Samuel Tilden Summary of Thomas Jefferson Government

After the organization of the federal government, a powerful class sought to impress upon it in its practical working the features of the British system. Mr. Jefferson was the great leader of the party formed to resist these efforts, and to hold our institutions to the popular character which was understood to belong to them when the Constitution was ratified by the people.


"When Jefferson was elevated to the presidency, he put the ship of state," to use his own expression, "upon 'the Republican tack.' He arrested centralizing tendencies; and reinvigorated local self-government...He restored the rights of the States, and protected and enlarged the domain of the individual judgment and conscience. For eight years he administered the government, and for sixteen years after he administered the same by his pupils who were under his observation and advice. This established a habit which largely shaped the standards for the guidance of the popular judgment, the modes of thinking of statesmen, and the general course of government for sixty years.

" Mr. Jefferson gave to our administrative system an aspect of republican simplicity; he repressed jobbery as well as all perversions of power, and by his precepts, his influence, and his example elevated the standard of public morals. In his personal practice he was not only pure, but, to make his example more effective, he refrained, while administering the greatest of official trusts, from all attempts to increase his private fortune, even by methods open to every private citizen." ...Samuel J Tilden