Thomas Jefferson has a prominent place in the history of not only the United States but also the world. His ideas and his zeal for implementing those ideas showed him to be far ahead of his time. So far ahead in fact, that when compared against his actions, he often appeared the hypocrite in some of his views on slavery and the power of the government. Thomas Jefferson was great man, but like all figures in American history, he was also filled with imperfections. Thomas Jefferson had a revolutionary fervor that was exactly what the United States needed during its birth, however his revolutionary fervor had both positive and negative aspects some showing him to be a great philosopher and others showing him to be rather hypocritical. This paper will cover what Thomas Jefferson believed and how he came to believe these things. It will compare the convictions he portrays in his writings with the things we know of him in history. It will cover the negative view and the positive view of Jefferson's life and thoughts, and show that Jefferson was as any other great thinker, trapped by the doctrines of his culture and his time. Great men, as Issac Newton once said about himself, are great because they're able to stand on the shoulder's of giants. Thomas Jefferson is a great man who was no different. He was first and foremost a reader, and he believed that the enlightenment thinkers John Locke, Francis Bacon, and Issac Newton were the “three greatest men the world had ever produced” (Peterson 1236). Every good writer is an avid reader, and it's no secret that Jefferson's prose was written by a capable, well-rounded and educated man. Even John Adams, who nobody ever described as being humble, admitted that Jefferson was the better writer saying, “Reason third [it should be you to write the Declaration of Independence}, you can write ten times better than I can” (eyewitnesstohistory.com). Jefferson's skill probably came from his intensive studies, at least he would have thought so, since he subscribed to John Locke's theory of Tabula Rasa, which is the theory that the mind begins as a ‘blank slate', contrary to the beliefs at that time that, nobility and even evil was innate. There was no single person Sarda 2 that influenced Jefferson more than John Locke. John Locke was a political philosopher, who in his work Treatise on Government, said if a government doesn't guarantee life, liberty, and property then it can and should be overthrown(Locke 154). This statement more than anything influence not only the Declaration of Independence, but also Thomas Jefferson's revolutionary spirit. A topic of hot debate today is the religious beliefs of some of America's founding fathers. Today's talking heads, in both the religious and the political ideological spectrum often try to show that the founding fathers of America, who have been deified, supported their world views. The best way, by any historian's standard, to see what the founding fathers and particularly Thomas Jefferson believed and how it influenced them is to read primary sources, which means their actual letters and words and to read the records of their actions. Thomas Jefferson rejected the deification of Jesus Christ, even claiming in a letter to Joseph Priestly, that he was “Christian only in the sense in which [Jesus] wished anyone to be...” He continued in that same set of letters, “…of his being a member of the god-head… [was] claimed for him by some of his followers, and denied by others.” Jefferson though, wasn't anti-Jesus, in fact he wrote a short book call The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth , in which he edited the gospels, removing all mention of any miracles or anything supernatural leaving only his teachings. His view of organized state sponsored religion can summed up when he called the church “…the most perverted system that ever shone on man.” (constitution.org/tj/jeff10.txt).
This talk about religion is important because it helps to explain why Thomas Jefferson was the revolutionary he was. In his time, it was believed that all men were born with a certain amount of evil, but as stated above Jefferson believed men to be born as blank slates. It was believed in Jefferson's day, that even within the European races, there were people who were ‘betters' (Matson 122), but Jefferson believed that everyone should be given the opportunity to become better. It's these qualities, handed down to him from the enlightenment thinkers that preceded him, that were what Sarda 3 reinforced that revolutionary inside of him. If he didn't have a strict sense of beliefs and a principled world view, then to what extent could he have been such a revolutionary? Thomas Jefferson was a revolutionary. Why is he described this way? Is it only because he happened to be alive during the American Revolution? Were John Adams or George Washington any less revolutionary? They were after all, as important to the cause of American freedom as Jefferson. It can be seen though, through the writings of Thomas Jefferson that he was different. Some of the following quotes will show that Jefferson had a more general view of oppression and freedom than some of our founding fathers, where most of them just preferred to rid themselves of the British, Jefferson believed that any oppressive government should be overthrown and that it was the responsibility of the people to do so.
As discussed above, where Washington was a soldier and natural leader and John Adams was an intellectual and a lawyer, Thomas Jefferson was a philosopher. His philosophical writings show us better than anything, what he thought concerning revolution and the cause and preservation of freedom. When it was becoming more clear that the colonies' ‘olive branch' to the crown was falling on deaf ears Jefferson wrote: “ As our enemies have found we can reason like men, so now let us show them we can fight like men also ” (brainyquote.com ). For preserving liberty Jefferson wrote “ Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty ” (http://www.constitution.org/tj/). Jefferson was good at predicting the things he believed would lead to some type of tyranny in the future. He believed a central bank would be one of the worst things for freedom saying: If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them, will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. (http://www.constitution.org/tj) Sarda 4 An echo of today's financial problems. He also said “ Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny” (http://www.constitution.org/tj/ ). Tyranny to Jefferson would have most certainly been the amount the federal government has grown since his day. He also didn't trust the idea of a ‘good and active' government, “ I own that I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive ” (http://www.constitution.org/tj). He believed that all governments would probably eventually become oppressive and even said that “… every new generation needs a new revolution ” (brainyquote.com).
Jefferson was minister to France, just after the revolution and during the writing of the US Constitution (Burns Documentary). Due to the nature of the job, he was heavily involved with the elite in France just before their revolution, and said upon arriving there: “ I was much an enemy to monarchies before I came to Europe. I am ten thousand times more so, since I have seen what they are. There is scarcely an evil known in these countries, which may not be traced to their king…” (http://www.constitution.org/tj). He did his work well though and later said of the country in a wonderful example of his prose: So, ask the travelled inhabitant of any nation, in what country on earth would you rather live? Certainly, in my own, where are all my friends, my relations, and the earliest and sweetest affections and recollections of my life. Which would be your second choice ? France. (constitution.org/tj) The late French aristocracy both repulsed and drew him in, he even went another four thousand dollars into debt while in France, trying to keep up with their aristocratic culture (Burns Documentary), when the revolution broke out though, despite his connections and friends, he took the side of the revolutionaries, writing in perhaps his most powerful quote on revolution and the fight for freedom: Sarda 5 And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms… What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure. (www.constituion.org/tj) Jefferson's revolutionary spirit can be seen in his own words. He loved the idea of liberty and freedom, even to the point where he believed people should die to preserve it. As with all things in life, nothing is ever black or white, and Jefferson's resolve certainly put him in the gray. His revolutionary disposition can be looked at in both positive and negative lights.
Jefferson's mind was far ahead of its time. He repeatedly submitted bills into Congress for the abolishment of slavery, all of them hardly payed attention to (Burns documentary). Though he was a slave owner he still believed slavery to be an abomination, even wanting to mention its evils in the Declaration of Independence. The rest of the Continental Congress decided to remove all mention of it, even non-slave owning northerners decided it be best to remove any mention of it. Jefferson felt it was an issue that should have been faced.
Jefferson also believed in an explicit system of individual rights, where people governed themselves. He believed that in a society: Every man, and every body of men on earth, possesses the right of self-government... This, like all other natural rights, may be abridged or modified in its exercise by their own consent, or by the law of those who depute them, if they meet in the right of others (constitution.org/tj). He believed that we start with self governing then, by our own consent, we can make laws that we all agree upon. This is the reason that he believed in the rights of the state so adamantly, believing that the country was too big for the country to have all its affairs directed by one government (britannica.com, par 3).
These views, which though Jefferson is lauded as an American hero, if they were held today by someone would be considered extremist. Maybe they are, but it was a people like Jefferson and his Sarda 6 revolutionary pen, John Adams and his revolutionary mouth, and George Washington's revolutionary bayonet that the colonies needed to eventually be called The United States of America. Jefferson's extremist views are what inspired a young nation to rise up and become a model for the modern republic of today. He may have been before his time, but he was mover, and mover of men and he did it mostly with his pen.
Jefferson and his spirit were essential to the American Revolution and to at least holding back the monster of an oppressive government early in our history. These are positive aspects of being someone so consumed with liberty, that you believe the blood of tyrants and patriots are its natural manure. With such passion, there must be certain negative aspects to Jefferson's spirit. Jefferson believed what he believed and was virtually unmovable. Though compromises could be found, none of them were fully endorsed by Jefferson. He was such an ideologue that his views ruined his very famous friendship with John Adams after the US became a republic (Burns documentary). Jefferson was unmovable in his belief of states rights and the size of government that when political parties started to form, Adams and Jefferson found themselves on opposing sides, especially considering Adams was on the side of Jefferson's political nemesis Alexander Hamilton, a person who as opposed to Jefferson's state rights and individual liberty beliefs, believed in an energetic federal government ran by the elite (Matson 264). Jefferson never budged in his beliefs (although he did in some of his actions) and Adams and Jefferson didn't begin speaking again until their old age when they started to send letters to each other, acknowledging their differences and rekindling their friendship (Burns Documentary). Another thing Jefferson's zeal for revolution may have created, is the modern political party. It had already been proposed in the Federalist Papers that political parties though bad were inevitable (Matson 264), Jefferson, along with James Madison were the first to decide to set themselves apart from what the Federalists were doing, calling themselves Democratic Republicans and essentially Sarda 7 creating the first political party to oppose the Federalists, who by default became a political party too. It was Madison who wrote in the Federalist Papers that political parties were likely to arouse violent differences rather than protect the general welfare of the people (Matson 264). Some would say looking back at our history since then, that James Madison was absolutely right, and that Jefferson's unmoving spirit for liberty was what created the first political unrest in our country. Jefferson's beliefs and writings have been covered in relative detail up to this point and we've seen, by his own hand, how he felt about state/individual rights, slavery, and the general idea of liberty. By only reading what he's wrote we can see what he believed, but some, when comparing what he wrote to what he actually did, would call him an outright hypocrite. African American historian John Hope Franklin in Ken Burn's documentary about Thomas Jefferson said: “ I'm a forgiving man, so I forgive him for what he did. But I remember what he did was a transgression against mankind... he knew what he was saying when he said [that] all men were created equal. It simply can't be reconciled with the institution of slavery”. It really can't. We know how Jefferson felt about slavery, but how does this compare with the fact that he was himself a slave owner, unrepentant too, unlike Washington and Franklin (Burns Documentary). According to the Ken Burns documentary, Jefferson was known to occasionally whip his slaves, he never set them free, even after he died, as George Washington is famous for doing. These transgressions against man are a difficult thing to consider, when it's thought that this was the guy who said that all men were created equal and that they all have certain unalienable rights. Another area where people might call Jefferson a bit of a hypocrite, is his purchase of the huge Louisiana Territory, which just about doubled the size of the United States. Jefferson, as shown above was a strict constitutionalist, someone who believed and cried out whenever people like Alexander Hamiliton wanted to go beyond the limits of the constitution. The constitution gave President Jefferson no authority to make the Louisiana purchase as president of the Union (Zacharias, par 12). So when Sarda 8 Jefferson, a philosopher, a supporter of individual rights, and limited government, got the opportunity to show how a limited government should work, he went well beyond his limits and acted illegally without the consent of the states. Because the Louisiana purchase was so necessary, due things that were happening in Europe, he received virtually no backlash, and except for a few pundits who saw the irony in Jefferson's overstepping of the constitution, the American public as a whole felt it was the right thing to do (Kelly, par 4). So who is Thomas Jefferson? Is he a hero? Is he revolutionary? Is he a hypocrite? Some of his greatest thoughts and achievements have been chronicled here. His incredible prose and logic have only been touched upon here, but still show him to be a man ahead of his time. His words influence our thought today, but how does that compare with some of things he did that clash with his writing? The answer lies in what makes American history different than the histories of most other countries. It's that America really has no heroes,it does have exceptional people in its history. American history doesn't deify its characters, there's always a detractor. No one detracts Queen Elizabeth in England, Sobieski in Poland, or even Che Guevara in Latin America. They're all superheroes in their respective countries, they can do no wrong and their actions and their personas have all been whitewashed by the national consciousness. American history is filled men and women who are really like men and women, not all good and not all bad. In this context, the gray area in history that Americans occupy, Thomas Jefferson is ordinary, it is in every other, that he is exceptional.
