Tiring of presidential campaigns? Be patient
“A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt.”
—Thomas Jefferson, (1743-1826), 3rd U.S. president (1801-1809), 1798.
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Timeless wisdom.
ReplyDeleteLEON! Where are you, O' Cryptic One? Do I even have your email? Thanks for visiting the blog, which like the tree in the forest has been pretty much falling soundlessly since I launched it.
ReplyDeleteOld TomJeff is an amusing fella. I imagine he had someone quite specific in mind when he wrote this, which came in the context of passage of the Sedition Act, that heavy-handed early effort to cope with free speech and democracy, in 1798. The Founding Fathers were in favor of such freedoms in principle, but when their own oxen were being gored they waffled--as did Jefferson himself.
I do like "reign of witches," though. What would be the latter-day equivalent--a Clutch of Cheneys? A Babble of Bushes? A Nasty of Neocons.