This is an I-Heart podcast.

On this episode of News World, the lives of these men are essential to understand the American

form of government and our ideals of liberty. The founding fathers all played key roles

in securing American independence

from Great Britain and in the creation of the government of the United States of America.

And now the life of Thomas Jefferson.

Thank you. I would argue that in many ways Jefferson personified the spirit of freedom and had developed out of it something much more profound than most of his colleagues as founding fathers.

He deeply distrusted all governments.

He didn't just deeply distrust the British government.

He deeply distrusted the American government.

And as a result, while he was the ambassador in Paris as the American Constitution was being developed, he wrote his very, very close friend James Madison, and said that he would oppose the adoption of the Constitution unless they added a Bill of Rights.

And the whole fabric of American life has revolved around these ten amendments that came to define our rights.

And remember, this is always one of the most difficult things to get across

because it's counterintuitive. The Bill of Rights are designed to limit government, not to

limit people. The Bill of Rights came out of a belief that, in fact, virtue resides in the people,

but the government was always dangerous. Now, Jefferson at the time was the ambassador to France as the French monarchy was collapsing

and as they were inexorably moving towards the French Revolution, which is a classic case study

of a system that can't control itself.

The American Revolution was a fight over who would government of a system that can't control itself.

The American Revolution was a fight over who would govern in America.

And it was between basically Americans who saw themselves as successful, independent, standing

on their own achievement, and Americans who still were comfortable operating

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