Jefferson

"We are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it."

Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson (13 April 1743 – 4 July 1826) was author of the Declaration of Independence (1776) and the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1777), founder of the University of Virginia (1819), the third president of the United States (1801–1809), a political philosopher, editor of Jefferson's Bible (1819), and one of the most influential founders of the United States. He has been sometimes labeled a deist but we might want to understand that term better to understand the man.

Jefferson was clearly religious but also had serious problems with some practices and thinking of clerical groups and their practice of religion. Understanding a common definition of Religion in the eighteenth century and how it is decidedly different from the way the term is used today may also shed some light on the controversies surrounding Jefferson and his view of religion.

Quotes

“Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.”

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

“Honesty is the first chapter of the book wisdom.”

Thomas Jefferson

“The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.”

Thomas Jefferson

“I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.”

Thomas Jefferson

“The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.”

Thomas Jefferson

“On matters of style, swim with the current, on matters of principle, stand like a rock.”

Thomas Jefferson

“The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.”

Thomas Jefferson

“I'm a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it”

Thomas Jefferson

“We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.”

Thomas Jefferson

“I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.”

Thomas Jefferson

“Our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions any more than our opinions in physics or geometry...”

Thomas Jefferson, Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom

“History, in general, only informs us what bad government is.”

Thomas Jefferson, Letters of Thomas Jefferson

“I have observed, indeed, generally, that while in protestant countries the defections from the Platonic Christianity of the priests is to Deism, in catholic countries they are to Atheism. Diderot, D'Alembert, D’Holbach, Condorcet, are known to have been among the most virtuous of men. Their virtue, then, must have had some other foundation than the love of God.

[Letter to Thomas Law, 13 June 1814]”

Thomas Jefferson, Letters of Thomas Jefferson

Religion

"for I have sworn upon the altar of god, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."

Context:

"I promised you a letter on Christianity, which I have not forgotten. On the contrary, it is because I have reflected on it, that I find much more time necessary for it than I can at present dispose of. I have a view of the subject which ought to displease neither the rational Christian nor Deists, and would reconcile many to a character they have too hastily rejected. I do not know that it would reconcile the _genus irritabile vatum_ who are all in arms against me. Their hostility is on too interesting ground to be softened. The delusion into which the X. Y. Z. plot shewed it possible to push the people; the successful experiment made under the prevalence of that delusion on the clause of the constitution, which, while it secured the freedom of the press, covered also the freedom of religion, had given to the clergy a very favorite hope of obtaining an establishment of a particular form of Christianity thro' the U. S.; and as every sect believes its own form the true one, every one perhaps hoped for his own, but especially the Episcopalians & Congregationalists. The returning good sense of our country threatens abortion to their hopes, & they believe that any portion of power confided to me, will be exerted in opposition to their schemes. And they believe rightly; for I have sworn upon the altar of god, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. But this is all they have to fear from me: & enough too in their opinion, & this is the cause of their printing lying pamphlets against me, forging conversations for me with Mazzei, Bishop Madison, &c., which are absolute falsehoods without a circumstance of truth to rest on; falsehoods, too, of which I acquit Mazzei & Bishop Madison, for they are men of truth."

"But enough of this: it is more than I have before committed to paper on the subject of all the lies that has been preached and printed against me. I have not seen the work of Sonnoni which you mention, but I have seen another work on Africa, (Parke's,) which I fear will throw cold water on the hopes of the friends of freedom. You will hear an account of an attempt at insurrection in this state. I am looking with anxiety to see what will be it's effect on our state. We are truly to be pitied. I fear we have little chance to see you at the Federal city or in Virginia, and as little at Philadelphia. It would be a great treat to receive you here. But nothing but sickness could effect that; so I do not wish it. For I wish you health and happiness, and think of you with affection."

To Dr. Benjamin Rush Monticello, September 23, 1800

“4. Religion. Your reason is now mature enough to examine this object. In the first place, divest yourself of all bias in favor of novelty & singularity of opinion... shake off all the fears & servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear. You will naturally examine first, the religion of your own country. Read the Bible, then as you would read Livy or Tacitus. The facts which are within the ordinary course of nature, you will believe on the authority of the writer, as you do those of the same kind in Livy and Tacitus. The testimony of the writer weighs in their favor, in one scale, and their not being against the laws of nature, does not weigh against them. But those facts in the Bible which contradict the laws of nature, must be examined with more care, and under a variety of faces. Here you must recur to the pretensions of the writer to inspiration from God. Examine upon what evidence his pretensions are founded, and whether that evidence is so strong, as that its falsehood would be more improbable than a change in the laws of nature, in the case he relates. For example in the book of Joshua we are told the sun stood still several hours. Were we to read that fact in Livy or Tacitus we should class it with their showers of blood, speaking of statues, beasts, &c. But it is said that the writer of that book was inspired. Examine therefore candidly what evidence there is of his having been inspired. The pretension is entitled to your inquiry, because millions believe it. On the other hand you are astronomer enough to know how contrary it is to the law of nature that a body revolving on its axis as the earth does, should have stopped, should not by that sudden stoppage have prostrated animals, trees, buildings, and should after a certain time have resumed its revolution, & that without a second general prostration. Is this arrest of the earth's motion, or the evidence which affirms it, most within the law of probabilities? You will next read the New Testament. It is the history of a personage called Jesus. Keep in your eye the opposite pretensions: 1, of those who say he was begotten by God, born of a virgin, suspended & reversed the laws of nature at will, & ascended bodily into heaven; and 2, of those who say he was a man of illegitimate birth, of a benevolent heart, enthusiastic mind, who set out without pretensions to divinity, ended in believing them, and was punished capitally for sedition, by being gibbeted, according to the Roman law, which punished the first commission of that offence by whipping, & the second by exile, or death in fureâ.

...Do not be frightened from this inquiry by any fear of its consequences. If it ends in a belief that there is no God, you will find incitements to virtue in the comfort and pleasantness you feel in its exercise, and the love of others which it will procure you... In fine, I repeat, you must lay aside all prejudice on both sides, and neither believe nor reject anything, because any other persons, or description of persons, have rejected or believed it... I forgot to observe, when speaking of the New Testament, that you should read all the histories of Christ, as well of those whom a council of ecclesiastics have decided for us, to be Pseudo-evangelists, as those they named Evangelists. Because these Pseudo-evangelists pretended to inspiration, as much as the others, and you are to judge their pretensions by your own reason, and not by the reason of those ecclesiastics. Most of these are lost...

[Letter to his nephew, Peter Carr, advising him in matters of religion, 1787]”

Thomas Jefferson, Letters of Thomas Jefferson

“The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. ... What country before ever existed a century and half without a rebellion? And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.”

Thomas Jefferson, Letters of Thomas Jefferson

“Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time, who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done, if we are always doing.”

Thomas Jefferson, Letters of Thomas Jefferson

“Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.”

Thomas Jefferson, Letters of Thomas Jefferson

Other Letters of Thomas Jefferson

“...vast accession of strength from their younger recruits, who having nothing in them of the feelings or principles of ’76 now look to a single and splendid government of an Aristocracy, founded on banking institutions and monied in corporations under the guise and cloak of their favored branches of manufactures commerce and navigation, riding and ruling over the plundered ploughman and beggared yeomanry.”

Thomas Jefferson, Letters of Thomas Jefferson

“I had rather be shut up in a very modest cottage with my books, my family and a few old friends, dining on simple bacon, and letting the world roll on as it liked, than to occupy the most splendid post, which any human power can give.”

Thomas Jefferson, Letters of Thomas Jefferson

“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”

Thomas Jefferson

“I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. Unsuccessful rebellions indeed generally establish the encroachments on the rights of the people which have produced them. An observation of this truth should render honest republican governors so mild in their punishment of rebellions, as not to discourage them too much. It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government.”

Thomas Jefferson, Letters of Thomas Jefferson

“Difference of opinion is advantageous in religion. The several sects perform the office of a Censor morum over each other. Is uniformity attainable? Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth. Let us reflect that it is inhabited by a thousand millions of people. That these profess probably a thousand different systems of religion. That ours is but one of that thousand. That if there be but one right, and ours that one, we should wish to see the 999 wandering sects gathered into the fold of truth. But against such a majority we cannot effect this by force. Reason and persuasion are the only practicable instruments. To make way for these, free enquiry must be indulged; and how can we wish others to indulge it while we refuse it ourselves.”

Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia

“I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves ; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power.”

Thomas Jefferson, Letters of Thomas Jefferson

“Whereas it appeareth that however certain forms of government are better calculated than others to protect individuals in the free exercise of their natural rights, and are at the same time themselves better guarded against degeneracy, yet experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms, those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny; and it is believed that the most effectual means of preventing this would be, to illuminate, as far as practicable, the minds of the people at large, ....whence it becomes expedient for promoting the publick happiness that those persons, whom nature hath endowed with genius and virtue, should be rendered by liberal education worthy to receive, and able to guard the sacred deposit of the rights and liberties of their fellow citizens, and that they should be called to that charge without regard to wealth, birth or accidental condition of circumstance.”

Thomas Jefferson, Writings: Autobiography / Notes on the State of Virginia / Public and Private Papers / Addresses / Letters

“We took the liberty to make some enquiries concerning the ground of their pretensions to make war upon nations who had done them no injury, and observed that we considered all mankind as our friends who had done us no wrong, nor had given us any provocation.

The Ambassador [of Tripoli] answered us that it was founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as Prisoners, and that every Musselman who should be slain in battle was sure to go to Paradise.” (Letter from the commissioners, John Adams & Thomas Jefferson, to John Jay, 28 March 1786}” )

Thomas Jefferson, Letters of Thomas Jefferson

"I say, the earth belongs to each of these generations during its course, fully and in its own right. The second generation receives it clear of the debts and incumbrances of the first, the third of the second, and so on. For if the first could charge it with a debt, then the earth would belong to the dead and not to the living generation. Then, no generation can contract debts greater than may be paid during the course of its own existence."

Jefferson's letter to James Madison (6 September 1789) ME 7:455, Papers 15:393

“And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter. But we may hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States will do away all this artificial scaffolding...” (Letter to John Adams, April 11, 1823)

Thomas Jefferson, Letters of Thomas Jefferson

“I agree with yours of the 22d that a professorship of Theology should have no place in our institution. but we cannot always do what is absolutely best. those with whom we act, entertaining different views, have the power and the right of carrying them into practice. truth advances, & error recedes step by step only; and to do to our fellow-men the most good in our power, we must lead where we can, follow where we cannot, and still go with them, watching always the favorable moment for helping them to another step.” (Comment on establishing Jefferson's University of Virginia, a secular college, in a letter to Thomas Cooper 7 October 1814)

Thomas Jefferson, Letters of Thomas Jefferson

Reverend Ethan Allen claimed in 1857 in an anecdote to have heard Jefferson say, “Sir, no nation has ever yet existed or been governed without religion. Nor can be. The Christian religion is the best religion that has been given to man.” The use of the term religion did not mean what often poses as religion today but how it was defined at that time. Since religion was defined 200 years ago as “Real piety in practice, consisting in the performance of all known duties to God and our fellow men”, and it is simply how a nation, a people, or a society takes care of its needy and therefore how they serve the God or gods they have chosen for themselves.

Misquotes

Some have attributed to Jefferson quotes like:

• "A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where 51 percent of the people may take away the rights of the other 49."

• "A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine."

While attributed to Thomas Jefferson in his second inaugural address in it does not belong to Jefferson. It does not appear in the text nor have I found it anywhere else in his writings. In that second inaugural address, Jefferson did warn the people against overspending by saying that the government "may meet within the year all the expenses of the year, without encroaching on the rights of future generations, by burdening them with the debts of the past."

May Never wrote

Jefferson never wrote, "Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have." but it sounds like something he might say because it is true.

Critics

It has become popular among far less accomplished men to find fault with Jefferson but seldom without a destructive political agenda.

The inexcusable accusations of men like Stephen Ambrose defamed the Thomas Jefferson with unwarranted claims that ignore historical records.

"Jefferson surely knew slavery was wrong, but he didn't have the courage to lead the way to emancipation. If you hate slavery and the terrible things it did to human beings, it is difficult to regard Jefferson as a great man, or a good man. He was a spendthrift, always deeply in debt. He never freed his slaves... He could not rise above convenience. To be a slave-holder meant one had to regard the African American as inferior in every way. One had to believe that the worst white man was better than the best black man. If you did not believe these things you could justify yourself to yourself. So Jefferson could condemn slavery in words, but not in deeds. Jefferson had slaves at his magnificent estate, Monticello, who were superb artisans, shoemakers, masons, carpenters, cooks. But like every bigot, he never said, after seeing a skilled African craftsman at work or enjoying the fruits of his labor, 'Maybe I'm wrong'. He already knew that. He ignored the words of his fellow revolutionary John Adams, who said that the revolution would never be complete until the slaves were free."<Tef>"To America: Personal Reflections of an Historian", pp. 2–5</Ref>

Stephen E. Ambrose, is speculating and projecting his own personal bias attitudes that contradict the facts of history in his bias "To America: Personal Reflections of an Historian". If he was any kind of a historian he would know he is wrong.

There are numerous accusations of "Factual errors and disputed characterizations" in Ambrose's writings to say nothing of the charges of Plagiarism. Because of the shift of American thinking concerning democracy that occurred during World War II and the push for socialism which it leads to it was popular with some political advocates to encourage anti-Jeffersonian rhetoric.

From the beginning Thomas knew the capturing of slaves in Africa was "waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it's most sacred rights of life & liberty".

"Jefferson was not ashamed to call the black man his brother and to address him as a gentleman." Frederick Douglass, "Self-Made Men" (1872)

Jefferson clearly opposed slavery but he also opposed government forced virtue because it would open a pandora's box of tyranny.

"Jefferson, in his address to the Virginia Legislature of 1774, says that 'the abolition of domestic slavery is the greatest object of desire in these colonies, where it was unhappily introduced in their infant state'" George William Curtis, "The Present Aspect of the Slavery Question" (18 October 1859), New York City.

The criticisms of Jefferson by abolitionists was that they wished he could have done more not that he opposed freedom for slaves. They knew he was a confirmed abolitionist but they did not face annihilation by British tyrants.

"All honor to Jefferson to the man, who, in the concrete pressure of a struggle for national independence by a single people, had the coolness, forecast, and capacity to introduce into a mere revolutionary an abstract truth, applicable to all men and all time, and so to embalm it there to-day and in all coming days it shall be a rebuke and a stumbling block to the very harbingers of reappearing tyranny and oppression." Abraham Lincoln, Letter to H.L. Pierce and others (Springfield, Illinois, April 6, 1859)

"All the Founding Fathers hated Democracy — Thomas Jefferson was a partial exception, but only partial."

Noam Chomsky, 'Understanding Power: The Indispensable Chomsky (2002) edited by Peter R. Mitchell and John Schoeffel

Yes, Democracy was opposed by many in America the same as the majority of Americans feared and opposed the Constitution of the United States for much the same reason. “A simple democracy is the devil’s own government.”

Jefferson wanted to free slaves and worked to change the laws so that all men might be free saying, “Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath?”

While Jefferson supported some ideas that could be considered democratic he was adamant about the limitations of democracy since rights came from God and not the mob or governments.

"To take from one, because it is thought that his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, — the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry, & the fruits acquired by it."

Democracy has no inherent right to regulate or even hew the rights of their fellow man for either our individual or collective benefit. Jefferson continually limited the power of democracy against the bulwark of natural rights granted by God. His insistence upon listing "the pursuit of Happiness" as an "unalienable rights" rather than "property" was not only in hopes of freeing the slaves of America but to prevent all men from becoming slaves of democracy.

"The path we have to pursue is so quiet that we have nothing scarcely to propose to our Legislature. A noiseless course, not meddling with the affairs of others, unattractive of notice, is a mark that society is going on in happiness. 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 declared in 1819, "I too am an Epicurean. I consider the genuine (not imputed) doctrines of Epicurus as containing everything rational in moral philosophy which Greece and Rome have left us."

Thomas Jefferson prophesied when he said:

“The central bank is an institution of the most deadly hostility existing against the Principles and form of our Constitution. I am an Enemy to all banks discounting bills or notes for anything but Coin. If the American People allow private banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the People of all their Property until their Children will wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered.”

The power of Jury Nullification.

“And if the question relate to any point of public liberty, or if it be one of those in which the judges may be suspected of bias, the jury undertake to decide both law and fact.” Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Va., 1782. Q.XIV

"Can the liberties of a nation be sure when we remove their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people, that these liberties are the gift of God?" asked Thomas Jefferson.

There were clear examples of the people needing to defend themselves from elements of government power or their overreach back then and even in our modern century. Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and many others disarmed the population and wreaked havoc and horrors upon the people killing countless millions.

"To Conquer a Nation, First Disarm its Citizens" Adolph Hitler Did Hitler really make this exact statement? Of course not because he spoke German. Hitler did say "The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subject races to possess arms. History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by so doing. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that the supply of arms to the underdogs is a sine qua non for the overthrow of any sovereignty. So let’s not have any native militia or native police." [5]

There is no doubt that Hitler wanted to do away with the "native militia" although he lifted arm restrictions for members of the "National Socialist German Workers' Party" (NAZI). It is also clear that Hitler wanted to disarm the Jews with the 1938 German Weapons Act just as liberals today want to disarm conservatives.

All the bills and laws proposed by the government will effectively disarm the law-abiding people of America and leave guns in the hands of those who are not.

The better the people are armed with military type rifles, including what people call assault rifles, the less likely there will be more holocausts. No one believes it is possible in their country yet history is ripe with examples of rampant abuse of power. Once the people no longer have the military ability to defend itself by forming a militia there is seldom any way to go back.

Cesare Beccaria, criminologist, jurist, philosopher, and politician, who is widely considered one of the greatest thinkers of the Age of Enlightenment (1774-1776). in his treatise On Crimes and Punishments originally published in 1764 which Jefferson quoted in his Commonplace book which is like a daily ledger of thoughts, ideas, and conversations. He quoted Beccaria in the original Italian because he owned the book which was published again in 1809.

Cesare Beccaria

Here are two other translations of Cesare Beccaria in context of his treatise On Crimes and Punishments.

“A principal source of errors and injustice are false ideas of utility. For example: that legislator has false ideas of utility who considers particular more than general conveniencies, who had rather command the sentiments of mankind than excite them, who dares say to reason, ‘Be thou a slave;’ who would sacrifice a thousand real advantages to the fear of an imaginary or trifling inconvenience; who would deprive men of the use of fire for fear of their being burnt, and of water for fear of their being drowned; and who knows of no means of preventing evil but by destroying it. “The laws of this nature are those which forbid to wear arms, disarming those only who are not disposed to commit the crime which the laws mean to prevent. Can it be supposed, that those who have the courage to violate the most sacred laws of humanity, and the most important of the code, will respect the less considerable and arbitrary injunctions, the violation of which is so easy, and of so little comparative importance? Does not the execution of this law deprive the subject of that personal liberty, so dear to mankind and to the wise legislator? and does it not subject the innocent to all the disagreeable circumstances that should only fall on the guilty? It certainly makes the situation of the assaulted worse, and of the assailants better, and rather encourages than prevents murder, as it requires less courage to attack unarmed than armed persons.” The second translation here is by Henry Paolucci and is of the first edition but has an ellipse (...)

“False is the idea of utility that sacrifices a thousand real advantages for one imaginary or trifling inconvenience; that would take fire from men because it burns, and water because one may drown in it; that has no remedy for evils, except destruction. The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes….Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.”

Schooled

The essential social bonds of a voluntary society are established long before war or famines.

Alexis de Tocqueville speaks of how Americans, who had a better sense of being the government of the people, by the people, and for the people, gathered together in voluntary groups for the purposes of accomplishing or sponsoring projects that would result in the building of public infrastructure such as schools or hospitals, and even prisons without dependence upon government taxation.

People were accustomed to gathering in order to generate funds through a variety voluntary means and methods, including community festivals or Fêtes through charity that people commonly expect to be funded by government through taxation today.

American associations where the people gathered together to accomplish projects of all sorts was common but only because they often gathered in the free assemblies of tens which were the "little Platoons" of Edmund Burke.

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