Share Our World: Jefferson Memorial

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While in DC Jodi and I were in DC we walked to the Jefferson Memorial.

It was a beautiful clear October day. The walk along the mall (grass area) and around the Tidal Basin and out the Jefferson Memorial is one of my favorites.

Here is a map to help you see where the Jefferson is in comparison to other parts of DC.

Here is a view of the Jefferson and the Washington monument that you can see very well from the Jefferson.

If you have been following my Art Talk Series this last year where I have been highlighting architecture you will know that I highlighted the US capital and it's neoclassical design. I really like the simplicity of the form and the columns

The Jefferson Memorial was built between 1939 and 1943. The bronze statue of Jefferson was added in 1947. It is 19 feet (5.8 m) tall and weighs 10,000 lb (4,500 kg). ¹
It is huge!

On the walls there are four quotes by Thomas Jefferson.

"Almighty God hath created the mind free. All attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens...are a departure from the plan of the holy Author of our religion...No man shall be compelled to frequent or support 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 opinions in matters of religion. I know but one code of morality for men whether acting singly or collectively."

Excerpted from A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom, drafted in 1777 when Thomas Jefferson was Secretary of State ²

"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 that these people are to be free. Establish the law for educating the common people. This it is the business of the state to effect and on a general plan."

-Excerpted from multiple sources: "A Summary View of the Rights of British America," "Notes on the State of Virginia," "The Autobiography," letter to George Wythe (1790), letter to George Washington (1786). ³

"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 that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as a civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors."

-Excerpted from a letter to Samuel Kercheval, July 12, 1816. ⁴

"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 a 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 honour."

-Excerpted from the Declaration of Independence, 1776.⁵

Around the top of the inside of the rotunda it says,

"I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."

-Excerpted from a letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush, September 23, 1800. -Excerpted from the Declaration of Independence, 1776.⁶

I am grateful Jodi wanted to read the quotes. This was the first time that actually read them all.

I still don't understand them all. I am grateful for Thomas Jefferson and his belief in God and how that effected the founding of the United States and that I am also free to believe in God, to learn and to live the best life I know how.

Jodi and I at the Jefferson Memorial