What Thomas Jefferson Thought Of People Who Put Animals At Par With Man

Thomas Jefferson spent several years in France traveling about much of Europe seeking trade treaties for the United States. This occurred in the latter part of the 1700s and before becoming president. In his travels he developed methods he used when visiting other countries to determine if life in those countries, which included all aspects such as work habits, ambitions of the people, politics, the court systems, etc., was a good match in what he considered a worthy trade partner with the United States.

In Jefferson’s writings he spells out exactly the things he would look for while visiting a country. One of the first things he would do would be to climb into the steeple of a town church and look over the town from that perspective. He often would forgo an immediate visit with state dignitaries in order that he call upon the common folks, the workers, if you will, to find out how they were treated by their employers and whether or not they were taxed too much or paid too much for their rent.

I discovered something quite interesting that Jefferson wrote about concerning what he thought of people, in this case the courts of certain countries, who placed animals at par or of higher esteem than the humans.

To be seen as you would see the tower of London or menagerie of Versailles with ‘ their lions, tigers, hyenas, and other beast of prey, standing in the same relation to their fellows. A slight acquaintance with them will suffice to show you that, under the most imposing exterior, they are the
weakest and worst part of mankind. Their manners, could you ape them, would not make you beloved in your own country, nor would they improve it could you introduce them there to the exclusion of that honest simplicity now prevailing in America, and worthy of being cherished.

Well over two hundred years ago, Thomas Jefferson, and you could assume others of his time, realized that for those who considered animals as having a place in common with man, “they are the weakest and worst part of mankind”. Jefferson understood then the makeup of someone who thought that way and realized they would not make for good treaty.

I wonder if today other countries look at the United States in similar fashion and realize that because we are becoming a society that revels in the protection of animals, even to the extreme of affording those creatures the same or higher rights than that of humans, we are no longer the strongest of nations on earth but “the weakest and worst part of mankind”?

Of course the progressives, which often are the same as those who cherish animals above man, would say that over two hundred years ago, Jefferson and others had a completely different perspective of animals than today, that perhaps their ignorance and uneducated ways barred them from seeing that animals are living creatures that deserve the same treatment as man, and as such miss Jefferson’s point completely.

It’s not so much as to how animals are to be treated. It is that he sees the character of the kind of people he would have to deal with who thought this way. The future of our country depended very much on Jefferson’s success in finding viable trade partners. Dealing with “the worst part of mankind” offered little toward our future.

If you further investigate into Jefferson’s life, at his home in Monticello, he cherished his animals. He loved his horses and he even tended to and cared for deer there. He wrote often of how visitors were treated to feeding the wild deer by hand and yet, Jefferson also spent time hunting for sport and also as a necessary part of providing food for his family.

It appears to me that Jefferson had a solid and balanced understanding of the role God’s creatures played in our lives. Being one of the most educated and extremely intelligent human beings of that era, Jefferson was a good judge of character and could plainly see the troubles that awaited those who sought to do business with “the weakest and worst part of mankind”.

Tom Remington