More from Thomas Jefferson’s presidential inaugural address, 1800. Does this sound like America, 2023?:
“Enlightened by a benign religion, professed, indeed, and practiced in various forms, yet all of them inculcating honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude, and the love of man; acknowledging and adoring an overruling Providence, which by all its dispensations proves that it delights in the happiness of man here and his greater happiness hereafter. With all these blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy and prosperous person? Still, one thing more, fellow citizens—a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned…”
To answer my own question: no, this does not resemble America, 2023. Jefferson’s words sound like a country that had prospects for greatness but has somewhere stumbled along the way.
A brief analysis:
1. “Enlightened by a benign religion...” He obviously meant Christianity, for it was nearly universally practiced in early America. Notice: true Christianity “enlightened” the country and was “benign”—not harmful to anyone.
2. “Professed, indeed, and practiced in various forms...” Meaning: the myriad denominations of post-Reformation Christendom, none of which could become an “established religion,” i.e., a national church like England had.
3. “Yet all of them inculcated honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude, and man's love.” Yes, this is the essence of the teachings of Jesus. Obviously, such would be beneficial to any society. But now, thanks to Darwin, Marx, Lenin, et al., the world has seen 100 years of dishonesty, lies, uncontrolled radicalism, murder, ingratitude, and hatred of mankind. Un-enlightenment and malignancy in the name of “progressivism.”
4. “Acknowledging and adoring an overruling Providence.” The virtues Jefferson listed (honesty, truth, etc.) are indeed “enlightening” and are taught to us by the “Providence” (God) who rules. If followed faithfully, the blessings of a fruitful society will indeed develop. Any unbiased person can see this, and the early Americans certainly did. Those Americans, though imperfect, adored this God who gave them the wise counsel they should follow, and all, including Jefferson, acknowledged His “overruling” guidance.
5. “Which by all its dispensations proves that it delights in the happiness of man here and his greater happiness hereafter.” The bounty which all the earth is blessed with—evident in Jefferson’s day and ours—was used by the President as evidence that “Providence” (the guidance and direction of God) wished for a man to be happy here and in the hereafter. Whatever the intellectual Jefferson meant, in his own mind, by “Providence,” he was smart enough to realize that his fellow citizens, adherents of Christianity almost to a man, would believe he was talking about their God and their religion.
6. “With all these blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy and prosperous people?” What lack we yet? What responsibilities have this Providence given us to ensure we entirely obtain the happiness and prosperity we have access to through the blessings available to us?
7. “Still one thing more, fellow citizens—a wise and frugal Government.” Well, Tom, you just blew it, for that is the LAST THING America has in 2023. Wise? Is there an ounce of wisdom in Washington, D.C., today? None at all in the Democratic Party, minuscule in the Republican. Frugal? Don’t make me laugh. “Wisdom” and “frugality” don’t buy votes, Tom, and power is the only game in town now. Our politicians learned well—or didn’t, depending on how you look at it—Benjamin Franklin’s warning, “When the people discover they can vote themselves money from the Treasury, that will herald the doom of the Republic.” That trumpet blast has been sounding, at least since the New Deal, and there appears to be no recovery from it. “Democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy” (Sir Alexander Fraser Tytler). The trumpet has sounded, but the army is not marching.
8. “Which shall restrain men from injuring one another.” That is the purpose of government, to protect our personal property, starting with our lives. Look at America’s big cities to inquire if the government is doing its job. Chicago’s new mayor, anyone?
9. “Shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement.” Notice the idea here of “industry.” People should work for a living, not sponge off others, and the government is intended to be structured to encourage such positive behavior. Not only “industry” but “improvement”—growth in beneficial virtues which will advance society, not retard or degrade it. Government is to incentivize “industry” (hard work) and “improvement” (moral advancement), not encourage slothful, debauched, perverted behavior.
10. “And shall not take away from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.” Another joke. There was no income tax in early America. The “frugal” government only received its income from land sales and tariffs. People got to keep the money they earned from the sweat of their brows and hard work.
Enter Karl Marx and the Left. And when that happened, Jefferson, God, a “benign” religion promoting “honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude, and the love of man”—virtues which an “adored” and “overruling Providence” supplied for our guidance and well-being, went flying out the window. And were replaced by malignancy, debauchery, profligacy, murder, mayhem, sexual hedonism, and perversion, and a government that steals from its citizens rather than protects them. And that is on both sides of the aisle.
Thomas Jefferson told us 223 years ago what America needed. We haven’t listened. The country is unrecognizable from what it was founded to be. We must return to these Jeffersonian virtues before it is too late. Such a return must begin with a restoration to its proper place of that “benign” religion that once “enlightened” us but, disastrously, is the bane of the Marxist, Darwinist, atheistic, murdering Left. Time is running out.
Many more articles, as well as audio and video podcasts, on my substack: mklewis929.substack.com. Free signup. Read my western novels, Whitewater, River Bend, Return to River Bend, and Allie’s Dilemma all available on Amazon. You can follow me on Twitter: @thailandmkl. And rumble: lewandcou