History is funny

Monday, 11:22 pm

By Kate

Feb

16

2009

I’ve been meaning to mention this for a while, simply because it amused me. A couple of weeks ago, Andrew Card (GW’s first chief of staff) made the headlines for criticizing President Obama for not wearing a jacket in the Oval Office. Quoting from a New York Times piece, Andrew said:

“The Oval Office symbolizes…the Constitution, the hopes and dreams, and I’m going to say democracy. And when you have a dress code in the Supreme Court and a dress code on the floor of the Senate, floor of the House, I think it’s appropriate to have an expectation that there will be a dress code that respects the office of the President.”

Mr. Card went on to add that, while he would not criticize Mr. Obama for his appearance, “I do expect him to send the message that people who are going to be in the Oval Office should treat the office with the respect that it has earned over history.”

I chuckled over the last statement. I’ve recently read about some of that history and learned something I never knew before: Thomas Jefferson, as President, was an utter slob. And he enjoyed it very much. Of course, the Oval Office wasn’t completed yet, but his chambers for receiving visitors and statesmen were most definitely in the White House. He created quite a bit of consternation with his manner of dress and refusal to acknowledge protocol (George Washington, setting precedent, had been a real stickler for both).

An excerpt from a terrific (and recommended) book entitled Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy by Ian W. Toll:

The president was willing to receive unscheduled visitors during the morning and midday hours, just as he would receive a neighbor at Monticello, but he assumed no obligation to dress for the occasion. Senator Plumer, when accompanied by Congressman Joseph Varnum to meet Jefferson for the first time in 1802, recalled that “a few moments after our arrival, a tall, high-boned man came into the room. He was dressed, or rather undressed, in an old brown coat, red waistcoat, old corduroy small-clothes much soiled, woolen hose, and slippers without heels. I thought him a servant, when General Varnum surprised me by announcing that it was the President.” The English chargé d’affaires (later ambassador) John Foster gave a similar description: “He wore a blue coat, a thick grey-coloured hairy waistcoat with a red under-waistcoat lapped over it, green velveteen breeches with pearl buttons, yarn stocking and slippers down at the heel, his appearance being very much like that of a tall, large-boned farmer.” The editor of the Evening Post, in 1802, found him “dressed in long boots with tops turned down about the ankles like a Virginia Buck; overalls of corduroy faded, by frequent immersions in soap suds, from yellow to a dull white; a red single-breasted waistcoat; a light brown coat with brass buttons, both coat and waistcoat quite threadbare; linen very considerably soiled; hair uncombed and beard unshaven."

Some interpreted Jefferson’s “negligent simplicity” as a calculated provocation. Foster said that the president, in ignoring the standards of dress and grooming expected of a head of state, “flattered the low passions of a mere newspaper-taught rabble, and seemed pleased to mortify men of rank and station."

Jefferson went on to offend in a number of other matters, as well, nearly sending the British ambassador and his wife over the edge. In fact, the man simply refused to accept any further invitations to the White House after being so affronted. Jefferson thought he and his wife were pains in the you know what.

Somehow, despite Jefferson’s dreadful lack of respect for the Office of the President, he and we muddled on. I have no doubt that Jefferson would have called Andrew Card a pompous ass if Andrew had been alive and complaining back in the day.