Class ^33^ Book i3^-s^/- Go[^'rightN?_ CDPyRIGHT DEPOSOr. r "Jill men are Created equal" t/ ^"^ Cbomas leffmon The Declaration of Independence and Letters, Addresses, Excerpts and Aphorisms Selected From His Writings With a SHORT BIOGRAPHY 1^ and t^ An Outline of the Two Principal Parties 2nd COPV, 1898. BY RICHARD S. POPPEN (^ MAR 9 J8»8^^J IVED 4316 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1898. by Richard S. Poppen, in the Oflfice of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D C. The purpose of this handbook is to bring Thomas Jefferson, the wisest exponent of true Democracy, closer to the hearts of the people, whom he loved so well. INDEX PAGE. APHORISMS 157 (an outline of the two FARTIES II LbIOGRAPHY of THOMAS JEFFERSON.... 17 DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 21 EXCERPTS 153 Opinion Cannot be Coerced 25 People Only Safe Depositories of Government 25 Shackles Not Knocked Off, Will Remain on Us 25 LIST OF PRESIDENTS 9 LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 27 Aaron Burr's Conspiracy; His Views and Objects 80 Advice to a Student 27 Advice to Jefferson's Grandson 82 Age of Experiments in Government 61 Alien and Sedition Laws 05 Civil Revolution of 1801 134 Constitution of United States and Its Defects 35 Ctiba Should Not Pass to England 141 Cuba Should Belong to United States 144 Danger of War With France 66 Danger to Our System from Encroachments of the Fed- eral Judiciary 133, 135 Decalogue of Canons for Observation in Life 148 ( 6 INDEX. PAGE. Difiference Between Adams' and Hamilton's Political Frlnciples 94 Difference Between the Two Parties 46 Disadvantage of United States Becoming Carriers of Foreign Nations 127 Division of Counties into Hundreds 92 Duties of the Press' 97 ( Duties of Members of Political Parties 98 Eastern States Favor King, Lords and Commons 52 f Emancipation of Slaves 126 \^ Equilibrium Between Slate and General Government. ... 64 Europe Should Not be Suffered to lutenueddle with Cis- Atlantic Affairs 143 Evils of National Debt 90 Evils of the Cheapness of W^hiskey 136 Evil of the System of Banks 112, 120, 127 ,- Farefwell Address to Jefferson 87 ( Friendly Relations Restored Between Jefferson and Adams 99 ^ Funding of Revolutionary Debt 42 General Educ ation^ ;^^.^ 92 Governimeut Is Progressive 125 Government Should be Remodelled from Tume to Time. . 124 I Government Should Reflect the Wdll of the People 145 Great Body of Americans of Democratic Sentiment.... 63 Hamilton's Financial System 41 Heads of Federal Leaders Itching for Crowns, Coronets and Mitres 52 /^History of Parties in United States 138 Jeffersoiijs-Xlerivs on -Doiiieei^c^^— rr. 32 Jefferson Appointed Secretary of State 37 Jefferson Urges Washington to Serve a Second Term.... 45 Jeffersou'si Split with Hamilton 53 Jefferson Refuses, While in Oflice, to Engage in Money- Makijig Enterprises 59 Jefferson's Retirement from Washington's Cabinet 60 Jefferson Elected Vice-President 63 ( .Tefferson's Political Faith 69 Jefferson's First Inaugural 73 •J Jefferson Originator of the Monroe Doctrine 74 Jefferson's Policy Towards Federalists 75 ( INDEX. 7 PAGK. Jefferson's Second Inaugural 79 Jefferson Declines a Third Term 81 Jefferson lief uses Presents While President 86 Jefferson Ex-presses Delight at Retirement from Office. ... 89 Jefferson's Address to the Inhalbitants of Albermarle County 89 Jefferson's Relations with Adams 93 Jefferson's Views on Finance 103 Jefferson's Views of the National Bank Proposed in 1813. . 109 Jefferson's Hostility to Banks 113, 122 Jefferson Tenders His Library to Congress 119 Jefferson's Fnitli in-4be- People 121 Jefferson's Views on Government 122 Jefferson, Father of the Monroe Doctrine 129 Jefferson's Views on Missouri Compromise 129 Jefferson's Answer to an invitation to the Fiftieth Anni- versary of InLlependence 151 Judiciary the Corps of Sappers and Miners, Steadily Un- derniining the Plights of the States 131 Mental Caliber of Crownhcads of Europe 91 (Aloneyed Aristocracy Riding Over the Plundered Plough- ^ man and Beggared Yeomanry 148 Necessity of a Navy to Prevent Insult 81 Necessity of Maintaining the Union 68 New England States in Favor of Centralization 72 Nerw England States Opposed to Democratic Principles. . 71 Organization of University of Virginia 130 Origin of United States Bank 44 Pa^tidpation of PeopleinGovernment 36 Parties In ^Untted-STates 100 Pei^petual Debt Ruinous to the Countiy 123 Peipetual Ee-eligibility of President Will Make the Of- fice Hereditary 34 Political Complexion of Different Sections of the Union. 67 Public Offices Are Not Family Property of the President 75 Purchase of Louisiana 76 Rogues LTppenuost In Higher Classes 61 Seventeen Ninety-six— Eighteen Ninety-six 62 Shares of United States Bank Taken 39 Social Condition of United States Compared With that of England 114 8 INDEX. PAGE. Strong Monarchical Party at the Beginning of Our Gov- ernment 14G Successful Termination of War with England 120 Summary of .Tefferson's Public Services 149 Superiority of Agriculture to Other Pursuits 30 Superiority of United States to Other Countries 27 Suspension of Banks 118 Taxes Must be Uniform 138 Total Explosion of Banks in 1818 128 True Policy of the United States 34 Union of States the Palladium of Their Safety 88 United States Bank an Enemy of the Government 78 Unit Must Stand on Both Metals 40 Washington's Political Principles 102 PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES. QEORQE WASHINQTON, 1789-1797. (Elected Unanimously.) THE DEMOCRATIC OR RE- PUBLICAN PARTY. 3. Thomas Jefferson. 1801-1S09. 4. James Madison. 1S09-1S17. 5. James Monroe. 1817-lisi5. THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 7. Andrew Jackson. 1829-1S37. 8. Martin Van Buren. 1837-1841. 11. James Knox Polk. 1845-1819. 14. FraiiKlin Pierce. 1833-1857. THE MONARCHICAL FEDERAL PARTY. 2. John Adams. 1797-1801. OR THE NATIONAL OR PSEUDO REPUBLICAN PARTY. 6. Jbhn Quincy Adams (son of John Adams). 1825-1829. THE WHIG PARTY. 9. Wm. Henry Harrison (lived one month). 10. John Tyler (a Democrat). 1841-1845. 32. Zachary Taylor (lived six months). J3. Millard Fillmore. 1849-1853. PRESIDENTS— Continued. THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 15. James Buchanan. 1857-1S61. • 22. Grover Cleveland. 1885-1889. 24. Grover Cleveland. 1893-1897. THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 16. Abraham Lincoln. 1861-1865. (Assassinated April 14, 1865.) 17. Andrew Johnson. 1865-1869. IS. Ulysses S. Grant. 1869-1877. 19. RutheM'ord B. Hayes. 1877-1881. £0. James A. Garfield (lived six ■momths). 21. Chester A. Arthur. 1881-1885. 23. Benjamin Harrison. 1889-1893. William McKinley. 1S97- AN OUTLINE OF THE TWO PRINCIPAL PAR- TIES OF THE UNITED STATES. Of the early history of the two principal parties we find an outline in Jefife rson's AN ,^S-as follows: "The contests of that day (beTore and during the form- ation of the Constitution), were contests of principle be- tween the advocates -crrrep'ublicaTiT-and-tho^e of kingly government; had not the former made the efforts they didv-Qur government would have been, even at this early day, a very^ifferent thing from what the successful issue of those efforts have made it. The alliance between the States under the old Articles of Confederation, for the purpose of joint defence against the aggression o'f Great Britain, was found insufficient, as treaties of alliance generally are. All then looked for- ward to some further bond of union, which would insure eternal peace, and a political system of our own, inde- pendent of that of Europe. Whether all should be con- solidated into a single government, or each remain inde- pendent as to internal matters, and the whole form a single nation as to what was foreign only, and whether that na- tional government should be a monarchy or rejjitblic, would of course divide opinion§",--accQixlingLlD-'th^ consti- tutions, the habits, and the circumstances of each individ- ual. Some officers of the army, as it has always "been said and believed (and Steuben and Knox have ever been named as the leading agents), trained to monarchy by military habits, are understood to have proposed to Gen- eral Washington to decide this great question by the army before its disbandment, and to assume himself the crown on the assurance of their support. The indigna- 12 THE Two PRINCIPAL PARTIES- tion with which he is said to have scouted this parricide proposition was equally worthy of his virtue and wisdom. The want of some authority which should procure jus- tice to the public creditors, and an observance of treaties with foreign nations, produced, some time after, the call of a convention of the States at Annapolis. Although at this meeting a difiference of opinion was evident on the question of a republican or kingly government, yet so general through the States was the sentiment in favor of the former, that the friends of the latter confined them- selves to a course of obstruction only, and delay, to every- thing proposed; they hoped that nothing being done, and all things going from bad to worse, a kingly govern- ment might be usurped, and submitted to by the peo- ple. The effect of their manoeuvres, with the defective attendance of Deputies from the States, resulted in the measure of calling a more general convention to be held at Philadelphia. At this, the same party exhibited the same practices, and with the same views of preventing a government of concord which they foresaw would be re- publican, and forcing through anarchy their way to mon- archy. But the mass of that convention was too honest, too wise, and too steady to be bafifled and misled by their manoeuvres. One of these was a form of government proposed by Colonel Hamilton, which would have been in fact a compromise between the two parties of royalism and republicanism. According to this, the executive and one branch of the legislature were to be during good be- havior, i. e. for life, and the governors of the States were to be named by these two permanent organs. This, how- ever, was rejected; on which Hamilton left the conven- tion, as desperate, and never returned again until near its final conclusion. These opinions and efforts, secret or avowed, of the advocates for monarchy, had begotten great jealousy through the States generally; and this jeal- ousy it was which excited the strong opposition to the conventional constitution; a jealousy which yielded at last only to a general determination to establish cer^tain amendments as ibarriers against a government either monarchical or consolidated." In another place of the THE TWO PRINCIPAI, PARTIES. 13 same book we read: "Before the estaiblishment of our present government a very extensive combination had taken place in New York and the Eastern States among that description of people who were partly monarchical in principle or frightened with Shay's rebellion and the im- potence of the old Congress. Delegates in different plac- es had actually had consultations on the subject of seiz- ing on the powers of a government and establish them by force; had corresponded with one another, and had sent a deputy to General Washington to solicit his co-opera- tion. He refused to join them. The new convention was in the meantime proposed by Virginia and appointed. These people believed it impossible the States should ever agree on a government. They therefore let the proposed convention go on, not doubting its failure. When Ham- ilton's plan of government failed to be carried, and he retired in disgust, his associates took every method to prevent any form of government being agreed to. But the final passage and adoption of the constitution com- pletely defeated the views of the combination and saved us from an attempt to establish a government over us by force. This fact throws a blaze of light on the conduct of several members from New York and the Eastern States in the convention at Annapolis and the grand con- vention. At that of Annapolis, several Eastern members most vehemently opposed Madison's proposi- tion for a more general convention with more general powers. They wished things to get more and more into confusion to justify the violent measure they proposed. The idea of establishing a government by reasoning and agreement, they publicly ridiculed as a Utopian project, visionary and unexampled." At the first session of Congress (Washington elected President) which commenced proceedings under the Con- stitution in March, 1789. a bill of rights was framed, rec- ognizing "the equality of all men and their rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." DurmgHrlte-pea- dency of this bill one party, calling themselves FEDER- ALISTS and denounced by the opposition as MON- ARCHISTS, endeavored to establish a central govern- 14 THE TWO PRINCIPAI, PARTIES. / ment, all powerJiLjiest in the President- and House of Congress: the other party, named ANTI-FEDERAL- ISTS, and taunted by their opponents as DEMOCRATS, or RULERS OF THE MOB, advocated local self-gov- ernment and opposed bitterly any extendeB~delegatton of authority from the States to the Union. When the bill ol rights had been accepted in ten amendments to_J the constitution, all opposition was withdrawn and the Anti-Federalists, disposed at first to call their party the f- DEMOCRATIC-REPUBLICANS, named themselves, at the suggestion of Thomas Jefferson, tht^ REPUBLI- CAN PARTY. George Washington having been unan- V^ imously elected and re-elected without a division on party lines, the first contest occurred in 1796, when the Federalists elected John Adams President. He advocated a strong central goverur- ment but was accused by his opponents of being a mon- archist. Jefferson relates the following incident: "At the second election of president and vice-president of the United States, when there was a considerable vote given to Clinttfn in opposition to Mr. Adams, he took occas- ion to remark it in conversation in the Senate chamber with Mr. Adams,who, gritting his teeth, said, 'Damn 'em! damn 'em! damn 'em! you see that an elective govern- ment will not do.' In another conversation he said: 'Re- publicanism must be disgraced, sir.' " Mr. Adams dis- graced HIS ADMINISTRATION by the passage of the "Alien and Sedition laws,"* and that he aimed at a mon- archical government is attested by Hamilton, who, during a conversation with several gentlemen using the words, "Federal government," exclaimed: "O, say the Federal monarchy; let us call things by their right names for a monarchy it is." In a letter, written to Dr. Rush on January i6th, 181 1, JefTerson says: "Mr. Adams gave it as his opinion, that if some of the defects and abuses of the British constitution were corrected, it would be the most perfect constitution of government ever devised by man. Hamilton, on the contrary, asserted, that with its exist ing vices, it was the most perfect model of gov- •See Page 65. the; two principai, parties. 15 ernment that could be formed, and that the correction of its vices would render it an impracticable government. This was the real line of difference between the political principles of these two gentlemen." In a letter to Presi- dent Washington, dated September 9th, 1792, Jefferson writes: "Col Hamilton's (objection to the constitution) was that it wanted a king and house of lords." For- tunately for the people, these champions of monarchism failed to foist their doctrines into the government of this country for the election of Thomas Jefferson to the presidency in 1801, gave the finishing stroke to the Federal or Monarchical Party. During the ninth Con- gress (1805), the Jeffersonian Republicans changed their party-name to the DEMOCRATIC PARTY but the terms REPUBLICANS and DEMOCRATS remained synonymous down to the presidential campaign of 1824, when all four candidates claimed to be Repiublicans. The Federalists (this name havingbecome offensive to the peo- ple), then calling themselves NATIONAL REPUBLI- CANS, but named by Jefferson and his followers the PSEUDO REPUBLICANS, elected John Quincy Ad- ams (son of John Adams) president. This campaign was called the "scrub race for the presidency." In 1828 the party hnes were sharplv drawn and Gen. Andrew Jack- son was elected president. This heing again a triunwh of the people s government, the "Democratic Party" then became the exclusive and permanent name of the follow- ers of Thomas Jefferson, ki.1834 the National RepubH- cans changed their name to the WBIGS.^leoting m 1840 Cen. Wm. H. Harrison president. In the presidential campaign of 1852 they appeared for the last time in Na- tional politics. In 1856 the opponents of the Democracy revived the former name of Jjie. Democratic partv 'bv adopting the word REPUBLICAN as their name, which they hold to this day. They elected in i860, Abraham Lincoln president, and under his administration slavery was abolished and the civil war brought to a successful termination. In a letter written to H. Lee in 1824, Thcnnas Jefferson says: Men by their constitutions are naturally divided 16 THE Two PRINCIPAI, PARTIES. into two parties: i. Those who fear and distrust the peo- ple, and wish to draw all powers from them into the hands of the higher classes. 2. Those who identify-themselves with the people, have confidence in them, cherish and consider them as the most honest and safe, although not the most wise depository of the public interests. In ev- ery country two parties exist; and in every one where they are free to think, speak and write, they will declare themselves. Call them, therefore, liberals and serviles, Jacobins and ultras, whigs ^nd t^ries^^repuibJicans and federalists, democrats and aristocrats, or by whateveF name you please, they are the same parties still and pur- sue the same object." If this be true, one is prompted to ask: Who are now the LIBERALS; who the SER- VILES? Which now is the party that legislates in the interest of the ARISTOCRATS and which the party that stands for the RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE? BIOGRAPHY OF JEFFERSON. 17 SHORT BIOGRAPHY OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. Thomas Jefferson the third President of the United States and the Father of Democracy (the people's gov- ernment), was born April 2, 1743, at Shadwell, Albemarle County, in the State of Virginia. At the age of five years he was sent to an English school and at nineteen he grad- uated from William and Mary's college. The next five years Jefferson studied law with Mr. George Wythe, a prominent jurist in whom he found a "faithful and beloved mentor in youth and most affectionate friend through life." In 1768 he was elected from the county of Albe- marle to the House of Burgesses and re-elected annually until it was closed by the revolution. In 1774 Jefferson was chosen a delegate to the State Convention which el- ected him in 1775 one of the delegates to the General Congress to meet at Philadelphia. On the nth of June, 1776, Congress appointed Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, Sherman and Livingston, a committee to prepare a Dec- laration of Independence, and at the request of his asso- ciates. Jefferson prepared a draft, which, after few verbal alterations 'by them, was taken up for consideration in the House on the 28th of June and unanimously agreed to on the evening of the 4th of July, 1776. In September of the same year he resigned from the General Congress to take his seat in the legislature of Virginia, where he thought his services were most needed. Of the various measures introduced there, were four proposed by Jeffer- son which were passed: the repeal of the laws of entail, the abolition of primogeniture, the restoration of the rights of conscience and relief of the people from 'taxa- tion for the support of the established church, and a sys- tem of general education. He tried to add to these the gradual emancipation of slaves, and trial by jury in the courts of chancery, but without success. His bill, howev- er, forbidding the further importation of slaves into the 18 BIOGRAPHY OP JEFFERSON. State, was passed without opposition. In 1779 Jefiferson was elected governor of his State, declining in 1781 a re- election. In 1782 he was appointed by Congress to act as one of the plenipotentiaries to negotiate a treaty of peace with the mother country, but the business being nearly completed before he was reaidy to sail, he was re- ■called. In 1783 he was again a member of Congress where, as chairman of the committee appointed for that purpose, he reported the treaty of peace with England. In 1784 he was for the second time appointed by Con- gress as minister plenipotentiary to assist Franklin and Adams in negotiating treaties of commerce with Euro- pean States. Jefiferson arrived in Paris in July, and in January, 1785, he was selected, as he put it, "to succeed Franklin, for no one could replace him." In 1789 he left Paris on a leave of absence and on his arrival in Amer- ca. President Washington tendered him the office of Sec- retary of State. He- accepted it with reluctance and en- tered upon his new duties in ]\Iarch, 1790. Jefferson, a strong advocate of Democracy, of decentralization or div- ision of power, was bitterly opposed to the principal feat- ures of the British Constitution; Alexander Hamilton, the Secretary of *the Treasury and the acknowledged leader of the Federalists, on the other hand, admired the English form of government and favored all measures that tended to strengthen the executive, and to centralize all power in 'the general government, aiming, as he was accused by Jefferson and others, at the ultimate estab- lishment of monarchy and an hereditary aristocracy: Washington again very prudently remained neutral, though he was supposed to sympathize more \vii;h the Federal than the Republican leader. In 1793 Jefftrson, feeling he did not have the exclusive confidence of the President, resigned his seat in the cabinet and retired to Monticello. In 1796 he was elected Vice-President with John Adams to the presidency. The Reign of Terror in France caused a reaction in the United States against the sympathizers with the French revolutionists, and President Adams, mistaking it for a popular sentiment against Republicanism, was led into several ill-advis- BIOGRAPHY OF JEFFERSON. 19 ed measures, (to-wit: The alien and the sedition bills, and others), which gave the finishing stroke to the Federal party; for in i8oi Jefferson and Burr were elected Presi- dent and Vice-President, and the Jeffersonian policv of a people's government was firmly established. In 1805 Jefferson was re-elected .by 143 out of 176 electoral votes. His administration was one of great simplicity; all pomp and ceremony he disliked. He rode to the capitol alone on horseback, and hitched the bridle of his horse to a fence, and instead of opening Congress in person with a speech, as in England, and as his predecessors had done, he sent his message by his private secretary. When Congress gave to the President no title but that of office to-wit: "George Washington, President of the United states, he wrote to a friend from Paris- "I hope the terms of Excellency, Honor, Worship, Esquire w^ll forever disappear from among us from that moment- I wish that of Mr. would follow them;" and in another let- ter he says : "If it be possible to be certainly conscious of anything, I am conscious of feeling no difference between wri'ting to the highest and lowest being on earth " The most important acts during Jefferson's administration were the complete extermination of the Algerine pirates who, for half a centruy. had preyed upon the commerce of the world; the purchase from France o.f the Territory of Louisiana for $15,000,000; the reorganization and arming of the militia; the reduction of the taxes and the publi? debt; and the purchase of the Indians' titles by a fair re- muneration. But all these acts, of the greatest importance to the material welfare of the United States, pale into in- significance compared to the one which has brought and will continue to bring slowly, but with irresistibll steps happiness to the homes of all humanity: the placing on a firm basis the democratic principles of a government "of mg of the shackles of money-power and despotism, and he raxsmg from the dust the oppressed and the down- trodden to manhood, self-respect and independence Let Jefferson speak: "Truth and reason are eternal. Thevhave 20 BIOGRAPHY OF JEPFKRSON. prevailed. And they will eternally prevail, however, in times and places they may be overborne for a while by violence, mlHtary, civil or ecclesiastical. The preserva- tion of the holy fire is confided to us by the world, and the sparks which will emanate from it will ever serve to re- kindle it in other quarters of the globe." Jefiferson refused unconditionally to be le-elected for a third term, though the Legislatures of five States formally requested him to be a candidate. His last sev- enteen years he spent in Monticello, devoting his time to the erection of a university for young men. He died at his home on the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, and on the same day John Adams, his predecessor and leader of the Federals, as if foreseeing that truth and democratic principles will ever nrevail, ut- tered his last words: "Thomas Jefferson still survives." UI O Z O DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 21 THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.— JULY 4TH, 1776. When, in the course of human events, it becomes nec- essary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creatoi with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to efifect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dic- tate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more dis- posed to suffer while evils are sufifora'ble, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty to throw ofif such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufiferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The his- 22 DECI^ARATION Ot" INDElPENDBNCB. lory of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in di- rect object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these States. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world. He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of im- mediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and, when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other laws for the accoimmoda- tion of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the Leg- islature, a right inestimable to them, and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places un- usual, uncomfortable and distant froaii the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into coniinliance with his measures. He has dissolved representative houses repeat:"'dly for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. ■ He has refused for a long time after such dissolutions to cause others to be elected, whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have re- turned to the people at large for their exercise, the state remaining, in tlie meantime, exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without and convulsions within. He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturali- zation of foreigners, refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands. He has obstructed the administration of justice by re- fusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary pow- ers. He has made judges dependent on his will alone for the tenure of their ofifices, and the amount and pay- ment of their salaries. He has erected a multitude of new ofifices, and sent DECLARATION OP INDEPENDENCE. 23 hither swarms of new officers to harass our people and eat out Iheir substance. He has kept among us in times of peace standing armies without the consent of our legislatures. He has affected to render the military independent of, and superior to, the civil power. He has combined with others to subject us to a juris- diction foreign to our constitutions and unacknowl- edged by our laws, giving his assent to their acts of pre- tended legislation for quartering large bodies of armed troops among us; for protecting them by a mock triil from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these States; for cutting off our trade with all parts of the world; for imposing taxes on us without our consent; for depriving rs m many cases of the benefits of trial by jury; for transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended oii'enses; for abol- ishing the free system of Englis:i laws m a neighboring- province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the sa.ne absolute rule into these colonies; for taking away onr charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments; for sus- pending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases what- sover. He has abdicated government here by declaring us out of his protection, and waging vvar against uj. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns and destroyed the lives of our p'eople. He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tryanny alrc;ady begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most baibarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation. He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas, to ibear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall 'themselves by their hands. 24 DECLARATION OF INDEPENDKNCE. He has excited domestic insurrection among us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our fron- tiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of aM ages, sexes and conditions. In every sitage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms; our repeated peti- tions have been answered only by repeated injuries. A prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant is unfit to be the ruler ol a free people. Nor have we been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislatures to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here; we have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations which would in- evitably interrupt our connection and correspondence. They, too, have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our separation, and hold them as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends. We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America in General Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and de- clare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent States; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; and that as free and independent States, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which in- dependent States may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 25 reliance on the protection of divine Providence, wc rnu- utally pledge to each other our hves, otir fortunes and our sacred honor. The Shackles Which Are Not Knocked OfT at the Conclusion of this War, Will Remain on Us. Monticello, 1781. It can never be too often repeated that the time for hxmg every essential right on a legal basis is while o-ur rulers are honest, and ourselves united. From the con- clusion of this war we shall be gomg down hill. It will not then be necessary to resort every mcment to the peo- ple for support. They will be forgotten, therefore and their rights disregarded. Thev will forget .henJd?"s but ,n the sole faculty of makin,. n,onev,\nd will neve; tlimk of uniting to effect a due respect for their rights The shackles, therefore, which rhall not he knocked off at the conclusion of this war, will remain on us long will be made heavier and heavier, till our rights shall re ' Vive or expire in a convulsion ^ ^ Opinion Can Not Be Coerced. J . -Monticello, 1781. men/' "''■^f, ^^°"^ ^hich needs the support .f govc-n- coercion Who'" ''n"^ ^' ^?"''- ^''""i''' "P'"-'^ to coercion. Whom will you make your inquisitors" Fal- hble men; men governed by bad passions, bv private as To nror '' '?'""-• ^"' why subject it t'o coerdon No morr^/" 7?'''-' But is uniformity desirable? i\ o more than of face and stature. Introduce the bed of Procrustes then, and as there is danger that the lar^e men may beat the small, make us all of a size, by opom^ the former and stretching the latter. '"PP"i.^ The People the Only Safe Depositories of a Government. T Monticello, 1782. weaknls^r'^''""''"' ^r" '^''^' '' ^°"^^ ''^'^ ^^ ^"^^^ v^eakness, some germ of corruption and degeneracy, 26 DECLARATION OP INDEPENDENCE. which cunning- will discover, and wickedness insensibly open, cultivate and improve. Every government degen- erates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves, therefore, are its only safe deposi- tories. And to render even them safe, their minds must be improved to a certain degree. The influence over government must be shared among all the people. It every individual which composes their mass participates of the ultimate authority, the government will be safe; because the corrupting the whole mass v^ill exceed any private resources of wealth; and public ones can not be provided, but by levies on the people. In this case every man would have to pay his own price. The gov- ernment of Great Britain has been corrupted, because but one man in ten has a right to vote for members of Parliament. The sellers oi the governmen»t, therefore, get nine-tenths of their price clear. It has 'been thought that corruption is restrained by confining the right of suffrage to a few of the wealthier of the people; but it would be more efifectually restrained by an extension of that right to such numbers as wo'uld bid defiance to the means of corruption. LETTKRS AND ADDRESSES. 27 LETTERS AND ADDRESSES. [The following letters and addresses, arranged chronologically, have been selected for the purpose of familiarizing the reader with Jefferson's views and forecasts on such issues of civil administra- tion and political economy as were then, and are now, of vital importance to the interests of this country; delineating at the same time the most important events during his life.] Superiority of the United States to All Other Coun'tries. Paris, June 17, 1785. To James Monroe: I sincerely wish you may find it convenient to come here;* the pleasure of the trip will be less than you eX' pect, but the utility greater. It will make you adore your own country, its soil, its climate, its equality, liberty, laws, people and manners. My God! how little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth en- joy. I confess I had no idea of it myself. While we shall see multiplied instances of Europeans going to live in America, I will venture to say, no man now living will ever see an instance of an American removing to settle in Europe, and continuing there. Come, then, and see the proof of this, and on your return add your testi- mony to that of every thinking American, in order to sat- isfy our countrymen how much it is their .interest to preserve, uninfected by contagion, those peculiarities in their governments and manners, to which they are in- debted for those blessings. Advice to a Student How to Acquire Education. Paris, August 19, 1785. To Peter Carr.** T trust, that with your dispositions, even the acquisi- •tion of science is a pleasing employment. I can assure *Jefferson was sent by Congress to Paris as Minister Plenipo- tentiary. ♦•Jefferson's favorite nephew. 28 I^ETTERS AND ADDRFSSES. you, that the possession of it is, what (next to an honest heart) will above all things render you dear to your friends, and give you fame and promotion in your own country. When your mind shall its obvious principles, and those on which it was known to be received; attached equally .to the preservation to the States of those rights unquestionably remaining with them; friends to the freedom of religion, freedom of the press, trial by jury and to economical government; opposed tO' standing armies, paper systems, war, and all connection, other than commerce, with any foreign nation; in short, a * Connecticut. 72 l^ETTERS AND ADDRESSES. majority finm in all those principles which we have es- poused and the federalists have opposed uniformly; still, should the whole body of New England continue in op- position to these principles oi government, either know- ingly or through delusion, our governnient will be a very uneasy one. It qan never be harmonious and solid, while so respectable a portion of its citizens suoport prin- ciples which go directly to a change of the Federal Con- stituition to sink the State governments, consolidate them into one, and to monarchize that. Our country is too large to have all its affairs directed by a single govern- ment. Public servants at such a distance, and from under the eye of their constituents, must, from the cir- cumstance of distance, 'be unable to^ administer and over- look all the details necessary for the good government of the citizens, and the same circumstance, by rendering detection impossible tO' their constituents, will invite the public agents to corruption, plunder and waste. And I do verily believe that if the principle were to prevail of a common law being in force in the United States (which principle possesses the General Government at once of all the powers of the State governments, and reduces us to a single consolidated government), it would become the most corrupt government on the earth. You have seen the practices hy which the public servants have been able to cover their conduct, or, where that could not be done, delusions by which they have varnished it for the eye of their constituents. What an augmentation of the field for jobbing, speculating, plundering, office building and office hunting would be produced bv an assumption of all 'the State powers into the hands of the General Government. The true theory of our Constitution is surely the wisest and best, that the States are independ- ent as to everything within themselves, and united as to everything respecting foreign nations. Let the General Government be reduced to foreign concerns only, and let our affairs be disentangled from those of all other na- tions, except as tO' commerce, which the merchants will manage the better, the more they are left free to manage for themselves, and our General Government may be LETTERS AND ADDRESSES. 73 reduced to a very simple organization, and a very un- expensive one; a few plain duties to be performed by a few servants. But I repeat, that this simple and econo- mical mode of government can never be secured, if the New England States continue to support the contrary system. I rejoice, therefore, in every appearance of their returning to those principles which I had always imag- ined lo be almost innate in them. From JefTerson's First Inauguration Address. March 4th, 1801. About to enter, fellow citizens, on the exercise of duties which comprehend everything dear and valuable to you, it is proper that you should understand what I deem the essential principles of our government, and consequently those which ought to shape its administra- tion. I will compress them within thg narrowest com- pass they will bear, stating the general principle, but not all its limitations. Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political, peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations — en- tangling alliances Vvith none; the support of the State governments in all their rights, as the most competent administrations for our domestic concerns and the surest bulwarks against anti-Republican tendencies; the pre- servation of the general government in its whole consti- tutional vigor, as the sheet anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad; a jealous care of the right of election by the people — a mild and safe corrective of abuses which are lopped by the sword of the revolution, where peace- able remedies are unprovided; absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority — the vital principle of Re- publics, from which there is no appeal but to force, the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism; a well- disciplined militia — our best reliance in peace and for the first moments of war, till regulars mav relieve them; the supremacy of the civil over the military authority; economy in the public expense, that labor may be lightly burdened; the honest payment of our debts and sacred 74 LETTERS AND ADDRESSES. preservation of the public faith; encourag^ement of agri- culture, and of commerce as its handmaid; the diffusion of information and the arraignment of all abuses at the bar of public reason; freedom of religion; freedom of the press; freedom of person under the protection of the habeas corpus; and trial by juries impartially selected — these principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us, and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation. The wisdom of our sages and the blood of our heroes have been devoted to their attainment. They should be the creed of our political faith — the text of civil instruction — the touchstone l)y which to try the services of those we trust; and should we wander from them in moments of error or alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps and to regain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty and safety. Jefferson, the Originator of the- Monroe Doctrine. Washington, March 21st, 1801. To Dr. George Logan: It ought to be the very first object of our pursuits to have nothing to do with the European interests and politics. Let them be free or slaves at will, navigators or agricultural, swallowed into one government or di- vided into a thousand, we have nothing to fear from them in any form. If, therefore, to take a part m their conflicts, would be to divert our energies from creation to destruction. Our commerce is so valuable to Jnm that they will be glad to purchase it when the only price we ask is to do us justice. I believe, we have in our own hands the means of peaceable coercion; and that the moment they see our government so united as ^hat they can make use of it, they will for their own interest be disposed to do us justice. In this way we shall not De obliged by any treaty of confederation to go to war for injuries done to others. LETTERS AND ADDRESSES. 75 The Public Offices are Not the Family Property of the President. Washington, March 27th, 1801. To Mr. George Jefferson:* Dear Sir— I have to acknowledge the receipt of yours of March 4th, and to express to you the delight with which I found the just, disinterested and honorable point of view in which you saw the proposition it covered. The resolution you so properly approved had long been formed in my mind. The public will never be made to believe that an appointment of a relative is made on the ground of merit alone, uninfluenced by family views; nor can they ever see with approbation offices the dis- posal of which they entrust to their Presidents for puolic purposes, divided out as family pro'perty. Mr. Adams degraded himself infinitely by his conduct on this sub- ject as Gen. Washington had done himself the greatest honor With two such examples to proceed by, I should be doubly inexcusable to err. It is true that this places the relations of the President in a worse situation than if he were a stranger, but the public good, which can not be afTected if its confidence be lost, requires tlie sacrifice. Perhaps, too, it is compensated by sharing in the public esteem. I could not be satisfied till I assured you of the increased esteem with which this transaction fills me for you. Accept my affectionate expressions of it. Jefferson's Policy Towards the Federalists. Washington, October 25th, 1802. To Levi Lincoln: The opinion I originally formed has never been changed, that such of the body of the people as thought themselves Federalists, would find that they were in truth Republicans (Democrats) and would come over *An intelligent and highly respectable kinsman of Thomas Jeff- erson, and held by him in the highest esteem. 76 I^ETTERS AND ADDRESSES?. to US by degrees; but that their leaders had gone too far ever to change. Their bitterness increases with their desperation. Thev are trying slanders now which noth- ing could prO'mpt but a gall which blinds their judgments as well as their consciences. I shall take no other re- venge, than, by a steady pursuit of economy and peace, and by the establishment of Republican principles in substance and in form, to sink Federalism into an abyss from which there shall be no resurrection for it. I still think our original idea as to office is best; that is, to de- pend, for the obtaining a just particioation, on deaths, resignations and delinquencies. This will least affect the tranquility of the people, and prevent their giving in to the suggestion of our enemies, that ours has been a contest for office, not for principle. This is rather a slow operation, but it is sure if we pursue it steadily, which, however, has not been done with the undeviating resolution I could have wished. To these means of ob- taining a just share in the transaction of the public busi- ness, shall be added one other, to-wit, removal for elec- tioneering activity, or open and industrious opposition to the principles of the present government, legislative and ''xerut^re. Every officer of the government may vote at elections according to his conscience; but we should betray the cause committed to our care, were we to permit the influence of official patronage to be used to overthrow that cause. Your present situation will enable you to judge of prominent offenders in your State, in the case of the present election. I pray you to seek them, to mark them, to be quite sure of your ground, that we commit no error or wrong, and leave the rest to me. The Purchase of Louisiana. Washington, July nth, 1803. To Gen. Gates: Dear General — I accept with pleasure, and with pleas- ure reciprocate your congratulations on the acquisition of Louisiana, for it is a subject of mutual congratulation, as it interests every man of the natioj:. The territory LRTTKRS AND ADDRESSES. 77 acquired, as it includes all the waters of the Missouri and Mississippi, has more than doubled the area of he United States, and the new part is not inferior to the old in soil, climate, productions and important com- munications. If our Legislature disoose of it with he wisdom we have a right to expect, they may make it the means of tempting all our Indians on the east side of the Mississippi to remove to the west, and of condensing instead of scattering our population. I fi"^^ our oppo- sition is verv willing to pluck feathers from Monroe, al- though not fond of^sticking them into Lixmgston s coat The truth is, both have a just portion of merit; ana were it necessary or proper, it would be shown that each has rendered peculiar services, and of important value. These grumblers, too, are very uneasy lest the admin- istration should share some little credit for the acquisi- tion, the whole of which they ascribe to the accident of war They would be cruelly mortified could they see our files from May, 1801, the first organization of the administration, but more especially from April, 1802. They would see that though we could not say when war would arise, yet we said with energy what would take place when it should arise. We did not, by our in- trigues produce the war; but we availed ourselves of it when it happened. The other party saw the case now existing, on which our representations were predicated, and the wisdom of timely sacrifice. But when these people make the war give us everythinp^. they authorize us to ask what the war gave us in their day? They had a war; what did they make it bring us? Instead of mak- ing our neutralitv the ground of gain to their country, they were for plunging into the war. And if they were now in place, they would now be at war against the atheists and disorganizers of France. They were for making their country an appendage to England. We are friendly, cordially and conscientiously friendly to England. We are not hostile to France. We will be rio-orously just and sincerely friendly to both. I do not believe we shall have as much to swallow from them as our predecessors had. 78 LETTERS AND ADDRESSES. The United States Bank an Enemy of the Government. Washington, December 13th, 1803. To Mr. Gallatin:* From a passage in the letter of the President,** I observe an idea of establishing a branch bank of the United States in New Orleans. This institution is one of the most deadly hostihty existing against the princi- ples and form of our Constitution. The nation is, at this time, so strong and united in its sentiments, that it can not be shaken at this moment. But suppose a series of untoward events should occur, sufficient to bring into doubt the competency of a Republican government to meet a crisis of great danger, or to unhinge the confi- dence of the people in the public functionaries; an in- stitution like this, penetrating by its branches every part of the Union, acting by command and in phalanx, may, in a critical moment, upset the government. I deem no government safe which is under 'the vassalage of any self- constituted authorities, or any other authority than that of the nation, or its regular functionaries. What an obstruction could not this Bank of the United States, with all its branch banks, be in time of war? It might dictate to us the peace we should acceot, or withdraw its aids. Ought we then to give further growth to an institution so powerful, so hostile? That it is so hostile we know, (i) from a knowledge of the principles of the persons composing the body of directors in every bank, principal or branch; and those of 'most of the stock- holders; (2) from their opposition to the measures and principles of the government, and to the election of those friendly to them; and (3) from the sentiments of the newspapers they support. Now, while we are srong, it is the greatest duty we owe to the safety of our Con- stitution, to bring this powerful enemy to a perfect sub- ordination under its authorities. The first measure would be to reduce them to an equal footing only with other banks, as to the favors of the government. But, ♦Secretary of the Treasury under Jefferson's administration. ♦♦President of the U. S. Bank. LETTERS AND ADDRESSES. /9 in order to be able to meet a general combination of the banks against us, in a critical emergency, could we not make a beginning towards an independent use of our own money, towards holding our own bank in all the deposits where it is received, and letting the treasurer give his draft or note, for payment at any particular place, which, in a well-conducted government, ought to have as much credit as any private draft, or bank note, or bill, and would give us the same facilities which we de- rive from .the banks? I pray you tO' turn this subject in vour mind, arud to give it the benefit of your knowl- edge of details; whereas, I have only very general views of the subject. From Jefferson's Second Inaugural Address. March 4th, 1805. During this course of administration, and in order to disturb it, the artillery of the press has been lev- eled against us, charged with whatsover its licentious- ness could devise or dare. These abuses of an institu- tion .so important to freedom and science, are deeply to be regretted, inasmuch as they tend to lessen its use- fulness, and to sap its safety; they might, indeed, have been corrected by the wholesome punishments reserv'ed and provided by the laws of the several States against falsehood and defamation; but public duties more urgent press on the time of public servants, and the ofTenders have therefore been left to find their punishment in the public indignation. Nor was it uninteresting to the wxDrld that an experi- ment should be fairly and fully made, whether freedom of discussion, unaided by power, is not sufificient for the propagation and protection of truth — whether a govern- ment, conducting itself in the true spirit of its -consti- tution, with zeal and purity and doing no act which it would be unwilling the whole world should witness, can be written down by falsehood and defamation. The ex- periment has been tried; you have witnessed the scene; our fellow citizens have looked on, cool and collected; 80 LETTERS AND ADDRESSES. they saw the latent source from which these outrages proceeded; they gathered around their public function- aries, and wilien the constitution called them to the deci- .sion by suffrage, they pronounced their verdict, honor- able to those who had served them, and consolatory to the friend of man, who believes he may be intrusted with his own affairs. Aaron Burr's Conspiracy, and His Views and Objects. Washington, July 14th, 1807. To the Marquis de La Fayette: Measuring happiness by the American scale, and sincerely wishing that of yourself and family, we had been anxious to see them established this side of thv' great water. But I am not certain that any equivalent can be found for the loss of that species oif society, to which our habits have been formed from infancy. Cer- tainly, had you been, as I wished, at the head of the government of Orleans, Burr would never have given me one moment's uneasiness. His conspiracy has been one of the most flagitious of which history will ever furnish an example. He meant 'to separate the Western States from us, to add Mexico to them, place himself at their head, establish what he would deem an ener- getic government, and thus provide an example and an instrument for the subversion of our freedom. The man who could expect to effect this, with American ma- terials, must be a fit subject for Bedlam. The serious- ness of the crime, however, demands more serious pun- ishment. Yet, although there is not a man in the United States who doubts his guilt, such are the jealous provi- sions of our laws in favor of the accused against the accuser, that I question if he is convicted. Out of forty-eight jurors to be summoned, he is to select the twelve who are to try him, and if there be any one who will not concur in finding him guilty, he is discharged of course. Nothing has ever so strongly proved the innate force of our form of government, as this conspiracy. Burr had probably LETTERS AND ADDRESSES. 81 engaged one thousand men to follow his fortunes, witli- out letting them know his projects, otherwise than by assuring them the government approved of them. The moment a proclamation was issued, undeceiving them, he found himself left with about thirty desperadoes only. The people rose in mass wherever he was, or was sus- pected to be, and by their own energy the thing was crushed in one instant, without its having been necessary to employ a man of the military, but to take care of then- respective stations. His first enterprise was to have been to seize New Orleans, which he supposed would power- fully bridle the upper country, and place him at the door of Mexico. It is with pleasure I inform you that not n single native Creole, and but one American of those settled there before we received the place, took any part with him. His partisans were the new emigrants from the United States and elsewhere, fugitives from justice or debt, and adventurers and speculators of all descriptions. Jefferson Declines a Third Term. December loth, 1807. To the Legislature of Vermont: I received in due season the address of the Legisla- ture of Vermont, bearing date the 5th oi November, 1806, in which, with their approbation O'f the general course of my administration, they were so good as to express their desire that I would consent to be proposed again, to the public voice, on the expiration of my present term of ofBce. Entertaining, as I do, for the Legislature of Vermont those sentiments of high respect which would have prompted an immediate answer, I was certain, nevertheless, they would approve a delay which had for its object to avoid a premature agitation of the public mind, on a subject so interesting as the election of a chief magistrate. That I should lay down my charge at a proper period is as much a duty as to have borne it faithfully. If some termination to the services of the chief magistrate be not fixed by the constitution, or supplied by practice. 82 I,ETTERS AND ADDRESSES. his office, nominally for years, will, in fact, become for life; and history shows how easily that degenerates into an inheritance. Believing that a representative govern- ment, responsible at short periods of election, is that which produces the greatest sum of happiness to man- kind, I feel it a duty to do no act which shall essentially impair that principle; and I should unwillingly be the person who, disregarding the sound precedent set by an illustrious predecessor, should furnish the first example of prolongation beyond the second term of otTice. Truth, also, requires me to add, that I am sensible of that dechne which advancing years bring on; and feeling their physical, I ought not to doubt their mental efifect. Happy if I am the first tO' perceive and to obey this ad- monition of nature, and to solicit a retreat from cares too great for the wearied faculties of age. For the approbation which the Legislature of Ver- mont has been pleased to express of the principles and measures pursued in the management of their affairs, I am sincerely thankful; and should I be so fortunate as to carry into retirement the equal approbation and good will of my fellow citizens generally, it will be the com- fort of my future days, and will close a service of forty years with the only reward it ever wished. "Addresses approving the general course of his ad- ministration, were also received from Georgia, December 6th, 1806; from Rhode Island, February 27th, 1807; from New York, March 13th, 1807; from Pennsylvania, Marcn 13th, 1807; and from Maryland, January 3d, 1807; to all which answers like that sent to Vermont were returned." —Ed. Letter of Advice to Jefferson's Grandson, Washington, November 24th, 1808. Thomas Jefferson Randolph: Your situation, thrown at such a distance from us, and alone, can not but give us all great anxieties for you. As much has been secured for you by your particular LETTERS AND ADDRESSES. 83 position and the acquaintance to which you have been recommended, as could he done towards shieldmg you from the dangers which surround you. But thrown on a wide world, among entire strangers, without a friend or guardian to advise, so young too, and with so little experience of mankind, your dangers are great, and still your safety must rest on yourself. A determination never to do what is wrong, prudence and good humor, will go far towards securing to you the estimation of the world. When I recollect that at fourteen years of age, the whole care and direction of myself was thrown on myself entirely, without a relation or friend qualified to advise or guide me, and recollect the various sorts of bad company with which I associated from time to time, I am astonished I did not turn off with some of them, and become as worthless to society as they were. I had the good fortune to become acquainted very early with some characters of very high standing, and to feel the incessant wish that I could ever become what they were. Under temptations and difficulties, I would ask myself what would Dr. Small, Mr. Wythe, Peyton Randolph do in this situation? What course in it will insure me their approbation? I am certain that this mode of deciding on my conduct, tended more to cor- rectness than any reasoning powers I possessed. Know- ingtheeven and dignified line they pursued,! could never doubt for a moment which of two courses would be in character for them. Whereas, seeking the same object through a process of moral reasoning, and with the jaundiced eye of youth, I should often have erred. From the circumstances of my position I was often thrown into the society of horse racers, card players, fox hunters, scientific and professional men, and of dignified men; and many a time have I asked myself in the enthusiastic moment of the death of a fox, Che victory of a favorite horse, the issue of a question eloquently argued at the bar, or in the great council of the nation, well, which of these kinds of reputation should I prefer? That of a horse jockey, a fox hunter, an orator, or the honest ad- vocate of my country's rights? Be assured, mv dear 84 I^ETTERS AND ADDRESSES. Jefferson, that these little returns into ourselves, this self-catechising ha'bit, is not trifling nor useless, but leads to the prudent selection and steady pursuit of what is right. I have mentioned good humor as one of the preserva- tives of our peace and tranquility. It is among the most effectual, and its effect is so well imitated and aided, artificially, by politeness, that this also becomes an ac- quisition of first rate value. In truth, pohteness is arti- ficial good humor, it covers the natural want of it, and ends by rendering habitual a substitute nearly equivalent to the real virtue. It is the practice of sacrificing to those whom we meet in society, all the little conveniences and preferences which will gratify them, and deprive us of nothing worth a moment's consideration; it is the giv- ing a pleasing and flattering turn to our expressions, which will conciliate others, and make them pleased with us as well as themselves. How cheap a price for the good will of another! When this is in leturn for a rude thing said by another, it brings him to his senses, it mortifies and corrects him in the most salutary way, and places him at the feet of your good nature, in the eyes of the company. But in stating prudential rules for our government in society, I must not omit the im- portant one of never entering into dispute or argument with another. I never saw an instance, of one of two disputants convincing the other by argument. I have seen many, on their getting warm, becoming rude, and shooting one another. Conviction is the effect of our own dispassionate reasoning, either in soilitude, or weigh- ing within ourselves, dispassionately, what we Lear from others, standing uncommhted in argument ourselves. It was one of the rules which, above all others, made Dr. Franklin >he most amiable of men in society, "never to contradict anybody." If he was urged to announce an opinion, he did it rather by asking questions, as if for information, or by suggesting doubts. When I hear an- other express an opinion which is not mine, I say to myself, he has a right to hi:, opinion, as I to mine; why should I question it? His crn.r does me no iniurv and tETTERS AND ADDRESSES. o5 shall I become a Don vQulxolte. to brinjr all men by force of argument to one opinion? If a fact be mis- stated it is probable he is gratified by a belief of it, and I have no right to deprive him of the grvt.Acation. If he wants information, he will ask it, and tlien I will give it in measured terms; but if he still believes his own story and shows a desire to dispute the fact with me, I hear him and say nothing. It is his affair, not mine, if he prefers error. There are two classes of disputants most frequently to be met with among us. The first is of young students just entered the thresho'ld of sci- ence, with a first view of its outlines, not yet filled up with the details and modifications which a further progress would bring to their knowledge. The other consists of the ill-tempered and rude men in society, who have taken up a passion for politics. (Good humor and politeness never introduce into mixed society, a question on which they foresee there will be a difiference of opinion.) From both of those classes of disputants, my dear JefTerson, keep aloof, as you would from the infected subjects of yel- low fever or pestilence. Consider yourself, when v^ith them, as among the patients of Bedlam, needing medical more than moral counsel. Be a listener only, keep within yourself, and endeavor to establish with yourself the habit of silence, especially on politics. In the fevered state of our country, no good can ever result from any attempt to set one of these fiery zealots to rights, either in fact or principle. They are determined as to the facts they will believe, and the opinions on which they v.'iill act. Get by them, therefore, as you would by an angry bull; it is not for a man of sense to dispute the road with such an animal. You will be more exposed than others to have these animals shaking their horns at you, because of the relation in which you stand with me. Full of political venom, and willing to see me and to hate me as a chief in the antagonist party, your pres- ence will be to them what the vomit grass is to the sick dog, a nostrum for producing ejaculation. Look upon them exactly with that eye and pity them as objects to whom you can administer only occasional ease. I\Iy 86 LETTERS AND ADDRESSES. character is not within their power. It is in the hands of my fellow citizens at large, and will be consigned to honor or infamy by the verdict of the Republican mass of our country, according to what themselves will have seen, not what their enemies and mine shall have said. Never, therefore, consider these puppies in politics as requiring any notice from you, and always show that you are not afraid to leave my character to the umpirage of public opinion. Look steadily to the pursuits which have carried you to Philadelphia, be very select in the society you attach yourself to, avoid taverns, drinkers, smokers, idlers and dissipated persons generally; for it is with such that broils and contentions arise; and yoii will find your path more easy and tranquil. The limits of my paper warn me that it is timie for me to close with my affectionate adieu. Jefferson Refuses all Presents While President. Washington, November 30th, 1808. To Mr. Samuel Hawkins, Knigston: Your letter of the 3d mstaiit came to hand on the loth. Mr. Granger, before that, had sent here the very elegant ivory staff of which you wished my acceptance. The motives of your wish are honorable to me, and gratify- ing, as they evidence the inprobation of my pub';c con- duct by a stranger who has not viewed it through the partialities of personal acquaintance. Be assured, sir, that I am as grateful for the testimony as if I could have accepted the token of it which you have so kindly offered. On coming into public offico, T laid it down as a law of my conduct while I sha.ild continue in it. to accept no present of any sensible pecuniary value. A pamphlet, a new book, or an article ct new curiosity, have produced no hesitation, because below suspicion. But things of sensible value, however inr.ccently offered in the first examples, may grow at length into abuse, fo-- which I wish not to furnish a precedent. The kindness of the motives which led to this manifestation of your esteem, sufficiently assures me that you will approve of my de- I^ETTERS AND ADDRESSES. 87 sire by a perseverance in the rule, to retain that con- sciousness of a disinterestc.l a^hninistration o the pubhc trusts, which is essential to r.erfect tranquility of mind Replacing, therefore, the subject of this le ter in the hands of Mr. Granger, under your orders, and repeating that the offer meets the same thankfulness as if accepted. I tender you my salutations and assurances of respect. Farewell Address to Thomas Jeflferson, President of the United States. (Agreed to by both Houses, February 7, 1809.) Sir— The General Assembly of your native State can not 'Close their session without acknowledging your ser- vices in the office which you are just about to lay down, and bidding you a respectful and affectionate farewell.^ We have to thank you for the model of an adminis- tration conducted on the purest principles of RepubUcan- ism; for pomp and state laid aside; patronage discarded; internal taxes abolished; a host of superfluous officers disbaridfed; the monarchic maxim "that a national debt is a national blessing," renounced and more than thirty- three millions of our debt discharged; the native right to nearly one hundred millions of acres of our national domain extinguished; and, without the guilt or calamities of conquest, a vast and fertile region added to our country, far more extensive than her original possessions, bringing along wath it the Mississippi and the port of Orleans, the trade of the West to the Pacific Ocean, and in the intrinsic value of the land itself, a source of per- manent and almost inexhaustible revenue. fhese are points in your administration which the historian will not fail to seize, to expand, and teach posterity to dweil upon with delight. Nor will he forget our peace with the civil- ized world, preserved through a season of uncommon difficulty and trial, the good will cultivated witli the un- fortunate aborigines of our country, and the civilization humanely extended among them; the lesson taught the inhabitants of the coast of Barbary, that v/e liave the means of chastising their piratical encroachments, and 88 I^ETTERS AND ADDRESSES. awing them into justice; and that theme, on which, above all others, the historic genius will hang with rapture, the liberty of speech, and of the press preserved inviolate, without which genius and science are given to man in vain. In the principles on which you have administered the government, we see only the continuation and maturity of the same virtues and abilities, which drew upon you in your youth the resentment of Dunmore.* From the first brilliant and happy moment of your resietence to foreign tyranny until the present day we mark with pleasure and with gratitude the same uniform, consistent character, the same warm and devoted attachment to liberty and the Republic, the same Roman love of youi country, her rights, her peace, her honor, her prosperity. How blessed will be the retirement into which you are about to go! How deservedly blessed will it be! For you carry with you the richest of all rewards, the recollection of a life well spent in the service of your country, and proofs the most decisive, of the love, the gratitude, the veneration of your countrymen. That your retirement may be as happy as your life has been virtuous and useful; that our youth may see in the blissful close of your days, an additional inducement to form themselves on your model, is the devout and earnest prayer of your fellow citizens who compose the General Assembly of Virginia. The Union of the States the Palladium of Their Safety. Washington, February 24th, 1809. To Gov. Tompkins: By all, I trust, the union of these States will ever be considered as the Palladium of their safety, their pros- perity and glory, and all attempts to sever it will be frowned on with reprobation and abhorence. And I have equal confidence, that all moved by the sacred prin- ciples of liberty and patriotism will prepare themselves for any crisis we may be able to meet, and will be ready *The royal governor of Virginia, 1773. LETTERS AND ADDRESSES. 89 to co-operate with each other, and with the constituted authorities, in resisting and repelhng the aggressions of foreign nations. Jefferson Expresses DeHght at His Retirement from PubUc Life. Washington, March 2d, 1809. To M. Dupont de Nemours: Within a few days I retire to my family, my books and farms; and having gained the harbor myself, I shall look on my friends still buffeting the storm with anxiety indeed, but not with envy. Never did a prison- er, released from his chains, feel such relief as I shall on shaking off the shackles of power. Nature intended me for the tranquil pursuits of science, by rendering them my supreme delight. But the enormities of the times in which I have lived, have forced me to take a part in resisting them, and to commit myself on the boisterous ocean of political passions. I thank God for the opportunity of retiring from them without censure, and carrying with me the most consoling proofs of public approbation. I leave everything in the hands of men so able to take care of them, that if we are des- tined to meet misfortunes, it will 'be because no human wisdom could avert them. Should you return to the United States, perhaps your curiosity may lead you to visit the hermit of ]\Ionticello. He will receive you with affection and delight; hailing you in the meantime with his affectionate salutations and assurances of constant esteem and respect.^ Jefferson's Address to the Inhabitants of Albermarle County, in Virginia. April 3d, 1809. Returning to the scene of my birth and early life, to the society of those with whom I was raised, and who have been ever dear to me, I receive, fellow citi^ptr; and neighbors, with inexpressible pleasure, the cordial wel- 90 tETTERS AND ADDRESSBS. come you are so good as to give me. Long absent on duties which the history of a wonderful era made in- cumbent on those called to them, the pomp, the turmoil, the bustle and splendor of office, have drawn but deeper sighs for the tranquil and irresponsible occupations of private life, for the enjoyment of an afifectionate inter- course with you, my neighbors and friends, and the endearments of family love, which nature has given us all, as the sweetener of every hour. For these I gladly lay down the distressing burthen of power, and seek, with my fellow citizens, repose and safety under the watchful cares, the labors and perplexities of youngei and abler minds. The anxieties you express to admin- ister to my happiness, do, of themselves, confer that happiness; and the measure will be complete, if my en- deavors to fulfill my duties in the several public stations to which I have been called, have obtained for me the approbation of my country. The part which I have acted on the theater of public life has been before them; and to their sentence I submit it; but the testimony of my native county, of the individuals whO' have known me in private life, to my conduct in its various duties and relations, is the more grateful, as proceeding from eye witnesses and observers, from triers of the vicinage. Of you ,then, my neighbors, I may ask, in the face of the world, "whose ox have I taken, or whom have I de- frauded? Whom have I oppressed, or of whose hand have I received a bribe to blind mine eyes therewith?" On your verdict I rest with conscious security. Your wishes for my happiness are received with just sensibility and I ofifer sincere prayers for your own welfare and prosperity. Evils of National Debt. Monticello, October nth, 1809. To Albert Gallatin: I consider the fortunes of our Republic as depend- ing, in an eminent degree, on the extinguishment of the public debt before we engage in any war; bcause, LETTERS AND ADDRESSES. 91 that done, we shall have revenue enough to improve our 'country in peace, and defend It in war, without recurring to new taxes or loans. But if the debt should once more be swelled to a formidable size, its entire discharge will be despaired of, and we shall be committed to the English career of debt, corruption and rottenness, clos- ing with revolution. The Mental Caliber of the Crownheads of Europe. Monticello, March 5th, 1810. To Gov. Langdon: When I observed, however, that the King of Eng- land was a cypher, I did not mean to confine the ob- servation to the mere individual now on that throne. The practice of kings marrying only in the families of kings has been that of Europe for some centuries. Now, take any race of animals, confine them in idleness and inaction, whether in a stye, a stable or a state room, pamper them with high diet, gratify all their sexual ap- petites, immerse them in sensualities, nourish their pas- sions, let everything bend before them, and banish what- ever might lead them to think, and in a few generations they become all body and no mind; and this, too, by a law of nature, by that very law by which we are in the constant practice of changing the characters and pro- pensities of the animals we raise for our own purposes. Such is the regimen in raising kings, and in this way they have gone on for centuries. While in Europe, I often amused myself with contemplating the characters of the then reigning sovereigns of Europe. Louis the XVI. was a fool, of my own knowledge ,and in despite of the answers made for him at his trial. The King of Spam was a fool, and of Naples the same. They passed their lives in hunting and dispatched two couriers a week, one thousand miles, to let each other know what game they had killed the preceding days. The King of Sardinia was a fool. All these were Bourbons. The Queen of Portugal, a Braganza, was an idiot by nature. And so was the King of Denmark. Their sons, as regents, exer- gt LKTTERS AND ADDRESSES. cised the powers of government. The King of Prussia, successor to the great Frederick, was a mere hog in body as well as in mind. Gustavus of Sweden, and Joseph, of Austria, were really crazy, and George of England, you know, was in a straight waistcoat. There remained, then, none but old Catharine,* who had been too lately picked up to have lost her common sense. In this state Bonaparte found Europe; and it was this state of its rulers which lost it with scarce a struggle. These ani- mals had become without mind and powerless; and so will every hereditary monarch be after a few generations. Alexander, the grandson of Catharine, is as yet an ex- ception. He is able to hold his own. But he is only of the third generation. His race is not yet worn out. And so endeth the book of kings, from all of whom the Lord deliver us. General Education and Division of Counties into Hundreds. Monticello, May 26th, 1810. To Gov. Tyler: You wish to see me again in the Legislature, but this is impossible. I have indeed two great measures at heart, without which no Republic can maintain itself in strength, i. That of general education, to enable every man to judge for himself what will secure or en- danger his freedom. 2. To divide every county into hundreds, of such size that all the children of each will be within reach of a central school in it. But this divi- sion looks to many other fundamental provisions. Every hundred, besides a school, should have a justice of the peace, a constable and a captain of militia. These officers, or some others within the hundred, should be a corporation to manage all its concerns, to take care of its roads, its poor, and its police by patroles, etc., (as the select men of the Eastern townships). Every hundred should elect one or two jurors to serve where requisite, *Fmpress of Russia. Her father was Prince of a small princi- pality in Germany. LETTERS AND ADDRESSES. 93 and all other elections should be made in the hundreds separately, and the votes of all the hundreds be brought together. Our present captaincies might be declared hundreds for the present, with a power to the courts to alter them occasionally. Tdiese littk Republics would be the main strength of the great one. We owe to them the vigor given to our revolution in its commencement in the Eastern States, and by them the Eastern States were enabled to repeal the embargo* in opposition to the Middle, Southern and Western States and their large and lubberly division into counties which can never be assembled. General orders are given out from a center to the foreman of every hundred, as to the sergeants of an army, and the whole nation is thrown into energetic action, in the same direction in one instant and as one man, and becomes absolutely irresistible. Could I once see this I should consider it as the dawn of the salvation of the Republic, and say with old Simeon: "Let me now depart, O, Lord." But our children will be as wise as we are, and will establish in the fullness of time those things not yet ripe for establishment. Jefferson's Relations with Adams and the Difference Between Adams' and Hamilton's Political Principles. Monticello, January i6th, 1811. To Dr. Benjamin Rush: I receive with sensibility your observations on the discontinuance of friendly correspondence between Mr. Adams and myself, and the concern you take in its re- storation. This discontinuance has not proceeded from me, nor from the want of sincere desire and the efYort on my part to renew our intercourse. You know the per- fect coincidence of principle and of action, in the early part of the Revolution, which produced a high degree *In 1807 an embarg-o act was laid on the sailing, unless by per- mission of the President, of any vessel in the ports of the United States for foreign ports, except foreign ships in ballast, or with cargoes taken on board before notification of the act, and coast- wise vessels wvre required to give bonds to land their . argoes in the United States. In 180!) the law was repealed. 94 LKTTERS AND ADDRESSES. of mutual respect and esteem between Mr. Adams and myself. Certainly no man was ever truer than he was, in that day, to those principles of rational Republicanism which, after the necessity of throwing ofif our monarchy, dictated all our efforts in the establishment of a new government. And although he swervod afterwards towards the principles of the English constitution, our friendship did not abate on that account. While he was Vice-President and I Secretary of State, I received a letter from President Washington, then at Mount Ver- non, desiring me to call together the heads of depart- ments, and to invite Mr. Adams to join us (which, by the bye, was the only instance of that being done), m order to determine on some measure which required dispatch; and he desired me to act on it, as decided, with- out again recurring to him. I invited them to dine with me and after dinner, sitting at bur wine, having settled our question, other conversation came on, in which a collision of opinion arose between Mr. Adams and Col. Hamilton on the merits of the British constitution, Mr. Adams giving it as his opinion that, if some of its de- fects and abuses were corrected, it would be the most perfect constitution of government ever devised by man. Hamilton, on the contrary, asserted that with its existing vices, it was the most perfect model of government that could be formed; and that the correction of its vices would render it an impracticable government. And this you may be assured was the real line of difference be- tween the political principles of these two gentlemen. Another incident took place on the same occasion, which will further delineate Mr. Hamilton's political principles. The room being hung around with a collection of the portraits of remarkable men, among them were those of Bacon, Newton and Lo'cke, Hamilton asked me who they were. I told him they were my trinity of the three greatest men the world had ever produced, naming them. He paused for some time: "The greatest man." said he, "that ever lived, was Julius Caesar." Mr. Adams was honest as a politician, as well as a man; Hamilton honest as a man, but as a politician, believing in the necessity ol LETTERS AND ADDRESSES. 95 either force or corruption to govern men. You remem- ber the machinery which the FederaUsts played off about that time, to beat down the friends to the real prmciples of our constitution, to silence by terror every expression in their favor, to bring us into war with France and alliance with England, and finally to homologize our constitution with that of England. Mr. Adams, you know, was overwhelm^ " with feverish addresses, dic- tated bv the fear, and often by the pen, of the bloody buoy; a'nd was seduced by them into some open indica- tions of his new principles ot government, and in fact, was so elated as to mix with his kindness a little super- cihousness towards me. Even Mrs. Adams, with all her good sense and prudence, was sensibly flushed. And you recollect the short suspension of our intercourse, and the circumstance which gave rise to it, which you were so good as to bring to an early explanation, and have set to rights, to the cordial satisfaction of us all. The nation at length passed condemnation on the politi- cal principles of the Federalists, by refusing to continue Mr. Adams in the presidency. On the day on which we learned in Philadelphia the vote of the city of New York, which it was well known would decide the vote of the State, and that, again, the vote of the Union, I called on Mr. Adams on some official business. He was very sensibly affected, and accosted me with these words: Well, I understand that you are to beat me in this con- test, and I will only say that I will be as faithful a sub- ject as any you will have." "Mr. Adams," said I, "this is no personal contest between you and me. Two sys- tems of principles on the subject of government divide our fellow citizens into two parties. With one of these you concur, and I with the other. As we have been longer on the public stage than most of those now living, our names happen to be more generally known. One of these parties, therefore, has put your name at its head, the other mine. Were we both to die toing a tax in the same instant for paying the interest annually, and the principle within a given term; and to consider thattaxaspledgedto the creditors on the public faith. Un such a pledge^as this, sacredly observed, a government may alwavs command, on a reasonable interest, all the lendable money of their citizens, while the necessity of an equivalent tax is a salutary warning to them and their constituents against oppressions, bankruptcy, and its inevitable consequence, revolution. But tne term of redemption must be moderate, and at any rate withm the limits of their rightful powers. But what hmi;S it will be asked, does this prescribe to their powers? What is to hinder them from creating a perp-tual debt? ihe laws of nature, I answer. The earth belongs to the liv- ing not to the dead. The will and the power oi man expire with his life, by nature's law. Some societies give it an artificial continuance, for the encouragement of industry; some refuse it, as our aboriginal neighbors, 104 LKTTERS AND ADDRKSSES. whom we call barbarbians. The generations oi men may be considered as bodies of corporations. Each generation has the usufruct of the earth during the period of its continuance. When it ceases to exist, the usufruct passes on to the succeeding generation, free and unincumbered, and so on, successively, from one gtr:eration to another forever. We may consider each generation as a distinct nation, with a right, by the will of its majority, to bind themselves, but none to bind the succeeding generation, more than the inhabitants of another country. Or the case may be likened to the ordinary one of a tenant for life, who may hypothecate th'j land for his debts, during tiie continuance of his usufruct; but at his death, the reversioner, (who is also for life only) receives it exonerated from all burthen. The period of a generation, or the term of its life, is determined by the laws of mortality, which, varying a little only in dififerent climates, offer a general average, to be found by observation. I turn, for instance, to Bufifon's tables, of twenty-three l!iousand nine hundred and ninety-four deaths, and the ages at which they hap- pened, and I find that of the numbers of all ages living at one moment, half will be dead in twenty-four years and eight months. But (leaving oi.it minors, who have not the power of self-government) cvf the adults (of twen- ty-one years of age), living at one monienr, a majority of whom act for the society, one-half will be dead in eight ten years and eight months. At nineteen years thru from the date of a contract, the majority of the con- tractors are dead, and their contract with them. Let this general theory be applied to a particular case. Sup- pose the annual births of the State of New York to be twenty-three thousand nine hundred and ninety-four, the whole number of its inhabitants, according to Buffon, will be six hundred and seventeen thousand seven hundred and three, of all ages. Of these there would constantly (be two hundred and sixty-nine thous- and two hundred and eighty-six minors, and ihree hun- dred and forty-eight thousand four hundred and seven- teen adults, of which last, one hundred and seventy-four LKTTKRS AND ADDRESSES. 105 thorsand two hundred and nine \\\\\ be a majority. Suppose that majority, on the first day of the year 1794, had borrowed a sum of money equal to the fee smiple vahie of the State, and to have consumed it m eatmg, drinking and making merry in their day; or, if you please, in quarreling and fighting with their unoffending neighbors. Within eighteen years and eight months, one'^half of the adult citizens were dead. Till then, be- ing the majority, they might rightfully levy the interest of their debt annuallv on themselves and their fellow re- vellers, or fellow champions. But at that period, say at this moment, a new majority have come into place, in their own right, and not under the rights, the conditions or laws of their predecessors. Are they bound to ac- knowledge the debt, to consider the preceding genera- tion as having had a right to eat up the whole soil oi their country, in the course of a life, to alienate it from them (for it would be an alienation to the creditors), and would they think themselves either legally or moral- ly bound to give up their country and emigrate to an- other for subsistence? Every one will say no; that the soil is the gift of God to the living, as much as it had been to the deceased generation; and that the laws of nature impose no obligation on them to pay tiie debt. And although, like some other natural rights, this has not yet entered into any declaration of rights, it is no less a law, and ought to be acted on by honest govern- ments. It is, at the same time, a salutary curb on the spirit of war and indebtment, which, since the modern theory of the perpetuation of debt, has drenched the earth with blood, and crushed its inhabitants under burthens ever accumulating. Had this principle been declared in the British bill of rights, England would have been placed under the happy disability of waging eter- nal war, and of contracting her thousand millions of public debt. In seeking, then, for an ultimate term for the redemption of our debts, let us rally to this principle, and provide for their payment within the term of nine- teen years at the farthest. Our government has not, as yet, begun to act on the rule of loans and taxation go^ 106 LETTERS AND ADDRESSES. ing hand in hand. Had any loan taken place in my time I should have strongly urged a redeeming tax. For the loan which has been made since the last session of Congress, we should now set the example of appro- priating some particular tax, sufficient to pay the in- terest annually, and the principle within a fixed term, less than nineteen years. And 1 hope yourself and your committee will render the immortal service of introduc- ing this practice. Not that it is expected that Con- gress should formally declare such a principle. They wisely enough avoid deciding on abstract questions. But they may be induced to keep themselves within its limits. I am sorry to see our loans begin at so exorbi- tant an interest. And yet, even at that you will soon be at the bottom of the loan bag. We are an agricultural nation. Such a one employs its sparings in the pur- chase or improvement of land or stocks. The lendable money among them is chiefly that of orphans and wards in the hands of executors and guardians, and that which the farmer lays by till he has enough for the purchase in view. In such a nation there is one and one only re- source for loans, sufficient to carry them through the ex- pense of a war; and that will always be sufficient, and in the power of an honest government, punctual in the preservation of its faith. The fund I mean, is the mass of circulating coin. Every one knows that although not literally it is nearly true, that every paper dollar emitted banishes a silver one from the circulation. A nation, therefore, making its purchases and payments with bills fitted for circulation, thrusts an equal sum of coin "out of circulation. This is equivalent tO' borrow- ing that sum, and yet the vendor receiving payment in a medium as effectual as coin for his purchases or pay- ments, has no claim to interest. And so the nation may continue to issue its bills as far as its wants require, and the limits of the circulation will admit. Those limits are understood to extend with us at present, to two hundred millions of dollars, a greater sum than would be neces- sary for any war. But this, the only resource which the government could command -with certainty, the States LfiTTKRS AND ADDRE: SUS. 107 have unfortunately fooled away, nay, corruptly alienated to swindlers and shavers, under the cover of private banks. Say, too, as an additional evil, that the disposal funds of individuals, to this great amount, have thus been withdrawn from improvement and useful enter- prise, and employed in the useless, usurious and de- moralizing practices of bank directors and their accom- plices. In the war of 1755, our State availed itself of this fund by issuing a paper money, bottomed on a specific tax for its redemption, and to insure its credit, bearing an interest of 5 per cent. Within a very short time, not a bill of this emission was to be found In cir- culation. It was locked up in the chests of executors, guardians, widows, farmers, etc. We then issued bills bottomed on a redeeming tax, but bearing no interest. These were readily received, and never depreciated a single farthing. In the revolutionary war, the old Con- gress and the States issued bills without interest, and without tax. They occupied the channels of circulation very freely, till those channels were overflowed by an excess beyond all the calls of circulation. But although we have so improvidently suffered the field of circulat- ing medium to be filched from us by private individuals, yet I think we may recover it in part, and even in the whole, if the States will co-operate with us. If treasury bills are emitted on a tax appropriated for their redemp- tion in fifteen years, and (to insure preference in the first moments of competition), bearing an interest of 6 per cent, there is no one who would not take them in preference to the bank paper now afloat, on a principle of patriotism as well as interest; and they would be with- drawn from circulation into private boards to a consid- erable amount. Their credit once esltablished, others might be emitted, bottomed also on a tax, but not bear- ing interest; and if ever their credit faltered, open public loans, on which these bills alone should be received as specie. These, operating as a sinking fund, would re- duce the quantity in circulation, so as to maintain that in an equilibrium with specie. It is not easy to estimate the obstacles which, in the beginning, we should en- 108 LETTERS AND ADDRESSES. counter in ousting the banks from their possession of the circulation; but a steady and judicious alternation of emissions and loans, would reduce them in time. But while this is going on, another measure should be pressed, to recover ultimately our right to the circula- tion. The States should be applied to, to transfer the right of issuing circulating paj^er to Congress exclu- sively forever, if possible, but during the war at least, with a saving of charter rights. I believe that every State west and south of Connecticut River, except Dela- ware, would immediately do it; and the others would follow in time. Congress would, of cO'Urse, begin by obliging unchartered banks to wind up their affairs within a short time, and the others as their charters expired, forbidding the subsequent circulation of their paper. This they would supply with their own, fcot- tomed, every emission, on an adequate tax, and bear- ing or not bearing interest, as the state of the public pulse should indicate. Even in the non-complymg States, these bills would make their way, and supplant the unfunded paper of their banks, by tlieir solidity, by the universality of their currency, and by their receiva- bility for customs and taxes. It would be in their power, too, to curtail those banks to the amount of their actual specie, by gathering up their paper, and running it con- stantly on them. The national paper might thus take place even in the non-complying States. In this way, I am not without a hope, that this great, this sole re- source for loans in an agricultural country, might yet be recovered for the use of the nation during war; and if obtained forever, it would always be sufficient to carry us through any war; provided, that in the interval be- tween war and war, all the outstanding paper should be called in, coin be permitted to flow in again, and to hold the l^eld of circulation until another war should require its yielding place again to the national medium. Bu't it will be asked are we to have no banks? Are merchants and others to be deprived of the resource of short accommodations, found so convenient? I answer let us have banks; but let them be such as are alone to LETTERS. AND ADDRESSES. 109 be found in any country on earth, except Great Britain There is not a bank of discount on the contment of Europe (at least there was no(t one when I was there), which offers anything but cash in exchange lOr dis- counted bills. No one has a natural right to the trade ot a money lender, but he who has the money to lend. Let those then among us, who have a monicd capital, and who prefer employing it in loans rather than other- wise, set up banks and give cash or national bills for the notes they discount. Perhaps, to encourage them, a larger interest than is legal in the other cases might be allowed them, on the condition of their lending for short periods only. It is from Great Britain we copy the idea of giving paper in exchange for discounted bills; and while we have derived from that country some good principles of government and legislation, we unfortun- ately run inlothe most servile imitation of all her prac- tice's, ruinous as they prove to her, and with the guli yawning before us into which these very practices are precipitating her. Jefferson's Views of the National Bank Proposed in 1813. Monticello, November 6th, 1813. To John W. Eppes: The scheme is for Congress to establish a national bank,'^ suppose of thirty millions capital, of which they shah contribute ten millions, the States ten millions and individuals ten millions; the whole, however, to be under the exclusive management of the individual sub- scribers, who are to name all the directors; neither Con- gress nor the States having any power of interference in its administration. The charter is proposed to be for forty or fifty years, and if any future augmentations should take place, the individual proprietors are to have the privilege of being the sole subscribers for that. They (the Congress) authorize this bank to throw ♦The charter of the United States Bank had expired in ISll and it was urged in Congress to recharter it for twenty years, which was done in 1S16. In 1836 the bank closed its doors, having twenty thousand dollars assets and one hundred millions liabili- ties. 110 LETTERS AND ADDRESSES. into circulation ninety millions of dollars (fiat paper money). The individual subscribers, on paying their own five millions of cash to Congress, become the depositories of ten millions of stock belonging to Con- gress, five millions belonging to the States, and five millions to themselves, say tv^^enty millions, with which, as no one has ever a right to see their books, or to ask a question, they may choose their time for running away, after adding to their boo*ty the proceeds of as much of their own notes as they shall be able to throw into circulation. The subscribers may 'be one, two or three or more individuals (many single individuals 'be- ing able to pay in the five millions), whereupon the bank oligarchy or monarchy enters the field with ninety millions of dollars, to direct and control the politics of the nation; and of the influence of these institutions on our politics and into what scale it will be thrown, we have had abundant experience. Indeed, England her- self may be the real, while her friend and trustee here shall be the nominal and sole subscriber. This state of things is to be fastened on us, without the power of relief, for forty or fifty years_. That is to say, the eight millions of people now existing for the sake of receiving one dollar and twenty-five cents apiece, at 5 per cent interest, are to subject the fifty millions of people who are to succeed them within that term, to the payment of forty-five millions of dollars, principal and interest, which will be payable in the course of the fifty years. It is a litigated question, whether the circulation of paper, rather than of specie, is a good or an evil. In the opinion of England and of English writers it is a good; in that of all other nations it is an evil, and ex- cepting England and her copyist, the United States, there is not a nation existing. I believe, which tolerates a paper circulation. The experiment is going on, how- ever desperately in England, pretty boldly with us, and at the end of the chapter, we shall see which opinion experience approves; for I believe it to be one of those cases where mercantile clamor will bear down reason, until it is corrected bv ruin. LETTERS AND ADDRESSES. HI At the time -we were funding our national debt, we heard much about "a public debt being a public bless- ing ;"thatthe stock representing it was a creation of active capital for the aliment of commerce, manufactures and agriculture. This paradox was well-adapted to the rninds of believers in dreams and the gulls of that size entered bona fide in it. But the art and mystery of banks is a wonderful improvement on that. It is estab- lished on the principle that "private debts are a public blessing." That the evidences of those private debts, called bank notes, become active capital, and aliment the whole conmierce, manufactures and agriculture of the United States. Here are a set of people, for instance, who have bestowed on us the great bless- ing of running in our dc'bt about two hundred millions of dollars, without our knowing who they are, where Ihey are, or what property they have to pay this debt when called on; nay, who have made us so sensible of the blessings of letting them run in our debt, that we have exempted them by law from the repayment of these debts beyond a given proportion (generally estimated at one-third). And to fill up the measure of blessing, instead of paying, they receive an interest on what they owe from those to whom they owe; for all the notes, or evidences of what they owe, which we see in circulation, have been lent to somebody on an interest which is levied again on us through the medium of commerce. And they are .so ready still to deal out their liberalities to us, that they are now willing to let themselves run in our debt ninety millions more, on our paying them the same premium of 6 or 8 per cent interest, and on the same legal exemption from the repayment of more than thirty millions of the debt, when it shall be called for. But let us look at this principle in its original form, and its copy will then be equally understood. "A public debt is a public blessing." That our debt was juggled from forty-three up to eighty millions, and funded at that amount, according to this opinion was a great public blessing, because the evidences of it could be vested in commerce, and thus converted into active 112 LETTERS AND ADDRESSES. capital, and then the more the debt was made to be, the more active capital was created. That is to say, the creditors could now employ in commerce the money due them from the public, and make from it an annual profit of 5 per cent, or four millions of dollars. But observe that the public were at the same time paying on it an interest of exactly the same amount of four millions of dollars. Where then is the gain to either party, which m'akes it a public blessing? If the debt which the banking companies owe be a blessing to anybody, it is to themselves alone, who are realizing a solid interest of 8 or 10 per cent on it. As to the public, these com^ panics have banished all our gold and silver medium, which, before their institution, we had without interest, which never could have perished in our hands, and would have been our salvation now in the hour of war; instead of ^vhich they have given us two hundred mil- lions of froth and bubble, on which we are to pay them heavy interest, until it shall vanish into air. It is said that our paper (these bank notes) is as good as silver, because we may have silver for it at the bank where it issues. This is not true. One, two or three persons might have it; but a general application would soon exhaust their vaults, and leave a ruinous propor- tion of their paper in its intrinsic worthless form. It is a fallacious pretence, for another reason. The inhabi- tants of the banking cities might obtain cash for their paper, as far as the cash of the vaults would hold out, but distance puts it out of the power of the country to do this. A farmer having a note of a Boston or Charles- ton bank, distant hundreds of miles, has no means of calling for the cash. And while those calls are imprac- ticable for the country, the banks have no fear of their being made from the towns; because their inhabitants are mostly on their books, and there on sufferance only, and during good behavior. Evil of the System of Banks. Monticello, January i6th, 1814. To Dr. Thomas Cooper: Everything predicted by the enemies of banks, in LETTRRS AND ADDRESSES. H^ the beginming, is now coming to pass. We are to be ruined now by the dehige of bank paper, as we were formerly by the old Continental paper. It is cruel that such revolutions in private fortunes should be at the mercy of avaricious adventurers, who, instead of employ- ing their capital, if any they have, in manufactures, commerce and other useful pursuits, make it an instru- ment to burden all the interchanges of property with their siwindling profits, profits which are the price of no useful industry of theirs. Prudent men must be on their guard in this game of Robin's alive, and take care that the spark does not extinguish in their hands. I am an enemy to all banks discounting bills or notes for anything but coin. But our whole country is so fas- cinated by this Jack lantern wealth, that they will not stop short of its total and fatal explosion.* Jefferson's Hostility to Banks. Monticello, January 24th, 1814. To John Adams: I have ever been the enemy of banks, not of those discounting for cash, but of those foisting their own paper into circulation, and thus banishing our cash. My zeal against those institutions was so warm and open at the establishment of the Bank of the United States, that I was derided as a maniac by the tribe of bank mongers, who were seeking to filch from the public their Siwindling and barren gains. But the errors of that day can not be recalled. The evils they have engendered are now upon us, and the question is how we are to get out of them? Shall we build an altar to the old paper money of the revolution, which ruined individuals, but saved the Republic, and burn on that all the bank char- ters, present and future, and their notes with them? For these are to ruin both Republic and individuals. This can not be done. The mania is too strong. It has seized, b}^ its delusions and corruptions, all the members of our governments, general, special and individual. *This took place, as predicted, four years later. 114 LETTERS AND ADDRESSES. Our circulating paper of the last year was estimated at two hundred millions of dollars. The new banks now petitioned for, to the several legislatures, are for about sixtv millions additional capital, and of course, one hun- dred and eighty millions of additional circulation, neai- ly doubling that of the last year, and raising the whole mass to near four hundred millions, or forty for one, of tlie wholesome amount of circulation for a popula- tion of eight millions circumstanced as we are, and you remember how rapidly our money went down after our forty for one establishmerit in the revolution. I doubt if the present trash can hold as long. I think the three hundred and eighty millions must blow all up in the course of the present year, or certainly it will be consummated by the re-duplication to take place, of course,, at the legislative meetings of the next winter. Should not prudent men, who possess stock in any monied institution, either draw and hoard the cash now while they can, or exchange it for canal stock, or such other as being bottomed on immovable property, will remain unhurt by the crush? I have been endeav- oring to persuade a friend in our Legislature to try and save this State from the general ruin by timely inter- ference. But it will not be done. You might as well, with the sailors, wfliistle to the wind, as suggest precautions against having too much money. We must bend then before the gale, and try to hold fast ourselves by some plank of the wreck. Social Condition of the United States Compared with That of England and the Suspension of Banks. Monticello, September loth, 1814. To Thomas Cooper, Esq.: A comparison of the conditions of Great Britain and the United States, which is the subject of your letter of August 17th, would be an interesting theme in- deed. To discuss it minutely and demonstratively would be far beyond the limits of a letter. I will'give you, therefore, in brief only, the result of mv reflections on LETTERS AND ADDRESSES. H^ the subject. I agree with you in your facts, and in many of your reflections. ^ly conclusion is without doubt, as I am sure yours will be, when the appeal to your sound judgment is seriously made. The popu- lation of England is composed of three descriptions ot persons (for those of minor note are, too mconsiderablel to affect a general estimate). These are: i. The aris- tocracy, comprehending the nobility, the wealthy com- moners, the high grades of priesthood, and the officers of government. 2. The laboring class. 3. The eleemosynary class, or paupers, who are about one-fifth of the whole. The aristocracy, which has tlie laws and government in their hands, have so managed them as to reduce the third description below the means of sup- porting life, even by labor; and to force the second, whether emploved in agriculture or the arts, to the maxi- mum of labor which the construction of the human body can endure, and to the minimum of food, and of the meanest kind, vwhich Avill preserve it in life, and in strength sufihcient to perform its functions. To obtain food enough, and clothing, not only their whole strength must be unremittingly exerted, but the utmost dexterity also which they can acquire; and those of great dexterity only can keep their ground, while those of less must sink into the class of paupers. Nor is it manual dex- terity alone, but the acutest resources of the mind also which are impressed into this struggle for life; and such as have means a little above the rest, as the master work- men, for instance, must strengthen themselves by ac- quiring as much of the philosophy of their trade as will enable them to compete with their rivals, and keep themselves above ground. Hence the industry and manual dexterity of their journeymen and day laborers and the. science of their master workmen keep them in the foremosit ranks of coaupetition with those of other nations; and the less dexterous individuals, falling into ihe eleemosynary ranks, furnish materials for armies and navies to defend their country, exercise piracy on the ocean, and carry conflagration, plunder and devasta- tion on the shores o-f all 'those who endeavor to with- 116 LETTERS AND ADDRESSES. Stand their aggressions. A society thus constituted possesses certainly the means of defense. But what does it defend? The pauperism of the lowest class, the abject oppression of the laboring, and the luxury, the riot, the domination and the vicious happiness of the aristo:racy. In their hands, the paupers are used as tools to maintain their own wretchedness, and to keep down the laboring portion by shooting them whe.never the desperation produced by the cravings of their stomachs drives them into riots. Such is the happiness of scientific England; now let us see the American side of the medal. And, first, we have no paupers, the old and crippled among us, who possess nothing and have no families to take care of them, being too few to merit notice as a separate section of society, or to affect a general esti- mate. The great mass of our population is of laborers; our rich, who can live without labor, either manual oi professional, being few, and of moderate wealth.. ]\Iast of the laboring class possess property, cultivate their own lands, have families, and from the demand for their labor are enabled to exact from the rich and the com- petent such prices as enable them to be fed abundantly, clothed above mere decency, to labor moderately and raise their families. They are not driven to the ulti- mate resources of dexterity and skill, because their wares will sell, although not quite so nice as tTiose of England. The wealthy, on the other hand, and thos'C at their ease, know nothing of what the Europeans call luxury. They have only somewhat more of the comforts and decencies of life than those who furnish tliem. Can any condition of society be more desirable than this? Nor in the class of laborers do I mean to withhold from the comparison that portion whose color has condemned them, in certain parts of our Union, to a subjection to the will of others. Even these are better fed in these States, warmer clothed and labor less than the journeymen or day laborers of England. They have the comforf, too, of numerous families, in the midst of whom they live without want, or fear of it; a LETTERS AND ADDRESSBS. 1^' solace which few of die laborers of England possess. They are subject, it is true, to bodily coercion, but are not the hundreds of thousands of British soldiers and seamen subject to the same, without seeing, at the end of their career, when age and accident shall have ren- dered them unequal to labor, the certainty, which the other has, that he will never want? And has not the British seaman, as much as the African, been reduced to this bondage by force, in flagrant violation of his own consent, and of his natural right in his own person? And with the laborers of England generally, does not the moral coercion of want subject their will as despot- ically to that of their employer, as the physical con- straint does the soldier, the seaman, or the slave? But do not mistake me. I am not advocating slavery. I am not justifying the wrongs Ave have committed on a foreign people, by the example of another nation com- mitting equal wrongs on their own subjects. On the contrary, there is nothing I would not sacrifice to a practicable plan of abolis'hing every vestige of this moral and political depravity. But I am at present comparing the condition and degree of suffering to which op[jr«.^r;.'ion has reduced the man of one color, with the condition and degree of suffering to which oppression has reduced the man of another color; equally condemning both. Now let us compute by numbers the sum of happiness of the two countries. In England happiness is the lot of the aristocracy only; and the proportion they bear to the laborers and paupers, you know better than I do. Were I to guess that they are four in every hundred, then the happiness of the nation would be to its misery as one in twenty-five. In the United States it is as eight millions to zero, or as all to none. But it is said they possess the means of de- fense, and that we do not. How so? Are we not men? Yes; but our men are so happy at home that they will not hire themselves to be shot at for a shilling a day. Hence we can have no standing armies for de- fense, because we have no paupers to furnish the ma- terials. The Greeks and Romans had no standing 118 LETTERS AND ADDRESSES. armies, yet they defended themselves. The Greeks by their laws, and the Romans by the spirit of their people, took care to put into the hands of their rulers no such engine of oppression as a standing army. Their system was to make every man a soldier, and oblige him to re- pair to the standard of his country whenever that was reared. This made them invincible, and the same remedy will make us so. In the beginning of our gov- ernment we were willing to introduce the least coercion possible on the will of the citizen. Hence a system of TMlitary duty was established too indulgent to his indo- lence. This is the first opportunity ^ve have had of trying it, and it has completely failed; an issue foreseen by many, and for which remedies have been proposed. That of classing the mihtia according to age, and allotting each age to the particular kind of service to which it was competent, was proposed to Congress in 1805, and subsequently; and, on the last trial, was lost, I believe, by a single vote only. Had it prevailed what has now happened would not have happened. Instead of burning our capitol, we should have possessed theirs in Montreal and Quebec. We must now adopt it, and all will be safe. The crisis, then, of the abuses of banking is arrived.* The banks have pronounced their own sentence of death. Between two and three hundred millions of dol- lars of their promissory notes are in the hands of the people, for solid produce and property sold, and they formally declare they will not pay them. A fearful tax! If equalized on all, but overwhelming and con- vulsive by its partial fall. From the establishment of the United States Bank, to this day, I have preached against this system, but have -been sensible no cure could be hoped, but in the catastrophe now happening. The remedy was to let banks drop gradually at the ex- piration of their charters, and for the State governments to relinquish the power of establishing others. This would not, as it should not, have given the power of ♦In 1814 the bank? su.spended specie payment. I,ETTERS AND ADDRESSES. 119 establishing them to Congress. But Congress could then have issued treasury notes payable within a fixed period, and founded on a specific tax, the proceeds of which as they came in, should be exchangeable for the notes of that particular emission only. Their (banks) paper was received on a belief that it was cash on demand. Themselves have declared it was nothing, and such scenes are now to take place as will open' the eyes of credulity and of insanity itself, to the dangers of a paper medium abandonied to the discretion of avarice and of swindlers. It is impossible not to de- plore our past follies, and 'their present consequences, but let them at least be warnings against like follies in future. Jefferson Tenders His Library to Congress. Monticello, September 24th, 1814. To the President of the United States : Learning by the papers the loss of the library ol Congress,* I have sent my catalogue to S. H. Smith, to make to their library committee the offer of my col- lection, now of about nine or ten thousand volumes, which may be delivered to them instantly, on a valua- tion by persons of their own naming, and be paid for in any way, and at any term they please; in stock, for ex- ample, of any loan they have unissued, or of any one they may institute at this session; or in such annual in- stallments as are at the disposal of the committee. I believe you are acquainted with the condition of the books, should they wish to be ascertained of this. I have long been sensible that my library wouid be an interesting possession for the public, and the loss Con- gress has recently sustained, and the difficulty of re- placing it, while our intercourse with Europe is so ob- structed, renders this the proper moment for placing it at their service. ♦It was wantonly destroyed by the British In 1814. 120 I^ETTERS AND ADDRESSES. Successful Termination of War With England. Monticello, June 12th, 181 5. To Mr. Leiper: I rejoice exceedingly that our war with England was single-handed. In that of the Revolution, we had France, Spain and Holland on our .side, and the credit of its success was given to them. On the late occasion, unprepared and unexpecting war, we were comipelled to declare it, and to receive the attack oi England, just issuing from a general war, fully armed and freed from all other enemies, and have not only made her sick of it, but glad to prevent, by peace, the capture of her adjacent possessions, which one or two campaigns more would infallibly have made ours. She has found that we can do her more injury than any Q':her enemy on earth, and henceforward will better estimate the value of our peace. But whether her government has power, in op- position to the aristocracy of her navy, to restrain their piracies within the limits of national rights, may well be doubted. I pray, ther-efore, for peace, as best for all the world, best for us, and best for me, who have already lived to see three wars, and now pant for nothing more than to be permitted to depart dn peace. Evil of the System of Banks. Monticello, October i6th, 181 5. To Mr. Gallatin: We are undone, my dear sir, if this banking mania be not suppressed. The war,* had it proceeded, would have upset our government, and a new one, when- ever tried, will do it. And so it must be while our money, the nerve of war, is much or little, real or imag- inary, as our bitterest enemies choose to make it. Put down the banks, and if this country could not be car- ried through the longest war against her most powerful enemy, without ever knowing the want of a dollar, ♦The war with England In 1812. LETTERS AND ADDRESSES. 121 without dependance on the traitorous classes of her citizens, without bearing hard on the resources of the people, or loading the public with an indefinite burden of debt, I know nothing of my countrymen. Not by any novel project, not by any charlatanerie, but by ordi- nary and well-experienced means; by the total prohibi- tion of all private paper at all times, >by reasonable taxes in war aided by the necessary emissions of public paper of circulating size, this ibottomed on special taxes, re- deemable annually as this special tax comes in, and finally within a moderate period — even with the flood of private paper by which we were deluged would the treasury have ventured its credit in bills of circulating size, as of five or ten dollars, etc., they would have been greedily received by the people in preference to bank paper. But unhappily the towns of America were con- sidered as the nation ol America, the dispositions of the inhabitants of the former as those of the latter, and the treasury, for want of confidence in the country, delivered itself bound hand and foot to bold and bankrupt ad- venturers and pretenders to be money holders, whom it could have crushed at any moment. Yet there is no hope of relief from the Legislatures who have immediate control over this subject. As little seems to be known of the principles of political economy as if nothing had ever been written or practiced on the subject, or as was known in old times, when the Jews had their rulers under the hammer. It is an evil, therefore, which we must make up our minds to meet and to endure as those of hurricanes, earthquakes and other casualties. . Jefferson's Faith in the People, and His Hostility to the Banks. Monticello. May 28th, 1816. To John Taylor: On the import of the term Republic, instead of saying, as has been said, "that it may mean anything or nothing," we may say with truth and meaning, that governments are more or less Republican as they have 122 LETTERS AND ADDRESSES. more or less of the element of popular election and con- trol in their composition; and believing, as I do, that the mass of the citizens is the safest depository of their own rights, and especially that the evils flowing from the duperies of the people, are less injurious than those from the egoism of their agents, I am a friend of that com- position of government which has in it the most of this ingredient. And I sincerely believe, with you, that bank- ing establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; and that tihe principle of spending money to ibe paid by posterity, under the name Oif funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale. Jefferson's Views on Government. Monticello, June 7th, 1816. To Francis W. Gilmer: Our legisiatcrs are not suflficiently apprized of the rightful limits of their power, that their true office is to declare and enforce only our natural rights and duties, and to take none of them from us. No man has a na- tural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another; and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him; every man is under the natural duty o' contributing to the necessities of the society; and this is all the laws should enforce on him; and, no man hav- ing a natural right to be the judge between himself and another, it is his natural duty to submit to the umpirage of an impartial third. When the laws have declared and enforced all this, they have fulfilled their functions; and the idea is quite unfounded, that on entering into •society we give up any natural right. The trial of every law by one of these texts, would lessen much the labors of our legislators, and lighten equally our muni- cipal codes. There is an error into which most of the speculators on government have fallen, and which the well-known state of society of our Indians ought, before now, to have corrected. In their hypothesis of the origin of government, they suppose it to have commenced in the partriarchal or monarchical form. Our Indians are 1?^ LETTERS AND ADDRESSES. evidently in that state of nature which has Passed the :soc"atfon of a single fatnily; and -t jet submmed o the authority of positive laws, or of any ^cknow edged magistrate. Every man, with them is Per^ectjy e to follow his own inclinations. But if, in domg J^^^' ^^^ violates the rights of another, i the case be shgb , he is punished bv the disesteem of his society, oi, as we say, bv public opinion; if serious, he is tomahawked as a dangerous enemy. Their leaders conduct them by the influence of their character only; and they follow, or not, as thev please, him of whose character for wis- dom or war they have the highest opinion. Hence the origin of the parties among them adhering to different leaders, and governed bv their advice, not by their com- mand The Cherokees, the only tribe I know to be contemplating the establishment of regular laws, mag- istrates, and government, propose a government o representatives, elected from every town. But of all things, they least think of subjecting themselves to the will "of one man. This, the only instance of actual fact wltlun our knowledge, will be then a beginning by Republican, and not by partriarchal or monarchical government, as speculative writers have generally con- jectured. Perpetual Debt Ruinous to the Country; Government Should be Remodelled from Time to Time, It Being Progressive. Monticello, July 12th, 1816. To Samuel Kerchival: I am not among those who fear the people. They, and not the rich, are our dependence for continued freedom. And to preserve their independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debts, as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our callings and our creeds, as the 124 LETTERS AND ADDRESSES. people of England are, our people, like them, must come to labor sixteen hours in the twenty-four, give the earnings of fifteen of these to the government for their debts and daily expenses, and the sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread, we must live as tlicy now do, on oatmeal and potatoes; have no time to think, no means to call the mismanagers to account; 'but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow sufferers. Our land holders, too, like theirs, retaitaing indeed the title and stewardship of estates called theirs, but held really in trust for the treasury, must wander, like theirs, in for- eign countries, and be contented with penury, obscurity, exile and the glory of the nation. This example reads to us the salutary lesson, that private fortunes are destroyed by public as well as by private extravagance. And this is the tendency of all human governments. A departure from principle in one instance becomes a pre- cedent for a second; that second for a third; and so on, till the bulk of the society is reduced to be mere auto- matons of misery to have no sensibilities left but for sinning and suffering. Then 'begins, indeed, the "war of all against all," which some philosophers observing to be so general in this world, have mistaken it for the natural, instead of the abusive state of man. And the fore horse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxa- tion follows that, and in its train wretchedness and op- pression. Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to he touched. They ascribe to the men of the piece (ling age a wisdom more than human, and sup- pose what they did to be beyond amendment. I knew that age well; I belonged to it, and labored with it. It deserved well of its country. It was very like the -pres- ent, but Avithout experience of the present and forty years of experience in government is worth a century of book reading; and this they would say them- selves, were they to rise from the dead. I am certainly not an advocate for frequent and untried changes in IvETTERS AND ADDRESSES. 125 laws and constitutions. I think moderate imperfec- tions had better be borne wdth, because when once known, we accommodate ourselves to them, and find practical means of correcting their ill effects. But I know also, that laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mmd. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new dis- coveries are made, new truths disclosed, and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy, as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors. It is this preposterous idea which has lately deluged Europe in blood. Their monarchs, instead ot wisely yielding to the gradual change of circumstances, of favoring progressive accommodation to progressive improvement, have clung to old abuses, entrenched themselves behind steady habits, and obliged their sub- jects to seek through blood and violence rash and ruin- ous innovations, which, had they been referred to the peaceful deliberations and collected wisdom of the na- tion, would have been put into acceptable and salutary forms. Let us follow no such examples, nor weakly believe that one generation is not as capable as another of taking care of itself, and of ordering its awn afifairs. Let us, as our sister States have done, avail ourselves of our reason and experience, to correct the crude es- says of our first and unexperienced, although wise, vir- tuous, well-meaning councils. And lastly, let us provide in our constitution for its revision at stated periods. What these periods should be, nature herself indicates. By the Luiopean tables of mortality, of the adults liv- ing at any one moment of time, a majority will be dead in about nineteen years. At the end of that period then, a new majority is come into place, or, in other words, a new generation. Each generation is as independent of the one preceding, as that was of all which had gone before. It has then, like them, a right to choose for itself the form of government it believes most promo- 126 LETTERS AND ADDRESSES. tive of its own happiness; consequently, to accommo- date to the circumstances in which it finds itself, that received from its predecessors; and it is for the peace and good of mankind, that a solenm opportunity of doing this every nineteen or twenty years, should be provided by the constitution; so that it may be handed on, with periodical repairs, from generation to generation, to the end of time, if anything human can so long endure. If this avenue be shut to the call of sufferance, it will make itself heard through that of force, and we shall go on, as other nations are doing, in the endless circle of oppression, rebellion, reformation; and oppression, rebellion, reformation, again; and so on forever. Emancipation of Slaves. Monticcllo, February 8th, 1817. To Dr. Thomas Humphreys: I concur entirely in your leading principles of grad- ual emancipation, of establishment on the coast of Africa, and the patronage of our nation until the emi- grants shall be able to- protect themselves. The sub- ordinate details might be easily arranged. But the bare proposition of purchase by the United States gen- erally, would excite infinite indignation in all the States north of Maryland. The sacrifice must fall on the States alone which hold them; and the difticult question will be how to lessen tiiis so as to reconcile our fellow citizens to it. Personally I am ready and desirous to make any sacrifice which shall ensure their gradual, but complete retirement from the State, and effectually, at the same time, establish them elsewhere in freedom and safety. But I have not perceived the growth of this dis- position in the rising generation, of which I once had sanguine hopes. No symptoms inform me that it will take place in my day. ■! leave it, therefore, to time, and not at all without hope that the day will come, equally desirable and welcome to us as to them. Perhaps the proposition now on the carpet at Washington to provide an establishment on the coast of Africa for voluntarv LETTERS AND ADDRESvSES. 127 emigrations of people of color, may be the corner stone of this future edifice^ Disadvantage of the United States Becoming Carriers of Foreign Nations, and Evils of the Banking System. Monticello, May loth, 1817. To Dr. Josephus B. Stuart: I liope with you that the policy of our country will settle down with as much navigation and commerce only as our own exchanges will require, and that the disadvantage will be seen of our undertaking to carry on that of other nations. This, indeed, may bring gain to a few individuals, and enable them to call off from our farms more laborers to be converted into lackeys and grooms for them, but it will bring nothing to our coun- try, but wars, debt and dilapidation. This has been the course of England, and her examples have fearful in- fluence on us. In copying her we do not seem t-o con- sider that like premises induce like consequences. The bank mania is one of the most threatening of these imi- tations. It is raising up a monicd aristocracy in our country which has already set the government at defi- ance, and although forced at length to yield a little on this first essay of their strength, their principles are un- yieldcd and unyielding. These have taken deep root in the hearts of that class from which our legislators are drawn, and the sop to Cerberus from fable has become history. Their principles lay hold of the good, their pelf of the bad, and thus those whom the constitution had placed as guards to its portals, are sophisticated or suborned from their duties. That paper money has some advantages is admitted. But that its abuses also are inevitable and, by breaking up the measure of value, makes a lottery of all private property can not be denied. Shall we ever be able to put a constitutional veto on it? 128 LETTERS AND ADDRESSES. The Total and Fatal Explosion of the Banks in 1818, as Predicted by Jefferson in 1814. Monticello, March 12th, 1820. To H. Nelson: This State 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; be- yond the mountain we hear of good slaves sellmg 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 legisla- tors if they had been the establishcrs of the unwisie system of banks. A remedy to a certain degreie was practicable, that of reducing the quantum of circulation gradually to a level with that of the countries with which we have conunerce, and an eternal abjuration of paper. But they have adjourned without doing anything. I fear local insurrections against these horrible sacrifices of property. ♦Colonel Benton vividly portrays the counitry'& financial condi- tion of that period in his "Thirty Years' Viev^^:" "The years of 1819 and 1820 were a periocl of gloom and airony. No money, either gold or silver. The local banks (all but those of New Eng- land), after a brief resumption of specie payments, again sunk into a state of suspension. The bank of the United States, creat- ed as a remedy for all the evils, now at the head of the evil, pros- trate and helpless, with no power left but that of suing its debt- ors, and selling their property, and purchasing for itself at its own nominal price. No price for property or produce. No sales but those of the sheriff and the marshal. No purchases at exe- cution sales but the creditor, or some hoarder of money. No em- ployment for industry— no demand for labor— no sale for the prod- uct of the farm— no sound of the hammer, but that of the auc- tioneer, knocking down property. Stop laws— property laws— re- plevin laws— stay laws— loan-office, laws— the intervention of the legislator between the creditor and the debtor; this was the busi- ness of legislation in three-fourths of the States of the Union— of all South and West of New England. No medium of exchange but depreciated paper; no change even, but little bits of foul pap- er, marked so many cents, and signed by some tradesman, b\r- bcr or innkeeper: exchanges derariged to the extent of fifty or one hundred per cent. Distress the universal cry of the people; reiijf the universal demand thundered at the doors of all legislatures. State and Femora}-" LETTERS AND ADDRESSES. 129 Jefferson the Father of the "Monroe Doctrine."* August 4th, 1820. To Wilham Short: From many conversations with him (M. Correa, appointed Minister to Brazil, by the Government of Portugal), I hope he sees, and will promote in his new situation, 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, wlien we 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 o! the eternal wars of Europe, the lion and the lamb, within our re- gions, shall lie down together in peace. The -prin- ciples of society there and here, then, are radically different, and 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 san- guinary contests of Europe. I wish to see this coalition begun. Jefferson's Views on the "Missouri Compromise."*'^ IMonticello, September 30th, 1820. To William Pinkney: The Missouri question is a mere party trick. The leaders of Federalism, defeated in their schemes^ of obtaining power by rallying partisans to the principle ♦James Monroe inserted the so-called "Monroe Doctrine" in his seventh annual message, 2d December, 1823. The occasion of pro- claiming this doctrine was the rumored intervention of the "Holy Alliance" to aid Spain to reconquer her American colonies. **In 1820 Maine and Missouri were admitted into the Union, the latter as a slave State, Congress having previously agreed that slavery should be prohibited forever in all territories north of the parallel of 9,c> deg. 30 min., which was the southern boundary of Missouri. This was called the "Missouri Compromi.se." 130 LETTERS AND ADDRESSES. o{ nionarchism, a principle of personal not of local divi- sion, 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 h\xleralism; but they are still putting their shoulder to the wrong wheel; they arc 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 councils with ours in ilevising some rea- sonable 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 degrees of latitude, and as manu- facturing and navigating States, they will have quarreled with their bread and l)utter, 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 per- formed an honest duty, by putting in the power of our 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. I must hope, nevertheless, that the mass of our honest and well-meaning bicthren of the other States, will discover the use which design- ing leaders are making of their best feelings, and will see the precipice to which they are led, before they take the fatal leap. Organization of the University of \'irginia. Monticello, December 27th, 1820. To Mr. Roscoe: Your Liverpool institution will aitl u? in tlic or- LETTERS AND ADDRESSES. 131 j^anization of our new university, an establishment now in progress in this State, and to which my remaining days and faculties will be devoted. When ready for its professors, we shall apply for them chiefly to your island. Were we content to remain stationary in science, we should take them from among ourselves; 'but, desirous of advancing, we niHSt seek them in countries already in advance, and identity of language points to our best resource. To furnish inducements, we provide for the professors separate buildings, in which themselves and their families may be handsomelv and comfortably lodged, and to liberal salaries will be added lucrative perqm'sites. This institution will be based on the il- limitable freedom of the human mind. For here we are f.ot afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to com- bat it. The Judiciary the Corps of Sappers and Miners, Steadily Undermining the Independent Rights of the States. (From Jefferson's Autobiography.) Monticello, January 6th, 1821. But tiiere was another amendment, of which none of us thought at the time,* and in the omission of which, lurks the germ that is to destroy this happy coml)ina- tion of national powers in the General Government, for m.atters of national concern, and independent powers m the States, for what concerns the States severally. In England, it was a great point gained at the revolution, that the commissions of the judges, which had hitherto been during pleasure, should thenceforth be r ^de dur- ing good behavior. A judiciary, dependent on the will of the king, had proved itself the most oppressive of all tools, in the hands of that magistrate. Nothing, then, th St 1^?^ 3, ^i""^^. *° *^® convention thr.t met at Philadelphia on le J.jth day of May, 1787 for the purpose of apreeins on a Con- itution for the United States. 132 I,ETTERS AND ADDRESSES. cuuld be more salutary, than a change there, to the tenure of good behavior; and the question of good be- havior, left to the vote of a simple majority in the two Houses of Parliament. Before the revolution, we were all good English Whigs, cordial in their free principles, and in their jealousies of their executive magistrate. These jealousies are very apparent in all our State con- stitutions; and, in the General Government in this in- stance, we have gone even beyond the English caution, by requiring a vote of two-thirds, in one of the Houses, for remov.ing a judge; a vote so impossible, where any defense is made, 'before men of ordinary prejudices and passions, that our judges are effectually independent of the nation. But this ought not to be. I would not. indeed, make them dependent on the executive auUior- ily as they formerly were in England, but I deem it in- dispensable to the continuance of this government, that they should be submitted to some practical and impar- tial control; and that this, to be imparteJ, must be com- pounded of a mixture of State and Federal authorities. It is not enough that honest men are appointed judges. All know the influence of interest on llie mind of man, and how unconsciously his judgment is warped by that innuc-nce. To this bias add that of the "esprit de corps," of their peculiar maxim and creed, that ";t is the ofitice of a good judge to enlarge his jurisdiction," and the absence of responsibility; and how can we ex- pect impartial decision between the General Govern- ment, of which *hey are themselves so eminent a part, and an individual State, from which they have nothing to hope or fear? We have seen, too, that contrary to all correct example, they are in the habit of going out of the question before them, to throw an anchor ahead, and grapple farther hold for future advances of power. They are then, in fact, the corps of sappers and miners, steadily working to undermine the independent rights of the States, and to consolidate all powers in the hands of that government in which they have so important a freehold estate. But it is not by the consolidation, or concentration of powers, but bv "their distribution, that 1^3 LETTERS AND ADDRESSES. .ood government is effected^ Were not this great r^uZrv ilreadv divided into States, that division must kIL that each mi-ht do for itself iwhat con'cerns itllTdt'ec W and wl'tit can so much better do than a distant authoritv. Everv State again is_ divided into c^ ntL each to take care of what ^es w.thin us U.cal bounds; each county again into township or war^ , to manage minuter details; and every ward "^to fa.ms^ o •be governed each by its individual proprietor Were we directed from Washington when to sow^ and when to reap, we should soon want bread It is by this par tition of cares, descending in gradation from general to particular, that the mass of human affairs may be best managed, for the good and prosperity of all. ^ ^"^Peat. that I do not charge the judges with wilful and ill-m- tentioned error; but honest error must be arrested, where its toleration leads to public rum. As, for tlie safetv of societv. we commit honest maniacs to Bedlam, so judges should be withdrawn from their bench whose erroneous biases are leading us to dissolution. It may, indeed, injure them in fame or in fortune; but it saves the Republic, which is the first and supreme law. Danger to Our System from Encroachments of the Federal Judiciary. ^ Monticello, August i8th, 1821. To Air. C. Hammond: It has long been my opinion,' and I have never shrunk from its expression (although I donot choose to put it into a newspaper, nor, like a Priam in armor, offer mvsclf its champion), tha*. the germ of dissolution of our Federal government is in the constitution of the Federal judiciarv; an irresponsible body, (for impeach- ment is scarcelv a scarecrow), working like gravity by night and bv day, gaining a little to-day and a Httle to- morrow, and advancing its noiseless step like a thief, over the field of jurisdiction, until all shall be usurped from the State?, and the govrcrnment of all be consoli- dated into one. To this I am opposed; because, when 134 LETTERS AND ADDRESSES. all government, domestic and foreign, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another, and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated. It will be as in Europe, where every man must be eiiher j)ike or gudgeon, hammer or anvil. Our functionaries and theirs are wares from the same work- shop; made of the same materials, and by the same hand. If the States look with apathy on this silent descent of their government into the gulf which is to swallow all, we have only to weep over the human character formed uncontrolable, but by a rod of iron, and the blasphemers of man, as incapable of self-government, become his true historians. The Civil Revolution of 1801 and Danger from Encroachments of the Federal Judiciary. Monticello, July 2d, 1822. To William T. Barry: Your favor ascribes to me merits which I do not claim. I was only of a band devoted to the cause of mdependence, 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 revolu- tion of iSoi. Very many and very meritorious were the worthy patriots who assisted in bringing back our government to its Republican tack. To preserve it in that, will require unremitting vigilance. Whether the surrender of our opponents, their reception into our camp, their assumption of our name, and apparent ac- cession to our objects, may strengthen or weaken the genuine principles of Republicanism, may be a good or an evil, is yet to be seen. I consider the party divi- sion 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 char- acter, _ We alrcaay see ihe power, installed for life re- sponsible to no authority (for impeachment is not even LETTERS AND ADDRESSES. 135 a scarecrow), advancing with a noiseless and steady pace to the great object of consohdation. The foun- dations are already deeply laid by their decisions, for the annihilation of constitutional State rights, and the re- moval of every check, every counterpoise to the en- gulfing power of which themselves are to make a sov- ereign part. If ever this vast country is brought under a single government, it will be one of the most exten- sive 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. Let the future appointments of judges be for four or six years, and renewable by the President aixl Senate. This w'ill 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 demerit, is a sole- cism in a Republic, of the first order of absurdity and in- consistency. Danger from the Federal Judiciary. Monticello, March 4th, 1823. To Judge Johnson: I can not lay down my pen without recurring to one of the subjects of my former letter, for in truth there is no danger I apprehend so much as the con- solidation of our government by the noiseless, and therefore unalarming, instrumentality of the Supreme Court. This is the form in which FcderaHsm now ar- 136 LETTERS AND ADDRESSES. rays itself, and consolidation is the present principle of distinction between Republicans and the pseudo Re- publicans, but real Federalists. I must comfort my- self with the hope that the judg-e's -will see the importance and the duty of giving their country the only evi- dence they can give of fidelity to its constitution and in- tegrity in the administration of its laws; that is to say, by every one's giving his opinion seriatim and publicly on the cases he decides. Let him prove by his reason- ing that he has read the papers, that he has considerd the case, that in the application of the law to it he uses his own judgment independently and unbiased by party views and personal favor or disfavor. Throw himself in every case on God and his country; both will excuse him for error and value him for his honesty. The very idea of cooking up opinions in conclave, begets sus- picions that something passes which fears the public ear, and this, spreading by degrees, must produce at some time abridgment of tenure, facility of removal, or some other modification which may promise a remedy. For in truth there is at this time more hostility to the Federal judiciary, than to any other organ of the government. I should greatly prefer, as you do, four judges to any greater number. Great lawyers are not over abundant, and the multiplication of judges only enable the weak to outvote the wise, and three concurrent opinions out of four gives a strong presumption of right. Evils of the Cheapness of Whiskey. Taxes Must Be Uniform. Monticello, Mav 3d, 1823. To Gen. Samuel Smith: I am rendered a slow correspondent by the loss of the use, totally of the one, and almost totally of the other wrist,* which renders writing scarcely and painfully practicable. I learn with great satisfaction *On the 4th of Spptember, 17S6. Jpfferson, while walking with a friend in Paris, fell and fractured his wrist, the use of which he never recovered. LETTERS AND ADDRESSES. 137 that wholesome economies have been found, sufficient to reheve us from the ruinous necessity of adding an- nually to our debt by new loans. The deviser of so salutary a relief deserves truly well of his country. 1 shall be glad, too, if an additional tax of one-fourth of a dollar a gallon on whiskey shall enable us to meet all our engagements with punctuality. Viewing that tax as an article in a system of excise, I was once glad to see it fall with the rest of the system, which I con- sidered as prematurely and unnecessarily introduced. It was evident that our existing taxes were tllien equal to our existing debts. It was clearly foreseen also that the surplus from excise would only become aliment for useless offtces, and would be swallowed in idleness by those whom it would withdraw from useful industry. Considering it only as a fiscal measure, this was right. But the prostration of body and mind which the cheap- ness of this liquor is spreading through the mass of our citizens, now calls the attention of the legislator on a very different principle. One of his important dvities is as guardian of those who from causes susceptible of precise definition, can not take care of themselves. Such are infants, maniacs, gamblers, drunkards. The last, as much as the maniac, requires restrictive measures to save him from the fatal infatuation under which he is destroying his health, his morals, his family, and his usefulness to society. One powerful obstacle to his ruinous self-indulgence would be a price beyond his competence. As a sanatory measure, therefore, it be- comes one of duty in the public guardians. Yet I do not think it follows necessarily that imported spirits should 'be subjected to similar enhancement, until they become as cheap as those made at home. A tax on whiskey is to discourage its consumption; a tax on foreign spirits encourages whiskey by removing its rival from com- petition. The price and present duty throw foreign spirits already out of competition with whiskey and ac- cordingly they are used but to a salutary extent. You see no persons besotting themselves with imported spirits, wines, liquors, cordials, etc, Whiskev claims 138 LETTERS AND ADDRESSES. to itself alone the exclusive office of sotmaking. For- eign spirits, wines, teas, coffee, segars, salt are articles of as innocent consumption as broadcloths and silks; and ought, like them to pay but the average ad valorem duty of other imported comforts. All of them are in- gredients in our happiness, and the government which steps out of the ranks of the ordinary articles of con- sumption to select and lay under disproportionate buf- thens a particular one, because it is a comfort, pleasing to the taste, or necessary to health, and will therefore be bought, is, in that particular, a tyranny. Taxes on con- sumption like those on capital or income, to be just must be uniform. I do not mean to say that it may not be for the general interest to foster for awhile certain infant manufactures, until they are strong enough to stand against foreign rivals; 'but when evident that they will never be so, it is against right, to make the other branches of industry support them. When it was found that France could not make sugar under 6h a lb., was it not tyranny to restrain her citizens from importing at ih, or would it not have been so to have laid a duty of 5h on the imported? The permitting an exchange of industries with other nations is a direct encouragement of your own, which without that, would bring you noth- ing for your comfort, and would of course cease to be produced. History of Parties in United States. Monticello, June I2th, 1823. To Judge Johnson: I learn with great pleasure that you have resolved on continuing your history of parties. Our oppon- ents are far ahead of us in preparations for placmg their cause favorably before posterity. Yet I hope even from some of them the escape of precious truths, in angry explosions or effusions of vanity, which will be- tray the genuine monarchism of their principles. They do not themselves believe what they endeavor to incul- cate, that we were an opposition party, not on princi- LETTERS AND ADDRESSES. 139 pie, but merely seeking for office. The fact is, that at the' formation of our government, many had formed their political opinions on European writings and prac- tices, believing the experience of old countries, and especially of England, abusive as it was, to be a safer guide than mere theory. The doctrines of Europe were, that men in numerous associations can not be restrained within the limits of order and justice, but by forces physical and moral, wielded over them by authori- ties indep'endent of their will. Hence their organization of kings, hereditary nobles and priests. Still further to constrain the brute force of the people, they deem it necessary to keep them down by hard labor, poverty and ignorance, and to take from them, as from bees, so much of their earnings, as that unremitting labor shall be necessary to obtain a sufficient surplus barely to sustain a scanty and miserable life. And these earnings they apply to maintain their privileged orders in splendor and idleness, to fascinate the eyes of the people, and excite in them an humble adoration and sub- mission, as to an order of superior beings. Although few among us had gone all these lengths of opinion, yet many had advanced, some more, some less, on the way. And in the convention which formed our government, they endeavored to draw the cords of power as tight as they could obtain them, tO' lessen the dependence ol the general fimctionaries on their constituents, to sub- ject to them those of the States, and to weaken their means of maintaining the steady equilibrium which the majority of the convention had deemed salutary for both branches, general and local. To recover, therefore, in practice the powers which the nation had refused, and to warp to their own wishes those actually given, was the steady object of the Federal party. Ours, on the contrary, was to maintain the will of the majority of the convention, and of the people themselves. We be- lieved, with them, "that man was a rational animal, en- dowed by nature with rights, and with an innate sense of justice; and that he could be restrained from wrong and protected in right, by moderate powers, confided 140 LETTERS AND ADDRESSES. to persons of his own choice, and held to their duties by dependence on his own will. We believed that the complicated organization of kings, nobles and priests was not the wisest nor best to efifect the happiness of associated man; that wisdom and virtue were not hered- itary; that the trappings of such a machinery, consumed by their expense, those earnings of industry, they were meant to protect, and by the inequalities they produced, exposed liberty to sufferance. We believed that men, enjoying in ease and security the full fruits of their own industry, enlisted by all their interests on the side of law and order, habituated to think for themselves, and to follow their reason as their guide, would be more easily and safely governed, than with minds nourished in error, and vitiated and debased, as in Europe, Iby ignorance, indigence and oppression. The cherishment of the people then was our principle, the fear and distrust of them, that of the other party. Composed, as we were, of the landed and laboring interests of the country, we could not be less anxious for a government of law and order than were the inhabitants of the cities, the strong- holds of Federalism. And whether our efforts to save the principles and form of our constitution have not been salutary, let the present Republican freedom, order and prosperity of our country determine. History may distort truth, and will distort it for a time, by the superior efforts at justification of those who are con- scious of needing it most. Nor will the opening scenes of our present government be seen in their true aspect, until the letters of the day, now held in private hoards, shall be broken up and laid open to public view. What a treasure will be found in Gen. Washington's cabmet, when it shall pass into the hands of as candid a friend to truth as he was himself! When no longer, like Caesar's notes and memorandums in the hands of An- thony, it shall be open to the high priests of Federalism only, and garbled to say so much, and no more, as suits their views! I have stated above, that the original object of the Federalists were, first, to warp our government more LETTERS AND ADDRESSES. 141 to the form and principles of monarchy, and, second, to weaken the barriers of the State governments as co- ordinate powers. In the first they have been so com- pletely foiled 'by the universal spirit of the nation, that they have abandoned the enterprise, shrunk from the odium of their old appellation, taken to themselves a participation of ours, and under the pseudo Republican mask, are now aiming at their second object, and strengthened bv unsuspecting or apostate recruits from our ranks, are' advancing fast towards an ascendancy. I have been blamed for saying, that a prevalence of the doctrines of consolidation would one daycallfor re- formation or revolution. I answer by asking if a sin- gle State of the Union would have agreed to the con- stitution, had it given all powers to the General Gov- ernment? If the whole opposition to it did not proceed from the jealousv and fear of every State, of being sub- jected to the other States in matters merely its own? And if there is any reason to believe the States more disposed now than then, to acquiesce in this general surrender of all their rights and powers to a consolidated government, one and undivided? But the Chief Justice says, "there must be an ultimate arbiter somewhere." True, there must; but does that prove it is either party? The ultimate arbiter is the people of the Union, assembled by their deputies in con- vention, at the call of Congress, or of two-thirds of the States. Let them decide to which they mean to give an authority claimed by two of their organs. And it has been the peculiar wisdom and felicity of our con- stitution, to have provided this peaceable appeal, where that of other nations is at once to force. Cuba Should Not Be Allowed to Pass to England. Monticello, June 23d, 1823, To President Monroe: Dear Sir — I have been lately visited by a Mr. Miralla, a native of Buenos Ayrcs. but resident in Cuba for the last seven or eight years; a person of intelligence, of 142 LETTERS AN]) ADDRESSES. much information, and frankly communicative. I be- lieve, indeed, he is knofwn to you. I availed myself of the opportunity of learning what was the state of public sentiment in Cuba as to their future course. He says they would be satisfied to remain as they are; but all are sensible that that can not be; that whenever cir- cumstances shall render a separation from Spain nec- essary, a perfect independence would be their choice, provided they could see a certainty of protection; but that, without that prospect, they would be divided in opinion between an incorporation with Mexico, and with the United States — Columbia being too remote for prompt support. The considerations in favor of Mexico are that the Havana would be the emporium for all the produce of that immense and wealthy country, and, of course, the medium of all its commerce; that having no ports on its Eastern coast, Cuba would become the depot of its naval stores and strength, and, in effect would, in a great measure, have the sinews of the gov- ernment in its hands. That in favor of the United States is the fact that three-fourths of the exportations from Havana come io the United States, that they are a settled government, the power which can most prompt- ly succor them, rising to an eminence promising future security; and of which they would make a member of the sovereignty, while as to England, they would be only a colony, subordinated to her interest, and that there is not a man in the island who would not resist her to the bitterest extremity. Of this last sentiment I had not the least idea at the date of my late ietters to you. I had supposed an English interest there quite as strong as that of the United States, and therefore, that, to avoid war, and keep the island open to our own commerce, it would 'be best to join that power in mutually guaranteeing its independence. But if there is no danger of its falling into the possession of Eng- land, I must retract an opinion founded on an error of fact. We are surely under no obligation to give her, gratis, an interest which she has not; and the whole inhal)itants being averse to her, and the climate mortal LETTERS AND ADDRESSES. 143 to Strangers, its continued military occupation by her would be impracticable. It is better then to lie still in readiness to receive that interesting incorporation when solicited by herself. For, certainly, her addition to our confederacy is exactly what is wanting to round our power as a nation to the point of its utmost interest. Europe Should Not Be Suffered to Intermeddle With Cis-Atlantic Affairs, and Cuba Should Belong to the United States. Monticello, October 24th, 1823. To the President: Dear Sir — The question presented by the letters you have sent me, is the most momentous which has ever been offered to my contemplation since that of Independence. That made us a nation, this sets our compass and points the course which we are to steer through the ocean of time opening on us. And never could we embark on it under circumstances more auspicious. Our first and fundamental maxim should be, never to entangle ourselves in the broils of Europe. Our second, never to suffer Europe to intermeddle with cis-Atlantic affairs. America, North and South, has a set of interests distinct from those of Europe, and pecu- liarly her own. She should, therefore, have a system of_ her own, separate and apart from that of Europe. While the last is laboring to become the domicil of despotism, our endeavor should surely be, to make our hemisphere that of freedom. One nation, most of all, could disturb us in this pursuit; she now offers to lead, aid and accompany us in it. By acceding to her propos- ition, we detach her from the bands, bring her mighty weight into the scale of free governments, and emanci- pate a continent at one stroke, which might otherwise linger long in doubt and difficulty. Great Britain is the nation which can do us the most harm of any one, or all on earth; and with her on our side we need not fear the whole world. With her, then, we should most sedulously cheiish a cordial friendship; and nothino 144 I^ETTERS AND ADDRESSES. would tend more to knit our affections than to be fighting once more, side by side, in the same cause. Not that I would purchase even her amity at the price of taking part in her wars. But the war in which the present proposition might engage us, should that be its consequence, is not her war, but ours. Its object is to introduce and establish the American system, of keep- ing out of our land all foreign powers, of never permit- ting those of Europe to intermeddle with the aftairs of our nations. It is to maintain our own principle, not to depart from it. And if, to facilitate this, we can ef- fect a division in the body of the European powers, and draw over to our side its most powerful member, surely we should do it. But I am clearly of Mr. Canning's* opinion that it will prevent instead of provoking war. With Great Britain withdrawn from their scale and shifted into that of our two continents, all Europe com- bined would not undertake such a war. For how would they propose to get at either enemy without superior fleets? Nor is the occasion to be slighted which this proposition offers, of tleclaring our protest against the atrocious violation of the rights of nations, by the interference of any one in the internal affairs of another, so flagitiously begun by Bonaparte and now continued by the equally lawless Alliance, calling itself Holy.** But we have first to ask ourselves a question. Do we wish to acquire to our own confederacy any one or more of the Spanish provinces? I candidly confess, that I have ever looked on Cuba as the mo.st interesting addi- tion which could ever be made to our system of States. The control which, with Florida Point, this island would give us over the Gulf of Mexico and the countries and isthmus bordering on it, as well as all those whose waters flow into it, would fill up the measure of our political well-being. Yet, as I am sensible that this can never b e obtained, even with her own consent, but by •George Canning (1770-1827) one of the greatest of English states- men and orators. **n 'The so-called Holy Alliance was formed in 1815 between Rus- sia, Austria and Prussia for the maintenance of peace and the establishment of the existing dynasties LETTERS AND ADDRESSES. 145 war; and its independence, which is our second interest (and especially its independence of England), can be secured without it, I have no hesitation in abandoning my first wish to future chances, and accepting its inde- pendence, with peace and the friendship of England, rather than its association, at the expense of war and her enmity. I could honestly, therefore, join in the declaration proposed, that we aim not at the acquistion of any of those possessions, that we will not stand in the way of any amicable arrangement between them and the mother country; but that we will oppose, with all our means, the forcible interposition of any other power, as auxiliary, stipendiary, or under any other form or pretext, and most especially, their transfer to any power by conquest, cession, or acquisition in any other way. I should think it, therefore, advisaible that the executive should »jncourage the British government to a continuance in the dispositions expressed in these letters by an as- surance of his concurrence with them as far as his authority goes; and tliat as it may lead to war, the de- claration of which requires an act of Congress, the case shall be laid before them for consideration at their first meeting, and under the reasonable aspect in which it is seen by himself. A Government Should Reflect the Will of the People in All Its Departments. Monticello, October 31st, 1823. To M. Coray: The equal rights of man, and the happiness of every individual, are now acknowledged to be the only legitimate objects of government. Modern times have the signal advantage, too, of having discovered the only device by which these rights can be secured, to-wit: government by the people, acting not in person, but by representatives chosen by themselves, that is to say, by every man of ripe years and sane mind, who either contributes by his purse or person to the support of 146 i,e;tters and addressEvS. his country. The small and imperfect mixture of representative government in England, impeded as it is by other branches, aristocratical and hereditary, shows yet the power of the representative principle towards improving the condition of man. With us, all the branches of the government are elective by the people themselves, except the judiciary, of whose science and qualitications they are not competent judges. Yet, even in that department, we call in a jury oi the people to decide all controverted matters of fact, because to that investigation they are entirely competent, leaving thus as little as possible, merely the law of the case, to the decision of the judges. And true it is that the people especially when moderately instructed, are the only safe, because the only honest, depositories of the public rights, and should therefore be introduced into the ad- ministration of them in every function to which they are sufficient; they will err sometimes and accidentally, but never designedly, and with a systematic and per- severing purpose of overthrowing the free principles of the government. Hereditary bodies, on the contrary, always existing, always on the watch for their own aggrandizement, profit of every opportunity of advanc- ing the privileges of their order, and encroaching on the rights of the people. A Strong Monarchical Party at the Beginning of Our Government. Monticello, January 8th, 1825. To William Short: When I arrived at New York in 1790, to take a part in the administration, being fresh from the French revolution, while in its first and pure stage, and con- sequently somewhat whetted up in my own Republican principles, I found a state of things, in the general so- ciety of the place, which I could not have supposed pos- sible. Being a stranger there, I was feasted from table to table, at large set dinners, the parties generally from twenty to tliirty. The revolution T had left, ami that LKTTERS AND ADDRESSES. 147 we had just gone through in the recent change of our own government, being the conunon topics of conver- sation, I was astonished to find the general prevalence of monarchical sentiments, insomiich that in maintain- ing those of Republicanism, I had always the whole company on my hands, never scarcely finding among them a single co-advocate in that argument, unless some old member of Congress happened to be present. The farthest that any one would go in support of the Re- publican features of our new government, would be to say, "the present constitution is well as a beginning, and may be allowed a fair trial, but it is, in fact, only a stepping stone to something better." Among their writers, Denny, the editor of the PortfoHo, who was a kind of oracle with them, and styled the Addison of America, openly avowed his preference of monarchy over all other forms of government, prided himself on the avo'wal, and maintained it by argument freely and without reserve, in his publications. I do not, myself, know that the Essex junto of Boston were monarchists,' but I have always heard it so said, and never doubted. These, my dear sir. are but detached items from a great mass of proofs then fully before the public. They are unknown to you, because you were absent in Europe, and they are now disavowed bv the party. But had it not been for the firm and determined stand then made by a counter party, no man can sav what our government would have been at this dav. \AIonarchy to be sure, IS now defeated, and thev wish it should be forgotten that it was ever advocated. Thev see that it is desperate and treat its imputation to them as a cal- umny, and I verily believe that none of them have it now m direct aim. Yet the spirit is not done away Ihe same party takes now what thev deem the next best ground, the consolidation of the 'government • the giving to the Federal member of the government, bv un- lirnied constructions of the constitution, a control' over a the functions of the States, and the concentration of all power ulfimatclv at Wa^hino-tnn 148 LETTERS AND ADDRESSES. A Decalog-ue of Canons for Observation in Practical Life. Monticello, February 21st, 1825. To Thomas Jefferson Smith: 1. Never put off till to-morrow what you can do to- day. 2. Never trouble another for what you can do your- self. 3. Never spend your money before you have it. 4. Never buy what you do not want, because it is cheap; it will be dear to you. 5. Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst and cold. 6. We never repent of having eaten too little. 7. Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly. 8. How much pain 'have cost us the evils which have never happened. 9. Take things always by their smooth handle. 10. When angry, count ten, before you speak; if very angry a hundred. A Moneyed Aristocracy Riding and Ruling Over the Plundered Ploughman and Beggared Yoemanry. Monticello, December 26th, 1825. To Wiliam B. Giles: The younger generation having nothing in them of the feelings or principles of 1776, now look to a single and splendid government of an aristocracy, founded on banking institutions, and moneyed incorporations under the guise and cloak of their favored (branches oF manu- factures, commerce and navigation, riding and ruling over the plundered ploughman and beggared yeomanry. This will be to them a next best blessing to the monarchy of their first aim, and perhaps the surest stepping stone to it. LETTERS AND ADDRESSES. 149 A Summary of Jefferson's Public Services. February, 1826. (From Thoughts on Lotteries.) I may more readily than others, suggest the offices in which I have served. I came of age in 1764, and was soon put into the nomination of justice of tlie county in which I live, 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 a? Minister Plenipotentiary. Appointed Secretary of State to the new government. Elected Vice-President and President. And lastly, a Visitor and Rector of the University. In these different of^ces, 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. There is one service, however, the most important in its consequences, of any "transaction in any portion of my life; to-wit, the head I personally made against the Fed- eral principles and proceedings, during the administra- tion 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 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 Senate, 150 LETTERS AND ADDRESSES. where I then presided as Vice-President. Remaining at our posts, and bidding defiance to the brow beatings and insults bv which they endeavored to drive us off also, we kept the mass of RepubHcans in phalanx together, until the Legislature could be brought up to the charge; and nothing on earth is more certain, than that if my- self particularly, placed by my office of Vice-President at the head of the Republicans, had given way and with- drawn 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 ob- tained time for the Legislature to come up with their weight; and those of Virginia and Kentucky particular- ly, but more especially the former, by their celebrated resolutions, saved the constitution at its last gasp. No person who Vv^as not a witness of the scenes of that gloomy period, can form any»idea of the afflicting per- secutions and personal indignities we had to brook. They saved our country however. 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, v/as of any value, they will find that the leading and most important laws of that day were pre- pared by myself, a»:.d carried chiefiy by my efforts; sup- ported, 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 aristocracv, which, by accumulating immense masses of property in single lines of families, had divided our coun.Ty into two distinct orders, of nobles and plebeians. But further to complete the equality among our citi- zens so essential to the maintenance of Republican gov- ernment, it was necessary to abolish the -principle of primogeniture. I drew the law of descents, giving equal LETTERS AND ADDRESSES. 151 inheritance to sons and daughters, which made a part of the revised code. The attack on the estabUshment of a dominant re- Hgion, 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 freedom, which I had prepared for the revised code also. This was at length established permanently, and by the efforts chiefly of Mr. Madison, being myself in Europe at the time that work was brought forward. The feature of a sixty years' service, as no other instance has yet occurred in our country, so it probably never may again. Jefiferson's Answer to an Invitation to Attend a Celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Monticello, June 24th, 1826. To Mr. Weightman: Respected Sir — The kind invitation I receive from you, on the part of the citizens of the City of Washing- ton, 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 oi 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 ex- changed 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 consola- 152 LETTERS AND ADDRESSES- tory 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 wodd, 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 ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government. That from which we have sdbstituted, 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 tooted 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 r3ay forever refresh our recollec- tions of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them Iwill ask permission here to express the pleasure with which I should have met my ancient neighbors of the City of Washington and its vicinities, with whom I passed so many years of a pleasing social intercourse; an intercourse which so much relieved the anxieties ot the public cares, and left impressions so deeply engraved in my afTfections, as never to be forgotten. With mv 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. • Such was the devoted, self-sacrificing love for his country and the people; such the pure and lofty char- acter of Thomas JefTerson, than whom a greater states- man never lived. On July 4th. 1826, at fifty minutes past meridian, Jefferson, without a struggle, ceased to breathe. His last words were: "This is the Fourth of July." SHORT EXCERPTS. (The following excerpts are from letters, the main body of which would be of no interest to the general reader } Paris, October 26th, 1786. I receive none into my esteem, till I know they are worthy of it. Wealth, title, office, are no recommenda- tions to my friendship. On the contrary, great good qualities are requisite to make amends for their having wealth, title, and office. Paris, August 14th, 1787. The wealth acquired by speculation and plunder, is fugacious in its nature, and fills society with the spirit of gambling. The moderate and sure income of hus- bandry begets permanent improvement, quiet life and orderly conduct, both public and private. Paris, December 20th, 1787. When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become corrupt as in Europe, and go to eating one another as they do there. Paris, August 28th, 1789. I know but one code of morality for men, whether acting singly or collectively: He who says I will be a rogue when I act in company with a lumdred others, but an honest man when I act alone, will be believed in the former assertion, 'but not in the latter. Monticello, September 9th, 1792. No government ought to be without censors; and when the press is free, no one ever will. If virtuous, it need not fear the fair operation of attack and defense. Nature has given to man no other means of sifting the truth, either in religion, law or politics. I think it as 154 SHORT EXCERPTS. honorable to the government neither to know, nor notice, its sycophants or censors, as it would be un- dignified and criminal to pamper the former and perse- cute the latter. Philadelphia, May 13th, 1797. Whatever follies we may be led into as to foreign na- tions, we shall never give up our Union, the last anchor of our hope, and that alone which is to prevent this heavenly country from becoming an arena of gladiators. Washington, February 2d, 1801. One thing I will say, that as to the future, interferences -with elections whether of the State or General Govern- ment, by officers of the latter, should be deemed cause of removal, because the constitutional remedy by the elective principle becomes nothing, if it may be smoth- ered by the enormous patronage of the General Gov- ernment. Washington, March 23d, 1801. The elective franchise, if guarded as the act of our safety, will peaceably dissipate all combinations to sub- vert a constitution dictated by the wisdom, and resting on the will of the people. That will is the only legiti- mate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object. Washington, May 26th, 1801. To preserve the peace of our fellow citizens, promote their prosperity and happiness, reunite opinion, cultivate a spirit of candor, moderation, charity and forbearance towards one another, are objects calling for the efforts and sacrifices of every good man and patriot. Our re- ligion enjoms it; our happiness demands it; and no sac- rifice is requisite but of passions hostile to both. Monticello, March 31st, 1S09. If. in my retirement to the humble station of a private SHORT EXCERPTS. 155 citizen, I am accompanied with the esteem and appro- bation' of my fellow citizens, trophies obtained by the blood-stained steel, or the tattered flags of the tented field, will never be envied. The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government. Monticello, August 26th, 18 16. My most earnest wish is to see the Republican ele- ment of popular control pushed to the maximum of its practicable exercise. I shall then believe that our gov- ernment may be pure and perpetual. Monticello, June i6th, 1817. That we should wish to see the people of other coun- tries free, is as natural, and at least as justifiable as that one king should wish to see the kings of other countries maintained in their despotism. Right to both parties, innocent favor to the juster cause, is our proper senti- ment. Poplar Forest, September 6th, 1819. It should be remembered, as an axiom of eternal truth in politics, that whatever power in any government is independent, is absolute also; in theory only, at first, while the spirit of the people is up, but in practice, as fast as that relaxes. Independene can be trusted no- where but with the people in mass. They are inherently independent of all but moral law. Monticello, September 28th, 1820. I know no safe depository 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. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power. 156 SHORT BXCERPTS. Monticello, December 25th, 1820. A judiciary independent of a king or executive alone, is a good thing; but independence of the will of the na- tion is a solecism, at least in a Republican government. Monticello, March 9th, 182 1. The great object of my fear is the Federal judiciary. That body, like gravity, ever acting, with noiseless foot, and unalarming advance, giving ground step by step and holding what it gains, is engulfing insidiously the special governments into the jaws of that which feeds them. Monticello, September 12th, 1821. And even should the cloud of barbarism and despot- ism again obscure the science and liberties of Europe, this country remains to preserve and restore light and liberty to them. In short, the flames kindled on the 4th of July, 1776, have spread over too much of the globe to be extmguished by the feeble engines of despot- ism, on the contrary, they will consume these engines and all who work them. Monticello, 1821. Nothmg is more certainly written in the book of fate than that these people* are to be free; nor is it less certain that the two races, equally free, can not live in the same government. Nature, habit, opinion have drawn in- delible lines of distinction between them. It is still m our power to direct the process of emancipation and deportation, peaceably, and in such slow degree, as that the evil will wear ofif insensibly, and their place be equal- ly filled up by free white laborers. If, on the contrary, it is left to force itself on, human nature must shudder at the prospect held up. We should in vain look for an example in the Spanish deportation or deletion of the Moors. This precedent would fall short of our case. •Colored. APHORISMS. (The following- aphorisms were carefully collected from Jefferson's writings. They are eternal truths forcibly expressed in a few words.) Abuse. I. It is unfortunate for our peace, that unmerited abuse wounds, while unmerited praise has not the power to heal. Actions. 2. Evil, as well as good actions, recoil on the doers. 3- The waters must always be what are the fountains from which they flow. Agriculture. 4- With honesty and self-government for her portion, agriculture may abandon contentendly to others the fruits of commerce and corruption. Blessing. 5- An honest heart being the first blessing, a knowing head is the second. Chord of Compact. 6. However strong the chord of compact may be, there is a point of tension at which it will break. 158 APHORISMS. Disease. Where the disease is mast deeply seated, there it will be slowest in eradication. Duty. 8. The patriot, like the Christian, must learn that to bear reviling-s and persecutions is a part of his duty; and in proportion as the trial is severe, firmness under it be- comes more requisite and praiseworthy. There is a debt of service due from every man to his country, proportioned to the bounties which nature and fortune have measured to him. Education and Discussion. 10. Big-otry is the disease of ignorance, of morbid minds; enthusiasm of the free and buoyant. Education and free discussion are the antidotes of both. Enemv. II. An enemy generally says and believes what he wishes. Error. 12. It is safer to suppress an error in its first conception, than to trust to any after correction. 13- Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it. Employment. An unprincipled man, let his other fitnesses be what they will, ought never to be employed. APHORISMS. 159 Exercise of Power. 15- An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens. Foreign Intermeddling. i6. Wretched, indeed, is the nation, in whose affairs for- eign powers are once permitted to intermeddle. Government. 17- The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest. 1 8. Where the law of majority ceases to be acknowledged, there government ends, the law of the strongest takes its place, and life and property are his who can take them. 19. No government has a legitimate right to do what is not for the welfare of the governed. - 20. Responsibility is a tremendous engine in a free gov- ernment. 21. Governments are Republican only in proportion as they embody the will of their people and execute it. 22. The people are the only censors of their governors. Health. 23- The most uninformed mind, with a healthy body, is happier than the wisest valetudinarian. Hope. 24. Hope is sueeter than despair. 160 APHORISMS. Insult, 25- An insult unpunished is the parent of many others. 26. Acquiescence under insult is not the way to escape war. Isolation. 27. Nobody will care for him who cares for nobody Liberty. 28. Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. 29. The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, • with the blood of patriots and tyrants. 30. The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground. 31- Light and liberty are on steady advance. Mind. 32. In peace as well as in war. the mind must be kept in motion. Mischief. 33- Mischief may be done negatively as well as positively. Misery. 34- This world abounds indeed with misery; to lighten its burden, we must divide it with one another. APHORISMS. 161 Modesty. 35- There is modesty often, which does itself injury. Office. 36. Every office becoming vacant, every appointment made, gives one ingrate and hundred enemies. Oppression. 37- Where there is no oppression there will be no pauper hirelings. 38. Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and op- pressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day. Perverseness. 39- The brier and bramble can never become the vine and olive. Pleasure. 40. Pleasure is always before us. but misfortune is at our side; while running after that, this arrests us. 41- Do not bite at the bait of pleasure, till you know there [s no hook beneath it. 42. Those which depend on ourselves, are the onlv pleas- ures a wise man will count on; for nothing is ours, which another may deprive us of. Hence the inestimable value of intellectual pleasures. 162 APHORISMS. Praise. 43- To give praise where it is not due might be well from the venal, but would ill beseem those who are asserting the rights of liuman nature. Press. 44- Our printers raven on the agonies of their victims, as wolves do on the blood of the lamb. 45- Where the press is free, and every man able to read, all is safe. Punishment. 46. All excess of punishment is a crime. Reason. 47- Every man's own reason must be his oracle. 48. Conviction is the efifect of our own dispassionate rea- soning. Reformation. 49- Reformation is more practicable by operating on the mind than on the body of man. 50. Politics, like religion, hold up the torches of martyr- dom to the reformers of error. Repentance. 51- We often repent of what we have said, but never, never of tiiat winch we. have not. APHORISMS. 163 Reputation. 52. Nations, like individuals, wish to enjoy a fair reputa- tion. 53- A regard for reputation, and the judgment of the world, Tuav sometimes be felt where conscience is dormant, or indolence inexcitable. ReAvard. 54- The approving voice of our fellow citizens, for en- deavors to be useful, is the greatest of all earthlv rewards. Right. 55- There is a law in our hearts, and a power in our Iiands, given for righteous employment in maintaining right, and redressing wrong. Ripeness of Age. 56. Man, like the fruit he eats, has his period (if ripeness. Science. 57- Science is progressive, and talents and enterprise on the alert. 58. ]\Tcn of high learning and abilities are few in every country. Selfishness. 59- Those who want 'the dispositions to give, ea^ilv find reasons why they ought not to give. 164 APHORISMS. Speeches. 60. Speeches b}' the hour, die with the hour. Strength. 61. We confide in our own strengtli, without boasting of it; we respect that of others, without fearing it. Truth. 62. 'J'ruth advances, and error recedes step by step only. 63- Truth and reason are eternal. 64. . _ Difference of opinion leads to inquiry, and inquiry to tiiith. 65. Truth is mighty and will prevail. 66. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into a polluted \ehicle. 67- A fair and honest narrative of the bad, is a voucher for the truth of the good. Verdict of the Future. 68. Wisdom and dutv dictate an humble resignation to the verdict of our future peers. Virtue. 69. The essence^ of virtue is doiiio- jjood to others. APHORISMS. 165 70. If no action is to be deemed virtuous for which malice can imagine a sinister motive, then there never was a virtuous action. Weakness. 71- The wise know their weakness too well to assume in- fallibility; and he who knows most, knows best how little he knows. We can not always do what is absolutely best. 73- • Man is not made to be trusted for life, if secured against all liability to account. Wrong Doing. 74- To do wrong is a melancholy resource even where retaliation renders it indispensably necessary. Liberty or Servitude. 75- WE MUST MAKE OUR ELECTION BETWEEN ECONOMY AND LIBERTY, OR PROFUSION AND SERVITUDE. $ilver°C(xt Series of Bible Ce$$on$ Prepared for use at Home and in Sunday Schools, AMNE L. VROOMAN. The next issue of the Voluntkers' Quarterly will form the beginning of a series of Bible Lessons pre- pared to meet the demand for a more practical inter- pretation of the Scriptures. In the International Les- sons now in use in Evangelical Churches the Sociological Teaching of the Bible is totally ignored and, whether by design or accident, the minds of the young are taught to regard social and economic questions as outside the pale of religion. Many earnest church -workers have come to regard this omission as fatal to a true conception of religion and are demanding to know what the Bible teaches upon subjects so vital. 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