Jun 20, 2026 By Brad Hundt 4 min read

“The person who differs from you politically is not your enemy,” the man in the black colonial garb and red hair exclaimed in Washington & Jefferson College’s Rossin Ballroom Tuesday night. Rather, he emphasized, “It is the person who argues in bad faith.”

The person who was making that argument was Thomas Jefferson.

Of course, if it actually were one of the two namesakes of W&J making that argument, it would be a story of monumental proportions, since Jefferson himself succumbed to an assortment of old-age ailments 200 years ago as of July 4. Instead, it was actor Steven Edenbo of the American Historical Theatre playing the part of Jefferson and underscoring some of the points Jefferson made in his role as the author of the Declaration of Independence, the nation’s third president and one of its leading proponents of the Enlightenment.

When Rachel Lozosky, chairman of the Washington County Bar Association’s public relations and service committee, said “he needs no introduction,” she wasn’t kidding.

Edenbo’s appearance was coordinated by the committee and its net proceeds will go to the Washington County Bar Foundation’s civics education programming. Kathy Sabol, the bar association’s executive director, said hearing Jefferson’s thoughts from a distance of a couple of centuries is “a commentary on what happened 250 years ago and how it relates to today.”

Edenbo as Jefferson pointed out that the resident of the White House from 1801 to 1809 was himself not much of a public speaker. “I mumbled and stumbled when I gave my two inaugural addresses, the only speeches I gave as president.” From there, Edenbo as Jefferson recounted a history of the early days of the republic, including his fierce rivalries with Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, the necessity of George Washington surrendering power when he was done being president and the baby steps a democratic system of governance had to take.

“We did not set up our government for mob rule, even though the majority must prevail,” Edenbo as Jefferson said. “I had to govern the entire nation, not just those who voted for me.”

He added, “I’m your servant and I’m the lowest servant in the country – and the president must serve all the people, not just the people who voted for him.”

One person who most definitely did not vote for Jefferson was Burr. Nevertheless, Burr was Jefferson’s vice president thanks to being the runner-up in the 1800 presidential election. It wasn’t until the passage of the 12th Amendment of the Constitution in 1804 that the president and vice president would be allies and not rivals. Burr has been notorious over the last two centuries for his murder of Hamilton and for being put on trial for treason. Edenbo as Jefferson said that Burr argued in bad faith and if he had ascended to the presidency, he never would have left.

“The greatest thing Gen. Washington did was go home” when his time as president was up, said Edenbo as Jefferson.

Jefferson is known for his defense of human freedom and the contradictory reality that he was a slave owner. Edenbo as Jefferson remarked, “I take responsibility for the fact that I failed when it came to slavery.”

Edenbo attended Dickinson College in Carlisle, where he received theatrical training. He was first introduced to American Historical Theatre in 1999, and has based his interpretation of Jefferson on years of research. He has interpreted Jefferson at Philadelphia’s Declaration House, a re-creation of the place where Jefferson lived when he penned the Declaration of Independence. He also starred as Jefferson in a six-part documentary on Jefferson created by the History Channel.

What advice might Jefferson give us today?

According to Edenbo as the president, “Human beings are born with a conscience and the capacity for reason. It is the job of the people to protect the Constitution from tyranny.”