Free Republic

Post your favorite quote and why it is your favorite. April 13 is Thomas Jefferson’s 275th Birthday. Since I share his birthday, I have long been a fan. But that is mainly because the drafter of the Declaration of Independence was the most prolific of our founders, especially on the topics of liberty and the rights that America was created to preserve and protect. It is worth celebrating his bicenterquasiquigenary (according to the only website I found providing a latin name) by remembering his profound words.

•President Calvin Coolidge was born in Plymouth, Vt., on July 4, 1872. He is the only president born on July 4; however, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe all died on the Fourth of July. •One lucky Philadelphian purchased a $4 picture at a flea market. Behind the picture was an original 1776 printing of the Declaration of Independence. It was sold to TV producer Norman Lear for $8.1 million. •After the war, King George III rationalized that Washington would become a dictator and make the Americans yearn for royal rule. When he was told that Washington planned to...

Archaeologists have uncovered the 250-year-old kitchen of Thomas Jefferson's enslaved chef, James Hemings, who introduced mac and cheese and meringues into US culture. Hemings became the property of Thomas Jefferson in January of 1774 when he was just nine years old. His younger sister is Sally Hemings, who had six children believed to have been fathered by Jefferson after the death of his wife Martha Jefferson. Growing up, Hemings was one of Jefferson's favorite servants and even accompanied him to Paris, France, in 1784. In France, Hemings learned the art of French cookery and upon their return to America, he...

New York Times columnist Charles Blow took to Twitter Friday afternoon with a message of unity, no doubt inspired by Divine Providence after rejoicing in the Thanksgiving holiday. Just kidding. The author of “Fire Shut Up in My Bones” told his followers point blank that Trump fans need not apply for friendship. If u support Trump, we don't have anything to talk abt & we can't be friends. This isn't abt parties or ideology; This is abt right & wrong— Charles M. Blow (@CharlesMBlow) November 24, 2017 He followed up his Tweet saying that Trump’s lying was the cornerstone of his...

When something happens in my own community that triggers alarm bells, I am compelled to write. And this subject provides an excellent learning opportunity, which is one important purpose of the Language of Liberty series. Last Thursday, November 2nd, the City Board of Alderman in Sparta, Tennessee declined a motion to allow citizen input at City Board meetings. Their decision is now a part of the public record: a policy that alienates the people they represent and is repugnant to the Framers' original intent of free speech enshrined in the First Amendment. City Board meetings are required to be open...

As a young person, my first encounter with the word LIBERTY came from the verse “Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty”. Naturally inquisitive, I wondered, “So then, what is LIBERTY?” because “wherever the Spirit of the Lord is” there IT is…right? Another encounter I had with this word came from the Declaration of Independence. “We hold these truths to be self-evident…that we are endowed by our creator with Life, LIBERTY, and the Pursuit of Happiness…” At the time, I thought to myself, “it’s easy to know what Life and Pursuit of Happiness are, but again, what...

Our nation's leftist progressives have long sought to undermine the American values expressed in our Declaration of Independence and Constitution. Though typical Democrats and Republicans do not have this leftist hate for our nation, they have been willing accomplices in undermining the most basic value the Founding Fathers sought to promote -- limited government. Leftists have had their greatest successes in undermining American values on the nation's college campuses. Derelict and dishonest college administrators, professors and boards of trustees have given them carte blanche. Let's look at some of it. Students at the University of Virginia want to remove the...

Many, many moons ago I wrote asking the question: "Did Jefferson believe that liberty had a nineteen year lifespan?" Knowing more now than I knew then about Jefferson's own writings, the answer is clearly no. But I can point to it here instead of searching in vain for it. Jefferson did write to Madison that "No society can make a perpetual Constitution or even a perpetual law. The earth belongs always to the living generation." I had struggled with this, because I knew progressives were liars and were at times using this phrase in order to advance their narrative. The...

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Thick tomes on the laws of England. Half a dozen legal dictionaries. Books on Roman law and maritime law. Those are some of the books Thomas Jefferson thought aspiring lawyers should be reading or using as reference. The University of Virginia has been working to make the hundreds of books on Jefferson's legal reading list available to the public through an online library. The book list goes back to the creation of the University of Virginia, a project Jefferson took on after he finished serving two terms as America's third president. A voracious reader himself, Jefferson believed...

The whole idea of a free society is based on a very simple idea that is very hard to live by: People have the right to be wrong. This idea has ancient roots, but it was always and everywhere a minority opinion, unpopular with both the masses and the rulers, until relatively recently. In the "modern" era, its status as one of the defining ideas of Western civilization can be traced to the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648. After a century of bloody religious wars between Catholics and Protestants -- with Jews often getting caught in the crossfire -- the...

On Friday, September 15, the Associated Press reported on a fascinating new wrinkle in the centuries-old face of unconstitutional federal activity, and the details might surprise many who are concerned about the sticky issue of “immigration”. According to the report, Federal District Judge Harry Leinenweber just ruled that Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the Justice Department cannot withhold federal “public safety” grants to so-called “Sanctuary Cities” if the politicians in those cities did not conform to federal immigration policies. This, in effect, temporarily removes a powerful tool in the Trump Administration’s work shed as the President attempts to wrangle with...

Republican presidents from Dwight D. Eisenhower to George H. W. Bush have referred to U. S. Supreme Court decisions as "the law of the land." Actually, that distinction belongs to the document we celebrate today—the U. S. Constitution. If you want a good treatise on it, read The Theme Is Freedom: Religion, Politics, and the American Tradition by M. Stanton Evans. "In fact, the Constitution was the work not of a moment, an hour, or even a lifetime, but of two millennia of Western thought, political struggle and hard-won knowledge about the state," Evans wrote. "The Constitution is an almost...

A group has now covered the statue of Thomas Jefferson that sits in front of the University of Virginia Rotunda. Dozens turned out with Black Lives Matter signs around 8 p.m. Tuesday. Three people were on the statue that is covered in black.

...In late 1998, the prestigious scientific journal Nature announced that it had conducted DNA testings which proved that Thomas Jefferson had fathered a child with Sally Hemings. According to Nature:Almost two hundred years ago, Thomas Jefferson was alleged to have fathered children by his slave Sally Hemings. The charges have remained controversial. Now, DNA analysis confirms that Jefferson was indeed the father of at least one of Hemings’ children.1 (snip) These authors, however, deliberately ignored the non-paternity results of the DNA testing. In fact, the original Nature article had reported that Thomas Woodson–the child that oral traditions claim was born...

snip - Adam Kimelman, a third-year College student and chair of the College Republicans, said he supported the sentiment of the demands, but took issue with some aspects of the list. “I agree we should have more black students here, but we can’t put a quota on it, that’s literally unconstitutional,” he said. He also took issue with calling Thomas Jefferson a symbol of white supremacy, and claimed the University wouldn’t take some of the demands seriously. “We could definitely use an amendment to make these things more reasonable,” Kimelman said. One of the demands on the list specifically references...

Only those who are so-called “woke” (I just threw up in my mouth) are deserving of statues in American history. That’s what CNN commentator Angela Rye said during a panel discussion with CNN’s Kate Bolduan. As the nation descends into chaos concerning political commentary over the violence that occurred in Charlottesville, Virginia that left scores of people injured and one woman dead, we’re on the discussion of statues. White nationalists descended into the city last Saturday to supposedly protest the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue. Far left counter protesters arrived and skirmishes broke out. It culminated when a...

Like your favorite radio hosts I’m doing a “best of” today. Happy Birthday America! From 2010: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? These founding documents were designed and declared with full knowledge of human nature and complete understanding of the soul’s tendencies. The result was the formation of a more perfect union which has stood the test of time in no small part due to the wisdom of these founders who crafted a near sacred separation of powers within the government they created.  Let us honor their courage, their genius and their foresight. And for our part, let us be ever...

Almost everyone knows Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. But did you know he also wrote a Declaration of Arms? A year prior to Congress’ adoption and ratification of the Declaration of Independence, the members were signing a declaration to pick up arms against the mother country. And Jefferson was again the primary author. Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence when he was just 33 years old, the youngest member of Congress. He penned the Declaration of Arms when he was just 32 years old. Jefferson’s eloquence in written expression was apparent to John Adams, who later described him...

The establishment media became upset this weekend after President Donald Trump canceled the “White House Muslim Iftar Dinner tradition started by Thomas Jefferson.” But the media is wrong in every respect. Thomas Jefferson never held any Iftar dinner and only three out of 45 presidents ever hosted one, so there is no such “tradition” to cancel. Amy B. Wang of the Washington Post led the pack with this nonsense that Thomas Jefferson held the “first Iftar dinner” with a June 24 piece entitled, “Trump just ended a long tradition of celebrating Ramadan at the White House.” The often-used claim that Thomas Jefferson...

The establishment media became upset this weekend after President Donald Trump canceled the “White House Muslim Iftar Dinner tradition started by Thomas Jefferson.” But the media is wrong in every respect. Thomas Jefferson never held any Iftar dinner and only three out of 45 presidents ever hosted one, so there is no such “tradition” to cancel. Amy B. Wang of the Washington Post led the pack with this nonsense that Thomas Jefferson held the “first Iftar dinner” with a June 24 piece entitled, “Trump just ended a long tradition of celebrating Ramadan at the White House.” The often-used claim that Thomas Jefferson...