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Quotation of the Day…

… is from page 120 of Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia, William Peden, ed. (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1954 [1784]) (original emphasis):

An elective despotism was not the government we fought for; but one which should not only be founded on free principles, but in which the powers of government should be so divided and balanced among several bodies of magistracy, as that no one could transcend their legal limits, without being effectually checked and restrained by the others.

The objective identified by Jefferson warrants being repeated: “An elective despotism was not the government we fought for; but one which should … be founded on free principles“.

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