“If we run into such debts as that we must be taxed in our meat and in 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 sixteen hours in the twenty-four, and give the earnings of fifteen of these to the government for their debts and daily expenses.
And the sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread, we must live, as they do now, on oatmeal and potatoes, have no time to think, no means of calling the mis-managers to account; but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains around the necks of our fellow sufferers.
And this is the tendency of all human governments. A departure from principle in one instance becomes a precedent for a second, that second for a third, and so on 'til the bulk of the society is reduced to be mere automations of misery, to have no sensibilities left but for sinning and suffering.
And the forehorse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and oppression."
Yes, we did produce a near-perfect republic. But will they keep it? Or will they, in the enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom?
Material abundance without character is the path of destruction.â€Â
Thomas Jefferson 1816 Third President of the United States 1801 -1809, Drafter of the Declaration of Independence, Founder of the University of Virginia
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Here are some more relevant Jefferson quotes:
If people let government decide what foods they eat and
what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in
as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under
tyranny.
Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826)
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 (1743 - 1826)
We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.
Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826),
letter to Samuel Kercheval, July 12, 1816
The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from
those who are willing to work and give to those who would
not.
“To consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions is a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy.â€Â
And the sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread, we must live, as they do now, on oatmeal and potatoes, have no time to think, no means of calling the mis-managers to account; but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains around the necks of our fellow sufferers.
And this is the tendency of all human governments. A departure from principle in one instance becomes a precedent for a second, that second for a third, and so on 'til the bulk of the society is reduced to be mere automations of misery, to have no sensibilities left but for sinning and suffering.
And the forehorse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and oppression."
Yes, we did produce a near-perfect republic. But will they keep it? Or will they, in the enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom?
Material abundance without character is the path of destruction.â€Â
Thomas Jefferson 1816 Third President of the United States 1801 -1809, Drafter of the Declaration of Independence, Founder of the University of Virginia
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Here are some more relevant Jefferson quotes:
If people let government decide what foods they eat and
what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in
as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under
tyranny.
Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826)
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 (1743 - 1826)
We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.
Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826),
letter to Samuel Kercheval, July 12, 1816
The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from
those who are willing to work and give to those who would
not.
“To consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions is a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy.â€Â
Now that's funny!!
