Question

How did Thomas Jefferson envision the American Republic? In what ways did Hamilton oppose this vision? Who eventually succeeded and how?

Answer 1

Thomas Jefferson, truly one of the most brilliant men in our entire History represents to me, not so much the cataloguing of his many accomplishments, but something even more fundamental: Thomas Jefferson may well have been the most massive hypocrite in our nation’s entire history, And the legacy of his hypocrisy lives with us to this day.

Thomas Jefferson penned some of the most lacerating criticisms of the institution of slavery in his, Notes on Virginia. He pointed out how it not only degraded his contemporary America but how it stained the future by passing on the degrading traditions of a master class against an owned-class of people to coming generations of American slaveholders. And the real tragedy in my opinion was that his paralysis on the issue was rooted not in his desire to continue to chip away at the institution in meaningful ways while he had political power—which he did not do—no, his paralysis was caused by his insatiable appetite for consumption. During the War for Independence, Jefferson tried to sneak purchases from Great Britain into Virginia past blockades designed to punish Great Britain for waging war against us. He lived in a palatial mansion, Monticello in the Piedmont, an area in the hills above the tidewater that could not sustain a slave based economy. He tried a nail factory, run by slaves to earn money to run his plantation, but when he died, he was so deeply in debt that it forced his heirs to do something he swore he would never do: break up families of slaves by sale. All of his slaves were sold to settle his debts and his debt was so massive that it could not be settled by selling all his assets.

Thomas Jefferson was also a “strict constructionist” in principle. As the founder of the Jeffersonian Republicans—the heir to the anti-Federalist faction during the period of the ratification of the Constitution—he believed that the nation should be a decentralized, state-government supreme political system that kept strict limits on the growth of the national government. Strict constructionists believed that the Constitution granted the national government only strictly circumscribed, specifically delegated powers, reserving all powers not specifically delegated “to the states and/or the people” . Fearing overly powerful central government from their colonial experience with Great Britain’s contemptuous King and dismissive Parliament, they wanted to keep the Federal Authority under control. Along with this political philosophy Jefferson wanted to keep the nation rural and agricultural, eschewing industrial development, believing the the true heart and timeless principles he valued was most firmly lodged in the breasts of the farming class—those tied to the land.

Of course he lost both the economic and political arguments of the day. Those were advocated for and represented by Hamilton and the Federalist Party. But the problem with Jefferson’s economic vision is that it would have kept America an international backwater, as the growth of industry was the backbone of the emerging great powers in the world, and politically, he abandoned his strict constructionist principles completely when confronted with the Louisiana Purchase. It is true that Jefferson grappled with his dilemma—just like he grappled with the dilemma of owning slaves in a Republic dedicated to the principles of human liberty, but he sold out on both. There was absolutely no delegated right in the Constitution for the President to make massive land purchases to expand the country’s borders. So, faced with the prospect of purchasing the distress sale by France of the Louisiana Purchase for $25 million, and doubling the size of the country, he became a “loose constructionist.” One can certainly argue, as I would that the Louisiana Purchase was a brilliant move, and that the purchase was integral to our becoming the United States we are today, but it also showed, once again how fungible his principles were.

And what of the hypocrisy of being one of America’s largest slaveholders, operating a distressingly unviable, virtually bankrupt plantation on land unsuited for slave=based, cash-crop agriculture on the backs of slaves who he knew were corrupting not only his own principles but the core principles of the nation, left to resolve a Faustian Bargain to later generations? I am reminded of the saying that “the sins of the Fathers will be visited upon his sons.” Those sons and grandsons of the Founders who could not see to it to implement their moral vision were left with the bloodiest war in American history the blood of which still runs in our streets. Witness the virulent racism that met the Presidency of Barack Obama and the current xenophobia and racism of the Trump administration.

All human beings end up being hypocrites at times in their lives. It may well be one of the most insurmountable challenges for people to live lives out of pure, bedrock principles. At times in all our lives we are called to challenge our stated principles when situations arise that make us question their rigidity. But we may well be right to expect better behaviors from our leaders. They are the ones on whom our future potential is writ large and who will either move us forward or jerk us backwards. We still live today in the nation Jefferson helped to create. And we rightly look to his words, immortalized in the Declaration of Independence and Notes on Virginia as destinations we strive to reach. But in Jefferson we also have the very embodiment of our national, crippling hypocrisy which may well yet prove to be his most lasting legacy.

Can a nation, founded on fundamental hypocrisy live past that hypocrisy; transcend that hypocrisy or will it doom us to failure as an experiment in governance by a Republic? We are advised by the fundamental struggle inherent in the Faustian Bargain that when we make pacts with the Devil (D-evil), the Devil will always come back to claim his due. The racism and xenophobia so evident in our current political situation traces its birthright back to the hypocrisy of Jefferson and all slaveowners who built a Republic of freedom on the backs of slaves. We have yet to see how that will work itself out.