Thomas Jefferson on Arms and Right

Thomas Jefferson, 1743-1826:

The following are quotes from The Jeffersonian Cyclopedia, 1900:

463. ARISTOCRACY, Artificial vs. Natural. -- JCE0463

There is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents. Formerly, bodily powers gave place among the aristoi. But since the invention of gunpowder has armed the weak as well as the strong with missile death, bodily strength, like beauty, good humor, politeness and other accomplishments, has become but an auxiliary ground of distinction...--To John Adams. Washington ed. vi, 223. Ford ed., ix, 425.
< M. 1813 >

488. ARMS, Loan of. -- continued.JCE0488

I enclose you [ * * *] an application from [ * * *] citizens of New York, residing on the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario, setting forth their defenceless situation for the want of arms, and praying to be furnished from the magazines of the United States. Similar applications from other parts of our frontier in every direction have sufficiently shown that did the laws permit such a disposition of the arms of the United States, their magazines would be completely exhausted, and nothing would remain for actual war. But it is only when troops take the field, that the arms of the United States can be delivered to them. For the ordinary safety of the citizens of the several States, whether against dangers within or without, their reliance must be on the means to be provided by their respective States. Under the circumstances I have thought it my duty to transmit to you the representation received, not doubting that you will have done for the safety of our fellow citizens, on a part of our frontier so interesting and so much exposed, what their situation requires, and the means under your control may permit. --
To Governor Tompkins. Washington ed. v, 238.
< W. 1808 >

489. ARMS, Right to bear. -- JCE0489

No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms [ within his own lands] . * --
Proposed Va. Constitution. Ford ed., ii, 27.
<June, 1776 >

487. ARMS, Loan of. -- JCE0487

I am in hopes that your State [ New York] will provide by the loan of arms for your immediate safety. --
To Jacob J. Brown. Washington ed. v, 240.
< W. 1808 >

801. BELLIGERENTS, Sale of Arms to. -- JCE0801

Our citizens have been always free to make, vend and export arms. It is the constant occupation and livelihood of some of them. To suppress their callings, the only means perhaps of their subsistence, because a war exists in foreign and distant countries, in which we have no concern, would scarcely be expected. It would be hard in principle, and impossible in practice. The law of nations, therefore, respecting the rights of those at peace, does not require from them such an internal derangement in their occupations. It is satisfied with the external penalty pronounced in the President's proclamation, that of confiscation of such portion of these arms as shall fall into the hands of any of the belligerent powers on their way to the ports of their enemies. To this penalty our citizens are warned that they will be abandoned; and that even private contraventions may work no inequality between the parties at war, the benefits of them will be left equally free and open to all. --
To George Hammond. Washington ed. iii, 558. Ford ed., vi, 253.
<May. 1793 >

846. BLACKSTONE (Sir William), Toryism of. -- JCE0846

Blackstone and Hume have made tories of all England, and are making tories of those young Americans whose native feelings of independence do not place them above the wily sophistries of a Hume or a Blackstone. These two books, but especially the former, have done more towards the suppression of the liberties of man, than all the million of men in arms of Bonaparte, and the millions of human lives with the sacrifice of which he will stand loaded before the judgment seat of his Maker. --
To Horatio G. Spafford. Washington ed. vi, 335.
< M. 1814 >

1460. COMPACTS, Self-preservation and. -- JCE1460

Obligation is [ to observe compacts] not suspended till the danger [ of self-preservation] is become real, and the moment of it so imminent, that we can no longer avoid decision without forever losing the opportunity to do it. --
Opinion on French Treaties. Washington ed. vii, 615. Ford ed., vi, 222.
< 1793 >

2138. DEFENCE, Personal. -- JCE2138

One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them. --
To President Washington. Washington ed. iv, 143. Ford ed., vii, 84.
< M. 1796 >

2142. DEFENCE, The States and. -- JCE2142

For the ordinary safety of the citizens of the several States, whether against dangers from within or without, reliance has been placed either on the domestic means of the individuals, or on those provided by the respective States. --
To Jacob J. Brown. Washington ed. v, 240.
< W. 1808 >

2181. DEMOCRATS AND ARISTOCRATS. -- JCE2181

The appellation of aristocrats and democrats is the true one expressing the essence of all [ political parties] . --
To H. Lee. Washington ed. vii, 376. Ford ed., x, 318.
< M. 1824 >

2570. EMBARGO, Opposition to. -- Further continued. JCE2570

The case of opposition to the Embargo laws on the Canada line, I take it to be that of distinct combinations of a number of individuals to oppose by force and arms the execution of those laws, for which purpose they go armed, fire upon the public guards, in one instance at least have wounded one dangerously, and rescue property held under these laws. This may not be an insurrection in the popular sense of the word, but being arrayed in warlike manner, actually committing acts of war, and persevering systematically in defiance of the public authority, brings it so fully within the legal definition of an insurrection, that I should not hesitate to issue a proclamation were I not restrained by motives of which your Excellency seems to be apprized. But as by the laws of New York an insurrection can be acted on without a previous proclamation, I should conceive it perfectly correct to act on it as such, and I cannot doubt it would be approved by every good citizen. Should you think proper to do so, I will undertake that the necessary detachments of militia, called out in support of the laws, shall be considered as in the service of the United States, and at their expense. [ * * *] I think it so important in example to crush these audacious proceedings, and to make the offenders feel the consequences of individuals daring to oppose a law by force, that no effort should be spared to compass this object. --
To Governor Tompkins. Washington ed. v, 343.
< M. Aug. 1808 >

2999. FILIBUSTERISM, Suppression. -- JCE2999

Having received information that a great number of private individuals were combining together, arming and organizing themselves contrary to law, to carry on military expeditions against the territories of Spain, I thought it necessary, by proclamations, as well as by special orders, to take measures for preventing and suppressing this enterprise, for seizing the vessels. arms, and other means provided for it, and for arresting and bringing to justice its authors and abettors. It was due to that good faith which ought ever to be the rule of action in public as well as in private transactions; it was due to good order and regular government, that while the public force was strictly on the defensive and merely to protect our citizens from aggression, the criminal attempts of private individuals to decide for their country the question of peace or war, by commencing active and unauthorized hostilities, should be promptly and efficaciously suppressed. --
Sixth Annual Message. Washington ed. viii, 63. Ford ed., viii, 489.
<Dec. 1806 >

3469. GOD, Gifts of. -- JCE3469

The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time. --
Rights of British America. Washington ed. i, 142. Ford ed., i, 447.
< 1774 >

4538. LAWS OF NATURE, Opposition to. -- JCE4538

It is not only vain, but wicked, in a legislator to frame laws in opposition to the laws of nature, and to arm them with the terrors of death. This is truly creating crimes in order to punish them. --
Note on Crimes Bill. Washington ed. i, 159. Ford ed., ii, 218.
< 1779 >

4943. MAJORITY, Reasonable. -- JCE4943

Bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal laws must protect, and to violate would be oppression. --
First Inaugural Address. viii. 2. Ford ed., viii, 2.
<March. 1801 >

5804. NEGROES, Colonization. -- JCE5804

The bill reported by the revisors * of the whole [ Virginia] code does not itself contain the proposition to emancipate all slaves born after the passing the act; but an amendment containing it was prepared, to be offered to the Legislature whenever the bill should be taken up, and further directing, that they should continue with their parents to a certain age, then to be brought up, at the public expense, to tillage, arts or sciences, according to their geniuses, till the females should be eighteen, and the males twenty-one years of age, when they should be colonized to such place as the circumstances of the time should render most proper, sending them out with arms, implements of household and of the handicraft arts, seeds, pairs of the useful domestic animals, &c., to declare them a free and independent people, and extend to them our alliance and protection, till they shall have acquired strength; and to send vessels at the same time to other parts of the world for an equal number of white inhabitants; to induce them to migrate hither, proper encouragements were to be proposed. --
Notes on Virginia. Washington ed. viii, 380. Ford ed., iii, 243.
< 1782 >

6437. PARTIES, Opposite. -- Further continued. JCE6437

To come to our own country, and to the times when you and I became first acquainted, we well remember the violent parties which agitated the old Congress, and their bitter contests. There you and I were together, and the Jays, and the Dickinsons, and other anti-independents, were arrayed against us. They cherished the monarchy of England, and we the rights of our countrymen. When our present government was in the mew, passing from Confederation to Union, how bitter was the schism between the "Feds" and the "Antis". Here you and I were together again. For although, for a moment, separated by the Atlantic from the scene of action, I favored the opinion that nine States should confirm the Constitution, in order to secure it, and the others hold off until certain amendments, deemed favorable to freedom, should be made. I rallied in the first instant to the wiser proposition of Massachusetts, that all should confirm, and then all instruct their delegates to urge those amendments. The amendments were made, and all were reconciled to the government. But as soon as it was put into motion, the line of division was again drawn. We broke into two parties, each wishing to give the government a different direction; the one to strengthen the most popular branch, the other the more permanent branches, and to extend their permanence. --
To John Adams. Washington ed. vi, 143.
< M. 1813 >

6818. POWER, Depositaries of. -- continued. JCE6818

I know no safe depositary 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. --
To William C. Jarvis. Washington ed. vii, 179. Ford ed., x, 161.
< M. 1820 >

6830. POWERS, Assumed. -- JCE6830

I had rather ask an enlargement of power from the nation, where it is found necessary, than to assume where it is found necessary, than to assume it by a construction [ of the Constitution] which would make our powers boundless. --
To Wilson C. Nicholas. Washington ed. iv, 506. Ford ed., viii, 247.
< M. 1803 >

6837. POWERS, Control by the people. -- JCE6837

Unless the mass retains sufficient control over those intrusted with the powers of their government, these will be perverted to their own oppression, and to the perpetuation of wealth and power in the individuals and their families selected for the trust. --
To Mr. Van der Kemp. Washington ed. vi, 45.
< M. 1812 >

6956. PRINCIPLES, Adherence to. -- Further continued. JCE6956

Lay down true principles, and adhere to them inflexibly. Do not be frightened into their surrender by the alarms of the timid, or the croakings of wealth against the ascendency of the people. --
To Samuel Kerchival. Washington ed. vii, 11. Ford ed., x, 39.
< M. 1816 >

7187. REFORM, Constitutional. -- JCE7187

Happily for us that when we find our constitutions defective and insufficient to secure the happiness of our people, we can assemble with all the coolness of philosophers, and set them to rights, while every other nation on earth must have recourse to arms to amend, or to restore their constitutions. --
To M. Dumas. Washington ed. ii, 264.
< P. 1787 >

7370. REPUBLICANS, Divisions among. -- Further continued.. Further continued .JCE7370

If we schismatize on either men or measures, if we do not act in phalanx, as when we rescued the country from the satellites of monarchism, I will not say our party (the term is false and degrading), but our nation will be undone. For the republicans are the nation. Their opponents are but a faction, weak in numbers, but powerful and profuse in the command of money, and backed by a nation [ England] , powerful also and profuse in the use of the same means; and the more profuse, in both cases, as the money they thus employ is not their own but their creditors, to be paid off by a bankruptcy, which whether it pays a dollar or a shilling in the [unclear: ] is of little concern with them. The last hope of human liberty in this world rests on us. We ought, for so dear a stake, to sacrifice every attachment and every enmity. Leave the President free to choose his own coadjutors, to pursue his own measures, and support him and them, even if we think we are wiser than they, honester than they are, or possessing more enlarged information of the state of things. If we move in mass, be it ever so circuitously, we shall attain our object; but if we break into squads, every one pursuing the path he thinks most direct, we become an easy conquest to those who can now barely hold us in check. I repeat again, that we ought not to schismatize on either men or measures. Principles alone can justify that. If we find our government in all its branches rushing headlong, like our predecessors, into the arms of monarchy, if we find them violating our dearest rights, the trial by jury, the freedom of the press, the freedom of opinion, civil or religious, or opening on our peace of mind or personal safety the sluices of terrorism; if we see them raising standing armies, when the absence of all other danger points to these as the sole objects on which they are to be employed, then, indeed, let us withdraw and call the nation to its tents. But, while our functionaries are wise, and honest, and vigilant, let us move compactly under their guidance, and we have nothing to fear. Things may here and there go a little wrong. It is not in our power to prevent it. But all will be right in the end, though not, perhaps, by the shortest means. You know that this union of republicans has been the constant theme of my exhortations, that I have ever refused to know any sub-divisions among them, to take part in any personal differences; and, therefore, you will not give to the present observations any other than general application. I may sometimes differ in opinion from some of my friends, from those whose views are as pure and sound as my own. I censure none, but do homage to everyone's right of opinion. --
To William Duane. Washington ed. v, 576. Ford ed., ix, 313.
< M. March. 1811 >

7406. RESISTANCE, Morality and. -- JCE7406

When wrongs are pressed because it is believed they will be borne, resistance becomes morality. --
To Madame De Stael. Washington ed. v, 133.
< W. 1807 >

7407. RESISTANCE, Spirit of. -- JCE7407

[The people cannot be all, & 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 a lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. We have had 13. states independent 11. years. There has been one rebellion. That comes to one rebellion in a century & a half for each state. What country before ever existed a century & half without a rebellion? &] What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that its people preserve the spirit of resistance? [Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon & 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 & tyrants. It is it's natural manure. Our Convention has been too much impressed by the insurrection of Massachusetts: and in the spur of the moment they are setting up a kite to keep the hen-yard in order. I hope in God this article will be rectified before the new constitution is accepted.] --
To W. S. Smith. Washington ed. ii, 318. Ford ed., iv, 467.
< P. 1787 > (Wording in brackets,[“”], added from original letter).

7413. RESPONSIBILITY, Essential principle. -- JCE7413

In truth, man is not made to be trusted for life, if secured against all liability to account. --
To M. Coray. Washington ed. vii, 322.
< M. 1823 >

7481. REVOLUTION (American), Gage's perfidy. -- JCE7481

Hostilities thus commenced [ at Lexington, &c.] , on the part of the ministerial army have been since by them pursued without regard to faith or fame. The inhabitants of the town of Boston, in order to procure their enlargement, having entered into treaty with General Gage, their Governor, it was stipulated that the said inhabitants, having first deposited their arms with their own magistrates, should have liberty to depart from out of the said town taking with them their other effects. Their arms they accordingly delivered in, and claimed the stipulated license of departing with their effects. But in open violation of plighted faith and honor, in defiance of the sacred obligation of treaty which even savage nations observe, their arms, deposited with their own magistrates to be preserved as their property, were immediately seized by a body of armed men under orders from the said General; the greater part of the inhabitants were detained in the town, and the few permitted to depart were compelled to leave their most valuable effects behind. We leave the world to its own reflections on this atrocious perfidy. --
Declaration on Taking up Arms. Ford ed., i, 471.
<July. 1775 >

7590. RIGHTS, Aggression on. -- JCE7590

No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another; and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him. --
To F. W. Gilmer. Washington ed. vii, 3. Ford ed., x, 32.
< M. 1816 >

7591. RIGHTS, Aristocratic encroachments on. -- JCE7591

Hereditary bodies [ * * *] always existing, always on the watch for their own aggrandizement, profit of every opportunity of advancing the privileges of their order, and encroaching on the rights of the people. --
To M. Coray. Washington ed. vii, 319.
< M. 1823 >

7593. RIGHTS, Availability of. -- JCE7593

It is a principle that the right to a thing gives a right to the means without which it could not be used, that is to say, that the means follow their end. --
Mississippi River Instructions. Washington ed. vii, 579.
< 1791 >

7594. RIGHTS, Defence of. -- JCE7594

We will ever be ready to join with our fellow-subjects in every part of the British empire, in executing all those rightful powers which God has given us, for the reestablishment and guaranteeing their constitutional rights, when, where, and by whomsoever invaded. * --
Resolutions of Albemarle County. Ford ed., i, 419.
<July 26, 1774 >

7598. RIGHTS, Fortifying popular. -- JCE7598

I am particularly happy to perceive that you still manfully maintain our good old principle of cherishing and fortifying the rights and authorities of the people in opposition to those who fear them, who wish to take all power from them, and to transfer all to Washington. --
To Nathaniel Macon. Ford ed., x, 378.
< M. 1826 >

7605. RIGHTS, Personal. -- JCE7605

It were contrary to feeling, and indeed, ridiculous to suppose that a man had less right in himself than one of his neighbors, or indeed, than all of them put together. This would be slavery, and not that liberty which the bill of rights has made inviolable, and for the preservation of which our government has been charged. Nothing could so completely divest us of that liberty as the establishment of the opinion, that the State has a perpetual right to the services of all its members. This, to men of certain ways of thinking, would be to annihilate the blessing of existence, and to contradict the Giver of life, who gave it for happiness and not for wretchedness. --
To James Monroe. Washington ed. i, 319. Ford ed., iii, 58.
< M. 1782 >

7606. RIGHTS, Personal. -- continued.JCE7606

Every man should be protected in his lawful acts. --
To Isaac McPherson. Washington ed. vi, 175.
< M. 1813 >

7607. RIGHTS, Persons and. -- JCE7607

Rights and powers can only belong to persons, not to things, not to mere matter, unendowed with will. --
To John Cartwright. Washington ed. vii, 359.
< M. 1824 >

7609. RIGHTS, Reserved. -- JCE7609

It had become an universal and almost uncontroverted position in the several States, that the purposes of society do not require a surrender of all our rights to our ordinary governors; that there are certain portions of right not necessary to enable them to carry on an effective government, and which experience has nevertheless proved they will be constantly encroaching on, if submitted to them; that there are also certain fences which experience has proved peculiarly efficacious against wrong, and rarely obstructive of right, which yet the governing powers have ever shown a disposition to weaken and remove. Of the first kind, for instance, is freedom of religion; of the second, trial by jury, habeas corpus laws, free presses. These were the settled opinions of all the States, -- of that of Virginia, of which I was writing [ in the Notes on Virginia] , as well as of the others. The others had, in consequence, delineated these unceded portions of right, and these fences against wrong, which they meant to exempt from the power of their governors, in instruments called declarations, of rights and constitutions; and as they did this by conventions, which they appointed for the express purpose of reserving those rights, and of delegating others to their ordinary legislative, executive and judiciary bodies, none of the reserved rights can be touched without resorting to the people to appoint another convention for the express purpose of permitting it. Where the constitutions, then, have been so formed by conventions, named for this express purpose, they are fixed and unalterable but by a convention or other body to be specially authorized; and they have been so formed by, I believe, all the States, except Virginia. That State concurs in all these opinions, but has run into the wonderful error that her constitution, though made by the ordinary legislature, cannot yet be altered by the ordinary legislature. --
To Noah Webster. Washington ed. iii, 201. Ford ed., v, 254.
< Pa., 1790 >

7610. RIGHTS, Safest depositary of. -- JCE7610

The mass of the citizens is the safest depositary of their own rights. --
To John Taylor. Washington ed. vi, 608. Ford ed., x, 31.
< M. 1816 >

7612. RIGHTS, Securing. -- JCE7612

It is to secure our rights that we resort to government at all. --
To M. D'Ivernois. Washington ed. iv, 114. Ford ed., vii, 4.
< M. Feb. 1795 >

7628. RIGHTS OF MAN, Recognition of. -- JCE7628

All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God. * --
To Roger C. Weightman. Washington ed. vii, 450. Ford ed., x, 391.
< M. June 24, 1826>

7763. SEDITION LAW, Unconstitutional. -- continued.JCE7763

The ground on which I acted in the cases of Duane, Callender, and others [ was] that the Sedition law was unconstitutional and null, and that my obligation to execute what was law, involved that of not suffering rights secured by valid laws to be prostrated by what was no law. --
To Wilson C. Nicholas. Washington ed. v, 453. Ford ed., ix, 254.
< M. 1809 >

7785. SELF-GOVERNMENT, Men capable of. -- Further continued. JCE7785

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. --
First Inaugural Address. Washington ed. viii, 3. Ford ed., viii, 3.
< 1801 >

7786. SELF-GOVERNMENT, Men capable of. -- Further continued .JCE7786

It is a happy truth that man is capable of self-government, and only rendered otherwise by the moral degradation designedly superinduced on him by the wicked acts of his tyrant. --
To M. de Marbois. Washington ed. vii, 77.
< M. 1817 >

7801. SELF-PRESERVATION, Law of. -- JCE7801

The law of self-preservation overrules the laws of obligation to others. --
Opinion on French Treaties. Washington ed. vii, 613. Ford ed., vi, 221.
< 1793 >

7805. SENATE (United States), Cabal in. -- JCE7805

Mischief may be done negatively as well as positively. Of this a cabal in the Senate of the United States has furnished many proofs. --
To John Adams. Washington ed. vi, 224. Ford ed., ix, 426.
< M. 1813 >

8024. SOVEREIGNTY, Justice and. -- JCE8024

The administration of justice is a branch of the sovereignty over a country, and belongs exclusively to the nation inhabiting it. No foreign power can pretend to participate in their jurisdiction, or that their citizens received there are not subject to it. --
To George Hammond. Washington ed. iii, 415. Ford ed., vi, 56.
< Pa., 1792 1792>

8128. STATE RIGHTS, Encroachments on. -- JCE8128

Whilst the General Assembly [ of Virginia] thus declares the rights retained by the States, rights which they have never yielded, and which this State will never voluntarily yield, they do not mean to raise the banner of disaffection, or of separation from their sister States, coparties with themselves to this compact. They know and value too highly the blessings of their Union as to foreign nations and questions arising among themselves, to consider every infraction of it as to be met by actual resistance. They respect too affectionately the opinions of those possessing the same rights under the same instrument, to make that difference of construction a ground of immediate rupture. They would, indeed, consider such a rupture as among the greatest calamities which could befall them; but not the greatest. There is yet one greater, submission to a government of unlimited powers. It is only when the hope of avoiding this shall have become absolutely desperate, that further forbearance could not be indulged. Should a majority of the coparties, therefore, contrary to the expectation and hope of this Assembly, prefer, at this time acquiescence in these assumptions of power by the Federal member of the government, we will be patient and suffer much under the confidence that time, ere it be too late, will prove to them also the bitter consequences in which that usurpation will involve us all. In the meantime we will breast with them, rather than separate from them, every misfortune, save that only of living under a government of unlimited powers. We owe every other sacrifice to ourselves, to our Federal brethren, and to the world at large, to pursue with temper and with perseverance the great experiment which shall prove that man is capable of living in society, governing itself by laws self-imposed, and securing to its members the enjoyment of life, liberty, property, and peace; and further to show, that even when the government of its choice shall manifest a tendency to degeneracy we are not at once to despair, but that the will and the watchfulness of its sounder parts will reform its aberrations, recall it to original and legitimate principles, and restrain it within the rightful limits of self-government. --
Virginia Protest. Washington ed. ix, 498. Ford ed., x, 351.
< 1825 >

8130. STATE RIGHTS, General welfare. -- JCE8130

This Assembly [ of Virginia] does disavow and declare to be most false and unfounded, the doctrine that the compact, in authorizing its Federal branch to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States, has given them thereby a power to do whatever they may think, or pretend, would promote the general welfare, which construction would make that, of itself, a complete government, without limitation of powers; but that the plain sense and obvious meaning were, that they might levy the taxes necessary to provide for the general welfare, by the various acts of power therein specified and delegated to them, and by no others. --
Virginia Protest. Washington ed. ix, 497. Ford ed., x, 350.
< 1825 >

8147. STATES, Barriers of liberty. -- JCE8147

The true barriers of our liberty are our State governments; and the wisest conservative power ever contrived by man, is that of which our Revolution and present government found us possessed. Seventeen distinct States, amalgamated into one as to their foreign concerns, but single and independent as to their internal administration, regularly organized with legislature and governor resting on the choice of the people, and enlightened by a free press, can never be so fascinated by the arts of one man, as to submit voluntarily to his usurpation. Nor can they be constrained to it by any force he can possess. While that may paralyze the single State in which it happens to be encamped, sixteen others, spread over a country of two thousand miles diameter, rise up on every side, ready organized for deliberation by a constitutional legislature, and for action by their governor, constitutionally the commander of the militia of the State, that is to say, of every man in it able to bear arms; and that militia, too, regularly formed into regiments and battalions, into infantry, cavalry and artillery, trained under officers general and subordinate, legally appointed, always in readiness, and to whom they are already in habits of obedience. The republican government of France was lost without a struggle, because the party of "un et indivisible " had prevailed; no provisional organizations existed to which the people might rally under authority of the laws, the seats of the directory were virtually vacant, and a small force sufficed to turn the legislature out of their chamber, and to salute its leader chief of the nation. But with us, sixteen out of seventeen States rising in mass, under regular organization, and legal commanders, united in object and action by their Congress, or, if that be in duresse, by a special convention, present such obstacles to an usurper as forever to stifle ambition in the first conception of that object. --
To M. Destutt Tracy. Washington ed. v, 570. Ford ed., ix, 308.
< M. 1811 >

8154. STATES, Counties and. -- JCE8154

A county of a State cannot be governed by its own laws, but must be subject to those of the State of which it is a part. --
To William Lee. Washington ed. vii, 57.
< M. 1817 >

8221. SUPREME COURT, Centralization and. -- JCE8221

The great object of my fear is the Federal Judiciary. That body, like gravity, ever acting, with noiseless foot, and unalarming advance, gaining ground step by step, and holding what it gains, is engulfing insidiously the special governments into the jaws of that which feeds them. --
To Spencer Roane. Washington ed. vii, 212. Ford ed., x, 189.
< M. 1821 >

8223. SUPREME COURT, Individual opinions. -- JCE8223

A most condemnable practice of the Supreme Court to be corrected is that of cooking up a decision in caucus and delivering it by one of their members as the opinion of the Court, without the possibility of our knowing how many, who, and for what reasons each member concurred. This completely defeats the possibility of impeachment by smothering evidence. A regard for character in each being now the only hold we can have of them, we should hold fast to it. They would, were they to give their opinions seriatim and publicly, endeavor to justify themselves to the world by explaining the reasons which led to their opinion. --
To James Pleasants. Ford ed., x, 199.
< M. Dec. 1821 >

8226. SUPREME COURT, Individual opinions. -- Further continued .JCE8226

I must comfort myself with the hope that the judges will see the importance and the duty of giving their country the only evidence they can give of fidelity to its Constitution and integrity in the administration of its laws; that is to say, by every one's giving his opinion seriatim and publicly on the cases he decides. Let him prove by his reasoning that he has read the papers, that he has considered the case, that in the application of the law to it, he uses his own judgment independently and unbiased by party views and personal favor or disfavor. Throw himself in every case on God and his country; both will excuse him for error and value him for his honesty. The very idea of cooking up opinions in conclave, begets suspicions that something passes which fears the public ear, and this, spreading by degrees, must produce at some time abridgment of tenure, facility of removal, or some other modification which may promise a remedy. For, in truth, there is at this time more hostility to the Federal Judiciary than to any other organ of the government. --
To William Johnson. Washington ed. vii, 278. Ford ed., x, 248.
< M. 1823 >

8227. SUPREME COURT, Marshall's opinions. -- JCE8227

...But the Chief Justice says, "there must be an ultimate arbiter somewhere". True, there must; but does that prove it is either party? (State or Federal government) The ultimate arbiter is the people of the Union, assembled by their deputies in convention, at the call of Congress, or of two-thirds of the States. Let them decide to which they mean to give an authority claimed by two of their organs. And it has been the peculiar wisdom and felicity of our Constitution, to have provided this peaceable appeal, where that of other nations is at once to force. --
To William Johnson. Washington ed. vii, 293. * Ford ed., x, 230.
< M. 1823 >

8228. SUPREME COURT, Questions of constitutionality. -- JCE8228

It is a very dangerous doctrine to consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions. It is one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy. [ * * *] The Constitution has erected no such single tribunal, knowing that to whatever hands confided, with the corruptions of time and party, its members would become despots. It has more wisely made all the departments coequal and cosovereign within themselves. --
To William C. Jarvis. Washington ed. vii, 178. Ford ed., x, 160.
< M. 1820 >

8236. SUPREME COURT, State rights and. -- JCE8236

There are two measures which if not taken, we are undone. First, * to check these unconstitutional invasions of State rights by the Federal judiciary. How? Not by impeachment, in the first instance, but by a strong protestation of both houses of Congress that such and such doctrines, advanced by the Supreme Court, are contrary to the Constitution; and if afterwards they relapse into the same heresies, impeach and set the whole adrift. For what was the government divided into three branches, but that each should watch over the others and oppose their usurpations? --
To Nathaniel Macon. Ford ed., x, 192.
< M. Aug. 1821 >

8500. TRANQUILLITY, Old age and. -- Further continued .JCE8500

Tranquillity is the summum bonum of age. I wish, therefore, to offend no man's opinion, nor to draw disquieting animadversions on my own. While duty required it, I met opposition with a firm and fearless step. But loving mankind in my individual relations with them, I pray to be permitted to depart in their peace; and like the superannuated soldier, "quadragenis stipendiis emeritis ", to hang my arms on the post. --
To Spencer Roane. Washington ed. vii, 136. Ford ed., x, 142.
< P.F.,, 1819 1819>

8516. TREASON, Patriotism vs. -- JCE8516

Treason, when real, merits the highest punishment. But most codes extend their definitions of treason to acts not really against one's country. They do not distinguish between acts against the government, and acts against the oppressions of the government. The latter are virtues; yet have furnished more victims to the executioner than the former. Real treasons are rare; oppressions frequent. The unsuccessful strugglers against tyranny have been the chief martyrs of treason laws in all countries. Reformation of government with our neighbors * [ being] as much wanting now as reformation of religion is, or ever was anywhere, we should not wish then to give up to the executioner the patriot who fails, and flees to us. --
Report on Spanish Convention. Washington ed. iii, 353. Ford ed., v, 483.
< 1792 >

8518. TREASON, Security against. -- JCE8518

The framers of our Constitution certainly supposed they had guarded, as well their government against destruction by treason, as their citizens against oppression, under pretence of it; and if these ends are not attained, it is of importance to enquire by what means, more effectual, they may be secured. --
Seventh Annual Message. Washington ed. viii, 88. Ford ed., ix, 164.
< 1807 >

8588. TRIBUTE, War and. -- JCE8588

We prefer war in all cases to tribute under any form, and to any people whatever. --
To Thomas Barclay. Washington ed. iii, 262.
< Pa., 1791 >

8604. TRUTH, Importance of. -- JCE8604

It is of great importance to set a resolution, not to be shaken, never to tell an untruth. There is no vice so mean, so pitiful, so contemptible; and he who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and a third time, till at length it becomes habitual; he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world's believing him. This falsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good dispositions. --
To Peter Carr. Washington ed. i, 396.
< P. 1785 >

8613. TRUTH, Self-reliant. -- JCE8613

It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself. --
Notes on Virginia. Washington ed. viii, 401. Ford ed., iii, 264.
< 1782 >

8866. WAR, Americans in. -- JCE8866

Whenever an appeal to force shall take place, I feel a perfect confidence that the energy and enterprise displayed by my fellow citizens in the pursuits of peace, will be equally eminent in those of war. --
To General Shee. Washington ed. v, 33.
< W. 1807 >

8883. WAR, Genius for. -- JCE8883

I see the difficulties and defects we have to encounter in war, and should expect disasters if we had an enemy on land capable of inflicting them. But the weakness of our enemy there will make our first errors innocuous, and the seeds of genius which nature sows with even hand through every age and country, and which need only soil and season to germinate, will develop themselves among our military men. Some of them will become prominent, and seconded by the native energy of our citizens, will soon, I hope, to our force add the benefits of skill. --
To William Duane. Washington ed. vi, 75. Ford ed., ix, 365.
< M. Aug. 1812 >

8884. WAR, Holy. -- JCE8884

If ever there was a holy war, it was that which saved our liberties and gave us independence.

-- To J. W. Eppes. Washington ed. vi, 246. Ford ed., ix, 416.
< M. 1813 >

8905. WAR, Power to declare. -- continued. JCE8905

We have already given, in example, one effectual check to the dog of war, by transferring the power of declaring war from the Executive to the legislative body, from those who are to spend to those who are to pay. I should be pleased to see this second obstacle [ that no generation shall contract debts greater than may be paid during the course of its own existence] , held out by us also, in the first instance. --
To James Madison. Washington ed. iii, 108. Ford ed., v, 123.
< P. 1789 >

8928. WAR, Revolutionary. -- JCE8928

The circumstances of our [Revolutionary] war were without example. Excluded from all commerce, even with neutral nations, without arms, money or the means of getting them abroad, we were obliged to avail ourselves of such resources as we found at home.

-- To George Hammond. Washington ed. iii, 369. Ford ed., vi, 16. <Pa., May. 1792>

Jefferson Quotes from other Works

"I learn with great concern that [one] portion of our frontier so interesting, so important, and so exposed, should be so entirely unprovided with common fire-arms. I did not suppose any part of the United States so destitute of what is considered as among the first necessaries of a farm-house."

- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Jacob J. Brown, 1808. ME 11:432.

"In America, no other distinction between man and man had ever been known but that of persons in office exercising powers by authority of the laws, and private individuals. Among these last, the poorest laborer stood on equal ground with the wealthiest millionaire, and generally on a more favored one whenever their rights seem to jar."

- Thomas Jefferson, Answers to de Meusnier Questions, 1786. ME 17:8.

"The people cannot be all, & 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 a lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. We have had 13. states independent 11. years. There has been one rebellion. That comes to one rebellion in a century & a half for each state. What country before ever existed a century & half without a rebellion? & what country can preserve it's 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 & 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 & tyrants. It is it's natural manure. Our Convention has been too much impressed by the insurrection of Massachusetts: and in the spur of the moment they are setting up a kite to keep the hen-yard in order. I hope in God this article will be rectified before the new constitution is accepted."

Thomas Jefferson, Nov. 13, 1787 letter to William S. Smith.

"As to the species of exercise, I advise the gun. While this gives [only] moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise, and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun, therefore, be the constant companion to your walks."

- Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Peter Carr, Aug. 19, 1785.

“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.”

- Thomas Jefferson, 'Commonplace Books' 1758-1772, quoting Cesare Beccaria.

"To unequal privileges among members of the same society the spirit of our nation is, with one accord, adverse."

- Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Hugh White, 1801. ME 10:258

"April 10^th (1788). Frankfort. Hocheim. Mayence. The little tyrants round about having disarmed their people, and made it very criminal to kill game, one knows when they quit the territory of Frankfort by the quantity of game which is seen. In the Republic, everybody being allowed to be armed, and to hunt on their own lands, there is very little game left in its territory. The hog hereabouts resembles extremely the little hog of Virginia. Round like that, a small head, and short upright ears. This makes the ham of Mayence so much esteemed at Paris."

- Thomas Jefferson, Miscellany, 1784-1788, TRAVEL JOURNALS, "Memorandums on a Tour from Paris to Amsterdam, Strasburg, and back to Paris" March 3, 1788.

"Whereas information has been received that sundry persons, citizens of the U. S. or resident within the same, are conspiring & confederating together to begin & set on foot, provide & prepare the means for a military expedition or enterprise against the dominions of Spain, against which nation war has not been declared by the constitutional authority of the U. S.; that for this purpose they are fitting out & arming vessels in the western waters of the U. S., collecting provisions, arms, military stores & other means; are deceiving & seducing honest & well meaning citizens under various pretences to engage in their criminal enterprises; are organizing, officering & arming themselves for the same, contrary to the laws in such cases made & provided, I have therefore thought fit to issue this my proclamation, warning and enjoining all faithful citizens who have been led to participate in the sd unlawful enterprises without due knolege or consideration to withdraw from the same without delay & commanding all persons whatsoever engaged or concerned in the same to cease all further proceedings therein as they will answer the contrary at their peril, and will incur prosecution with all the rigors of the law. And I hereby enjoin and require all officers civil or military, of the U. S. or of any of the states or territories, & especially all governors, & other executive authorities, all judges, justices, and other officers of the peace, all military officers of the army or navy of the U. S., & officers of the militia, to be vigilant, each within his respective department and according to his functions in searching out & bringing to condign punishment all persons engaged or concerned in such enterprise and in seizing & detaining subject to the dispositions of the law all vessels, arms, military stores, or other means provided or providing for the same, & in general in preventing the carrying on such expedition or enterprise by all the lawful means within their power. And I require all good & faithful citizens, and others within the U. S. to be aiding & assisting herein & especially in the discovery, apprehension, & bringing to justice, of all such offenders, and in the giving information against them to the proper authorities.

"We appealed to those of nature, and found them engraved on our hearts. Yet we did not avail ourselves of all the advantages of our position. We had never been permitted to exercise self-government. When forced to assume it, we were novices in its science. Its principles and forms had entered little into our former education. We established however some, although not all its important principles. The constitutions of most of our States assert, that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves, in all cases to which they think themselves competent, (as in electing their functionaries executive and legislative, and deciding by a jury of themselves, in all judiciary cases in which any fact is involved,) or they may act by representatives, freely and equally chosen; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed; that they are entitled to freedom of person, freedom of religion, freedom of property, and freedom of the press."

- Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Major John Cartwright, June 5, 1824. [The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, (Memorial Edition) Lipscomb and Bergh, editors.]
 

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