Political Dissent Quotes
In 1786, many veterans of the American Revolution had still not yet been paid the promised wages for their military service by the new national government. The States however had imposed taxes on farms to fund the new state governments and pay the state’s war debts mostly to rich merchants. Many veterans could not pay the taxes and some were thrown into debtors’ prison, and others had their farms foreclosed. Led by Daniel Shays, a small group of Massachusetts men conducted a mini rebellion by closing local court houses and tried to take over the local state armory. The Governor put down the rebellion by force and the rebels were jailed. Samuel Adams, the former governor, recommended the death penalty (see {630527}), and several of the rebels were executed. Thomas Jefferson disagreed, via this famous quotation. This was one of the early crises of the new country and it was handled very poorly and unfairly.
Vladimir Lenin
In 1937 four nationalist army columns were converging on Madrid in the Spanish Civil War. General Mola was asked which column would take Madrid. His reference to the sympathizers inside the city became a universal term for traitors.
McCarthy accused thousands of people of being communists and disloyal. He claimed to have lists of communists in universities, the Army and other agencies of government, but never produced such lists. In addition to being a overbearing demagogue, he suffered (and died from) from a serious case of alcoholism. McCarthy’s false and irresponsible attacks eventually caused the Senate to censure him. That and his drinking destroyed his career. Not a single person “exposed” by McCarthy was ever convicted of anything. Many had their careers destroyed however. A number of universities fired Professors because at an earlier phase of their careers, they had been a member of an organization that was communist or affiliated with communists, and then left. These firings led to intensive efforts to strengthen the rules of tenure and academic freedom so that the McCarthy abuses could never be repeated. McCarthy could not be sued for his defamatory lies as he always made his accusations from the floor of the Senate where there is absolute protection even for malicious and irresponsible statements.
First woman elected to Congress. She was one of a handful of Congressman who opposed the WWI declaration. She was the only member of the House to oppose FDR’s request for a Declaration of War against Japan after Pearl Harbor.
Adams' interesting distinction was later taken much further by many communist countries in their treatment of "enemies" of "peoples' governments."
In 1786, many veterans of the American Revolution had still not yet been paid the promised wages for their military service by the new national government. The States however had imposed taxes on farms to fund the new state governments and pay the state’s war debts mostly to rich merchants. Many veterans could not pay the taxes and some were thrown into debtors’ prison, and others had their farms foreclosed. Led by Daniel Shays, a small group of Massachusetts men conducted a mini rebellion by closing local court houses and tried to take over the local state armory. The Governor put down the rebellion by force and the rebels were jailed. Adams, the the former governor, recommended the death penalty and several of the rebels were executed. Thomas Jefferson disagreed. See {604839} for his famous quotation on the subject. This was one of the early crises of the new country and it was handled very poorly and unfairly.
He was one of the early predictors of the fall of the Soviet Union. See {586209} for part of his reasoning.
In the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, Iranian "students" and other agents were demonstrating against the United States in Washington and other U. S. cities. The President prevailed upon District of Columbia officials not to grant a permit to the Iranian demonstrators lest some would be attacked by irate Americans. If this were seen on international television might bring harm to the American hostages in Iran:
