Jefferson and the Foundations of American Democracy

In Praise of Agriculture

The Federalist Legacy

  • Attributes of a sound federal government:

    • Funded debt

    • Establishment of a Coast Guard and Navy

    • Cultivation of a culture of capitalism, integrated with elements of mercantilism

    • Development of an open, fluid elite based on merit rather than birth

The Election of 1800

A. Overview

  • Significance of the election alongside key candidates.

B. Some of the Campaign Rumors: 1800

  • Republicans accused President Adams of wanting to marry one of his sons to a daughter of King George III to create a royal dynasty, aimed at merging the United States with Britain.

  • Rumor that Adams may have sent Pinckney to England for the purpose of collecting four mistresses, to which Adams sarcastically remarked:

    • “If this be true, Gen. Pinckney has kept them all for himself and cheated me of my two!”

C. Election Results of 1800

  • Summary of the electoral votes:

    • Thomas Jefferson (Republican): 73 votes

    • Aaron Burr (Republican): 73 votes

    • John Adams (Federalist): 65 votes

    • C. C. Pinckney (Federalist): 64 votes

    • John Jay (Federalist): 1 vote

  • Note: Before 1824, most presidential electors were selected by state legislatures.

D. Republican Newspaper Influence

  • Assertion: “The Revolution of 1776 is now, and for the first time, arrived at its completion,” indicating the end of aristocracy and the dawn of a new political era.

E. Marbury v Madison (1803)

  • Key judicial principle stated:

    • “IT IS EMPHATICALLY THE PROVINCE AND DUTY OF THE JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT TO SAY WHAT THE LAW IS.”

F. Jefferson as a Renaissance Man

  • Anecdote: During a White House dinner gathering Nobel Prize winners in April 1962, John F. Kennedy remarked:

    • “I think this is the most extraordinary collection of human knowledge that has ever been gathered together here at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.”

    • Cited source: Kenneth C. Davis, Don’t Know Much About the American Presidents.

G. Jefferson vs. Hamilton

  • Jefferson’s beliefs:

    • Adherence to Strict Constructionism

    • Emphasis on State’s Rights

    • More inclusive rule with a focus on agriculture

    • Preference for French relations

  • Hamilton’s beliefs:

    • Advocacy for Loose Constructionism

    • Emphasis on National Power

    • Rule by the few with a focus on commerce

    • Preference for British relations

H. Republican Simplicity

  • Summary of Jeffersonian simplicity:

    • Dressing simply

    • Shaking hands as a form of greeting

    • Holding meetings around round tables

I. Stages of Civilization

  • Key focus on the importance of agriculture as a foundational stage in the civilization timeline.

J. Agrarian Virtue

  • Jefferson's perspective on governance:

    • Believed that governments would remain virtuous as long as they were primarily agricultural; warned against the corruption associated with large urban centers:

    • “I think our governments will remain virtuous for many centuries; as long as they are chiefly agricultural; and this will be as long as there shall be vacant lands in any part of America.”

K. City Folk Are Dependent and Susceptible

  • Assertion on urban dependency:

    • “Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition…”

    • Compares the support provided by urban populations to sores on a human body:

    • “The mobs of great cities add just so much to the support of pure government, as sores do to the strength of the human body.”

    • Jefferson advocated for a labor force engaged in agriculture, eschewing manufacturing:

    • “While we have land to labour then, let us never wish to see our citizens occupied at a work-bench, or twirling a distaff.”

L. Jefferson's Correspondence on Independence

  • From a letter to Benjamin Austin, dated January 9, 1816:

    • Stresses the need for self-sufficiency and domestic manufacturing:

    • “To be independent for the comforts of life we must fabricate them ourselves.”

    • Warns against reliance on foreign nations for manufactured goods, arguing against those who oppose domestic manufacturing:

    • “He, therefore, who is now against domestic manufacture, must be for reducing us either to dependence on [foreign nations], or to be clothed in skins, and to live like wild beasts in dens and caverns.”

    • Emphasizes the necessity of manufacturing for independence and comfort.

M. What’s That in Your Garden?

  • Notable incident in 1987:

    • DEA agents visited Monticello, discovering that Jefferson had planted opium poppies in his medicinal garden, which are now illegal.

    • Employees at Monticello had unknowingly continued to cultivate them.

N. Illegal Items in the Giftshop

  • Items sold in the Monticello gift shop:

    • Packets of poppy seeds labeled “Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello Poppies”; recommendations by federal agents for destruction.

    • Employees burned souvenir T-shirts featuring Monticello poppies after federal warning, and uprooted poppy plants fearing prosecution for a decade.

O. Jefferson's Lottery

  • Announcement for the Jefferson Lottery, Virginia, dated 1948:

    • “This Ticket will entitle the holder thereof to such prize as may be drawn to its numbers in the JEFFERSON LOTTERY Richmond, April, 1826.”

P. Louisiana Purchase

1. Jefferson Justifies the Purchase

  • Quote by Jefferson:

    • “A strict observance of the written law is doubtless one of the high duties of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to the written law, would be to lose the law itself…”

Q. Louisiana Purchase Map Overview

  • Key features and routes of the Lewis and Clark expedition, 1804-1806, including significant geographic landmarks and pertinent tribes encountered during the journey:

    • Expansive territories from the Missouri River through modern states, inclusion of Sacagawea joining the expedition.

R. "Free Trade and Sailors' Rights!": Impressment

  • Discussion on the Embargo Act; opposition expressed through political cartoons depicting it.

S. Concluding Observations

  • Emphasis on the critical thinking required regarding historical events as viewed through the lens of agriculture, political shifts, and Jefferson's personal beliefs.