"I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.
– Thomas Jefferson"
Apparently I have more in common with Jefferson than I thought (Re my numerous comments in the past regarding the danger of consumer credit).
"When a government is dependent upon bankers for money, they and not the leaders of the government control the situation, since the hand that gives is above the hand that takes. Money has no motherland; financiers are without patriotism and without decency; their sole object is gain." - Napolean Bonaparte
"I sincerely believe with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; & that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale" - Thomas Jefferson
"I have two great enemies, the southern army in front of me and the financial institutions in the rear. Of the two, the one in the rear is the greatest enemy" - Abraham Lincoln
“If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them (around the banks), will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”
~ Someone, supposedly Thomas Jefferson
Edit: ~ "Thomas Jefferson" changed to "~ Someone, supposedly Thomas Jefferson"
"I sincerely believe... that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity under the name of funding is but swindling futurity on a large scale." --Thomas Jefferson, 1816.
I'll ask you to cite a sources for these quotes; neither sounds at all like Jefferson's writing style - especially the latter one - and the vocabulary seems to indicate a much more recent origin. (The term "corporation" wouldn't have been used in quite its modern sense during his lifetime.)
There is a similar quote by Jefferson that speaks about banking establishments being more dangerous than standing armies, but the term "establishment" there isn't a synonym for "institution" - think about what "establishment" meant with respect to religion in his era - and the position that I interpret here was one that could be described as somewhat aligned with his position on religion: that there ought to be a sort of "wall of separation" between the financial economy and the state in parallel to the wall between church and state. In other words, Jefferson is arguing against the politicization of banking, not banks themselves, which seems a strongly free-market position, and somewhat contrary to what you appear to imply.
"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered." - Thomas Jefferson
I've found the exact quote for the first one. It wasn't exact, but close enough. It was in a personal letter from Jefferson to William Giles in 1825:
> a vast accession of strength from their younger recruits, who, having nothing in them of the feelings or principles of '76, now look to a single and splendid government of an aristocracy, founded on banking institutions, and monied incorporations under the guise and cloak of their favored branches of manufactures, commerce and navigation, riding and ruling over the plundered ploughman and beggared yeomanry.
As for the second quote, monticello.org claims that that wording is a retroquote first published in some 1937 Congressional documents and that the actual quote is:
> And I sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.
"Gentlemen! I too have been a close observer of the doings of the Bank of the United States. I have had men watching you for a long time, and am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country. When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the bank. You tell me that if I take the deposits from the bank and annul its charter I shall ruin ten thousand families. That may be true, gentlemen, but that is your sin! Should I let you go on, you will ruin fifty thousand families, and that would be my sin! You are a den of vipers and thieves. I have determined to rout you out, and by the Eternal, (bringing his fist down on the table) I will rout you out!"
"I hope we shall take warning from the example and crush in it’s birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength, and to bid defiance to the laws of their country"
-- Thomas Jefferson (12 November 1816)
"All the perplexities, confusion and distresses in America arise not from defects in
the constitution or confederation, nor from want of honor or virtue, as much from downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit, and circulation."
Yes, you're right. I meant to paraphrase Thomas Jefferson: “When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty.” And indeed democracy isn't liberty, it's just the least bad attempt to achieve a bunch of laudable goals.
"If I had a nickel for every stupid leftist quote falsely attributed to Thomas Jefferson on the internet, I'd never have to work again." -- Thomas Jefferson
> I do not believe that in the four administrations which have taken place, there has been a single instance of departure from good faith towards other nations. we may sometimes have mistaken our rights, or made an erroneous estimate of the actions of others, but no voluntary wrong can be imputed to us. in this respect England exhibits the most remarkable phaenomenon in the universe in the contrast between the profligacy of it’s government and the probity of it’s citizens. and accordingly it is now exhibiting an example of the truth of the maxim that virtue & interest are inseparable. it ends, as might have been expected, in the ruin of it’s people. but this ruin will fall heaviest, as it ought to fall, on that hereditary aristocracy which has for generations been preparing the catastrophe. I hope we shall take warning from the example and crush in it’s birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength, and to bid defiance to the laws of their country.
--Thomas Jefferson, 1812 [1]
When private power eclipses democratic power, you cease to have a democracy. You have a dominant aristocracy/oligopoly, which is not functionally different for 99% of the populace than a monarchy. Extremely large corporations are filled to the brim with powerful but incompetent people who got there through connections and political warfare instead of merit.
A corporation should be allowed to grow until the point where they own enough of the government to make their own rules and avoid paying taxes like the rest of us. As soon as they do that, they should be split across state lines so there is more democratic control over their behavior, and they are small enough to audit and tax accordingly.
Apparently I have more in common with Jefferson than I thought (Re my numerous comments in the past regarding the danger of consumer credit).
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