"Founding Fathers" quotes are a personal bugaboo of mine. So many passed around were entirely made up in the 1980's for neo-conservative books. This one is at least real, and really Jefferson rather than him quoting someone else (another common misattribution). It needs some context, though.
We fixed the one Jefferson was worried about:
"For in a warm climate, no man will labour for himself who can make another labour for him. This is so true, that of the proprietors of slaves a very small proportion indeed are ever seen to labor. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever . . . ." --Notes on the State of Virginia
On the actual topic, the letter the article talks about is (unfortunately) as close to an admission of wrongdoing on the part of the US government that anyone's going to get in the whole case, and I have very little doubt that it's actually true that no one in the Canadian diplomatic corps was informed at all until after the entire thing was pretty committed. That was about the same time that another Canadian (woman this time, don't remember her name offhand) was refused passage through Chicago en route home from India and no one from the Canadian embassy (a whopping 30 minutes away by car from the airport in downtown Chicago) was informed. The US government's handling of both circumstances was rude, unjust, and thoroughly reprehensible. Putting both of these people in the custody of Canadian embassorial security under the condition that they are not allowed unescorted access to US soil would have been rude, but at least have the essense of justice.
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Date: 2004-09-22 06:26 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-22 06:32 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-22 08:06 am (UTC)Not believing in a just God, I nonetheless tremble for my country, and the world.
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Date: 2004-09-22 08:37 am (UTC)We fixed the one Jefferson was worried about:
"For in a warm climate, no man will labour for himself who can make another labour for him. This is so true, that of the proprietors of slaves a very small proportion indeed are ever seen to labor. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever . . . ." --Notes on the State of Virginia
On the actual topic, the letter the article talks about is (unfortunately) as close to an admission of wrongdoing on the part of the US government that anyone's going to get in the whole case, and I have very little doubt that it's actually true that no one in the Canadian diplomatic corps was informed at all until after the entire thing was pretty committed. That was about the same time that another Canadian (woman this time, don't remember her name offhand) was refused passage through Chicago en route home from India and no one from the Canadian embassy (a whopping 30 minutes away by car from the airport in downtown Chicago) was informed. The US government's handling of both circumstances was rude, unjust, and thoroughly reprehensible. Putting both of these people in the custody of Canadian embassorial security under the condition that they are not allowed unescorted access to US soil would have been rude, but at least have the essense of justice.