Education is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power. --

TITLE: To William C. Jarvis.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 179.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 161.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

I read but one newspaper and that [* * *] more for its advertisements than its news. --

TITLE: To Charles Pinckney.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 180.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 162.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

Tranquillity is the summum bonum of old age. --

TITLE: To Mark L. Hill.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 154.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

All entanglements with that quarter of the globe [Europe] should be avoided if we mean that peace and justice shall be the polar stars of the American Societies. --

TITLE: To J. Correa.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 184.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 164.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

Nothing is so important as that America shall separate herself from the systems of Europe, and establish one of her own. Our circumstances, our pursuits, our interests, are distinct; the principles of our policy should be so also. All entanglements with that quarter of the globe should be avoided if we mean that peace and justice shall be the polar stars of the American societies. [* * *] It would be a leading principle with me had I longer to live. --

TITLE: To J. Correa De Serra.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 184.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 164.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: Oct. 1820
See Policy.

The flood of paper money had produced an exaggeration of nominal prices, and at the same time a facility of obtaining money, which not only encouraged speculations on fictitious capital, but seduced those of real capital, even in private life, to contract debts too freely. Had things continued in the same course, these might have been manageable; but the operations of the United States bank for the demolition of the State banks obliged these suddenly to call in more than half their paper, crushed all fictitious and doubtful capital, and reduced the prices of property and produce suddenly to one-third of what they had been. --

TITLE: To Albert Gallatin.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 176.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: Dec. 1820

You ask for my opinion of the work you, send me, and to let it go out to the public. This I have ever made a point of declining (one or two instances only excepted ). Complimentary thanks to writers who have sent me their works, have betrayed me sometimes before the public, without my consent having been asked. But I am far from presuming to direct the reading of my fellow citizens, who are good enough judges themselves of what is worthy their reading. --

TITLE: To Thoms Ritchie.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 192.
EDITION: Ford ed., xvi, 171.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

The opinion I have ever expressed of the advantages of a western communication through the James River, I still entertain; and that the Cayuga is the most promising of the links of communication.

TITLE: To William Short.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 156.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

-- We (Patrick Henry, R. H. Lee, Francis R. Lee, Thomas Jefferson, and three or four other members of the Virginia House of Burgesses) [* * *] agreed to an association, and instructed the committee of correspondence to propose to the corresponding committees of the other Colonies, to appoint deputies to meet in Congress at such place, annually, as should be convenient, to direct from time to time, the measures required by the general interest: and we declared that an attack on any one Colony, should be considered as an attack on the whole. This was in May, 1774. We further recommended to the several counties to elect deputies to meet at Williamsburg, the 1st of August ensuing, to consider the state of the Colony, and particularly to appoint delegates to a general Congress, should that measure be acceded to by the committees of correspondence generally. It was acceded to: Philadelphia was appointed for the place, and the 5th of September for the time of meeting. --

TITLE: Autobiography.
EDITION: Washington ed. i, 7.
EDITION: Ford ed., i, 11.
PLACE: [none given]
DATE: 1820

It is not from this branch of government [Congress] we have most to fear. Taxes and short elections will keep them right. --

TITLE: To Thomas Ritchie.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 192.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 170.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

I do sincerely lament that untoward circumstances have brought on us the irreparable loss of this professor, whom I have looked to as the corner stone of our edifice [University of Virginia] . I know no one who could have aided us so much in forming the future regulations of our infant institution; and although we may perhaps obtain from Europe equivalents in science, they can never replace the advantages of his experience, his knowledge of the character, habits and manners of our country, his identification with its sentiments and principles, and high reputation he has obtained in it generally. ¹⁰⁷ --

TITLE: To General Taylor.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 164.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

You may have heard of the hue and cry raised from the different pulpits on our appointment [to be professor in the University of Virginia] of Dr. Cooper, whom they charge with Unitarianism as boldly as if they knew the fact, and as presumptuously as if it were a crime, and one for which, like Servetus, he should be burned [* * *] . For myself, I was not disposed to regard the denunciations of these satellites of religious inquisition; but our colleagues, better judges of popular feeling, thought that they were not to be altogether neglected; and that it might be better to relieve Dr. Cooper, ourselves and the institution from this crusade. --

TITLE: To General Taylor.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 162.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

No foreigner, I believe, has ever carried with him more friendly regrets. --

TITLE: To James Madison.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 190.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 169.
PLACE: Popular Forest, Va. ,,
DATE: 1820 1820 gt;

M. Correa is here (Monticello) on his farewell visit to us. He has been much pleased with the plan and progress of our University, and has given some valuable hints to its botanical branch. He goes to do, I hope, much good in his new country (Brazil); the public instruction there, as I understand, being within the department destined for him. --

TITLE: To William Short.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 168.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

Mine is the next turn, and I shall meet it with good will; for after one's friends are all gone before him, and our faculties leaving us, too, one by one, why wish to linger in mere vegetation, as a solitary trunk in a desolate field, from which all its former companions have disappeared. --

TITLE: To Mrs. Cosway.
EDITION: D. L. J. , 374.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which, if acted on, would save one-half the wars of the world. --

TITLE: To Destutt Tracy.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 175.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820
See Generations.

Dictionaries are but the depositories of words already legitimated by usage. Society is the workshop in which new ones are elaborated. When an individual uses a new word, if illformed, it is rejected in society; if well formed, adopted, and after due time, laid up in the depository of dictionaries. --

TITLE: To John Adams.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 175.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820
See Languages.

Congress as early as January 7, 1782, had turned their attention to the moneys current in the several States, and had directed the Financier, Robert Morris, to report to them a table of rates at which the foreign coins should be received at the treasury. That officer, or rather his assistant, Gouverneur Morris, answered them on the 15th, in an able and elaborate statement of the denominations of money current in the several States, and of the comparative value of the foreign coins chiefly in circulation with us, He went into the consideration of the necessity of establishing a standard of value with us, and of the adoption of a money Unit. He proposed for that Unit, such a fraction of pure silver as would be a common measure of the penny of every State, without leaving a fraction. This common divisor he found to be the 1-1440 of a dollar, or 1-1600 of the crown sterling. The value of a dollar was, therefore, to be expressed by 1440 units, and of a crown by 1600; each Unit containing a quarter of a grain of fine silver. Congress turning again their attention to this subject the following year, the Financier, by a letter of April 30, 1783, further explained and urged the Unit he had proposed; but nothing more was done on it until the ensuing year, when it was again taken up, and referred to a committee, of which I was a member. The general views of the Financier were sound, and the principle was ingenious on which he proposed to found his Unit; but it was too minute for ordinary use, too laborious for computation, either by the head or in figures. The price of a loaf of bread, 1-20 of a dollar, would be 72 units. A pound of butter 1-5 of a dollar, 288 units. A horse or bullock of eighty dollars value would require a notation of six figures, to wit, 115,200, and the public debt, suppose of eighty millions, would require [Col 2] twelve figures, to wit, 115,200,000,000 units. Such a system of money-arithmetic would be entirely unmanageable for the common purposes of Society. I propose, therefore, instead of this, to adopt the Dollar as our Unit of account and payment, and that its divisions and sub-divisions should be in the decimal ratio. I wrote some Notes on the subject, which I submitted to the consideration of the Financier. I received his answer and adherence to his general system, only agreeing to take for his Unit one hundred of those he first proposed, so that a Dollar should be 14 40-100, and a crown 16 units. I replied to this, and printed my notes and reply on a flying sheet, which I put into the hands of the members of Congress for consideration, and the Committee agreed to report on my principle. This was adopted the ensuing year, and is the system which now prevails. --

TITLE: Autobiography.
EDITION: Washington ed. i, 52.
EDITION: Ford ed., i, 73.
PLACE: [none given]
DATE: 1820
See Money, Unit.

It was my lot to be placed at the head of the column which made the first breach in the ramparts of federalism, and to be charged, on that event, with the duty of changing the course of the government from what we deemed a monarchical to its republican tack. This made me the mark for every shaft which calumny and falsehood could point against me. I bore them with resignation, as one of the duties imposed on me by my post. But [* * *] it was among the most painful duties from which I hoped to find relief in retirement. --

TITLE: To Mark Langdon Hill.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 154.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

We have, willingly, done injury to no man; and have done for our country the good which has fallen in our way, so far as commensurate with the faculties given us. That we have not done more than we could, cannot be imputed to us as a crime before any tribunal. I look, therefore, to the crisis as one “qui summum nec metuit diem nec optat.” --

TITLE: To John Adams.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 154.
PLACE: [none given]
DATE: 1820

Education is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power. --

TITLE: To William C. Jarvis.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 179.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 161.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

A wise direction of [the force friendly to education]

TITLE: To Joseph C. Cabell.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 189.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 167.
PLACE: Popular Forest, Va. ,,
DATE: 1820 1820 gt;

The greatest good [of the people] requires, that while they are instructed in general, competently to the common business of life, others should employ their genius with necessary information to the useful arts, to inventions for saving labor and increasing our comforts, to nourishing our health, to civil government, military science, &c. --

TITLE: To Joseph C. Cabell.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 187.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 166.
PLACE: Popular Forest, Va. ,,
DATE: 1820 1820 gt;

Surely Governor Clinton's display of the gigantic efforts of New York towards the education of her citizens will stimulate the pride as well as the patriotism of our Legislature, to look to the reputation and safety [Col 2] of their own country, to rescue it from the degradation of becoming the Barbary of the Union, and of falling into the ranks of our own negroes. To that condition it is fast sinking. We shall be in the hands of the other States, what our indigenous predecessors were when invaded by the science and arts of Europe. The mass of education in Virginia, before the Revolution, placed her with the foremost of her Sister Colonies. What is her education now? Where is it? The little we have we import, like beggars, from other States; or import their beggars to bestow on us their miserable crumbs. And what is wanting to restore us to our station among our confederates? Not more money from the people. Enough has been raised by them, and appropriated to this very object. It is that it should be employed understandingly, and for their greatest good. --

TITLE: To Joseph C. Cabell.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 186.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 165.
PLACE: Popular Forest, Va. ,,
DATE: 1820 1820 gt;

Six thousand common schools in New York, fifty pupils in each, three hundred thousand in all; one hundred and sixty thousand dollars annually paid to the masters; forty established academies, with two thousand two hundred and eighteen pupils; and five colleges with seven hundred and eighteen students; to which last classes or institutions seven hundred and twenty thousand dollars have been given; and the whole appropriations for education estimated at two and a half millions of dollars! What a pigmy to this is Virginia become, with a population almost equal to that of New York! And whence this difference? From the difference their rulers set on the value of knowledge, and the prosperity it produces. But still, if a pigmy, let her do what a pigmy may do. --

TITLE: To Joseph C. Cabell.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 188.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 167.
PLACE: Popular Forest, Va. ,,
DATE: 1820 1820 gt;

All the States but our own are sensible that knowledge is power. The Missouri question is for power. The efforts now generally making in all the States to advance their science is for power, while we are sinking into the barbarism of our Indian aborigines, and expect like them to oppose by ignorance the overwhelming mass of light and science by which we shall be surrounded. It is a comfort that I am not to live to see this. --

TITLE: To Joseph C. Cabell.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 155
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

Promote in every order of men the degree of instruction proportioned to their condition, and to their views in life. --

TITLE: To Joseph C. Cabell.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 189.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 167.
PLACE: Popular Forest, Va. ,,
DATE: 1820 1820 gt;

The truth is that the want of common education with us is not from our poverty, but from the want of an orderly system. More money is now paid for the education of a part than would be paid for that of the whole, if systematically arranged. --

TITLE: To Joseph C. Cabell.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 188.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 167.
PLACE: Popular Forest, Va. ,,
DATE: 1820 1820 gt;

The frequent recurrence of this chastening operation can alone restrain the propensity of governments to enlarge expense beyond income. --

TITLE: To Albert Gallatin.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 176.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

Short elections will keep Congress right. --

TITLE: To Thomas Ritchie.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 192.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 170.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

No two nations on earth can be so helpful to each other as friends, nor so hurtful as enemies. And in spite of their insolence, I have ever wished for an honorable and cordial amity with them as a nation. --

TITLE: To Robert Walsh.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 155.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

Here, [the University of Virginia] we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it. --

TITLE: To Mr. Roscoe.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 196.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

As the Confederation had made no provision for a visible head of the government during vacations of Congress, and such a one was necessary to superintend the executive business, to receive and communicate with foreign ministers and nations, and to assemble Congress on sudden and extraordinary emergencies, I proposed early in April, 1784, the appointment of a committee to be called the “Committee of the States,” to consist of a member from each State, who should remain in session during the recess of Congress: that the functions of Congress should be divided into Executive and Legislative, the latter to be reserved, and the former, by a general resolution, to be delegated to that Committee. This proposition was afterwards agreed to; a Committee appointed, who entered on duty on the subsequent adjournment of Congress, quarrelled very soon, split into two parties, abandoned their post, and left the government without any visible head until the next meeting in Congress. We have since seen the same thing take place in the Directory of France; and I believe it will forever take place in any Executive consisting of a plurality. Our plan, best, I believe, combines wisdom and practicability, by providing a plurality of counsellors, but a single Arbiter for ultimate decision. --

TITLE: Autobiography.
EDITION: Washington ed. i, 54.
EDITION: Ford ed., i, 75.
PLACE: [none given]
DATE: 1820

I was in France when we heard of this schism and separation of our Committee, and, speaking with Dr. Franklin of this singular disposition of men to quarrel and divide into parties, he gave his sentiments, as usual, by way of apologue. He mentioned the Eddystone lighthouse in the British channel, as being built on a rock in the mid-channel, totally inaccessible in winter from the boisterous character of that sea, in that season; that, therefore, for the two keepers, employed to keep up the lights, all provisions for the winter were necessarily carried to them in autumn, as they could never be visited again till the return of the milder season; that, on the first practicable day in the spring a boat put off to them with fresh supplies. The boatmen met at the door one of the keepers and accosted him with a “How goes it, friend”? “Very well”. “How is your companion”? “I do not know”. “Don't know? Is he not here”? “I can't tell”. “Have not you seen him to-day”? “No”. “When did you see him”? “Not since last fall”. [Col 2] “You have killed him”? “Not I, indeed”. They were about to lay hold of him, as having certainly murdered his companion: but he desired them to go upstairs and examine for themselves. They went up, and there found the other keeper. They had quarrelled, it seems, soon after being left there, had divided into two parties, assigned the cares below to one, and those above to the other, and had never spoken to, or seen one another since. --

TITLE: Autobiography.
EDITION: Washington ed. i, 54.
EDITION: Ford ed., i, 76.
PLACE: [none given]
DATE: 1820

All executive directories become mere sinks of corruption and faction. --

TITLE: To James Madison.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 190.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 169.
PLACE: Popular Forest, Va. ,,
DATE: 1820 1820 gt;

I hope and believe you are mistaken in supposing the reign of fanaticism to be on [Col 2] the advance. I think it certainly declining. It was first excited artificially by the sovereigns of Europe as an engine of opposition to Bonaparte and to France. It rose to a great height there, and became, indeed, a powerful engine of loyalism, and of support to their governments. But that loyalism is giving way to very different dispositions, and its prompter, fanaticism, is vanishing with it. In the meantime, it had been [] across the Atlantic, and chiefly from England, with their other fashions, but it is here also on the wane. --

TITLE: To Thomas Cooper.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 170.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

[After the promulgation of the Boston Port-bill in 1774] we [the young leaders in the Virginia House of Burgesses] were under the conviction of the necessity of arousing our peo

TITLE: Autobiography.
EDITION: Washington ed. i, 6.
EDITION: Ford ed., i, 9.
PLACE: [none given]
DATE: 1820

If the three powers [of our government] maintain their mutual independence on each other it may last long, but not so if either can assume the authorities of the other. --

TITLE: To William C. Jarvis.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 179.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 161.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820
See Power.

The late piratical depredations which your commerce has suffered as well as ours, and that of other nations, seem to have been committed by renegade rovers of several nations, French, English, American, which they as well as we have not been careful enough to suppress. I hope our Congress [* * *] will strengthen the measures of suppression. Of their disposition to do it there can be no doubt; for all men of moral principle must be shocked at these atrocities. I [Col 2] had repeated conversations on this subject with the President [* * *] . No man can abhor these enormities more deeply. I trust it will not have been in the power of abandoned rovers, nor yet of negligent functionaries, to disturb the harmony of two nations so much disposed to mutual friendship, and interested in it. --

TITLE: To J. Correa.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 184.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 164.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

Florida, moreover, is ours. Every nation in Europe considers it such a right. We need not care for its occupation in time of peace and, in war, the first cannon makes it ours without offence to anybody. [* * *] The cession of the Floridas in exchange for Techas imports an acknowledgment of our right to it. This province, moreover, the Floridas and possibly Cuba, will

TITLE: To President Monroe.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 160.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 159.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

Some fear our envelopment in the wars engendering from the unsettled state of our affairs with Spain, and therefore are anxious for a ratification of our treaty with her. I fear no such thing, and hope that if ratified by Spain it will be rejected here. We may justly say to Spain, “when this negotiation commenced, twenty years ago, your authority was acknowledged by those you are selling to us. That authority is now renounced, and their right of self-disposal asserted. In buying them from you, then, we buy but a wartitle, a right to subdue them, which you can neither convey nor we acquire. This is a family quarrel in which we have no right to med [Col 2] dle. Settle it between yourselves, and we will then treat with the party whose right is acknowledged. ” With whom that will be, no doubt can be entertained. And why should we revolt them by purchasing them as cattle, rather than receiving them as fellow-men? Spain has held off until she sees they are lost to her, and now thinks it better to get something than nothing for them. When she shall see South America equally desperate, she will be wise to sell that also. --

TITLE: To M. de Lafayette.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 194.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 179.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

I am not sorry for the non-ratification of the Spanish treaty. Our assent to it has proved our desire to be on friendly terms with Spain; their dissent, the imbecility and malignity of their government towards us, have placed them in the wrong in the eyes of the world, and that is well; but to us the province of Techas will be the richest State of our Union, without any exception. Its southern part will make more sugar than we can consume, and the Red River, on its North, is the most luxuriant country on earth. Florida, moreover, is ours. Every nation in Europe considers it such a right. We need not care for its occupation in time of peace, and, in war, the first cannon makes it ours without offence to anybody. The friendly advisements, too, of Russia and France, as well as the change of government in Spain, now ensured, require a further and respectful forbearance. While their request will rebut the plea of proscriptive possession, it will give us a right to their approbation when taken in the maturity of circumstances. I really think, too, that neither the state of our finances, the condition of our country, nor the public opinion, urges us to precipitation into war. The treaty has had the valuable effect of strengthening our title to the Techas, because the cession of the Floridas in exchange for Techas imports an acknowledgment of our right to it. This province moreover, the Floridas and possibly Cuba, will join us on the acknowledgment of their independence, a measure to which their new government, will probably accede voluntarily. --

TITLE: To President Monroe.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 160.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 158.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: May. 1820
See Louisiana, Monroe Doctrine, and Spain.

The light which has been shed on the mind of man through the civilized world, has given it a new direction from which no human power can divert it. The sovereigns of Europe who are wise, or have wise counsellors, see this, and bend to the breeze which blows; the unwise alone stiffen and meet its inevitable crush. --

TITLE: To Marquis Lafayette.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 193.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 179.
PLACE: [none given]
DATE: 1820

Without urging, we ²⁰¹ sounded the ministers of the several European nations at the Court of Versailles, on their dispositions towards mutual commerce, and the expediency of encouraging it by the protection of a treaty. Old Frederick, of Prussia, met us cordially and without hesitation, and appointing the Baron de Thulemeyer, his minister at the Hague, to negotiate with us, we communicated to him our projét, which, with little alteration by the King was soon concluded. --

TITLE: Autobiography.
EDITION: Washington ed. i, 62.
EDITION: Ford ed., i, 87.
PLACE: [none given]
DATE: 1820
See Treaties.

Circumstances have nourished between our kindred countries angry dispositions which both ought long since to have banished from their bosoms. I have ever considered a cordial affection as the first interest of both. No nation on earth can hurt us so much as yours, none be more useful to you than ours. The obstacle, we have believed, was in the obstinate and unforgiving temper of your late King, and a continuance of his prejudices kept up from habit, after he was withdrawn from power. I hope I now see symptoms of sounder views in your government; in which I know it will be cordially met by ours, as it would have been by every administration which has existed under our present Constitution. None desired it more cordially than myself, whatever different opinions were impressed on your government by a party who wishes to have its weight in their scale as its exclusive friends. --

TITLE: To Mr. Roscoe.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 196.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

Having found from experience that impeachment is an impracticable thing, a mere scarecrow, they [the Judiciary] consider themselves secure for life. --

TITLE: To Thomas Ritchie.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 192.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 170.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

The Judiciary of the United States is the subtle corps of sappers and miners constantly working under ground to undermine the foundations of our confederated fabric. They are construing our Constitution from a coordination of a general and special government to a general and supreme one alone. This will lay all things at their feet, and they are too well versed in English law to forget the maxim, “boni judicis est ampliare jurisdictionem”. [* * *] Having found from experience, that impeachment is an impracticable thing, a mere scare-crow, they consider themselves secure for life; they skulk from responsibility to public opinion, the only remaining hold on them, under a practice first introduced into England by Lord Mansfield. An opinion is huddled up in conclave, perhaps by a majority of one, delivered as if unanimous, and with the silent acquiescence of lazy or timid associates, by a crafty chief judge, who sophisticates the law to his mind, by the turn of his own reasoning. A judiciary law was once reported by the Attorney General to Congress, requiring each judge to deliver his opinion seriatim and openly, and then to give it in writing to the clerk to be entered in the record. A judiciary independent of a king or executive alone, is a good thing; but independence of the will of the nation is a solecism, at least in a republican government. --

TITLE: To Thomas Ritchie.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 192.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 170.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

Peace and justice [should] be the polar stars of the American Societies. --

TITLE: To J. Correa.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 184.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 164.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

Exhibited as a public spectacle, with shaved heads and mean clothing, working on the high roads, produced in the criminals such a prostration of character, such an abandonment of self-respect, as, instead of reforming, plunged them into the most desperate and hardened depravity of morals and character. --

TITLE: Autobiography.
EDITION: Washington ed. i, 45.
EDITION: Ford ed., i, 53.
PLACE: [none given]
DATE: 1820

We were fellow laborers from the beginning of the first to the accomplishment of the second revolution in our government, of the same zeal and the same sentiments, and I shall honor his memory while memory remains to me. --

TITLE: To Mark Langdon Hill.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 154.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

In a letter [* * *] to Mr. Crofts who sent [* * *] me a copy of his treatise on the English and German languages, as preliminary to an etymological dictionary he meditated, I went into explanations with him of an easy process for simplifying the study of the Anglo-Saxon, and lessening the terrors and difficulties presented by its rude alphabet, and unformed orthography. --

TITLE: To John Adams.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 173.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

The disease of liberty is catching. --

TITLE: To Marquis Lafayette.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 194.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 179.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave. --

TITLE: To Richard Rush.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 182.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

I know them both [Mr. Madison and Mr. Monroe] to be of principles as truly republican as any men living. --

TITLE: To Thomas Ritchie.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 191.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 170.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

If I do not contemplate this subject [the Missouri question] with pleasure, I do sincerely [contemplate] that of the independence of Maine, and the wise choice they have made of General King in the agency of their affairs. --

TITLE: To Mark Langdon Hill.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 155.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

A crafty chief judge, who sophisticates the law to his mind, by the turn of his own reasoning. --

TITLE: To Thomas Ritchie.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 192.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 171.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

I consider [Dugald] Stewart and [Destutt] Tracy as the ablest metaphysicians living; by which I mean investigators of the thinking faculty of man. Stewart seems to have given its natural history from facts and observations; Tracy its modes of action and deduction, which he calls Logic, and Ideology; and Cabanis, in his Physique et Morale de l'Homme, has investigated anatomically, and most ingeniously, the particular organs in the human structure which may most probably exercise that faculty. And they ask, why may not the mode of action called thought, have been given to a material organ of peculiar structure, as that of magnetism is to the needle, or of elasticity to the spring by a particular manipulation of the steel. They observe

TITLE: To John Adams.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 153.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

The crowd of scepticisms in your puzzling letter on matter, spirit, motion, &c., kept me from sleep. I read it and laid it down; read it, and laid it down, again and again; and to give rest to my mind, I was obliged to recur ultimately to my habitual anodyne, “I feel, therefore I exist”. I feel bodies which are not myself: there are other existences then. I call them matter. I feel them changing place. This gives me motion. Where there is an absence of matter, I call it void, or nothing, or immaterial space. On the basis of sensation, of matter, and motion, we may erect the fabric of all the certainties we can have or need. I can conceive thought to be an action of a particular organization of matter, formed for that purpose by its creator, as well as that attraction is an action of matter, or magnetism of loadstone. When he who denies to the Creator the power of endowing matter with the mode of action called thinking, shall show how He could endow the sun with the mode of action called attraction, which reins the planets in the track of their orbits, or how an absence of matter can have a will, and by that will put matter into motion, then the materialist may be lawfully required to explain the process by which matter exercises the faculty of thinking. When once we quit the basis of sensation, all is in the wind. To talk of immaterial existences, is to talk of nothings. To say that the human soul, angels, God, are immaterial, is to say, they are nothings, or that there is no God, no angels, no soul. I cannot reason otherwise; but I believe I am supported in my creed of materialism by the Lockes, the Tracys, and the Stewarts. --

TITLE: To John Adams.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 175.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

Nothing has ever presented so threatening an aspect as what is called the Missouri question. The federalists, completely put down and despairing of ever rising again under the old divisions of Whig and Tory, devised a new one of slave-holding and non-slave-holding States, which, while it had a semblance of being moral, was at the same time geographical, and calculated to give them ascendency by debauching their old opponents to a coalition with them. Moral the question certainly is not, because the removal

TITLE: To Albert Gallatin.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 177.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: Dec. 1820

I am so completely withdrawn from all attention to public matters, that nothing less could arouse me than the definition of a geographical line, which on an abstract principle is to become the line of separation of these States, and to render desperate the hope that man ever enjoys the two blessings of peace and self-government. The question sleeps for the present, but is not dead. --

TITLE: To H. Nelson.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 151.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 156.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: March. 1820

I congratulate you on the sleep of the Missouri question. I wish I could say in its death, but of this I despair. The idea of a geographical line once suggested will brood in the minds of all those who prefer the gratification of their ungovernable passions to the peace and union of their country. --

TITLE: To Mark Langdon Hill.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 155.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: April. 1820

This momentous question, like a fire bell in the night, awakened and filled me with terror. I considered it at once as the knell of the Union. It is hushed, indeed, for the moment. But this is a reprieve only, not a final sentence. A geographical line, coinciding with a marked principle, moral and political, once conceived and held up to the angry passions of men, will never be obliterated; and every new irritation will mark it deeper and deeper. --

TITLE: To John Holmes.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 159.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 157.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: April. 1820

The Missouri question is a mere party trick. The leaders of federalism, defeated in their schemes of obtaining power by rallying [Col 2] partisans to the principle of monarchism, a principle of personal not of local division, have changed their tack, and thrown out another barrel to the whale. They are taking advantage of the virtuous feelings of the people to effect a division of parties by a geographical line; they expect that this will insure them, on local principles, the majority they could never obtain on principles of federalism; but they are still putting their shoulder to the wrong wheel; they are wasting Jeremiads on the miseries of slavery, as if we were advocates for it. Sincerity in their declamations should direct their efforts to the true point of difficulty, and unite their counsels with ours in devising some reasonable and practicable plan of getting rid of it. Some of these leaders, if they could attain the power, their ambition would rather use it to keep the Union together, but others have ever had in view its separation. If they push it to that, they will find the line of separation very different from their 36° of latitude, and as manufacturing and navigating States, they will have quarreled with their bread and butter, and I fear not that after a little trial they will think better of it and return to the embraces of their natural and best friends. But this scheme of party I leave to those who are to live under its consequences. We who have gone before have performed an honest duty, by putting in the power of successors a state of happiness which no nation ever before had within their choice. If that choice is to throw it away, the dead will have neither the power nor the right to control them. --

TITLE: To Charles Pinckney.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 180.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 162.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

The Missouri question is the most portentous one which ever yet threatened our Union. In the gloomiest moment of the Revolutionary war I never had any apprehensions equal to what I feel from this source. --

TITLE: To Hugh Nelson.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 156.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: Feb. 1820

The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave, and that from Missouri is now rolling towards us, but we shall ride over it as we have over all others. It is not a moral question, but one merely of power. Its object is to raise a geographical principle for the choice of a President, and the noise will be kept up till that is effected. --

TITLE: To Marquis Lafayette.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 194.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 180.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

Nothing disturbs us so much as the dissension lately produced by what is called the Missouri question; a question having just enough of the semblance of morality to throw dust into the eyes of the

TITLE: To D. B. Warden.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 172.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: Dec. 1820

The Missouri question aroused and filled me with alarm. The old schism of federal and republican threatened nothing, because it existed in every State, and united them together by the fraternism of party. But the coincidence of a marked principle, moral and political, with a geographical line, once conceived, I feared would never more be obliterated from the mind; that it would be recurring on every occasion and renewing irritations, until it would kindle such mutual and mortal hatred, as to render separation preferable to eternal discord. I have been among the most sanguine in believing that our Union would be of long duration. I now doubt it much, and see the event at no great distance, and the direct consequence of this question; not by the line which has been so confidently counted on; the laws of nature control this; but by the Potomac, Ohio and Missouri, or more probably, the Mississippi upwards to our northern boundary. My only comfort and confidence is, that I shall not live to see this; and I envy not the present generation the glory of throwing away the fruits of their fathers' sacrifices of life and fortune, and of rendering desperate the experiment which was to decide ultimately whether man is capable of self-government. This treason against human hope, will signalize their epoch in future history, as the counterpart of the medal of their predecessors. --

TITLE: To William Short.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 158.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: April. 1820

Should the schism [on the Missouri question] be pushed to separation it will be for a short term only; two or three years' trial will bring them back, like quarrelling lovers to renewed embraces, and increased affections. The experiment of separation would soon prove to both that they had mutually miscalculated their best interests. And even were the parties in Congress to secede in a passion, the soberer people would call a convention and cement again the severance attempted by the insanity of their functionaries. With this consoling view, my greatest grief would be for the fatal effect of such an event on the hopes and happiness of the world. We exist, and are quoted, as standing proofs that a government, so modelled as to rest continually on the will of the whole society, is a practicable government. Were we to break to pieces, it would damp the hopes and the efforts of the good, and give triumph to those of the bad through the whole enslaved world. As members, therefore, of the universal society of mankind, and standing in high and responsible relation with them, it is our sacred duty to suppress passion among ourselves, and not to blast the confidence we have inspired of proof that a government of reason is better than one of force. --

TITLE: To Richard Rush.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 182.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

All know that permitting the slaves of the south to spread into the west will not add one being to that unfortunate condition, that it will increase the happiness of those existing, and by spreading them over a larger surface, will dilute the evil everywhere, and facilitate the means of getting finally rid of it, an event more anxiously wished by those on whom it presses than by the noisy pretenders to exclusive humanity. In the meantime, it is a ladder for rivals climbing to power. --

TITLE: To M. de Lafayette.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 194.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 180.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

A hideous evil, the magnitude of which is seen, and at a distance only, by the one party, and more sorely felt and sincerely deplored by the other, from the difficulty of the cure, divides us at this moment too angrily. The attempt by one party to prohibit willing States from sharing the evil, is thought by the other to render desperate, by accumulation, the hope of its final eradication. If a little time, however, is given to both parties to cool, and to dispel their visionary fears, they will see that concurring in sentiment as to the evil, moral and political, the duty and interest of both is to concur also in devising a practicable process of cure. Should time not be given, and the schism be pushed to separation, it will be for a short term only; two or three years' trial will bring them back, like quarrelling lovers to renewed embraces, and increased affections. The experiment of separation would soon prove to both that they had mutually miscalculated their best interests. --

TITLE: To Richard Rush.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 182.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: Oct. 1820

This State [Virginia] is in a condition of unparalleled distress. The sudden reduction of the circulating medium from a plethory to all but annihilation is producing an entire revolution of fortune. In other places I have known lands sold by the sheriff for one year's rent; beyond the mountains we hear of good slaves selling for one hundred dollars, good horses for five dollars, and the sheriffs generally the purchasers. Our produce is now selling at market for one-third of its price before this commercial catastrophe, say flour at three and a quarter and three and a half dollars the barrel. We should have less right to expect relief from our legislators if they had been the establishers of the unwise system of banks. A remedy to a certain degree was practicable, that of reducing the quantum of circulation gradually to a level with that of the countries with which we have commerce, and an eternal abjuration of paper. [* * *] I fear local insurrections against these horrible sacrifices of property. --

TITLE: To H. Nelson.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 151.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 156.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820
See National Currency and Paper Money.

Admit none but a metallic circulation that will take its proper level with the like circulation in other countries. --

TITLE: To Charles Pinckney.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 180.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 162.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820
See Money.

I know them both [Mr. Madison and Mr. Monroe] to be of principles as truly republican as any men living. --

TITLE: To Thomas Ritchie.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 191.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 170.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

It is surely time for men to think for themselves, and to throw off the authority of names so artificially magnified. --

TITLE: To William Short.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 165.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

The day is not distant, when we may formally require a meridian of partition through the ocean which separates the two hemispheres, on the hither side of which no European gun shall ever be heard, nor an American on the other; and when, during the rage of the eternal wars of Europe, the lion and the lamb, within our regions, shall lie down together in peace. --

TITLE: To William Short.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 168.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

Nothing is so important as that America shall separate herself from the systems of Europe, and establish one of her own. Our circumstances, our pursuits, our interests, are distinct, the principles of our policy

TITLE: To J. Correa de Serra.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 184.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 162.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: Oct. 1820

These texts of truth relieve me from the floating falsehoods of the public papers. --

TITLE: To President Monroe.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 160.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 158.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820
See Lies.

The mischievous law vacating, every four years, nearly all the executive offices of the government, saps the constitutional and salutary functions of the President, and introduces a principle of intrigue and corruption, which will soon leaven the mass, not only of senators, but of citizens. It is more baneful than the attempt which failed in the beginning of the government, to make all officers irremovable but with the consent of the Senate. This places,

TITLE: To James Madison.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 190.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 168.
PLACE: Popular Forest, Va. ,,
DATE: 1820 1820 gt;

Public opinion, that lord of the universe. --

TITLE: To William Short.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 157.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

Opinions constitute moral facts, as important as physical ones to the attention of the public functionary. --

TITLE: To Richard Rush.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 183.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

It is our sacred duty to suppress passion among ourselves, and not to blast the confidence we have inspired of proof that a government of reason is better than one of force. --

TITLE: To Richard Rush.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 183.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

Peace and justice [should] be the polar stars of the American Societies. --

TITLE: To J. Correa.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 184.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 164.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

I know no safe depositary of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the [Col 2] remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power. --

TITLE: To William C. Jarvis.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 179.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 161.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

No writer, ancient or modern, has bewildered the world with more ignes fatui, than this renowned philosopher, in ethics, in politics, and physics. --

TITLE: To William Short.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 165.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

From many conversations with him [M. Correa] I hope he sees, and will promote in his new situation [in Brazil] the advantages of a cordial fraternization among all the American nations, and the importance of their coalescing in an American system of policy, totally independent of and unconnected with that of Europe. The day is not distant, when we May formally require a meridian of partition through the ocean which separates the two hemispheres, on the hither side of which no European gun shall ever be heard, nor an American on the other; and when, during the rage of the eternal wars of Europe, the lion ³⁸⁸

TITLE: To William Short.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 168.
PLACE: [none given]
DATE: 1820

I wish to see this coalilion begun. I am earnest for an agreement with the maritime powers of Europe, assigning them the task of keeping down the piracies of their seas and the cannibalism of the African coasts, and to us, the suppression of the same enormities within our seas; and for this purpose, I should rejoice to see the fleets of Brazil and the United States riding together as brethren of the same family, and pursuing the same object. And indeed it would be of happy augury to begin at once this concert of action here, on the invitation of either to the other government, while the way might be preparing for withdrawing our cruisers from Europe, and preventing naval collisions there which daily endanger our peace. --

TITLE: To William Short.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 169.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

Nothing is so important as that America shall separate herself from the systems of Europe, and establish one of her own. Our circumstances, our pursuits, our interests, are distinct; the principles of our policy should be so also. All entanglements with that quarter of the globe should be avoided if we mean that peace and justice shall be the polar stars of the American Societies. [* * *] This would be a leading principle with me, had I longer to live. [* * *] --

TITLE: To J. Correa.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 184.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 164.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

I hope no American patriot will ever lose sight of the essential policy of interdicting in the seas and territories of both Americas, the ferocious and sanguinary contests of Europe. --

TITLE: To William Short.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 168.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

During six and thirty years that I have been in situations to attend to the conduct and characters of foreign nations, I have found the government of Portugal the most just, inoffensive, and unambitious of any one with which we had concern, without a single exception. I am sure that this is the character of ours also. Two such nations can never wish to quarrel with each other. --

TITLE: To J. Correa.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 184.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 164.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

Education is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power. --

TITLE: To William C. Jarvis.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 179.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 161.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

I know no safe depositary of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. --

TITLE: To William C. Jarvis.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 179.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 161.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

If the three powers maintain their mutual independence on each other our Government may last long, but not so if either can assume the authorities of the other. --

TITLE: To William C. Jarvis.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 179.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 161.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

The cession of that kind of property [Slaves] , for so it is misnamed, is a bagatelle which would not cost me a second thought, if, in that way, a general emancipation and expatriation could be effected. --

TITLE: To John Holmes.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 159.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 157.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

I observe you [Congress] are loaded with petitions from the manufacturing, commercial and agricultural interests, each praying you to sacrifice the others to them. This proves the egoism of the whole and happily balances their cannibal appetites to eat one another. [* * *] I do not know whether it is any part of the petitions of the farmers that our citizens shall be restrained to eat nothing but bread, because that can be made here. But this is the common spirit of all their petitions. --

TITLE: To Hugh Nelson.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 156.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

A government of reason is better than one of force. --

TITLE: To Richard Rush.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 183.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

The office of reformer of the superstitions of a nation is ever dangerous. --

TITLE: To William Short.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 167.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

I am too desirous of quiet to place myself in the way of contention. Against this I am admonished by bodily decay, which cannot be unaccompanied by corresponding wane of the mind. Of this I am as yet sensible, sufficiently to be unwilling to trust myself before the public, and when I cease to be so, I hope that my friends will be too careful of me to draw me forth and present me, like a Priam in armor, as a spectacle for public compassion. I hope our political bark will ride through all its dangers; but I can in future be but an inert passenger. --

TITLE: To Thomas Ritchie.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 193.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 171.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

I had formerly thought that visitors of the school might be chosen by the county, and charged to provide teachers for every ward, and to superintend them. I now think it would be better for every ward to choose its own resident visitor, whose business it would be to keep a teacher in the ward, to superinted the school, and to call meetings of the ward for all purposes relating to it; their accounts to be settled, and wards laid off by the courts. I think ward elections better for many reasons, one of which is sufficient, that it will keep elementary education out of the hands of fanaticising preachers, who, in county elections, would be universally chosen, and the predominant sect of the county would possess itself of all its schools. --

TITLE: To Joseph C. Cabell.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 189.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 167.
PLACE: Popular Forest, Va. ,,
DATE: 1820 1820 gt;

Should time not be given, and the schism [Missouri] be pushed to separation, it will be for a short term only; two or three years' trial will bring them back, like quarrelling lovers to renewed embraces, and increased affections. The experiment of separation would soon prove to both that they had mutually miscalculated their best interests. And even were the parties in Congress to secede in a passion, the soberer people would call a convention and cement again the severance attempted by the insanity of their functionaries. --

TITLE: To Richard Rush.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 182.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

The idea of a geographical line, once suggested, will brood in the minds of all those who prefer the gratification of their ungovernable passions to the peace and union of their country. --

TITLE: To M. L. Hill.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 155.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

A geographical line, coinciding with a marked principle, moral and political, once conceived and held up to the angry passions of men, will never be obliterated; and every new irritation will mark it deeper and deeper. --

TITLE: To John Holmes.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 159.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 157.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

I am so completely withdrawn from all attention to public matters, that nothing less could arouse me than the definition of a geographical line which, as an abstract principle, is to become the line of separation of these States, and to render desperate the hope that man can ever enjoy the two blessings of peace and self-government. --

TITLE: To H. Nelson.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 151.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 156.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820
See Apportionment and Secession.

I can say with conscious truth that there is not a man on earth who would sacrifice more than I would to relieve us from this heavy reproach in any practicable way. The cession of that kind of property, for so it is misnamed, is a bagatelle which would not cost me a second thought, if, in that way, a general emancipation and expatriation could be effected; and, gradually, and with due sacrifices, I think it might be. But, as it is, we have the wolf by the ears, and we can

TITLE: To John Holmes.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 159.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 157.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

Of one thing I am certain, that as the passage of slaves from one State to another, would not make a slave of a single human being who would not be so without it, so their diffusion over a greater surface would make them individually happier, and proportionally facilitate the accomplishment of their emancipation, by dividing the burden on a greater number of coadjutors. An abstinence, too, from this act of power would remove the jealousy excited by the undertaking of Congress to regulate the condition of the different descriptions of men composing a State. This certainly is the exclusive right of every State, which nothing in the Constitution has taken from them and given to the General Government. Could Congress, for example, say that the non-freemen of Connecticut shall be freemen, or that they shall not emigrate into any other State? --

TITLE: To John Holmes.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 159.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 158.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

The superlative wisdom of Socrates is testified by all antiquity, and placed on ground not to be questioned. When, therefore, Plato puts into his mouth such paralogisms, such quibbles on words, and sophisms as a schoolboy would be ashamed of, we conclude they were the whimsies of Plato's own foggy brain, and acquit Socrates of puerilities so unlike his character. --

TITLE: To William Short.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 165.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820
See Philosophy.

Some fear our envelopment in the wars engendering from the unsettled state of our affairs with Spain, and therefore are anxious for a ratification of our treaty with her. I fear no such thing, and hope that if ratified by Spain, it will be rejected here. We may justly say to Spain, “When this negotiation commenced, twenty years ago, your authority was acknowledged by those you are selling to us. That authority is now renounced, and their right of self-disposal asserted. In buying them from you, then, we buy but a wartitle, a right to subdue them, which you can neither convey nor we acquire. This is a family quarrel, in which we have no right to meddle. Settle it between yourselves, and we will then treat with the party whose right is acknowledged ”. With whom that will be, no doubt can be entertained. And why should we revolt them by purchasing them as cattle, rather than receiving them as fellow-men? Spain has held off until she sees they are lost to her, and now thinks it better to get something than nothing for them. When she shall see South America equally desperate, she will be wise to sell that also. --

TITLE: To M. de Lafayette.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 194.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 179.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: Dec. 1820

We go with you all lengths in friendly affections to the independ [Col 2] ence of South America. But an immediate acknowledgment of it calls up other considerations. We view Europe as covering at present a smothered fire, which may shortly burst forth and produce general conflagration. From this it is our duty to keep aloof. A formal acknowledgment of the independence of her Colonies would involve us with Spain certainly, and perhaps, too, with England, if she thinks that a war would divert her internal troubles. Such a war would hurt us more than it would help our brethren of the South; and our right May be doubted of mortgaging posterity for the expenses of a war in which they will have a right to say their interests were not concerned. --

TITLE: To Destutt Tracy.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 174.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

An abstinence from this act of power [prohibition of slavery in Missouri] , would remove the jealousy excited by the undertaking of Congress to regulate the condition of the different descriptions of men composing a State. This certainly is the exclusive right of every State, which nothing in the Constitution has taken from them and given to the General Government. Could Congress, for example, say, that the non-freemen of Connecticut shall be freemen, or that they shall not emigrate into any other State? --

TITLE: To John Holmes.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 159.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 158.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

Stewart is a great man, and among the most honest living. After you left Europe he [* * *] came to Paris. He brought me a letter from Lord Wycombe, whom you knew. I became immediately intimate with him, calling mutually on each other and almost daily during his stay at Paris, which was of some months. [Col 2] I consider him and Tracy as the ablest metaphysicians living. --

TITLE: To John Adams.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 152.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

It is a very dangerous doctrine to consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions. It is one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy. [* * *] The Constitution has erected no such single tribunal, knowing that to whatever hands confided, with the corruptions of time and party, its members would become despots. It has more wisely made all the departments coequal and cosovereign within themselves. --

TITLE: To William C. Jarvis.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 178.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 160.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

If the Legislature fails to pass laws for a census, for paying the Judges and other officers of government, for establishing a militia, for naturalization as prescribed by the Constitution, or if they fail to meet in Congress, the Judges cannot issue their mandamus to them; if the President fails to supply the place of a judge, to appoint other civil or military officers, to issue requisite commissions, the Judges cannot force him. They can issue their mandamus or distringas to no executive or legislative officer to enforce the fulfilment of their official duties any more than the President or Legislature may issue orders to the Judges or their officers. Betrayed by English example, and unaware, as it should seem, of the control of our Constitution in this particular, they have at times overstepped their limit by undertaking to command executive officers in the discharge of their executive duties; but the Constitution, in keeping the three departments distinct and independent, restrains the authority of the Judges to judiciary organs, as it does the Executive and Legislative to executive and legislative organs. The Judges certainly have more frequent occasion to act on constitutional questions, because the laws of meum and tuum and of criminal action, [Col 2] forming the great mass of the system of law, constitute their particular department. When the legislative or executive functionaries act unconstitutionally, they are responsible to the people in their elective capacity. The exemption of the Judges from that is quite dangerous enough. --

TITLE: To William C. Jarvis.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 178.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 160.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

As to the tariff, I should say put down all banks, admit none but a metallic circulation that will take its proper level with the like circulation in other countries, and then our manufacturers may work in fair competition with those of other countries, and the import duties which the government may lay for the purposes of revenue will so far place them above equal competition. --

TITLE: To Charles Pinckney.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 180.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 162.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

If there be anything amiss in the present state of our affairs, as the formidable deficit lately unfolded to us indicates, I ascribe it to the inattention of Congress to their duties, to their unwise dissipation and waste of the public contributions. They seemed, some little while ago, to be at a loss for objects whereon to throw away the supposed fathomless funds of the treasury. [* * *] I am aware that in one of their most ruinous vagaries the people were themselves betrayed into the same phrenzy with their representatives. The deficit produced, and a heavy tax to supply it, will, I trust, bring both to their sober senses. --

TITLE: To Thomas Ritchie.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 191.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 170.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

Colonel Taylor and myself have rarely, if ever, differed in any political principle of importance. Every act of his life, and every word he ever wrote, satisfies me of this. --

TITLE: To Thomas Ritchie.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 191.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 170.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

Here [the University of Virginia] we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it. --

TITLE: To Mr. Roscoe.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 196.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

I have been among the most sanguine in believing that our Union would be of long duration. I now doubt it much, and see the event at no great distance, and the direct consequence of this question; [Missouri] not by the line which has been so confidently counted on, -- the laws of nature control this, -- but by the Potomac, Ohio and Missouri, or, more probably, the Mississippi upwards to our northern boundary. My only comfort and confidence is, that I shall not live to see this; and I envy not the present generation the glory of throwing away the fruits of their fathers' sacrifices of life and fortune, and of rendering desperate the experiment which was to decide ultimately whether man is capable of self-government. This treason against human hope will signalize their epoch in future history as the counterpart of the medal of their predecessors. --

TITLE: To William Short.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 158.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

Were we to break to pieces, it would damp the hopes and the efforts of the good, and give triumph to those of the bad through the whole enslaved world. As members, therefore, of the universal society of mankind, and standing in high and responsible relation with them, it is our sacred duty to suppress passion among ourselves, and not to blast the confidence we have inspired

TITLE: To Richard Rush.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 183.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

I regret that I am now to die in the belief, that the useless sacrifice of themselves by the generation of 1776, to acquire self-government and happiness to their country, is to be thrown away by the unwise and unworthy passions of their sons, and that my only consolation is to be, that I live not to weep over it. If they would but dispassionately weigh the blessings they will throw away, against an abstract principle more likely to be effected by union than by scission,

TITLE: To John Holmes.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 160.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 158.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

This institution of my native State, the hobby of my old age, will be based on the illimitable freedom of the human mind, to explore and to expose every subject susceptible of its contemplation. --

TITLE: To Destutt Tracy.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 174.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

This institution ( University of Virginia) will be based on the illimitable freedom of the human mind. For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it May lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it. --

TITLE: To Mr. Roscoe.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 196.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

I contemplate the University of Virginia as the future bulwark of the human mind in this hemisphere. --

TITLE: To Dr. Thomas Cooper.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 172.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

Our University is the last of my mortal cares, and the last service I can render my country. --

TITLE: To J. Correa.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 183.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 163.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

An opposition [to the University] has been got up. That of our alma mater, William and Mary, is not of much weight. She must descend into the secondary rank of academies of preparation for the Uni [Col 2] versity. The serious enemies are the priests of the different religious sects, to whose spells on the human mind its improvement is ominous. Their pulpits are now resounding with denunciations against the appointment of Dr. Cooper whom they charge as a monetheist in opposition to their tritheism. --

TITLE: To William Short.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 157.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820
See Cooper.

The malevolence and impertinence of Great Britain's critics and writers really called for the rod, and I rejoiced when I heard it was in hands so able to wield it with strength and correctness. Your work will furnish the first volume of every future American history; the Anti-Revolutionary part especially. --

TITLE: To Robert Walsh.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 155.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

On the dawn of the Revolution, instead of higgling on half-way principles, as others did who feared to follow their reason, he took his stand on the solid ground that the only link of political union between us and Great Britain, was the identity of our Executive; that that nation and its Parliament had no more authority over us than we had over them, and that we were coordinate nations with Great Britain and Hanover. --

TITLE: To John Saunderson.
EDITION: Washington ed. i, 113.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

No man ever left behind him a character more venerated than George Wythe. His virtue was of the purest tint; his integrity inflexible and his justice exact; of warm patriotism, and, devoted as he was to liberty and the natural and equal rights of man, he might truly be called the Cato of his country, without the avarice of the Roman, for a more disinterested person never lived. ⁵¹⁸ --

TITLE: To John Saunderson.
EDITION: Washington ed. i, 114.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

The honor of his own, and the model of future times. --

TITLE: To John Saunderson.
EDITION: Washington ed. i, 114.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

The exalted virtue of the man will be a polar star to guide you in all matters which may touch that element of his character. But on that you will receive imputation from no man; for, as far as I know, he never had an enemy. --

TITLE: To John Saunderson.
EDITION: Washington ed. i, 112.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820

I leave the world and its affairs to the young and energetic, and resign myself to their care, of whom I have endeavored to take care when young. --

TITLE: To Charles Pinckney.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 180.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 162.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1820