Thomas Jefferson and the “Fathomless Funds of the Treasury”
There has probably never been a group of men who understood government, and its relationship to history, better than the men who founded the United States. I am forever amazed at the things they said which sound so much like what is happening, basically worldwide, but especially in America, in 2023. I’ll write a lot of articles using this material.
There is a reason why what they said mimics so much of today’s conundrums. It’s because truth, human nature, morality, and virtue are eternal, they're not shifting, changing, and evolving over time and place. Thus, what was true 250 years ago is the same thing that was true 2500 years ago and is the same thing that is true right now. The principle of “Truth” was established, has been established, and is established by an eternal God, as truth flows from the very nature of that God. It does not alter, and it will not alter, according to the unstable whims of a capricious humanity, and so the things that our Founding Fathers said that were grounded in that truth are just as accurate and viable today as they were when they said them. Truth doesn’t change. And the Left absolutely hates that, because Eternal Truth obliterates everything they believe in and stand for. It's why they despise God so much.
In this column, I want to illustrate this with a few quotes on government frugality (or lack thereof) from Thomas Jefferson. You will quickly recognize his far-sighted wisdom. Nearly all our founders had such wisdom based upon what I described above—an understanding that truth, and thus wisdom, is eternal and comes from an eternal God. Thus, what Jefferson wrote in the quotes below is just as valid, and valuable, today as 200 years ago.
Quote number one. Jefferson wrote, “They (Congress) seemed...to be at a loss for objects whereon to throw away the supposed fathomless funds of the treasury.” If that doesn’t describe our current Congress, then no words do—ever at a loss for objects whereon to throw away the “supposed fathomless funds of the treasury.” The members of our Congress (and all of Washington) are just like the people Jefferson describes of his day: a body that wastes and wastes and wastes money, thinks that the funds of the treasury are fathomless, bottomless, inexhaustible. So, they continue to spend whatever they want to spend (it buys a lot of votes) with absolutely no concern for the consequences to the country. It is utterly irresponsible and reprehensible. But it is the nature of power-hungry politicians, and it was just as true in Jefferson’s time as it is today. Human nature does not change. Even in America.
Jefferson wrote in another place, “We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.” This is, of course, exactly what our “rulers” are currently doing—burdening America with endless debt. Again, it’s abominable. Those people in Washington are horrible, folks, utterly despicable and totally irresponsible. I have absolutely no respect for anyone in Washington, D.C, who doesn't go there with an understanding that the money they spend belongs to the people they represent, that they must economize, they must not waste it on useless wars around the world, and all the things that do not pertain to the needs of the people whose money it actually is. It is detestable and vile what those people in Washington are doing. But Thomas Jefferson warned against it 200 years ago. Why do we never listen to history?
One more quote from Jefferson, and again, he seems to describe America, 2023: “I place economy among the first and most important virtues, and public debt as the greatest danger to be feared. To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. [We must not] run into such debts [that] we must be taxed in our meat and drink, in our necessities and in our comforts, in our labor and in our amusements...if we can prevent the government from wasting the labor of the people, under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy.” Jefferson again is spot on. We cannot let the government load us with such a debt where they must tax us in meat, drink, necessities, comforts, labors, amusements. But, of course, that is exactly what they are doing to us, AND generations to come, under the pretense of “caring for us.” However, as Mr. Jefferson said, if we can prevent that, then we will be “happy”—our lives will be our own to pursue the happiness via the natural rights God gives us. Economy, Jefferson said—that is, frugality within the government—is among the first and most important virtues government servants must possess (are you listening Lindsey Graham? Nikki Haley? Joe Biden? The Democratic and Republican Parties?). That government public debt is a great danger to be feared was written by Thomas Jefferson 200 years ago, and it's as true today as it was back then. Our government in Washington, D.C., and many state governments as well, have gone completely berserk, with not a scintilla of responsibility or concern for the ultimate consequences to the nation or her people. They are going to destroy the country if we let them.
We were warned by our Founding Fathers. I’ll provide some more such warnings in future columns, warnings which we are equally ignoring to our peril and ultimate destruction. We have no one to blame but ourselves. As Jefferson also said, “The government you elect is the government you deserve.”