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TO GOODMAN, REED, BOYER & DUANE

POPLAR Forest near LynchBURG, Aug. 21, 17.

MESSRS. GOODMAN, REED, BOYER & DUANE:

Your letter of the 6th inst. is delivered to me at this place with an extract from the Franklin Republican of July 29. in these words. "Extract of a letter from Virginia. July 13. 1817. The day before yesterday I was at Monticello, & had the gratification to hear the chief of the elevated group there (Mr. Jefferson) express his anxious wish for the success of the democratic republican gubernatorial candidate in Pensylvania-As he says he has no opinion of tool or turnabout politicians just to serve their own aggrandisement." Now I declare to you, Gentlemen, on my honor that I never expressed a sentiment, or uttered a syllable to any mortal living on the subject of the election referred to in this extract. It is one into which I have never permitted even my wishes to enter, entertaining as I do a high respect for both the characters in competition, and not doubting that the state of Pensylvania will be happier under the "2. Never buy what you don't want, because it is cheap: it will be dear to you.

"3. Pride costs more than hunger, thirst and cold.

"4. Never put off till to-morrow what you can do to-day.

"5. Never trouble another for what you can do yourself.

"6. Think as you please and let others do so: you will then have no disputes.

"7. How much pain have cost us the things which have never happened.

"8. Take things always by their smooth handle.

"9. When angry count 10. before you speak. If very angry 100.

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"10. When at table, remember that we never repent of having eaten or drunk too little.

Hæc animo concipe dicta tuo et vale.”

government of either. If any further proof of the falsehood of this letter writer were required, it would be found in the fact that on the 11th of July, when he pretends to have seen me at Monticello, & to have been entrusted by me with expressions so highly condemnable, I was at this place 90 miles South West of that, attending to my harvest here. I had left Monticello on the 29th of June, & did not return to it until the 15th of July. The facts of my absence from the one place, & presence at the other, at that date, are well known to many inhabitants of the town of Charlottesville near the one, & of Lynchburg near the other place.

I am duly sensible of the sentiments of respect with which you are pleased to honor me in your letter, as I am also of those concerning myself in the resolutions of the respectable Committee of the New market ward, who have been led into error by this very false letter writer. These, I trust, will not be lessened on either side by my assurance that, considering this as a family question I do not allow myself to take any part in it, and the less as the issue either way cannot be unfavorable to republican government. I tender to both parties sincere sentiments of esteem & respect.

TO GEORGE TICKNOR

J. MSS.

POPLAR FOREST near LYNCHBURG, Nov. 25. 17.

DEAR SIR,-Your favor of Aug. 14. was delivered to me as I was setting out for the distant possession

from which I now write, & to which I pay frequent & long visits. On my arrival here I make it my first duty to write the letter you request to Mr. Erving, and to inclose it in this under cover to your father that you may get it in time. My letters are always letters of thanks because you are always furnishing occasion for them. I am very glad you have been so kind as to make the alteration you mention in the Herodotus & Livy I had asked from the Messrs. Desbures. I have not yet heard from them, but daily expect to do so, and to learn the arrival of my books. I shall probably send them another catalogue early in spring; every supply from them furnishing additional materials for my happiness.

I had before heard of the military ingredients which Bonaparte had infused into all the schools of France, but have never so well understood them as from your letter. The penance he is now doing for all his atrocities must be soothing to every virtuous heart. It proves that we have a god in heaven. That he is just, and not careless of what passes in this world. And we cannot but wish to this inhuman wretch, a long, long life, that time as well as intensity may fill up his sufferings to the measure of his enormities. But indeed what sufferings can atone for his crimes against the liberties & happiness of the human race; for the miseries he has already inflicted on his own generation, & on those yet to come, on whom he has rivetted the chains of despotism!

I am now entirely absorbed in endeavours to effect the establishment of a general system of education in my native state, on the triple basis, 1, of

elementary schools which shall give to the children of every citizen gratis, competent instruction in reading, writing, common arithmetic, and general geography. 2. Collegiate institutions for antient & modern languages, for higher instruction in arithmetic, geography & history, placing for these purposes a college within a day's ride of every inhabitant of the state, and adding a provision for the full education at the public expence of select subjects from among the children of the poor, who shall have exhibited at the elementary schools the most prominent indications of aptness of judgment & correct disposition. 3. An University in which all the branches of science deemed useful at this day, shall be taught in their highest degree. This would probably require ten or twelve professors, for most of whom we shall be obliged to apply to Europe, and most likely to Edinburg, because of the greater advantage the students will receive from communications made in their native language. This last establishment will probably be within a mile of Charlottesville, and four from Monticello, if the system should be adopted at all by our legislature who meet within a week from this time. My hopes however are kept in check by the ordinary character of our state legislatures, the members of which do not generally possess information enough to perceive the important truths, that knolege is power, that knolege is safety, and that knolege is happiness.

In the meantime, and in case of failure of the broader plan, we are establishing a college of general science, at the same situation near Charlottesville,

the scale of which, of necessity will be much more moderate, as resting on private donations only. These amount at present to about 75,000 Dollars. The buildings are begun, and by midsummer we hope to have two or three professorships in operation. Would to god we could have two or three duplicates of yourself, the original being above our means and hopes. If then we fail in doing all the good we wish, we will do at least all we can. This is the law of duty in every society of free agents, where every one has equal right to judge for himself. God bless you, and give to the means of benefiting mankind which you will bring home with you, all the success your high qualifications ought to insure.

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I have first to thank you, dear Sir, for the copy of your late work which you have been so kind as to send me, and then to render you double congratulations, first, on the general applause it has so justly received, and next on the public testimony of esteem for its author, manifested by your late call to the executive councils of the nation. All this I do heartily, and then proceed to a case of business on which you will have to advise the government on the threshold of your office. You have seen the death of General Kosciusko announced in the papers in such a way as not to be doubted. He had in the funds of the United States a very considerable sum of money,

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