Sunday, November 13, 2011
Thomas Jefferson on "the end of democracy"
There is a purported quote of Thomas Jefferson going viral at the moment that is not actually correct. The following sets the record straight.
From the Monticello website:
The end of democracy...(Quotation)
Quotation: "The end of democracy and the defeat of the American Revolution will occur when government falls into the hands of lending institutions and moneyed incorporations."
Variations: "The country is headed toward a single and splendid government of an aristocracy founded on banking institutions and moneyed incorporations and if this tendency continues it will be the end of freedom and democracy, the few will be ruling...I hope we shall...crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations which dare already to challenge our government to trial and bid defiance to the laws of our country. I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies."[1]
Sources consulted:
1. Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Digital Edition
2. Thomas Jefferson: Papers collection in Hathi Trust Digital Library
3. Retirement Papers
Earliest known appearance in print: 1994[2]
Earliest known appearance in print, attributed to Thomas Jefferson: see above
Status: This exact quotation has not been found in the writings of Thomas Jefferson. It may be a mistaken amalgamation of the author's comments in the above 1994 reference with a real Jefferson quotation. Jefferson wrote in 1825 to William Branch Giles of "a vast accession of strength from their younger recruits, who, having nothing in them of the feelings or principles of '76, now look to a single and splendid government of an aristocracy, founded on banking institutions, and monied incorporations under the guise and cloak of their favored branches of manufactures, commerce and navigation, riding and ruling over the plundered ploughman and beggared yeomanry."[3] Chomsky's 1994 book quotes Jefferson's 1825 letter to Giles and then comments that "[Jefferson] warned that that would be the end of democracy and the defeat of the American revolution."
FOOTNOTES
1. Shelley A. Stark, Hidden Treuhand: How Corporations and Individuals Hide Assets and Money (Boca Raton, Fla.: Universal-Publishers, 2009.), 226. This version includes a spurious first sentence combined with two genuine Jefferson quotes, from two different letters ("crush in it's birth the aristocracy..." from Jefferson to George Logan, Nov. 12, 1816 and "I sincerely believe that banking establishments..." from Thomas Jefferson to John Taylor, May 28, 1816).
2. Noam Chomsky, Keeping the Rabble in Line: Interviews with David Barsamian (Monroe, Me.: Common Courage Press, 1994), 245.
3. Jefferson to William Branch Giles, December 26, 1825, in Ford, 10:356. Polygraph copy available online from the Library of Congress.
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10 comments:
But nevertheless true...?
The substance of the quote attributed to Jefferson is true. It's just not the way Jefferson himself said it.
Not surprising since Jefferson was the opponent of Hamilton, whom he saw as the tool of the Northern (NY) bankers, on the question of interpreting the Constitution wrt money creation and banking.
Jefferson was extremely aware of the possibility of the creation of an aristocratic class based on money wealth.
Of course, Jefferson was not so concerned about an aristocratic class based on land, since he was a Southern plantation owner.
This was the time that industry, which is capital-based, was rising to challenge the traditional dominance of agriculture, which is Europe was land and serf-based, and in the US land and slave-based.
Doesnt look like either side could truly claim the moral high ground...
Historian William Hogeland goes into this.
At the time of the formatin of the US there were three chief interest groups. The first was the democratic populists, who were not represented among among the Founding Fathers save Tom Paine. The second was the Northern industrialists, represented by Hamilton. The third was the Southern agriculturists represented by Jefferson.
The democratic populists were dispatched straight off. That left the Northern industrialist - financiers - federalist - centralists to compete with the Southern agriculturists- states righters - decentralists.
The Northerns won, but the Southerners did not give up. The result was the Civil War, which the North won.
The losers never accepted the result and the US is still dealing with this initial conflict of interests. Now this is the Tea Party.
Occasionally, the democratic populists mounted a resurgence, too. Now this is OWS and We are the 99% movements.
That's US political history in a nutshell. :)
Re: northern industrialists
Can one really speak of industrialists at that time? The north was about capital and commerce, therefore outward looking, internationalist and urban. Industry per se came later with the industrial revolution.
True, Anonymous. I was thinking more in terms of what might be called proto-industry. MIlls with water wheels, for example, prior to steam power.
The North, especially NY and New England, were not well suited in climate or terrain for agriculture, so they typically turned to commerce, manufacturing, and finance. The first industrial revolution in the US is generally considered to extend from about 1790 to 1830, so it was beginning at about the time the principal institutions of government were being developed. The Constitution had set forth the principles, but the actual institutions took some time to develop and coalesce.
The Austrians would then tell us that the end of democracy occurred when JP Morgan the man himself used the Fed when it was created 100 years ago
Actually, democracy never got off the ground in the US. The founding father other than Paine were all republicans, i.e., in agreement that only the elite were fit to rule. Their purpose was to eliminate European aristocracy based on birth and create a new ruling class based on property.
Opposed to this were the democratic populists, centered in Pennsylvania. They were denied a seat at the table and eventually were violently suppressed by Washington and Hamilton.
See, for example, William Hogeland, Constitutional Convention Delegates Had Common Goal: Ending Democratic Finance and How John Adams and Thomas Paine Clashed Over Economic Equality. The link on the Whiskey Rebellion above shows how the game ended with Washington leading troops against the populists at Hamilton's behest.
Wow. How would this eye-opening expose' of our history rank with today's high school/college students?
Time for some revision in civics classes, methinks.
aures lupi
fascinating discussion for a Sunday morning. I agree that the north was engaged with what would become our own industrial revolution by this time.
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