Patrick Lee’s Explanation
Jefferson originally opposed all patents, but administering an existing patent law fell to him as President Washington’s Secretary of State. He found it a difficult, hands-on, time-consuming obligation.
He drafted this bill to make patenting more of an administrative function and less of an examining one. An amended version wasn’t adopted until two years later, and it made the granting of patents almost automatic.
Jefferson thought inventions were primarily for the public good, not for the amassing of private gain: “Inventions then cannot, in nature, be a subject of property.” Still, he recognized the necessary incentive granted by a patent:  “Society may give an exclusive right to the profits arising from them, as an encouragement to men to pursue ideas which may produce utility, but this may or may not be done according to the will and convenience of society … ”
(TJ to Isaac McPherson, Aug. 13, 1813, Padover’s The Complete Jefferson, P. 1011-1017)
Monticello’s web site features more information on the subject.
Jefferson was a noted inventor but never patented any of his creations. He might have fared better financially had he done so.

Bring Thomas Jefferson’s inventiveness to your audience!
Call Patrick Lee, 573-657-2739, to schedule a presentation.

Patrick Lee’s Explanation
I was jazzed about Monday’s post (May 14, 2012) and decided to stay on the gardening theme. You will recognize the last sentence above. I used it to close Monday’s account.
Jefferson always loved experimenting with plants and did so throughout his life! It wasn’t until his retirement that he could give himself wholeheartedly to that endeavor. At this writing, age 68, Jefferson was two years into that retirement, knowing that nothing would ever draw him away from his beloved lands (and garden!) again for any length of time.
Did you notice that the title of Peter Hatch’s book, A Rich Spot of Earth (from Monday) was drawn from this letter?

Jefferson’s interests will inspire your audience!
Invite him to speak.
Call Patrick Lee, 573-657-2730

Invite Thomas Jefferson to speak to your audience.
(On gardens, or any other subject!)
Call Patrick Lee, 573-657-2739

Patrick Lee’s Explanation
Jefferson spent the Revolutionary War years helping revise Virginia’s statutes. Promoting an educated citizenry was one of his passions. The entire statute was less than 400 words and fit on one page of paper. Its key provisions:
1. The Legislature shall fund a public library with 2,000 pounds per year. (A search of multiple web sites gave me no clear idea how many dollars that was in 1779 or an equivalent value in 2012.)
2. A board of three visiters (Jefferson’s spelling), learned and literary men, shall govern all aspects of the library.
3. A librarian may be appointed, whose maximum salary shall be no more than 5% of the annual budget.
4. During wartime, the annual appropriation may be escrowed until the money could be safely spent.
5. This was not a lending library. All books and maps were to be used on-site only, without expense to the user.
6. The visiters were responsible for an annual accounting of library funds.
Jefferson’s proposal was not adopted.

What other ideas does Thomas Jefferson have
for the benefit of your audience?
Invite him to speak and find out!
Call Patrick Lee, 573-657-2739

Patrick Lee’s Explanation
Health is second only to morality as a requirement meaningful life.
This is the conclusion of a long letter to his 17-year-old nephew, a son of his sister Martha and her husband, Dabney Carr, Jefferson’s best friend. Carr died in 1773, at age 30, leaving his widow with six young children. Jefferson took an active role in guiding his sister’s offspring.
The purpose of the letter was to guide Peter’s education. Prior to this advice, he counseled his nephew on studying Italian (not recommended), Spanish (recommended), moral philosophy (a waste of time), religion (keep an open mind, guided by reason only), on travel abroad (not recommended, especially for young men). He included exercise as an essential part of a broad education.
Jefferson’s closing sentence was, “Write to me often, and be assured of the interest I take in your success, as well as the warmth of those sentiments of attachment with which I am, dear Peter, your affectionate friend.”

Learn what advice (beyond exercise, that is)
Thomas Jefferson has for your audience.
Invite him to speak!
Call Patrick Lee, 573-657-2739

Patrick Lee’s Explanation
One of Jefferson’s “solutions” to the issue of slavery was to free them and resettle them elsewhere, perhaps the Caribbean but more likely, Africa. That would entail the expense of importing white workers to take their place, the question raised in the first sentence above. Wouldn’t it be easier simply to incorporate freed slaves into society?
Jefferson believed former slaves could not co-exist peacefully alongside former slave owners. Why?
- “Deep-rooted prejudices” by whites
- Vastly multiplied and unforgettable injuries suffered by blacks
- Future occasions for offense
- Skin color would always mark their former status. (Jefferson noted that Roman slaves, once freed, could melt into society, because they looked no different from their former masters. African slaves lacked that advantage.)
- Although he hoped to be proven wrong, he considered there might be biological or intellectual shortcomings among slaves. He did not know whether such differences were natural or the degrading result of slavery.
- “Many other circumstances” – You fill in the blanks.
The result of forced co-habitation could only be segregation and violence.
Removal was just one of several courses Jefferson proposed to deal with the issue of slavery. It was no more successful than any of the others.

The slave-owner who wrote “all men are created equal”
would appreciate the opportunity to speak to your audience
on this and other weighty matters.
Call Patrick Lee, 573-657-2739

In the General Government in this instance, we have gone even beyond the English caution, by requiring a vote of two-thirds, in one of the Houses, for removing a Judge; a vote so impossible, where any defence is made, before men of ordinary prejudices and passions, that our Judges are effectually independent of the nation. But this ought not to be.
Autobiography, 1821, 3857

Experience has proved that impeachment in our [constitutional] forms is completely inefficient.
To Edward Livingston, 1825, 3855

Patrick Lee’s Explanation
Jefferson was not anti-judge or anti-judiciary. He was very much opposed to any government official or operation that was not answerable in some way to its citizens. Justices with a lifetime appointment were not answerable to anyone. Nor, in his opinion, were the Constitution’s impeachment provisions adequate for removing a judge from office.
Several times Jefferson proposed other means to hold judges accountable. While never adopted, they involved term limits or allowing the President and both houses of Congress acting together to remove a justice. The purpose was not to control the judiciary arbitrarily but to prevent judges from being above the law themselves.

Invite Thomas Jefferson to inspire, teach and entertain your audience.
Call Patrick Lee, 573-657-2739

Patrick Lee’s Explanation
Just 12 years from its founding, Jefferson believed the national government was doing more, employing more and taxing more than the Constitution intended. In this passage, he took on the growth in government employment and the taxes required to support that growth. To summarize:
- Most offices were established by law (read: Congress) and could only be abolished in the same way.
- If Congress wanted to review the usefulness of these offices, they would have his full support.
- Since government tended to multiply and thus tax its citizens accordingly, it was necessary to look for every opportunity to decrease that tax burden.
- America must not so tax its citizens as to leave them with barely enough of their own money to scrape by, and then take the rest, too.
- Government was created to guard private property, not consume it.
Jefferson witnessed this in Europe, where government power and privilege ground the masses into helpless, hopeless poverty.
This message was what we call today the “State of the Union” address. It is required by Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution, that the Executive shall report to the Congress “from time to time.”
Presidents Washington and Adams gave their messages in person as speeches to Congress. Jefferson thought that smacked of a king addressing his subjects. He delivered his annual messages in writing, a practice that continued until President Woodrow Wilson in 1913.

What protections does Thomas Jefferson desire for your audience?
Find out! Invite him to speak.
Call Patrick Lee, 573-657-2739

Patrick Lee’s Explanation
The previous post (4-27-12) gave the first three purposes of a university education, drawn from this report. Today’s post gives the final three, to:
4. Develop critical thinking, for intellectual and moral growth and understanding
5. Learn the sciences which promote the arts and contribute to human comfort
6. Form habits which make them good examples to others and bring happiness to themselves
These six objects will
– Benefit the country generally
– Please its citizens, promoting happyness and health
– Be a particular blessing to the parents and their children

Thomas Jefferson has a purpose for everything,
even your audience! Invite him to speak.
Call Patrick Lee, 573-657-2739

Patrick Lee’s Explanation
Jefferson wrote the report of these 21 commissioners, who met Aug. 1-4, 1818, at Rockfish Gap in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The Commission had been charged by the Legislature to prepare detailed guidelines for a new public university.
The duties of the Commission were to recommend:
- A location (Charlottesville was chosen over Staunton and Lexington.)
- A design for the grounds. (The original design is still very much in evidence.)
- The curricula
- Qualifications of the professors
In-between the first two and last two was an explanation of the purposes of the University, our focus in this post and the next. These first three purposes could be summarized:
1. To prepare leaders on whom the public can depend
2. To promote principles of sound government and an understanding of laws which
            – Govern international relations
            – Are necessary for local government
            – Protect individuals from unnecessary or arbitrary restraint
            – Leave individuals free to do whatever they wish, provided they don’t
infringe on another’s equal rights.
3. To promote a free market economy, based on balanced interests of agriculture,
manufacture and commerce.
Monday’s post (April 30) will detail the remaining three purposes.

Thomas Jefferson has a purpose for everything,
even your audience! Invite him to speak.
Call Patrick Lee, 573-657-2739