Thomas Jefferson

58

Thomas Jefferson : biography

April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826

During the late 1780s, James Madison grew to believe that self-interested dependence could be filtered from a government. Jefferson, however, continued to idealize the yeoman farmer as the base for republican government. Whereas Madison became disillusioned with what he saw as excessive democracy in the states, Jefferson believed such excesses were caused by institutional corruptions rather than human nature. He remained less suspicious of working democracy than many of his contemporaries.

Wood argues that as president, Jefferson tried to re-create the balance between the states and federal government as it existed under the Articles of Confederation. He tried to shift the balance of power back to the states. Wood argues that Jefferson took this action from his classical republican conception that liberty could only be retained in small, homogeneous societies. He believed that the Federalist system enacted by Washington and Adams had encouraged corrupting patronage and dependence. According to Wood, many of Jefferson’s apparent contradictions can be understood within this philosophical framework. For example, his intent to deny women the franchise was rooted in his belief that a government must be controlled by the independent. In the 18th century, men believed that women were dependent by their nature. In common with most political thinkers of his day, Jefferson did not support gender equality. He opposed women’s participation in politics, saying that "our good ladies … are contented to soothe and calm the minds of their husbands returning ruffled from political debate."Richard B. Morris, Seven Who Shaped Our Destiny (1973), p. 133

Democracy

Jefferson is often cited as an important figure in early American democracy.Peterson, Merrill D. (1960) The Jefferson Image in the American Mind. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, Rouhollah K. Ramazani, ed. The future of liberal democracy: Thomas Jefferson and the contemporary world (2004) Peter Onuf has argued that Jefferson envisioned democracy as an expression of society as a whole, and that he called for national self-determination, cultural uniformity, and education of all the people (or all the males, as he believed at the time). His emphasis on uniformity did not envision a multiracial republic in which some groups were not fully assimilated into the identical republican values. Onuf argues that Jefferson was unable and unwilling to abolish slavery until such a demand could issue naturally from the sensibilities of the entire people.Peter Onuf, in John B. Boles, Randal L. Hall, eds. Seeing Jefferson Anew: In His Time and Ours (University of Virginia Press, 2010). Gordon Wood argues that Jefferson’s philosophy of liberty personified American ideals. Jefferson believed that public education and a free press were essential to a democratic nation: "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free it expects what never was and never will be….The people cannot be safe without information. Where the press is free, and every man able to read, all is safe".Thomas Jefferson to Charles Yancey, 1816, Jefferson, The Jeffersonian Cyclopedia (1900) pp 605, 727

Banks

Jefferson expressed a dislike and distrust for banks and bankers and opposed borrowing from them because he believed it created long-term debt as well as monopolies, and inclined the people to dangerous speculation, as opposed to productive labor on the farm.Donald F. Swanson, "Bank-Notes Will Be But as Oak Leaves": Thomas Jefferson on Paper Money," Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 1993, Vol. 101 Issue 1, pp 37–52 He once argued that each generation should pay back its debt within 19 years, and not impose a long-term debt on subsequent generations.

In 1791, President Washington asked Jefferson, who at the time was Secretary of State and Alexander Hamilton, the Secretary of the Treasury, if the Congress had the authority to create a national bank. While Hamilton believed Congress had the authority, Jefferson believed that a national bank in its capacity would ignore the needs of individuals and small farmers and was unconstitutional, assuming powers not granted to the federal government by the States and was therefore in violation of the Tenth Amendment, maintaining it violated the laws of Mortmain, Alienage, Forfeiture, Distribution and Monoploles.Jefferson, 1829 pp.536-537Jefferson, 1900 p.68Bailey, 2007 p.82 Jefferson along with his cohorts James Madison and William Giles accused Hamilton of maladministration in the duties of his office and for borrowing funds from European banks to support the national bank at the behest and interest of unscrupulous speculators, but his prolonged attempts to undermine Hamilton’s efforts nearly led Washington to relieve Jefferson from his cabinet. After much deliberation Jefferson was unable to substantiate the accusations levied at Hamilton.Chernow, 2004 pp.425-427 Jefferson also opposed the bank loans that financed the War of 1812 fearing it would compromise the war effort and plunge the nation into serious long term debt.