Jefferson and our time

There is a curious trait in American political discussion of trying to ascertain what the Founding Fathers would think about this issue or that issue. Because of his authorship of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson is often brought to the forefront of these discussions. In the past Jefferson has been claimed by slaveowners and abolitionists; integrationists and segregationists; isolationists and internationalists. Today he is claimed by both the Left and the Right, both sides pull him into the ongoing debates about health care, the economy, the rights of states and many other issues. (I admit I am super guilty of this). There is a feeling that if we could magically resurrect Jefferson and ask him his opinion about health care or the bank bailout, we could solve these issues once and for all (to a lesser extent, Madison, Adams, Franklin and Washington get pulled into this sort of forecasting as well).

If we resurrected Jefferson, and once he had gotten past his amazement that the United States still existed (the Founding Fathers as students of history knew that all nations eventually end, Madison thought the US would start ending about 1930, Adams about 1980), Jefferson’s answer would be “figure it out for yourselves, this is your world, not mine”. Jefferson’s views were formed by the world he lived in and that world has long since disappeared. It began disappearing in 1865 when slavery was abolished, in 1920 when the majority of Americans were living in cities, the 1930s New Deal, the end of segregation.

In private letters with James Madison, Jefferson floated an idea that the laws and debt of each generation should not be passed on to the next generation. Obviously, a recipe for chaos, but it demonstrates Jefferson’s belief that each generation would have to make its own way in the world. To paraphrase, the “legacy of Jefferson is to be hostile to all legacies”. Jefferson would be the first to find our habit of consulting the founders about issues they could never dream about disturbing and irrational.