Thomas Jefferson Essays (491 words) - Thomas Jefferson,

Thomas Jefferson Jefferson had destroyed political traditions. From his contradictions and defecting his priciples, Jefferson destroyed the political precedent and is a exemplatory hypocrite, which can be seen throughout his administration. Jefferson was an admired statesman who was grappling unsuccessfully with the moral issue of slavery. Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, opposed slavery his whole life, yet he never freed his own slaves. He championed Enlightenment principles, yet never freed himself of the prejudices of his soceity. Jefferson was extremely hypocritical in the issue of slavery. Jefferson was a plantation owner early in his life, and had slaves working for him throughout his life. Jefferson had tolerated while he didn't accept others who owned slaves. Jefferson denounced the slave owners, while he was owning and using slaves. Although Jefferson was supposedly a good slave owner, his hypocritical nature made him accuse others not to own slaves while he, himself was owning slaves. Another part of the hypocrisy was that Jefferson believed that the slaves were dependent upon the white man, while he, himself was dependent upon the slaves. Jefferson also was hypocritcal in his acquisition of the Loisiana territory. In Jeffersonian principles, large expansive governments were bad, and small was good. This was a antithesis of that principle. Jefferson knew that the acquisition of the Loisiana territory was beneficial to the welfare of the U.S. According to the constitution, nowhere in the constitution is the acquisition of land a right of the government, Jeffersons' predisposition was to strictly go by the constitution (as seen with the national bank controversy), this is another contradiction during his administration. Since the appropriation of the Lousiana territory was important for the expansion of the united states, he temporarily dismissed his principles, therefore destroying political traditions. Another hypocritical event during Jeffersons' administration was his acceptance of the National Bank. Early in Jefferson's political career, Jefferson had debated with Hamilton on whether to have the National Bank. "When this government was first established, it was possible to have kept it going on true principles, but the contracted, English, half-lettured ideas of Hamilton destroyed that hope in the bud, We can pay off his debts in 15 years." Early in Jefferson's Administration, Jefferson had denounced the National Bank. At the end of his administration, Jefferson realized that the National Bank was important and this is hypocritical by disregarding his principles. The Burr conspiracy depicted Jefferson as a ruthless, and a individual who will do anything inorder to achieve his goal. Jefferson championed civil liberties and unalienable rights. Yet, Jefferson violated civil liberties by coercing witnesses, arrested with out habeus corpus and prosecuting in a "court" of his own. Jefferson and Jeffersonians are hypocrites from the start and they destroyed political tradition as seen during Jeffersons' administration. Jeffersonians show an immense amount of hypocritism in their policies. For example, Federalists had supported high tarriffs, inorder to protect national manufacturers and american industry. The tarriffs were a vital determinent, which kept the economy of the United States viable. The Jeffersonians, not the Federalists began the American system of protecting american industry which initially was a major constituent of the federalist platform.