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HIST 3620 B. Carroll
Early National America Fall 2000
QUESTIONS FOR STUDY AND CONSIDERATION
Major Problems in the Early Republic
Ch. 4: "The Republican Jefferson and the Jeffersonian Republic" (101-114)
Richard Hofstadter, "Jefferson as Cautious Pragmatic"
1. Why, according to Hofstadter, have we mistakenly viewed Jefferson as a radical
visionary? On what kind of evidence is that assessment based? Why should we not rely
on such evidence in assessing Jefferson?
2. Why, according to Hofstadter, did the partisan Jefferson of the 1790s become so
conciliatory upon reaching the presidency?
3. What policies does Hofstadter identify in support of his interpretation of Jefferson
as a "cautious pragmatic"? How does JeffersonÌs rapprochement with the
mercantile interest, which Hofstadter claims as evidence, bear on ApplebyÌs portrayal
of the Jeffersonian Republicans (ch. 3)?
4. Is HofstadterÌs appraisal of Jefferson a positive or a negative one?
Forrest McDonald, "Jefferson as Reactionary Ideologue"
1. Why, according to McDonald, should we rethink our conception of Jefferson as a
champion of liberty?
2. What is McDonaldÌs portrayal of the 18th-century Oppositionist thought on which
the Jeffersonian ideology was based? How would Appleby and Ashworth (ch.3) respond
to McDonaldÌs interpretation of Jeffersonian ideology?
3. What policies, according to McDonald, characterized the Jeffersonian program?
What were the Jeffersonians against, and what were they for? What are the "ancient
ways" to which McDonald refers (p.108)?
4. What, according to McDonald, were the drawbacks of Jeffersonian policy? How does
McDonaldÌs assessment of that policy compare with HofstadterÌs?
5. Compare McDonaldÌs explanation of JeffersonÌs embargo (p.109) with HofstadterÌs
(p.102). How are they different?
6. Would Hofstadter and McDonald agree on the role of ideology in shaping JeffersonÌs
policies?
Drew McCoy, "Jefferson and the Empire of Liberty"
1. According to McCoy, in what sense did Jefferson consider the "Revolution
of 1800" to be a revolution?
2. What were the three basic prerequisites of what McCoy terms the "republican
political economy" that defined Jeffersonian policy? How did Jefferson go about
trying to realize them?
3. How does McCoy explain JeffersonÌs embargo? How does his explanation compare with
those of McDonald and Hofstadter?
4. How is it, according to McCoy, that the presumably agrarian Jeffersonians appealed
to so many entrepreneurs? Was it because, as Hofstadter argues, Jefferson really
was a cautious pragmatic whose policy had little meaningful connection with agrarianism?
5. Why, according to McCoy, was the Mississippi crisis of 1801-1803 such a pressing
issue for the Jeffersonian Republicans? What was at stake? How does McCoyÌs interpretation
of the crisis compare with McDonaldÌs?
6. What was the Jeffersonian vision of the West? Why was the West so important to
the nationÌs future? What did it represent? What did the Atlantic East represent?
What, then, is the meaning of JeffersonÌs phrase (used as titles by both McCoy and
the authors of your textbook in ch. 8) "empire of liberty" (p.113)?
7. What potential threat to the young republic was exposed by the Louisiana Purchase?
What, according to McCoy, is ironic about this situation?
8. What policy toward Native Americans was the logical implication of Jeffersonianism
as McCoy understands it?
9. What, according to McCoy, was the ultimate, ironic result of the Jeffersonian
vision of an independent nation of farmers isolated from European affairs? How did
this happen?