Posted on 08/19/2015 11:11:38 PM PDT by Citizen Zed
Why?
It’s easier to hate Jefferson for running away while Virginia governor instead of organizing the militia to repel the British during the War for Independence. Or for 8 years of boycotts that trashed the economy. Or for dragging out the 1st American-Muslim War.
Or you could love him for eliminating all internal taxes and keeping us out of war with the British.
I think he was disingenuous as to his motives for the war and let northern governors and power brokers sway his decisions. He did well in his attempts to keep the country whole but I do not think he was 100% honest in the process. I do not really want to get into a diatribe about the war, there are threads every where, it is just my opinion.
Like an earlier post said, Jefferson was a mass of contradictions.
His words on freedom and liberty and opposing tyranny are words to live by. Even setting aside his ownership of slaves, it’s clear that his agrarian mindset was rooted in a desire to keep society static, limiting movement between the classes and restricting the ability of members of the lower classes to ascend into the socio-political elite.
Hamilton, on the other hand, was a huge fan and proponant of such mobility, seeing capital as the means to effect it.
I agree. Jefferson wanted to return to the old medieval European society with rich landowners running the show.
But I think Hamilton wanted the country to be run by an educated elite where the lower classes knew their place, just like England at the end of the 18th century.
I think they would both be shocked at where we are now.
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