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Extract from Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 26 Dec. 1820 [Quote]

the disease of liberty is catching: those armies will take it in the South, carry it thence to their own country spread there the infection of revolution & representative government, and raise it’s people from the prone condition of brutes to the erect attitude of man.

Extract from Thomas Jefferson to Maria Cosway, 27 Dec. 1820 [Quote]

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

Extract from Thomas Jefferson to William Roscoe, 27 Dec. 1820 [Quote]

this institution will be based on the illimitable freedom of the human mind. for here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.