here we do little in the fine way, but in coarse & midling goods a great deal. every family in the country is a manufactory within itself, and is very generally able to make within itself all the stouter and midling stuffs for it’s own cloathing & houshold use. we consider a sheep for...
mr Henry’s ravenous avarice, the only passion paramount to his love of popularity. the facts I have heard on that subject are not within my own knolege, & ought not to be hazarded but on better testimony than I possess.
I have withdrawn myself from all political intermedlings, to indulge the evening of my life with what have been the passions of every portion of it, books, science, my farms, my family and friends. to these every hour of the day is now devoted.
before the revolution they were in the habit of coming often, & in great numbers to the seat of our government, where I was very much with them. I knew much the great Outassetè, the warrior and orator of the Cherokees. he was always the guest of my father, on his journies to & from...
my houshold manufactures are just getting into operation on the scale of a Carding machine ... which may be worked by a girle of 12. years old, a Spinning machine ... carrying 6. spindles for wool, to be worked by a girl also, another ... carrying 12. spindles for cotton, & a loom, with a...
I shall live in the hope that the day will come when an opportunity will be given you of finishing the Middle building in a style worthy of the two
wings, and worthy of the first temple dedicated to the sovereignty of the people; embellishing with Athenian taste the course...
you probably do not know mr Madison personally, or at least intimately as I do. I have known him from 1779. when he first came into the public councils; and from three & thirty years trial, I can say conscientiously that...
indeed it seems to me that in proportion as Commercial avarice & corruption advance on us from the North and East, the principles of free government are to retire to the agricultural states of the South & West, as their last asylum & bulwark. with honesty & self-government for...
houshold manufacture is taking deep root with us. I have a carding machine, two spinning machines, & looms with the flying shuttle in full operation for clothing my own family; and I verily believe...
the book I have read with extreme satisfaction and information. as to the Western states particularly, it has greatly edified me; for of the actual condition of that interesting portion of our country I had not an adequate idea. I feel myself now as familiar with it as with the condition of the...
an honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens ... this is my belief of it; it is that on which I have acted; and had it been a mere contest who should be permitted to administer the government according to it’s genuine republican principles, there has never...
Genl Washington did not harbour one principle of federalism. he was neither an Angloman, a monarchist nor a Separatist. he sincerely wished the people to have as much self-government as they were competent to exercise themselves. the only point in which he and I ever differed in opinion was that...
Your position that a small farm, well worked and well manned, will produce more than a larger one ill-tended, is undoubtedly true in a certain degree. there are extremes in this as in all other cases. the true medium may really be considered and stated as a Mathematical problem. ‘Given the...
I brought the inclosed book to this place, the last fall, intending to forward it to you; but having a neighbor here who loves to laugh, I lent it to him to read; he lent it to another, and so it went the rounds of the neighborhood and is returned to me at my Spring visit to this place. I now...
I left all well at Monticello, except Benjamin whose health is very precarious. Lewis is become the favorite of all. his vivacity, his intelligence, & his beauty (for the mark in his forehead is disappearing) make him a perfect pet. you will perceive from these senile...
Another of our friends of 76. is gone, my dear Sir, another of the Co-signers of the independance of our country. and a better man, than Rush, could not have left us, more benevolent, more learned, of finer genius, or more honest. we too must go; and that ere long.