Thursday, February 11, 2010

Jeffersonian Wisdom

I would like to draw attention to a portion of my blog that may often go unnoticed. I am referring to the quotation on the upper right-hand side by the great Thomas Jefferson laying out the proper position on government and constitutional authority. I keep it there because I love it and I love the man who said it.

In it we see a strong reliance on the individual, a strong reliance on the rights of states, and a strong reliance on the rule of law. I encourage you to read it, savor it, and put its ideas to practice.

I have included the quotation below for easy readability.

"The several states composing the United States of America are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their general government; but by a compact under the style and title of a Constitution for the United States, and of amendments thereto, they constituted a general government for special purposes [and] delegated to that government certain definite powers and whensoever the general government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force. To this compact each state acceded as a state, and is an integral party, its co-states forming, as to itself, the other party. The government created by this compact was not made the exclusive or final judge of the extent of the powers delegated to itself, since that would have made its discretion, and not the Constitution the measure of its powers." --Thomas Jefferson

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