and I have observed this march of civilisation advancing from the sea coast, passing over us like a cloud of light, increasing our knolege and improving our condition … and where this progress will stop no one can say.
Mr. Jefferson is between 81& 82–over 6 ft high–an ample long frame–rather thin & spare. His head which is not peculiar in its shape is set rather forward upon his shoulders & his neck being long when he is in conversation, or walking, there is a considerable protrusion of his chin...
His conversation is easy & natural & apparently not ambitious–it is not loud, as challenging general attention, but usually address to the person next to him–The topick, when not selected with regard to the character & feelings of his auditors, are those subjects with which his mind...
He enjoys his dinner well, taking with meat a large proportion of vegetables. He has a strong preference for the wines of the Continent, of which he has many sorts of excellent quality, having been more than commonly succesful in his mode of importing, & preserving them ... Dinner is served...
A few days after my arrival at Charlottesville I walked to Monticello to see Mr. Jefferson. I made myself known to his servant, and was introduced into his great room. In a few minutes a tall dignified old man entered, and after looking at me a moment said, Are you the new professor of antient...
I am anxious to see the doctrine of one god commenced in our state. but the population of my neighborhood is too slender, and is too much divided into other sects to maintain any one Preacher well. I must therefore be contented to be an Unitarian by myself, altho I know there are many around me...
indeed New York, by it’s private and public exertions is setting examples to us all of the wisest employments of our energies. we need however a preliminary lesson from her book, how to get rich enough to follow her great examples.
this was the object of the Declaration of Independance. not to find out new principles, or new arguments, never before thought of, not merely to say things which had never been said before; but to place before mankind the common sense of the subject; in terms so plain and firm as to command their...
the march of events has not been such as to render it’s completion practicable within the limits of time allotted to me; and I leave it’s accomplishment as the work of another generation. and I am cheared when I see that on which it is devolved, taking it up with so much good will and such mind...
you left us in a state of political division, and in the same state you find us, and in that state I hope we shall ever be found. men are not made to have the same opinions, any more than the same features or bodily forms. we differ as others do; and on government as on other subjects.
it has been peculiarly fortunate too that the Professors brought from abroad were as happy a selection as could have been hoped, as well for their qualifications in science as correctness and amiableness of character. I think the example will be followed and that it cannot fail to be one of the...
literature is not yet a distinct profession with us. now and then a strong mind arises, and at it’s intervals of leisure from business, emits a flash of light. but the first object of young societies is bread and covering; science is but secondary and subsequent.
in the house in which I live, and it’s offices I have flat roofs of a different construction. they consist of rooflets 30. I. wide with gutturs between them. there are 2. strata of joists, the one about 9. I. higher than the other. arranged thus ... a single length of shingles reaches from the...
Much has been said of the elegance of Mr Jefferson’s establishment at Monticello but there is no person of candour who has ever visited there who could not testify to the contrary of all this. The house has been fifty six years building and is still unfinished. A great deal of the work has been...
I consider that of expatriation to the governments of the W. I. of their own colour as entirely practicable, and greatly preferable to the mixture of colour here.
my sincere congratulations on your transition to that condition of society which nature has wisely made indispensable to the happiness of man, and my request that you will communicate the same to on my part to your chosen companion
but the general fact is I have observed, that at whatever age, or in whatever form, we have known a person of old so we believe them him to continue for ever after indefinitely, unchanged by time or waste decay.
on the question of the lawfulness of slavery, that is, of the right of one man to appropriate to himself the faculties of another without his consent, I certainly retain my early opinions. on that however of third persons to interfere between the parties, and the effect of conventional...
the revolution in public opinion which this case requires, is not to be expected in a day, or perhaps in an age. but time, which outlives all things, will outlive this evil also.
may it be to the world what I believe it will be, (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all,) the Signal of arousing men to burst the chains, under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings & security of self...