It is Mortifying to suppose it possible that a people able and zealous to contend with the Enemy should be reduced to fold their Arms for want of the means of defence; yet no resources that we know of, ensure us against this event.
ATTRIBUTION:
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), U.S. president. Letter, October 22, 1780, to George Washington. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 4, p. 60, ed. Julian P. Boyd, et al. (1950).
