Extract from Thomas Jefferson to George Wythe, 16 Sept. 1787 [Quote]
in architecture, painting, sculpture, I found much amusement.
Extract from Thomas Jefferson to Francis Hopkinson, 18 Sept. 1787 [Quote]
one who loves the arts, must be well disposed to those who practice them.
Extract from Thomas Jefferson to Comte de Moustier, 9 Oct. 1787 [Quote]
the Count de Moustier will find the affections of the Americans with France, but their habits with England. chained to that country by circumstances, embracing what they loathe, they realize the fable of the living & dead bound together.
Extract from Thomas Jefferson to William Stephens Smith, 13 Nov. 1787 [Quote]
the people can not be all, & always, well informed. the part which is wrong will be discontented in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. if they remain quiet under such misconceptions it is a lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. we have had 13....
Extract from Thomas Jefferson to William Stephens Smith, 13 Nov. 1787 [Quote]
wonderful is the effect of impudent & persevering lying.
Extract from Thomas Jefferson to William Carmichael, 15 Dec. 1787 [Quote]
I considered the British as our natural enemies, and as the only nation on earth who wished us ill from the bottom of their souls. and I am satisfied that were our continent to be swallowed up by the ocean, Great Britain would be in a bonfire from one end to the other.
Extract from Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 20 Dec. 1787 [Quote]
a bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference.
Extract from Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 20 Dec. 1787 [Quote]
I think our governments will remain virtuous for many centuries; as long as they are chiefly agricultural; and this will be as long as there shall be vacant lands in any part of America. when they get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, they will become corrupt as in Europe.
Extract from Thomas Jefferson to Edward Carrington, 21 Dec. 1787 [Quote]
as to the new Constitution I find myself nearly a Neutral. there is a great mass of good in it, in a very desireable form: but there is also to me a bitter pill, or two.
Extract from Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 20 Dec. 1787, as subsequently extracted and revised by Jefferson and enclosed in Thomas Jefferson to Uriah Forrest, 31 Dec. 1787 [Quote]
the people ... are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.
Extract from Lafayette to George Washington, 1 Jan. 1788 [Quote]
I am More and More pleased with Mr jefferson. His abilities, His Virtues, His temper, Every thing of Him Commands Respect and Attracts Attention. He Enjoys Universal Regard, and does the Affairs of America to perfection it is the
Happiest choice that Could Be Made.
Extract from Thomas Jefferson to William Drayton, 13 Jan. 1788 [Quote]
the precept however is wise which directs us to ‘try all things, & hold fast that which is good.’
Extract from Thomas Jefferson to William Stephens Smith, 2 Feb. 1788 [Quote]
we are now vibrating between too much & too little government, & the pendulum will rest finally in the middle.
Extract from Thomas Jefferson to Brissot de Warville, 11 Feb. 1788 [Quote]
you know that nobody wishes more ardently to see an abolition not only of the trade but of the condition of slavery: and certainly nobody will be more willing to encounter every sacrifice for that object.
Extract from Thomas Lee Shippen to William Shippen, 14 Feb.–26 Mar. 1788 [Quote]
Mr. Jefferson is in my opinion without exeption the wisest and most amiable man I have seen in Europe.
Extract from Thomas Jefferson to Johann Ludwig de Unger, 16 Feb. 1788 [Quote]
nothing in Europe can counterbalance the freedom, the simplicity, the friendship & the domestic felicity we enjoy in America.
Extract from Thomas Jefferson to Angelica Schuyler Church, 17 Feb. 1788 [Quote]
I have been planning what I would shew you: a flower here, a tree there; yonder a grove, near it a fountain; on this side a hill, on that a river. indeed madam I know nothing so charming as our own country. the learned say it is a new creation; and I believe them; not for their reasons, but...
Extract from Thomas Jefferson's Notes of a Tour through Holland and the Rhine Valley, 3 March–23 April 1788 [Quote]
Mr. Hermen Hend Damen, merchant-broker of Amsterdam tells me that the emigrants to America come from the Palatinate down the Rhine and take shipping from Amsterdam. Their passage is 10. guineas if paid here, and 11. if paid in America. He says they might be had in any number to go to America and...
Extract from Thomas Jefferson to Maria Cosway, 24 April 1788 [Quote]
I am but a son of nature, loving what I see & feel, without being able to give a reason, nor caring much whether there be one.
Extract from Thomas Jefferson to Madame de Tessé, 25 April 1788 [Quote]
but Botany is the school for patience, and it’s amateurs learn resignation from daily disappointments.
Extract from Thomas Jefferson to Anne Willing Bingham, 11 May 1788 [Quote]
they have the good sense to value domestic happiness above all other, and the art to cultivate it beyond all others. there is no part of the earth where so much of this is enjoyed as in America.
Extract from Lafayette to George Washington, 25 May 1788 [Quote]
Nothing Can Excell M. jefferson’s abilities, virtues, pleasing temper, and Every thing in Him that Constitutes the Great States man, zealous Citizen, and Amiable friend.
Extract from Thomas Jefferson to Edward Carrington, 27 May 1788 [Quote]
there are two amendments only which I am anxious for. 1. a bill of rights, which it is so much the interest of all to have ... the 2d amendment which appears to me essential is the restoring the principle of necessary rotation, particularly to the Senate & Presidency: but most of all to the...
Extract from Thomas Jefferson to William Carmichael, 3 June 1788 [Quote]
I was much pleased with many & essential parts of this instrument from the beginning. but I thought I saw in it many faults, great & small. what I have read & reflected has brought me over from several of my objections of the first moment, and to acquiesce under some others.
Extract from Thomas Jefferson's Hints to Americans Travelling in Europe, [ca. 19 June] 1788 [Quote]
when you are doubting whether a thing is worth the trouble of going to see, recollect that you will never again be so near it, that you may repent the not having seen it, but can never repent having seen it.