and the tranquility of retirement." (254)Self-actualized individuals also have a genuine desire to help the human race. "He was the nation's first 'man of the people,' fighting privalege, embracing the rights of and placing trust in the ordinary citizen. (4) Jefferson also drafted the Declaration of Independence, along with other important political documents. This also shows his strong etical feelings. Another characteristic set by Maslow about self-actualized people.Self-actualized individuals have an unuual ability to detect the spurios, the fake, and the dishonest in people. After reading a letter from George Rogers Clark, shortly after his wife died, he replied, “I perceive by your letter you are not unapprised that your services to your country have not made due impression on every mind. That you have enemies you must not doubt, when you reflect that you have made yourself eminent. If you meant to escape malice you should have confined yourself within the sleepy line of regular duty. When you transgressed this and enterprized deeds which will hand down your name with honour to future times, you made yourself a mark for malice and envy to shoot at. Of these there is enough both in and out of office.” (199) He had written to Jefferson of his disillusionment with the unnamed people who disapproved of his “Quixotic Schemes.” (199)Maslow believed that self-acutalized people could learn from anyone who had something to teach. Jefferson felt that “whatever he built was a site for learning and repose…that knowledge is power, that knowledge is safety, that knowledge is happiness.” (254-255)Jefferson had mission after mission in his life. “His first and persitent focus was the fate of Virginia, “my homecountry,” as he called it. He sought to rewrite Virginia’s criminal code, structure a system of public education, and ensure religious freedom.” (4) Then he...
