Elizabeth Edwards, wife of John Kerry’s vice-presidential candidate John Edwards, recently posted on the Democratic Underground‘s forums an excerpt from a letter written by Thomas Jefferson in June of 1798 to John Taylor of Philadelphia. Jenny forwarded a copy of Elizabeth’s post to me with a simple introduction: "I thought you might take heart from this, I did." I read the paragraph from Jefferson’s letter and, knowing I had read it before and was familiar with what the entire letter said, decided to pull more of it and post it here. I believe it is very applicable given the recent election.
The content of the letter is no more important than the story behind it, however, especially when considered respective to the recent election.
It is difficult to understand how Bush won a second term until one considers the gay marriage and abortion issues. It is was with no small level of brilliance that the gay marriage debate was brought to the foreground of the campaign and found its way into consideration as constitutional amendments in 11 states. "Moral values" were cited as the most important issue this election by those voting for Bush. Since those voting for Bush happened to be the majority this time (by popular vote and the Electoral College), "moral values" was the most important issue driving the vote in the Republicans’ (and therefore Bush’s) favor.
What are these values? I’m glad you asked.
"Moral values" is a catch-all for abortion, homosexuality, popular culture, and a litany of items which are surreptitiously injected into the collective consciousness of America by Christianity. The church is able to exercise its newfound power through Bush, reaching to the highest levels of government, and therefore can polarize the people more easily.
We are, given the results of the last three elections, a theocratic plutocracy — a nation governed by the extremely religious wealthy class of our society. Sadly it appears that the majority of Americans (well, at least those who voted) ardently support this kind of rule, the kind of government that practices overt imperialism, assaults and subverts the Constitution at every opportunity, violates international law (why not if you’re already violating your own country’s law?), and pays large handouts to big corporations and those members of our society who do not need financial aid at the moment (unlike the rest of us).
But let’s understand the epitome of these "moral values," shall we? I, of course, am by no means suggesting that John Kerry or the Democratic party are without sin and to be respected as perfect examples of moral superiority, but Bush was an admitted coke-head (not that I find anything objectionable in this) and alcoholic who, as governor of Texas, signed execution orders for drug-dealers. Perhaps I was raised on a different planet and don’t understand where Bush is coming from, but that has always been considered a double standard, and double standards have always been bad.
Yet this constitutes "moral values" to the ruling class and the not-so-ruling majority of lower classes that voted for Bush. Yes, the same Bush who prosecuted a war under manifestly false pretenses and admitted to doing so. Perhaps it was his candor that many felt to be morally uplifting…
So this is the set of "moral values" to which we Americans are all now subject for another four years.
When the results were finally in and those of us who voted for Kerry knew we had not overcome, I saw many of my peers fall into depression, speak of leaving the country, wading through life as if it were made from molasses, and, overall, being tediously depressing. The realization of how bad the situation was did not warrant this, I thought, and I promptly pointed it out on several occasions (I believe the phrase "spoiled children" was uttered much).
Our democracy has survived for more than 200 years and will survive another four with Bush at the helm, albeit with fewer freedoms and more fear, uncertainty and doubt. Like-minded voters have been on the losing side throughout our country’s history. It is not possible for our nation to have survived this long if those who did not win always chose to leave the country after the results were in.
Rest assured that there is hope, but it will be necessary to break a sweat, roll up your sleeves, and do a little work (oh, I know how you hate that word, but the choices are you either learn to live with it or learn to live with defeat). All is not lost; it is not the end of the world regardless of how much you think that’s true.
We will survive. The country will survive (hopefully).
All of this brings me back to the letter and the story behind it.
Although you can read the entire letter here, the excerpt below is the most important part (the first half of the letter is about a patent application and some last minute shuffling of the patent specifics). Still, feel free to indulge your dreary sense of curiosity if you need something to help you get to sleep this evening (there are some specific states called out in the letter, but remember that those names add nothing to this context since the political landscapes of the country and the political parties have both changed dramatically in the more than 200 years that have passed since this was written).
Sitting on the losing side of a political battle not too dissimilar to that of recent elections, Jefferson wrote the following in his letter to John Taylor (yes, it was one long paragraph).
…they ride us very hard, cruelly insulting our feelings as well as exhausting our strength and substance. Their natural friends, the three other eastern States, join them from a sort of family pride, and they have the art to divide certain other parts of the Union so as to make use of them to govern the whole. This is not new. It is the old practice of despots to use a part of the people to keep the rest in order, and those who have once got an ascendency [sic] and possessed themselves of all the resources of the nation, their revenues and offices, have immense means for retaining their advantages. But our present situation is not a natural one. The body of our countrymen is substantially republican through every part of the Union. It was the irresistable [sic] influence & popularity of Gen’l Washington, played off by the cunning of Hamilton, which turned the government over to anti-republican hands, or turned the republican members, chosen by the people, into anti-republicans. He delivered it over to his successor in this state, and very untoward events, since improved with great artifice, have produced on the public mind the impression we see; but still, I repeat it, this is not the natural state. Time alone would bring round an order of things more correspondent to the sentiments of our constituents; but are there not events impending which will do it within a few months? The invasion of England, the public and authentic avowal of sentiments hostile to the leading principles of our Constitution, the prospect of a war in which we shall stand alone, land tax, stampt-tax, increase of public debt, &c (etc.). Be this as it may, in every free & deliberating society there must, from the nature of man, be opposite parties & violent dissensions & discords; and one of these, for the most part, must prevail over the other for a longer or shorter time. Perhaps this party division is necessary to induce each to watch & delate [sic] to the people the proceedings of the other. But if on a temporary superiority of the one party, the other is to resort to a scission of the Union, no federal government can ever exist. If to rid ourselves of the present rule of… (the Federalists) …we break the Union, will the evil stop there? Suppose the N. England States alone cut off, will our natures be changed? are we not men still to the south of that, & with all the passions of men? Immediately we shall see a Pennsylvania & a Virginia party arise in the residuary confederacy ,and the public mind will be distracted with the same party spirit. What a game, too, will the one party have in their hands by eternally threatening the other that unless they do so & so, they will join their Northern neighbors. If we reduce our Union to… (Republican states), immediately the conflict will be established between the representatives of these two States, and they will end by breaking into their simple units. Seeing, therefore, that an association of men who will not quarrel with one another is a thing which never yet existed, from the greatest confederacy of nations down to a town meeting or a vestry, seeing that we must have somebody to quarrel with, I had rather keep our New England associates for that purpose than to see our bickerings transferred to others. They are circumscribed within such narrow limits, & their population so full, that their numbers will ever be the minority, and they are marked… with such a peculiarity of character as to constitute from that circumstance the natural division of our parties. A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to it’s true principles. It is true that in the mean time we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war & long oppressions of enormous public debt. But who can say what would be the evils of a scission, and when & where they would end? Better keep together as we are, hawl off from Europe as soon as we can, & from all attachments to any portions of it. And if we feel their power just sufficiently to hoop us together, it will be the happiest situation in which we can exist. If the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have patience till luck turns, & then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are the stake. Better luck, therefore, to us all…
Jefferson wrote this letter shortly after the passage of the Sedition Act of 1798, one of four laws passed that year collectively called The Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798. America’s Congress, under the threat of war with France, felt these laws would strengthen the Federalist government. The Federalist party was in control of the government at that time and felt the laws might also quell political opposition from the Republicans, led by Thomas Jefferson.
The Sedition Act, passed on July 14 of 1798, declared that any treasonable activity, painting with a broad stroke on the definition by including the publication of "any false, scandalous and malicious writing," was a high misdemeanor, punishable by fine and imprisonment. By virtue of this legislation twenty-five men, most of them editors of Republican newspapers, were arrested and their newspapers forced to shut down.
Benjamin Franklin’s grandson, Benjamin Franklin Bache, was one of the men arrested. He was editor of the Philadelphia Democrat-Republican Aurora. Charged with libeling President John Adams (a Federalist), Bache’s arrest erupted in a public outcry against all of the Alien and Sedition Acts. Many Americans questioned the constitutionality of these laws. Indeed, public opposition to the Alien and Sedition Acts was so great that they were in part responsible for the election of Thomas Jefferson, a Republican, to the presidency in 1800. Once in office, Jefferson pardoned all those convicted under the Sedition Act while Congress restored all fines paid with interest.
Yes, you read that correctly. Shocked by the outrages of the Federalist government and administration on so many fronts, Thomas Jefferson campaigned for the presidency in the election of 1800 — and won.
As he pointed out in his letter and showed through action in the campaign and election, you must realize that "we the people" are the only ones who can change things even when it seems as though there is no longer a reason to fight the political battle.
Jefferson did fight, and he won, turning the tables on the other party and restoring America to it’s former democracy- and freedom-loving splendor. The same will happen again, but only if those who care to see it happen realize they must work for it and must take responsibility for seeing it through.
The situation is bad, yes, but it is not hopeless. At least not until you give up on America.