the States alone which hold them; and the difficult question
will be how to lessen this so as to reconcile our fellow citizens
to it. Personally I am ready and desirous to make any sacrifice
which shall ensure their gradual but complete retirement from
the State, and efifectually at the same time, establish them else-
where in freedom and safety. But I have not perceived the
growth of this disposition in the rising generation, of which
I once had sanguine hopes. (To Dr. Thomas Humphreys, 1817.
C. VII., 57-)
Emancipation. — See Slavery.
Embargo. — It is true that the embargo laws have not had all
the effect in bringing the powers of Europe to a sense of justice
which a more faithful observance of them might have produced.
Yet they have had the important effects of saving our seamen
and property, of giving time to prepare for defense; and they
will produce the further inestimable advantage of turning the
attention and enterprise of our fellow citizens, and the patron-
age of our State Legislatures to the establishment of useful
manufactures in our country. They will have hastened the day
when an equilibrium between the occupations of agriculture,
202 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
manufacture and commerce shall simplify our foreign concerns
to the exchange only of that surplus which we cannot consume
for those articles of reasonable comfort or convenience which
we cannot produce. (To a Democratic Delegation, 1809. C.
VIIL, 163.)
England. — Our people and merchants must consider their
business as not yet settled with England. After exercising the
self-denial which was requisite to carry us through the war they
must push it a little further to obtain proper peace arrange-
ments with them. They can do it all the better as all the world
is open to them; and it is very extraordinary if the whole world
besides cannot supply them with what they want. I think
it essential to exclude them from the carriage of American prod-
uce. (Written from Paris to James Monroe, 1785. F. IV.,
40.)
England. — In spite of treaties, England is still our enemy.
Her hatred is deep rooted and cordial, and nothing is wanted
with her but the power to wipe us and the land we live on out
of existence. Her interest, however, is her ruling passion;
and the late American measures have struck at that so vitally,
and with an energy, too, of which she thought us quite in-
capable, that a possibility seems to open of forming some ar-
rangement with her when they shall see decidedly, that, with-
out it we shall suppress their commerce with us, they will be
agitated by their avarice, on the one hand, and their hatred
and their fear of us on the other. The result of this conflict of
dirty passion is yet to be awaited. The body of people of this
country love us cordially, but ministers and merchants love
nobody. The merchants here are endeavoring to exclude us
from their islands. The ministers will be governed in it by
political motives, and will do it or not do it, as these shall appear
to dictate, without love or hatred to anybody. (To John Lang-
don, 1785. C. I., 429.)
England. — I returned but three or four days ago from a two
months trip to England. I traversed that country much, and
own both town and country fell short of my expectations. Com-
paring it with this [France] I found a much greater proportion
OF THOMAS JEFFERSON 203
of barrens, a soil in other parts not naturally so good as this,
nor better cultivated. This proceeds from the practice of long
leases there, and short ones here. The laboring people here are
poorer than in England. They pay but one-half their produce
in rent, the English in general about a third. The gardening
in that country is the article in which it surpasses all the earth,
I mean their pleasure gardening. This indeed went far beyond
my ideas. The city of London, though handsomer than Paris,
is not so handsome as Philadelphia. Their architecture is the
most wretched style I ever saw, not meaning to except America
where it is bad, nor even Virginia where it is worse than in any
other part I have seen. England hates us, their ministers hate
us, and their King more than all other men. (To John Page,
written in Paris, 1786. F. IV., 214.)
England. — I consider the English as our natural enemies and
the only nation on earth who wish us ill from the bottom of their
souls. And I am satisfied that were our continent to be
swallowed up by the ocean, Great Britain would be a bonfire
from one end to the other. (To William Carmichael, written in
Paris, 1787. F. IV., 470.)
England. — When we take notice that theirs (England) is the
workshop to which we go for all we want; that with them center
either immediately or ultimately all the labors of our hands and
lands; that to them belong either openly or secretly the great
mass of our navigation; that even the factorage of their affairs
here is kept to themselves by factitious citizenship; that these
foreign and false citizens now constitute the great body of what
are called our merchants, fill our seaports, are planted in every
little town and district of the interior country, sway everything
in the former places by their own votes, and those of their
dependents in the latter by their insinuations and their letters;
that they are advancing fast to a monopoly of our bank and
public funds, and thereby placing our public finances under
their control; that they have in their alliance the most in-
fluential characters in and out of office; when they have shown
that by all these bearings on the different branches of govern-
ment they can force it to proceed in whatever direction they
204 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
dictate, and bend the interests of this country entirely to the
M'ill of another; when all this, I say, is attended to, it is im-
possible for us to say we stand on independent ground, impos-
sible for a free mind not to see and to groan under the bondage
in which it is bound. (To Elbridge Gerry, 1797. F. VII., 121.)
England. — Our successors have deserved well of their country
in meeting so readily the first friendly advance ever made to us
by England. I hope it is the harbinger of a return to the exer-
cise of common sense and common good humor, with a country
with which mutual interests would urge a mutual and affec-
tionate intercourse. But her conduct hitherto has been towards
us so insulting, so tyrannical and so malicious, as to indicate a
contempt for our opinions or dispositions respecting her. I
hope she is now coming over to a wiser conduct, and becoming
sensible how much better it is to cultivate the good will of the
government itself, than of a faction hostile to it; to obtain its
friendship gratis than to purchase its enmity by nourishing at
great expense a faction to embarrass it, to receive the reward
of an honest policy rather than of a corrupt and vexatious one.
I trust she has at length opened her eyes to Federal falsehood
and misinformation, and learnt in the issue of the presidential
election, the folly of believing them. Such a reconciliation to
the government, if real and permanent, will secure the tran-
quillity of our country, and render the management of our affairs
easy and delightful to our successors, for whom I feel as much
interest as if I were still in their place. Certainly all the
trouble and difBculties in the government during our time pro-
ceeded from England; at least all others were trifling in com-
parison with them. (To General Dearborne, 1809. C. V., 455.)
England. — The nature of the English unfits them for the
observation of moral duties. In the first place her King is a
cypher; his only function being to name the oligarchy which is
to govern her. The Parliament is, by corruption, the mere
instrument of the will of the administration. The real power
and property in the government is in the great aristocratical
families of the nation. The nest of office being too small for
all of them to cuddle into at once, the contest is eternal, which
OF THOMAS JEFFERSON 205
shall crowd the other out. For this purpose, they are divided
into two parties, the Ins and the Outs, so equal in weight that
a small matter turns the balance. To keep themselves in,
every stratagem must be practiced, every artifice used, which
may flatter the pride, the passion or power of the nation. Jus-
tice, honor, faith must yield to the necessity of keeping them-
selves in place. The question whether a measure is moral, is
never asked; but whether it will nourish the avarice of their
merchants, or the piratical spirit of their navy, or produce any
other efTect which may strengthen them in their places. As to
engagements, however positive, entered into by the predecessors
of the Ins, why, they were enemies, they did everything
which was wrong; and to reverse everything which they did,
must, therefore, be right. This is the true character of the
English Government in practice, however different its theory ;
and it presents the singular phenomenon of a nation, the indi-
viduals of which are as faithful to their private engagements
and duties, as honorable, as worthy, as those of any nation on
earth, and whose government is yet the most unprincipled at
this day known. (To Governor Langdon, 18 10. C. V.. 513.)
England. — But what is to restore order and safety on the
ocean? The death of George III? Not at all. He is only
stupid; and his ministers, however weak and profligate in
morals, are ephemeral. But this nation is permanent, and it
is that which is the tyrant of the ocean. The principle that
force is right, is become the principle of the nation itself. They
would not permit an honest minister, were accident to bring
such an one into power, to relax their system of lawless piracy.
(To Caesar Rodney, 1810. C. V., 501.)
England, — The fate of England, I think with you, is nearly
decided, and the present form of her existence is drawing to
a close. The ground, the houses, the men will remain; but in
what new form they w-ill revive and stand among nations, is
beyond the reach of human foresight. We hope it may be
one of which the predatory principle may not be the essential
characteristic. If her transformation shall replace her under
the laws of moral order, it is for the general interest that she
206 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
should still be a sensible and independent weight in the scale
of nations, and be able to contribute, when a favorable moment
presents itself, to reduce to the same order, her great rival in
flagitiousness. We especially ought to pray that the powers of
Europe may be so poised and counterpoised among themselves,
that their own safety may require the presence of all the force
at home, leaving the other quarters of the globe in undisturbed
tranquillity. When our strength will permit us to give the law
of our hemisphere, it should be that the meridian of the mid-
Atlantic should be the line of demarkation between war and
peace, on this side of which no act of hostility should be com-
mitted, and the lion and the lamb shall lie down in peace to-
gether. (To Dr. Crawford, 1812. C. VI., 33.)
England. — But the English Government never dies, because
the King is no part of it; he is a mere formality, and the real
government is the aristocracy of the country, for the House
of Commons is of that class. Their aim is to claim the dominion
of the ocean by conquest, and to make every vessel navigating
it pay a tribute to the support of the fleet necessary to main-
tain that dominion, to which their own resources are inadequate.
I see no means of terminating their maritime dominion and
tyranny but in their own bankruptcy, which I hope is approach-
ing. (To Dr. Brown, 1813. C. VI., 165.)
England. — There is not a nation on the globe with whom I
have more earnestly wished a friendly intercourse on equal
conditions. On no other would I hold out the hand of friend-
ship to any. I know that their creatures represent me as per-
sonally an enemy to England. But fools can only think this,
or those who think me a fool. I am an enemy to her insults
and injuries. I am an enemy to the flagitious principles of
her administration, and to those who govern her conduct
towards other nations. But would she give to morality some
place in the political code, and especially would she exercise
decency, and at least neutral passions towards us, there is not,
I repeat it, a people on earth with wdiom I would sacrifice so
much to be in friendship. (To Caesar Rodney, 1815. C. VI.,
449-)
OF THOMAS JEFFERSON 207
England. — I hope in God her government will come to a
sense of this, and will see that honesty and interest are as
intimately connected in the public as in the private code of
morality. Her ministers have been weak enough to believe
from the newspapers that Mr. Madison and myself are per-
sonally her enemies. Such an idea is unworthy a man of sense;
as we should have been unworthy our trusts could we have
felt such a motive of public action. No two men in the United
States have more sincerely wished for cordial friendship with
her; not as her vassals or dirty partisans, but as members of
co-equal states, respecting each other; and sensible of the good
as well as the harm each is capable of doing the other. On this
ground there never was a moment we did not wish to embrace
her. But repelled by their aversions, feeling their hatred at
every point of contact and justly indignant at its supercilious
manifestations, that happened which has happened, that will
follow, must follow, in progressive ratio, while such dispositions
continue to be indulged. I hope they will see this, and do their
part towards healing the minds and cooling the temper of both
nations. (To Mr. Murray, 181 5. C. VL, 468.)
The English. — As a political man they, the English, shall
never find any passion in me either for or against them. When-
ever their avarice of commerce will let them meet us fairly
half-way, I should meet them with satisfaction, because it would
be for our benefit; but I mistake their character if they do this
under present circumstances. (To Francis Kinloch, 1790. F.
v., 249.)
English Character. — I fancy it must be the quantity of ani-
mal food eaten by the English which renders their character
insusceptible to civilization. I suspect it is in their kitchens and
not in their churches that their reformation must be worked,
and that missionaries of that description from hence would avail
more than those who should endeavor to tame them by pre-
cepts of religion or philosophy. (Written from Paris to Mrs.
John Adams, 1785. F. IV., 100.)
Epicurus. — As you say of yourself, I too am an Epicurean.
I consider the genuine (not the imputed) doctrines of Epicurus
208 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
as containing everything rational in moral philosophy which
Greece and Rome have left us. Epictetus, indeed, has given us
w^hat was good of the Stoics ; all beyond, of their dogmas, being
hypocrisy and grimace. Their great crime was in their calum-
nies of Epicurus and misrepresentation of his doctrines. * * *
But the greatest of all reformers of the depraved religion of
his own country, w^as Jesus of Nazareth. Abstracting what is
really his from the rubbish in which it is buried, easily distin-
guished by its lustre from the dross of his biographers, and as
separable from that as the diamond from the dunghill, we have
the outlines of a system of the most sublime morality which
has fallen from the lips of man; outlines which it is lamentable
he did not fill up. Epictetus and Epicurus give laws for gov-
erning ourselves, Jesus a supplement of the duties and charities
we owe to others. (To Mr. Short, 1819. C. VII., 138.)
Equity Courts. — Relieve the judges from the rigour of text
law, and permit them, w'ith praetorian discretion to wander into
its equity, and the whole legal system becomes uncertain. This
has been its fate in every country where the fixed and dis-
cretionary laws have been committed into the same hands. It
is probable that the singular certainty with which justice has
been administered in England has been the consequence of
their distribution into two distinct departments. (Written from
Paris to Philip Mazzei, 1785. F. IV., 115.)
Etiquette. — I. In order to bring the members of society
together in the first instance, the custom of the country has
established that residents shall pay the first visit to strangers;
and, among strangers, first comers to later comers, foreign
and domestic; the character of strangers ceasing after the first
visit. To this rule there is a single exception. Foreign minis-
ters, from the necessity of making themselves known, pay the
first visit to the ministers of the nation, which is returned.
II. When brought together in society, all are perfectly
equal, whether foreign or domestic, titled or untitled, in or out
of oflfice.
All other observances are but exemplifications of these two
principles.
OF THOMAS JEFFERSON 209
I. ist. The families of foreign ministers, arriving at the seat
of government, receive the first visit from those of the national
ministers, as from all the residents.
2d. Members of the Legislature and of the Judiciary, inde-
pendent of their offices, have a right as strangers to receive
the first visit.
II. I St. No titles being admitted here, those of foreigners
give no precedence.
2d. Differences of grade among diplomatic members, give
no precedence.
3d. At public ceremonies, to which the government invites
the presence of foreign ministers and their families, a convenient
seat or station will be provided for them, with any other stran-
gers invited and the families of the national ministers, each
taking place as they arrive, and without precedence.
4th. To retain the principle of equality, or of pele-mele,
and prevent the growth of precedence out of courtesy, the mem-
bers of the Executive will practice at their own houses, and
recommend an adherence to the ancient usage of the country,
gentlemen in mass giving precedence to the ladies in mass, in
passing from one apartment where they are assembled into an-
other. (From a Manuscript, 1803. F. VIII., 276.)
The Executive. — The failure of the French Directory, and
from the same cause, seems to have authorized a belief that the
form of a plurality, however promising in theory, is impracti-
cable with men constituted with the ordinary passions. While
the tranquil and steady tenor of our single executive, during a
course of twenty-two years of the most tempestuous times the
history of the world has ever presented, gives a rational hope that
this important problem is at length solved. Aided by the
counsels of a cabinet, of heads of departments, originally four,
but now five, with whom the President consults, either singly
or altogether, he has the benefit of their wisdom and informa-
tion, and produces an unity of action and direction in all the
branches of the government. The excellence of this construc-
tion of the executive power has already manifested itself here
under very opposite circumstances. During the administration
2IO THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
of our first President, his cabinet of four members was equally
divided by as marked an opposition of principle as monarchism
and republicanism could bring into conflict. Had that cabinet
been a directory, like positive and negative quantities in algebra,
the opposing wills would have balanced each other and pro-
duced a state of absolute inaction. But the President heard
with calmness the opinions and reasons of each, decided the
course to be pursued, and kept the government steadily in it,
unaffected by the agitation. The public knew well the dissen-
sions of the cabinet, but never had an uneasy thought on their
account, because they knew alsO' they had provided a regulating
power which would keep the machine in steady movement.
I speak with an intimate knowledge of these scenes, quorum
pars fui, as I may of others of a character entirely opposite.
The third administration, which was of eight years, presented
an example of harmony in a cabinet of six persons, to which
perhaps history has furnished no parallel. There never arose
during the whole time an instance of an unpleasant thought or
word between the members. We sometimes met under differ-
ence of opinion, but scarcely ever failed, by conversing and
reasoning, so to modify each others' ideas as to produce a
unanimous result. Yet able and amiable as these members
were, I am not certain this would have been the case had each
possessed equal and independent powers. Ill-defined limits of
their respective departments, jealousies, trifling at first, but
nourished and strengthened by repetition of occasions, intrigues
without doors of designing persons to build an importance to
themselves on the divisions of others might from small begin-
nings have produced persevering oppositions. But the power
of decision in the President left no object for internal dissension,
and external intrigue was stifled in embryo by the knowledge
which incendiaries possessed that no division they could ferment
would change the course of the executive power. I am not
conscious that my participations in the executive authority
have produced any bias in favor of the single executive, because
the parts I have acted have been in the subordinate as well as in
superior stations, and because, if I know myself, what I have
OF THOMAS JEFFERSON 211
felt and what I have wished, I know that I have never been so
well pleased as when I could shift power from my own on the
shoulders of others, nor have I ever been able to conceive how
any rational being could propose happiness to himself from
the exercise of power over others. (To Destutt Tracy, 1881.
C. v., 568.)
Expansion. — I am aware of the force of the observations you
make on the power given by the Constitution to Congress to
admit new States into the Union without restraining the subject
to the territory then constituting the United States. But
â– when I consider that the limits of the United States are pre-
cisely fixed by the treaty of 1783, that the Constitution ex-
pressly declares itself to be made for the United States, I cannot
help beheving the intention was noL to permit Congress to
admit into the Union new States which should be formed out
of the territory for which and under whose authority alone they
were then acting. I do not believe it was meant that they
might receive England, Ireland, Holland, etc., into it, which
would be the case under your construction. (To W. C. Nicholas,
1803. CIV., 505.)
Expansion. — The denouement (referring to the acquisition of
Louisiana) has been happy; and I confess I look to this duplica-
tion of area for the extending of a government so free and
economical as ours as a great achievement to the mass of happi-
ness that is to ensue. (To Dr. Priestly, 1804. C. IV., 525.)
Expansion. — See Canada, Cuba, Louisiana.
Exercise. — Give about two hours every day to exercise; for
"health must not be sacrificed to learning. A strong body makes
the mind strong. As to the species of exercise, I advise the
gun. While this gives a moderate exercise to the body, it
gives boldness, enterprise, and independence to the mind.
Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too
violent for the body, and stamp no character on the mind. Let
3^our gun, therefore, be the constant companion of your walks.
Never think of taking a book with you. The object of walking
is to relax the mind. You should, therefore, not permit your-
self even to think while you walk; but direct yourself by the
212 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
objects surrounding you. Walking is the best possible exercise.
Habituate yourself to walk very far. The Europeans value
themselves on having subdued the horse to the uses of man;
but I doubt whether we have not lost more than we have gained
by the use of this animal. No one has occasioned so much the
degeneracy of the human body. An Indian goes on foot nearly
as far in a day for a long journey as an enfeebled white does
on his horse; and he will tire the best horses. There is no
habit you will value so much as that of walking far without
fatigue. I would advise you to take your exercise in the after-
noon; not because it is the best time for exercise, for certainly
it is not; but because it is the best time to spare from your
studies; and habit will soon reconcile it to health, and render
it nearly as useful as if you gave to that the more precious
hours of the day. A little walk of half an hour in the morning
when you first rise is advisable also. It shakes off sleep and pro-