Most Blessed of the Patriarchs by Annette Gordon-Reed

Author:Annette Gordon-Reed
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Liveright

FRANCE ON THE EVE of its great revolution—the France Jefferson knew and loved—without question left an indelible imprint on his mind and manners. Despite the claims of his enemies, however, Jefferson eschewed the “philosophical” radicalism they imputed to him. If engaged fellow citizens preserved their rights and thus vindicated the revolution’s promise, successive generations of Americans would enjoy the peace, prosperity, and happiness Jefferson envisioned for them in the Declaration and reaffirmed in his first inaugural address. This was a vision of American exceptionalism, and a beacon to oppressed peoples everywhere. The French had struck the first bloody blow in their own struggle for national self-determination. One day, Jefferson prayed, they too would enjoy the great boon of republican self-government.

In the meantime Jefferson acknowledged his debts to France. When he returned to America, he fashioned himself as an emissary from the French Enlightenment, attracting admirers and followers as he performed the role of learned savant and cultured man of the world. No American could match his cosmopolitan sophistication, and he quickly grasped the advantages he had gained from his years abroad. When he served in the Continental Congress, Jefferson was known for his literary skills and dedication to the republican principles he articulated in the Declaration. But otherwise, John Adams recalled, Jefferson did not make much of an impression: modest in manner and a poor public speaker, although he was said to have been good in a courtroom, he did not make a show of himself in those days. The cosmopolitan Jefferson who returned from Paris stood out much more conspicuously, shaping a new self-image by exploiting the cultural capital now at his command.

Jefferson’s manner was distinctive; so were the ways he dressed and the settings he created for himself in his homes away from home.29 The many crates of furniture, furnishings, tableware, paintings, and art objects that he had shipped from Paris to New York provided props for his stylish performances. Jefferson simultaneously became more self-consciously “American” and more “French,” eagerly adapting the ethos of the great French metropolis to life in the new nation’s temporary capitals and introducing his countrymen to the best French wines and cuisine. He even ate in the European style. “He would have his plate changed several times during dinner, a habit not observed, in those days, by country gentlemen generally,” Ellen Coolidge said, remembering that a cousin who had lived for a time in Europe told her that Jefferson’s was “the only table in the country where [he] would dare ask for a clean plate.” As for what was on his plate, Jefferson was partial to French fare and French-style cooking. Coolidge said of her grandfather’s tastes, he “liked boiled Beef, Bouilli [a form of stewed beef], better than roast. He ate a great many vegetables and little meat, contrary to the custom of his countrymen.” There is no doubt about his preferences for wine. Coolidge stated firmly, and additional evidence bears this out, that Jefferson “preferred french wines to Madeira or Sherry.”

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