Replies

I'd argue it was even earlier than those three, unfortunately. In fact, it may have even dated back to Jefferson himself. That's certainly what Christopher A. Ferrara seems to imply in his book Liberty: The God that Failed.

"Interring the Jefferson Legend

"With his death approaching, Jefferson knew full well that 'the vagaries of life had left a vulnerable legacy,' as even a Library of Congress biography admits.[160] To fund the lavish life a retinue of slaves had helped make this possible, Jefferson accumulated massive debts that were satisfied in part by the post-mortem sale of his already heavily mortgaged human chattels. 'Fear for his reputation and public legacy led him to beg his closest friend, James Madison, to 'take care of me when dead.''[161]"

"Today, libertarians are engaged in the same mission in defense of Jefferson. For without him, to whom can they point as an example of Liberty fulfilling its promises? What becomes of their defense of Liberty if even Jefferson, the very Apostle of Liberty, revealed that Liberty in practice means Power in disguise? Led by such dearly departed gurus as Murray Rothbard, libertarians of the so-called Austrian School hold fast to the idea, unsupported by any real evidence of comparative human happiness, that true freedom was won for America and the world with the overthrow of King George and the creation of 'republican government.' Firmly convinced that Liberty delivered what it was promised in 1776 (when? where? how?), libertarian historians draw a bright line at the beginning of the Lincoln era, depicting his actions as a betrayal of the principles of 'Jeffersonian democracy' expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the Kentucky Resolutions, especially 'states rights.' The following is a typical example of this 'libertarian narrative'[162] of Liberty.

"'Jefferson was the apostle of states' rights, enunciated in his famous Kentucky Resolve of 1798; Lincoln waged the bloodiest war in American history to destroy the Jeffersonian states' rights doctrine. Jefferson authored America's Declaration of Secession from the British empire, known as the Declaration of Independence. Lincoln's overriding purpose in his war was to destroy the secessionist and states' rights principles of the Declaration (while using slick rhetoric designed to pretend that he revered the document).[163]'

"Missing from this historical cartoon are all the inconvenient details of Jefferson's career examined on the preceding pages, including these:

"* His drafting of legislation imposing a compulsory oath of loyalty to the Revolution and the State of virginia and renouncing loyalty to the King, providing severe legal penalties for refusal to take the oath, and punishing even "verbal crimes" against the Revolution.

"* His call for the outlawry and shooting on sight of Tory counter-revolutionaries who should have been treated as prisoners of war, pursuant to a bill of attainder he himself drafted and pushed through the Virginia legislature.

"* His imprisonment of political criminals in virtual concentration camps while revolutionary governor of Virginia.

"* His meddling in French affairs while Minister to France, including outright conspiracy with Lafayette and the National Assembly in the overthrow of Louis XVI.

"* His support for the early Jacobin massacres as expressed in the "Adam and Eve" letter.

"* His lifelong ownership of slaves, some of whom he had flogged for attempting to escape, and his continued slave trading while President.

"* His endorsement of state law prosecutions for 'seditious libel' against the President and Congress.

"* His 'we are all Federalists' Inaugural Address.

"* His expansionist acquisition of the Louisiana Territory and the subjection of its inhabitants to the federal government without their consent, even though he himself believed this to be unconstitutional.

"* His supine acceptance of the drastic worsening of the lot of the slaves in Louisiana under federal law.

"* His approval of an expedient and quite illegal 'amendment' of the Constitution by the Republican-controlled House to expand the definition of 'high crimes and misdemeanors' in order to facilitate the impeachment of his Federalist opponent, Judge Pickering, for drunkenness.

"* His attempt to stage-manage the conviction and execution of Aaron Burr merely for allegedly planning to sever Louisiana from the Union, a prosecution based on an expansive interpretation of the definition of 'treason' rejected by the Supreme Court.

"* His failed effort, following Burr's acquittal, to eliminate the independent, life-tenured federal judiciary from the Constitution--which he had earlier supported as essential to civil liberties--on the grounds that no branch of government should be 'independent of the nation.'

"*His support for General Wilkinson's military dictatorship in the Louisiana Territory in response to Burr's illusory 'threat' to the Union.

"*His declaration that 'where the laws become inadequate even to their own preservation...the universal resource is a dictator, or martial law.

"*His dictatorial embargo of American shipping, including the federal seizure of ships and cargo without due process.

"*His instigation of 'treason' trials and his demand for the death penalty for American citizens who had merely attempted to recover their own property from federal agents.

"*His retention of the entire fledgling federal bureaucracy, his expansion of the U.S. military, and his budgetary expenditures for federal projectes during his terms as President.

"*His support for the federal military conquest of Canada and a federally prosecuted war against Great Britain as necessary to America's fina emancipation from 'tyranny.'

"*His fervent advocacy to compulsory universal military service, which almost passed Congress during his presidency.

"*His call for war on the secessionists of the Hartford Convention should they secede from the Union.

"*His opposition to any restriction on the extension of slavery into the territories because it would divide the Union and impair property rights guaranteed by the Constitution.

"* His scheme for the government-subsidized forcible separation of slave children from their parents and their deportation to Haiti or Sierra Leone.

"*His support for the Monroe Doctrine, which made America the hemispheric policeman of Liberty.

"*His entire grandiose vision of an 'empire of Liberty' whose center and summit would be a militarily mighty United States with armed forces raised through the compusory military service he advocated.

"Not even Rothbard, who otherwise sings the praises of Jefferson and the 'libertarian creed' of the Founders, could ignore completely the truth about Jefferson's career. Wrote Rothbard:

"'The Jeffersonian drive towards virtually no government foundered after Jefferson took office, first, with concessions to the Federalists..and then with the unconstitutional purchase of the Louisiana Territory. But most particularly it foundered with the imperialist drive toward war with Britain in Jefferson's second term, a drive which led to war and to a one-party system which established virtually the entire statist Federalist program: High military expenditures, a central bank, a protective tariff, direct federal taxes, public works.[164]'

"But where can one find any sign of the 'Jeffersonian drive toward virtually no government' if that very drive 'foundered' precisely when Jefferson took office, both as governor of Virginia and as President of the United States? It is easy enough for Rothbard (who fails to mention the tyrannical Embargo) to say that after Jefferson left office he was "horrified at the results" and "brooded at Monticello...." But these psychological touches do not alter the basic picture: When he actually wielded power, the Apostle of Liberty was no less vigorous than the Federalists and in fact far outdid them. Rothbard perpetuates the myth of 'Jeffersonian democracy' even as he admits the historical facts that explode it."

Pages 237-39. And as far as the sources, they are the following:

[160] "Thomas Jefferson: Legacy," http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/jefferson/jeffleg.html.

[161] Ibid.

[162] Onuf, Jefferson's Empire, 85.

[163] Thomas Di Lorenzo, "The Latest Defamation of Jefferson," www.lewrockwell.com/dilorenzo/dilorenzo100.html.

[164] Murray Rothbard, "The Libertarian Heritage: The American Revolution and Classical Liberalism," In For a New Liberty e-text excerpt lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard121.html.