The Real Jefferson       
Independence & Pacifism   

   Tomorrow we celebrate, while remembering Thomas Jefferson. If you think America is coming unhinged today, how about Jefferson's presidency?

   Jefferson was well educated, but a terrible speaker. He compensated by learning to write with eloquence. 

   For that reason, he was chosen to write the Declaration of Independence. He was a deist, carefully penning words acceptable both to Christians and his deist friends. 

   "Providence," for example, was a general word for natural forces in a world created by God but left to manage on its own. "That Infinite Power which rules the destiny of the universe" could be nature ... like "nature's God." 

   Worshipers were suspicious of his true beliefs.

   TJ referred to Jesus as the "most moral, pure, benevolent, sublime" person etc., but never as Savior, Redeemer, Lord or Son of God. He didn't want a state church, such as the Church of England, but he included Christians in his coalition.

   As president, 1801-1809, Jefferson authorized the Louisiana Purchase, though the agreement was not expressly allowed in the Constitution. Proponents - like many since - relied on "general welfare" and "necessary and proper" to justify their cause.

   TJ also was a pacifist to the extreme, Barbary pirates the exception. England took advantage, seizing American sailors without a whimper from our president. 

   His attitude: "Let Britannia rule the waves and keep American ships home." There would be no foreign trade, even with (British) Canada. 

   Jefferson's Enforcement Act signed in 1809 damaged more personal liberties, livelihoods and property rights than anything our colonial rulers had done. His embargo brought the U.S. to the brink of disunity. Congress finally voted 81-40 to repeal the law. 

 Source: Marvin Olasky, WORLD magazine