Jeffersonian Democracy 191civil disturbances. Worse, in the opinion of many,
the French extremists had attempted to destroy
Christianity, substituting for it a “cult of reason.”
They confiscated property, imposed price controls,
and abolished slavery in the French colonies. Little
wonder that many Americans feared that the
Jeffersonians, lovers of France and ofliberté,égalité,
fraternité, would try to remodel American society in
a similar way.
Jefferson calmed these fears. “Pell-mell” might
scandalize the British and Spanish ministers and a few
locals, but it was scarcely revolutionary. The most
partisan Federalist was hard put to see a Robespierre,
leader during the Reign of Terror in France, in the
amiable Jefferson scratching out state papers at his
desk or chatting with a Kentucky congressman at a
“republican” dinner party. Furthermore, Jefferson
accepted Federalist ideas on public finance, even
learning to live with Hamilton’s bank. As a good
democrat, he drew a nice distinction between his
own opinions and the wishes of the majority, which
he felt must always take priority. Even in his first
inaugural he admitted that manufacturing and com-
merce were, along with agriculture, the “pillars of
our prosperity,” and while believing that these activi-
ties would thrive best when “left most free to indi-
vidual enterprise,” he accepted the principle that the
government should protect them when necessary
from “casual embarrassments.”
During his term the country grew
and prospered, the commercial
classes sharing in the bounty along
with the farmers so close to
Jefferson’s heart. Blithely he set out
to win the support of all who could
vote. “It is material to the safety of
Republicanism,” he wrote in 1803,
“to detach the mercantile interests
from its enemies and incorporate
them into the body of its friends.”
Thus Jefferson undermined
the Federalists all along the line.
They had said that the country
must pay a stiff price for prosperity
and orderly government, and they
demanded prompt payment in full,
both in cash (taxes) and in the
form of limitations on human lib-
erty. Under Jefferson these much-
desired goals had been achieved
cheaply and without sacrificing
freedom. A land whose riches
could only be guessed at had been
obtained without firing a shot and without burden-
ing the people with new taxes. “What farmer, what
mechanic, what laborer, ever sees a taxgatherer of
the United States?” the president could ask in
1805, without a single Federalist rising to chal-
lenge him. Order without discipline, security with-
out a large military establishment, prosperity
without regulatory legislation, freedom without
license—truly the Sage of Monticello appeared to
have led his fellow Americans into a golden age.
Jefferson insisted that one of his chief accom-
plishments had been to reduce the national debt
from $83 million to $57 million. Writing from
Monticello shortly after leaving office, he urged his
successors to eliminate the remainder. “The dis-
charge of the public debt,” he warned Treasury
Secretary Gallatin, “is vital to the destinies of
our government.”
Yet Jefferson had also learned the perils of an
inadequately funded government. His unwillingness
to build a real navy had rendered the nation vulnera-
ble to foreign states. Conversely, he had exulted in
the purchase of Louisiana, and he backed modest
proposals for spending federal money on roads,
canals, and other projects that, according to his polit-
ical philosophy, ought to have been left to the states
and private individuals. Debt, Jefferson accepted, was
sometimes good policy.The storming of the Bastille in 1789. After the crowd seizes the fortification, they tear it down,
stone by stone.