Tag: Jefferson

Jefferson’s “Tree Of Liberty”

There are many that use this quote to justify whatever position they are trying to hang on to…..but was it said?  To whom was it said?

Let me help………

“I do not know whether it is to yourself or Mr. Adams I am to give my thanks for the copy of the new constitution. I beg leave through you to place them where due. It will be yet three weeks before I shall receive them from America. There are very good articles in it: and very bad. I do not know which preponderate. What we have lately read in the history of Holland, in the chapter on the Stadtholder, would have sufficed to set me against a Chief magistrate eligible for a long duration, if I had ever been disposed towards one: and what we have always read of the elections of Polish kings should have forever excluded the idea of one continuable for life. Wonderful is the effect of impudent and persevering lying. The British ministry have so long hired their gazetteers to repeat and model into every form lies about our being in anarchy, that the world has at length believed them, the English nation has believed them, the ministers themselves have come to believe them, and what is more wonderful, we have believed them ourselves. Yet where does this anarchy exist? Where did it ever exist, except in the single instance of Massachusets? And can history produce an instance of a rebellion so honourably conducted? I say nothing of it’s motives. They were founded in ignorance, not wickedness. God forbid we should ever be 20. years without such a rebellion.[1] The people can not be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions it is a lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. We have had 13. states independant 11. years. There has been one rebellion. That comes to one rebellion in a century and a half for each state. What country ever existed a century and a half without a rebellion? And what country can preserve it’s liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. 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 it’s natural manure. Our Convention has been too much impressed by the insurrection of Massachusets: and in the spur of the moment they are setting up a kite to keep the hen yard in order. I hope in god this article will be rectified before the new constitution is accepted.” – Thomas Jefferson to William Stephens Smith, Paris, 13 Nov. 1787[2]

The words were written between colleagues, one in Paris the other in London….it appears to be a private correspondence not meant for public consumption….and my research tells me that this is the only place that such a comment was made………

Now you can quote the entire quote and not just a line or two…….I am sure there are thoughts…..let ’em rip!

Why A Jeffersonian Democracy?

College of Political Knowledge

Subject:  Democracy/Government

With all the trouble and problems going on across North Africa, I have heard several media pundits calling and analyzing about the future of these countries and the possibility of a Jeffersonian Democracy…..most of them are conservs or right leaning Dems…..but what do they mean by “Jeffersonian Democracy”?

First of all, it is these pundits trying yet again to deify Jefferson and his ideals…….trying to link ALL democracy to the system set up by Jefferson…..secondly, that is total CRAP!

In its core ideals it is characterized by the following elements, which the Jeffersonians expressed in their speeches and legislation:

  • The core political value of America is representative democracy; citizens have a civic duty to aid the state and resist corruption
  • Americans had a duty to spread what Jefferson called the “Empire of Liberty” to the world, but should avoid “entangling alliances.”
  • The national government is a dangerous necessity to be instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security of the people, nation or community; it should be watched closely and circumscribed in its powers.
  • The wall of separation between church and state is the best method to keep religion free from intervention by the federal government, government free of religious disputes, and religion free from corruption by government.
  • The federal government must not violate the rights of individuals.
  • The federal government must not violate the rights of the states.
  • Freedom of speech and the press is the best method to prevent the tyranny of the people by their own government.
  • A standing army and navy are dangerous to liberty and should be avoided; much better was to use economic coercion such as the embargo.
  • The United States Constitution was written in order to ensure the freedom of the people. A strict view of how the constitution was written is kept. However, “no society can make a perpetual constitution or even a perpetual law. The earth belongs always to the living generation.”
  • All men had the right to be informed, and thus, to have a say in the government. The protection and expansion of human liberty was one of the chief goals of the Jeffersonians. They also reformed their respective state systems of education. They believed that their citizens had the right and should be educated no matter their circumstance or status in life.

Just a bit of what I guess we could call Jeffersonian democracy…….but is there more?

Yep, it has come to mean limited government and other such conserv ideals that they push for in every election….no matter the ideals Jefferson was a bit of a hypocrite…..the Louisiana Purchase expanded the role of government…..his Embargo Act of  1807 and the fact that he continued to hold slaves even when he constantly voiced opposition…..

I think that Jefferson’s own words tell where he was standing on the political philosophy of the day….”The natural aristocracy I consider as the most precious gift of nature… Every one, by his property, or by his satisfactory situation, is interested in the support of law and order. And such men may safely and advantageously reserve to themselves a wholesome control over their public affairs, and a degree of freedom, which, in the hands of the canaille of the cities of Europe, would be instantly perverted to the demolition and destruction of everything public and private.”  (Does not sound like a person that actually believes in limited government)……

I know that many will not agree with me….for I will NOT deify Jefferson….and I see his Republican movement as…… by contrast, were more concerned about the preservation of the relatively democratic distribution of the nation’s wealth.  While they had always advocated freeing oceanic commerce and providing foreign markets for the farmers, they believed that Federalists had rendered the United States subservient to Britain and had actually preferred a gradual reintroduction of hereditary rule.

To pretend that Jeffersonian democracy is some sort of perfect democracy is just plain wrong!  There is NO such thing as a perfect democracy…..if it were then there would NOT be a democracy……

So what part of Jeffersonian democracy does the Right keeping hoping for the Middle East….the expansionism?  How about the return to hereditary rule?  Just what does the Right want for the Middle East?  You can bet that it is NOT a participatory democracy!