Happy Birthday, Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson was born April 13, 1743.

The man was a genius. He wrote the Declaration of Independence, assisted in editing the French Rights of Man, and was president of the USA, amongst other accomplishments, of which by themselves would be enough for anyone else to rest their laurels.

The Declaration of Independence summarizes libertarian government.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted.”[1]

He defined liberty in his letter to Isaac Tiffany on April 4, 1819

“Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.” [2]

Considering that he was a slave owner, I’ll accept his definition of tyranny.

He was afraid of banks more than armies, which is interesting considering he helped lead an armed rebellion against the most powerful army in the world.

“And I sincerely believe with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; & that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.”[3]

As many are discovering today, the Federal Reserve (5th plank of Communism per the Communist Manifesto) is the most dangerous enemy to freedom.[4]

"Lenin was certainly right. There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose." -John Maynard Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace, Chapter VI pg 236