Q-Factor General Quiz-7th April 2024, Quiz Club NITW
Thomas jefferson in_paris_1785_program
1.
2.
3. Some Background
James C. Thompson
o Alumnus of Mr. Jefferson’s University
o Degrees: Philosophy - Ideas in
History
o Four years living on Martha Jefferson
Randolph’s farm
4. As a Philosopher I see
HISTORY:
As
Ideas Moving From Place To Place
What Happened As They Did?
6. I am not reporting events from the past!
I am creating
3-DIMENIONAL IMPRESSIONS
of them:
My aim is to bring past events to life AGAIN!
7.
8. This Evening:
I am going to reconstruct Jefferson’s transformation:
A POLITICAL LONER
HIS WIFE DIED
AN OPPORTUNITY TO START A NEW LIFE
A PLAN
A HELPING HAND
THE IDEA OF PROGRESS
9. In France
Thomas Jefferson became
A PROGRESSIVE INSIDER
Home again, this new man led a movement
to save the American republic
10. Thomas Jefferson Writing the Declaration of
Independence
by Howard Pyle (1901)
Thomas Jefferson
in
1776:
A
Political
Loner
11. After
meeting the Chevalier de
Chastellux,
Jefferson saw himself as
“A Savage from
the Mountains
of America”
Francois Jean De Beauvoir, Marquis De
Chastellux
by Charles Willson Peale, from life (c. 1782)
Independence National Historical Park, Philadelphia
12. Martha Jefferson
died on 6
September 1782
“Nay if even in the house of
Hades
The dead forget their dead,
Yet will I even there be
mindful
Of my dear comrade.”
Ellen Randolph Coolidge
(Martha Wayles Jefferson’s granddaughter)
by Frances Alexander (c. 1800)
Courtesy, Thomas Jefferson Foundation
13. Jefferson may have
decided to use his
Notes on the State of
Virginia
to establish himself as a
man of culture and letters
while visiting with Charles
Thomson, fellow member
of the American
Philosophical Society, in
the late-spring 1784.Charles Thompson Esqr. Secretary to Congress
By Pierre Eugène du Simitiére (1783).
In Portraits of the Generals, Ministers, Magistrates,
Members of Congress & Others.
Courtesy, Library of Congress
14. Jefferson was offended by
French Naturalist comte de
Buffon’s baseless claim
that
“ . . . the
animals
common to both
the old and the
new worlds . . .
have
degenerated in
Georges-Louis Leclerc, comte de Buffon,
Lithography by Francois Seraphin Delpech (undated)
Private Collection / The Bridgeman Art Library
15. Detail: Panoramic View of Paris Towards the North
by Louis Nicolas Lespinasse (c. 1786)
Musee de la Ville de Paris, Musee Carnavalet, Paris
Jefferson arrives in Paris in August 1784
16. A few days after arriving in Paris,
Jefferson calls on Benjamin Franklin in Passy
The Potager of the Hôtel de Valentinois in Passy, c. 1780
Alexis Nicolas Pergnon (c. 1780)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
17. Benjamin Franklin
Joseph Siffred Duplessis (1785)
National Portrait Gallery,
Smithsonian Institution
Benjamin Franklin:
A Man for all Seasons
o Promoter of the American Cause
o A new world Republican
o A Scientist - Inventory
o A Sage & Homespun Philosopher
o A Freemason
Turgot said of Franklin:
“He seized the lightning from
the sky, and the scepter from
tyrants”
18. Festival in honor King Gustav III of Sweden - Given at the Petit Trianon Monday on 21 June 1784
by Niklas Lafrensen the Younger (1784)
Formerly in King Gustav’s Private Collection
Franklin describes pre-revolutionary Paris as
A SOCIETAL GALAXY FILLED WITH
SOLAR SYSTEMS
19. Franklin orbits in five Parisian solar systems:
The Salon of
Duchess
d’Enville
The Salon of
Madame
d’Houdetot
The Salon of
Madame Helvetius
The Court of
King Louis XVI
FRANKLIN
115. Souper chez le prince Conti
by Michel Barthélémy Ollivier (1766)
Chateau de Versailles, Versailles, France
[1]
[2]
[4]
[3]
20. Franklin’s 5th Circle:
The Lodge of
the Nine Sisters
This celebrated lodge
was founded the year
Franklin arrived in France
(1776) with the help of
Madame Helvetius, to
honor the memory of her
husband.
21. Franklins steers Jefferson to
Pierre Cabanis
(1757 – 1808)
The best-informed man in
France is:
o A Scientist
Medicine – Physiology
(Materialism)
o A Philosophe
Turgot – Condorcet – Helvetius
(Supremacy of Reason over
Faith)
o A Freemason
Member of Ben Franklin’s lodge
(Social Virtue –
Benevolence)
o A Salonnier
Companion to Madame Helvetius
Pierre-Jean-Georges Cabanis
(After an engraving by Ambroise Tardieu (c. 1820))
Courtesy, The National Library of Medicine / NIH
22. Jefferson spends from mid-August
1784 until mid-April 1785:
o Weathering in to his new environment
o Mastering his responsibilities as a minister
in the American embassy
o Revising his “Notes on the State of
Virginia”
23. In the spring of 1785:
o Jefferson publishes his Notes
o He begins his Salon Campaign to
attract the attention the French
cognoscenti
o Cabanis offers to take him through the
city and acquaint him with France
24. “While the great mass of the people
are thus suffering under physical
and moral oppression, I have
endeavored to examine more nearly
the condition of the great, to
appreciate the true value of the
circumstances in their situation . .
.”
To Charles Bellini – 30 September 1785
Thomas Jefferson
by Mather Brown (1788)
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
When it was over, Jefferson
summarized the objective of
his salon campaign with
uncharacteristic candor in a
letter to Charles Bellini:
26. Excursion [1]
The Tuileries Gardens
62. View of the Gardens and Palace of the Tuileries
from the Quai d'Orsay
by Etienne Bouhot (1813)
Musee de la Ville de Paris, Musee Carnavalet, Paris,
28. o The monarchy is on the verge of bankruptcy
o The economy is stagnant and
corruption is rampant
o There is no advancement for France’s
aspiring petit bourgeoisie
o Peasants in the countryside
live on the edge of starvation
Supporters of the Ancient
Regime
Monarchists
The Cognoscenti
Progressives
The Petit Bourgeoisie
Professionals/Working People
The French People
An Illiterate Mass
Turgot
Robespierre
Louis
Nobody
30. 66. Le Palais Royal Gardens viewed from the Palace
by Louis Nicolas Lespinasse (1791)
Courtesy, Musee de la Ville de Paris, Musee Carnavalet,
Paris, France
Excursion [2]
Le Palais Royal
31. The Palais Royal is owned
by the duc d’Orleans, who
finishes it the year
Jefferson arrives.
It is a foreshadowing of another
revolution: a place to gather, a
place to shop, a place to be
entertained, place to debate.
It soon becomes a seedbed for
sedition.
The French Revolution will
begin here on 14 July 1789!
32. Louis Philippe Joseph, 6th duc
d’Orleans,
later Philippe Egalitaire, lives in the
palace.
It is no coincidence that the Palais is
the
center of LA MAÇONNERIE FRANÇAISE
and the seedbed for political intrigue.
The duc became Grand Master of la
Grande Loge de France in 1773. He
holds this post until he is beheaded in
1793.
Louis Philippe Joseph, 6th duc
d’Orleans
Grand Master, la Grande Orient de
France
by Michael Garnier (1777)
Detail: Philippe’s masonic
Square and Compass
34. 70. View of le Theatre de l'Odeon
by Victor Jean Nicolle (c. 1780)
Courtesy, Musee Nationale du Chateau de Malmaison,
Rueil-Malmaison, France
Excursion [3]
le Theatre de l'Odeon
35. Cabanis takes Jefferson to see a comedy
In Beaumarchais’ Marriage of Figaro,
commoners are wise and aristocrats are
foolish.
The audience is filled with educated
commoners who have come to Beaumarchais’
controversial play not just to be entertained—
France’s petit bourgeoisie is eager to improve
itself.
Even the common people are hungry for
CULTURE!
36. After the theatre, the prim
republican comes face to
face with the world’s most
libidinous society:
“
“We are on pins,” the
younger
Mademoiselle
Saint-Val implores,
laying
a soft hand on
Jefferson’s, “tell us what
you thought of our play!”
All eyes fix on Jefferson, who waits
a long moment before answering. “I
was enchanted!” he replies, smiling
awkwardly. The actress beams
across the table at her co-star. “I
warn you though,” he adds, “French
is not my native tongue.”
78. Mademoiselle Saint-Val as Bacchante
by Antoine Vestier (c. 1785)
Courtesy, Musee de la Ville de Paris, Musee Carnavalet,
Paris,
37. Jefferson receives his first lesson in
Oeconomics:
The future of France
will be decided by
commoners striving to
improve themselves
38. 84. Salon Scene
by Michel François André-Bardon (c. 1755)
Courtesy Louvre (Cabinet de dessins),
Paris, France
Excursion [4]
Madame d’Houdetot’s Paris Hotel
39. In Adam Smith’s
An Inquiry into the Nature and
Causes of the Wealth of
Nations
Jefferson is pleased to find that
the influential economist shares
his views on Primogeniture and
Entailment.
Jefferson discusses these things
with the admirers of American
Liberty and Constitutional
Government who fill Madame’s
Salon.
113. Portrait from a medallion of Adam
Smith
Engraving by William Holl the Younger
(Undated)
Courtesy, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris
40. Jefferson Learns from the Best People
that:
Liberty is essential for
Economic Growth
~
Both are necessary for
PROGRESS!
41. 99. le Hotel des Monnaies
by Pierre-Antoine Demachy (1777)
Courtesy, Musee de la Ville de Paris, Musee Carnavalet,
Paris, France
[5]
42. 91. Marquis de Condorcet
engraving by François-Séraphin Delpech (1832)
Iconographie des contemporains depuis 1789
jusqu'à 1829.
Delpech, Editor and Lithography. Paris. 1832.
Condorcet embraces his
mentor’s revolutionary idea.
Condorcet believes that in the
ever-expanding library of human
knowledge are remedies for
every ill that afflicts mankind. As
they are solved, man will
progress toward a state of
perfection. This is the
Doctrine of Progress
Something new is coming in
France, he tells Jefferson. It is the
law of Progress. Your are the
authority, he says, You must tell
us how to male government-by-
the-people work
43. The Lesson Jefferson Learns:
France’s leading reformers
consider Jefferson an expert on
republican government and
want his advice on how to
create one in France!
44. 108. Interior of Halle aux Blés
by Jean-Démosthène Dugourc (undated)
Courtesy, Metropolitan Museum of Art
The End of Jefferson’s Salon
Campaign:
Franklin returns home in June 1785.
Jefferson replaces him as American
Ambassador to the Court of Louis
XVI
45. Madame Geoffrin`s salon in 1755,
by Anicet Charles Gabriel Lemonnier (1812)
Chateau de Malmasion, Rueil - Malmaison, France
Jefferson now mingles
with France’s Great
Daubenton
Buffon
Marmontel
Rousseau
Madame Lespinasse
Voltaire
Soufflot
Quesnay
Diderot
Turgot
Duchesse
D’Anville
Prince Conti
Malesherbes
Madame Geoffrin
Fontenelle
Made d’Houdetot
Montesquieu
D’Alembert
Saint-Lambert
Helvetius
Boucharadon
47. Each Circle has its own focus
o Progress through Advancement of Scientific Knowledge
o Progress through Social Reform and
Public Education
o Progress through Economic Reform and Agricultural
Modernization
o Not A Progressive
The Port au Ble and the Pont Notre-Dame
by Louis-Nicolas Lespinasse (c. 1780)
Musee de la Ville de Paris, Musee Carnavalet, Paris, France
Madame Helvetius’s Salon
Madame d’Houdetot’s Salon
Duchess d’Enville’s Circle
Maria Cosway’s Circle
48. Louis Alexandre,
duc de la Rochefoucald
(1743 – 1792)
39. Vue du Chateau du la Roche-Guyon
by Hubert Robert (undated)
Musee des Beaux-Arts, Rouen, France
The estate of duc de la Rochefaucauld and a
center in the movement to reform France.
49. As is the case with Jefferson’s
other relationships with women,
his association with Maria
Cosway is shrouded in mist and
uncertainty.
I reconstruct the fleeting affair
with Mrs. Cosway in the book.
Maria Cosway
View of the Corn, Flour, and Seed Market, and the
astronomical
column in Paris
by Victor Jean Nicolle (c. 1810)
Musee Nat. du Chateau de Malmaison, Rueil-Malmaison
50. 156. Mirabeau confronts the Marquis de Dreux-
Brézé
after the Séance Royale (23 June 1789)
by Joseph Desire Court (Undated)
Courtesy, Musee des Beaux-Arts, Rouen,
A few moments after this famous
confrontation, the Estates General dissolved,
the old orders in French society
disappeared, and government by the people
came into existence.
51. 165. Washington's Inauguration at
Philadelphia
by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris (c. 1925)
Jefferson returned to America as a
progressive
insider in November 1789 and
immediately
joined President Washington first
Cabinet as Secretary of State
52. 6. Edgehill Portrait
by Gilbert Stuart (1800-1806)
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution;
gift of the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution,
the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, and
the Enid and Crosby Kemper Foundation.
Owned jointly with Monticello, Thomas Jefferson
Foundation.
When George Washington retired
from public office, Jefferson led
the Republican Party in two
campaigns for the highest office of
the land. He won the “Second
American Revolution” in the
Presidential election of 1800.
I believe his experience in France
prepared him both to wage these
campaigns and to lead America’s
“government by the people”.
In France, he embraced the idea that it
was his duty to improve the conditions of
man in society. As a member of la
Rochefoucauld’s small circle of
reformers, he gained the conviction he
needed to broadcast his views to his
countrymen.
