“I would never consider [the Constitution] to be a sacred text.”
We present President Thomas Jefferson with a listener question about what the phrase "promote the general welfare," found in the Constitution, actually means.
We answer letters from Richard Tucker and Rich Nieves. As Richard Tucker writes:
These constitutional responsibilities “we the people” have placed upon ourselves and onto “we the governors” precede the constitutional rights we have granted to ourselves. It seems that folks are quick to argue for “our rights”, but neglect to accept and exercise “our responsibilities.”
Further Reading
- Craig LeHoullier
- First Family: Abigail and John Adams by Joseph J. Ellis
- Jefferson Hour: 15 Greek and Latin Classics
- Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval, July 12, 1816: "Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the arc of the covenant, too sacred to be touched."
- Yale Law School: Jefferson's Opinion on the Constitutionality of a National Bank
Abigail Adams: Awesome and a Little Frightening
The Jefferson Watch
Jefferson wrote 26,000 letters, and received even more in the course of his amazing life. I can say this with categorical confidence. Nobody else ever dared to write to Jefferson in this way, nobody else assailed him so directly and with such laser-like aggression. And nobody who wrote to him in even milder rebuke could expect to remain his friend.
Read this week's Jefferson Watch essay, "Abigail Adams: Awesome and a Little Frightening".
What Would Jefferson Do?
“We could buy seeds, but that’s not really agriculture or even gardening.”
Tune in to your local public radio or join the 1776 Club to hear this episode of What Would Thomas Jefferson Do?
Dr. Lindsay Chervinsky and Clay Jenkinson discuss the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Clay Jenkinson speaks with Beau Breslin, author of A Constitution for the Living: Imagining How Five Generations of Americans Would Rewrite the Nation's Fundamental Law. The book examines an idea that Jefferson shared with James Madison in 1789: "What would America's Constitutions have looked like if each generation wrote its own?"
We welcome back Dr. Lindsay M. Chervinsky to discuss her recent post "How Did the Senate End Up With Supermajority Gridlock?" She and Clay talk about the filibuster and congressional gridlock which they both feel is the product of decades of legislative machinations and not what the Constitution, nor the framers, intended.
When reading Thomas Jefferson’s correspondence, one often sees examples of his belief that the less government, the better. In this week's episode, President Thomas Jefferson discusses the writing of the Constitution and comments on The Journal of the Federal Convention by James Madison. Jefferson wrote, "it may be proved that no society can make a perpetual constitution, or even a perpetual law. The earth belongs always to the living generation."