If only we actually lived in a perfect democracy, I could vote for Pres. Obama in 2016 and 2020

[legaleagle_45]

40. Perhaps

But in Jefferson's defense, the quote was issued prior to Thoreau, Gandhi or Martin Luther King. What Jefferson favored was a politically active population rather than one of sheep. Thus this quote from the same letter:

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?

He was condemning what he considered an overreaction to Shays' Rebellion. So what was Shays' Rebellion? Massachusetts was burdened with war debt which needed to be paid in gold so it required property taxes to be paid in a similar fashion. Many farmers in rural Massachusetts were unable to pay so a whole bunch of foreclosures were instituted the consequence being that these people would lose there homes and their farms. A group of persons protested this set of affairs and "occupied" a court house to prevent the foreclosures from proceeding. The only difference between them and the Occupy Wall Street folks is that they also happened to have muskets. They did not kill anyone and the only deaths that occurred were the result of a warning shot fired by the militia forces of Massachusetts at the protesters that fell short into the midsts of the rebels (protesters), killing two of them.

Which is why Jefferson said of the affair:

And can history produce an instance of a rebellion so honourably conducted?

I think this is what Jefferson had in mind and would have considered the Occupy Protesters or the Civil Rights movement of the 60's or the anti war movement as of the same lineage as Shays' Rebellion and something which is a good thing as it keeps the leaders honest and mindful of the people...

Call me a Jefferson apologist, LOL