-- John Adams
added note: my source was a secondary source, but there is an argument that this is not an actual quote by Adams. That may be so. I will leave it in place pending my own research into the matter. However, understanding the general considerations by the founding fathers, this is not a quote that I would doubt simply because there are many quotes by the founders that disparage a federal debt for any reason other than to pay for war. However, Alexander Hamilton, a statist and mercantilist, actually recommended a public debt as a mechanism to hold together the union - if they were all indebted, they would be more likely to hold together until the debt was paid. Of course, that would mean to hold together the union Hamilton would encourage the debt to be perpetual.
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
6 comments:
That is not a quote by John Adams. It has been misapropriated to him many times, but it seems to be fabricated whole-cloth by lawyer Ellen Brown. http://www.garynorth.com/public/6887.cfm
Thank you, Anonymous, for your comment. My response (after viewing the website you offered, and a number of others) has been added to the post as an "added note."
It doesn't sound like Adams to me. In fact, as president, Adams appears to have had a very pragmatic approach to debt and its necessity to governments. In his first Annual Message to Congress (or State of the Union), on November 22, 1797, Adams said:
"Since the decay of the feudal system, by which the public defense was provided for chiefly at the expense of individuals, the system of loans has been introduced, and as no nation can raise within the year by taxes sufficient sums for its defense and military operations in time of war the sums loaned and debts contracted have necessarily become the subjects of what have been called funding systems. The consequences arising from the continual accumulation of public debts in other countries ought to admonish us to be careful to prevent their growth in our own. The national defense must be provided for as well as the support of Government; but both should be accomplished as much as possible by immediate taxes, and as little as possible by loans."
No mention of conquest or enslavement.
John Adams was interesting, because he was a patriot, but also followed some of the statist principles of the Federalist Party. His move to the left became so strong that by the time of the 1800 election, he damn near hated his former friend, Thomas Jefferson. It wasn't until their deathbeds, some views of history have it, before they finally made amends.
Adams and Jefferson renewed their great and powerful friendship in 1811, through the intercession of their mutual friend, Dr. Benjamin Rush. After that point they wrote each other at least every week, sometimes every day, sometimes twice a day -- until both of them died, on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1826
Read about it here.
Monticello's website carries a short version of the Adams-Jefferson correspondence story, and especially, features links to the better sources:
http://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/john-adams
David McCullough tells the story best -- it nearly always brings tears to my eyes -- and I think he may have related it here, on Charlie Rose's show:
http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/2473
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