“It was observed, I forget by which of them, that as the pill would be a bitter one to the Southern states, something should be done to soothe them that the removal of the seat of government to the Patowmac was a just measure, and would probably be a popular one with them, and would be a proper one to follow the assumption.” What signify a few lives lost in a century or two?” The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What country before ever existed a century and half without a rebellion? 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. That comes to one rebellion in a century and a half for each state. If once they become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress, and Assemblies, judges and governors shall all become wolves.” Do not be too severe upon their errors, but reclaim them by enlightening them. But I should mean that every man should receive those papers & be capable of reading them. “The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. … Jefferson was a persistent advocate of more, rather than less, government control.” “Jefferson had been thinking about the practicality of governing at the national level. “It is error alone that needs support of the government. “Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it.” … Going on record against London itself was not as disturbing to more moderate members as was the sense that they had lost control.

Patrick Henry had taken on the establishment and succeeded. “The essence of the anti-British position was summed up in a 1764 resolution that Virginia sent to the king and to parliament: ‘That the people are not to be subject that any taxes but such as are laid on them by their own consent or by those who are legally appointed to represent them.’” And if we are to understand what he was like and what life was like for him, then we must see the world as he saw it, not as we know it turned out.”

“Jefferson’s sense of Britain as a perennial foe is unsurprising and essential to understand.” Meacham writes. Also, a few quotes about Thomas Jefferson.

Meacham jefferson