The following is the first part of Thomas Jefferson’s letter to Charles Thomson, sent from Monticello on or about January 9, 1816. Jefferson’s ideas about Jesus the Man pretty much describe the inspiration I had while creating the design for “The Cross” in 1968.
“My dear and ancient friend, — An acquaintance of fifty-two years, for I think ours dates from 1764, calls for an interchange of notice now and then, that we remain in existence, the monuments of another age, and examples of a friendship unaffected by the jarring elements by which we have been surrounded, of revolutions of government, of party and of opinion. I am reminded of this duty by the receipt, through our friend Dr. Patterson, of your synopsis of the four Evangelists. I had procured it as soon as I saw it advertised, and had become familiar with its use; but this copy is the more valued as it comes from your hand. This work bears the stamp of that accuracy which marks everything from you, and will be useful to those who, not taking things on trust, recur for themselves to the fountain of pure morals.
I, too, have made a wee-little book from the same materials, which I call the Philosophy of Jesus; it is a paradigm of his doctrines, made by cutting the texts out of the book, and arranging them on the pages of a blank book, in a certain order of time or subject. A more beautiful or precious morsel of ethics I have never seen; it is a document in proof that I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus, very different from the Platonists, who call me infidel and themselves Christians and preachers of the gospel, while they draw all their characteristic dogmas from what its author never said nor saw. They have compounded from the heathen mysteries a system beyond the comprehension of man, of which the great reformer of the vicious ethics and deism of the Jews, were he to return on earth, would not recognize one feature. If I had time I would add to my little book the Greek, Latin and French texts, in columns side by side. And I wish I could subjoin a translation of Gosindi’s Syntagma of the doctrines of Epicurus, which, notwithstanding the calumnies of the Stoics and caricatures of Cicero, is the most rational system remaining of the philosophy of the ancients, as frugal of vicious indulgence, and fruitful of virtue as the hyperbolical extravagances of his rival sects.”
Thomas Jefferson had a very rare understanding for his time of the simple but profound ethics of the Great Man Jesus (“Verily. verily, I am the Son of Man”) – which today is available through online booksellers for a very reasonable price. It is now published as “The Jefferson Bible” – which was apparently not Jefferson’s own choice for a title – but which has his comments about Jesus and his philosophy that the positive dynamic part of the 60s Zeitgeist was in so many ways a product of brotherly love. My poster design of “The Cross” was conceived at the time to add vision to Jesus’ simple two part ethical theme – Love the Good God above all else – and Love your neighbor as yourself. The ethical foundation of what, in the ‘politic’ of the olden days of our nation’s origins, could perhaps be referred to as the ideal of ‘Jeffersonian Republicanism.’ (I’ve often wondered if this could be why Lincoln decided to call himself a ‘Republican.’)
I quote this letter also because it was sent by Thomas Jefferson to Charles Thomson, who was in fact my great, great, great, great uncle on my mother’s side – her maiden name was Thomson. Yes I’m proud of this Uncle Charles. He was the first Secretary to the Continental Congress of the United States and was for a time or two during the revolution the only working official of that early government – keeping its modest offices in Philadelphia open for business. During the often dark and difficult revolutionary war six of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were caught and hanged by the British. Uncle Charles was there – serving the cause no matter what. After the war was finally won and the first elections held he was the official dispatched to Mt. Vernon to notify George Washington that he had been elected as our first President. He was an acquaintance and often a friend of several of the founding fathers and thereby he was one of the significant Founders of these United States of America. He lived a long life of 95 years.
