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When Thomas Jefferson was president, there was a census during his tenure in office. The census asked what each person's occupation was. Thomas Jefferson, then President of the United States, put "farmer" as his occupation.
I heard this on a tour of Monticello and I couldn't help but think, the fact that "politician" is now an occupation, is one of the roots of ALL our problems as a nation. Thoughts?
When Thomas Jefferson was president, there was a census during his tenure in office. The census asked what each person's occupation was. Thomas Jefferson, then President of the United States, put "farmer" as his occupation.
I heard this on a tour of Monticello and I couldn't help but think, the fact that "politician" is now an occupation, is one of the roots of ALL our problems as a nation. Thoughts?
Back then state legislatures and Congress was only in session for a few short months out of the year, which usually coincided with the agricultural off-season. Up until the early 20th century, most Americans lived in rural areas where their main occupation was in the agricultural arts.
While Jefferson listed "farmer" as his occupation, keep in mind that he was a planter--meaning he depended on the labor of others so he could sit around and drink mint juleps and pontificate about Lockean philosophy. I consider Jefferson to be the smartest of the rednecks, since during his time most of the country was a bunch of provincial, backwater morons.
When Thomas Jefferson was president, there was a census during his tenure in office. The census asked what each person's occupation was. Thomas Jefferson, then President of the United States, put "farmer" as his occupation.
I heard this on a tour of Monticello and I couldn't help but think, the fact that "politician" is now an occupation, is one of the roots of ALL our problems as a nation. Thoughts?
Uh hello dude, government was a bit tinier and more simple than it is today. Being a politician is an occupation because it's a little difficult to manage a second occupation at the same time while you are a politician.
The America in which Jefferson and the other founders lived -- agricultural, largely limited to the eastern seaboard, European-based, and very much an inheritor of the English Revolutionary wars and a product of English Enlightenment philosophy -- and for which they wrote the founding documents, is very different than the America of today.
How one feels about that fact may be the single most cogent factor in assessing our contemporary poitical differences.
An Enlightenment philospher, a farmer, a slaveholder, an avid social entertainer, and a great man that saw a vision of a much more sparsely-settled, agrarian utopia of free men .......(with slaves!)
When Thomas Jefferson was president, there was a census during his tenure in office. The census asked what each person's occupation was. Thomas Jefferson, then President of the United States, put "farmer" as his occupation.
I heard this on a tour of Monticello and I couldn't help but think, the fact that "politician" is now an occupation, is one of the roots of ALL our problems as a nation. Thoughts?
It should have said "Slave Owner" (about 200 during his life at Monticello). I doubt that he ever really was a farmer, since when you have about 200 slaves - they tend to do most of the "farming."
If he was a farmer. . . . . then I'm a rock star.
Whatever
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