THE JEFFERSONIANS - Jefferson spent 30 years attacking Alexander Hamilton. Here are some facts you won't get from a Jefferson apologist.
THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR: Jefferson did virtually nothing to support the war. As governor of Virginia - then the most populous state in the nation - he never even managed to engage the Virginia militia to defend his own state let alone his country. (Of course, Jefferson always referred to Virginia as his country.) When the British approached Richmond and Monticello Jefferson rode away to safety leaving others to face the enemy. It's hard to imagine that Jefferson wasn't a complete coward in these moments. He was accused of dereliction of duty by fellow Virginians after these incidents but most of the Virginia legislature rallied to save his reputation and exonerated him of the charges. He probably didn't deserve exoneration based on the evidence.
EVIL BANKING: Since the time of Hamilton a virtual industry of "banking is evil" fanatics has arisen that paint Hamilton as an evil Rothschild conspirateur. Jefferson was anti-banking his whole life but his closest political children (Madison and Monroe) grew out of this quaint view and became supporters of banking. Madison refounded the central bank in 1816 after he had disastrously let its charter lapse in 1811. The nation's financial needs during the War of 1812 helped change Madison's mind in favor of banking. America has been the most prosperous nation in history because of banking despite abuses and mistakes that have occurred. Hamilton said, "If abuses of a beneficial thing are to determine its condemnation, there is scarecly a source of public prosperity which will not speedily be closed."
The truth was that most Southerners of the time, including Jefferson, hated banking because they were constantly borrowing from banks and came to see them as the enemy. Of course, nobody sees banking as the enemy when they need a loan - only when it has to be repaid. One of Jefferson's greatest examples of self deceipt was his hatred of banks while he lived in constant debt due to his own extravagence.
MILITARY POWER: Jefferson had an intense fear of standing armies (due to such historic episodes as Caesar crossing the Rubicon) and decomissioned Adam's navy when he succeeded Adams as president. The Barbaray Pirates forced him to reverse that decision. Then the British-French War led to confiscation of American ships which were left defenseless by President Jefferson's still-weak navy. Jefferson instead declared the self-destructive Embargo of 1807 to punish the British and French. It only managed to punish his own country with an economic catastrophe as the American economy, which was dependent on Britain, shrank 40%.
In 1812 Jefferson's political children in congress, along with President Madison, declared war against Britain even though they had no army or navy sufficient to fight the war. Britain had 260 war ships when war was declared and America had 16. The British embarrassed America as in no other American war. As a result of Jefferson's military policies of weakness the English fleet sailed unimpeded up the Chesapeake and burned down the U.S. capital. They would have burned down Baltimore as well if it weren't for Ft. McHenry's brave stand. After the War of 1812 Madison (who was always Jefferson's right-hand man) refounded the central bank and engaged in ambitious federal spending including a plan to build a bigger navy. Conspiracy theorists like to paint the War of 1812 as a conspiracy by European bankers to punish America for killing the central bank. They never back up that claim with any facts though.
THE EMBARGO OF 1807 AND JEFFERSON'S ECONOMICS: Jefferson was economically imcompetent. To respond to shipping seizures by France and England Jefferson declared a trade embargo in 1807 against the two nations, which caused a 40% decline in the U.S. economy. It's amazing to think that Jefferson didn't see this coming. By comparison, when we have a decline of 1% today we call that a recession. The Great Depression was a 25% decline.
Jefferson wanted to repudiate all debt to Europe after the Revolutionary War which would have destroyed America's financial standing. Hamilton soundly defeated this rather stupid idea. Jefferson also wanted an agrarian-only economy in America and opposed manufacturing and finance as evil tools of the British. He wised up later in his career and began to see the necessity of manufacturing - some 20 years after opposing Hamilton's policies in favor of manufactuing.
Jefferson supported America completely removing itself from all trade - withdrawing from the seas he called it. Then he advocated letting Europe do all the manufacturing and simply trading for what they made. He saw agriculture as the only proper form of life and city or urban life as deplorable and degrading.
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION: Jefferson came to love the French, probably because he hated the British so much. Connor Cruise O'Brien has written an interesting book, The Long Affair, which chronicles Jefferson's long, devoted and politically motivated embrace of the French Revolution. Jefferson thought the French Revolution would help him politically to defeat Washington, Hamilton and Adams by refreshing the spirit of liberty in America that he thought George Washington had lost. He took several years to recognize the disaster in France for what it was. Jefferson's employee at the state department, William Short, was in Paris writing to him about the debacle that was unfolding and despite these first hand reports Jefferson's anti-Federalist press continued to paint the French Revolution as a glorious victory for liberty and that anything negative about the Revolution was British propaganda. Jefferson famously said that rather than see the French Revolution fail he'd rather see half the earth perish. He had a tendency to get carried away in his fervor obviously. Another intersesting note - Jefferson lived in Paris five years as minister and never mastered French. Hamilton mastered it as a youth and served Washington as a french translator during the war. Hamilton was also a very close friend of Lafayette's.
THE JEFFERSONIAN POLITICAL ATTACK MACHINE
Jefferson is generally seen as a virtuous, gentlemanly servant of the people. This is a credit to the success of the rewriters of history who have framed him as such, but it's not true. Jefferson was the first political hack as it were. He instituted political attacks against Hamilton, Washington and Adams in order to win public support for his misguided policies. He never did things himself but hired and engaged others to do his dirtry work so he could maintain his virtuous and false persona. He called Washington a monarchist and accused him of plotting to sell America back to King George in exchange for being crowned King of America. He accused Hamilton of speculation as Treasury Secretary - which was patently false - and later, after he knew specifically that Hamilton was innocent of any professional misconduct, used the Maria Reynolds letters to accuse him of speculation again. Virtue had nothing to do with these attacks. Jefferson did all this to ruin Hamilton's reputation and ensure that he couldn't run for President or oppose Jefferson politically. Meanwhile Jefferson was fathering children with Sally Hemming. This is a great example of Jefferson's "mental agility" or to put it plainly, his lack of integrity.
Above is a picture of part of the Jefferson Memorial. This quote is a contrived misrepresentation and is pretty stunning in its blatant disregard for historical accuracy - however, there is also something very Jeffersonian about the whole contradiction. The quote is actually a combination of more than one quote that was pieced together to sound more noble. The first half of the quote reads: "God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are a gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever. Commerce between master and slave is despotism." That part is from his from Notes on Virginia. The next sentence is taken from Jefferson's autobiography. "Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that these people are to be free." However, the rest of that quote that they left out continues, "Nor is it less certain that the two races, equally free, cannot live in the same government. Native habit, opinion has drawn indelible lines of distinction bewteen them." Jefferson was saying the slaves should be freed and then deported because the races couldn't ever get along. It's also intersting to remember that Jefferson had his slaves brutally whipped when they were caught trying to escape. This is one of many examples of Jefferson's actions not comporting with his noble statements. I think this is largely because Jefferson consciously wrote for his legacy and was decidedly working to cement his virtuous image for posterity. Hamilton and Adams were similarly concerned with slavery, although without the terrible contradictions Jefferson had because neither of them ever owned a slave. It's also important to remember that in Notes on Virginia Jefferson plainly admitted he was a racist. He thought that the slaves were mentally and physically inferior to white people and could never care for themselves - like children. He also said terribly stupid things about the way his slaves smelled as though laboring on his plantation should not lead to body odor. He seemed not to realize there is a connection between hard, manual labor and perspiration. Only an aristocrat would think like this.
