“Who’s your Daddy?” vs. “Who are YOU?”
… I agree with you that there is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents … There is also an artificial aristocracy founded on wealth and birth, without either virtue...
View ArticleWhat is “the highest good” for you?
Tranquillity is the summum bonum of a Septagenaire. To John Melish, January 13, 1813 Patrick Lee’s Explanation Leaders place a high value on maintaining inner peace. I tried but failed to find...
View ArticleHow’s this for term limits? One term!
To make them [Senators] independent, I had proposed that they should hold their places for nine years, & then go out (one third every three years) & be incapable for ever of being re-elected to...
View ArticleOn Presidents’ Day, what would Jefferson say?
The honeymoon would be as short in that case [election to the Presidency] as in any other, and its momentary ecstasy would be ransomed by years of torment and hatred. To Edward Rutledge, Dec. 1796,...
View ArticleI have had enough. I am going home.
The motion of my blood no longer keeps time with the tumult of the world. It leads me to seek for happiness in the lap and love of my family, in the society of my neighbors and my books, in the...
View ArticleNow, THIS is the life! Part 2
I talk … with my neighbors … of politics too, if they choose, with as little reserve as the rest of my fellow citizens, and feel, at length, the blessing of being free to say and do what I please,...
View ArticleKeep your name out of the debate!
When the Declaration of Independence was under the consideration of Congress, there were two or three unlucky expressions [condemning slavery] in it which gave offense to some members … Although the...
View ArticleSpeak up, friend. It will not hurt my feelings.
No apologies for writing or speaking to me freely are necessary. On the contrary, nothing my friends can do is so dear to me, & proves to me their friendship so clearly, as the information they...
View ArticleCan’t we just get along?
You and I have formerly seen warm debates and high political passions. But gentlemen of different politics would then speak to each other, and separate the business of the Senate from that of society....
View ArticleCan an honest man be a dishonest politician?
The [My] room being hung around with a collection of the portraits of remarkable men, among them were those of Bacon, Newton and Locke, [Alexander] Hamilton asked me who they were. I told him they were...
View ArticleDo pain and ingratitude appeal to you? If so, be President.
I leave to others the sublime delights of riding in the storm, better pleased with sound sleep and a warm birth [berth] below, with the society of neighbors, friends and fellow laborers of the earth,...
View Article“Know when to walk away. Know when to run.”*
… but to the mass of that political sect [my opponents] the 4th. of Mar. 1809 [the Presidential inauguration] will be a day of Jubilee. but it will be a day of greater joy to me … I hail the day which...
View ArticleWatch out! This will bite us in the end!
Have you considered all the consequences of your proposition respecting post roads? I view it as a source of boundless patronage to the executive, jobbing to members of Congress and their friends, and...
View ArticleWhich is best: More? Or Less?
We have thought hitherto that the roads of a state could not be so well administered even by the state legislature as by the magistracy of the county, on the spot. What will it be when a member of N.H....
View ArticleIs it possible to fair to everyone, regardless?
For one portion of my duty [as president of the Senate] I shall engage with more confidence, because it will depend on my will and not on my capacity. The rules which are to govern the proceedings of...
View ArticleJohn Adams, please don’t die!
… no one more sincerely prays that no accident may call me to the higher and more important functions which the constitution eventually devolves on this office. These have been justly confided to the...
View ArticleThere IS something new under the sun!
… what an effort, my dear Sir, of bigotry in Politics & Religion have we gone through … [now] science & honesty are replaced on their high ground …… the storm is now subsiding & the horison...
View ArticleCan you befriend a fierce opponent?
It has been a source of great pain to me, to have met with so many among our opponents, who had not the liberality to distinguish between political and social opposition; who transferred at once to the...
View ArticleIs it possible to lead and have no opposition?
I suppose, indeed, that in public life, a man whose political principles have any decided character, and who has energy enough to give them effect, must always expect to encounter political hostility...
View ArticleDoes favoritism cause a government to degenerate?
If our fellow-citizens, now solidly republican, will sacrifice favoritism towards men for the preservation of principle, we may hope that no divisions will again endanger a degeneracy in our...
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