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The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants. It is it’s natural manure.
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 & 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.
~ Thomas Jefferson, 1787, in a letter to his friend William Smith.
