presidential blunders

A visit to Thomas Jefferson's Monticello in Charlottesville, Virginia, reveals an oddity that might seem to be a huge mistake. At his burial site on the grounds, Jefferson's grave is marked with a tombstone memorial with the following epitaph:

"Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom and Father of the University of Virginia."

What? No mention that he was governor of Virginia? Or that he served as Secretary of State or Vice President? Perhaps more important, the tombstone doesn't say that he served as president. An oversight, surely. A grievous mistake. Nope. Jefferson famously wrote his own epitaph, and even designed the modest monument. He wrote that his tombstone should be a "cube of three feet without any mouldings, surmounted by an obelisk of six feet height, each of a single stone; on the faces of the obelisk the following inscription and not a word more. Because by these, as testimonials that I have lived, I wish to be remembered." Jefferson says that the monument should "be of course stone of which my columns are made, that no one might be tempted hereafter to destroy it for the value of the materials." Ironically, Jefferson's original 1833 tombstone was damaged by visitors, and was eventually replaced with a new one. The original tombstone was donated to the University of Missouri, where it can be seen on the Francis Quadrangle. (Photo: Thomas Jefferson Foundation/Libby Fosso)