“Average people have a voice, and often left important records that we have systematically ignored until very recently.”
President Thomas Jefferson speaks about the formation of the government of the United States. Jefferson explains the social contract theory that when you are alone, you are sovereign, and when you join with others you have to negotiate what is for the commonwealth, and negotiate what natural rights you get to keep after adjustment by the government.
Further Reading
David Williams and Howard Zinn: A People's History of the Civil War: Struggles for the Meaning of Freedom
What Would Jefferson Do?
“First among the equals is the legislative branch, because that’s the branch that’s closest to the people.”
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."