by Carol H. Morgan

Created on: August 24, 2009   Last Updated: August 26, 2009

"A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government." - Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

This was only one of the many quotes that Thomas Jefferson left us about what good government should be, and his role in the shaping of this one has few equals. Though he was very modest about his achievements (on his tombstone he expressly asked that it say "Author of the declaration of American Independence, for the house of Virginia religious freedom and father of the University of Virginia... AND NOT A THING MORE."), he was many more things, if he would pardon me for briefly discussing them.

BELIEVER IN EQUALITY AND FREEDOM - FOR INDIVIDUALS AND PUBLIC OFFICIALS

Jefferson was one of what we usually call today one of the Founding Fathers, (a name emphasizing their role in creating, nurturing and stewarding the nation). Staunchly anti-royal (he was in France as they were building up to their revolution and he did nothing to caution them against too much bloodshed of the royals or aristocracy, and criticized John Adams for doing so, when Adams became appalled at the violence there). He also criticized John Adams for floating the notion that the American Presidency - a thing these men cut out of whole cloth which was a significant achievement in itself - should carry some of the pomp and regality of a King just perhaps with a different name. Jefferson, because he was vice-president when he did some of these things, was perhaps the main reason that Adams was our first and last one-term president for a good while.

Thus one of the things Jefferson did was to shape the commoner-type role of the American president, not even supporting high salaries or pensions (a decision that would impoverish him in later years greatly but he felt strongly about it enough to have it remove benefits from him personallly). Washington agreed, as he was also a plain and inauspicious man, all but directly offered the nation as his kingdom and turning it down. (A decision that King George in England commented on and remarking that it spoke highly of all the Founding Fathers.

One thing that many have perhaps criticized him for is that his belief in personal liberty didn't extend his own or others' slaves. The Founding Fathers had more than one tendency to be rather Machiavellian in their fight towards this nation's freedom. (One

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