It may be true that all men cannot be legislators; but the more generally knowlege is diffused among the substantial yeomanry, the more perfect will be the laws of a republican state.
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What Jefferson called the greatest commentary on Government ever written, organized by topic!
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What Jefferson called the greatest commentary on Government ever written, organized by topic!
Noah Webster; Such a brilliant man … and an incredible wordsmith. You don’t find words like “yeomanry” used often today, let alone such keen insight on what is necessary to hold together a Republic.
A good one for the teachers.
“Epilogue: Securing the Republic” is not part of the title of Noah Webster’s 1788 essay. Instead, Volume 1 of “The Founders’ Constitution” included a section entitled, “Epilogue: Securing the Republic,” a section that included Webster’s essay, “On the Education of Youth in America.”
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/tocs/v1ch18.html
Are there yeoman today who would be known as such?
A yeoman would be a farmer-landowner, and the “substantial yeomanry” might be the wealthier cultivators. Much of the agriculture of the country now is in the hands of a few major corporations, not dispersed among planters and farmers of varying levels of wealth. http://www.pbs.org/pov/foodinc/
The exact modern parallel to a yeoman is hard to pinpoint, at least for me. Someone might point to the person with enough wealth or substance to sustain himself and his charges without being beholden to others for how he decides as a voter or an officeholder.
We don’t have exactly the same fear the Founders had. The Founders feared a person without sufficient wealth running for office, bringing his obligations as limitations to his decisionmaking. They wanted an “independent” person voting and running for office–a person of indepdent wealth. We suspect that even a wealthy person who runs for office might prove beholden to people who could make him even richer.
Oh, I’m absolutely sure there are… but they are not in a majority… at least not by MY observation. However, I’m not in the catbird’s seat, and may be missing something… but I don’t think so.
The general diffusion of knowledge, through education, is a necessary beginning for participation in a republic.