“[America was], as I put it to a close friend of mine, something new under the sun.”
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TJ: [The inauguration] worked out, for me, quite well. I was staying in a boarding house; I walked over to my inauguration; I delivered my speech so inaudibly that nobody could really hear it. Afterwards, I walked back to the boarding house and took the same seat that I had held at every other dinner and was as quiet as a mouse.
DS: That may have been low-key, Mr. President, but your inaugural address was regarded as one of the best.
TJ: I'm glad for that. I took great care in writing it; I wrote it myself, of course — and in it, among other things, I said, every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by separate names men of the same principle. We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists. We share more, in this great country, than divides us. An inauguration is a time for national unity and for healing whatever political strife has emerged during the campaign.
President Thomas Jefferson was sworn in as our third President on March 4, 1801. He was dressed simply, wearing nothing that would distinguish him from the crowd gathered at noon as he entered the Capitol and then the Senate Gallery to give his speech. The theme of his speech was reconciliation after his bitterly partisan election. This week, Mister Jefferson joins us and recites that speech.
"The debate in American history is not between Hamilton and Jefferson, the debate is between Adams and Jefferson."
— Clay S. Jenkinson
This week, we answer listener questions on the Thomas Jefferson Hour, including a letter from a writer who wonders whether the Founding Fathers were geniuses who seized the moment, or simply average people living in extraordinary times. We also speak with our good friend Beau Wright.
Our conversation this week is with the scholar, Charles Slack. Slack is the author of Liberty's First Crisis: Adams, Jefferson, and the Misfits Who Saved Free Speech.
President Thomas Jefferson is asked to provide context for presidential inaugurations. Clay & David discuss our third president's inaugural address — its content & its tone — while comparing it to the address of our forty-fifth president, Donald Trump.