Fraunces Tavern Museum

New York
NY

Fraunces Tavern, New York

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Originally a residence, Samuel Fraunces turned the building into a tavern in 1763. It became the setting for Washington’s farewell dinner with his officers in 1783 and is now a restaurant and museum in Manhattan’s financial district.

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.

Richard Brookhiser
James Madison (2011)