I am convinced that those societies (as the Indians) which live without government enjoy in their general mass an infinitely greater degree of happiness than those who live under the European governments.
Among the former, public opinion is in the place of law, & restrains morals as powerfully as laws ever did anywhere. Among the latter, under pretence of governing they have divided their nations into two classes, wolves & sheep. I do not exaggerate. This is a true picture of Europe.
Cherish therefore the spirit of our people, and keep alive their attention. Do not be too severe upon their errors, but reclaim them by enlightening them. If once they become inattentive to the public affairs, you & I, & Congress & Assemblies, judges & governors shall all become wolves.
It seems to be the law of our general nature, in spite of individual exceptions; and experience declares that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the governments of Europe, and to the general prey of the rich on the poor.[11]
The predatory nature of “the rich on the poor” was an obsession with Thomas Jefferson. His thoughts, his travels, his political activism, his writings and his behavior all reflected his desire that aristocrats, the rich, not be allowed near the levers of power, even himself. Jefferson saw himself as a corrupt branch of a Feudal European Capitalist Aristocracy, and desired to have it cut off in shame and recycled at his death. His guilt and shame of his own privilege never waned, and his retention of slaves and slave mistresses was, to himself, evidence of his own corruption. He never wanted to be President, and requested that it not be mentioned on his tombstone, replaced with mention of the Virginia Constitution and Religious Liberty as the cornerstone of American Democracy. The Declaration and the Constitution can be seen as Jefferson’s attempt to absolve his own weak behavior as a Feudal Lord, complete with lifelong guilt and shame. His mind could do what his body and his desire could not, and we know Jefferson as a deeply conflicted and complex, flawed person.
And yet, Jefferson knew that there was another cornerstone to American Democracy; Native American Governance traditions. By 1789, Americans had been interacting, trading, treaty writing, negotiating, allying, betraying, warring and marrying Native Americans for nearly 200 years, roughly the same time distance as between us and Thomas Jefferson. The only example Jefferson could point to Outside of European Feudal Capitalism was… the Iroquois Confederacy, whom the American Government had widely respected and allied itself with from the time of the French and Indian Wars.
The traditions of Native American Government, especially the democratic and socialist functions of the Iroquois Confederacy, and its practice, were studied, cribbed, copied and co-opted extensively for the workings of the United States Constitution of 1789 by Jefferson, Madison and Franklin, all rich and rebellious upstarts against the predatory nature of the rich. It was outrageous to the Royal Inherited and Bloodlined Emperors of Europe that such a primitive, pedestrian, vulgarian, stone age system was to be instituted, including the ideals of Democracy, individual freedom of thought and speech. It struck directly at the very foundations of wealth, inherited privilege and directed and selective breeding for power that those Empires represented.
Add the insults of Freedom of Speech, Religion, Association, and implied Privacy, and you have a system, designed by Native Americans, directly attacking the Capitalist Empires which were trying so very hard to extinguish the “primitive tribes.” At that point, the genetically inferior and persistent loser white people who inhabited North America were considered by the Monarchs as just another “primitive tribe” of ill-bred stone age imbeciles worthy of extinction along with the Native Tribes.
So Jefferson takes the Native American Iroquois Confederation, a very small scale form of checks and balances, emphasizing “public opinion” as the major contributor to general welfare and happiness, and builds a structure which includes some elements of Feudal European Capitalism, in the form of an Elected King, and a whole lot of Circles of Influence which modify, strain, sift, process, advise and consent, and in many ways, imitate the Circles of Council Fires of Native American tribal traditions. The goal is the smallest possible government authority, depending instead on the inclusion of all the members of all the Council Fire Circles to allow everyone concerned to have an effect on the decisions of the tribe.
It was a social system more than a political system, and yet it needed a structure and continuity, and the Constitution made the structure within which Empire would not be possible, and social benefit would be spread equally among the people. Socialism, in other words. Democracy as envisioned by the founders was a version of Native American Social Governance which has striking simiiarities to what eventually would be called Socialism. In fact, most early European Socialists of the next century would refer to the American Constitution as a model for Social and Economic Progress if applied to the petty kingdoms of Europe. It took until 1945 for that to happen, but at least we can say we, Jefferson, Madison and their Native American teachers, were far ahead of our time in 1789.
In the next installment, The Growth of Empire, we will discuss how Jefferson’s vision became inverted, explained away, and made to seem “quaint” by modern Americans in search of ever greater power, wealth, ease and comfort.