there is a fulness of time when men should go, & not occupy too long the ground to which others have a right to advance.

I find I am losing sight of the progress of the world of letters. here we talk but of rains & droughts, of blights & frosts, of our ploughs & cattle; & if the topic changes to politics I meddle little with them. in truth I never had a cordial relish for them, & abhor the...

I am become sensible of a great advantage your profession has over most others, that, to the close of your life, you can be always doing good to mankind: whereas a retired politician is like a broken down courser, unfit for the turf, and good for little else. I am endeavoring to recover the...

I am then to be liberated from the hated occupations of politics, & to sink into the bosom of my family, my farm & my books. I have my house to build, my feilds to farm, and to watch for the happiness of those who labor for mine.

leaving little time for indulgence in my greatest of all amusements, reading.

my object too at present is peace and tranquility, neither doing nor saying any thing to be quoted, or to make me the subject of newspaper disquisitions.

I avail myself of this occasion of returning sincere thanks for the kind dispositions towards myself expressed in your letter, and for the sentiments, which it conveys, of approbation of my conduct in the administration of the public affairs. if that conduct has met the general approbation of my...

all these concerns I am now leaving to be settled by my friend mr Madison. within a few days I retire to my family, my books, & farms & having gained the harbor myself, I shall look on my friends still buffeting the storm, with anxiety indeed, but not with envy. never did prisoner,...

it is now among my most fervent longings to be on my farm, which, with a garden & fruitery, will constitute my principal occupation on retirement.

my books, my family, my friends, & my farm, furnish more than enough to occupy me the remainder of my life, & of that tranquil occupation most analogous to my physical & moral constitution.