I love to see honest men & honorable men at the helm, men who will not bend their politics to their purses, nor pursue measures by which they may profit, & then profit by their measures.

You have seen my name lately tacked to so much of eulogy & of abuse, that I dare say you hardly thought it meant for your old acquaintance of 76. in truth I did not know myself under the pens either of my friends or foes. it is unfortunate for our peace that unmerited abuse wounds, while...

there is a debt of service due from every man to his country, proportioned to the bounties which nature & fortune have measured to him.

we can surely boast of having set the world a beautiful example of a government reformed by reason alone without bloodshed. But the world is too far oppressed to profit of the example.

I congratulate you, my dear friend, on the law of your state for suspending the importation of slaves, and for the glory you have justly acquired by endeavoring to prevent it for ever. this abomination must have an end, and there is a superior bench reserved in heaven for those who hasten it.