WASHINGTON, DC – Sitting in Paris as the United States’s first ambassador to France, Thomas Jefferson reflected on how the new US government could avoid the errors of European “despots” who kept their people subjugated through war and debt. Writing to James Madison, he observed that the US Constitution had at least checked “the Dog of war,” by transferring “the power of letting him loose from the Executive to the Legislative body, from those who are to spend to those who are to pay.”
华盛顿—美国第一任驻法国大使托马斯·杰斐逊坐在巴黎，沉思美国新政府如何避免欧洲“专制暴君”的覆辙。专制暴君通过战争和债务让人民屈从。在给詹姆斯·麦迪逊的信中，他观察道，美国宪法至少通过“将斥责的权力从执政者转交给立法机构，从花钱者转交给付钱者”抑制了“战争之祸”。