Against Jefferson Explanation

            Thomas Jefferson, while campaigning a second time to become the President of the United States, faced three main criticisms from the opposition.  First, his religious practices were questioned.  Not a practicing Christian, but instead a professed Deist, many Americans worried that trouble could come from putting a “non-believer” in charge of the nation.  And while Jefferson did definitely believe in some sort of divine being, many of the smear tactics used during the campaign described him as an atheist without a moral compass.  The first quote used in the video, that “[Electing Jefferson will] destroy religion, introduce immorality, and loosen all the bonds of society,” comes from Serious Considerations on the Election of a President: Addressed to the Citizens of the United States, written in 1800 by William Linn, a Dutch Reformed Minister from New York City.  The quote directly after that also addresses Jefferson’s religiosity, and it specifically questions his Sabbath practices.  This is an illusion to a function held in Jefferson’s honor on a Sunday in Fredericksburg, VA− an event that angered some devout Christian Americans.  Jefferson was quite vulnerable to questions regarding his religious practices, and the opposition never hesitated to stretch the truth to sully his reputation.  I tried to capture that aspect of the time with the first part of the video.

Jefferson’s support of the French Revolution− and the implications of that support− was another topic that the would-be elect was criticized about.  The next two quotes and images in the video capture the latter critique.  The first quote comes from the Connecticut Courant on August 1, 1800, in a piece written by an author of the penname Burleigh.  This quote appears on top of a political cartoon showcasing Jefferson, on the right side of the screen, attempting to stop the wheels of George Washington’s carriage− metaphorically clogging the “wheels of freedom.”  The next quote comes from the correspondence between R. Hooe and Colonel Leven Powel, two Americans, also in 1800.  In it, Hooe worries that Jefferson will fully adopt French politics, and in doing so he will create Civil War and Ruin in the United States.  To emphasize this criticism of Jefferson, I laid the quote over a picture of a young Napoleon Bonaparte.  The man who led the French military at that time, Napoleon was a character that many Americans disliked, and they would grow to dislike him even more.  To fully capture the distaste some Americans had for Jefferson’s “Francophilia,” I used the French National Anthem− written in 1792− as the background music to the video.  Americans during this time would most likely recognize the tune, and many would associate it with the bloody nature of the French Revolution.  Many of Jefferson’s detractors asserted that he supported the gory acts of the French Revolution.  Though he, in reality, did not, this still was a huge criticism of Jefferson during the campaign.

The third key critique of Jefferson was his connection to a regional faction, the Republican Party.  To get this point across, I used a quote from a personal correspondence from Ames to Wolcott, in January of 2012.  By far the most hyperbolic quote I found about Jefferson, it punctuates my video.  It worries that Jefferson’s leadership will completely corrupt the country, and it states that a Civil War under Jefferson would be inevitable.  It uses extremely strong language and vivid imagery, referencing atrocities like murder, robbery, and rape.  Like all of the quotes I used in the video, it expresses a very skewed point of view of Jefferson’s potential as President.  But this skewed viewpoint did exist during the campaign, and Jefferson’s opposition did constantly allude to these criticisms in order to smear his reputation and lessen his chances for victory.