A Thought of My Own: A Moment With Thomas Jefferson

It seems all together fitting that at this time, and in this age, we, as a collective generation, reexamine the thoughts and ideas of Thomas Jefferson. This is done not in an attempt to hail him as the "Greatest American", or even to fame him as the ideal "say all" of American policy, but rather, it is my attempt at reevaluating Jeffersonian ideas which have, since the inception of this nation, and over the many generations, been lost which, as a result of their disappearance, have had a clear negative impact upon the overall scope and direction of this Great American Experiment.

Thomas Jefferson: "We may consider each generation as a distinct nation, with a right, by the will of its majority, to bind themselves, but none to bind the succeeding generation, more than the inhabitants of another country. "

One of Jefferson's least popular quotes, it is most appropriate for this day and time, and I think its applicability can best be seen in the economic disaster we are presently facing.

During his time as Secretary of State, during Washington's administration, Jefferson sought to maintain a small federal government, one which would look to defend the rights of its people, and as economics was concerned, Jefferson sought to leave much of this work to the states.

Contrasting him was Alexander Hamilton. Unlike Jefferson, Hamilton wanted a large Federal Government, and as we see today, he won. He successfully created a national bank and assumed a national debt. This he did under the premise that the Constitution supplied "Implied Powers": aka, powers not listed in the Constitution, but powers Hamilton needed in order to justify his economic desires.

Today, we are experiencing the ills of Hamiltonian economics, and its failures are now the problems of the next generation. Today, we call Hamilton's national bank the Fed and Wall Street, and that debt, which Hamilton said would be good so long as it was not excessive, now reaches so far that it is likely that it will never be paid off.

The point is clear: Jefferson wanted to ensure that the "posterity" of this country not suffer the ills of any who came before. This, however, is not the ideology we practice today. We spend large sums of money, never thinking how it will influence the next generation. We are called to be good to mother earth so as to ensure that our children and grandchildren have a good and clean environment to grow up in; but how about the debt? Why don't we start acting "good" towards our massive debt so that our posterity will not have to bear the burden of paying it off. Let's begin to think of each generation as its own nation, understanding that they will have their own problems to deal with. We don't need to compound those with problems of 50 years ago.