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Jefferson and the Russian Decembrists1
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 January 2017
Extract
“Death cannot frighten us: Our goal has been reached!“
RyleevThe American revolution and its leaders: George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and the author of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, stirred the imagination and hope of the entire freedom-loving world not only in the eighteenth century, but even later, especially when it became clear that the French Revolution, submerging its republican principles in the Napoleonic regime and in the Bourbon restoration, would not fulfill its initial commitments. America alone remained the embodiment of those democratic principles for which mankind had already proved its willingness to fight.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright
- Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies 1950
Footnotes
1
The investigation of this subject was first undertaken by the author in 1942 and was mentioned in the article, written by ChinardGilbertProfessor: “Jefferson and the Russian Decembrists1,” The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, XXX, No. 2 (September, 1943), 183–84.
References
2 The formula of Thomas Jefferson, to be found in his political writing.
3 Gilbert Chinard, Jefferson et les ideologues, “The Johns Hopkins Studies in Romance Literature and Languages,” I (1925), 11–12.
4 Alexander Radiščev, “Oda Vol'nost',” Putečestvie iz Peterburga v Moskvu (Leningrad, 1938), pp. 355–56.
5 Ibid., pp. 241, 262–63, 336–37. See also Starcev, A.: “Venjamin Franklin i russkoe obscestvo XVIII veka,” International'naja Literatura, No. 3–4 (1940), p. 208 Google Scholar. The inscription under the portrait of Franklin, made by the famous Carmontelle, was a translation of the well known Latin epigram on Franklin: “Eripuit coelo fulmen sceptrumque tyrannis” (He snatched the lightning from the hands of the gods and the scepter from the hands of the tyrants).
6 Kameneckij, B., “Materialy o russko-amerikanskikh otnošenijakh XVIII-XIX vv. v russkikh izdanijakh,” Istoriceskij Zurnal, No. 3–4 (1943), p. 73.Google Scholar
7 Philadelphia, W. Duane, 1811. This was the first edition of Destutt de Tracy's book. The French editions succeeded it in Europe: in Liège in 1817 and in Paris in 1819 (two editions) and 1822. In her book, The Philosophy of Thomas Jefferson (New York, 1943), p. 57 (note 14), Adrienne Koch, on the basis of Jefferson's letter to John Adams (Monticello, October 14, 1816, M.E., XV, 75), stresses the fact that Tracy was afraid to publish his books in France while Napoleon was in power.
8 “Cet ouvrage éxiste depuis plus de douze ans. Je l'avais čcrit pour M. Jefferson, l'homme de deux mondes que je respects de plus, et, s'il le jugeait a propos, pour les Etats-Unis de l'Amérique du Nord, ou en effet il a été imprimé en 1811.” (Commentaire sur I'Esprit des lois de Montesquieu, par Destutt de Tracy, Paris, 1819).
9 ”… Si Ton met à part quelques points de détails, Destutt de Tracy exposait avec la plus grande clarté et démontrait par un rigoureux raisonnement, les principes meme qui constituent le fondement de la Jeffersonian democracy. En bien des endroits la ressemblance est telle que Jefferson aurait pu écrire des pages entières du Commentaire sans y changer un seul mot et Ton ne peut s'empêcher de penser qu'il y a là autre chose qu'une simple rencontre.” (G. Chinard, Jefferson et les idélogues, p. 45). The influence of Jefferson's democratic ideas on Destutt de Tracy's book was later also analyzed by A. Koch, op. cit., pp. 59, 152, 154–61.
10 G. Chinard, “Jefferson et les idéologues,” p. 58. It is interesting to note that upon Jefferson's recommendation, Tracy's Review of Montesquieu had been adopted by Bishop Madison at William and Mary College as an elementary book of instruction in the principles of civil government. (See Jefferson's letters quoted in G. Chinard, Jefferson et les idéologues, pp. 96, 203 and A. Koch, op. cit., pp. 56, 61–62, 154).
11 G. Chinard, “Jefferson's Influence Abroad,” p. 172 and Jefferson et les idéologues, p. 95.
12 Semevskij, V., Političeskija i obščestvennyja idei Deiabristov (St. Petersburg, 1909), p. 546.Google Scholar
13 Ibid., p. 506.
14 Pavlov-Silvanskij, N., “Dekabrist Pestel pered Verkhovnym Sudom,” Donskaja Ret (Rostov, 1906), p. 28.Google Scholar
15 G. Chinard, “Jefferson's Influence Abroad,” p. 179.
16 V. Semevskij, op. cit., p. 508.
17 Ibid., p. 507. Another Decembrist, Kakhovskij, in his letter to General Levašev, expresses the following opinion about Washington: “The United States will shine as an example even to distant generations. The name of Washington, the friend and benefactor of the people, will pass from generation to generation; the memory of his devotion to the welfare of the Fatherland will stir the hearts of citizens.” See Mazour, A., The First Russian Revolution, 182;, The Decembrist Movement (Berkeley, Calif, 1937), p. 275.Google Scholar
18 Mazour, op. cit., p. 78.
19 Ibid., p. 93.
20 Ibid., pp. 224–25.
21 Iorga, N., Histoire des relations russo-roumaines (Jassy, 1917), pp. 275–76.Google Scholar
22 Vernadsky, G., Political and Diplomatic History of Russia (Boston, 1936), p. 317 Google Scholar. It is interesting to note that the American Constitution and the American political ideas had their impact not only upon the Decembrists, but also upon the projects of the Russian government at the beginning of the nineteenth century. See G. Vernadsky, La Chart Constitutionllie de l'Émpire Russe de fan 1820 (Paris, 1933) and “Reforms under Czar Alexander I: French and American Influences,” The Review of Politics, IX, No. 1 (January, 1947), 47–64.