“They [Congress] seemed…to be at a loss for objects whereon to throw away the supposed fathomless funds of the treasury.” – Thomas Jefferson
“I place economy among the first and most important virtues and public debt as the greatest dangers to be feared. To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. If we run into such debts, we must be taxed in our meat and drink, in our necessities and in our comforts, in our labor and in our amusements. If we can prevent the government from wasting the labor of the people, under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy.” – Thomas Jefferson
Pardon my cynicism, folks, but I know that I am largely wasting my time—and probably the reader’s, too—with all these articles I write on history, quoting our Founding Fathers and other great men of the past on the proper nature of government and man. Given the current “zeitgeist” in America, nothing is going to change, regardless of how many articles I, or others, write explaining the wisdom and foresight of the men who founded America. There are simply too many people now who believe in government, who are sucking off the government teat, who believe in the “pretense of [government] taking care of them,” who want government to take care of them, who would rather be in slavery and dependent upon government than have self-control, individual responsibility, and virtuous liberty. As long as they have enough money to live the licentious, self-centered, pleasure-oriented lifestyle they crave, they don’t care where their money comes from, or who gets hurt by what they do. And if they have to steal it from others through government taxation, that is perfectly acceptable to them. We live in a very selfish age.
And putting lipstick on a pig isn’t the answer. We need to return to first principles. That’s the only answer I know, but that’s not going to happen.
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So, why do I bother telling people what Thomas Jefferson said? He’s been dead for 200 years now anyway.
Well, I guess, like Jeremiah, I just can’t shut up. I believe, unmovably, that the Founders’ wisdom needs to be shouted from the rooftops, and if I quit writing about what they said, then America loses just that much more of what it needs to hear. But no Democrats, and seemingly no Republicans, either, are listening.
But I’m not going to quit writing about it.
The words from the Sage of Monticello, quoted above, written over 200 years ago, are pretty self-explanatory, very wise, exactly the truth, and perfectly demonstrative of why our present Congress is full of…well, remember Mark Twain: “Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.” Apparently, and not surprisingly, the problem existed in Jefferson’s day, too—Congress threw away “the supposed fathomless funds of the treasury” at everything at which it could buy a vote. Yea, verily, there is nothing new under the sun, and, given the first quote above, Jefferson was frustrated, too. And Congress didn’t pay any attention to him, either.
“Economy”—frugality, i.e., wise spending, not waste, fraud, and abuse—is, well, should be, a virtue, for everyone, including government. Jefferson said it was “among the first and most important virtues.” I agree 100 percent. Do our present American people, by and large, accept that? Does our Congress?
Don’t make me laugh.
Here is another humorous ditty: “and public debt [is one of] the greatest dangers to be feared.”
Can you say “$40 trillion?” Do any of us—even Elon Musk—have any conception of how much money that is?
No, we don’t, and that’s why Congress can get away with such licentious profligacy and God-forsaken corruption and debauchery. And what’s even worse is, they don’t care. And apparently, neither do the American people because the people keep electing the same type of rogue over and over and over again.
Bribery is still an evil, and it is one of Congress’s most oft-employed weapons. And the guy who gets the money loves it. Nor does he care where it comes from. Neither does the briber.
Our government has done exactly what Jefferson said they might do, viz., “wasting the labor of the people, under the pretense of caring for them.” It’s the America we live in now, folks, and that the vast majority—I may be a minority of one—has accepted. We have totally forgotten—and ignored—the wisdom of the past. Our government “leaders” have convinced us that government must take care of us in order for us to be “happy.” Thus, they continue taxing us in every conceivable way, and running up an inexhaustible, “perpetual” debt that, by definition, obliterates limited government and virtuous republics, and has made us wards of the state. Which is exactly what governments everywhere, all through history, have always wanted, and even our great Founding Fathers weren’t able to prevent it. Despite the warnings like Thomas Jefferson gave us.
And has all of this “perpetual debt” and endless taxation made Americans a “happy” people? No, we are more miserable and divided than ever. Thank you, government.
Well, sadly, our Founders’ words weren’t stronger than human nature, which is full of incredibly lazy people and politicians who lust for power. Americans are not immune to human nature, and we’ve let our government destroy the country our Founders created.
Our political debates nowadays aren’t on the “virtue” of “economy,” but on who gets to spend the “perpetual debt” on what they want to rather than what the other guy wants. The aim is not to return to a virtuous, limited government but to spend the spoils.
And the people love to have it so.
Well, Jefferson warned us. Nobody paid attention to him. I’m still warning about it. And nobody is paying attention to me, either.
Check out my Substacks: “Mark It Down! (mklewis929.substack.com) and “Mark It Down! Bible Substack” (mklbibless.substack.com). Both free. Read my great tales of the Old American West, available on Amazon and Kindle: "Whitewater," "River Bend," "Return to River Bend," "Allie’s Dilemma," and "Kendrick and other stories." Follow me on X: @thailandmkl
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