In 1811, two years after Jefferson left the Presidency, Jefferson wrote a letter to General Thaddeus Kosciuszko, a hero of the American Revolution. Jefferson said that he supported taxes (then tariffs, since there was no income tax yet) falling entirely on the wealthy. As Jefferson explained: “The farmer will see his government supported, his children educated, and the face of this country made a paradise by the contributions of the rich alone, without his being called on to spend a cent from his earnings.” (Quoted by Rep. Alan Grayson in a newsletter April 21st).
Jefferson, despite being a slave owner (a mark against him), was a highly intelligent man, a man of the Enlightenment and a self-described Epicurean. No bible-thumper he.
We have to struggle against those who try to own the American Founding Fathers, purporting to act in their name and attributing to them ideas they never held. Common sense and Epicureanism go hand in hand.
Nor did Mr. Jefferson find much to praise in clerics. It’s a measure of our sad times that the remark below would certainly end his hopes for a career in national politics.
“In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own.”
Source: Letter of Thomas Jefferson to Horatio G. Spafford, March 17, 1814.