Jefferson
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.