The Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson
By Subject
GOVERNMENT / FORMS OF
I am sensible that your situation must have been difficult during the
transition from the late form of government to the re-establishment of
some other legitimate authority, and that you may have been at a loss
to determine with whom business might be done. Nevertheless, when
principles are well understood, their application is less
embarrassing. We surely cannot deny to any nation that right whereon
our own government is founded, that every one may govern itself
according to whatever form it pleases, and change these forms at its
own will; and that it may transact its business with foreign nations
through whatever organ it thinks proper, whether King, Convention,
Assembly, Committee, President, or anything else it may choose. The
will of the nation is the only thing essential to he regarded.
Mutual good offices, mutual affection, and similar principles of
government, seem to destine the two nations for the most intimate
communion; and I cannot too much press it on you, to improve every
opportunity which may occur in the changeable scenes which are
passing, and to seize them as they occur, for placing our commerce
with that nation and its dependencies, on the freest and most
encouraging footing possible.
to Gouverneur Morris, 12 March 1793
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