Thomas Jefferson--10 "rules"

So, we all know about his most important 10 rules for daily life:

1. Never put off tomorrow what you can do today.
2. Never trouble another for what you can do yourself.
3. Never spend your money before you have earned it.
4. Never buy what you don't want because it is cheap.
5. Pride costs more than hunger, thirst and cold.
6. We seldom repent of having eaten too little.
7. Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly.
8. How much pain the evils have cost us that never happened.
9. Take things always by the smooth handle.
10. When angry, count ten before you speak, if very angry, count a hundred.

I REALLY wanted to link to a website to view them because there are so many contexts in which they are used, but alas, in the short amount of time I'm taking to write this, I don't have time to find the perfect link. Anyway. I'd like to add a bit of the narrative which I heard while I was at Monticello back in mid-October.

So, without ado, here's what I think Jefferson REALLY meant when he wrote a few of these 10 rules:

2. Never trouble another for what you can do yourself.
***Unless it's your (son or grandson--I can't remember that specific--I'm going to say son in future and if I'm wrong don't shoot me) and it's about unpaid debts. Jefferson inherited a huge debt with his Monticello estate, but never bothered to actively pay it down or off. YES, he paid off all debts as they came due, but he never set aside the money to pay off the debts that he KNEW were going to come due. He spent all extra cash on luxuries and curiosities, never saving for a rainy day (or even the flood that he KNEW was coming). When a debt would come due, he would sell off a slave, or two, or some land and would purchase the replacement, if needed, when he received his next income. When he died, still HEAVILY in debt, his son inherited this debt and it was HE that lived the frugal life working his butt off to pay off the debt. He had to sell off all of Jefferson's estate (thank-goodness Monticello only spent, like, 40 years in private hands before becoming a historical site--you should see Montpelier--it was PINK at one point!) and that still only paid off about half of the debt. Monticello currently houses only, like, 2 shelves of ACTUAL Jefferson owned books because he had to sell them to the US for some extra cash.

3. Never spend your money before you have earned it.
***So far as I know, he didn't literally break this one, but I consider debt to be debt no matter when it was incurred. He might not have been the one to take out the loans that he should have paid off (or at least have accounted for), but I think that all his extra money should have been considered spent before he earned it in that it should have been used to pay the debt.
***I mean, think about the national debt--Yes, the government is racking up more debt every year, but isn't the general consensus that we should pay it down before spending that money on other stuff? Isn't this why so many people worry about their childrens' future living under that debt--that one day it will come due and there will be no way to pay it off?
***And how about when wages are garnished--the wages (except enough to live off of) are used to ONLY pay off debt, not for luxuries. But I guess we shouldn't hold Jefferson to such a standard?

4. Never buy what you don't want because it is cheap.
***Jefferson went into debt (or rather, he didn't pay off the debt he already had) because he bought the best that he could to impress his dinner guests. So, what Jefferson REALLY should have written was "Always buy what you want no matter the cost"

5. Pride costs more than hunger, thirst and cold.
***Jefferson never went hungry, thirsty, or cold--but he was quite proud of his table-scape and intelligent conversation. But maybe I'm reading too much into this particular rule. I'll leave it with him.

6. We seldom repent of having eaten too little.
***Jefferson liked his dinner parties. He had 3 or so regularly every week inviting whichever great thinkers happened to be in the neighborhood (either in Charlottesville or Washington D.C.). So, what Jefferson REALLY meant was "Never feel guilty for eating good food so long as there is intellectual gain in the process--and don't skimp on the quality"

7. Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly.
***Yes, spending all our income on current debts and luxuries without a care for the future really isn't troublesome. Of course, having a moral conscience for leaving the debt to future generations can be troublesome when it's unwillingly left to you (in other words: Jefferson chose to not be troubled by the debt he was unwillingly given; his son on the other hand was troubled and that is why he decided to pay it off instead of leaving it to the next generations).

9. Take things always by the smooth handle.
***Do things the easy way--it's much to difficult to set aside cash that could be used to pay off debts that will be due when the tempting French wine is right there waiting to be purchased. Did you know that he brought back like 86 CRATES of stuff from France to fill Monticello on ONE trip? How much debt do you think he could have paid off instead? Might Monticello have been able to stay in his family's hands if things had been done otherwise?

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Please, don't get me wrong, I appreciate Jefferson's intentions, but I think he could have executed them better. Mostly, I criticize because going to school at Mr. Jefferson's university (the University of Virginia) located less than a 30 minute drive from Monticello leaves a lot of people who practically worship him--when clearly, even the historians at Monticello want to know that there is more to the story. I WANT people to follow his 10 simple rules, but realize, he didn't always follow them in the context of what we've come to believe.

I was quite shocked when someone in the tour group I was with asked this simple question--How could Jefferson with all that we know about him, have died heavily in debt? I didn't even think of this conundrum before. In today's context, the fact that he was quite ill in his last years of life makes some wonder if medical bills could have been the cause (it's almost the cop out answer for frugal people today who die leaving many debts) but this was in the 1830s--medical bills were NOT an issue.

I feel that #8 could be criticized, but I couldn't figure out even what it would literally mean--or at least not enough to figure out a coherent sentence to explain it. If you have any idea of what it might mean or the critique, feel free to comment with it. Thanks.

I think 1 and 10 are safe :-). Gosh, if I could make records like Jefferson I would be set for life--If I'd been him, I would have been regularly weeks behind on the records because I would have so many better things to do with my time than to sit inside and keep records--have you seen Monticello?!?! Gosh! And as a plantation back in 1800 it would have only been more of a fascinating place to explore! As for 10--this is why describing Jefferson as a slave holder is so complicated. :-)

So, I invite each and everyone of you to Charlottesville, Virginia to visit Mr. Jefferson's home and his university. Don't take my word about the history told there--see it for yourself.

Here's the website for Monticello. If you take the virtual tour of the house, I'll say it right now--those rooms that you can view are the only rooms that are currently open for visit as part of the house tour--except the dome room--it is off limits in the house. I got stuck in the "north stair well" while taking the virtual tour (I kept going 'up' and 'down' the stairs while trying to explore the hallway). I thought it was just a reckless 'driver' with my mouse--nope--that stairwell is REALLY that small and I think that if I was able to explore the actual house I would end up doing the same thing as there is just no space to turn around. Alas, you can't venture up the stairs either :-(.