Finding

assumed that male citizens' civil liberties could be infringed only for serious reasons of state. Again, the specifications of the liberties and definitions of serious reasons were hotly contested. Third, it was assumed that education was im- portant for White men and that the colonial and state gov- ernments each had ultimate authority in this area. Under each of these governments during Jefferson's time, this ed- ucational authority was most often delegated to the parents and local communities.

For Jefferson and his political allies, the most pro- found political fact, however, was the Revolution. The prerevolutionary era was seen as harboring remnants of feudalism. Special rights reserved for the aristocracy, a close connection between church and state, the lack of intellectual freedom, restrictions on the civil and political rights of the common man and woman, and the belief that only the "well born" could benefit from education were among the remnants of feudalism which Jefferson challenged. The Revolution symbol- ized a break from the old world and old regime. It ini- tiated a "noble experiment" in self-government. Much of Jefferson's philosophical, political, and educational thought was directed toward ensuring the success of this experiment.

Ideology of the Jeffersonian Era The preceding sketch of the political economy of Jeffer- son's time provides one of the two major societal con- texts within which early American education must be understood. The second context is the ideology of the era. The men of Jefferson's time were roughly divided into two worldviews, liberal and conservative, although those terms differ markedly from their meanings today. Jefferson and his allies were classical liberals, while his opponents were conservatives. The conservatives were thus named because they wished to hold on to, or con- serve, an older and established set of ideas and values in- herited from European traditions. This conservative ideology bore the remnants of feudalism.

The Breakdown of Feudalism Feudalism was an economic, military, political, and reli- gious system that developed in Europe during the cen- turies after the collapse of the Roman Empire. Although money was not absent, goods and services were generally bartered. A military class developed to provide protection

Liberty and Literacy Chapter 2 29

in exchange for residence on the nobles' land and a por- tion of the peasant class's agricultural production. A reli- gious class also developed that owned land through the church, provided spiritual solace, and exercised consider- able political and economic power. Eventually these classes became somewhat fixed, and stations in life were assigned by heredity. The nobility and clergy were referred to as the "first estate" and the "second estate," respectively, and those who belonged to the land-the peasants-were the "third estate." To resist the feudal order was to resist God's will. This theory was provided and assented to by the learned men of the court, the universities, and the church.

This feudal system slowly disintegrated until its col- lapse in the 16th and 17th centuries. It provided order and stability for a "closed" society. However, it could not easily accommodate new ideas, inventions, or trade. The beginning of the end came with the renaissances of the 12th and 14th centuries. Ideas from the Byzantine and Arab worlds stimulated European thinkers, who began to challenge the basic cosmology of the church. The ideas of men such as Galileo, Copernicus, Kepler, and Newton shook the foundations of feudal religious thought by challenging biblical and church accounts of the natural world with new scientific explanations. These challenges to church truths were grounded in a kind of authority new and different from religious revelation: scientific reason.

In addition to serving two terms as president, Thomas Jefferson was the colonial era's most eloquent spokesperson for education and was the founder of the University of Virginia.

.21

30 Part One Educational Aims in Historical Perspective

Intercourse with the Middle East included goods as well as ideas. Commerce produced the need for money, merchants, banks, craftsmen, and, later, manufacturers. These people tended to congregate in trading centers, which became cities. The people who lived in the cities and made a handsome living from trade became known as the bourgeoisie, from the original term bourg, which was the fortress around which the cities developed.5 They eventually developed into a very wealthy class, but with the same social and political status as the peasants- that is, they were members of the third estate. Addition- ally, the introduction of explosive powder from China paved the way for the invention of firearms and rendered the feudal warrior, with his long training, heavy armor, and prestige, scarcely equal to the peasant soldier with a rifle or a cannon.

When these seeds of the feudal system's destruction were first sown, they went almost unnoticed, except as minor irritants. By the 15th century, however, feudalism was entering its decline, in some ways a victim of its own successful establishment of the nation-state under the authority of a king who ruled by "divine right." As the British and French kings established national control, they required larger standing armies that, along with other governmental functions now required at court, necessi- tated increased taxes. Although the path took somewhat different routes and schedules, eventually England in the 17th century and France in the 18th both experienced rebellions. The American Revolution can be seen as an extension or continuation of the unfinished English rev- olutions of the 17th century. In all cases, it was necessary to justify the action of rebellion against "God's appointed" ruler. By what right could common people challenge the centuries-old authority of the church and the monarch? This justification was part of the development of "liberal- ism." Major contributors to the development ofliberalism were Milton and Locke in England; Voltaire, Montesquieu, Condorcet, and Rousseau in France; and Franklin, Jefferson, and Madison in the United States.

The Classical Roots of Liberal Ideology One inevitably oversimplifies when attempting to sum- marize the major ideas of an ideology, since individuals always subscribe to an ideology in different degrees and with various nuances. Nevertheless, it is helpful for the student of education in Jeffersonian America to have a summary of what has come to be called the "classical" liberalism of that era to distinguish it from the "modern" liberalism that descended from it in the 20th century. In addition, "classical" serves to associate this historical lib- eralism with the classical Athenian ideals on which lib- eral Enlightenment thought was based. One should remember, however, that the following ideas were not re- cited like a catechism, nor were they subjects of an oath of allegiance by classical liberals, who often conflicted with one another in how to apply these ideas in practice. Six ideas that were central or fundamental to classical liberalism will be examined: faith in reason, natural law, republican virtue, progress, nationalism, and freedom. Not only these ideas themselves but the relations among them are central to an understanding of the classical lib- eral worldview.

One shorthand way to think about the fundamen- tal tenets of classical liberal ideology is to consider how the feudal commitment to hierarchy, in which one's worth was determined by one's place in society, was re- placed by a commitment to individualism. Classical liberals embraced the right of individuals to control their economic destinies through capitalism. Rejecting a state religion, liberals argued for the individual's right to freedom of worship and the legal separation of church and state. Denying the "divine right of kings," liberals believed in the right of individuals to govern themselves through representative government, or republicanism. To the revolutionary American, classi- cal liberal ideology took the institutional forms of cap- italism and republicanism. Exhibit 2.1 illustrates these maJor concepts.

Exhibit 2.1 Fundamental Dimensions of Classical Liberalism: A Schematic Representation

From Feudal Ideology

Emergence from Feudalism

To Classical Liberal Ideology

State control of economy State religion Divine right of kings

Capitalism Separation of church and state Republicanism (representative government)

Faith in Reason These individualistic tendencies were justified in part by a fundamental tenet of liberal- ism, the belief in reason. The ruling classes of the feudal system had placed little faith in the human ability to rea- son. Indeed, basic to the religious underpinnings of the "old regime" was the notion that human reason was frail and incapable of guiding human action. Classical liber- als, however, championed human reason as the best and most desirable guide in this world. They increasingly re- jected tradition, custom, and dogmatic faith. Rather than believing that human reason had been mortally in- capacitated by the taint of original sin, they viewed the mind as a "blank slate" upon which sensory perceptions from the environment could write any message. Hu- mankind was capable of monumental intellectual feats, and the development and exercise of reason was the key to the future. This faith in human reason had been in- spired by the startling advances in science during the previous centuries. Galileo, Copernicus, and, above all, Isaac Newton represented what reason could accom- plish. Jefferson said that "reason is the first born daugh- ter of science." Jefferson's use of "daughter" here is ironic because classical liberals placed little faith in the ability of women to reason as men could, and this prejudice was reflected in the relative exclusion of women from politi- cal life and even from formal education above the ele- mentary level.

Natural Law If faith in human reason was the fun- damental tenet of liberalism, its root metaphor was "the universe is a machine." The universe was often com- pared to a clock, at that time the perfect machine, with its many interrelated parts operating in precise harmony. This metaphor, of course, flowed from liberals' belief in natural law. Although Sir Isaac Newton had many dis- tinguished predecessors, the publication of his Mathe- matical Principles of Natural Philosophy in 1687 signaled a revolution in the way the Western world viewed na- ture. No longer would nature be mysterious and gov- erned by divine whims or heavenly intercessions. In England, poet Alexander Pope wrote:6

Nature and Nature's laws Lay hid in night; God said, Let Newton be! And all was light.

Perhaps nature had been created by a divine intelligence, but this God created a perfect machine governed by pre- cise mathematical laws. After creation, this God could re- turn to rest and contemplate his perfectly ordered system.

Liberty and Literacy Chapter 2 31

Equally important, men thought that through the use of reason they could discover these laws and comprehend the universe. Newton had already begun the task. And liberals were not long in discovering the notion that un- derstanding yields control. Similarly, it did not take them long to generalize from the idea of natural law in the physical realm to the belief in natural law in the social arena. With the advent of Newtonian physics, science be- gan to replace theology as the reliable guide to action- and the authority of reason increasingly challenged the authority of the church and monarchy.

Republican Virtue Classical liberals realized that human reason could be used for good or for ill, and they placed great store in another human capacity that was considered essential for the good life and the good soci- ety: virtue was an important part of their view of human nature. Historian John Miller has noted that during the revolutionary era "it was commonly believed that the re- publican form of government could not exist without 'virtue'-which signified, in the vocabulary of the eigh- teenth century Enlightenment, love of country, an aus- tere style ofliving, probity, strict observance of the moral code and willingness to sacrifice private profit for the public good."7 Classical liberals had great faith in the perfectibility of the individual, which was to be accom- plished through virtue as well as reason. Virtue consisted largely in fulfilling one's duties to God and to nature. Meeting one's duties to God were understood as piety,

Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727): "God said, Let Newton be, and all was light."

32 Part One Educational Aims in Historical Perspective

which included worship, reading the Bible, and living a life of moral responsibility. The Protestant Reformation emphasized the duty to obey not the priesthood or an absolute king but the dictates of individual conscience in a right relationship with God.

An important part of this conception of virtue was what is often referred to as the work ethic. Idleness, rather than money, was widely regarded as the root of all evil. Historian Louis B. Wright notes, "In the tradition of American life, few ideas have received grater prominence than the notion of dignity oflabor and the virtue of dili- gent application to one's job, whatever it might be."8 In the colonial and early American periods, respect for the virtue of work derived from the beginnings of the com- mercial class and was strengthened by the scarcity of la- bor and the opportunity for acquiring wealth through hard work. We see this reflected, for example, in Franklin's famous saying "Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise."

While it might seem odd to us today that classical liberals were passionately committed to reason and natural law and at the same time emphasized virtue through piety and faith in God, there was no necessary contradiction in these commitments. Most classical lib- erals in the United States and England were Protestants. Not all Protestants, however, were classical liberals. Many of these liberals were deists, whose religious be- liefs included the idea of God as the "first cause" in the universe but excluded most of the doctrine of Chris- tianiry." Franklin, an ardent naturalist and scientist, spoke for many classical liberals when he said, "There is in all men something like a natural principle, which in- clines them to Devotion, or the Worship of some unseen Power."10 Knowledge of the world through science and of God through worship seemed to be part of the natu- ral scheme of things.

Also regarded as part of that natural scheme was the view that the womanly and manly virtues differed. Men's virtues were to be found largely in the public spheres of commerce and politics, while women's virtues were exer- cised in the home and hearth-the "private sphere." Women were thought virtuous if they did not speak in public gatherings, did not question public authorities on religion or law, and fulfilled the duties of child rearing and caring for the home. The socially valued virtues of women in early America were piety, purity, submissive- ness, and domesticity.11 Given that their responsibilities were limited to the home and hearth, women were edu- cated for the private, not the public, sphere.

Progress The fourth fundamental idea of liberal- ism was belief in progress. Historian Russell Nye writes, "If a majority of eighteenth century Americans agreed on one idea, it was probably the perfectibility of man and the prospect of his future progress." This was a sec- ularization of the Augustinian and Protestant concepts of linear history: instead of a better life after death, lib- eral faith in progress promised improvement here on earth, generation after generation. The early American physician Benjamin Rush wrote that he was "fully per- suaded that it is possible to produce such a change in the moral character of man, as shall raise him to a re- semblance of angels-nay more, to the likeness of God himself."12 Through human reason and virtue, it was believed that both the human individual and the soci- ety could continually progress toward perfectibility. The belief in progress shows how interrelated these ideas were-free intellects developing their reason would continue to discover more about natural law and, with the resulting control over the physical uni- verse and social relations, would constantly improve human life. Liberals assumed that men could discover what ought to be and would change the world accord- ingly. This was not only a justification but sometimes an injunction for revolution.

In feuda1So111'@§)~1f~1.lff&tet7S.9~rulj~1> thought to be the one that followed tradition, while classical liberals believed that society was progressive if it followed hu- man reason, natural law, and the "natural rights" of indi- viduals. When government violated those rights, wrote Jefferson, it was the duty of the people to overthrow it. Revolution, then, was an important classical liberal vehi- cle for progress. Embedded in this idea was a commitment to social meliorism (the amelioration, or improvement, of imperfect social conditions) and humanitarianism. The liberal's method of meliorism was usually through envi- ronmental control and manipulation of institutions. At times such social intervention conflicted with the liberal's ideal of freedom from governmental control. Because of the history of strong and often oppressive government under feudalism, liberals were fearful of a strong govern- ment. Jefferson often expressed his belief that the best government was "that which governed least."

Jefferson's belief in the inevitability of progress with- out a strong central government was partly grounded in a strong faith in the benefits of education. It was through education that individuals would develop their reason and virtue. Education would facilitate the development of all that liberals held important. Enlightenment of the

population was seen as essential for self-government. In a 1786 letter to George Wythe, Jefferson urged the es- tablishment of education in the new republic in these words: "I think by far the most important bill in our whole code is that for the diffusion of knowledge among the people. No other sure foundation can be devised for the preservation of freedom and happiness," and he ad- monished his friend, "Preach, my dear sir, a crusade against ignorance: establish and improve the law for ed- ucating the common people."13 The antithesis of virtue for the liberals was ignorance rather than sin, and the cure for ignorance was education. No one argued this case with more power, clarity, and elegance than Jeffer- son. While Jefferson, as we shall see, differed from many of his contemporaries in his belief that the state had a re- sponsibility to provide schools for educating the children of the common man and woman, even the opponents of state-supported schooling regarded education as essen- tial to a life well lived. Whether the poor could afford it or not, their education was for classical liberals a concern of the state.

Nascent Nationalism A fifth basic belief embedded in classical liberal ideology was the commitment to a nation-state. As European feudalism gave way to repub- lican liberalism, a new spirit of national identity emerged in changing European societies. Similarly, in the colonies, Americans increasingly saw themselves less as "American subjects of the King," in Franklin's words, and more as a people with a national mission. Even be- fore the Revolutionary War, Patrick Henry proclaimed that "the distinctions between Virginians ... and New Englanders are no more. All America is thrown into one mass. I am not a Virginian, but an American."14 The emotions of the Revolution, of course, heightened this nationalist allegiance, and citizens of the new nation be- gan to forge a new identity. Americans saw themselves as blessed with unparalleled natural resources and a histor- ical mission to differentiate themselves from the tradi- tions and influences of the old country.

This emerging classical liberal nationalism was em- bodied in national policies in defense, trade, and the ac- quisition of new land to the south and west, but it was still an infant or nascent nationalism compared to the nationalism of the modern industrial state. Despite Henry's brave sentiments, people felt a strong allegiance to their home states and regions, and nationalism was of- ten suspected as harboring a too ready acceptance of an unnecessarily strong federal government. As late as

Liberty and Literacy Chapter 2 33

1825, John Quincy Adams delivered an inaugural ad- dress that was considered a political disaster because it called for a powerful federal government. The young na- tion had struggled hard to rid itself of an oppressive cen- tral government in the form of the king, and tension still existed between a desire for national government and lo- cal self-determination. Classical liberals maintained an uneasy balance between these two liberal commitments to nationalism and freedom. It was a balance perhaps best captured by the concept of federalism, which seemed to respect the autonomy of individual states while af- firming a new collective identity.

Freedom The classical liberal conception of freedom-- the sixth fundamental belief in the ideology-was prima- rily what a 20th-century British philosopher, Isaiah Berlin, has called "negative freedom," that is, freedom from restraint or interference.15 Four types of freedom were considered the basic rights of White males: intellec- tual, political, civil, and economic. Intellectual freedom was the most fundamental. Liberals argued that the in- tellect must be free from the chains of the state and the tethers of the church if reason was to comprehend and control the physical and social worlds. By the 18th cen- tury, the history of science was replete with examples of church and state thwarting scientific discovery by forc- ing allegiance to dogma. (Galileo's persecution is perhaps the best-known illustration.) Liberals believed that the future required an intellect free from external coercion. Similarly, political history had demonstrated the unac- ceptable consequences of political absolutism. British history, in particular, was interpreted by liberals as demon- strating progress away from unlimited royal authority and toward representative government. In the political realm, freedom meant freedom from the dictates of the monarchy or aristocracy. Liberals believed that the only way to ensure this was self-government, usually through a representative republic.

Closely associated with intellectual and political free- dom was the liberals' advocacy of civic freedom, a notion often embodied in the current term "civil liberties." The distinction between political and civic freedom is at least as old as Aristotle, who distinguished between the free- dom to participate in making the laws (political free- dom) and the freedom to "live as one pleases" (civic freedom). This advocacy was for guarantees against the transgression of the limits of power and authority by even representative government. It was usually mani- fested in demands for guarantees such as the American

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34 Part One Educational Aims in Historical Perspective

COMMON SENSE;

Thomas Paine, like Thomas Jefferson and other classical liberals, believed that when government violates human reason, virtue, and the human rights granted by nature, revolution is justifiable.

Bill of Rights, which protected citizens from govern- ment interference in their right to speak as they saw fit, assemble, bear arms, refuse the quartering of troops in their homes, and so on. The argument for economic freedom was informed by a long history of government control, appropriation, and taxation during the feudal era. The liberals tended to oppose most government ac- tion in the economic sphere. Their slogan, "Laissez- faire," literally "allow to act," was a demand for the protection of private property from government regula- tion. Embedded in this idea of economic freedom was the belief, most clearly articulated by Adam Smith in

The Wealth of Nations, that if left alone, the marketplace would self-regulate for the good of society. Historically, this economic principle oflaissez-faire has provided gov- ernment support for "free" enterprise capitalism with lit- tle accompanying government control. Conversely, it inhibited liberals from developing government policy to aid the poor.

Jefferson as Classical Liberal This brief summary of classical liberal ideology suggests the lens through which Jefferson viewed the world and developed his ideas on education (see Exhibit 2.2). The Declaration of Independence, Jefferson's most famous written work, expressed the core of his ideology: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are cre- ated equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness." The effective es- tablishment oflife, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness were moral ends for Jefferson. Other issues, such as freedom of the press, ownership of property, and the form of government, were means to these ends.

Jefferson's substitution of "the Pursuit of Happi- ness" in the Declaration of Independence for John Locke's term "Property" in his Second Treatise of Gov- ernmentwas deliberate. His attempt to correct Lafayette's draft of "rights" in the early stages of the French Rev- olution provides explicit evidence of this. Lafayette had written that every man was born with rights that included "property and the care of his honor." Jeffer- son objected to both terms. He argued that property, like government, was only a means to human happi- ness, not a natural and unalienable right.16 Further, his objection to excessive concentration of wealth as a cause of poverty and resulting decrease of happiness for the masses indicated his belief that property was only a means to happiness.

Exhibit 2.2 Basic Tenets of Classical Liberalism

Reason Natural Law Virtue

Progress Nascent Nationalism Freedom

Economic Civil Political Intellectual

Thinking Critically about the Issues # 1

Explain how Jefferson's educational proposals were related to both the political economy of postrevolutionary Virginia and classical liberalism.

The conception of happiness that was central to Jefferson's philosophy was drawn in part from a concep- tion of human nature that followed Aristotle (with whose work Jefferson was familiar) in believing that hap- piness was obtainable only if the rational part of one's na- ture governed the appetites and passions. Jefferson employed this Aristotelian model of the division in hu- man nature, for example, in explaining why African Americans and women, whom he understood to be gov- erned more by appetites and passions than by reason, were less capable of self-governance than White men- and thus should submit to the reason of White men if they were to find happiness. In many ways, this concep- tion of happiness governed Jefferson's life.17

Jefferson and Intellectual Freedom Instrumental to the pursuit of happiness, for Jefferson, was intellectual freedom. Tradition, dogma, and coer- cion were antithetical to intellectual freedom. Jefferson considered his successful campaign against the union of church and state as one of his major victories for intel- lectual freedom and therefore an important contribution to human happiness. At the time of the Revolution, most states had an established church, and these churches persisted until after the Civil War. The prohi- bition of established religion in the Bill of Rights was in- terpreted to apply only to the federal government, not to the state governments. As a result, state tax monies con- tinued to be used to support the established church, and in some states nonmembers were barred from the exer- cise of certain civil rights, such as voting and holding public office. Moreover, the established church often had the authority to censor books and condemn indi- viduals for heresy.

Jefferson responded to this condition by designing the famous American "wall of separation" between church and state. In 1779, he wrote the Bill for Estab- lishing Religious Freedom for the Virginia legislature. It was passed in 1786 and became the model for several subsequent state disestablishment laws. The bill con- tended that a man's religious beliefs were his own private

Liberty and Literacy Chapter 2 35

affair and in no way should be infringed on by the state. It severed the connection between church and state. In it, Jefferson asserted the now famous justification for in- tellectual freedom and the determination of truth through the free competition of ideas: that "truth is great and will prevail if left to herself; that she is proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from conflict unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate; errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them."18 His Notes on the State ofVirginia an- grily asserte!i1stJ1445~Wf.b6sHii9~~8.%~~formity: "Mil- lions of innocent men, women and chlld.ren, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch toward uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other halfhyp- ocrites."19 And if uniformity could somehow be achieved, he believed, its results would stifle intellectual activity. Several years later, in 1815, Jefferson wrote to his friend P. H. Wendover: "Difference of opinion leads to inquiry, and inquiry to truth; and that, I am sure, is the ultimate and sincere object of us both."20

The issue that troubled Jefferson's conservative oppo- nents was how to maintain social order. Like Jefferson, they sought a middle ground between the chaos of too little government and the tyranny of too much. Unlike Jefferson, however, their primary concern was anarchy and chaos. Jefferson replied-in theory, although not al- ways in practice-by relying on the free play of the hu- man intellect and open debate. He resoundingly rejected coercion and force. His noted affinity for a free press stemmed from the same faith in a free intellect as the means to truth and human happiness. In a 1787 letter to his friend Edward Carington, he wrote, "Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I would not hesitate for a moment to prefer the latter." He went on with this important qualification: "But I should mean that every man shall receive these papers and be capable of reading them."21 Newspapers, he be- lieved, would be the instructor of the masses and the vehi- cle for debate. His ardor for them cooled considerably during his second administration as president, when partisan newspapers printed volumes of political gossip, half-truths, and outright lies. He even privately encour- aged his political allies in Connecticut to bring suits against enemy papers. 22 He complained, "Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper." He mod- ified his support for a free press, arguing that newspapers

36 Part One Educational Aims in Historical Perspective

should be free to print the "truth."23 On this issue, it should be remembered that a free press was not an end for Jefferson; rather, it was the means to bring informa- tion to citizens so that they could exercise intellectual freedom and come to the truth as part of their pursuit of happiness. Newspapers stood as a symbol for informa- tion: when they printed lies, Jefferson believed, they lost their usefulness.

One is left to wonder, however, why Jefferson thought that truth had lost its strength. Had he lost some of his earlier faith in the common man to follow free argument and debate? What is the justification for debate if only "the truth" is allowed a hearing? Are there special qualifications to be met before one is eligible to engage in an open debate between truth and error?

An 1825 letter Jefferson wrote to his friend and fel- low trustee of the University of Virginia adds sharpness to these questions. The letter was about Jefferson's plans for the upcoming meeting of the trustees. After stating the general principle that trustees should not interfere in the choice of texts by professors, Jefferson argued for an exception in regard to professors of gov- ernment. He claimed that if the trustees were not watchful about what was taught in the subject of gov- ernment, "heresies may be taught, of so interesting a character to our own state and to the United States, as to make it a duty in us to lay down the principles which are to be taught." He went on to assert that this was necessary because the trustees could not be certain of the political persuasion of future professors of govern- ment. Jefferson endorsed a resolution to this effect, which he intended to offer at the trustees' meeting. He then requested, "I wish it kept to ourselves, because I have always found that the less such things are spoken of beforehand, the less obstruction is contrived to be thrown in their way. "24 Here Jefferson is not simply ar- guing to protect the common man from errors con- tained in newspapers; rather, that professors, university students, and his fellow trustees should be insulated from potential error. If one were to argue for selective admission to open debate between truth and error, who would be eligible if not professors, university students, and university trustees? In light of these examples, what are we to make of Jefferson's arguments for intellectual freedom?

Moreover, Jefferson and his contemporary liberals be- lieved that "truth" could be discovered by man through the free exercise of intellect and reason. This was basic to their view of natural law and underpinned by Newtonian

physics. This "truth," Jefferson believed, would be ac- knowledged by all rational men. Like other classical lib- erals, Jefferson believed that truth was not created by human inquiry and therefore subject to revision by fur- ther inquiry but instead was a property of the natural world and therefore absolute and unchanging, waiting to be discovered by human inquiry. Once discovered, it fol- lowed for classical liberals, such truth should be taught- whether it was 2 + 2 = 4 or that republican government was the surest route to social justice and human happiness. Modern science, as we will see in Chapter 5, has become much more tentative about the origins and permanence of truth.

Jefferson, Democracy, and Education A second major concern for Jefferson, then, was the es- tablishment of the kind of government most likely to promote human happiness. Again, the Declaration of Independence can serve to summarize Jefferson's thought: "That to secure these rights [life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness], Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." Eleven years later, in a letter to his clos- est political confidant, James Madison, he stated another of his political axioms: "I am not a friend of the very en- ergetic government. It is always oppressive. "25 It is clear that Jefferson's political ideal would be a representative republic composed of educated, informed, and rational citizens. The government would have limited powers cir- cumscribed by a constitution containing a declaration of rights reserved for the people. Daniel Boorstein has de- scribed Jefferson's aim as "a government too weak to aid the wolves yet strong enough to protect the sheep."26

Jefferson's arguments for a democratic republic as well as for education are based in his moral philosophy and are succinctly stated in a 1787 letter advising his young friend Peter Carr about his education. He noted that "man is destined for society." Therefore, the cre- ator must have endowed us with a "moral sense of con- science" that "is as much a part of man as his leg or arm." Moral sense is innate in all humans, for Jefferson, "in a greater or less degree. It may be strengthened by exercise, as may any particular limb of the body."27 This moral sense that equipped all men to participate in their own governance could be enhanced or debased according to environmental circumstances. Democracy was thus the most moral of governments for Jefferson not only because it protected "inalienable rights" but

also because it provided for the moral development of individuals. (This idea that democracy is to be valued not because freedom is an end in itself but because free- dom through democratic participation allows people to develop their moral and rational capacities to the great- est extent possible we will refer to as the "developmen- tal" view of democracy.)

Innate moral sense or human conscience by itself was not sufficient to justify or sustain a democracy, accord- ing to Jefferson. It required the aid of an educated rea- son. Referring to the situation in the United States in 1820, Jefferson wrote, "I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education."28 Four years later he noted, "The quali- fications for self-government are not innate. They are the result of habit and long training."29 Jefferson re- mained remarkably constant in this belief. In a 1787 let- ter to James Madison, he had written, "above all things I hope the education of the common people will be at- tended to: convinced that on their good senses we may rely with the most security for the preservation of a due degree of liberry.T"

This letter indicated that in addition to an innate moral sense, sufficiently educated, an effective citizen- ship required a particular kind of economic base. Then ambassador to France, Jefferson wrote, "I think our gov- ernments will remain virtuous for many centuries; as long as they are chiefly agricultural; and this will be as long as there shall be vacant lands in any part of Amer- ica. When they get piled upon one another in large cities as in Europe they will become as corrupt as in Eu- rope."31 Agriculture was more to Jefferson than crops and income; it was a way of life that developed inde- pendence, perseverance, industry, self-sufficiency, and strength. These characteristics were essential to Jefferson for the virtue and human happiness. In his Notes on the State of Virginia, he referred to farmers as "the chosen people of God," and the "mobs of the great cities" as cancers sapping the strength of democratic govern- ments. 32 His desire to guarantee an adequate supply of "vacant" land for agriculture led him as president to purchase the vast Louisiana Territory even though this act expanded the power of the federal government-an expansion of power which Jefferson and other classical liberals generally opposed. The end he pursued in this act, however, was the pursuit of happiness, and thus to

Liberty and Literacy Chapter 2 37

Jefferson more important, in principle, than keeping federal power limited.

Government by a "Natural Aristocracy" Even in the "noble experiment" that American liberals considered the beacon for all humankind, Jefferson did not intend for all free men to participate on an entirely equal basis. For 14 years, until both died on Indepen- dence Day in 1826, Jefferson and John Adams, who had been bitter political enemies from the early 1790s, carried on an extended correspondence. One of Jeffer- son's most interesting letters was written in the fall of 1813 and portrays his conception of the proper political aristocracy. He contrasts this "natural aristocracy" with an "artificial" or "pseudo-aristocracy." The natural aris- tocracy that Jefferson believed should govern was based on "virtue and talent," while the artificial aristocracy was based on birth and wealth. The previous, artificial aris- tocracy had been the target of the Revolution. Because humans had been created for society, Jefferson explained to Adams, it naturally followed that God would also pro- vide for "virtue and wisdom'' to manage society. He ar- gued, "that form of government is best, which provides the most effectively for a pure selection of these natural aristoi into the office of government," and the most ef- fective procedure was "to leave to the citizens the free election and separation of the aristoi from the pseudo- aristoi, of the wheat from the chaff."

Jefferson assured Adams that in America, the com- mon man usually "will elect the really good and wise." After lamenting the failure of the French Revolution, Jefferson concluded: "It suffices for us, if the moral and physical condition of our own citizens qualifies them to select the able and good for the direction of their gov- ernment, with a recurrence of elections at such short periods as will enable them to displace an unfaithful ser- vant, before the mischief he mediates may be irremedi- able. "33 Thus, while Jefferson was not so egalitarian as to think that any man might be an adequate legislator, he, more than most in his time, credited the common man with the capacity to choose his betters for the roles of governance. This capacity was based on the innate moral sense possessed by all humans and developed through exercise and enlightenment. The superior wis- dom required to fulfill the responsibilities of the offices of government was also developed through exercise and enlightenment.

38 Part One Educational Aims in Historical Perspective 1574459 2014/08/26 72.240.81.21

Historical Context The Jeffersonian Era

The following events should help you situate the educational developments in this chapter in a broader historical context. Every chapter will have such a timeline. In each chapter, the events are illustrative-you might have chosen differently if you were con- structing a timeline of your own. For any item, you should be able to consider, "What is its educational significance?" Some events are not mentioned in the text narrative and might lead you to further inquiry. Finally, you might find the Online Learning Center useful: www.mhhe.com./tozer6e.

The Breakdown of Feudalism in Europe 1452 Leonardo Da Vinci is born 1605 Shakespeare writes Macbeth and King Lear 1455 Gutenberg prints the first book 1616 Shakespeare and Cervantes, author of Don 1475 Michelangelo is born Quixote, die 1509 Erasmus publishes educational treatise Praise of Folly 1627 Kepler's Rudo/fine Tables and Bacon's New 1516 Castiglione publishes educational treatise The Book Atlantis are published

of the Courtier 1687 Newton writes Principia Mathematica 1534 Martin Luther publishes German translation 1689 The Bill of Rights and The Act of Toleration are

of the Bible declared in England 1543 Copernicus publishes Revolutions of the 1690 John Locke writes An Essay Concerning

Heavenly Bodies Human Understanding

Prerevolutionary Period Jamestown is established by English settlers 1693 in Virginia Harvard College is founded Massachusetts law requires that every town of 50 families or more must hire a teacher to teach

College of William and Mary is founded in Virginia Yale University is founded in Connecticut Freedom of press in American colonies is established Princeton University is founded in New Jersey

1607

1636 1647

reading and writing 1690 The New England Primer, a widely used colonial

textbook, is published

1701 1734-1735

1746

Early National Period in United States 1776 Continental Congress adopts Declaration 1789 Power-driven textile machinery arrives in the

of Independence United States 1779 Jefferson unsuccessfully proposes his Virginia Plan 1789-1797 George Washington serves as first president

for public schools of United States 1783 Noah Webster's American Spelling Book is published 1793 Eli Whitney invents cotton gin 1789 Constitution is ratified by 11 of 13 states 1797-1801 John Adams serves as second president 1791 U.S. Bill of Rights is ratified

1800 First of a series of southern state laws barring Blacks from access to education is passed in South Carolina

1826 On July 4, 50 years after the Declaration, Jefferson and John Adams die

Thinking Analytically about the Timeline What items from the section on the breakdown of feudalism in Europe seem to have influenced events you can identify in the prerevolutionary and early national periods in the United States?

Jefferson's Plan for Popular Education Education was not only crucial in Jefferson's political theory, it was also an important means for the pursuit of happiness, for he understood happiness to include the

pursuit of knowledge. It should not be surprising that education commanded Jefferson's attention throughout his life. His public statements on education began when, in Virginia, he wrote the Bill for the More General Dif- fusion of Knowledge,34 the Bill for Amending the Con- stitution of the College of William and Mary, and Substituting More Certain Revenues for Its Support,35

40 Part One Educational Aims in Historical Perspective

Exhibit 2.3 Objectives for Elementary and University Education in Summary of the 1818 Rockfish Gap Report

Elementary Education Is to Develop in Every Citizen

University Education Is to Develop

Information sufficient to transact business Writing skills Calculation skills Reading skills Improved morals Understanding of duties Knowledge of rights Ability to vote intelligently Ability to judge officeholders' conduct Ability to fulfill social relationships

Political leaders Knowledge leading to political freedom Understanding to improve the economy Reason, morals, virtue, and order Understanding of science and math to promote the general health, security,

and comfort Habits of reflection and correct actions in students that render them

examples of virtue to others and bring happiness to themselves

Source: Data from Roy Honeywell, The Educational Work of Thomas Jefferson (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1931), p. 250.

of other times and other nations; it will qualify them as judges of the actions and designs of men .... Every govern- ment degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves therefore are its only safe de- positories. And to render even them sage, their minds must be improved to a certain degree. This indeed is not all that is necessary, though it be essentially necessary.41

History, then, would provide the masses with lessons to enable them to understand when their elected officials had mischief on their minds.

Each year the overseer of schools would choose from each elementary school "the boy of best genius in the school, of those whose parents are too poor to give them further education, and to send him forward to one of the grammar schools" at public expense. 42 After the first year at the grammar school, the scholarship boys would be examined and the bottom third dismissed. At the end of the second year, the best scholarship student in each grammar school would be chosen to continue and the remainder dismissed. As Jefferson put it in his Notes on the State of Virginia, "By this means twenty of the best geniuses will be raked annually from the rubbish, and instructed, at public expense, so far as the grammar schools go."43

In short, Jefferson had proposed three years of free elementary schooling, which he believed would func- tion as a screen to identify future leaders from among the masses and equip the remainder to function effec- tively in the civic, economic, and private spheres of life. He expected this formal schooling to provide the basis for lifelong self-education among the population. Moreover, he understood that in America of the early

19th century, the school did not stand as the sole edu- cating institution in society. Nevertheless, his goals were ambitious, so much so that the Virginia legisla- ture did not approve the plan either in 1779 or in 1817 (see Exhibit 2.3). One may pause to wonder how Jef- ferson might appraise the present condition of his "no- ble experiment."

Thinking Critically about the Issues #3

Jefferson believed that three years of literacy in- struction in elementary school would be valuable in safeguarding the liberties of the population. Today this seems to be far too little schooling for so impor- tant a task. To what degree do the dimensions of political-economic life in Jefferson's time make his belief in the power of basic literacy plausible?

Grammar Schools The second tier of schools in Jefferson's proposals were called "grammar schools" in his 1779 bill and "district schools or colleges" in his 1817 bill. These schools should not be confused with the present-day American high school, for they were more like the European lyceum. They were to be boarding schools. Approximately 20 were to be established throughout the state at various lo- cations so that no scholar would be required to travel more than one day's journey from home to school. Ex- cept for the 1779 provision for one scholarship student from each elementary school, scholars would be required

to pay tuinon, room, board, and other necessary ex- penses. Of the 20 scholarship boys who finished the grammar schools, half were to be chosen to receive a fur- ther scholarship to complete the university courses at public expense.

The grammar schools were seen as "preparatory to the entrance of students into the university." Because Jeffer- son believed that between the ages of 10 and 15, stu- dents were best suited to learn languages, and because languages were "an instrument for the attainment of sci- ence," languages were the center of grammar school. Greek, Latin, and English grammar, along with ad- vanced arithmetic, geometry, navigation, and geography, were to be the basic subjects in the six-year curriculum. Such a course of study, Jefferson asserted, would either fit the boy for entrance to the university or lay the foun- dation for the "various vocations oflife needing more in- struction than merely menial or praedial labor."44

It seems clear that Jefferson intended that local lead- ers would come from among those educated at the grammar school. Its graduates would provide leadership in business, transportation, surveying, the militia, and local government. He also expected that teachers for the elementary schools would be drawn from those who finished the grammar school curriculum, especially from among the scholarship boys not chosen for uni- versity attendance.

Liberty and Literacy Chapter 2 41

modified free election somewhat in his Rockfish Gap Re- port. After stating that "every student shall be free to attend the schools of his choice, and not other than he chooses," the report added this qualification:

But no diploma shall be given to anyone who has not passed an examination in the Latin language as shall have proved him able to read the highest classics in that language with ease, thorough understanding and just quality; and if he be also proficient in Greek, let that, too, be stated in his diploma. The intention being that the reputation of the University shall not be committed but to those who, to an eminence in some one or more of the sciences taught in it, and a proficiency in these languages which constitute the basis of a good education, and are indespensable to fill up the character of a well-educated man.48

This idea of relatively free election was based on the premise that all students would enter the university with a common basic education acquired in the grammar schools. 49 The University of Virginia was thus conceived as a place of professional and advanced scientific educa- tion rather than simply as a collegiate institution of gen- eral liberal studies, which was the model in American higher education of Jefferson's time.

The original plan for the university called for 10 profes- sorships covering these areas of study: ancient language- Latin, Greek, and Hebrew; modern language-French, Spanish, Italian, German, and Anglo-Saxon; pure math- ematics; physico-rnarhematics, natural philosophy- chemistry and minerology; botany and zoology; medicine

Jefferson's conception of university education is dis- and anatomy; government; law; and ideology-grammar, played in a wide range of private letters and summarized ethics, rhetoric, belles lettres, and fine arts. It also provided in his Report of the Commission Appointed to Fix the space for private tuition in religion, gymnastics, military, Site of the University of Virginia.45 His view of higher manual arts, dancing, music, and drawing. Each student education differed considerably from the fashion of the would specialize in one of the "sciences." Jefferson used the day. He explicitly contrasted his university proposals term "science" to refer to all branches or disciplines of with the popular academies of the early 19th century, knowledge.t'' which he called "petty academies." These he condemned Jefferson was unrestrained in his goals for university in a letter to John Adams: "They commit their pupils to education (see Exhibit 2.3) because he rejected "the dis- the theater of the world, with just taste enough for learn- couraging persuasion that man is fixed, by the law of his ing to be alienated from industrious pursuits, and not nature, at a given point; that his improvement is a enough to do service in the ranks of science."46 chimera, and the hope delusive of rendering ourselves

He also rejected the Harvard model of a prescribed wiser, happier or better than our forefathers were." On course of study. In a letter to George Ticknor, he stated, the contrary, he proclaimed that similar to the pruners' "We shall, on the contrary, allow then the uncontrolled art of grafting, "Education in like manner, engrafts a choice in the lectures they shall choose to attend, and re- new man on the native stock, and improves what in his quire elementary qualifications on and sufficient age. . . . nature was vicious and perverse into qualities of virtue Our institution will proceed on the principle ... ofletting and social worth."?' everyone come and listen to whatever he thinks may imt574459 2PfWli!i1ilk?s1-tjl~<Ml~provide the education for the nat- prove the condition of his mind."47 Nevertheless, Jefferson ural aristoi for Jefferson's society. Its graduates would become

University Education

42 Part One Educational Aims in Historical Perspective

the legislators, governors, and jurists who would provide governmental leadership. They would fill those vocations which would at a later time be called professions. Although he professed great distaste for Plato's Republic and once called it "unintelligible,"52 Jefferson's educational plan remarkably resembled an improved and democratized form of the Athenian's proposals. In reality, Jefferson, like Plato in the Republic, proposed an educational state. The educational :'system'' was relatively simple because the political economy It was to serve was correspondingly uncomplicated. Both Jef- ferson's and Plato's proposed education would yield qualified leaders, order, stability, truth, and happiness. The important difference was that Jefferson's educational state was to be re- publican while Plato's-despite its promising title-was to be autocratic, ruled by a small cadre of philosopher-kings.

Jefferson's republic was to be based on what he called the natural aristocracy. Today we call such an arrange- ment a meritocracy: a social system in which positions of greatest influence and prestige are filled by those who "merit" them by demonstrated talent. He argued that ed- ucation was a prerequisite for leadership. Is his argument convincing? Given that his proposals were defeated, it is worth speculating: Would his proposed educational sys- tem have provided the necessary education for leadership and for the masses? We might also ask whether in subse- quent history the "people" have generally elected the "re- ally good and wise." If not, is this because of a flaw in Jefferson's conception, or have we not fully developed his ideas? Perhaps most important, is the Jeffersonian meri- tocracy equivalent to democracy? If not, is it an adequate substitute for democracy? What kind of educational sys- tem would be necessary for a democracy?

Thinking Critically about the Issues #4

Jefferson claimed that the Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge would help locate the "natu- ral aristocracy" of society: those with the virtue and talent to lead in a republican form of government. To what degree do you think his plan, if passed, would have adequately rewarded virtue and talent?

What were the limitations of the plan in terms of social class, race, and gender?

In your experience, are today's schools successful in locating students with the most "virtue and talent"? Do they successfully locate a natural aristocracy in to- day's society, or do "wealth, birth, or other accidental condition or circumstance," as Jefferson said, play a significant role? Explain.

Self-Education The elementary school, the grammar school, and the uni- versity were the first three tiers of Jefferson's educational structure. They did not, however, outweigh the fourth tier-lifelong self-instruction. Indeed, in important ways, the first three were but preparations for the fourth. Jefferson's passionate commitment to lifelong self-education was expressed in many of his private let- ters, in the construction of his own library, in his enthu- siasm for newspapers, and in the Bill for Establishing a Public Library. In that bill, Jefferson proposed in 1779 that Virginia build a public library in Richmond and pro- vide an annual allotment for the purchase of books, paintings, and statues.53 His commitment to lifelong self- education was grounded in his conviction that the devel- opment of reason, the expansion of intellect, and inquiry into the mysteries of the universe were indeed funda- ~ental to human happiness. In 1817, as he was prepar- mg the Rockfish Gap Report for the Virginia legislature, he expressed in a letter to George Ticknor his fear that the legislature might not understand the "important truths, that knowledge is power, that knowledge is safety, and that knowledge is happiness." Nevertheless, he con- tended that persistence was necessary, for if "we fail in do- ing all the good we wish, we will do at least all we can. This is the law of duty in every society of free agents, where everyone has equal right to judge for himself "54

Most American educational theorists since Jefferson have agreed that a fundamental aim of all education is to prepare the student for lifelong learning. Again, a num- ber of questions present themselves: To what extent has this goal been achieved? What are the factors that mili- tate against its success? Why did Jefferson believe his proposed educational system would facilitate lifelong learning? What kind of lifelong learning would you ex- pect from the graduates of each of Jefferson's three tiers of formal schooling? In each instance, would this learn- ing be sufficient to enable the graduates to engage in Jef- ferson's ideal of the pursuit of happiness?

Educational Method and "Faculty Psychology" Jefferson did not systematically address the question of educational methodology. Nevertheless, from his writ- ings we may infer some of his predilections for how stu- dents should be confronted with educational materials. Jefferson urged the study of Latin and Greek in the gram- mar school because he believed that language acquisition

..

Faculty psychology was based on two metaphors that were useful in planning curriculum (mind as a muscle to be exercised and mind as a vessel to be filled)-and that empha- sized mental "faculties" such as memory and attentiveness.

was "chiefly a work of memory" and that the ages of 10 to 15 were the best time for work requiring mostly mem- orization. 55 Moreover, he proposed the study of these lan- guages because the literature they contained offered superb models of writing. His argument that mathemat- ics "exercises our reason" and "stores the mind with Truths which are useful in the other branches of science" provides another insight into his understanding of peda- gogy. 56 From these and other sources, we may conclude that Jefferson, like most classical liberals, held to what would later be called faculty psychology, which con- tended that the mind was made up of distinct "faculties." For Jefferson, the faculties of the mind included memory, reason, and imagination.57 Like muscles, these faculties had to be exercised for development. Moreover, he con- ceived the mind as an empty vessel to be "filled" with use- ful facts. Faculty psychology held that developed faculties, with minds appropriately exercised and filled, could "transfer" this training and understanding to any situation in life-that is, the student would be able to generalize from school experience to life experience.

Liberty and Literacy Chapter 2 43

Common to those whose educational practice was based on faculty psychology was the preference for rote memorization in the early years, the study of models of excellent writing, the reading of literary classics, devo- tion to Latin and Greek as the basis for an educated man, and liberal doses of hard intellectual work. Jefferson's let- ters to his daughters and young acquaintances are filled with exhortations on diligent study and the develop- ment of habits of industry. This, to his daughter, is but one example: "Of all the cankers of human happiness, none erodes it with so silent, yet baneful a tooth, as in- dolence. "58 The following lament to John Adams in 1814 might well have been written as a response to the American university student of today:

Our post-revolutionary youth are born under happier stars than you and I were. They acquire all learning in their mother's womb and bring it into the world ready-made. The information in books is no longer necessary; and all knowledge which is not innate, is in contempt, or ne- glected at least .... When sobered by experience, I hope our successors will turn their attention to education.59

One can probably safely infer that Jefferson's preferred educational methodologies would differ little from the preferences of those who embraced faculty psychology. Students under his tutelage would have labored hard at memorization, languages, mathematics, and literature. At an appropriate time, after they had mastered the "classical curriculum," they would specialize in a single branch or discipline of knowledge.

Jefferson's Views on Slavery, Native Americans, and Women Though classical liberals differed sharply on many issues- race, education, and voting rights, for example-Jefferson was America's outstanding spokesperson for the liberal- ism of his time and perhaps of all time. His Declaration of Independence proclamations on human rights and human equality were borrowed by Lincoln for the first sentence of the Gettysburg Address and a century later gave moral force to the civil rights and women's equality movements in this country. Freedom, liberty, the rule of reason in human affairs, the unfettered pursuit of truth, the stimulation of scientific investigation, and the cre- ation of political and educational structures for the sup- port of those goals were his life's work. Nevertheless, we have seen that there are reasons to question some of jef- ferson's ideas in these areas. Moreover, a serious study of Jefferson forces one to consider at least three additional

44 Part One Educational Aims in Historical Perspective 1574459 2014/08/26 72.240.81.21

problem areas: his actions and views on slavery, Native Americans, and women.

Slavery There can be little question that Jefferson's entire philosophy required the rejection of slavery. In- deed, Jefferson's first legislative act as a representative in the Virginia colonial assernbly'" was to offer a bill allow- ing the voluntary emancipation of slaves by their own- ers. In 1770, as a lawyer, he undertook the defense of a slave who sued for his freedom.61 Most significantly, in his proposed draft of the Declaration of Independence Jefferson included the following statement about the British monarch:

He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, vi- olating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in persons of a distant people who never offended him, capturing and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to in- cur miserable death in their transportation hither. This pi- ratical warfare, the opprobrium ofINFIDEL powers, is the warfare of the CHRISTIAN king of Great Britain. Deter- mined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought and sold, he has prostituted his negative for sup- pressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or restrain this execrable commerce. 62

Although this section was struck by the full assembly, its inclusion by Jefferson and his emphasis of the word "MEN" are significant when one attempts to compre- hend how slavery fits with Jefferson's social philosophy. It seems to indicate that philosophically Jefferson in- cluded African Americans in the category of "men" and

that they should be covered by all the provisions the De- claration makes for "men."

However, his writings about African Americans pro- vide an ambiguous judgment of the race. At times he seems to see African Americans as inferior, at other times he calls them equal or superior to Whites in some at- tributes, and at still other times he argues that their in- equalities are due to the degradation of slavery and are remediable if they are placed in more favorable circumstances.63 As a representative to the national Con- gress, he unsuccessfully proposed that the Northwest Ordinance prohibit slavery after 1800 in any states or territories created from the Northwest Territory. From that time until his death, however, Jefferson was re- markably quiet in public about his opposition to slavery. In private, Jefferson often condemned slavery. For ex- ample, in August 1825, he wrote in a private correspon- dence, "The abolition of the evil [slavery] is not impossible. It ought never to be despaired of. Every plan should be adapted, every experiment tried, which may do something towards the ultimate object."64

During his two terms as president, however, Jefferson did not actively support the abolition of slavery. Moreover, in none of his major legislative proposals on education did he include the education of slaves. This is most sur- prising, since those weaknesses he attributed to Blacks were weaknesses that Jefferson believed could be im- proved through education. Jefferson's biographer Dumas Malone suggests that he may have remained silent on the slavery question while president because he considered it a state rather than a federal issue.65 This explanation,

however, is unconvincing, especially when one remem- bers Jefferson's willingness to expand federal power to purchase the Louisiana Territory. Such an expansion of power was justified by a higher end, he argued, and gov- ernment was simply a means. Could the pursuit of open land for freehold farmers be more worthy than the elim- ination of human bondage? Was Jefferson practicing what he believed was political realism according to his own axiom: "No more good must be attempted than the nation can bear"?66 If so, did this "realism" require that he continue to own slaves-at times as many as 200?67 Is there a contradiction between "political realism" and moral leadership?

As historian Ronald Takaki points out, although Jef- ferson wrote in 1788 that "nobody [more] wishes to see an abolition of the [African slave] trade [and] of the con- dition of slavery; and certainly nobody will be more will- ing to encounter every sacrifice for that object," he continued to add slaves to his plantation while some 10,000 slaves were being freed by slave owners in Vir- ginia alone in the 1780s.68 Jefferson justified his slave- holding partly on economic grounds-he could not afford to free them until he paid off his debts (which he never succeeded in doing)-and partly on his belief that, unlike Native Americans, African Americans did not have the natural intellectual endowment necessary for self-governance. Jefferson wrote in 1781:

In general, their existence appears to participate more of sensation than reflection .... Comparing chem by their faculties of memory, reason, and imagination, it appears to me chat in memory they are equal to whites: in reason much inferior, as I think one could scarcely be found ca- pable of tracing and comprehending the investigations of Euclid; and chat in imagination they are dull, tasteless, and anomalous.69

Jefferson's beliefs about the racial inferiority of African Americans led him to argue against intermar- riage: Their "amalgamation with the other color pro- duces a degradation to which no lover of his country, no lover of excellence in the human character can inno- cently consent." This is particularly ironic in light of continuing research on Jefferson's apparent sexual rela- tionship with his slave, Sally Hemmings, with whom he is said to have fathered several children. Although DNA evidence supports this conclusion, according to the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, it remains disputed by the Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society. As legal scholar Annette Gordon-Reed writes, the Jefferson-Hemmings controversy mirrors a number of complicated issues in

Liberty and Literacy Chapter 2 45

our national history and in our present-day thinking. Just as our founding fathers were conflicted about slav- ery, so does our society today continue to bear the fruits of those conflicts, which remain unresolved. As long as racism is a part of the fabric of our lives, histo- rians will look to Jefferson, Washington, and other founding fathers to try to understand how we became what we are.70

Native Americans As is often the case with racial and ethnic prejudice, Jefferson's racism regarding African Americans took a different form where Native Americans were concerned. He believed that intermar- riage between White people and Native Americans was acceptable because Native Americans in his view were equal to Whites in natural endowment, although their culture was vastly inferior. He wrote in 1785, "I am safe in affirming that the proofs of genius given by the Indi- ans ofN. America, place them on a level with whites in the same uncultivated state .... I believe the Indian to be in body and mind equal to the white man. I have supposed the black man, in his present state, might not be so."71 The consequence of this view for Jefferson was that Native Americans either had to be "civilized" into White culture or had to be driven west of the Missis- sippi. His economic priorities, as Takaki points out, in- fluenced his views of both races: what the Whites wanted from African Americans was their labor, while what Whites wanted from Native Americans was their land. If the latter agreed to cultivate the land as Whites did, however, they could stay-and Jefferson believed it was the province ofWhites to instruct the Native Amer- icans in acquiring the necessities of European culture while abandoning their own. While U.S. president, he told the Potawatomies:

We shall ... see your people become disposed to culti- vate the earth, to raise herds of the useful animals, and to spin and weave, for their food and clothing. These re- sources are certain: they will never disappoint you: while those of hunting may fail, and expose your women and children to the miseries of hunger and cold. We will with pleasure furnish you with implements for the most neces- sary arts, and with persons who may instruct you how to make and use them. 72

Jefferson's stance toward forcing the Native Americans away from their own culture into the ways of European Americans, as we shall see in Chapter 6, is one that would become formal government policy in the 20th century.

46 Part One Educational Aims in Historical Perspective

Women If Jefferson was regrettably contradictory in his statements about African Americans and inconsistent in his actions toward slavery, his views regarding women were clear and consistent, but still regrettable from our contemporary vantage point. His conception of the fe- male was as a wife, homemaker, bearer of children, and delight to her husband-period. 73 He was reportedly lov- ing toward his wife and caring of his daughters, but he understood women to be the legal appendages to their husbands. When Jefferson stated, "All men are created equal" or made pronouncements regarding the rights and reason of man, his terms were always gender-specific.

In all his proposals for education, females were pro- vided schooling only in the elementary school. The grammar schools and the university were exclusive male preserves. As important as he believed education was for the pursuit of happiness, and although he devoted the greater part of his adult life to thinking about the rela- tionship between free men and education, in 1818, at age 75, Jefferson wrote, "A plan of female education has never been a subject of systematic contemplation with me. It has occupied my attention so far only as the edu- cation of my own daughters occasionally required." The education he provided for them was much as "might en- able them, when they become mothers, to educate their own daughters, and even to direct the course for sons, should their fathers be lost, or incapable, or inatten- tive. "74 For Jefferson, the education of women should enable them to participate in such "amusements of life" as dancing, drawing, and music and to assume their role in the "household economy."75 It seems that Jefferson re- flected too much the sentiments of George Saville, Mar- quis of Halifax, whose Advice to a Daughter saw 15 editions between 1688 and 1765, and too little those of Abigail Adams and Mary Wollstonecraft, both staunch defenders of women's rights during Jefferson's time. Like most other classical liberals, and just as the Greeks had done in Aristotle's time, Jefferson uncritically accepted the placement of women into the private or domestic sphere of the household and perceived no need to edu- cate women for public participation in a democratic so- ciety in which citizenship was a male privilege.

Are the issues of slavery, domination of Native Amer- icans, and women's rights anomalies in Jefferson's phi- losophy flaws in his character, or do they represent a deeper flaw in liberalism? The posing of such questions imposes historical hindsight on both Jefferson and clas- sical liberalism. Jefferson's thoughts and actions in these issues were indeed an advance over his conservative op- ponents. Is that sufficient for one who is thought to be

committed to democracy? Privileged White males, that is, Jefferson's natural aristocracy, have always been a tiny minority in American history. Did classical liberalism adequately provide for women, African Americans, Na- tive Americans, or non privileged White males-in other words, the non-aristoi? What becomes of Jefferson's democratic ideas if the large majority of the population is excluded from his most important goal, the pursuit of happiness? Are there possible corrections that could res- cue Jefferson's philosophy? If not, what are our assess- ments of Jeffersonian democracy and of classical liberal ideology more generally?

BUILDING A PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION

Chapter 2 makes clear how schools and other edu- cational arrangements of the early American period reflected the ideology and political economy of that time, using Virginia, Jefferson's home state, as an illustration. Dependence on the agrarian family to provide education to children, together with a clas- sical liberal resistance to government becoming too involved in people's lives, helps explain why the Virginia legislature did not support Jefferson's proposals for public schools. At the same time, we can understand why Jefferson made those propos- als, believing as he did that a republican form of government needed a minimal education of all cit- izens and would therefore have to provide that ed- ucation. It's also clear, given classical liberal ideology and given who was allowed to participate in self-government, why Jefferson and most others did not see a need for the education of girls, African Americans, or Native Americans.

By examining Jefferson's educational thinking, we see a philosophy of education in action in historical context. Not only did he articulate the social goals of education for a republican democracy, for social progress, and for an educated "natural aristocracy" to lead the society, but he wanted to educate for in- dividual goals as well (reflecting his notions of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" for each citi- zen). He believed that human beings (and he was conflicted about who counted as fully human) had the capacity for reason and right action, to understand

the laws of nature, and to think for themselves in a free marketplace of ideas that did not allow the gov- ernment to try to influence people's religious be- liefs. He even had what might be called a philosophy of school governance: that local communities should make important decisions about their schools, partly because making such decisions would help educate the local community through their participation in school governance.

All of these elements of Jefferson's goals for school- ing reflect the dominant belief system of classical lib- eralism. It was that ideology that helped him justify his goals for schooling. It was also that ideology that was used to justify his agrarian neighbors' resist- ance: their belief in economic freedom and laissez- faire government helped support the view that they should not be taxed for the education of other peo- ple's children-education was a family responsibility.

As you continue to develop your own philosophy of education, it is helpful to reflect on how many of these kinds of issues are alive today. Debates per- sist about whether the government should funded- ucation in religious schools, for example, or how local communities should participate in governing its schools. And arguments continue about whether it is democratic to have, within the same state school system, districts that fund schools at very high levels (say, $15,000 per year per child] while other districts in the same state fund schools at a third of that level. Are the interests of democracy well served in such a system? How intrusive should government be in making funding more equal?

Liberty and Literacy Chapter 2 47

Also, as you develop your philosophy of education, it is useful to ask whether you are keeping all of your students, with all of their differences, in mind as you set your educational goals and decide on your ap- proach to reaching those goals. Just as Jefferson scarcely considered African Americans, Native Amer- icans, and females in his plans for a public school system, each teacher has to be careful about omitting important parts of the student body. Will your educa- tional philosophy respond equally well to rich and poor, to students of all ethnic backgrounds and dif- ferent sexual orientations, and to students with phys- ical or cognitive or emotional disabilities? What in your philosophy of education explicitly includes those groups in your educational goals and methods, and how do you justify that? How high are the goals you set for these children? How can you say that in a way that will guide your action as an educator?

Finally, it is noteworthy that Jefferson intention- ally had very little to say about the vocational goals of education. He wanted to develop stu- dents' human capacities for rationality, critical thinking, right action, and happiness. He also had social-political goals, for a republican democracy. Today, it might make sense to think about your ed- ucational goals as helping prepare people for three major dimensions of life: as individual per- sons, as citizens in a democracy, and as partici- pants in economic life who must earn a living. Getting explicit about how your teaching will serve all of those goals is a step toward a more practical philosophy of education.

This selection was written with regard to the educa- tion of youth in Rush's home state of Pennsylvania. Like Jefferson, he was eager to prepare citizens for a demo- cratic, republican form of government, and like Jefferson, he looked toward the particular needs and character of his home state as well as the nation. Unlike Jefferson, however, Rush emphasized the religious character of ed- ucation in his time. While Jefferson took pride in his bill for Religious Freedom, which said that every individual should be free to worship or not worship as "he"

Source: Reprinted by permission of the publisher from "Plan for the Establishment pleased, Rush felt that the fate of the republic rested in of Public Schools~ by Benjamin.Rush, pp. 10-18, infisays on Education in the15~4459pi&H~~'M~~if-ftj:!\,l?li~u~1Jringing. Believing that "a Christian Earry Rep11bl1c, edited by Frederick Rudolph, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univer- sity Press, Copyright 1965 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. cannot fail of being a republican," Rush wanted schools

Primary Source Reading The first Primary Source Reading was penned by a promi- nent classical liberal, the physician Benjamin Rush, who was one of Jefferson's revolutionary compatriots. Both Jef- ferson and Rush were signers of the Declaration of Inde- pendence, and both were influential with their countrymen. Each valued education highly and considered schooling to be an important building block for a free society.

48 Part One Educational Aims in Historical Perspective

to instill both Christianity and patriotism in young people, for he felt that the virtues of each were identical with the other. Like Jefferson, he appeared to believe that the state has no role in enforcing religious belief, yet it is clear that his proposed school system would have provided support for one religion and not others.

Other similarities and contrasts between Jefferson's and Rush's positions are also worth noting, and this you can do. Rush's classical liberal regard for private property, education, individual merit and virtue, scientific reason- ing, and nationalism all come through clearly in his argu- ment, and these provide various bases for comparison. We present this selection by Rush because it under- scores certain basic tenets of classical liberal ideology while simultaneously illustrating distinct points of depar- ture within classical liberal thought on education and so- ciety. Every dimension of classical liberalism identified in this chapter can be found illustrated in Rush's arguments.

Both Jefferson and Rush attend to the role of the citi- zen, but Rush attends particularly to religious sources of individual virtue. He, like many classical liberal thinkers, could not think about the process of becoming more fully human-a primary function of education-without includ- ing religious development as part of that process. We will see that in subsequent generations such an assumption becomes increasingly problematic for educational leaders.

The second Primary Source Reading, an exchange be- tween Thomas Jefferson and author/scientist/mathemati- cian Benjamin Banneker, reveals much about its era and its protagonists. Banneker, a decendent of slaves, English servants, and freedmen, was dark skinned and referred to as an "Ethiopian" in one newspaper account of the time. Like Secretary of State Jefferson, he was highly accom- plished in many different fields. In sending Jefferson the first edition of an Almanac he had authored in 1791, Ban- neker writes that he can't help but comment on the con- dition of slavery and Jefferson's own public position on that institution. His language is respectful, precise, and challenging to Jefferson. Jefferson responds to Banneker within two weeks, but in doing so seems not to want to address Banneker's central concerns. The language is po- lite but evasive. Positioned at the end of a chapter on lib- erty and literacy, it raises a number of issues that bear discussing in class. One of them is how each man treats issues of race, slavery, and liberty. Another is, how many students and teachers today can write at Banneker's level of precision and literary quality? Why is that?

Years later, Jefferson wrote to his friend Joel Barlow that he doubted that Banneker had done all the Almanac calculations himself, citing the long 1791 letter as evi- dence of average talents. Such is the power, one might

say, of ideology to shape our perceptions of the world. Each man went on to great achievement after this ex- change, and slavery continued to flourish after both had passed away.

Thoughts Upon the Mode of Education Proper in a Republic Benjamin Rush

I conceive the education of our youth in this country to be peculiarly necessary in Pennsylvania, while our citizens are composed of the natives of so many different kingdoms in Europe. Our schools oflearning, by producing one general and uniform system of education, will render the mass of the people more homogeneous, and thereby fit them more easily for uniform and peaceable government.

I proceed in the next place, to enquire, what mode of education we shall adopt so as to secure to the state all the advantages that are to be derived from the proper instruction of youths, and here I beg leave to re- mark, that the only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid in Religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all re- publican governments.

Such is my veneration for every religion that reveals the attributes of the Deity, or a future state of rewards and punishments, that I had rather see the opinions of Confucius or Mahomed inculcated upon our youth, than see them grow up wholly devoid of a system of re- ligious principles. But the religion I mean to recommend in this place, is that of the New Testament.

It is foreign to my purpose to hint at the arguments which establish the truth of the Christian revelation. My only business is to declare, that all its doctrines and pre- cepts are calculated to promote the happiness of society, and the safety and well being of civil government. A Christian cannot fail of being a republican. The history of the creation of man, and of the relation of our species to each other by birth, which is recorded in the Old Tes- tament, is the best refutation that can be given to the di- vine right of kings, and the strongest argument that can be used in favor of the original and natural equality of all mankind. A Christian, I say again, cannot fail of being a republican, for every precept of the Gospel inculcates those degrees of humility, self-denial, and brotherly kindness, which are directly opposed to the pride of monarchy and the pageantry of a court. A Christian

Benjamin Rush

cannot fail of being useful to the republic, for his religion teacheth him, that no man "liveth to himself." And lastly, a Christian cannot fail of being wholly inoffensive, for his religion teacheth him, in all things to do to oth- ers what he would wish, in like circumstances, they should do to him.

I am aware that I dissent from one of those paradoxical opinions with which modern times abound; and that it is improper to fill the minds of youth with religious preju- dices of any kind, and that they should be left to choose their own principles, afrer they have arrived at an age in which they are capable of judging for themselves. Could we preserve the mind in childhood and youth a perfect blank, this plan of education would have more to recom- mend it; but this we know to be impossible. The human mind runs as naturally into principles as it does after facts. It submits with difficulty to those restraints or partial dis- coveries which are imposed upon it in the infancy of rea- son. Hence the impatience of children to be informed upon all subjects that relate to the invisible world. But I beg leave to ask, why should we pursue a different plan of ed- ucation with respect to religion, from that which we pur- sue in teaching the arts and sciences? Do we leave our youth to acquire systems of geography, philosophy, or pol- itics, till they have arrived at an age in which they are ca- pable of judging for themselves? We do not. I claim no more then for religion, than for the other sciences, and I add further, that if our youth are disposed afrer they are of age to think for themselves, a knowledge of one system, will be the best means of conducting them in a free enquiry into other systems of religion, just as an acquaintance with

Liberty and Literacy Chapter 2 49

one system of philosophy is the best introduction to the study of all the other systems in the world ....

Next to the duty which young men owe to their Cre- ator, I wish to see a SUPREME REGARD TO THEIR COUNTRY, inculcated upon them. When the Duke of Sully became prime minister to Henry the IVth of France, the first thing he did, he tells us, "was to subdue and forget his own heart." The same duty is incumbent upon every citizen of a republic. Our country includes family, friends and property, and should be preferred to them all. Let our pupil be taught that he does not belong to himself, but that he is public property. Let him be taught to love his family, but let him be taught, at the same time, that he must forsake, and even forget them, when the welfare of his country requires it.

He must watch for the state, as if its liberties de- pended upon his vigilance alone, but he must do this in such a manner so not to defraud his creditors, or neglect his family. He must love private life, but he must decline no station, however public or responsible it may be, when called to it by the sufferages of his fellow citizens. He must love popularity, but he must despise it when set in competition with the dictates of his judgment, or the real interest of his counrry. He must love character, and have a due sense of injuries, but he must be taught to ap- peal only to the laws of the state, to defend the one, and punish the other. He must love family honor, but he must be taught that neither the rank nor antiquity of his ancestors, can command respect, without personal merit. He must avoid neutrality in all questions that di- vide the state, but he must shun the rage, and acrimony of party spirit. He must be taught to love his fellow crea- tures in every part of the world, but he must cherish with a more intense and peculiar affection, the citizens of Pennsylvania and of the United States.

I do not wish to see our youth educated with a single prejudice against any nation or country; but we impose a task upon human nature, repugnant alike to reason, revelation and the ordinary dimensions of the human heart, when we require him to embrace, with equal af- fection, the whole family of mankind. He must be taught to amass wealth, but it must be only to increase his power of contribution to the wants and demands of the state. He must be indulged occasionally in amuse- ment, but he must be taught that study and business should be his principal pursuits in life. Above all he must love life, and endeavor to acquire as many of its conven- iences as possible by industry and economy, but he must be taught that this life "is not his own," when the safety of his country require it. These are practicable lessons,

Thinking Critically about the Issues #6

Was Rush's aspiration to "convert men to republican machines" contradictory to classical liberal ideals of intellectual freedom? Further, was Rush's aim differ- ent from Jefferson's in this regard? Explain your posi- tions on both questions.

Primary Source Reading

Exchange between Benjamin Banneker and Thomas Jefferson SIR,

I AM fully sensible of the greatness of that freedom, which I take with you on the present occasion; a liberty which seemed to me scarcely allowable, when I reflected on that distinguished and dignified station in which you stand, and the almost general prejudice and preposses- sion, which is so prevalent in the world against those of my complexion.

I suppose it is a truth too well attested to you, to need a proof here, that we are a race of beings, who have long labored under the abuse and censure of the world; that we have long been looked upon with an eye of contempt; and that we have long been considered rather as brutish than human, and scarcely capable of mental endowments.

Sir, I hope I may safely admit, in consequence of that report which hath reached me, that you are a man far less inflexible in sentiments of this nature, than many others; that you are measurably friendly, and well disposed to- wards us; and that you are willing and ready to lend your aid and assistance to our relief, from those many dis- tresses, and numerous calamities, to which we are re- duced. Now Sir, if this is founded in truth, I apprehend you will embrace every opportunity, to eradicate that train of absurd and false ideas and opinions, which so generally prevails with respect to us; and that your senti- ments are concurrent with mine, which are, that one universal Father hath given being to us all; and that he hath not only made us all of one flesh, but that he hath also, without partiality, afforded us all the same sensa- tions and endowed us all with the same faculties; and that however variable we may be in society or religion, however diversified in situation or color, we are all of the same family, and stand in the same relation to him.

Sir, if these are sentiments of which you are fully per- suaded, I hope you cannot but acknowledge, that it is the

Liberty and Literacy Chapter 2 51

indispensible duty of those, who maintain for themselves the rights of human nature, and who possess the obliga- tions of Christianity, to extend their power and influence to the relief of every part of the human race, from what- ever burden or oppression they may unjustly labor under; and this, I apprehend, a full conviction of the truth and obligation of these principles should lead all to. Sir, I have long been convinced, that if your love for yourselves, and for those inestimable laws, which preserved to you the rights of human nature, was founded on sincerity, you could not but be solicitous, that every individual, of whatever rank or distinction, might with you equally en- joy the blessings thereof; neither could you rest satisfied short of the most active effusion of your exertions, in or- der to their promotion from any state of degradation, to which the unjustifiable cruelty and barbarism of men may have reduced them.

Sir, I freely and cheerfully acknowledge, that I am of the African race, and in that color which is natural to them of the deepest dye; and it is under a sense of the most profound gratitude to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe, that I now confess to you, that I am not under that state of tyrannical thraldom, and inhuman captiv- ity, to which too many of my brethren are doomed, but that I have abundantly tasted of the fruition of those blessings, which proceed from that free and unequalled liberty with which you are favored; and which, I hope, you will willingly allow you have mercifully received, from the immediate hand of that Being, from whom proceedeth every good and perfect Gift.

Sir, suffer me to recal to your mind that time, in which the arms and tyranny of the British crown were exerted, with every powerful effort, in order to reduce you to a state of servitude: look back, I entreat you, on the variety of dan- gers to which you were exposed; reflect on that time, in which every human aid appeared unavailable, and in which even hope and fortitude wore the aspect of inability to the conflict, and you cannot but be led to a serious and grateful sense of your miraculous and providential preser- vation; you cannot but acknowledge, that the present free- dom and tranquility which you enjoy you have mercifully received, and that it is the peculiar blessing of Heaven.

This, Sir, was a time when you deary saw into the in- justice of a state of slavery, and in which you had just ap- prehensions of the horrors of its condition. It was now that your abhorrence thereof was so excited, that you pub- licly held forth this true and invaluable doctrine, which is worthy to be recorded and remembered in all succeeding ages: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator

52 Part One Educational Aims in Historical Perspective

with certain unalienable rights, and that among these are, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Here was a time, in which your tender feelings for yourselves had en- gaged you thus to declare, you were then impressed with proper ideas of the great violation of liberty, and the free possession of those blessings, to which you were entitled by nature; but, Sir, how pitiable is it to reflect, that al- though you were so fully convinced of the benevolence of the Father of Mankind, and of his equal and impartial dis- tribution of these rights and privileges, which he hath conferred upon them, that you should at the same time counteract his mercies, in detaining by fraud and violence so numerous a part of my brethren, under groaning cap- tivity and cruel oppression, that you should at the same time be found guilty of that most criminal act, which you professedly detested in others, with respect to yourselves.

I suppose that your knowledge of the situation of my brethren, is too extensive to need a recital here; neither shall I presume to prescribe methods by which they may be relieved, otherwise than by recommending to you and all others, to wean yourselves from those narrow preju- dices which you have imbibed with respect to them, and as Job proposed to his friends, "put your soul in their souls' stead;" thus shall your hearts be enlarged with kindness and benevolence towards them; and thus shall you need neither the direction of myself or others, in what manner to proceed herein. And now, Sir, although my sympathy and affection for my brethren hath caused my enlargement thus far, I ardently hope, that your can- dor and generosity will plead with you in my behalf, when I make known to you, that it was not originally my design; but having taken up my pen in order to direct to you, as a present, a copy of an Almanac, which I have cal- culated for the succeeding year, I was unexpectedly and unavoidably led thereto.

This calculation is the production of my arduous study, in this my advanced stage of life; for having long had unbounded desires to become acquainted with the secrets of nature, I have had to gratify my curiosity herein, through my own assiduous application to Astro- nomical Study, in which I need not recount to you the many difficulties and disadvantages, which I have had to encounter.

And although I had almost declined to make my cal- culation for the ensuing year, in consequence of that time which I had allotted therefor, being taken up at the Federal Territory, by the request of Mr. Andrew Ellicott, yet finding myself under several engagements to Printers of this state, to whom I had communicated my design, on my return to my place of residence, I industriously

applied myself thereto, which I hope I have accom- plished with correctness and accuracy; a copy of which I have taken the liberty to direct to you, and which I humbly request you will favorably receive; and although you may have the opportunity of perusing it after its publication, yet I choose to send it to you in manuscript previous thereto, that thereby you might not only have an earlier inspection, but that you might also view it in my own hand writing.

And now, Sir, I shall conclude, and subscribe myself, with the most profound respect,

Your most obedient humble servant,

BENJAMIN BANNEKER.

TO MR. BENJAMIN BANNEKER. Philadelphia, August 30, 1791.

SIR, I THANK you, sincerely, for your letter of the 19th

instant, and for the Almanac it contained. No body wishes more than I do, to see such proofs as you exhibit, that nature has given to our black brethren talents equal to those of the other colors of men; and that the appear- ance of the want of them, is owing merely to the de- graded condition of their existence, both in Africa and America. I can add with truth, that no body wishes more ardently to see a good system commenced, for raising the condition, both of their body and mind, to what it ought to be, as far as the imbecility of their present existence, and other circumstances, which cannot be neglected, will admit.

I have taken the liberty of sending your Almanac to Monsieur de Condozett, Secretary of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, and Member of the Philanthropic So- ciety, because I considered it as a document, to which your whole color had a right for their justification, against the doubts which have been entertained of them.

I am with great esteem, Sir, Your most obedient Hum- ble Servant,

THOMAS JEFFERSON

Thinking Critically about the Issues #7

What do you think are the specific messages that Ban- neker is trying to send Jefferson, beyond pointing out the inhumanity of slavery? What are the main mes- sages Banneker likely received from Jefferson's reply? Support your interpretations with evidence from the letters.

Developing Your Professional Vocabulary A good understanding of this chapter's content would include an understanding of why each of these terms is important to education.

Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge

bourgeoisie

capitalism

civic freedom

classical liberal

conservative

democratic localism

"divine right" of the nobility

elementary schools

faculty psychology

faith in human reason

feudalism

freedom and "negative" freedom

grammar schools

happiness

intellectual freedom

nationalism

natural aristocracy/ meritocracy

natural law

patriarchy

political freedom

progress

religious revelation

republicanism

Rockfish Gap Report

scientific reason

social meliorism

virtue

Questions for Discussion and Examination 1. This chapter raises the following possibility:

Jefferson's attitudes toward women, Native Americans, and African Americans tell us not just about his personal prejudices but also about the liberal ideology of his time. Which dimensions of classical liberalism seem to have justified to classical

Liberty and Literacy Chapter 2 53

liberals the subordination of women, African Americans, and Native Americans?

2. Discuss the meritocratic aspects ofJefferson's educa- tional proposals. In your essay, analyze which groups may have been disadvantaged by the proposal.

3. Until 1999, when scientists discovered Jefferson's DNA in African American citizens who had long claimed Jeffersonian ancestry, historians resisted that claim. Despite centuries-old evidence that Jefferson fathered children by the slave Sally Hemmings, nearly all prominent Jefferson histo- rians had rejected that evidence before the DNA findings. To what degree does the concept of ideology help explain this recent change in histo- rians' interpretation? Explain.

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