The controversial philosopher, Ayn Rand, was once asked about which of the Founding Fathers she most admired. Her answer was Thomas Jefferson.
[Library of Congress. Free to Use and Reuse: Presidential Portraits.]
But more revealing was her reasoning. Thomas Jefferson wrote the first draft, and was the primary author of, the Declaration of Independence (hereafter: the Declaration), and Ayn Rand referred to the document as “probably the greatest document in human history, both philosophically and literally.”
Notice how she didn’t mean that it had the best prose or the best writing cadence, nor that it was necessarily the best written piece in a poetic sense, but that it was probably the best philosophical writing which had ever existed.
Jefferson’s own comment on the Declaration
Henry Lee wrote Thomas Jefferson in 1825, asking about the sources and motivations that Jefferson relied upon when writing the Declaration of Independence. Here is Jefferson’s answer:
when forced therefore to resort to arms for redress, an appeal to the tribunal of the world was deemed proper for our justification. this was the object of the Declaration of Independance. not to find out new principles, or new arguments, never before thought of, not merely to say things which had never been said before; but to place before mankind the common sense of the subject; [. . .] terms so plain and firm, as to command their assent, and to justify ourselves in the independant stand we [. . .] compelled to take. neither aiming at originality of principle or sentiment, nor yet copied from any particular and previous writing, it was intended to be an expression of the american mind, and to give to that expression the proper tone and spirit called for by the occasion. all it’s authority rests then on the harmonising sentiments of the day, whether expressed, in conversns in letters, printed essays or in the elementary books of public right, as Aristotle, Cicero, Locke, Sidney Etc. the historical documents which you mention as in your possession, ought all to be found, and I am persuaded you will find, to be corroborative of the facts and principles advanced in that Declaration.
In other words, it wasn’t meant to be anything new or advanced, but merely to restate the old wisdom of the world which had accumulated up to that time, in the most precise, and the clearest, and the most realistic (action-altering) way.
Setting the foundation for any others that followed, the Declaration is the principle founding document of the United States of America. The formalized birth of the USA happened with ratification of the US Constitution, but the ideological birth of the United States of America was in 1776.
The United States of America was the culmination of the wisdom of the world. It was the world’s first break with the principle of “might makes right” to a sometimes-initiated-but-never-propagated principle of “right makes might.”
Never before in recorded history had the Rule of Law been placed, and held, so far above the Rule of Man.
Jefferson’s comments on legitimate human governance
From Notes on the State of Virginia, specifically Query XVII which dealt with government interference into religious beliefs (government regulation of thoughts), Jeffersons outlines how it is wrong for governments to regulate speech, and thought, and beliefs.
He even shows past foibles regarding how it is wrong for governments to intervene even the slightest bit into the practice of medicine which is normally performed by medical practitioners, not by government bureaucrats who don’t have medical training:
If the COVID fiasco teaches anything, it teaches that it’s time to get government out of medicine. Centralized decision-making is inevitably corruption-enabling, allowing special interests to obtain private benefit at great public loss.
To prevent great public loss, a complete decentralization of medical practices is needed. Removing medical regulations and restoring the free market in medicine we once had would prevent great public loss.
If 230 million people aren’t forced, by government officials, to take a medical intervention — then 230 million people can never be harmed all at once. It prevents great public loss.
Also on Substack: Happy Birthday Thomas Jefferson, by John Leake
References
[Jefferson Portrait at top] — Library of Congress. Free to Use and Reuse: Presidential Portraits. https://www.loc.gov/free-to-use/presidential-portraits/
[Ayn Rand comment] — Lecture, “The Moral Factor” (Boston, Ford Hall Forum, 1976). As cited in Ayn Rand Answers: The Best of Her Q & A. New American Library. 2005.
[Jefferson’s letter to Henry Lee] — National Archives. From Thomas Jefferson to Henry Lee, 8 May 1825. https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/98-01-02-5212
[government shouldn’t regulate speech, ideas, or medicine] — Library of Congress. Notes on the state of Virginia. By Thomas Jefferson. Query XVII. http://www.loc.gov/resource/lhbcb.04902