Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Jefferson, from the same address (1801)

"...every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by different names brethren of the same principle. We are all republicans: we are all federalists. If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union, or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated, where reason is left free to combat it. I know indeed that some honest men fear that a republican government cannot be strong; that this government is not strong enough. But would the honest patriot, in the full tide of successful experiment, abandon a government which has so far kept us free and firm, on the theoretic and visionary fear, that this government, the world’s best hope, may, by possibility, want energy to preserve itself? I trust not. I believe this, on the contrary, the strongest government on earth. I believe it the only one, where every man, at the call of the law, would fly to the standard of the law, and would meet invasions of the public order as his own personal concern.—Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels, in the form of kings, to govern him? Let history answer this question."

2 comments:

  1. Daniel, you need to study history seriously for a moment.

    By the time he gave this speech, Jefferson's sole purpose in life was to preserve slavery. That became his life's work, when he returned from France.

    What he says is all BS.

    For example, he and Madison opposed paying the debts of the American Revolution.

    He promptly bought Louisiana, which according his rhetoric was an unconstitutional act, and then gutted the Navy, etc., leading to the debacle of the War of 1812.

    I know you believe he wrote the Declaration, that it all sprang from him, but drafts had been circulating for at least 2 years and Jefferson wrote under Franklin's instructions and editing (and the draft was then re-edited by the Congress).

    ReplyDelete
  2. Daniel

    Least you not realize how wrong you are about Jefferson, here is the latest scholarship on his views about slavery.

    http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1866452

    ReplyDelete

All anonymous comments will be deleted. Consistent pseudonyms are fine.