Almost a decade after the idealistic Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson got more pessimistic.
Warned it was "only a matter of time" before Americans were tempted by dictatorship. He warned future Americans to ward off the "wolf of tyranny."
Please listen.
“The President, who exercises a limited power, may err without causing great mischief in the State. Congress may decide amiss without destroying the Union, because the electoral body in which Congress originates may cause it to retract its decision by changing its members. But if the Supreme Court is ever composed of imprudent men or bad citizens, the Union may be plunged into anarchy or civil war.”
@GottaLaff. I would also urge people to read (or reread) #Douglass's "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" I've been posting particularly resonant excerpts. Here's another:
"The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced." https://masshumanities.org/files/programs/douglass/speech_abridged_med.pdf