The Great Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson was a radical. He was also a conservative. His life represented a series of seemingly unorganized contradictions. He rooted his political philosophy in a consistent defense of federalism, an idea older than the British North American colonies. He was an American aristocrat who held opinions of society and man consistent with most of the prevailing racial and social attitudes of his day. Yet, Jefferson also sought to reform Virginia—his country—and tear down the established religious and educational hierarchy that had remained static for nearly two hundred years, a class system that while undemocratic produced most of the greatest statesmen of the founding generation. Jefferson thought his vision of republicanism would help advance the natural aristocracy and eliminate the pitfalls of ancient hereditary order, even an order that brought him to prominence.

That Jefferson can be many things makes him both more endearing and problematic for modern American society. Kevin Gutzman’s Thomas Jefferson—Revolutionary attempts to bring these competing visions of Jefferson into focus. As Gutzman writes, “if he [Jefferson] had been a pointillist painter, there would be enough dots on his canvas for the viewer to be able to make out a clear image.” For Gutzman, that neo-impressionist Jefferson is a consistent advocate of a political and social philosophy that can be traced to his days as a student at William and Mary. Jefferson’s principles never wavered. That alone speaks volumes about the man.

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Gutzman contends that every political rumination that passed Jefferson’s lips should be viewed through the lens of federalism. “The principle of decentralization,” Gutzman asserts, “always struck Jefferson as essential to popular government…” and “Whether in the highest federal offices or as a private citizen, he held the federal government to this principle until his very end.” Indeed, Gutzman dedicates nearly one-third of the book to this important topic, though the other issues he discusses—religious liberty, “assimilation,” “colonization,” and education—were also undergirded by Jefferson’s eye-level gaze with his mountains. Jefferson’s work in codifying religious liberty, for example, never expanded beyond Virginia, and his effort to establish a university to rid Virginians of the “dark Federalist mills” of the North was a component of his greater concern for a complete revision of Virginia’s educational system. But only in Virginia. Jefferson never believed he had a mandate to interfere with the local concerns of New England.

Gutzman spills a great deal of ink explaining how Jefferson’s 1774 “A Summary View of the Rights of British America” outlined his general political philosophy. To Jefferson, the colonies had always been the masters of their own domain. This, in turn, relegated the Parliament and king to external concerns of defense and international trade. Jefferson wove that belief in local self-government into the Declaration of Independence and his many statements on the proper role of the general government vis-à-vis the States. While most historians have considered Jefferson’s Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 to be a defense of free speech and the press, Gutzman argues that Jefferson intended that effort to be a defense of federalism. After all, he opened with an explanation of the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution. The regulation and punishment of speech and press were powers reserved to the people of the States, not the general government.

Gutzman’s crisp writing buttresses this forcefully argued tome. His work is not intended to be a complete biography but a thorough sketch of the mind of perhaps the most misunderstood member of the founding generation. Gutzman aptly shows that the American tradition would be nothing without Jefferson, but more than anything, he has rescued and revitalized Jefferson’s resolute defense of federalism. That alone is worth the price of the book.

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