We are to guard against ourselves; not against ourselves as we are, but as we may be; for who can now imagine what we may become under circumstances not now imaginable? --

TITLE: To Jedediah Morse.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 236.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 206.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

I have ever dreaded a doting old age; and my health has been generally so good, and is now so good, that I dread it still. The rapid decline of my strength during the last winter has made me hope sometimes that I see land. During the summer I enjoy its temperature, but I shudder at the approach of winter, and wish I could sleep through it with the dormouse, and only wake with him in the spring, if ever. --

TITLE: To John Adams.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 244.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 216.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

Time, which wears all things, does not spare the energies of body and mind of a presque octogenaire. While I could, I did what I could, and now acquiesce cheerfully in the law of nature which, by unfitting us for action, warns us to retire and leave to the generation of the day the direction of its own affairs. The prayers of an old man are the only contributions left in his power.

TITLE: To Mrs. K. D. Morgan.
EDITION: Ford ed., viii, 473.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

Our part is to pursue with steadiness what is right, turning neither to right nor left for the intrigues or popular delusions of the day, assured that the public approbation will in the end be with us. --

TITLE: To General Breckenridge.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 238.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

Although we have no right to intermeddle with the form of government of other nations, yet it is lawful to wish to see no emperors nor kings in our hemisphere, and that Brazil as well as Mexico will homologize with us. --

TITLE: To President Monroe.
EDITION: Ford ed., X, 244.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: Dec. 1822

Your favor [* * *] gives me the first information [* * *] that the laurels which Colonel Campbell so honorably won in the battle of King's Mountain had ever been brought into question by any one. To him has been ever ascribed so much of the success of that brilliant action as the valor and conduct of an able commander might justly claim. [* * *] It was the joyful annunciation of that turn of the tide of success which terminated the Revolutionary war with the seal of our Independence. [* * *] The descendants of Colonel Campbell may rest their heads quietly on the pillow of his renown. History

TITLE: To John Campbell.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 268.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

We already see the power, installed for life, responsible to no authority (for impeachment is not even a scare-crow), advancing with a noiseless and steady pace to the great object of consolidation. The foundations are already deeply laid by their decisions for the annihilation of constitutional State rights, and the removal of every check, every counterpoise to the ingulfing power of which themselves are to make a [Col 2] sovereign part. If ever this vast country is brought under a single government, it will be one of the most extensive corruption, indifferent and incapable of a wholesome care over so wide a spread of surface. This will not be borne, and you will have to choose between reformation and revolution. If I know the spirit of this country, the one or the other is inevitable. Before the canker is become inveterate, before its venom has reached so much of the body politic as to get beyond control, remedy should be applied. --

TITLE: To William T. Barry.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 256.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

I read the sixth chapter of your book with interest and satisfaction, on the question whether the common law (of England) makes a part of the laws of our General Government. That it makes more or less a part of the laws of the States is, I suppose, an unquestionable fact. Not by birthright, [* * *] but by adoption. But, as to the General Government, the Virginia Report on the Alien and Sedition laws, has so completely pulverized this pretension that nothing new can be said on it. Still, seeing the judges of the Supreme Court (I recollect, for example, Ellsworth and Story) had been found capable of such paralogism, I was glad to see that the Supreme Court had given it up. In the case of Libel in the United States District Court of Connecticut, the rejection of it was certainly sound; because no law of the General Government had made it an offence. But such a case might, I suppose, be sustained in the State courts which have State laws against libels. Because as to the portions of power within each State assigned to the General Government, the President is as much the Executive of the State, as their particular governor is in relation to State powers. --

TITLE: To Mr. Goodenow.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 251.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

This blessed country of free inquiry and belief has surrendered its creed and conscience to neither kings nor priests. --

TITLE: To Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 253.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 220.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

The adored principles of our Constitution. --

TITLE: To Jedediah Morse.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 235.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 205.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

If ever this vast country is brought under a single government, it will be one of the most extensive corruption, indifferent and incapable of a wholesome care over so wide a spread of surface. --

TITLE: To William T. Barry.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 256.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

When all our faculties have left, or are leaving us, one by one, sight, hearing, memory, every avenue of pleasing sensation is closed, and athymy, debility, and malaise left in their places; when friends of our youth are all gone, and a new generation is risen around us whom we know not, is death an evil? [* * *] I think not. I have ever dreaded a doting old age; and my

TITLE: To John Adams.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 243.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 216.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

I have received the new publication of the Secret Journals of Congress, wherein is stated a resolution of July 19th, 1776, that the Declaration passed on the 4th, be fairly engrossed on parchment, and when engrossed, be signed by every member; and another of August 2d, that being engrossed and compared at the table, it was

TITLE: Memorandum by Jefferson.
EDITION: Washington ed. i, 122.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 132.

DATE: Aug. 1822

The article of discipline is the most difficult in American education. Premature ideas of independence, too little repressed by parents, beget a spirit of insubordination, which is the great obstacle to science with us, and a principal cause of its decay since the Revolution. I look to it with dismay in our institution [the Virginia University] as a breaker ahead, which I am far from being confident we shall be able to weather. --

TITLE: To Thomas Cooper.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 268.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 244.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

Our part is to pursue with steadiness what is right, turning neither to right nor left for the intrigues or popular delusions of the day, assured that the public approbation will in the end be with us. --

TITLE: To General Breckenridge.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 238.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

On the question what is an east and west line? which, you say, has been a subject of discussion in the papers, I presume [* * *] that the parties have differed only in applying the same appellation to different things. The one defines an east and west line to be on a great circle of the earth, passing through the point of departure, its nadir point, and the centre of the earth, its plane rectangular, to that of the meridian of departure. The other considers an east and west line to be a line on the surface of the earth, bounding a plane at right angles with its axis, or a circle of latitude passing through the point of departure, or in other words, a line which, from the point of departure, passes every meridian at a right angle. Each party, therefore, defining the line he means, may be permitted to call it an east and west one, or at least it becomes no longer a mathematical but a philological question of the meaning of the words east and west. The last is what was meant probably by the east and west line in the treaty of Ghent. The same has been the understanding in running the numerous east and west lines which divide our different States. They have been run by observations of latitude at very short intervals, uniting the points of observation by short direct lines, and thus constituting in fact part of a polygon of very short sides. --

TITLE: To Chiles Terril.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 260.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

I look to the diffusion of light and education as the resource most to be relied on for ameliorating the condition, promoting the virtue, and advancing the happiness of man. --

TITLE: To C. C. Blatchly.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 263.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822
See 2386.

In a country and government like ours, eloquence is a powerful instrument, well worthy of the special pursuit of our youth. Models, indeed, of chaste and classical oratory are truly too rare with us; nor do I recollect any remarkable in England. Among the ancients the most perfect specimens are perhaps to be found in Livy, Sallust and Tacitus. Their pith and brevity constitute perfection itself for an audience of sages, on whom froth and fancy would be lost in air. But in ordinary cases, and with us particularly, more development is necessary. For senatorial eloquence, Demosthenes is the finest model; for the bar, Cicero. The former had more logic, the latter more imagination. Of the eloquence of the pen, we have fine samples in English. Robertson, Sterne, Addison, are of the first merit in the different characters of composition. Hume, in the circumstance of style, is equal to any; but his tory principles spread a cloud over his many and great excellences. The charms of his style and matter have made tories of all England, and doubtful republicans here. --

TITLE: To G. W. Summers.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 231.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

I have long considered the present crises of England, and the origin of the evils which are lowering over her as produced by enormous excess of her expenditures beyond her income. To pay even the interest of the debt contracted, she is obliged to take from the industrious so much of their earnings as not to leave them enough for their backs and bellies. They are daily, therefore, passing over to the pauper-list, to subsist on the declining means of those still holding up, and when these shall also be exhausted, what next? Reformation cannot remedy this. It could only prevent its recurrence when once relieved from the debt. To effect that relief I see but one possible and just course. Considering the funded and real property as equal, and the debt as much of the one as the other, for the holder of property to give up one-half to those of the funds, and the latter to the nation the whole of what it owes them. But this the nature of man forbids us to expect without blows, and blows will decide it by a promiscuous sacrifice of life and property. The debt thus, or otherwise extinguished, a real representation introduced into the government of either property or people, or of both, renouncing eternal war, restraining future expenses to future income, and breaking up forever the consuming circle of extravagance, debt, insolvency, and revolution, the island would then again be in the degree of force which nature has measured out to it in the scale of nations, but not at their head. I sincerely wish she could peaceably get into this state of being, as the present prospects of southern Europe seem to need the acquisition of new weights in their balance, rather than the loss of old ones. --

TITLE: To Edward Everett.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 232.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

The atmosphere of our country is unquestionably charged with a threatening cloud of fanaticism, lighter in some parts, denser in others, but too heavy in all. [* * *] The diffusion of instruction [* * *] will be the [* * *] remedy for this fever of fanaticism. --

TITLE: To Thomas Cooper.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 266.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 242.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

The Hartford Convention and the battle of New Orleans extinguished the name of federalists. --

TITLE: To Henry Dearborn.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 237.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: Oct. 1822

The name of federalist was extinguished in the battle of New Orleans; and those who wear it now [1822] call themselves republicans. Like the fox pursued by the dogs, they take shelter in the midst of the sheep. They see that monarchism is a hopeless wish in this country, and are rallying anew to the next best point, a consolidated government. They are, therefore, endeavoring to break down the barriers of the State rights, provided by the Constitution against a consolidation. --

TITLE: To Marquis Lafayette.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 233.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

Greene was truly a great man. He had not, perhaps, all the qualities which so peculiarly rendered General Washington the fittest man

TITLE: To William Johnson.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 222.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

In the present spirit of extending to the great mass of mankind the blessings of instruction, I see a prospect of great advancement in the happiness of the human race. --

TITLE: To C. C. Blatchly.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 263.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

The civilization and improvement of the Indian tribes [* * *] I have [Col 2] ever had much at heart, and never omitted an occasion of promoting while I have been in situations to do it with effect; and nothing, even now, in the calm of age and retirement, would excite in me a more lively interest than an approvable plan of raising that respectable and unfortunate people from the state of physical and moral abjection, to which they have been reduced by circumstances foreign to them. --

TITLE: To Jedediah Morse.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 233.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 203.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822
See Civilization.

The society of Jacobins was instituted on principles and views as virtuous as ever kindled the hearts of patriots. It was the pure patriotism of their purposes which extended their association to the limits of the nation, and rendered their power within it boundless; and it was this power which degenerated their principles and practices to such enormities as never before could have been imagined. --

TITLE: To Jedediah Morse.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 235.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 205.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

We already see the power, installed for life, responsible to no authority (for impeachment is not even a scare-crow), advancing with a noiseless and steady pace to the great object of consolidation. The foundations are already deeply laid by their decisions, for the annihilation of constitutional State rights, and the removal of every check, every counterpoise to the ingulphing power of which themselves are to make a sovereign part. [* * *] Let the future appointments of judges be for four or six years, and removable by the President and Senate. This will bring their conduct, at regular periods, under revision and probation, and may keep them in equipoise between the general and special governments. We have erred in this point, by copying England, where certainly it is a good thing to have the judges independent of the King. But we have omitted to copy their caution also, which makes a judge removable on the address of both legislative houses. That there should be public functionaries independent of the nation, whatever may be their demarit, is a solecism in a republic, of the first order of absurdity and inconsistency. --

TITLE: To Wm. T. Barry.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 256.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822
See Centralization.

It is lawful to wish to see no emperor or king in our hemisphere. --

TITLE: To James Monroe.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 244.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

-- I think General Washington approved of building vessels of war to the extent of a force sufficient to keep the Barbary States in order. General Knox, I know, did. ²⁷⁵ --

TITLE: To John Adams.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 264.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 240.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

Among the few survivors of our Revolutionary struggles, you are as distinguished in my affections, as in the eyes of the world, and especially in those of this country. You are now, I believe, the doyen of our military heroes, and may I not say of the soldiers of liberty in the world? --

TITLE: To Marquis Lafayette.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 228.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

I am glad to see the romance of Lee removed from the shelf of history to that of fable. Some small portion of the transactions he relates were within my own knowledge; and of these I can say he has given more falsehood than fact; and I have heard many officers declare the same as to what had passed under their eyes. --

TITLE: To William Johnson.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 222.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

I have generally great aversion to the insertion of my letters in the public papers; because of my passion for quiet retirement, and never to be exhibited in scenes on the public stage. --

TITLE: To John Adams.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 254.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

I should wish never to put pen to paper; and the more

TITLE: To John Adams.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 244.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 216.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

It occurs then, that my condition of existence, truly stated in that letter, if better known, might check the kind indiscretions which are so heavily oppressing the departing hours of life. Such a relief [from letter-writers] would, to me, be an ineffable blessing. But yours, [* * *] equally interesting and affecting, should accompany that to which it is an answer. The two, taken together, would excite a joint interest, and place before our fellow-citizens the present condition of two ancient servants, who having faithfully performed their forty or fifty campaigns, stipendiis omnibus expletus, have a reasonable claim to repose from all disturbance in the sanctuary of invalids and superannuates. --

TITLE: To John Adams.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 254.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 218.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

I do not know how far you may suffer, as I do, under the persecution of letters, of which every mail brings me a fresh load. They are letters of enquiry, for the most part, always of good will, sometimes from friends whom I [Col 2] esteem, but much oftener from persons whose names are unknown to me, but written kindly and civilly, and to which, therefore, civility requires answers. [* * *] I happened to turn to my letter-list some time ago, and a curiosity was excited to count those received in a single year. It was the year before the last. I found the number to be one thousand two hundred and sixty-seven, many of them requiring answers of elaborate research, and all to be answered with due attention and consideration. Take an average of this number for a week or a day, and I will repeat the question [* * *] is this life? At best, it is but the life of a mill-horse, who sees no end to his circle but in death. To such a life, that of a cabbage is paradise. --

TITLE: To John Adams.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 254.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 218.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

That every man shall be made virtuous, by any process whatever, is, indeed, no more to be expected, than that every tree shall be made to bear fruit, and every plant nourishment. The brier and bramble can never become the vine and olive; but their asperities may be softened by culture, and their properties improved to usefulness in the order and economy of the world. And I do hope that, in the present spirit of extending to the great mass of mankind the blessings of instruction, I see a prospect of great advancement in the happiness of the human race; and that this may proceed to an indefinite, although not to an infinite degree. --

TITLE: To C. C. Blatchly.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 263.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

No one has been more sensible than myself of the advantages of placing the consumer by the side of the producer, nor more disposed to promote it by example. --

TITLE: To Mrs. K. D. Morgan.
EDITION: Ford ed., viii, 473.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822
See Protection and Tariff.

Of all the departments of science no one seems to have been less advanced for the last hundred years than that of meteorology. The new chemistry, indeed, has given us a new principle of the generation of rain, by proving water to be a composition of different gases, and has aided our theory of meteoric lights. Electricy stands where Dr. Franklin's early discoveries placed it, except with its new modification of galvanism. But the phenomena of snow, hail, halo, aurora borealis, haze, looming,

TITLE: To George F. Hopkins.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 259.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822
See Climate.

Colonel Morgan first gave us notice of the mad project of that day, which if suffered to proceed, might have brought afflicting consequences on persons whose subsequent lives have proved their integrity and loyalty to their country. --

TITLE: To Mrs. K. D. Morgan.
EDITION: Ford ed., viii, 473.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

I have racked my memory and ransacked my papers, to enable myself to answer the inquiries of your favor of Oct. the 15th; but to little purpose. My papers furnish me nothing, my memory, generalities only. I know that while I was in Europe, and anxious about the fate of our sea-faring men, for some of whom, then in captivity in Algiers, we were treating, and all were in like danger, I formed, undoubtingly, the opinion that our government, as soon as practicable, should provide a naval force sufficient to keep the Barbary States in order; and on this subject we communicated together, as you observe. When I returned to the United States and took part in the administration under General Washington, I constantly main

TITLE: To John Adams.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 264.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 238.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

Let us milk the cow while the Russian holds her by the horns and the Turk holds her by the tail. --

TITLE: To John Adams.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 245.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 217.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

To distinct vision it is necessary not only that the visual angle should be sufficient for the powers of the human eye, but that there should be sufficient light also on the object of observation. In microscopic observations, the enlargement of the angle of vision may be more indulged, because auxiliary light may be concentrated on the object by concave mirrors. But in the case of the heavenly bodies we can have no such aid. The moon, for example, receives from the sun but a fixed quality of light. In proportion as you magnify her surface, you spread that fixed quantity over a greater space, dilute it more, and render the object more dim. If you increase her magnitude infinitely, you dim her face infinitely also, and she becomes invisible. When under total eclipse, all the direct rays of the sun being intercepted, she is seen but faintly, and would not be seen at all but for the refraction of the solar rays in their passage through our atmosphere. In a night of extreme darkness, a house or a mountain is not seen, as not having light enough to impress the limited sensibility of our eye. I do suppose in fact that Herschel has availed himself of the properties of the parabolic mirror to the point beyond which its effect would be countervailed by the diminution of light on the object. I barely suggest this element, not presented to view in your letter, as one which must enter into the estimate of the improved telescope you propose. --

TITLE: To Thomas Skidman.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 259.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

What do you think of the state of parties at this time [1822] ? An opinion prevails that there is no longer any distinction, that the republicans and federalists are completely amalgamated, but it is not so. The amalgamation is of name only, not of principle. All, indeed, call themselves by the name of republicans, because that of the federalists was extinguished in the battle of New Orleans. But the truth is that finding that monarchy is a desperate wish in this country, they rally to the point which they think next best, a consolidated government. Their aim is now, therefore, to break down the rights reserved by the Constitution to the States as a bulwark against that consolidation, the fear of which produced the whole of the opposition to the Constitution at its birth. Hence new republicans in Congress, preaching the doctrines of the old federalists, and the new nicknames of “Ultras” and “Radicals”. But, I trust, they will fail under the new, as the old name, and that the friends of the real Constitution and Union will prevail against consolidation, as they have done against monarchism. I scarcely know myself which is most to be deprecated, a consolidation, or dissolution of the States. The horrors of both are beyond the reach of human foresight. --

TITLE: To William Johnson.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 225.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: Oct. 1822

You are told, indeed, that there are no longer parties among us; that they are all now amalgamated; the lion and the lamb lie down together in peace. Do not believe a word of it. The same parties exist now as ever did. No longer, indeed, under the name of republicans and federalists. The latter name was extinguished in the battle of Orleans. Those who wore it, finding monarchism a desperate wish in this country, are rallying to what they deem the next best point, a consolidated government. Although this is not yet avowed (as that of monarchy, you know, never was), it exists decidedly, and is the true key to the debates in Congress, wherein you see many calling themselves republicans, and preaching the rankest doctrines of the old federalists. ³⁸⁰ --

TITLE: To Albert Gallatin.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 235.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: Oct. 1822

I consider the party division of whig and tory the most wholesome which can exist in any government, and well worthy of being nourished, to keep out those of a more dangerous character. --

TITLE: To William T. Barry.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 255.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

I hope we shall prove how much happier for man the Quaker policy is, and that the life of the feeder, is better than that of the fighter; and it is some consolation that the desolation by these maniacs [European kings] of one part of the earth is the means of improving it in other parts. --

TITLE: To John Adams.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 245.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 217.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

The cradle of toleration and freedom of religion. --

TITLE: To Dr. Thomas Cooper.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 266.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 242.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

I shall not undertake to draw the line of demarcation between private associations of laudable views and unimposing numbers, and those whose magnitude may rivalize and jeopardize the march of regular government. Yet such a line does exist. I have seen the days, -- they were those which preceded the Revolution, -- when even this last and perilous engine became necessary; but they were days which no man would wish to see a second time. That was the case where the regular authorities of the government had combined against the rights of the people, and no means of correction remained to them but to organize a collateral power, which, with their support, might rescue and secure their violated rights. But such is not the case with our government. We need hazard no collateral power, which, by a change of its original views, and assumption of others we know not how virtuous or how mischievous, would be ready organized and in force sufficient to shake the established foundations of society, and endanger its peace and the principles on which it is based. Is not the machine ³⁹³ now proposed of this gigantic stature? --

TITLE: To Jedediah Morse.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 234.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 204.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

Might we not as well appoint a committee for each department of the Government, to counsel and direct its head separately, as volunteer ourselves to counsel and direct the whole, in mass? And might we not do it as well for their foreign, their fiscal, and their military, as for their Indian affairs? And how many societies, auxiliary to the Government, may we expect to see spring up, in imitation of this, offering to associate themselves in this and that of its functions? In a word, why not take the Government out of its constitutional hands, associate them indeed with us, to preserve a semblance that the acts are theirs, but ensuring them to be our own by allowing them a minor vote only? --

TITLE: To Jedediah Morse.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 236.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 206.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

As to the portions of power within each State assigned to the General Government, the President is as much the Executive of the State, as their particular governor is in relation to State powers. --

TITLE: To Mr. Goodenow.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 251.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

Is confidence or discretion, or is strict limit, the principle of our Constitution? --

TITLE: To Jedediah Morse.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 235.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 205.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

Man once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without rudder, is the sport of every wind. --

TITLE: To James Smith.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 270.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

Don Quixote undertook to redress the bodily wrongs of the world, but the redressment of mental vagaries would be an enterprise more than Quixotic. --

TITLE: To Dr. Waterhouse.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 257.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 220.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

Whether the surrender of our opponents, their reception into our camp, their assumption of our name, and apparent accession to our objects, may strengthen or weaken the genuine principles of republicanism, may be a good or an evil, is yet to be seen. --

TITLE: To William T. Barry.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 255.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

That there should be public functionaries independent of the nation, whatever may be their demerit, is a solecism in a republic, of the first order of absurdity and inconsistency. --

TITLE: To William T. Barry.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 256.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

The annual reports show that our plan of primary schools [in Virginia] is becoming completely abortive, and must be abandoned very shortly, after costing us to this day one hundred and eighty thousand dollars, and yet to cost us forty-five thousand dollars a year more until it shall be discontinued; and if a single boy has received the elements of common education, it must be in some part of the country not known to me. Experience has but too fully confirmed the early predictions of its fate. --

TITLE: To William T. Barry.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 256.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

I sincerely think that the prominent characters of the country where you are could not better prepare their sons for the duties they will have to perform in their new government than by sending them here [the University of Virginia] where they might become familiarized with the habits and practice of self-government. This lesson is scarcely to be acquired but in this country, and yet without it, the political vessel is all sail and no ballast. ⁴⁴⁸ --

TITLE: To Henry Dearborn.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 237.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

The good sense of our people will direct the boat ultimately to its proper point. --

TITLE: To Marquis Lafayette.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 234.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

I was only of a band devoted to the cause of Independence, all of whom exerted equally their best endeavors for its success, and have a common right to the merits of its acquisition. So also is the civil revolution of 1801. Very many and very meritorious were the worthy patriots who assisted in bringing back our government to its republican tack. --

TITLE: To William T. Barry.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 255.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

I ascribe these hard expressions to the ardor of his zeal for the public good, and as they contain neither argument nor proof, I pass them over without observation. Indeed, I have not been in the habit of noticing these morbid ejections of spleen either with or without the names of those venting them. But I have thought it a duty on the present occasion to relieve my fellow citizens and my country from the degradation in the eyes of the world to which this informer is endeavoring to reduce it by representing it as governed hitherto by a succession of swindlers and speculators. Nor shall I notice any further endeavors to prove or to palliate this palpable misinformation. I am too old and inert to undertake minute investigations of intricate transactions of the last century; and I am not afraid to trust to the justice and good sense of my fellow-citizens on future as on former attempts to lessen me in their esteem. --

TITLE: To Ritchie and Gooch.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 242.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 211.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

That, on the principle of a communion of property, small societies may exist in habits of virtue, order, industry, and peace, and consequently in a state of as much happiness as heaven has been pleased to deal out to imperfect humanity, I can readily conceive, and, indeed, have seen its proofs in various small societies which have been constituted on that principle. But I do not feel authorized to conclude from these that an extended society, like that of the United States, or of an individual State, could be governed happily on the same principle. I look to the diffusion of light and education as the resource most to be [Col 2] relied on for ameliorating the condition, promoting the virtue, and advancing the happiness of man. --

TITLE: To C. C. Blatchly.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 263.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

I acknowledge the right of voluntary associations for laudable purposes and in moderate numbers. I acknowledge, too, the expediency, for revolutionary purposes, of general associations, coextensive with the nation. But where, as in our case, no abuses call for revolution, voluntary associations so extensive as to grapple with and control the government, should such be or become their purpose, are dangerous machines, and should be frowned down in every well regulated government. --

TITLE: To James Madison.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 207.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

There is a subject respecting the practice of the Court of which you are a member which has long weighed on my mind. [* * *] It is the habitual mode of making up and delivering the opinions. You know that from the earliest ages of the English law, from the date of the Year-Books, at least, to the end of the Second George, the judges of England, in all but self-evident cases, delivered their opinions seriatim, with the reasons and authorities which governed

TITLE: To William Johnson.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 223.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: Oct. 1822

I have received and read with thankfulness and pleasure your denunciation of the abuses of tobacco and wine. Yet, however sound in its principles, I expect it will be but a sermon to the wind. You will find it [* * *] difficult to inculcate these sanative precepts on the sensualities of the present day. --

TITLE: To Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 252.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 219.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

At the age of eighty, tranquillity is the greatest good of life, and the strongest of our desires that of dying in the good will of all mankind. --

TITLE: To James Smith.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 270.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

The general insurrection of the world against its tyrants will ultimately prevail by pointing the object of government to the happiness of the people, and not merely to that of their self-constituted governors. --

TITLE: To Marquis Lafayette.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 233.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

Our aim [is] the securing to our country a full and perpetual institution for all the useful sciences; one which will restore us to our former station in the confederacy. [* * *] Patience and perseverance on our part will secure the blessed end. If we shrink, it is gone forever. --

TITLE: To General Breckenridge.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 239.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

Our intention is that its professors shall be of the first order in their respective lines which can be procured on either side of the Atlantic. --

TITLE: To Albert Gallatin.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 236.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822

In our University there is no professorship of divinity. A handle has been made of this to disseminate an idea that this is an nistitution, not merely of no religion, but against all religion. Occasion was taken at the last meeting of the Visitors, to bring forward an idea that might silence this calumny, which weighed on the minds of some honest friends to the institution. In our annual report to the Legislature, after stating the constitutional reasons against a public establishment of any religious instruction, we suggest the expediency of encouraging the different religious sects to establish, each for itself, a professorship of their own tenets, on the confines of the University, so near as that their students May attend the lectures there, and have the free use of our library, and every other accommodation we can give them; preserving, however, their [Col 2] independence of us and of each other. This fills the chasm objected to ours, as a defect in an institution professing to give instruction in all useful sciences. I think the invitation will be accepted, by some sects from candid intentions, and by others from jealousy and rivalship. And by bringing the sects together, and mixing them with the mass of other students, we shall soften their asperities, liberalize and neutralize their prejudices, and make the general religion a religion of peace, reason and morality. --

TITLE: To Dr. Thomas Cooper.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 267.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 243.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822
See Education, Languages and Schools.

The cannibals of Europe are going to eating one another again. A war between Russia and Turkey is like the battle of the kite and snake. Whichever destroys the other, leaves a destroyer the less for the world. This pugnacious humor of mankind seems to be the law of his nature, one of the obstacles to too great multiplication provided in the mechanism of the Universe. The cocks of the henyard kill one another up. Bears, bulls, rams, do the same. And the horse, in his wild state, kills all the young males, until worn down with age and war, some vigorous youth kills him, and takes to himself the harem of females. I hope we shall prove how much happier for man the Quaker policy is, and that the life of the feeder is better than that of the fighter; and it is some consolation that the desolation by these maniacs of one part of the earth is the means of improving it in other parts. Let the latter be our office, and let us milk the cow, while the Russian holds her by the horns, and the Turk by the tail. --

TITLE: To John Adams.
EDITION: Washington ed. vii, 244.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 217.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1822