The Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson
By Subject
FRANCE / REVOLUTION
It delights me to find that there are persons who still think that
all is not lost in France: that their retrogradation from a limited to
an unlimited despotism, is but to give themselves a new impulse. But I
see not how or when. The press, the only tocsin of a nation, is
completely silenced there, and all means of a general effort taken
away. However, I am willing to hope, and as long as anybody will hope
with me; and I am entirely persuaded that the agitations of the public
mind advance its powers, and that at every vibration between the
points of liberty and despotism, something will be gained for the
former. As men become better informed, their rulers must respect them
the more.
to Thomas Cooper, Esq., 29 November 1802
|