Thomas Jefferson

[78SA]

Thomas Jefferson was a very remarkable man who started learning very early in life and never stopped.

* At 5, began studying under his cousins tutor.

* At 9, studied Latin, Greek and French.

* At 14, studied classical literature and additional languages.

* At 16, entered the College of William and Mary.

* At 19, studied Law for 5 years starting under George Wythe.

* At 23, started his own law practice.

* At 25, was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses.

* At 31, wrote the widely circulated "Summary View of the Rights of British America" and retired from his law practice.

* At 32, was a Delegate to the Second Continental Congress.

* At 33, wrote the Declaration of Independence.

* At 33, took three years to revise Virginia’s legal code and wrote a Public Education bill and a statute for Religious Freedom.

* At 36, was elected the second Governor of Virginia succeeding Patrick Henry.

* At 40, served in Congress for two years.

* At 41, was the American minister to France and negotiated commercial treaties with European nations along with Ben Franklin and John Adams.

* At 46, served as the first Secretary of State under George Washington.

* At 53, served as Vice President and was elected president of the American Philosophical Society.

* At 55, drafted the Kentucky Resolutions and became the active head of Republican Party.

* At 57, was elected the third president of the United States.

* At 60, obtained the Louisiana Purchase doubling the nation’s size.

* At 61, was elected to a second term as President.

* At 65, retired to Monticello.

* At 80, helped President Monroe shape the Monroe Doctrine.

* At 81, almost single-handedly created the University of Virginia and served as its first president.

* At 83, died on the 50th anniversary of the Signing of the Declaration of Independence along with John Adams.

Thomas Jefferson knew because he himself studied the previous failed attempts at government. He understood actual history, the nature of God, his laws and the nature of man. That happens to be way more than what most understand today. Jefferson really knew his stuff. A voice from the past to lead us in the future:

John F. Kennedy held a dinner in the white House for a group of the brightest minds in the nation at that time. He made this statement: "This is perhaps the assembly of the most intelligence ever to gather at one time in the White House with the exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone."

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

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

To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.
Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson said in 1802:
I believe that 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.

[Exotix]

Government big enough to supply you ... (Quotation)

~ From Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia

Government big enough to supply you...(Quotation) - Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia


(Redirected from Government big enough to supply you) ~ The following statement, or variations thereof, is often attributed to Thomas Jefferson:


"A government big enough to supply you with everything you need, is a government big enough to take away everything that you have...."

We have never found such a statement in Jefferson's writings.

As far as we know, this statement actually originates with Gerald R. Ford, who said, "A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have," in an address to a joint session of Congress on August 12, 1974.

This quotation is sometimes followed by, "The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases," which is most likely a misquotation of Jefferson's comment, "The natural progress of things is for liberty to yeild, and government to gain ground."





Here's an analogy I like with regards to right-wing *patriotism* ...


A Pro-Government Demonstration

A Pro-Government Demonstration - TalkLeft: The Politics Of Crime



The 1.8 million admirers who gathered on the Mall to hear President Obama's inaugural address] was probably the largest pro-government demonstration in U.S. history.
A pro-government demonstration.
Think about that.
Americans turning out to celebrate government as a force for good.

Whether Americans will continue to view government in a positive light will depend upon how well the government governs, on the patience of the populace, and on the effectiveness of the Republican opposition.



The resurrection of the liberal belief in the efficacy of government is nonetheless encouraging.

Kazin writes about "the revival of Americanism" or patriotism on the left.

Kazin argues that liberals have found fresh ways to express their love of country after 40 years of conservative branding that equated disloyalty with opposition to conservative policies.

I'm not sure liberal Americanism has been revived -- we've always loved the promise of our nation and its core values of liberty, equality, and fairness -- so much as it has been unleashed.



There wasn't much to celebrate while conservatives controlled a government that relentlessly undermined those values.

For that reason, I disagree with Kazin's conclusion that "after decades in denial, progressives have finally realized that they cannot lead America if America does not hold a privileged place in their hearts."


There is nothing new about that realization, or about the liberal veneration of American values.

It has simply taken some time for those who do not define themselves as liberal or conservative to understand that right wing policies are not the logical product of patriotism and do not advance the public good.

As Kazin notes, normally mellow liberals grew outraged by the worst abuses of the most recent Bush administration and vowed to take their country back.



Whether "a liberal movement flourished" seems less clear.

Frustration with lousy government flourished as voters came to realize that viewing government as the problem assured that government would be the problem.
A government that can't respond effectively to natural disasters, that won't regulate the excesses of the financial industry, that sends soldiers to die on the basis of faulty intelligence, left voters convinced that there had to be a better way.

I doubt that most of those voters embraced the L-word.

Democrats represented an alternative and the center shifted its voting pattern.
Whether it shifted philosophically (or whether it eventually will) remains to be seen.

[78SA]

Are you disputing anything in my post or are you adding to it?

[Exotix]

Originally Posted by 78SA

Are you disputing anything in my post or are you adding to it?

Depends ... take for instance this one ...

*The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants*

~ Thomas Jefferson


2008 saw the peaceful transition of patriots overthrowing of tyrants ...

Since then, the overthrown tyrants finally achieved *the literal* Jeffersonian meaning with the Tucson killings ... big step from posting Obama next to Hitler/Stalin/Mao on *Miss Me Yet* billboards ...

Take a bow ...

[78SA]

Are you really using the Tucson shootings with that quote?

2008 wasn't an overthrow of tyrants with patriots. It was replacing one corrupt form of government for another.

[mrvette]

Originally Posted by Exotix

Depends ... take for instance this one ...

*The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants*

~ Thomas Jefferson


2008 saw the peaceful transition of patriots overthrowing of tyrants ...

Since then, the overthrown tyrants finally achieved *the literal* Jeffersonian meaning with the Tucson killings ... big step from posting Obama next to Hitler/Stalin/Mao on *Miss Me Yet* billboards ...

Take a bow ...

YOU exhibit an amazingly uneducated, liberal view of this country, and a very ignorant view of the world....I will give you this though, you are consistent in exhibiting the above two traits.....

your education, such as you may think you have, is wanting....seriously...

[Exotix]

Originally Posted by mrvette

YOU exhibit an amazingly uneducated, liberal view of this country, and a very ignorant view of the world....I will give you this though, you are consistent in exhibiting the above two traits.....

your education, such as you may think you have, is wanting....seriously...

Let me guess ... the (I)'s (libertaraian mantra) are represented by Paulie & Son ...

[mrvette]

Originally Posted by Exotix

Let me guess ... the (I)'s (libertaraian mantra) are represented by Paulie & Son ...

Damn sight more intelligent than the crap you post, not that I agree with Paul all that much.....

[Exotix]

Originally Posted by mrvette

Damn sight more intelligent than the crap you post, not that I agree with Paul all that much.....

That's because you're what's called a *lost (R)* since Bush (conservative / GOP political vacuum) ... so now you're *entitlement* is extreme fanatacism ... re-interpreting what Thomas Jefferson said into hate ...

Sad.

[ChasC5]

Originally Posted by Exotix

Let me guess ... the (I)'s (libertaraian mantra) are represented by Paulie & Son ...

Have you ever seen any of these Gun Tooting Chest Beaters ever stand up to anyone else who has a Gun?

Yea ... I'm really scared

[Exotix]

Originally Posted by ChasC5

Have you ever seen any of these Gun Tooting Chest Beaters ever stand up to anyone else who has a Gun?

Yea ... I'm really scared

Well Paulie Jr. doesn't mind stomping womens' heads into the ground ...

[Joecooool]

My problem with Jefferson is that he owned - and raped - slaves. You would think a man as smart as he was would know better.

[78SA]

Originally Posted by Exotix

That's because you're what's called a *lost (R)* since Bush (conservative / GOP political vacuum) ... so now you're *entitlement* is extreme fanatacism ... re-interpreting what Thomas Jefferson said into hate ...

Sad.

What?