Posted on 09/14/2007 11:45:32 AM PDT by Loud Mime
It must be observed that our revenues are raised almost wholly on imported goods.
Thomas Jefferson (letter to Gouverneur Morris, 1793)
“Love your neighbor as yourself and your country more than yourself.”
Thomas Jefferson
“Wish not so much to live long as to live well.
Benjamin Franklin (Poor Richard's Almanack, June 1746)
“He who finds diamonds must grapple in mud and mire because diamonds are not found in polished stones. They are made.”
Henry Wilson
“The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.”
George Orwell
“Those familiar with the Clinton response to scandal know the process by heart. It inevitably goes something like this: first, deny any wrongdoing; then explain it as a misunderstanding or bureaucratic mistake; when it is clear there is actual wrongdoing begin to stonewall and obfuscate; then move on to simultaneously attacking anyone who brings up the scandal and dismissing the issue as old news.”
Richard Collins
Have a wonderful weekend, everybody!
Libs despise their country. Absolutely hate it with a passion. It is the root of all evil. And as far as loving your neighbor... they hate him too, if he's a conservative. And don't have much use for him if he's a fellow liberal whose views aren't as extreme as theirs. Jefferson knew we'd be in BIG trouble if this ever happened to the country.
The Jefferson quotes are great. I wonder what he was saying in the first one.
I’ll agree about one thing: Liberals, as a tribe, are the most conceited people I’ve ever known. It is a most-dangerous religion.
I’m not sure, but at the time we didn’t have a national income tax. Odds are that he was speaking about the current system.
I’ll do some research on this when I have a few minutes.
It’s not often I feel moved to disagree with a quote from one of the founders, but I prefer the original to Jefferson’s.
Matthew 22:
Jesus replied: “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.
The Constitution created several mechanisms for the federal government to raise revenue.
The first mechanism was to dun the states for their share of the federal budget based on population. This never caught on because there was no enforcement mechanism. After Jackson put Taney on the Supreme Court, the flow of power to the federal government, as directed by John Marshall, reversed to the states. The Supreme Court determined that there was no way the federal governemnt could force the states to cough up money.
The second mechanism was "excises and imposts". This got its first try when Congress taxed whiskey in 1794 and accidently started a rebellion on the frontier where no money circulated and everyone was on the Alcohol Standard, a form of barter.
Tariffs were raised on imported goods, inititally to raise revenue. But then Henry Clay of Kentucky came up with the "American Plan", a form of economic nationalism, that assigned tariffs to raise revenue and protect fledgling American industries. It was a failure to esimate the importance of industrialization and protectionism that led to the attempted secession of South Carolina in 1832. (Read States' Rights and the Union, by Forrest McDonald, for details as to how the crisis was precipitated.)
As the role of the federal government expanded after the War Between the States, there was a need for greater revenues, which led to the 16th Amendment. And that is a subject for a whole other thread.
"4. The seventeenth article of our treaty leaves armed vessels free to conduct, whithersoever they please, the ships and goods taken from their enemies without paying any duty, and to depart and be conducted freely to the places expressed in their commissions, which the captain shall be obliged to show. It is evident, that this article does not contemplate a freedom to sell their prizes here; but on the contrary, a departure to some other place, always to be expressed in their commission, where their validity is to be finally adjudged. In such case, it would be as unreasonable to demand duties on the goods they had taken from an enemy, as it would be on the cargo of a merchant vessel touching in our ports for refreshment or advices; and against this the article provides. But the armed vessels of France have been also admitted to land and sell their prize-goods here for a consumption, in which case, it is as reasonable they should pay duties, as the goods of a merchantman landed and sold for consumption. They have however demanded, and as a matter of right, to sell them free of duty, a right, they say, given by this article of the treaty, though the article does not give the right to sell at all. Where a treaty does not give the principal right of selling, the additional one of selling duty free cannot be given: and the laws, in admitting the principal right of selling, may withhold the additional one of selling duty free. It must be observed, that our revenues are raised almost wholly on imported goods. Suppose prize-goods enough should be brought in to supply our whole consumption. According to their construction we are to lose our whole revenue. I put the extreme case to evince, more extremely, the unreasonableness of the claim. Partial supplies would affect the revenue but partially. They would lessen the evil, but not the error, of the construction: and I believe we may say, with truth, that neither party had it in contemplation, when penning this article, to abandon any part of its revenue for the encouragement of the sea-robbers of the other."
Source
use "search" for some key words in order.
See Post #8.
I don’t think you’re disagreeing with Jefferson; you’re just observing additional areas.
Any nation that allows us the liberty to love God deserves some love itself....and great protection.
And that is a subject for a whole other thread...
yep....a big one!
Richard Collins nailed the clintoons, especially the hildebeast.
I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826)
We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.
Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826), letter to Samuel Kercheval, July 12, 1816
The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826)
Lily: The Clinton’s are excused from their games by the doting media. I’m still “waiting” for Hillary’s apology for saying the vast right wing conspiracy was bringing up fictitious charges.
Vet: The Jefferson quotes you cited are proof that our government has strayed away from its original design....and strayed badly.
I think they had to import many goods in those days, and that they taxed those imports. Homeowners were taxed according to how many windows or doors were in their houses. As was said, there was no income tax (until 1913).
People serving in government were not highly paid, if paid at all, thus it was termed “service”, and they did not make lifelong careers out of their service. Congress was not in session all but 62 or so days out of the year, as it is now, so the “bureaucrats” kept their day jobs.
I would like to see that last paragraph reinstituted in this country today.
Yep. Greed is one of the main motivator in liberalism.
The reason that the liberals want big government is because they don’t want to give to charity; they want their taxes to provide for others instead of defending the nation.
Their pitch for years has been where all that war money could have gone; health care, free abortions, gay communities, bisexual lawyers to represent homeless porn stars in second-hand cigarette smoke cases at McDonalds, etc..
.....watch them use it to buy more votes when the time comes.
Great points!
Seriously. We need to limit congress to 60 days a year. Nearly 12,000 pieces of legislation are introduced every session....about 200 make it through the maze.
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