Articles: May 2006 Archives

Does man have an inalienable right to rebel against his own government? Thomas Jefferson once said famously "A little rebellion now and then is a good thing." He was speaking about the Shay's Rebellion, a revolt by farmers in Western Massachusetts against the court system being used by rich landowners and banks to lock smaller landowners in debtor's prisons. Most people only ever hear that quick blurb from Jefferson, usually quoted by libertarians justifying their more shocking statements in favor of anarchy. Historians sometimes trot it out when they wish to paint Jefferson in a light of slight lunacy, but he goes on in his letter to explain himself: "I hold that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. Unsuccessful rebellions, indeed, generally establish the encroachments on the rights of the people which have produced them. An observation of this truth should render honest republican governments so mild in their punishment of rebellions as not ot discourage them too much. It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government."