[Vision2020] Happy 273rd birthday, Thomas Jefferson

[Ron Force]

*True Americans would avoid manufacturing, a market economy and wage labor,
which he thought was degrading to the human soul.*
He preferred that slaves (10-16 years old) do the manufacturing.
https://www.monticello.org/site/plantation-and-slavery/nailery

Ron Force
Moscow Idaho USA

On Thu, Apr 14, 2016 at 3:40 AM, Tom Hansen <thansen at moscow.com> wrote:

> Courtesy of today's (April 14, 2016) Moscow-Pullman Daily News with
> special thanks to Nick Gier.
>
> ----------------------------------
> His View: Happy 273rd birthday, Thomas Jefferson
>
> By Nick Gier
>
> Since we celebrated Thomas Jefferson's 273rd birthday Wednesday, we need
> to be reminded about what a controversial figure he was. In the election of
> 1800 he was called "that atheist and leveler from Virginia."
>
> Alexander Hamilton was so committed to preventing "an atheist in religion
> and a fanatic in politics from getting possession of the helm of state"
> that he urged New York Gov. John Jay to block Jefferson's election.
>
> During the 1800 election campaign, rumors were spread that, if elected
> president, Jefferson would confiscate all Bibles in the land and replace
> them with his own version, in which all references to miracles and the
> resurrection were deleted. Jefferson was confident the early church had
> added supernatural events to Jesus' life and teachings.
>
> Some conservatives promote Jefferson's "God given rights" assuming that
> the reference is to the God of the Bible. When Jefferson referred to "Laws
> of Nature and Nature's God" in the Declaration of Independence, he was not
> referring to a deity who intervenes in history and hardens the hearts of
> world leaders. Rights are inalienable only if they are guaranteed by the
> immutable laws found in human nature, immune from even divine veto.
>
> Jefferson was convinced the English Common Law he studied in law school
> was by far the best reflection of this natural law. If abortion had been an
> issue at that time, Jefferson would have supported jurist William
> Blackstone, who believed that the fetus was not a person until the third
> trimester.
>
> I sometimes call myself a classical liberal. I define that in terms of the
> motto of the French Revolution, which I revise as "liberty, equality, and
> community." The American Revolution was far less violent than the French
> Revolution, primarily because our founders realized the importance of the
> traditional values embedded in our diverse communities.
>
> Jefferson was called a radical in politics and a "leveler" because of his
> sympathy for the French Revolution. Dictionary
>
> .com defines "leveler" as "one who would remove social inequalities or
> distinctions; a socialist."
>
> But of course Jefferson was no more a socialist than President Barack
> Obama is, but both of them are classical liberals because, while holding
> traditional values dear, they believed that equality was just as important
> as liberty.
>
> Without equal opportunity and equality of rights, individual personal
> liberty will be fulfilled by some but denied to many. It used to be that
> Americans could, by dint of their efforts, move from the bottom of society
> to the very top. But now only 25 percent of Americans born in the lowest
> economic 20th percentile move out of the bottom. (In contrast 40 percent of
> Danes do.) Only 7 percent of Americans now make it from the bottom to the
> top 20th percentile.
>
> One aspect of Jefferson's views is actually way out of line with classical
> liberal philosophy, based as it is on international free markets.
> Jefferson's ideal America was a nation of small farmers living virtuously
> on the fruits of their own labor. True Americans would avoid manufacturing,
> a market economy and wage labor, which he thought was degrading to the
> human soul.
>
> Jefferson disliked the Federalists partly because they "all lived in
> cities," but Federalists such as Alexander Hamilton encouraged manufacture,
> banking and the wise management of debt. Had it not been for Hamilton's
> successful plan to nationalize the Revolutionary War debt and build up the
> nation's credit in the world economy, President Jefferson would not have
> been able to purchase the Louisiana Territory from France.
>
> Republicans praise a man with an odd and anachronistic view of the
> American economy, so we should commend both Hamilton and Obama for
> realizing that government and private interests must always work together
> in truly successful human societies.
>
> ----------------------------------
>
> Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .
>
> "Moscow Cares"
> http://www.MoscowCares.com <http://www.moscowcares.com/>
>
> Tom Hansen
> Moscow, Idaho
>
>
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