Thomas Jefferson Quotes II:
"...I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which
declared 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the
free exercise thereof;" thus building a wall of seperation between church and state.
Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation, in behalf of the rights
of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments
which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural rights in opposition to his social duties."
- The Aurora General Advertiser, Philadelphia, Feb., 1, 1802
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"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."
- Letter to Jacob J. Brown, 1808. ME 11:432
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"Wonderful is the effect of impudent & persevering lying. The British ministry have so long hired their gazetteers to repeat and model into every form lies about our being in anarchy, that the world has at length believed them, the English nation has believed them, the ministers themselves have come to believe them, & what is more wonderful, we have believed them ourselves. Yet where does this anarchy exist? Where did it ever exist, except in the single
instance of Massachusetts? And can history produce an instance of rebellion so honourably conducted? I say nothing of it's motives. They were founded in ignorance, not wickedness. God forbid we should ever be 20 years without such a rebellion. 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."
- letter to William S. Smith, Nov. 13, 1787.
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"Equally removed from the access of an eastern or western enemy; central to the whole State, so that should they attempt an irruption in any direction, they must pass through a great extent of hostile country; in a neighborhood thickly inhabited by a robust and hardy people zealous in the American cause, acquainted with the use of arms, and the defiles and passes by which they must issue: it would seem, that in this point of view, no place could have been better chosen."
- Letter to Patrick Henry, March 27, 1779
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"We have great need for the ensuing twelve months to be left to ourselves. The enemies of our constitution are preparing a fearful operation, and the dissensions in this state are too likely to bring things to the situation they wish, when our Buonaparte, surrounded by his comrades in arms, may step in to give us political salvation in his way. It behoves our citizens to be on their guard, to be firm in their principles, and full of confidence in themselves. We are able to preserve our self-government if we will but think so."
- Feb 2, 1800 letter to Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr. [The Works of Thomas Jefferson in Twelve Volumes. Federal Edition. Collected and Edited by Paul Leicester Ford.]
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"But it proves more forcibly the necessity of obliging every citizen to be a soldier; this was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free State. Where there is no oppression there will be no pauper hirelings."
- June 18, 1813 letter to James Monroe.
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"For defence against invasion, their number is as nothing; nor is it considered needful or safe that a standing army should be kept up, in time of peace, for that purpose. Uncertain as we must ever be of the particular point in our circumstances where an enemy may choose to invade us, the only force which can be ready at every point, and competent to oppose them, is the body of neighboring citizens, as formed into a militia. On these, collected from the parts most convenient, in numbers proportioned to the invading force, it is best to rely, not only to meet the first attack, but, if it threatens to be permanent, to maintain the defense until regulars may be engaged to relieve them. These considerations render it important that we should, at every session, continue to amend the defects which, from time to time, show themselves, in the laws for regulating the militia, until they are sufficiently perfect: nor should we now, or at any time, seperate, until we can say we have done every thing for the militia which we could do, were an enemy at our door."
- Presidents' Messages, Dec. 8th, 1801. Library of Congress - A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1875
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"Considering the extraordinary character of the times in which we live, our attention should be fixed on the safety of our country. For a people who are free, and wish to remain so, a well organized and armed militia is their best security. It is therefore incumbant on us, at every meeting, to revise the condition of the militia, and to ask ourselves if it is prepared to repel a powerful enemy at every point of our territories exposed to invasion. Some of the states have paid a laudable attention to this object, but every degree of neglect is to be found among others. Congress alone having the power to produce an uniform state of preparation in this great organ of defence, the interests which they so deeply feel in their own and their country's security, will present this as among the most important objects of their deliberation."
- Message of President Jefferson No.27, Nov. 8, 1808. 10th Congress, 2nd Session. [A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774 - 1875. American State Papers. Library of Congress.]
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"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 inquire by what means, more
effectual, they may be secured."
- Message to the House of Representatives, Oct. 27, 1807
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“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 inquire by what means more effectual they may be secured.”
- Message to the U.S. Senate, Oct. 27, 1807.
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"Is there a country on earth, or ought there to be one,
allowing no appeal from the first errors of their courts?"
- Letter to George Hammond, May 29, 1792.
[The Thomas Jefferson Papers, in the Library of Congress.]
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"Sir,--The pressure of the embargo, though sensibly felt by every
description of our fellow citizens, has yet been cheerfully borne
by most of them, under the conviction that it was a temporary evil,
and a necessary one to save us from greater and more permanent evils,
--the loss of property and surrender of rights. But it would have
been more cheerfully borne, but for the knowledge that, while honest
men were religiously observing it, the unprincipled along our
sea-coast and frontiers were fraudulently evading it; and that in
some parts they had even dared to break through it openly, by an
armed force too powerful to be opposed by the collector and his
assistants. To put an end to this scandalous insubordination to the
laws, the Legislature has authorized the President to empower proper
persons to employ militia, for preventing or suppressing armed or
riotous assemblages of persons resisting the custom-house officers
in the exercise of their duties, or opposing or violating the embargo
laws. He sincerely hopes that, during the short time which these
restrictions are expected to continue, no other instances will take
place of a crime of so deep a die. But it is made his duty to take
the measures necessary to meet it. He therefore requests you, as
commanding officer of the militia of your State, to appoint some
officer of the militia, of known respect for the laws, in or near to
each port of entry within your State, with orders, when applied to
by the collector of the district, to assemble immediately a
sufficient force of his militia, and to employ them efficaciously
to maintain the authority of the laws respecting the embargo, and
that you notify to each collector the officer to whom, by your
appointment, he is so to apply for aid when necessary. He has
referred this appointment to your Excellency, because your knowledge
of characters, or means of obtaining it, will enable you to select
one who can be most confided in to exercise so serious a power, with
all the discretion, the forbearance, the kindness even, which the
enforcement of the law will possibly admit,--ever to bear in mind
that the life of a citizen is never to be endangered, but as the
last melancholy effort for the maintenance of order and obedience
to the laws."
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"Our peculiar security is in the possession of a written
Constitution. Let us not make it a blank paper by construction."
- letter to Wilson Nicholas, 1803
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"It would reduce the whole instrument to a single phrase, that of
instituting a Congress with power to do whatever would be for the
good of the United States; and as they would be the sole judges
of the good or evil, it would be also a power to do whatever evil
they please. Certainly no such universal power was meant to be
given them. It [the Constitution] was intended to lace them up
straightly within the enumerated powers and those without which,
as means, these powers could not be carried into effect."
- Opinion on a National Bank, 15 February 1791
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"To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress [in the Constitution], is to take possession of a boundless field of power, not longer susceptible of any definition."
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"[How] to check these unconstitutional invasions of... rights by the Federal
judiciary? 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, 1821. (*) FE 10:192
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"Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ
of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition."
- Thomas Jefferson (Notes on Virginia, Query 19, 1781)
"The steady character of our countrymen is a rock to which we
may safely moor; and notwithstanding the efforts of the papers to
disseminate early discontents, I expect that a just, dispassionate
and steady conduct, will at length rally to a proper system the
great body of our country. Unequivocal in principle, reasonable
in manner, we shall be able I hope to do a great deal of good to
the cause of freedom & harmony."
- letter to Elbridge Gerry, 29 March 1801
To Majr.Genl Howe
[A] Declaration by the Representatives of the United colonies in Congress When necessity compelled us to take arms against Great Britain in defence of our just rights, we thought it a circumstance of some comfort that our enemy was brave and civilized. it is the happiness of modern times that the evils of Necessary war are softened by refinement of manners and sentiment, and that an enemy is an object of vengeance in arms and in the field only. it is with pain we hear that Mr Allen and eleven others taken with him while fighting bravely in their country's cause, are sent to Britain in irons, to be punished for pretended treasons; treasons too created by one of those very laws whose obligation we deny, and mean to contest by the sword. This question is will not to be decided by reeking vengeance on a few brave men who unfortunately wretched helpless captives, but by subduing conquering your enemy(1) in the fields of glory encounters of virtue atchieving success in the fields of war,by and gathering there those laurels which grow for the superior brave alone. In this light we view the object between us; in this line we have hitherto conducted ourselves for it's attainment, to those of your who, bearing your arms, have fallen into our hands, we have extended afforded every comfort for which captivity will admit and misfortune called for. Enlargement upon parole has been admitted this they will do us the justice to testify enlargement and comfortable subsistence have been extended to both officers and men, trusting to the ties of honour and their bondage restraint is a bondage restraint of honour only. should you think proper in these days to revive antient barbarity of antient ages, barbarism, and again disgrace our nature with the practise of human sacrifice the fortune of war has put into our hands power subjects for multiplied retaliation. to them, to you, and to the world we declare they shall not be wretched, unless their imprudence or your example shall oblige us to make them so; but we declare also that their lives shall compel teach our enemies to respect the rights of nations. we have ordered Brigadier General Prescot to be bound in irons, and to be confined in close jail, there to experience sufferings similar to those corresponding miseries with those which shall be inflicted on Mr Allen. his life shall answer for that life of Mr. Allen, and the lives of as many others for those sent with him of the brave men captivated with him. We deplore the event which shall oblige us to retaliate shed blood for blood, and shall resort to it retaliation but as the means of stopping the progress of butchery. This it is a duty we owe to those who engaged in support of our the cause of their country, to assure them that if any unlucky circumstance, baffling the efforts of their bravery, shall put them in the power of their enemies, their lives shall be warranted from sacrifice by the lives of the prisoners in our hands. we will use the pledges in our hands to Warrant their lives from sacrifice.(2)
- Journal of the Continental Congress, TUESDAY, JANUARY 2, 1776
[Note 1: 1 For these words were substituted in the draft "Vanquishing our enemy". but they were also stricken out.]
[Note 2: 2 The draft of this paper, in the writing of Thomas Jefferson, is in the Jefferson Papers, in the Library of Congress, Fifth Series, X, No. 6. A fair copy, also in the writing of Jefferson, is in the Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 58, folio 251. This latter is endorsed: "Motion of Col. Harrison Jany 2, 1776, postponed."]
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"Knowing of the war when she left Jamaica, & that
our coast was lined with small French privateers,
she armed for her defence, & took one of those
commissions usually called letters of marque. She
arrived here safely without having had any rencounter
of any sort. Can it be necessary to say that a
merchant vessel is not a privateer? That tho' she
has arms to defend herself in time of war, in the
course of her regular commerce, this no more makes
her a privateer, than a husbandman following his
plough, in time of war, with a knife or pistol in
his pocket, is thereby made a soldier?"
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"It appears that a brigantine, called the Little Sarah,
has been fitted out at the port of Philadelphia, with
fourteen cannon & all other equipments indicating that
she is intended as a Privateer to cruise under the
authority of France, & that she is now lying in the
river Delaware, at some place between this city & Mud
island; that a conversation has been had between the
Secretary of State & the Minister Plenipotentiary of
France, in which conversation the Minister refused to
give any explicit assurance that the brigantine would
continue until the arrival of the President & his
decision in the case, but made declarations respecting
her not being ready to sail within the time of the
expected return of the President, from which the
Secretary of state infers with confidence, that she
will not sail till the President will have an
opportunity of considering & determining the case;
that in the course of the conversation, the Minister
declared that the additional guns which had been taken
in by the Little Sarah were French property, but the
Governor of Pennsylvania declared that he has good
ground to believe that two of her cannon were purchased
here of citizens of Philadelphia."
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"The last hope of human liberty in this world rests on us. We ought, for so dear a state 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."
- letter to William Duane, March 28, 1811. [The Works of Thomas Jefferson in Twelve Volumes. Federal Edition. Collected and Edited by Paul Leicester Ford.]
"Compacts then between nation & nation are obligatory
on them by the same moral law which obliges individuals
to observe their compacts. There are circumstances
however which sometimes excuse the non-performance of
contracts between man & man: so are there also between
nation & nation. When performance, for instance, becomes
impossible, non-performance is not immoral. So if
performance becomes self-destructive to the party, the
law of self-preservation overrules the laws of obligation
to others. For the reality of these principles I appeal
to the true fountains of evidence, the head & heart of
every rational & honest man. It is there Nature has written
her moral laws, & where every man may read them for himself.
He will never read there the permission to annul his
obligations for a time, or for ever, whenever they become
"dangerous, useless, or disagreeable." Certainly not when
merely useless or disagreeable, as seems to be said in an
authority which has been quoted, Vattel, 2. 197, and tho
he may under certain degrees of danger, yet the danger
must be imminent, & the degree great."
"Hither must be referred the common question, concerning
personal & real treaties. If indeed it be with a free people,
there can be no doubt but that the engagement is in it's
nature real, because the subject is a permanent thing, and
even tho the government of the state be changed into a Kingdom,
the treaty remains, because the same body remains, tho' the
head is changed, and, as we have before said, the government
which is exercised by a King, does not cease to be the
government of the people. There is an exception, when the
object seems peculiar to the government as if free cities
contract a league for the defence of their freedom."
- quoting Grotius. 2. 16. 16.
"We ought in like manner to defend a republic against the
enterprises of an oppressor of the public liberty."
- quoting Vattel. 2. 197.
""It is demonstrated in natural law that he who promises another
confers on him a perfect right to require the thing promised, &
that, consequently, not to observe a perfect promise, is to violate
the right of another; it is as manifest injustice as to plunder any
one of their right. All the tranquillity, the happiness & security
of mankind rest on justice, on the obligation to respect the rights
of others. The respect of others for our rights of domain & property
is the security of our actual possessions; the faith of promises is
our security for the things which cannot be delivered or executed on
the spot. No more security, no more commerce among men, if they think
themselves not obliged to preserve faith, to keep their word. This
obligation then is as necessary as it is natural & indubitable, among
nations who live together in a state of nature, & who acknolege no
superior on earth, to maintain order & peace in their society. Nations
& their governors then ought to observe inviolably their promises &
their treaties. This great truth, altho' too often neglected in
practice, is generally acknoleged by all nations; the reproach of
perfidy is a bitter affront among sovereigns: now he who does not
observe a treaty is assuredly perfidious, since he violates his faith.
On the contrary nothing is so glorious to a prince & his nation, as
the reputation of inviolable fidelity to his word?"
- quoting Vattel. observance of treaties § 163
Upon the whole I conclude
That the treaties are still binding, notwithstanding the change of
government....
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"It awakens the people from the slumber over public proceedings
in which they are involved. It obliges every member to consult
his district on the simple question of war or peace: it shews the
people on which side of the house are the friends of their peace
as well as their rights, & brings back those friends to the next
session supported by the whole American people. I do not know
however whether this last measure will be proposed. The late
maneuvres have added another proof to the inefficiency of
constitutional barriers."
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"The gift of provisions was but an act of that friendship to them,
when in the same distress, which had induced us to give five times
as much to the less friendly nation of the Creeks. But we have given
arms to them. We believe it is the practice of every white nation
to give arms to the neighboring Indians. The agents of Spain have
done it abundantly, and, we suppose, not out of their own pockets,
and this for purposes of avowed hostility on us; and they have been
liberal in promises of further supplies. We have given a few arms to
a very friendly tribe, not to make war on Spain, but to defend
themselves from the atrocities of a vastly more numerous and powerful
people, and one which, by a series of unprovoked and even unrepelled
attacks on us, is obliging us to look toward war as the only means
left of curbing their insolence."
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"The last hope of human liberty in this world rests on us. We ought,
for so dear a state 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 their power to prevent it. But all will be right in the
end, though not perhaps by the shortest means."
"Mr. Dickinson's delight at its passage was the only circumstance
which reconciled them to it. The vote being passed, altho' further
observn on it was out of order, he could not refrain from rising
and expressing his satisfaction and concluded by saying "there is
but one word, Mr. President, in the paper which I disapprove, &
that is the word Congress..."
July 27, 1821, Autobiography Draft Fragment,
January 6 through July 27
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"The Congress sat till 7 o'clock this evening in consequence of a
motion of R. H. Lee's rendering ourselves free and independent
States. The sensible part of the House opposed the Motion--they had
no objection to forming a Scheme of a Treaty which they would send
to France by proper Persons & uniting this Continent by a Confederacy;
they saw no wisdom in a Declaration of Independence, nor any other
Purpose to be enforced by it, but placing ourselves in the power of
those with whom we mean to treat, giving our Enemy Notice of our
Intentions before we had taken any steps to execute them. The event,
however, was that the Question was postponed; it is to be renewed on
Monday when I mean to move that it should be postponed for 3 Weeks or
Months. In the mean Time the plan of Confederation & the Scheme of
Treaty may go on. I don't know whether I shall succeed in this Motion;
I think not, it is at least doubtful. However I must do what is right
in my own Eyes, & Consequences must take Care of themselves. I wish you
had been here--the whole Argument was sustained on one side by R.
Livingston, Wilson, Dickenson, & myself, & by the Power of all N.
England, Virginia & Georgia at the other."
- E. Rutledge to John Jay, June 8, 1776.
(As quoted by Thomas Jefferson; Thomas Jefferson, July 27,
1821, Autobiography Draft Fragment, January 6 through July 27).
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"In the impeachment of judge Pickering of New Hampshire, a habitual &
maniac drunkard, no defence was made. Had there been, the party vote
of more than one third of the Senate would have acquitted him.-- T. J.]
impartial controul: and that this, to be imparted, must be compounded of
a mixture of state and federal authorities. It is not enough that honest
men are appointed judges. All know the influence of interest on the mind
of man, and how unconsciously his judgment is warped by that influence.
To this bias add that of the esprit de corps, of their peculiar maxim
and creed that "it is the office of a good judge to enlarge his
jurisdiction," and the absence of responsibility, and how can we expect
impartial decision between the General government, of which they are
themselves so eminent a part, and an individual state from which they
have nothing to hope or fear. We have seen too that, contrary to all
correct example, they are in the habit of going out of the question before
them, to throw an anchor ahead and grapple further hold for future advances
of power. They are then in fact the corps of sappers & miners, steadily
working to undermine the independant rights of the States, & to consolidate
all power in the hands of that government in which they have so important a
freehold estate. But it is not by the consolidation, or concentration of
powers, but by their distribution, that good government is effected. Were
not this great country already divided into states, that division must be
made, that each might do for itself what concerns itself directly, and what
it can so much better do than a distant authority. Every state again is
divided into counties, each to take care of what lies within it's local
bounds; each county again into townships or wards, to manage minuter details;
and every ward into farms, to be governed each by it's individual proprietor.
Were we directed from Washington when to sow, & when to reap, we should soon
want bread. It is by this partition of cares, descending in gradation from
general to particular, that the mass of human affairs may be best managed for
the good and prosperity of all. I repeat that I do not charge the judges
with wilful and ill-intentioned error; but honest error must be arrested
where it's toleration leads to public ruin. As, for the safety of society,
we commit honest maniacs to Bedlam, so judges should be withdrawn from their
bench, whose erroneous biases are leading us to dissolution. It may indeed
injure them in fame or in fortune; but it saves the republic, which is the
first and supreme law."
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"In the letter of May 15, to Mr. Ternant, I mentioned, that, in answer to
the complaints of the British minister against the exportation of arms from
the United States, it had been observed, that the manufacture of arms was
the occupation and livelihood of some of our citizens; that it ought not to
be expected that a war among other nations should produce such an internal
derangement of the occupations of a nation at peace, as the suppression of a
manufacture which is the support of some of its citizens; but that, if they
should export these arms to nations at war, they would be abandoned to the
seizure and confiscation which the law of nations authorized to be made of
them on the high seas."
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"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 benefit of them will be left equally
free and open to all."
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"By our treaties with several of the belligerent powers, which are a part of the
laws of our land, we have established a state of peace with them. But without
appealing to treaties, we are at peace with them all by the law of nature. For by
nature's law, man is at peace with man, till some aggression is committed, which,
by the same law, authorizes one to destroy another as his enemy."
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"Whatever enables us to go to war, secures our peace."
- letter to James Monroe, 24 October 1823
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"In debating the legality of this order, it was insisted in support of it,
that every man, by the law of nature, and every body of men, possesses the
right of selfdefence; that all public functionaries are essentially invested
with the powers of self-preservation; that they have an inherent right to do
all acts necessary to keep themselves in a condition to discharge the trusts
confided to them; that whenever authorities are given, the means of carrying
them into execution are given by necessary implication; that thus we see the
British Parliament exercise the right of punishing contempts; all the State
Legislatures exercise the same power; and every Court does the same; that if
we have it not, we sit at the mercy of every intruder who may enter our doors
or gallery, and by noise and tumult render proceeding in business impracticable;
that if our tranquillity is to be perpetually disturbed by newspaper defamation,
it will not be possible to exercise our functions with the requisite coolness
and deliberation; and that we must, therefore, have a power to punish these
disturbers of our peace and proceedings. To this it was answered, that the
Parliament and Courts of England have cognizance of contempts by the express
provisions of their law; that the State Legislatures have equal authority,
because their powers are plenary; they represent their constituents completely,
and possess all their powers, except such as their Constitutions have expressly
denied them; that the Courts of the several States have deputies ad libitum to
aid him (3 Grey, 59. 147, 255), is equal to the smallest disturbances; that, in
requiring a previous law, the Constitution has regard to the inviolability of the
citizen as well as of the member; as, should one House, in the regular form of a
bill, aim at too broad privileges, it may be checked by the other, and both by
the President; and also as, the law being promulgated, the citizen will know how
to avoid offence. But, if one branch may assume its own privileges without control;
if it may do it on the spur of the occasion, conceal the law in its own breast,
and after the fact committed make its sentence both the law and the judgment on
that fact; if the offence is to be kept undefined, and to be declared only ex re
nata, and according to the passions of the moment, and there be no limitation
either in the manner or measure of the punishment, the condition of the citizen
will be perilous indeed.
- Parliamentary Manual. Washington ed. x, 9.
1743-1826: The Jeffersonian Cyclopedia, 1900
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"There are circumstances which sometimes excuse the non-performance of contracts
between man and man; so are there also between nation and nation. When performance,
for instance, becomes impossible, non-performance is not immoral; so if performance
becomes self-destructive to the party, the law of self-preservation overrules the
laws of obligation in others."
- French Treaties Opinion. Washington ed. vii, 613.
Ford ed., vi, 220. 1793.
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"This was the object of the Declaration of Independence. Not to find out new principles, or new arguments, never before thought of, not merely to say things which had never been said before; but to place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent, and to justify ourselves in the independent stand we are compelled to take. Neither aiming at originality of principle or sentiment, nor yet copied from any particular and previous writing, it was intended to be an expression of the American mind, and to give to that expression the proper tone and spirit called for by the occasion."
- Letter to Henry Lee, 8 May 1825. (Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America, 1501).
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"A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless one of the high duties of a
good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation,
of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country
by a scrupulous adherence to written law, would be to lose the law itself, with life,
liberty, property, and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly
sacrificing the end to the means.....A ship at sea in distress for provisions, meets
another having abundance, yet refusing a supply; the law of self-preservation authorizes
the distressed to take a supply by force. In all these cases, the unwritten laws of
necessity, of self-preservation, and of the public safety, control the written laws of
meum and tuum."
- 4528. LAW, Transcending. - JCE4528, The Jeffersonian Cyclopedia, 1900
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"Some very disagreeable differences have taken place in Congress. They cannot fail to
lessen the respect of the public for the general government, and to replace their State
governments in a greater degree of comparative respectability. I do not think it for
the interest of the general government itself, & still less of the Union at large, that
the State governments should be so little respected as they have been. However, I dare
say that in time all these as well as their central government, like the planets
revolving round their common sun, acting & acted upon according to their respective
weights & distances, will produce that beautiful equilibrium on which our Constitution
is founded, and which I believe it will exhibit to the world in a degree of perfection,
unexampled but in the planetary system itself. The enlightened statesman, therefore,
will endeavor to preserve the weight and influence of every part, as too much given to any member of it would destroy the general equilibrium."
- Letter to Peregrine Fitzhugh, Feb. 23, 1798.
[The Works of Thomas Jefferson in Twelve Volumes. Federal Edition.
Collected and Edited by Paul Leicester Ford].
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He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and 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 tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good dispositions.
- Letter to Peter Carr, (August 19, 1785)
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"Men by their constitutions are naturally divided into two parties: 1. Those who fear
and distrust the people, and wish to draw all powers from them into the hands of the
higher classes. 2. Those who identify themselves with the people, have confidence in
them, cherish and consider them as the most honest and safe, tho' not the most wise
depository of the public interests.
"In every country these two parties exist, and in every one where they are free to think,
speak, and write, they will declare themselves. Call them, therefore, Liberals and
Serviles, Jacobins and Ultras, Whigs and Tories, Republicans and Federalists, Aristocrats
and Democrats, or by whatever name you please, they are the same parties still, and
pursue the same object. The last appellation of Aristocrats and Democrats is the true one
expressing the essence of all."
- letter to Henry Lee, 1824
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"It proved that New Orleans can be defended both by land and water; that the western
country will fly to its relief (of which ourselves had doubted before); that our
militia are heroes when they have heroes to lead them on; and that, when unembarrassed
by field evolutions, which they do not understand, their skill in the fire-arm, and
deadly aim, give them great advantages over regulars."
- Letter to William H. Crawford, February 11, 1815.
[The Works of Thomas Jefferson in Twelve Volumes. Federal Edition. Collected and Edited
by Paul Leicester Ford].
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"Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis,
a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are a gift of God? Indeed I
tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever."
- Query 18 - Notes on the State of Virginia (1781-1785).
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"For a nation as a society forms a moral person, and every
member of it is personally responsible for his society."
- Letter to George Hammond, May 29, 1792.
[The Thomas Jefferson Papers, in the Library of Congress.]
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"This ball of liberty, I believe most piously, is now so well in motion that it will
roll round the globe. At least the enlightened part of it, for light & liberty go
together. It is our glory that we first put it into motion, & our happiness that being
foremost we had no bad examples to follow."
- Letter to Tench Coxe, June 1, 1795.
[The Works of Thomas Jefferson in Twelve Volumes. Federal Edition.
Collected and Edited by Paul Leicester Ford].
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"Cherish, therefore, the spirit of our people, and keep alive their attention. Do not be too severe upon their errors, but reclaim them by enlightening them. If once they become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress, and Assemblies, Judges, and Governors, shall all become wolves."
- letter to Edward Carrington, 16 January 1787
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Also See:
God and Jefferson