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THE JEFFERSON AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION
> Mr. Coates, do you know of a document or documents that explains in a
> straight forward fashion what amendments, case law decisions, etc. that
> changes that which Jeffersons Constitution intended. I am sure in-depth
> research indicates this, however is there a simplified way to get this type
> information of which I could use in newspaper articles and talks. I feel
> this to be our country's main problem. Am I on track? Thanks, Bob Lacy.
>
I'm not quite sure what exactly you are looking for, but let me explain:
Jefferson made three drafts for the Virginia State Constitution. These
were not implemented, because received too late; but they did have some
influence on the State Constitution that was adopted in 1776. If you
were interested in looking at one of these drafts of the Va. Constitution
that Jefferson made, it is online at the following gopher site:
Public Papers of Thomas Jefferson (gopher)
gopher://gopher.vt.edu:10010/02/106/7
When our federal Constitution was adopted, Jefferson was in Paris. He was
quite disturbed that the new federal Constitution had no Bill of Rights,
and pushed for such a bill, which resulted in the first 10 amendments to
the Federal Constitution. There were a couple of amendments that he
suggested which were not immediately implemented, one of which being the
limitation on the Presidential term of office, which was not implemented
until 1951 or so.
In addition to those amendments, Jefferson over a long period of time
wrote of certain areas where our Constitution was deficient, especially,
as I recall, with respect to the Supreme Court and the financing of the
National Debt. Therefore, it would be possible to go through his
writings and identify a short list of topics which Jefferson wrote about
which could and *should* become amendments to the U.S. Constitution. I
am not aware of anyone having gone through Jefferson's writings and made
such a list, but I had some time ago put the subject, "The Jefferson
Amendments," on my list of topics "to do," with the intention of covering
those topics that Jefferson wrote about that could result in an amendment
to the Constitution.
I suspect that it is this last topic that you are really interested in.
It would certainly be highly useful for the purposes you outline. Are
you on the right track? ABSOLUTELY! It is a terrific topic, and would
be a great guide to us today for getting our government back to its
fundamental vision.