America Awake: A Declaration of Interdependence

Thomas Jefferson, Jaccaci August

Daynal Institute Press, 2008 - Art - 82 pages

Thomas Jefferson, in these letters to Americans and the citizens of the world, is as always a radical and visionary idealist. He is also outraged at contemporary America. Yet, his assertions are in the end even more shocking for their spiritual optimism. On matters of the human soul and spirit, his thinking has evolved well beyond where he is remembered historically. He is also writing to us cognizant of our future as follows: America means love. The word America means love. It is time, at last, for Americans to know that meaning, and not a moment too soon. Mr. Jefferson has returned for this critical time of decision to reawaken and revive the ailing soul of America. The soul of every human, every community and every nation is that unique inner consciousness which serves to navigate the living vessel of each life back to the safe harbor of reunion with the divine love which sent it forth.

About the author

Politician, philosopher, farmer, architect, and author, Jefferson was born to Peter and Jane Randolph Jefferson on April 13, 1743, in Tuckahoe, Virginia. As Jefferson observed in his autobiography, his parents could "trace their pedigree far back in England and Scotland." At the age of 16, Thomas Jefferson entered William and Mary College; at age 24, Jefferson was admitted to the bar; at 25, he was elected to the Virginia Assembly. Renowned for his political contributions to the American colonies, and later, to the embryonic Republic, Jefferson published in 1774 A Summary View of the Rights of British America, celebrating the inalienable natural rights claimed by the colonialists. In 1775 Jefferson was elected to the Continental Congress; in 1776 he joined the five-person committee responsible for drafting the Declaration of Independence---a document that is widely regarded as being largely Jefferson's own work. In 1779 Jefferson was elected governor of the state of Virginia, and in subsequent years he distinguished himself both as a cosmopolitan international politician and as a man committed to the future of Virginia. In 1789 he was appointed U.S. secretary of state, in 1797 he served as vice president under President John Adams, and in 1801 he was elected third president of the United States. Jefferson's literary career was no less stellar than his political accomplishments. He authored tracts and books on such diverse subjects as gardening, the life of Jesus, the history of Virginia, and the practices of farming. The precise descriptions of nature that inform his Notes on the State of Virginia (1787) are frequently credited with foreshadowing the Hudson River school of aesthetics. Thomas Jefferson died on the fourth of July. His grave marker, engraved with words of his own choosing, states, "Here lies Thomas Jefferson, Author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom and Father of the University of Virginia."

Bibliographic information

• Title: America Awake: A Declaration of Interdependence
• Authors: Thomas Jefferson, Jaccaci August
• Publisher: Daynal Institute Press, 2008
• ISBN: 1935187074, 9781935187073
• Length: 82 pages
• Subjects: Art / Art & Politics; Art / General; Religion / Religion, Politics & State