I prefer the Pattonesque phrasing "..from time to time the tree of freedom must be watered with the blood of tyrants". Said watering having been done BY patriots.
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."Jefferson was applying this to our own revolution and, in general, to domestic insurrections as well. At that time, no one in America was talking about deposing foreign despots.
Thomas Jefferson
Letter to William S. Smith, Paris, Nov. 13, 1787