The Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson
By Subject
REPUBLICANISM / INTERNAL ATTACKS ON
It cannot be denied that we have among us a sect who believe that to
contain whatever is perfect in human institutions; that the members of
this sect have, many of them, names and offices which stand high in
the estimation of our countrymen. I still rely that the great mass of
our community is untainted with these heresies, as is its head. On
this I build my hope that we have not labored in vain, and that our
experiment will still prove that men can be governed by reason. You
have excited my curiosity in saying "there is a particular
circumstance, little attended to, which is continually sapping the
republicanism of the United States." What is it? What is said in
our country of the fiscal arrangements now going on? I really fear
their effect when I consider the present temper of the southern
States. Whether these measures be right or wrong abstractly, more
attention should be paid to the general opinion.
to Colonel Mason, 4 February 1791
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