Mr. Madison & myself are so far on the tour we had projected ... we were more pleased however with the botanical objects which continually presented themselves. those either unknown or rare in Virginia were the Sugar maple in vast abundance, the Thuya, silver fir, White pine, Pitch pine,...

I rejoice also in your advocation of the Indian rights. & concur in all your sentiments in their favor ... I wish that was the only blot in our moral history, and that no other race had higher charges to bring against us. I am not apt to despair; yet I see not how we are to disengage...

we have taken their Upper Canada, and shall add the Lower to it when the season will admit; and hope to remove them fully and finally from our continent. and what they will feel more, for they value their colonies only for...

the boisterous sea of liberty indeed is never without a wave, and that from Missouri is now rolling towards us: but we shall ride over it as we have over all others. it is not a moral question, but one merely of power. it’s object is to raise a geographical principle for the choice of a...

politics & party hatreds destroy the happiness of every being here. they seem, like salamanders, to consider fire as their element.

when earth is rich it bids defiance to droughts, yeilds in abundance & of the best quality.

I never before knew the full value of trees. my house is entirely embosomed in high plane trees, with good grass below, & under them I breakfast, dine, write, read & receive my company. what would I not give that the trees planted nearest round the house at Monticello were full grown.

on the whole I find nothing any where else in point of climate which Virginia need envy to any part of the world. here they are locked up in ice and snow for six months. Spring and autumn, which make a paradise of our country, are rigorous winter with them, and a Tropical summer breaks on them...

Perhaps you think you have nothing to say to me ... there is not a sprig of grass that shoots uninteresting to me ... Write then my dear daughter punctually on your day

interesting occupations are essential to happiness: indeed the whole art of being happy consists in the art of finding emploiment.