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Subject Area: Political Theory
Topic: The American Revolution and Constitution

TO MRS. SPROWLE - Thomas Jefferson, The Works, vol. 4 (Notes on Virginia II, Correspondence 1782-1786) [1905]

Edition used:

The Works of Thomas Jefferson, Federal Edition (New York and London, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904-5). Vol. 4.

Part of: The Works of Thomas Jefferson, 12 vols.

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


TO MRS. SPROWLE

j.mss.

Paris, July 5, 1785.

Madam,

—Your letter of the 21st of June has come safely to hand. That which you had done me the honour of writing before has not yet been received. Having gone by Dr. Witherspoon to America, which I had left before his return to it, the delay is easily accounted for.

I wish you may be rightly informed that the property of Mr. Sprowle is yet unsold. It was advertised for sale so long ago as to found a presumption that the sale has taken place. In any event, you may go safely to Virginia. It is in the London newspapers only that exist those mobs and riots which are fabricated to deter strangers from going to America. Your person will be sacredly safe, & free from insult. You can best judge from the character and qualities of your son whether he may be an useful coadjutor to you there. I suppose him to have taken side with the British before our declaration of independence; and if this was the case, I respect the candour of the measure, tho I do not it’s wisdom. A right to take the side which every man’s conscience approves in a civil contest is too precious a right and too favourable to the preservation of liberty not to be protected by all it’s well informed friends. The Assembly of Virginia have given sanction to this right in several of their laws, discriminating honourably those who took side against us before the declaration of independence, from those who remained among us and strove to injure us by their treacheries. I sincerely wish that you & every other to whom this distinction applies favourably, may find in the Assembly of Virginia the good effects of that justice & generosity which have dictated to them this discrimination. It is a sentiment which will gain strength in their breasts in proportion as they can forget the savage cruelties committed on them, and will I hope in the end induce them to restore the property itself wherever it is unsold, and the price received for it where it has been actually sold. I am Madam Your very humble servt,