"The spirit of the times may alter, will alter. Our rulers will become corrupt, our people 

careless. A single zealot may commence persecution, 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 this war 

(Revolutionary War) we shall be going downhill. 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, but 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 this war, will remain on us 

long, will be made heavier and heavier, till our rights shall revive or expire in a 

convulsion." 


Thomas Jefferson