A reflection on Jefferson’s words
What did Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, write that applies to the present state of our nation? In 1774, as the king of England sought to control the British colonists, once immigrants, then citizens of America, Jefferson wrote “A Summary View of the Rights of British America”.
Far from writing “expressions of servility”, he expressed himself with “that freedom of language and sentiment which becomes a free people, claiming their rights as derived from the laws of nature and not as the gift of their chief magistrate. Let those flatter, who fear; it is not an American art.” Where are “We, the People” now? Division is rife in our country. Jefferson also wrote, “Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that His justice cannot sleep forever.”