MONTICELLO, the home of America's third president, is a little the worse for wear. When I visited last weekend, Virginia's hills were ablaze with dogwood, redbud and new green leaves. In contrast, the walls and trim of Thomas Jefferson's home needed a coat of paint, the glazing putty in the north windows wanted renewing and the basement corridor demanded a fresh coat of whitewash. Springtime at Monticello
Nevertheless, Jefferson's imagination still lives in this building. Thousands of visitors troop through its space-saving narrow halls, admiring his inventions. In the entrance hang the huge elk horns brought back by Lewis and Clark from the Louisiana Territory, purchased by a Jefferson who could foresee a transcontinental United States.
Within that nation Jefferson's ideals survive, though in perpetual conflict with those of privilege and secrecy. Our republic, like Monticello, may be a little the worse for wear, but its principles are as alive today as the dogwood and redbud gracing its lawns. Jefferson elegantly phrased them in these words:
''We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness -- That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed.''