Report37Brownp2933.pdf

THOMAS JEFFERSON AND THINGS GERMAN:

PRELIMINARY FINDINGS

By MADISON BROWN

Virginia Military Institute

The Jefferson scholar Carl Becker states that Thomas Jefferson "was

familiar with all the ideas of his time. . . . There was indeed scarcely

anything of human interest that was alien to his curious and far-reaching

intelligence."¹ Some eminent Jefferson scholars say basically that Jefferson

had very few contacts with things German. Because Germany regained

political and intellectual prominence among the leading nations of Europe

during Jefferson's lifetime, the temptation to test Becker's claim and

those scholars' assertion was irresistible. This paper relates some of the

first results of that investigation.

At some time during Jefferson's youth or young manhood, the Virginian

came close to learning German. A small piece of cardboard with the

German texts of some song stanzas survives. Below each line is a labored,

literal translation into English, undated, written in the hand of the young

Jefferson.² In Philadephia at the Continental Congress of 1775, John

Adams was told by James Duane that Jefferson professed a desire to learn

the language. Several times later in his life, however, he stated simply and

without regret that he knew no German.

Even without a knowledge of the language, Jefferson had many contacts

with things German. In emphasizing the influence of English philosophers

in Jefferson's political thinking, scholars have usually overlooked German

sources and contributions. As a student and later a practitioner of law he

sought the origins of legal practices in the life of what he called his Anglo-

Saxon ancestors. Although he used the term "Anglo-Saxon " exclusively, he

was aware that these origins were Germanic. His favorite among the Whig

historians, Paul de Rapin, clearly speaks of the Germanic origins of the

English Anglo-Saxons.³ In the Whig pamphleteer Thomas Gordon's trans-

lation of Tacitus, Jefferson read of "Germanic democracy": the practice

of electing monarchs and leaders. He used the precedents he found in these

Germanic/Anglo-Saxon origins as examples of a federative system (Com-

monplace Book,

pre-1774), to argue for America's right to independence

(Declaration of Independence, 1776), and, as a Delegate in Virginia, in

his legal reforms (c. 1778). He wrote in his Commonplace Book, probably

sometime between 1774 and 1776: "All Europe is beholden to the Northern

Nations for introducing or retaining a constitution of government far

excelling all others we know."

Among contemporary political philosophers

Jefferson knew and cited the works of the German Samuel Pufendorf, whose

writings on natural law were widely influential among Americans, and

Emeric de Vattel, a French Swiss who was educated at Basel where he

studied Leibniz and Wolff and who was later employed by the court of

Saxony. Pufendorf held that all men were born free and Vattel that all

men were by nature equal.

Jefferson's knowledge of then current intellectual activity in Germany

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was uneven. In 1800 he supplied Bishop Madison, President of William and

Mary, a good analysis of the Illuminati, that short-lived, late eighteenth

century movement of republican free thinkers, in which he called Adam

Weishaupt, the founder of the movement, an "enthusiastic philanthrop-

ist" and considered Weishaupt's secrecy necessary in tyrannous Germany.

On the other hand, Jefferson does not seem to have known of the struggle

for liberty and governmental reform carried on by various German journal-

ists and intellectuals which was so basically akin to what he and his fellow

Americans won.

Although he professed to have bought all the important foreign works

on America, he owned only three works of the German historian-geographers

who produced the best works on America of the period. More surprising

is that he owned no work by the most outstanding of these Americanists,

Christoph Daniel Ebeling, with whom he corresponded.

As far as education is concerned, there is clear contact. For example,

Jefferson read about the revolutionary Swiss educator Johann Heinrich

Pestalozzi in American periodicals. Pestalozzi's disciple Joseph Neef came

to America to found a Pestalozzi school and Jefferson acknowledged by

letter receipt of Neef's book Sketch of a Plan and Method of Education . . .

(1808) .

Jefferson's young Virginia friend Joseph Carrington Cabell, who

was so instrumental in helping convince the legislature to approve the

university at Charlottesville, may well have visited Pestalozzi in 1805 but

certainly bought his works. For all this, it is surprising that Jefferson,

who early in his public career (Delegate, c. 1778) conceived a compre-

hensive educational system for Virginia, showed no interest in Pestalozzi's

ideas.

Jefferson's taste in architecture ran strongly but not exclusively to the

classical. In 1788 he traveled through Germany, mostly along the Rhine,

and he found that region the most picturesque and romantic country of

his travels. This reaction may explain the astonishing fact that he did not

remark on any of the truly impressive examples of Gothic and Romanesque

style along the Rhine except the spire of the cathedral in Strasbourg which

he called the handsomest in the world. What did interest him was the

castle at Heidelberg which he called the most noble ruin he had ever seen.

When he later did include an example of Gothic in the plan for his garden

at Monticello, he picked a small "temple or rather portico" from a German

pattern book.

In spite of the Werther craze and the Kotzebue fad and other ex-

posures, Jefferson remained immune to German literature. In 1797 the

English author Herbert Croft sent Jefferson a copy of his book A Letter,

from Germany, to the Princess Royal of England; on the English and

German Languages (1797) in which he attempted to call attention to the

German language and literature. Jefferson's reply focused mostly on the

linguistic aspects but only to the extent of mentioning where Croft is in

agreement with his own ideas.

In 1814 in reply to John Adams' query

as to whether the Virginian had read any Goethe, Jefferson answered

"Never!"

In Jefferson's Albemarle whose county seat was named for Charlotte

Sophie of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, there were very few Germans and none

of prominence. Neither Jefferson nor his friend James Madison mentioned

their Lutheran neighbors of the prosperous nearby Mount Hebron settle-

ment. Jefferson hardly took occasion—personally, as governor, nor as

author of Notes on the State of Virginia—to notice any Virginia Germans.

Before Jefferson went abroad, he did have two associations with non-

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Virginia Germans. His contact with some of the high-ranking officers of

the so-called Hessian (actually Brunswick) prisoners interned near Char-

lotteville (1779-1780) was extremely pleasant. They all enjoyed each

other's company, music, conversation, and philosophical discussions but

Jefferson shows no evidence of gaining a respect for German culture from

this particular contact.

The following year (1780) Jefferson's encounter with the Prussian-

trained professional soldier Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben was far

less pleasant. During the general's stay in Virginia, disagreement quickly

arose between himself and the state government, including Jefferson, who

was then governor. There were many points of contention: mobilization,

supply, fortifications, strategy, and the general's judgment. If we could only

read Jefferson's mind rather than have to infer from his carefully worded

letters, we would be able to understand his feelings about the incompati-

bility between philosophical doctrinaire and practical soldier, first term

democrat and veteran product of Prussian militarism.

In 1784 Jefferson arrived in Paris to join the American commission

which sought to negotiate treaties of amity and commerce with European

nations. Of all Paris including the philosophes, Jefferson liked the Baron

Friedrich Melchior von Grimm the best. He considered him "the pleasan-

test and most conversable" of the Paris diplomatic corps.

A native of

Regensburg, the Baron was considered the leading critic of art and litera-

ture and throughout his life he undertook to introduce Germany and

France to each other's literature. Jefferson remained silent on whatever

success Grimm had introducing him to German literature.

In April of 1788 Jefferson returned from Amsterdam to Paris via

Germany.

Aside from the architectural remarks already mentioned, he

took note of such local specialities as Westphalian ham and Moselle and

Rhine wine. Twice he commented on the discernible influence of sovereign

upon population: first at the Dutch-Prussian border where he was impressed

with the "effect of despotisn on the people," and again in Baden where he

said the Margrave must be an "excellent sovereign if we are to judge from

the appearance of his dominions." He was interested in two historic battle

grounds: the site where Varus was defeated by the Germanic tribes and

Bergen, where the French defeated the Prussians in 1759. He found the

Rhine landscape reminiscent of parts of Maryland and Pennsylvania, and,

though he himself did not see the Rhine between Coblentz and Bingen,

he recommended it as reputed to be "the most picturesque scenes in the

world." Except for the Baron von Greismar, a friend from the pleasant

days with the Convention Troops in Charlottesville, the only Germans

with whom he had real conversations were innkeepers, wine merchants, and

his valet in Frankfurt. If his interest in Germany had been greater he

would not have undertaken this trip on the spur of the moment but cer-

tainly have obtained advice and letters of introduction from his acquain-

tances in Paris.

Even as Secretary of State (1789-1791), Vice-President (1797-1801),

and President (1801-1809) Jefferson continued to have contact with Ger-

many. Among several pieces of correspondence relating to German immi-

gration are Jefferson's letters of 1792 in which he was negotiating the pro-

curement of Palatine settlers for his Virginia lands. Tourists like William

Maclure, who emigrated from Scotland and is considered the father of

American geology, wrote him their observations of Europe. Maclure men-

tioned the similarities he saw in the Rhine and American landscapes

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(1801).

He described crops and agricultural techniques and suggested

those which he thought might adapt well in America. Maclure sent Jeffer-

son some seeds from London wrapped in "an abstract of Kantian philos-

ophy which is much in fashion though uncomprehensible" to Maclure

himself and anyone he had met.

As President, Jefferson met Johann Georg Rapp (1804), the German-

born religious leader and founder of the communistic Harmony Society, and

referred his request for special terms in purchasing lands for his followers

to the Secretary of State. In 1804 he entertained Alexander von Humboldt

at the President's house. The German was on his return trip to Europe

after his stay in Spanish America and Jefferson seemed mostly interested

in what von Humboldt could tell him about the lands of the Louisiana

Purchase (1803). Although the two corresponded for some time, Jefferson

asked little and learned little about Prussia from von Humboldt.

Jefferson was an interested observer of the political events in Europe

but found little in these machinations to inspire his admiration. His life-

long hope with regard to absolutistic states among which he numbered

Prussia and Austria was that they would fall and liberty would spread in

Europe. In 1810 he frankly called Joseph II of Austria really crazy and

Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia a "mere hog in body as well as in mind."

A year later he praised America for having no involvement in the "mad

contests and ravings of pepperpot politicians," and saw that no European

power including the German ones had retained its honor.

Before George Ticknor, the scholar and Harvard professor of modern

languages, went to study at the university in Göttingen, he visited Jeffer-

son at Monticello in 1815. That same year his long letters to Jefferson

were filled with information about and praise of German university edu-

cation, scholarship, intellectual achievement, and especially literature.

Jefferson had requested Ticknor to buy him classical texts in English

editions. Ticknor, having found German scholarship and editions superior,

suggested Jefferson buy them instead. Jefferson followed the younger man's

advice, also found them superior, and recommended German texts from

then on.

In 1818 Jefferson made the following statement to the Virginia Senate

in support of his plan for language study at the university:

. . . the German [language] now stands in a line with that [i.e. the

languages] of the most learned nations in richness of erudition, and

advance in the sciences. It is too of common descent with the language

of our own country, a branch of the same original Gothic stock and

furnishes valuable illustrations for us.

But in this point of view the Anglo-Saxon is of transcendent

value. . . ."

These words seem to combine Jefferson's earlier ideas about Anglo-Saxon

with Ticknor's report of the intellectual attainments of Germany.

In the same year Ticknor declined Jefferson's offer of the professor-

ship of modern languages (French, Italian, Spanish, German, and Anglo-

Saxon) in Charlottesville, the young New Englander suggested the German-

born, Göttingen-trained Georg Blaettermann, who in fact did get the

position. Blaettermann was one of only two German-trained professors

appointed under Jefferson. The other was Robely Dunglison, a Scot, who

studied and received his M. D. at the university in Erlangen.

Becker's statement about Jefferson's "familiarity with all the ideas of

his time" appears to be overgenerous, most obviously in the case of German

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literature. Jefferson was the first American to return intellectually to the

Anglo-Saxon origins. He did recognize fully the advances of German textual

scholarship. The assertion that Jefferson had little contact with things

German appears to be outright inaccurate. Throughout his life he did

enjoy a varied and constant contact with things German, but it is dis-

appointing indeed that he did not bring his "curious and far-reaching

intelligence" to bear on more of them.

(Text of paper read at the Annual Meeting of the South Atlantic Modern

Language Association, Washington, D. C., November 1977.)

"What is still Living in the Political Philosophy of Thomas Jefferson?" Proceedings of the

American Philosophical Society, LXXXVII, 3 (1943), 201

AD, in the Thomas Jefferson Papers at the University of Virginia Library. I am most grateful to

the staff of the Manuscripts Division, Alderman Library, for their kind help and making available to

me this and numerous other materials.

H[arold] Trevor Colbourn, "Thomas Jefferson's Use of the Past," The William and Mary Quar-

terly, 3rd ser., XV (1958), 60.

Gilbert Chinard, "Introduction" in The Commonplace Book of Thomas Jefferson (Baltimore:

The Johns Hopkins U. P., 1926), 53.

Ibid., Art. 754, 212.

ALS, Thomas Jefferson to Bishop James Madison, January 31, 1800. The original is in the

private collection of St. George Tucker Grinnan; a typescript in the Thomas Jefferson Papers at the

University of Virginia Library.

E[mily] Millicent Sowerby, comp., Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson (5 vols.,

Washington, D. C.: The Library of Congress, 1952-1959), vol. I, p. 505 f.

ALS, Thomas Jefferson to Herbert Croft, October 30, 1798. Thomas Jefferson Papers, University

of Virginia Library.

ALS, John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, November 14, 1813 (folio 85524-35525) and ALS, Thomas

Jefferson to John Adams, January 24, 1814 (folio 35638-35640), Library of Congress. It is apparent

from these letters that neither correspondent realized the author to whom they referred as "J. W.

Goethens Schristen [sic]" was actually Johann Wolfgang Goethe. Adams and Jefferson seem to have

been introduced to "Goethens Schristen" by Friedrich Adrien Van der Kemp, who shared his

interest in "Goethen's ingenious conjecture that not one word of what we call the Decalogue was

written in the two tablets" (ALS, Friedrich Adrien Van der Kemp to Thomas Jefferson, June 14, 1816

[folio 36910-36911], Library of Congress).

ALS, Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, April 8, 1816 (folio 36796-36797). Library of Congress.

With the exception of Jefferson's account book, the several primary sources containing his first-

hand and secondhand impressions of Germany along the Rhine are most readily available in Julian P.

Boyd and Mina R. Bryan, eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, XIII: March to 7 October 1788

(Princeton: Princeton U. P., 1956).

ALS, William MacClure to Thomas Jefferson, November 20, 1801 (folio 20318-20319). Library

of Congress.

ALS, Thomas Jefferson to John Langdon, March 5, 1810 (folio 33719-33720). Library of

Congress.

ALS, Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, September 29, 1811 (folio 34465). Library of

Congress.

The readiest single source containing the bulk of this corresponence and a study of the

relationship between Ticknor and Jefferson is One William Long, Literary Pioneers. Early American

Explorers of European Culture (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard U. P., 1934), 6-55.

AD, Thomas Jefferson, drafts of the Report of the Rockfish Gap Commission, August 1-4, 1818.

Thomas Jefferson Papers, University of Virginia Library.

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