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“It would be a dangerous delusion were a confidence in the men of our choice to silence our fears for the safety of our rights;
that confidence is everywhere the parent of despotism
; free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence; it is jealousy, and not confidence, which prescribes limited constitutions to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power; that our Constitution has accordingly fixed the limits to which, and no farther, our confidence may go….
In questions of power, let no more be said of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.
”
(
Thomas Jefferson
, Thomas Jefferson struck out with all the force that tounge and pen could muster against trusting in human nature.
Kentucky Resolutions
,
The Writings of Thomas Jefferson
, pp. 389-390. November 10, 1798.)
Related Categories
Constitution
Constitution: Human Nature
Constitution: Limits Government