>Sender: >To: >X-Original-Message-ID: <013f01bf016d$991cae80$9acf69cf@pacbell.net> >From: "Peter McWilliams" >Subject: Jefferson on state's rights and federal wrongs >Date: Fri, 17 Sep 1999 17:34:41 -0700 >X-Mozilla-Status: 8001 >X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 > > >"When all government, domestic and foreign, in little as in great things, >shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power, it will render >powerless the checks provided of one government on another and will become >as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated." --Thomas >Jefferson to Charles Hammond, 1821. ME 15:332 > >"Our country is too large to have all its affairs directed by a single >government. Public servants at such a distance, and from under the eye of >their constituents, must, from the circumstance of distance, be unable to >administer and overlook all the details necessary for the good government of >the citizens; and the same circumstance, by rendering detection impossible >to their constituents, will invite public agents to corruption, plunder and >waste." --Thomas Jefferson to Gideon Granger, 1800. ME 10:167 > > >"I wish... to see maintained that wholesome distribution of powers >established by the Constitution for the limitation of both [the State and >General governments], and never to see all offices transferred to Washington >where, further withdrawn from the eyes of the people, they may more secretly >be bought and sold as at market." --Thomas Jefferson to William Johnson, >1823. ME 15:450 > >"Can it be believed that under the jealousies prevailing against the General >Government at the adoption of the Constitution, the States meant to >surrender the authority of preserving order or enforcing moral duties and >restraining vice within their own territory?... Can any good be effected by >taking from the States the moral rule of their citizens and subordinating it >to the general authority?" --Thomas Jefferson to William Johnson, 1823. ME >15:449 > >"If every infraction of a compact of so many parties is to be resisted at >once as a dissolution, none can ever be formed which would last one year. We >must have patience and longer endurance then with our brethren while under >delusion; give them time for reflection and experience of consequences; keep >ourselves in a situation to profit by the chapter of accidents; and separate >from our companions only when the sole alternatives left are the dissolution >of our Union with them or submission to a government without limitation of >powers. Between these two evils, when we must make a choice, there can be no >hesitation. But in the meanwhile, the States should be watchful to note >every material usurpation on their rights; to denounce them as they occur in >the most peremptory terms; to protest against them as wrongs to which our >present submission shall be considered, not as acknowledgments or precedents >of right, but as a temporary yielding to the lesser evil, until their >accumulation shall overweigh that of separation." --Thomas Jefferson to >William Branch Giles, 1825. ME 16:148 > > > > > > > >================================================================ > >This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to > the mailing list . >To unsubscribe, E-mail to: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------