The Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson
By Subject
BRITAIN / CONDITIONS IN
A comparison of the conditions of Great Britain and the United
States, which is the subject of your letter of August 17th, would be
an interesting theme indeed.
The population of England is
composed of three descriptions of persons (for those of minor note are
too inconsiderable to affect a general estimate). These are, 1. The
aristocracy, comprehending the nobility, the wealthy commoners, the
high grades of priesthood, and the officers of government. 2. The
laboring class. 3. The eleemosynary class, or paupers, who are about
one-fifth of the whole. The aristocracy, which have the laws and
government in their hands, have so managed them as to reduce the third
description below the means of supporting life, even by labor; and to
force the second, whether employed in agriculture or the arts, to the
maximum of labor which the construction of the human body can endure,
and to the minimum of food, and of the meanest kind, which will
preserve it in life, and in strength sufficient to perform its
functions. To obtain food enough, and clothing, not only their whole
strength must be unremittingly exerted, but the utmost dexterity also
which they can acquire; and those of great dexterity only can keep
their ground, while those of less must sink into the class of paupers.
Nor is it manual dexterity alone, but the acutest resources of the
mind also which are impressed into this struggle for life; and such as
have means a little above the rest, as the master-workmen, for
instance, must strengthen themselves by acquiring as much of the
philosophy of their trade as will enable them to compete with their
rivals, and keep themselves above ground. Hence the industry and
manual dexterity of their journeymen and day-laborers, and the science
of their master-workmen, keep them in the foremost ranks of
competition with those of other nations; and the less dexterous
individuals, falling into the eleemosynary ranks, furnish materials
for armies and navies to defend their country, exercise piracy on the
ocean, and carry conflagration, plunder and devastation, on the shores
of all those who endeavor to withstand their aggressions. A society
thus constituted possesses certainly the means of defence. But what
does it defend? The pauperism of the lowest class, the abject
oppression of the laboring, and the luxury, the riot, the domination
and the vicious happiness of the aristocracy. In their hands, the
paupers are used as tools to maintain their own wretchedness, and to
keep down the laboring portion by shooting them whenever the
desperation produced by the cravings of their stomachs drives them
into riots. Such is the happiness of scientific England.
to Thomas Cooper, 10 September 1814
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