Essay About Thomas Jefferson And Principles Of Our Government

Jeffersonian RepublicansEssay Preview: Jeffersonian RepublicansReport this essayJEFFERSONIAN DEMOCRACYLooking back on the election of 1800, Thomas Jefferson described it as being “as real a revolution in the principles of our government as that of 1776 was in its form; not effected indeed by the sword, as that, but by the rational and peaceable instrument of reform, the suffrage of the people.” Jefferson saw his election as reversing an earlier trend away from republicanism. The departure from true republican principles, as he judged it, had begun with the economic policies of Alexander Hamilton favoring financial and manufacturing interests and the strengthening of the national government at the expense of the states. During John Adamss presidency, Jefferson was further alarmed by the threats to civil liberties posed by the Alien and Sedition Laws restricting freedom of speech, assembly, and the press. Under the administrations of both George Washington and Adams, Jefferson was also concerned that the rituals of the presidency resembled too closely the monarchical models of Europe, which he detested.

By 1800 Jefferson was convinced that the government must be put on a more republican tack if the new Republic were to succeed, and he directed his efforts in the election of 1800 toward that end. In a nation of farmers, Jeffersons belief in the virtues of an agrarian republic of independent farmers won wide support. The Republicans also drew support from artisans and workers in towns and cities, where Jeffersons opposition to an aristocracy of privilege gained him the image of a man of the people. The Jeffersonian Republicans found little support among the banking, manufacturing, and commercial interests attracted to Hamiltons vision of an industrial America. As a slaveholder who nevertheless opposed the institution of slavery, Jefferson drew support from both slaveholders and opponents of slavery; the Jeffersonian Republicans, however, did not include emancipation in their democratic agenda.

In 1800, after Jefferson had established the Federalist party, the party was organized, as the party itself, by the Republican Governors. The primary purpose of this campaign will be a survey of the history and leadership of this party. This survey will include not only its members, but it will also include its supporters, including its donors and its supporters’ supporters. This survey will attempt to answer questions for its constituents, particularly those of a Republican party which has a record of supporting the rights of its members and supporters.

Why does the Jeffersonian Republicans and their supporters continue to deny that those with the highest aspirations for a better future, those who are working in the service of the nation, as well as the American public, the opportunity to live and work that would best serve our common interest, and those who are interested in a better future of the nation as a whole, should have the power to make a policy decision in support of freedom, equality, and a new system of government? It is for those who know that the Jeffersonian Republicans are a conservative party, that it will never be tolerated by a majority of Americans with the opportunity to vote at all, and that it will fail to address the issues to which they are engaged when they are concerned. It is incumbent to the people of America at large to fight back against this Republican Party and will fight for its rights through the next administration. Indeed, those of us who share the Jeffersonian Conservative party will join those who share the Jeffersonian Republican values to fight against the Republican Party of today and oppose that Republican Party that does not share those values and opposes those values. Therefore, what I have referred to as “Jeffersonian Republicans” or the “Jeffersonian Republicans” on this site will include all those who agree that freedom, equality, and a new system of government are the most important concerns for the American people. It is also incumbent on my work to make clear why this organization, this campaign, and this campaign has and will continue to advance any of my goals. On its own, I promise to advance each of my goals. These will include increasing and expanding our government and helping to make sure that our people are truly secure, free, safe, and secure, and the American republic is a country founded on the right to work for all America. If anyone can help me out today in its fight for this right, he may do so to do so well for our country. For those who have been paying attention to the national debate over slavery, it shows just how important this question would ultimately be and what my role might be in defending that right. The goal of the National Committee on the Constitutional Rights of the United States is to educate and persuade the American people to reject the ideas and the power of the Jim Crow government through the nomination and re-election of its President, that John Adams, Jefferson Davis, and John Quincy Adams, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson should be on the ballot in this election of 1800.

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The philosophical roots of Jeffersonian Democracy are to be found in the ideas of the Enlightenment and in natural law that Jefferson expounded in the Declaration of Independence. In an address in 1790, he reiterated his faith in “the sufficiency of human reason for the care of human affairs” and stressed that “the will of the majority, the Natural law of every society, is the only sure guardian of the rights of man.” This faith in the people was basic to the creed he enunciated in the election of 1800 and implemented as president. He wished to keep the government close to the people. “I am not for transferring all the powers of the States to the general government, and all those of that government to the Executive branch,” he wrote at a time when a Federalist Congress had given the president extraordinary power over aliens. With civil liberties threatened by the Alien and Sedition Acts, Jefferson reaffirmed his commitment to the Bill of Rights. In a period of rising military expenditures and mounting debt, he promised a government “rigorously frugal and simple,” reducing the army and navy and applying the savings to discharging the national debt. The desire to decrease the army also reflected a republican fear of standing armies that had roots in radical English thought.

Jefferson restated these principles in his inaugural address on March 4, 1801. That speech provides the best and most succinct statement of Jeffersonian Democracy. Reaffirming his commitment to an “absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority” as a vital principle of republicanism, Jefferson added the “sacred principle that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal laws must protect, and to violate would be oppression.” In responding to Federalists efforts to suppress minority opinions, Jefferson more clearly defined a basic tenet of American democracy.

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By following these principles Jefferson was the first to provide a basis of common law and constitutional law for an absolute acquiescence in decision by the majority, consistent with a principle of liberty. Jefferson did not seek to force his constituents to agree on their rights, and so the majority’s decision not to be compelled to abide by the majority’s choice was one of the reasons why he endorsed the principle.

I believe that our democracy, as we know it, is in the worst shape in a generation.
Our system is a perfect example of what American democracy should be. No citizen has a right to a safe way to express his or her private opinion without the consent of the people. No woman, though he may have one, will have the absolute right to say that she will not choose to be an abortion provider. No matter who she supports, no matter what she does, her opinion on abortion or reproductive health will be held to be the result of her personal and political convictions.