Every president in modern times has said something memorable. In matters sometimes momentous, sometimes mundane.
Ronald Reagan, probably the most persuasive president of the 20th century, determinedly demanded in a divided Berlin, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” Franklin Roosevelt calmed the country in the depths of the Great Depression by insisting in his first inaugural address, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
John F. Kennedy set the inspirational tone of his short-lived leadership when he implored Americans during his inaugural address, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” It’s not certain that Harry Truman ever actually uttered his four most famous words formally, but the sign on his desk was one to remember: “The buck stops here.”
Of course other presidents have produced unforgettable quotes about their personal misbehavior, which they wished we could forget. Bill Clinton’s emphatic if evasive assertion at a news conference, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.” And, never to be forgotten, Richard Nixon’s simple if dishonest declaration, “I am not a crook.”
George W. Bush might have wished he could retract his confident claim under that infamous “Mission Accomplished” banner that “Major combat operations in Iraq have ended,” which he proclaimed in May, 2003, when combat ops were anything but ended. His father had his own unforgettable oath that he wished he could take back, from his acceptance speech after being nominated for president: “Read my lips: no new taxes.”
I bring all this up because none of these quotes, meaningful as they are, holds a candle to the words of our third president, Thomas Jefferson. It’s not something he said — beyond the Gettysburg Address, relatively few presidential speeches have stood the test of time— but something he wrote, a letter to a fellow Virginian in 1816. When you read Jefferson’s words, apply his wisdom to the body politic today, and to the seemingly insurmountable acrimony over the implications and intent of the Constitution. Think everything from federal sovereignty (the wildlife refuge in Oregon) to natural born citizens (Ted Cruz) to guns (everywhere).
Jefferson wrote: “Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment. I knew that age well; I belonged to it, and labored with it. It deserved well of its country.”
You can see Jefferson’s quill pen beginning to drip with disenchantment.
“I am certainly not an advocate for frequent and untried changes in laws and constitutions. I think moderate imperfections had better be borne with; because, when once known, we accommodate ourselves to them, and find practical means of correcting their ill effects.”
Although a “strict constructionist,” Jefferson got it right. The trouble today is, some imperfections are far from moderate. Which he seemed to see coming.
“Laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed, and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy, as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.”
In this era when we clash over the connotation of certain clauses in the Constitution, we might well benefit from the views of the man who wrote its precursor, the Declaration of Independence. Two hundred years ago, he saw what some of us can’t see today: that our world would change, and our Constitution must breathe enough to accommodate it.
Greg Dobbs of Evergreen was a correspondent for ABC News for 23 years, then for HDNet television’s “World Report.”
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