Thomas Jefferson and the Iraq War
What Would the "Man of the People" Say about Iraq?
This article speculates on how the "Father of the Declaration of Independence" might react to the war in Iraq.
In 1962, President John F. Kennedy hosted 49 Nobel Prize winners at a White House dinner. During his welcoming remarks, he said, “I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent and of human knowledge that has ever been gathered together at the White House—with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.”
Jefferson is, of course, an iconic founding father of the United States, having heavily influenced the nation’s early history and held its most important office during two terms as president. He is perhaps best known as the “Father of the Declaration of Independence”.
Boldly casting all fairness aside, and collapsing the 200-year interim between his day and ours, what from Jefferson’s writings might indicate his attitude toward the current conflict in Iraq?
Justification for War
"By nature's law, man is at peace with man till some aggression is committed, which, by the same law, authorizes one to destroy another as his enemy." --Thomas Jefferson to Edmond C. Genet, 1793.
Jefferson’s Hope
"Wars and contentions indeed fill the pages of history with more matter. But more blest is that nation whose silent course of happiness furnishes nothing for history to say. This is what I ambition for my own country." --Thomas Jefferson to Comte Diodati, 1807.
"We love and we value peace; we know its blessings from experience. We abhor the follies of war, and are not untried in its distresses and calamities. Unmeddling with the affairs of other nations, we had hoped that our distance and our dispositions would have left us free, in the example and indulgence of peace with all the world." --Thomas Jefferson to Carmichael and Short, 1793.
War’s Effectiveness
"I do not believe war the most certain means of enforcing principles. Those peaceable coercions which are in the power of every nation, if undertaken in concert and in time of peace, are more likely to produce the desired effect." --Thomas Jefferson to Robert Livingston, 1801.
The Court of Public Opinion on War
"It is rare that the public sentiment decides immorally or unwisely, and the individual who differs from it ought to distrust and examine well his own opinion." --Thomas Jefferson to William Findley, 1801.
The First Duty of Government
"Peace... has been our principle, peace is our interest, and peace has saved to the world this only plant of free and rational government now existing in it... However, therefore, we may have been reproached for pursuing our Quaker system, time will affix the stamp of wisdom on it, and the happiness and prosperity of our citizens will attest its merit. And this, I believe, is the only legitimate object of government and the first duty of governors, and not the slaughter of men and devastation of the countries placed under their care in pursuit of a fantastic honor unallied to virtue or happiness; or in gratification of the angry passions or the pride of administrators excited by personal incidents in which their citizens have no concern." --Thomas Jefferson to Thaddeus Kosciusko, 1811.
The Power to Declare War
"If ever I was gratified with the possession of power, and of the confidence of those who had entrusted me with it, it was on that occasion when I was enabled to use both for the prevention of war, towards which the torrent of passion here was directed almost irresistibly, and when not another person in the United States, less supported by authority and favor, could have resisted it." --Thomas Jefferson to James Maury, 1812.
"We had relied with great security on that provision, which requires two-thirds of the Legislature to declare war. But this is completely eluded by a majority's taking measures as will be sure to produce war." --Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1798.
Future Generations
"Our right may be doubted of mortgaging posterity for the expenses of a war in which they will have a right to say their interests were not concerned." --Thomas Jefferson to A. L. C. Destutt de Tracy, 1820.
Sources:
Infoplease.com
etext.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations
Mises.org
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