How Did Jefferson Know?

There is an email going around and posted in other places on the web with some supposed quotes by Thomas Jefferson:

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-

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.

Jefferson is easily applicable to today’s politics – assuming you hold the foundational principles of minimal government and isolationism. The disparity in Jefferson’s views on voting weren’t philosophical – they were social. Indians, women, and black people weren’t simply citizens viewed as not deserving of rights. Indians were the equivalent of foreigners (like Germans to France), women in that time were committed necessarily to child having, and black people were imported slaves essential to the southern economy.

Thankfully the foundational principles behind the Constitution made women’s and minority rights inevitable as the nation matured and encompassed everyone and technology freed women from the demands of maintaining the population.

Indeed though – reaching to apply a specific argument made in the 1770’s to a specific issue today is rarely specifically valid. But fundamentally, their problems were the same as ours, so were the proposed solutions.

One of my favorite misuses of founding father quotations is the one Benjamin Franklin made, for which there are numerous versions of, but are essentially this: He who sacrifices freedom for security deserves neither.

People tried using this one to argue against the patriot act. Franklin’s actual use of the phrase was in motivating the pussy-ass too-rich-and-comfortable community leaders to make war with the English Empire.

Phrase flashing is stupid anyway. There are so many perverted quotations…

Oh – and what the hell is the problem with – Tough row to hoe? Seriously! If I hear one more jerk on the TV or radio stumble over, Tough road to go, or whatever derivation – I’m going to go slap a baby. Seriously – what doe road even rhyme with?

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