Word: jefferson
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...pioneer father, child of a frontier society, Jefferson could be best described as an agrarian democrat. Readers who turn to him for a political program applicable to the machine age will be disappointed. They will also find some of the harshest words ever spoken against U.S. labor...
Many-sided Thomas Jefferson, like his contemporary Benjamin Franklin, forever suggests Renaissance man. New acquaintances will be dumfounded by the scope of his interests: science, music, horticulture, architecture, belles-lettres, astronomy, etc. But readers in the ominous glare of World War II are bound to be most absorbed by the most famous spokesman of American democracy when he speaks on his most famous subject...
...Wrote Jefferson: "This was the object of the Declaration of Independence: Not to find out new principles or new arguments never before thought of ... but to place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent. ... It was intended to be an expression of the American mind...
Three months after writing the Declaration Jefferson was back in Virginia fighting for religious freedom, coming to some of his most notable conclusions regarding the relationship of state and people...
Relentless foe of the monolithic state, ever suspicious of a concentration of power, Jefferson was on a constant crusade for the people and against ignorance. Said he: "In every government on earth is some trace of human weakness, some germ of corruption and degeneracy, which cunning will discover. . . . Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves therefore are its only safe depositories. And to render even them safe, their minds must be improved to a certain degree. . . . Enable them to see that it is their interest to preserve peace and order, and they...