The Collaborative International Dictionary
Jeffersonian \Jef`fer*so"ni*an\, a. Pertaining to, or characteristic of, Thomas Jefferson (third President of the United States) or his political doctrines, which were those of the Republicanism of his time, as opposed to those of the Federalists. -- n. An adherent of Jefferson or his doctrines. -- Jef`fer*so"ni*an*ism, n.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1799 (n.), 1800 (adj.), in reference to the politics and policies of U.S. revolutionary and president Thomas Jefferson.
Wikipedia
Jeffersonian refers to several fields upon which the U.S. President Thomas Jefferson had an impact:
- Jeffersonian architecture
- Jeffersonian democracy
- Jeffersonian Bible
- The Democratic-Republican Party were called Jeffersonians, among many other things
In fiction:
- The Jeffersonian Institution, a fictional research institute in the US television program Bones, based on the real Smithsonian Institution
In transportation:
- Jeffersonian (train), a train operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad
Usage examples of "jeffersonian".
I doubt that even one Jeffersonian in five thousand realizes just how much this world lost when he died.
None the less, however, is it true that in so far as any antagonism has developed in American life between liberty and equality, the Jeffersonian Democrats have been found on the side of equality.
American democracy accepted almost literally this Jeffersonian tradition.
They repeated and celebrated the Jeffersonian catchwords with the utmost conviction.
They were, indeed, in many respects more Jeffersonian than Jefferson himself, and sought to realize some of his ideas with more energy and consistency.
The Jeffersonian creed has exercised a profound influence upon the thought of the American people, not because Jefferson was an original and profound thinker, but because of his ability to formulate popular opinions, prejudices, and interests.
Jefferson and his followers, was an anachronism in a state governed in the spirit of Jeffersonian Democratic principles.
Their association began with a group of Jeffersonian Republicans who, after the second English war, sought to resume the interrupted work of national consolidation.
American democracy, on the other hand, as embodied in the Declaration of Independence and in the spirit and letter of the Jeffersonian creed, was hostile from certain points of view to the institution of negro slavery.
Reform is both meaningless and powerless unless the Jeffersonian principle of non-interference is abandoned.
The experience of the last generation plainly shows that the American economic and social system cannot be allowed to take care of itself, and that the automatic harmony of the individual and the public interest, which is the essence of the Jeffersonian democratic creed, has proved to be an illusion.
The assumption of such a responsibility implies the rejection of a large part of the Jeffersonian creed, and a renewed attempt to establish in its place the popularity of its Hamiltonian rival.
One of these groups will stick faithfully to the principle of equal rights and to the spirit of the true Jeffersonian faith.
Democrat of both Jeffersonian and Jacksonian tendencies, who has been born a few generations too late.
But in this instance his platform was influenced more by Jeffersonian than Jacksonian ideas.