Mr. Adams has been alienated from me, by belief in the lying suggestions contrived for electioneering purposes, that I perhaps mixed in the activity and intrigues of the occasion. My most intimate friends can testify that I was perfectly passive. They would sometimes, indeed, tell me what was going on; but no man ever heard me take part in such conversations; and none ever misrepresented Mr. Adams in my presence, without my asserting his just character. With very confidential persons I have doubtless disapproved of the principles and practices of his administration. This was unavoidable. But never with those with whom it could do him any injury. Decency would have required this conduct from me, if disposition had not, and I am satisfied Mr. Adams's conduct was equally honorable towards me. But I think it part of his character to suspect foul play in those of whom he is jealous, and not easily to relinquish his suspicions. --

TITLE: To Dr. Benjamin Rush.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 563.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 299.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: Jan. 1811

I have the same good opinion of Mr. Adams which I [Col 2] ever had. I know him to be an honest man, an able one with his pen, and he was a powerful advocate on the floor of Congress. --

TITLE: To Dr. Benjamin Rush.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 562.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 298.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

The nation passed condemnation on the political principles of the federalists, by refusing to continue Mr. Adams in the Presidency. On the day on which we learned in Philadelphia the vote of the city of New York, which it was well known would decide the vote of the State, and that, again, the vote of the Union, I called on Mr. Adams on some official business. He was very seriously affected, and accosted me with these words: “Well, I understand that you are to beat me in this contest, and I will only say that I will be as faithful a subject as any you will have.” “Mr. Adams,” said I, “this is no personal contest between you and me. Two systems of principles on the subject of government divide our citizens into two parties. With one of these you concur, and I with the other. As we have been longer on the public stage than most of those now living, our names happen to be more generally known. One of these parties, therefore, has put your name at its head, the other mine. Were we both to die to-day, to-morrow two other names would be in the place of ours, without any change in the motion of the machinery. Its motion is from its principle, and not from you or myself.” “I believe you are right,” said he, “that we are but passive instruments, and should not suffer this matter to affect our personal dispositions. ” But he did long retain this just view of the subject. I have always believed that the thousand calumnies which the federalists, in bitterness of heart, and mortification at their ejection, daily invented against me, were carried to him by their busy intriguers, and made some impression. --

TITLE: To Dr. Benjamin Rush.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 560.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 296.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: Jan. 1811

When the election between Burr and myself was kept in suspense by the federalists, and they were meditating to place the President of the Senate at the head of the government, 'I called on Mr. Adams with a view to have this desperate measure prevented by his negative. He grew warm in an instant, and said with a vehemence he had not used towards me before: “Sir, the event of the election is within your own power. You have only to say you will do justice to the public creditors, maintain the navy, and not disturb those holding offices, and the government will instantly be put into your hands. We know it is the wish of the people it should be so.” “Mr. Adams,” said I, “I know not what part of my conduct, in either public or private life, can have authorized a doubt of my fidelity to the public engagements. I say, however, I will not come into the government by capitulation. I will not enter on it, but in

TITLE: To Dr. Benjamin Rush.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 561.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 297.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: Jan. 1811

Those scenes of midnight appointment, [* * *] have been condemned by all men. The last day of his political power, the last hours, and even beyond the midnight, were employed in filling all offices, and especially permanent ones, with the bitterest federalists, and providing for me the alternative, either to execute the government by my enemies, whose study it would be to thwart and defeat all my measures, or to incur the odium of such numerous removals from office, as might bear me down. --

TITLE: To Dr. Benjamin Rush.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 561.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 297.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: Jan. 1811

A little time and reflection effaced in my mind this temporary dissatisfaction [because of the midnight appointments, &c.] with Mr. Adams, and restored me to that just estimate of his virtues and passions, which a long acquaintance had enabled me to fix. And my first wish became that of making his retirement easy by any means in my power; for it was understood he was not rich. I suggested to some republican members of the delegation from his State, the giving him, either directly or indirectly, an office, the most lucrative in that State, and then offered to be resigned, if they thought he would not deem it affrontive. They were of opinion he would take great offence at the offer; and moreover, that the body of republicans would consider such a step in the outset as arguing very ill of the course I meant to pursue. I dropped the idea, therefore, but did not cease to wish for some opportunity of renewing our friendly understanding. --

TITLE: To Dr. Benjamin Rush.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 562.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 298.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: Jan. 1811

While Mr. Adams was VicePresident, and I Secretary of State, I received a letter from President Washington, then at Mount Vernon, desiring me to call to [Col 2] gether the Heads of Departments, and to invite Mr. Adams to join us (which, by-the-bye, was the only instance of that being done) in order to determine on some measure which required despatch; and he desired me to act on it, as decided, without again recurring to him. I invited them to dine with me, and after dinner, sitting at our wine, having settled our question, other conversation came on, in which a collision of opinion arose between Mr. Adams and Colonel Hamilton, on the merits of the British Constitution, Mr. Adams giving it as his opinion, that, if some of its defects and abuses were corrected, it would be the most perfect constitution of government ever devised by man. Hamilton, on the contrary, asserted, that with its existing vices, it was the most perfect model of government that could be formed; and that the correction of its vices would render it an impracticable government. And this you May be assured was the real line of difference between the political principles of these two gentlemen. Another incident took place on the same occasion, which will further delineate Mr. Hamilton's political principles. The room being hung around with a collection of the portraits of remarkable men, among them were those of Bacon, Newton and Locke. Hamilton asked me who they were. I told him they were my trinity of the three greatest men the world had ever produced, naming them. He paused for some time: “The greatest man,” said he, “that ever lived, was Julius Csesar.” Mr. Adams was honest as a politician as well as a man; Hamilton honest as a man, but, as a politician, believing in the necessity of either force or corruption to govern men.

TITLE: To Dr. Benjamin Rush.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 559.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 295.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: Jan. 1811

My affections are first for my own country, and then, generally, for all mankind. --

TITLE: To Thomas Law.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 556.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 293.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

Good wishes are all an old man has to offer to his country or friends. --

TITLE: To Thomas Law.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 557.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 293.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

The tax on importations [* * *] falls exclusively on the rich, and with the equal partition of intestates' estates constitutes the best agrarian law. --

TITLE: To Dupont de Nemours.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 584.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 321.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811
See Entails, Primogeniture, Monopoly.

Were practical and observing husbandmen in each county to form themselves into a society, commit to writing themselves, or state in conversations at their meetings to be written down by others, their practices, and observations, their experiences and ideas, selections from these might be made

TITLE: Plan for Agricultural Societies.
EDITION: Washington ed. ix, 480.
PLACE: [none given]
DATE: 1811

I received your letter on the publication of an Ephemeris. I have long thought it desirable that something of that kind should be published in the United States, holding a middle station between the nautical and the common popular almanacs. [* * *] What you propose to insert is very well so far; but I think you might give it more of the character desired by the addition of some other articles which would not enlarge it more than a leaf or two. For instance, the equation of time is essential to the regulation of our clocks and watches, and would only add a narrow column to your second page. The sun's declination is often desirable and would only add another narrow column. This last would be the more useful as an element for obtaining the rising and setting of the sun in every part of the United States [* * *] if you would add a formula for that calculation. --

TITLE: To Melatiah Nash.
EDITION: Washington ed. vi, 29.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

Our falling into anarchy would decide forever the destinies of mankind, and seal the political heresy that man is incapable of self-government. --

TITLE: To John Hollins.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 597.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

I felicitate you on your destination to Paris [as minister] . [* * *] Yet it is not unmixed with regret. What is to become of our post-revolutionary history? Of the antidotes of truth to the misrepresentations of Marshall? This example proves the wisdom of the maxim, never put off till to-morrow what can be done to-day. --

TITLE: To Joel Barlow.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 587.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 322.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: April. 1811

Bonaparte's domineering temper deafens him to the dictates of interest, of honor, and of morality. --

TITLE: To Joel Barlow.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 601.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

The harmony among us was so perfect, that whatever instrument appeared most likely to effect the object, was always used without jealousy. --

TITLE: To William Wirt.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 594.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 318.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

The expression respecting myself, stated in your letter to have been imputed to you by your calumniators, had either never been heard by me, or, if heard, had been unheeded and forgotten. I have been too much the butt of such falsehoods myself to do others the injustice of permitting them to make the least impression on me. My consciousness that no man on earth has me under his thumb is evidence enough that you never used the expression. --

TITLE: To General Wilkinson.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 573.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

It is wonderful to me that old men [Col 2] should not be sensible that their minds keep pace with their bodies in the progress of decay. Our old revolutionary friend Clinton, for example, who was a hero, but never a man of mind, is wonderfully jealous on this head. He tells eternally the stories of his younger days to prove his memory, as if memory and reason were the same faculty. Nothing betrays imbecility so much as the being insensible of it. --

TITLE: To Benjamin Rush.
EDITION: Washington ed. vi, 3.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 328.
PLACE: Popular Forest, Va. ,,
DATE: 1811 1811 gt;

The habitual violation of the equal rights of the colonist by the dominant (for I will not call them the mother) countries of Europe, the invariable sacrifice of their highest interests to the minor advantages of any individual trade or calling at home, are as immoral in principle as the continuance of them is unwise in practice, after the lessons they have received. --

TITLE: To Clement Caine.
EDITION: Washington ed. vi, 13.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix. 329.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

I cannot relinquish the right of correspondence with those whom I have learned to esteem. If the extension of common acquaintance in public life be an inconvenience, that with select worth is more than a counterpoise. --

TITLE: To Levi Lincoln.
EDITION: Washington ed. vi, 7.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

There is a fulness of time when men should go, and not occupy too long the ground to which others have a right to advance. --

TITLE: To Dr. Benjamin Rush.
EDITION: Washington ed. vi, 4.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 329.
PLACE: Popular Forest, Va. ,,
DATE: 1811 1811 gt;

The pure silver in a dollar [* * *] [is] fixed by law at 347¼ grains, and all debts and contracts [* * *] [are] bottomed on that value [* * *] . --

TITLE: To Dr. Robert Patterson.
EDITION: Washington ed. vi, 22.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: Nov. 1811

The zeal, the disinterestedness, and the abilities with which you have supported the great principles of our [political] revolution, the persecutions you have suffered, and the firmness and independence with which you have suffered them, constitute too strong a claim on the good wishes of every friend of elective government to be effaced by a solitary case of difference in opinion. Thus I think, and thus I believed my much-esteemed friend Lieper would have thought; and I am the more concerned he does not, as it is so much more in his power to be useful to you than in mine. His residence, and his standing at the great seat of the moneyed institutions, command a credit with them, which no inhabitant of the country, and of agricultural pursuits only, can have. The two or three banks in our uncommercial State are too distant to have any relations with the farmers of Albemarle. We are persuaded you have not overrated the dispositions of this State to support yourself and your paper. They have felt its services too often to be indifferent in the hour of trial. They are well aware that the days of danger are not yet over. And I am sensible that if there were any means of bringing into concert the good will of the friends of the “Aurora” scattered over this State, they would not deceive your expectations. One month sooner might have found such an opportunity in the assemblage of our Legislature in Richmond. But that is now dispersed not to meet again under a twelvemonth. We, here, are but one of a hundred counties, and on consulation with friends of the neighborhood, it is their opinion that if we can find an endorser resident in Richmond, ten (for that is indispensable ) or twelve persons of this county would readily engage, as you suggest, for their $100 each, and some of them for more. It is believed that the republicans in that city can and will do a great deal more; and perhaps their central position may enable them to communicate with other counties. We have written to a distinguished friend to the cause of liberty there to take the lead in the business, as far as

TITLE: To William Duane.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 575.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 311.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

I believe Duane to be a very honest man and sincerely republican; but his passions are stronger than his prudence, and his personal as well as general antipathies render him very intolerant. These traits lead him astray, and require his readers, even those who value him for his steady support of the republican cause, to be on their guard against his occasional aberrations. --

TITLE: To William Wirt.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 595.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 319.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

After so long a course of steady adherence to the general sentiments of the republicans, it would afflict me sincerely to see you separate from the body, become auxiliary to the enemies of our government, who have to you been the bitterest enemies, who are now chuckling at the prospect of division among us, and, as I am told, are subscribing for your paper. --

TITLE: To William Duane.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 592.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 316.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: April. 1811

Our printers raven on the agonies of their victims, as wolves do on the blood of the lamb. --

TITLE: To James Monroe.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 598.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 324.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

The printers and the public are very different personages. The former may lead the latter a little out of their track, while the deviation is insensible; but the moment they usurp their direction and that of their government, they will be reduced to their [Col 2] true places. --

TITLE: To James Monroe.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 598.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 324.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: May. 1811

I think an editor should be independent, that is, of personal influence, and not be moved from his opinions on the mere authority of any individual. But with respect to the general opinion of the political section with which he habitually accords, his duty seems very like that of a member of Congress. --

TITLE: To William Duane.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 591.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 315.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

In your letter it is said that, for certain services performed by Mr. James Lyon and Mr. Samuel Morse, formerly editors of the Savannah Republican, I promised them the sum of one thousand dollars. This is totally unfounded. I never promised to any printer on earth the sum of one thousand dollars, nor any other sum, for certain services performed, or for any services which that expression would imply. I have had no accounts with printers but for their newspapers, for which I have paid always the ordinary price and no more. I have occasionally joined in moderate contributions to printers, as I have done, to other descriptions of persons, distressed or persecuted, not by promise, but the actual payment of what I contributed. --

TITLE: To James L. Edwards.
EDITION: Washington ed. vi, 8.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

I take the liberty of requesting a letter from you bearing testimony to the truth of my never having made to you, or within your knowledge or information, any such promise to yourself, your partner Morse, or any other. My confidence in your character leaves me without a doubt of your honest aid in repelling this base and bold attempt to fix on me practices to which no honors or powers in this world would ever have induced me to stoop. I have solicited none, intrigued for none. Those which my country has thought proper to confide to me have been of their own mere motion, unasked by me. Such practices as this letter-writer imputes to me, would have proved me unworthy of their confidence. --

TITLE: To James Lyon.
EDITION: Washington ed. vi, 10.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811
See Newspapers.

What England is to become on the crush of her internal structure, now seeming to be begun, I cannot foresee. Her moneyed interests, created by her paper system, and now constituting a baseless mass of wealth equal to that of the owners of the soil, must disappear with that system, and the medium for paying great taxes thus failing, her navy must be without support. That it shall be supported by permitting her to claim dominion of the ocean, and to levy tribute on every flag traversing that, as lately attempted and not yet relinquished, every nation must contest, even ad internecionem. And yet, that retiring from this enormity, she should continue able to take a fair share in the necessary equilibrium of power on that element, would be the desire of every nation. --

TITLE: To Thomas Law.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 557.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 293.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

With respect to myself I saw great reason to believe their ministers were weak enough to credit the newspaper trash about a supposed personal enmity in myself towards England. This wretched party imputation was beneath the notice of wise men. England never did me a personal injury, other than in open war; and for numerous individuals there, I have great esteem and friendship. And I must have had a mind far below the duties of my station, to have felt either national partialities or antipathies in conducting the affairs confided to me. My affections were first for my own country, and then, generally, for all mankind; and nothing but minds placing themselves above the passions, in the functionaries of this country, could have preserved us from the war to which their provocations have been constantly urging us. --

TITLE: To Thomas Law.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 556.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 292.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

Great Britain has certainly [* * *] declared to our government by an official paper, that the conduct of France towards her during this war has obliged her to take possession of the ocean, and to determine that no commerce shall be carried on with the nations connected with France; that, however, she is disposed to relax in this determination so far as to permit the commerce which may be carried on through the British ports. I have, for three or four years been confident that, knowing that he own resources were not adequate to the maintenance of her present navy, she meant with it to claim the conquest of the ocean, and to permit no nation to navigate it, but on payment of a tribute for the maintenance of the fleet necessary to secure that dominion. A thousand circumstances brought together left me without a doubt that that policy directed all her conduct, although not avowed. This is the first time she has thrown off the mask. --

TITLE: To Archibald Stuart.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 606.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 326.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: Aug. 1811

The best indication of error which my experience has tested, is the approbation of the federalists. Their conclusions necessarily follow the false bias of their principles. --

TITLE: To William Duane.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 592.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 316.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

What is the whole system of Europe towards America but an atrocious and insulting tyranny? One hemisphere of the earth, separated from the other by wide seas on both sides, having a different system of interests flowing from different climates, different soils, different productions, different modes of existence, and its own local relations and duties, is made subservient to all the petty interests of the other, to their laws, their regulations, their passions and wars, and interdicted from social intercourse, from the interchange of mutual duties and comforts with their neighbors, enjoined on all men by the laws of nature. Happily these abuses of human rights are drawing to a close on both our continents, and are not likely to survive the present mad contest of the lions and tigers of the other. --

TITLE: To Clement Caine.
EDITION: Washington ed. vi, 13.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 329.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

When our present government was first established, we had many doubts on this question, and many leanings towards a supreme executive council. It happened that at that time the experiment of such an one was commenced in France, while a single Executive was under trial here. We watched the motions and effects of these two rival plans, with an interest and anxiety proportioned to the importance of a choice between them. The experiment in France failed after a short course, and not from any circumstances peculiar to the times or nation, but from those internal jealousies and dissensions in the Directory, which will ever arise among men equal in power, without a principal to decide and control their differences. We had tried a similar experiment in 1784, by establishing a Committee of the States, composed of a member from every State, then thirteen, to exercise the executive functions during the recess of Congress. They fell immediately into schisms and dissensions, which became at length so inveterate as to render all cooperation among them impracticable; they dissolved themselves, abandoning the helm of government, and it continued without a head, until Congress met the ensuing winter. This was then imputed to the temper of two or three individuals; but the wise ascribed it to the nature of man. The failure of the French Directory, and from the same cause, seems to have authorized a belief that the form of a plurality, however promising in theory, is impracticable with men constituted with the ordinary passions. While the tranquil and steady tenor of our single Executive, during a course of twenty-two years of the most tempestuous times the history of the world has ever presented, gives a rational hope that this important problem is at length solved. Aided by the counsels of a cabinet of heads of departments. originally four, but now five, with whom the President consults, either singly or altogether, he has the benefit of their wisdom and information, brings their views to one centre, and produces an unity of action and direction in all the branches of the government. The excellence of this construction of the executive power has already manifested itself here under very opposite circumstances. During the administration of our first President, his cabinet of four members was equally divided by as marked an opposition of principle as monarchism and republicanism could bring into conflict. Had that cabinet been a Directory, like positive and negative quantities in algebra, the opposing wills would have balanced each other and produced a state of absolute inaction. But the President heard with calmness the opinions and reasons of each, decided the course to be pursued, and kept the government steadily in it, unaffected by the agitation. The public knew well the dissensions of the cabinet, but never had an uneasy thought on their account, because they

TITLE: To M. Destutt Tracy.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 567.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 306.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: Jan. 1811

The loss of the power of taking exercise would be a sore affliction to me. It has been the delight of my retirement to be in constant bodily activity, looking after my affairs. It was never damped as the pleasures of reading are, by the question cui bono? [* * *] Your works show that of your mind. The habits of exercise which your calling has given to both, will tend long to preserve them. The sedentary character of my occupations sapped a constitution naturally strong and vigorous, and draws it to an earlier close. --

TITLE: To Dr. Benjamin Rush.
EDITION: Washington ed. vi, 4.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 328.
PLACE: Popular Forest, Va. ,,
DATE: 1811 1811 gt;

Exile [is] the most rational of all punishments for meditated treason. --

TITLE: To Levi Lincoln.
EDITION: Washington ed. vi, 8.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

The truth is that farmers, as we all are, have no command of money. Our necessaries are all supplied, either from our farms, or a neighboring store. Our produce, at the end of the year, is delivered to the merchant, and thus the business of the year is done by barter, without the intervention of scarcely a dollar; and thus, also, we live with a plenty of everything except money. --

TITLE: To William Duane.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 576.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 312.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

In Virginia we are all farmers, but not in a pleasing style. We have so little labor in proportion to our land that, although perhaps we make more profit from the same labor, we cannot give to our grounds that style of beauty which satisfies the eye of the amateur. --

TITLE: To C. W. Peale.
EDITION: Washington ed. vi, 6.
PLACE: Popular Forest, Va. ,,
DATE: 1811 1811 gt;

No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth. --

TITLE: To C. W. Peale.
EDITION: Washington ed. vi, 6.
PLACE: Popular Forest, Va. ,,
DATE: 1811 1811 gt;

Federalism, stripped as it now nearly is, of its landed and laboring support, is monarchism and Anglicism, and whenever our own dissensions shall let these in upon us, the last ray of free government closes on the horizon of the world. --

TITLE: To William Duane.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 602.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811
See Monarchy.

Tell my old friend, Governor Gerry, that I give him glory for the resping with which he rubbed down his herd of traitors. Let them have justice and protection against personal violence, but no favor. Powers and preeminences conferred on them are daggers put into the hands of assassins, to be plunged into our own bosoms in the moment the thrust can go home to the heart. Moderation can never reclaim them. They deem it timidity, and despise without fearing the tameness from which it flows. Backed by England, they never lose the hope that their day is to come, when the terrorism of their earlier power is to be merged in the more gratifying system of deportation and the guillotine. --

TITLE: To Henry Dearborn.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 608.
PLACE: Popular Forest, Va. ,,
DATE: Aug. 1811

I wish you [Congress] would authorize the President to take possession of East Florida immediately. The seizing West Florida will be a signal to England to take Pensacola and St. Augustine; and be assured it will be done as soon as the order can return after they hear of our taking Baton Rouge, and we shall never get it from them but by a war, which may be prevented by anticipation. There never was a case where the adage was more true, “in for a penny, in for a pound”; and no more offence will be taken by France and Spain at our seizure of both than of one. --

TITLE: To J. W. Eppes.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 290.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: Jan. 1811

The English will take East Florida, pretendedly for Spain. We should take it with a declaration; 1, that it is a reprisal for indemnities Spain has acknowledged due to us; 2, to keep it from falling into hands in which it would essentially endanger our safety; 3, that in our hands it will still be held as a subject of negotiation. The leading republican members should come to an understanding, close the doors, and determine not to separate till the vote is carried, and all the secrecy you can enjoin should be aimed at until the measure is executed. --

TITLE: To J. W. Eppes.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 291.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: Jan. 1811

Of one thing I am certain, that they will not suffer personal dissatisfactions to endanger the republican cause. Their principles, I know, are far above all private considerations. And when we reflect that the eyes of the virtuous all over the earth are turned with anxiety on us, as the only depositories of the sacred fire of liberty, and that our falling into anarchy would decide forever the destinies of mankind, and seal the political heresy that man is incapable of self-government, the only contest between divided friends should be who will dare farthest into the ranks of the common enemy. --

TITLE: To John Hollins.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 596.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

No one feels more painfully than I do, the separation of friends, and especially when their sensibilities are to be daily harrowed up by cannibal newspapers. In these cases, however, I claim from all parties the privilege of neutrality, and to be permitted to esteem all as I ever did. The harmony which made me happy while at Washington, is as dear to me now as then, and I should be equally afflicted, were it, by any circumstance, to be impaired as to myself. --

TITLE: To Albert Gallatin.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 588.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: April. 1811

Sincerely the friend of all the parties, I ask of none why they have fallen out by the way, and would gladly infuse the oil and wine of the Samaritan into all their wounds. I hope that time, the assuager of all evils, will heal these also; and I pray for them all a continuance of their affection, and to be permitted to bear to all the same unqualified esteem. --

TITLE: To John Hollins.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 596.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

The late misunderstandings at Washington have been

TITLE: To James Monroe.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 598.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 323.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: May. 1811

I find friendship to be like wine, raw when new, ripened with age, the true old man's milk and restorative cordial. --

TITLE: To Dr. Benjamin Rush.
EDITION: Washington ed. vi, 4.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 329.
PLACE: Popular Forest, Va. ,,
DATE: 1811 1811 gt;

The war interests in England include a numerous and wealthy part of their population; and their influence is deemed worth courting by ministers wishing to keep their places. Continually endangered by a powerful opposition, they find it convenient to humor the popular passions at the expense of the public good. The shipping interest, commercial interest, and their janizaries of the navy, all fattening on war, will not be neglected by ministers of ordinary minds. Their tenure of office is so infirm that they dare not follow the dictates of wisdom, justice, and the well-calculated interests

TITLE: To Thomas Law.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 556.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 293.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

Instead of cultivating the government itself, whose principles are those of the great mass of the nation, they [the British Ministry] have adopted the miserable policy of teasing and embarrassing it, by allying themselves with a faction here [the monarchical Federalists] , not a tenth of the people, noisy and unprincipled, and which can never come into power while republicanism is the spirit of the nation, and that must continue to be so, until such a condensation of population shall have taken place as will require centuries. Whereas, the good will of the government itself would give them, and immediately, every benefit which reason or justice would permit it to give. --

TITLE: To Thomas Law.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 556.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 292.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

No man was more sensible than myself of the just value of the friendship of Great Britain. There are between us so many of those circumstances which naturally produce and cement kind dispositions, that if they could have forgiven our resistance to their usurpations, our connections might have been durable, and have insured duration to both our governments. I wished, therefore, a cordial friendship with them, and I spared no occasion of manifesting this in our correspondence and intercourse with them; not disguising, however, my desire of friendship with their enemy also. During the administration of Mr. Addington, I thought I discovered some friendly symptoms on the part of that government; at least, we received some marks of respect from the administration, and some of regret at the wrongs we were suffering from their country. So, also, during the short interval of Mr. Fox's power. But every other administration since our Revolution has been equally wanton in their injuries and insults, and have manifested equal hatred and aversion. --

TITLE: To Thomas Law.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 555.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 292.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

The ablest man except the President [Madison] who was ever in the administration. --

TITLE: To William Wirt.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 595.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 319.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: May. 1811

There is no truer man than Mr. Gallatin, and after the President he is the ark of our safety. --

TITLE: To Dabney Carr.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 317.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

I believe Mr. Gallatin to be of a pure integrity, and as zealously devoted to the liberties and interests of our country as its most affectionate native citizen. Of this his courage in Congress in the days of terror, gave proofs which nothing can obliterate from the recollection of those who were witnesses of it. [* * *] An intercourse, almost daily, of eight years with him, has given me opportunities of knowing his character more thoroughly than perhaps any other man living. --

TITLE: To William Duane.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 574.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 311.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

Mr. Gallatin's support of the bank has, I believe, been disapproved by many. He was not in Congress when that was established, and therefore had never committed himself, publicly, on the constitutionality of that institution, nor do I recollect ever to have heard him declare himself on it. I know he derived immense convenience from it, because they gave the effect of ubiquity to his money wherever deposited. [* * *] He was, therefore, cordial to the bank. I often pressed him to divide the public deposits among all the respectable banks, being indignant myself at the open hostility of that institution to a government on whose treasuries they were fattening. But his repugnance to it prevented my persisting. And if he was in favor of the bank, what is the amount of that crime or error in which he had a majority, save one, in each House of Congress as participators? --

TITLE: To William Wirt.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 595.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 318.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: May. 1811

They say Mr. Gallatin was hostile to me. This is false. I was indebted to nobody for more cordial aid [during my administration] than to Mr. Gallatin, nor could any man more solicitously interest himself in behalf of another than he did of myself. --

TITLE: To William Wirt.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 594.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 318.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

Those who will come after us will be as wise as we are, and as able to take care of themselves as we have been. --

TITLE: To Dupont de Nemours.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 584.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 322.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

Hamilton was honest as a man, but, as a politician, believing in the necessity of either force or corruption to govern men. --

TITLE: To Dr. Benjamin Rush.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 560.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 296.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

My earnest prayers to all my friends [are] to cherish mutual good will, to promote harmony and conciliation, and above all things to let the love of our country soar above all minor passions. --

TITLE: To John Hollins.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 597.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

Another of the great occasions on which he exhibited examples of eloquence such as probably had never been exceeded, was on the question of adopting the new Constitution in 1788. To this he was most violently opposed.

TITLE: To William Wirt.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 344.
PLACE: Monticello , 1811

[Alexander] Hamilton [* * *] became his idol, and, abandoning the republican advocates of the Constitution, the Federal Government on federal principles became his political creed. * * * His apostasy sunk him to nothing in the estimation of his country. He lost at once all

TITLE: To William Wirt.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 344.
PLACE: Monticello 1811

I have often thought that if Heaven had given me choice of my position and calling, it should have been on a rich spot of earth, well watered, and near a good market for the productions of the garden. No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden. [* * *] Under a total want of demand except for our family table, I am still devoted to the garden. But though an old man, I am but a young gardener. --

TITLE: To C. W. Peale.
EDITION: Washington ed. vi, 6.
PLACE: Popular Forest, Va. ,,
DATE: 1811 1811 gt;

Nothing betrays imbecility so much as the being insensible of it. --

TITLE: To Dr. Benjamin Rush.
EDITION: Washington ed. vi, 4.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 328.
PLACE: Popular Forest, Va. ,,
DATE: 1811 1811 gt;

The poor man in this country who uses nothing but what is made within his own farm or family, or within the United States, pays not a farthing of tax to the General Government but on his salt; and should we go into that manufacture, as we ought to do, we will pay not one cent. --

TITLE: To Dupont de Nemours.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 584.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 321.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

Old men do not easily contract new friendships, but neither do they forget old ones. Yours and mine, commenced in times too awful, has continued through times too trying and changeful to be forgotten at the moment when our chief solace is in our recollections. --

TITLE: To Marquis Lafayette.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 302.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

My memory retains no trace of the particular conversations alluded to [by you ²⁸⁹] , nor enables me to say that they are or are not correct. The only safe appeal for me is to the general impressions received at the time, and still retained with sufficient distinctness. These were that you discharged the duties of your appointment with ability, diligence and zeal, but that in the article of expense you were not sufficiently guarded. You must remember my frequent cautions to you on this head, the measures I took, by calling for frequent accounts of expenditures and contracts, to mark to you, as well as to myself, when they were getting beyond the limits of the appropriations, and the afflicting embarrassments on a particular occasion where these limits had been unguardedly and greatly transcended. These sentiments I communicated to you freely at the time, as it was my duty to do. Another principle of conduct with me was to admit no innovations on the established plans, but on the strongest grounds. When, therefore, I thought first of placing the floor of the Representative chamber on the level of the basement of the building, and of throwing into its height the cavity of the dome, in the manner of the Halle aux Bleds at Paris, I deemed it due to Dr. Thornton, author of the plan of the Capitol, to consult him on the change. He not only consented, but appeared heartily to approve of the alteration. For the same reason, as well as on motives of economy, I was anxious, in converting the Senate chamber into a Judiciary room, to preserve its original form, and to leave the same arches and columns standing. On your representation, however, that the columns were decayed and incompetent to support the incumbent weight, I acquiesced in the weight you proposed, only striking out the addition which would have made part of the middle building, and would involve a radical change in that which had not been sanctioned. I have [Col 2] no reason to doubt but that in the execution of the Senate and Court rooms, you have adhered to the plan communicated to me and approved. [* * *] On the whole, I do not believe any one has ever done more justice to your professional abilities than myself. Besides constant commendations of your taste in architecture, and science in execution, I declared on many and all occasions that I considered you as the only person in the United States who could have executed the Representative Chamber, or who could execute the middle buildings on any of the plans proposed. --

TITLE: To Benjamin H. Latrobe.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 578.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811
See Architecture.

Mr. Wagner's malignity, like that of the rest of his tribe of brother printers, who deal out calumnies for federal readers, gives me no pain. When a printer cooks up a falsehood, it is as easy to put it into the mouth of a Mr. Fox, as of a smaller man, and safer in that of a dead than a living one. --

TITLE: To Thomas Law.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 555.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 291.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

The last hope of human liberty in this world rests on us. We ought, for so dear a stake, to sacrifice every attachment and every enmity. --

TITLE: To William Duane.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 577.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 313.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

When we reflect that the eyes of the virtuous all over the earth are turned with anxiety on us, as the only depositories of the sacred fire of liberty, and that our falling into anarchy would decide forever the destinies of mankind, and seal the political heresy that man is incapable of self-government, the only contest between divided friends should be who will dare farthest into the ranks of the common enemy. --

TITLE: To John Hollins.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 597.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811
See 296.

To insure the safety of the public liberty, its depository should be subject to be changed with the greatest ease possible, and without suspending or disturbing for a moment the movements of the machine of government. --

TITLE: To M. Destutt Tracy.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 569.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 308.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

My present course of life admits less reading than I wish. From breakfast, or noon at latest, to dinner, I am mostly on horseback, attending to my farm or other concerns, which I find healthful to my body, mind and affairs; and the few hours I can pass in my cabinet, are devoured by correspondences; not those with my intimate friends, with whom I delight to interchange sentiments, but with others, who, writing to me on concerns of their own in which I have had an agency, or from motives of mere respect and approbation, are entitled to be answered with respect and a return of good will. My hope is that this obstacle to the delights of retirement, will wear away with the oblivion which follows that, and that I may at length be indulged in those studious pursuits, from which nothing but revolutionary duties would ever have called me. --

TITLE: To Dr. Benjamin Rush.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 558.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 294.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

I was overjoyed when I heard you were appointed to the Supreme Bench of national justice, and as much mortified when I heard you had declined it. You are too young to be entitled to withdraw your services from your country. You cannot yet number the quadraginta stipendia of the veteran. --

TITLE: To Levi Lincoln.
EDITION: Washington ed. vi, 8.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: Aug. 1811

With respect to the opposition threatened, although it may give some pain, no injury of consequence is to be apprehended. Duane flying off from the government, may, for a little while, throw confusion into our ranks as John Randolph did. But, after a moment of time to reflect and rally, and to see where he is, we shall stand our ground with firmness. A few malcontents will follow him, as they did John Randolph, and perhaps he may carry off some well-meaning Anti-Snyderites of Pennsylvania. The federalists will sing hosannas, and the world will thus know of a truth what they are. This new minority will perhaps bring forward their new favorite, who seems already to have betrayed symptoms of consent. They will blast him in the bud, which will be no misfortune. They will sound the tocsin against the ancient dominion, and anti-dominionism May become their rallying point. And it is better that all this should happen two than six years hence. --

TITLE: To President Madison.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 321.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: April. 1811

Our ship is sound, the crew alert at their posts, and our ablest steersman at its helm. --

TITLE: To John Melish.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 573.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

It is true that dissentients have a right to go over to the minority, and to act with them. But I do not believe your mind has contemplated that course; that it has deliberately viewed the strange company into which it may be led, step by step, unintended and unperceived by itself. The example of John Randolph is a caution to all honest and prudent men, to sacrifice a little of self-confidence, and to go with their friends, although they may sometimes think they are going wrong. [* * *] As far as my good will may go (for I can no longer act), I shall adhere to my government, Executive and Legislative, and, as long as they are republican, I shall go with their measures whether I think them right or wrong; because I know they are honest, and are wiser and better informed than I am. In doing this, however, I shall not give up the friendship of those who differ from me, and who have equal right with myself to shape their own course. --

TITLE: To William Duane.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 592.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 316.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

Our Executive and Legislative authorities are the choice of the nation, and possess the nation's confidence. They are chosen because they possess it, and the recent elections prove it has not been abated by the attacks which have for some time been kept up against them. If the measures which have been pursued are approved by the majority, it is the duty of the minority to acquiesce and conform. --

TITLE: To William Duane.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 592.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 315.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

We are going greatly into manufactures; but the mass of them are household manufactures of the coarse articles worn by the laborers and farmers of the family. These I verily believe we shall succeed in making to the whole extent of our necessities. But the attempts at fine goods will probably be abortive. They are undertaken by company establishments, and chiefly in the towns; will have but little success and short continuance in a country where the charms of agriculture attract every being who can engage in it. Our revenue will be less than it would be were we to continue to import instead of manufacturing our coarse goods. But the increase of population and production will keep pace with that of manufactures, and maintain the quantum of exports at the present level at least; and the imports need be equivalent to them, and consequently the revenue on them be undiminished. --

TITLE: To Dupont de Nemours.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 583.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 317.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

Having to conduct my grandson through his course of mathematics, I have resumed that study with great avidity. It was ever my favorite one. We have no theories there, no uncertainties remain on the mind; all is demonstration and satisfaction. I have forgotten [Col 2] much, and recover it with more difficulty than when in the vigor of my mind I originally acquired it. --

TITLE: To Benjamin Rush.
EDITION: Washington ed. vi, 3.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 328.
PLACE: Popular Forest, Va. ,,
DATE: 1811 1811 gt;

Although I may not have been among the first, I am certainly with the sincerest, who congratulate you on your entrance into the national councils. Your value there has never been unduly estimated by those whom personal feelings did not misguide. --

TITLE: To James Monroe.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 597.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 323.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: May. 1811

I had, with the world, deemed Montesquieu's work of much merit; but saw in it, with every thinking man, so much of paradox, of false principle and misapplied fact, as to render its value equivocal on the whole. Williams and others had nibbled only at its errors. A radical correction of them, therefore, was a great desideratum. This want is now supplied, and with a depth of thought, precision of idea, of language and of logic, which will force conviction into every mind. I declare to you, in the spirit of truth and sincerity, that I consider it the most precious gift the present age has received. But what would it have been, had the author, or would the author, take up the whole scheme of Montesquieu's work, and following the correct analysis he has here developed, fill up all its parts according to his sound views of them. Montesquieu's celebrity would be but a small portion of that which would immortalize the author. --

TITLE: To M. Destutt Tracy.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 566.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 305.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

You ask my opinion on the proposition of Mrs. Mifflin, to take measures for procuring, on the coast of Africa, an establishment to which the people of color of these States might, from time to time, be colonized, [Col 2] under the auspices of different governments. Having long ago made up my mind on this subject, I have no hesitation in saying that I have ever thought it the most desirable measure which could be adopted, for gradually drawing off this part of our population, most advantageously for themselves as well as for us. Going from a country possessing all the useful arts, they might be the means of transplanting them among the inhabitants of Africa, and would thus carry back to the country of their origin, the seeds of civilization which might render their sojournment and sufferings here a blessing in the end to that country. --

TITLE: To John Lynch.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 563.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 303.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

Nothing is more to be wished than that the United States would themselves undertake to make such an establishment on the coast of Africa. Exclusive of motives of humanity, the commercial advantages to be derived from it might repay all its expenses. But for this, the national mind is not yet prepared. It may perhaps be doubted whether many of these people would voluntarily consent to such an exchange of situation, and very certain that few of those advanced to a certain age in habits of slavery, would be capable of self-government. This should not, however, discourage the experiment, nor the early trial of it. --

TITLE: To John Lynch.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 565.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 304.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

I received in the first year of my coming into the administration of the General Government, a letter from the Governor of Virginia (Colonel Monroe), consulting me, at the request of the Legislature of the State, on the means of procuring some such asylum, to which these people might be occasionally sent. I proposed to him the establishment of Sierra Leone, to which a private company in England had already colonized a number of negroes and particularly the fugitives from these States during the Revolutionary War; and at the same time suggested, if this could not be obtained, some of the Portuguese possessions in South America, as next most desirable. The subsequent Legislature approving these ideas, I wrote, the ensuing year, 1802, to Mr. King, our Minister in London, to endeavor to negotiate with the Sierra Leone company a reception of such of these people as might be colonized thither. He opened a correspondence with Mr. Wedderburne and Mr. Thornton, secretaries of the company, on the subject, and, in 1803, I received through Mr. King the result, which was that the colony was going on, but in a languishing condition; that the funds of the company were likely to fail, as they received no returns of profit to keep them up; that they were, therefore, in treaty with their government to take the establishment off their hands; but that in no event should they be willing to receive more of these people from the United States, as it was exactly that portion of their settlers which had gone from hence, which, by their idleness and turbulence, had kept the settlement in constant danger of dissolution, which could not have been prevented but for the aid of the maroon negroes from the West Indies, who were more industrious and orderly than the others, and supported the authority of the government and its laws. [* * *] The effort which I made with Portugal, to obtain an establishment for them within their claims in South America, proved also abortive. --

TITLE: To John Lynch.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 564.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 303.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811
See Colonization.

This paper [The Aurora] has unquestionably rendered incalculable services to republicanism through all its struggles with the federalists, and has [Col 2] been the rallying point for the orthodoxy of the whole Union. It was our comfort in the gloomiest days, and is still performing the office of a watchful sentinel. --

TITLE: To Dabney Carr.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 316.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

The Chief Magistrate cannot enter the arena of the newspapers. --

TITLE: To President Madison.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 601.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 326.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: July. 1811

I am happy in contemplating the peace, prosperity, liberty and safety of my country, and especially the wide ocean, the barrier of all these. --

TITLE: To Marquis Lafayette.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 302.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

It can no longer be doubted that Great Britain means to claim the ocean as her conquest, and to suffer not even a cock-boat, as they express it, to traverse it but on paying them a transit duty to support the very fleet which is to keep the nations under tribute, and to rivet the yoke around their necks. Although their government has never openly avowed this, yet their orders of council, in their original form, were founded on this principle, and I have observed for years past, that however ill success may at times have induced them to amuse by negotiation, they have never on any occasion dropped a word disclaiming this pretension, nor one which they would have to retract when they shall judge the times ripe for openly asserting it. [* * *] They do not wish war with us, but will meet it rather than relinquish their purpose. --

TITLE: To John Hollins.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 597.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: May. 1811

The intention which the British now formally avow of taking possession of the ocean as their exclusive domain, and of suffering no commerce on it but through their ports, makes it the interest of all mankind to contribute their efforts to bring such usurpations to an end. --

TITLE: To Clement Caine.
EDITION: Washington ed. vi, 14.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 330.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: Sep. 1811

I fear the dominion of the sea is the insanity of the nation itself. --

TITLE: To Henry Dearborn.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 608.
PLACE: Popular Forest, Va. ,,
DATE: Aug. 1811

The usurpation of the sea has become a national disease. --

TITLE: To W. A. Burwell.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 5.
PLACE: Popular Forest, Va. ,,
DATE: Aug. 1811

I have solicited none, intrigued for none. Those which my country has thought proper to confide to me have been of their own mere motion, unasked by me. --

TITLE: To James Lyon.
EDITION: Washington ed. vi, 10.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

Some [members of Congress] think that independence requires them to follow always their own opinion, without respect for that of others. This has never been my opinion, nor my practice, when I have been of that or any other body. Differing, on a particular question, from those whom I knew to be of the same political principles with myself, and with whom I generally thought and acted, a consciousness of the fallibility of the human mind, and of my own in particular, with a respect for the accumulated judgment of my friends, has induced me to suspect erroneous impressions in myself, to suppose my own opinion wrong, and to act with them on theirs. The want of this spirit of compromise, or of self-distrust, proudly, but falsely called independence, is what gives the federalists victories which they could never obtain, if these brethren could learn to respect the opinions of their friends more than of their enemies, and prevents many able and honest men from doing all the good they otherwise might do. These considerations [* * *] have often quieted my own conscience in voting and acting on the judgment of others against my own. --

TITLE: To William Duane.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 591.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 315.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

Where thought is free in its range, we need never fear to hazard what is good in itself. --

TITLE: To Mr. Ogilvie.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 604.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

I may sometimes differ in opinion from some of my friends, from those whose views are as pure and sound as my own. I censure none, but do homage to every one's right of opinion. --

TITLE: To William Duane.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 577.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 314.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

To the principles of union I sacrifice all minor differences of opinion. These, like differences of face, are a law of our nature, and should be viewed with the same tolerance. --

TITLE: To William Duane.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 603.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

The clouds which have appeared for some time to be gathering around us, have given me anxiety lest an enemy, always on the watch, always prompt and firm, and acting in well-disciplined phalanx, should find an opening to dissipate hopes, with the loss of which I would wish that of life itself. --

TITLE: To William Duane.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 603.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

The acknowledged depreciation of the paper circulation of England, with the known laws of its rapid progression to bankruptcy, will leave that nation shortly without revenue. --

TITLE: To Clement Caine.
EDITION: Washington ed. vi, 14.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 330.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: Sep. 1811

Let the love of our country soar above all minor passions. --

TITLE: To John Hollins.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 597.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

I am so far from believing that our reputation will be tarnished by our not having mixed in the mad contests of the rest of the world that, setting aside the ravings of pepper-pot politicians, of whom there are enough in every age and country, I believe it will place us high in the scale of wisdom, to have preserved our country tranquil and prosperous during a contest which prostrated the honor, power, independence, laws and property of every country on the other side of the Atlantic. Which of them have better preserved their honor? Has Spain, has Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, Holland, Prussia, Austria, the other German powers, Sweden, Denmark, or even Russia? And would we accept of the infamy of France or England in exchange for our honest reputation, or of the result of their enormities, despotism to the one, and bankruptcy and prostration to the other, in exchange for the prosperity, the freedom and independence, which we have preserved safely through the wreck? --

TITLE: To J. W. Eppes.
EDITION: Washington ed. vi, 15.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: Sep. 1811

Peace has been our principle, peace is our interest, and peace has saved to the world this only plant of free and rational government now existing in it. [* * *] However, therefore, we may have been reproached for pursuing our Quaker system, time will affix the stamp of wisdom on it, and the happiness and prosperity of our citizens will attest its merit. And this, I believe, is the only legitimate object of government, and the first duty of governors, and not the slaughter of men and devastation of the countries placed under their care, in pursuit of a fantastic honor, unallied to virtue or happiness; or in gratification of the angry passions, or the pride of administrators, excited by personal incidents, in which their citizens have no concern. --

TITLE: To General Kosciusko.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 585.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

The great and decisive superiority of the pendulum, as a standard of measure, is its accessibility to all men, at all times, and in all places. --

TITLE: To Dr. Robert Patterson.
EDITION: Washington ed. vi, 20.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

I have a curiosity to try the length of a pendulum vibrating seconds here. [* * *] The bob should be spherical, of lead, and its radius, I presume, about one inch. [* * *] The suspending rod should be such as not to be affected by heat or cold, nor yet so heavy as to affect too sensibly the centre of oscillation. Would not a rod of wood not larger than a large wire answer this double view? [* * *] Iron has been found but about six times as strong as wood while its specific gravity is eight times as great. [* * *] A rod of white oak not larger than a seine twine, would probably support a spherical bob of lead of one inch radius. --

TITLE: To Dr. Robert Patterson.
EDITION: Washington ed. vi, 26.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

The English have been a wise, a virtuous and truly estimable people. But commerce and a corrupt government have rotted them to the core. Every generous, nay, every just sentiment, is absorbed in the thirst for gold. I speak of their cities, which we may certainly pronounce to be ripe for despotism, and fitted for no other government. Whether the leaven of the agricultural body is sufficient to regenerate the residuary mass, and maintain it in a sound state, under any reformation of government, may still be doubted. --

TITLE: To Mr. Ogilvie.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 604.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

Spain, under all her disadvantages, physical and mental, is an encouraging example of the impossibility of subduing a people acting with an undivided will. She proves, too, another truth not less valuable, that a people having no king to sell them for a mess of pottage for himself, no shackles to restrain their powers of self-defence, find resources within themselves equal to every trial. This we did during the Revolutionary war, and this we can do again, let who will attack us, if we act heartily with one another. This is my creed. To the principles of union I sacrifice all minor differences of opinion. These, like differences of face, are a law of our nature, and should be viewed with the same tolerance. --

TITLE: To William Duane.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 603.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: July. 1811

The history of Poland gives a lesson which all our countrymen should study; the example of a country erased from the map of the world by the dissensions of its own citizens. The papers of every day read them the counter lesson of the impossibility of subduing a people acting with an undivided will. Spain, under all her disadvantages, physical and mental, is an encouraging example of this. --

TITLE: To William Duane.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 603.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: July. 1811

Politics, like religion, holds up the torches of martyrdom to the reformers of error. --

TITLE: To Mr. Ogilvie.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 605.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

I have never been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power over others. --

TITLE: To M. Destutt Tracy.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 569.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 308.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

I have never been so well pleased as when I could shift power from my own, on the shoulders of others. --

TITLE: To M. Destutt Tracy.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 569.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 308.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

We ought not to schismatize on either men or measures. Principles alone can justify that. --

TITLE: To William Duane.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 577.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 313.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

The art of printing secures us against the retrogradation of reason and information; the examples of its safe and wholesome guidance in government, which will be exhibited through the wide-spread regions of the American continent, will obliterate, in time, the impressions left by the abortive experiment of France. --

TITLE: To M. Paganel.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 582.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

Is reason to be forever amused with the crochets of physical sciences, in which she is indulged merely to divert her from solid speculations on the rights of man, and wrongs of his oppressors? It is impossible. The day of deliverance will come, although I shall not live to see it. --

TITLE: To M. Paganel.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 582.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

The determination to take all our vessels bound to any other than her ports, amounting to all the war she can make (for we fear no invasion ), it would be folly in us to let that war be all on one side only, and to make no effort towards indemnification and retaliation by reprisal. --

TITLE: To Clement Caine.
EDITION: Washington ed. vi, 14.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 330.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: Sep. 1811

The republic of letters is unaffected by the wars of geographical divisions of the earth. --

TITLE: To Dr. Patterson.
EDITION: Washington ed. vi, 11.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

If we schismatize on either men or measures, if we do not act in phalanx, as when we rescued the country from the satellites of monarchism, I will not say our party (the term is false and degrading), but our nation will be undone. For the republicans are the nation. Their opponents are but a faction, weak in numbers, but powerful and profuse in the command of money, and backed by a nation [England] , powerful also and profuse in the use of the same means; and the more profuse, in both cases, as the money they thus employ is not their own but their creditors, to be paid off by a bankruptcy, which whether it pays a dollar or a shilling in the pound[,] is of little concern with them. The last hope of human liberty in this world rests on us. We ought, for so dear a stake, to sacrifice every attachment and every enmity. Leave the President free to choose his own coadjutors, to pursue his own measures, and support him and them, even if we think we are wiser than they, honester than they are, or possessing more enlarged information of the state of things. If we move in mass, be it ever so circuitously, we shall attain our object; but if we break into squads, every one pursuing the path he thinks [Col 2] most direct, we become an easy conquest to those who can now barely hold us in check. I repeat again, that we ought not to schismatize on either men or measures. Principles alone can justify that. If we find our government in all its branches rushing headlong, like our predecessors, into the arms of monarchy, if we find them violating our dearest rights, the trial by jury, the freedom of the press, the freedom of opinion, civil or religious, or opening on our peace of mind or personal safety the sluices of terrorism; if we see them raising standing armies, when the absence of all other danger points to these as the sole objects on which they are to be employed, then, indeed, let us withdraw and call the nation to its tents. But, while our functionaries are wise, and honest, and vigilant, let us move compactly under their guidance, and we have nothing to fear. Things may here and there go a little wrong. It is not in our power to prevent it. But all will be right in the end, though not, perhaps, by the shortest means. You know that this union of republicans has been the constant theme of my exhortations, that I have ever refused to know any sub-divisions among them, to take part in any personal differences; and, therefore, you will not give to the present observations any other than general application. I may sometimes differ in opinion from some of my friends, from those whose views are as pure and sound as my own. I censure none, but do homage to everyone's right of opinion. --

TITLE: To William Duane.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 576.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 313.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: March. 1811

The only contest between divided [political] friends should be who will dare farthest into the ranks of the common enemy. --

TITLE: To John Hollins.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 597.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

Our revenue will be less than it would be were we to continue to import instead of manufacturing our coarse goods. But the increase of population and production will keep pace with that of manufactures, and maintain the quantum of exports at the present level at least; and the imports need be equivalent to them, and consequently the [revenue] on them be undiminished. --

TITLE: To Dupont de Nemours.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 583.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 319.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811
See Debt (United States), Internal Improvements, Surplus and Taxation.

Dangers of another kind [than usurpation] might more reasonably be apprehended from this perfect and distinct or

TITLE: To Destutt Tracy.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 571.
EDITION: Ford ed., ix, 309.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1811

Should the determination of England, now formally expressed, to take possession of the ocean, and to suffer no commerce on it but through her ports, force a war upon us, I foresee a possibility of a separate treaty between her and your Essex men, on the principles of neutrality and commerce. Pickering here, and his nephew Williams there, can easily negotiate this. Such a lure to the quietists in our ranks with you, might recruit theirs to a majority. Yet, excluded as they would be from intercourse with the rest of the Union and of Europe, I scarcely see the gain they would propose to themselves, even for the moment. The defection would certainly disconcert the other States, but it could not ultimately endanger their safety. They are adequate, in all points, to a defensive war. However, I hope your majority, with the aid it is entitled to, will save us from this trial, to which I think it possible we are advancing. --

TITLE: To Henry Dearborn.
EDITION: Washington ed. v, 607.
PLACE: Popular Forest, Va. ,,
DATE: Aug. 1811
See Embargo, Federalists, Hartford Convention and Monarchy.

The inculcation [in your book] on the master of the moral duties which he owes to the slave