Thomas Jefferson was not a proponent of the strong central government propounded by Alexander Hamilton and James Madison in their legendary Federalist Papers. In Federalist 1, Hamilton opens the discourse by noting that the main decision before the nascent American Democracy was whether good governments could be created ôfrom reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and forceö (Federalist 1). In Federalist 10, Madison took on MontesquieuÆs theory that democratic governments could only work in small states, showing that in larger and more expansive republics special interest groups would counterbalance each other, thusly averting the tyranny of the majority.
Thomas JeffersonÆs conception of democracy was far more nuanced and complicated. In the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson presaged the ideas advanced in Federalist 1 in his strident proclamation that ôGovernments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,ö and that when a government abuses its powers it is the right of the people to abolish it and to institute a new one. His confidence in the people, and the government they would create, was fleeting. In Notes on the State of Virginia, Jefferson wonders ôBut is the spirit of the people an infallible, a permanent reliance?ö He concludes that it is not, and that ôThe shackles, therefore, which shall not be knocked off at the conclusion of this war, will remain on us long, will be made heavier and heavier, till our rights shall revive or expire in a convulsionö (Notes, XVII).
The Declaration of Independence, available at [http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/index.htm]
The Federalist Papers, available at [http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/federal/fed.htm]
Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, available at [http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/jeffvir.htm]
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