The "Tree of Liberty" letter

From Thomas Jefferson to William Smith

Paris, November 13, 1787
DEAR SIR, -- I am now to acknoledge the receipt of your favors of October the 4th, 8th, &
26th. In the last you apologise for your letters of introduction to Americans coming here. It is
so far from needing apology on your part, that it calls for thanks on mine. I endeavor to show
civilities to all the Americans who come here, & will give me opportunities of doing it: and it
is a matter of comfort to know from a good quarter what they are, & how far I may go in my
attentions to them. Can you send me Woodmason's bills for the two copying presses for the
M. de la Fayette, & the M. de Chastellux? The latter makes one article in a considerable
account, of old standing, and which I cannot present for want of this article. -- I do not know
whether it is to yourself or Mr. Adams I am to give my thanks for the copy of the new
constitution. I beg leave through you to place them where due. It will be yet three weeks
before I shall receive them from America. There are very good articles in it: & very bad. I do
not know which preponderate. What we have lately read in the history of Holland, in the
chapter on the Stadtholder, would have sufficed to set me against a chief magistrate eligible
for a long duration, if I had ever been disposed towards one: & what we have always read of
the elections of Polish kings should have forever excluded the idea of one continuable for life.
Wonderful is the effect of impudent & persevering lying. The British ministry have so long
hired their gazetteers to repeat and model into every form lies about our being in anarchy, that
the world has at length believed them, the English nation has believed them, the ministers
themselves have come to believe them, & what is more wonderful, we have believed them
ourselves. Yet where does this anarchy exist? Where did it ever exist, except in the single
instance of Massachusetts? And can history produce an instance of rebellion so honourably
conducted? I say nothing of it's motives. They were founded in ignorance, not wickedness.
God forbid we should ever be 20 years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, &
always well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented in proportion to the
importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions it is
a lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. 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 & a 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. The remedy is to set them right
as to facts, pardon & pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree
of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants. It is
it's natural manure. Our Convention has been too much impressed by the insurrection of
Massachusetts: and in the spur of the moment they are setting up a kite to keep the hen-yard
in order. I hope in God this article will be rectified before the new constitution is accepted. --
You ask me if any thing transpires here on the subject of S. America? Not a word. I know that
there are combustible materials there, and that they wait the torch only. But this country
probably will join the extinguishers. -- The want of facts worth communicating to you has
occasioned me to give a little loose to dissertation. We must be contented to amuse, when we
cannot inform.
http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/96oct/obrien/blood.htm
Famous Thomas Jefferson Quote



"God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion.
The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is
wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts
they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions,
it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. ...
And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not
warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of
resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as
to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost
in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from
time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
It is its natural manure."
by: Thomas Jefferson
(1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US
President
Source: November 13, 1787, letter to William S. Smith, quoted in Padover's Jefferson On
Democracy, ed., 1939
http://books.google.com/books?id=imMmIlv1G7MC&pg=PA268&q=&f=false#v=onepage&
q=&f=false

Categorie
s:
Arms, Death, Despotism, God, Guns, Liberty, Militia, Patriotism, President, Rebellion, Resistance,
Tyranny

http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Thomas.Jefferson.Quote.EFEC

Thomas Jefferson szleri
http://www.bilgesozleri.com/thomas-jefferson-sozleri.html
En az yneten devlet, en iyi devlettir.
Drstlk, bilgelik kitabnn ilk konusudur.
Her yaptn btn dnya izliyormu yap.
Gelecein hayallerini gemiin tarihinden daha ok seviyorum.
Bize yaam veren Tanr, zgrl de verdi.
Baarlarmz yaptmz kt hareketlerden daha ok dman kazandrr.
Aklllar, zayf yanlarn bildiklerinden, yanlmayacaklarn ileri srmezler.
zgrlk aac, belirli aralklarla vatanseverlerin ve vatan hainlerinin kanlaryla
sulanmaldr. "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of
patriots and tyrants." November 13, 1787, letter to William S. Smith, quoted in Padover's
Jefferson On Democracy, ed., 1939
Hibir ey doru zihinsel yaklama sahip birini amacndan saptramaz. Yanl
yaklam iinde olana ise yaplacak bir ey yoktur.
G szkonusu olduunda, insanlara hi bir zaman gvenme ve onlar ktlk
yapmamalar iin anayasann zincirlerine bala.
nsanlara eitim ve bilgi sala. Bar ve dzenin salanmasnn kendi karlar iin
gerekli olduunu onlara ret.
Bazen insann kendisini ynetmesine gvenilmemesi gerektii sylenir? O zaman
insann bakalarn ynetmesine gvenilebilir mi? Veya insan ynetmesi iin krallar
klna brnm melekler bulabilir miyiz? Brakalm bunun cevabn tarih versin.
Yeryzndeki en byk veya en kk bir insana yazarken hi bir fark gzetmedim.
Toplumsal karlar btn dinlerin zerinde anlat (btn dinlerin hepsi, cinayeti,
almay, soygunculuu ve yalanc ahitlii yasaklar ahlaki kaidelere dayaldr.
Gayriahlaki olan dini dogmalar ile ilgilenmemeliyiz.
Morali yksek insann hedefine ulamasn hibir ey engelleyemez. Bozuk moralli
insanlara yardm edecek ey ise, dnyada mevcut deildir.
Komunun yirmi tane Tanr var demesi ya da hi Tanr yoktur demesi bana bir zarar
vermez. Ne benim cebime dokunur ne de bacam krar.
Hrriyet topra kar kar zaptedilir. Daima ilerlemek iin peyderpey elde
ettiklerimizle memnun olmalyz. Kendi menfaatleri iin dahi, insanlar ikna etmek
bir hayli zaman alr.
Hi kimse kalabala arkasn dnmeden orkestray ynetemez.
Her yurtta asker olmal. Yunanda ve Romallarda byleydi. Her zgr toplumda da
byle olmal.
Her memleketin halk kendi haklarnn hem bekisi, hem de kendi felaketi iin
kullanlabilecek yeane alettir. una iyice inanmmdr ki, muayyen bir kltr
seviyesine sahip halkn elinden baka bir yerde hrriyetimiz tehlikeden masun
deildir.
Halkn iine herkes kendi ii gibi bakmaldr. Btn amme hizmetlerinin halka
retilmesi daima en bata gelmelidir.
Halk ktlelerine tahsil ve terbiye veriniz ki, onlar sulh ve nizam onlar koruyacaktr.
Halk her zaman aydnlatnz ki, seherdeki eytani ruhlar gibi, beden ve dimadaki
fenalk ve zulm erisin.
THOMAS JEFFERSON ON CHRISTIANITY & RELIGION
Compiled by Jim Walker

"Ignorance is preferable to error, and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing
than he who believes what is wrong."
-Thomas Jefferson (Notes on Virginia, 1782)

In spite of right-wing Christian attempts to rewrite history to make Jefferson into a Christian,
little about his philosophy resembles that of Christianity. Although Jefferson in the
Declaration of Independence wrote of the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God, there exists
nothing in the Declaration about Christianity.
Although Jefferson believed in a Creator, his concept of it resembled that of the god of deism
(the term "Nature's God" used by deists of the time). With his scientific bent, Jefferson
sought to organize his thoughts on religion. He rejected the superstitions and mysticism of
Christianity and even went so far as to edit the gospels, removing the miracles and mysticism
of Jesus (see The Jefferson Bible) leaving only what he deemed the correct moral philosophy
of Jesus.
Distortions of history occur in the minds of many Christians whenever they see the word
"God" embossed in statue or memorial concrete. For example, those who visit the Jefferson
Memorial in Washington will read Jefferson's words engraved: "I have sworn upon the altar
of God eternal hostility against every from of tyranny over the mind of man." When they see
the word "God" many Christians see this as "proof" of his Christianity without thinking that
"God" can have many definitions ranging from nature to supernatural. Yet how many of them
realize that this passage aimed at attacking the tyranny of the Christian clergy of Philadelphia,
or that Jefferson's God was not the personal god of Christianity? Those memorial words
came from a letter written to Benjamin Rush in 1800 in response to Rush's warning about the
Philadelphia clergy attacking Jefferson (Jefferson was seen as an infidel by his enemies
during his election for President). The complete statement reads as follows:
"The returning good sense of our country threatens abortion to their hopes, & they [the
clergy] believe that any portion of power confided to me, will be exerted in opposition to their
schemes. And they believe rightly; for I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility
against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. But this is all they have to fear from me:
& enough too in their opinion, & this is the cause of their printing lying pamphlets against me.
. ."
Jefferson aimed at laissez-faire liberalism in the name of individual freedom, He felt that any
form of government control, not only of religion, but of individual mercantilism consisted of
tyranny. He thought that our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions, any
more than our opinions in physics or geometry.
If anything can clear of the misconceptions of Jeffersonian history, it can come best from the
author himself. Although Jefferson had a complex view of religion, too vast for this
presentation, the following quotes provide a glimpse of how Thomas Jefferson viewed the
corruptions of Christianity and religion.


Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have
been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards
uniformity.
-Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, 1782


But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither
picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.
-Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, 1782


What is it men cannot be made to believe!
-Thomas Jefferson to Richard Henry Lee, April 22, 1786. (on the British regarding America,
but quoted here for its universal appeal.)


Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because if there be one he must
approve of the homage of reason more than that of blindfolded fear.
-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Peter Carr, August 10, 1787


Where the preamble declares, that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author
of our religion, an amendment was proposed by inserting "Jesus Christ," so that it would
read "A departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion;" the insertion
was rejected by the great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the
mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mohammedan, the
Hindoo and Infidel of every denomination.
-Thomas Jefferson, Autobiography, in reference to the Virginia Act for Religious Freedom


I concur with you strictly in your opinion of the comparative merits of atheism and
demonism, and really see nothing but the latter in the being worshipped by many who think
themselves Christians.
-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Richard Price, Jan. 8, 1789 (Richard Price had written to TJ on
Oct. 26. about the harm done by religion and wrote "Would not Society be better without
Such religions? Is Atheism less pernicious than Demonism?")


I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men
whatever in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else where I was capable of
thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent.
-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Francis Hopkinson, March 13, 1789


They [the clergy] believe that any portion of power confided to me, will be exerted in
opposition to their schemes. And they believe rightly; for I have sworn upon the altar of god,
eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. But this is all they have
to fear from me: and enough, too, in their opinion.
-Thomas Jefferson to Dr. Benjamin Rush, Sept. 23, 1800


Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that
he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of
government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence
that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no
law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus
building a wall of separation between church and State.
-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Danbury Baptist Association, CT., Jan. 1, 1802


History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil
government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious
leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes.
-Thomas Jefferson to Alexander von Humboldt, Dec. 6, 1813.


The whole history of these books [the Gospels] is so defective and doubtful that it seems
vain to attempt minute enquiry into it: and such tricks have been played with their text, and
with the texts of other books relating to them, that we have a right, from that cause, to
entertain much doubt what parts of them are genuine. In the New Testament there is
internal evidence that parts of it have proceeded from an extraordinary man; and that other
parts are of the fabric of very inferior minds. It is as easy to separate those parts, as to pick
out diamonds from dunghills.
-Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Adams, January 24, 1814


Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law.
-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Dr. Thomas Cooper, February 10, 1814


In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in
alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own.
-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Horatio G. Spafford, March 17, 1814


If we did a good act merely from love of God and a belief that it is pleasing to Him, whence
arises the morality of the Atheist? ...Their virtue, then, must have had some other
foundation than the love of God.
-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Thomas Law, June 13, 1814

Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions. Ideas
must be distinct before reason can act upon them; and no man ever had a distinct idea of the
trinity. It is the mere Abracadabra of the mountebanks calling themselves the priests of
Jesus."

-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Francis Adrian Van der Kemp, 30 July, 1816

My opinion is that there would never have been an infidel, if there had never been a priest.
The artificial structures they have built on the purest of all moral systems, for the purpose of
deriving from it pence and power, revolts those who think for themselves, and who read in
that system only what is really there.
-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Mrs. Samuel H. Smith, August, 6, 1816


You say you are a Calvinist. I am not. I am of a sect by myself, as far as I know.
-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Ezra Stiles Ely, June 25, 1819


As you say of yourself, I too am an Epicurian. I consider the genuine (not the imputed)
doctrines of Epicurus as containing everything rational in moral philosophy which Greece and
Rome have left us.
-Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Short, Oct. 31, 1819


Priests...dread the advance of science as witches do the approach of daylight and scowl on
the fatal harbinger announcing the subversions of the duperies on which they live.
-Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Correa de Serra, April 11, 1820

Among the sayings and discourses imputed to him [Jesus] by his biographers, I find many
passages of fine imagination, correct morality, and of the most lovely benevolence; and others
again of so much ignorance, so much absurdity, so much untruth, charlatanism, and
imposture, as to pronounce it impossible that such contradictions should have proceeded from
the same being.
-Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Short, April 13, 1820


To talk of immaterial existences is to talk of nothings . To say that the human soul, angels,
god, are immaterial, is to say they are nothings , or that there is no god, no angels, no soul. I
cannot reason otherwise: but I believe I am supported in my creed of materialism by Locke,
Tracy, and Stewart. At what age of the Christian church this heresy of immaterialism , this
masked atheism, crept in, I do not know. But heresy it certainly is.
-Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Adams, Aug. 15, 1820


Man once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities the most
monstrous, and like a ship without rudder, is the sport of every wind.
-Thomas Jefferson to James Smith, 1822.


I can never join Calvin in addressing his god . He was indeed an Atheist, which I can never
be; or rather his religion was Daemonism. If ever man worshipped a false god, he did.
-Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Adams, April 11, 1823


And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his
father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerve in
the brain of Jupiter. But may we hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in
these United States will do away with this artificial scaffolding, and restore to us the primitive
and genuine doctrines of this most venerated reformer of human errors.
-Thomas Jefferson, Letter to John Adams, April 11, 1823


It is between fifty and sixty years since I read it [the Apocalypse], and I then considered it
merely the ravings of a maniac, no more worthy nor capable of explanation than the
incoherences of our own nightly dreams.
-Thomas Jefferson, letter to General Alexander Smyth, Jan. 17, 1825


May it be to the world, what I believe it will be, (to some parts sooner, to others later, but
finally to all,) the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance
and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and
security of self-government. All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The
general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth,
that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few
booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God.
-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Roger C. Weightman, June 24, 1826 (in the last letter he penned)

Bibliography (click on an underlined book title if you'd like to obtain it):
Merrill D. Peterson, ed, Thomas Jefferson Writings , (The Library of America,1984)
OIA Roche, ed, The Jefferson Bible: with the Annotated Commentaries on Religion of
Thomas Jefferson , (Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., 1964)
Dickinson W. Adams, ed, et al, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Second Series (Princeton
University Press, 1983)
Lester J. Cappon, ed, The Adams-Jefferson Letters, Vol. 2, (The University of North Carolina
Press, 1959)
Alf J. Mapp, Jr., Thomas Jefferson, A Strange Case of Mistaken Identity , (Madison Books,
1987)
Julian P. Boyd, ed, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson , (Princeton University Press 1950--)
AA Lipscomb, Albert E. Bergh, eds. The Writings of Thomas Jefferson , (The Thomas
Jefferson Memorial Assoc., 1903-1904)
------
For other quotes on the internet see:
The Letters of Thomas Jefferson: 1743-1826

Thomas Jefferson on Politics & Government
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ferson.htm&anno=2

Quotes - Thomas Jefferson
The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to
those who would not. -Thomas Jefferson
"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms..disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to
commit crimes. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they
serve rather to encourage than prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater
confidence than an armed one." - Thomas Jefferson quoting Cesare Beccaria, Criminologist in 1764.
That was 230 years ago. -Thomas Jefferson
"The constitutions of most of our states (and of the United States) assert that all power is inherent in
the people; that they may exercise it by themselves;
that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed; that they are entitled to freedom of person,
freedom of religion, freedom of property and freedom
of the press." Thomas Jefferson
"The beauty of the second amendment is that it will not be needed until they try to take it." -Thomas
Jefferson
The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to
protect themselves against tyranny in government.-Thomas Jefferson
I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive.-Thomas Jefferson
Power is not alluring to pure minds.-Thomas Jefferson
Most bad government has grown out of too much government. -Thomas Jefferson
What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people
preserve the spirit of resistance?-Thomas Jefferson
Were we directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we should soon want bread.-
Thomas Jefferson
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political
bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth the
separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent
respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to
the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal; that they are
endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their
just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes
destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new
government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to
them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. -Thomas Jefferson
Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms [of government] those entrusted with power
have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny. -Thomas Jefferson
Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty. -Thomas Jefferson
I think myself that we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites
living on the labor of the industrious. -Thomas Jefferson
A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief
magistrate. -Thomas Jefferson
The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the
chains of the constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first. -Thomas
Jefferson
I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending
too small a degree of it.
Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have ...
The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases.
Was the government to prescribe to us our medicine and diet, our bodies would be in such keeping
as our souls are now.
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m%2FQuotes%2Fthomas_jefferson.htm&anno=2

Thomas Jefferson's Words of Wisdom Regarding our Financial Crisis, and More
on 3/12/2009 Labels: economy , guns , taxes
Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 July 4, 1826) -- author of the Declaration of
Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, third president of the United
States, and founder of the University of Virginia -- voiced the aspirations of a new America as no
other individual of his era. As public official, historian, philosopher, and plantation owner, he
served his country for over five decades.

When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as
Europe.
Thomas Jefferson

It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which, if acted
on, would save one-half the wars of the world.
Thomas Jefferson

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the
labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
Thomas Jefferson

No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.
Thomas Jefferson

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Thomas Jefferson

That to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he
disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical
Thomas Jefferson

In light of our present financial crisis, it's interesting to read what Thomas Jefferson said in 1802:

restore "If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first
by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will
deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their
Fathers conquered...I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than
standing armies... The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people,
to whom it properly belongs."
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servative.com%2F2009%2F03%2Fthomas-jeffersons-words-of-wisdom.html&anno=2