Home
My Purpose
Topics
The Constitution
Education
Secret Combinations
Our Decline
Money
Only a Virtuous People
War
Most Recently Added
More...
Founding Documents
The Declaration of Independence
The Constitution
The Bill of Rights
The Articles of Confederation
The Magna Carta
Other
Other Resources
Recommended Reading
Authors
What Others Are Saying
How You Can Help
Quote
“we have appealed to their [our British bretheren’s] native justice and magnanimity as well as to the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations which [would inevitably] interrupt our connection and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity, and when occasions have been given them, by the regular course of their laws, of removing from their councils the disturbers of our harmony, they have, by their free election, reestablished them in power. At this very time too, they are permitting their chief magistrate to send over not only soldiers of our common blood, but Scotch and foreign mercenaries to invade and destroy us. These facts have given the last stab to agonizing affection, and manly spirit bids us to renounce forever these unfeeling brethren. We must endeavor to forget our former love for them, and hold them as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends. We might have been a free and a great people together.”
(
Thomas Jefferson
, Jefferson’s original draft of the Declaration of Independence included this last feeling statement as an incitement of their brethren across the sea which either by infamy or apathy allowed this tyranny to occur. The British people held the ultimate responsibility for the actions their government took. June 1776.)
Related Categories
Only a Virtuous People