. . .
G “Mr. Jefferson, would you look at Exhibit 1? Would you identify that document?”
J “Yes. Exhibit 1 is a true and correct copy of the Declaration of Independence.”
G “Did you write the document?”
J “Yes. Most of it.”
G “Does it reflect your thoughts?”
J “Yes. The provisions I wrote reflect my thoughts and beliefs and convictions.”
G “You realize in this proceeding that you may be convicted for your convictions?”
J “Yes.”
G “Would you look at the section highlighted in the middle of the page and read it?”
J “Yes. ‘But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.’ That sentence?”
G “Did you write that statement?”
J “Yes. I did. My friends John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston and I discussed some of the phrases and the cadence and the placement of provisions in the document.”
G “Your Co-Defendants?”
J “I would say co-authors. They deserve credit. They have not gotten enough credit for their suggestions and editing.”
G “Did you say: ‘it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government’?”
J “Yes. I did. Under those stated circumstances, it is the right and the duty of the citizen to take that action. A right is something that usually protects against an action of or statement by a person. A duty is something that a citizen must do. Under those stated circumstances, the citizen has both a right to act and a duty to act.”
G “‘to throw off such Government’ is how you say it?”
J “Yes. That is how I say it. ‘After a long train of abuses and usurpations.’ Yes. Absolutely. Those sentiments are part of the core assumptions and foundation of the United States of America. Someone in the future will discover something likely to be described as ‘DNA’; these sentiments are part of our ‘DNA’.”
. . .
[See the e-commentary at On Revolution (March 15, 2010).]
Bumper stickers of the week:
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” Thomas Jefferson
“Every generation needs a new revolution.” Thomas Jefferson ???
“I hold it that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing.” Thomas Jefferson
“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.” Thomas Jefferson
e-commentary 