In May of 1825, writing to Henry
Lee, Thomas Jefferson set forth the classic sources of the principles of the
Declaration of Independence, including human equality, self-government, and the
individual rights of “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” He wrote:
"This was the
object of the Declaration of Independence. Not to find out new principles, or new arguments, never before thought of, not merely
to say things which had never been said before; but to place before mankind the common sense of the subject … it was intended to be an expression of the American mind … All its
authority rests then on the harmonizing sentiments of the day, whether expressed in conversation, in letters, printed
essays, or in the elementary books of
public right, as Aristotle, Cicero, Locke, Sidney, etc."[1] [Images above].
While each
of his named political philosophers, Aristotle, Cicero, Locke, and Sidney, were
advocates for “public right[s],” each of them were also moralists, and Jefferson
was intimately familiar with all of their writings. As taught in his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle
defines virtue as a disposition to behave in the right manner, and vice
as deficiencies or excesses in character. In addition to the nature of the
virtues and vices involved in moral evaluation, he addresses the methods of
achieving happiness in human life. Cicero’s On
Duties analyzes what is “honorable” (honestas)
and what is “beneficial” (or advantageous), and what is honorable can also be
called “moral,” “virtuous,” “ethical,” or “noble.” The main components of noble
behavior according to Cicero are virtue and duty, and he concludes that
moral worth is the only good and that virtue is sufficient
for happiness. In his 1690 Essay Concerning
Human Understanding, Locke states that, “the necessity of pursuing happiness
[is] the foundation of liberty” and that, “Morality is the proper Science,
and Business of Mankind in general.” We must also remember that near the end of
his life, Aristotle had to flee Athens, Cicero was proscribed an enemy of Rome
and assassinated, and Locke fled England to Holland in order to escape King
Charles II.
Yet, while Locke was a member of Jefferson’s triumvirate
of the three greatest minds (along with Bacon and Newton), he reserved his
highest political praise for Algernon Sidney. In addition to citing Sidney’s
writings as a source for the principles of The
Declaration, he endorsed Sidney's Discourses Concerning Government
as “a rich treasure of republican principles” and “probably the best elementary
book of the principles of government, as founded in natural right which has
ever been published in any language.”[2] And, Jefferson, together with
James Madison, stated that “the general
principles of liberty and the rights of man, in nature and society” were to be found in Locke's Second
Treatise on Government and in Sidney's Discourses Concerning Government.[3] So, while much less known than Locke in
our day, Jefferson actually gave equal weight to Sidney’s Discourses alongside Locke in his proscribed course on the
Constitution at the University of Virginia.
What makes Sidney unique as a source of
Jefferson’s philosophy of virtue and happiness is that, unlike Locke who
focused more on property rights, Sidney wrote profusely concerning the
connection between liberty and virtue. Sidney stated, “The
principle of liberty in which God created us …includes the chief advantages of
the life we enjoy, as well as the greatest helps towards felicity, that is the
end of our hopes in the other.”[4] In other words, “life, liberty, and
happiness” are mutually dependent. Jefferson also quoted Sidney in his Commonplace Book, recording in his own
hand, “If vice and corruption prevail, liberty cannot subsist; but if virtue
have the advantage, arbitrary power cannot be established.”[5]
Much less fortunate than Locke,
Sidney was arrested, accused with the crime of high treason against King
Charles II and was executed on December 7, 1683. Known in the American colonies
as the “true martyr of liberty”[6]
the influence of Sidney on Jefferson and the principles of the Declaration of Independence cannot be discounted.
[1] Thomas Jefferson to Henry Lee, May 8, 1825, ME
16:118-19.
[2] Thomas Jefferson to John Trumbull, 18 January 1789, The
Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Julian P. Boyd, ed. (Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1950), 14:467-68.
[3] Minutes
of the Board of Visitors, March 4,
1825, ME 19:460-61 (cited as “Minutes”). http://www.liberty1.org/UVA1825.pdf
[4] Algernon Sidney, Discourses Concerning Government (London:
A. Millar, London, 1751)(cited as “Discourses”),
I:2:5.
[5] Discourses, II:30:241-242.
[6] c.f.
Algernon Sidney, Discourses Concerning Government, Thomas G. West, ed. (Liberty
Fund, Inc., Indianapolis, 1996), Introduction, xvi.
[7] Thomas Jefferson, Report for the Commissioners for
the University of Virginia, August 4, 1818 (Special Collections Department,
University of Virginia Library).
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