Happy Birthday Thomas Jefferson
Introducing the Declaration of Independence Project
By JOHN LEAKE
On this day (April 13) in 1743, Thomas Jefferson was born on Shadwell Plantation in the British Colony of Virginia. He enjoyed a long and fascinating life and died at 83 on July 4, 1825—the same day on which his longtime political rival and friend, John Adams, died. Jefferson wrote his epitaph, which reads:
HERE WAS BURIED THOMAS JEFFERSON, AUTHOR OF THE DECLARATION OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE, OF THE STATUTE OF VIRGINIA FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, AND FATHER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
At 16, he attended college at William & Mary in Williamsburg. During his first year he was “given more to parties and dancing than studying,” but then became a voracious student, often reading 15 hours per day, mastering Greek, Latin, and several modern languages, mathematics, history, religion, and political philosophy. He was also a lifelong student of agriculture and invented several ingenious devices.
As a political thinker, Jefferson lacked James Madison’s profound understanding of human nature. While Madison had a great practical understanding of politics, Jefferson tended be idealistic to the point of impracticality. While serving as President Washington’s Secretary of State, he advocated a declared alliance with the French Revolutionaries, which would have put the fledgling U.S. Republic in a state of war with every other great power in Europe. This prompted President Washington to remark to Alexander Hamilton that in spite of his great talents and amiability, Thomas Jefferson was a bit of a nut.
As he wrote on his epitaph, Jefferson considered the Declaration of American Independence his greatest achievement. Like all of the Founding Fathers, Jefferson believed that all governments will, if not checked and balanced, be inclined to tyranny. It’s therefore the responsibility of citizens to remain vigilant and insist that their government always act in accordance with reason, fairness, and laws passed by representatives of the people.
In recent years it seems that many Americans have become unaware of the danger that can arise if the state becomes too powerful, unchecked, secretive, and unmoored from vigilant oversight.
President Eisenhower warned about this danger in his Farewell Address on January 17, 1961 and President Kennedy warned about it in his address before the American Newspaper Publishers Association on April 27, 1961.
A few days ago, a film industry friend told me about his fledgling Declaration of Independence Project. His objective is to reanimate the American people with Thomas Jefferson’s love of liberty, and to send a message to U.S. Congress that “We the People” are watching and growing weary of the way our Congressmen conduct business.
Democrat and Republican Congressmen need a reminder that they do not serve special interests (domestic or foreign) or fashionable minorities (no matter how loud) but We the People, united by the principle of E pluribus unum.
Our Substack readers are encouraged to review the following presentation of the Declaration of Independence Project and to sign the Declaration that will be delivered to Congress in September of this year.
“An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people.”
- Thomas Jefferson
We fund public education, university studies, invested billions and billions, hundreds of billions of dollars, trillions of dollars actually, at institution after institution after institution of education, kindergarten through higher learning over the years to protect freedom. That quote of Jefferson's is the actual basis of public education funding in this country. Those words used to justify the establishment of public education at every level in this nation, in every jurisdiction, and the taxation to fund it - for that reason, our survival as a free people. Not to make expert workers to fill each cog in the wheels of production and business enterprise, deferring every area outside our expertise to the hands of other "experts." Which is what public education has been hijacked and repurposed to produce.
Public education is to teach and learn, to learn how to learn and reason within our own common sense. So we don't believe absurdities as spun by a King's court of chosen "experts." And become subjects of a ruler again. Jefferson's vision was to have us immunized to absurdities by teaching us how to learn and think for ourselves, become our own experts in any discipline. It's why we are taught core basics no matter what we specialize in. To learn the basics of other fields so we may learn more about them if others claiming to know more in their specialization tell us we must follow their commands. So we have the tools available to validate or discredit their commands.
We tax and spend all of the money for education to prevent what's happened and is continuing to happen. Today those who seek to rule over subjects spend our tax monies on public education to learn how to rule us, not to ensure we remain free; the opposite of Jefferson's vision.
The "experts" applying their expertise are manufacturing the consent of once-free people to "follow the science" into servitude under totalitarianism. A "soft tyranny" is the goal of would-be kings wielding their chosen "experts" the people are supposed to trust as a means to their power. Against everything that Jefferson and those who shared the same understanding envisioned when he made the case for funding public education.
So it falls upon us to do our best to educate. Freedom has called us to be the educators. Thomas Jefferson knew and told us. We forgot. Happy Birthday, Thomas Jefferson! The best gift we can give him is to apply his wisdom and teach others.
Check out Hillsdale College. They have a free online course on the Constitution. By the way, if possible, consider donating to the college as I do and support their efforts to assist charter schools. https://online.hillsdale.edu/?_gl=1*1irwepe*_ga*MjU0ODU5OTI3LjE2ODEyMTk3MDI.*_ga_FBJP6CFLDM*MTY4MTQwNDUwMy4zLjAuMTY4MTQwNDUxMi41MS4wLjA.#home