RECOVERED HISTORY

A LETTER TO THOMAS JEFFERSON

[We recently came across this while rummaging through our files. It was
written by Edward Schwartz of the Institute for the Study of Civic
Values for Social Policy in 1974]

Mr. Thomas Jefferson
Continental Congress
Independence Hall
Philadelphia, Pa.

Dear Mr. Jefferson:

We have read your "Declaration of Independence" with great interest.
Certainly, it represents a considerable undertaking, and many of your
statements do merit serious consideration. Unfortunately, the
Declaration as a whole fails to meet recently adopted specifications for
proposals to the Crown, so we must return the document to you for
further refinement. The questions which follow might assist you in your
process of revision.

1. In your opening paragraph you use the phrase "the Laws of Nature and
Nature's God." What are these laws? In what way are they the criteria on
which you base your central arguments? Please document with citations
from the recent literature.

2. In the same paragraph you refer to the "opinions of mankind." Whose
polling data are you using? Without specific evidence, it seems to us,
the "opinions of mankind" are a matter of opinion.

3. You hold certain truths to be "self-evident." Could you please
elaborate. If they are as evident as you claim, then it should not be
difficult for you to locate the appropriate supporting statistics.

4. "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" seem to be the goals of
your proposal. These are not measurable goals. If you were to say that
"among these is the ability to sustain an average life expectancy in six
of the 13 colonies of at least 55 years, and to enable all newspapers in
the colonies to print news without outside interference, and to raise
the average income of the colonists by 10 percent in the next 10 years,"
these would be measurable goals. Please clarify.

5. You state that "whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive
of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it,
and to institute a new Government. ..." Have you weighed this assertion
against all the alternatives? Or is it predicated solely on the baser
instincts?

6. Your description of the existing situation is quite extensive. Such a
long list of grievances should precede the statement of goals, not
follow it.

7. Your strategy for achieving your goal is not developed at all. You
state that the colonies "ought to be Free and Independent States," and
that they are "Absolved from All Allegiance to the British Crown." Who
or what must change to achieve this objective? In what way must they
change? What resistance must you overcome to achieve the change? What
specific steps will you take to overcome the resistance? How long will
it take? We have found that a little foresight in these areas helps to
prevent careless errors later on.

8. Who among the list of signatories will be responsible for
implementing your strategy? Who conceived it? Who provided the
theoretical research? Who will constitute the advisory committee? Please
submit an organization chart.

9. You must include an evaluation design. We have been requiring this
since Queen Anne's War.

10. What impact will your program have? Your failure to include any
assessment of this inspires little confidence in the long-range
prospects of your undertaking.

11. Please submit a PERT diagram, an activity chart, and an itemized
budget.

We hope that these comments prove useful in revising your "Declaration
of Independence."

Best Wishes,

Lord North

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JEREMY BENTHAM'S BURIAL INSTRUCTIONS

KIRCHER SOCIETY - When the utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham died
in 1832, he left a will with specific instructions pertaining to his
body's disposal:

"My body I give to my dear friend Doctor Southwood Smith to be disposed
of in a manner hereinafter mentioned, and I direct . . . he will take
my body under his charge and take the requisite and appropriate measures
for the disposal and preservation of the several parts of my bodily
frame in the manner expressed in the paper annexed to this my will and
at the top of which I have written Auto Icon. The skeleton he will cause
to be put together in such a manner as that the whole figure may be
seated in a chair usually occupied by me when living, in the attitude in
which I am sitting when engaged in thought in the course of time
employed in writing. I direct that the body thus prepared shall be
transferred to my executor. He will cause the skeleton to be clad in one
of the suits of black occasionally worn by me. The body so clothed,
together with the chair and the staff in the my later years bourne by
me, he will take charge of and for containing the whole apparatus he
will cause to be prepared an appropriate box or case and will cause to
be engraved in conspicuous characters on a plate to be affixed thereon
and also on the labels on the glass cases in which the preparations of
the soft parts of my body shall be contained . . . my name at length
with the letters ob: followed by the day of my decease. If it should so
happen that my personal friends and other disciples should be disposed
to meet together on some day or days of the year for the purpose of
commemorating the founder of the greatest happiness system of morals and
legislation my executor will from time to time cause to be conveyed to
the room in which they meet the said box or case with the contents
therein to be stationed in such part of the room as to the assembled
company shall seem meet."

The Auto-Icon now resides in a wooden cabinet in the South Cloisters of
the main building of University College London. From the UCL Bentham
project:

"Bentham had originally intended that his head should be part of the
Auto-Icon, and for ten years before his death (so runs another story)
carried around in his pocket the glass eyes which were to adorn it.
Unfortunately when the time came to preserve it for posterity, the
process went disastrously wrong, robbing the head of most of its facial
expression, and leaving it decidedly unattractive. The wax head was
therefore substituted, and for some years the real head, with its glass
eyes, reposed on the floor of the Auto-Icon, between Bentham's legs.
However, it proved an irresistible target for students, especially from
King's College London, who stole the head in 1975 and demanded a ransome
of £100 to be paid to the charity Shelter. UCL finally agreed to pay a
ransom of L10 and the head was returned. On another occasion, according
to legend, the head, again stolen by students, was eventually found in a
luggage locker at a Scottish Station (possibly Aberdeen). The last straw
(so runs yet another story) came when it was discovered in the front
quadrangle being used for football practice, and the head was henceforth
placed in secure storage.

http://www.kirchersociety.org/blog/?p=1185

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