Essay/Term paper: Thomas jefferson

Essay, term paper, research paper:  American History

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.