Advice from Thomas Jefferson...

... in a letter to his nephew, Peter:

QUESTION WITH BOLDNESS. . .

Dear Peter, — I have received your two letters of December 30 and April 18, and am very happy to find by them, as well as by letters from Mr. Wythe, that you have been so fortunate as to attract his notice & good will; I am sure you will find this to have been one of the most fortunate events of your life, as I have ever been sensible it was of mine. I enclose you a sketch of the sciences to which I would wish you to apply, in such order as Mr. Wythe shall advise; I mention, also, the books in them worth your reading, which submit to his correction. Many of these are among your father’s books, which you should have brought to you. As I do not recollect those of them not in his library, you must write to me for them, making out a catalogue of such as you think you shall have occasion for, in 18 months from the date of your letter, & consulting Mr. Wythe on the subject. To this sketch, I will add a few particular observations. [...]

Jefferson goes on to make several observations. Fascinating reading, especially his observations about religion.

     

National Debt: What the Founder's said about it

Our national debt would horrify the Founders

[...] There is no doubt that George Washington, our first president, Alexander Hamilton, our first secretary of the treasury, and Thomas Jefferson, drafter of the Declaration of Independence and our third president, would be horrified by the present financial condition of the federal government. Public debt was anathema for Washington, who in his Farewell Address admonished us to "cherish public credit," noting that "one method of preserving it, is to use it sparingly ... avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt." Washington warned that one generation could spend itself into great debt, then "not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burthen. ..."

Hamilton's greatest service to the nation was his management of the federal government's assumption of states' debt accumulated during the Revolutionary War and under the Articles of Confederation. He knew firsthand the devastating effects of growing public debt on every sector of a society. As historian David Barton notes, Hamilton's most succinct advice to his countrymen was that they always remember "to avoid as much as possible the incurring of any new debt."

Jefferson was Hamilton's great nemesis in the political world, but the two adversaries agreed on the evils of public debt. As evidence of their agreement on this issue, Barton points to Jefferson's statement in an 1816 letter to John Taylor of Caroline: "The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale." [...]

How far we have come from our roots. And in our over-reaching upward, how far we have to fall.