Observations©
By Donald S. Conkey
Date:
April 10, 2008 - # 8815 - Title: Thomas Jefferson
(821)
As
America’s 2008 presidential selection process continues we hear the candidates present their views of how they plan to
make America better should they be elected president. Each candidate often invokes our Declaration of Independence,
especially its words regarding “equality” and “unalienable rights.”
These current debates remind
me that these subjects are not new to presidential debates. In 1800 Thomas Jefferson, himself in a heated contest, referenced
them when he stated, unequivocally, “I have sworn upon the alter of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny
over the mind of man.”
These words reminds me
of my reverence for this man who authored the Declaration of Independence, mentored James Madison who became the father of
our Constitution, and later became the third president of the young United States. It is also why all liberty loving people
should remember that next Sunday will be the 265th anniversary of Jefferson’s birth on April
13, 1743.
Before writing this column
I reread the Declaration of Independence. I recommend everyone reread this document of liberty this Sunday to reeducate themselves
on its inspired words as well as to honor the man most responsible for assembling those foundational words of liberty.
As you read this historic
document remember the time frame it was written in. When congress named its committee to write this “separation document”
99 percent of the world’s population lived in poverty and were subject to tyrants and despots – living as their
‘subjects.’ That committee included Adams, Franklin, Sherman, Livingston
and Jefferson.
The committee then asked
Jefferson to draft a document
of separation. It took Jefferson 17 days to craft the initial draft of which 15 days were spent on the first, second, and fourth paragraphs. The third
paragraph is a list of the 29 grievances Jefferson had previously enumerated against King George III.
While the committee and
congress had input into this document the meat and substance of this world changing document came from the mind and soul of
Thomas Jefferson, a man so honored by early Americans that he is one of only
three presidents honored with a monument. His monument, like the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Monument is a deserving tribute to this patriot who played such a vital role in the creation of America as a nation of freedom.
After reading this foundational
document have you ever asked yourself “where did this man find these words and then structure them into so powerful
a document?” I have. I doubt if there was another man among the Founders capable of creating such a near perfect document,
a document that would soon ‘change’ the world by becoming a beacon of ‘hope’ to the entire world.
Its words are powerful.
Its phrases are even more powerful. Anyone who loves liberty and freedom should carefully ponder its words and feel of their
spiritual insight. Many wonder if Jefferson received divine help in crafting those words. Many think he did. As a Pauline Christian he studied every word uttered
by the Savior and created his own book of ethics using the Savior’s words. He saw in the Savior’s words a form
of government that, if followed, would “change” the world and provide real “hope” for all mankind.
It is my firm conviction
that Jefferson’s first few days in isolation were spent in reading the scriptures, especially the Gospels which he loved,
including John 8:32-36 which reads: “And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free … If the son
therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” Then, I believe,
he would have asked for guidance on what the Lord would have him write that would bring freedom to an enslaved world. The
inspired words then flowed.
Often, while pondering those15 days, a revealing scripture comes to mind that states: “Therefore
it is not right that any man should be in bondage one to another. And for this purpose have I established the Constitution
of this land, and by the hands of wise men whom I have raised up unto this very purpose, and redeemed the land by the shedding
of blood.”
Was Jefferson one of those wise men? I think he was,
as was Washington the courageous one, Madison the insightful one, and Lincoln the unbendable one. All men raised up by their
“Creator,” their “Supreme Judge of the World,” their “divine Providence” whom they “mutually
pledged to each other their lives, their freedoms and their sacred honor.”
Why was Jefferson chosen to pen these special words? So,
I believe, that the words he was inspired to write in the first paragraph, “to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s
God entitle them,” the foundational laws of all human freedoms, would be enshrined in the hearts of a new nation as
the very cornerstones of liberty and freedom for all people.
Happy birthday Thomas Jefferson.
Thank you for your gifts of freedom to America.
