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Extract from Thomas Jefferson to Henry Dearborn, 17 Aug. 1821 [Quote]

I am happy to hear of his good health. I think he will outlive us all, I mean the Declaration-men, altho’ our senior since the death of Colo Floyd. it is a race in which I have no ambition to win. man, like the fruit he eats, has his period of ripeness. like that too, if he continues longer...

Extract from Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 12 Sept. 1821 [Quote]

and even should the cloud of barbarism and despotism 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 extinguished by the...

Extract from Thomas Jefferson to Nathaniel Macon, 23 Nov. 1821 [Quote]

My confidence, as you kindly observed, has been often abused by the publication of my letters for the purposes of interest or vanity; and it has been to me the source of much pain to be exhibited before the public in forms not meant for them. I recieve letters expressed in the most friendly terms...

Extract from Thomas Jefferson to Frederick W. Hatch, 12 May 1822 [Quote]

but it seems to be expected that there will be a concourse of one or two thousand others attending it, from all parts of the country; and experience has proved to me that my place is considered as among the curiosities of the neighborhood, and that it will probably be visited as such by most of...

Extract from Thomas Jefferson to William J. Coffee, 10 July 1822 [Quote]

You are right in what you have thought and done as to the Metops of our Doric pavilion. those of the baths of Diocletian are all human faces, and so are to be those of our Doric pavilion. but in my middle room at Poplar Forest, I mean to mix the faces and ox-sculls, a fancy which I can indulge in...

Extract from John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 12 July 1822 [Quote]

Your number of 1267. letters in a year, does not surprise me; I have no list of mine, and I could not make one without a weeks research. and I do not believe I ever received one quarter part of your number. And I very much doubt whether I received in the same year one twelfth part; There are...

Extract from John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 12 July 1822 [Quote]

I hope one day your letters will be all published in volumes. They will not always appear Orthodox, or liberal in politicks; but they will exhibit a mass of Taste, Sense, Literature and Science, presented in a sweet simplicity, and a neat elegance of Stile, which will be read with delight in...

Extract from Thomas Jefferson to Maria Hadfield Cosway, 24 Oct. 1822 [Quote]

I, am laying the foundation of an University in my native state, which I hope will repay the liberalities of it’s legislature by improving the virtue and science of their country, already blest with a soil and climate emulating those of your favorite Lodi. I have been myself the Architect of the...

Extract from Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Cooper, 2 Nov. 1822 [Quote]

in our village of Charlottesville there is a good degree of religion with a small spice only of fanatacism. we have four sects, but without either church or meeting house. the Court house is the common temple, one Sunday in the month to each. here episcopalian and presbyterian, methodist and...

Extract from Thomas Jefferson to James Smith, 8 Dec. 1822 [Quote]

the pure and simple unity of the creator of the universe is now all but ascendant in the Eastern states; it is dawning in the West, and advancing towards the South; and I confidently expect that the present generation will see Unitarianism become the general religion of the United States.

Extract from Thomas Jefferson to James Smith, 8 Dec. 1822 [Quote]

man, once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without rudder is the sport of every wind. with such persons gullability which they call faith takes the helm from the hand of reason and the mind becomes a wreck.

Extract from Thomas Jefferson to Joseph C. Cabell, 28 Dec. 1822 [Quote]

of all things the most important is the completion of the buildings. the remission of the debt will come of itself. it is already remitted in the mind of every man, even of the enemies of the institution. and there is nothing pressing very immediately for it’s expression. the great object of our...

Extract from Thomas Jefferson to Joseph C. Cabell, 13 Jan. 1823 [Quote]

were it necessary to give up either the Primaries or the University, I would rather abandon the last. because it is safer to have a whole people respectably enlightened, than a few in a high state of science and the many in ignorance. this last is the most dangerous state in which a nation can be...

Extract from Thomas Jefferson to Robert Walsh, 5 April 1823 [Quote]

do not think a biography should be written, or at least not published, during the life of the person the subject of it. it is impossible that the writer’s delicacy should permit him to speak as freely of the faults or errors of a living, as of a dead character. there is still however a better...

Extract from James Fenimore Cooper, 17 June 1823 [Quote]

While we were at the Point it rained much of the time ... Two or three of the intelligent men that I found here spoke so confidently of the merits of a picture that they had, of Jefferson, by Sully, that I thought I would relieve both M[athews] and myself by a visit to the library. You know my...