ABSTRACT
No sooner was the new Constitution put into actual operation than there began a decided movement away from strong government and toward individual and states' rights. It seemed almost as if the people were alarmed at what they had done, and were anxious to neutralize its effect. The most marked characteristic of this movement was the antipathy shown toward everything suggestive of monarchy, hereditary aristocracy, of strongly centralized government. Though regarded as the great advocate of democracy, Jefferson bequeathed to posterity no systematic treatise on the principles of politics. Government is established, however, by the "consent of the governed", or at least a just government is so supported. Revolution, Jefferson did not regard with great horror, if principle were involved in the process. He did not believe in government as something so sacred in nature as to be above human criticism.
