Thomas Jefferson

In a recent opinion piece, Georgetown Public Policy Institute fellow Lawrence J. Haas argued that Americans must be the eyes and ears of homeland security. Stealing a line from Two and a Half Men, I wondered who was going to be the liver and the colon of homeland security. But I digress. Haas used a quote from Thomas Jefferson to reinforce his point, employing the age-old argument: "One of the founding fathers said something that seems to relate to our current situation so stop picking on this administration and its policies." Very effective. Ranks right up there with: "This Bible verse, taken completely out of context, seems to solve our problem."

The quote Haas chose was: "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." I was overjoyed to see that one of my fellow citizens decided to argue with Haas. In his letter to the editor, the fellow puts Jefferson's quote in historical context. I was so excited. Score one for the historians. According to this fellow, Jefferson "referred not to military attacks against a fledgling system of representative government, but instead against the tyranny of autocratic leaders who sought to impose their will over the will of the people." I believe Haas replied, "D'oh."

After making this fine point, the letter writer continues, unfortunately. He goes on to say Jefferson struggled to secure individual freedoms. Well, yes, but only for himself and his male, white friends who owned property and wore silly powdered wigs. According to the letter, "Jefferson learned during his ill-fated career as a slaveowner that oppressing people's rights bears no fruit." I expected him to present evidence of Jefferson's financial excesses and insurmountable debt. Instead, he says, "The locksmith slave in charge of Monticello's storeroom keys saw that the rest of the slaves had easy access to the estate's cider barrels and other commodities slaves produced."

It took me a minute or two (or three) to try to figure out what he's saying. The best I can figure, he's saying that Thomas Jefferson decided to free his slaves because they kept drinking all the cider. Jefferson wasn't motivated by moral imperative - which really would have been something given none of his friends and neighbors saw anything wrong with slavery. No, Jefferson decided that oppression was wrong because no matter what he did, the slaves just kept drinking all the cider.

I'm sure we all remember that famous passage from the Declaration of Independence: "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Cider."