HOW GREAT a Man Was Thomas Jefferson...?

Reaganite Republican ^ | July 11 , 2012 | Reaganite Republican

[Reaganite Republican]

At the age of 5, Jefferson began studying 

under his cousin's tutor...

At 9, studied Latin, Greek and French.

At 14, studied classical literature and additional languages.

At 16, entered the College of William and Mary.

At 19, studied Law for 5 years starting under George Wythe.

At 23, started his own law practice.

At 25, was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses.

At 31, wrote the widely circulated "Summary View of the Rights of British America" and retired from his law practice.

At 33, wrote the Declaration of Independence.

At 33, took three years to revise Virginia's legal code and wrote a Public Education bill and a statute for Religious Freedom.

At 36, was elected the second Governor of Virginia succeeding Patrick Henry.

At 40, served in Congress for two years.

At 41, was the American minister to France and negotiated commercial treaties with European nations along with Ben Franklin and John Adams.

At 46, served as the first Secretary of State under George Washington.

At 53, served as Vice President and was elected president of the American Philosophical Society.

At 55, drafted the Kentucky Resolutions and became the active head of the Democratic-Republican Party.

At 57, was elected the third president of the United States.

At 60, obtained the Louisiana Purchase doubling the nation's size.

At 61, was elected to a second term as President.

At 65, retired to Monticello.

At 80, helped President Monroe shape the Monroe Doctrine.

At 81, almost single-handedly created the University of Virginia and served as its first president.

At 83, died on the 50th anniversary of the Signing of the Declaration of Independence, along with John Adams

Thomas Jefferson knew because he himself studied the previous failed attempts at government.

He understood actual history, the nature of God, his laws and the nature of man... FAR more than what most understand today.

Jefferson really knew his stuff. A voice from the past to lead us in the future!

John F. Kennedy held a dinner in the white House for a group of the brightest minds in the nation at that time. He made this statement:

"This is perhaps the assembly of the most intelligence ever to gather at one time in the White House with the exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone."

Quoth Jefferson:

"When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe."

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."

"It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world."

"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labours of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."

"My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government."

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms."

"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government."

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

"To compel a man to subsidise with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical."

Thomas Jefferson (1802):

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations

that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property - until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."

I beg you to pay attention to this man of towering greatness, America (now would be a good time).

 _____________________________________

Via email, h/t Speedunque

[Reaganite Republican]

*** Personal PING ***

[Inyo-Mono]

Bttt!

[11Bush]

You forgot some items:

Inventor
Father of the Library of Congress
Kicker of Muslim ass

Was he perfect? Far from it, as with all men he was flawed, but he was a giant who moved and lived with other giants of the time. We are blessed as a country that when we needed them the giants were ours.

[CodeToad]

So many of the lessons of failure they knew then we practice today.

[daletoons]

Thanks RR. What we have today is everything this great genius warned against. Way to go lefties!

[PzLdr]

How great? Lived WAY beyond his means, constantly in debt. Died without freeing any of his slaves. Amazing? Yes. Great? Not so much.

[Graewoulf]

One of my heros. Thanks!

[scooby321]

Not the father of Sally Hemmings children.

His Nephew was the father.

As much as blacks hate the founders it amazes me how they want to be related to Thomas Jefferson

[LS]

One of my favorites: he taught himself Spanish so he could read Maciavelli in its native language-—or so I read. He also launched the first “
War on Terror” with only a joint resolution and said “those who aren’t with us are with the Bey of Tripoli,” or words to that effect.

[j_tull]

What we have today is everything this great genius warned against. Way to go lefties!

And yet the lefties claim him as one of their own!

[RJS1950]

No doubt he was a genius and one of the great founders but there are some warts that go along with him.

While he was part of the genius behind the Declaration, he was purposely kept as ambassador to France, keeping him and his egalitarian, democratic ideas away from the creation of our Constitution and Republic.

“At 46, served as the first Secretary of State under George Washington” and as SoS he and his supporters did everything possible to undermine the Washington administration. They even secretly bought a newspaper through which they channeled vindictive propaganda pieces excoriating Washington’s policies and the man personally.

Following that approach to his political rivals “At 55, drafted the Kentucky Resolutions and became the active head of the Democratic-Republican Party”, a party that while it had the name Republican in it was in no way shape or form Republican in thought or action. The Democratic-Republican party was later rechartered as the Democrat Party of the United States; that traitorous entity that has done so much over the years to undermine our constitutional republic.

He was a genius and overall a patriot, but his actions in some cases were not in keeping with the tenents of our Constitution with which he did not agree and was probably frustrated with because he had no real part in the formulation.

[central_va]

Had he lived 50 years later instead of hero, he would have been labeled a dirty rebel an evil slave holding secesionist by the Free Republic Neo Unionist Society i.e. Lincoln Coven. THe hypocrisy of history.

[Pharmboy]

Excellent points and good summary. He was also a rumor-monger and started the rumor that then President Washington was demented. Washington called him on it, Jefferson denied it (Washington knew it to be true) and Washington would never inhabit the same room with Jefferson for the rest of his life.

I will say this: he was a better president than one might have expected.

[central_va]

THe Louisianna Purchase was probably unconstitutional. Nobody objected at the time.

[RJS1950]

It probably was and there was objection after the fact; primarily I think because it was done on the sly and involving a large sum of money during a time that we didn’t have all that much in our treasury. It didn’t take too long for most to realize that it was the right thing to do and that the financial rewards to the nation and commerce far outweighed the points of dissent.

[rockrr]

It was clearly unconstitutional and Jefferson admitted it, but he did it anyway.

[central_va]

If the No Penalty Robert’s court were to rule on the Louisianna Purchase it would be found Constitutional, no doubt.

[rockrr]

As RJS1950 points out, there wasn’t much in the way of organized objection to the purchase so it likely wouldn’t have been as politically charged an issue before the court. But generally speaking I agree that roberts would have found a way to screw the pooch.

[Conservative4Ever]

As vice president to Adams...undermined Adams too. John Adams is my guy.