[log in to unmask], whose prejudices run a little against public
education :-), asks:

> Whatever Jefferson meant by his various
>  statements about an educated democracy, I wonder if he would recognize what
>  it is we have today.

At the time Jefferson made that statement, the United States was a very
different place. Not only was the United States barely much more than an idea
and an ideal, held together by hardly anything more than the good wishes of a
great number of people who wished to determine the course of their own lives,
most people in the US were illiterate. They could not read nor write.

The central, overarching issue of the time how much power should the central
government have and who should have a say its determination. Almost everyone,
on all sides, agreed that the US was to be a democracy and that whatever form
of government was to be established, it must derive its power to govern only
from the consent of the governed, not from the divine right of kings. Indeed,
that is the simple definition of a Republic. But beyond that, there was no
agreement at all.

The fundamental disagreements between the Federalists (Hamilton, Adams,
Madison) and the Anti-Federalists (Jefferson, Franklin) could not have been
more starkly drawn. Hamilton not only argued for a strong central government,
he also strenuously argued for an aristocracy, in the truest sense of the
word. Only the well-educated, literate property-holder could be entrusted
with the fate of the nation. Hamilton so strongly believed in this form of
government that he wanted to forbid the formation of political parties.
Well-educated, highly literate men could come to a gentlemen's agreement on
what course of action would be best for the people of this new United States
without the rancor and abuse attendant to political discourse.

Jefferson, to quite the contrary, said that he "put his faith in the common
wisdom of the common man," even though that common man could not likely read
or write. Jefferson argued, he almost certainly knew what was best for him.

This debate 225 years ago permeated every aspect of the original formation of
the laws and nature of the government of the United States, and the decisions
made then still resonate today.

We are fortunate that Jefferson's view largely prevailed, that the powers not
explicitly granted the central government are retained by the people (meaning
the various states). Nonetheless, Jefferson, who wrote that all men are
created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights,
ultimately agreed in an eventual comprise that the only people who would be
allowed to vote were men who held property. Slaves, women, and non-property
owners were barred from any sense of enfranchisement or participation in the
government to be.

Because of the confusion inherent to these basic rules, the definition of
property generally came to be made quite loose, even though it was central to
the compromise. Franklin, more than a bit of a rabble-rouser, once told the
Constitutional Convention the story of a man who owned a mule. The mere act
of owning the mule was enough to allow the man to vote. But the mule died,
and the man was barred from further voting. So in whom, Franklin asked, did
the right to vote exist: in the man or the mule?

It was against this environment that Jefferson vainly argued for public
education. What wealthy landowner would pay for the education of his
ne'er-do-well, illiterate poor neighbors' children?

Rather, it required another 100 years for slavery to be abolished in the US,
and another 100 years for the promise made then to be made whole. It required
150 years for the first women to be allowed to vote, but it only required
about 80 years for the public education movement in the US to begin to take
hold.

While it isn't what Gregory meant, he is absolutely correct. Jefferson would
never have recognized the public education system that we have today. It is
everything that Jefferson could have dreamt of -- and much more.

Wirt Atmar

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