This week, President Thomas Jefferson discusses and explains his complex view and vision of an agrarian America. While in Paris in 1785, Jefferson wrote, "Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country and wedded to it's liberty and interests by the most lasting bands."
#1112 About Farmers
When Jefferson envisioned the American character, he saw a kind of idealized agrarian republican.
Alexis de Tocqueville wrote that, “As one digs deeper into the national character of the Americans, one sees that they have sought the value of everything in this world only in the answer to this single question: how much money will it bring in?”
This week we discuss the American character with President Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson believed that the American character would be the best in the history of the world: because of our agrarianism, our distance from the havoc of the Old World, our public education, and our resourcefulness that we needed to develop because there were no outside experts. While Adams felt that without a strong American character, "the strongest Cords of our Constitution [would be broken] as a Whale goes through a Net." John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were dear friends; they disagreed about many things. One thing they agreed upon was that this experiment would only work if we had unique character.
Clay S. Jenkinson talks about an article written by Hugh Sidey which appeared in Time magazine in 1978. Sidey writes about his visit with the acclaimed Thomas Jefferson biographer Dumas Malone. Describing Jefferson, Malone says, “Jefferson was a humanist in the complete sense of the word. Human beings always came first … His world is gone. His standards and values went with rural life.” Near the end of the show, Clay receives a very special present from long-time listener, and friend of the Jefferson Hour, Brad Crisler.
This week, President Thomas Jefferson discusses and explains his complex view and vision of an agrarian America. While in Paris in 1785, Jefferson wrote, "Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country and wedded to it's liberty and interests by the most lasting bands."