#1283 The General Welfare

Listening to America

Society & Culture, History

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 24 April 2018

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

"I would never consider [the Constitution] to be a sacred text."

— Thomas Jefferson, as portrayed by Clay S. Jenkinson

We present President Thomas Jefferson with a listener question about what the phrase "promote the general welfare," found in the Constitution, actually means.

We answer letters from Richard Tucker and Rich Nieves.

Find this episode, along with recommended reading, on the blog.

Learn about Clay's upcoming cultural tours and humanities retreats by visiting Odyssey Tours.

Support the show by joining the 1776 Club or by donating to the Thomas Jefferson Hour, Inc.

Thomas Jefferson is interpreted by Clay S. Jenkinson.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Good day. Thomas Jefferson Hour podcast listeners and welcome. So good to have you here. Thank you for listening.
0:08.0	That's good to see you my friend and this program was about the Constitution.
0:13.2	Because of a letter we got from the general welfare letter.
0:15.8	Richard Tucker and he wrote in quite a long letter.
0:19.6	He had a couple of questions.
0:20.6	Mostly I think he was trying to understand what the Constitution meant
0:25.1	when it referred to promote the general welfare. Well I think that this is
0:30.3	basically a utilitarian concept, the greatest good for the greatest number.
0:34.3	The country doesn't exist for the few.
0:36.4	It exists for everyone if possible, but certainly we need to provide, if we can,
0:42.4	collectively for the happiness and the welfare of as many
0:46.9	American people as possible that doesn't mean a welfare program it means for the
0:52.2	well-being of the maximum number of people.
0:55.6	We go through his letter and hit many of the points on it.
0:59.7	I did get fairly severely admonished by President Jefferson at one point.
1:04.4	About what? Well, what's the harshest criticism he can give you? Sir, I don't think you read enough.
1:10.3	That could be true of any of us.
1:14.0	But I think he was saying that history teaches us what bad government has been.
1:18.0	And he wanted me to read...
1:19.0	Tacitus and Livy.
1:21.0	Livy. Yeah.
1:22.0	So come back when you've read them, right?
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Listening to America, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Listening to America and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.