A Meeting of Minds

This image appeared on the cover of Korais’ Salpisma Polemistirion (1801) or Military Bugle Call. Hellas, or Greece, is depicted as a hostage (omiros) of the Turks, on the ruins of its Classical glory.

In 1823, the third year of the revolution, Adamantios Korais (1748–1833), a leading figure of the Greek Enlightenment and fervent proponent of liberty for his native Hellas, wrote to Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) to request advice on state-building. Jefferson, drawing from his own experience on state-building during the first half-century of American independence, responded with advice. Consisting of four letters exchanged over the span of one-and-a-half years (July 1823–January 1825), their correspondence reveals their shared faith in elective government, as well as in the power of education to produce enlightened citizens and, by extension, well-governed states.

An eyewitness and admirer of the French Revolution, Korais considered liberty as the ultimate civic good and tirelessly advocated for the character formation and citizen training that would allow his compatriots to attain and then safeguard it. He reached out to Jefferson out of concern that the Greeks lacked experience in self-government and were, therefore, unprepared to address the crises of early statehood. Jefferson declared his (and his country’s) unwavering moral support for Greek independence but made clear that U.S. foreign policy did not allow military involvement in Europe; this posture was shortly thereafter formalized in the Monroe Doctrine. Jefferson’s moral support for the Greek cause derived from his admiration for Greece as the first civilized nation, which provided an example of what man should be. At the same time, he considered the political systems of ancient Athens and Sparta no longer practicable in the modern age and unable to guarantee the equal rights and happiness of every individual. As a means of ensuring these rights, Jefferson recommended a representative or republican form of government.

Thomas Jefferson was the main author of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Reflecting important Enlightenment ideas, Jefferson’s document was heavily influenced by John Locke’s Second Treatise on Government, as it justified the right to revolt and affirmed the principle of “inalienable rights” and “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”