Friday Sunset | Christy Hardin Smith

Burmese sunset via zedzap. Gorgeous photo.

Today’s quotes come from two of the Founders, and showcase the tension between security and individual liberty that has always existed in this country.

First, from James Madison and Federalist #43:

The first question is answered at once by recurring to the absolute necessity of the case; to the great principle of self-preservation; to the transcendent law of nature and of nature’s God, which declares that the safety and happiness of society are the objects at which all political institutions aim, and to which all such institutions must be sacrificed.

The second is from Thomas Jefferson, from correspondence dated June 7, 1816:

Our legislators are not sufficiently apprised of the rightful limits of their powers; that their true office is to declare and enforce only our natural rights and duties, and to take none of them from us. No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another; and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him. Every man is under the natural duty of contributing to the necessities of the society; and this is all the laws should enforce on him. And, no man having a natural right to be the judge between himself and another, it is his natural duty to submit to the umpirage of an impartial third. When the laws have declared and enforced all this, they have fulfilled their functions, and the idea is quite unfounded that on entering into society we give up any natural right….

What say you?

demi | Friday June 5, 2009 03:10 pm 1

That’s a toughie. As much as I want individual liberty, I think I need security to enjoy that.
And, I like what Jefferson says about the limits of our rights. For who are any of us to judge each other.
Thanks again for the live chat with Kendall. Even as a total layperson, I enjoy the discussions you lead.

perris | Friday June 5, 2009 05:50 pm 2

jefferson, my favorite;

Every man is under the natural duty of contributing to the necessities of the society; and this is all the laws should enforce on him

thus, we must fund and care for “the commons” and the foundation for;

“a government for the people and by the people”, check out this letter from jefferson, also to madison;

A letter to Madison;

“[a]nother means of silently lessening the inequality of property . . . is to tax the higher portions of property in geometrical progression as they rise

the progressive tax, I am not sure if this letter came before or after similar correspondances with thomas paine (who is my second favorite fouder)

here’s another quote from jefferson, this one in a letter to Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours in 1811;

“Our revenues once liberated by the discharge of the public debt, and its surplus applied to canals, roads, schools, &c., and the farmer will see his government supported, his children educated, and the face of his country made a paradise by the contributions of the rich alone, without his being called on to spend a cent from his earnings.”

our country calls for a jefferson, a paine, a hero, will one finally rise?