from Slavery, T. S. Eliot's poem, "The Hollow Men," a chapter from Norman Mailer's "The Armies of the Night, Maxine Hong Kingston's story "No Name Woman," and Alice Walker's story "Everyday Use."
When Thomas Jefferson wrote to John Adams in 1813, in a letter usually known as "The Natural Aristocrat," the nation they had helped to establish had just survived another war with the British, and seemed to be secure at last. The two statesmen had many points of disagreement over the way American society should develop. Adams was in favor of an aristocratic society. But Jefferson, as his letter shows, believed that old systems, based on power and heredity, had to be set aside. Jefferson claimed that there was a natural aristocracy among humanity. But, he believed that it was based on "virtue and talents" (351). The old aristocracies tended to become stagnant, and worried more about their own good than the good of the people or the nation. As Jefferson saw it, this was the reason Americans needed a purely elective system of government. He assured Adams that, so long as the people understood what was morally desirable, they would be capable of electing the men who would guide the country. The leaders of the Revolution and the early republic, such as Adams and Jefferson, could now safely deliver the new government over to the people "who will be able to take care of it and themselves" (352).
But, the self-determination that Jefferson preached in his letter to Adams did not apply to all Americans. Native Americans, African slaves, and women of all races were the major exceptions. Thus, while Jefferson saw Americans as independent natural aristocrats who could be entrusted to manage their own republic, William Apess, a Native American, saw these same citizens as oppressors. Where Jefferson wrote in an open, rational style suited to his optimism, Apess wrote like someone delivering a sermon. Jefferson saw Americans as citizens,...