Jefferson in Paris
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The mayor of Paris, the mayor of Washington, and the American ambassador to France improved Paris yesterday by unveiling a statue of Thomas Jefferson along the Seine near the Musee d’Orsay. The French-American relationship has been under strain lately as Britain has emerged as America’s foremost European ally in the Iraq War from which France shrank. But the Fourth of July is a fine time to remember that the French alliance was a key to America gaining independence from Britain. Jefferson, the congressman from Virginia who drafted the Declaration of Independence that was issued on July 4, 1776, personified the friendship. Jefferson was envoy to Paris from 1785 to 1793. He filled his cellar at Monticello with French wine. After being elected America’s third president, Jefferson in 1803 made the Louisiana Purchase from Napoleon, vastly expanding America’s territory by adding lands that include parts of present-day Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and Louisiana.
Erecting a statue to Jefferson in France is only a start. Jefferson died July 4,1826. It would be an exaggeration to say that the relations between America and France have gone downhill ever since. France gave America – and New York harbor – the Statue of Liberty as a gesture to mark the 100th anniversary of American independence. Ernest Hemingway did a tour in Paris in the 1920s. The liberation of France from Nazi-Vichy occupation in World War II engendered a brief renewal of Franco-American good feelings. Jacqueline Kennedy won the heart of Paris for a new generation. And there was Jacques Chirac’s 2003 kiss of Laura Bush’s hand. President Reagan’s speech on the 40th anniversary of D-Day -“These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war” – was a visit to France that resonates powerfully. Maybe the Florence Gould Foundation and Guy Wildenstein, who reportedly underwrote the Jefferson statue, will extend the honor to France with a statue of Reagan?
