Thomas Jefferson

From a letter by T. Jefferson

MONTICELLO, April 13, 1811.

Knowing your affection to this country, and the interest you take in whatever concerns it, I therein gave you a tableau of its state when I retired from the administration. Peace . . . has been our principle, peace in our interest, and peace has saved to the world this only plant of free and rational government now existing in it. If it can still be preserved, we shall soon see the final extinction of our national debt, and liberation of our revenues for the defence and improvement of our country.

These revenues will be levied entirely on the rich, the business of household manufacture being now so established that the farmer and laborer clothe themselves entirely. The rich alone use imported articles, and on these alone the whole taxes of the General Government are levied. The poor man who uses nothing but what is made in his own farm or family, or within his own country, pays not a farthing of tax to the general government, but on his salt ; and should we go into that manufacture also, as is probable, he will pay nothing. Our revenues liberated by the discharge of the public debt, and its surplus applied to canals, roads, schools, etc., the farmer will see his government supported, his children educated, and the face of his country made a paradise by by the contributions of the rich alone, without his being called on to spend a cent from his earnings. However, therefore, we may have been reproached for pursuing our Quaker system, time will affix the stamp of wisdom on it, and the happiness and prosperity of our citizens will attest its merit. And this, I believe, is the only legitimate object of government, and the first duty of governors . . .

JEFFERSON'S LETTERS,
Arranged by Willson Whitman
Eau Claire, Wisonsin (no date, before 1962)
p. 272

Selected bibliographic, http://melvyl.cdlib.org

Author Kościuszko, Tadeusz, 1746-1817. Title Autograph letters of Thaddeus Kosciuszko in the American Revolution : as well as those by and about him ... / edited by Metchie J.E. Budka. Publisher Chicago : Polish Museum of America, 1977. Description 202 p. : ill. ; 31 cm. Note Cover title: Kosciuszko letters in the American Revolution. Note Includes bibliographical references and index.

Title Jefferson/Kościuszko correspondence / edited and with an introd. and notes by Bogdan Grzeloński. Publisher Warsaw : Interpress, 1978. Description 127 p., [4] leaves of plates : ill. ; 21 cm. Note English and/or French. Language English Subject Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826. Kościuszko, Tadeusz, 1746-1817. Presidents -- United States -- Correspondence. Generals -- United States -- Correspondence.

Author Kościuszko, Tadeusz, 1746-1817. Title Korespondecja, 1798-1817 / Tadeusz Kościuszko, Thomas Jefferson ; przeł. Agnieszka Glinczanka, Jozef Paszkowski ; wybrała i wstępem opatrzyła Izabella Rusinowa. Edition Wyd. 1. Publisher Warszawa : Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1976. Description 157, [1] leaf of plates : ports. ; 21 cm. Note Polish and English. Subject Kościuszko, Tadeusz, 1746-1817. Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826. Generals -- United States -- Correspondence. Presidents -- United States -- Correspondence. Added Entry Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826.