- Series
- The Jeffersonian heritage
- Air Date
- 1976-08-26
- Duration
- 00:30:00
- Episode Description
- This program focuses on Thomas Jefferson and his role in the creation of the Declaration of Independence.
- Series Description
- This series dramatizes the ideas of Thomas Jefferson, which are "the enduring possessions of all Americans and all free peoples," while being "authentic in historical spirit" and "imaginative in form."
- Subject(s)
- Creator(s)
- Papp, Frank, 1909-1996 (Director)Papp, Frank, 1909-1996 (Producer)Wishengrad, Morton, 1913-1963 (Writer)
- Contributors
- Rains, Claude, 1889-1967 (Actor)Malone, Dumas, 1892-1986 (Advisor)Solinsky, Vladimir (Composer)Solinsky, Vladimir (Conductor)
- Genre(s)
- Geographic Region(s)
- regions
- Time Period
- 1951-1960
[00:05 - 00:10]
The National Association of educational broadcasters presents the first in the series
[00:10 - 00:15]
of transcribed programs on the Jeffersonian heritage living
[00:15 - 00:44]
declaration starring Claude Raines as Thomas Jefferson.
[00:44 - 00:45]
Said.
[00:45 - 01:12]
My name is Thomas Jefferson.
[01:12 - 01:16]
The tender grass of one hundred twenty five spring time as waves green across my
[01:16 - 01:18]
grave.
[01:18 - 01:23]
Yet there is no great merit in the dead years. Others are
[01:23 - 01:28]
longer dead than I. The dead are nothing. The dead
[01:28 - 01:33]
are dead. A grave is so much earth and
[01:33 - 01:37]
flesh in time. Becomes a pebble. What endures
[01:37 - 01:42]
is a man's thought. The surviving idea. The living truth in him
[01:42 - 01:48]
which is never eaten by worms. And if I have given you something of truth.
[01:48 - 01:52]
Do not thank me for it. For no idea is any man's exclusive property
[01:52 - 01:59]
nor does any man possess less of it because other men possess all of it.
[01:59 - 02:03]
He who receives an idea from me but receives instruction himself
[02:03 - 02:08]
without lessening mine as he who lights his candle at my
[02:08 - 02:14]
candle receives light without darkening me.
[02:14 - 02:19]
And how much better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.
[02:19 - 02:49]
And.
[02:49 - 02:54]
I left word writing a play in it so there could be no
[02:54 - 02:58]
editor I wrote chose for the stone on my way of some close
[02:58 - 03:03]
order not Iraq. Something native in play that no one might be tempted to
[03:03 - 03:08]
destroy for the value of the material and upon this stone
[03:08 - 03:10]
inscribed own name.
[03:10 - 03:12]
Yeah I was vetted.
[03:12 - 03:16]
Thomas Jefferson author of the Declaration of American independence
[03:16 - 03:21]
of the statute of a junior for religious freedom. And Father of the
[03:21 - 03:23]
University of Virginia.
[03:23 - 03:28]
Because by these testimonials that I have lived I wish
[03:28 - 03:29]
most to be remembered.
[03:29 - 03:58]
I would speak knowledge of. The declaration of American independence.
[03:58 - 04:08]
On a May Day in the 1776 I knocked upon the Philadelphia door.
[04:08 - 04:13]
Let Mer do for you. Is this the house of Jacob Graff the bricklayer. It is. I am
[04:13 - 04:18]
married to his wife. I was told it might be a parlor and bedroom which could be left to me. I seek
[04:18 - 04:23]
lodgings Who are you. My name is Jefferson. What are you Mr.
[04:23 - 04:27]
Jefferson. A delegate to the Continental Congress. And your business there
[04:27 - 04:33]
to promote rebellion. Then there will be a price on your head. Why should we let you
[04:33 - 04:34]
in.
[04:34 - 04:39]
Madame do you so suspect and cross-examine every one who knocks at your door.
[04:39 - 04:44]
These are not ordinary times. There are wild rumors and strange
[04:44 - 04:45]
happenings in Philadelphia.
[04:45 - 04:49]
You have not answered my question.
[04:49 - 04:54]
Why should we give you lodging here. I will pay you. Others might pay as well.
[04:54 - 04:57]
Lodgings are scarce in Philadelphia.
[04:57 - 05:02]
You must give a better reason. American farmers lie dead at Lexington and Concord. That is
[05:02 - 05:07]
true and across the ocean a British king sits pampered and fat. What do you know of the
[05:07 - 05:11]
British king or any king. I know the livestock on my farm
[05:11 - 05:17]
madam. Take any old race of animals in breed them confine them in idleness pamper
[05:17 - 05:22]
them with high diet gratifying appetites not wish their passions.
[05:22 - 05:27]
Let everything bend before them and banish whatever might lead them to think.
[05:27 - 05:32]
And in a few generations. Yes they become all body and no
[05:32 - 05:34]
mind.
[05:34 - 05:35]
You do not like King.
[05:35 - 05:40]
I do not mistress cried especially George that specially George the
[05:40 - 05:45]
Third. And would the Frenchman be any better. Louis you know he is of
[05:45 - 05:50]
what King would you have thought the American colonies no king.
[05:50 - 05:55]
There is not a crowned head in Europe whose talents all merits would entitle
[05:55 - 05:59]
him to be appointed a justice of the peace in Philadelphia.
[05:59 - 06:04]
My husband will be delighted to hear that you may come in Mr.
[06:04 - 06:05]
Jefferson.
[06:05 - 06:06]
These be good enough to write.
[06:06 - 06:25]
Thirty five shillings a week to go do you know Mr. Graff it is a good house.
[06:25 - 06:29]
What baggage will you bring. Not much. John Milton Isaac Newton John
[06:29 - 06:30]
Locke.
[06:30 - 06:35]
Oh no you object madam. The Paula and bedroom will be led only to a single
[06:35 - 06:37]
gentleman we do not give lodging to a whole company.
[06:37 - 06:42]
Mistress. What man alive is not a whole company. I am
[06:42 - 06:47]
my grandfather's creed my father's prejudice my own descent from each. Here I
[06:47 - 06:52]
show you my baggage read this note book. Why not read my baggage madam. I believe my
[06:52 - 06:54]
notes are legible.
[06:54 - 06:59]
If for the people who do have a king pleaded as an act of God
[06:59 - 07:04]
why should not the people's rejection of a king be pleaded
[07:04 - 07:08]
also as an act of God. Rebellion to
[07:08 - 07:12]
tyrants is obedience to God.
[07:12 - 07:16]
And this last is from Dr. Franklin Mary that sounds fair enough to agree with your husband Mrs.
[07:16 - 07:21]
Graf. Possibly. Then let us read what follows more baggage. The sentiments of John
[07:21 - 07:23]
Locke philosophy begin here.
[07:23 - 07:28]
Mr. GRAEF the state of nature has a law to govern it and
[07:28 - 07:32]
reason which is that teaches all mankind that being
[07:32 - 07:37]
equal and independent no one ought to harm another in his life
[07:37 - 07:40]
liberty or possession.
[07:40 - 07:45]
This is the sort of baggage I bring. Man is born free
[07:45 - 07:48]
and is everywhere in chains.
[07:48 - 07:53]
I read of where you solve your riddle here in this house Mr. Jefferson.
[07:53 - 07:55]
But at least I would begin here.
[07:55 - 07:58]
Mary we have a larger show Mr. Jefferson his room.
[07:58 - 08:01]
He has not told us whether he's a man of good habits.
[08:01 - 08:06]
What do you wish to know Madam are you temperate. I drink wine
[08:06 - 08:11]
but no spirits. You use tobacco. I do not madam.
[08:11 - 08:16]
You are blocking us then. I do not think so. Vegetables
[08:16 - 08:21]
constitute my principle. Then of course you must be a late riser and I cannot abide the
[08:21 - 08:25]
late rising each morning I rise at dawn and bathe my feet in cold
[08:25 - 08:30]
water. Is there something else madam I should be happy to
[08:30 - 08:37]
answer. Do you believe in God.
[08:37 - 08:41]
Schorling mistress Graf. This is a matter between God and me.
[08:41 - 08:48]
What is your denomination now. We have it.
[08:48 - 08:54]
The vicious poisonous fatal query. Very well. I have no formal
[08:54 - 08:58]
creed. I belong to no party and other political religious not philosophical. If
[08:58 - 09:03]
I could not go to heaven but with a party I would not go there at all. Be
[09:03 - 09:08]
careful Mr. Jefferson you risk damnation no mistress Graf. I believe that God
[09:08 - 09:13]
approves the open homage of reason rather than the blindfolded homage of fear
[09:13 - 09:17]
and superstition I believe. Excuse me
[09:17 - 09:21]
I'm afraid I bore you.
[09:21 - 09:26]
I was thinking it might be time to make your rooms ready. I must tell you Mr.
[09:26 - 09:29]
Jefferson. You frighten me a little.
[09:29 - 09:34]
You have no say. Then you have misunderstood me. I believe in God and
[09:34 - 09:40]
have faith in reason. I have faith in the truth.
[09:40 - 09:45]
I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against
[09:45 - 09:57]
every form of tyranny over the mind of man.
[09:57 - 10:01]
And now all of us.
[10:01 - 10:13]
I came to the home of Jacob and Mary Grier bearing the baggage of my inheritance
[10:13 - 10:19]
the legacy of John Long and I salute you and Sir Francis Bacon transported to
[10:19 - 10:22]
the house of a Philadelphia bricklayer the child of immigrants.
[10:22 - 10:27]
A good house in which to compose an American Declaration.
[10:27 - 10:31]
Do not be awed by this circumstance. Some men look at constitutions and
[10:31 - 10:36]
declarations with sanctimonious reverence and deem them like the Ark of the covenant
[10:36 - 10:41]
too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to men of the preceding age a
[10:41 - 10:47]
wisdom more than human. I knew that age well. I belonged to it.
[10:47 - 10:52]
I labored with it. It deserved well of its country and of you. But what it did is
[10:52 - 10:57]
not beyond Amendment. I remind you the Earth belongs always to the
[10:57 - 11:01]
living generation the Earth belongs not to dead men but to you.
[11:01 - 11:23]
In the month of June you 1776 delegate John Dickinson came to my lodgings.
[11:23 - 11:28]
He came to plead. He came asking a troubled question.
[11:28 - 11:33]
Tell me Jefferson is it true is what true Mr. Dickinson that tomorrow Congress receives a Virginia
[11:33 - 11:38]
resolution declaring the colonies free and independent states that information is correct.
[11:38 - 11:43]
You must prevent the adoption of the resolution. Why I believe in the resolution. You believe in a
[11:43 - 11:48]
lie. As you wish you believe in Paris sighed.
[11:48 - 11:53]
If you say so the court between the mother country and America must not be severed. We must
[11:53 - 11:58]
not dissolve our political connections with the British Crown.
[11:58 - 12:02]
Jefferson Do you hear me and distinctly Well do you sit there like a Stone Speak tell me I'm
[12:02 - 12:07]
wrong. Fight me curse me call me Tory a scoundrel a coward blackguard but
[12:07 - 12:10]
don't just sit there argue with me.
[12:10 - 12:15]
And Dr. Benjamin Franklin has given as his invariable
[12:15 - 12:19]
rule never to contradict anyone. I am no Don Quixote to bring all men by force of
[12:19 - 12:24]
argument to one opinion. Each man has the inalienable
[12:24 - 12:29]
right to be wrong. I could smash your face for that that my daughter my
[12:29 - 12:32]
fleece but not my opinion.
[12:32 - 12:37]
Jefferson listen I shout at the top of my lungs. The colonies and the
[12:37 - 12:40]
crown must not separate they must conciliate.
[12:40 - 14:18]
When.
[14:18 - 14:23]
A declaration does not happen of itself. The egg from which it is
[14:23 - 14:28]
born comes to ripen yourself to a long fertilizing the
[14:28 - 14:32]
seed which germinates it. A more ancient spelling that I was talking
[14:32 - 14:37]
more distant than Moses going forth out of Egypt as antecedent as
[14:37 - 14:42]
Adam the first father. This is enough to form a
[14:42 - 14:47]
thing. I like the dreams of the future. Better than
[14:47 - 14:49]
the history of the postes.
[14:49 - 14:52]
Lol.
[14:52 - 15:09]
In the month of June 76 our great debate challenge the delegates
[15:09 - 15:13]
to the Second Continental Congress debates over the resolution
[15:13 - 15:20]
or breaking of ties with the country and the debate.
[15:20 - 15:25]
I was instructed to prepare a declaration and the
[15:25 - 15:28]
arguments against its writing fell upon me.
[15:28 - 15:33]
That declaration means war. Yes Mr. Livingston in fact at war
[15:33 - 15:38]
worse revolution as you pronounced the word Livingston and
[15:38 - 15:43]
as it is in fact it is a bit out yet for us must always be left as a
[15:43 - 15:48]
possibility. But the redress of grievances speak like Sam Adams and these messages it's
[15:48 - 15:53]
demagogue. I speak for myself. The intolerable thing in life is
[15:53 - 15:58]
coercion. Only when coercion is you can force be justified.
[15:58 - 16:02]
For years now we have been asked by George the Third. Enough
[16:02 - 16:07]
years and enough coercion perhaps there is still time to negotiate our
[16:07 - 16:12]
differences. Can you negotiate with someone who will not listen. Yes the
[16:12 - 16:17]
thought of revolution is a part of it but a revolution means getting control of your own affairs.
[16:17 - 16:20]
And THAT my friend is not apartment.
[16:20 - 16:48]
The world is on fire.
[16:48 - 16:54]
Jefferson how can you write so calmly. You mean so rudely. Forgive me Dickenson I forget my
[16:54 - 16:58]
manners. Each word of dissolution you write is as final and as irrevocable as death. Death is
[16:58 - 17:03]
always the chance of life. These are the wrong words. The welcome still be
[17:03 - 17:08]
resolved by words of conciliation. Once your declaration is written conciliation becomes impossible.
[17:08 - 17:13]
Only war is left and remember we are not colonies strong and united for we are
[17:13 - 17:18]
divided. Division doesn't trouble me. There can be no victory without absolute
[17:18 - 17:21]
unity only in the grave.
[17:21 - 17:26]
Is that absolute and unity. The free mind is suffocated by
[17:26 - 17:27]
unanimity.
[17:27 - 17:32]
Difference is the healthy living thing in the name of Heaven Jefferson What are you putting down on that paper.
[17:32 - 17:34]
A political declaration or a philosophical treatise.
[17:34 - 17:39]
Both What is important in this paper Mr. Dickinson is as
[17:39 - 17:43]
much what is left unspoken as what he said.
[17:43 - 17:49]
Let us proclaim that the enemy is tyranny over the mind of man. Let us fly
[17:49 - 17:54]
out a cannon against the jailers of all ages. The intellectual prison keepers the civil
[17:54 - 17:59]
magistrates and the religious zealots who enforce their dogmas upon those
[17:59 - 18:04]
unwilling to receive them. Let us say to them. Whose foot
[18:04 - 18:09]
is to be the measure to which I was only to be cut or
[18:09 - 18:10]
stretched.
[18:10 - 18:15]
Not your foot not any man support or stamp
[18:15 - 18:17]
or imprimatur.
[18:17 - 18:57]
This. Is the meaning of the declaration. This is what
[18:57 - 18:59]
lives in the declaration.
[18:59 - 19:03]
I belong to you together with the earth you inhabit.
[19:03 - 19:08]
The words did not die but every
[19:08 - 19:10]
generation spawns its own top.
[19:10 - 19:15]
Now for other words against the Torah and the Masters and
[19:15 - 19:20]
legislatures and give them no peace.
[19:20 - 19:24]
And having done this much such out and reconsider the words for yourself and give
[19:24 - 19:29]
yourself no peace. Of conscience let
[19:29 - 19:33]
men stop avoiding and allow themselves to confront the truth.
[19:33 - 19:35]
Look at the motion of your blog.
[19:35 - 19:40]
Keep time of the tumult of the world in the years of my life. I
[19:40 - 19:45]
spoke softly never raising my voice to shout. Now
[19:45 - 19:50]
in the long season of my death I would shout I would cry out from the grass that
[19:50 - 19:55]
covers me. Listen in the name of your immortality
[19:55 - 19:58]
listen to the meaning of the declaration.
[19:58 - 20:06]
Mr. Jefferson I told them you were writing they insisted on coming in all right.
[20:06 - 20:11]
Mistress forgive us we are importunate and I will come but we come for
[20:11 - 20:13]
one last week.
[20:13 - 20:18]
Yours may be awful but the British crown that does something and not
[20:18 - 20:22]
break us away from the mother country. Later perhaps but not now why not now. Because we
[20:22 - 20:27]
are too young Mr. Jefferson. We are insufficiently mature. Exactly we are
[20:27 - 20:32]
like a young child who wishes to disown the parent's hand. A parent who
[20:32 - 20:37]
is shielded as every protected us at every turn. Mr. Jefferson there is a time to be
[20:37 - 20:40]
free and a time to be protected.
[20:40 - 20:45]
I am authorized by Congress to write a declaration against protection.
[20:45 - 20:55]
I am empowered to announce a Latin phrase.
[20:55 - 20:56]
So we tutor.
[20:56 - 21:02]
I paralysed liberty to quiet so that you write
[21:02 - 21:07]
what you want to write this is not what you were asked or I was asked to write a declaration of
[21:07 - 21:12]
no dependence to demand from the American people responsibility over their own
[21:12 - 21:16]
lives. That is no freedom without responsibility. That is no freedom
[21:16 - 21:21]
without danger to be on one's own no one to hold your hand
[21:21 - 21:26]
no king no parliament no legislature. Gentleman this is a struggle
[21:26 - 21:28]
for the right to be in secure.
[21:28 - 21:48]
July 1776 I said before mankind the common sense of the
[21:48 - 21:50]
sun. Nothing new.
[21:50 - 21:55]
The principles written down were not original with me how could they be. These were the thoughts of
[21:55 - 22:00]
aspiring to something better. No new arguments
[22:00 - 22:04]
merely what had been said many times before.
[22:04 - 22:09]
All arguments and reasonable perhaps.
[22:09 - 22:13]
Perhaps one of the arguments was a little too reasonable.
[22:13 - 22:18]
Oh of course you know it will have to come out. I know nothing of the sort. Come Jefferson even
[22:18 - 22:23]
you must realize that the slave trade cannot be condemned. Says that South Carolina
[22:23 - 22:28]
and Georgia I will convince them I am granting the miracle that
[22:28 - 22:33]
you could not convince me and I am a Massachusetts a slave trade
[22:33 - 22:38]
convicts us all before the civilized world the best it does I know it does
[22:38 - 22:44]
because my own hands are not paid their own slaves in my own Virginia
[22:44 - 22:47]
on my plantation.
[22:47 - 22:52]
My servant in Philadelphia is a negro slave I tremble for myself and
[22:52 - 22:57]
for my country when I reflect that God is just. But his justice
[22:57 - 22:59]
cannot sleep forever.
[22:59 - 23:06]
But don't say a word about the slave trade in your declaration would you have me a hypocrite I would have you a
[23:06 - 23:10]
sensible man who understands that one thing must be done at one time
[23:10 - 23:16]
that it is immoral to sacrifice things that are possible and good in pursuit of something which
[23:16 - 23:17]
is impossible now.
[23:17 - 23:21]
I have heard that voice before reasonable or kindly friendly tolerant and always
[23:21 - 23:26]
compromising with justice. You know what a harsh man or of a genius because I want
[23:26 - 23:31]
it for the journey and for the South to see one half of our citizens trample on the
[23:31 - 23:35]
rights of the other half to have our children study their fathers while
[23:35 - 23:41]
other human beings studying their tyranny imitating their tyranny noticed
[23:41 - 23:45]
uneducated and daily exercised in tyranny.
[23:45 - 23:49]
Can a declaration for freedom be written and say nothing about that.
[23:49 - 23:55]
Well why don't you
[23:55 - 23:59]
both north and south
[23:59 - 24:08]
traders make that profit from the slaves at the time Jefferson.
[24:08 - 24:13]
The rest must wait for later. I shall write a paragraph against the slave trade.
[24:13 - 24:15]
Then we shall break your heart.
[24:15 - 24:18]
North and south it goes in
[24:18 - 24:25]
is a specific thing it is not a state of mind. It is not what you preach but
[24:25 - 24:32]
what you do. We dare not begin upon a compromise.
[24:32 - 24:37]
This is also there is no point.
[24:37 - 24:45]
You will see Congress will vote.
[24:45 - 24:48]
I saw that it was
[24:48 - 24:54]
the I am with.
[24:54 - 24:57]
The AS.
[24:57 - 25:00]
Was.
[25:00 - 25:10]
In the gray area a man is how to stop
[25:10 - 25:17]
in the gray human passion subside and judgment is an
[25:17 - 25:19]
eternity.
[25:19 - 25:24]
It was true the colonies were ready
[25:24 - 25:26]
for political emancipation and for no more
[25:26 - 25:32]
announce our national origin attended by much good but also
[25:32 - 25:38]
continuing and announcing it. Ask yourself how far
[25:38 - 25:44]
you have traveled in one hundred and seventy six
[25:44 - 25:48]
years but almost always to the living
[25:48 - 25:51]
generation.
[25:51 - 25:57]
Your generation.
[25:57 - 26:01]
We hold these truths to be self-evident
[26:01 - 26:07]
that all men are created equal that they are endowed by their
[26:07 - 26:12]
Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among
[26:12 - 26:16]
these are Life Liberty and the pursuit of happiness
[26:16 - 26:22]
that to secure these rights Governments are instituted among Men
[26:22 - 26:26]
deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
[26:26 - 26:51]
You have just heard the living declaration the first in a series on the
[26:51 - 26:56]
Jeffersonian hearing following minds of the noted historian and
[26:56 - 26:59]
biographer and prepared with his counsel
[26:59 - 27:05]
authentic and historical spirit while imaginative and far.
[27:05 - 27:09]
These programs dramatize ideas which are the enduring possession of all
[27:09 - 27:14]
American and all free people. Today's
[27:14 - 27:17]
programme starring Claude Rains was written by Morton
[27:17 - 27:23]
with special music composed and conducted by Vladimir Symonds the ballad singer
[27:23 - 27:25]
was Tom Glaser.
[27:25 - 27:28]
This program was produced and directed by Frank
[27:28 - 27:36]
listen next week for another in this series of programs on the Jeffersonian heritage.
[27:36 - 27:40]
These programs are repaired and distributed by the National Association of educational
[27:40 - 27:41]
broadcasters.
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