The American Spectator

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Political Hay

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Q: The U.S. House just passed a bill to further limit donations to 527s, which are citizens' groups formed to speak out on national politics. This follows a campaign finance reform law that forbids some citizens' groups from advertising their messages within the 60 days immediately before an election. Are these justified restrictions of citizens' free speech rights?

Jefferson: "The following [addition to the Bill of Rights] would have pleased me: The people shall not be deprived or abridged of their right to speak, to write, or otherwise to publish anything but false facts affecting injuriously the life, liberty or reputation of others, or affecting the peace of the [United States] with foreign nations." (Letter to James Madison, 1789.)

"The functionaries of every government have propensities to command at will the liberty and property of their constituents. There is no safe deposit for these but with the people themselves, nor can they be safe with them without information. Where the press is free, and every man able to read, all is safe." (Letter to Charles Yancey, 1816.)

"The will of the people... is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object." (Letter to Benjamin Waring, 1801.)

"[This is] a country which is afraid to read nothing, and which may be trusted with anything, so long as its reason remains unfettered by law." (Letter to Joseph Milligan, 1816.)

Q: One of the reasons federal spending has grown so much is the accumulation of power in Washington. The federal government dispenses economic aid and medical assistance, regulates local schools, funds local development projects and otherwise has its hand in every pot. Is that to your liking?

Jefferson: "I consider the foundation of the [Federal] Constitution as laid on this ground: That 'all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States or to the people.' [10th Amendment] To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specifically drawn around the powers of Congress is to take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible of any definition." (Opinion on National Bank, 1791.)

Q: President Bush is exceedingly unpopular at the moment. How important is popularity for a chief executive?

Jefferson: "Government [is] founded in opinion and confidence." (The Anas, 1792.)

"It is not wisdom alone but public confidence in that wisdom which can support an administration." (Letter to James Monroe, 1824.)

Q: Why do you think President Bush's administration is so poorly thought of?

Jefferson: "It is much easier to avoid errors by having good information at first, than to unravel and correct them after they are committed." (Letter to David Rittenhouse, 1790.)

"Free people think they have a right to an explanation of the circumstances which give rise to the necessity under which they suffer." (Letter to Nathaniel Green, 1781.)

Q: Congress abolished the inheritance tax, only to see it return in a few years. That is one of the tax cuts Congress could make permanent. Should it be abolished, or does the government have the right to tax the transfer of property from one generation to the next?

Jefferson: "To take from one because it is thought that his own industry and that of his father's has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association... 'the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.'" (Note in Destutt de Tracy's "Political Economy," 1816.)

Q: Happy Birthday.

Jefferson: "Disapproving myself of transferring the honors and veneration for the great birthday of our republic to any individual, or of dividing them with individuals, I have declined letting my own birthday be known, and have engaged my family not to communicate it. This has been the uniform answer to every application of the kind." (Letter to Levi Lincoln, 1803.)

topics:
Taxes, Constitution, Law, Immigration