Mrs. Adams wrote to Jefferson on 29 January 1787:

Ignorant, wrestless desperadoes, without conscience or principles, have led a deluded multitude to follow their standard, under pretence of grievances which have no existence but in their imaginations. . . . Some of them were crying out for a paper currency, some for an equal distribution of property, some were for annihilating all debts. . . . Instead of that laudible spirit which you approve, which makes a people watchful over their Liberties and alert in the defence of them, these mobish insurgents are for sapping the, foundation, and distroying the whole fabrick at once.

Jefferson replied on 22 February 1787:

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often ,be exercised when wrong, but better, so than not to be exercised at all. I like a...