FRANCE: Thomas Jefferson and I

Before the UN General Assembly I received by express delivery from the UN a folder about it. On the cover at the top was the announcement in English, at the bottom if French, occupying a little more space. English and French are the two official languages of the UN, but that is now a fiction. Not to mention English, French is heard less than Spanish at the UN. This fiction takes us back to the centuries, roughly from Louis XIV to about World War II, when French was the language of diplomacy and French civilization was aped far and wide.

I grew up in that world. Every educated person knew French, and salted conversation with a few French words to prove it. Spain and the Spanish language were disparaged. The French were intelligent, and they persuaded the British that they were slightly stupid. We were brain washed. As a youngster I puzzled my mother by telling her about the superiority of things French. From beautiful southern England we crossed the Channel to the flat lands of Northern France. I asked my mother to admire the beauty of the French landscape. She was even more puzzled. I originally taught French. It was the influence of Salvador de Madariaga and the course of events which persuaded me to move to the Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian world. I am a historic specimen of the last generation of Frenchified Europeans.

That takes us to Thomas Jefferson. The results of the American Revolution were mostly good, but the Founding Fathers were human like the rest of us. I have long wondered how, in the name of liberty, democracy and the people, they could ally themselves militarily with a most autocratic, indeed tyrannical government which until 1763 had threatened them. The worst example was Thomas Jefferson. There is an immense literature on him. The process by which he became enamored of France was a complicated one, but he represented the age which produced palaces with French names: Sans Souci, l´Hermitage, etc. Architecture is the most visible manifestation of a civilization, hence Jefferson the architect.

In the vast literature about Jefferson, there are many studies of his role as Minister to France. There are some on the French Revolution. Especially provocative is The Long Affair: Thomas Jefferson and the French Revolution, 1785-1800 by Conor Cruise O'Brien, who examines Jefferson as man and icon through the critical lens of the French Revolution. This provocative analysis challenges the traditional perceptions of the Jeffersonian legacy. The France Jefferson admired was like the Bogota I knew in the 1940s: a highly cultivated elite living on top of a violent people. In France the result was the Revolution, in Colombia la violencia. Jefferson's attitude toward the French Revolution was ambivalent. His remark about the blood of patriots would land him in trouble today. Similarly, the Marseillaise does not represent the spirit of contemporary France.I am looking for a study of French influence on Jefferson, from his school years to his death. If there is one, please let me know. In any case, he represented a Francohpilia, indeed a Francomania which disappeared with my generation.

Ronald Hilton - 9/13/02