Thomas Jefferson: “Our Sacred Honor”
by Robert L. Pyles, MD
March 2025
In the last line of the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson wrote “We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, & our sacred honor”.
Notice that “honor” is the only part of the pledge that is, quite literally, considered to be “sacred”.
It is difficult for us in this day and age, to fully appreciate what the concept of “honor” meant to Jefferson and his colleagues in the Eighteenth Century, but it was to be taken, in fact, deadly seriously. When duels were fought in that age, which they were not infrequently, it was almost always over a presumed offense of “honor”. In fact, most famously, Alexander Hamilton was killed by Aaron Burr, over just such a matter.
Even at the University of Virginia, such duels between students, and such disputes over matters of honor, ultimately resulting in the shooting death of a professor, was one of the motivations for the initiation of a formal “honor system”.
The important point is that for Jefferson, honor was considered to be “sacred”; certainly more important than one’s fortune, even more important than one’s life. For Jefferson to end the Declaration with this most solemn and “sacred” of vows makes it abundantly clear that “honor” was not only at the center of his life. It was at the center of his soul.
This is another reason to consider that for Jefferson to have been involved in the kind of exploitative relationship of which he is being accused [Sally Hemings], would have meant a repudiation of his very being-his “sacred” honor.
__________________________
Among other credits, Dr. Pyles served as President of the American Psychoanalytic Association and was awarded the honor of “Distinguished Life Fellow” of the American Psychiatric Association.
by Robert L. Pyles, MD
March 2025
In the last line of the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson wrote “We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, & our sacred honor”.
Notice that “honor” is the only part of the pledge that is, quite literally, considered to be “sacred”.
It is difficult for us in this day and age, to fully appreciate what the concept of “honor” meant to Jefferson and his colleagues in the Eighteenth Century, but it was to be taken, in fact, deadly seriously. When duels were fought in that age, which they were not infrequently, it was almost always over a presumed offense of “honor”. In fact, most famously, Alexander Hamilton was killed by Aaron Burr, over just such a matter.
Even at the University of Virginia, such duels between students, and such disputes over matters of honor, ultimately resulting in the shooting death of a professor, was one of the motivations for the initiation of a formal “honor system”.
The important point is that for Jefferson, honor was considered to be “sacred”; certainly more important than one’s fortune, even more important than one’s life. For Jefferson to end the Declaration with this most solemn and “sacred” of vows makes it abundantly clear that “honor” was not only at the center of his life. It was at the center of his soul.
This is another reason to consider that for Jefferson to have been involved in the kind of exploitative relationship of which he is being accused [Sally Hemings], would have meant a repudiation of his very being-his “sacred” honor.
__________________________
Among other credits, Dr. Pyles served as President of the American Psychoanalytic Association and was awarded the honor of “Distinguished Life Fellow” of the American Psychiatric Association.