The National Debt and The Vitriol Against Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson reduced the national debt from $83 million to $57 million while abolishing ALL excise taxes including the whiskey tax in the first year of his first presidency, while engaging in the Barbary War two months into his first presidency, and then spending $15 million to double the then size of the USA.

On the National Debt and Deficit Spending, Jefferson said:

"The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity under the name of funding is but swindling futurity on a large scale."

"I, however, place economy among the first and most important republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared.”

"The earth belongs to each of these generations during its course, fully and in its own right. The second generation receives it clear of the debts and incumbrances of the first, the third of the second, and so on. For if the first could charge it with a debt, then the earth would belong to the dead and not to the living generation. Then, no generation can contract debts greater than may be paid during the course of its own existence."

On the Constitutionality of the Bank of the US [Federal Reserve], Jefferson said:

“Giving [Congress] a distinct and independent power to do any act they please which may be good for the Union, would render all the preceding and subsequent enumerations of power completely useless. It would reduce the whole [Constitution] to a single phrase, that of instituting a Congress with power to do whatever would be for the good of the United States; and as sole judges of the good or evil, it would be also a power to do whatever evil they please. Certainly, no such universal power was meant to be given them."

"The Bank of the United States… is one of the most deadly hostility existing, against the principles and form of our Constitution… An institution like this, penetrating by its branches every part of the Union, acting by command and in phalanx, may, in a critical moment, upset the government. I deem no government safe which is under the vassalage of any self-constituted authorities, or any other authority than that of the nation, or its regular functionaries. What an obstruction could not this Bank of the United States, with all its branch banks, be in time of war! It might dictate to us the peace we should accept, or withdraw its aids. Ought we then to give further growth to an institution so powerful, so hostile?"

Instead of talking about how Jefferson managed the nation’s money, Hamiltonians, the pro-Federal-Reserve, and gossips disparage Thomas Jefferson, saying he had personal financial difficulties. One’s personal life is no one’s business. For all the good that Thomas Jefferson did for FREEDOM, the lies, gossips, malevolence, and vitriol against him are shocking.

Jefferson was first elected into public office when he was 26 years old. In early 1809, when he finished his second term as president, he was almost 66. He said, "I have the consolation of having added nothing to my private fortune during my public service, and of retiring with hands clean as they are empty."

Jefferson served the cause of freedom and his country during his prime and for forty years. After which, he pursued science and natural history through research, experimentation, and invention, he continued in his post as the elected president of the American Philosophical Society until 1815, and he founded the University of Virginia. Jefferson designed all of its campus buildings, set up its curriculum, and selected its faculty. The University is notable in U.S. history for being the first educational institution to offer academic programs in disciplines such as astronomy, botany, and philosophy. Its School of Engineering and Applied Science was the first engineering school in the United States to be part of a comprehensive university. In the University of Virginia, Jefferson implemented his vision that education should be completely separate from religious doctrine.

The University was established in 1819 and Jefferson died in 1826. Jefferson served the causes of freedom, science, and education his entire life. For emphasis, I repeat: Thomas Jefferson reduced the national debt from $83 million to $57 million while abolishing ALL excise taxes including the whiskey tax in the first year of his first presidency, while engaging in the Barbary War two months into his first presidency, and then spending $15 million to double the then size of the USA.

Yet, there are those who delve into his personal life and disparage him for his personal financial hardships.

It seems an injustice that he had personal financial difficulties. It is revolting that he is disparaged for it when he devoted his entire life serving his country, adding nothing to his private fortune during his public service, and retiring with hands clean as they are empty.