Permanent Revolution and whisky Originally Published in October elsewhere

Jefferson is my favorite Founding Father. Primarily because he was much more radical than contemporary historian and political pundits like to paint him. He represents everything American. He was simultaneously amongst the biggest successes and the biggest failures of his time. He had extremely high ideals which he often could never live up to.

My recent home in Forest, Virginia was next to the historical Poplar Forest "retirement" home of Thomas Jefferson. I was in training to be a docent there before being required to move to Atlanta, GA and was given copies of a collection of unpublished letters pertaining to the house that kick started a personal study of all things Jeffersonian. The result was a fascination for the man and learning more about our Founding Fathers.

I can truly say that I don't admire him as much as fascinated by him because he was too much of an idealist for the practical engineering personality I have. But he strove for the best even when his failings were the worst examples of human behavior. For example he wrote in The Declaration of Independence "All Men are Created Equal" yet he always owned slaves.

Even George Washington, whom was much more of a conservative, eventually freed his slaves (upon his wife Martha's death). Jefferson always was in too much debt to afford such luxury of testament of belief. He was forced to sell some of his slaves to offset his debt load, dying with outstanding bills of $100,000 (serious money in 1826) that forced his immediate heirs to liquidate his estate. This from the man who wrote "Never spend your money before you have earned it."

Worse, he probably did have a sexual relationship with one of his slaves; Sally Hemmings who was the half sister of his beloved late wife. It is rumored that his daughter from that relationship was sold into prostitution. Balance the morality of that with the man who wrote the constitution. Were talking at the minimum, a complex man here.

Many modern conservatives like to claim that he among other Founding Fathers was a Christian who built this country on Christian values. He was not anything of the sort. Thomas Jefferson cherry picked his favorite parts of the New Testament to assemble a personal faith that held little to do with Christianity. His personal Bible deleted much of the Christian Dogma eliminating mysticism and miracles. In fact he wrote; "I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world, and do not find in our particular superstition (Christianity) one redeeming feature. They are all alike founded on fables and mythology."

His self written epitaph read: "Author of the Declaration of Independence [and] of the Statute of Virginia for religious toleration & Father of the University of Virginia.". He was most proud beside of his authorship of The Declaration and his accomplishment of avoiding a declared state faith in Virginia. Also note he did not mention his Presidency of The United States nor his Governorship of Virginia.

On both accounts his terms in office were considered failures. As Governor of Virginia, he was considered responsible for allowing the British to successfully land in Richmond and thereby dividing the colonies in half, a strategic failure that almost cost us the revolution. He spent most of the remaining days of his term hiding at the caretaker's home at Poplar Forest to avoid capture and almost certain death. Essentially he did not participate in the revolutionary war.

As President he violated his own principals by executing the Louisiana Purchase. While his decision is easily defended he would have been the first to complain if anyone else had done the same. More directly he can be held responsible for poor decisions regarding Britain's policy of "impressing" our sailors that ruined the economy and lead to the War of 1812. He enforced an embargo on ocean trade to avoid war and did not dispel its threat only leaving his successor with the results.

In fact his position on war was mixed at best. At different times he wrote: "For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well-organized and armed militia is their best security; Force is the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism; I abhor war and view it as the greatest scourge of mankind." Well Thomas which of these did you truly ascribe to? His conflicted reaction to war got him into trouble when the British invaded Virginia. Anybody who believed as he wrote "Delay is preferable to error." Lived with analysis to paralysis and he paid the price in his political reputation and his personal freedom.

So what makes him so fascinating to me? All of this conflict. I can think of no other historical character who achieved such glory while carrying the debt of such failures to the grave. In essence he is all of us. While achieving so much he failed at the same time. He helped establish a new government with lofty goals that failed to see much of them achieved. Partly because the means of achievement and the very definition of what that achievement was in debate.

A country that later was defined by the quote "Business of America is Business" was partly created by a man who said; "I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country." And "Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains. "A prescient set of statements.

The bottom line was his radical side overwhelmed his practical side and he remained conflicted even about Democracy and even Friendship. Consider the man who wrote the Declaration also wrote "A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine." And later said; 'I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them but to inform their discretion." And later said "Friendship is but another name for an alliance with the follies and the misfortunes of others. Our own share of miseries is sufficient: why enter then as volunteers into those of another?"

He could, late in life forgive his political enemies and hold them close as he did John Adams both of whom died on July 4th 1826, exactly 50 years after the signing of The Declaration of Independence. For he also said 'But friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life, and thanks to a benevolent arrangement the greater part of life is sunshine." Does your head hurt yet?

The best physical Manifestation of his radical ideals overwhelming the practical is the Poplar Forest home itself. To start it is a symmetrical eight sided design. Jefferson was so slavish to that pure form he allowed no arrangement to get from the exterior kitchen to the dining room other than the main entrance. Later he added stairs in porticos as it was so impractical.

And so it should be not surprising that like Mao Tse Tung who aspired to permanent revolution Jefferson wrote; "Every generation needs a new revolution." And famously; "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

And finally Jefferson also wrote; "To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical." And on that note a discussion of George Washington, whiskey, and their relationship with NASCAR. Jefferson did not hold Washington in high esteem as did John Adams. Both men were too radical for Mr. Washington's practical execution of the demands of leading men in war and government.

As General in charge of the Continental Army during the revolution he had to deal with mutiny. The mutineers were angry because the continental Army had not been paid in over two years and took their grievances directly to the Continental Congress thereby bypassing General Washington's authority. He has the mutineers rounded up and forced them to shoot their leaders. After there was left to no doubt who was in charge and all grievances were taken to General Washington who eventually got the soldier's their pay.

Later as first President his first action was to raise an Army to put down the "Whiskey Rebellion". We've all read the sanitized version in history books in High School but this was a rather grin and acrimonious period. Revolutionary solders from the "western frontier" around Pittsburgh, PA returned home to discover they had taxes levied by the state to cover the costs of the war. To pay them they grew corn and produced the most profitable product they could which happened to be whiskey.

Now the new Federal Government also needed money and did the same. Washington himself ran a distillery at Mt. Vernon and you better be sure he paid his taxes. Federal tax collectors were tarred and feathered in PA. Now the process was not as polite as modern mind had it since the feathers were lit on fire and the tax collector died an awful death. The newly elected President and former general who defeated the British and put down a mutiny wasn't about to have his and congress's new authority questioned by a bunch of frontier farmers and invaded with a vengeance. He not only got payment but burned the farms of offending farmers and drove them from their land. General Washington was one tough, no nonsense SOB.

The displaced families moved south to the area around the Appalachians we now call the Smoky Mountains bordering TN, NC, and GA. They resumed the business they knew best and fought with revenue officers since then. As technology in the early 20th Century progressed the delivery mechanism became fast cars and the "good ole boys" who delivered the whiskey challenged each other to see who drove the best and fastest. This became organized as NASCAR (early drivers often raced between stints in jail for running whiskey). So if racing is your thing you can thank General Washington for pushing the ancestors of modern racers out of PA during the Whiskey Rebellion.

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