Jefferson’s is a double legacy: one living, the other dead. The apostle of liberty lives: The words of the man who, Lincoln said, worked out “the definitions and axioms of free society” will last as long as freedom does.
But the other Jefferson, the sage of Enlightenment, is now a curiosity: In his own lifetime, Burke and the French Revolution revealed the flaw in his brave-new-world rejection of tradition. Yet Jefferson’s belief that “the earth belongs in usufruct to the living” and that “the dead have neither powers nor rights over it” still does much harm, for it encourages the temporal provinciality that disfigures the modern democracies. Jefferson’s futurism — which curiously enough was at odds with his own practice in the spheres of manners and the arts — begets the sort of culture which, being too little nourished by the soils of the past, made Tocqueville say that “among democratic nations each generation is a new people.”
See the homepage for a complete gallery of U.S. presidents.
— Michael Knox Beran is a contributing editor of City Journal.
But Chesterton once wrote:
"Tradition means giving a vote to most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead."
He continued:
"Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about. All democrats object to men being disqualified by the accident of birth; tradition objects to their being disqualified by the accident of death. Democracy tells us not to neglect a good man's opinion, even if he is our groom; tradition asks us not to neglect a good man's opinion, even if he is our father."
As George Will once said over 30 years ago, there is no starting from Zero. And societies that do attempt to do so, do at thier own peril.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAgreed, but I give Jefferson some bonus points for using the word "usufruct."
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseBut look at it turned in the other direction. The idea that “the dead have neither powers nor rights" over the world means that we, the future dead, have no right impose the burden of our debts on Americans not yet born.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSorry, but Jefferson was positively the worst President of the founding generation and the worst up until Franklin Pierce. He destroyed the economy with his ludicrously naive Embargo and Non-Intercourse Acts. He gutted national defense and devised the absurd naval strategy of defending the nation's coastline with 2-3 gun gunboats against British ships-of-the-line. One can trace the destruction of Washington in the War of 1812 directly to Jefferson's defense policies. He has been granted excessive credit for the Louisianna Purchase which almost literally fell into his lap -- per Joseph Ellis all Jefferson had to do was say "yes." Napoleon had already determined to sell before Jefferson determined to buy -- and even then Jefferson over-paid. Any of the presidential candidates in 1800 would have made the Purchase -- no doubt with Jefferson screaming that it was unconstitutional.
Jefferson's career was a rapid down-hill descent from July 1776. He was a disastrous governor of Virginia during the Revolution, was a lousy ambassador to France besotted with the French Revolution and the guillotine, was a partisan and ineffective Secretary of State who did his best to undermine Washington and he sowed the seeds of nullification, secession and civil war with his Virginia and Kentucky resolutions. He was a gross hypocrite pretending to care for the common man while he was a wealthy plutocrat who hardly worked a day in his life. He was a spendthrift who died broke -- and don't even get me started on slavery and his relationship with Sally Hemmings.
Jefferson -- post-Declaration -- was one of the worst influences on American politics in history. Even he recognized his presidency was a failure and did not have it listed on his tombstone.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"Jefferson still lives"
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHe stated the words that allowed losers such as yourself to construct non-truths and to run their pie holes without any fair historical reflection.
If Jefferson's career was all down hill after 1776 your life has virtually no meaning whatsoever.
Long live Jefferson and God Bless America!
Jefferson's efforts such as the Declaration of Independence allowed idiot's like you to run your pie-hole without any amount of real historical reflection.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseGod Bless Thomas Jefferson and God Bless the United States of America in which Jefferson was instrumental in starting!
He did achieve two things after the Revolution. He built the finest home I have ever seen. The other is mentioned below.
HERE WAS BURIED THOMAS JEFFERSON
AUTHOR OF THE DECLARATION OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE
OF THE STATUTE OF VIRGINIA FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
AND FATHER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA."
Otherwise, I cannot dispute you on his presidency. He was the worst president the Navy ever had, & no great shakes for the army either. (Remember, the conquest of Canada would merely "a matter of marching"?)
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI agree that his work on the Declaration was inspired although heavily edited by Franklin and the Congress. But his subsequent career is vastly overrated and none of you have offered anything to contradict that. Building Monticello is nice but had zero impact on the development of the nation.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseLike all true students of history, I have never had one single "favorite" founder. That honor has evolved over the years, from one to another to another. Jefferson was my very first favorite, after reading a bio of him when I was seven years old. And like a long lost first love, he'll always have a special place in my heart amongst the founders, all of whom I revere to a degree that mere words can never express. As I've gotten older and more understanding of the ways of the world, I've come to realize that ALL men are flawed (with the possible exception of General Washington, of course!) and cannot be expected to conduct their affairs with perfection. As a governor, Jefferson was a disaster. His support for the murderous thugs of the French Revolution seems moronically misguided for such an intelligent man; possibly his romantic nature rendered him incapable of seeing things as they really were. His sole accomplishment of note as President, the Louisiana Purchase, was, as bpbaptista noted, something ANY president at the time would have fallen into. He was wrong about so many things post-revolution, one can't help but be grateful he wasn't around for the Constitutional Convention.
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