The Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson
By Subject
OLD WORLD CONDITIONS / PROSPECTS FOR CAUSE OF LIBERTY
Are we to surrender the pleasing hopes of seeing improvement in the
moral and intellectual condition of man? The events of Naples and
Piedmont cast a gloomy cloud over that hope, and Spain and Portugal
are not beyond jeopardy. And what are we to think of this northern
triumvirate, arming their nations to dictate despotisms to the rest of
the world? And the evident connivance of England, as the price of
secret stipulations for continental armies, if her own should take
side with her malcontent and pulverized people? And what of the poor
Greeks, and their small chance of amelioration even if the
hypocritical Autocrat should take them under the iron cover of his
Ukazes. Would this be lighter or safer than that of the Turk? These,
my dear friend, are speculations for the new generation.
Yet I
will not believe our labors are lost. I shall not die without a hope
that light and liberty are on steady advance. We have seen, indeed,
once within the records of history, a complete eclipse of the human
mind continuing for centuries. And this, too, by swarms of the same
northern barbarians, conquering and taking possession of the countries
and governments of the civilized world. Should this be again
attempted, should the same northern hordes, allured again by the corn,
wine, and nil of the south, be able again to settle their swarms in
the countries of their growth, the art of printing alone, and the vast
dissemination of books, will maintain the mind where it is, and raise
the conquering ruffians to the level of the conquered, instead of
degrading these to that of their conquerors. And even should the cloud
of barbarism and despotism again obscure the science and liberties of
Europe, this country remains to preserve and restore light and liberty
to them. In short, the flames kindled on the 4th of July, 1776, have
spread over too much of the globe to be extinguished by the feeble
engines of despotism; on the contrary, they will consume these engines
and all who work them.
to John Adams, 12 September 1821
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