The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1879-09-06
one Generation Car y ~ Il 81 psasl':
a learned friend g g no.e,
enclosing The reply of D 1sfeos sIo nI.


friend says
PaUL 10 Petersburg. aud MALONE 'ls5 IL ii,
charlottesville, and various other Mozafters.
e,seH here, have quoted the letter OF M !.
JErrERsoS containing the above dogma
without statsng, so far as the writer Is III.
formed, the circumstances under "hicn ~, !,
was written or the reply which It received:
n these were better known the dacta % l
JEprERsos would have less effect: IS.
at was first written IN France, at Paris,
an september 6, 1889. when MIR. JEFFERSON
with Characteristic boIduess OF speculation,
preached the idea that one generation eoula
NOT bind another, and forwarded It to Mr.
N OLSON. with a request 'that be would
bring to it's consideration those powers OF
cogent logic which ARE so peculiarly
yours
i, !. This letter did not reach Mr. MADISON
through the channel by which It was SENT.
10 Mr.. JEFFGRsoN, after his return to Amer
lea, seat hina copy Of 1t from Monticello.
Mr.. MXpIsoY, from New York, when he
was in Congress, on the 4th OF February,
1890, replied as follows:
4 2s Mr.. Madsson's Letter
,uDear sir.-Your favor Of the 9th OF
January, enclosing, one Of September ilast,
did not get to hand till a few days ago. The
idea which the letter evolves is a great one.
and suggests many interesting reflections 10
legislators, particularly when contracting
and providing for public debts. Whether
it can be received in the extent to which
your reasoning carry it, is question which
I ought to turn more in my thoughts than
vel baye been able to do before should be
justified id making up full opinion upon
il. NV first thoughts lead me to view the
doctrine as not in all respects compatible
with the course of human affairs. VIII
endeavor to sketch the grounds OF my skep-
tieism: ,..l
AS the earth belongs 10 the living, not
to the dead, q living generation can oind IL
self only; in every society the will OF the
majority binds the whole; according to Inc
laws OF mortality, minority OF those ripe
for the exercise OF their wills do not hYe
beyond the term OF nineteen years; TO TINS
term, then, is limited the validity OF every
act OF the society; nor can any act be con-
l1nueQ DeYO0u LulS tcflu Wiuoub az Cap S'@ !
declaration of the public will.
This understand to be the outline OF the
=.
vided into three classes:
!. The fundamental constitution OF gov
III. Laws involving some stipulation |
which renders them irrevocable at the will
Of the legislature.
III. Laws involving no such irrevocable
quality.
/. However applicable in theory the doc
trine may be to constitution, it seems
liable in practice to some weishty obiec-
lions. ~. g
Would not a. government ceasing OF me-
,essity at the end Of given term, unless
prolonged by some constitutional act pre-
gious to its expiration, be, too, subject to
The casualty and consequences Of an inter-
.--.-.--.
Would not government so often revived
become too mutable and novel to retain that
share OF prejudice in its favor which is
aid to the most rational govern
ment?
Would not such periodical revision en-
gender pernicious factions that might not
otherwise come into existence, and agitate
The public mind more frequently and more
than might be expedient?
2. In the second class OF acts, involving
must not exceptions, at least to
the doctrine, be admitted?
II the earth be the gift OF Nature to the
living, their title can extend to the earth in
its natural state only. The Improvements
made by the dead form debt against the
living, who take the benefit OF them. The
ha 9TH n than
BY proportional obedience to the will OF
the authors OF the improvements.
But case less liable to be controverted
may, perhaps, be stated. Debts may be in-
CURED with a direct view to the interest OF
the unborn as we'll as Of the living. Such
are debts for repelling a conquest, the
evils OF which descend through many gen.
erations. Debts may even be incurred
for the benefit OF posterity.
Such, perhaps, is the debt incurred by the
United States. In these instances the debts
may not be dischargeable within the terms
OF nineteen years.
There seems, then, to be some foundation
in the nature OF thlngs-in the relation
which one generation bears TO another--for
the descent Of obligations from one to an
other. Equity may require it. MHual
good may be promoted by it. And all that
seems indispensable in stating the account
between the dead and the living is to see
that the debts against the latter do not eX-
coed the advances made by the former.
Few OF the membranes entailed on ma
lions by their predecessors will bear Ii
quotation even on this principle.
B. Objections to the doctrine, as applied to
the third-class acts, must be, merely pracli-
cal but in that view alone they appear to
be material INA ii g,a.., 4..,5.
Unless such temporary acts should be
kept in force by acts regularly anticipating
their expiration, all the rights depending
on positive laws-that is, mostof the rights
funct, and the most violent struggles ensne
between the parties interested in reyiying
and those interested in reforming the ante
cedent state OF property. Nor does it seem
that such an event might be
suffered to take place. The checks and if
ficulties opposed to the passage OF laws
which render the power Of repeal inferior
to an opportunity to reject as o. security |
against oppression would here render the |
latter an Insecure proUtSion against an
archy. is, H.:3
trAdd 10 this that the very possibility OF an |
event so hazardous to the rights Of property
could but depreciate its value; TINT the APP l.
proacii Of the crisis would increase the I
effect; that the frequent returns OF periods |
all the obligations depending /
on antecetert laws and usages must. by /
weakening the sense Of them, cooperate
with motives to RIGHTEOUSNESS already too
and that the general uncertainty
tryfo 3ccs<. 80 a ~