Shane Moran - Alternation Journal
Shane Moran - Alternation Journal
Shane Moran - Alternation Journal
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sentence:<br />
The light which Iias been shed on thc mind of man through tlie civilized<br />
world. has given it anew direction, from which no human powcr can divert<br />
it.<br />
Now more than ever we wonder whether the U S. or Europe is privy to the light.<br />
Cet-talnly Jefferson thought of the U.S. as improving on, by breaking from, Europe.<br />
And yet he does seem to address Europe with a special reverence, as a rebellious child<br />
who can never fully leave his family behind.<br />
In the next paragraph of the letter, however, Jefferson quite sudder~ly displaces<br />
the alnbivalence figured with this wild tropic movement in general, and the 'disease of<br />
liberty' in particular, by offering a historically absurd but I-hetorically confident<br />
allegory of American unity. He begins with a remark that counters section one's 'your<br />
country has been going on less well than 1 had hoped' (Jefferson 1899.1: 109: 'With us<br />
things are going on well' (Jefferson 1899.1:49). The 'things' to which he refers are the<br />
acquisition of Florida in 18 19 and the pending entrance of Mlssouri into tlie Union as a<br />
slave state. Both events were fought over bitterly during the period, and ended up as<br />
victories for pro-slavery forces-thanks in part to Jefferson's support-since under<br />
Spanish control Florida had become a refuge for escaped slaves, and with Missouri on<br />
their side the slave states would hold their own aga~nst the free states in Congress and in<br />
Presidential elections". Yet Jefferson offers a different p~cture:<br />
The boisterous sea of liberty indeed is never \vitliout a wavc. and tliat from<br />
Missouri is now rolling towards us, hut \vc shall ride over it as we have over<br />
all otlie~rs. It is not a moral question. but one merely of power. Its object is to<br />
raise a geographical principle for tlie choice of a President, and the noise<br />
will be kept up till that is effected. All know that perniitting the slaves of thc<br />
South to spread into the West will not add one being to tliat unfortunate<br />
condition, that it will increase the happiness of those existing, and by<br />
spreading them over a larger surface, will dilute the evil eve~ywhel-e, and<br />
facilitate tlie means of getting finally rid of it, an event more anxiously<br />
wisllcd by those on wlioni it presses than by the noisy pretenders to<br />
exclusive I~urnanity. In thc meantime, it is a ladder for rivals climbing to<br />
power (Jefferson 1899.I:49-65)<br />
The confident unity represented repeatedly by 'we' and 'All' make it possible to figure<br />
tile U,S, as a powerful and sturdy ship riding the 'boisterous sea of liberty', and as an<br />
scientist knowledgeably formulating the elements of a 'finally' free solution:<br />
1 increase the happiness of those existing, and by spreading thein over a larger<br />
e, will dilute the evil everywhere'. These figures displace the difficulty of 'a<br />
estion' with the calculable clarity ofquestions 'merely ofpower'.<br />
If this representative of the U.S. must thus represent his country to a<br />
entative of Europe in the most coherent, confident, and powerful-if<br />
enuous-terms, then Europe must be something of a judge in Jefferson's<br />
agn~ation. That is, if Jefferson's enlightened countly receives the light of the<br />
lighte~lment as refracted through its ineducible ties to Europe, then any development<br />
the Enlightenment in the U.S. must be carried out under the watchful eye of Europe.<br />
e 'eyes' he and Dr. Richard Price focused on 'justice' are now trained on Jefferson<br />
self. Subjected to this field of visibility, then, Jefferson figures a ~~nified and<br />
national identity as a coherent and felicitous response to the infelicities of<br />
n and surveillance he nonettleless rhetorically proliferates.<br />
This inoment in the letter to the Marquis represents a crucial transformation in<br />
's work. This transformation is locatable not so much cliachronically--say, in<br />
ear of this letter, 1820-as it is rhetorically at nodal poi:its, reiterated ritually<br />
ut Jefferson's correspondence froin the 1750s through to 1820s--particillarly<br />
spondence on colonisation, as we will see below--when the a~nbivalerlt<br />
illation oflight, surveillance, andjudgeinent gives way to a governmental problem,<br />
problem of power and of knowledge:<br />
It is not a moral question, but one n~crely of power .... All know Illat<br />
permitting the slaves of tlie South to spread into tlie Wcst will not add one<br />
being to that unfortunate condition, that it will increase the happiness of<br />
those existing ....<br />
t is, the ambivalence of 'mutilation however in it's freest parts' and of the 'disease<br />
berty' gives way not to an ambiguous 'moral question', but rather to a confident and<br />
ulable figuration of national power and unity. Mobilising what J.L. Heilbron and<br />
esearch group have called 'I'esprit geometrique' or 'the quantifying spirit' of the<br />
eighteenth century'" Jefferson's text here turns the 'moral problem' of slavery into<br />
ctical problem of discrete, ~nanipulable populations, the solution to which is<br />
These historians of science have argued that 'the later 18th century saw a rapid increase in<br />
range and intensity of application of mathematical methods', a tliesis that 'amounts to<br />
cifying the time and surveying the routes by which what may be the quintessential form of<br />
modern thought first spread widely through society ' (Friingsmyr it al. 1990: If). For an overvicw<br />
" Rot11 Miller (1975:23lf) and Peterson (1960:191-193) represent Jefferson's support of f their researc]l, see Meilbron's introduction to tile volume; fclr essays relevent to tlIc<br />
Miss0uri.s entrance into t11~ union as a slave state as. in Miller's (I97sy232) words, 'lnal-k[ingl ff‘crsonian colltext cclnsidered set essays by Ridcr, k[eilbl.on. and ~ ~ (in l<br />
strange death of Jeff'ersollian liberalism'. As 1 have becn arguing. a close reading of rangsmyr el a/. 1990). For a kindred study of the U.S. in particular, which places importa~~t<br />
Jefferson's correspondence suggests that we place such a molnent<br />
the life of "lch<br />
phasis on Jefferson, see CoIlen (197 1). On Jefferson's faith in statistics aild Inatlrematics in<br />
ltbeldllsm gene~al, we also Appleby (1993 71'). Stanton (1 993 1520<br />
58 59