Toward the end of his life, Thomas Jefferson wrote several letters of advice to young people, several of whom had been named after him by admiring parents. One was a young man named Thomas Jefferson Smith, whose father had written the aged former president in the hope he’d offer his young son some life advice. His words were powerful: “Your affectionate and excellent father has requested that I would address to you something which might possibly have a favorable influence on the course of life you have to run, and I too, as a namesake, feel an interest in that course … Adore God. Reverence and cherish your parents. Love your neighbor as yourself, and your country more than yourself. Be just. Be true. Murmur not at the ways of Providence. So shall the life into which you have entered, be the portal to one of eternal and ineffable bliss.” …