Posted on 03/07/2009 9:45:51 AM PST by Rennes Templar
When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe
Thomas Jefferson
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
It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which, if acted on, would save one-half the wars of the world.
Thomas Jefferson
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
My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.
Thomas Jefferson
Banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.
Thomas Jefferson
No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.
Thomas Jefferson
The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.
Thomas Jefferson
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Thomas Jefferson
My favorite founding father.... if his writings were studied by students, we would not be where we are today. Teach your children that they may be able to escape the bondage we have forged for them.........
Jefferson must be rolling in his grave now to see the country he helped build being destroyed.
My favorite Jefferson quote:
In a prophetic letter decades before the Civil War ,
President Thomas Jefferson expressed the fears
of many of his contemporaries over conflicts
of states’ rights, westward settlement, federalism and slavery.
“This momentous question,
like a fire bell in the night,
awakened and filled one with terror,
I considered it at once as the knell of the Union.
It is hushed indeed for the moment.
but this is a reprieve only,
not a final sentence . . .
we have the wolf by the ears
and we can neither hold him
nor safely let him go.”
As with Tom and his hundreds of slaves?
Washington freed all his slaves on his death, with provision for their training as well as maintenance of the elderly. For him to be able to do so required considerable economy in his lifestyle during his later years.
By contrast, Tom chose to live beyond his income throughout his life. He died deeply in debt and most of his slaves were sold off in job lots by his creditors.
Tom talked a good game about liberty, but he sure didn't walk the walk.
Oh, and you forgot to mention his alleged dalliance with the slave, Sally What’s Her Name. . and I may have missed some other allegation or the other. At any rate, he DID more of some account in his life than I have, so . .
>talked a good game about liberty, but he sure didn’t walk the walk
You are an idiot. He was represenative of the contemporary times in which negroes were barely even thought of as human, let alone equals.
Buzz off. Don’t bother to reply, I won’t even look at your trash.
He has probably been turning over and over for atleast 150 years. There is some speculation that he didn’t expect it to last more than 20.
George Washington was also a product of his time, and he behaved quite differently, admirably in fact. As did a good many other slaveowners.
It must have pained him greatly.
“The problem with socialism is, eventually you run out of other peoples money.”
Margaret Thatcher
Actually, Mr. Jefferson was largely responsible for the abolition of slavery in the Northwest Territory (which included all or part of the future States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota), at a time when slavery was still legal in New York and New Jersey. In addition, as President, he signed into law the bill prohibiting the importation of slaves into the United States.
- Thomas Jefferson, 1791
From "Summary View," written in 1774, about two-third the way through the document:
"“The abolition of domestic slavery is the great object of desire in those colonies, where it was unhappily introduced in their infant state. But previous to the enfranchisement of the slaves we have, it is necessary to exclude all further importations from Africa; yet our repeated attempts to effect this by prohibitions, and by imposing duties which might amount to a prohibition, have been hitherto defeated by his majesty's negative..." (This last part means that the King was importing slaves against the will of the colonists, in the opinion of Jefferson.)
This is from the first rough draft of the "Declaration of Independence":
“...he has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it’s most sacred rights of life & liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. this piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the CHRISTIAN king of Great Britain. determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought & sold..."
It is, of course, paradoxical that Jefferson owned slaves, but I would point out that we also live with a variety of social circumstances with which we disagree. Conservatives, for example, generally don't agree with abortion and yet we fund it with tax dollars. The analogy is not precise, but I think you get my point.
Thomas Jefferson was indeed opposed to the expansion of slavery and was in favor of its eventual abolition.
However, unlike Washington, he was unwilling to modify his own lifestyle so as to be able to eventually free his own slaves. IOW, he wanted others to eventually free their slaves, but wasn’t willing to do what was necessary to free his own.
I’ve visited Monticello, and it’s a beautiful building. But he went deeply into debt to build it and stock it with books, scientific instruments and a massive wine cellar. IOW, his own personal comfort was far more important to him than the eventual freedom of the hundreds of people he owned.
This contrasts remarkably with Washington, who scrimped so that his slaves could be freed in his will.
I’ve always thought conservatives expected leaders to actually implement in their own lives the ideals they claim to pursue. Jefferson just didn’t do that. Washington did.
Well let’s remove him from Mt. Rushmore and replace him with Obama. That should make you happy.
It is not unreasonable to recognize an achievement, while acknowledging the failures. We are all flawed in a great many ways. Sherman Logan is just noting that Jefferson had his own level of hypocrisy, as do I...and you.
Thanks.
Jefferson was a very great man. Unfortunately, serious character flaws meant he didn’t implement in his own life the principles he claimed to believe in.
You are correct about Jefferson, but folks don’t like to hear it. For anyone with a Jeffersonian bent, Madison is a far more admirable person. Jefferson was all talk.
Right on, Bill! ANYONE looking down on the mountain of things Jefferson did to take America from tyranny to Independence, soley from his patriotism and love of America, is petty at minimum.
Some even intelligent folks lead with their feelings instead of their minds, yep even if some degree conservative.
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