SOURCE: “Jefferson's Empire,” in Jefferson's Empire: The Language of American Nationhood, University Press of Virginia, 2000, pp. 1-17.

In the following essay, Onuf explores Jefferson's visions of America as a nation and as an empire, taking into account the more regressive tendencies of Jefferson's political thought.

Thomas Jefferson cherished an imperial vision for the new American nation. Future generations of Americans would establish republican governments in the expanding hinterland of settlement. This rising empire would be sustained by affectionate union, a community of interests, and dedication to the principles of self-government Jefferson set forth in the Declaration of Independence. It would not be, as the British empire in America had become over the previous decade, an empire built on force and fear, remote provinces subject to the despotic rule of a distant metropolitan government. Instead, the new regime, deriving its “just powers from the consent of the governed,” would...