On Thu, 9 Sep 2010 22:28:00 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Steve B" wrote in message
...
Thomas Jefferson wrote the following text, but only one line has been made
famous and put on T shirts. The rest is highly relevant and shows the
context of the snippet and the timelessness of our genius forefather's
foresight into the affairs of the nation they fought and died to create.

"God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion.
The people cannot be all, and 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 lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. ...
And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not
warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of
resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as
to the 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 its natural manure."


The remedy is to set them right as
to the facts, pardon and pacify them.

He's talking about either killing the wingnuts or pacifying them and setting
them right as to the facts.



Btw....I like a rather expanded quote from the same letter

The {} 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 Massachusetts? And can history produce an
instance of 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 independent 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 & a
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.


Gunner


I am the Sword of my Family
and the Shield of my Nation.
If sent, I will crush everything you have built,
burn everything you love,
and kill every one of you.
(Hebrew quote)