Founding Fathers at Poplar Forest sound off on today's political hot topics

Poplar Forest in Bedford County is presenting its “Conversations with Thomas Jefferson” event today with guest Patrick Henry.

Bill Barker has portrayed Jefferson for more than 20 years and is a frequent speaker at the retreat home in Forest. Richard Schumann has portrayed Patrick Henry at Colonial Williamsburg for the past 15 years.

The News & Advance sat down Friday with Jefferson and Henry. The actors’ portrayals show the two historic figures respect and admire each other, despite differences in political opinions they are not shy to express.

Q: A recent poll indicates that about 80 percent of Americans mistrust the government. What is your reaction to such a statistic?

(Both men laugh and say the number seems low).

Jefferson: “We have always had mistrust in our government, and so we should. After all, the government must never forget the reason they are seated is because the people allow the government to be seated. Is that not the principle over which we engaged our American revolution? It does require a great faith and trust in the people themselves to be self-reliant and responsible for their government. If they are not, then we fall backward into a state of monarchy, desiring the government to take care of ourselves rather than to have that self-reliance in which we realize we take care of the government. We hold the reins for our government. I’ve always said a child of 14 cannot wear the same clothes at the age of 40. So our laws and institutions must grow as we grow as a people.”

Henry: “As Mr. Jefferson is fully aware, I am one of the opponents to the formation of a national and consolidated government, a so-called federal government. And when I announced that I had a great many suspicions with the design of that particular plan, I was shouted down for a time, in fact … to which I replied you may call me suspicious or old-fashioned, but when it comes to preserving the rights of Virginians, I would consider suspicion to be a great virtue indeed.”

Q: What is your advice to those seeking public office?

Jefferson: “To remind themselves they are always a public servant — that they must always attend to the public will. Our system of government is founded and based upon majority rule and yet the duty and obligation of the majority is never to forget that they are obligated to protect and defend the rights of the minority. You must also remember when you are in government never do something in private that you would not do in public because it would soon be found out. And to realize the essential principle, in my opinion, of good government is the art of simply being honest.”

Henry: “I would point out to those holding public office the people who have elected you have given you their trust and their confidence to make great self-sacrifices for the betterment of the commonweal. This is what we frequently define as public virtue. And I certainly pray that those who are elected to higher office will never lose that spirit.”

Q: The Tea Party movement has formed in the past year to protest recent decisions made by the federal government. What is your reaction to such a movement?

Henry: (Mentions the Boston Tea Party of 1773 and calls it noble, though he admits the participants broke the law by destroying private property). “We Virginians consider property to be sacred. And yet at the same time, when we cannot attain redress to our grievances by reasonable and constitutional methods, we sometimes must let our resistance be with fortitude and undaunted resolution. I fully support such a movement of resistance you speak of. I’m reminded of something Col. George Mason wrote: ‘The doctrine of nonresistance to arbitrary power and oppressive government is absurd, slavish and dangerous to the good and happiness of mankind.’”

Jefferson: “You say a tea party movement in reference to outcries and opposition to the government? If I recall, Mr. Henry, it was not so much the outcry and opposition to the government that prompted the so-called Tea Party in Boston Harbor as much as it was the outcry and opposition to the growing monopoly of the East India Company and the association of that great corporation with the government, with the monarchy. So I would hope that if there is such an outcry once more, and it is ever the right of the people to do so, that it might be founded upon proof and fact as to whether it is precisely the government they attack or whether it is great business conducted by corporations that they have found mistrustful and relying itself too closely to government.”

Q: Describe, in your own words, your thoughts of each other.

Jefferson: “I cannot help but think of Mr. Henry as a compatriot. We worked together in order to bring about the American Revolution. We collaborated on some of the earliest proclamations for our securing of liberty and our right to express and represent ourselves. Despite our differences of opinion, and we have had them extensively, I still have pronounced I do not know what we would have done without him.”

Henry: “I believe Mr. Jefferson to be a young man of considerable promise. We first began working together as conspirators, if you will, in the House of Burges-ses. It can be honestly stated that when trouble to Great Britain was caused in the city of Williamsburg, Mr. Jefferson and I were directly responsible for it.”

If you're going?

• Today’s event includes a matinee performance at 2:15 p.m., with tea at 1:30 p.m.
• Tickets are $28 for adults and $12 for youth.
• An evening performance has sold out, said Anna Bentson, director of public relations.