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Thomas Jefferson1743–1826

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all.

Thomas Jefferson on government

Letter to Abigail Smith Adams from Paris while a Minister to France (22 February 1787), referring to Shay’s Rebellion. “Jefferson’s Service to the New Nation,” Library of Congress

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