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

TO THE GOVERNOR OF THE MISSISSIPPI TERRITORY (ROBERT WILLIAMS.) - Thomas Jefferson, The Works, vol. 10 (Correspondence and Papers 1803-1807) [1905]

Edition used:

The Works of Thomas Jefferson, Federal Edition (New York and London, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904-5). Vol. 10.

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 THE GOVERNOR OF THE MISSISSIPPI TERRITORY
(ROBERT WILLIAMS.)

Washington November 1, 1807.

Sir,

—I have duly received your letter of August 25th, in which you express a wish that the letters received from you may be acknoledged, in order to ascertain their safe transmission. Those received the present year have been of Mar. 14, May 11, & 30, June 8, July 3, August 12, and 25. They have not been before acknoleged in conformity with a practice which the constant pressure of business has forced me to follow, of not answering letters which do not necessarily require it. I have seen with regret, the violence of the dissensions in your quarter. We have the same in the territories of Louisiana & Michigan. It seems that the smaller the society the bitterer the dissensions into which it breaks. Perhaps this observation answers all the objections drawn by Mr. Adams from the small republics of Italy. I believe ours is to owe it’s permanence to it’s great extent, and the smaller portion comparatively, which can ever be convulsed at one time by local passions. We expect shortly now to hear from England, and to know how the present cloud is to terminate. We are all pacifically inclined here, if anything comes from thence which will permit us to follow our inclinations. I salute you with esteem & respect.