My favorite Jefferson quote. The man clearly saw what we faced more than once.
In a prophetic letter decades earlier ,
President Thomas Jefferson expressed
the fears of many of his contemporaries over conflicts
of states’ rights, westward settlement, federalism and slavery.
“This momentous question,
like a fire bell in the night,
awakened and filled one with terror,
I considered it at once as the knell of the Union.
It is hushed indeed for the moment.
but this is a reprieve only,
not a final sentence . . .
we have the wolf by the ears
and we can neither hold him
nor safely let him go.”
I have come to have more respect for JFK and believe I know that he was killed because he was on the verge of alerting the country to powerful forces working against us. While certainly no Jefferson, Kennedy did pay a unique tribute to him at a gathering of his entire cabinet and some of his brighter policy advisors in the White House.
I paraphrase but it went something like “There hasn’t been so much brain power assembled in this room since Mr. Jefferson dined here alone.”
Roger that.