Thomas JeffersonThomas Jefferson, (1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President

Thomas Jefferson Quote

“I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive. It places the governors indeed more at their ease at the expense of the people. The late rebellion in Massachusetts has given much more alarm than I think it should have done. Calculate that one rebellion in thirteen States in the course of eleven years is but one for each State in a century and a half. No country should be so long without one. Nor will any degree of power in the hands of the government prevent insurrections. In England, where the hand of power is heavier than with us, there are seldom half a dozen years without an insurrection. In France, where it is still heavier but less despotic, as Montesquieu supposes, than in some other countries and where there are always two or three hundred thousand men ready to crush insurrections, there have been three in the course of the three years I have been here, in every one of which greater numbers were engaged than in Massachusetts.”

Thomas JeffersonThomas Jefferson
~ Thomas Jefferson

Letter to James Madison, Paris, December 20, 1787. The Political Writings Of Thomas Jefferson 67-68 (Dumbauld Ed. 1955)

Ratings and Comments


Carol Dorrough, Estero, Florida

It's time, the tail has been wagging the dog for too long. Where is a real leader, a Senate and a Congress who remember We The People are supposed to be their raison d'etre and not We The Fat Cat Government. Or are we all too hypnotized to save ourselves?

jim k, Austin, Tx

The first two sentences of this quote are very telling. Just look at Washington today for proof.

Mike, Norwalk

The energetic statist theocracy now infesting this land has reinvented itself to be carnal god overlords over unimportant chattel. The once free individual sovereigns united now only lives in the hearts of a few.

Ronw13, Oregon

The storm is upon us, WWG1WGA, to what degree our Ship of Liberty/State will be righted is yet to be seen. Or the shape it will take through the Restoration. 

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