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| Elective Government |
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Through their right of suffrage,
the people exercise their sovereign power over government. If things are not going right,
they can throw one set of interests out and elect another that promises a revision of the
course that government has taken. Thus, elective government is an essential part of the
process of control by the people.
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"Elective
government [is] calculated to promote [my fellow citizens'] happiness, peculiarly adapted
to their genius, habits, and situation, and the best permanent corrective of the errors or
abuses of those entrusted with power." --Thomas Jefferson: Reply to Address, 1801. ME
10:248
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"Election [is] a fundamental
member in the structure of government." --Thomas Jefferson to John Taylor, 1816. ME
15:45
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"The Legislative and
Executive branches may sometimes err, but elections and dependence will bring them to
rights." --Thomas Jefferson to Archibald Thweat, 1821. ME 15:307
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"[It is] by their votes the
people exercise their sovereignty." --Thomas Jefferson: written note in Montesquieu's
Spirit of the Laws.
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Choosing the Natural
Aristocracy
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"There is a natural
aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents... There is also an
artificial aristocracy founded on wealth and birth, without either virtue or talents; for
with these it would belong to the first class. The natural aristocracy I consider as the
most precious gift of nature for the instruction, the trusts, and government of society.
And, indeed, it would have been inconsistent in creation to have formed man for the social
state and not to have provided virtue and wisdom enough to manage the concerns of the
society. May we not even say that that form of government is the best which provides the
most effectually for a pure selection of these natural aristoi into the offices of
government? The artificial aristocracy is a mischievous ingredient in government, and
provision should be made to prevent its ascendency." --Thomas Jefferson to John
Adams, 1813. ME 13:396
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"I hold it to be one of the
distinguishing excellences of elective over hereditary successions, that the talents which
nature has provided in sufficient proportion, should be selected by the society for the
government of their affairs, rather than that this should be transmitted through the loins
of knaves and fools, passing from the debauches of the table to those of the bed."
--Thomas Jefferson to George Washington, 1792. ME 8:405
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"Yet by such worthless
beings is a great nation to be governed." --Thomas Jefferson to Mdm. de Tesse, 1813.
ME 14:27
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"Our executive and
legislative authorities are the choice of the nation, and possess the nation's confidence.
They are chosen because they possess it." --Thomas Jefferson to William Duane, 1811.
ME 13:50
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"Men of high learning and
abilities are few in every country; and by taking in those who are not so, the able part
of the body have their hands tied by the unable." --Thomas Jefferson to Archibald
Stuart, 1791. ME 8:277
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Ensuring Honest Government |
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"With us, the people (by
which is meant the mass of individuals composing the society)... being unqualified for the
management of affairs requiring intelligence above the common level yet competent judges
of human character, they choose for their management representatives, some by themselves
immediately, others by electors chosen by themselves." --Thomas Jefferson to Pierre
Samuel Dupont de Nemours, 1816. ME 14:488
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"I have ever observed that a
choice by the people themselves is not generally distinguished for its wisdom. This first
secretion from them is usually crude and heterogeneous. But give to those so chosen by the
people a second choice themselves and they generally will choose wise men." --Thomas
Jefferson to Edmund Pendleton, 1776. Papers 1:503
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"The frequent recurrence of
this chastening operation [of elections] can alone restrain the propensity of governments
to enlarge expense beyond income." --Thomas Jefferson to Albert Gallatin, 1820. FE
10:176
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"Our President is chosen by
ourselves, directly in practice, for we vote for A as elector only on the condition
he will vote for B, our representatives by ourselves immediately, our Senate [now elected
directly --ed.] and judges of law through electors chosen by ourselves. And we believe
that this proximate choice and power of removal is the best security which experience has
sanctioned for ensuring an honest conduct in the functionaries of society." --Thomas
Jefferson to Pierre Samuel Dupont de Nemours, 1816. ME 14:488
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"When the legislative or
executive functionaries act unconstitutionally, they are responsible to the people in
their elective capacity. The exemption of the Judges from that is quite dangerous
enough." --Thomas Jefferson to William C. Jarvis, 1820. ME 15:277
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"I love to see honest and
honorable men at the helm, men who will not bend their politics to their purses nor pursue
measures by which they may profit and then profit by their measures." --Thomas
Jefferson to Edward Rutledge, 1796. ME 9:355
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"Men possessing minds of the
first order and who have had opportunities of being known and of acquiring the general
confidence do not abound in any country beyond the wants of the country." --Thomas
Jefferson to Robert Livingston, 1801. FE 7:492
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"I think... that it is for
the public interest to encourage sacrifices and services by rewarding them, and that they
should weigh to a certain point in the decision between candidates." --Thomas
Jefferson to John Adams, 1785. ME 5:237
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"An unprincipled man, let
his other fitnesses be what they will, ought never to be employed." --Thomas
Jefferson to George Gilmer, 1793. ME 9:143
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"It is from the supporters
of regular government only that the pledge of life, fortune and honor is worthy of
confidence." --Thomas Jefferson: Reply to Philadelphia Citizens, 1809. ME 16:329
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"Our public economy is such
as to offer drudgery and subsistence only to those entrusted with its administration--a
wise and necessary precaution against the degeneracy of the public servants."
--Thomas Jefferson to Jean Nicholas Demeunier, 1795. FE 7:14
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The Role of the People as
Electors
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"That love of order and
obedience to the laws, which so remarkably characterize the citizens of the United States,
are sure pledges of internal tranquility; and the elective franchise, if guarded as the
ark of our safety, will peaceably dissipate all combinations to subvert a Constitution,
dictated by the wisdom, and resting on the will of the people." --Thomas Jefferson to
Benjamin Waring, 1801. ME 10:235
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"A worthy portion of our
fellow-citizens... consider themselves as in duty bound to support the constituted
authorities of every branch, and to reserve their opposition to the period of
election." --Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Leib, 1808. ME 12:76
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"We believe that...
proximate choice and power of removal [are] the best security which experience has
sanctioned for ensuring an honest conduct in the functionaries of society." --Thomas
Jefferson to Pierre Samuel Dupont de Nemours, 1816. ME 14:488
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"Should things go wrong at
any time, the people will set them to rights by the peaceable exercise of their elective
rights." --Thomas Jefferson to Wilson Nicholas, 1806. ME 11:98
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"All can be done peaceably,
by the people confining their choice of Representatives and Senators to persons attached
to republican government and the principles of 1776, not office-hunters, but farmers,
whose interests are entirely agricultural. Such men are the true representatives of the
great American interest, and are alone to be relied on for expressing the proper American
sentiments." --Thomas Jefferson to Arthur Campbell, 1797. ME 9:420
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"A jealous care of the right
of election by the people--a mild and safe corrective of abuses which are lopped by the
sword of revolution where peaceable remedies are unprovided--I deem [one of] the essential
principles of our Government, and consequently [one of] those which ought to shape its
administration." --Thomas Jefferson: 1st Inaugural, 1801. ME 3:321
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"The right of representation
in the legislature [is] a right inestimable to [the people], and formidable to tyrants
only." --Thomas Jefferson: Declaration of Independence, 1776. ME 1:31, Papers 1:430
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"I [am] for extending the
right of suffrage (or in other words the rights of a citizen) to all who [have] a
permanent intention of living in the country. Take what circumstances you please as
evidence of this: either the having resided a certain time, or having a family, or having
property--any or all of them. Whoever intends to live in a country must wish that country
well, and has a natural right of assisting in the preservation of it." --Thomas
Jefferson to Edmund Pendleton, 1776. Papers 1:504
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"The basis of our [state]
Constitution is in opposition to the principle of equal political rights [if it refuses]
to all but freeholders any participation in the natural right of self-government...
However nature may by mental or physical disqualifications have marked infants and the
weaker sex for the protection rather than the direction of government, yet among the men
who either pay or fight for their country, no line of right can be drawn. The exclusion of
a majority of our freemen from the right of representation is merely arbitrary, and an
usurpation of the minority over the majority." --Thomas Jefferson to John Hampden
Pleasants, 1824. (*) ME 16:28
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"One-half of our brethren
who fight and pay taxes are excluded, like Helots, from the rights of representation, as
if society were instituted for the soil, and not for the men inhabiting it." --Thomas
Jefferson to John Taylor, 1816. ME 15:21
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"Experience and reflection
have but more and more confirmed me in the particular importance of... equal
representation." --Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval, 1816. ME 15:33
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"Every male citizen of the
commonwealth liable to taxes or to militia duty in any county, shall have a right to vote
for representatives for that county to the legislature." --Thomas Jefferson: Notes
for a Constitution, 1794. FE 6:520
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"Were our State a pure
democracy, in which all its inhabitants should meet together to transact all their
business, there would yet be excluded from their deliberations, 1. Infants, until arrived
at years of discretion. 2. Women, who, to prevent depravation of morals and ambiguity of
issue, could not mix promiscuously in the public meetings of men. 3. Slaves, from whom the
unfortunate state of things with us takes away the rights of will and of property. Those
then who have no will could be permitted to exercise none in the popular assembly; and of
course, could delegate none to an agent in a representative assembly. The business, in the
first case, would be done by qualified citizens only." --Thomas Jefferson to Samuel
Kercheval, 1816. ME 15:71
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"The fool has as great a
right to express his opinion by vote as the wise, because he is equally free, and equally
master of himself." --Thomas Jefferson: Address to the Cherokee Nation, 1809. ME
16:456
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"Society has certainly a
right to disavow him whom they offer, and are permitted to qualify for the duties of a
citizen." --Thomas Jefferson: Note to Elementary School Act, 1817. ME 17:423
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"My opinion has always been
in favor of [a general suffrage]. Still, I find some very honest men who, thinking the
possession of some property necessary to give due independence of mind, are for
restraining the elective franchise to property." --Thomas Jefferson to Jeremiah Moor,
1800. FE 7:454
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"It has been thought that
corruption is restrained by confining the right of suffrage to a few of the wealthier of
the people; but it would be more effectually restrained by an extension of that right to
such numbers as would bid defiance to the means of corruption." --Thomas Jefferson:
Notes on Virginia Q.XIV, 1782. ME 2:208
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"I believe we may lessen the
danger of buying and selling votes by making the number of voters too great for any means
of purchase." --Thomas Jefferson to Jeremiah Moor, 1800. FE 7:454
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Voting for Correct Principle |
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"[In 1800,] the nation
declared its will by dismissing functionaries of one principle and electing those of
another in the two branches, executive and legislative, submitted to their election. Over
the judiciary department, the Constitution had deprived them of their control."
--Thomas Jefferson to Spencer Roane, 1819. ME 15:212
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"I think the best remedy is
exactly that provided by all our constitutions: to leave to the citizens the free election
and separation of the aristoi from the pseudo-aristoi, of the wheat from the chaff. In
general they will elect the real good and wise. In some instances wealth may corrupt and
birth blind them, but not in sufficient degree to endanger the society." --Thomas
Jefferson to John Adams, 1813. ME 13:397
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"It will be forever seen
that of bodies of men even elected by the people, there will always be a greater
proportion aristocratic than among their constituents." Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin
Hawkins, 1803. ME 10:360
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"In a government like ours,
the standing of a man well with this portion of the public [i.e., in Washington] must
weigh against a considerable difference of other qualifications." --Thomas Jefferson
to William Short, 1807. ME 11:392
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"If our fellow citizens, now
solidly republican, will sacrifice favoritism towards men for the preservation of
principle, we may hope that no divisions will again endanger a degeneracy in our
government. --Thomas Jefferson to Richard M. Johnson, 1808. ME 12:10
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Responsibilities of Elected
Officials
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"I think it is a duty in
those entrusted with the administration of their affairs to conform themselves to the
decided choice of their constituents." --Thomas Jefferson to John Jay, 1785. ME 5:94,
Papers 8:426
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"Perfection in wisdom as
well as in integrity is neither required nor expected in [the] agents [of government]. It
belongs not to man... Were every man engaged in rendering service to the public, bound in
his body and goods to indemnification for all his errors, we must commit our public
affairs to the paupers of the nation, to the sweepings of hospitals and poor-houses, who,
having nothing to lose, would have nothing to risk. The wise know their weakness too well
to assume infallibility; and he who knows most, knows best how little he knows... The
spirit of our law... expects not impossibilities. It has consecrated the principle that
its servants are not answerable for honest error of judgment... He who has done his duty
honestly, and according to his best skill and judgment, stands acquitted before God and
man." --Thomas Jefferson: Batture at New Orleans, 1812. ME 18:129
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"The newspapers [of England
say] that Mr. Madison and myself are personally her enemies. Such an idea is unworthy a
man of sense; as we should have been unworthy our trusts could we have felt such a motive
of public action." --Thomas Jefferson to James Maury, 1815. ME 14:314
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"I,... having no motive to
public service but the public satisfaction, would certainly retire the moment that
satisfaction should appear to languish." --Thomas Jefferson to George Washington,
1789. ME 8:2
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"Nothing is more incumbent
on the old than to know when they should get out of the way and relinquish to younger
successors the honors they can no longer earn, and the duties they can no longer
perform." --Thomas Jefferson to John Vaughan, 1815. ME 14:239
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No Independent Public
Officials
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"I am for responsibilities
at short periods, seeing neither reason nor safety in making public functionaries
independent of the nation for life, or even for long terms of years." --Thomas
Jefferson to James Martin, 1813. ME 13:381
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"A government by
representatives elected by the people at short periods was our object, and our
maxim at that day was, 'where annual election ends, tyranny begins;' nor have our
departures from it been sanctioned by the happiness of their effects." --Thomas
Jefferson to Samuel Adams, 1800. ME 10:153
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"The term of office to our
Senate... like that of the judges, [is] too long for my approbation." --Thomas
Jefferson James Martin, 1813. ME 13:381
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"In truth, man is not made
to be trusted for life if secured against all liability to account." --Thomas
Jefferson to A. Coray, 1823. ME 15:487
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"That there should be public
functionaries independent of the nation, whatever may be their demerit, is a solecism in a
republic of the first order of absurdity and inconsistency." --Thomas Jefferson to
William T. Barry, 1822. ME 15:389
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"Contented with our
government, elective as it is in three of its principal branches, I wish not... to see two
of them for life; and still less, hereditary, as others desire." --Thomas Jefferson
to W. D. G. Worthington, 1810. ME 12: 362
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"I have been ever opposed
to... [those] desirous of introducing into our government authorities, hereditary or
otherwise, independent of the national will. These always consume the public contributions
and oppress the people with labor and poverty." --Thomas Jefferson to David Howell,
1810. ME 12:436
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"In a free country, every
power is dangerous which is not bound up by general rules." --Thomas Jefferson to
Philip Mazzei, 1785. FE 4:116
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"It [appears] that however
certain forms of government are better calculated than others to protect individuals in
the free exercise of their natural rights, and are at the same time themselves better
guarded against degeneracy, yet experience [has] shown that, even under the best forms,
those entrusted with power have, in time and by slow operations, perverted it into
tyranny." --Thomas Jefferson: Diffusion of Knowledge Bill, 1779. FE 2:220, Papers
2:526
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"[Algernon Sidney wrote in
Discourses
Concerning Government,
Sect. II, Par. 19:] 'All tyrannies have had their beginnings
from corruption. The histories of Greece, Sicily and Italy show that all those who made
themselves tyrants in several places, did it by the help of the worst and the slaughter of
the best.'" --Thomas Jefferson: copied into his Commonplace Book.
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"Men... enriched by the
dexterity of a leader, [will] follow of course the chief who [is] leading them to fortune
and become the zealous instruments of all his enterprises." --Thomas Jefferson: The
Anas, 1818. (*) ME 1:273
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"Whenever a man has cast a
longing eye on [offices,] a rottenness begins in his conduct." --Thomas Jefferson to
Tench Coxe, 1799. FE 7:381
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"An honest man can feel no
pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens... Power is not alluring to
pure minds and is not with them the primary principle of contest." --Thomas Jefferson
to John Melish, 1813. ME 13:211
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"I have the consolation...
of having added nothing to my private fortune during my public service and of retiring
with hands as clean as they are empty." --Thomas Jefferson to Comte Diodati, 1807. ME
11:182
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"It suffices for us if the
moral and physical condition of our own citizens qualifies them to select the able and
good for the direction of their government, with a recurrence of elections at such short
periods as will enable them to displace an unfaithful servant before the mischief he
mediates may be irremediable." --Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 1813. ME 13:402
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"The executive in our
governments is not the sole, it is scarcely the principal object of my jealousy. The
tyranny of the Legislatures is the most formidable dread at present and will be for many
years. That of the executive will come in its turn; but it will be at a remote
period." --Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1789. ME 7:312
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Ineffectiveness of Impeachment |
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"I see nothing in the mode
of proceeding by impeachment but the most formidable weapon for the purposes of dominant
faction that ever was contrived. It would be the most effectual one for getting rid of any
man whom they consider as dangerous to their views, and I do not know that we could count
on one-third in an emergency." --Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1798. ME 9:440
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"History shows that in
England, impeachment has been an engine more of passion than justice." --Thomas
Jefferson to James Madison, 1798. ME 9:441
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"Experience has proved that
impeachment in our forms is completely inefficient." --Thomas Jefferson to Edward
Livingston, 1825. ME 16:114
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"In cases of an abuse of the
delegated powers, the members of the General Government, being chosen by the people, a
change by the people would be the constitutional remedy." --Thomas Jefferson: Draft
Kentucky Resolutions, 1798. ME 17:386
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"The constitutional remedy
by the elective principle becomes nothing if it may be smothered by the enormous patronage
of the General Government." --Thomas Jefferson to Thomas M'Kean, 1801. ME 10:195
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ME, FE = Memorial Edition, Ford Edition.
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