Quotes by Thomas Jefferson
1743 – 1826
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), a Virginian, was the author of the American Declaration of Independence (1776), an active participant in the Revolution, Governor of Virginia (1779), member of Congress, Minister to France, Secretary of State under President Washington, and president of the United States (1800). He was a polymath who wrote on and was knowledgeable about science, architecture, music, agriculture, law, education, geography, and music.
Bio
See the Liberty Matters online discussion on Understanding Jefferson: Slavery, Race, and the Declaration of Independence
For additional information about Thomas Jefferson see the following:
Taxation
Thomas Jefferson boasts about having reduced the size of government and eliminated a number of “vexatious” taxes (1805)
Colonies, Slavery & Abolition
Thomas Jefferson’s First Draft of the Declaration of Independence denounced the slave trade as an “execrable Commerce” and slavery itself as a “cruel war against nature itself” (1776)
Presidents, Kings, Tyrants, & Despots
Thomas Jefferson opposed vehemently the Alien and Sedition Laws of 1798 which granted the President enormous powers showing that the government had become a tyranny which desired to govern with "a rod of iron" (1798)
War & Peace
Thomas Jefferson on the Draft as "the last of all oppressions" (1777)
Taxation
Jefferson tells Congress that since tax revenues are increasing faster than population then taxes on all manner of items can be “dispensed with” (i.e. abolished) (1801)
Money & Banking
Thomas Jefferson in a letter to John Taylor condemns the system of banking as “a blot” on the constitution, as corrupt, and that long-term government debt was “swindling” future generations (1816)
Presidents, Kings, Tyrants, & Despots
Jefferson feared that it would only be a matter of time before the American system of government degenerated into a form of “elective despotism” (1785)
Presidents, Kings, Tyrants, & Despots
Jefferson on how Congress misuses the inter-state commerce and general welfare clauses to promote the centralization of power (1825)
Presidents, Kings, Tyrants, & Despots
Jefferson’s list of objections to the British Empire in his first draft of the Declaration of Independence (1776)
Freedom of Speech
Jefferson’s preference for “newspapers without government” over “government without newspapers” (1787)
Politics & Liberty
Jefferson on the right to change one’s government (1776)
Taxation
Jefferson on Taxes and the General Welfare (1791)
War & Peace
The 8th Day of Christmas: Jefferson on the inevitability of revolution in England only after which there will be peace on earth (1817)
Revolution
Jefferson warns about the rise of an “Anglo-Monarchio-Aristocratic party” in America (1797)
Natural Rights
Thomas Jefferson on whether the American Constitution is binding on those who were not born at the time it was signed and agreed to (1789)
Colonies, Slavery & Abolition
Thomas Jefferson on Slavery and Liberty
Colonies, Slavery & Abolition
Thomas Jefferson on Slavery and the Wrath of God
Money & Banking
Thomas Jefferson and The National Bank Question Yet Again: 1813-1817
Revolution
Thomas Jefferson on the Unity of the Nation