Yet as the third president of the United States, Jefferson underwent something of a conversion. Curiously, this conversion is not always noted by some of his self-proclaimed acolytes who prefer the earlier Jefferson to the later Jefferson.*
Still, Jefferson was undeniably a small-government partisan for the bulk of his life. As he declared in first inaugural address in 1801, the national goal should be:
"A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned."
In other words, a "nightwatchman state." That's what many today assert that Jefferson was calling for. And for most of his life, perhaps he was.
Yet Jefferson clearly changed during the course of his presidency, from 1801 to 1809. The experience of dealing with the great powers of Europe, before and during his time in the White House--as well as the four-year war against the Barbary Pirates--taught him that America, as a nation, needed to be politically and militarily strong. Moral suasion and high-minded non-intervention were not going to be adequate in the face of ruthless enemies.
So Jefferson established the US Military Academy at West Point in 1802.
That same year, France seized control of Spain's Louisiana Territories--roughly half of the future continental United States. Jefferson could see what a big deal this was, writing to a friend,
"This little event, of France's possessing herself of Louisiana, is the embryo of a tornado which will burst on the countries on both sides of the Atlantic and involve in it's effects their highest destinies."
In other words, Jefferson the geopolitician could see a huge national security threat looming on America's western frontier. I response, he undertook the Louisiana Purchase the following year, firmly establishing the the USA as the dominant geopolitical power in North America.
In other words, the imperatives of statecraft were changing Jefferson. He was becoming an apostle of American Strength.
In his eighth message to Congress, delivered on November 8, 1808, Jefferson went further: He supported the system of publicly-owned peace-time military arsenals, to be supplemented--but not replaced--during wartime by private contractors:
"Under the acts of March 11th and April 23d, respecting arms, the difficulty of procuring them from abroad, during the present situation and dispositions of Europe, induced us to direct our whole efforts to the means of internal supply. The public factories have, therefore, been enlarged, additional machineries erected, and in proportion as artificers can be found or formed, their effect, already more than doubled, may be increased so as to keep pace with the yearly increase of the militia. The annual sums appropriated by the latter act, have been directed to the encouragement of private factories of arms, and contracts have been entered into with individual undertakers to nearly the amount of the first year's appropriation."
Jefferson went further: He sought out "internal improvements"--what we today call infrastructure-- within the US. As he said, we had no choice:
"The situation into which we have thus been forced, has impelled us to apply a portion of our industry and capital to internal manufactures and improvements. The extent of this conversion is daily increasing, and little doubt remains that the establishments formed and forming will -- under the auspices of cheaper materials and subsistence, the freedom of labor from taxation with us, and of protecting duties and prohibitions -- become permanent."
Finally, he made clear his preference for using surplus federal revenues, not for tax cuts, but for public investments in, as he delineated, “roads, canals, rivers, education, and other great foundations of prosperity and union”:
"The probable accumulation of the surpluses of revenue beyond what can be applied to the payment of the public debt, whenever the freedom and safety of our commerce shall be restored, merits the consideration of Congress. Shall it lie unproductive in the public vaults? Shall the revenue be reduced? Or shall it rather be appropriated to the improvements of roads, canals, rivers, education, and other great foundations of prosperity and union, under the powers which Congress may already possess, or such amendment of the constitution as may be approved by the States?"
A strong military, a strong country. That's American Strength.
Michael Lind of the New America Foundation offers a more cogent and detailed chronicle of Jefferson's presidency in his 2012 book, Land of Promise: An Economic History of the United States.
* Those who speak with the authority of the historical past have a huge advantage in contemporary debates. And we might note that those who would seek to invoke history have not always been scrupulous as to their historical invocations.
We might recall a quote from the French essayist Michel de Montaigne, who back in the 16th century observed that the "learned authors" of his time chose to refer to such authoritative texts as Plato's dialogues, using them as nothing more than rhetorical throw-weight for their own views. Quoth Montaigne: "See how Plato is tossed and turned about. All are honored to have his support, so they couch him on their own side. They trot him out and slip him into any new opinion which fashion will accept. When matters take a different turn, then they make him disagree with himself." Plato was not the first, nor was Jefferson the last, to receive such historical revisionism.
Indeed, in their enthusiasm for making Jefferson seem more to their liking, scholars and pundits have even sought to "improve" on the man--or their ideal of the man. A quote commonly attributed to Jefferson--"That government is best that governs least"--appears not to be from Jefferson at all, but rather, from Henry David Thoreau.
Michael Lind of the New America Foundation offers a more cogent and detailed chronicle of Jefferson's presidency in his 2012 book, Land of Promise: An Economic History of the United States.
* Those who speak with the authority of the historical past have a huge advantage in contemporary debates. And we might note that those who would seek to invoke history have not always been scrupulous as to their historical invocations.
We might recall a quote from the French essayist Michel de Montaigne, who back in the 16th century observed that the "learned authors" of his time chose to refer to such authoritative texts as Plato's dialogues, using them as nothing more than rhetorical throw-weight for their own views. Quoth Montaigne: "See how Plato is tossed and turned about. All are honored to have his support, so they couch him on their own side. They trot him out and slip him into any new opinion which fashion will accept. When matters take a different turn, then they make him disagree with himself." Plato was not the first, nor was Jefferson the last, to receive such historical revisionism.
Indeed, in their enthusiasm for making Jefferson seem more to their liking, scholars and pundits have even sought to "improve" on the man--or their ideal of the man. A quote commonly attributed to Jefferson--"That government is best that governs least"--appears not to be from Jefferson at all, but rather, from Henry David Thoreau.
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