United States Founding Fathers

Thomas Jefferson

Quotes

Benefits of Jesus' Teachings for Civil Society

  1. "The precepts of philosophy, and of the Hebrew code, laid hold of actions only. He [Jesus] pushed his scrutinies into the heart of man; erected his tribunal in the region of his thoughts, and purified the waters at the fountain head." - Thomas Jefferson, "Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson", Thoman Jefferson Randolph, editor, (Boston: Gary and Bowen, 1830), Vol. III, p. 509, from his "Syllabus of an Estimate of the Merits of the Doctrines of Jesus, Compared with Those of Others" sent with a letter to Benjamin Rush on April 21, 1803.

Federal Interference with Religion

  1. "I consider the government of the United States as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises. This results not only from the provision that no law shall be made respecting the establishment or free exercise of religion, but from that also which reserves to the States the powers not delegated to the United States. Certainly, no power to prescribe any religious exercise or to assume any authority in any religious discipline has been delegated to the General [Federal] Government. It must then rest with the States." - Thomas Jefferson, "Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson", Thoman Jefferson Randolph, editor, (Boston: Gary and Bowen, 1830), Vol. IV, pp. 102-104, to Samuel Miller on January 23, 1808.

  2. "Gentlemen, - The affectionate sentiments of esteem and approbation which you are so good as to express towards me on behalf of the Danbury Baptist Association give me the highest satisfaction. ... Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God; that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship; that the legislative powers of government reach actions only and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of relition or prohibiting the free exercise thereof", thus building a wall of separation between Church and State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore man all his natural rights, convinced that he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties. I reciprocate your kind prayers for the protection and blessing of the common Father and Creator of man, and tender you for yourselves and your religious association assurances of my high respect and esteem." - Thomas Jefferson, "Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson", Thoman Jefferson Randolph, editor, (Boston: Gary and Bowen, 1830), Vol. IV, pp. 102-104, to Samuel Miller on January 23, 1808.

Freedom of the Press

  1. "While we deny that Congress have a right to control the freedom of the press, we have ever asserted the right of the States, and their exclusive right, to do so." - Thomas Jefferson, "Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson", Thoman Jefferson Randolph, editor, (Boston: Gary and Bowen, 1830), Vol. IV, p. 27, to Abigail Adams, September 11, 1804.

Majority Rule

  1. "The will of the majority the natural law of every society is the only sure guardian of the rights of man. Perhaps even this may sometimes err. But its errors are honest, solitary and short-lived." - Thomas Jefferson, "The Papers of Thomas Jefferson", Julian P. Boyd, editor, (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1961), Vol. XVI, p. 179, "Response to the Citizens of Albermarle", February 12, 1790.

  2. "Though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights which equal law must protect." - James D. Richardson, "A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1789-1897", Published by Authority of Congress, 1899), Vol. I, p. 322, from Jefferson's First Inaugural, March 11, 1801.

Marbury v. Madison

  1. "When the legislative or executive functionaries act unconstitutionally, they are responsible to the people in their elective capacity. The exemption of the judges from that is quite dangerous enough. I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the truecorrective of abuses of constitutional power." - Thomas Jefferson, "The Writings of Thomas Jefferson", Albert Ellery Bergh, editor, (Washington DC: Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association, 1904), Vol. XV, p. 278, to William Charles Jarvis, September 28, 1820.

  2. "Nothing in the Constitution has given to them [the United States Supreme Court] a right to decide for the executive more than to the executive to decide for them." - Thomas Jefferson, "Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson", Thoman Jefferson Randolph, editor, (Boston: Gary and Bowen, 1830), Vol. IV, p. 27, to Mrs. John Adams, September 11, 1804; Thomas Jefferson, "The Writings of Thomas Jefferson", Albert Ellery Bergh, editor, (Washington DC: Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association, 1904), Vol. XV, p. 447, to Judge William Johnson, June 12, 1823 .

National Establishment of a particular form of Christianity

  1. "The clause of the Constitution which, while it secured the freedom of the press, covered also the freedom of religion, had given to the clergy a very favorite hope of obtaining an establishment of a particular form of Christianity through the United States; and as every sect believes its own form the true one, every one perhaps hoped for his own, but especially the Episcopalians and Congregationalists. The returning good sense of our country threatens abortion to their hopes and they believe that any portion of power confided to me will be exerted in opposition to their schemes. And they believe rightly." - Thomas Jefferson, "Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson", Thoman Jefferson Randolph, editor, (Boston: Gary and Bowen, 1830), Vol. III, p. 441, to Benjamin Rush on September 23, 1800.

Natural Rights

  1. "And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure if we have lost the only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath?" - Thomas Jefferson, "Notes on the state of Virginia", (Philadelphia: Mathew Carey, 1794), Query XVIII, p. 237 .

Party of 1776 - "No King but King Jesus" - www.partyof1776.net