Sunday, February 22, 2009

Thomas Jefferson on Government Spending

“I am for a government rigorously frugal and simple, applying all the possible savings of the public revenue to the discharge of the national debt, and not for a multiplication of officers and salaries merely to make partisans, and for increasing, by every device, the public debt on the principle of its being a public blessing.”

From a letter to Elbridge Gerry of January 26, 1799 [Edward Dumbauld, ed., Jefferson: His Political Writings, Bobbs-Merrill, Indianapolis, 1955, p.47]

2 comments:

  1. Thomas Jefferson, IMHO is one of the greatest figures in our history. His words hold as much truth today as they did in when he first uttered them.

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  2. The more of TJ's words I read, the more I realize how much America was blessed to have him.

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