The Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson
By Subject
GOVERNMENT / JUST POWERS
I do then, with sincere zeal, wish an inviolable preservation of our
present federal Constitution, according to the true sense in which it
was adopted by the States, that in which it was advocated by its
friends, and not that which its enemies apprehended, who therefore
became its enemies; and I am opposed to the monarchizing its features
by the forms of its administration with a view to conciliate a first
transition to a President and Senate for life and from that to a
hereditary tenure of these offices, and thus to worm out the elective
principle. I am for preserving to the States the powers not yielded by
them to the Union, and to the legislature of the Union its
constitutional share in the division of powers, and I am not for
transferring all the powers of the States to the General Government
and all those of that government to the executive branch. I am for a
government rigorously frugal and simple, applying all the possible
savings of the public revenue to the discharge of the national debt,
and not for a multiplication of officers and salaries merely to make
partisans, and for increasing, by every device, the public debt on the
principle of its being a public blessing. I am for relying, for
internal defense, on our militia solely till actual invasion and for
such a naval force only as may protect our coasts and harbors from
such depredations as we have experienced, and not for a standing army
in time of peace, which may overawe the public sentiment; nor for a
navy which, by its own expenses and the eternal wars in which it will
implicate us, will grind us with public burdens and sink us under
them. I am for free commerce with all nations, political connection
with none, and little or no diplomatic establishment. And I am not for
linking ourselves by new treaties with the quarrels of Europe,
entering that field of slaughter to preserve their balance, or joining
in the confederacy of kings to war against the principles of liberty.
I am for freedom of religion and against all maneuvers to bring about
a legal ascendancy of one sect over another; for freedom of the press
and against all violations of the Constitution to silence by force
and not by reason the complaints or criticisms, just or unjust, of our
citizens against the conduct of their agents. And I am for encouraging
the progress of science in all its branches; and not for raising a hue
and cry against the sacred name of philosophy; for awing the human
mind by stories of raw head and bloody bones to a distrust of its own
vision and to repose implicitly on that of others; to go backward
instead of forward to look for improvement; to believe that
government, religion, morality, and every other science were in the
highest perfection in ages of the darkest ignorance, and that nothing
can ever be devised more perfect than what was established by our
forefathers. To these I will add that I was a sincere well-wisher to
the success of the French Revolution and still wish it may end in the
establishment of a free and well-ordered republic; but I have not been
insensible under the atrocious depredations they have committed on our
commerce. The first object of my heart is my own country. In that is
embarked my family, my fortune, and my own existence. I have not one
farthing of interest, nor one fiber of attachment out of it, nor a
single motive of preference of any one nation to another but in
proportion as they are more or less friendly to us.
to Elbridge Gerry, 26 January 1799
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