Jefferson Essay, Research Paper

Jefferson had destroyed political traditions. From his contradictions and

defecting his priciples, Jefferson destroyed the political precedent and is a

exemplatory hypocrite, which can be seen throughout his administration.

Jefferson was an admired statesman who was grappling unsuccessfully with the

moral issue of slavery. Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of

Independence, opposed slavery his whole life, yet he never freed his own slaves.

He championed Enlightenment principles, yet never freed himself of the

prejudices of his soceity. Jefferson was extremely hypocritical in the issue of

slavery. Jefferson was a plantation owner early in his life, and had slaves

working for him throughout his life. Jefferson had tolerated while he didn’t

accept others who owned slaves. Jefferson denounced the slave owners, while he

was owning and using slaves. Although Jefferson was supposedly a good slave

owner, his hypocritical nature made him accuse others not to own slaves while

he, himself was owning slaves. Another part of the hypocrisy was that Jefferson

believed that the slaves were dependent upon the white man, while he, himself

was dependent upon the slaves. Jefferson also was hypocritcal in his acquisition

of the Loisiana territory. In Jeffersonian principles, large expansive

governments were bad, and small was good. This was a antithesis of that

principle. Jefferson knew that the acquisition of the Loisiana territory was

beneficial to the welfare of the U.S. According to the constitution, nowhere in

the constitution is the acquisition of land a right of the government,

Jeffersons’ predisposition was to strictly go by the constitution (as seen with

the national bank controversy), this is another contradiction during his

administration. Since the appropriation of the Lousiana territory was important

for the expansion of the United States, he temporarily dismissed his principles,

therefore destroying political traditions. Another hypocritical event during

Jeffersons’ administration was his acceptance of the National Bank. Early in

Jefferson’s political career, Jefferson had debated with Hamilton on whether to

have the National Bank. "When this government was first established, it was

possible to have kept it going on true principles, but the contracted, English,

half-lettured ideas of Hamilton destroyed that hope in the bud, We can pay off

his debts in 15 years." Early in Jefferson’s Administration, Jefferson had

denounced the National Bank. At the end of his administration, Jefferson

realized that the National Bank was important and this is hypocritical by

disregarding his principles. The Burr conspiracy depicted Jefferson as a

ruthless, and a individual who will do anything inorder to achieve his goal.

Jefferson championed civil liberties and unalienable rights. Yet, Jefferson

violated civil liberties by coercing witnesses, arrested with out habeus corpus

and prosecuting in a "court" of his own. Jefferson and Jeffersonians

are hypocrites from the start and they destroyed political tradition as seen

during Jeffersons’ administration. Jeffersonians show an immense amount of

hypocritism in their policies. For example, Federalists had supported high

tarriffs, inorder to protect national manufacturers and American industry. The

tarriffs were a vital determinent, which kept the economy of the United States

viable. The Jeffersonians, not the Federalists began the American system of

protecting American industry, which initially was a major constituent of the

federalist platform.