Tyrants are always with us

Thomas Jefferson wrote some prescient thoughts for our time:

But is the spirit of the people an infallible, a permanent reliance? Is it government? Is this the kind of protection we receive in return for the rights we give up? Besides, the spirit of the times may alter, will alter. Our rulers will become corrupt, our people careless. A single zealot may commence persecutor, and better men be his victims. It can never be too often repeated, that the time for fixing every essential right on a legal basis is while our rulers are honest, and ourselves united. From the conclusion of this war we shall be going down hill. It will not then be necessary to resort every moment to the people for support. They will be forgotten, therefore, and their rights disregarded. They will forget themselves, but in the sole faculty of making money, and will never think of uniting to effect a due respect for their rights. The shackles, therefore, which shall not be knocked off at the conclusion of this war, will remain on us long, will be made heavier and heavier, till our rights shall revive or expire in a convulsion.

from: QUERY XVII (p. 171, concluding on p. 172), in NOTES ON THE STATE OF VIRGINIA, Thomas Jefferson’s only published book, published in Philadelphia by Prichard and Hall, M.DCC.LXXXVIII.(1788). [ii], 244 p., ill. Call number F230 .J42 (Rare Book Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)