The Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson
By Subject
AGRARIAN SOCIETIES
It is my principle that the will of the majority should prevail. If
they approve the proposed constitution in all its parts, I shall
concur in it cheerfully, in hopes they will amend it, whenever they
shall find it works wrong. This reliance cannot deceive us, as long as
we remain virtuous; and I think we shall be so, as long as agriculture
is our principal object, which will be the case, while there remain
vacant lands in any part of America. When we get piled upon one
another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become corrupt as in
Europe, and go to eating one another as they do there.
to James Madison, 20 December 1787
|