five twentieth-century practices that now dominate the study of American history and its heroes: Deconstructionism, Poststructuralism, Modernism, Minimalism, and Academic Collectivism. Although these five isms might suggest that an ivory-tower discussion is about to commence, this is not the case. Once we go through each of the five, you may have an aha! moment and recognize how each has shaped your own view of Jefferson. In fact, if you now think poorly of Jefferson, I can promise you that you will almost assuredly hold a very different opinion at the end of this book—and such is its object: to reverse the effect of the five malpractices of modern history that have distorted not only the presentation of Jefferson in particular but of American history in general.

  Deconstructionism

  The first of the five methods by which Jefferson (and most traditional history) has been impugned is Deconstructionism. Deconstructionism “tends to deemphasize or even efface [malign and smear] the subject” by posing “a continuous critique” to “lay low what was once high.”31 It “tear[s] down the old certainties upon which Western Culture is founded”32 and the foundations on which those beliefs are based.33 In short, Deconstructionism is a steady flow of belittl ing and negative portrayals of Western heroes, beliefs, values, and institutions. Deconstructionists make their living by telling only part of the story and spinning it negatively, manipulating others into supporting their views and objectives.