Posted on 07/13/2005 3:14:50 PM PDT by Sam Gamgee
Biography Channel had an hour on Jefferson. Being Canadian I never learned anything about this great man. Some one on this site lamented that they would never want to listen to a thing he said because he was a slave owner. Yet Jefferson tried in the state legislature and the colonial legislature to end slavery. It didn't happen in his time. And no, he only freed those slaves that he felt had the skills to survive. But maybe he worried that they would be marginalized in the white man's world and end up in shanty towns?
What really impressed me is that he and Washington gave themselves self-imposed term limits. These men saw political power as so distasteful they actually refused to keep power longer than what they saw as prudent.
Not many men today are in this class.
It is sad that Adams became a federalist.
All you need to know about the difference between Canada and the US. Canadians voted their greatest Canadian to be Tommy Douglas - the Father of Socialism in Canada! All our truly great men left and went to America.
I noticed that as well. That he was not a participant in the revolution - really a thinker - like John Locke. I don't know much about Samuel Adams but I love some of his famous quotes.
Wasn't Alexander Hamilton a proponent of big government?
So what. And you have never sinned?
Even Churchill was somewhat racist. He loved to call the German huns. Yet, I am sure most German Americans don't fault him for it.
I'll gladly trade both the GOP and the Dems in for the Federalists of yesteryear.
Not big government. But strong federal government limited in scope by the constitution. Read the Federalist Papers. He was one of the architects of our country! I highly admire him.
Yes, but the Federalists still wanted to take America back to where it came, right? They wanted a strong, large central and intrusive government. Isn't that what the colonists fought against?
Don't get me wrong. The United States is the envy of the world. States have amazing powers that provinces in Canada could only dream about.
I prefer a weak Federal Government at the mercy of the States. Again I come from Canada, where we are fed up with intrusive federal governments.
No, the Federalists just wanted to make sure the federal gov't supeseded the states in the areas enumerated by the constituion. They would all be considered radical states rights advocates by today's standards. I have very little heartburn with the early Federalists.
I prefer a strong federal government limited by the very short document known as the constitution. That means no medicare, welfare, social security, etc, etc. The one non-constitutional thing I do like is the National Park system.
OK. Guess I had the wrong idea of what a federalist was.
National parks are a good idea within limits. Not to be used as a tool to stop oil exploration or to appease enviro-socialists.
Agree 100% with that sentiment. Good thread, BTW.
Have a good nite!
Being that Madison came up with the 9th amendment I think it is easy to say how he feels about individual rights.
When it come to the various Depts. of the government it is harder to say because in his time we didn't have the infrastructure for those things to even be feasible really.
I would have a hard time believing anyone who helped create the system of government that helped a country become the foremost superpower in the world in less than 200 years could feel anything but pride about that country.
Did I really nead a sarcasm tag???
Got yah.
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