> My uncle and I like to discuss American history.  Though neither of us are
> highly educated we are not buffoons.  In our discussions of the intent of the
> framers in writing our Constitution I have heard him quote Jefferson as
> saying something along the lines that judges and politicians and the people
> should not be trusted unquestioningly but should be bound by the chains of
> the Constitution.  I don't question the validity of my uncle's statement but
> wonder what exactly did Jefferson say?  I thank you for your wonderful site
> and will continue to visit as my time permits.

It sounds like your uncle is right on the mark.  Jefferson wrote:

"It would be a dangerous delusion were a confidence in the men of our choice
to silence our fears for the safety of our rights... Confidence is
everywhere the parent of despotism. Free government is founded in jealousy,
and not in confidence. It is jealousy and not confidence which prescribes
limited constitutions, to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with
power... Our Constitution has accordingly fixed the limits to which, and no
further, our confidence may go... In questions of power, then, let no more
be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains
of the Constitution." --Thomas Jefferson: Draft Kentucky Resolutions, 1798.
ME 17:388

What Jefferson is saying here is, we should not look for persons that we can
"trust" to run the government and then just forget about it, leaving things
in their hands.  NO man (or woman) should be given power with such
confidence.  As Jefferson wrote in another place:

"We, I hope, shall adhere to our republican government and keep it to its
original principles by narrowly watching it." --Thomas Jefferson to ------,
March 18, 1793. ME 9:45

You should not be concened about not being "highly educated."  By using
common sense and letting Thomas Jefferson be your guide, you can easily gain
insight into the principles of right government that so-called "experts" are
often not able to see, being blinded by their own intellectual
constructions.  While Jefferson did not trust the people to do things for
which they were not competent (such as running the government), he DID trust
their moral judgment  when properly enlightened.  He wrote:

"Independence can be trusted nowhere but with the people in mass. They are
inherently independent of all but moral law." --Thomas Jefferson to Spencer
Roane, 1819.

That is the strength of our form of government:  It relies ultimately on the
oversight of ordinary citizens like ourselves.  The citizens of
authoritarian governments are always looking for a leader whom they can
trust to run the government correctly, and they end up with a Hitler, a
Mussolini, a Stalin, a Mao, etc.  In America, we get the best man we can
that is available to us, tie him down with the "chains of the Constitution,"
and then watch him carefully.