Thomas Jefferson--Founding Father
The Jefferson Memorial was built in Washington, D.C., between 1939 and 1943 under the tutelage of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roosevelt wanted to memorialize the Founding Fathers and particularly Thomas Jefferson, the principal Father of the Declaration of Independence.
The Jefferson Memorial is a marble and granite monument composed of steps, a circular colonnade, a portico, and a dome. Its diameter is 165 feet.
As one moves up the granite and marble steps, one reaches the portico with a triangular pediment. Upon the pediment is a depiction of the five members of the Declaration of Independence drafting committee—John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston, and Thomas Jefferson.
As one enters the circular interior of the memorial, one encounters the focally located nineteen-foot Thomas Jefferson bronze statue.
The frieze below the dome’s interior is inscribed with the words, “I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”
The monument’s walls are decorated with four large panels citing Jefferson’s declarations.
The southwest interior wall panel has a passage from the 1776 Declaration of Independence:
The Jefferson Memorial is a marble and granite monument composed of steps, a circular colonnade, a portico, and a dome. Its diameter is 165 feet.
As one moves up the granite and marble steps, one reaches the portico with a triangular pediment. Upon the pediment is a depiction of the five members of the Declaration of Independence drafting committee—John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston, and Thomas Jefferson.
As one enters the circular interior of the memorial, one encounters the focally located nineteen-foot Thomas Jefferson bronze statue.
The frieze below the dome’s interior is inscribed with the words, “I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”
The monument’s walls are decorated with four large panels citing Jefferson’s declarations.
The southwest interior wall panel has a passage from the 1776 Declaration of Independence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, that to secure these rights governments are instituted among men. We…solemnly publish and declare, that these colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent states…. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.
The northwest interior wall panel has an extract from Jefferson’s draft of the 1777 Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom and a citation from a 1789 letter to James Madison:
Almighty God hath created the mind free…. All attempts to influence it by temporal punishments…are a departure from the plan of the Holy Author of our religion…. No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship or ministry or shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief, but all men shall be free to profess and by argument to maintain, their opinion in matters of religion.
The northeast interior wall panel has quotes from several sources (letters and notes) on the topic of national independence:
God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever. Commerce between master and slave is despotism. Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than these people are to be free.
The southeast interior panel wall is from an 1816 letter to Samuel Kercheval regarding the evolution of institutions:
I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions. But laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As [the mind] becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered...institutions must advance...to keep pace with the times.
Thomas Jefferson, a founding father, president, and principal writer of the Declaration of Independence was instrumental in creating a form of government that would change the world for the better.
