Compare And Contrast Jackson And Thomas Jefferson

Jefferson , the third U.S. president, actually copied twenty-six different passages from Beccaria’s text into his Commonplace Book by hand. Jefferson drafted three proposals for Virginia’s constitution that would have curtailed the death penalty’s use, and the Declaration of
Independence famously recites the “inalienable” right to life. While Jefferson was part of a committee that expanded the death penalty’s availability in wartime, he also became a member of the Virginia Committee of Revisors for legal reform, drafting a bill for Virginia’s legislature specifically calling for proportionate punishments (citation).
In a draft autobiography, written in the twilight of his life, Jefferson would reflect on the bill’s narrow defeat even as he

As Jefferson wrote:
“Beccaria and other writers on crimes and punishments had satisfied the reasonable world of the unrightfulness and inefficacy of the punishment of crimes by death” (citation). Noting that “hard labor on roads, canals and other public works, had been suggested as a proper substitute,” Jefferson pointed out that “[t]he Revisors had adopted these opinions; but the general idea of our country had not yet advanced to that point” (citation). In 1816, Jefferson penned a letter to William Wirt, the author of a biography of Patrick Henry. In that letter, Jefferson said, with obvious satisfaction, that Virginia “justly prides itself on having gone thro’ the revolution without a single example of capital punishment connected with that” (citation).
Thomas Jefferson also revealed his genuine affection for Beccaria’s book in another piece of correspondence. As president, Jefferson, an avid book collector and one of the most well-read men of his time, would write a telling letter in 1807 recommending that its recipient, one John Norvell, read “Beccaria on crimes & punishments”—one of only a handful of books Jefferson recommended on the principles of

Peterson’s biography of Thomas Jefferson, it is revealed that Jefferson read Beccaria’s book in the original Italian soon after it was published (Peterson, 1970). Furthermore, he copied lenthy passages from “On Crimes and Punishments” into his commplace book, a notebook of his literary and philosophical readings. As an attorney practicing before the General Court in Virginia, he had an opportunity to see some of the problems with the criminal justice system in Virginia. As part of a committee to revise the criminal law in his home state, he sought agreement that capital punishment should be abolished for all crimes excerpt treason and wilful murder. While he couldn’t accomplish this, he did set forth proposals for more humanitarian treatment of offenders. Like Beccaria, he proposed a new classification of crimes for Virginia and then that the punishments be suited to each of the three categories of crime. It was clear that he was influenced by Beccaria when he articulated three cardinal principles. First was that punishment is an evil in itself and is justified only in so far as it rehabilitates criminals and prevents future crimes. Also, that the death penalty should be the last resort. Second was that punishments more severe than necessary defeat their purpose. Third, crimes are more effectively prevented by the certainty of punishment—not by the severity of punishment. Jefferson’s proposed bill, the “Bill on Crimes and Punishments,” for a more humanitarian