American Dreams

After the premature death of his young wife, the devastated Thomas Jefferson accepted a ministerial stint in Paris as a way of moving on with his life and distancing himself somewhat from the still-fresh memories of their happy life together at his beautiful plantation home aptly named Monticello, in central Virginia. The Brahmin young aristocrat was an unabashed Francophile and his four-year immersion in Parisian life gave him the opportunity to take in the allure of France and Europe. While he fully enjoyed the French wine, the French art and the classical architecture of the City of Lights, the experience also served to deepen his appreciation and love for his “country,” Virginia. In those days, it was common to refer to one’s state of birth as one’s “country,” a unified national identity was still a long way down the road of an uncertain history. While living in Rome as a student, I maintain a small portable library, a sort of extension of my larger collection of books back home. Among the selection, I keep a short biography of Jefferson written by Joseph Ellis entitled American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson. The author masterfully details Jefferson’s world in Paris during the mid to late 1780s. One gets the impression from reading the book however that Jefferson, while taking full advantage of the cultural pearls that Europe has to offer, left his heart in America, both at Monticello and Philadelphia, where the framers of the Constitution were hammering out the sticky details for a new nation. I’m back in the States now for a couple of months and plan on returning to Italy in September. Throughout my time spent across the pond in Europe, and even while home, I can’t help empathizing with Jefferson’s sentiment during this period abroad. While overseas, I always have an active beacon, of sorts, burrowed deep inside my consciousness that hones my thoughts west toward the United States.

I had the opportunity last week to pay a visit to Mount Vernon, the magnificent plantation home of our first president, George Washington. The land surrounding the estate has been purchased with the explicit intention of preserving it exactly as Washington himself viewed it over two hundred years ago; bucolic, sweeping, serene. Ever since, it has been a pilgrimage site for patriots. I was able to stroll the grounds on a typically hot summer day and transport myself back to the glory days of early American history. Visitors to the mansion are able to take a forty-minute cruise up and down the Potomac River and absorb the expansive natural beauty of Washington’s former stomping grounds. During the boat ride, I had some time to reflect on the Founders, my own “Jeffersonian period” abroad and my love for America.

There’s something about the United States that is indescribably appealing and refreshing and yet it’s not easy to pin down precisely what this is. Reflecting on her frequent visits to the US, Margaret Thatcher once quipped “I always feel ten years younger- despite the jet-lag- when I set foot on American soil: there is something so positive, generous and open about the people- and everything actually works.” Her feelings are, for me at least, completely understandable. Even after just two academic years abroad, whenever I come home, I am caught up with the same sentiment. Granted, I’m only 25, but even still, I always feel as though I’ve just had a shot of energy as soon as I’ve touched ground. Why is this? What can explain for this widely shared view? Certainly, there’s more to it than just the good feeling. That good feeling is, I believe, the result of a uniquely American phenomenon planted deeply within our culture and history. We are a young nation, in the historical and figurative sense. However the typical image of a rebellious youth who arrogantly ignores his past and recklessly blazes his own path is starkly contrasted to our young nation’s uncanny embrace of time-honored traditions and religious observance. When Lincoln’s “mystic chords of memory” are strummed, the music resonates deeply for the careful listener. Noted historian Richard Brookhiser recently described contemporary Europe, quite baldly, as “a big collection of countries that is aging and shriveling.” This “shriveling” is no doubt a clear reference to what George Weigel has repeatedly referred to as Europe’s “demographic suicide.” Any American who fully appreciates Europe’s contributions to our own country’s heritage must shed more than a few tears for Europe’s current cultural plight while offering supplications to heaven for her prompt conversion. Europe finds herself in the clutches of a strong suspicion toward its own ancient Christian heritage and to religion in general. This hostility might be more succinctly described in Jeffersonian rhetoric as a “theoretic and visionary fear,” traceable to the violent convulsions of the French Revolution. Ever since, the dark cloud of atheistic humanism has lingered over the entire continent and its vapors have entranced more than a few unfortunate souls. The United States, on the other hand, is certainly not a nation under the spell of revolutionary hostilities toward religion. To be certain, we too have our self-pronounced elites on the left scheming over the best way to erase references to God from the public square. Fortunately but not surprisingly, such misguided efforts have only been met with the most forceful revulsion by the vast majority of Americans. In vain would one attempt to base his arguments for radical secularization of society in the beliefs of our Founding Fathers. If there be any doubt, George Washington, in his farewell address, which was largely ghost-written by Alexander Hamilton, states clearly, “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens.” This belief infuses the day-to-day life of Americans to this day, making the United States one of the world’s most overtly religious societies in the world. The United States retains, embodies and projects all the features of what the ancient Greeks captured in their famous sculptures, vigorous youth, beauty, strength and virtue.