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| Civil Rights |
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It is the tendency of all
governments to encroach on the rights of the people. Limited constitutions protect those
rights, and serve as a line of defense against government intrusion. Rights that are not
specifically identified for protection are not assumed to be under the jurisdiction of
government, however; they are retained by the people and are exercised as an element of
their individual self-governance. in their sovereign capacity.
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"There are rights which it
is useless to surrender to the government and which governments have yet always been found
to invade. These are the rights of thinking and publishing our thoughts by speaking or
writing; the right of free commerce; the right of personal freedom. There are instruments
for administering the government so peculiarly trustworthy that we should never leave the
legislature at liberty to change them. The new Constitution has secured these in the
executive and legislative department, but not in the judiciary. It should have established
trials by the people themselves, that is to say, by jury. There are instruments so
dangerous to the rights of the nation and which place them so totally at the mercy of
their governors that those governors, whether legislative or executive, should be
restrained from keeping such instruments on foot but in well-defined cases. Such an
instrument is a standing army." --Thomas Jefferson to David Humphreys, 1789. ME 7:323
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"Freedom of religion;
freedom of the press; freedom of person under the protection of the habeas corpus;
and trial by juries impartially selected, I deem [among] the essential principles of our
government, and consequently [among] those which ought to shape its administration."
--Thomas Jefferson: 1st Inaugural Address, 1801. ME 3:322
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"One of the amendments to
the Constitution... expressly declares that 'Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the
freedom of speech, or of the press,' thereby guarding in the same sentence and under the
same words, the freedom of religion, of speech, and of the press; insomuch that whatever
violates either throws down the sanctuary which covers the others." --Thomas
Jefferson: Draft Kentucky Resolutions, 1798. ME 17:382
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The Right
of Free Correspondence
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The right of one citizen to
correspond freely with another is a natural right, arising from the need of individuals to
communicate with one another in the conduct of the business of life. The protection of
this right is one of the basic reasons why men form themselves into societies and
establish governments.
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"A right of free
correspondence between citizen and citizen on their joint interests, whether public or
private and under whatsoever laws these interests arise (to wit: of the State, of
Congress, of France, Spain, or Turkey), is a natural right; it is not the gift of any
municipal law, either of England, or Virginia, or of Congress, but in common with all
other natural rights, it is one of the objects for the protection of which society is
formed and municipal laws established." --Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, 1797. ME
9:422
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"The right of free
correspondence is not claimed under [the] Constitution [of the United States], nor the
laws or treaties derived from it, but as a natural right, placed originally under the
protection of our municipal laws and retained under the cognizance of our own
courts." --Thomas Jefferson: Virginia Petition, 1797. ME 17:361
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"The Federal Constitution
alienates from [the State courts] all cases arising, 1st, under the Constitution; 2dly,
under the laws of Congress; 3dly, under treaties, etc. But this right of free
correspondence, whether with a public representative in [the State] General Assembly, in
Congress, in France, in Spain, or with a private one charged with a pecuniary trust, or
with a private friend, the object of our esteem, or any other, has not been given to us
under, 1st, the Federal Constitution; 2dly, any law of Congress; or 3dly, any treaty;
but... by nature. It is therefore not alienated but remains under the protection of our
[State] courts." --Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, 1797. ME 9:423
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"The right of our fellow
citizens to represent to the public functionaries their opinion on proceedings interesting
to them is unquestionably a constitutional right, often useful, sometimes necessary, and
will always be respectfully acknowledged by me." --Thomas Jefferson to the New Haven
Committee, 1801. ME 10:269
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"In canvassing [the]
opinions [of a public official, a citizen does] what every man has a right to do, and it
is for the good of society that that right should be freely exercised." --Thomas
Jefferson to Noah Webster, 1790. (*)
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"In principle and
consequence, [the violation of right] extends to all of our fellow citizens, whose safety
is passed away whenever their representatives are placed, in the exercise of their
functions, under the direction and coercion of either of the other departments of
government; and one of their most interesting rights is lost when that of a free
communication of sentiment by speaking or writing is suppressed." --Thomas Jefferson:
Virginia Petition, 1797. ME 17:363
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"Did we ever expect to see
the day, when, breathing nothing but sentiments of love to our country and its freedom and
happiness, our correspondence must be as secret as if we were hatching its
destruction!" --Thomas Jefferson to Elbridge Gerry, 1799. ME 10:86
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"The attempt which has been
made to restrain the liberty of our citizens meeting together, interchanging sentiments on
what subjects they please and stating their sentiments in the public papers, has come upon
us a full century earlier than I expected." --Thomas Jefferson to William Branch
Giles, 1794.
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Freedom of
Conscience
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The right to hold one's own
views, and to think and to decide for oneself on any question, is an essential right for a
free people. A person is free to believe anything he wishes, even if in error, and may not
be persecuted nor denied the right to hold public office for those beliefs. The First
Amendment protections for freedom of religion, of speech, of the press and of assembly,
all together protect the Freedom of Conscience.
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"No provision in our
Constitution ought to be dearer to man than that which protects the rights of conscience
against the enterprises of the civil authority." --Thomas Jefferson to New London
Methodists, 1809. ME 16:332
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"That form [of
self-government] which we have substituted [for that which bound men under the chains of
monkish ignorance and superstition] restores the free right to the unbounded exercise of
reason and freedom of opinion." --Thomas Jefferson to Roger C. Weightman, 1826. ME
16:182
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"A right to take the side
which every man's conscience approves in a civil contest is too precious a right, and too
favorable to the preservation of liberty, not to be protected by all its well-informed
friends." --Thomas Jefferson to Katherine Sprowle Douglas, 1785. FE 4:66, Papers
8:260
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"Subject opinion to
coercion: whom will you make your inquisitors? Fallible men, governed by bad passions, by
private as well as public reasons. And why subject it to coercion? To produce uniformity?
But is uniformity of opinion desirable? No more than of face and stature." --Thomas
Jefferson: Notes on Virginia Q.XVII, 1782. ME 2:223
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"The freedom of opinion and
the reasonable maintenance of it is not a crime and ought not to occasion injury."
--Thomas Jefferson to Gideon Granger, 1801.
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"The legitimate powers of
government reach actions only and not opinions." --Thomas Jefferson to Danbury
Baptists, 1802.
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"This country, which has
given to the world the example of physical liberty, owes to it that of moral emancipation
also. For as yet, it is but nominal with us. The inquisition of public opinion overwhelms
in practice the freedom asserted by the laws in theory." --Thomas Jefferson to John
Adams, 1821. ME 15:308
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"It is inconsistent with the
spirit of our laws and Constitution to force tender consciences." --Thomas Jefferson:
Proclamation Concerning Paroles, 1781. FE 2:430, Papers 4:404
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"The error seems not
sufficiently eradicated that the operations of the mind as well as the acts of the body
are subject to the coercion of the laws. But our rulers can have authority over such
natural rights only as we have submitted to them. The rights of conscience we never
submitted, we could not submit. We are answerable for them to our God. The legitimate
powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me
no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God. It neither picks my
pocket nor breaks my leg." --Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia Q.XVII, 1782. ME
2:221
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"[The] liberty of speaking
and writing... guards our other liberties." --Thomas Jefferson: Reply to Philadelphia
Democratic Republicans, 1808. ME 16:304
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"We are bound, you, I, and
every one to make common cause, even with error itself, to maintain the common right of
freedom of conscience." --Thomas Jefferson to Edward Dowse, 1803. ME 10:378
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"It behooves every man who
values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others;
or their case may, by change of circumstances, become his own. It behooves him, too, in
his own case, to give no example of concession, betraying the common right of independent
opinion, by answering questions of faith, which the laws have left between God and
himself." --Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush, 1803. ME 10:381
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"I am... averse to the
communication of my religious tenets to the public: because it would countenance the
presumption of those who have endeavored to draw them before that tribunal, and to seduce
public opinion to erect itself into that inquisition over the rights of conscience which
the laws have so justly proscribed." --Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush, 1803. ME
10:380
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"We ought with one heart and
one hand to hew down the daring and dangerous efforts of those who would seduce the public
opinion to substitute itself into that tyranny over religious faith which the laws have so
justly abdicated. For this reason, were my opinions up to the standard of those who
arrogate the right of questioning them, I would not countenance that arrogance by
descending to an explanation." --Thomas Jefferson to Edward Dowse, 1803. ME 10:378
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"While the principles of our
Constitution give just latitude to inquiry, every citizen faithful to it will deem
embodied expressions of discontent and open outrages of law and patriotism as dishonorable
as they are injurious." --Thomas Jefferson: Reply to Leesburg Citizens, 1809.
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"[Montesquieu wrote in his
Spirit
of the Laws
XII,c.12:] 'Words carried into action assume the nature of that action.
Thus a man who goes into a public market-place to incite the subject to revolt incurs the
guilt of high treason, because the words are joined to the action, and partake of its
nature. It is not the words that are punished, but an action in which words are employed.
They do not become criminal, but when they are annexed to a criminal action: everything is
confounded if words are construed into a capital crime, instead of considering them only
as a mark of that crime.'" --Thomas Jefferson: copied into his Commonplace Book.
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"The following [addition to
the Bill of Rights] would have pleased me: The people shall not be deprived or abridged of
their right to speak, to write, or otherwise to publish anything but false facts
affecting injuriously the life, liberty or reputation of others, or affecting the peace of
the [United States] with foreign nations." --Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1789.
ME 7:450, Papers 15:367
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The Right
to Bear Arms
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In a nation governed by the
people themselves, the possession of arms to defend their nation against usurpers within
and without was deemed absolutely necessary. This right is protected by the 2nd Amendment
to the Constitution. A gun was an everyday implement in early American society, and
Jefferson recommended its use. "A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the
species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it
gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball, and
others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind.
Let your gun, therefore, be the constant companion of your walks." --Thomas Jefferson
to Peter Carr, 1785. ME 5:85, Papers 8:407
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"The constitutions of most
of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people; that... it is their right
and duty to be at all times armed." --Thomas Jefferson to John Cartwright, 1824. ME
16:45
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"One loves to possess arms,
though they hope never to have occasion for them." --Thomas Jefferson to George
Washington, 1796. ME 9:341
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"I learn with great concern
that [one] portion of our frontier so interesting, so important, and so exposed, should be
so entirely unprovided with common fire-arms. I did not suppose any part of the United
States so destitute of what is considered as among the first necessaries of a
farm-house." --Thomas Jefferson to Jacob J. Brown, 1808. ME 11:432
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"No freeman shall be
debarred the use of arms (within his own lands or tenements)." --Thomas Jefferson:
Draft Virginia Constitution (with his note added), 1776. Papers 1:353
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"None but an armed nation
can dispense with a standing army. To keep ours armed and disciplined is therefore at all
times important." --Thomas Jefferson to -----, 1803. ME 10:365
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Other
Rights
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The rights of citizens are not
limited to those specifically enumerated in the Constitution. The Ninth Amendment protects
all other rights that are retained by the people, and that are not specifically named.
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"Under the law of nature,
all men are born free, every one comes into the world with a right to his own person,
which includes the liberty of moving and using it at his own will. This is what is called
personal liberty, and is given him by the Author of nature, because necessary for his own
sustenance." --Thomas Jefferson: Legal Argument, 1770. FE 1:376
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"My opinion on the right of
expatriation has been so long ago as the year 1776 consigned to record in the act of the
Virginia code, drawn by myself, recognizing the right expressly and prescribing the mode
of exercising it. The evidence of this natural right, like that of our right to life,
liberty, the use of our faculties, the pursuit of happiness, is not left to the feeble and
sophistical investigations of reason, but is impressed on the sense of every man. We do
not claim these under the charters of kings or legislators, but under the King of Kings.
If He has made it a law in the nature of man to pursue his own happiness, he has left him
free in the choice of place as well as mode, and we may safely call on the whole body of
English jurists to produce the map on which nature has traced for each individual the
geographical line which she forbids him to cross in pursuit of happiness." --Thomas
Jefferson to John Manners, 1817. ME 15:124
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"[We in America entertain] a
due sense of our equal right to the use of our own faculties, to the acquisitions of our
own industry, to honor and confidence from our fellow-citizens resulting not from birth
but from our actions and their sense of them." --Thomas Jefferson: 1st Inaugural,
1801. ME 3:320
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"The manners of every nation
are the standard of orthodoxy within itself. But these standards being arbitrary,
reasonable people in all allow free toleration for the manners as for the religion of
others." --Thomas Jefferson to Jean Baptiste Say, 1815. ME 14:262
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"Every man should be
protected in his lawful acts, and be certain that no ex post facto law shall punish
or endamage him for them." --Thomas Jefferson to Isaac McPherson, 1813. ME 13:326
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"The sentiment that
ex
post facto
laws are against natural right is so strong in the United States that few,
if any, of the State constitutions have failed to proscribe them. The Federal Constitution
indeed interdicts them in criminal cases only; but they are equally unjust in civil as in
criminal cases, and the omission of a caution which would have been right, does not
justify the doing what is wrong." --Thomas Jefferson to Isaac McPherson, 1813. ME
13:327
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"In America, no other
distinction between man and man had ever been known but that of persons in office
exercising powers by authority of the laws, and private individuals. Among these last, the
poorest laborer stood on equal ground with the wealthiest millionaire, and generally on a
more favored one whenever their rights seem to jar." --Thomas Jefferson: Answers to
de Meusnier Questions, 1786. ME 17:8
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| ME, FE = Memorial Edition, Ford Edition. |
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