Free Republic

The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time. -- Summary View of the Rights of British America, 1774 When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be...

Seeing Rosie O’Donnell condemn President Bush just after she “married” her girlfriend, Kelli Carpenter, was bizarre in a tiresome sort of way. O’Donnell claimed, “We were inspired to come here by the sitting president and the vile and vicious and hateful comments he made.”If O’Donnell had any sense of humor or irony, she would look at herself and say, “Gee, for such a tolerant, open-minded person, I sure do condemn and vituperate an awful lot, especially on what should have been the happiest day of my life.”Maybe I’m some sort of pervert, but I don’t recall bearing anyone in the...

Thomas Jefferson: A Man of His Time? By Marguerite Talley-Hughes (03-09-04) Thomas Jefferson was a slave holder. Allowing a Berkeley school to remain named for him is a tacit, but, powerful statement that owning more than 150 slaves was a minor or excusable part of his legacy. Citing selected pieces of his writing to characterize him as an opponent of slavery goes against the common sense notion that “actions speak louder than words.” To minimize the fact that he bought, sold and worked other human beings for his personal profit is disrespectful to the memory of those for whom...

DEAR SIR, -- I am now to acknoledge the receipt of your favors of October the 4th, 8th, & 26th. In the last you apologise for your letters of introduction to Americans coming here. It is so far from needing apology on your part, that it calls for thanks on mine. I endeavor to show civilities to all the Americans who come here, & will give me opportunities of doing it: and it is a matter of comfort to know from a good quarter what they are, & how far I may go in my attentions to them. Can you...

A proposal has emerged that will certainly engage the attention of thoughtful Berkeley residents. Should Jefferson School be renamed because Thomas Jefferson was a slaveholder? The shame that is the heritage of those of us whose ancestors held slaves is painful but certainly nothing beside the pain that the heritage of slavery must represent to black Americans. Thomas Jefferson struggled throughout his life in the cause of justice, grappling time and again with what he called the “abominable crime” of slavery. He believed deeply, as he wrote in the Declaration of Independence, that all of us “are created equal” and...

Abraham Lincoln once observed that America was founded on a proposition, and that Thomas Jefferson wrote it. He was referring, of course, to the section of the Declaration of Independence that begins, "We hold these truths to be self-evident . . . " The reality, though, is that we are founded on a debate over what Jefferson's proposition means. And the current struggle over gay marriage is but the most recent chapter in that longstanding American argument. The words that started the current controversy were written by John Adams. In 1779, Adams almost single-handedly drafted the Massachusetts Constitution. It was...

Writing in the letters column of Monday's Los Angeles Times, Mr. Dave Hoen makes the point that the Declaration of Independence is at stake in the vote on California's Proposition 22. This proposition defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman. Mr. Hoen is right about the connection between the ballot initiative and the Declaration. At the same time, he has it backwards. Mr. Hoen despairs that the measure will pass because the American people have not "embraced the vision of our founding fathers when they proclaimed 'all men are created equal.'" That depends upon what the...

Berkeley Daily Planet, Renaming Vote Stirs School, Matthew Artz (02-03-04) Thomas Jefferson’s legacy in Berkeley may rest on the vote of school children born after William Jefferson Clinton took office. But not if Jefferson Elementary School Principal Betty Delaney can stop it. According to Jefferson PTA President Linda Safarik-Tong, Delaney told the PTA that concerns from parents and teachers have led her to seek permission from the Berkeley Unified School District to waive a requirement that students as young as five vote on the controversial drive to strike the name of the author of the Declaration of Independence from the...

Thomas Jefferson probably wasn't an orthodox Christian.[1] Mr. Bush, Mr. Clinton, and Mr. Carter claim to be Christians. In an election with those four running against each other, Jefferson, though dead, would get my Christian vote. A dead Jefferson would at least veto what a live Bush couldn't.Between February 5, 1995 and March 17, 2002, Brian Lamb of CNN[2] asked Professor Thomas G. West, Michael Novak and M. Stanton Evans which men of the founding era do they consider most important. Only Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were mentioned by all three.Christians who repeat the exhortation of John Jay, "Providence...

Jefferson on Finding God Liberty Letters, Jefferson, Letter 7Was Thomas Jefferson an enemy of God?Numerous anti-Christian cynics feel certain, despite ample evidence to the contrary, that the answer is "yes." After all, Jefferson once advised, "Question with boldness even the existence of a God." (1) An interesting challenge.The quote, found in a personal letter to Peter Carr, has been combined, by these cynics, with several other Jefferson jabs at religion, to give the impression that Thomas Jefferson was more like a soul mate of Karl Marx than John Adam's, and more in favor of freedom from religion than freedom of...

Jefferson Found Guilty in Mock Trial Sat Dec 20, 5:34 AM ET Add U.S. National - AP to My Yahoo! By CAIN BURDEAU, Associated Press Writer NEW ORLEANS - Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia (news - web sites) nodded, agreeing with his fellow jurists that Thomas Jefferson was indeed guilty of prolonging slavery, deporting American Indians and discriminating against the French in Louisiana. Scalia joined federal and state judges to hear the testimony of Jefferson and French ruler Napoleon Bonaparte in a mock trial to review lingering legal and historic questions about the Louisiana Purchase. New Orleans caps a yearlong...

Getting back our liberties Posted: December 17, 20031:00 a.m. Eastern © 2003 Creators Syndicate, Inc. Last week's column, "Let's Do Some Detective Work," provided unassailable evidence that the protections of liberty envisioned by the Constitution's Framers mean little today. I was pleasantly surprised by the responses from fellow Americans expressing disgust and fear over what our nation is becoming. Several asked how we can regain our liberties. My short answer is: I'm not sure they can ever be recovered. Let's look at it. We all have a moral obligation to pay our share for constitutionally mandated functions of the federal government, but...

In today’s America, a race hoax industry manned by black activists and their white benefactors in the media, politics, and academia produces one outrage after another, with the aim of denigrating white heroes, elevating often obscure blacks, making black racists rich and powerful, and waging race war. So it is with the smear invented in 1802, and in recent years conscripted anew to sully the name of arguably the most brilliant of all of America's Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826). The Jefferson-Hemings Hoax claims, without any evidence, that the third president, renaissance man, and author of the Declaration of Independence...

Liberty Letters, Jefferson, Letter 6 On Monday, March 4, 1805, Thomas Jefferson gave his Second Inaugural Address as president of the United States. In his closing remarks he painted a provocative parallel between the settling and establishment of the United States following our exodus from tyrants in Europe, and the settling and establishment of ancient Israel following the Israelites’ exodus from tyrants in Egypt. He referred to God as “that Being in whose hands we are, who led our forefathers, as Israel of old, from their native land, and planted them in a country flowing with all the necessaries and...

Led by God Steve Farrell Monday, Nov. 17, 2003Liberty Letters, Jefferson, Letter 6 On Monday, March 4, 1805, Thomas Jefferson gave his Second Inaugural Address as president of the United States. In his closing remarks he painted a provocative parallel between the settling and establishment of the United States following our exodus from tyrants in Europe, and the settling and establishment of ancient Israel following the Israelites* exodus from tyrants in Egypt. He referred to God as "that Being in whose hands we are, who led our forefathers, as Israel of old, from their native land, and planted them in...

In the Washington Post Monday, there was an article about the new restoration plans for Montpelier, the historic Virginia home of James Madison. The Post interviewed the president of the Montpelier Foundation, Michael C. Quinn, and reported, "With no monument on the Mall or currency bearing Madison's image, the man Quinn calls 'chief architect of the American Republic' and author of the Bill of Rights is suffering from a lack of celebrity equal to his contribution to the nation." That sentence brings back to me a poignant memory. One day, my family and I drove down to see Thomas Jefferson's...

“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.” - Thomas Jefferson No doubt you will recognize the popular wisdom of Thomas Jefferson regarding Liberty, but are you familiar with what he said in a letter to John Adams, late in his life? "To attain all this (universal republicanism), however, rivers of blood must yet flow, and years of desolation pass over; yet the object is worth rivers of blood, and years of desolation." - September 4, 1823 The history of the American Revolution is usually...

Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore paid for and placed a granite monument inscribed with the Ten Commandments in the Alabama judicial building, where he presides. This was two years ago. Predictably, the American Civil Liberties Union could not tolerate the sight of a moral code displayed on taxpayer-funded property. Together with Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the ACLU alleged the justice had violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. A district judge by the name of Myron Thompson then ordered the removal of the Decalogue. Moore appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court for an...

To the Atheists who love to use Thomas Jefferson as their hero for “Separation of Church and State,” And say that Jefferson did not believe in GOD I offer this copy of Jefferson’s personal seal which has the following words printed around the edge : “Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to GOD” The seal at the top was the first designed by Ben Franklin for the United States but was not used. Jefferson liked it and used the words as his. And to further Thomas Jefferson’s belief in one creator, who better to speak for Jefferson? Not some Atheist...

"On every unauthoritative exercise of power by the legislature must the people rise in rebellion or their silence be construed into a surrender of that power to them? If so, how many rebellions should we have had already?" --Thomas Jefferson