Jefferson had destroyed political traditions. From his
contradictions and defecting his priciples, Jefferson
destroyed the political precedent and is a exemplatory
hypocrite, which can be seen throughout his administration.
Jefferson was an admired statesman who was grappling
unsuccessfully with the moral issue of slavery. Thomas
Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence,
opposed slavery his whole life, yet he never freed his own
slaves. He championed Enlightenment principles, yet never
freed himself of the prejudices of his soceity. Jefferson
was extremely hypocritical in the issue of slavery.
Jefferson was a plantation owner early in his life, and had
slaves working for him throughout his life. Jefferson had
tolerated while he didn't accept others who owned slaves.
Jefferson denounced the slave owners, while he was owning
and using slaves. Although Jefferson was supposedly a good
slave owner, his hypocritical nature made him accuse others
not to own slaves while he, himself was owning slaves.
Another part of the hypocrisy was that Jefferson believed
that the slaves were dependent upon the white man, while
he, himself was dependent upon the slaves. Jefferson also
was hypocritcal in his acquisition of the Loisiana
territory. In Jeffersonian principles, large expansive
governments were bad, and small was good. This was a
antithesis of that principle. Jefferson knew that the
acquisition of the Loisiana territory was beneficial to the
welfare of the U.S. According to the constitution, nowhere
in the constitution is the acquisition of land a right of
the government, Jeffersons' predisposition was to strictly
go by the constitution (as seen with the national bank
controversy), this is another contradiction during his
administration. Since the appropriation of the Lousiana
territory was important for the expansion of the united
states, he temporarily dismissed his principles, therefore
destroying political traditions.
Another hypocritical event during Jeffersons'
administration was his acceptance of the National Bank.
Early in Jefferson's political career, Jefferson had
debated with Hamilton on whether to have the National Bank.
"When this government was first established, it was
possible to have kept it going on true principles, but the
contracted, English, half-lettured ideas of Hamilton
destroyed that hope in the bud, We can pay off his debts in
15 years." Early in Jefferson's Administration, Jefferson
had denounced the National Bank. At the end of his
administration, Jefferson realized that the National Bank
was important and this is hypocritical by disregarding his
The Burr conspiracy depicted Jefferson as a ruthless, and a
individual who will do anything inorder to achieve his
goal. Jefferson championed civil liberties and unalienable
rights. Yet, Jefferson violated civil liberties by coercing
witnesses, arrested with out habeus corpus and prosecuting
in a "court" of his own. Jefferson and Jeffersonians are
hypocrites from the start and they destroyed political
tradition as seen during Jeffersons' administration.
Jeffersonians show an immense amount of hypocritism in
their policies. For example, Federalists had supported high
tarriffs, inorder to protect national manufacturers and
american industry. The tarriffs were a vital determinent,
which kept the economy of the United States viable. The
Jeffersonians, not the Federalists began the American
system of protecting american industry which initially was
a major constituent of the federalist platform.