Thomas Jefferson Protest Analysis

Many would say that America was built on the principle that “all men are created equal” and that U.S. citizens are all given equal treatment, opportunities, and so on. But, is that really the case? Was Thomas Jefferson’s famous words, forever inscribed in the Declaration of Independence, meant for everyone? Taking a look back into America’s short (at least when compared to other countries) history, the phrase “all men are created equal” doesn’t really seem to correlate with the circumstances of that century. Africans were enslaved and forced to do hard, strenuous labor or else be forced to endure a beating by the slave master. But don’t forget, all men are created equal. It says so in the constitution. Fast forward a couple of hundred years where all men still aren’t equal, but are close to it.

“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” Thomas Jefferson is arguably one of the most influential people to Virginia and the United States before and during the American Revolution. Jefferson had been a governor for Virginia during the American Revolution, he had wrote the Declaration of Independence along with four other notable American politicians, and served as a minister to France in 1785-1789. Without Jefferson the American Revolution most likely would have played out completely different and we could possibly be living a different life today.

It’s an idea that Thomas Jefferson supported his whole life, from the writing of the Declaration of Independence to his presidency and even after. In his own words, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” The moment when this idea was most prominent in his life was when he wrote the Kentucky Resolutions in 1798. The Kentucky Resolutions were a reaction the Alien and Sedition Acts imposed by President John Adams at the time. The acts stated that it was treasonous to criticize the government in times of war. Jefferson saw this as an obvious violation of the Bill of Rights, and wrote his resolutions, which included something called the theory of nullification. The theory of nullification stated that if a law is unjust or unconstitutional that a state has the right to nullify or invalidate it. This can be seen as the first appearance of an idea of civil disobedience. The disobedience of the Alien and Sedition acts helped preserve our standard of free speech that we still uphold

Jefferson listed the tyranny acts the King and the government has been committing. He states, “For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our government.” This quote was an example of the list which opened the colonists’ eyes allowing them to realize how they have been blind to the actions that have been taken regarding their rights. As a result, the colonists became passionate about becoming independent and creating the laws that were necessary, reasonable, and didn’t contradict their

     Joseph J. Ellis, a historian who was educated at the College of William and Mary and Yale, is a Ford Foundation Professor of History at Mount Holyoke University. He has written four books on historical topics, centered on the time Jefferson was alive, dealing with issues and personalities Jefferson dealt with firsthand. After authoring a book on a politician such as John Adams, Ellis seems to have felt a need or want to focus on Jefferson, presumably because of his status as founding father and main contributor to the constitution.

The Declaration of Independence was written justifying the reasons for revolting against the British rule. It served three purposes, outlining its theory of government, listing complaints, and declaring war. The main complaint was the passage of unfavorable laws in England that affected the colonists yet they were not represented within the English Parliament to air the opinions while such laws were being passed. Though appearing like a logical argument, the British might have viewed it as diluting their power within their own parliament. Another complaint was the King’s role in making it difficult for the Colonists to participate in governance; this might also have been seen as undermining the British power in America and then there was forbidding laws that would have established significant judiciary powers. The King being the supreme source of justice might have viewed it as undermining

Thomas Jefferson argued persuasively that since the King had flouted their natural rights, the colonists were justified in cutting connection. He then set a list of grievances toward the King George III. These grievances included the unjust taxes, cutting of trade, hostility for the Indians, abuse from the military, dispensing trial by jury, as many others dictatorial actions.

Thomas Jefferson believed the Shay’s Rebellion was a very significant event. In the year 1787, he wrote a letter, conveying his idea of rebellions. “Yet where does this anarchy exist?” a line written in Jefferson’s letter. This tells us his idea of Shay’s rebellion. From this one line we can conclude that he does not believe there is a real chaos going on. “God forbid we should ever be 20 years without such a rebellion.” What he means by this is that rebellions sometimes do need to happen. It makes up what helps us learn and improve. “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” When he says this he means that sacrifices have to be made in order for us to

Civil disobedience is a crucial part of any free society, especially a society that wishes to give its citizens the most liberty possible. Looking back on American history, one can see that the colonists originally protested the laws that Britain had imposed, and had done so peacefully. By not paying taxes and by assembling outside public offices, the colonists disobeyed British laws and the British crown. Their protests not only helped spark the American Revolution, but also made light of the fact that any free society relies on its citizens to disobey the government, especially when it's done peacefully.

To achieve this, Washington believed that we as a people should frequently go back to the Constitution as a guide for our actions. If the government was ever to wrong the people or to bring about an unconstitutional law, the people had the right to protest, but any changes should be made legally, in a way that the constitution allowed. Based on what he had seen in other countries and in the Whiskey Rebellion, he knew that overthrowing the government would lead to chaos. Citizens should not use violence to voice their opinion. They should instead use the powers granted to them in the constitution to create change. A civilized nation’s citizens should not hold riots in honor of their own opinions, but create radical change in a way that can be respected by their fellow citizens and by other countries.

To prove this in the letter from Thomas Jefferson it says, “What country before has existed without a rebellion? …. Tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” With this evidence, you can see his message was indeed saying that you needed a rebellion because of those who had been oppressed by tyrants and those who tried so hard to win against Britain, Patriots, which assumedly means that the rebels were Patriots before and they were just tired of taxes and being controlled by the government, that they needed a change to relieve themselves and if that simmered inside of them a war could have happened instead of just a measly rebellion. So yes, this rebellion was necessary so that may have been why many called them freedom fighters because they tried to make a change. Also in the letter by T. Jefferson it states that, “and in the spur of the moment {I worry they will over-react}.”

ON the evening of March 5th, Boston citizens carried out a brutal, planned attack upon innocent British soldiers and attempted to raid the Customs House, among other various institutions, in unjustifiable protest to our fair rule.

Throughout the years the United States of America has transformed by how each president has used different tactics to persuade Americans. Whether they were used to pass a law, in elections, or to prove a point many tactics were used. In the early start of the creation of creating a balanced system it was crucial to know how to persuade Americans to break away from England. Knowing what points to emphasize on and what topics to briefly cover is clearly seen in the Deceleration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson uses a variety of tactics to strategically persuade his audience. He uses logos to prove and back up his point, pathos to create an emotional connection, ethos appeal to show some authority, and lastly stylistic devices to create a strong image.

Thomas Jefferson always supported the modern day protests. According to the letter that he wrote about the Shays’ Rebellion he said that he in fact did support the protest. When the people were rewriting the Constitution Thomas Jefferson feared that the people that were at the Constitutional Convention were over reacting to the Shays’ Rebellion. He also thought that they would take it too far and start creating a couple of stupid rules that shouldn’t be created. The Shays’ Rebellion was all started all because of the many farmers that were going in debt since they didn’t have enough money to pay the taxes that they were informed to pay. So because of all of this situation the farmers and their leader Daniel Shays started protesting about how

A revolution is not the battle of one. For any change in the status quo to occur, people need to coalesce behind a common goal. Since Jefferson knew the British would not let the colonies go without a fight, gaining this much-needed support was his main goal in writing the Declaration of Independence. In order to gain reinforcements for the Declaration of Independence’s message, Jefferson made crucial edits to capture a more spiritual tone and paint a tangible goal..