Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: wideawake
1. TJ and friends Rebelled against their King. Clearly not a "bigger government" move on his part.

2. TJ wasn't even in the US when the Constitution was being ratified.

3. He was firmly against it, as the quotes provided prove, if it didn't have protections for Individual Rights declared right in the text. This, in HIS opinion, was a major failing of the purposed Constitution and put him dead against it.

4. TJ's writings show that he was clearly unhappy with how the Constitution was being formulated and that he forsaw EXACTLY the issues we are dealing with today.

So yeah, you are still a moron...

62 posted on 07/30/2008 7:57:17 AM PDT by Dead Corpse (What would a free man do?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 61 | View Replies ]


To: Dead Corpse
1. TJ and friends Rebelled against their King. Clearly not a "bigger government" move on his part.

He rebelled against a monarchical government which did not permit its subjects their natural right of representation.

The government contemplated by the Constitution was not only far more limited in scope than the monarchical government of the UK, it was also qualitatively different in the structure of its institutions.

2. TJ wasn't even in the US when the Constitution was being ratified.

The Philadelphia Convention first met in May 1787. The ninth state ratified it in June 1788. If Jefferson had thought that the new Constitution was a national disaster that had to be prevented, he had more than a year in which to return from abroad and personally oppose it. He also had been able to send more than a hundred letters during the course of that time. Therefore he had ample opportunity to address Anti-Federalists, make common cause with them, remonstrate with the Virginia convention and conduct any manner of public opposition to the Constitution. But he abstained from all such activity.

3. He was firmly against it, as the quotes provided prove, if it didn't have protections for Individual Rights declared right in the text. This, in HIS opinion, was a major failing of the purposed Constitution and put him dead against it.

As I pointed out earlier, many of the Constitution's supporters wanted the Constitution amended in various ways. Jefferson was one such worthy.

Had he been truly "dead against" the Constitution, he would have contacted the Virginia legislature to plead against ratification. He would have written articles for publication against its adoption.

More to the point, he would never even have bothered to privately advocate the amendment of a document that he thought was wrong. Rather than calling for improvements to it, he would have called for its destruction.

4. TJ's writings show that he was clearly unhappy with how the Constitution was being formulated and that he forsaw EXACTLY the issues we are dealing with today.

His writings show that he wanted more language inserted into the Constitution to improve it.

And, in the heavily edited quotes you presented, he foresaw none of the issues we are dealing with today.

In the quotes presented he expresses fears that habeas corpus will be abolished. Habeas corpus is still alive and well and a key feature of our legal system. He expresses fears that juries will no longer be empaneled in civil cases. They routinely are. He expresses fears that standing armies will tyrannize Americans. They don't. He expresses fears for freedom of religion. America still enjoys freedom of religion. He expresses fears that monopolies will control US commerce. America has more small businesses now that it has ever had. He expresses the greatest fear for the press. The US press is free to the point of treason.

The one Constitutional right that really is threatened in large areas of the country is one that Jefferson does not mention in your proffered quotes: the right to bear arms. And the culprit behind that is much more state and local governments than it is the federal government.

65 posted on 07/30/2008 8:39:03 AM PDT by wideawake (Why is it that those who call themselves Constitutionalists know the least about the Constitution?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 62 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson