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

TO TENCH COXE J. MSS. - Thomas Jefferson, The Works, vol. 8 (Correspondence 1793-1798) [1905]

Edition used:

The Works of Thomas Jefferson, Federal Edition (New York and London, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904-5). Vol. 8

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

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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 TENCH COXEJ. MSS.

Monticello June 1, 1795.

Dear Sir,—

I received a few days ago only your favor of Mar. 20. accompanied by the collection of your papers lately printed, for which I cordially thank you. It will enable me to turn with more convenience to pieces which I consult with pleasure & instruction.

I congratulate you on the successes of our two allies. Those of the Hollanders are new and therefore pleasing. It proves that there is a god in heaven, & that he will not slumber without end on the iniquities of tyrants, or their Stadtholder. This ball of liberty, I believe most piously, is now so well in motion that it will roll round the globe. At least the enlightened part of it, for light & liberty go together. It is our glory that we first put it into motion, & our happiness that being foremost we had no bad examples to follow. What a tremendous obstacle to the future attempts at liberty will be the atrocities of Robespierre! We are enjoying a most seasonable sowing after a winter which had greatly injured our small grain. Nothing can give us a great crop. I doubt if it can be made even a good one. Our first hay-cutting (clover) begins to-day. This may mark to you the difference of your seasons & ours. My clover in common upland fields which were never manured will yield 1500 lb. to the acre at this cutting, which I consider as an encouraging beginning. I take the liberty of asking your care of two letters, both of them of importance. I have not enclosed Monroe’s either to our office of foreign affairs or the Minister of France, because I thought you might possibly find a safer channel than either. It requires safety and secrecy. But adopt either of those channels if you think them the best. I am with much affection, dear sir, your friend & servant.