Monday, September 06, 2010
Is The Tea Party Just Good Medicine?
Thomas Jefferson on government by the people:
The mass of mankind under that enjoys a precious degree of liberty and happiness. It has its evils, too; the principal of which is the turbulence to which it is subject. But weigh this against the oppressions of monarchy, and it becomes nothing. Malo periculosam libertatem quam quietam servitutem (Better hazardous liberty than peaceful servitude). Even this evil is productive of good. It prevents the degeneracy of government, nourishes a general attention to the public affairs. I hold it that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical... It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government...
From Jefferson's letter to James Madison of January 30, 1787
The mass of mankind under that enjoys a precious degree of liberty and happiness. It has its evils, too; the principal of which is the turbulence to which it is subject. But weigh this against the oppressions of monarchy, and it becomes nothing. Malo periculosam libertatem quam quietam servitutem (Better hazardous liberty than peaceful servitude). Even this evil is productive of good. It prevents the degeneracy of government, nourishes a general attention to the public affairs. I hold it that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical... It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government...
From Jefferson's letter to James Madison of January 30, 1787
