On December 20, 1787, Thomas Jefferson wrote to James Madison:
“I think our governments will remain virtuous for many centuries; as long as they are chiefly agricultural; and this will be as long as there shall be vacant lands in any part of America. When they get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, they will become corrupt as in Europe.”
Apparently, according to Jefferson, the reason that our government has become such a mess is because so few of us are farmers. It would be interesting to see how Jefferson would react to the current state of American society.
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