Thomas Jefferson warns about the dangers of the national debt in 1816

  Over the course of the last several weeks I have been working my way through the writings of Thomas Jefferson, and today I read with great interest on a subject he wrote about in an 1816 letter to Samuel Kercheval which I feel is relevent today. While writing to Mr. Kercheval on the prospects of reforming the Virginia constitution Thomas Jefferson wrote about the dangers of incurring a perpetual national debt. As we head toward a national debt of $1.6 trillion I thought it would be proper and enlightening to read the words of this great man on this issue.

  I am not among those who fear the people. They, and not the rich, are our dependence for continued freedom. And to perceive their independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.

  When he wrote that he did not fear the people in this instance he was not in opposition to his axiom “when the government fears the people you have liberty, when the people fear the government you have tyranny,”  he was simply stating his belief that the people are capable of self-government. And it is the ordinary people with whom our freedoms are entrusted, and with this trust we should not let the government saddle us with debt.

  He continued:

    We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debts, as that we must be taxed in our meats and in our drink, in our necessities and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our callings and our creeds, as the people of England are, our people, like them, must come to labor sixteen hours in the twenty-four, give the earnings of fifteen of these to the government for their debts and daily expenses; and the sixteenth being insufficient to afford us our bread, we must live, as they do now, on oatmeal and potatoes; have no time to think, no means of calling the mismanagers to account; but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers.

  That is quite a powerful statement. He is stating that if the government runs up such a bill that the people must be taxed on food and drink, as well as income and other necessaries in order for the government to pay off its debt that we will be working more hours to satisfy the greed of the government. And because we the people will be working so hard to make ends meet at home  we will not have the time to think about the way the government is doing business, and we will have no means to effect change, and in the end will become more dependent on the government for the subsistence we are working so hard to provide for ourselves. By handing over to the government through taxes so much of what we have worked hard to gain we are actually throwing on the shackles of big government slavery by becoming less self-reliant.

  Back to Thomas Jefferson:

  This example reads to us the salutary lesson, that private fortunes are destroyed by public as well as private extravagance. And this is the tendency of all governments.

  The natural tendency of all governments is towards tyranny and it can be affected by taking through taxes what was rightfully earned through hard work and labor, thusly making the people more reliant on government for everyday necessities.

  And once the process is started it only gets worse:

  A departure from principle in one instance becomes a precedent for a second; that second for a third; and so on, till the bulk of society is reduced to be mere automations of misery, and to have no sensibilities left but sin and suffering. Then begins, indeed, the bellum omnium in omnia (translated to war of all in all) which some philosophers observing to be so general in this world, have mistaken for the natural, instead of the abusive state of man.

  Once the precedence is set it only gets worse as time moves forward until we get to the point where the oppression of the people under the guise of  helping the people is mistaken for the natural state of man. It becomes commonplace for the people to feel as if it is the government’s job to take care of them and they no longer feel it is up to the individual to care for his or her self. Once this point is reached individual freedom and liberty is lost because people will be beholden to the government for their necessities.

  And it all comes back to the national debt:

  And the fore horse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and oppression.

  Thomas Jefferson warned us of this danger in 1816 but we did not listen and now the nation is $1.6 trillion in debt and the government is calling for more taxes to help meet this debt. This is precisely what Thomas Jefferson warned us about and now the hour is upon us; will we finally heed his warning or will we continue down the path toward servitude?

  If we don’t take his warning seriously, and if we do not act shortly to reverse the course we are on, Thomas Jefferson’s dire prophesy will come true.