The Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson
By Subject
ADAMS, SAMUEL / OPINION OF
A letter from you, my respectable friend, after three and twenty
years of separation, has given me a pleasure I cannot express. It
recalls to my mind the anxious days we then passed in struggling for
the cause of mankind. Your principles have been tested in the crucible
of time, and have come out pure. You have proved that it was monarchy,
and not merely British monarchy, you opposed. A government by
representatives, elected by the people at short periods, was our
object; and our maxim at that day was, "where annual election
ends, tyranny begins;" nor have our departures from it been
sanctioned by the happiness of their effects. A debt of a hundred
millions growing by usurious interest, and an artificial paper phalanx
overruling the agricultural mass of our country, with other
et ceteras, have a portentous aspect.
to Samuel Adams, 26 February 1800
|