Warning: Undefined variable $num in /home/shroutdo/public_html/courses/wp-content/plugins/single-categories/single_categories.php on line 126
Warning: Undefined variable $posts_num in /home/shroutdo/public_html/courses/wp-content/plugins/single-categories/single_categories.php on line 127
Though I have written a piece supporting the Anti-Federalist claims against the Constitution and the democratic system established within America, I still find Noah Webster’s claims against democracy shocking. In many of the Anti-Federalist papers written during the 1780s, a number of authors point put the issues of allowing a few to speak for the many. I could be wrong about this but; I believe it was one representative for every fifty thousand individuals within the United States. For the Anti-Federalists, this was an abomination to allow within the democratic society, as it created a ruling aristocracy. Yet, Webster seems to have believed that this was the only possible way the system would be successful. His words about the “insufferable idiots” that comprised the United States went well beyond any Anti-Federalist positions to the point of conforming to British aristocratic beliefs. It was a common thought amongst the British elite that the generally uneducated farmers which comprised the United States were unsuited for running such a vast land and would inevitably fail in their venture. This notion seems comparable to the statements of Noah Webster regarding his pessimistic stance against American Democracy, as he believed the system as destined for doom.
If anything, one could view Webster’s insults to the common American citizen as prejudice. By differentiating between the fools/knaves and the honest man, Webster alludes to a comparable discrimination such as black and white. At the bare minimum, he is saying that anyone with property like himself is a clearly more charismatic and sophisticated individual than those without any. It is no wonder Webster was at odds with Jefferson after statements such as these. For Jefferson, these “fools and knaves” that Webster so feverishly insulted were the backbone of his view for the future of the United States. Jefferson’s view also could potentially be seen as the major influence behind Fredrick Jackson Turner’s stance on the West influencing democracy. Turner’s position institutes that the lower class individuals that spread West with dreams of a better life were the catalysts that sparked democracy’s successful growth into such a strong governing force. For Jefferson, this was the vision of his utopia.