In past posts, I have often praised the thinking of America’s Founding Fathers. They were wise, mainly for two reasons: they understood that there is such a thing as “moral law,” directed and overseen by a Creator, and—almost as importantly—they knew history. And that IS crucial. Today’s politicians know neither. I would like to share quotes from the past, and a few more are below.
This is almost amazing, the foresight and wisdom seen in these statements. All the quotes below are from Thomas Jefferson; save the final one.
Jefferson said in 1816 that the choice is “between economy and liberty, or [government] profusion and servitude. If we run into such debts, as that we must be taxed in our meat and 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 16 hours in the 24, give the earnings of 15 of those to the government for their debts and daily expenses. The 16th is insufficient to afford us bread, so we must live, as they do now, on oatmeal and potatoes.”
Or food stamps. Jefferson is being a little facetious, obviously, in this statement, but then again, maybe he isn’t.
Jefferson complained of federal politicians who seemed “at a loss for objects whereon to throw away the supposed fathomless funds of the treasury.” And he may have never even heard of Ukraine.
“A single consolidated government would become the most corrupt government on earth.” The more power in the hands of the government, the more corrupt it becomes. That is a fact of history.
“To compel a man to furnish contributions of money (taxes) for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves is sinful and tyrannical.” Read that again. Now, reread it. I need a whole column to explain his meaning here because America is a million miles away from understanding its intended government. More soon.
“If we can prevent the government from wasting the people's labor under the pretense of taking care of them, they must become happy.” The welfare state, anyone?
Even in his own day, Jefferson bemoaned “the rapid strides with which the federal branch of our government is advancing towards the usurpation of all the rights reserved to the States.” One federal judge today—one judge—can strike down a state law. Or try to determine the next President. Is that “democracy”?
Regarding interpreting the Constitution: “On every question of construction [we should] carry ourselves back to the time when the constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.” If the courts don’t do that, of course, then the Constitution becomes meaningless. It can, in effect, mean anything, thus, mean nothing.
On becoming President in 1801, Jefferson slashed federal spending and abolished all domestic taxes. He also closed several American embassies worldwide as a waste of money. What a novel idea. He also cut military spending because the military-industrial warfare state didn’t exist back then.
And I love this one from Jefferson: "A government big enough to give you everything you want is strong enough to take everything you've got." I'm just...almost overwhelmed...by their wisdom and foresight. But, then again, I'm not.
One more quote from Abraham Lincoln: “If the Almighty had ever made a set of men that should do all of the eating and none of the work, he would have made them with mouths only and no hands.” That’s what Americans used to believe. Well, today, some still do. Unfortunately, the entire Democratic Party does NOT think that, and such is the source of their political power. And they know it. And they aren’t about to give it up.
To find justification for such rampant theft of honest people's money, the Democrats flee to the Marxist dogma of “zero-sum,” egalitarian economics, i.e., that there is only so much wealth in a society, and thus, the more the rich have, the less the poor have. “The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer.” That is pure, unabashed Marxist pig slop and shows absolutely no understanding of wealth creation. Jefferson, and probably Lincoln, would respond, “Well, if the rich are getting richer because they are investing, providing jobs, goods, and services that people want, and the poor are getting poorer because they are sitting around on their lazy backsides doing nothing, then the rich OUGHT to be getting richer and the poor OUGHT to be getting poorer.” This, of course, does not mitigate the propriety of charity. “The poor you have with you always,” Jesus said, and those who are truly needy should be helped. No one denies this. No one denies this!
The question is not, and never has been, should the “needy poor” be assisted; that’s a moral absolute. The question is only, and always, HOW should they be helped? Is that a legitimate function of government? To the men who founded America, it was not because they believed government assistance to the poor only encouraged people to look for handouts rather than become productive citizens. The more the government freely hands out money, the more people will stand in line—or cross the border illegally—to get it; that’s part of human nature that America’s Founders grasped well. To them, charity/poverty was a moral, as much as an economic, issue. Government welfare encourages sloth and vice, and as we can see from American society today, the Founders obviously knew exactly what they were talking about.
But then, they knew history and understood the eternal, moral laws flowing from God's nature. America will never recover until we again have leaders of the same quality.
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