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The Legislative Branch
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The power of legislation resides
in the people, but they are not competent to exercise it. Neither is it practical that
they should do so. Therefore, they entrust this power to competent representatives who
will act on their behalf and in their own best interests, and they watch over them
carefully to see that they do just that.
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"Were I called
upon to decide whether the people had best be omitted in the legislative or judiciary
department, I would say it is better to leave them out of the legislature. The execution
of the laws is more important than the making of them. However, it is best to have the
people in all the three departments, where that is possible." --Thomas Jefferson to
Abbe Arnoux, 1789. ME 7:423, Papers 15:283
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"[The people] are not
qualified to legislate. With us, therefore, they only choose the legislators."
--Thomas Jefferson to Abbe Arnoux, 1789. ME 7:422, Papers 15:283
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"The right of representation
in the legislature [is] a right inestimable to [the people], and formidable to tyrants
only." --Thomas Jefferson: Declaration of Independence, 1776. ME 1:31, Papers 1:430
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"I consider the pure
federalist as a republican who would prefer a somewhat stronger Executive; and the
republican as one more willing to trust the legislature as a broader representation of the
people, and a safer deposit of power for many reasons. But both sects are republican,
entitled to the confidence of their fellow citizens." --Thomas Jefferson to John
Dickinson, 1801. FE 8:76
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"I find the conviction
growing strongly that nothing can preserve our confederacy unless the band of union, their
common council, be strengthened." --Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1784. ME
4:458, Papers 7:356
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"That every State should be
represented in the great council of the nation is not only the interest of each, but of
the whole united, who have a right to be aided by the collective wisdom and information of
the whole, in questions which are to decide on their future well-being." --Thomas
Jefferson to John Sevier, 1809. ME 12:243
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"Any proposition might be
negatived by the representatives of a majority of the people of America, or of a majority
of the [states] of America. The former secures the larger, the latter, the smaller
[states]." --Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 1777. (*) ME 4:287, Papers 2:19
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"I look for our safety to
the broad representation of the people [in Congress]. It will be more difficult for
corrupt views to lay hold of so large a mass."--Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Mann
Randolph, Jr., 1792. FE 5:455
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"I am happy in [the]
opportunity of committing the arduous affairs of our government to the collected wisdom of
the Union. Nothing shall be wanting on my part [as President] to inform, as far as in my
power, the legislative judgment, nor to carry that judgment into faithful execution."
--Thomas Jefferson: 1st Annual Message, 1801. ME 3:339
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A Sound Spirit of Legislation |
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"A sound spirit of
legislation,... banishing all arbitrary and unnecessary restraint on individual action,
shall leave us free to do whatever does not violate the equal rights of another."
--Thomas Jefferson: Report for the University of Virginia, 1818.
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"Our legislators are not
sufficiently apprised of the rightful limits of their power: that their true office is to
declare and enforce only our natural rights and duties and to take none of them from us.
No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another, and this
is all from which the laws ought to restrain him; every man is under the natural duty of
contributing to the necessities of the society, and this is all the laws should enforce on
him; and, no man having a natural right to be the judge between himself and another, it is
his natural duty to submit to the umpirage of an impartial third. When the laws have
declared and enforced all this, they have fulfilled their functions; and the idea is quite
unfounded that on entering into society we give up any natural right. The trial of every
law by one of these texts would lessen much the labors of our legislators and lighten
equally our municipal codes." --Thomas Jefferson to Francis Gilmer, 1816. ME 15:24
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"To special legislation we
are generally averse lest a principle of favoritism should creep in and pervert that of
equal rights. It has, however, been done on some occasions where a special national
advantage has been expected to overweigh that of adherence to the general rule."
--Thomas Jefferson to George Flower, 1817. ME 15:139
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"The framers of our
Constitution, in their care to provide that the laws shall bind equally on all, and
especially that those who make them shall not be exempt themselves from their operation,
have only privileged "Senators and Representatives" themselves from the single
act of arrest in all cases except treason, felony, and breach of the peace, during their
attendance at the session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from
the same, and from being questioned in any other place for any speech or debate in either
House." --Thomas Jefferson: Parliamentary Manual, 1800. ME 2:340
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"One of [the legislator's]
important duties is as guardian of those who from causes susceptible of precise
definition, cannot take care of themselves. Such are infants, maniacs, gamblers,
drunkards. The last, as much as the maniac, requires restrictive measures to save him from
the fatal infatuation under which he is destroying his health, his morals, his family, and
his usefulness to society. One powerful obstacle to his ruinous self-indulgence would be a
price beyond his competence. As a sanatory measure, therefore, it becomes one of duty in
the public guardians." --Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Smith, 1823. ME 15:431
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"Congress... wisely enough
avoid deciding on abstract questions." --Thomas Jefferson to John W. Eppes, 1813. ME
13:273
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"Congress have no... natural
or necessary powers, nor any powers but such as are given them by the Constitution."
--Thomas Jefferson: Parliamentary Manual, 1800. ME 2:342
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"Some have proposed to
Congress to incorporate [a central agricultural] society. I am against that, because I
think Congress cannot find in all the enumerated powers any one which authorizes the act,
much less the giving the public money to that use. I believe, too, if they had the power
it would soon be used for no other purpose than to buy with sinecures useful partisans. I
believe it will thrive best if left to itself." --Thomas Jefferson to Robert
Livingston, 1801. FE 7:492
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"If there be anything
amiss... in the present state of our affairs,... I ascribe it to the inattention of
Congress to their duties, to their unwise dissipation and waste of the public
contributions. They seemed, some little while ago, to be at a loss for objects whereon to
throw away the supposed fathomless funds of the Treasury... The deficit produced and a
heavy tax to supply it will, I trust, bring both [Congress and the people] to their sober
senses." --Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Ritchie, 1820. ME 15:296
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"An adherence to fundamental
principles is the most likely way to save both time and disagreement [between legislative
bodies]... a departure from them may at some time or other be drawn into precedent for
dangerous innovations, and... therefore it is better for both Houses and for those by whom
they are entrusted to correct the error while new and before it becomes inveterate by
habit and custom." --Thomas Jefferson: Conference Report, 1777. Papers 2:46
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A Sense of the People's
Disposition
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"The representatives of the
people in Congress are alone competent to judge of the general disposition of the people,
and to what precise point of reformation they are ready to go." --Thomas Jefferson to
Mr. Rutherford, 1792. ME 9:5
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"Coming from every section
of our country, [both houses of Congress] bring with them the sentiments and the
information of the whole, and will be enabled to give a direction to the public affairs
which the will and wisdom of the whole will approve and support." --Thomas Jefferson:
5th Annual Message, 1805. ME 3:384
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"To be really useful, we
must keep pace with the state of society, and not dishearten it by attempts at what its
population, means, or occupations will fail in attempting." --Thomas Jefferson to G.
C. de La Costa, 1807. ME 11:206
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"Reformation in government
follows reformation in opinion." --Thomas Jefferson to Richard Price, 1789. ME 7:366,
Papers 15:138
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"[Montesquieu wrote in
Spirit
of the Laws,
XIX, c.5:] 'It is the business of the legislature to follow the spirit of
the nation, when it is not contrary to the principles of government; for we do nothing so
well as when we act with freedom and follow the bent of our natural genius." --Thomas
Jefferson: copied into his Commonplace Book.
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"It is not only vain, but
wicked in a legislator to frame laws in opposition to the laws of nature, and to arm them
with the terrors of death. This is truly creating crimes in order to punish them."
--Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Crimes Bill, 1779. Papers 2:502
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"It is the will of the
nation which makes the law obligatory; it is their will which creates or annihilates the
organ which is to declare and announce it." --Thomas Jefferson to Edmund Randolph,
1799. ME 10:126
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The Work of the Legislature |
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"Nothing is so embarrassing
nor so mischievous in a great assembly as the details of execution. The smallest trifle of
that kind occupies as long as the most important act of legislation and takes place of
everything else. Let any man recollect or look over the files of [the Confederation]
Congress; he will observe the most important propositions hanging over from week to week
and month to month till the occasions have passed them and the thing never done. I have
ever viewed the executive details as the greatest cause of evil to us, because they in
fact place us as if we had no federal head, by diverting the attention of that head from
great to small subjects." --Thomas Jefferson to Edward Carrington, 1787. ME 6:228
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"A forty years' experience
of popular assemblies has taught me that you must give them time for every step you take.
If too hard pushed, they balk, and the machine retrogrades." --Thomas Jefferson to
Joel Barlow, 1807. ME 11:400
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"Ours... is a government
which will not tolerate the being kept entirely in the dark." --Thomas Jefferson to
James Monroe, 1807. ME 11:168
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"If the members are to know
nothing but what is important enough to be put into a public message and indifferent
enough to be made known to all the world; if the executive is to keep all other
information to himself and the House to plunge on in the dark, it becomes a government of
chance and not of design." --Thomas Jefferson to Barnabas Bidwell, 1806. ME 11:116
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"The Legislature should
never show itself in a matter with a foreign nation but where the case is very serious and
they mean to commit the nation on its issue." --Thomas Jefferson to James Madison,
1791. ME 8:250
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"[A legislature,] elected by
the people for the ordinary purposes of legislation onLy, have no power to restrain the
acts of succeeding [legislatures], constituted with powers equal to [their] own, and
therefore to declare [an] act irrevocable would be of no effect in law." --Thomas
Jefferson: Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom, 1777. (*) Papers 2:546
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"Each house of Congress
possesses [the] natural right of governing itself... so far as it has not been abridged by
the law of those who employ them, that is to say, by the Constitution." --Thomas
Jefferson: Opinion on Residence Bill, 1790. ME 3:66
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"That all should be
satisfied with any one order of things is not to be expected, but I indulge the pleasing
persuasion that the great body of our citizens will cordially concur in honest and
disinterested efforts, which have for their object to preserve the general and State
governments in their constitutional form and equilibrium; to maintain peace abroad, and
order and obedience to the laws at home; to establish principles and practices of
administration favorable to the security of liberty and property, and to reduce expenses
to what is necessary for the useful purpose of government." --Thomas Jefferson: 1st
Annual Message, 1801. ME 3:340
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"The instability of our laws
is really an immense evil. I think it would be well to provide in our constitutions that
there shall always be a twelve-month between the engrossing a bill and passing it; that it
should then be offered to its passage without changing a word; and that if circumstances
should be thought to require a speedier passage, it should take two-thirds of both houses
instead of a bare majority." --Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1787. ME 6:393
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"The journals of Congress
not being printed earlier gives more uneasiness than I would ever wish to see produced by
any act of that body, from whom alone I know our salvation can proceed. In our Assembly,
even the best affected think it an indignity to freemen to be voted away, life and
fortune, in the dark." --Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 1777. ME 4:287, Papers 2:19
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"Whether the great interests
of agriculture, manufactures, commerce, or navigation, can, within the pale of [Congress']
constitutional powers, be aided in any of their relations; whether laws are provided in
all cases where they are wanting; whether those provided are exactly what they should be;
whether any abuses take place in their administration, or in that of the public revenues;
whether the organization of the public agents or of the public force is perfect in all its
parts; in fine, whether anything can be done to advance the general good, are questions
within the limits of [Congress'] functions which will necessarily occupy [their]
attention. In these and other matters which [they] in [their] wisdom may propose for the
good of our country, [they] may count with assurance on my hearty co-operation and
faithful execution." --Thomas Jefferson: 4th Annual Message, 1804. ME 3:374
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The Composition of the Legislature
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"For good legislation two
Houses are necessary." --Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 1789. ME 7:334, Papers 15:98
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"The purpose of establishing
different houses of legislation is to introduce the influence of different interests or
different principles. Thus in Great Britain it is said their constitution relies on the
House of Commons for honesty, and the Lords for wisdom; which would be a rational reliance
if honesty were to be bought with money, and if wisdom were hereditary." --Thomas
Jefferson: Notes on Virginia Q.XIII, 1782. ME 2:162
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"The Senate... was intended
as a check on the will of the Representatives when too hasty." --Thomas Jefferson to
James Madison, 1794. ME 9:288
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"I find my countrymen...
think their own experience has so decidedly proved the necessity of two Houses to prevent
the tyranny of one that they fear that this single error will shipwreck [a nation's] new
constitution." --Thomas Jefferson to Rouchefoucauld, 1790. (*)
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"I am captivated by the
compromise [in the new federal Constitution] of the opposite claims of the great and
little States, of the latter to equal and the former to proportional influence. I am much
pleased, too, with the substitution of the method of voting by person, instead of that of
voting by States." --Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1787. ME 6:387
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"In the structure of our
[State] legislatures, we think experience has proved the benefit of subjecting questions
to two separate bodies of deliberants; but in constituting these, natural right has been
mistaken, some making one of these bodies, and some both, the representatives of property
instead of persons; whereas the double deliberation might be as well obtained without any
violation of true principle either by requiring a greater age in one of the bodies or by
electing a proper number of representatives of persons, dividing them by lots into two
chambers and renewing the division at frequent intervals in order to break up all
cabals." --Thomas Jefferson to John Cartwright, 1824. ME 16:45
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"No invasions of the
Constitution are fundamentally so dangerous as the tricks played on [Congress'] numbers,
apportionment, and other circumstances respecting themselves, and affecting their legal
qualifications to legislate for the union." --Thomas Jefferson: Opinion on
Apportionment Bill, 1792. ME 3:211
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"It seems that the opinion
is fairly launched into public that [the Senate] should be placed under the control of a
more frequent recurrence to the will of their constituents. This seems requisite to
complete the experiment, whether they do more harm or good." --Thomas Jefferson to
James Madison, 1794. ME 9:289
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"In some of the American
States the delegates and senators are so chosen as that the first represent the persons
and the second the property of the State. But with us [in Virginia], wealth and wisdom
have equal chance for admission into both houses. We do not, therefore, derive from the
separation of our legislature into two houses those benefits which a proper complication
of principles is capable of producing, and those which alone can compensate the evils
which may be produced by their dissensions." --Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia
Q.XIII, 1782. ME 2:162
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"Reduce [the] legislature to
a convenient number for full but orderly discussion. Let every man who fights or pays
exercise his just and equal right in their election. Submit them to approbation or
rejection at short intervals." --Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval, 1816. ME 15:36
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"The [State] Senate shall
consist of... members who shall be appointed by the House of Representatives. One-third of
them shall be removed out of office... annually at the end of every three years according
to seniority. When once removed, they shall be forever incapable of being reappointed to
that House." --Thomas Jefferson: Draft Virginia Constitution, 1776. Papers 1:358
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"To obtain a wise and an
able [State] government,... render the legislature a desirable station by lessening the
number of representatives (say to 100) and lengthening somewhat their term, and proportion
them equally among the electors." --Thomas Jefferson to Archibald Stuart, 1791. (*)
ME 8:277
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