On March 27, 1815, Thomas Jefferson wrote to Louis H. Girardin from Monticello:
“The only exact testimony of a man is his actions, leaving the reader to pronounce on them his own judgment.”
On “Dr. Death’s” Run for Congress:
Monday, March 24, 2008
Today, Dr. Jack Kevorkian, popularly known as “Dr. Death” because he has helped more than 100 people commit suicide, announced that he is planning to run for a seat in the U.S. Congress from his home state of Michigan. Since the 1990s, when Kevorkian’s assisted suicides were first publicly exposed, the idea of doctor-assisted suicide has been hotly debated. It is not, however, a new issue. Even in Thomas Jefferson’s time, euthanasia was a controversial topic. Jefferson wrote about ways people could kill themselves painlessly if they were suffering from incurable illnesses:
“The most elegant thing [for euthanasia or assisted suicide] . . . is a preparation of the Jamestown weed, Datura-Stramonium, invented by the French in the time of Robespierre. Every man of firmness carried it constantly in his pocket to anticipate the Guillotine. It brings on the sleep of death as quietly as fatigue does the ordinary sleep, without the least struggle or motion. . . . It seems far preferable to the Venesection of the Romans, the Hemlock of the Greeks, and the Opium of the Turks. I have never been able to learn what the preparation is, than a strong concentration of its lethiferous principle. Could such a medicament be restrained to self-administration, it ought not to be kept secret. There are ills in life as desperate as intolerable, to which it would be the rational relief, e.g. the inveterate cancer.”
On spring:
Friday, March 21, 2008
Yesterday, March 20, marked the first day of spring. On April 9, 1797, Thomas Jefferson wrote to Comte de Volney from Monticello, exulting over the beauty of spring in the mountains of Virginia where he lived. He wrote:
“The soft genial temperature of the season, just above the want of fire, enlivened by the reanimation of birds, flowers, the fields, forests & gardens, has been truly delightful & continues to be so. My peach & cherry trees blossomed on the 9th of March. . . . The fine temperate weather of spring continues here about two months. Indeed my experience of the different parts of America convinces me that these mountains are the Eden of the U.S. for soil, climate, navigation & health.”
Today (March 21) in Thomas Jefferson’s History:
Friday, March 21, 2008
On March 21, 1812, Thomas Jefferson wrote to Charles Christian from Monticello:
“Private charities, as well as contributions to public purposes in proportion to every one’s circumstances, are certainly among the duties we owe to society.”
Today (March 20) in Thomas Jefferson’s History:
Thursday, March 20, 2008
On March 20, 1808, Thomas Jefferson wrote to the citizens of Adams County, Pennsylvania:
“A nation ceases to be republican only when the will of the majority ceases to be law.”
Today (March 14) in Thomas Jefferson’s History:
Friday, March 14, 2008
On March 14, 1820, Thomas Jefferson wrote to John Adams from Monticello:
“When I meet with a proposition beyond finite comprehension, I abandon it as I do a weight which human strength cannot lift: and I think ignorance, in these cases, is truly the softest pillow on which I can lay my head.”
Today (March 6) in Thomas Jefferson’s History:
Thursday, March 6, 2008
On March 6, 1801, Thomas Jefferson wrote to John Dickinson from Washington, D.C.:
“A just & solid republican government maintained here, will be a standing monument & example for the aim & imitation of the people of other countries; and I join with you in the hope and belief that they will see from our example that a free government is of all others the most energetic; that the inquiry which has been excited among the mass of mankind by our revolution & its consequences will ameliorate the condition of man over a great portion of the globe.”
Today (March 3) in Thomas Jefferson’s History:
Monday, March 3, 2008
On March 3, 1818, Thomas Jefferson wrote to Benjamin Waterhouse from Monticello:
“The fact is that one new idea leads to another, that to a 3d, and so on thro’ a course of time, until some one, with whom no one of these ideas was original, combines all together, and produces what is justly called a new invention.”
On the Leap Year:
Friday, February 29, 2008
Today, February 29, is Leap Day, that extra twenty-four hours that we get once every four years. In a sense, the Leap Year gives us all the gift of extra time. It is up to us to decide how to use it. Thomas Jefferson warned his friend Francis Eppes to use time wisely, writing:
“Time is now the most pressing and precious thing in the world to you, and the greatest injury which can possibly be done you is to waste what remains.”
Today (February 27) in Thomas Jefferson’s History:
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
On February 27, 1821, Thomas Jefferson wrote to Timothy Pickering from Monticello:
“As the Creator has made no two faces alike, so no two minds, and probably no two creeds.”