Do Thomas Jefferson's words fit the Beliefs of Americans who Voted with Hope this week?
925239
thats a great quote can you imagine something so insightful and powerful coming from GW?all i can remember is mission accomplished,stay the course,yer doin a heckuva job brownie
740079
...I haven't time now to look up quotes, but I know on this web site.  Mr. Barton has done oodles of research on the founders.  I strongly urge you to check this site out - and you could spend hours on it.  We bought several of his tapes, and they are very good.\n...His findings would certainly annoy the ACLU, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, and others who wish to cloud and/or revise history and rob us of our heritage.\nhttp://www.wallbuilders.com/
924124
George Washington said that we owe it to ourselves to elect people of like religious faith. That was the only check on our officials in public office. We have failed misserably at that.\nFew men of faith lead our government anymore.\nOne of our founding fathers said that they had given us a free country if we can keep it. However they also said that the country would be doomed if the electorate ever learned to vote money from the federal treasury into their own pockets.\nI think they have learned to do that, and are working even harder at trying to vote money out of the pockets of the rich into the pockets of the poor.
309315
The notion that the United States is a Christian nation is false on numerous levels. Certainly we are heavily influenced Christianity, but to say we are a Christian nation flies in the face of reason.\n\nConsider the following:\n\n1. According to the 1990 US Census, 91.6% of Americans were Christians. By 2000, the percentage had decreased to 85%. \n\n2. Many of the Western Europeans who settled the original thirteen colonies fled their nations of origin to evade religious persecution and state-imposed religions.\n\n3. Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, two of our most prominent Founding Fathers, were Deists. Washington and Jefferson were not particularly religious but tended more toward Deism than Christianity.\n\n4. Thomas Paine, whose writings were a powerful catalyst for the American Revolution, vehemently attacked Christianity in one of his works and refused to embrace Christianity, even on his death-bed.\n\n5. God is not mentioned in our Constitution. The Declaration of Independence simply mentions "Nature's God" and a "Creator", neither of which specifically imply a Christian god.\n\n6. Per the Treaty of Tripoli, endorsed by President John Adams and ratified unanimously by the US Senate in 1797: "As the Government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion..."\n\n7. McCarthy-inspired anti-Communist hysteria motivated Eisenhower to sign Public Law 140 in 1956. Going forward, all US coins and paper money bore the propagandistic slogan "In God We Trust" to reassure Americans that we were better than the godless Communists. The same year, the words "under God" were added to the Pledge of Allegiance. \n\n8 Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, was vehemently opposed to the concept of state-sponsored religion. The term "seperation of church and state" was first penned by him in a letter the the Danbury Baptists.\n\nA few more Thomas Jefferson quotes on this topic are:\n"No religious reading, instruction or exercise, shall be prescribed or practiced in schools inconsistent with the tenets of any religious sect or denomination." \n\n"The clergy, by getting themselves established by law and ingrafted into the machine of government, have been a very formidable engine against the civil and religious rights of man." \n\n"I am for freedom of religion, and against all maneuvers to bring about a legal ascendency of one sect over another." \n\n"In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own." \n\n"We have no right to prejudice another in his civil enjoyments because he is of another church."\n\nThat being said, I do believe the US was founded on Christian "priciples", (love, tolerence, equality, etc.), but not on the Christian religion.\n\nedit:\nYou quote states "religion, as well as reason", not religion alone. The short answer is yes, our country was founded on Christian "principles", as I said before. It was not founded with Christianity and the official religion, as others have implied.\n\nfor Nelson_DeVon and bocoo_man:\nI challenge you to quote the part of the Declaration of Independence where it talks about Jesus (i.e. Christianity). "Nature's God" and "Creator" are mentioned, but no Jesus. You won't find Him in the Constitution or Bill of Rights either.
811840
Not that exact phrase, if that's what you are asking.  There was a letter written by Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptists in 1802. In that letter, quoting the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, he writes: "I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between Church and State." You might also want to note the Treaty of Tripoli (1796), in which it is stated that "As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion;..."\n\nObviously, if the founders wished to create a government in which religion would hold sway, or have a formal say in civil law or liberties, they could have easily done so. They did not create a theocracy, but a democratic republic. All of the above has been primarily interpreted to support separation of church and state, and the Supreme Court has upheld this "notion" time and time again. It never fails to amaze me how some people persist in believing the founders intended this country to be based on religious (Christian) tenets. They weren't idiots - if they wished that to be the case they could have clearly laid it out as such. Their personal writings and letters reflect controversy of feeling over the matter, and quotes can be found to reflect both positions. The proof in the pudding is that they chose to erect that wall, and did not choose to install a government run by religious leaders, and made sure those would be leaders had no power to do so. Considering that the founders had widely differing religious leanings and knew the pitfalls of a government led by the "church," it probably wasn't a hard decision to reach. The difficulty most likely lay in the language to be used. There were religious leaders of that day who wished for nothing more than a theocracy to be created. The founders had to reach a consensus on how to word the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to please everybody, and that included the theocratists. They did such a good job that we are still arguing over it today. We trust our Supreme Court to interpret the Constitution, and they have done so time and time again, in favor of the wall. It's an integral part of our government, this wall, and if it weren't the Pat Robertsons and Fred Phelps of our nation would be dictating our laws and civil rights. A scary thought, that.
93390
The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln, America's first Republican president.\n\n\nFour score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. \n\nNow we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. \n\nBut, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government OF THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE, shall not perish from the earth.
249508
No President will succeed:\n\n"[If a] people [are] so demoralized and depraved as to be incapable of exercising a wholesome control, their reformation must be taken up ab incunabulis. Their minds [must] be informed by education what is right and what wrong, [must] be encouraged in habits of virtue and deterred from those of vice by the dread of punishments, proportioned indeed, but irremissible. In all cases, [they must] follow truth as the only safe guide and eschew error which bewilders us in one false consequence after another in endless succession. These are the inculcations necessary to render the people a sure basis for the structure of order and good government." --Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 1819. ME 15:234
163277
I met john one day when he was coming out of Wal Mart and asked ,john what are going to do when you grow up, he said "I'm going to  be president of the united states". i said what is the united states and where is it, i've never heard of it ,is it one of the  new colonies.later i met thomas jefferson at the 7-11 store and asked him "what's wrong with that Adams kid" Thomas said "Oh he's on them cheap drugs again and talking all kind of crazy stuff".
484399
I trust that you are speaking of President Lyndon Baines Johnson. He was a person who was sincerely trying to bring equality back to America for all people. As a Southerner, many of the people who voted for him, were disappointed. They felt that he should continue their own policies of racism. He was not like that. He had the extra burden of having cancer while he was in office. He hung in there and did a magnificent job. Peace and God Bless.
927456
You already know that the phrase does not appear, therefore the provocative "I'm waiting..."  You already know that the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment states that, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;..."  \n\nI'm also sure that you are already aware of the letter written by Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptists. In that letter, quoting the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, he writes: "I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between Church and State."   You might also want to recall the Treaty of Tripoli, in which it is stated that "As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion;..."\n\nObviously, if the founders wished to create a government in which religion would hold sway, or have a formal say in civil law or liberties, they could have easily done so.  They did not create a theocracy, but a democratic republic.  All of the above has been primarily interpreted to support separation of church and state, and the Supreme Court has upheld this "notion" time and time again.  It never fails to amaze me how some people persist in believing the founders intended this country to be based on religious (Christian) tenets.  They weren't idiots - if they wished that to be the case they could have clearly laid it out as such.  Their personal writings and letters reflect controversy of feeling over the matter, and quotes can be found to reflect both positions.  The proof in the pudding is that they chose to erect that wall, and did not choose to install a government run by religious leaders, and made sure those would be leaders had no power to do so.  Considering that the founders had widely differing religious leanings and knew the pitfalls of a government led by the "church," it probably wasn't a hard decision to reach.  The difficulty most likely lay in the language to be used.  There were religious leaders of that day who wished for nothing more than a theocracy to be created.  The founders had to reach a consensus on how to word the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to please everybody, and that included the theocratists.  They did such a good job that we are still arguing over it today.  We trust our Supreme Court to interpret the Constitution, and they have done so time and time again, in favor of the wall.  It's an integral part of our government, this wall, and if it weren't the Pat Robertsons and Fred Phelps of our nation would be dictating our laws and civil rights.  A scary thought, that.
360464
-------"If the citizens neglect their duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made not for the public good so much as for the selfish or local purposes:----------Noah Webster\n\n\n-------"Corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to execute the laws; the public revenues will be squandered on unworthy men; and the rights of the citizens will be violated or disregarded.-----------------------Noah Webster\n\n\n-------"If a republican government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the divine commands, and elect bad men to make and administer the laws."-------------Noah Webster\n\nI Guess The Guy KNEW What He Was Talkin About, Because It Has Become APPARENT That We Have CORRUPT Men In Office, Our PUBLIC REVENUES Are Being Squandered, And The RIGHTS Of Our CITIZENS Are Being VIOLATED
814709
I agree! \n\ni am hopeful and thinking positive. change is a good thing. this is coming from a republican by the way
252068
No, it wouldn't. It was based on: IN GOD WE TRUST. Too bad others have come along and took what our forefathers had in mind when writing our constitution and twisted it. Too bad there is barely any freedoms left in this country to enjoy without being lashed out at against by some group or another. I wonder what our Founding Fathers would think of our "progress" if they could see us now?
486095
Yes, because many great Americans have sacraficed personal freedom and thier brave lives for these devine principles, the good that we stand for.I still get tears  when I hear this pledge.
854691
Good news...we will have a "regime" change tonight. \n\nYour hopes are becoming reality.\n\nGod bless America.
675647
Just to get back to the principles on which our country is founded, here are a few quotes from Thomas Jefferson:\n\n"No religious reading, instruction or exercise, shall be prescribed or practiced [in the elementary schools] inconsistent with the tenets of any religious sect or denomination." --Thomas Jefferson: Elementary School Act, 1817. ME 17:425 \n\nJefferson strongly believed in freedom of religion, the right of every American to worship as he saw fit, and in keeping religion out of government and government out of religion. Here's another quote in which he says that ministers should not visit elementary schools:\n\n"Ministers of the Gospel are excluded [from serving as Visitors of the county Elementary Schools] to avoid jealousy from the other sects, were the public education committed to the ministers of a particular one; and with more reason than in the case of their exclusion from the legislative and executive functions." --Thomas Jefferson: Note to Elementary School Act, 1817. ME 17:419 \n\nPeople who think this country was founded as a "Christian country" should go back and read the founding fathers. They were revolutionaries who were trying to found a country that was different from the European countries and where there was no official religion.\n\nSay nothing of my religion. It is known to God and myself alone. Its evidence before the world is to be sought in my life: if it has been honest and dutiful to society the religion which has regulated it cannot be a bad one.\n-Thomas Jefferson
646736
70% OF AMERICA THINKS OTHERWISE.  \n\nDO YOU REALISE WHAT THAT MEANS??  THAT MEANS A CRAP LOAD OF PEOPLE THAT VOTED FOR HIM NOW REGRET IT!!