The very far Right has adopted a quote of Thomas Jefferson lately. You see it on Tea Party signs at protests, hear it quoted on talk radio and read it constantly on the web. (And it’s ironic that while Texas conservatives want to ignore Jefferson in history books, they always seem to remember this one quote from the man). "The Tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants".
In many ways it is a very scary quote. It suggests that there are times when violence against fellow Americans in defense of a minority opinion is justified. What Jefferson mused on paper over 200 years ago has become a bumper sticker. And if you want to have some fun, ask anyone who quotes it to you...."What context did Jefferson say this in?" They’ll look at you blindly, maybe stutter, hem and haw; but few can tell you the answer.
You see the people who quote this phrase, do so because they are romantics. Not because they are historians. They see themselves as grand patriots fighting for liberty alongside of George Washington. In their minds eye, they are a part of the SPIRIT OF ’76, marching along, bandaged and playing the flute while the flag waves over them. They dream of the glory that they could have shared charging the Union forces, following behind JEB Stuart to the sound of "Dixie" playing in the background. At the time Jefferson wrote his immortal phrase, our country was so new that the Constitution had not been ratified yet. And there was severe disagreement at the time as to whether the Constitution should follow the "Virginia Plan" (which advocated for an unprecedented, strong, central government) or the "New Jersey Plan" (which supported the idea of state sovereignty). The former colonies were suffering severe economic hardship and gold was hard to come by. There was constant threat of war with England. It was a time of great political turmoil and economic strife which was reflected in the mood of the people.
The state of Massachusetts was especially hard hit by the economic troubles. Businessmen who had loaned the new government money to fund the War for Independence were now nearly bankrupt and needed the loans repaid in gold, which was in short supply at the time. Farmers were especially cash poor. They had crops to sell, but nobody had gold to buy them with. This left the farmers with no gold to pay taxes. These taxes were needed to repay the loans made to the government. So scores of these farmers were sent to debtor’s prison for failure to pay taxes. Rhetoric from both the farmers who fought the Revolution and the businessmen who had funded the Revolution became more and more heated. Tempers flared on both sides.
By 1786, these issues had come to a violent head. Daniel Shay (a veteran of the Revolutionary War) organized a group of farmers in a militia-style force to shut down the courts that were sending farmers to debtor prison. They were unhappy with the minor reforms to the system that the current state government of Massachusetts had made in order to aid the farmers.
In January of 1787, Shay led his men in an attempt to take over the federal armory in Springfield. An army led by General Benjamin Lincoln was pursuing Shay and the weapons in the armory were their only hope of survival. General William Shepherd, in command of the garrison, opened fire with cannon on Shay’s men. Four were killed and over twenty were wounded. Their failure to take control of the weapons and their disorganized retreat broke the back of "Shay’s Rebellion" as it came to be known.
In June of that same year, John Hancock (also a supporter of a central government) was elected as Massachusetts governor. But part of his election campaign was to address the issues of the farmers. In the end, the problem was solved by the vote of the people....not the guns of rebels.
The significance of "Shay’s Rebellion" was not the act itself but the reaction it created in the people of our young country. Fears of future "armed insurrection" against a legal government galvanized our Founding Fathers to ratify a Constitution that had been stalled in debate for years. The rebellion significantly affected the discussion between those who favored a strong, central government for the states and those who supported stronger state sovereignty. Those who favored a central government won out in the end. The American people who fought the Revolution recognized the danger of actions such as Shay’s. A republic should be governed by votes and not by guns.
General George Washington wrote of the rebellion, "I am mortified beyond expression when I view the clouds that have spread over the brightest morn that ever dawned in any country... What a triumph for the advocates of despotism, to find that we are incapable of governing ourselves". He claimed that the rebellion was the deciding factor in his decision to attend the Constitutional Convention in order to advocate for a strong, central government.
Samuel Adams was even harsher in his assessment when he wrote, "Rebellion against a king may be pardoned, or lightly punished, but the man who dares to rebel against the laws of a republic ought to suffer death."
"The rebellion in Massachusetts is a warning, gentlemen" stated James Madison as he advocated for the adoption of the "Virginia Plan" and fought for the idea that a strong central government was necessary for the survival of the new Republic.
It was only Thomas Jefferson who seemed to support the actions of Shay and his men. And as was commented on publicly at the time....he was doing so while sitting safely in Paris as our Ambassador to France at the time.
Today, it ironic that Jefferson’s words have become the slogan of those who claim the rights granted them by the Constitution to oppose the government by any means necessary. Jefferson, the ultimate colonial "elitist" is now the one founding father that all of these extremists can quote while expressing their disdain of an "elitist" government that they feel ignored by.
But irony aside, there is danger in this quote. A danger best illustrated by the fact that on April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh was arrested wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with Jefferson’s words only hours after blowing up the Oklahoma City Federal Building killing 168 people (19 of whom were children) and injuring over 400 others.
McVeigh spent a lot of time writing newspapers to warn us of the dangers of the government.
"Taxes are a joke. Regardless of what a political candidate "promises," they will increase. More taxes are always the answer to government mismanagement. They mess up. We suffer. Taxes are reaching cataclysmic levels, with no slowdown in sight... Is a Civil War Imminent? Do we have to shed blood to reform the current system? I hope it doesn't come to that. But it might."
"Go ahead, take everything I own; take my dignity. Feel good as you grow fat and rich at my expense; sucking my tax dollars and property."
"The government is afraid of the guns people have because they have to have control of the people at all times. Once you take away the guns, you can do anything to the people. You give them an inch and they take a mile. I believe we are slowly turning into a socialist government. The government is continually growing bigger and more powerful and the people need to prepare to defend themselves against government control."
"Those who betray or subvert the Constitution are guilty of sedition and/or treason, are domestic enemies and should and will be punished accordingly. It also stands to reason that anyone who sympathizes with the enemy or gives aid or comfort to said enemy is likewise guilty. I have sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic and I will."
"You can't handle the truth. Because the truth is, I blew up the Murrah Building and isn't it kind of scary that one man could wreak this kind of hell?"
Do these quotes sound familiar? You can read similar quotes on any right wing blog site today. And the people making these comments are true believers in Jefferson’s idea of "refreshing the Tree of Liberty". They emblazon Jefferson’s words on shirts and signs with no understanding that the event that Jefferson was referencing was the very event that motivated our founding fathers to strengthen the central government over the rights of the states. And these self-styled modern "patriots" seem indifferent to the fact that the blood spilled is seldom that of the tyrants, but instead is that of the innocent.