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The Jeffersonian cyclopedia;

a comprehensive collection of the views of Thomas Jefferson classified and arranged in alphabetical order under nine thousand titles relating to government, politics, law, education, political economy, finance, science, art, literature, religious freedom, morals, etc.;
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

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1718. CONSTITUTION (French), Necessity for.—

Nor should we wonder at the
pressure, [for a fixed constitution] when we
consider the monstrous abuses of power under
which * * * the [French] people were
ground to powder; when we pass in review the
weight of their taxes, and the inequality of
their distribution; the oppressions of the tithes,
the tailles, the corvées, the gabelles, the farms
and barriers; the shackles on commerce by monopolies;
on industry by guilds and corporations;
on the freedom of conscience, of thought, and
of speech; on the freedom of the press by the
Censure; and of the person by Lettres de
Cachet;
the cruelty of the Criminal code generally;
the atrocities of the Rack; the venality
of the judges, and their partialities to the rich;
the monopoly of Military honors by the Noblesse;
the enormous expenses of the Queen,
the Princes and the Court; the prodigalities
of pensions; and the riches, luxury, indolence
and immorality of the Clergy. Surely under
such a mass of misrule and oppression, a people
might justly press for a thorough reformation,
and might even dismount their roughshod
riders, and leave them to walk on their
own legs.—
Autobiography. Washington ed. i, 86. Ford ed., i, 118.
(1821)