Thomas Jefferson

In his first Inaugural Address in 1801, President Thomas Jefferson stated:
Let us, then, with courage and confidence pursue our own federal and republican principles…. enlightened by a benign religion, professed, indeed, and practiced in various forms, yet all of them including honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude, and the love of man; acknowledging and adoring an overriding Providence, which by all its dispensation proves that it delights in the happiness of man here and his greater happiness hereafter. With all these blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy and prosperous people? Still one thing more, fellow citizens a wise and frugal government.., which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned…. And may that Infinite Power which rules the destinies of the universe, lead our councils to what is best, and give them a favorable issue for your peace and prosperity.
Thomas Jefferson, while being the 3rd President (1801-1809), On March 23, 1801, Thomas Jefferson wrote from Washington, D.C. to Moses Robinson:
The Christian Religion, when divested of the rags in which they [the clergy] have enveloped it, and brought to the original purity and simplicity of its benevolent institutor, is a religion of all others most friendly to liberty, science, and the freest expansion of the human mind.
Thomas Jefferson, on April 21, 1803, wrote to Dr. Benjamin Rush, (also a signer of the Declaration of Independence):
My views… are the result of a life of inquiry and reflection, and very different from the anti-christian system imputed to me by those who know nothing of my opinions. To the corruptions of Christianity I am, indeed, opposed; but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself. I am a Christian in the only sense in which he wished any one to be; sincerely attached to his doctrines in preference to all others.
On June 17, 1804, in a letter to Henry Fry, Thomas Jefferson Writes:
I consider the doctrines of Jesus as delivered by himself to contain the outlines of the sublimest system of morality that has ever been taught…
On March 4, 1805, in his Second Inaugural Address, President Thomas Jefferson declared:
I shall now enter on the duties to which my fellow-citizens have again called me, and shall proceed in the spirit of those principles which they have approved…. I shall need, therefore, all the indulgence I have heretofore experienced.
I shall need, too, the favor of that Being in whose hands we are, who led our forefathers, as Israel of old, from their native land and planted them in a country flowing with all the necessities and comforts of life, who has covered our infancy with His Providence and our riper years with His wisdom and power, and to whose goodness I ask you to join with me in supplications that He will so enlighten the minds of your servants, guide their councils and prosper their measures, that whatever they do shall result in your good, and shall secure to you the peace, friendship and approbation of all nations.
In matters of religion I have considered that its free exercise is placed by the Constitution independent of the powers of the General Government. I have therefore undertaken, on no occasion, to prescribe the religious exercise suited to it; but have left them, as the Constitution found them, under the direction and discipline of state and church authorities by the several religious societies.
President Thomas Jefferson, March 4, 1805, offered this National Prayer for Peace:
Almighty God, Who has given us this good land for our heritage; We humbly beseech Thee that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of Thy favor and glad to do Thy will. Bless our land with honorable ministry, sound learning, and pure manners. Save us from violence, discord, and confusion, from pride and arrogance, and from every evil way. Defend our liberties, and fashion into one united people the multitude brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues.
Thomas Jefferson stated:
A more beautiful or precious morsel of ethics I have never seen; it is a document in proof that I am a real Christian; that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus. (Lives of the Presidents of the United States, Abbott and Conwell, p. 142)
Of all the systems of morality, ancient or modern, which have come under my observation, none appear to me so pure as that of Jesus. (Thomas Jefferson’s writings Vol. 8, p. 377)
The doctrines which flowed from the lips of Jesus himself are within the comprehension of a child; but thousands of volumes have not yet explained the Platonisms engrafted on them. (Thomas Jefferson’s writing’s Volume 14, p.149)
Had the doctrines of Jesus been preached always as pure as they came from his lips, the whole civilized world would now have been Christians. (Tyronne Edwards, D.D. The New Dictionary of Thoughts, a Cyclopedia of Quotations, p. 91)
I have always said, I always will say, that the studious perusal of the sacred volume will make better citizens, better fathers, and better husbands. Tyronne Edwards, D.D. The New Dictionary of Thoughts, a Cyclopedia of Quotations, p. 46)

1. The doctrines of Jesus are simple and tend to the happiness of man.
2. There is only one God, and He is all perfect.
3. There is a future state of rewards and punishment.
4. To love God with all the heart and thy neighbor as thyself is the sum of all. These are the great points on which to reform the religion of the Jews. (The Life of Jefferson, by Shmucher)
   No one sees with greater pleasure than myself the progress of reason in its advance toward rational Christianity, and my opinion is that if nothing had ever been added to what flowed from His lips, the whole world would at this day been Christian… Had there never been a commentator there never would have been an infidel. I have little doubt that the whole country will soon be rallied to the unity of our Creator, and, I hope, to the pure doctrines of Jesus also. (Library of American Literature, Volume 3, p. 283-284)
   The precepts of philosophy and of the Hebrew code, laid hold of actions only. [Jesus] pushed his scrutinies into the heart of man, erected his tribunal in the regions of his thoughts, and purified the waters at the fountain head. (William Linn, The Life of Thomas Jefferson, 1834, p. 265)
   On September 11, 1804, Thomas Jefferson wrote to Abigail Adams: “Nothing in the Constitution has given them [federal judges] a right to decide for the Executive, more than the Executive to decide for them….But, the opinion which gives to the judges the right to decide what laws are constitutional, and what not, not only for themselves in their own sphere of action, but for the legislature and the executive also, in their spheres, would make the judiciary a despotic branch.”
   quotes from: America’s God and Country by William J. Federer

Thomas Jefferson
Quotes & Accomplishments
Email: 3/17/2011

At 5, began studying under his cousin’s tutor. At 9, studied Latin, Greek and French. At 14, studied classical literature and additional languages. At 16, entered the College of William and Mary. At 19, studied law for 5 years starting under George Wythe. At 23, started his own law practice. At 25, was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses. At 31, wrote the widely circulated “Summary View of the Rights of British America” and retired from his law practice. At 32, was a Delegate to the Second Continental Congress. At 33, wrote the Declaration of Independence. At 33, took three years to revise Virginias legal code and wrote a Public Education bill and a statute for Religious Freedom. At 36, was elected the second Governor of Virginia succeeding Patrick Henry. At 40, served in Congress for two years. At 41, was the American minister to France and negotiated commercial treaties with European nations along with Ben Franklin and John Adams. At 46, served as the first Secretary of State under George Washington. At 53, served as Vice President and was elected president of the American Philosophical Society. At 55, drafted the Kentucky Resolutions and became the active head of Republican Party. At 57, was elected the third president of the United States. At 60, obtained the Louisiana Purchase doubling the nations size. At 61, was elected to a second term as President. At 65, retired to Monticello. At 80, helped President Monroe shape the Monroe Doctrine. At 81, almost single-handedly created the University of Virginia and served as its first president. At 83, died on the 50th anniversary of the Signing of the Declaration of Independence along with John Adams. Quote about Thomas Jefferson:John F. Kennedy held a dinner in the white House for a group of the brightest minds in the nation, and made this statement, “This is perhaps the assembly of the most intelligence ever to gather at one time in the White House with the exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.”

Quotes by Thomas Jefferson:When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe. The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not. It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world. I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them. My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government. No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government. The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical. I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property – until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.  1802Commentary:
Thomas Jefferson studied the previous failed attempts at government and understood history, the nature of God, His laws and the nature of man.