"In defense of our persons and properties under actual violation, we took up arms. When that violence shall be removed, when hostilities shall cease on the part of the aggressors, hostilities shall cease on our part also"

Thomas Jefferson’s words articulate the principles underlying the American colonists' decision to engage in armed conflict during the Revolutionary War. He openly asserts that the colonists resorted to arms not out of a desire for conquest, revenge, or aggression, but rather as a direct response to having their persons and properties violated. The phrase “defense of our persons and properties under actual violation” emphasizes that the colonists believed their rights to personal safety and ownership were under tangible, immediate threat. This justification reframes the war not as an act of rebellion for its own sake, but as a compelled action born out of necessity and in keeping with fundamental rights.

By affirming, “when that violence shall be removed, when hostilities shall cease on the part of the aggressors, hostilities shall cease on our part also,” Jefferson further clarifies that the colonists had no inherent interest in ongoing conflict. Their readiness to lay down arms is contingent upon the cessation of aggression from the opposing side; peace is not only possible but desirable as soon as the instigating threat is eliminated. This conditional offer of peace illustrates a moral high ground, the willingness to end conflict rather than to perpetuate it for gain, while simultaneously placing responsibility for continued hostilities squarely on the “aggressors.”

Through this reasoning, Jefferson appeals both to rational argument and moral sensibility. He advances the idea that armed resistance is a last resort, justified only in the face of unjust force. The emphasis on stopping conflict when aggression ends is a powerful affirmation of the desire for peace and self-governance, aligning the motivations of the colonists with broader Enlightenment ideals of natural rights and the legitimacy of self-defense. Jefferson’s language presents the struggle not as an insurrection but as a moral imperative borne from the defense of liberty and lawful property when all other remedies have failed.