The tide of liberty
In the last letter he ever wrote, Thomas Jefferson spoke of the abiding force carried by America's Declaration of Independence. "May it be to the world, what I believe it will be (to some parts sooner, to some later, but finally to all), the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government." His vision of America as a nation charged with the defense of liberty had not diminished in the half century since he authored that fine revolutionary document.








