It is time enough, for the rightful purposes of civil government, for its officers to interfere [in the propagation of religious teachings] when principles break out into overt acts against peace and good order.
Thomas JeffersonMy general plan would be to make the States one as to everything connected with foreign nations and several as to everything purely domestic.
Thomas JeffersonSome other natural rights... [have] not yet entered into any declaration of rights.
Thomas Jefferson"It astonishes me to find... [that so many] of our countrymen... should be contented to live under a system which leaves to their governors the power of taking from them the trial by jury in civil cases, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of commerce, the habeas corpus laws, and of yoking them with a standing army. This is a degeneracy in the principles of liberty... which I [would not have expected for at least] four centuries."
Thomas Jefferson