SOURCE: “Mythologies of a Founder,” in Thomas Jefferson and the Politics of Nature, edited by Thomas S. Engeman, University of Notre Dame Press, 2000, pp. 123-41.

In the following essay, Fowler assesses Jefferson's declining reputation in recent years and discusses, in particular, Jefferson's ideas concerning natural rights.

In his fine book The Natural Rights Republic, based on his Frank M. Covey, Jr., lectures at Loyola University Chicago, Michael Zuckert leads his readers to an appreciation of the intellectual dimensions of the founding of the United States. As Zuckert observes, the founders combined multiple sides of American political thought, including constitutionalism, the theory of natural rights, republicanism, and religious ideas, in a special way to forge the philosophical underpinnings of our nation.¹ Zuckert recognizes that Thomas Jefferson was a figure of undoubted significance in the process, one who is well worth continued efforts to understand his insights and his contributions...