Thomas Jefferson Quotes
Still less let it be proposed that our properties within our own territories shall be taxed or regulated by any power on earth but our own.
Jefferson, Thomas. A Summary View of the Rights of British America. Clementina Rind, 1774, p. 11.
Justifying selling part of the reservation as a waste dump to the distress of neighbors:
We didn’t exactly pay for the rights to build the Canal but we did pay for the construction. See linked quote for a quotation regarding the acquisition of the Canal Zone. It became a heated internal American debate where the right wing did not want to turn the canal over to Panama claiming that the Panamanians could not operate the canal properly and the Chinese would obtain control. Ford started the process and Jimmy Carter signed the agreement.
He was a poor governor in general and was fired and replaced by the Dutch East India Company which was a happy occurrence for the colonists. The company was a money making institution and depended on colonists who would farm, trade and manufacture. If they were unhappy, the company would not profit. They would not have minded a tyrant if he could produce profits as some did in the Dutch East Indies, but Kieft was a loser on all counts.
3rd Viscount Palmerston. Lajos Kossuth was the Hungarian leader of anti-monarchists who were agitating for a Parliament. While many English people sympathized with Kossuth, his government, which had good relations with England, did not want any of the other European Governments to officially meet with him. It was considered insulting to a government if a friendly government met officially with a politician who was not approved by his own government. Palmerston, as Temple was referred to, wanted to show English sympathy with the reforms advocated by Kossuth. He was then the Foreign Minister and wanted to invite Kossuth to the Foreign Ministry. However the Cabinet had a meeting and voted against the idea which would not only inflame the Hungarian government, but would outrage all the other countries in Europe for this diplomatic insult. Palmerston then decided that he would meet with Kossuth in his private residence. When the Prime Minister discovered this plan, he sent a note by messenger telling Palmerston that he was the Foreign Minister and inviting Kossuth to his home could not be seen as an official action. Palmerston has his own political base and had enough supporters in Parliament that if he would be fired, he could bring down the coalition government. So in effect he told his Prime Minister off and dared Russell to fire Palmerston. Then he went ahead with the meeting. The cabinet was upset, Queen Victoria was outraged (she never cared for Palmerson as a Foreign Minister), the Newspapers had a field day, and all the European counties complained vehemently to the Queen and the Prime Minister. But Russell didn’t dare fire Palmerston at that point. However, with Queen Victoria’s shrewd political maneuvering and Russell coalescing support, he was able to demote Palmerson to Home Secretary and assume the Foreign Ministry himself in 1952. However, Palmerston had the final winning hand, when 3 years later, he was elected Prime Minister and he and the Queen had to make a rapprochement.
Thomas Jefferson was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He had previously served as the second vice president of the United States under John Adams between 1797 and 1801. The principal author of the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson was a proponent of democracy, republicanism, and individual rights, motivating American colonists to break from the Kingdom of Great Britain and form a new nation; he produced formative documents and decisions at both the state and national levels.
