malleable approach to the U. S. Constitution to serve what he considered to be in the best interests of the new nation.
ONE PEOPLE ADVANCING TOWARD A MORE PERFECT UNION
At the United States’ founding, only about 6 % of the population could participate in voting and governance, primarily white male property owners. As is well known, Jefferson’ s legacy as a champion of the right to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, equality under the law, and the consent of the governed is sullied by his ownership of over 600 enslaved Black men, women, and children throughout his lifetime. He espoused policies toward indigenous people, whose tribal nations had established their ancestral homelands on this continent for millennia, that eventually led to their forceable removal, resulting in countless deaths and other devastating consequences. His ignoring the civil and political rights of the female half the population contributed to the exclusion of women from full recognition as citizens and from the right to participate in the governance of the United States for nearly a century and a half after he penned the Declaration.
Yet Jefferson’ s dedication to extending republican political participation more comprehensively to encompass nearly all white males, in addition to his articulation of universal natural rights inherent in all human beings, set the United States on a course of continually broadening conceptualizations of citizenship. Despite his failings, Jefferson was in many ways at the vanguard of the movement expanding human rights in the new United States and around the world. Ever optimistic about human nature, he sincerely believed in the capacity of people to widen their knowledge and evolve into more conscientious, civic-minded, and community-oriented members of society. Jefferson’ s faith in the promise of humankind to become thoughtful, engaged, contributing citizens rests on their capacity to achieve a well-rounded education, which Jefferson believed to be a primary responsibility of government to provide. To help foster greater participation in the democratic republic envisioned by the Declaration and established by the Constitution, Jefferson founded the University of Virginia as his crowning accomplishment in retirement. with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors. 1
In April, I was invited to present on Jefferson, the Declaration, and the Constitution at the Democracy and Public Law Conference at the Michigan State University College of Law, and I hope to continue exploring various facets of Jefferson’ s legacy. I often encourage our law students to learn more about the Founding Fathers and the history surrounding our nation’ s foundational documents in order to understand more fully our democratic republic system of governance as set forth in our Constitution and as heralded in our Declaration of Independence.
I invite you to read the full article in the North Dakota Law Review, and I wish you all a happy 250th!
1. Quotations on the Jefferson Memorial, MONTICELLO, https:// www. monticello. org / encyclopedia / quotations-jefferson-memorial [ https:// perma. cc / Y7M3-GY8Q ]( last visited Apr. 15, 2026)( providing the quote shown on the southeast wall of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D. C.).
Julia Ernst is the Floyd B. Sperry Professor of Law at the University of North Dakota School of Law.
PERSONAL PASSION PROJECT
I initially began researching Thomas Jefferson more intensively when our daughter, Cosette Clement, became an undergraduate student at the University of Virginia( UVA), known locally as“ Mr. Jefferson’ s University.” Having visited UVA and Jefferson’ s nearby plantation, Monticello, several times, as well as teaching about Jefferson and other Founding Fathers in my Constitutional Law course, in addition to reflecting upon Jefferson’ s stamp in this region, from the Lewis and Clark Expedition’ s wintering in Mandan in 1804-1805 to visiting Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, I caught the Jefferson bug. As highlighted on the wall of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D. C., Thomas Jefferson celebrated the continual evolution of knowledge, progress, human rights, and constitutional governance:
I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand
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