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"Instead
of being the ardent pursuer of science some think him, he is indolent and
his soul is poisoned with ambition." (John
Adams, 1794; as quoted in The
First Ten. "The
democrats are divided into speculative theorists and absolute theorists.
With the latter I am disposed to class Mr. Jefferson." John
Marshall, as quoted in The First
Ten. "Nicknames:
alcoholic, a tool of France, an anti-Christ, Jacobin, apostle of the race
track and cock pit."
The
First Ten. "Mr.
Jefferson is an enemy to the Constitution of the United States and wishes
its destruction – that if he is elected President, the Constitution will
fall a sacrifice to Jacobinism… These are evils which call for universal
attention, and the most effectual counteraction. Whence these sentiments
obtain a steadfast foothold among us, they will spread like wild-fire and
like wild-fire they will destroy. They will enter your dwellings, deprave
the minds of your children, estrange the affections of parents and pollute
the affections of husbands and wives. Against these foes of the whole
human race, let the virtuous and patriotic of every age and character
unite, and exert every possible power." Conneticut Courant, June 25,
1800. "When
the storms of war had subsided, the philosophic politician peeped out of
his hermitage, and prompted by the same disinterested affection for his
fellow citizens, counted and accepted embassy to the Monarch of France. At
that voluptuous and accomplished court, with a salary of $9000 per annum,
which the people could easily pay, after an impoverishing war, the
ambassador had leisure and opportunity to polish his manners, strengthen
his zeal for republicanism, and lay the foundation of that ardent
affection for France, which has burnt with equal sincerity, to the
Monarch, to the convention, to the National Assembly, to Robespierre, to
the five kings and to king Bonaparte." Columbian
Centinel; June 28, 1800. "Mr.
Jefferson, the enemy of the Federal Constitution from the moment he read
it, the friend of all its enemies for that very reason, and for this
other, that he was the enemy of its friends… it is obvious, alas! too
obvious to all discerning men, that our danger is great, is extreme, is
imminent… with a Jacobin President our government could not be saved."
Columbian
Centinel; July 5, 1800. "This
famous letter unbosoms the greatest hypocrite in the United States. It
draws forth from the mist which faction artfully raises about itself, the
leader, the foul, the primum mobile of that faction. Future ages will
consign its author to an infamy as eternal as vice – as everlasting as
treason." Columbian
Centinel; August 2, 1800. |
Thomas
Jefferson In 1961, John Kennedy entertained American Nobel Prize winners at a gala dinner. He said that it was the greatest collection of talent and genius gathered at the White House at one time since Jefferson dined alone there. Besides Madison, he was surely the one who was the exemplar of the Enlightenment with broad gauged interests from botany and agriculture to philosophy, Greek, Latin, mathematics, music and architecture. Nevertheless, he had no rhetorical gifts and was a mumbler who best communicated through the written word and small groups. His opponents called his small group discussions "intrigues." And there was something to the claim for Jefferson had mastered the art of deception to obtain his ends, according to Alexander Hamilton. Whatever Jefferson's radical protestations were, he remained throughout his life a privileged gentleman and when he was president he fostered the idea of the aristocracy of intellect and wealth, which was close to the hearts of the Virginians and, for that matter, the Federalists. The Jefferson presidency was marred by difficulty which did not respond easily to his brilliance or insight. His greatest accomplishment, the Louisiana purchase, required that he deny in practice his own ideas of a limited national government. Fortune also plays an important role in political life ,and without the Louisiana purchase from Napoleon, his presidency would seem somewhat lackluster. Yet it is his spirit and understanding of both tolerance and reasonableness for those we disagree with on any and all issues, even with regard to the political system itself, which remains at the heart of the American experiment. In this regard, he believed in human perfectibility and sought those relationships and affections which would allow for the better selves of human beings to become dominant. He came to embody in his writings strong beliefs in human rights and first amendment rights such as freedom of speech and press. He was accused of being an atheist, and his interest in religion was to ensure that no state religion would be established which would exclude different strands of belief systems. His relationship to slavery was equivocal. He attempted to write into the Declaration of Independence an attack on slavery which was removed by representatives from Georgia and South Carolina. As president he signed a law in 1807 which marked the end of the slave trade in the United States prior to the constitutional cut off date of 1808. Nevertheless, he also kept slaves, whom were released from bondage upon his death, and recent scholarship suggests that he had a slave mistress who may have borne him children. While he was interested in Indians he did not see them as part of an advanced civilization, perhaps in part because he claimed that the men had small penises. He sought ways to obtain Indian lands through peaceful means such as introducing a cash economy which would make them dependent on "company stores." In fact, one of the charges against King George the Third in the Declaration of Independence was that the British favored and protected Indians over the colonists. As president Jefferson struggled for repeal of the most draconian aspects of his predecessor's administration, namely the Alien and Sedition acts. Thomas Jefferson, a son of Virginia, was a planter and plantation owner. His father owned a substantial plantation and was a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses. Little is known about Thomas Jefferson's mother. What is clear is that Jefferson had a privileged childhood. Privileged it might have been, but like other American presidents, Jefferson did not escape an avalanche of personal suffering. In some presidential cases it led to depression as in the case of James Madison. In Jefferson's case personal tragedy may have increased his own sense of distance and courteous aloofness toward others. Jefferson lost his father when he was 14. Four of his children died before adulthood and his wife died a year after her son by her first marriage died. Martha Wayles Skelton, who was Jefferson's first and only wife died at thirty-three. Jefferson's early life prepared him for solitary and disciplined pursuits although he sought the company of women and had various companions throughout his life. Indeed, by contemporary standards he might have been categorized as a "groper" who pursued women that did not have an interest in him. As a youth it was said that he studied fifteen hours a day at William and Mary college. Afterwards he spent five years studying law which served him well; as vice-president he wrote a treatise on parliamentary law which continues to be referred to in senate debates and parliamentary decisions. In one sense, Jefferson began his political life as a conspirator. He was a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, where he argued for home rule without interference from the King. At the same time he was part of the Committees of Correspondence, an underground group of the time that was organized in several colonies which laid out the strategic basis for ending British colonial rule. One of the great moments in world history came with the fashioning of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. The document, written primarily by Jefferson not only stated the incursions of the British on self rule and gave the rationale for revolution, but it brought together a vision of humanity which, since then, has been used as the formulation of liberty and possibility for people, wherever they might be. In other words, while it was a practical document of immediate action, it remains a document of aspiration. Jefferson set the pattern for radical democratic struggle prior to his becoming president. He understood the importance of ideals without giving up reforms which would have immediate effect. In the Virginia legislature after the Revolutionary war began, he successfully argued for changes in primogeniture, which gave the eldest son the sole right to inherit land. This change forced the breakup of huge landed estates through legislatively induced land reform. Jefferson was chosen Governor of Virginia and he served from 1779-81. Whether he was a good wartime governor is debated. He had to confront the British directly and he elected to move the Virginia government to Charlottesville from Richmond. He and his family escaped the clutches of the British, though not without personal pain. His wife died a year after their flight from the Virginia capital. After the war, he became a member of the Continental Congress and, perhaps because of his familiarity and sympathy with French ideas of reform and revolution, he was named by the continental congress to be its Minister to France. As a result, he was not directly involved in the debates over the writing of the Constitution until its last stages when he urged that the document be amended with a Bill of Rights. Jefferson's fame as a diplomat, writer and politician was recognized by George Washington, who asked him to be his secretary of state, a position at the time which did not distinguish between foreign and domestic policy matters. In political terms Jefferson was the left of the cabinet, antagonizing Alexander Hamilton, who called for a strong central government dominated by the most economically substantial elements of the young nation. Jefferson did not favor a strong central bank, a proposal of Hamilton's, but instead favored the creation of small state banks. These banks later turned out to be financially shaky enterprise without sufficient backing to them. His disagreements with Hamilton also extended to foreign policy. Jefferson was more comfortable with the revolutionary changes in France, and therefore favored France over Great Britain while Hamilton favored Great Britain and feared that revolutionary changes emanating from France would spread to the nascent republic, upsetting the tenuous hold which the Federalists and the commercial elements had on the direction of the nation. Jefferson withdrew from President Washington's cabinet in December 1792 to the relief of Washington who favored Hamilton on economic matters. Jefferson began his own trek to the presidency, and after Washington retired he polled the second highest number of electoral votes to John Adams automatically becoming Vice-President to the Federalist Adams. It was in this role that he was able to lay the basis for a more direct onslaught on Federalist ideas as the President of the Senate, while laying the basis for his own candidacy for president. His ideas became the alternative philosophy of government which he intended to use as the wedge to destroy the Federalist party. He and Madison attacked the Alien and Sedition laws as unconstitutional and unenforeable in the states through resolutions in Virginia and Kentucky. Ironically, the form of this resolution became the basis for nullification claims which were made later on by John Calhoun in his fight for slavery and states rights. The electoral vote for the third president was tied between Aaron Burr of New York and Thomas Jefferson. The third candidate, John Adams lagged behind. The issue was to be decided in the House of Representatives. The Federalists held their collective noses and supported Jefferson on the grounds that Burr was an unstable deceiver interested in his own glory at whatever cost and Jefferson was more of a known quantity. Burr had refused to accept the position as vice president which ostensibly he had agreed to do when he learned of the electoral tie between him and Jefferson. Jefferson then undercut vice president Burr who left Washington after Jefferson's first term to run for governor of New York. He was defeated and he held Hamilton responsible for his defeat, claiming that Hamilton had besmirched his name with lies. This led to a duel in which Hamilton was killed by Burr. Burr then sought to establish his own empire in the West out of the Louisiana purchase which led to a trial of treason. Although he was acquitted, his reputation was ruined. Jefferson more than doubled the size of the United States as president with his Louisiana purchase of 1803. By so doing he greatly strengthened the implied powers of the presidential office. Congress had only given him permission to negotiate for part of Florida, but he greatly exceeded that authorization, thereby changing the character of the United States and the presidency. He further extended the office of the presidency by inventing the idea of executive privilege which he invoked in the trial of Aaron Burr saying certain papers were beyond the scope of the trial and the president had the authority to decide which papers fell in that category. In his first term, he fought successfully for the lowering of taxes and changed the naturalization for citizenship requirements to five years. In foreign affairs he sought to find a way of protecting American shipping in the Mediterranean by confronting the Barbary Coast pirates who charged a tribute to the various nations that sailed near Tunis, Morocco and Algiers. Jefferson put a stop to paying tribute when the pirates captured the American ship, Philadelphia. He ordered a daring raid which destroyed the captured ship and then proceeded to shell the coast. The pirates gave up their tribute-charging ways, although Jefferson paid a ransom of 60000 dollars to get the return of captured American sailors. His second term was marred by poor relations with the British and the French. He imposed an embargo on shipping between them as an alternative to war, which many had wanted on the grounds that the British stopped our ships and took from them American seamen. The embargo resulted in general unpopularity, especially among the commercial shipping class and those dependent on their livelihood to trade. Jefferson softened the policy before he left office with his Non-Intercourse act but the damage to the trading classes was done, although internal manufacture and internal trade was aided greatly. Jefferson left office in March 1809 turning it over to his friend and student, James Madison. He left close to bankruptcy, which he escaped through the sale of his library to congress. They had been close friends and indeed Dolly Madison for a time raised one of Jefferson's children when he was minister to France. In his old age, he reconnected with John Adams. One of Jefferson's concerns in his correspondence with Adams was slavery in which he said that he had dreams of slaves rising up and marching against the whites because of the depredations done to them. Jefferson founded and designed the University of Virginia in his
retirement. Jefferson died on July 4,1826 - the same day as John Adams. |
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