Jefferson Quotes & Family Letters

mr Duane informed me that he meant to publish a new edition of the Notes on Virginia ... I should in that case certainly qualify severel expressions in the 19th chapter which have been construed differently from what they were intended. I had under my eye, when writing, the manufacturers of the grea[t] cities in the old countries at the time present, with whom the want of food & clothing necessary to sustain life has begotten a depravity of moral[s], a dependance & corruption which renders them an undesirable accession to a country whose morals are sound. my expressions looked forward to the time when our own great cities would get into the same state. but they have been quoted as if meant for the present time here. as yet our manufacturers are as much at their ease, as independant & moral as our agricultural inhabitants, and they will continue so as long as there is vacant lands for them to resort to; because whenever it shall be attempted by the other classes to reduce them to the minimum of subsistence, they will quit their trades and go to labouring the earth. a first question is whether it is desirable for us to recieve at present the dissolute & demoralised handicrafts men of the old cities of Europe? a second & more difficult one is when even good handicraft men arrive here, [. . .] is it better for them to set up their trade or go to the culture of the earth? had I time to revise that chapter this question should be discusse[d], and other views of the subject taken which are presented by the wonderful changes which have taken place here since 1781 ... perhaps, when I retire, I may amuse myself with a serious review of this wor[k].