What did Jean Jacques Rousseau convince Thomas Jefferson to do?

Answer 1

Rousseau presented the idea, along with other enlightenment philosophers, that just government derives its power from the "consent of the governed". Rousseau also wrote about a social contract between members of the community which would bind them together. In a series of letters written around 1813 John Adams and Thomas Jefferson wrote back and forth debating issues of government and human nature. Jefferson seemed to share Rousseau's romantic view of the poor and simple. Jefferson believed that the yeoman farmer was the ideal citizen for democracy. Why? Because they worked off the land, they were self-sufficient, they were not full of vice like the merchants and shopkeepers in the city. I don't know if this helps at all...Remember that Jefferson wrote the declaration but did not participate in the Constitutional Convention since he was in France at the time. Had he been there perhaps things would have been different, as is evidenced by his strong states rights stance and anti-federalist support for the Bill of Rights.