Why didn't anyone make a fuss when the literary integrity of a national monument was reduced to the level of a comic book?
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I happened upon a Christian comic book, Yankee Doodle-The Spirit of Liberty (by Al Hartley. Spire Comics, 1984), the other day and being curious about how the other half sees the world, decided to read it. It was an interesting experience. It was all about how the United States was founded as a Christian nation and it quoted a couple of the Founding Fathers in support of this contention. I decided to check the accuracy of the quotes since some Christians have been known to make these things up once in awhile... The first, purportedly by Benjamin Franklin, was
"...Unless the Lord builds a house, those who build it, labor in vain."
I found this one quite easily and, lo and behold, it was by Benjamin Franklin. The only problem was that the Benjamin Franklin quoted was actually a hymnal writer named Benjamin Franklin White (1809-1879). What was even more amazing was that, not only did this hymnal writer’s name resemble that of the original Benjamin Franklin, but the face drawn in the comic book resembled him as well! This is an astonishing coincidence but, with faith I guess, all things are possible.
The second quotation, by Thomas Jefferson and supposedly inscribed on the wall of the Jefferson Memorial, was
"God gave us life and liberty. Can our liberty survive if we fail to believe it is the gift of God?"
Guess what? This one IS inscribed on the wall of the Jefferson Memorial pretty much as the comic book quoted it. The whole inscription reads
"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. Establish the law for educating the common people. This it is the business of the state to effect and on a general plan."
Was this the Thomas Jefferson who also said,
"It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are 20 gods, or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg" or "Christianity is the most perverted system that ever shone on man"?
So I dug a little deeper. From the Jefferson Library web site for the Jefferson Memorial I found that it is one of five inscribed in the statue chamber.
The first is a familiar one from Jefferson's September 23, 1800 letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush where he swears upon the altar of God, opposition to all forms of tyranny over the mind of man. The second, which mentions the Creator and the protection of divine providence, is lifted, somewhat piecemeal, from the Declaration of Independence. The third, which mentions God and "the plan of the Holy Author of our religion", is taken, in pieces, from a 1777 bill for establishing religious freedom with a line added from a 1789 letter to James Madison. The fourth I've already quoted and the fifth, which concerns human progress and is the only one which doesn't mention God, comes from an 1816 letter to Samuel Kerchival.
Looking a little closer at the five quotations, it can be seen that only two of them, the first, which consists of only one sentence, and the fifth, the most secular, are quoted without abridgement. The worst offender is the fourth one, the one the comic book quoted. It is cobbled together from no less than FIVE different sources, as follows:
A Summary View of the Rights of British America: "God...liberty."
Notes on the State of Virginia: "Can...God?"
Notes on the State of Virginia: "commerce...despotism."
The Autobiography: "Nothing...free."
Letter to George Wythe, August 13, 1780 (?): "Establish...people."
Letter to George Washington, January 4, 1786: "This...plan."
The impression you get from these inscriptions is how much Thomas Jefferson was obsessed by the role of God in the founding and governance of this country. Is this an accurate representation?
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Now Thomas Jefferson is probably the most prolific writer among the Founding Fathers and is an icon for just about the entire spectrum of American political opinion. Conservatives and Liberals both frequently quote him for support for often radically different platforms. So do secularists and theists. Like the Bible, support can be found in his writings for all sorts of positions, even wildly opposing ones (for examples, just dig a little into the arguments over slavery between the abolitionists and the Southern Baptists. These days the Southern Baptist Convention doesn't advertise the fact that it came into being because its followers found support for slavery in the bible that other Baptists preferred to ignore).What a travesty this is! It is bad enough to quote him out of context or, like most who quote him, to not understand that terms like "republicanism", "liberalism" and "political party" do not mean the same thing today that they did in Jefferson's time, but to hammer together sentences from different sources to make up something he never meant to say, is positively criminal!
When Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated the Memorial on April 13, 1943, he called Thomas Jefferson an "Apostle of Freedom". You would think someone at the time would have questioned the apotheosis; that there would have been at least a little controversy over the misrepresentation of Jefferson's words and meaning. I have been unable to find any.
The only Jefferson Memorial controversies that I was able to dig up concerned architecture and cherry trees. Some people thought it's neoclassical plan too reminiscent of Ancient Rome or too similar to the style of the Lincoln Memorial. Others thought there was a danger of Washington being overrun with memorials and still others were upset over the need to remove some cherry trees from the proposed site! No one, neither scholar, historian or anyone else, questioned the composition of the inscriptions.
I'm going to take another look at the comic book that got me started on this subject. Even if I can't agree with their representation of why this country exists, they certainly have the right perspective on how America views its history and its great men: with all the abbreviated examination and unquestioning complacency of a comic book.
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Comments
Absolutely love that one. Thanks for sharing a great find.
Hugh, nice piece, but misplaced apostrophes hurt credibility ("views it's history and it's great men ....").
Respectfully
John
Thanks, John. I'll correct that.
A fascinating article. Well done.
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