Fire bell in the night (Quotation)
In 1820, Jefferson described the Missouri statehood debate as a "fire bell in the night" — a vivid warning that the question of slavery's expansion threatened to tear the Union apart.
Discussing the question of Missouri's admission to the Union, Thomas Jefferson wrote to John Holmes, "... but this momentous question, like a fire bell in the night, awakened and filled me with terror. I considered it at once as the knell of the Union. it is hushed indeed for the moment. but this is a reprieve only, not a final sentence."
- Jefferson to Holmes, April 22, 18201
Footnotes
- PTJ:RS, 15:550-51. Transcription available at Founders Online.