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Oil on canvas; 23 1/2 x 19 1/2 in. (59.7 x 49.5 cm). New-York Historical Society, New York, NY.
Oil on canvas; 23 1/2 x 19 1/2 in. (59.7 x 49.5 cm). New-York Historical Society, New York, NY.
I set out on this ground, which I suppose to be self-evident, that the earth belongs in usufruct to the living; that the dead have neither powers nor rights over it.
This, with its echo of the Declaration (self-evident
) was Jefferson at his most terse. Except for the phrase in usufruct
— a legalism meaning the right to use property for a certain time — Jefferson’s words could be chiseled in stone, or shouted on the hustings.