The oft-quoted "tree of liberty" from Jefferson was in a letter he wrote in 1787 while ambassador to France, and although it's part of his critique on the as-yet-adopted Constitution of the United States, particularly with respect to the Executive branch, many historians consider the colorful language to be basically a comment cheering on the French Revolution which was then taking place and of which he was then quite fond. He thought the French were following his ideals and freeing their own country as we had freed ours.
That is until less than two years later when Jefferson damn near got his own head chopped off by the guillotine for not toeing the political line.
He realized that liberté and egalité only applied to the people who were friends of the revolution, the fraternité. Meet the new boss... same as the old boss. So he got the hell out of there and started writing stuff about it that stayed private until the U.S. was on a much more solid footing in the world and didn't need France anymore.
The oft-quoted "tree of liberty" from Jefferson was in a letter he wrote in 1787 while ambassador to France, and although it's part of his critique on the as-yet-adopted Constitution of the United States, particularly with respect to the Executive branch, many historians consider the colorful language to be basically a comment cheering on the French Revolution which was then taking place and of which he was then quite fond. He thought the French were following his ideals and freeing their own country as we had freed ours.
That is until less than two years later when Jefferson damn near got his own head chopped off by the guillotine for not toeing the political line.
He realized that liberté and egalité only applied to the people who were friends of the revolution, the fraternité. Meet the new boss... same as the old boss. So he got the hell out of there and started writing stuff about it that stayed private until the U.S. was on a much more solid footing in the world and didn't need France anymore.