By ALEC STUMP

According to the Founding Fathers, our society is at a loss when it comes to the political and moral beliefs of what is right and what is wrong.

Morals: In the HBO Movie mini-series, “John Adams”, the filmmakers portray Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson as immoral people. I don’t believe the founders could have accomplished all they did if they weren’t doing what God wanted them to do. Benjamin Franklin wasn’t being a hypocrite when he said, “Let me add that only a virtuous people are capable of freedom….”.

At age 27, Franklin in his journal, wrote; “I included under thirteen names of virtue all that at that time occurred to me as necessary or desirable, and annexed to each a short precept which fully expressed the extent I gave its meaning.” Number thirteen in Franklins list was chastity, which says; “Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.” According to that statement chastity was an important thing in his life.

George Washington was a virtuous, moral God-fearing man. I’m sure he recognized a good man when he saw one. In his last letter to Benjamin Franklin, he said, “Be assured that so long as I retain my memory, you will be thought on with respect, veneration, and affection by your dear friend.”

Thomas Jefferson Randolph, grandson to Thomas Jefferson said this about him, “There is not a more chaste and pure man.” If we are to believe the accusations about Thomas Jefferson, then we would also have to believe he had is grandson fooled.

An account given by Captain Edmund Bacon, chief overseer of Monticello, says this; “He was like a fine horse;…Mr. Jefferson was an early riser…He did not use Tobacco in any form. He never used a profane word or anything like it. He never played cards.”

So are we to assume that he didn’t do Tobacco or cards, but he did immoral things?

The story of Jefferson & Sally Hemming (his slave) and their alleged affair started during his presidency, with James T. Callender, who was in dispute, though at one point he had been an ally with Jefferson. Callender had asked if Jefferson could appoint him to Postmaster of Richmond, Virginia, warning that if he didn’t there would be consequences. In a newspaper article, Callender wrote that Jefferson for many years “kept, as his concubine, one of his own slaves. Her name is Sally.”

Jefferson never publicly denied any accusation because, as he said, “I am so broken to calumnies of every kind… that I entirely disregard it… It has been so impossible to contradict all their lies that I have determined to contradict none, for while I should engage with one they would publish twenty new ones.”

Debt: Our nations debt is at 15 trillion U.S. dollars and on the rise. There are 313 million people in America; 113 million of them are tax payers. As of April 10, 2012 each taxpayer would have to pay $137,976. Each citizen would pay $49,926. Not only is our country in debt, but individuals also are.

What did the founders say about debt?

Thomas Jefferson said, “The maxim of buying nothing but what we have money in our pockets to pay for… lays the foundation for happiness”

Never buy anything you can’t afford, Really!!

Jefferson also said, “I, however, place economy among the first and most important republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared.”

That quote tells me that he didn’t believe that going in debt would help the economy.

“Agriculture, manufacturers, commerce, and navigation, are the most thriving when left most free to individual enterprises,” Jefferson said.

Welfare / Redistribution of Wealth: Health care falls under redistribution in my opinion. Government is taking tax payer money, and spending it on other’s problems.

Thomas Jefferson said, “I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.”

In my opinion, Government funded health care is legal plunder, and it won’t lead to happiness.

Fredrick Bastiat explains legal plunder in his book, The Law. “When a portion of wealth is transferred from the person who owns it – without his consent and without compensation, and whether by force or by fraud – to anyone who does not own it, then I say that property is violated; that an act of plunder is committed!”

Bastiat goes on to write: “How is the legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime…”

What About The Needy? Former Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson said, “On the surface this may sound heartless and insensitive to the needs of those less fortunate individuals who are found in any society, no matter how affluent. What about the lame, the sick and the destitute? This is an often-voiced question. Most other countries in the world have attempted to use the power of government to meet this need. Yet, in every case, the improvement has been marginal at best and has resulted in the long run creating more misery, more poverty, and certainly less freedom than when government first stepped in.”

Whether it be the morals or political views of the Founding Fathers, what our society says, contradicts what the Founders said. Who are we to trust? Society of today? Or the Founders of the greatest Nation in the world?

Logandale resident Alec Stump is 16 years old and is a student at the Northstar Commonwealth. This is an excerpt of a research paper he wrote with the aim of dissipating the myths of the founders.