their newly assumed doctrine. They declared openly that dissolution of the Union would be preferable to the tyranny of the Southern States, which they felt would be made certain and secure if the Louisiana purchase was consummated. These differences and the realignment of parties, followed by the controversies growing out of the attacks on neutral commerce made both by Bonaparte and Great Britain in the course of their military struggle, not only caused the Federalists and the Republicans completely to reverse their former attitude in face of each other, but brought the Federalist party to final ruin. The principles which had been Federalist and which were now acted upon by the dominant Republican administration were sound principles in nation-building; while the principles which the Republicans had professed before gaining power and at which the Federalists now grasped in desperation were unsound principles. Had these conquered, the nation could not have been built.

It is necessary to understand that the important thing for the interpretation of the process of nationbuilding during this period is not party names but those principles of action which were supported first by one party and then by its victorious opponent. One result was that the same destructive spirit that was manifested in the Kentucky and Virginia resolutions of 1798 was also manifested by Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut

in the Hartford convention of 1814. Nullification and secession, shortly to become the favourite doctrines of the South, were then openly preached in New England. The end of the second war with Great Britain and the signing of the Treaty of Peace at Ghent put an end to these discussions and opened that era of good feeling which continued until the question of slavery projected itself as the dominant political issue.

It is clear, therefore, that in order to measure the full influence of the teachings of Jefferson one must go beyond the bounds of the party which has for a century professed allegiance to his name and doctrines. While many of the specific teachings of Jefferson are narrow, provincial, and visionary, his underlying notions are sound and are generally accepted even when not acted upon, by Americans of every party and of every section. Jefferson unfortunately gave the great weight of his authority to the notion that there is something like a necessary clash of interests between the agricultural classes and the city dwellers. He wrote with contempt of the hand-worker and of the manufacturer, and he never understood the significance or the benefit of international trade.

It is a blessing that up to the present time at least, any serious or permanent division of the American people into political parties based upon antagonistic economic groups has been avoided, and that the most important political discussions have

taken place in reference to principles which divide the social organisation perpendicularly and not horizontally. There has not been as yet any permanent political division between rich and poor, between agriculturist and city dweller, or between hand-worker and farmer. Each of these groups has contributed its full share to both political parties which, for a full century, have struggled for control of the national government.

The visionary side of Jefferson is well illustrated by the practical conclusion which he attempted to draw from his doctrine that all just government rests upon the consent of the governed. Upon this principle Jefferson bases the curious conclusion that since the earth belongs in usufruct to the living, and the dead have neither powers nor rights over it, no generation of men may justly pass any law to be effective for a period longer than the lifetime of that generation. By using the statistical tables prepared by Buffon, Jefferson proves to his satisfaction that half of those living persons who are twentyone years of age and upwards at any given time, will be dead in eighteen years and eight months. He therefore proposes nineteen years as the term beyond which neither the representatives of a nation, nor even the whole nation itself assembled, can validly extend a debt.1 What Jefferson does in

1 Writings of Thomas Jefferson, edited by Paul Leicester Ford, 10 vols. (New York, 1892-1899), vol. V, pp. 115-119.

this case is to make the mistake which so many lesser men have made, of confusing ideas and principles with individuals. If an idea or principle be untrue and unsound, then nineteen years is much too long a time for it to be operative; if, on the other hand, it be true and sound, how can any limit of time be put upon it? Surely the multiplication table does not grow out of date, although in Jefferson's sense it is certainly imposed upon the living by the dead. It is because of serious statements and arguments of this kind that Jefferson, with all his greatness, has furnished ground for many varieties of folly and inconsequence. Perhaps no great writer on politics and no great party leader needs to have his sayings and his acts analysed more critically than does Jefferson. It may very well be that it is just because of his enormous and continuing influence on American public opinion that this statement is as true of the American people as a whole as it is of Jefferson himself.

Perhaps if Jefferson had been asked to differentiate his political point of view and his political teaching from those of others who were his opponents and critics, he would have pointed to the fact that he was more ready to trust the people than to suspect them, and that his opponents were not. He professed, and he really had, confidence that the people as a whole would not be appealed to in vain in the cause of good government and of civil and

political liberty. With this confidence in the masses of the people went, almost as a matter of course, a fervent belief in the necessity for general education. It was not as philanthropy, but as part of a wellconceived political philosophy, that Jefferson urged the establishment of schools and provided for them, and founded the University of Virginia. He was not one of those demagogues, miscalled democrats, who cry out that ignorance is better than knowledge, that folly is superior to experience, and that man's natural instincts are so superlatively wise that discipline and wisdom can serve no good purpose. There are some types of false democracy to which Jefferson gave undoubted encouragement; there are others that he never permitted to gain foothold within the sphere of his influence.

Nothing better became Jefferson or set him in finer light than the simple inscription which he wrote to mark the place of his burial. In simplicity, in dignity, and in choice of material from so rich and so varied a life, this inscription is beyond criticism:

Here Was Buried
Thomas Jefferson
Author

Of The Declaration of
American Independence

The Statute of Virginia

For Religious Freedom And

Father of the University of Virginia