Staff

April 10, 2020

What Would Jefferson Do?

The Jeffersonian Ethic

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April 10, 2020

What Would Jefferson Do?

"Those who labour in the earth are the chosen people of God, if ever he had a chosen people"

— Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia

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April 3, 2020

What Would Jefferson Do?

The Pandemic

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April 3, 2020

What Would Jefferson Do?

"The difference, sir, is that you understand the notion of vaccines and vaccination."

— Clay S. Jenkinson portraying Thomas Jefferson

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March 27, 2020

What Would Jefferson Do?

Presidential Age

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March 27, 2020

What Would Jefferson Do?

"I was 57 years old, almost 58, when I became President of the United States."

— Clay S. Jenkinson portraying Thomas Jefferson

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March 20, 2020

What Would Jefferson Do?

The Supreme Court

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March 20, 2020

What Would Jefferson Do?

"If there were some accountability, then I would feel more comfortable."

— Clay S. Jenkinson portraying Thomas Jefferson

Staff

March 10, 2020

What Would Jefferson Do?

National Parks

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March 10, 2020

What Would Jefferson Do?

"I effectively created the seed of what would become the National Park system later."

— Clay S. Jenkinson portraying Thomas Jefferson

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March 6, 2020

What Would Jefferson Do?

Federal Law Enforcement

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March 6, 2020

What Would Jefferson Do?

"Nothing in my own understanding of the presidency gives the occupant of that office that right or role."

— Clay S. Jenkinson portraying Thomas Jefferson

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February 28, 2020

What Would Jefferson Do?

Cuba

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February 28, 2020

What Would Jefferson Do?

"I lusted for it, I must say."

— Clay S. Jenkinson portraying Thomas Jefferson

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February 21, 2020

What Would Jefferson Do?

National Debt

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February 21, 2020

What Would Jefferson Do?

"There is almost no issue more important than the national debt of the United States"

— Clay S. Jenkinson portraying Thomas Jefferson

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February 11, 2020

What Would Jefferson Do?

Leadership

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February 11, 2020

What Would Jefferson Do?

"He was the right leader for the right time."

— Clay S. Jenkinson portraying Thomas Jefferson

Staff

December 27, 2019

What Would Jefferson Do?

Christmas

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December 27, 2019

What Would Jefferson Do?

"I often went to house parties during this period and engaged in the convivialities of youth."

— Clay S. Jenkinson portraying Thomas Jefferson

Staff

December 20, 2019

What Would Jefferson Do?

Rewriting the Constitution

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December 20, 2019

What Would Jefferson Do?

"That's the point of a constitutional revision: to clarify."

— Clay S. Jenkinson portraying Thomas Jefferson

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December 6, 2019

What Would Jefferson Do?

Domestic and Foreign Emoluments

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December 6, 2019

What Would Jefferson Do?

"Their concern was to make sure that foreign individuals or foreign governments did not interfere in the American republic by way of giving lavish gifts"

— Clay S. Jenkinson portraying Thomas Jefferson

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November 29, 2019

What Would Jefferson Do?

Hamilton's Influence on Washington

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November 29, 2019

What Would Jefferson Do?

"I don't think that he was as intellectually acute as he had been at previous moments in his life."

— Clay S. Jenkinson portraying Thomas Jefferson

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November 22, 2019

What Would Jefferson Do?

Ivanka Trump and Partisanship

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November 22, 2019

What Would Jefferson Do?

"Some things never change, dad!"

— Ivanka Trump

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November 11, 2019

What Would Jefferson Do?

Access to Information

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November 11, 2019

What Would Jefferson Do?

Tune in to your local public radio or join the 1776 Club to hear this episode of What Would Thomas Jefferson Do?

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November 8, 2019

What Would Jefferson Do?

Three Branches

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November 8, 2019

What Would Jefferson Do?

"First among the equals is the legislative branch, because that’s the branch that’s closest to the people."

— Clay S. Jenkinson portraying Thomas Jefferson

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November 1, 2019

What Would Jefferson Do?

Education and the Federal Government

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November 1, 2019

What Would Jefferson Do?

"How we educate our children is a sacred business."

— Clay S. Jenkinson portraying Thomas Jefferson

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October 18, 2019

What Would Jefferson Do?

Alliances

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October 18, 2019

What Would Jefferson Do?

"peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none"

— Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1801

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October 11, 2019

What Would Jefferson Do?

Presidential Indictments

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October 11, 2019

What Would Jefferson Do?

"If the president does something really horrible, we have a system here of impeachment."

— Clay S. Jenkinson portraying Thomas Jefferson

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October 4, 2019

What Would Jefferson Do?

Firing Cabinet Members

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October 4, 2019

What Would Jefferson Do?

"We need second and other voices, including voices of dissent."

— Clay S. Jenkinson portraying Thomas Jefferson

Follow @jefferson_hour

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What Would Jefferson Do?

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The Jeffersonian Ethic

What Would Jefferson Do?

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"Those who labour in the earth are the chosen people of God, if ever he had a chosen people"

— Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia

What Would Jefferson Do?

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About Clay

Clay Jenkinson grew up on the western plains of North Dakota, not far from Theodore Roosevelt’s badlands.

He attended the University of Minnesota, Oxford University, and the University of Colorado.

He was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford. All of his degrees are in Renaissance English literature.

Clay has won numerous awards, including the National Humanities Medal, the highest honor conferred on a public humanities scholar in the United States. He has been named Humanities Scholar of the Year in Kansas, Nevada, and North Dakota.

Clay was one of the creators of the modern Chautauqua movement. He has portrayed a dozen historical characters, including Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, Meriwether Lewis, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and John Wesley Powell.

He has appeared in three Ken Burns documentary films, including the most recent film The Roosevelts: An Intimate History. He has made four documentary films himself. Clay has written nine books, including the critically acclaimed The Character of Meriwether Lewis.

Clay lives in Bismarck, North Dakota, where he is a distinguished scholar of the humanities at Bismarck State College and the founder of the Theodore Roosevelt Center at Dickinson State University.

His deepest concerns are the education of his daughter and the future of the Great Plains.