Today in History: Thomas Jefferson’s Birthday
Three Surprising Facts About Thomas Jefferson
APRIL 13 – On this day, in 1743, Thomas Jefferson was born in Shadwell, Virginia. Despite being the third president of the United States, second vice-president and first secretary of state, he is most celebrated as the drafter of the Constitution and one of the most influential thinkers of all time. In commemoration of his esteemed position in libertarian thought, here are three things you may not have known about Thomas Jefferson.
1. Thomas Jefferson was Anarchy-minded
It might seem a little strange to classify the author of a social contract an anarchist, but this simply adds to the pragmatic and reasonable approach to political compromise. According to Jefferson, if a populus trusts people to govern with authority, they should have no qualms in trusting people to govern under a free society. In a letter to William C. Jarvis, Jefferson wrote, “I know no safe depositary of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power.” -Thomas Jefferson to William C. Jarvis, 1820. ME 15:278 Jefferson compromised heartily with Alexander Hamilton, with whom he was ideologically opposed in many ideals, but he always stayed true to his belief in freedom. Jefferson believed it was the duty of the people to question and challenge the authority of the government. “Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves, therefore, are its only safe depositories. –Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia Q.XIV, 1782. ME 2:207 Jefferson was also an advocate of revolution, claiming “the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants. It is its natural manure.” – Thomas Jefferson to William Smith 1787.
Even from a libertarian standpoint, the degree to which Jefferson rejected authority is grossly undervalued. Only after reading through some of Jefferson’s private letters in their entirety, especially in matters of freedom of religious practice, is one able to understand the extent of his anarchist nature. In modern politics, there is little doubt in my mind that Jefferson would be labeled an extremist assault weapon advocate by the left and a radical black lives matter advocate on the right. To those not as familiar with his writings, the following might be best quote to assist such a claim: “The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it always to be kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all. I like a little rebellion now and then.” – Thomas Jefferson, letter to Abigail Adams, 1787
2. Thomas Jefferson advocated for government provisions to the right of education
Thomas Jefferson was so adamant about education, that his writings might be mistaken for Bernie Sanders in certain contexts. Jefferson was against government provisions in almost every aspect. “If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy.” – Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Cooper, November 29, 1802. Nonetheless, he held knowledge to such a high degree that he believed it to be one of the few essential responsibilities of the government. He even asserted, that he would claim a right to education until his dying breath. “There are two subjects, indeed, which I shall claim a right to further as long as I breathe: the public education, and the sub-division of counties into wards. I consider the continuance of republican government as absolutely hanging on these two hooks.” -Thomas Jefferson to Joseph C. Cabell, 1814. ME 14:84 Jefferson was very clear throughout the entirety of his works, that he believed education was the only tool in existence which could prevent a government from becoming tyrannical. The quotes are endless, but here are a few that really show how serious Jefferson was:
“And say, finally, whether peace is best preserved by giving energy to the government or information to the people. This last is the most certain and the most legitimate engine of government. Educate and inform the whole mass of the people. Enable them to see that it is their interest to preserve peace and order, and they will preserve them. And it requires no very high degree of education to convince them of this. They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.” -Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1787. ME 6:392
“[I have] a conviction that science is important to the preservation of our republican government, and that it is also essential to its protection against foreign power.” –Thomas Jefferson to —–, 1821. ME 15:340
“The value of science to a republican people, the security it gives to liberty by enlightening the minds of its citizens, the protection it affords against foreign power, the virtue it inculcates, the just emulation of the distinction it confers on nation’s foremost in it; in short, its identification with power, morals, order and happiness (which merits to it premiums of encouragement rather than repressive taxes), are considerations [that should] always [be] present and [bear] with their just weight.” -Thomas Jefferson: On the Book Duty, 1821.
“Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government;… whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights.” -Thomas Jefferson to Richard Price, 1789. ME 7:253
In 1779, he presented his “Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge stating: The state must provide for the education of all its citizens and this it should do through local agencies.”
3. Jefferson was a strong critic of Christianity – but he liked it
Jefferson was a strong critic of the belief in God, but he found great solace in Christianity’s moral teaching. Although the entirety of his qualms measure in length close to the Bible itself, a short excerpt in a letter to his nephew, Peter Carr, details a general understanding of his battle with religion:
“Read the Bible, then as you would read Livy or Tacitus. The facts which are within the ordinary course of nature, you will believe on the authority of the writer, as you do those of the same kind in Livy & Tacitus. The testimony of the writer weighs in their favor, in one scale, and their not being against the laws of nature, does not weigh against them. But those facts in the Bible which contradict the laws of nature, must be examined with more care, and under a variety of faces. Here you must recur to the pretensions of the writer to inspiration from God. Examine upon what evidence his pretensions are founded, and whether that evidence is so strong, as that its falsehood would be more improbable than a change in the laws of nature, in the case he relates.
For example, in the book of Joshua, we are told, the sun stood still several hours. Were we to read that fact in Livy or Tacitus, we should class it with their showers of blood, speaking of statues, beasts, &c. But it is said, that the writer of that book was inspired. Examine, therefore, candidly, what evidence there is of his having been inspired. The pretension is entitled to your inquiry, because millions believe it.
On the other hand, you are astronomer enough to know how contrary it is to the law of nature that a body revolving on its axis, as the earth does, should have stopped, should not, by that sudden stoppage, have prostrated animals, trees, buildings, and should after a certain time gave resumed its revolution, & that without a second general prostration. Is this arrest of the earth’s motion, or the evidence which affirms it, most within the law of probabilities?” – Thomas Jefferson, letter to his nephew Peter Carr, from Paris, August 10, 1787;
Later in the letter, after a rather long dissection of religion , he later defends religion on the basis of its good teaching: “If it ends in a belief that there is no God, you will find incitements to virtue in the comfort and pleasantness you feel in its exercise, and the love of others which it will procure you.”
Even after writing about the three most contentious beliefs of Jefferson I could find, he remains a fundamental influence to both myself and to the principles of liberty. The anti-federalist papers are some of the most important documents to the resistance of government and the Constitution of the United States remains one of the most brilliant documents ever conceived by man. I hope I speak for everyone in the libertarian movement in commemoration of his work. Happy Birthday Thomas Jefferson.
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