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The Spread of Self-Government
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The American example introduced
the principle of national self-government to the world and proved that it was not only
possible, it was also quite practicable, and that it promised peace and happiness to those
people in other lands who might choose to imitate it.
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"I am entirely persuaded
that the agitations of the public mind advance its powers, and that at every vibration
between the points of liberty and despotism, something will be gained for the former. As
men become better informed, their rulers must respect them the more." --Thomas
Jefferson to Thomas Cooper, 1802. ME 10:341
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"The people of every country
are the only safe guardians of their own rights, and are the only instruments which can be
used for their destruction. And certainly they would never consent to be so used were they
not deceived. To avoid this they should be instructed to a certain degree." --Thomas
Jefferson to John Wyche, 1809.
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"No one more sincerely
wishes the spread of information among mankind than I do, and none has greater confidence
in its effect towards supporting free and good government." --Thomas Jefferson to
Hugh L. White, 1810. ME 12:387
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"We have chanced to live in
an age which will probably be distinguished in history for its experiments in government
on a larger scale than has yet take place. But we shall not live to see the result. The
grosser absurdities, such as hereditary magistracies, we shall see exploded in our day,
long experience having already pronounced condemnation against them. But what is to be the
substitute? This our children or grandchildren will answer. We may be satisfied with the
certain knowledge that none can ever be tried, so stupid, so unrighteous, so oppressive,
so destructive of every end for which honest men enter into government, as that which
their forefathers had established, and their fathers alone venture to tumble headlong from
the stations they have so long abused." --Thomas Jefferson to Francois d'Ivernois,
1795. ME 9:300
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"The general spread of the
light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth that the mass of
mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs nor a favored few booted and
spurred, ready to ride them legitimately by the grace of God." --Thomas Jefferson to
Roger C. Weightman, 1826. ME 16:182
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"[The] mind [of suffering
man] has been opening and advancing, a sentiment of his wrongs has been spreading, and it
will end in the ultimate establishment of his rights. To effect this nothing is wanting
but a general concurrence of will, and some fortunate accident will produce that."
--Thomas Jefferson to Dugald Stewart, 1824. ME 18:331
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"It would seem impossible
that an intelligent people with the faculty of reading and right of thinking should
continue much longer to slumber under the pupilage of an interested aristocracy of priests
and lawyers, persuading them to distrust themselves and to let them think for them...
Awaken them from this voluntary degradation of mind! Restore them to a due estimate of
themselves and their fellow citizens, and a just abhorrence of the falsehoods and
artifices which have seduced them!" --Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Seymour, 1807. (*)
ME 11:156
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"Whether the blinds of
bigotry, the shackles of the priesthood, and the fascinating glare of rank and wealth,
give fair play to the common sense of the mass of their people, so far as to qualify them
for self-government, is what we do not know. Perhaps our wishes may be stronger than our
hopes." --Thomas Jefferson to Alexander von Humboldt, 1817. ME 15:127
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The Example of Representative
Government
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"A just and solid republican
government maintained here will be a standing monument and example for the aim and
imitation of the people of other countries; and I join... in the hope and belief that they
will see from our example that a free government is of all others the most energetic; that
the inquiry which has been excited among the mass of mankind by our revolution and its
consequences will ameliorate the condition of man over a great portion of the globe."
--Thomas Jefferson to John Dickinson, 1801. ME 10:217
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"The advantages of
representative government exhibited in England and America and recently in other countries
will procure its establishment everywhere in a more or less perfect form; and this will
insure the amelioration of the condition of the world. It will cost years of blood and be
well worth them." --Thomas Jefferson to Albert Gallatin, 1823.
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"The ball of liberty is now
so well in motion that it will roll round the globe." --Thomas Jefferson to Tench
Coxe, 1795.
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"The tide of liberty [is] no
more to be arrested by human efforts." --Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 1823. ME
15:491
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"Though celebrated writers
of this [i.e., France] and other countries had already sketched good principles on the
subject of government, yet the American war seems first to have awakened the thinking part
of this nation in general from the sleep of despotism in which they were sunk."
--Thomas Jefferson to Richard Price, 1789. ME 7:253
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The Advancement of Knowledge |
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"Even in Europe a change has
sensibly taken place in the mind of Man. Science had liberated the ideas of those who read
and reflect, and the American example had kindled feelings of right in the people. An
insurrection has consequently begun of science, talents and courage against rank and
birth, which have fallen into contempt... Science is progressive, and talents and
enterprise on the alert. Resort may be had to the people of the country, a more governable
power from their principles and subordination; and rank and birth and tinsel-aristocracy
will finally shrink into insignificance even there. This, however, we have no right to
meddle with." --Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 1813. ME 13:402
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"What a satisfaction have we
in the contemplation of the benevolent effects of our efforts, compared with those of the
leaders on the other side, who have discountenanced all advances in science as dangerous
innovations, have endeavored to render philosophy and republicanism terms of reproach, to
persuade us that man cannot be governed but by the rod, etc." --Thomas Jefferson to
John Dickinson, 1801. ME 10:217
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"The generation now in
place... are wiser than we were, and their successors will be wiser than they, from the
progressive advance of science." --Thomas Jefferson to Spencer Roane, 1819. ME 15:215
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"When I contemplate the
immense advances in science and discoveries in the arts which have been made within the
period of my life, I look forward with confidence to equal advances by the present
generation, and have no doubt they will consequently be as much wiser than we have been as
we than our fathers were, and they than the burners of witches." --Thomas Jefferson
to Benjamin Waterhouse, 1818. ME 15:164
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"The light which has been
shed on the mind of man through the civilized world has given it a new direction from
which no human power can divert it. The sovereigns of Europe who are wise or have wise
counselors see this and bend to the breeze which blows; the unwise alone stiffen and meet
its inevitable crush." --Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 1820. ME 15:299
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The Recognition of Human
Rights
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"Nations hitherto in slavery
have descried... a glimmering of their own rights, have dared to open their eyes and to
see that their own power and their own will suffice for their emancipation. Their tyrants
must now give them more moderate forms of government, and they seem now to be sensible of
this themselves." --Thomas Jefferson to William Bentley, 1815. ME 14:364
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"The general insurrection of
the world against its tyrants will ultimately prevail by pointing the object of government
to the happiness of the people, and not merely to that of their self-constituted
governors." --Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 1822.
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"An insurrection... of
science, talents, and courage, against rank and birth... has failed in its first effort,
because the mobs of the cities, the instrument used for its accomplishment, debased by
ignorance, poverty, and vice, could not be restrained to rational action. But the world
will recover from the panic of this first catastrophe." --Thomas Jefferson to John
Adams, 1813. ME 13:402
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"The scenes of havoc and
horror... will end, nevertheless, in a representative government, in a government in which
the will of the people will be an effective ingredient. This important element has taken
root in the European mind and will have its growth; their despots, sensible of this, are
already offering this modification of their governments as if on their own accord... But
the object is fixed in the eye of nations and they will press on to its accomplishment and
to the general amelioration of the condition of man. What a germ have we planted, and how
faithfully should we cherish the parent tree at home!" --Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin
Austin, 1816. (*) ME 14:388
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"The disease of liberty is
catching." --Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 1820. ME 15:300
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"In Spanish America, I fear
the degrading ignorance into which their priests and kings have sunk them, has
disqualified them from the maintenance or even knowledge of their rights, and that much
blood may be shed for little improvement in their condition. Should their new rulers
honestly lay their shoulders to remove the great obstacles of ignorance, and press the
remedies of education and information, they will still be in jeopardy until another
generation comes into place, and what may happen in the interval cannot be
predicted." --Thomas Jefferson to Pierre Samuel Dupont de Nemours, 1811. ME 13:40
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"The danger is that the
cruel arts of their oppressors have enchained their minds, have kept them in the ignorance
of children, and as incapable of self-government as children. If the obstacles of bigotry
and priest-craft can be surmounted, we may hope that common sense will suffice to do
everything else." --Thomas Jefferson to Thaddeus Kosciusko, 1811. ME 13:43
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"The glimmerings which reach
us from South America enable us to see that its inhabitants are held under the accumulated
pressure of slavery, superstition and ignorance." --Thomas Jefferson: Notes on
Virginia Q.VI, 1782. ME 2:96
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"[In] South America...
ignorance and superstition will chain their minds and bodies under religious and military
despotism. I do believe it would be better for them to obtain freedom by degrees only,
because that would by degrees bring on light and information and qualify them to take
charge of themselves understandingly, with more certainty if in the meantime under so much
control only as may keep them at peace with one another. Surely it is our duty to wish
them independence and self-government, because they wish it themselves, and they have the
right and we none to choose for themselves." --Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 1818.
ME 15:170
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The Danger of Military
Tyrannies
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"I feared from the beginning
that these people were not yet sufficiently enlightened for self-government; and that
after wading through blood and slaughter, they would end in military tyrannies, more or
less numerous. Yet as they wished to try the experiment, I wished them success in
it." --Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 1821. ME 15:309
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"Most [revolutions] have
been [closed] by a subversion of that liberty [they were] intended to establish."
--Thomas Jefferson to George Washington, 1784. ME 4:218, Papers 7:106
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"Mexico, where we learn...
that men of science are not wanting, may revolutionize itself under better auspices than
the Southern provinces. These last, I fear, must end in military despotisms. The different
castes of their inhabitants, their mutual hatreds and jealousies, their profound ignorance
and bigotry, will be played off by cunning leaders, and each be made the instrument of
enslaving the others." --Thomas Jefferson to Alexander von Humboldt, 1813. ME 14:21
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"If... the ignorance and
bigotry of the mass be [great], I doubt their capacity to understand and to support a free
government, and fear that their emancipation from [a] foreign tyranny... will result in a
military despotism at home... [Their leaders] may be great; but it is the multitude which
possess force, and wisdom must yield to that." --Thomas Jefferson to Pierre Samuel
Dupont de Nemours, 1816. (*) ME 14:492
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"The office of reformer of
the superstitions of a nation is ever dangerous." --Thomas Jefferson to William
Short, 1820. ME 15:260
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Relations to the Mother
Country
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"[The] safest road will be
an accommodation with the Mother country, which shall hold them together by the single
link of the same chief magistrate, leaving to him power enough to keep them in peace with
one another, and to themselves the essential power of self-government and
self-improvement, until they shall be sufficiently trained by education and habits of
freedom to walk safely by themselves." --Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 1821. ME
15:309
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"I do believe the best thing
for [a people freeing themselves from a colonial power] would be for themselves to come to
an accord with [that power] under the guarantee of [other disinterested powers], allowing
to [the colonial power] a nominal supremacy with authority only to keep the peace among
them, leaving them otherwise all the powers of self-government until their experience in
them, their emancipation from their priests and advancement in information shall prepare
them for complete independence." --Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 1817. (*) ME 15:117
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"If the Mother country has
not the magnanimity to part with the colonies in friendship, thereby making them what they
would certainly be, her natural and firmest allies, these will emancipate themselves,
after exhausting her strength and resources in ineffectual efforts to hold them in
subjection. They will be rendered enemies of the Mother country, as England has rendered
us by an unremitting course of insulting injuries and silly provocations." --Thomas
Jefferson to Chevalier de Ouis, 1814. ME 14:131
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"In policy, if not in
justice, [colonial powers] should be disposed to avoid oppression, which, falling on us as
well as on their colonies, might tempt us to act together." --Thomas Jefferson to
William Short, 1791. ME 8:220
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"The habitual violation of
the equal rights of the colonist by the dominant (for I will not call them the mother)
countries of Europe, the invariable sacrifice of their highest interests to the minor
advantages of any individual trade or calling at home, are as immoral in principle as the
continuance of them is unwise in practice, after the lessons they have received. What, in
short, is the whole system of Europe towards America but an atrocious and insulting
tyranny? One hemisphere of the earth, separated from the other by wide seas on both sides,
having a different system of interests flowing from different climates, different soils,
different productions, different modes of existence, and its own local relations and
duties, is made subservient to all the petty interests of the other, to their laws,
their regulations, their passions and wars, and interdicted from social
intercourse, from the interchange of mutual duties and comforts with their neighbors,
enjoined on all men by the laws of nature. Happily, these abuses of human rights are
drawing to a close on both our continents." --Thomas Jefferson to Clement Caine,
1811. ME 13:89
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"The sentiments which should
be unauthoritatively expressed by our agents to influential persons in Cuba and Mexico
[are:] If you remain under the dominion of the kingdom and family of Spain, we are
contented; but we should be extremely unwilling to see you pass under the dominion or
ascendancy of France or England. In the latter cases should you choose to declare
independence, we cannot now commit ourselves by saying we would make common cause with
you, but must reserve ourselves according to the then existing circumstances; but in our
proceedings we shall be influence by friendship to you, by a firm belief that our
interests are intimately connected, and by the strongest repugnance to see you under
subordination to either France or England, either politically or commercially."
--Thomas Jefferson: The Anas, 1808. ME 1:484
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"[It is] my private
opinion... that a successful revolution was still at a distance with them [i.e., Mexico];
that I feared they must begin by enlightening and emancipating the minds of their
people." --Thomas Jefferson to John Jay, 1787. ME 6:121
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"Although we have no right
to intermeddle with the form of government of other nations, yet it is lawful to wish to
see no emperors nor kings in our hemisphere." --Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe,
1823.
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Prospects for the Hemisphere |
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"I fear [that some nations]
are too heavily oppressed by ignorance and superstition for self-government, and whether a
change from foreign to domestic despotism will be to their advantage remains to be
seen." --Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Brown, 1813. (*) ME 13:311
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"[Montesquieu wrote in his
Spirit
of the Laws,
XIX,c.27:] 'A free nation may have a deliverer: a nation enslaved can
have only another oppressor. For whoever is able to dethrone an absolute prince has a
power sufficient to become absolute himself.'" --Thomas Jefferson: copied into his
Commonplace Book.
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"What a colossus shall we be
when the southern continent comes up to our mark! What a stand will it secure as a
ralliance for the reason and freedom of the globe! I like the dreams of the future better
than the history of the past." --Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 1816. ME 15:59
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"My theory has always been,
that if we are to dream, the flatteries of hope are as cheap, and pleasanter than the
gloom of despair." --Thomas Jefferson to Francois de Marbois, 1817. ME 15:131
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ME, FE = Memorial Edition, Ford Edition. |
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