Dear Folks,
Thomas Jefferson more or less wrote the Declaration of Independence and James Madison wrote most of the Constitution. They were, what we would call today, pen pals - I could only imagine what they would have done with e-mail.
Jefferson was in Paris, and in a letter to Madison, dated September 6, 1789, he wrote "...no society can make a perpetual constitution, or even a perpetual law. The earth belongs always to the living generation... Every constitution, then, and every law, naturally expires at the end of 19 years. If it be enforced longer, it is an act of force and not of right."
In this lengthy letter Jefferson tells Madison how he arrived at 19 years.
Perhaps, we should have had or have a constitutional convention every 19 or 20 years as Jefferson suggested. If this were so, the supreme court would not have to stretch its imagination as far as it does.
Any comments on a Jeffersonian constitution?
Thomas Jefferson more or less wrote the Declaration of Independence and James Madison wrote most of the Constitution. They were, what we would call today, pen pals - I could only imagine what they would have done with e-mail.
Jefferson was in Paris, and in a letter to Madison, dated September 6, 1789, he wrote "...no society can make a perpetual constitution, or even a perpetual law. The earth belongs always to the living generation... Every constitution, then, and every law, naturally expires at the end of 19 years. If it be enforced longer, it is an act of force and not of right."
In this lengthy letter Jefferson tells Madison how he arrived at 19 years.
Perhaps, we should have had or have a constitutional convention every 19 or 20 years as Jefferson suggested. If this were so, the supreme court would not have to stretch its imagination as far as it does.
Any comments on a Jeffersonian constitution?