"The spirit of the times may alter, will alter. Our rulers will become corrupt, our people careless. A single zealot may commence persecutor and better men be his victims. It can never be too often repeated that the time for fixing every essential right on a legal basis is while our rulers are honest and ourselves united. From the conclusion of the war for independence, a nation begins going down hill. It will not then be necessary to resort every moment to the people for support. They will be forgotten, therefore, and their rights disregarded. They will forget themselves in the sole faculty of making money, and will never think of uniting to effect a due respect for their rights. The shackles, therefore, which shall not be knocked off at the conclusion of the war will remain on them long, will be made heavier and heavier, till their rights shall revive or expire in a convulsion."

Will our rights survive or expire?

Scroll down a bit to see who wrote this. Unfortunately, he predicted our current predicament well over 200 years ago.





































































--Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia Q.XVII, 1782. (*) ME 2:225