Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson (13 April 1743 – 4 July 1826) was the third President of the United States (1801–1809), the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), and one of the most influential Founding Fathers for his promotion of the ideals of Republicanism in the United States.

In his 1819 Letter to William Short, Jefferson identifies himself as an Epicurean and displays detailed knowledge of its ethical points as outlined in Cicero's De Finibus.

President Jefferson's approval of Epicurus' philosophy are well-known, but how might Epicurean reduction of politics and of law dogmatism ["Natural justice is the advantage conferred by mutual agreements not to inflict nor allow harm" said E. in P.D. 31, without megalomania] be compatible with presidential office?  : " a wise government [...] that keeps men from injuring each other", and "But I must tell you, too, of my fears", admitted the President just at his entrance in the Capitol, without fervor. We'll try to collate both of them statements and what they imply [sq. brackets]:
Epicurus' P.D. 38: "the laws were just when they benefited human interaction, and ceased to be just only when they were no longer beneficial" and Polystratus' On Contempt: "Regarding actions [...] "People have no advantage to do the same actions like everybody, but everyone has to do specific deeds, but we do not consider it empty opinions: their variety is justified either by individual character of each [one, deed, person], or by accidental circumstances". [furthermore: “Men may choose different things, but all make a good choice” at an attentive Epicurus scholar (Loke, Essay concerning Human Understanding, Book II, chap. XXI)].
Jefferson's Inaugural: "it is possible to have different ideas without forgetting our common wish"; "The rights of the minority are equal to the rights of the majority, and must be protected with equal laws [...] "those who do not agree with them also have the right to think and speak freely." "we [don't] permit men to be punished because they do not agree with the majority" [decisions and values are grounded on "wishes" and available means, not on intersubjective cognitive postulates and demonstrations; wrongness of certain statements not being demonstrable, no gross negligence; if mistake is demonstrable no rights, in case no punishment].
Epicurus' P.D. XXXVI: "particular countries or circumstances may vary" and Polystratus' On Contempt: “to relative things – it has to be said –, oh man, not to per se things, pertain the examples [value statements] you produce”.
Jefferson's Letter to his grandson, Thomas Jefferson Randolph, 1808: "But in stating prudential rules for our government in society, I must not omit the important one of never entering into dispute or argument with another. I never saw an instance of one of two disputants convincing the other by argument" [practical reason cannot find firm true or false but common sense and useful reasonableness, Epicurean 'more or less'; if successful, give and take and positive law, which, together with custom, makes to a certain extent necessary - that is predictable - what commonly was variable and free]. Inaugural: "The rights of man will be of the highest importance in this government. Information, knowledge, and opinions must move easily and swiftly".
Epicurus' P.D. XXXIII: "Absolute justice does not exist. There are only mutual agreements among men, made at various times and places".
Jefferson's Inaugural: "I know that I shall make mistakes. And, even when I am right, there will be men who will say that I am wrong". [...] "equal justice to all men no matter what their religion [together with his friend James Madison promoted a campaign against state financial support of churches], their political beliefs, or their class" [...] "the right to trial by juries that are chosen fairly" [so he reduced number and political power of magistrates and parasitical bureaucracy, ending unnecessary - after Epicurus' lesson - patronage jobs in the executive branch, ... but with other guiltless implicated persons, getting jobless: every politician is caught between two groups]. "We cannot always do what is absolutely best. Those with whom we act have different ideas. They have the right and power to act on their ideas. " [Letters to experts in education]. For Epicurus' P.D. 36 "Justice is essentially the same for all peoples insofar as it benefits human interaction", as justice notion is not demonstrable nor intersubjective, but it is to be positive because it's useful, and must be followed in every detail; so the former chief officer of the Senate Aaron Burr, who would decide what evidence could or could not be heard in proceedings against Chase, and did not agree with all parts of the United States Constitution, was not serving with Jefferson again; and magistrates - like Chase and and the so-called 'midnight' ones (envisaging an electoral defeat, majority of two third of Supreme Court and braking judiciary power were secured)- no longer, so cheekily, used the courtroom for political purposes.

About reduction of politics, Jefferson also believed getting involved in wars - when it isn't unavoidable - would destroy his attested ability to reduce taxes , to repay larger grown federal debts as quickly as possible ("If we do not do this, our children, our grandchildren, and many generations to come will have to pay for our mistakes", said his Treasury Secretary [but with deflation risk too...]), and preferred collective usefulness calculation rather than emotional popularity from muscular exhibition and self-advertisement [Epicurean lathe biôsas]. "civil officers of the government must be first over the military officers". "A government that" [...] "does not take from them [tax payers] the fruit of their labor" [ibid.]. So government departments got less money. He ordained only an embargo with belligerent Britain and France [with inevitable smuggling consequence] in reaction of British attack against American merchant fleet and impressment of its sailors, but he did not want people to become involved in a war, failing impending danger for them. "America should have a good volunteer army to protect us in peace and in the first days of war, until we use professional soldiers" [Inaugural], as some persons' character, like Epicurean Lucretius, prefers: "obeying quietly rather than giving orders and ruling over an empire" [DRN V. 1128]”. He bought Louisiana from France, avoiding a war.
He uses the term 'wrong' only in epistemological context: "let those men speak freely, without fear. They are wrong." [They who deny free speech, for decision-making power, avert any research and are epistemologically self-confuting, ever-false]". He doesn't demonstrate the justness of democracy (as a matter of fact: take decisions without resorting to force) but shows the likelihood that "without the right of election, we will have bloody revolution" [...] "If the majority is not allowed to rule, then we will have dictatorship" [Inaugural][Is laying others democracy - on the strengt of its demostrable justness - a democratic decision? is it an international dictatorship?]. "I must tell you that the duties of your president are too much for any one man" [ibid'; the elective president was at first a provisional king...; power of veto is pragmatical and inevitable for governabiliy (and, ordinarily, no opponent is chosen for one's cabinet), but denies provisionally equality of value judgments on which democracy is based, the old problem of who is controlling the supreme controller... Marshall (1789) claimed for the Supreme Court the power to rule on laws passed by Congress. Can the court have the right to proceed against a president? Has the president the right to interfere with the corporative nepotist slowness of procedural quibbles, or to close any court? The Jeffersonian Congress said yeah (with minority hums), the Supreme [necessarily without superiors, nor opposition] Court said nay... [if the Law (not natural) is positive/power-dependent, the separation of powers brings inevitably uncertainty of positive Law]. "Most government offices," Jefferson said, "were created by laws of [former] Congress" [...] "The citizens of the United States have paid for these jobs with their taxes". Political/moral value statements are no necessary events science but of unnecessary variable desires exclamation, so they can be generalizable only to some extent, that is numerically and for the time being. "The majority of the people have won the contest"; "the only nation on the Earth whose citizens know that the government belongs to them"; but "are kings men, or are they angels?"[Inaugural]. "I had rather be shut up in a very modest cottage with my books [...] letting the world roll on as it liked, than to occupy the most splendid post, which any human power can give". [to Justice William Johnson 12 June 1823]; a personal value judgment, no generalizable decision - laying anybody injunctions with the 'sake of all' master key].
After an Epicurean connotation ("Friends and fellow citizens"), custom Epicurean greeting in the ending: "peace and happiness"[Inaugural]. Finally, as facts no words, his return to the garden of Monticello, where he never went back from, and preferred to be commemorated, in his holograph epitaph, as "Father of the University of Virginia" (drawing inspiration from beautiful buildings of ancient Greece and Rome) rather than as President, but he (like Epicurus) was forced to acknowledge all people do not have the same ability to learn.
[Perhaps he realized democracy cannot promise happiness but at the risk of turning into a latent utopian totalitarism or of fiddling free speech towards some theocratic/philosophical populism. In conclusion, he, like Epicurus and Locke, implemented the doctrine that the least government is the best government].