more useful to the public for whom I acted, by availing them of the services of a faithful and able citizen. It is not, then, to me you are indebted, but to his worth and science which marked him for notice. Mine was but an act of duty, which, like the payment of a debt, has no merit to claim; and I feel myself fully remunerated by its having been the means of introducing to me the knowledge of an amiable daughter, inheriting the kind heart of her father, copying, in the age of the passions, the virtues of a model tested by time and experience. Go on then my worthy friend, in this career of excellence, and be strong in the assurance given by an inspired pen, "I have been young, and now I am old, and yet never saw I the righteous forsaken, or his seed begging their bread.

And if the prayers of an old man can be of any avail, you shall ever have mine most ardently. Accept my friendly salutations.

1

TO JOSEPH STORY.1

MONTICELLO, June 19, 1816.

I thank you, dear Sir, for the eulogy of Mr. Dexter, which you have been so kind as to send me, and I subscribe with sincerity to the testimonies it bears

'Joseph Story, one of the most eminent jurists this country has produced, was born in Marblehead, Mass., Sept. 18, 1779, and died in Cambridge Sept. 10, 1845. In November, 1811, when little more than thirty-two, he was made an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. See Story's Life and Letters of Joseph Story.-EDS.

of his merits. No one rendered more justice to his virtues and talents than myself; and if, in political matters, we entertained some differences of opinion, they were on both sides the result of honest conviction, and held by both as inoffensive as differences of feature. His loss was a real affliction to the friends of our Union, and especially at a crisis when a successor was in question to the important magistracy for which he was proposed. I am fond, however, of believing that the majority with you will still return to the sacred principle of fidelity to the Union, and will see in the duties which he would have inculcated their own most important interests. Accept the assurance of my great esteem and respect.

TO WILLIAM THORNTON.

MONTICELLO, July 27, 1816. DEAR SIR,-Your favor of the twentieth is received, and I take up my pen merely to assure you I had not mentioned the return of the paintings from any hurry to receive them, but merely to make known a safe occasion of sending them, if done with. I thank you for the offer to place a copy of one of them here in oil, but Stuart's original takes as much room on the walls as the thing is worth. With respect to the merit of Otis's painting,' I am not qual

1 Bass Otis painted a portrait of Jefferson, which was engraved for Joseph Delaplaine's Portrait Gallery. It has been reproduced as a photogravure for the present work. See Frontispiece of vol, v.

ified to say anything, for this is a case where the precept of "know thyself" does not apply. The ladies from the studies of their looking-glasses may be good judges of their own faces; but we see ours only under a mask of soap suds and the scrapings of the razor.

Accept always the assurance of my great esteem and respect.

TO CHARLES PINCKNEY.

MONTICELLO, September 3, 1816. DEAR SIR,-Your favor of August has been duly received, with the pamphlet it covered.1 Colonel Monroe happened to be at his seat adjoining me, and to dine with me the day I received it. I thought I could not make better use of it than by putting it into his hands, to let him know his friends. You say nothing in your letter of your health, which, after so long an interval, cannot but be interesting to a friend. I hope it continues firm. As for myself, I weaken very sensibly, yet with such a continuance of good health as makes me fear I shall wear out very tediously, which is not what one would wish. I see

1 The reference is to a pamphlet of fifty-two octavo pages published by Charles Pinckney in 1816, under the title of "Observations to shew the Propriety of the Nomination of Colonel James Monroe, to the Presidency of the United States by the Caucus at Washington. In which a full answer is given to the pamphlet entitled 'Exposition of the motives for opposing the nomination of Mr. Monroe as President of the United States.' By a South Carolinian." It is a vigorous defence of the public life of Mr. Monroe, and strongly advocated his nomination.-EDS.

no comfort in outliving one's friends, and remaining a mere monument of the times which are past. I withdraw myself as much as possible from politics, and gladly shelter myself under the wings of the generation for which, in our day, we have labored faithfully to provide shelter. Yours with continued friendship and respect.

TO NOAH WORCESTER.1

Nov. 26, 1817.

SIR,-You have not been mistaken in supposing my views and feeling to be in favor of the abolition of war. Of my dispostion to maintain peace until its condition shall be made less tolerable than that of war itself, the world has had proofs, and more, perhaps, than it has approved. I hope it is practicable, by improving the mind and morals of society, to lessen the dispostion to war; but of its abolition I despair. Still, on the axiom that a less degree of evil is preferable to a greater, no means should be neglected which

1 Rev. Dr. Noah Worcester, now best known for his advocacy of peace between nations, and as the first Secretary of the Massachusetts Peace Society, was born in Hollis, N. H., Nov. 25, 1758, and died in Brighton, Mass., Oct. 31, 1837. During the Revolution he served for a time in the army as a fifer, and was present at the battles of Bunker Hill and Bennington. Subsequently he taught school, and afterward entered the ministry, and for fifteen years he was minister of a church in Thornton, N. H. He had been brought up as a Trinitarian, but previous to his removal to Brighton, in 1813, he became an avowed Unitarian. He was a voluminous writer on religious and philanthropic themes. See Ware's Memoirs of the Rev. Noah Worcester, D. D.-Eds.

may add weight to the better scale.

The enrolment

you propose, therefore, of my name in the records of your society cannot be unacceptable to me. It will be a true testimony of my principles and persuasion that the state of peace is that which most improves the manners and morals, the prosperity and happiness of mankind; and although I dare not promise myself that it can be perpetually maintained, yet if, by the inculcations of reason or religion, the perversities of our nature can be so far corrected as sometimes to prevent the necessity, either supposed or real, of an appeal to the blinder scourges of war, murder, and devastation, the benevolent endeavors of the friends of peace will not be entirely without remuneration. I pray you to accept the assurance of my respect and consideration.

TO BERNARD PEYTON.1

MONTICELLO, Mar. 20, 1818.

DEAR SIR,-I received yesterday your favor of the 16th, and am thankful for your attention to my wants. I saw William Johnson the evening before his boat started last. He told me that he should not go down himself, but that his brother would, and he

1 Bernard Peyton was a commission merchant in Richmond, and during the latter part of Jefferson's life transacted most, if not all, of his business in that city. It is interesting to note the fact that in consequence of the difficulty of buying raw cotton, in 1818, Jefferson proposed "to recur to the cultivating it" himself. The principal products of his plantations were wheat and tobacco.-EDS.