When Revolution is the Only Answer A single good government becomes... a blessing to the whole earth, its welcome to the oppressed restraining within certain limits the measure of their oppressions. But should even this be counteracted by violence on the right of expatriation, the other branch of our example then presents itself for imitation: to rise on their rulers and do as we have done. --Thomas Jefferson to George Flower, 1817. ME 15:141 We surely cannot deny to any nation that right whereon our own government is founded, that every one may govern itself according to whatever form it pleases and change these forms at its own will... The will of the nation is the only thing essential to be regarded. --Thomas Jefferson to Gouverneur Morris, 1792. ME 9:36 Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established, should not be changed for light and transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience [has] shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce [the people] under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. --Thomas Jefferson: Declaration of Independence, 1776. ME 1:29, Papers 1:429 Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of a day; but a series of oppressions, begun at a distinguished period and pursued unalterably through every change of ministers, too plainly prove a deliberate, systematic plan of reducing [a people] to slavery. --Thomas Jefferson: Rights of British America, 1774. (*) ME 1:193, Papers 1:125 When patience has begotten false estimates of its motives, when wrongs are pressed because it is believed they will be borne, resistance becomes morality. --Thomas Jefferson to M. deStael, 1807. ME 11:282 Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God. --Thomas Jefferson: his motto. If ever there was a holy war, it was that which saved our liberties and gave us independence. --Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 1813. ME 13:430 The oppressed should rebel, and they will continue to rebel and raise disturbance until their civil rights are fully restored to them and all partial distinctions, exclusions and incapacitations are removed. --Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Religion, 1776. Papers 1:548 As revolutionary instruments (when nothing but revolution will cure the evils of the State) [secret societies] are necessary and indispensable, and the right to use them is inalienable by the people. --Thomas Jefferson to William Duane, 1803. FE 8:256 If the appeal to arms is made, it will depend entirely on the disposition of the army whether it issue in liberty or despotism. --Thomas Jefferson to Edward Rutledge, 1788. War... is not the most favorable moment for divesting the monarchy of power. On the contrary, it is the moment when the energy of a single hand shows itself in the most seducing form. --Thomas Jefferson to Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, 1788. ME 7:115
Posted on: Sat, 25 Oct 2014 11:05:00 +0000
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