Thomas Jefferson Quotes
There is not a single crowned head in Europe whose talents or merits would entitle him to be elected a vestryman by the people of any parish in America.
Thomas Jefferson, 1743-1826, 3rd President of the United States (Democratic Republican, VA), Letter from Paris to George Washington, May 2, 1788
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
As soon as the king dies, his successor is immediately vested in the rights, duties, and prerogatives of the king.
The Monarchy was chosen and Darius was monarch. See {612225}
This was his version of the governing body of a republican commonwealth. His assumption was that the ablest men would be the nobility, the educated and religious (Catholic) elite.
The George W. Bush administration, violated the Civil Service Law and the traditions of the Justice Department by making hiring and assignment decisions on the basis of political ideology and participation. Making the situation worse, the political people who were put in senior positions of authority were often not very well qualified and far less so than the people they ended up supervising and outranking. The inspector general of the Justice Department, after being stonewalled, finally uncovered the mess and Monica Goodling, one of the worst offenders, was barred from ever working for the Justice Department again.
Henry, who most people remember for his 5 wives, was actually a very learned man, who wrote prose, poetry and music. He actually brought non-English learned men to his court if they had intellectual or cultural views. In addition, he was an excellent athlete and brought active sports to England.
Not all kings were uncaring aristocrats and a few were excellent, compassionate, rulers. Most were not however.
While business generally pays much more than Federal service, there are many brilliant people in the government who are not primarily motivated by making the most possible money. NIST for example had two Nobel Prize winners, and several others have served in the National Institutes of Health. Some of the best economists have worked for the government, and the military is full of outstanding men and women of intellect. But generally, with its higher salaries, the private sector has the recruiting advantage though not to the degree Regan implied.
Note the similarity to Lincoln who Ataturk very much admired.
This Pinkney view prevailed in the original Constitution, but this practice was reversed by the 17th Amendment of 1913. The source for this statement is the notes of Alexander Hamilton.
Many of the early democracies had failed when in crises the citizens turned to a strong leader who soon became a monarch. The early democracies did not have the mature democratic institutions that we now know are so important for the success of a democracy.
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.
