Nine Principles -- Twelve Values

c. 2018 John N. Jeffries
Sep 25, 2018
3 min read

The Nine Principles

1. America Is Basically Good. I have a part to play in its goodness by how I live.

2. I believe in God and He is the Center of my Life. Anyone or anything that I demonstrate comes before God has de facto BECOME my god.

God: “The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained.” ~~ from George Washington’s first Inaugural address.

3. I must always try to be a more honest person than I was yesterday. If I have been at all dishonest, I must move at once to admit it and correct it.

Honesty: “I hope that I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider to be the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.” ~~ George Washington

4. The family is sacred. My wife and I are the ultimate authority second only to God, not the government.

Marriage/Family: “It is in the love of one’s family only that heartfelt happiness is known. By a law of our nature, we cannot be happy without the endearing connections of a family.” ~~ Thomas Jefferson

5. If you break the law you pay the penalty. Justice is blind and no one is above it.

Justice: “I deem one of the essential principles of our government… equal and exact justice to all men of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political.” ~~ Thomas Jefferson

6. I have a right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, but there is no guarantee of equal results. Socialism and communism claim the “right” of equal results, yet in practice they lie.

Life, Liberty, & The Pursuit of Happiness: “Everyone has a natural right to choose that vocation in life which he thinks most likely to give him comfortable subsistence.” Thomas Jefferson

7. I work hard for what I have and I will share it with whom I want. I give out of love and as a human example of God, who loved so much that He gave that which is most precious to Him. Government cannot force me to be charitable and has no right to be generous with my “stuff.”

Charity: “It is not everyone who asketh that deserveth charity; all however, are worth of the inquiry or the deserving may suffer.” ~~ George Washington

8. It is not un-American for me to disagree with authority or to share my personal opinion. If I choose of necessity any form of civil disobedience, I accept the responsibility for the consequences.

On your right to disagree: “In a free and republican government, you cannot restrain the voice of the multitude; every man will speak as he thinks, or more properly without thinking.” ~~ George Washington

9. The government works for me. I do not answer to them, they answer to me.

Who works for whom?: “I consider the people who constitute a society or a nation as the source of all authority in that nation.” ~~~ Thomas Jefferson

The Twelve Values

These are values I cherish in others and strive to exemplify in my own life: