a dog-eared town

“[T]he States can best govern our home concerns and the general government our foreign ones. I wish, therefore…never to see all offices transferred to Washington, where, further withdrawn from the eyes of the people, they may more secretly be bought and sold at market.”

– Thomas Jefferson (letter to Judge William Johnson, 12 June 1823)

Reference: Original Intent, Barton (261); original Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson

I am continually amazed at how forward thinking the founding fathers were when it came to governance. It is beyond obvious that they spent a long time thinking, discussing and arguing the nature of man and government.

Obviously having George III rule from afar directly showed them what happens when a government gets imperial and not accountable to the people.

I think today, you can say fairly easily, that the government in Washing is a bit imperial and has moved far far away from the people. It has been a slow sort of movement and thus hard to discern or fight.

Personally, you’d think the people would say, after the poor performance of the government on a myriad of issues, that the federal government should get less and not more resources, as the federal government has shown itself incapable of being competent. But sadly, that hasn’t yet happened. Though I still hope for that to happen.