I cannot act as if all men were unfaithful because some are so; nor believe that all will betray me, because some do. I had rather be the victim of occasional infidelities, than relinquish my general confidence in the honesty of man.

fortitude, you know, is one of his four cardinal virtues. that teaches us to meet and surmount difficulties; not to fly from them, like cowards. and to fly too in vain, for they will meet and arrest us at every turn of our road.

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 console myself with the reflection that those who will come after us will be as wise as we are, & as able to take care of themselves as we have been.

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...

by often repeating an untruth men come to believe it themselves.

yet experience & frequent disappointment have taught me not to be over-confident in theories or calculations, until actual trial has stam of the whole combination has stamped it with approbation.

I regret that distance separates us so widely. an hour of conversation would be worth a volume of letters. but we must take things as they come.

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.

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...