I have never entertained for Mr. Adams any but sentiments of esteem and respect; and if we have not thought alike on political subjects, I yet never doubted the honesty of his opinions. --
TITLE: To -- -- .
EDITION: Washington ed.vii ,432.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1826
See Embargo.
If ever the earth has beheld a system of administration conducted with a single and steadfast eye to the general interest and happiness of those committed to it, one which, protected by truth, can never know reproach, it is that to which our lives have been devoted. --
TITLE: To James Madison.
EDITION: Washington ed.vii ,435.
EDITION: Ford ed.,x, 378.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1826
I am not the champion called for by our present dangers. “Non tali auxilio, nec defensoribus istis, tempus eget.” A waning body, a waning mind, and waning memory, with habitual ill health warn me to withdraw and relinquish the arena to younger and abler athletes. I am sensible myself, if others are not, that this is my duty. If my distant friends know it not, those around me can inform them that they should not, in friendship, wish to call me into conflicts, exposing only the decays which nature has inscribed among her unalterable laws, and injuring the common cause by a senile and puny defence. --
TITLE: To C. W. Glooch.
EDITION: Washington ed.vii ,430.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1826
See Life.
The long succession of years of stunted crops, of reduced prices, the general prostration of the farming business, under levies for the support of manufacturers, &c., with the calamitous fluctuations of value in our paper medium, have kept agriculture in a state of abject depression, which has peopled the western States by silently breaking up those on the Atlantic, and glutted the land market, while it drew off its bidders. In such a state of things, property has lost its character of being a resource for debts. Highland in Belford, which, in the days of our plethory, sold readily for from fifty to one hundred dollars the acre, (and such sales were many then,) would not now sell for more than from ten to twenty dollars, or one-quarter or one-fifth of its former price. --
TITLE: To James Madison. vii, 434.
EDITION: Ford ed.,x, 377.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: Feb. 1826
I hear nothing definitive of the three thousand dollars duty [on books for the University of Virginia] of which we are asking the remission from Congress.
TITLE: -To James Madison.
EDITION: Washington ed.vii ,433.
EDITION: Ford ed.,X, 376.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1826
It is time to think of the introduction of the school of Botany into our institution. (University of Virginia). [* * *] 1. Our first operation must be the se [Col 2] lection of a piece of ground of proper soil and site, suppose of about six acres, as M. Correa proposes. In choosing this we are to regard the circumstances of soil, water, and distance. I have diligently examined all our grounds with this view, and think that on the public road, at the upper corner of our possessions, where the stream issues from them, has more of the requisite qualities than any other spot we possess. One hundred and seventy yards square, taken at that angle, would make the six acres we want. [* * *] 2. Enclose the ground with a serpentine brick wall seven feet high. This would take about 80,000 bricks and cost $800, and it must depend on our finances whether they will afford that immediately, or allow us, for awhile, but enclosure of posts and rails. 3. Form all the hill sides into level terraces of convenient breadth, curving with the hill, and the level ground into beds and alleys. 4. Make out a list of the plants thought necessary and sufficient for botanical purposes, and of the trees we propose to introduce, and take measures in time for procuring them. As to the seeds of plants, much may be obtained from the gardeners of our own country. I have, moreover, a special resource. For three and twenty years of the last twenty-five, my good old friend Thonin, superintendent of the Jardin des Plantes at Paris, has regularly sent me a box of seeds of such exotics, as to us, as would suit our climate, and containing nothing indigenous to our country. These I regularly sent to the public and private gardens of the other States, having as yet no employment for them here. [* * *] The trees I should propose would be exotics of distinguished usefulness, and accommodated to our climate; such as the Larch, Cedar of Libanus, Cork, Oak, the Maronnier, Mahogany? the Catachu or Indian rubber tree of Napul (30°), Teak tree, or Indian oak of Burmah (23°), the various woods of Brazil, &c. The seed of the Larch can be obtained from a tree at Monticello. Cones of the Cedar of Libanus are in most of our seed shops, but may be had fresh from the trees in the English gardens. The Maronnier and Cork tree I can obtain from France. There is a Maronnier at Mount Vernoa, but it is a seedling, and not, therefore, select. The others may be got through the means of our ministers and consuls in the countries where they grow, or from the seed shops of England, where they May very possibly be found. Lastly, a gardener of sufficient skill must be found. 58 --
TITLE: To Dr. Emmett.
EDITION: Washington ed.vii ,438.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1826
Toryism. -- Consolidation is but toryism in disguise. --
TITLE: To Nathaniel Macon.
EDITION: Ford ed.,x, 379.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1826
The consolidationists may call themselves republicans if they please, but the school of Venice, and all of this principle, I call at once tories. --
TITLE: To Nathaniel Macon.
EDITION: Ford ed.,x, 378.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1826
It is but too evident that the branches of our foreign department of government, Executive, Judiciary and Legislative, are in combination to usurp the powers of the domestic branch, all so reserved to the States, and consolidate themselves into a single government without limitation of powers. I will not trouble you with details of the instances which are threadbare and unheeded. The only question is, what is to be done? Shall we give up the ship? No, by heavens, while a hand remains able to keep the deck. Shall we, with the hot-headed Georgian, stand at once to our arms? Not yet nor until the evil, the only greater one than separation, shall be all upon us, that of living under a government of discretion. Between these alternatives there can be no hesitation. But, again, what are we to do? [* * *] We had better, at present, rest awhile on our oars and see which way the tide will set in Congress and in the State Legislatures. --
TITLE: To William F. Gordon.
EDITION: Ford ed.,X, 358.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: Jan. 1826
Although I have little hope that the tor [Col 2] rent of consolidation can be withstood, I should not be for giving up the ship without efforts to save her. She lived well through the first squall, and may weather the present one. --
TITLE: To C. W. Gooch.
EDITION: Washington ed.vii ,430.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: Jan. 1826
I have read with pleasure and satisfaction the very able and eloquent speech you have been so kind as to send me on the amendment of the Constitution, proposed by Mr. McDuffie, and concur with much of its contents. --
TITLE: To Edward Everett.
EDITION: Washington ed.vii ,437.
EDITION: Ford ed.,x, 385.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: April. 1826
The Constitution of the United States is a compact of independent nations, subject to the rules acknowledged in [Col 2] similar cases, as well that of amendment provided within itself, as, in case of abuse, the justly dreaded but unavoidable ultima ratio gentium. --
TITLE: To Edward Everett.
EDITION: Washington ed.vii ,437.
EDITION: Ford ed.,x, 385.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1826
You will have seen in the newspapers some proceedings in the Legislature, which have cost me much mortification. 119 My own debts had become considerable, but not beyond the effect of some lopping of property, which would have been but little felt, when our friend -- 120 gave me the coup de grace. Ever since that I have been paying twelve hundred dollars a year interest on his debt, which, with my own, was absorbing so much of my annual income as that the maintenance of my family was making deep and rapid inroads on my capital, and had already done it. Still, sales at a fair price would leave me competently provided. Had crops and prices for several years been such as to maintain a steady competition of substantial bidders at market, all would have been safe. But [] long succession of years of stunted crops, of reduced prices, the general prostration of the farming business, under levies for the support of manufacturers, &c., with the calamitous fluctuations of value in our paper medium, have kept agriculture in a state of abject depression, which has peopled the western States by silently breaking up those on the Atlantic, and glutted the land market, while it drew off its bidders. In such a state of things, property has lost its character of being a resource for debts. Highland in Bedford, which, in the days of our plethory, sold readily for from fifty to one hundred dollars the acre (and such sales were many then), would not now sell for more than from ten to twenty dollars, or one-quarter or one-fifth of its former price. Reflecting on these things, the practice occurred to me, of selling, on fair valuation, and by way of lottery, often resorted to before the Revolution to effect large sales, and still in constant usage in every State for individual as well as corporation purposes. If it is permitted in my case, my lands here alone, with the mills, &c., will pay everything and leave me Monticello and a farm free. If refused, I must sell everything here, perhaps considerably in Bedford, move thither with my family, where I have not even a log hut to put my head into, and whether ground for burial, will depend on the depredations which, under the form of sales, shall have been committed on my property. The question then with me was ultrum horum? --
TITLE: To James Madison.
EDITION: Washington ed.vii ,433.
EDITION: Ford ed.,x, 376.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: Feb. 1826
Had our land market remained in a healthy state everything might have been paid, and have left me competently provided. But the agricultural branch of industry with us had been so many years in a state of abject prostration, that, combined with the calamitous fluctuations in the value of our circulating medium, those concerned in it, instead of being in a condition to purchase, were abandoning farms no longer yielding profit, and moving off to the western
TITLE: To George Loyall.
EDITION: Ford ed.,x, 380.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1826
A long succession of unfruitful years, long-continued low prices, oppressive tariffs levied on other branches to maintain that of manufactures, for the most flourishing of all, calamitous fluctuations in the value of our circulating medium, and, in my case, a want of skill in the management of our land and labor, these circumstances had been long undermining the state of agriculture, had been breaking up the landholders, and glutting the land market here, while drawing off its bidders to people the western country. Under such circumstances agricultural property had become no resource for the payment of debts. --
TITLE: To Thomas Ritchie.
EDITION: Ford ed.,x, 381.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1826
See 2091.
The kind invitation I received from you, on the part of the citizens of the city of Washington, to be present with them at their celebration on the fiftieth anniversary of American Independence, as one of the surviving signers of an instrument pregnant with our own and the fate of the world, is most flattering to myself, and heightened by the honorable accompaniment proposed for the comfort of such a journey. It adds sensibly to the sufferings of sickness, to be deprived by it of a personal participation in the rejoicings of that day. But acquiescence is a duty, under circumstances not placed among those we are permitted to control. I should, indeed, with peculiar delight, have met and exchanged there congratulations personally with the small band, the remnant of that host of worthies, who joined with us on that day, in the bold and doubtful election we were to make for our country, between submission or the sword; and to have enjoyed with them the consolatory fact, that our fellow-citizens, after half a century of experience and prosperity, continue to approve the choice we made. May it be to the world, what I believe it will be (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all), the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government. That form which we have substituted, restores the free right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion. All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few, booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God. These are grounds of hope for others. For ourselves, let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them. I will ask permission here to express the pleasure with which I should have met my ancient neighbors of the city of Washington and its vicinity, with whom I passed so many years of a pleasing social intercourse; an intercourse which so much relieved the anxieties of the public cares, and left impressions so deeply engraved in my affections, as never to be forgotten. With my regret that ill health forbids me the gratification of an acceptance, be pleased to receive for yourself, and those for whom you write, the assurance of my highest respect and friendly attachments. 133 --
TITLE: To Roger C. Weightman.
EDITION: Washington ed.vii ,450.
EDITION: Ford ed.,x, 390.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE:
DATE: June 24, 1826
I have done for my country, and for all mankind, all that I could do, and I now resign my soul, without fear, to my God; my daughter, to my country. 154 --
TITLE:
EDITION: Rayner's Life of Jefferson.554.
PLACE: [none given]
DATE: 1826
I have been quite anxious to get a good drawing master in the military or landscape line for the University [of Virginia] . It is a branch of male education most highly and justly valued on the continent of Europe. --
TITLE: To James Madison.
EDITION: Ford ed.,x, 360.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1826
During the continuance of the Embargo Mr. John Quincy Adams informed me of a combination (without naming any one concerned in it), which had for its object a severance of the Union, for a time at least. Mr. Adams and myself not being then in the habit of mutual consultation and confidence, I considered it as the stronger proof of the purity of his patriotism, which was able to lift him above all party passions when the safety of his country was endangered. --
TITLE: To -- -- .
EDITION: Washington ed.vii ,431.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1826
To keep a Virginia estate together requires in the owner both skill and attention. Skill, I never had, and attention I could not have; and, really, when I reflect on all circumstances, my wonder is that I should have been so long as sixty years in reaching the result to which I am now reduced. --
TITLE: To James Monroe.
EDITION: Ford ed.,x, 383.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1826
Their usurpations and violations of the Constitution at that period [the administration of John Adams] and their majority in both Houses of Congress, were so great, so decided, and so daring, that after combating their aggressions, inch by inch, without being able in the least to check their career, the republican leaders thought it would be best for them to give up their useless efforts there, go home, get into their respective Legislatures, embody whatever of resistance they could be formed into, and if ineffectual, to perish there as in the last ditch. All, therefore, retired, leaving Mr. Gallatin alone in the House of Representatives, and myself in the [Col 2] Senate, where I then presided as Vice-President. Remaining at our posts, and bidding defiance to the brow-beatings and insults by which they endeavored to drive us off also, we kept the mass of republicans in phalanx together, until the Legislature could be brought up to the charge; and nothing on earth is more certain, than that if myself particularly, placed by my office of Vice-President at the head of the republicans, had given way and withdrawn from my post, the republicans throughout the Union would have given up in despair, and the cause would have been lost forever. By holding on, we obtained time for the Legislatures to come up with their weight; and those of Virginia and Kentucky particularly, but more especially the former, by their celebrated resolutions, saved the Constitution at its last gasp. No person who was not a witness of the scenes of that gloomy period, can form any idea of the afflicting persecutions and personal indignities we had to brook. They saved our country however. The spirits of the people were so much subdued and reduced to despair by the X. Y. Z. imposture, and other stratagems and machinations, that they would have sunk into apathy and monarchy, as the only form of government which could maintain itself. 190 --
TITLE: Miscellaneous Papers.
EDITION: Washington ed.ix ,507.
EDITION: Ford ed.,x, 368.
PLACE: [none given]
DATE: 1826
To learn [* * *] the ordinary arrangement of the different strata of minerals in the earth, [Col 2] to know from their habitual collocations and proximities where we find one mineral; whether another, for which we are seeking, may be expected to be in its neighborhood, is useful. But the dreams about the modes of creation, inquiries whether our globe has been formed by the agency of fire or water, how many millions of years it has cost Vulcan or Neptune to produce what the fiat of the Creator would effect by a single act of will, is too idle to be worth a single hour of any man's life. --
TITLE: To Dr. John P. Emmett.
EDITION: Washington ed.vii ,443.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1826
A majority of the people are against us on this question. The Western States have especially been bribed by local considerations to abandon their ancient brethren, and enlist under banners alien to them in principles and interest. --
TITLE: To William F. Gordon.
EDITION: Ford ed.,x, 338.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: Jan. 1826
I came of age in 1764, and was soon put into the nomination of justice of the county in which I lived, and, at the first election following, I became one of its representatives in the Legislature. I was thence sent to the old Congress. Then employed two years with Mr. Pendleton and Mr. Wythe, on the revisal and reduction to a single code of the whole body of the British Statutes, the acts of our Assembly, and certain parts of the common law. Then elected Governor. Next, to the Legislature, and to Congress again. Sent to Europe as Minister Plenipotentiary. Appointed Secretary of State to the new Government. Elected Vice-President, and President. And lastly, a Visitor and Rector of the University [of Virginia] . In these different offices, with scarcely any interval between them, I have been in the public service now sixty-one years; and during the far greater part of the time, in foreign countries or in other States. [* * *] If it were thought worth while to specify any particular services rendered, I would refer to the specification of them made by the [Virginia] Legislature itself in their Farewell Address,' 263 on my retiring from the Presidency, February, 1809. There is one, however, not therein specified the most important in its consequences, of any transaction in any portion of my life; to wit, the head I personally made against the federal principles and proceedings during the Administration of Mr. Adams. Their usurpations and violations of the Constitution at that period, and their majority in both Houses of Congress, were so great, so decided, and so daring, that after combating their aggressions, inch by inch, without being able in the least to check their carrer, the republican leaders [Col 2] thought it would be best for them to give up their useless efforts there, go home, get into their respective Legislatures, embody whatever of resistance they could be formed into, and if ineffectual, to perish there as in the last ditch. All, therefore, retired leaving Mr. Gallatin alone in the House of Representatives, and myself in the Senate, where I then presided as Vice-President. Remaining at our posts, and bidding defiance to the browbeatings and insults by which they endeavored to drive us off also, we kept the mass of republicans in phalanx together, until the Legislature could be brought up to the charge; and nothing on earth is more certain, than that if myself particularly, placed by my office of Vice-President at the head of the republicans, had given way and withdrawn from my post, the republicans throughout the Union would have given up in despair, and the cause would have been lost forever. By holding on, we obtained time for the Legislature to come up with their weight; and those of Virginia and Kentucky particularly, but more especially the former, by their celebrated resolutions, saved the Constitution at its last gasp. No person who was not a witness of the scenes of that gloomy period, can form any idea of the afflicting persecutions and personal indignities we had to brook. They saved our country, however. The spirits of the people were so much subdued and reduced to despair by the X. Y. Z. imposture, and other stratagems and machinations, that they would have sunk into apathy and monarchy, as the only form of government which could maintain itself.
If Legislative services are worth mentioning, and the stamp of liberality and equality, which was necessary to be imposed on our laws in the first crisis of our birth as a nation, was of any value, they will find that the leading and most important laws of that day were prepared by myself, and carried chiefly by my efforts; supported, indeed, by able and faithful coadjutors from the ranks of the house, very effective as seconds, but who would not have taken the field as leaders. The prohibition of the further importation of slaves was the first of these measures in time. This was followed by the abolition of entails, which broke up the hereditary and high-handed aristocracy, which, by accumulating immense masses of property in single lines of families, had divided our country into two distinct orders, of nobles and plebeians. But further to complete the equality among our citizens so essential to the maintenance of republican government, it was necessary to abolish the principle of primogeniture. I drew the law of descents, giving equal inheritance to sons and daughters, which made a part of the Revised Code. The attack on the establishment of a dominant religion was first made by myself. It could be carried at first only by a suspension of salaries for one year, by battling it again at the next session for another year, and so from year to year, until the public mind was ripened for the bill for establishing religious
To these particular services, I think I might add the establishment of our University, as principally my work, acknowledging at the same time, as I do, the great assistance received from my able colleagues of the Visitation. But my residence in the vicinity threw, of course, on me the chief burthen of the enterprise, as well of the buildings as of the general organization and care of the whole. The effect of this institution on the future fame, fortune and prosperity of our country, can as yet be seen but at a distance. But an hundred well-educated youth, which it will turn out annually, and ere long, will fill all its offices with men of superior qualifications, and raise it from its humble state to an eminence among its associates which it has never yet known; no, not in its brightest days. That institution is now qualified to raise its youth to an order of science unequalled in any other State; and this superiority will be the greater from the free range of mind encouraged there, and the restraint imposed at other seminaries by the shackles of a domineering hierarchy, and a bigoted adhesion to ancient habits. Those now on the theatre of affairs will enjoy the ineffable happiness of seeing themselves succeeded by sons of a grade of science beyond their own ken. Our sister States will also be repairing to the same fountains of instruction, will bring hither their genius to be kindled at our fire, and will carry back the fraternal affections which, nourished by the same Alma Mater, will knit us to them by the indissoluble bonds of early personal friendships. The good Old Dominion, the blessed mother of us all, will then raise her head with pride among the nations, will present to them that splendor of genius which she has ever possessed, but has too long suffered to rest uncultivated and unknown, and will become a centre of ralliance to the States whose youth she has instructed, and, as it were, adopted. I claim some share in the merits of this great work of regeneration. My whole labors, now for many years, have been devoted to it, and I stand pledged to follow it up through the remnant of life remaining to me. And what remuneration do I ask? Money from the treasury? Not a cent. I ask nothing from the earnings or labors of my fellow citizens. I wish no man's comforts to be abridged for the enlargement of mine. For the services rendered on all occasions, I have been always paid to my full satisfaction. I never wished a dollar more than what the law had fixed on. My request is, only to be permitted to sell my own property freely to pay my own debts. To sell it, I say, and not to sacrifice it, not to have it gobbled up by speculators to make fortunes for themselves, leaving unpaid those who have trusted to my good faith, and myself without resource, in the last and most helpless stage of life. If permitted to sell it [Col 2] in a way which will bring me a fair price, all will be honestly and honorably paid, and a competence left for myself, and for those who look to me for subsistence. To sell it in a way which will offend no moral principle, and expose none to risk but the willing, and those wishing to be permitted to take the chance of gain. To give me, in short, that permission which you often allow to others for purposes not more moral. 264 --
TITLE: Thoughts on Lotteries.
EDITION: Washington ed.ix ,506.
EDITION: Ford ed.,x, 368.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1826
The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God. --
TITLE: To Roger C. Weightman.
EDITION: Washington ed.vii ,451.
EDITION: Ford ed.,x, 391.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1826
I give to my friend, James Madison, of Montpelier, my gold-mounted walking-staff of animal horn, as a token of the cordial and affectionate friendship, which, for nearly now an half-century, has united us in the same principles and pursuits of what we have deemed for the greatest good of our country. --
TITLE: Jefferson's Will.
EDITION: Washington ed.ix ,514.
EDITION: Ford ed.,x, 395.
DATE: March. 1826
The friendship which has subsisted between us, now half a century, and the harmony of our political principles and pursuits, have been sources of constant happiness to me through that long period. And if I remove beyond the reach of attentions to the University, or beyond the bourne of life itself, as I soon must, it is a comfort to leave that institution under your care, and an assurance that it will not be wanting. It has also been a great solace to me, to believe that you are engaged in vindicating to posterity the course we have pursued for preserving to them, in all their purity, the blessings of self-government, which we had assisted, too, in acquiring for them. If ever the earth has beheld a system of administration conducted with a single and steadfast eye to the general interest and happiness of those committed to it, one which, protected by truth, can never know reproach, it is that to which our lives have been devoted. To myself you have been a pillar of support through life. Take care of me when dead, and be
TITLE: To James Madison.
EDITION: Washington ed.vii ,434.
EDITION: Ford ed.,x, 377.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: Feb. 1826
The long succession of years of stunted crops, of reduced prices, the general prostration of the farming business, under levies for the support of manufacturers, &c., with the calamitous fluctuations of value in our proper medium, have kept agriculture in a state of abject depression, which has peopled the Western States by silently breaking up those on the Atlantic, and glutted the land market, while it drew off its bidders. In such a state of things, property has lost its character of being a resource for debts. Highland in Bedford, which, in the days of our plethory, sold readily for from fifty to one hundred dollars
TITLE: To James Madison.
EDITION: Washington ed.vii ,434.
EDITION: Ford ed.,x, 377.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: Feb. 1826
To learn [* * *] the ordinary arrangement of the different strata of minerals in the earth, to know from their habitual collocations and proximities, where we find one mineral; whether another, for which we are seeking, may be expected to be in its neighborhood, is useful. But the dreams about the modes of creation, enquiries whether our globe has been formed by the agency of fire or water, how many millions of years it has cost Vulcan or Neptune to produce what the fiat of the Creator would effect by a single act of will, is too idle to be worth a single hour of any man's life. --
TITLE: To Dr. John P. Emmett.
EDITION: Washington ed.vii ,443.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1826
Everyone has a natural right to choose that vocation in life which he thinks most likely to give him comfortable subsistence. --
TITLE: Thoughts on Lotteries.
EDITION: Washington ed.ix ,505.
EDITION: Ford ed.,x, 366.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: Feb. 1826
Every one has a natural right to choose that vocation in life which he thinks most likely to give him comfortable subsistence. --
TITLE: Thoughts on Lotteries.
EDITION: Washington ed.ix ,505.
EDITION: Ford ed.,x, 366.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: Feb. 1826
The long succession of years of stunted crops, of reduced prices, the general prostration of the farming business, under levies for the support of manufactures, &c., with the calamitous fluctuations of value in our paper medium, have kept agriculture in a state of abject depression, which has peopled the Western States by silently breaking up those on the Atlantic, and glutted the land market, while it drew off its bidders. In such a state of things, property has lost its character of being a resource for debts. Highland, in Bedford, which, in the days of our plethory, sold readily for from fifty to one hundred dollars the acre (and such sales were many then), would not now sell for more than from ten to twenty dollars, or one-quarter to one-fifth of its former price. --
TITLE: To James Madison.
EDITION: Washington ed.vii ,434.
EDITION: Ford ed.,x, 377.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: Feb. 1826
The bait of local interests, artfully prepared for their palate, has decoyed them [the Western people] from their kindred attachments to alliances alien to them. --
TITLE: To C. W. Gooch.
EDITION: Washington ed.vii ,430.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1826
It has been a great solace to me to believe that you are engaged in vindicating to posterity the course we have pursued for preserving to them, in all their purity, the blessings of self-government, which we had assisted, too, in acquiring for them. --
TITLE: To James Madison.
EDITION: Washington ed.vii ,435.
EDITION: Ford ed.,x, 378.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1826
The bounties from one's country, expressions of its approbation, are honors which it would be arrogance to refuse, especially where flowing from the willing only. --
TITLE: To Thomas Ritchie.
EDITION: Ford ed.,x, 382.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1826
The long succession of years of stunted crops, of reduced prices, the general prostration of the farming business, under levies for the support of manufacturers, &c., with the calamitous fluctuations of value in our paper medium, have kept agriculture in a state of abject depression, which has peopled the western States by silently breaking up those on the Atlantic, and glutted the land market, while it drew off its bidders. In such a state of things, property has lost its character of being a resource for debts. Highland in Bedford, which, in the days of our plethory, sold readily for from fifty to one hundred dollars the acre (and such sales were many then), would not now sell for more than from ten to twenty dollars, or one quarter to one-fifth of its former price. --
TITLE: To James Madison.
EDITION: Washington ed.vii ,434.
EDITION: Ford ed.,x, 377.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: Feb. 1826
See Banks, Money and Paper Money.
There is not a truth existing which I fear, or would wish unknown to the whole world. --
TITLE: To Henry Lee.
EDITION: Washington ed.vii ,448.
EDITION: Ford ed.,x, 389.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1826
Is the surprise of an open and unarmed place, although called a city, and even a capital, so unprecedented as to be a matter of indelible reproach? Which of our own capitals, during the same war, was not in possession of the same enemy, not merely by surprise and for a day only, but permanently? That of Georgia? Of South Carolina? North Carolina? Pennsylvania? New York? Connecticut? Rhode Island? Massachusetts? And if others were not, it was because the enemy saw no object in taking possession of them. Add to the list in the late war (1812) Washington, the metropolis of the Union, covered by a fort, with troops and a dense population. And what capital on the continent of Europe (St. Petersburg and its regions of ice excented), did not Bonaparte take and hold at his pleasure? Is it then just that Richmond and its authorities alone should be [Col 2] placed under the reproach of history, because, in a moment of peculiar denudation of resources, by the coup de main of an enemy, led on by the hand of fortune directing the winds and weather to their wishes, it was surprised and held for twenty-four hours? Or strange that that enemy with such advantages, should be enabled, then, to get off, without risking the honors he had achieved by burnings and destructions of property peculiar to his principles of warfare? We, at least, may leave these glories to their own trumpet. --
TITLE: To Henry. Lee.
EDITION: Washington ed.vii ,447.
EDITION: Ford ed.,x, 388.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1826
I am particularly happy to perceive that you still manfully maintain our good old principle of cherishing and fortifying the rights and authorities of the people in opposition to those who fear them, who wish to take all power from them, and to transfer all to Washington. --
TITLE: To Nathaniel Macon.
EDITION: Ford ed.,x, 378.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1826
All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by
TITLE: To Roger C. Weightman.
EDITION: Washington ed.vii ,450.
EDITION: Ford ed.,x, 391.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE:
DATE: June 24, 1826
The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God. --
TITLE: To Roger C. Weightman.
EDITION: Washington ed.vii ,450.
EDITION: Ford ed.,x, 391.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: June. 1826
On the question of the lawfulness of slavery, that is of the right of one man to appropriate to himself the faculties of another without his consent, I certainly retain my early opinions. On that, however, of third persons to interfere between the parties, and the effect of conventional modifications of that pretension, we are probably nearer together. --
TITLE: To Edward Everett.
EDITION: Washington ed.vii ,437.
EDITION: Ford ed.,x, 385.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1826
On the subject of emancipation I have ceased to think because not to be a work of my day. The plan of converting the blacks into serfs would certainlv be better than keeping them in their present position, but I consider that of expatriation to the governments of the West Indies of their own color as entirely practicable, and greatly preferable to the mixture of color here. To this I have great aversion. --
TITLE: To William Short.
EDITION: Ford ed.,x, 362.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1826
See Colonization.
The long succession of years of stunted crops, of reduced prices, the general prostration of the farming business, under levies for the support of manufacturers, &c., with the calamitous fluctuations of value in our paper medium, have kept agriculture in a state of abject depression, which has peopled the Western States by silently breaking up those on the Atlantic, and glutted the land market, while it drew off its bidders. In such a state of things, property has lost its character of being a resource for debts. Highland in Bedford, which, in the days of our plethory, sold readily for from fifty to one hundred dollars the acre (and such sales were many then), would not now sell for more than from ten to twenty dollars, or one-quarter or one-fifth of its former price. --
TITLE: To James Madison.
EDITION: Washington ed.vii ,434.
EDITION: Ford ed.,x, 377.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: Feb. 1826
On the conclusion of peace [with Great Britain] , Congress, sensible of their right to assume independence, would not condescend to ask its acknowledgment from other nations, yet were willing, by some of the ordinary international transactions, to receive what would imply that acknowledgment. They appointed commissioners, therefore, to propose treaties of commerce to the principal nations of Europe. I was then a member of Congress, was of the committee appointed to prepare instructions for the commissioners, was, as you suppose, the draughtsman of those actually agreed to, and was joined with your father and Dr. Franklin, to carry them into execution. But the stipulations making part of these instructions, which respected privateering, blockades, contraband, and freedom of the fisheries, were not original conceptions of mine. They [Col 2] had before been suggested by Dr. Franklin, in some of his papers in possession of the public, and had, I think, been recommended in some letter of his to Congress. I happen only to have been the inserter of them in the first public act which gave the formal sanction of a public authority. We accordingly proposed our treaties, containing these stipulations, to the principal governments of Europe. But we were then just emerged from a subordinate condition; the nations had as yet known nothing of us, and had not yet reflected on the relations which it might be their interest to establish with us. Most of them, therefore, listened to our propositions with coyness and reserve; old Frederick [the Great] alone closing with us without hesitation. The negotiator of Portugal, indeed, signed a treaty with us, which his government did not ratify, and Tuscany was near a final agreement. Becoming sensible, however, ourselves, that we should do nothing with the greater powers, we thought it better not to hamper our country with engagements to those of less significance, and suffered our powers to expire without closing any other negotiations. Austria soon after became desirous of a treaty with us, and her ambassador pressed it often on me; but our commerce with her being no object, I evaded her repeated invitations. Had these governments been then apprized of the station we should so soon occupy among nations, all, I believe, would have met us promptly and with frankness. These principles would then have been established with all, and from being the conventional law with us alone, would have slid into their engagements with one another, and become general.
These are the facts within my recollection. They have not yet got into written history; but their adoption by our southern brethren will bring them into observance, and make them, what they should be, a part of the law of the world, and of the reformation of principles for which they will be indebted to us. --
TITLE: To John Quincy Adams.
EDITION: Washington ed.vii ,436.
EDITION: Ford ed.,x, 383.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: March. 1826
There is not a truth existing which I fear, or would wish unknown to the whole world. --
TITLE: To Henry Lee.
EDITION: Washington ed.vii ,448.
EDITION: Ford ed.,x, 389.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: May 15, 1826
In the selection of our law professor [for the University of Virginia] , we must be rigorously attentive to his political principles. You will recollect that before the Revolution Coke-Littleton was the universal elementary book of law students, and a sounder whig never wrote, nor of profounder learning in the orthodox doctrines of the British constitution, or in what were called English liberties. You remember, also, that our lawyers were then all whigs. But when his black-letter text, and uncouth but cunning learning got out of fashion, and the honied Mansfieldism of Blackstone became the student's hornbook, from that moment, that profession (the nursery of our Congress ), began to slide into toryism, and nearly all the young brood of lawyers now are of that hue. They suppose themselves, indeed, to be whigs because they no longer know what whigism or republicanism means. It is in our seminary that that vestal flame is to be kept alive; it is thence it is to spread anew over our own and the sister States. If we are true and vigilant in our trust, within a dozen or twenty years a majority of our own Legislature will be from one school, and many disciples will have carried its doctrines home with them to their several States, and will have leavened thus the whole mass. --
TITLE: To James Madison.
EDITION: Washington ed.vii ,433.
EDITION: Ford ed.,x, 376.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1826
A material question is what is the whole term of time which the students can give to the whole course of instruction? I should say that three years should be allowed to general education, and two, or rather three, to the particular profession for which they are destined. We [University of Virginia] receive our students at the age of sixteen, expected to be previously so far qualified in the languages, ancient and modern, as that one year in our schools shall suffice for their last polish. A student then with us may give his first year here to languages and mathematics; his second to mathematics and physics; his third to physics and chemistry, with the other objects of that school. I particularize this distribution merely for illustration, and not as that which either is, or perhaps ought to be established. This would ascribe one year to languages, two to mathematics, two to physics, and one to chemistry and its associates. --
TITLE: To Dr. John P. Emmett.
EDITION: Washington ed.vii ,442.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1826
Better that any one [of the other States] take the lead [against consolidation] than Virginia, where opposition is considered as commonplace, and a mere matter of form and habit. --
TITLE: To C. W. Gooch.
EDITION: Washington ed.vii ,430.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1826
I fear, with you, all the evils which the present lowering aspect of our political horizon so ominously portends. That at some future day, which I hoped to be very distant, the free principles of our government might change with the change of circumstances was to be expected. But I certainly did not expect that they would not over-live the generation which established them. And what I still less expected was, that my favorite Western country was to be made the instrument of change. I had ever and fondly cherished the interests of that country, relying on it as a barrier against the degeneracy of public opinion from our original and free principles. But the bait of local interests, artfully prepared for their palate, has decoyed them from their kindred attachments, to alliances alien to them. --
TITLE: To Claiborne W. Gooch.
EDITION: Washington ed.vii ,430.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: Jan. 1826