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- Thomas Jefferson

Was he right, KMC?

On principle, TJ was right that hidebound adherence to a code of laws simply out of reverence to the past is poor thinking, but why 19 years? That's such an arbitrary length of time.

It had something to do with the mortality rates of the times, iirc. After 19 years the majority of the lawmakers who ratified the laws would be dead and replaced by a new generation of lawmakers.

Yes.

Originally posted by Omega Vision
why 19 years? That's such an arbitrary length of time.
Because...

Originally posted by Tzeentch
It had something to do with the mortality rates of the times, iirc. After 19 years the majority of the lawmakers who ratified the laws would be dead and replaced by a new generation of lawmakers.

Nice to have a clean cut discussion!

That's what amendments are for unless every nineteen years we need a completely new set of laws.

Considering Jefferson was a slave owner though, I don't think his opinion is valid anymore as it is.

The majority of the founding fathers owned slaves.

Re-doing the laws every 19 years sounds like a ton of work to, generally speaking, rubber-stamp most laws.

The Founding Fathers got some important things right, but also had some ideas that really wouldn't work that well- or didn't work that well, in some cases.

The every 19 years thing is pretty ridiculous- what's more interesting to me is that we have a founding father here who pretty explicitly is stating that the Constitution is not set in stone and should be changed to reflect the times, rather than serve as an immutable, stringent authority on US federal policy.

Originally posted by Tzeentch
The every 19 years thing is pretty ridiculous- what's more interesting to me is that we have a founding father here who pretty explicitly is stating that the Constitution is not set in stone and should be changed to reflect the times, rather than serve as an immutable, stringent authority on US federal policy.

Yes, it's not perfect- No one at the time thought it was!- it should be changed-when-needed, Jefferson was just a bit... overly enthusiastic with how much and how often.

Originally posted by Q99
...Jefferson was just a bit... overly enthusiastic with how much and how often.
Sally Hemmings can attest!

It does make sense though. He lived through a time of revolution and such things bring to mind the inevitability of change.

19 years is about the time for a new generation to come to maturity as well. He might have been thinking that change must reflect this.

Edit...

Originally posted by Stealth Moose
It does make sense though. He lived through a time of revolution and such things bring to mind the inevitability of change.

19 years is about the time for a new generation to come to maturity as well. He might have been thinking that change must reflect this.
As opposed to 18 or 20 years.

I got an idea, lets write a new one every year for all the nut jobs.

Originally posted by Omega Vision
As opposed to 18 or 20 years.

Easy, 18 is too early and 20 too late.
























Time travel kangbiscuits

Originally posted by Omega Vision
As opposed to 18 or 20 years.

Originally posted by Bentley
Easy, 18 is too early and 20 is too late

Like the Stinson 3 day rule.

Originally posted by Tzeentch
The every 19 years thing is pretty ridiculous- what's more interesting to me is that we have a founding father here who pretty explicitly is stating that the Constitution is not set in stone and should be changed to reflect the times, rather than serve as an immutable, stringent authority on US federal policy.


Yeah. The only ones that should be allowed to have immutable , stringent authority should be the US Federal Gubmin...


FUHH THE PEOPLE

Arbitrary numbers aside, the fact that the founding fathers created a living constitution shows (IMO) great foresight.
In helping bring about great change, they knew that the Country would need to KEEP changing to grow and survive.

Originally posted by Tzeentch
The majority of the founding fathers owned slaves.

Which is the problem, because they preached this "all men are created equal" dribble.

If the Founding Fathers were suddenly resurrected and shown the America of today they would quite literally freak the f*ck out and lose their shit. They would *hate* it.

Nah, that last is pure supposition on your part.

I give them credit for knowing their way of life would evolve, and the constitution'd need to do the same, or become useless. Could they have forseen how? Who knows. In my supposition, i think they'd be impressed.

Originally posted by riv6672
Nah, that last is pure supposition on your part.

I give them credit for knowing their way of life would evolve, and the constitution'd need to do the same, or become useless. Could they have forseen how? Who knows. In my supposition, i think they'd be impressed.

I think some things would impress them and other things would horrify them. Certainly the advances we have made in technology and medicine would impress them a lot.

It is funny though, some people in the 1800's thought that everything that ever could be invented already had been invented.

Ha, yeah, when actually NOW everything's been done!

Seriously though, i could see some social changes being hard for people from that time to accept. If i woke up in 300 years and people were marrying robots, i'd be a little weirded out. At first.