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.
Joshua Reynolds (1723—92)
Oil on canvas. SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, GA.
Oil on canvas; 25 x 18 3/4 inches (63.5 x 47.6 cm). Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT.
Oil on canvas; 737 x 616 mm. Tate Gallery, London, England.
Oil on canvas; 39 in. x 31 1/4 in. (991 mm x 794 mm). National Portrait Gallery, London, England.
Oil on canvas; 2390 mm x 1460 mm (94.1 × 57.5 in). National Maritime Museum, London, England.
Oil on canvas; w641 x h768 cm. Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT.
Oil on canvas; 750 x 620 mm. National Trust, Petworth House and Park, West Sussex, England.
Oil on canvas. Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, Amherst, MA.
Oil on canvas; w635 x h762 cm. Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT.
Oil on canvas; 50 x 39 7/8 in. (127 x 101.3 cm). The Frick Collection, New York, NY.
James Madison (2011)