We! The People Webzine: Thomas Jefferson and the Democratic-Republican Party by Larry Sakin

Thomas Jefferson and the Democratic-Republican Party

by Larry Sakin
February 19, 2007

[We continue our Presidential series begun in February with this from Larry Sakin on Thomas Jefferson - the First Democrat. If you would like to write a brief profile of you favorite or most hated president, send it to Norla at wtpeditor@wedemocrats.org. Now sit back and enjoy a profile of Jefferson.]

America's third president, Thomas Jefferson was quite a character. A polymath, Jefferson made a name for himself in the sciences, arts, and politics. Jefferson is remembered most as the author of the Declaration of Independence, and creating the progenitor of the Democratic Party.

Unlike many of his fellow statesmen, Jefferson believed the power of the government should lay with the 'yeoman farmer', a group of non-slaveholding, small landowning family farmers. Yeoman farmers engaged in either subsistence or commercial farming (depending upon the region farmed), and controlled comparatively modest landholdings than those of the aristocratic 'planters'. Yeoman farmers were the eighteenth and early nineteenth century's 'middle class'.

In pre-revolutionary times, the basic principle that governed voting in colonial America was that voters should have a "stake in society." At the time, democracy was associated with disorder and mob rule and leaders believed the vote should be restricted to those who owned property and paid taxes. Other colonies imposed restrictions on voting, including religious tests. Catholics were barred from voting in five colonies, and Jews in four.

The US Constitution basically left voting rights to the states, and while some states kept their voting laws constant, by 1830, ten states permitted white males to vote regardless of property holdings and religious persuasion.

Jefferson understood that the small but fervent American aristocracy needed less protection from the government than small landholders. Jefferson feared that yeoman farmers would be disproportionately taxed by new state legislators vulnerable to the influence of the wealthy. He also opposed the vision of Alexander Hamilton and the Federalists, who supported a nation of commerce and manufacturing, something Jefferson thought was ripe for corruption. Jefferson was confident America could avoid the economic class divisions that Europe suffered from industrialization.

These deep beliefs were the foundation for the Democratic-Republican Party, which Jefferson co-founded with James Madison in 1792. The Party insisted upon a strict construction of the Constitution, promoted states rights and the primacy of the yeoman farmers over bankers, industrialists, merchants, and other monied interests. The Democratic-Republican Party remained dominant from 1800 to 1820 when, no longer faced with organized Federalists, and little was left to hold the Democratic-Republicans together.

While our modern day Democratic Party claims roots to Jeffersonian Democracy, it is actually closer in form to the party of the late 19th and early 20th Century which espoused liberal social and populist economic policies, resisting the extremely heavy influence of industrialized America. The party has favored farmers, laborers, labor unions, and religious and ethnic minorities; it has opposed unregulated business and finance, and favored progressive income taxes. In foreign policy, internationalism (including interventionism) was a dominant theme from 1913 to the mid 1960s. In the 1930s, the party began advocating welfare spending programs targeted at the poor. The liberalism of Franklin Roosevelt and his New Deal economic policies have been the touchstone of the party since, although recently a more centrist, pro-business ideology has become dominant, a position once typified by Al Smith in the 1920's and 1930's. Remnants of Jeffersonian Democracy can be found throughout the party's evolution in the 20th Century, including its strong bent towards regulating industry, mistrust of banks (in particular central banking), and an emphasis upon the rights of the poor and middle class.

Were Jefferson alive today, he'd not likely recognize the legacy of his party in the Democrats. However, Jefferson saw democracy as a living entity, suffering growing pains, going through many changes, and re-inventing itself to make it viable for the times. While the modern day party of Jefferson bears little resemblance to its forbearer, it is strong enough to weather the stormy relationship it has with a contentious electorate. As it was in Jefferson's time, the Democratic Party belongs to the people, and only the people can change it anew.