Thomas Jefferson, in 1820, discussing the fate of the Missouri Compromise –legislation which was supposed to resolve the question of the future of slavery’s extension in America.
Read more about Jefferson in this post.
Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States.Official portrait by Rembrandt Peale. http://www.whitehouseresearch.org/assetbank-whha/action/viewHome
“But as it is, we have the wolf by the ear, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go. Justice is in one scale, and self-preservation in the other.”
Jefferson discussing the Missouri question and slavery to John Holmes April 22, 1820. Ford, Paul Leicester, ed. The Works of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 12. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1905, p. 159.
