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The United States of America, like many nation states, was founded on political violence. Here’s Thomas Jefferson on the subject: > And what country can prese

The United States of America, like many nation states, was founded on political violence. Here’s Thomas Jefferson on the subject: > And what country can preserve it’s liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is it’s natural manure.

krapp 5y ago
Of course, he was writing that in the context of denouncing Shay's Rebellion. Note the part where he says "the remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them," rather than to encourage and justify it on principle. As often happens with quotes of the founding fathers, the actual argument being made is more nuanced than the quote suggests. While Thomas Jefferson believed in the spirit of rebellion as necessary, he also understood that an ignorant and uneducated populace could be led astray by misinformation, and that such rebellions in practice were more often than not the result of a failure of the civil and cultural systems of trust which should have prevented them.
- throwawayboise 5y ago
  It's unclear to me which party "them" refers to in your quote. The rulers, or the people? Any references where Jefferson expounds on his concerns over "misinformation" and an ignorant populace?
  - krapp 5y ago
    The quote comes from a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote to William Smith regarding Shay's Rebellion. You can find a transcript here[0] and easily elsewhere on the web, but I've excised the relevant text, emphasis mine: "(...) yet where does this anarchy exist? where did it ever exist, except in the single instance of Massachusets? and can history produce an instance of a rebellion so honourably conducted? I say nothing of it's motives. they were founded in ignorance, not wickedness. god forbid we should ever be 20 years without such a rebellion. the people cannot be all, & always, well informed. the part which is wrong will be discontented in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive; if they remain quiet under such misconceptions it is a lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. we have had 13. states independant 11. years. there has been one rebellion. that comes to one rebellion in a century & a half for each state. what country before ever existed a century & half without a rebellion? & what country can preserve it's liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? let them take arms. the remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon & pacify them." It doesn't make sense that "them" refers to the rulers, in context it obviously refers to the people taking arms. [0]https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/jefferson/105.html https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/jefferson/105.html
deleted 5y ago
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krapp 5y ago

Of course, he was writing that in the context of denouncing Shay's Rebellion. Note the part where he says "the remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them," rather than to encourage and justify it on principle. As often happens with quotes of the founding fathers, the actual argument being made is more nuanced than the quote suggests. While Thomas Jefferson believed in the spirit of rebellion as necessary, he also understood that an ignorant and uneducated populace could be led astray by misinformation, and that such rebellions in practice were more often than not the result of a failure of the civil and cultural systems of trust which should have prevented them.

throwawayboise 5y ago
It's unclear to me which party "them" refers to in your quote. The rulers, or the people? Any references where Jefferson expounds on his concerns over "misinformation" and an ignorant populace?
- krapp 5y ago
  The quote comes from a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote to William Smith regarding Shay's Rebellion. You can find a transcript here[0] and easily elsewhere on the web, but I've excised the relevant text, emphasis mine: "(...) yet where does this anarchy exist? where did it ever exist, except in the single instance of Massachusets? and can history produce an instance of a rebellion so honourably conducted? I say nothing of it's motives. they were founded in ignorance, not wickedness. god forbid we should ever be 20 years without such a rebellion. the people cannot be all, & always, well informed. the part which is wrong will be discontented in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive; if they remain quiet under such misconceptions it is a lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. we have had 13. states independant 11. years. there has been one rebellion. that comes to one rebellion in a century & a half for each state. what country before ever existed a century & half without a rebellion? & what country can preserve it's liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? let them take arms. the remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon & pacify them." It doesn't make sense that "them" refers to the rulers, in context it obviously refers to the people taking arms. [0]https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/jefferson/105.html https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/jefferson/105.html

deleted 5y ago

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