"A statesman is one who always asks what is best for this country."

— Clay S. Jenkinson portraying Thomas Jefferson

Find this episode, along with recommended reading, on the blog.

Support the show by joining the 1776 Club or by donating to the Thomas Jefferson Hour, Inc.

You can learn more about our Cultural Tours & Retreats with Clay S. Jenkinson at jeffersonhour.com/tours.

Thomas Jefferson is interpreted by Clay S. Jenkinson.

"I'm like everyone else, I'm in the middle. I see some benefits on both edges of the spectrum, but I don't want either of them to prevail."

— Clay S. Jenkinson

Clay asked listeners to rate, on a scale of 1 to 10, how alarmed they are about the current state of political affairs in the United States. Rather than just giving a number, many listeners responded with many thoughtful letters. This week we share and read portions from 17 of those letters.

Find this episode, along with recommended reading, on the blog.

Support the show by joining the 1776 Club or by donating to the Thomas Jefferson Hour, Inc.

You can learn more about our Cultural Tours & Retreats with Clay S. Jenkinson at jeffersonhour.com/tours.

Thomas Jefferson is interpreted by Clay S. Jenkinson.

"I believe that each faction, each party, has a moral duty to reach over to the other and to try to find common ground, and that each party should take the lead in being civil and respectful and generous."

— Clay S. Jenkinson portraying Thomas Jefferson

Find this episode, along with recommended reading, on the blog.

Support the show by joining the 1776 Club or by donating to the Thomas Jefferson Hour, Inc.

You can learn more about our Cultural Tours & Retreats with Clay S. Jenkinson at jeffersonhour.com/tours.

Thomas Jefferson is interpreted by Clay S. Jenkinson.

"George Washington ... was as close to a perfect human being as we believed existed on Earth."

— Clay S. Jenkinson portraying Thomas Jefferson

This week, we speak with President Jefferson about George Washington's farewell address which was first published in Philadelphia's American Daily Advertiser on September 19, 1796, 222 years ago.

Presidents leave a little note in the desk for their successor, and the public always wants to know what's in those notes. We seldom learn that, but the tradition of giving a farewell address is no longer a big part of American life. The last one was Eisenhower, but Washington set the tone in 1796. President Jefferson tells us what he thought of that tone. We know that Jefferson was aware that Madison wrote the first draft, and Hamilton the final draft, of Washington's farewell address. Mr. Jefferson was not too happy about that. He saw that Madison had recovered his senses and had now broken with the Federalists, and he hated the fact that Hamilton played a role in the great man's life.

Find this episode, along with recommended reading, on the blog.

Support the show by joining the 1776 Club or by donating to the Thomas Jefferson Hour, Inc.

You can learn more about our Cultural Tours & Retreats with Clay S. Jenkinson at jeffersonhour.com/tours.

Thomas Jefferson is interpreted by Clay S. Jenkinson.

"I think the American people are overwhelmingly good and decent."

— Clay S. Jenkinson portraying Thomas Jefferson

Find this episode, along with recommended reading, on the blog.

Support the show by joining the 1776 Club or by donating to the Thomas Jefferson Hour, Inc.

You can learn more about our Cultural Tours & Retreats with Clay S. Jenkinson at jeffersonhour.com/tours.

Thomas Jefferson is interpreted by Clay S. Jenkinson.

"Can we talk? Can we try to argue about where we are and where we're going and use the founders as a source of wisdom that might allow us to have a safe place to meet and to talk about this with civility, but with fervor?"

— Joseph J. Ellis

Clay and David discuss how to conduct better arguments, and also speak with author Joseph Ellis to talk about his new book American Dialogue, which will be released this fall. Professor Joseph Ellis is the author of a great number of books about the founding fathers, including some of our favorites.

There's talk of violence against journalists; how can we ratchet down our national discourse rather than continue to ratchet it up? Jefferson's mantra was, 'We disagree, but if we do, we disagree as rational friends,' and Dr. Ellis is saying, disagreement is the beginning of wisdom and harmony.

ind this episode, along with recommended reading, on the blog.

Support the show by joining the 1776 Club or by donating to the Thomas Jefferson Hour, Inc.

You can learn more about our Cultural Tours & Retreats with Clay S. Jenkinson at jeffersonhour.com/tours.

Thomas Jefferson is interpreted by Clay S. Jenkinson.

"Whatever's wrong with the press, we must defend it, because the alternative is tyranny."

— Clay S. Jenkinson portraying Thomas Jefferson

Find this episode, along with recommended reading, on the blog.

Support the show by joining the 1776 Club or by donating to the Thomas Jefferson Hour, Inc.

You can learn more about our Cultural Tours & Retreats with Clay S. Jenkinson at jeffersonhour.com/tours.

Thomas Jefferson is interpreted by Clay S. Jenkinson.

"He was part of the extension of slavery that made the Civil War inevitable, and that led to almost 800,000 deaths."

— Clay S. Jenkinson

This week President Thomas Jefferson speaks about the political mistakes he made.

Find this episode, along with recommended reading, on the blog.

Support the show by joining the 1776 Club or by donating to the Thomas Jefferson Hour, Inc.

You can learn more about our Cultural Tours & Retreats with Clay S. Jenkinson at jeffersonhour.com/tours.

Thomas Jefferson is interpreted by Clay S. Jenkinson.

"I would have been able to produce an account of that tour — and I mean no self-aggrandizement in saying this, but just from the sheer discipline of writing every day at great length — would have been one of the classics of the literature of exploration."

— Clay S. Jenkinson portraying Thomas Jefferson

Find this episode, along with recommended reading, on the blog.

Support the show by joining the 1776 Club or by donating to the Thomas Jefferson Hour, Inc.

You can learn more about our Cultural Tours & Retreats with Clay S. Jenkinson at jeffersonhour.com/tours.

Thomas Jefferson is interpreted by Clay S. Jenkinson.

"You have to wait 14 years under the naturalization law before you can become a full citizen of the United States. These were palpable violations of the Bill of Rights."

— Clay S. Jenkinson portraying Thomas Jefferson

We spend this week, as requested, responding to submitted questions and correcting some factual errors pointed out by our listeners.

Find this episode, along with recommended reading, on the blog.

Support the show by joining the 1776 Club or by donating to the Thomas Jefferson Hour, Inc.

You can learn more about our Cultural Tours & Retreats with Clay S. Jenkinson at jeffersonhour.com/tours.

Thomas Jefferson is interpreted by Clay S. Jenkinson.

"Voltaire at the end of Candide says, just go home and cultivate your garden."

— Clay S. Jenkinson

This week, we catch up on our mail bag and also speak with a couple of Thomas Jefferson Hour listeners.

We're kind of all over the place on this episode, but we had great fun: Paul McCartney, a documentary on John McCain, audio listener responses to this program — particularly with respect to music, and a man who drove from Sioux Falls, South Dakota to Bismarck, a distance of six hours, just to say hello. We included part of that greeting in the show, along with conversations from our listeners about whether television is toxic, or whether it's just another neutral medium.

Then we introduce you to a special new friend of the show, Carol, the music teacher from Valley City. She's 83 years old, in a care facility for the moment because of a hip. Carol is a listener of the Thomas Jefferson Hour, and she said that she tells her students, "When you stop learning, you're done." Kudos to Carol.

ind this episode, along with recommended reading, on the blog.

Support the show by joining the 1776 Club or by donating to the Thomas Jefferson Hour, Inc.

You can learn more about our Cultural Tours & Retreats with Clay S. Jenkinson at jeffersonhour.com/tours.

Thomas Jefferson is interpreted by Clay S. Jenkinson.

"The duty of the President of the United States is to be the principal articulator of America's values."

— Clay S. Jenkinson portraying Thomas Jefferson

Find this episode, along with recommended reading, on the blog.

Support the show by joining the 1776 Club or by donating to the Thomas Jefferson Hour, Inc.

You can learn more about our Cultural Tours & Retreats with Clay S. Jenkinson at jeffersonhour.com/tours.

Thomas Jefferson is interpreted by Clay S. Jenkinson.

"When you die, your legacy is the effect you've had on people, and boy did my mother have an effect on people."

— Clay S. Jenkinson

Clay Jenkinson speaks this week about the death of his mother, Mil, and discusses Jefferson’s thoughts and correspondence about death.

Find this episode, along with recommended reading, on the blog.

Support the show by joining the 1776 Club or by donating to the Thomas Jefferson Hour, Inc.

You can learn more about our Cultural Tours & Retreats with Clay S. Jenkinson at jeffersonhour.com/tours.

Thomas Jefferson is interpreted by Clay S. Jenkinson.

"I made a special devotion to collecting all of the maps that I could."

— Clay S. Jenkinson portraying Thomas Jefferson

Find this episode, along with recommended reading, on the blog.

Support the show by joining the 1776 Club or by donating to the Thomas Jefferson Hour, Inc.

You can learn more about our Cultural Tours & Retreats with Clay S. Jenkinson at jeffersonhour.com/tours.

Thomas Jefferson is interpreted by Clay S. Jenkinson.

"Too Né's data wound up in the journals and all of it is on the map, and the map deepens the journals, and the journals deepen the map."

— Clay S. Jenkinson

This week on the Thomas Jefferson Hour, we feature an extended conversation about the recently discovered map from the Lewis and Clark Expedition drawn by an Indigenous guide named Too Né. The map was found in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, and it's the subject of an entire issue of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation’s journal, We Proceeded On.

Find this episode, along with recommended reading, on the blog.

Support the show by joining the 1776 Club or by donating to the Thomas Jefferson Hour, Inc.

You can learn more about our Cultural Tours & Retreats with Clay S. Jenkinson at jeffersonhour.com/tours.

Thomas Jefferson is interpreted by Clay S. Jenkinson.

"It is not a great privilege to name a Supreme Court justice."

— Thomas Jefferson, as portrayed by Clay S. Jenkinson

Find this episode, along with recommended reading, on the blog.

Support the show by joining the 1776 Club or by donating to the Thomas Jefferson Hour, Inc.

You can learn more about our Cultural Tours & Retreats with Clay S. Jenkinson at jeffersonhour.com/tours.

Thomas Jefferson is interpreted by Clay S. Jenkinson.

"You want people who are moderates, who are not passionate zealots in any particular direction."

— Thomas Jefferson, as portrayed by Clay S. Jenkinson

Thomas Jefferson shares his thoughts about the workings of the Supreme Court, allows his personal irritations with the court to show, and explains how he feels the court has drifted from its rightful place in America today.

Find this episode, along with recommended reading, on the blog.

Support the show by joining the 1776 Club or by donating to the Thomas Jefferson Hour, Inc.

You can learn more about our Cultural Tours & Retreats with Clay S. Jenkinson at jeffersonhour.com/tours.

Thomas Jefferson is interpreted by Clay S. Jenkinson.

"I played a small role. I was just the penman of this thing."

— Thomas Jefferson, as portrayed by Clay S. Jenkinson

Find this episode, along with recommended reading, on the blog.

Support the show by joining the 1776 Club or by donating to the Thomas Jefferson Hour, Inc.

You can learn more about our Cultural Tours & Retreats with Clay S. Jenkinson at jeffersonhour.com/tours.

Thomas Jefferson is interpreted by Clay S. Jenkinson.

"Mythology begins to creep in, and as historians we like to question some of that."

— Clay S. Jenkinson

This week on our annual 4th of July show, Thomas Jefferson reads the Declaration of Independence in it’s entirety and speaks about one of his favorite holidays.

Find this episode, along with recommended reading, on the blog.

Support the show by joining the 1776 Club or by donating to the Thomas Jefferson Hour, Inc.

You can learn more about our Cultural Tours & Retreats with Clay S. Jenkinson at jeffersonhour.com/tours.

Thomas Jefferson is interpreted by Clay S. Jenkinson.

This week, we present another of our Jefferson Hour Book Club episodes and discuss Thomas Paine’s Common Sense.

Find this episode, along with recommended reading, on the blog.

Support the show by joining the 1776 Club or by donating to the Thomas Jefferson Hour, Inc.

You can learn more about our Cultural Tours & Retreats with Clay S. Jenkinson at jeffersonhour.com/tours.

Thomas Jefferson is interpreted by Clay S. Jenkinson.

"The debate in American history is not between Hamilton and Jefferson, the debate is between Adams and Jefferson."

— Clay S. Jenkinson

This week, we answer listener questions on the Thomas Jefferson Hour, including a letter from a writer who wonders whether the Founding Fathers were geniuses who seized the moment, or simply average people living in extraordinary times. We also speak with our good friend Beau Wright.

Find this episode, along with recommended reading, on the blog.

Support the show by joining the 1776 Club or by donating to the Thomas Jefferson Hour, Inc.

Thomas Jefferson is interpreted by Clay S. Jenkinson.

"He's a bit of a Tea Party guy, he's a bit of a libertarian, he's certainly for small government."

— Clay S. Jenkinson

This week's episode is devoted to answering listener questions, and many of the questions are about the current administration. We anticipate and appreciate comments on the issues discussed during this episode. Thanks for listening.

Find this episode, along with recommended reading, on the blog.

Support the show by joining the 1776 Club or by donating to the Thomas Jefferson Hour, Inc.

Thomas Jefferson is interpreted by Clay S. Jenkinson.

"Lightly governed, lightly taxed, highly educated, isolationist, farmer's paradise."

— Clay S. Jenkinson

This week, President Thomas Jefferson explains his own vision for America.

Find this episode, along with recommended reading, on the blog.

Support the show by joining the 1776 Club or by donating to the Thomas Jefferson Hour, Inc.

Thomas Jefferson is interpreted by Clay S. Jenkinson.

"I think that an ideal citizen is a bit grumpy, is always concerned that government is up to no good."

— Thomas Jefferson, Second Inaugural Address

We begin our conversation with President Thomas Jefferson asking about the actual location of his tombstone. We also discuss truthfulness, free speech, personal freedoms, upholding international agreements, and what Thomas Jefferson thinks about executive privilege and our current government.

Find this episode, along with recommended reading, on the blog.

Support the show by joining the 1776 Club or by donating to the Thomas Jefferson Hour, Inc.

Thomas Jefferson is interpreted by Clay S. Jenkinson.

"I don't think that it's very useful to compare the burden of the presidency of 1803 … with the burden of the presidency in your time."

— Thomas Jefferson, as portrayed by Clay S. Jenkinson

We talk with President Jefferson about an article written by John Dickerson of CBS regarding how difficult the office of the president has become. The article is titled "The Hardest Job in the World" and was published in this month's Atlantic magazine.

Find this episode, along with recommended reading, on the blog.

Learn about Clay's upcoming cultural tours and humanities retreats by visiting Odyssey Tours.

Support the show by joining the 1776 Club or by donating to the Thomas Jefferson Hour, Inc.

Thomas Jefferson is interpreted by Clay S. Jenkinson.