I am so far on my return home and most sincerely do I wish that it were in my power to go directly on; but alas! I am a woman and must have a protector; if my brother will come for me I am whilling and anxious to be at Monticello before the Season be far advanced. when I arrived here I found my...
tranquility is the softest pillow for the head of old age; and the good will of those around us the sweetest soother of our repose. in this state of being, seasoned by occasional communications with my friends, I shall pass willingly to that eternal sleep which, whether with, or without, dreams,...
You express a wish and a hope that I may have been writing memoirs of myself. while in public life, my whole time has been absorbed by the duties that laid me under; and now, when the world imagines I have nothing to do, I am in a state of as heavy drudgery as any office of my life ever subjected...
you propose a more Quixotic task in the reformation of what may be deemed defective in our constitution. no, my dear friend; nothing could allure me again into the furnace of politics. while engaged in the various functions of the government, duty required me to go straight forward, regardless of...
I wrote to you ten days ago my dearest Mother to tell you how anxious I was to return to you again—this fine month is wearing away in the smoke and dust of the city and in spite of the kind attentions of Mr & Mrs Smith my time passes heavily—I am always counting the months which have elapsed...
To this a single observation shall yet be added. Whether property alone, and the whole of what each citizen possesses, shall be subject to contribution, or only it’s surplus after satisfying his first wants, or whether the faculties of body and mind shall contribute also from their annual...
I might have manifested my dissatisfaction by a silent reserve of all answer: but this would have offered a blank, which might have been filled up by erroneous imputations of sentiment. I prefer candid and open expression.
while you endeavor, by a good store of learning, to prepare yourself to become an useful and distinguished member of your country you must remember that this can never be, without uniting merit with your learning. honesty, disinterestedness, and good nature are indispensable to procure the esteem...
our legislators are not sufficiently apprised of the rightful limits of their powers: that their true office is to declare and enforce only our natural rights and duties, & to take none of them from us. No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another; and this...
I wish you and he could concert your movements so as to meet here, and that you would make this your head quarters. it is a good central point from which to visit your connections; and you know our practice of placing our guests at their ease, by shewing them we are so ourselves, & that we...
Mrs Nicholas arrived here yesterday at two o’clock having suffered no fatigue whatever from her journey. I am sorry that it is not in my power to announce the birth of a grandson yet, but I hope to have that pleasure in the course of a few days. Mr Godefroy will with great pleasure undertake the...
as to federal slanders, I never wished them to be answered, but by the tenor of my life, half a century of which has been on a theatre at which the public have been spectators, and competent judges of it’s merit. their approbation has taught a lesson, useful to the world, that the man who fears...
I wrote to you my dear Jane, by the last mail. It has miscaried in consiquence of my having directed it to Monticello; presuming that name, was as well known as Milton or ChalottesVille, I did not disagnate the postoffice. I mention’d in it, that from the account that Wilson gave me of the...
I arrived here on 28th of June left N. Oreals 26th of May, after a long and disagreeable passage. Yes my friend in addition to the horrors of A Sea Voyage—My Mind was in a State of hope—and fear. My poor George, wrote for me to come on—but Alas! he had gone to his long and everlasting home three...
I do not think their laws amendment so difficult as is pretended. only lay down true principles, and adhere to them inflexibly. do not be frightened into their surrender by the alarms of the timid, or the croakings of wealth agains the ascendancy of the people.
I am not among those who fear the people. they and not the rich, are our dependance for continued freedom. and to preserve their independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt ... if we run into such debts as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our...
Some men look at Constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, & deem them, like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched. they ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment. I knew that age well: I belonged to it,...
each generation is as independant of the one preceding, as that was of all which had gone before. it has then, like them, a right to chuse for itself the form of government it believes most promotive of it’s own happiness.
I have not been in the habit of mysterious reserve on any subject, nor of buttoning up my opinions within my own doublet. on the contrary, while in public service especially, I have thought the public entitled to frankness, and intimately to know whom they employed.
Well my dear Jane, here we are all once more; I arrived in Richmond on the 10th Int not very well, and excessively fatiguid, We determin’d as we were all complaining a little, that it wou’d be best, or safest, to set off immediately for Warren, We arriv’d on Saturday, quite happy, and very much...
there is a ripeness of time for death, regarding others as well as ourselves, when it is reasonable we should drop off, and make room for another growth. when we have lived our generation out, we should not wish to encroach on another. I enjoy good health; I am happy in what is around me. yet I...
bigotry is the disease of ignorance, of morbid minds; enthusiasm of the free and buoyant. education & free discussion are the antidotes of both. we are destined to be a barrier against the returns of ignorance and barbarism.