RonPaulalways wrote:*'Corporation' had a more general meaning in the past than today. City governments, religious organizations, etc were often referred to as corporations. Given this, I'm not sure what the 'corporations' in the quote refers to.
I suppose that's why he said "
monied corporations".
RonPaulalways wrote:Given that a "hereditary aristocracy" requires government privileges, it's quite possible he was referring to the granting of privileges/monopolies by the government to special interests (e.g. the government granted monopoly over credit given to the Federal Reserve's member banks), and advocating that such efforts should be crushed.
First of all, that argument would only be correct if you knew for sure that Jefferson shared your assumptions about the granting of economic privileges to special interests. Assuming that however seems quite anachronistic considering Jefferson's (presumable) lack of knowledge about practical examples of corporate power. After all, in the 18th century it was a largely unheard of phenomenon, particularly in the United States.
To me, the explanation that he simply thought vast accumulations of social power are likely to survive, no matter what, is much more straightforward and plausible. In England, a wealthy, landed oligarchy ruled. Is it so far-fetched to expect that the development of a wealthy, corporate oligarchy might lead to the same result and undermine democracy? In fact, it seems like a very reasonable assumption for somebody who founded a republic in a largely egalitarian country. Not to mention that it is a common theme in enlightenment political theory. (Rousseau)
Also, he is talking about those corporations defying the law of the land, not trying to influence it which makes it unlikely that he was discussing lobbying efforts.