Posted on 07/02/2010 2:43:05 PM PDT by DJ MacWoW
WASHINGTON (AP) - Preservation scientists at the Library of Congress have discovered that Thomas Jefferson, even in the act of declaring independence from England, had trouble breaking free from monarchial rule.
In an early draft of the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson wrote the word "subjects," when he referred to the American public. He then erased that word and replaced it with "citizens," a term he used frequently throughout the final draft.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.myway.com ...
They have nothing in common? Discredit the Founders and you discredit both documents. Prove one is flawed and you have a case for the other being flawed.
That would have been more correct. It is fascinating to think that as he wrote the Declaration, his ideas were forming and his view was changing. That one changed word says so much about how our country started on it's path to freedom.
Well, you know about those "subjects" in small towns.
They get "bitter" and cling to guns and religion.
Next thing you know, they think they have God-given rights to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.
It's not like Jefferson was working from any precedent in human history. Sheesh.
I think the writer had an agenda.
He was his usual hypocritical self there too. He was using the Danbury Baptists and clergy (the Rev David Allen for one) to break the Congregationalist power structure in New England. He was hostile to the dominate New England faith. They were Federalists and he helped destroyed them.
Exactly. Have the article's authors never edited/revised their writing, changing word choice to reflect a more accurate description? Never mind that the American Revolution was, uh, revolutionary. Today's journalists are a sad commentary on our society.
They are indicative of bias and lack of knowledge. Itty bitty tiny brains. :-)
Hate the Founders do ya? They won you the right to insult them.
The premise of the headline is idiotic.
These men were forming a more perfect union and they were going to struggle over terms and their definitions, as well, ensuring the wording was exact enough to apply to all men, so as to define what a freeman is.
Mistake? Hell I do it all day long and make judgment calls about the wording in letters and proposals.
Oh well, armchair quarterbacks, looking back some 200 years must really possess superior intelligence of divination.
Hey I used a big word!
You'll never be asked to write for the AP. ;-)
His backspace key didn’t work either?
Gee - And I thought all those quill pens had an eraser. (Next thing ya know, we’ll find out there was a misspelling in the Constitution.)
/sarchasm - The gaping whole between a liberal and reality
Rome - Before the dictators “were given” their power by the Roman Senate during various crisis .... (Hmmmn. Now where have we heard THAT little process being planned before?)
Sure I could. I have the ability to go on and on, and on without saying much of anything. /s
Ok. You made me laugh. :-D
Have a Happy 4th of July!
And you too! :-)
Much of the Declaration of Independence is based on Geo. Mason’s Virginia Declaration of Rights. Interesting fellow, Mason. He didn’t sign the Constitution, tho he helped in its drafting, because it didn’t do enough in his opinion to reign in the federal govt.
I try desperately hard to put myself into the times of the founding, how people thought, the customs and forms of government they were used to and had studied. Their acts really were revolutionary in the strictest sense of the word. Amazing what they did, and yet we take it all for granted. Tho that seems to be coming to a regrettable end.
I think most Freepers find them amazing men. And are willing to fight any way necessary to preserve the country. However, we have some trolls.....:-)
The "H" word. "Hate". Assigning emotions to political speech. That sounds familar. Who uses it a lot? The faction which Jefferson is responsible for creating...the Democratic party.
Think Oliver Wolcott, Roger Sherman (the only man to sign all 4 great founding documents), Fisher Ames, Morris and other framers were enthralled with Jefferson? They weren't.
Wolcott suggested in 1798 that the north leave the union if Jefferson were elected president.
When the country was founded, "democrat" was a pejorative. Jefferson ran away from it. His faction swore they believed in republicanism. Then they hid under the Republican/Democrat label for a while but eventually what they really were came out;advocates of what the framers feared as more or as much as judges and monarchs: the mob.
They rigged the system just as Democrat do today. Slaves were counted as 3/5ths of a person for representation in Congress. Swell guys. They got to vote based on the number of human beings they owned. They also took mortgages out on them. That is why Jefferson never freed his slaves. He had loans on them. He liked French wine and living the life of a country squire, he liked mouthing off about liberty more than liberty itself.
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