Jefferson's classical understanding of a republic involved a majority of the independent freeholders having a real stake in the society and a real voice in their government. Towards this end, he came up with four principal reforms for Virgina's House of Burgesses at the time of the revolution.First,a more equitable distribution of land(today it would be income).Second,the abolition of slavery(low paying jobs without benefits in 2011).Third,universal public education and a reorganized court system to promote a knowledgeable leadership class(tuition free colleges).Fourth, a disestablishment of the Anglican church,which would free up its lands and substitute for a flawed model of moral supervision(Christian,fundamental Right) a more enlightened system of tolerance and benevolence(Progressive,social justice Left).The first reform was the elimination of entail(strict inheritance of land to the owner's lineal descendants),which maintained a landed elite from generation to generation(Jefferson wanted the right to sell his land to anyone).Entail,according to Jefferson,created "unnatural distinctions" and getting rid of the law would remove the aristocratic component that plagued early America(still impairs us today in a new form).Jefferson also called for an end to primogeniture,which consolidated land in the hands of the few by passing it from fathers to first born sons only(under 10% of colonial elite owned over 50% of the land during the revolution...now it's 10% owns 90% of America's assets).Jefferson believed that entail made the distribution of land more and more inequitable over time,as larger chunks of land were concentrated in fewer and fewer hands.If so few families monopolized so much land,Virginians(Jefferson's first love)would grow ever more dependent on slavery as slaves were entailed with the land--much as peasants were in the feudal Europe.Entail lay at the heart of Virginia's slaveholders oligarchy.Jefferson's reform was radical for its day and is what we need today.By the revolution,most Virginia real estate was entailed.Jefferson's initiative would release as much as three-quarters of entailed land,democratizing the distribution of property for future generations.Many planters opposed Jefferson's bill and tried to dismiss him as a dangerous visionary.
Jefferson second reform was the reversal of the laws for slavery.He recognized that the institution of slavery was a deterrent to the improvement of manners,morals,and laws.His goal was to reduce the slave population and put slavery on the path to extinction.He believed that newly arrived slaves should be granted freedom after five years.Enlightened doctrine,which Jefferson followed,held that slavery destroyed the natural inclination of human beings to become one people and one nation(low paying jobs today separate citizens from one another and create distrust in government).It was an inherited disease,a social contagion.Jefferson struggled with this question his whole life and didn't support abolition within the United States.The best solution,as I read, for Jefferson, was the return of the slavers to the country they came from.Nevertheless,Jefferson understood that the culture of slavery tarnished America more than it benefited the economy.It was a progressive understanding for his time period.
Bill #79 proposed to the House of Burgessses called for" a more diffusion of knowledge" for all citizens.During this time period,education was the exclusive province of the wealthy.Bill#79 provided for the establishment of primary schools for all free children(not slave children),grammar schools for the more capable among them,and college(subsidized by the state) for those most gifted(only 25% of Americans today graduate from a four year college--most due to high costs).Jefferson didn't think the best citizens were necessarily the land owning elites that controlled the social and economic components of society.He often expounded that a majority of the landholders were far too concerned about their own interests than the desires of the populace(nothing has changed).
Finally,Jefferson believed that no person of any sect should be obligated to support a religious establishment(Anglican Church).He fought with Madison and won an agreement that dissenting sects--Quakers,Baptists,Methodists and Presbyterians- were to be exempt in the future from paying taxes in support of the established church(today the religious right wants to be the Anglican church of American and condemns secularism at every doorway).
More from "Madison and Jefferson" by Burstein and Isenberg in the near future.
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