provided a link to www.JeffersonLeadership.com is included.
Category Archives: Federal finances
Thomas Jefferson (aka Patrick Lee) speaking on “no cooking the books”.mp4
A video post: http://bit.ly/JEdZ80
We might hope to see the finances of the union as clear and intelligible as a merchant’s books, so that every member of Congress, & every man of any mind in the Union, should be able to comprehend them, to investigate abuses,and consequently, to control them.
Thomas Jefferson to Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury, 1802, 40
Patrick Lee’s Explanation
No explanation needed.
Only this: How would you answer the questions Jefferson posed at the end of the video?
How would Thomas Jefferson challenge your audience?
Find out! Invite him to speak.
Call Patrick Lee, 573-657-2739
Thomas Jefferson on understanding the federal budget
How well do you understand the federal budget?
The accounts of the United States ought to be, and may be made, as simple as those of a common farmer, and capable of being understood by common farmers.
Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, March 6,1796, 39
Patrick Lee’s Explanation
Jefferson had been off the national scene for three years. His ongoing conflict with Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton led him to resign as President Washington’s Secretary of State in 1793. Hamilton continued in his role until 1795, and his influence continued even after he left office.
Jefferson didn’t approve of anything Hamilton believed or did, including Hamilton’s “accounting” for federal funds. Read a little more about his style of bookkeeping in this previous post.
No doubt, Jefferson could not be objective about anything Hamilton. Jefferson saw in the other man the mirror opposite of everything republican (note the small “r”). Using federal accounts to confuse and obscure was one more way for Hamilton to set himself above or apart from others.
For a better treatment of Hamilton in only 50 pages, I recommend Chapter 4 of Thomas Fleming’s excellent book, “The Intimate Lives of the Founding Fathers.”
For an entertaining and cleverly done video of Hamilton, see PBS’s “Rediscovering Alexander Hamilton.”
Invite Thomas Jefferson to simplify complex issues for your audience.
Call Patrick Lee, 573-657-2739
Thomas Jefferson on the “value” public debt
Is government debt a blessing … or a curse?
At the time we were funding our national debt, we heard much about “a public debt being a public blessing”; that the stock representing it was a creation of active capital for the aliment [sustenance] of commerce, manufactures and agriculture. This paradox was well adapted to the minds of believers in dreams, and the gulls of that size entered bonâ fide [in good faith] into it.
Thomas Jefferson to J. W. Eppes, 1813, 686
Patrick Lee’s Explanation
Although written four years after his retirement from the Presidency, Jefferson was reaching back to the philosophical clashes between Alexander Hamilton and himself in the early 1790s, when the two men served President Washington as Secretaries of Treasury and State, respectively.
Jefferson saw debt as endangering the union, not strengthening it.
While Jefferson often spent his personal funds freely (even money he had borrowed to live on!), he was always cautious and conservative with public money. Very few instances justified deficit spending.
In seven of Jefferson’s eight years as President, 1801-09, the government collected a surplus and the federal debt from the War for Independence was reduced. Only in 1803 was the debt increased, to fund the purchase of Louisiana.
The recipient of this letter was Jefferson’s son-in-law. John Wayles Epps married Jefferson’s second daughter Maria (aka Mary or Polly) in 1797, but she died in 1804. Epps was serving in the 13th Congress when this letter was written, as Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.
Thomas Jefferson on understanding the federal budget
Can you understand the nation’s finances?
We might hope to see the finances of the union as clear and intelligible as a merchant’s books, so that every member of Congress, and every man of any mind in the Union, should be able to comprehend them, to investigate abuses, and consequently to control them.
Thomas Jefferson to Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury, 1802, 40
Patrick Lee’s Explanation
Albert Gallatin served as President Jefferson’s Secretary of Treasury for the full eight years of his Presidency. In contrast to what Jefferson considered the sleight-of –hand financing methods of Gallatin’s predecessor, Alexander Hamilton, he had praise for his Secretary’s approach. He credited Gallatin with being the first person to document every receipt and every expenditure of the federal government, in such a manner that “every man of any mind” could understand.
Thomas Jefferson on messy federal finances
Do you think our federal finances are a mess now?
Alexander Hamilton … determined to so complicate it [the federal treasury] as that neither the President nor the Congress should be able to understand it, or control him. He succeeded in doing this, not only beyond their reach, but so that he at length could not unravel it himself. He gave to the debt, in the first instance, in funding it, the most artificial and mysterious form he could devise. He then moulded up his appropriations of a number of scraps and remnants, many of which were nothing at all, and applied them to differing objects in reversion and remainder, until the whole system was involved in impenetrable fog; and while giving himself the airs of providing for the payment of the debt, he left himself free to add to it continually, as he did in fact, instead of paying it.
Thomas Jefferson to Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury, 1801, 36
Patrick Lee’s Explanation
Alexander Hamilton served as President Washington’s first Secretary of the Treasury at the same time Thomas Jefferson served as Secretary of State. President Washington was less familiar with financial matters (Hamilton’s area) than matters of state (Jefferson’s area). He tended to give his Treasury Secretary greater rein to develop and carry out national policy while subjecting that policy to less personal scrutiny.
