[cripplecreek]

"The mobs of great cities add just so much to support of pure government as sores do to the strength of the human body,"

-Thomas Jefferson.

[Age of Reason]

"The mobs of great cities add just so much to support of pure government as sores do to the strength of the human body," -Thomas Jefferson

I think Jefferson said it better here:

"I view great cities as pestilential to the morals, the health and the liberties of man. True, they nourish some of the elegant arts; but the useful ones can thrive elsewhere; and less perfection in the others, with more health, virtue and freedom, would be my choice." -Thomas Jefferson

And here: "I think our governments will remain virtuous for many centuries as long as they are chiefly agricultural; and this will be as long as there shall be vacant lands in any part of America. When they get piled upon one another in large cities as in Europe, they will become corrupt as in Europe." Thomas Jefferson

[Straight Vermonter]

That was at a time when Philadelphia was the largest city in the US with about 40K people.