托马斯·杰斐逊的民主理想

Thomas Jefferson's Democratic Ideals

在美国历史上,如果哪一个人能作为美国民主的象征,那就是托马斯·杰斐逊。一个占有奴隶的贵族竟然是美国民主的布道者,这无疑是充满了讽刺的美国历史中最大的讽刺。无论我们将民主视为个人所拥有的生命、自由和追求幸福的权利,还是视为多数人自我统治的权利,杰斐逊都成了它在美国最著名的代言人。在美国历史上,没有人比杰斐逊对普通人民怀有更大的信念,也没有人比他对未来更为乐观。

If any single person in American history is the symbol of American democracy, it is Thomas Jefferson. That a slaveholding aristocrat should be the apostle of American democracy is surely the greatest irony in an American history that is full of ironies. Whether we think of democracy as the rights of individuals to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness or as the rights of the majority to self-government, Jefferson has become its most famous American spokesman. This paper attempts to explain how and why Jefferson became so identified with American democracy. No one in American history has had as much faith in the common people as Jefferson. And no one was more optimistic about the future.