Free Republic

April 13th is the birthday of one of America’s founding fathers. He was born in 1743 in Virginia. Jefferson was one of the original writers of ‘The Declaration of Independence’ which was intended to free America of Britain’s sovereignty over the colonies and thus founding the United States of America. Aside from ‘The Constitution’, ‘The Declaration of Independence’ is one of the most important documents of American history. After a year of war the American colonist were growing weary of the many taxes levied on the colonist to pay for Britain’s wars and not being represented in their political system....

That whole up-is-down, black-is-white thing that the Left’s got going does leave a sane person wondering if they’re all off their meds. How else to explain professional blowhard Michael Moore’s appearance on Colbert this week, where he offered up several big heapin’ helpings of crazy. Bet you didn't realize Professor Moore was a scholar and expert on all things Founding Father-related? Or that he and Thomas Jefferson had so much in common? Check it out: Quite a compendium of misleading statements, outright lies, and utter nonsense, no? The coup de grace has got to be that mangling of the legacy...

Last November, in response to protest, the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery removed a video installation depicting ants crawling over a small crucifix. This coming November, the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History will exhibit a cut-and-paste Bible of a mere 86 pages. Were it the work of David Wojnarowicz (the artist behind the crucifix video) or Andres Serrano (of "Piss Christ" fame), this Bible would doubtless stir up a hornet's nest. But in fact, it was created by Thomas Jefferson. During the election of 1800, Jefferson was denounced as a "howling atheist" and "a confirmed infidel" known for "vilifying the...

By literally cutting and pasting biblical passages demonstrating the life and lessons of Jesus Christ from several Bibles, Thomas Jefferson put together a book that he titled “The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth” during his retirement in 1820. The former president’s finished product would become known to historians as the Jefferson Bible. "The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth" (CNN) Nearly 200 years later, conservationists at the National Museum of American History are working to carefully preserve the 86-page book and preparing to put it on display in November. Over time, the book’s brittle paper has become...

Dozens of Thomas Jefferson's books, some including handwritten notes from the nation's third president, have been found in the rare books collection at Washington University in St. Louis. Now, historians are poring through the 69 newly discovered books and five others the school already knew about, and librarians are searching the collection for more volumes that may have belonged to the founding father. Even if no other Jefferson-owned books are found, the school's collection of 74 books is the third largest in the nation after the Library of Congress and the University of Virginia.

"To preserve [the] independence [of the people,] we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debts as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our callings and our creeds, as the people of England are, our people, like them, must come to labor sixteen hours in the twenty-four, give the earnings of fifteen of these to the government for their debts...

Thomas Jefferson was extremely vocal regarding his fear of the aggregation of power in any branch of the government. As such, he viewed the role of the Supreme Court as being one of restricting the growth of any government agency that went beyond its Constitutional authority. He certainly did not envision a court that spent its time waving a metaphorical magic wand over the expansion of faux Constitutional power. That is, I suspect he would have smiled upon the Court’s belatedly ensuring that a black citizen’s voting rights were secure but looked askance at most of the rest of the...

Thomas Jefferson's mountaintop home is teaming up with a local brewery to launch a new ale inspired by the past. The Thomas Jefferson Foundation says it's working with Starr Hill Brewery to offer Monticello Reserve Ale, inspired by what was produced and consumed regularly at Monticello.

A Church I Never Knew About http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlfEdJNn15E

The Failing of Progressive Thinkers “ It cannot be denied that we have among us a sect who believe that to contain whatever is perfect in human institutions; that the members of this sect have, many of them, name & offices which stand high in the estimation of our countrymen. I still rely that the great mass of our community is untainted with these heresies, as is it’s head. On this I build my hope that we have not labored in vain; and that our experiment will still prove that men can be governed by reason, “you said in your...

When Thomas Jefferson was fighting against the economic policies of Alexander Hamilton, he had his own newspaper at his disposal. The publisher of The National Gazette was Mr. Philip Freneau whose competancy for prose is shown below. A nostrum is a medicine whose effectiveness is unproved and whose ingredients are usually secret; a quack remedy. But the grand nostrum will be a public debt, provided enough of it can be got and it be medicated with the proper ingredients. If by good fortune a debt be ready at hand, the most is to be made of it. Stretch it and...

Founder’s Quotes – Jefferson and Hamilton on Citizens Duty to be Armed “The constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves in all cases to which they think themselves competent, or they may act by representatives, freely and equally chosen; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed; that they are entitled to freedom of person, freedom of religion, freedom of property, and freedom of the press.” Thomas Jefferson (letter to John Cartwright, 1824) ”If the representatives of the people betray...

The debate over ObamaCare brings to mind an old dispute exploding national debt brings to mind a defining conflict between two of America's founding fathers, Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. Their feud--nicely recounted in John Ferling's A Leap in the Dark: The Struggle to Create the American Republic--has parallels with today's debate, but with an ironic twist.Hamilton, our first Secretary of the Treasury, was a nationalist who had an expansive view of the powers granted to the nascent federal government under the newly-ratified Constitution. A favorite of President George Washington (in whose staff he served during the war of independence),...

*** (When I make this mark ***, I am noting a place a Blue GOP centrist sub/urbanite is apt to disagree and hang up. Instead, I invite you to comment and/or disagree, or at least reconsider and continue reading. I promise not to say anything petty about your side…or tell a Mitch joke…but do try to put your whole mind to this. I’ll admit you’re my betters if you’ll admit you have a real short attention span.) The Hook I was at a party Friday with an old friend and long time Virginia Republican Party insider. A strong conservative when...

When I was a boy my family had a Time-Life book on the mind which featured a chart of the presumed IQs of famous dead men. Goethe, as I recall, led the pack, at 210. But the Founding Fathers did very well: Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington all scored over 150. As the Fourth of July approaches, we'd do well to remember that the Founders were a smart lot, with few gentleman's C's among them. Yet they didn't know everything. They were strongest in law, political philosophy and history--all essential subjects for revolutionaries and statesmen. But another subject,...

Virginia Sen. Jim Webb recently wrote an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal titled "Diversity and the Myth of White Privilege" that really brought home the foolishness of pining for a "conversation on race." The headline itself was a device meant to drive conservatives to cheering, liberals to howling, and the whole of them to page-clicking and reading. Webb's piece was about affirmative action, and his argument was much more nuanced than the headline — sympathetic to the argument for historical redress for African-Americans, unsympathetic to hazy appeals to diversity, appealing for more discussion of a seemingly invisible class of...

For decades, there have been those who have not only coveted political power, but have gained that power and have, through a variety of cunning devises, used not only the legislative, but the executive and judicial bodies of our government to accomplish a system of the centralization of power that now affects every area in the lives of the People of this country. This pernicious system of centralization is stamped with the indelible character of a growing aggravated oppression.

Free Speech and the Constitution are under attack. These research notes will help us gain historic perspective. The Sedition Act of 1798. A. The Philosophical Difference Hamilton and John Adams were the driving force behind the philosophy of power. They wanted strong military, powerful industry, and strong central government -- the Federalist Party. Thomas Jefferson led the opposing view -- lean military budget, weak central government, and an agricultural society that was considered to be more virtuous. [For the most part, I like America to be strong. But how much power should one political party have?] Democrats claim that Thomas...

to say “I am free” is to stand up for yourself, to take the first step to freedom. America’s independent stance began in earnest and in union with a few simple words: Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved. The resolution, written by Virginia representative Richard Henry Lee and accepted by a vote of colonial representatives, made history. As John...

At this time of the year, while most U.S. citizens are contemplating U.S. independence and the Declaration of Independence, I ask myself why, in 19 years of teaching in the New York Public Schools, I have not once heard the students gathered to sing in any assembly or forum "America the Beautiful," " God Bless America," or "My Country ‘Tis of Thee?"  The National Anthem has only been sung once a year at the graduation ceremonies.  This serious omission of patriotic fervor can be attributed to the leftist influence on the school system.  Most leftists believe the Declaration of Independence...