| Self-Government |
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The object of the republican form
of government and of the principles that are essential to that form, is to enable a people
to govern themselves to the most practicable extent possible. Not every nation of people
are capable of self-government, and many expected the experiment of the Founding Fathers
to fail. But it did not fail, and the experiment proved that an educated and enlightened
people are capable of self-government. The question remains, however, the extent to which
government by the people themselves may be extended.
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"The equal rights of
man, and the happiness of every individual, are now acknowledged to be the only legitimate
objects of government. Modern times have the signal advantage, too, of having discovered
the only device by which these rights can be secured, to wit: government by the people,
acting not in person, but by representatives chosen by themselves, that is to say, by
every man of ripe years and sane mind, who contributes either by his purse or person to
the support of his country." --Thomas Jefferson to A. Coray, 1823. ME 15:482
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"Every man, and every body
of men on earth, possesses the right of self-government." --Thomas Jefferson: Opinion
on Residence Bill, 1790. ME 3:60
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"Every nation has a right to
govern itself internally under what forms it pleases, and to change these forms at its own
will." --Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Pinckney, 1792. ME 9:7
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"When forced to assume
[self-government], we were novices in its science. Its principles and forms had entered
little into our former education. We established, however, some, although not all its
important principles." --Thomas Jefferson to John Cartwright, 1824. ME 16:44
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The Foundation of Self-Government
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"Man [is] a rational animal,
endowed by nature with rights, and with an innate sense of justice; and... he [can] be
restrained from wrong and protected in right, by moderate powers, confided to persons of
his own choice, and held to their duties by dependence on his own will." --Thomas
Jefferson to William Johnson, 1823. ME 15:441
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"Man is capable of living in
society, governing itself by laws self-imposed, and securing to its members the enjoyment
of life, liberty, property, and peace." --Thomas Jefferson: Declaration and Protest
of Virginia, 1825. ME 17:446
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"Sometimes it is said that
man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the
government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let
history answer this question." --Thomas Jefferson: 1st Inaugural, 1801. ME 3:320
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"At the formation of our
government, many had formed their political opinions on European writings and practices,
believing the experience of old countries, and especially of England, abusive as it was,
to be a safer guide than mere theory. The doctrines of Europe were, that men in numerous
associations cannot be restrained within the limits of order and justice, but by forces
physical and moral, wielded over them by authorities independent of their will. Hence
their organization of kings, hereditary nobles, and priests." --Thomas Jefferson to
William Johnson, 1823. ME 15:440
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"We of the United States are
constitutionally and conscientiously democrats. We consider society as one of the natural
wants with which man has been created; that he has been endowed with faculties and
qualities to effect its satisfaction by concurrence of others having the same want; that
when, by the exercise of these faculties, he has procured a state of society, it is one of
his acquisitions which he has a right to regulate and control, jointly indeed with all
those who have concurred in the procurement, whom he cannot exclude from its use or
direction more than they him." --Thomas Jefferson to Pierre Samuel Dupont de Nemours,
1816. ME 14:487
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"We exist, and are quoted as
standing proofs that a government, so modeled as to rest continually on the will of the
whole society, is a practicable government." --Thomas Jefferson to Richard Rush,
1820. ME 15:284
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Qualifications for Self-Government
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"The qualifications for
self-government in society are not innate. They are the result of habit and long
training." --Thomas Jefferson to Edward Everett, 1824. ME 16:22
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"[Without becoming]
familiarized with the habits and practice of self-government,... the political vessel is
all sail and no ballast." --Thomas Jefferson to Henry Dearborn, 1822. FE 10:237
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"[It is a] happy truth that
man is capable of self-government, and only rendered otherwise by the moral degradation
designedly superinduced on him by the wicked acts of his tyrant." --Thomas Jefferson
to M. de Marbois, 1817. ME 15:130
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"We are a people capable of
self-government, and worthy of it." --Thomas Jefferson to Isaac Weaver, Jr., 1807. ME
11:220
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Minds Capable of Self-Government
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"[The] voluntary support of
laws, formed by persons of their own choice, distinguishes peculiarly the minds capable of
self-government. The contrary spirit is anarchy, which of necessity produces
despotism." --Thomas Jefferson to Philadelphia Citizens, 1809. ME 16:328
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"Their habits of law and
order, their ideas almost innate of the vital elements of free government, of trial by
jury, habeas corpus, freedom of the press, freedom of opinion, and representative
government, make [a people], I think, capable of bearing a considerable portion of
liberty." --Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 1816. (*) ME 15:84
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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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"[If a] people [are] so
demoralized and depraved as to be incapable of exercising a wholesome control, their
reformation must be taken up ab incunabulis. Their minds [must] be informed by
education what is right and what wrong, [must] be encouraged in habits of virtue and
deterred from those of vice by the dread of punishments, proportioned indeed, but
irremissible. In all cases, [they must] follow truth as the only safe guide and eschew
error which bewilders us in one false consequence after another in endless succession.
These are the inculcations necessary to render the people a sure basis for the structure
of order and good government." --Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 1819. ME 15:234
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"[We] believe in the
improvability of the condition of man, and [we] have acted on that behalf, in opposition
to those who consider man as a beast of burden made to be rode by him who has genius
enough to get a bridle into his mouth." --Thomas Jefferson to Joel Barlow, 1810. ME
12:351
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| The Spirit of the People |
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"[Our] object is to secure
self-government by the republicanism of our constitution, as well as by the spirit of the
people; and to nourish and perpetuate that spirit. I am not among those who fear the
people. They and not the rich are our dependence for continued freedom." --Thomas
Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval, 1816. ME 15:39
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"No man has greater
confidence than I have in the spirit of the people, to a rational extent. Whatever they
can, they will."--Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, 1814. ME 14:208
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"The spirit of our people...
would oblige even a despot to govern us republicanly." --Thomas Jefferson to Samuel
Kercheval, 1816. ME 15:35
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"But is the spirit of the
people an infallible, a permanent reliance? Is it government? Is this the kind of
protection we receive in return for the rights we give up? Besides, the spirit of the
times may alter, will alter. Our rulers will become corrupt, our people careless. A single
zealot may commence persecutor, and better men be his victims. It can never be too often
repeated, that the time for fixing every essential right on a legal basis is while our
rulers are honest, and ourselves united." --Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia,
Q.XVII, 1782. ME 2:224
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"I am not discouraged by [a]
little difficulty; nor have I any doubt that the result of our experiment will be, that
men are capable of governing themselves without a master." --Thomas Jefferson to T.
B. Hollis, 1787. ME 6:156
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"I... consider the people as
our children, and love them... as adults whom I freely leave to self-government."
--Thomas Jefferson to Pierre Samuel Dupont de Nemours, 1816. ME 14:489
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"While the boasted energies
of monarchy have yielded to easy conquest the people they were to protect, should our
fabric of freedom suffer no more than the slight agitations we have experienced, it will
be an useful lesson to the friends as well as the enemies of self-government."
--Thomas Jefferson: Reply to New York Legislature, 1809. ME 16:362
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"It is a blessing... that
our people are reasonable; that they are kept so well informed of the state of things as
to judge for themselves, to see the true sources of their difficulties, and to maintain
their confidence undiminished in the wisdom and integrity of their functionaries."
--Thomas Jefferson to Caesar A. Rodney, 1810. ME 12:358
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"The steady character of our
countrymen is a rock to which we may safely moor." --Thomas Jefferson to Elbridge
Gerry, 1801. ME 10:255
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"The only point on which
[General Washington] and I ever differed in opinion was, that I had more confidence than
he had in the natural integrity and discretion of the people, and in the safety and extent
to which they might trust themselves with a control over their government." --Thomas
Jefferson to John Melish, 1813. ME 13:212
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"It was by the sober sense
of our citizens that we were safely and steadily conducted from monarchy to republicanism,
and it is by the same agency alone we can be kept from falling back." --Thomas
Jefferson to Arthur Campbell, 1797. ME 9:421
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"I confess I was highly
pleased with... proof of the innate good sense, the vigilance, and the determination of
the people to act for themselves." --Thomas Jefferson to Albert Gallatin, 1817. ME
15:132
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"Those who will come after
us will be as wise as we are, and as able to take care of themselves as we have
been." --Thomas Jefferson to Pierre Samuel Dupont de Nemours, 1811. ME 13:40
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Powers Rightly Exercised by
the People
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"To secure [our inherent and
inalienable] rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from
the consent of the governed." --Declaration of Independence as originally written by
Thomas Jefferson, 1776. ME 1:29, Papers 1:315
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"Circumstances denied to
others but indulged to us have imposed on us the duty of proving what is the degree of
freedom and self-government in which a society may venture to leave its individual
members." --Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Priestley, 1802. ME 10:324
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"We think in America that it
is necessary to introduce the people into every department of government as far as they
are capable of exercising it, and that this is the only way to insure a long-continued and
honest administration of its powers." --Thomas Jefferson to Abbe Arnoux, 1789. ME
7:422, Papers 15:283
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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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"The people, being the only
safe depository of power, should exercise in person every function which their
qualifications enable them to exercise consistently with the order and security of
society... We now find them equal to the election of those who shall be invested with
their executive and legislative powers, and to act themselves in the judiciary as judges
in questions of fact... The range of their powers ought to be enlarged." --Thomas
Jefferson to Walter Jones, 1814. ME 14:47
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"The government which can
wield the arm of the people must be the strongest possible." --Thomas Jefferson to
Isaac Weaver, Jr., 1807. ME 11:221
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"The suppression of the
[Burr] conspiracy by the hand of the people, uplifted to destroy it whenever it reared its
head, manifests their fitness for self-government, and the power of a nation, of which
every individual feels that his own will is a part of the public authority." --Thomas
Jefferson: Reply to New Jersey Legislature, 1807. ME 16:295
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"The hand of the people...
has proved that government to be the strongest of which every man feels himself a
part." --Thomas Jefferson to Edward Tiffin, 1807. ME 11:147
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"The full experiment of a
government democratical, but representative, was and is still reserved for us. The idea...
has been carried by us more or less into all our legislative and executive departments;
but it has not yet, by any of us, been pushed into all the ramifications of the system, so
far as to leave no authority existing not responsible to the people; whose rights,
however, to the exercise and fruits of their own industry can never be protected against
the selfishness of rulers not subject to their control at short periods... My most earnest
wish is to see the republican element of popular control pushed to the maximum of its
practicable exercise. I shall then believe that our government may be pure and
perpetual." --Thomas Jefferson to Isaac H. Tiffany, 1816. ME 15:65
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The Danger of Independent
Powers
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"It should be remembered as
an axiom of eternal truth in politics, that whatever power in any government is
independent, is absolute also; in theory only at first while the spirit of the people is
up, but in practice as fast as that relaxes." --Thomas Jefferson to Spencer Roane,
1819. ME 15:213
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"I deem no government safe
which is under the vassalage of any self-constituted authorities, or any other authority
than that of the nation, or its regular functionaries." --Thomas Jefferson to Albert
Gallatin, 1803. ME 10:438
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"We shall... secure the
continuance of purity in our government by the salutary, peaceable, and regular control of
the people." --Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval, 1816. ME 15:71
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"[General Washington] has
often declared to me that he considered our new Constitution as an experiment on the
practicability of republican government, and with what dose of liberty man could be
trusted for his own good; that he was determined the experiment should have a fair trial,
and would lose the last drop of his blood in support of it." --Thomas Jefferson to
Walter Jones, 1814. ME 14:51
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"I have no fear, but that
the result of our experiment will be, that men may be trusted to govern themselves without
a master. Could the contrary of this be proved, I should conclude either that there is no
God, or that He is a malevolent being." --Thomas Jefferson to David Hartley, 1787. ME
6:151
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"If ever the earth has
beheld a system of administration conducted with a single and steadfast eye to the general
interest and happiness of those committed to it, one which, protected by truth, can never
know reproach, it is that to which our lives have been devoted." --Thomas Jefferson
to James Madison, 1826. ME 16:159
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| ME, FE = Memorial Edition, Ford Edition. |
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