Despite the shake-up in leadership at the University of Virginia, at least one senior administrator regards Thomas Jefferson with antipathy.

Kenyon Bonner, chief student affairs officer at the University of Virginia, delivered the keynote address to the graduating class of 2026 during Final Exercises. The Daily Progress provided this excerpt:

“Graduates, you symbolize the possibilities of Jefferson’s blueprint, even if he did not envision you as a probability,” he said. “I believe there is such a thing as a divine blueprint beyond any one mind, one that exceeds the limits that Jefferson himself could not overcome. For all his brilliance, his unfounded and ethically corrosive claims about human capacity reflected his ignorance and his hubris.”

Bonner’s negative comments about Thomas Jefferson were not well received in many quarters.

The Jefferson Council provided the following response.

The Jefferson Council strongly condemns Kenyon Bonner’s denigration and marginalization of Thomas Jefferson during his address at UVA’s final exercises. His remarks were incongruous, unseemly, and incorrect– and perhaps more than anything, they were an example of psychological projection. 

Most egregiously, Bonner proclaimed, “For all his brilliance, his unfounded and ethically corrosive claims about human capacity reflected his ignorance and hubris. History teaches us that ignorance precedes injustice.”

To characterize Mr. Jefferson as uniquely marked by “ignorance and hubris” says less about Jefferson than it does about the speaker. It requires extraordinary hubris and profound ignorance to dismiss one of the greatest minds in the history of Western civilization as a person materially enveloped by those traits. Reducing Mr. Jefferson to such a caricature reflects an unfathomable lack of historical understanding and is nothing less than flawed ideological certainty masquerading as moral clarity.

It is a tragedy and a disgrace that UVA’s Vice President and Chief Student Affairs Officer actually felt it necessary to insult our Founder in such an atrocious fashion in front of thousands of members of the University community on such a joyous occasion.

Tom Neale, a former president of the Jefferson Council, had this to say in an email to Bonner:

Dear Mr. Bonner (FYI President Beardsley),

I am a UVA alumnus and also the father of two daughters who are alumnae.

Successful Keynote speaker addresses at graduation ceremonies, no matter what the university, are apolitical and uplifting. I read in the Daily Progress today that you were chosen to give the UVA 2026 Keynote address. Rather than extol the benefits of a UVA education and provide the graduates advice on how to utilize their lessons learned to lead a successful life, you chose the occasion to excoriate our founder, Thomas Jefferson. Your remarks were not only coarse and inappropriate, they were also factually wrong.

Thomas Jefferson was considered to be the preeminent philosophical intellectual among the Founding Fathers. If it were true that “unfounded and ethically corrosive claims about human capacity reflected his ignorance and his hubris” do you truly believe the other Founding Fathers – Washington, Adams, Monroe, Madison, Franklin et al – would have chosen him to write our Declaration of Independence? I honestly do not believe I have ever read a more inflammatory, uninformed or historically ignorant statement in my life.

Thomas Jefferson owned slaves, as did several other Founding Fathers, but slavery in the 18^th century was commonplace across the world. That fact in no way minimizes the rightful condemnation of slavery’s inherent immorality. However, a myopic analysis like yours completing ignores judging history’s leaders in the historical context of their times. Slavery existed in literally every country of the world 2 centuries ago. It was not abolished in England until 1833 (https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/Abolition-Of-Slavery/), France in 1848 (https://legalclarity.org/when-was-slavery-officially-banned-in-france/), and the Netherlands in 1863 (https://dutchreview.com/culture/history/life-of-the-slaves-in-dutch-colonies/) to cite three prominent Western countries. America and other Western democratic countries had innumerable leaders two centuries ago who cannot be dismissed simply because they do not conform to the mores that we adhere to in the 21^st century. For the record, slavery still exists – in Africa and China.

Ironically, Jefferson was considered a Progressive in his time given his early attempts to abolish or at least limit slavery:

• He sponsored a 1799 VA House of Delegates bill to abolish slavery or at least ban the importation of slaves from Africa (which the VA House would not pass): https://www.thirteen.org/wnet/historyofus/web05/features/source/C03.html.
• 1807 Act Prohibiting the Importation of Slaves that Jefferson promoted and approved as President: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Act_Prohibiting_Importation_of_Slaves.  

Were you aware of these bills and Jefferson’s position? Are his efforts to take a leadership role in ending slavey further proof to you of his “ignorance and hubris?”

You do not address Jefferson and the Sally Hemings “relationship” referenced in the Daily Progress article above. I will since I am sure your unquestioning belief that this accusation is based on fact further exacerbates your hatred of Thomas Jefferson. In 2001, 14 preeminent history scholars undertook an exhaustive study – The Scholars Commission – to examine the facts behind the by then accepted accusation that Thomas Jefferson had numerous children with his slave Sally Hemings. The study’s historians unanimously agreed that he did not. I am sure you won’t believe this. Below are articles that provide corroboration, facts that have been absolutely ignored by 21^st century “scholars” (sic), the media, and even the Monticello Foundation. Why? Because if you deem Jefferson to be devoid of honor and hypocritical, then it’s an easy step to assume he would sexually assault a slave he owned, something that is 100% antithetical to any objective analysis of his character, Jefferson’s noble stated standards of conduct for all men, and unquestioned intellect. I would ask that you access the links below to respected sources that corroborate The Scholars Commission conclusions about Jefferson:

• The Heritage Foundation: https://www.tjheritage.org/the-scholars-commission.
• The Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy: https://www.thomasjeffersoninst.org/resolving-the-sally-hemings-myth/.
• Wall Street Journal editorial: https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB994117953532119854. 
• Summary of the Scholars Commission Report: https://cap-press.com/pdf/1179.pdf.

I’ll make my last point. You are a senior administrator at the one American university founded by a Founding Father, an honor that no other American university holds. If you are so conflicted or repulsed by Mr. Jefferson, I have two suggestions:

1. You should have had the moral integrity to have never accepted your job in the first place. You clearly have a core disgust with Thomas Jefferson’s character. I have a 4-decade career in the corporate finance private sector. Analogously, I would never have sought a position with a company founded by a man I considered to be a racist, antisemite or avowed fascist.
2. Given that you seem to harbor such vile feelings about Mr. Jefferson, you should resign. Immediately. Or be fired (this is for your consideration President Beardsley).

President Beardsley and the UVA Board of Visitors should immediately address your ignorant and historically intemperate remarks. I hope that you receive many more emails like this from enraged alumni and friends of UVA who cherish the ideals of our Founding Father, Thomas Jefferson.

Sincerely,

Thomas M. Neale
UVA ’74