The Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson
By Subject
FOREIGN RELATIONS / PREPAREDNESS FOR WAR
I feel great anxiety for the occurrences of the ensuing four or five
months. If peace can be preserved, I hope and trust you will have a
smooth administration. I know no government which would be so
embarrassing in war as ours. This would proceed very much from the
lying and licentious character of our papers; but much, also, from the
wonderful credulity of the members of Congress in the floating lies of
the day. And in this no experience seems to correct them. I have never
seen a Congress during the last eight years, a great majority of which
I would n6t implicitly have relied on in any question, could their
minds have been purged of all errors of fact. The evil, too, increases
greatly with the protraction of the session, and I apprehend, in case
of war, their session would have a tendency to become permanent.
to James Madison, 17 March 1809
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