Thomas Jefferson, in 1801, became America’s 3rd president. Exactly 25 years earlier, young Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence. This week exactly – in 1776 – he was seated in the Virginia House of Delegates, age 33. He was a man of courage and friendship.
Reading hundreds of Jefferson’s letters over his extraordinary life, young Jefferson had no inclination or desire to be president of a new nation, especially one that did not yet exist.
On the other hand, he was already a deep thinker, a believer in freedoms soon to appear in our Bill of Rights, speech, religion, guns, fair trials, due process, equal protection, and limited government.
If Jefferson had one fear, it was that government would expand, abuse power, buy and seduce power from individuals, leaving them subject to tyranny. Remarkably, he foresaw much of what we today suffer and warned us against it in words worth recalling.
Optimist, exceptional writer, reader in six languages, Jefferson was also an introvert, shy to the point of preferring to write, never power hungry. He did feel somehow destined, or obligated.
Thirteen years after the Declaration, Jefferson remained an optimist. In January 1789, two months before the Constitution was ratified, he wrote to a friend and British moral philosopher, Richard Price, confident in America’s future.
Wrote Jefferson: “Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be entrusted with their own government – that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights.” But as the years passed, Jefferson took hits and became more circumspect.
He worried about America’s future. While never losing his love of freedom, he worried future generations would not understand what it took to protect it, how precious it was, how easily lost.
He wrote: “The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time,” and resolved: “No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms,” since a society unable to defend itself faces tyranny.
He warned that “eternal vigilance is the price of freedom,” and as time passed grew more concerned. “The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.”
He was concerned not just about a frontal assault on core liberties, but how governments overspend, overtax, and enslave with debt. “I place economy among the first and most important virtues …,” he wrote, “and public debt among the greatest of dangers to be feared.”
Equally worrisome was apathy, loss of the active engagement needed to protect liberties, and the lure of dependence. He wrote: “We in America do not have a government of the majority – we have a government of the majority to participate.” In other words, vote or prepare to lose your liberties.
As responsibilities entrusted in him grew, culminating in the presidency, he was – like Reagan and Trump – a populist who distrusted government, including the government he led. “My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.”
Jefferson dramatically cut America’s public spending, then used the savings to cut the debt inherited from Adams. In his day, the numbers were staggering: a cut of $83 million in 1801, $57 million in 1809. As Jefferson got older, he worried future generations would not understand the dangers inherent in letting federal and state spending grow, taxes rise, and money be given away for votes. Would the press stay free, people stay informed, and future generations see the risks?
With enduring confidence, he wrote that “where the press is free and all men able to read, all is safe.” But what would he say where the press is often captured, and many cannot read?
As if asking us to do the same, he spoke of conviction. “I have sworn upon the altar of God…eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.” What would he say then about the rise of Marxism in America, unthinking conformity, liberties being oppressed, and oppression being accepted?
By the early 1800s, he was stronger in his rebuke for those who abused power, including the press. “Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper…Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle.” What would he make of the Internet, profane blogs, Soros-funded newspapers, rise of power-concentrating ideologues?
One thing Jefferson never lost was his belief in future Americans, their ability to see truth and never lose the courage – personified by the Founding Generation – to defend it.
Two final observations. Offering timeless guidance, Jefferson wrote: “Courage is the first of human qualities…because it is the quality that guarantees all the others.” He trusted we would not falter.
He wrote, too: “I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.” Jefferson personified courage and friendship. If we can too, the future is as bright today as in his day, maybe brighter since we know now how right he was.
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, Maine attorney, ten-year naval intelligence officer (USNR), and 25-year businessman. He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (North Country Press, 2018), and “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024). He is the National Spokesman for AMAC. Today, he is running to be Maine’s next Governor (please visit BobbyforMaine.com to learn more)!
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