Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door AnarchoChristophe
Het was 19 jaar i.p.v. 9 jaar, een foutje van mij.
Brief aan Samuel Kercheval, 12 Juli 1810
"I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors."
Brief aan James Madison, 6 september 1789
"The question Whether one generation of men has a right to bind another, seems never to have been started either on this or our side of the water. Yet it is a question of such consequences as not only to merit decision, but place also, among the fundamental principles of every government. The course of reflection in which we are immersed here on the elementary principles of society has presented this question to my mind; and that no such obligation can be transmitted I think very capable of proof. I set out on this ground which I suppose to be self evident, "that the earth belongs in usufruct to the living;" that the dead have neither powers nor rights over it."
verder in diezelfde brief
"This could preserve that being till it ceased to be itself, and no longer. 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.--It may be said that the succeeding generation exercising in fact the power of repeal, this leaves them as free as if the constitution or law has been expressly limited to 19 years only."
(Hij legt overigens uit waarom precies 19 jaar, maar die uitleg is nogal lang en ingewikkeld, vind ik. Maar je vind zo een hoop exemplaren als je de brief googled, dan kan je het zelf eens lezen als het je interesseert.)
Een quote waarvan men zegt dat ie van Jefferson is (hoewel ik hem nog niet in een tekst ben tegenkomen of dergelijke): Every generation needs a new revolution.
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