In the Hands of the People: Thomas Jefferson on Equality, Faith, Freedom, Compromise, and the Art of Citizenship

by Jon Meacham

Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories. —THOMAS JEFFERSON

“History,” he wrote in his Notes on the State of Virginia, “by apprising [the people] of the past, will enable them to judge of the future; it will avail them of the experience of other times and other nations; it will qualify them as judges of the actions and designs of men; it will enable them to know ambition under every guise it may assume; and knowing it, to defeat its views.” The fate of freedom—the fate of everything—lay, Jefferson believed, in the broad populace.

And by us, I do mean us. This project, undertaken by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, is less about Jefferson and his complexities and more about the American people and our complexities.

The point of this book, though, and of the conversations it aims to inspire, is to explore citizenship and the role of the people—the ways and means of how we can form dispositions of heart and mind that find expression in the public life of our nation. Why turn to the slave-owning Thomas Jefferson for counsel on how to live in the diverse world of a global age? The author of the Declaration of Independence and of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom was a patriarchal white supremacist; the third president of the United States and the founder of the University of Virginia had little interest in securing the rights of women and played a critical role in the dispossession of native peoples from their lands. And yet, and yet—so much of our history can be summed up in the phrase “and yet.” For all his faults, Jefferson repays our attention. “I have said that the Declaration of Independence is the ringbolt to the chain of your nation’s destiny; so, indeed, I regard it,” Frederick Douglass said in 1852.

In many respects Thomas Jefferson is America.

He benefited from a cruel system of human chattel while offering the promise of equality that would, in the fullness of time, find expression in the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and Nineteenth amendments to the Constitution, amendments that belatedly extended the meaning of his words to African Americans and to women.

The collection of Jefferson quotations gathered here is a way to bring the discoveries of old into the debates of a new (or newish) century.

To promote voting rights in Virginia, for example, Jefferson went so far as to propose that every man who could not satisfy the state’s restrictive voting requirements be given fifty acres by the government so that he could vote.

Such combinations of church and state had produced rivers of blood in Europe and had to yield to a strict separation.

Believing that religion was a matter between each man and his god, Jefferson insisted that religion would be safest in private hands. He was equally clear that religion should not be used as an excuse to violate impartial laws adopted by the community for legitimate purposes.

But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg. THOMAS JEFFERSON, NOTES ON THE STATE OF VIRGINIA, QUERY XVII I have considered it [religion] as a matter between every man and his maker, in which no other, and far less the public, had a right to intermeddle. THOMAS JEFFERSON TO RICHARD RUSH, MAY 31, 1813

Difference of opinion is advantageous in religion.

“I judge every man’s faith by his life,” said he in a letter to me, “and I wish my fellow citizens to judge of mine by the same test.” MARGARET BAYARD SMITH, EARLY AMERICAN AUTHOR, TO JANE BAYARD KIRKPATRICK, MARCH 31, 1830

knowledge is power, that knowledge is safety, and that knowledge is happiness. THOMAS JEFFERSON TO GEORGE TICKNOR, NOVEMBER 25, 1817

Ignorance and despotism seem made for each other. THOMAS JEFFERSON TO ROBERT PLEASANTS, AUGUST 27, 1796

In every country where man is free to think and to speak, differences of opinion will arise from difference of perception and the imperfection of reason. But these differences, when permitted, as in this happy country, to purify themselves by free discussion, are but as passing clouds overshadowing our land transiently and leaving our horizon more bright and serene. That love of order and obedience to the laws, which so considerably characterizes the citizens of the United States, are sure pledges of internal tranquility…. THOMAS JEFFERSON TO THE CITIZENS OF COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA, MARCH 23, 1801 I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend. THOMAS JEFFERSON TO WILLIAM HAMILTON, APRIL 22, 1800

Jefferson was clear that if the wealth gap between rich and poor grew too large, the very survival of the republic requires that the legislature take decisive action.

I am not among those who fear the people. They, and not the rich, are our dependence for continued freedom. And, to preserve their independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. THOMAS JEFFERSON TO SAMUEL KERCHEVAL, JULY 12, 1816

“I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past,” he famously told John Adams, and confidently concluded “I will dream on….” The times have been awful, but they have proved an useful truth that the good citizen must never despair of the commonwealth. THOMAS JEFFERSON TO NATHANIEL NILES, MARCH 22, 1801

Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them, like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment. I knew that age well: I belonged to it, and labored with it. It deserved well of its country. It was very like the present, but without the experience of the present…. THOMAS JEFFERSON TO SAMUEL KERCHEVAL, JULY 12, 1816

Good quote to use when people revere the Founding Fathers without a fault and suggest that the Constitution is prefect and does not need change. Short answer: It does, and the Founding Fathers were humans just like us, no better and no worse.

Let us follow no such examples, nor weakly believe that one generation is not as capable as another of taking care of itself, and of ordering its own affairs. THOMAS JEFFERSON TO SAMUEL KERCHEVAL, JULY 12, 1816

Good quote to use when aspersions are cast on the younger generation.

Every major black leader has made use of them in the fight for true black citizenship.

Indeed, as the years have passed, every group that has sought equality in the United States—women, religious minorities, immigrants—has relied on Jefferson’s words to make the case for inclusion.