January 2022

 

Saving Monticello: The Newsletter

The latest about the book, author events, and more

Newsletter Editor - Marc Leepson

 

Volume XIX, Number 1                              January 1, 2022

“The study of the past is a constantly evolving, never-ending journey of discovery.” – Eric Foner

 

‘MOST CAREFULLY PRESERVED’: In 1897, Jefferson M. Levy, who had owned Monticello for nearly twenty years, received a letter from one of the most famous men in America—the once and future Democratic presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan. 

The populist politician and famed orator, an unabashed admirer of Thomas Jefferson, wrote to Levy seemingly out of the blue in April suggesting that he sell Monticello to the federal government, which would turn it into a national shrine to Thomas Jefferson. This was just six months after Bryan—at 36, the youngest man ever to run for the presidency—had narrowly lost the 1896 election to Republican William McKinley.

As I wrote in Saving Monticello, the story broke in an April 9, 1897, New York Herald article reporting that Bryant asked Levy to name a selling price for Monticello and that he also outlined his idea for turning the house into a national Jefferson memorial. Jefferson Levy’s reply, according to the newspaper, was that “not all the money in the United States Treasury would induce him to part with it.” 

In a subsequent editorial, the Herald advised Bryan to give up his plan, and strongly endorsed Jefferson Levy’s stewardship of Monticello, providing a snapshot of Monticello’s condition under his then 18-year ownership of Jefferson’s “Essay in Architecture.” To wit: “It must be admitted, and happily so, [that] Mr. Levy is keeping up the estate better perhaps than the government would do. Mr. Levy does not live there. He rarely, indeed, visits the historic spot, but he spends annually a good deal more than a senator’s salary in keeping the house and grounds intact. His chief pride is maintaining [Monticello] exactly as it was in Jefferson’s day. The mansion itself is most carefully preserved.” 

With Levy closing the door, Bryan turned his attention elsewhere, and Jefferson Levy went about his business—which was booming. He was raking in money with his real estate holdings and stock trading, traveling to Europe regularly, and generally enjoying the good life. 

He also made his first foray into politics, winning a New York City seat in the House of Representatives as a Democrat in the 1898 elections. Soon after taking office in 1899, Jefferson Levy became a well-known figure in Washington. In the next few years his social life, his many six-figure real estate deals, his high-stakes stock speculating, and his political views were regularly and prominently reported in newspapers in New York, Washington, Charlottesville, and throughout the country. 

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I wrote about on more than a few of those newspaper articles in the book, and I recently found details about a light-hearted story involving Levy, Bryan, and what Thomas Jefferson liked to serve for dinner at Monticello. 

In the first months of 1899, Bryan was the leading contender for the 1900 Democratic presidential nomination—which he would secure (and lose again to McKinley). The Democrats were still divided over fiscal policy, with Bryan leading the free silver forces, as he did in 1896 when he gave him famous Cross of Gold speech at the Democratic National Convention.

The rivalry with the gold standard faction led to a small contretemps over Bryan’s refusal to attend a $10-a-plate April 13 Jeffersonian dinner put on by the gold crowd. Instead, Bryan decided to host a $1-a-plate affair honoring Jefferson's birthday, which was more in line with his free silver platform and his populist principles in general. 

As the war of dinner words heated up on social media—newspapers throughout the country, that is—an enterprising reporter in Charlottesville sought out Jefferson Levy on the topic of Thomas Jefferson’s dining preferences.

Here’s what a hungry public learned from Levy on that meaty subject. Although Thomas Jefferson, Levy said in a widely reprinted newspaper article, “was exceedingly simple in his manners, he liked a good dinner, and kept a table that was noted for its excellent viands.” According to Levy, Jeffersonian Monticello dinners were “not served on common tableware, but on silver. Almost every day he had distinguished guests at his table, and he did not give them hog and hominy and coffee with long sweetening.” 

Instead, Jefferson served “the very best of his plantation and the markets offered. In fact, he was noted for his fine dinners. He had lived in the best society of Europe, and he knew what a good dinner was.” 

Then Jefferson Levy weighed in on the Jefferson dinner mini controversy, saying that if he were alive, the Sage of Monticello definitely would go for the $10 dinner.  

EVENTS: I have two this Zoom talks for Context Conversations in January. The first, on, Monday, January 17, at 5:00 p.m. Eastern, is on Saving Monticello. More info, including how to register, at: https://bit.ly/ContextTalkSavingM

The second, on Monday, January 24, also at 5:00, is on Desperate Engagement, my history of the Civil War Battle of Monocacy and the subsequent Confederate attack on Washington, D.C. Fore more info and to register: https://bit.ly/ContextDesperateEngagement

If you’d like to arrange an event for Saving Monticello—or for any of my other books, please email me at marcleepson@gmail.com

For details on other upcoming events, check out the Events page on my website:  https://bit.ly/NewAppearances

GIFT IDEAS:  Want a personally autographed, brand-new paperback copy of Saving Monticello? Please e-mail me at marcleepson@gmail.com  I also have a few as-new, unopened hardcover copies, along with a good selection of brand-new copies of my other books: Flag: An American Biography; Desperate Engagement; What So Proudly We Hailed; Flag: An American Biography; and Ballad of the Green Beret: The Life and Wars of Staff Sgt. Barry Sadler.