President Kennedy's humor

On April 29, 1962, President John F. Kennedy hosted a dinner at the White House for Nobel Prize winners. Roughly 49 living Nobel laureates attended, joined by other writers, scientists, and notable figures.

He welcomed them with these words:

“I want to tell you how welcome you are to the White House. I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.”

That was a sharp bit of wit!

President Kennedy then added:

“Someone once said that Thomas Jefferson was a gentleman of 32 who could calculate an eclipse, survey an estate, tie an artery, plan an edifice, try a cause, break a horse, and dance the minuet. Whatever he may have lacked, if he could have had his former colleague, Mr. Franklin, here we all would have been impressed.”

I later learned of the remark. The description of me as a young man came from the nineteenth-century biographer James Parton, who wrote that I could calculate an eclipse, survey an estate, tie an artery, plan an edifice, try a cause, break a horse, dance a minuet, and play the violin. Parton also said, “If Jefferson was wrong, America is wrong. If America is right, Jefferson was right.”

I was, in truth, a man of many pursuits. I observed and calculated aspects of solar eclipses, including one in 1811. I surveyed land, designed buildings such as Monticello and the University of Virginia, practiced law, and devoted myself to scientific, agricultural, and architectural studies. If the gathering that evening was as remarkable as he described, I am glad my name was linked to it, and I would only add that Mr. Franklin’s presence would indeed have raised the company still higher.