Jefferson warns about the rise of an “Anglo-Monarchio-Aristocratic party” in America (1797)

In this provocative and controversial letter to Phillip Mazzei, Jefferson is very open in his criticism of the direction in which American politics was heading in 1797. The harshness of his language offended many people including George Washington. Among his criticisms are the following, that those who worked for the government had become mere “place-seekers” who were more interested in their jobs than serving the people, that a new and powerful group of people had arisen who benefited from lending money to the government and its bank, and that too many people in the capital had become “timid men who prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.” In spite of these problems Jefferson was hopeful that the bulk of the American people still adhered to the republican principles which had made the American Revolution possible and that the new “Anglo-Monarchio-Aristocratic party” which was trying to rebuild in America the British system of privilege and corruption would ultimately be defeated. In his mind, the American people had briefly gone to sleep after the exertions of the Revolution thus giving opponents of liberty an opportunity to bind the people down with “lilliputian ties”. However, Jefferson believed the American Gulliver would awaken and cast off these ropes and assume its rightful place in the world.