Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, Query 12, 1782On every unauthoritative exercise of power by the legislature must the people rise in rebellion or their silence be construed into a surrender of that power to them? If so, how many rebellions should we have had already?
3 comments:
context please?
Given that it's something from Thomas Jefferson, I would not be surprised if the context is, "All." The very reason that the founding fathers built our government in the way that they did is to prevent that same government from robbing its people of liberty. Hence the query posed here.
Do we REALLY have to go to arms every time the government feels like dicking us over, or should the people in power at the time have the good common sense to realize the boundaries and respect them?
I do feel, however, that the people's silence has far too long been construed as a surrender of our power. In many cases, many people have surrendered their power, and even more often, people never knew what power they held. i really think that we're a little overdue for a rebellion.
Well said Asterix. It sounds harsh, but it follows the old dictum that says all evil needs to triumph is for good men to do nothing.
Eternal vigilance! The price for liberty. I think that goes doubly so for INTERNAL vigilance. We need to monitor our government and never assume they are on our side.
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