...........but Jefferson was basically upper class and in no way did he want to guarantee land to the common man..........
Jefferson wanted a nation of yeoman farmers.
He was the principal author of the Northwest Ordinance, which sold land off to settlers making their way west in 40 acre parcels, small enough for anyone to purchase. We all know this story, and most of us are part of it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordinance_of_1784
In spite of speculation and the inevitable abuses, the ownership of land was spread quite evenly across the Midwest, with fewer of the massive estates that came to dominate the southern and eastern regions. I don't think it's to far fetched to say that without that Ordinance, the US may have returned to an aristocracy.
As far as slavery, the Ordinance laid the foundation for toppling slavery by prohibiting it in the new territories (later states). Knowing that Jefferson was a smart man, I'm convinced that he did that for the purpose of ending slavery. Of course, it couldn't be done otherwise in his time. I don't think he foresaw that it would take a civil war to accomplish it, but that's speculative.
On his tour of the United States — nearly fifty years after the Ordinance — Alexis de Tocqueville discoursed at length about the
differences between Ohio and Kentucky. This article concludes with his prescient words:
“The State of Ohio is separated from Kentucky just by one river; on either side of it the soil is equally fertile, and the situation equally favorable, and yet everything is different.
Here (in Ohio) a population devoured by feverish activity, trying every means to make its fortune; the population seems poor to look at, for they work with their hands, but that work is the source of riches. There (in Kentucky) is a people which makes others work for it and shows little compassion, a people without energy, mettle or the spirit of enterprise…
The population of Kentucky, which has been peopled for nearly a century, grows slowly. Ohio only joined the Confederation thirty years ago and has a million inhabitants. Within those thirty years Ohio has become the entrepot for the wealth that goes up and down the Mississippi; it has opened two canals and joined the Gulf of Mexico to the North Coast; meanwhile Kentucky, older and perhaps better placed, stood still.
These differences cannot be attributed to any other cause but slavery. It degrades the black population and enervates the white. Its fatal effects are recognized, and yet it is preserved and will be preserved for a long time more…”
Aristocracy or Democracy. A vital economy or feudalism.
I am tired of everyone quoting Jefferson for their own agendas. He was in the top 5 people in his time responsible for our democracy. They had the power, and they gave it to us. Who among us would do that now?
Read up on him:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson
We owe a lot to him.