Founding Pragmatist – A review of “Thomas Jefferson- The Art of Power” by Jon Meacham

I just finished reading the latest book by Pulitzer prize winning journalist and historian: Jon Meacham, the author of highly acclaimed historical works such as “American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House” (for which he won the Pulitzer in 2009). A former editor of Newsweek, he seems to have finally succumbed to the itch that plagues every American historian, which is a restless feeling that can only be sated by writing yet another book on Thomas Jefferson. While the 3^rd president of the United States can be said to have been studied to death, Jon Meacham manages to write a book that holds its own among the great works on this over studied great man. My sense of the author’s intent in writing this book is to paint a picture of Thomas Jefferson as a practicing politician and statesman of his time. A man skilled in the exercise of power and not simply the high minded philosopher and ideas man behind the lofty words of the American declaration of independence. I found this book to be refreshing and illuminating and I took away a couple of lessons that are often lost due to the all too human tendency to inflate the currency of the past

Revolutions – at least the successful ones – are typically run or enabled by the rich and/or the established. As Meacham wrote about the march to the American Revolution, “for the elite, revolution was the shrewdest economic choice”. While the history books are replete with stories of yeoman American farmers and striving craftsmen picking up arms in ragtag armies to secure their freedoms by defeating the “Redcoats” (as the British Army was not so affectionately called in those days). The truth is a little more encompassing than this, as the revolution was championed by the gentry, ruling classes and business elite of the colonies who had come to realize that continued rule from London was, well, not great for business and for their continued prosperity. One of the initial skirmishes on the road to the revolutionary war was the “Pine Tree Riot” in New Hampshire, during which royal officials were flogged and marched out of town. The leader of this revolt was Ebenezer Mudgett, a rich lumber mill owner who basically did not like the effect the royal ordnance to save the best trees for his majesty’s use was having on his profits. Counted among the signers of the declaration of independence were some of the richest men in the 13 colonies, they saw that throwing off the colonial overlords was not only good for the liberty of man, it was also good for business. This was probably not lost on Thomas Jefferson himself as Jon Meacham noted, “it was a rich man’s revolution and Thomas Jefferson was a rich man”. This is not just a relic of historical revolutions, the protesters at Tahrir Square started the revolution to overthrow Hosni Mubarak but the decision of the Egyptian Army generals to not attack the protesters but to abandon Mubarak basically sealed his fate.

The second important lesson is that partisanship and partisan bickering, like the poor, have always been with us. Listening to American media, one hears “talking heads” and politicians bemoan the partisan rancor in the country. They collectively long for the more amiable atmosphere of the past while not forgetting to add something along the lines of the “founding fathers rolling in their graves” at the sight of the bickering politicians. I am not so sure that these fathers will be as taken aback as pundits (who pine for a bygone era when political sages strode across the nation and engaged in calm, high-minded discussions) will like us to believe. Former US President Harry Truman was said to have remarked that “the only thing new in the world is the history you do not know” and that statement was quite borne out by this book. The election of George Washington was in many ways the last non-partisan election of a US president as Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were locked in highly partisan contests in 1796 and 1800. And each man was at the head of a political movement, Adams led the Federalists and Jefferson the Democratic-Republicans. Vicious publications in broadsides and pamphlets were the attack ads of the day and men such as James Callendar, a noted pamphleteer of his age, may even have one or two things to teach modern campaign hands like Karl Rove and David Axelrod about “defining the opponent”. Jon Meacham notes that the election between Adams and Jefferson was so hard fought that it drove a wedge between two men that had hitherto been very close (although they did make amends in their old age). Much has been made of the Jeffersonian practice of opening the White House for dinners with legislators every night, as it was a good faith effort to build bipartisanship. However, it must have been a sign of the times that the President avoided having congressmen of both parties together on the same day out of concern that such dinners may end in fist fights.

Also shining brightly throughout the book is the vivid image of Thomas Jefferson, the pragmatist. The portrait of Jefferson as philosopher king, devoted to such idealistic pursuits as crafting the declaration of independence and the statutes of religious freedom, has become quite ingrained in the popular imagination. In this book we see a new side to the man, we see Thomas Jefferson the politician skilled in realpolitik. The man who had a deep belief in a participatory democracy anchored on an active citizenry of his much beloved “yeoman farmers” also did as much as any president to expand executive power. He negotiated the purchase of the Louisiana Territory, which currently encompasses all or part of 15 American states and at 3 cents per acre it is considered by many to be the greatest real estate deal in history. The judicial “strict constructionists” of his time viewed this move as unconstitutional as the constitution did not explicitly make provisions for acquiring territory. However, he viewed it as imperative that the French influence in North America be curtailed and that the opportunity for the young country’s westward opportunity needed to be ensured. In foreign affairs, the man who had expressed reservations about standing armies (considering them a marginally less bad idea than banks) expanded the navy and launched the United States’ first foreign war. He sent ships to defend American ships that were being harassed by the Barbary states, getting the sanction from congress after the ships were on their way and establishing a precedent of vesting the power to conduct war and defend the country in the president even though the formal declaration of war was controlled by congress.

Overall, I found the book to be very densely researched but beautifully written in an engaging way that kept me going through the approximately 800 pages of this great book. It contained enough “red meat” for history and political nerds like me, while also having enough interesting anecdotes and engaging human interest content to engage the general reader.