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Thomas Jefferson to William Smith
Paris Nov. 13. 1787.
persevering lying. the British ministry have so long hired
their gazetteers to repeat and model into every form lies about
our being in anarchy, that the world has at length believed them,
the English nation has believed them, the ministers themselves
have come to believe them, & what is more wonderful, we have
believed them ourselves. 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 past 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. 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
& tyrants. it is it's natural manure. our Convention
has been too much impressed by. . .
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