While debt may seem as American as baseball and barbecue, the Founders of our nation constantly warned us against its charms. Unlike us, they saw it as an extreme hazard only to be used in times of crisis, and then to be repaid as quickly as possible.
Consider a few quotes from our most famous Founding Fathers on the issue of the national debt.
The National Debt: Warnings from the Founding Fathers
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to Samuel Kercheval, said, “To preserve [the people’s] independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.”[1]
Here, he ties the freedom of the people to the level of debt of their government. Keep this in mind when the subject of the Bible and debt come up later in this article.
Alexander Hamilton
In a report while secretary of the treasury, Alexander Hamilton (see picture) discussed his dislike for debt by saying [2],
Nothing can more interest the national credit and prosperity, than a constant and systematic attention to…extinguishing the present debt, and to avoid, as much as possible, the incurring of any new debt.
Hamilton saw large debts as corrosive to both the credit worthiness of the nation and its welfare.
John Adams
John Adams, the second president of the United States, had this to offer regarding the nation and debt [3]:
The consequences arising from the continual accumulation of public debts in other countries ought to admonish us to be careful to prevent their growth in our own. The national defense must be provided for as well as the support of Government.
But both should be accomplished as much as possible by immediate taxes, and as little as possible by loans.
To Adams, all spending programs, even that of national defense, should rely on the government’s income, that is, its tax revenue, not on its ability to borrow.
George Washington
To top off the conviction of our Founding Fathers on the subject of debt, consider an excerpt from George Washington's final address to the nation [4]:
As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public credit.
One method of preserving it is to use it as sparingly as possible, avoiding occasions of expense by cultivating peace, but remembering also that timely disbursements to prepare for danger frequently prevent much greater disbursements to repel it.
Avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions of expense, but by vigorous exertions in time of peace to discharge the debts which unavoidable wars may have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burden which we ourselves ought to bear.
Washington viewed low debt levels as a source of strength and security. To prevent significant borrowing, he recommended the nation stay out of wars, limit spending, and aggressively pay off debts once they were accumulated.
It seems we have refused his wisdom on all counts. The image below shows the growth of U.S. debt from 1990 to 2024. During that period, it expanded almost 1200% (that's twelve times over), from around $3 trillion to $35 trillion.
The national debt from 1990 ($3 trillion) to 2024 ($35 trillion), a 1166% increase. Source: St. Louis Federal Reserve Economic Data.
God Himself
The Founding Fathers were not the only ones who warned us of debt. God himself, in Proverbs 22:7, said, “The borrower is servant to the lender,” and in Romans 13:8, advised, “Owe no one anything except to love one another.”
The Law of Debt, as I will call it, that Proverbs 22:7 outlines is a universal truth in human life: If you do not manage your debts, you will eventually become the slave of the party or parties from which you borrowed. The debt will begin to rule your life and, if you are not careful, ruin it.
(For more on the national debt, and other economic issues facing the nation, see my book Collapse below.)
The End of All This Debt
Where is all of this going, and how will it end? In spite of warnings from the Founding Fathers and Almighty God about the national debt, we do not seem to see the danger.
It seems America is somehow in a debt trance. Our debt grows larger and larger with every passing year, but we cannot seem to grasp where all of this is headed.
We keep finding new things to borrow for every day. The slavery to this debt is coming, and, in fact, is already here, but we are completely blind to it.
I am reminded of the old question: How do you cook a frog? You don’t drop him in a boiling pot, they say. You put him in lukewarm water and slowly turn up the heat. Because of the gradual change, he doesn’t even realize he’s being cooked.
America is a lot like that where debt is concerned. The water all around us is scalding to the touch, while we sit snuggly in our spot, wide grins on our faces.
The difference between us and the frog, however, is that there isn’t some third party turning up the heat on us. No enemy or foreign government is boiling us alive. We are doing it to ourselves.
Instead of someone else reaching over to ratchet up the temperature, we reach over ourselves, the boiling water bubbling around us, to edge the burner up a little farther.
And every time we approve another stimulus or another bailout or another free-whatever-program, we bring ourselves one step closer to burning alive.
OTHER RESOURCES:
*Please use these in your preaching and teaching ministry.
This article is from Collapse: What every Christian should know about socialism, capitalism, and the future of American prosperity, by Wes Moore, 2016. Amazon.
NOTES:
[1] “Extract from Thomas Jefferson to ‘Henry Tompkinson’ (Samuel Kercheval).” The Jefferson Monticello. http://tjrs.monticello.org/letter/1383.
[2] “Fact No. 1, [11 September 1792].” National Archives. https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-12-02-0274.
[3] “First Annual Message of John Adams.” Yale University. https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/adamsme1.asp.
[4] “Washington’s Farewell Address to the People of the United States.” Senate.gov. https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/pdf/Washingtons_Farewell_Address.pdf.