Jefferson and the Virginians: Democracy, Constitutions, and Empire

"The University of Virginia was founded by Jefferson. Peter inherited the mantle of senior Jefferson scholar at Mr. Jefferson’s university. His best-known book is the brilliantly conceived Jefferson’s Empire . Jefferson and the Virginians is his latest book, written since his retirement. The book examines Jefferson’s interactions with several prominent Virginians at different stages of his political career and helps us understand how Jefferson advanced his political agenda for the United States. It is divided into sections focused on Jefferson’s interactions with each of these individuals. “When Jefferson was called ‘a democrat’, it was not a compliment.” Onuf starts with Patrick Henry, a charismatic courtroom lawyer whose oratory fueled the Revolution in Virginia. He was the one who got people fired up in 1775-76 and he became the first governor of independent Virginia. Their relationship was initially friendly. Then, when Jefferson succeeded Henry as Governor, it turned adversarial. Henry opposed Jefferson’s legislative agenda in Virginia, especially when it came to what has since become known as the separation of church and state. So, Henry starts out as a hero of Jefferson and becomes a nemesis. There’s another chapter about Jefferson and James Madison’s long political alliance, which began based on their common distrust of and opposition to Patrick Henry. Onuf distinguishes Jefferson’s abstract ideas from his practice of politics. He shows that Jefferson has an ecstatic approach to popular politics, whereas Madison, best known as ‘The Father of the Constitution’, was resistant to key elements of Jefferson’s performative democracy. Jeffersonian democracy has come to mean the belief that educated citizens should have their will enacted by their elected representatives. But when Jefferson was called ‘a democrat’, it was not a compliment. In the 1790s, Jefferson’s ideas of democracy and his support for the French Revolution , scared a lot of people. George Washington and Alexander Hamilton feared French revolutionary-style democracy would mean mob rule. Democrat and democracy did not become positive terms until the 19th century. So, Jeffersonian democracy only grew into something Americans took to heart en masse over a period of decades."