Jefferson, the Napoleonic Wars, and the Balance of Power

HE young American republic of i8oo has been compared by W. Stull Holt to a jackal living off the spoils it steals from more powerful animals diverted by fights among themselves.1 And like the jackal the United States ran the risk of becoming involved in the struggles of others. Thomas Jefferson would have appreciated this view of the republic. Indeed, he had used a similar metaphor that placed even greater stress upon the precarious position of the United States in relation to the balance of power in Europe: Tremendous times in Europe! How mighty this battle of lions and tigers! With what sensations should the common herd of cattle look on it? With no partialities, certainly. If they can so far worry one another as to destroy their power of tyrannizing, the one over the earth, the other the waters, the world may perhaps enjoy peace, till they recruit again.2 Nevertheless, he expected that the United States would not only survive the strife but would fatten on the follies of the old [nations] by winning new territory and new concessions from their wars.3 As President of the United States and as unofficial adviser to his successor, James Madison, Jefferson was in a position not only to formulate a concept of the balance of power to be expressed in this kind of metaphor, but also to put into effect, or at least to influence, policy decisions based on his understanding of the balance of power. For him and for many of his colleagues that balance represented the equilibrium achieved by the

Balance (ability · Physics · Political science · Power (physics · Thermodynamics · American Constitutional Law and Politics · American History and Culture · History · Psychology

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