Quote by Thomas Jefferson

Health Freedom

“If people let the government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls who live under tyranny.” — Thomas Jefferson

The quote above is a paraphrase taken from Jefferson’s Notes on Virginia, Query XVII (1781-1785).  The original quote centered around the concept of natural rights as it related to freedom of choice regarding our own bodies and souls.  As long as we do not harm others, we can think and do whatever we please.  This is how the founding fathers defined freedom.  This was originally what was meant by “common law” and “natural law“.   (The original concept of common law has been perverted by a corrupt judiciary under the bar association.)  

However, governments violate our natural rights by creating “political laws”–Have you ever wondered where the word “police” came from?–and these “political laws” have nothing to do with natural rights or the original meaning of common law.  They are all about restraining people against their will, against their natural rights, and there does not have to be an injured party.  Political laws have nothing to do with doing harm.

“Licenses”, for example, were all created out of political laws.  The US Supreme Court has ruled that we all have the natural right to travel, but unfortunately, political laws were created to require a “license to drive”, which can now only be gotten by having a “social security number” (in the US).  It is not mandatory to obtain a social security number, but if you do not have one, you can’t get a driver’s license.  So if you’re traveling safely with an automobile and a “police” officer sees that you don’t have your seat belt on, he may arrest you and take you to jail for not having a seat belt on and for not having a “driver’s license”.  Or if you are caught fishing without a “fishing license”, you could go to jail or be fined.  In either case no harm was done and no one was injured, yet one’s natural rights are violated as well as the rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights.  The social security system was also created by political laws.  In this case the political law regarding licensing and the social security number is US Code, Title 42, Section 666, which was created by members of the Bar Association.

Here is the original quote that Jefferson wrote:

“The error seems not sufficiently eradicated, that the operations of the mind, as well as the acts of the body, are subject to the coercion of the laws.  But our rulers can have authority over such natural rights only as we have submitted to them.  The rights of conscience we never submitted, we could not submit. We are answerable for them to our God.  The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others….Was the government to prescribe to us our medicine and diet, our bodies would be in such keeping as our souls are now.  Thus in France the emetic was once forbidden as a medicine, and the potatoe as an article of food.”

Jefferson’s Notes on Viriginia, Query XVII (1781-1785)

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President

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