The Jeffersonian Republic


The United States has come a long way since its early beginnings. Depending on which of the founding fathers one reveres, the purpose of its founding changes. Were the colonies a haven of religious freedom and choice, or a experiment of Christian Puritanism? Was the Constitution crafted as a living document, or was it intended to have an unchanging intent, and if so what was this intent?(a singular person's interpretation or the intent of every member who designed it?)

That Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson shaped the initial conversation about the purpose of the Republic is one of the few certain facts. Hamilton, a self made man who longed for power and prestige, believed a culture that encouraged production and innovation was necessary for the United States of America to survive on the world stage. He supported the city, the banker, and the producer of goods. The republics most similar to his ideal were the mercantile republics of the Renaissance. His idea's contrasted sharply with Jefferson's and they fought bitterly until Hamilton's death. Yet while Hamilton's Republic has some basis in history, Jefferson's source of a Republic is drawn from the classical period, when the idea first came into being.

Both Plato and Aristotle wrote on the formation and structure of the republic, and though perhaps they could not have imagined a republic of such magnitude as the United States they both agreed in two key areas. First, the republic should be designed to produce and be administrated by virtuous citizens. Secondly, the purpose of a republic was for the enhancement of the public good. This was the society Thomas Jefferson envisioned as one of the founding fathers. While Hamilton wanted to create a system based on production and those with industry, Jefferson supported the agrarian farmer, whether wealthy in the heartland of Virginia, or struggling on the frontier. A farm for every family was his hope, so they could be free and independent. He recognized Hamilton's plan would not allow for everyone citizen to be free.

No man is free who looks to another for his daily bread. No man is free who lives upon wages handed out by someone above him. The lesser partner is bound to the higher and while he is free to vote as he wishes he has not equal liberty. He is chained by his employment and the requirements placed upon him by the employer, and often for wages which can not be lived upon. In Jefferson's ideal United States every family would be able to sustain itself. Even as late as 1810 the realities of the republic supported his ideal. When the states produced foodstuffs, they consumed 80 – 90 percent internally. Agricultural families regularly produced 75 percent of all their requirements. They did not need cash to sustain their enterprise. Yet Hamilton's strident support of a national bank and other methods of integrating the United States into the world economy was already weakening the agrarian society by the time of Jefferson's election in 1801.

Jefferson's attempted to undo the damage of the Bank of the United States by declaring the creation of a national bank unconstitutional, but Chief Justice John Marshall protected the banking system. He read into the Constitution and found implied powers that were not enumerated. In doing so he overruled the 10th Amendment, which says any power not delegated to the federal government is held by the states. The Constitution did not provide the United States the right to institute a bank, and therefore the right should have been left to the states, but Marshall handed it to the federal government. When he did this he dealt a serious blow to Jefferson's plans.

With the integration of the United States economy both nationally and internationally, farmers needed cash because they owed money. Before, most farmers were in debt, but because their was no paper money these debts were ignored. Most citizens valued the stability of the community too much to risk destabilizing it. When debts did need to be repaid citizens used the bartering system, accepting goods in place of cash. In this atmosphere farmers had been free to grow what they found useful. But in the new system farmers were forced to plant cash crops to sell to pay off their debt. Then they needed to buy goods, because they could no longer produce enough to sustain themselves. Even with this change in production many farmers were bankrupted by the mercantile elite who saw only profit. Hamilton's merchant republic killed the agrarian republic. Productive citizens triumphed over virtuous independent farmers.

Were there problems with Jefferson's vision? Of course there was. Slavery was a horrendous practice Jefferson and many southern plantation owners practiced. But for the backwoods farmer in either western Massachusetts or the Louisiana frontier they were acting out Jefferson's hope without this ethical blight. The population increase caused by the agrarian lifestyle led to a hunger for more land, which developed into war with Native Americans. Yet neither of these problems were the death knell for the agricultural republic. Both of these problems continued unabated while the nation accepted commercialism instead of self reliance. And the United States will never know if these difficulties could have been solved by the Jeffersonian republic for the leaders of the time did not try, and now it is too late.

But the great experiment took its concept from the idea that man should be able to sustain himself, and in doing so be free.

And because a combination of Federal Government and elite society of the United States have deprived the people of this crucial tenant in their search of wealth and power,
And because their wealth rests upon the production of their fellow citizens,
And because their wealth also rests upon the acceptance of the majority of the people (even though the bottom half owns about 2% of the wealth),

The Government and Elite Society of the United States owes that every person of the United States should be provided a reasonable occupation.

A reasonable occupation is employment that provides a wage upon which a family can be raised, and is not overly dangerous or overly strenuous. Not slave labor.

In the short term, an education program that directly correlates to reasonable employment is an acceptable substitute, but during this training economic stability must be ensured.

A reasonable occupation is not when a person does no work and is paid. Unless the Government can not find reasonable work, in which case it has failed in its duties.

For having failed to provide an occupation it has been unsuccessful in its duties to provide for the enhancement of the public good by failing to provide virtuous education for its citizens. These citizens being born into society, like a child into the care of its parents, are dependent upon it. And as the duty of the parent is to provide for the child, so the citizens of the Nation are dependent on it. Those who lead the Nation represent her and must act in a way to requite their mistake of having deprived the general citizenry of their independence and self-sufficiency.

Though the manner in which these Jeffersonian ends are achieved by Hamiltonian means, those who have not the chance of overcoming the injustices into which they are born, deserve to receive their full worth which has been recognized in one degree or another by all the great presidents; Lincoln, Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, and more. All of whom have utilized the powers of their office to aid those who have not the power to aid themselves.

And if the next President continues this work, then in doing so the United States will be more free, more united, and more like the ideal republic the classical world envisioned.


Sources:
The History of the United States 2nd Edition – The Great Courses Series
The Republic/Crito – Plato
Politics – Aristotle
Second Treatise of Civil Government – John Locke
The Letters of Thomas Jefferson
Alexander Hamilton – Ron Chernow

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