| | ::: Thomas Jefferson certainly had a different understanding. Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to Isaac H. Tiffany on August 26, 1816, which certainly contradicts the understanding of Birchers. With respect to the ancient Greeks, Jefferson wrote: | | ::: Thomas Jefferson certainly had a different understanding. Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to Isaac H. Tiffany on August 26, 1816, which certainly contradicts the understanding of Birchers. With respect to the ancient Greeks, Jefferson wrote: |
| − | "They had just ideas of the value of personal liberty, but none at all of the structure of government best calculated to preserve it. They knew no medium between a democracy (the only pure republic, but impracticable beyond the limits of a town) and an abandonment of themselves to an aristocracy or a tyranny independent of the people." | + | :::"They had just ideas of the value of personal liberty, but none at all of the structure of government best calculated to preserve it. They knew no medium between a democracy (the only pure republic, but impracticable beyond the limits of a town) and an abandonment of themselves to an aristocracy or a tyranny independent of the people." |
| − | "It seems not to have occurred that where the citizens cannot meet to transact their business in person, they alone have the right to chuse the agents who shall transact it; and that, in this way, a republican, or popular government, of the 2d grade of purity, may be exercised over any extent of country. The full experiment of a government democratical, but representative, was and is still reserved for us." | + | :::"It seems not to have occurred that where the citizens cannot meet to transact their business in person, they alone have the right to chuse the agents who shall transact it; and that, in this way, a republican, or popular government, of the 2d grade of purity, may be exercised over any extent of country. The full experiment of a government democratical, but representative, was and is still reserved for us." [[User:Ernie1241|Ernie1241]] ([[User talk:Ernie1241|talk]]) 15:07, July 24, 2021 (EDT)ernie1241[[User:Ernie1241|Ernie1241]] ([[User talk:Ernie1241|talk]]) 15:07, July 24, 2021 (EDT) |