May 2021

 

 

 

Saving Monticello: The Newsletter

The latest about the book, author events, and more

Newsletter Editor - Marc Leepson

 

Volume XVIII, Number 5                                                              May 1, 2021

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

 

WHAT KIND OF DEMOCRAT? Jefferson Levy, who served three terms (1899-1901 and 1911-15) as a U.S. congressman from New York’s 13^th District in Manhattan, was a member of the conservative wing of Democratic Party. Befitting his status as a high-level real estate and stock speculator, Congressman Levy was a staunch fiscal conservative who supported pro-business legislation. On Capitol Hill, he specialized in matters of “financial importance,” a New York newspaper reporter once put it, and represented “a business element in New York State and city,” according to the Washington Herald. 

In Congress, Jefferson Levy—backed by NYC’s Tammany Hall Democratic Party political machine—fought legislation that would strengthen antitrust laws. He pushed for a bill to permit the Interstate Commerce Commission to allow railroad mergers even if they violated the Sherman Antitrust Act. He vehemently opposed what in 1913 became the 16^th Amendment to the Constitution, reinstating the federal income tax. That same year Levy made headlines when he pushed the House of Representatives to stop investigating business-lobbying practices.

So, without doubt, J.M. Levy strongly supported business interests in Congress and in the years when the lawyer and real estate and stock speculator who owned Monticello (from 1879-1923) was a private citizen and a member of the Democratic Party. But what about social issues? 

When doing the research for Saving Monticello I didn’t come across evidence of Levy’s views on social issues. But I recently found some primary source material that strongly indicates his views on one of the hot-button, non-business political issues of the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries: the role of the federal government in policing state election laws. This controversial issue centered on what, if anything, the government should do about voting restrictions imposed on African Americans—including poll taxes and literacy tests—in the South following the Civil War. 

In 1889 and 1890, during the administration of Republican President Benjamin Harrison, congressional GOP reformers, led by Rep. Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts and Sen. John Sherman of Ohio, introduced legislation that would increase federal control over national elections in the states. The proposed law was similar in intent to the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965 that outlawed Jim Crow laws aimed at disenfranchising African Americans that had been put in place in the South during Reconstruction. 

The legislation, known as the Federal Elections Bill, was controversial. Its opponents, including virtually every Democrat in Congress, dubbed it the “Force Bill,” as they viewed it as the federal government unconstitutionally forcing its will on the states. It passed the House on July 2, 1890, by just six votes. Then it was bottled up with a filibuster up in the Senate and did not become law. 

Two years later, in 1892, former President Grover Cleveland, a Democrat, ran against Harrison to reclaim the presidency. In the fall of that year prior to the election—six years before he ran for Congress—Jefferson Levy, a strong Cleveland supporter, founded an organization called the Virginia League of Democratic Clubs. As its name implies, the league was made up of nearly all the influential Democratic Party organizations in the Old Dominion. 

Within six weeks of the organization’s founding, Levy “succeeded in making it one of the most complete and effective organizations in the country,” the Washington Evening Star reported. 

“During the [presidential] campaign it numbered over 35,000 members and, according to the assertions of the chairman of the democratic state committee, was the cause of carrying the state by such a tremendous majority for Cleveland and the party.” 

A report in the Staunton (Virginia) Spectator on September 28, 1892, noted that Levy’s league, based in Charlottesville, supplied Virginia Democratic clubs with campaign literature, thereby “rendering very valuable service to the cause of Democracy, now the only hope of saving liberties of the people, and relieve them from unjust taxation.”

While searching for more info on the League I happened on an image of a certificate of membership (above) signed by Jefferson M. Levy. I couldn’t help notice that it prominently featured two mottos, “Home Rule” and “No Force Bill.” Both were Cleveland campaign slogans. The former refers to the States’ Rights philosophy of “a free popular government, based on home rule and individual liberty,” as the official Democratic Party Presidential Platform of 1892 put it.

“No Force Bill” refers to the Cleveland pledge not to allow the Federal Elections Bill to become law—which it didn’t. Jefferson Levy’s strong support of the Cleveland ticket and its No Force Bill pledge strongly indicates he was all on that quintessential States’ Rights social issue.

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On the other hand, Jefferson Levy’s last public statement as a member of Congress—what he called a “general resume” of his work on Capitol Hill that he made on March 4, 1915, on the House floor as his congressional career was about to end—contains not a word about the Force Bill or any other social issue. 

In this long oration centering on his “distinct views” and “strong convictions,” Levy stuck strictly to matters of business and commerce. 

In this list of what Levy considered his accomplishments in his six-year career in the House of Representatives he sounded off about his opposition to congressional investigations of the Steel Trust. He went on at length about the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, which created the Federal Reserve System ruled by a new a board of presidential appointees. Levy had been a sponsor of the original legislation establishing the system.

He spoke about what he called a pattern in Congress of “unjust attacks” against New York City, particularly in regard to laws dealing with currency and finances. He explained why he opposed the imposition of an income tax and additional antitrust legislation. He noted that he had been a consistent exponent of a strong U.S. military. He explained how he had worked to streamline Interstate Commerce Commission railroad regulatory procedures and how he proudly worked to defeat a bill that would have abolished dealing in cotton futures options. 

Levy also touted his unsuccessful efforts to get the government to sell $240-million worth of Panama Canal bonds (rather than institute a special “war tax”) and his successful effort to block legislation depriving New York State of its territorial rights to the Niagara River. 

Congressman Levy on Capitol Hill 

The lone populist accomplishments he spoke of were writing amendments that limited loan interest rates to a maximum of 12 percent a year and that increased pay for U.S. Postal Service watchmen, messengers and laborers. He called the latter “a tardy act of justice to men in humble positions who serve the country faithfully.” 

Jefferson Levy ended his congressional farewell with another complaint about the “slurs” he said “have ignorantly been sometimes made upon my great city”—New York City, that is. He allowed, however, that he had “no hard feelings on the matter,” and said he would “cherish” the “many strong friendships” he had made in Congress. 

 

EVENTS: I have two scheduled this month, both of them for Context Conversations.

On Wednesday, May 12 at 3:00 p.m. Eastern time I’ll be doing a talk on the little-known but crucial Civil War Battle of Monocacy, which took place on July 9, 1864, and after which Confederate Gen. Jubal Early attacked nearby Washington, D.C.—the first and only fighting that took place in the Nation’s Capital during the war.

The talk, based on my book Desperate Engagement, includes many historical images, and looks closely at the controversial Early (who went on to be an outspoken proponent of The Lost Cause Theory), and Union Gen. Lew Wallace (who went on to write the novel Ben Hur, among many other things), who was vastly outnumbered but held Early up at Monocacy giving Gen. U.S. Grant time to bring troops up from Virginia to defend Washington—which is why the Battle of Monocacy is called “The Battle That saved Washington, D.C.” For more info and to register go to http://bit.ly/ContextMonocacy

On Saturday, May 15, at 5:00 p.m. Eastern I’ll present my talk on the life of Francis Scott Key, based on my FSK biography, What So Proudly We Hailed: Francis Scott Key, A Life. The talk includes scores of historical photographs about his life as a mover and shaker in the Early Republic, along with a raft of little-known facts on how the prominent Washington, D.C., lawyer came to write what would become the National Anthem on the night of September 13-14, 1815, during the bombastic Battle of Baltimore. For more details and to register, go to http://bit.ly/FSKContext

Last-minute events are listed on the Author Events page on my website, https://marcleepson.com

GIFT IDEA:  Want a personally autographed, new paperback copy of Saving Monticello? Please e-mail me. I also have a few as-new, unopened hardcover copies, along with a good selection of brand-new copies of my other books.

The SM Newsletter on Line: You can read back issues of this newsletter at http://bit.ly/SMNewsLtr

April 2021

 

Saving Monticello: The Newsletter

The latest about the book, author events, and more

Newsletter Editor - Marc Leepson

 

Volume XVIII, Number 4                                                              April 1, 2021

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

 

A ‘PURPOSEFUL LITTLE WOMAN’: I am no fan of Maud Littleton, the Long Island socialite who in 1909, after a visit with her husband, Martin Wiley Littleton, to Monticello decided that Jefferson Levy had no right to own Thomas Jefferson’s “Essay in Architecture.” Two years later, she mounted a national campaign to convince Congress (Martin Littleton was a member of the House from New York) that the government should confiscate the property and turn it into a government-run house museum.

In her well-funded and well-organized campaign, Mrs. Littleton, as she was referred to in the press, unfairly attacked the Levy family in barely concealed anti-Semitic terms (calling them “aliens” and “outsiders,” for one thing). She also based the campaign on the falsehoods that Levy was turning the house into a shrine to his uncle, Uriah P. Levy; that he never allowed people to come on the grounds; and that he kept made it difficult for Jefferson family members to visit his gravesite. Not to mention calling Monticello—which Jefferson Levy had repaired, restored, and preserved for more than thirty years—a “poor, neglected, forsaken home.”

Mrs. Littleton (above) knew how to work the news media—which in the early twentieth century consisted exclusively of newspapers—and received much favorable press. However, some of the extensive coverage of her 1912-17 fight to wrest Monticello from Jefferson Levy was decidedly condescending and sexist. I included quotes from two such editorials in Saving Monticello, and recently came across other examples primarily thanks to the ever-expanding Library of Congress online digitized historic American newspaper database called “Chronicling America.”

An editorial, for example, in the February 26, 1014, Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, contained an  egregious description of Mrs. Littleton’s campaign to wrest Monticello from Jefferson Levy as “hysterical prodding by a lady from New York.” Another, in the April 1, 1914, Newport News, Virginia, Times-Herald, lambasted her movement as little more than an idle rich woman’s crusade for headlines.

“Mrs. Littleton,” that editorial pontificated, “is not averse to the applause, and she is winning.” Her “agitation gives Mrs. Littleton something to do, which she can do brilliantly, and it draws upon her the attention of the nation, which she seems to enjoy with great complacency. Perhaps it’s more fascinating than bridge.”

The Fort Wayne (Indiana) News on January 9, 1917—just three months before the U.S. entered World War I and Congress dropped the Monticello matter—bashed Mrs. Littleton in a strongly worded editorial the blasted her movement for trying to force Jefferson Levy to sell Monticello to the government.

Not bothering to mention Maud Littleton or her female supporters by name, the newspaper decried “certain women” who were looking for “some means of getting themselves before the public,” and who “began to squawk quite dolorously that Mr. Levy should be forced to relinquish the property and that the federal government should take it over.”

A feature article ran in several newspapers four years earlier, in January 1913, when Mrs. Littleton was working full time lobbying Congress after the House in December 1912 had defeated a bill that would have set in motion a government takeover of Monticello. The article—headlined, “Brings Dismay to Congressmen Who Oppose U.S. Ownership of Monticello,” in The Rock Island (Illinois) Argus of January 22, 1913—was written by Robert F. Wilson, evidently a Washington correspondent.

It focused on Mrs. Littleton’s campaign to gather signatures on petitions from across the country and then put pressure on members of the House representing those districts to vote to take over Monticello. Calling Mrs. Littleton “a purposeful little woman,” Wilson wrote that she had become “a constant source of amusement to the legislators.” After the House had voted down the proposal to confiscate Monticello in December, Wilson wrote, “the fair crusader only lifted her perky chin a bit higher and declared bravely that she had only begun to fight.”

Going through my own files, which I compiled more than twenty years ago, I found a copy of a pro-Jefferson-Levy editorial in the March 24, 1914, Charlottesville Daily Progress with a strongly worded pro-property-rights tinge that lambasted Mrs. Littleton—and Native Americans.

“We know nothing about Mrs. Littleton’s antecedents,” the editorial announced, “but the way she has trailed [Jefferson Levy] seems to indicate that she is of aboriginal strain. She has tracked him down not because he ought to be tracked down and scalped, but because of the zest she has for the chase, and the ambition she has for the scalp—the one thrills the blood, and the other adorns the person.”

********************

PHILIP L. LEWIS, 1923-2021: Dr. Philip Lewis, a great-nephew of Jefferson Monroe Levy, died March 5, at age 97. Born and raised in New York City, Dr. Lewis graduated from Dartmouth College and Albany Medical College in New York.

While serving as a captain in the U.S. Air Force at Lowry AFB in Denver, he founded the base’s first pediatric clinic. He went on to a nearly 60-year career as a prominent Denver-area pediatrician. Dr. Lewis, whose grandfather, L. Napoleon Levy, was Jefferson Levy’s brother, also was a clinical professor at the University of Colorado Medical School—and, according to his son Steven Lewis—the last of his generation of descendants of Uriah and Jefferson Levy.

I was struck by the words of remembrance by former patients and family friends on legacy.com and tributearchive.com

One acquaintance, Regina Mitchell, wrote: “What an incredible man with a gentle and caring soul. Dr. Lewis cared for my four children from birth to his retirement. He treated his patients like family.”

Another, Matt Haligman, said: “Phil was my family’s childhood doctor and I actually looked forward to my annual physicals, shots and all! Dr. Lewis had such a calm demeanor and was always interested in your life and activities. He was like the Mr. Rogers of doctors.

“I’m 62 now, but to this day I still use Dr. Lewis as a role model for taking good care of yourself. He was a wonderful person and he always made people feel good. Literally and figuratively.”

My deepest condolences to Steve Lewis and the family.

EVENTS: None scheduled this month. Something could pop up, though, so stay tuned to the Author Events page on my website, https://marcleepson.com

GIFT IDEA:  Want a personally autographed, brand-new paperback copy of Saving Monticello? Please e-mail me. I also have a few as-new, unopened hardcover copies, along with a good selection of brand-new copies of my other books.

The SM Newsletter on Line: You can read back issues of this newsletter at http://bit.ly/SMNewsLtr

March 2021

 

Saving Monticello: The Newsletter

The latest about the book, author events, and more

Newsletter Editor - Marc Leepson

 

Volume XVIII, Number 3                                                      March 1, 2021

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

 

SISTER AMELIA: Soon after Jefferson Levy, a life-long bachelor, took control of Monticello in 1879, he put his mother Frances (known as Fanny) in charge of running the household—with the help of his younger sister Amelia.

All of them lived in New York City, but spent considerable time at Monticello, especially after Jefferson Levy and his Monticello superintendent Thomas Rhodes began repairing and restoring the place, which nearly went to ruin during the seventeen years the family fought over Uriah Levy’s will.

After Fanny Levy died in January 1893, Jefferson Levy asked Amelia—who had married Charles Mayhoff, a German immigrant and successful New York City cotton broker—to take over from her mother as his hostess during his frequent stays at Monticello. Amelia did so with relish, and continued in that role until Jefferson Levy sold Monticello to the Thomas Jefferson Foundation in 1923.

Amelia Levy Mayhoff, who was named after her aunt Amelia Levy (one of Uriah Levy’s sisters), and her husband lived most of the year in Manhattan at 66 East 34th Street, the same block where Jefferson Levy lived. The Mayhoff’s only child, Monroe, was born in 1897. Amelia took control of Monticello’s social activities for the first time in the summer of 1893.

Jefferson Levy and sister—like Thomas Jefferson and his daughter Martha before them—regularly hosted long visits from friends and relatives who often arrived at Monticello with children and servants. At other times Amelia played host to innumerable social events, with and without her brother present, presiding over countless dinner parties at Monticello, and welcoming visiting members of Congress, university professors, and friends from Charlottesville, New York, and elsewhere. She also occasionally accompanied Jefferson Levy on his travels to Washington and to Europe

Charles Mayhoff sometimes joined his wife at Monticello. When he did, the couple stayed in a suite of rooms on the first floor. Saturdays most often were set aside for receiving guests.

In October 1904 a visitor from Ohio reported that Mr. and Mrs. Mayhoff were “occupying the residence this fall.” Carl Mayhoff was “most courteous and kindly in his treatment of me,” the visitor said. “He showed me into the house and gave me much local history of the place.”

Jefferson Levy left his entire estate to his sister in a will he had executed on September 28, 1923, less than six months before he died. Within days after her brother’s death Amelia Mayhoff announced that she would not stand in the way of the transfer of Monticello to the Foundation, following the closing of that real estate deal in December 1923.

She also—as I noted in Saving Monticello—actively tried to keep the Levy legacy alive after her brother’s death, offering, as the executor of his estate, to sell the full-length portrait of Uriah Levy that hung in Monticello for many years (above, handing in Monticello circa 1912) to the Foundation, an offer that was refused.

“It was my brother’s wish that it be sold to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation,” Amelia wrote in a letter to the Foundation on March 10, 1924. “Arrangements for its purchase of the property had been almost completed when my brother died. I will carry out his wish in that respect.”

Four years later, Amelia Mayhoff offered to donate a portrait she had inherited of Jefferson Levy to the Foundation, along with the Uriah Levy portrait that had long been hung in Monticello, provided that they were put on display in the house.

Jefferson Levy “was a representative in Congress from the State of New York for three terms and made a strenuous fight for the cause of sound money and for legislation which finally culminated in the Federal Reserve Act,” Amelia wrote to the Foundation. “He restored the ancient beauties of the place and brought to it many ornaments which were in keeping with the ideals of Thomas Jefferson. I ask that his portrait now at Monticello be rehung.”

She went on to say that if the Foundation accepted and rehung the portraits, she would “give other relics to Monticello in my possession” to the Foundation.

“I have a great sentiment for Monticello, which was my home in my childhood [she was born in 1857], girlhood and womanhood,” she said. “I also think that it is only appropriate for some recognition to be given the family that preserved Monticello for ninety-one years [it actually was 89] and were in possession of it for a longer period than any other owner.”

After the Foundation turned down her request to donate the portraits, she presented the full-length Uriah Levy oil painting to the U.S. Navy. It is on display today at the Naval Academy Museum in Annapolis. Amelia Mayhoff presented the life-sized oil painting of Jefferson Levy to the New York Democratic Club. Jefferson Levy was one of that New York City organization’s founders.

Amelia Levy Mayhoff continued to promote Uriah Levy’s legacy until a few years before her death at age 90 on June 7, 1947. On March 28, 1943, during the height of World War II, she agreed to serve as the sponsor—a woman chosen to christen a ship—of the USS Levy, a 1,300-ton, $3.5 million destroyer escort named after her uncle.

She christened the ship that day at the Federal Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company’s Port Newark shipyard. The ship joined the war in May, and went on to serve in the Pacific. Also in attendance that day at Port Newark was her niece, Frances Levy Lewis.

Two months later, in May 1943, Amelia presented a copy of a photograph of Uriah Levy (above) to the Jewish War Veterans of the United States, which had lobbied the U.S. Navy to name a ship in honor of Levy, the first Jewish American to have a full Navy career (1812-1862), and the nation’s first Jewish Commodore—the highest rank in the Navy at that time.

She also bequeathed an 1815 painting of Uriah in his dress Navy uniform (below) to the American Jewish Historical Society in Waltham, Mass., and a framed photograph of her father, Jonas Phillips Levy, to the Center for Jewish History in New York City. 

EVENTS: I have three Zoom events on tap for March.

·         On Saturday, March 6, at 5:00 p.m. Eastern time, I’ll be doing a talk on Monticello and the Levys for Context Conversations. For more info and to register, go to http://bit.ly/ContextMonticello

·         On Thursday, March 11, it’s a Q&A about the Levys and Monticello for the CloseUp Foundation, which offers programs for teachers across the country.

·         On Saturday, March 13, at 5:00 p.m. Eastern, a talk on the life of Francis Scott Key highlighting the writing of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” for Context Conversations. Info: http://bit.ly/ContextFSK

GIFT IDEA:  Want a personally autographed, brand-new paperback copy of Saving Monticello? Please e-mail me. I also have a few as-new, unopened hardcover copies, along with a good selection of brand-new copies of my other books.

February 2021

 

Saving Monticello: The Newsletter

The latest about the book, author events, and more

Newsletter Editor - Marc Leepson

 

Volume XVIII, Number 2                                                      February 1, 2021

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

 

THE CAPITOL ROTUNDA: I gave a Zoom talk two weeks ago on Saving Monticello. As I always do when I introduce Uriah Levy in my talks, I mentioned that when he bought Monticello in 1834, Levy—a fifth generation Jewish-American born in 1792 in Philadelphia—was a U.S. Navy lieutenant and an ardent admirer of Thomas Jefferson.

We know this because Levy, on his own, in 1832 commissioned a full-length statue of Jefferson and the following year donated it to the people of the United States.

During the talk I said—as I always do—that the statue is displayed in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol (above) in Washington. Those words took on a new meaning as I said them less that two weeks after the horrific events that took place January 6 in the Capitol, including the shocking, violent acts in the august Rotunda.

I paused, thought about what happened, and went on with the talk, diving back to the 19^th century to tell the tale of Uriah Levy and the only statue in the Rotunda donated by a private citizen. It’s a tale I tell in depth in Saving Monticello, and have referenced several times in this newsletter over the years. It’s worth telling in brief again now.

***************

The statue story began in earnest in the fall of 1832, when U.S. Navy Lt. Uriah P. Levy was enjoying some R&R in Paris.

Levy, who would purchase Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello in two years, came to Paris to honor the nation’s third president, whom the patriotic Navy officer admired particularly for his dedication to religious freedom.

Jefferson felt strongly about that cause, as evidenced by the groundbreaking 1786 Virginia Statute for Religious Liberty, which he wrote and which James Madison shepherded through the Virginia General Assembly while Jefferson served as U.S. minister (ambassador) to France.

That landmark document (above) contained the seeds of the Freedom of Religion component of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which Madison wrote based on Jefferson’s strongly held beliefs on the subject.

Uriah Levy was familiar with the work of the illustrious French sculptor Pierre-Jean David d’Angers (1788-1856) and asked him to create a full-scale bronze of Jefferson. As I wrote in Saving Monticello, his many commissions for statues, portraits, busts, and medallions came from patrons throughout the world. Many famous and wealthy people sat for David, who was renowned for his bas-relief sculptures. Much of his work—including a model of the Jefferson statue—is on display today in the galerie David d’Angers in France.

In Paris in the fall of 1832, Levy paid a visit to the 75-year-old Lafayette, who had bonded with Thomas Jefferson during the Revolutionary War. Lafayette, in retirement, leant Levy a portrait he had of Jefferson by the American painter Thomas Sully, and David used it as his model for Jefferson’s face. Levy stayed in Paris until David completed the statue early in 1834.

David’s Jefferson stands seven-and-a-half feet tall and depicts Jefferson holding a quill pen in his right hand. In his left is an etched, word-for-word copy of the Declaration of Independence, complete with signatures, including the large “John Hancock.” The statue was cast in bronze and Levy shipped the finished statue and the plaster mold used to cast it to the United States.

On February 6, 1833, he presented the painted plaster model to the City of New York. The city fathers gave Levy what was called the “Freedom of the City” and a gold snuff box in appreciation. The statue was placed on the second floor of the Rotunda at City Hall in Manhattan. It was moved into the ornate City Council Chamber in the 1950s where it is today. It's at the extreme left in the photo below.

A month after he gave the model to New York City, Uriah Levy was in Washington where he presented the bronze Jefferson to the United States government. He had the words “Presented by Uriah Phillips Levy of the United States Navy to his fellow citizens, 1833,” etched on one side of the statue’s bronze base. “I beg leave to present, through you, to my fellow citizens of the United States, a colossal bronze statue of Thomas Jefferson,” Levy said in a letter he wrote to the House of Representatives. Levy spoke of his “pride and satisfaction” in offering “this tribute of my regard to the people of the United States” through Congress. He was sure, he said, “such disposition will be made of it as best corresponds with the character of the illustrious author of the declaration of our independence and the profound veneration with which his memory is cherished by the American people.”

Uriah Levy was breaking new ground. In 1833 the city of Washington did not have one monumental statue on display honoring an individual. That was one reason that the “disposition” of the statue was not decided until forty years later.

A joint House-Senate Committee quickly took up the matter and recommended that the statue be placed in the center of the square in the eastern front of the Capitol, which faces the Library of Congress and Supreme Court. The Senate then passed a resolution accepting the statue and directing that it be placed there.

During debate on the same measure in the House, however, more than a few members opposed the action. One congressman argued against accepting a statue from an individual American, and that it would be inappropriate for Congress to accept a statue of Jefferson when there was as yet no statue of George Washington in the Capitol. Another member objected because, he said, the David was not a good likeness of Jefferson In the end, though, the House voted, 69-55 to accept the statue.

Even though both the House and Senate resolutions called for the statue to be displayed outside the Capitol’s East front, for reasons that are unclear it was placed inside, in the Rotunda. On February 16, 1835, a resolution was introduced in the House to remove the statue from the Rotunda “to some suitable place for its preservation, until the final disposition of it be determined by Congress.” But no action was taken.

Sometime during the James K. Polk administration (1845-49)—the exact date is not certain—the statue was indeed removed from the Rotunda. It was shipped to the White House where, with the permission of President Polk, it was placed on the grounds on the north side facing Lafayette Park.

In 1874 Jonas Phillips Levy, Uriah Levy's youngest brother, spearheaded a campaign to get the David sculpture off the White House lawn, where it was not holding up well under the elements. Levy asked Congress to accept the David statue officially or return it to the family.

The statue was subsequently cleaned up and moved into National Statuary Hall in the Capitol and then, in 1900, to the Capitol Rotunda, where it stands today, the only statue in the building donated to Congress by an individual citizen. The Rotunda houses two other David pieces: a bronze bust of George Washington and a marble bust of Lafayette.

The David Jefferson is considered to be one of the most valuable pieces of artwork in the U.S. Capitol.

EVENTS: Because of the pandemic I have no events scheduled for February.

GIFT IDEA:  Want a personally autographed, brand-new paperback copy of Saving Monticello? Please e-mail me. I also have a few as-new, unopened hardcover copies, along with a good selection of brand-new copies of my other books.

January 2021

 

Saving Monticello: The Newsletter

The latest about the book, author events, and more

Newsletter Editor - Marc Leepson

 

Volume XVIII, Number 1                                                      January 1, 2021

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

MICHAEL LEVY: When doing the research for Saving Monticello more than twenty years ago, I found precious little information on the life of Uriah Levy’s father, Michael Levy—and nearly all of it came from secondary sources.

I wrote that Levy senior was born in 1755, most likely in Germany, and that his father, Isaac Levy, moved the family from there to England. Michael Levy subsequently emigrated to the U.S., winding up in Philadelphia where he became a charter member of the German Jewish Congregation Rodeph Shalom.

In an unpublished family memoir, Uriah Levy’s brother Jonas wrote that their father “came to this country from old England when about ten years of age, and was brought up to the Mercantile business which he continued until his death in high repute.” I came across advertisements in in the Pennsylvania Journal in 1780, and five years later in the Maryland Gazette for Michael and Isaac Levy, who most likely were brothers, noting that they were “CLOCK and WATCHMAKERS, Late from London” who offered for sale “a large assortment of the most elegant and fashionable CLOCKS and WATCHES.”

Michael Levy, I reported, married Rachel Machado Phillips of Philadelphia in 1787. They had fourteen children. Michael Levy died, according to First American Jewish Families, Malcolm Stern’s 1960 pioneering collection of 600 family genealogies, in 1812.

Just last week I had an email from Brian Collins, a Michael Levy descendant who lives in the U.K.—and who has done considerable research into his Levy Family ancestry, mostly in England, much of it based on London Land Tax Records and London City Directories from the 18^th and 19^th centuries. Brian has kindly given me permission to present his main findings in this  newsletter, which I greatly appreciate.

Although he has not found an official record of Michael Levy’s birth, Brian reports that the records indicate that he likely was born into an Ashkenazi Jewish family in what is now Poland and that the family moved to what is now Germany and then emigrated to England, settling near the Great Synagogue of London (which was built in 1690) in the early 1760s.

       The Great Synagogue of London (1890 engraving)

“This area is at the Eastern end of the City of London, due north of the Tower of London,” David wrote, “and had a large immigrant Jewish population from the mid-1700s.” It appears that Michael had four siblings: Isaac, Nathan, Lyon, and Amelia (or Abinda or Minka) and that his father’s name was likely Judah Levy. “Both Lyon Levy and Judah Levy frequently appear renting properties in the same streets as Michael,” David said, “both during and for long after the period he was in London. In fact, many Levys are found in this area of London and may also be relatives of Michael.” 

Michael Levy became a watch and clock maker in 1768, David learned from an insurance policy he discovered on a property on Hanover Square near the Great Synagogue. His research confirmed what I found: that Michael then entered into a partnership with an Isaac Levy, who likely was his brother. As I wrote, Michael and Isaac had a shop first in Baltimore, and then in Philadelphia. What I hadn’t known was that the brothers at one point lived in Portsmouth, Virginia, where 

Michael obtained his US. citizenship in 1786 and they opened a shop there in 1787. Michael subsequently moved back to Philadelphia and married Rachel Machado Phillips, while Isaac appears to have stayed in Virginia. 

The Philadelphia City Directories from 1802-16 list Michael Levy variously as a “Clock Maker &c.,” “Watch Maker,” “Merchant,” “Watchman, and “Clock and Watch Maker” at eight different addresses on Mulberry Street, North 4^th Street, North 5^th Street, North Water Street, Vine Street, and Banner’s Court.

Brian Collins found letters Michael Levy wrote from St. Domingo (Haiti) in 1787 and 1788, as well as evidence that Levy “may have returned to London for a lengthy stay in the 1790s.”

He also found documents showing that in 1802 Michael Levy was a founding member of Rodeph Shalom, the Philadelphia German Ashkenazic Jewish Congregation. Brian has not discovered Michael Levy’s exact date of death, but noted that records refer to Rachel Levy as a widow starting in 1818.

He also found documents that indicate that Michael Levy returned to London for a final stay from 1819 “until at least 1825 and perhaps until his death,” whenever that was. Brian could not find any burial records for Michael Levy in Philadelphia, which, he said, “was very unusual for members of both the Mikveh Israel and Rodeph Shalom Congregations” since both congregation’s “extensive burial records survive.”

Rodeph Shalom Congregation, Philadelphia

Brian said that he is continuing his research into Michael Levy’s life and will update me when he finds new information. 

He also found documents that indicate that Michael Levy returned to London for a final stay from 1819 “until at least 1825 and perhaps until his death,” whenever that was. Brian could not find any burial records for Michael Levy in Philadelphia, which, he said, “was very unusual for members of both the Mikveh Israel and Rodeph Shalom Congregations” since both congregation’s “extensive burial records survive.”Brian said that he is continuing his research into Michael Levy’s life and will update me when he finds new information.

LADDERS: In the December issue we looked at what I dubbed the “Great Ladder,” the wooden folding ladder that’s been in Monticello since Thomas Jefferson’s day. I included an image of the ladder in Monticello’s Entrance Hall near the famed Great Clock, as well a vintage photo of the ladder itself.

A few days ago the folks at Monticello who do the curatorial, collection and restoration work posted this current photo of all five ladders they use to do their important work on Instagram.

I was happy to see that the picture was taken in the Entrance Hall and that it included the 18^th century Great Clock and (on the left, above) the ladder, which was used to wind the clock back in the day, but these days is only used for display in the house. #preservingmonticello

 

HAPPY TWENTIETH: Twenty years ago today I had all but finished my research on the post-Jefferson history of Monticello, and was well into the writing of Saving Monticello. Free Press at Simon and Schuster published the book in hardcover early in November 2001. I was working with my editor, Chad Conway, on the editing when the momentous events of September 11 happened.

The shock waves from the September 11^th attacks were still very much in the public consciousness when Saving Monticello came out in early November. And now, in the 20^th anniversary year of the book’s publication, our world has been hit by another cataclysmic event.

The catastrophic 2020-21 pandemic in many ways dwarfs what happened on September 11, 2001. Today, the 9/11 attacks rarely are at the forefront of people’s consciousness. But all of us have been dealing with the pandemic since it began last March. It seems likely that by November 2021 the pandemic will be under control and life for all of us will begin to return to something approaching normal. Here’s hoping.

 

EVENTS: I have two events this month, both of them livestreaming Zoom talks for Context Conversations. The first will be on Saving Monticello on Saturday, January 16, beginning at 5:00 p.m. Eastern time. Here’s info on how to register:  http://bit.ly/ContextSavingMonticello

The second is a talk on the history of the American Flag based on my book, Flag: An American Biography, on Friday, January 22, also beginning at 5:00 p.m. Eastern time. Here’s the link to sign up: http://bit.ly/ContextFlag

GIFTS:  Want a personally autographed, brand-new paperback copy of Saving Monticello? Please e-mail me. I also have a few as-new, unopened hardcover copies, along with a good selection of brand-new copies of my other books.

December 2020

 

Saving Monticello: The Newsletter

The latest about the book, author events, and more

Newsletter Editor - Marc Leepson

 

Volume XVII, Number 12                                                     December 1, 2020

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

 

THE GREAT LADDER: If you have taken the house tour at Monticello, it’s a hundred percent certain that your guide called your attention to the Thomas Jefferson-designed Great Clock near the ceiling just inside the Entrance Hall where the tours begin.

Also known as the Seven-Day Clock, the one-of-a-kind timepiece features two sets of eighteen-pound weights that hang on ropes that descend through holes in the floor to keep it running. The six cannon-ball-like weights on each side also mark the days of the week on the wall as they move up and down. 

The Great Clock most likely came to Monticello in 1794, but was not installed in the Entrance Hall until 1804 when Jefferson was President.

The Great Clock required weekly winding, which was done on Sundays. Jefferson had a wooden folding ladder made in the Monticello joinery to do that job. That ladder (in the present-day photo above and the below take around 1925), as unprepossessing as it is, is worthy of note as it’s one of just a handful of furnishings that has been in the house from Thomas Jefferson’s time to today.

I saw the 1825 photo in an post in November from the Instagram feed (“Preserving Monticello” put together by the Curatorial, Collections, and Restoration teams at the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. They regularly post rare, vintage photos of every aspect of the house and grounds, as well as images and videos of the staffers at work doing their fascinating jobs.

The Great Ladder post went on to describe the historic item as “just under 14 feet tall,” a “library-style ladder constructed of two rounded ‘L’ shaped poles with multiple rings between that can be folded in to create one large pole and save on space.”

The available evidence indicates, the post said, is that Jefferson had the ladder  made “based on one he saw in Bergen, Germany in April of 1788.”

The curatorial staff no longer uses the ladder to wind the clock. But it’s on display for all to see (tours of the house are now self-guided), although the staff removed the ladder and stored it upstairs for safekeeping recently when the Great Clock was removed for repairs.

Check out the entire post at https://bit.ly/MontInstagram

 

1905 FAMILY PHOTO: Many thanks to Levy descendant Michael Lewis for sending an image of an evocative photo taken at Monticello in the summer of 1905. In it, Jefferson Levy’s brother, L. Napoleon Levy (wearing the bowler hat), is posing with his four daughters—Agnes, Alma (on the pony), Fanny and Florence—and his nephew Monroe Mayhoff at Monticello in front of the house.

At right is twenty-year-old Willis Henderson, who worked for Jefferson Levy as a cook, waiter and house guide, as well as for his sister Amelia Mayhoff and her family, who often made extended visits to Monticello.  

Willis Henderson was the grandson and namesake of Monticello’s long-time gatekeeper Willis Shelton, who was born into slavery at Monticello around 1835, and continued to work for the Levy family until his death in 1902.  Willis Henderson (1885-1966) and his sister Mary Elizabeth Henderson, who also were born at Monticello, spent time in New York City working for Jefferson Levy and Amelia Levy Mayhoff and her husband Charles. 

Willis Henderson later returned to Monticello, and continued his work on the Mountain after Jefferson Levy sold Monticello to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation in 1923. According to the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Willis Henderson (in photo below, later in life) “greeted visitors there through the 1960s, including Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt.” 

For more info on the Henderson family go to this page on the Monticello website: https://bit.ly/HendersonFamily

EVENTS: Because of the pandemic I have no events scheduled for December. 

HOLIDAY GIFT IDEA:  Want a personally autographed, brand-new paperback copy of Saving Monticello? Please e-mail me. I also have a few as-new, unopened hardcover copies, along with a good selection of brand-new copies of my other books.

The SM Newsletter on Line: You can read back issues of this newsletter at http://bit.ly/SMNewsLtr