History Channel Internation Jefferson Documentary (England, interesting facts, Washington, slaves)

[NJGOAT]

Last night I caught an interesting documentary about Thomas Jefferson. It was very well done and brough up some interesting facts that I had previously not been fully aware of:

Becoming a member of the Second Continental Congress:

Jefferson was not elected to the First or Second Continental Congress only garnering 18 votes compared to the 100+ received by more popular and influential people like Geoerge Washington, Richard Henry Lee, Patrick Henry and Peyton Randolph

When the second Congress formed, Peyton Randolph was again elected President of the body. However, after two weeks he had to relinquish his role and return to attend to business in the Virginia House of Burgesses. It was put to a vote as to whom his replacement would be and Thomas Jefferson was selected.

Drafting the Declaration of Independence:

Jefferson wanted Adams to write the Declaration of Independence. Adams refused and gave reason saying:

'Reason first, you are a Virginian, and a Virginian ought to appear at the head of this business. Reason second, I am obnoxious, suspected, and unpopular. You are very much otherwise. Reason third, you can write ten times better than I can.'

Jefferson acquiesced and agreed to write the document.

I found it fascinating how complete chance placed Jefferson at the Congress to begin with and then it was only at the deference of a senior member (Adams) that Jefferson was given the opportunity to write the document that not only defined his career, but the nation as well.

The documentary went on to investigate the "hypocrisy" of Jefferson and I thought they did an excellent job showing his routine struggles between his values and beliefs compared to his life and the positions he often found himself. For instance, the man who espoused that all are created equal, yet owned slaves. The man who had an extreme distrust of and rebuked strong central authority, but found himself as President. I thought it was very interesting how they were able to frame Jefferson's ability to put his personal beliefs aside to do what was best for himself financially or what was best for the nation as a whole.

[Fred314X]

Another little factoid about Mr. Jefferson: he is the reason our national capital wound up being established in Washington, DC. At the time of the first Presidential inauguration in 1789, New York City was the capital of the United States--a city Jefferson didn't especially like. He was the driving force behind the proposal to build a new national capital. And while he was at it, moving the capital to Philadelphia while the new city was under construction.

(I must say, however, as a native-born New Yorker, that I feel a strange debt to Jefferson for his actions in this area. If there's one thing New York City does not need on top of all its other problems, it's the Federal government in residence here!)

[JohnHAdams]

Originally Posted by NJGOAT

Last night I caught an interesting documentary about Thomas Jefferson. It was very well done and brough up some interesting facts that I had previously not been fully aware of:

Becoming a member of the Second Continental Congress:

Jefferson was not elected to the First or Second Continental Congress only garnering 18 votes compared to the 100+ received by more popular and influential people like Geoerge Washington, Richard Henry Lee, Patrick Henry and Peyton Randolph

When the second Congress formed, Peyton Randolph was again elected President of the body. However, after two weeks he had to relinquish his role and return to attend to business in the Virginia House of Burgesses. It was put to a vote as to whom his replacement would be and Thomas Jefferson was selected.

Drafting the Declaration of Independence:

Jefferson wanted Adams to write the Declaration of Independence. Adams refused and gave reason saying:



Jefferson acquiesced and agreed to write the document.

I found it fascinating how complete chance placed Jefferson at the Congress to begin with and then it was only at the deference of a senior member (Adams) that Jefferson was given the opportunity to write the document that not only defined his career, but the nation as well.

The documentary went on to investigate the "hypocrisy" of Jefferson and I thought they did an excellent job showing his routine struggles between his values and beliefs compared to his life and the positions he often found himself. For instance, the man who espoused that all are created equal, yet owned slaves. The man who had an extreme distrust of and rebuked strong central authority, but found himself as President. I thought it was very interesting how they were able to frame Jefferson's ability to put his personal beliefs aside to do what was best for himself financially or what was best for the nation as a whole.

As an aside, John Adams stated that the Declaration of Independence is a re-write of a 1772 (approx date) position paper penned by Samuel Adams.

Samuel was enemy #1 to the banksters, that is why history has ignored him. Sams father was a highly influential director of the commodities based Bank of Boston (aka: land bank). The Bank was competing very successfully with the Bank of England (aka: sea bank). The Bank of London was able to sue the Bank of Boston into oblivion. The directors lost almost everything.

Sams father previously held an entire block of property on Boston Harbor, perhaps the nations most valuable real estate. Sam didn't give a rats ass about material possessions. He was a 100%, purebred, dyed in the wool revolutionary.

Curious that mainstream history says nary a word about the pivotal role that the Bank of England played in the American Revolution.