I was wondering what you thought.
I've heard "Thomas Jefferson lives... as Ron Paul", but Dr. Paul seldom does something he doesn't want to while Jefferson was different as President compared to how he was before.
Politics gets pretty complicated when you are given actual power. Read Jefferson's letters after he leaves office.
It is one thing to claim things when one has no power, it is another to act on them when one does.-
Which ones in particular?
Dude there are hundereds of them.
"The Executive Office" to A.L.C. Destutt de Tracy (26 January 1811) - He discusses why the U.S. decided on one supreme President rather than a council. He talks about comprimise among the pars of leadership; quorum pars fui.
"War with England" to Gen. T. Kosciusko (28 June 1812) Discusses the relationships of the U.S., England, and France.
"Tyrants of the Land and Sea" to Madame de Stael (24 May 1813) Discusses his perceived intentions of G. Britain.
"Debt, taxes, banks, and Paper" to J. W. Eppes (24 June 1813) [This one is awesome] He talks about generational binding of contracts, the power of banks, their intentions, etc. Also a solution for government debt instruments to be made payments for the state government instead of general money. He talks about Greshamn's law and the effects of unlimited debt issuance.
There are tons more and it wouldn't hurt to read some of his letters from when he was President as well.
"Malthus and the New World" to J.B. Say (1 February, 1804) - Discusses Malthus and Say on agriculture and the division of labor as well as trade.
"Schism and majority leadership" to Barnabas Bidwell (5 july 1806)
"Lessons of the Burr Conspiracy" to Gov. W. C. C. Claiborne (3 February, 1807)
"The Burr Trial" to William Branch Giles (20 April 1807) - Jefferson makes it clear that he sees the Federalists as no different than Burr. He complains that the courts treat federalists different than republicans, etc.
It might just be that when you sit at the helm of it all and see how f'd up it all is, anyone would try to intervene where they think they are right. It is classic human nature.
I honestly, don't think Jefferson was nearly as bad as the others around him as far as abusing his power goes. It would be difficult to see the treachery fo the European powers around your borders, have local governments yancy to invade those territories, and not decided to usurp a little bit of power that may or may not be defined in paper. Despite what people say about him and France, he described their government while he was in office as "iniquitous." His trade embargo was an ignorant and desperate move to avoid an actual war while he was in office, which was not even successful.
EDIT: I forgot one, but it is called [I should mention the titles are from the Library of America edition and are not from Jefferson], "Machiavellian benevolence and the Indians" - Where he talks about the competence of the Indians (he thinks highly of them) and the fine print in contracts (he wants their land and is scared they will not sell it).
Thanks: ) I read the the Executive office and it seems like he was in fact not being intellectually dishonest. After reading that it seems like he had a genuine change of opinion. I'll read the others later:)
"I've heard enough bad things about him to make me think I'm probably right."
Sigh.
You can learn all you want about Thomas Jefferson by reading his blog! Several times each week, he posts briefly on a variety of topics. Recent posts were on George Washington, the metric system and the value of paying cash. Tomorrow's will be on economic "bubbles."
Read his blog at http://ThomasJeffersonLeadership.com/blog/
Thomas jefferson was a member of the Lunar Society and in his writings wrote that he believed in ETs. in fact, it wasn't even a big deal...he just assumed other people lived out in the Universe.
limitgov: Thomas jefferson was a member of the Lunar Society and in his writings wrote that he believed in ETs. in fact, it wasn't even a big deal...he just assumed other people lived out in the Universe.
Someone please kill this thread... we've gone from Thomas Jefferson to UFO's.
There is an inherent moral problem in being a ruler. If you are a ruler, you must do the things that are required of a ruler - you must execute the enemies of the State, you must secure the State against insurrection, foreign intrigue, you must apply strategic pressure (including the threat and use of war violence) against your neighbors and enemies in order to counter their strategic pressures against you. These kinds of actions are not optional, either - you will do them or you will be stabbed in the back, invaded, and so on. Any genuinely moral person who reaches power will be have to engage in immoral behavior on pain of death, revolution, invasion, etc.
That said, I'd rather have a genuinely moral person in power than an evil, sociopathic tyrant. Unfortunately, it may be the case that the human race's millenial love-affair with government can only be broken by being pushed to an orgiastic apocalypse by maniacal tyrants. Maybe then people will start to realize that government isn't abused, it is abuse.
Clayton -
"Someone please kill this thread... we've gone from Thomas Jefferson to UFO's."
I'm sorry...I couldn't resist. I just watched an episode of Ancient Aliens that talked about the founding fathers.