December 15

"I hope we shall take warning from the example of England and crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations which dare already to challenge our Government to trial, and bid defiance the laws of our country."

Thomas Jefferson. 3rd President, 1801-1809

- from a letter to George Logan, November 12, 1816.- George Logan was the great grandson of James Logan, who was the secretary of William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania. George was a medical doctor, farmer, and senator from Pennsylvania. Jefferson called him the greatest farmer in Pennsylvania. Logan married Debra Norris whose diaries are preserved, giving a great account of life in Philadelphia after the revolution. Perhaps the above quote and following explanation may be understood in the context of a previous letter written by Jefferson: Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains. – Letter to Horatio G. Spafford (17 March 1814) Jefferson's letter to Logan states...."Your idea of the moral obligations of governments are perfectly correct. The man who is dishonest as a statesman would be a dishonest man in any station... It is a great consolation to me that our government, as it cherishes most it's duties to its own citizens, so is it the most exact in it's moral conduct towards other nations. I do not believe that in the four administrations which have taken place, there has been a single instance of departure from good faith towards other nations. We may sometimes have mistaken our rights, or made an erroneous estimate of the actions of others, but no voluntary wrong can be imputed to us. In this respect England exhibits the most remarkable phenomenon in the universe in the contrast between the profligacy of its government and the probity of its citizens. And accordingly it is now exhibiting an example of the truth of the maxim that virtue & interest are inseparable. It ends, as might have been expected, in the ruin of its people, but this ruin will fall heaviest, as it ought to fall on that hereditary aristocracy which has for generations been preparing the catastrophe." At this point, please allow a small vocabulary lesson: Profligacy could be defined as wantonness or immorality (of England's government and aristocracy) and probity as uprightness or integrity (of England's citizens). If the intent of the governors of a nation is self enrichment, the nation will fall. Conversely, if the intent is for the good of the nation and its people, the nation will stand.