A grateful nation had already honored presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln with monuments, but Thomas Jefferson, one of the greatest givers and thinkers among the nation's presidents, had gone unrecognized.
So, in 1934, Congress created a commission to plan a memorial for Jefferson as well. The monument was begun on Dec. 15, 1938 and was dedicated on April 14, 1943, Jefferson's 200th birthday.
The building is a circular white marble structure surrounded with columns and topped by a dome, similar to the Pantheon in Rome and the rotunda Jefferson designed for the University of Virginia. In the center is a black-granite sculpture of Jefferson.
By applying in his political life Jesus' philosophy that "There is more happiness in giving than in receiving," Jefferson accomplished a great deal for Virginia and the struggling new United States. (Though not a Christian in the traditional sense, Jefferson respected Jesus's teachings and even compiled many of them in a little volume of his own.)
For example, at age 24, as a new legislator in Virginia, Jefferson's first proposal was to allow slaveholders to free their slaves; this at a time when slaves could only be released for some "meritorious service." In response he was denounced as an enemy of his country!
Today, we take the separation of church and state for granted, but in Jefferson's time the idea was radical. But Jefferson did not believe in all the doctrines of the Church of England, so through the Virginia Assembly he attempted to overthrow this church-state combination.
In Bill 82, he wrote ,"Almighty God hath created the mind free...To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and the struggling new United States. (Though not a Christian in the traditional sense, Jefferson respected Jesus's teachings and even compiled many of them in a little volume of his own.)
