Thomas Jefferson's Summary View
These things need to be said again—and again—in a way that touches the truth in people and acts to align us with our better angels. . .
I have been watching the recent mini-series on Thomas Jefferson, and have found many holes in my understanding of the nuances of how the sentiments and actions/events that led to the Revolutionary War were sequenced. This document, written by Jefferson for the upcoming meeting of the Continental Congress, was one of the instrumental puzzle pieces that moved the rebellion forward. It’s a long, hand-written piece, in the somewhat convoluted language of the day, but reading it—slowly—reveals a marvelous weaving of logic and heart, of left and right brain perception.
I pulled sections from the original that I feel really speak to the issues we’re facing today with the current administration. Imagining our current leader in the role of “his majesty,” I’d just like to remind Americans how clear Jefferson’s voice was and how courageous he was to write these words, and later, to pen so much of the Declaration of Independence. We are going to need this spirit of our ancestors, and the logic, conviction, and courage they found within themselves. We are their progeny, their heirs, and I feel that ignoring the new cycle of dominance is a great disrespect to all they went through and fought for. They did it for us. . .and perhaps we were them back then.
I invite you to put yourself in Jefferson’s place as he crafted this detailed, direct yet diplomatic strategy with its many truth-based points. What a sense of depth and organization he had, to back up all the crucial ideas with common sense and history.
A SUMMARY VIEW OF THE RIGHTS OF BRITISH AMERICA
by Thomas Jefferson
Jefferson writes/advises that the Continental Congress create: “a humble and dutiful address to be presented to his majesty, begging leave to lay before him, as chief magistrate of the British empire, the united complaints of his majesty's subjects in America; complaints which are excited by many unwarrantable encroachments and usurpations, attempted to be made by the legislature of one part of the empire, upon those rights which God and the laws have given equally and independently to all.
“To represent to his majesty that these his states have often individually made humble application to his imperial throne to obtain, through its intervention, some redress of their injured rights, to none of which was ever even an answer condescended; humbly to hope that this their joint address, penned in the language of truth, and divested of those expressions of servility which would persuade his majesty that we are asking favours, and not rights, shall obtain from his majesty a more respectful acceptance.
“America was conquered, and her settlements made, and firmly established, at the expence of individuals, and not of the British public. Their own blood was spilt in acquiring lands for their settlement, their own fortunes expended in making that settlement effectual; for themselves they fought, for themselves they conquered, and for themselves alone they have right to hold.
“And this his majesty will think we have reason to expect when he reflects that he is no more than the chief officer of the people, appointed by the laws, and circumscribed with definite powers, to assist in working the great machine of government, erected for their use, and consequently subject to their superintendance. And in order that these our rights, as well as the invasions of them, may be laid more fully before his majesty, to take a view of them from the origin and first settlement of these countries.”
And then, Jefferson brings up their own history: “To remind him that our ancestors, before their emigration to America, were the free inhabitants of the British dominions in Europe, and possessed a right which nature has given to all men, of departing from the country in which chance, not choice, has placed them, of going in quest of new habitations, and of there establishing new societies, under such laws and regulations as to them shall seem most likely to promote public happiness. That their Saxon ancestors had, under this universal law, in like manner left their native wilds and woods in the north of Europe, had possessed themselves of the island of Britain, then less charged with inhabitants, and had established there that system of laws which has so long been the glory and protection of that country.”
“That these are our grievances which we have thus laid before his majesty, with that freedom of language and sentiment which becomes a free people claiming their rights, as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate: Let those flatter who fear; it is not an American art. To give praise which is not due might be well from the venal, but would ill beseem those who are asserting the rights of human nature. They know, and will therefore say, that kings are the servants, not the proprietors of the people. Open your breast, sire, to liberal and expanded thought. Let not the name of George the third be a blot in the page of history.
“You are surrounded by British counsellors, but remember that they are parties. You have no ministers for American affairs, because you have none taken from among us, nor amenable to the laws on which they are to give you advice. It behoves you, therefore, to think and to act for yourself and your people. The great principles of right and wrong are legible to every reader; to pursue them requires not the aid of many counsellors. The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest. Only aim to do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail.
“When the representative body have lost the confidence of their constituents, when they have notoriously made sale of their most valuable rights, when they have assumed to themselves powers which the people never put into their hands, then indeed their continuing in office becomes dangerous to the state, and calls for an exercise of the power of dissolution.
“The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time; the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them.”
(The full document can be read here.)
Just one more note from me. What does all this have to do with spirituality, transformation, human evolution, and idealism? I feel it is the core ideas that our country was founded upon that center and ground us in a higher frequency experience — one that parallels the way things actually do function in the spiritual realms. They remind us that we can function together as families, organizations, and countries without greed and corruption, cruelty or ego.
