American people Quote by Jack Pelham
““Now, it’s a pity that your schools no longer teach the same language in which the Declaration and the Constitution were written because you’ve lost touch with the finer points of how to put a sentence together—and how to take one apart. There’s some real meat in these words. What he’s saying is that it was obvious that the King intended to reduce the American people into a people without any rights and freedoms, and that he was going to do it under ‘absolute despotism’, which means that he would have complete authority to do anything he pleased to do. In other words, he wrote that they could see this coming—that it was obvious that King George did not intend to stop until he had complete control over everything in their lives. “Now this Thomas Jefferson was pretty radical—and remember, he was not perfect in his acts, for he violated the Constitution himself when he became president later—but he said something in the Declaration—an idea that is flatly rejected by far too many Americans today. He said that when it’s obvious that the government is headed toward such total control, the people have both a right and a duty. He wrote: …it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.45””
About This Quote
Source Speech: American History Lecture, 2022
The quote stresses that when a government threatens liberty, citizens have a duty to resist and protect their freedoms.
In simple terms: Citizens must act against oppressive rule.
Defend liberty when threatened.
Themes
Mood
Type
When to use this quote
- voting
- protest
- civic education
Key Concepts
Questions to Reflect On
- When is resistance justified?
- How can peaceful change be achieved?
Risk of violent upheaval exists.