The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1899-12-07
JEFFERSON'S MAXIMS.
WORDS THAT BREATHE AND
THOUGHTS THAT BURN.

! Salient Selections From the Writings
of One of the Greatest of American
Opinions Expressed On
| Various Subjects Affecting the Lie
of the Republic and the Welfare Of
the People.
do not mean to say that it may
not be for the general interest to fos-
ter for awhile certain infant man
ufactures, until they are strong
enough to stand against foreign
rivals, but when evident that they
will never be so, it is against right to
make the other branches of industry
support them.
thin k all the world would gain
by setting commerce at perfect liber-
ty.
A judiciary independent OF King
or executive alone is good thing.
but Independent of the will OF the
nation is solecism, at least in a Re-
publican government.
The time to guard against corrup-
tion and tyranny is before they have
gotten hold of US.
/ The Representatives of the people
in Congress are alone competent to
judge Of the general disposition to
what precise point Of reformation
they are ready to go.
No man will ever bring out of the
Presidency the reputation which car
ries him into it.
Corruption of morals in the mass
Of cultivators of the earth is phe-
nomenon of which no age, nor nation,
has ever furnished an example.
When we get piled up upon one
another in large cities, as in Europe,
we shall become as corrupt as in
Europe and go on eating one another
as they do there.
No other repositories of power
than the people have ever yet been
found which did not end in convert
! ing to their own profit the earnings
of those committed to their charge.
Taste cannot be controlled by law.
The introduction of one new
culture is worth more to a nation
than all the victories of the most
splendid battles of their history.
Every man, and every body of men
on earth, possesses the right to self
gernment. They receive it with their
being from the hand Of nature. In
dividuals exercise it by their single
will; collections Of men by that of
their majority; for the law of the
majority is the natural law Of every
society of men.
Educate and inform the whole
mass of the people. Enable them to
| see that it is their interest to preserve
peace and order, and they will pre-
serve them.
The press is the best instrument
for enlightening the mind of man and
improving him as a rational, moral
and social being.
Education is the only sure fOunda-
tion that can be devised for the
preservation of freedom and happi-
ness.
Peace and friendship with all man
kind is our wisest policy.
1t has been thought that corruption
is restrained by contining the right Of
suffrage to few of the wealthier Of
the people; but it would be more
effectually restrained by an extension
of that right to such numbers as
corruption.
An elective despotism was not the
government we fought for, but one
which should not only be founded on
free principles, but in which the
powers of government should be so
divided and balanced among several
bodies of magistracy, as that no one
could transcend their legal limits
without being effectually checked
and restrained by the others.
The excise law is an Internal one.
The first error was to admit it by the
Constitution; the second to act on
that admission.
Private charities, as we'll as con-
tributions, TO public purposes in
proportion to every ones circum-
stances, are certainly among the
debts we owe to society.
Every society has right to fix the
fundamental principles Of its associa-
ton and to say to all individuals
that, if they contemplate pursuits
beyond the limits Of these principles
and involving dangers which the
society chooses to avoid, they must
90 elsewhere for their exercise.
The press confined to truth needs
no other restraint.
Taxes on consumption, like those
on capital or income, to be just,
must be uniform.
The true foundation of Republican
government is the equal rights OF
every citizen in his person and prop
erty and in their management.
The dead have no rights. They
are nothing; and nothing cannot own
something.
1t is not enough that honest men
are appointed judges. All know the
influence of interest on the mind OF
man, and how unconsciously his
judgment is warped by that influence.
The example Of four Presidents
voluntarily retiring at the end OF
their eighth year and the progress OF
public opinion that the principle is
salutary, have given it in practice
the force of precedent and usage;
insomuch that, should President
consent to be candidate for third
election, trust he would be rejected
on this demonstration Of ambitious
views.
That $50 lawyers should do busi-
ness together ought not to be ex-
pected.
know no safe depository Of the
ultimate powers of the society but the
people themselves, and If we think
them not enlightened enough to. ex-
ercise their control with wholesome
discretion, the remedy is not to take
it from them. but to inform their
discretion by education.
Science is more important in Re-
puhlican than any other Cavern