Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- 1 The Declaration of Independence and the new nation
- 2 Jefferson’s conception of republican government
- 3 Notes on the State of Virginia and the Jeffersonian West
- 4 Jefferson and Native Americans: policy and archive
- 5 Race and slavery in the era of Jefferson
- 6 Jefferson’s people: slavery at Monticello
- 7 Jefferson, science, and the Enlightenment
- 8 Thomas Jefferson and the creation of the American architectural image
- 9 The politics of pedagogy: Thomas Jefferson and the education of a democratic citizenry
- 10 Jefferson and religion: private belief, public policy
- 11 Jefferson and the language of friendship
- 12 Jefferson and Adams: friendship and the power of the letter
- 13 The resonance of minds: Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in the republic of letters
- 14 Jefferson and the democratic future
- Further reading
- Index
2 - Jefferson’s conception of republican government
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 May 2009
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- 1 The Declaration of Independence and the new nation
- 2 Jefferson’s conception of republican government
- 3 Notes on the State of Virginia and the Jeffersonian West
- 4 Jefferson and Native Americans: policy and archive
- 5 Race and slavery in the era of Jefferson
- 6 Jefferson’s people: slavery at Monticello
- 7 Jefferson, science, and the Enlightenment
- 8 Thomas Jefferson and the creation of the American architectural image
- 9 The politics of pedagogy: Thomas Jefferson and the education of a democratic citizenry
- 10 Jefferson and religion: private belief, public policy
- 11 Jefferson and the language of friendship
- 12 Jefferson and Adams: friendship and the power of the letter
- 13 The resonance of minds: Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in the republic of letters
- 14 Jefferson and the democratic future
- Further reading
- Index
Summary
Thomas Jefferson freely admitted that “the term republic is of very vague application in every language,” while, in its most simple meaning, it denoted but “a government by its citizens in mass, acting directly and personally, according to rules established by majority.” James Madison defined this same ancient city-state-inspired model of participatory democracy as “consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble to administer the government in person,” even if only to contrast it with the properly modern, republican government as representative democracy. It was equally clear to Jefferson that, in the modern world, “numbers, distance, or force oblige” people “to act by deputy.” Hence, “their government continues republican in proportion only as the functions they still exercise in person are more or fewer and, as in those exercised by deputy.” As to this conspicuously indeterminate “ideal” republic, it is notable that, in their Declaration of Independence, the American Revolutionaries were not opposing any specific form of government, be it monarchy, aristocracy, democracy, or the classic mixed regime that offered a more or less balanced blend of all the former elements. Rather, their argument was that, in order to secure their “Life, Liberty and . . . pursuit of Happiness,” they were, like any free people, entitled to abolish the now obviously corrupt British government and to “institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.” Perhaps more importantly, no particular form of government was claimed to be the only one capable of fulfilling the only historical condition set for all such governments, namely “the consent of the governed.”
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- Information
- The Cambridge Companion to Thomas Jefferson , pp. 35 - 46Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009