DUKE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2017 with funding from 
 Duke University Libraries 
 
 \ 
 
 https://archive.org/details/confidentallette01jeff 
 

 A.IV3 
 
 ,r J H-S & 
 
 
THE 
 
 CONFIDENTIAL LETTERS 
 
 FROM 
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON 
 
 T O 
 
 WILLIAM WIRT. 
 
 BEING 
 
 REMINISCENCES 
 
 OF 
 
 PATRICK HENRY. 
 
 Now for the first time printed in 
 full from the originals, 
 
 In the collection 
 John Gribbel of 
 
 belongino to 
 
 Philadelphia 
 
 PH I LADELPH 1A 
 Privately Printed 
 19 12 
 
Of this work there has been printed for private distribution only , 
 5 copies on pure Vellum , and JO copies on Whatman Paper . 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 These letters first appeared in the Magazine issued by the 
 Historical Society of Pennsylvania for October, 1910, and 
 are now issued privately by the owner, Mr. John Gribbel, 
 being copied verbatim , et literatim et punctuatim. 
 
 The first letter quoted was written by Hon. Wm. Wirt, the 
 Biographer of Patrick Henry, to Thos. Jefferson, and the fol- 
 lowing letters quoted, were written by Thos. Jefferson in a 
 confidential manner to the Hon. Wm. Wirt, complying with 
 the request conveyed in Wirt’s letter. In ’his letter Mr. 
 Wirt promised that their correspondence should be strictly 
 confidential, and says : “ I now give you on my honor , that any 
 communications which you shall please to confide to me, shall 
 be seen by no eyes but my own ; and that they shall be returned 
 to you as soon as I have used them. " The letters now printed 
 were for many years in the possession of a native of Virginia, 
 who was not aware of their contents. 
 
 This series of Jefferson’s letters really forms an outline 
 Biography of this Great Patriot of the Revolution. In his first 
 letter to Wirt, Jefferson says of Patrick Henry, “ were I to 
 give his character , in general terms, it would be of mixed aspect,' 
 and in his letters he carries out fully this prophecy ; as at the 
 very first he says “ he was certainly the man who gave the first 
 impulse to the ball of the revolution. * I think he was the best 
 humored man in society I almost ever knew and the greatest 
 orator that ever lived ; he had a consummate knolege of the 
 human heart, which directing the efforts of his eloquence enabled 
 him to attain a degree of popularity with the people at large 
 never perhaps equalled, his judgment on other matters was 
 inaccurate, and in matters of law it was not worth a copper ; he 
 was avaritious and rotten hearted ; his two great passions were 
 the love of money and of fame ; ' but when these came into 
 competition the former predominated." 
 
H 
 
 Introduction. 
 
 The casual reader has been lead to believe that Patrick 
 Henry’s maiden effort was at the time he delivered his famous 
 and powerful address before the Virginia House of Burgesse 
 on the Stamp Act, at which time he made the first actual 
 resistance to the tyranny of George III, but Mr. Jefferson 
 informs us that he made his first great effort a few years 
 before when, as a member of the Virginia House of Repre- 
 sentatives, he resisted successfully a Bill introduced in the 
 House by Mr. Robinson, Treasurer, for the purpose of allow- 
 ing him to loan the public funds on good landed security. It 
 appears that Robinson had already loaned to friends the 
 public monies to such an extent that he was on the verge of 
 being detected, and introduced this bill with the hopes of 
 transferring su?h security he had taken to the public account. 
 Henry resisted this scheme with all his eloquence and defeated 
 it. Henry at the time did not know of Robinson’s dishonesty, 
 but foresaw in the bill the danger to the public good. He 
 carried with him all the members of the upper Counties ; 
 and left a minority composed merely of the Aristocracy of the 
 country, who had borrowed the public monies from Robinson, 
 and Robinson’s deficit was not discovered until he died, about 
 four years later. This therefore was the first manifestation 
 of Mr. Henry’s genius, and immediately placed him among the 
 foremost statesmen of his time, to be soon followed by 
 his great peroration in the Virginia House of Burgesse in 
 May, 1765, when he astonished the whole Assembly with his 
 boldness, and by his super-human eloquence induced them to 
 denounce the enforcement of the Stamp Act in such language 
 as to threaten a separation if Great Britain still persisted. 
 He was opposed by all the older members, such as Randolph, 
 Bland, Pendleton, Wythe and, in fact, all members whose in- 
 fluence in the house had until then been unbroken, but 
 with his eloquent tongue he carried his bill successfully 
 over this great opposition by a majority of one vote. At the 
 time of its passage Mr. Peyton Randolph came out of the 
 House and said as he entered the lobby, “ by God, I would 
 have given joo guineas for a single vote” for as this would 
 
Introduction. 
 
 iii 
 
 have divided the House, the vote of Robinson, the Speaker, 
 would have rejected the resolution. Thus was Henry’s repu- 
 tation established according to the words of Jefferson as being 
 “ the greatest orator that ever lived;” and he who “ gave the 
 first impulse to the ball of the revolution ,” and whose patriotism 
 and pluck produced the second Patrick Henry in the person 
 of Samuel Adams of Massachusetts. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson then gives in these letters a full account of 
 Patrick Henry’s failure to draw up the “ Address to the People 
 of Great Britain and a Memorial to the People of British 
 America,” which duty had been assigned to him by the Con- 
 tinental Congress; and says that Henry “ could not drazv a 
 bill on the most simple subject which would have stood legal 
 criticism or even the ordinary criticism which looks to correctness 
 of stile & idea.” Thus as we peruse the letters we find Jeffer- 
 son placing Henry on a pinnacle of greatness, and then cast- 
 ing him down, and again elevating him only to denounce him 
 later on. 
 
 In the course of this correspondence Mr. Jefferson reviews 
 all the principal acts in the life of the great orator, stating how 
 he started his career with little property and acting as a bar- 
 keeper in the tavern at Hanover Court House. How he 
 afterwards started a little store and failed, and then turned 
 his attention to legal practice, after reading law for only six 
 weeks. How he limited his practice to addressing juries, 
 mostly in criminal cases, for which he received large fees. 
 His failure as a military man. His career as a member of the 
 Continental Congress, and as Governor of Virginia, &c. 
 
 He also reviews the manuscript of the Life of Patrick Henry, 
 sent him by Wm. Wirt, and makes numerous corrections and 
 interesting suggestions, one of particular interest referring to 
 Mr. Henry’s Military Career, in which he says : “ Why bring 
 it into view at all? Mr. Henry's transcendant eminence as an 
 Orator dr Statesman and especially his unquestioned primacy in 
 bringing on the revolution give him a mass of fame sufficient to 
 satisfy any ambition, to claim for him questionable merits detracts 
 more than it adds in the estimate of his character. Demosthenes 
 
IV 
 
 Introduction. 
 
 like Henry was unquestioned as an Orator and Statesman , but 
 doubted as a soldier." 
 
 That these letters are an unique and valuable contribution 
 to the History of the American Revolution will be readily 
 perceived by their perusal, and to the generosity of the owner, 
 Mr. John Gribbel, of Philadelphia, must the thanks of the 
 historical student be given for preserving in a definite manner 
 their valuable contents. 
 
 Stan. V. Henkels. 
 
Wirt’s letter to Thomas Jefferson, asking him for 
 
 INFORMATION, AS TO THE CHARACTER OF PATRICK 
 
 Henry and his eminent associates. 
 
 Williamsburg, July 23, 1805. 
 
 Dr Sir. 
 
 In this intermission of your public labours, I hope there 
 may be nothing improper in begging the aid of your mem- 
 ory towards a little literary project which I have on foot. 
 I am collecting memoirs of the late Patrick Henry. His 
 life and example appear to me to afford some fine lessons. 
 His faults as well as virtues will be instructive, and I pro- 
 pose to myself to be his biographer; not his panegyrist. I 
 find much difficulty in collecting materials such as will 
 enable me to render this work interesting. The materials 
 which I collect are too general and jejune; there is nothing 
 in them which brings me near to the character of Mr. 
 Henry or which will enable me to bring my reader so. 
 
 After such repeated proofs of the perfidy and treachery 
 of man, as you have experienced, I am almost afraid to ask 
 or to hope that you will trust me with free communications 
 concerning Mr. Henry. 
 
 From the very little indeed that you know of me ; I feel 
 considerable difficulty in making this request ; but I know 
 that you confide, justly, in your nephews Peter & Dabney 
 Carr and to them I am intimately known. If you find 
 their report of me such as I anticipate, you will believe the 
 assurance which I now give you on my honor, that any com- 
 munications which you shall be pleased to confide to me, 
 shall be seen by no eyes, but my own, and that they shall 
 be returned to you as soon as I have used them. I am 
 peculiarly anxious on this subject because I know, from your 
 thorough acquaintance with Mr. Henry, that information so 
 minute, authentic and interesting as you could give would 
 be alone sufficient to stamp the highest value on my work. 
 
 It would, I think, be a capital embellishment to the piece 
 to paint, at least in the back ground, the groupe of eminent 
 men with whom he acted. You knew them all, personally 
 
2 Jefferson’s Recollections of Patrick Henry. 
 
 and intimately, and would perhaps find it not too trouble- 
 some to favor me with a short character of each of them — 
 his competitors at the bar, in the Virginia house of burgesses 
 & in the old congress. 
 
 I experience much solicitude in sending this letter to you. 
 I would not for any consideration that you should think me 
 either presumptuous or troublesome. Let me hope that 
 you will not think me so. On the contrary, if it be at all 
 disagreeable to you, either for the want of time or inclina- 
 tion, to grant this request, I beg that you will reject it, 
 without a moment’s regret. Such a circumstance could 
 not, in any degree, diminish the profound and increasing 
 respect & esteem, with which I am, Dear Sir, 
 
 Yr du. Serv. 
 
 Wm. Wirt. 
 
Jefferson’s Recollections of Patrick Henry. 
 
 3 
 
 Thomas Jefferson’s letter to William Wirt, acceeding 
 
 TO HIS REQUEST, TO FURNISH ANECDOTES, AND A GENERAL 
 
 resume of Patrick Henry’s public life, and in 
 
 WHICH HE PRONOUNCES HIM THE GREATEST 
 ORATOR THAT EVER LIVED. 
 
 Monticello Aug. 4. 
 
 Dear Sir 
 
 Your favor of July 24. has been duly received: and I 
 feel every disposition to comply with your request respecting 
 mr Henry: but I fear to promise from a doubt whether my 
 occupations would permit me the time requisite to recollect 
 and commit to paper the facts respecting him which were 
 within my own knolege; as we had a very familiar inter- 
 course for upwards of 20 years, & ran our course nearly 
 together, during this our political principles being the 
 same, we acted in perfect concert until the year If 81. I 
 witnessed the part he bore in nearly all the great questions 
 of that period, & perhaps could recollect some anecdotes 
 not uninteresting, he was certainly the man who gave the 
 first impulse to the ball of revolution, were I to give 
 his character in general terms, it would be of mixed aspect. 
 I think he was the best humored man in society I almost 
 ever knew, and the greatest orator that ever lived, he had 
 a consummate knolege of the human heart, which directing 
 the efforts of his eloquence enabled him to attain a degree 
 of popularity with the people at large never perhaps equalled, 
 his judgment in other matters was inaccurate, in matters of 
 law it was not worth a copper : he was avaritious & rotten 
 hearted, his two great passions were the love of money & 
 of fame : but when these came in competition the former 
 predominated. If the work you propose is not destined to 
 come out speedily I will endeavor to recollect what may be 
 of use to it. be assured I want the testimony of nobody as 
 to the honorable use you would make of my communica- 
 tions. Accept toy friendly salutations & assurances of sincere 
 esteem & respect. 
 
 Th: Jefferson 
 
 M r Wert 
 
4 
 
 Jefferson’s Recollections of Patrick Henry. 
 
 Thomas Jefferson’s Anecdotal Reminiscences of 
 Patrick Henry. 
 
 My acquaintance with mr. Henry commenced in the win- 
 ter of 1759-60. on my way to the college I passed the 
 Christmas holidays at Col° Dandridge’s in Hanover, to 
 whom mr Henry was a near neighbor, during the festivity 
 of the season I met him in society every day, and we be- 
 come well acquainted, altho’ I was much his junior, being 
 then in my IT 11 ' year, & he a married man. the spring fol- 
 lowing he came to Williamsburg to obtain a license as a 
 lawyer, and he called on me at College, he told me he 
 had been reading law only 6. weeks, two of the examiners 
 however, Peyton & John Randolph, men of great facility of 
 temper, signed his license with as much reluctance as their 
 dispositions would permit them to shew, mr Wythe abso- 
 lutely refused. Rob. C. Nicholas refused also at first, but, 
 on repeated importunities & promises of future reading, he 
 signed, these facts I had afterwards from the gentlemen them- 
 selves, the two Randolphs acknoleging he was very ignorant 
 of law, but that they perceived him to be a young man of 
 genius & did not doubt he would soon qualify himself. 
 
 He was, some time after, elected a representative of the 
 county of Hanover, & brought himself into public notice on 
 the following occasion which I think took place in 1762. or 
 a year sooner or later, the gentlemen of this country had 
 at that time become deeply involved in that state of indebt- 
 ment which has since ended in so general a crush of their 
 fortunes. Robinson, the Speaker, was also Treasurer, an 
 officer always chosen by the assembly, he was an excellent 
 man, liberal, friendly, & rich, he had been drawn in to 
 lend, on his own account, great sums of money to persons 
 of this description, & especially those who were of the 
 assembly. He used freely for this purpose the public 
 money, confiding, for it’s replacement, in his own means, & 
 the securities he had taken on those loans, about this time 
 however he became sensible that his deficit to the public 
 was become so enormous as that a discovery must soon take 
 
Jefferson's Recollections of Patrick Henry. 5 
 
 place, for as yet the public had no suspicion of it. he de- 
 vised therefore, with his friends in the assembly, a plan for 
 a public loan office to a certain amount, from which monies 
 might be lent on public account, and on good landed secur- 
 ity, to individuals, this was accordingly brought forward 
 in the House of Burgesses, and had it succeeded, the debts 
 due to Robinson on these loans would have been transferred 
 to the public, & his deficit thus corapleatly covered, this 
 state of things however was not yet known : but mr Henry 
 attacked the scheme, on other general grounds, in that style 
 of bold, grand & overwhelming eloquence, for which he be- 
 came so justly celebrated afterwards, he carried with him 
 all the members of the upper counties. & left a minority 
 composed merely of the aristocracy of the country, from 
 this time his popularity swelled apace; & Robinson dying 
 about 4 years after, his deficit was brought to light, & dis- 
 covered the true object of the proposition. 
 
 The next great occasion on which he signalised himself 
 was that which may be considered as the dawn of the revo- 
 lution, in March 1774. the British parliament had passed 
 resolutions preparatory to the levying a revenue on the Col- 
 onies by a Stamp tax. the Virginia assembly, at their next 
 session, prepared & sent to England very elaborate represen- 
 tations addressed in separate forms to the King, Lords, & 
 Commons, against the right to impose such taxes, the 
 famous ‘Stamp act was however passed in Jan. 1765. and in 
 the session of the Virginia assembly of May following, mr 
 Henry introduced the celebrated resolutions of that date, 
 these were drawn by George Johnston, a lawyer of the 
 Northern neck, a very able, logical & correct Speaker, mr 
 Henry moved, & Johnston seconded these resolutions suc- 
 cessivelv. they were opposed by Randolph. Bland, Pendle- 
 ton, Nicholas, Wythe & all the old members whose influ- 
 ence in the house had, till then, been unbroken, they did 
 it, not from any question of our rights, but on the ground 
 that the same sentiments had been, at their preceding ses- 
 sion, expressed in a more conciliatory form, to which the 
 answers were not yet received, but torrents of sublime elo- 
 quence from mr Henry, backed by the solid reasoning of 
 Johnston, prevailed, the last however, & strongest resolu- 
 
6 Jefferson ’$ Recollections of Patrick Henry. 
 
 tion was carried but by a single vote, the debate on it was 
 most bloody. I was then but a student, & was listening at 
 the door of the lobby (for as yet there was no gallery) 
 when Peyton Randolph, after the vote, came out of the 
 house, and said, as he entered the lobby, “by God, I would 
 have given 500. guineas for a single vote. ’ ’ for as this would 
 have divided the house, the vote of Robinson, the Speaker, 
 would have rejected the resolution, mr Henry left town 
 that evening, & the next morning before the meeting of the 
 House, I saw Peter Randolph, then of the Council, but who 
 had formerly been clerk to the house, for an hour or two at 
 the Clerk’s table, searching the old journals for a precedent 
 of a resolution of the house, erased, while he was clerk, 
 from the journals, by a subsequent ordeu of the house, 
 whether he found it, or not, I do not remember; but, when 
 the house met, a motion was made & carried to erase that 
 resolution : and, there being at that day but one printer, & 
 he entirely under the control of the Governor, I do not know 
 that this resolution ever appeared in print. I write this 
 from memory: but the impression made on me, at the time, 
 was such as to fix the facts indelibly in my mind. 
 
 I came into the legislature as a Burgess for the county of 
 Albermarle in the winter of 1768.9. on the accession of L d 
 Botetourt to the government, and about 9 years after mr 
 Henry had entered on the stage of public life, the exact 
 conformity of our political opinions strengthened our friend- 
 ship: and indeed the old leaders of the house being sub- 
 stantially firm, we had not after this any differences of opin- 
 ion in the H of Burgesses, on matters of principle; tho’ 
 sometimes on matters of form, we were dissolved by L d 
 Botetourt at our first session, but all were re-elected, there 
 being no division among us, occasions became very raie for 
 any ''display of mr Henry’s eloquence, in ordinary business 
 he was a very inefficient member, he could not draw a bill 
 on the most simple subject which would bear legal criticism, 
 or even the ordinary criticism which looks to correctness of 
 stile & idea : for indeed there was no accuracy of idea in his 
 head, his imagination was copious, poetical, sublime; but 
 vague also, he said the strongest things in the finest language, 
 but without logic, without arrangement, desultorily, this ap- 
 
Jefferson’s Recollections of Patrick Eenrxj. 7 
 
 peared eminently & in a mortifying degree in the first ses- 
 sions of the first Congress, which met in Sep. 1774. mr 
 Henry & Richard Henry Lee took at once the lead in that 
 assembly, & by the high style of their eloquence, were, in the 
 first days of the session, looked up to as primi inter pares, 
 a Petition to the king, an Address to the people of Great 
 Britain and a Memorial to the people of British America 
 were agreed to be drawn. Lee, Henry & others were ap- 
 pointed for the first, Lee, Livingston & Jay for the two last, 
 the splendor of their debut occasioned mr Henry to be des- 
 ignated by his committee to draw the petition to the king, 
 with which they were charged; and mr Lee was charged 
 with the Address to the people of England, the last was first 
 reported, on reading it, every countenance fell & a dead si- 
 lence ensued for many minutes, at length it was laid on the 
 table for perusal & consideration till the next day, when first 
 one member & then another arose, & paying some faint 
 compliments to the composition, observed that there were 
 still certain considerations, not expressed in it, which should 
 properly find a place in it. at length mr Livingston (the Gov- 
 ernor of New Jersey) a member of the Committee rose & 
 observed that a friend of his had been sketching what he had 
 thought might be proper for such an address, from w hich 
 he thought some paragraphs might be advantageously in- 
 troduced into the draught proposed : & he read an 
 
 Address which mr Jay had prepared de beneesse as it were 
 there was but one sentiment of admiration, the Address was 
 recommitted for amendment, and mr Jay’s draught reported 
 & adopted with scarce an alteration, these facts were stated 
 to me by mr. Pendleton & Col° Harrison of our own delega- 
 tion, except that Col° Harrison ascribed the draught to Gov r 
 Livingston, & were afterwards confirmed to me by Gov r 
 Livingston, and I will presently mention an anecdote con- 
 firmative of them from mr Jay & R. H. Lee themselves. 
 
 M r Henry’s draught of a petition to the king was equally 
 unsuccessful, & was recommitted for amendment, mr John 
 Dickinson was added to the committee, & a new draught 
 prepared by him was passed. 
 
 The occasion of my learning from mr Jay that he was 
 the author of the Address to the people of Great Britain re- 
 
8 Jefferson’s Recollections of Patrick Henri/. 
 
 quires explanation by a statement of some preceding cir- 
 cumstances. the 2 d session of the 1 st Congress met on 
 their own adjournment in May 1775. Peyton Randolph 
 was their President, in the mean time L d North’s concila- 
 tory propositions came over, to be laid by the Governors be- 
 fore their legislatures. L d Dunmore accordingly called that 
 of Virginia to meet in June, this obliged Peyton Randolph, 
 as Speaker, to return, our other old members being at Con- 
 gress, he pressed me to draw the answer to L d North’s prop- 
 ositions. I accordingly did so, & it passed with a little soft- 
 ening of some expressions for which the times were not yet 
 ripe, & wire-drawing & weakening some others to satisfy 
 individuals. I had been appointed to go on to Congress 
 in place of Peyton Randolph, & proceeded immediately, 
 charged with presenting this answer to Congress, as it was 
 the first which had been given, and the tone of it was 
 strong, the members were pleased with it, hoping it would 
 have a good effect on the answers of the other states, a Com- 
 mittee which had been appointed to prepare a Declaration 
 to be published by Gen 1 Washington on his arrival at the 
 army, having reported one, it was recommitted, & Dickin- 
 son & myself added to the Committee, on the adjournment 
 of the house, happening to go out with Gov r Livingston, 
 one of the Committee, I expressed to him my hope he 
 would draw the Declaration, he modestly excused himself, 
 & expressed his wish that T would do it. but urging him 
 with considerable importunity, he at length said “you & I, 
 sir, are but new acquaintances; what can have excited so 
 earnest a desire on your part that I should be the draughts- 
 man? why, Sir. said I, I have been informed you drew the 
 Address to the people of Great Britain; I think it the first 
 composition in the English language, & therefore am anx- 
 ious this declaration should be prepared by the same pen. 
 he replied that I might have been misinformed on that sub- 
 ject.” a few days after, being in conversation with R. H. Lee 
 in Congress hall, a little before the meeting of the house, 
 mr Jay observing us, came up, & taking R. H. Lee by a 
 button of the coat, said to him pretty sternly, “I understand. 
 Sir. that you informed this gentleman that the Address to 
 the people of Great Britain, presented to the Committee by 
 
Jefferson’s Recollections of Patrick Henry. 9 
 
 me, was drawn by Governor Livingston ? ’ ’ the fact was 
 that the Comm 6 * having consisted of only Lee, Livingston 
 who was father-in-law of Jay, & Jay himself, & Lee s draught 
 having been rejected & Jay’s approved so unequivocally, his 
 suspicions naturally fell on Lee, as author of the report; & 
 rather as they had daily much sparring in Congress, Lee being 
 firm in the revolutionary measures, & Jay hanging heavily on 
 their rear. I immediately stopped mr Jay, & assured him 
 that tho’ I had indeed been so informed, it was not by mr 
 Lee, whom I had never heard utter a word on the subject. 
 
 I found mr Henry to be a silent, & almost unmedling mem- 
 ber in Congress, on the original opening of that body, while 
 general grievances were the topic, he was in his element, & 
 captivated all with his bold & splendid eloquence, but as 
 soon as they came to specific matters, to sober reasoning & 
 solid argumentation, he had the good sense to perceive that 
 his declamation, however excellent in it’s proper place, had 
 no weight at all in such an assembly as that, of cool-headed, 
 reflecting, judicious men. he ceased therefore in a great 
 measure to take any part in the business, he seemed indeed 
 very tired of the place, & wonderfully relieved when, by ap- 
 pointment of the Virginia Convention to be Colonel of their 
 l 9t regiment, he was permitted to leave Congress about the 
 last of July. 
 
 How he acquitted himself in his military command will 
 be better known from others, he was relieved from this po- 
 sition again by being appointed Governor, on the first organi- 
 zation of the government. After my services as his successor 
 in the same office, my appointment to Congress in 1783. 
 mission to Europe in 84. & appointment in the new govern- 
 ment iu 89. kept us so far apart that I had no farther per- 
 sonal knolege of him. 
 
 M r Henry began his career with very little property, he 
 acted, as I have understood, as bar-keeper in the tavern at 
 Hanover C. H. for some time, he married very young; set- 
 tled, I believe, at a place called the Roundabout in Louisa, 
 got credit for some little store of merchandise, but very soon 
 failed, from this he turned his views to the law, for the acqui- 
 sition or practice of which however he was too lazy, when- 
 ever the courts were closed for the winter season, he would 
 
10 Jefferson’s Recollections of Patrick Henry. 
 
 make up a party of poor hunters of his neighborhood, would 
 go off with them to the piney woods of Fluvanna, & pass 
 weeks in hunting deer, of which he was passionately fond, 
 sleeping under a tent, before a fire, wearing the same shirt 
 the whole time, & covering all the dirt of his dress with a 
 hunting shirt, he never undertook to draw pleadings, if he 
 could avoid it, or to manage that part of a cause, & very 
 unwillingly engaged but as an assistant, to speak in the cause, 
 and the fee was an indispensable preliminary, observing to 
 the applicant that he kept no accounts, never putting pen to 
 paper, which was true, his powers over a jury were so irre- 
 sistible, that he received great fees for his services, & had the 
 reputation of being insatiable in money, after about 10. 
 years practice in the County courts, he came to the General 
 court, where however, being totally unqualified for any thing 
 but mere jury causes, he devoted himself to these, & chiefly 
 to the criminal business, from these poor devils, it was 
 always understood that he squeezed exhorbitant fees of 50. 
 100. & 200.£. from this source he made his great profits, 
 and they were said to be great, his other business, exclu- 
 sive of the criminal, would never, I am sure, pay the expenses 
 of his attendance at the court, he now purchased from mr Lo- 
 max the valuable estate on the waters of Smith’s river, to which 
 he afterwards removed, the purchase was on long credit, & 
 finally paid in depreciated paper, not worth oak leaves, 
 about the close of the war he engaged in the Yazoo specu- 
 lation, & bought up a great deal of depreciated paper at 2/ 
 & 2/6 in the pound to pay for it. at the close of the war, 
 many of us wished to re-open all accounts which had been 
 paid in depreciated money; & have them settled by the 
 scale of depreciation, but on this he frowned most indig- 
 nantly: & knowing the general indisposition of the legis- 
 lature, it was considered hopeless to attempt it with such 
 an opponent at their head as Henry. I believe he never 
 distinguished himself so much as on the similar question of 
 British debts, in the case of Jones & Walker, he had exerted 
 a degree of industry in that case totally foreign to his char- 
 acter, & not only seemed, but had made himself really 
 learned on the subject, another of the great occasions on 
 which he exhibited examples of eloquence, such as probably 
 
Jefferson’s Recollections of Patrick Henry. 11 
 
 had never been exceeded, was on the question of adopting 
 the new constitution in 1788. to this he was most violently 
 opposed, as is well known; &, after it’s adoption, he contin- 
 ued hostile to it, expressing, more than any other man in the 
 U. S. his thorough contempt & hatred of Gen 1 Washington, 
 from being the most violent of all anti-federalists however, 
 he was brought over to the new constitution by his Yazoo 
 speculation before mentioned, the Georgia legislature hav- 
 ing declared that transaction fraudulent & void, the de- 
 preciated paper which he had bought up to pay for the 
 Yazoo purchase was likely to remain on his hands worth 
 nothing, but Hamilton’s funding system came most oppor- 
 tunely to his relief, & suddenly raised his paper from 2/6 to 
 27/* the pound. Hamilton became now his idol, and aban- 
 doning the republican advocates of the constitution, the fed- 
 eral government, on federal principles, became his political 
 creed. Gen 1 Washington flattered him by an appointment 
 to a mission to Spain, which however he declined; and by 
 proposing to him the office of Secretary of state, on the 
 most earnest solicitation of Gen 1 Henry Lee, who pledged 
 himself that Henry should not accept it. for Gen 1 Washing- 
 ton knew that he was entirely unqualified for it; & moreover 
 that his self-esteem had never suffered him to act as 
 second to any man on earth. I had this fact from infor- 
 mation; but that of the mission to Spain is of my own 
 knolege ; because, after my retiring from the office of 
 Secretary of State, Gen 1 Washington passed on the papers to 
 mr Henry through my hands, mr Henry’s apostacy, sunk 
 him to nothing, in the estimation of his country, he lost 
 at once all that influence which federalism had hoped, by 
 cajoling him, to transfer with him to itself,, and a man who, 
 through a long & active life, had been the idol of his 
 country, beyond any one that ever lived ; descended to the 
 grave with less than it’s indifference, and verified the saying 
 of the philosopher, that no man must be called happy till 
 he is dead. 
 
12 
 
 Jefferson’s Recollections of Patrick Henry. 
 
 Thomas Jefferson’s letter, giving a history of Patrick 
 Henry’s celebrated Resolution of 1765 in the 
 Virginia House of Burgesse, and criticising 
 Judge Marshall and Burke, the historian, 
 
 FOR THEIR INCORRECT STATEMENTS OF THE 
 SAME. 
 
 Monticello Aug. 14. 14. 
 
 Dear Sir 
 
 I have been laying under contribution my memory, my 
 private papers, the printed records, gazettes & pamphlets in 
 my possession, to answer the enquiries of your letter of July 
 27. and I will give you the result as correctly as I can. I 
 kept no copy of the paper I sent you on a former occasion, 
 on the same subject, nor do I retain an exact recollection of 
 it’s contents; but if in that I stated the question on the loan 
 office to have been in 1762. I did it with too slight attention 
 to the date, altho’ not to the fact. I have examined the 
 journals of the House of Burgesses of 1760. 1. 2. in my pos- 
 session, and find no trace of the proceeding in them, by those 
 of 1764. I find that the famous Address to the King, and 
 Memorials to the Houses of Lords & Commons, on the pro- 
 posal of the stamp act, were of that date; and I know that 
 mr Henry was not a member of the legislature when they 
 were passed. I know also, because I was present, that 
 Robinson, (who died in May 1766.) was in the chair on the 
 question of the loan office, mr Henry then must have come 
 in between these two epochs, and consequently in 1765. of 
 this year I have no journals to refresh my memory, the first 
 session was in May, and his first remarkable exhibition 
 there was on the motion for the establishment of an office 
 for lending money on mortgages of real property. I find 
 in Royle’s Virginia gazette of the 17 th of that month, this 
 proposition for the loan office brought forward, it’s advan- 
 tages detailed, and the plan explained; and it seems to have 
 been done by a borrowing member, from the feeling with 
 which the motives are expressed; and to have been prepar- 
 atory to the intended motion, this was probably made im- 
 mediately after that date, and certainly before the 30 th 
 
Jefferson’s Recollections of Patrick Henry. 13 
 
 which was the date of mr Henry’s famous resolutions. I 
 had been intimate with mr Henry from the winter of 1759. 
 60. and felt an interest in what concerned him, & I can 
 never forget a particular exclamation of his in the debate 
 which electrified his hearers, it had been urged that from 
 certain unhappy circumstances of the colony, men of su - 
 stantial property had contracted debts, which, if exacted 
 suddenly, must ruin them & their families, but with a little 
 indulgence of time might be paid with ease, “what Sir, 
 exclaimed mr Henry, in animadverting on this, “is it pro- 
 posed then to reclaim the Spendthrift from his dissipation 
 and extravagance, by filling his pockets with money?’’ 
 these expressions are indelibly impressed on my memory, 
 he laid open with so much energy the spirit of favoritism on 
 which the proposition was founded, & the abuses to which 
 it would lead, that it was crushed in it’s birth, abortive 
 motions are not always entered on the journals, or rather 
 they are rarely entered, it is the modern, introduction of 
 Yeas and Nays which has given the means of placing a rejected 
 motion on the journals: and it is likely that the Speaker, 
 who, as Treasurer, was to be the loan officer, and had the 
 direction of the journals, would chuse to omit an entry of 
 the motion in this case, this accounts sufficiently for the 
 absence of any trace of the motion on the journals, there 
 was no suspicion then (as far at least as I knew) that Rob- 
 inson had used the public money in private loans to his 
 friends, and that the secret object of this scheme was to 
 transfer those debtors to the public, and thus clear his 
 accounts. I have diligently examined the names of the 
 members on the journals of 1764. to see if any were still 
 living to whose memory we might recur on this subject, but 
 I find not a single one now remaining in life. 
 
 Of the parsons’ cause I remember nothing, remarkable. 
 I was at school with mr Maury during the years 1758. & 
 1759. and often heard him inveigh against the iniquity of 
 the act of 1758. called the two-penny act. in 1753 when 
 that cause was decided in Hanover, I was a law-student in 
 Williamsburg, and remember only that it was a subject of 
 much conversation, and of great paper-controversy, in which 
 Camm, & Col 0 Bland were the principal champions. 
 
14 Jefferson's Recollections of Patridc Henry. 
 
 The disputed election in which mr Henry made himself 
 remarkable must have been that of Dandridge ft Littlepage 
 in 1764, of which however I recollect no particulars, altho* 
 I was still a student in Williamsburg, ft paid attention to 
 what was passing in the legislature. 
 
 I proceed now to the Resolutions of 1765. the copies you 
 inclose me and that inserted by judge Marshal in his hwtory, 
 and copied verbatim by Burke, are really embarassing by 
 their differences. 1. that of the 4. resolutions taken from 
 the records of the House is the genuine copy of what they 
 passed, as amended by themselves, cannot be doubted. 2. 
 that the copy which mr Henry left sealed up is a true copy 
 of these 4 resolutions, as reported by the committee, there is 
 no reason to doubt. 3. that judge Marshal’s version of 3. 
 of these resolutions (for he has omitted one altogether) is 
 from an nnauthentie source, is sufficiently proved by their 
 great variation from the record in diction, altho equivalent 
 in sentiment, but what are we to say of mr Henry’s 5 th and 
 of Marshal’s two last, which we may call the 6 tfc and 7** 
 resolutions? the 5 th has clearly nothing to justify the de- 
 bate and proceedings which one of them produced, but the 
 6 th is of that character, and perfectly tallies with the idea 
 impressed on my mind of that which was expunged. Judge 
 Marshall tells us that two were disagreed to by the house, 
 which may be true. I do not indeed recollect it, but I 
 have no recollection to the contrary, my hypothesis then 
 is this, that the two disagreed to were the 5 th and 7** 
 the 5 th because merely tautologous of the 3 d ft 4 th and 
 7 th because leading to individual persecution, for which no 
 mind was then prepared: and that the 6* k was the one 
 passed by the House, by a majority of a single vote, ft ex- 
 punged from the Journals the next day. I was standing at 
 the door of communication between the house and lobby 
 during the debate and vote, & well remember that after the 
 numbers on the division were told, and declared from the 
 chair, Peyton Randolph (then Atty Gen') came out at the 
 door where I was standing, and exclaimed “by god I would 
 have given 100. Guineas for a single vote.’’ for one vote 
 would have divided the house, and Robinson was in the 
 chair who he knew would have negatived the resolution. 
 
Jefferson’s Recollections of Patrick Henry. 15 
 
 mr Henry left town that evening, or the next morning; and 
 Col 0 Peter Randolph, then a member of the Council, came 
 to the H. of Burgesses about ten oclock of the forenoon, 
 and sat at the clerk’s table till the house-bell rang, thumb- 
 ing over the volumes of Journals to find a precedent of ex- 
 punging a vote of the house, which he said had taken place 
 while he was a member, or clerk of the house, I do not 
 recollect which. I stood by him at the end of the table a 
 considerable part of the time, looking on as he turned over 
 the leaves; but I do not recollect whether he found the 
 erasure, in the meantime some of the timid members, 
 who had voted for the strongest resolution, had become 
 alarmed, and as soon as the house met a motion was made 
 and carried to expunge it from the journals, and here I will 
 observe that Burke’s statement of mr Henry’s consenting 
 to withdraw two resolutions, by way of compromise with 
 his opponents is entirely erroneous. I suppose the original 
 journal was among those destroyed by the British, or it’s 
 obliterated face might be appealed to. it is a pity this in- 
 vestigation was not made a few years sooner, when some of 
 the members of the day were still living. I think enquiry 
 should be made of Judge Marshal for the source from which 
 he derived his copy of the Resolutions, this might throw 
 light on the 6 th and 7 th which I verily believe and espe- 
 cially the 6 th to be genuine in substance. On the whole I 
 suppose the 4. resolutions which are on the record were 
 past and retained by the House ; that the 6 th is that which 
 was passed by a single vote and expunged, and the 5 th & 
 7 th the two which judge Marshal says were disagreed to. 
 that mr Henry’s c<5py then should not have stated all this 
 is the remaining difficulty, this copy he probably sealed up 
 long after the transaction ; for it was long afterwards that 
 these resolutions, instead of the Address & Memorials of 
 the preceding year, were looked back to as the commence- 
 ment of the legislative opposition, his own judgment may, 
 at a later date, have approved of the rejection of the 6 th 
 and 7 th altho’ not of the 5 th and he may have left & sealed 
 up a copy, in his own handwriting, as approved by his ulti- 
 mate judgment, this, to be sure, is conjecture, and may 
 rightfully be rejected by any one to whom a more plausible 
 
16 Jefferson’s Recollections of Patrick Henry. 
 
 solution, may occur: and there I must leave it. the address 
 of 1764. was drawn by Peyton Randolph, who drew the 
 Memorial to the Lords I do not recollect: but mr Wythe 
 wrote that to the Commons, it was done with so much free- 
 dom that, as he has told me himself, his colleagues of the 
 Committee shrunk from it as wearing the aspect of treason, 
 and smoothed its features to it's present form, he was in- 
 deed one of the very few (for I can barely speak of them 
 m the plural number) of either character, who, from the 
 commencement of the contest, hung our connection with 
 Britain on, its true hook, that of a common king, his un- 
 assuming character however, made him appear as a follower, 
 while his sound judgment kept him in a line with the freest 
 spirit, by these resolutions mr Henry took the lead out of 
 the hands of those who had heretofore guided the proceed- 
 ings of the House, that is to say, of Pendleton, Wythe, 
 land, Randolph, Nicholas, these were honest and able 
 men, had begun the opposition on the same grounds, but 
 with a moderation more adapted to their age and experience 
 subsequent events favored the bolder spirits of Henry the 
 Lees, Pages, Mason etc. with whom I went in all points 
 sensible however of the importance of unanimity among our 
 constituents, altho’ we often wished to have gone faster, we 
 slackened our pace that our less ardent colleagues might 
 ee J>.,UP with us: and they, on their part, differing nothing 
 from us in principle, quickened their gait somewhat beyond 
 that which their prudence might of .itself; have advised, and 
 thus consolidated the phalanx which breasted the power of 
 Britain, by this harmony of the bqld with the cautious, we 
 advanced with our constituents in undivided mass, and with 
 fewer examples of separation than perhaps existed in any 
 other part of the Union. 
 
 I do not remember the topics of mr Henry’s argument: 
 but those of his opposers were that the same sentiments had 
 been expressed in the Address and Memorials of the preced- 
 ing session, to which an answer was expected and not yet 
 received. I well remember the cry ol treason, the pause of 
 mr Henry at the name of George the III d and the presence 
 of mind with which he closed his sentence, and baffled the 
 charge vociferated. I do not think he took the position in 
 
Jefferson’s Recollections of Patrick Henry. 17 
 
 the middle of the floor which you mention, on the contrary 
 I think, I recollect him standing in the very place which he 
 continued afterwards habitually to occupy in the house. 
 
 The censure of mr. E. Randolph on mr Henry in the case 
 of Philips was without foundation. I remember the case, 
 and took my paxt in it. Philips was a mere robber, who 
 availing himself of the troubles of the times, collected a 
 banditti, retired to the Dismal swamp, and .from thence 
 sallied forth, plundering and maltreating the neighboring in- 
 habitants, and covering himself, without authority, under the 
 name of a British subject, mr Henry, then Governor, commu- 
 nicated the case to me. we both thought the best proceed- 
 ing would be by bill of attainer, unless he delivered himself 
 up for trial within a given time. Philips was afterwards 
 taken ; and mr Randolph being Attorney Gen 1 and [appre- 
 hending he would plead that he was a British subject, taken 
 in arms, in support of his lawful sovereign, and as a prisoner 
 of war entitled to the protection of the law of nations, he 
 thought the safest proceeding would be to indict him at Com- 
 mon law as a felon & robber, against this I believe Philips 
 urged the same plea; bid was Qverruled and found guilty. 
 
 I recollect nothing pf a doubt on the re-eligibility of mr 
 Henry to the government, when his term expired in 1779. 
 nor can I conceive on what grpund such a doubt could have 
 been entertained; unless perhaps that his first election in 
 June 1776. having been before we were nationally declared 
 independent, some might suppose it should not be reckoned 
 as one of the three constitutional elections, 
 
 Of the projects for appointing a Dictator there are said 
 to have been two. I know nothing of either but by hear- 
 say. the l rt was ip Williapasburg in Dec. 1776. the assembly 
 had, the month before, appointed mr Wythe, mr Pendleton, 
 George Mason, Thomas L. Lee and myself to revise the 
 whole body of laws, & adapt them to our new form of 
 government, I left the House early in December to prepare 
 to join the Committee at Fredericksburg, the place of our 
 first meeting, what passed therefore in the House in Decem- 
 ber, I know not, and have not the journals of that session 
 to look into, the 2 d proposition was ip June 81. at the 
 Staunton session of the legislature, no trace of this last 
 
18 Jefferson's Recollections of Patrick Henry. 
 
 motion is entered on the journals of that date, which I have 
 examined, this is a further proof that the silence of jour- 
 nals is no evidence against the fact of an abortive motion, 
 among the names of the members found on the journal of 
 the Staunton session, are John Taylor or Caroline, Gen 1 
 Andrew Moore, and Gen 1 Edward Steevens of Culpeper now 
 living, it would be well to ask information from each of 
 them, that their errors of memory, or of feeling may be 
 corrected by collation. 
 
 You ask if I would have any objection to be quoted as to 
 the fact of rescinding the last of mr Henry's resolutions, 
 none at all as to that fact, or it’s having been passed by a 
 majority of one vote only; the scene being as present to my 
 mind as that in which I am now writing, but I do not affirm, 
 altho ’ I believe it was the 6 th resolution. 
 
 It is truly unfortunate that those engaged in public affairs 
 so rarely make notes of transactions passing within their 
 knolege. hence history becomes fable instead of fact, the 
 great outlines may be true, but the incidents and colouring 
 are according to the faith or fancy of the writer, had judge 
 Marshal taken half of your pains in sifting & scrutinizing 
 facts, he would not have given to the world, as true his- 
 tory, a false copy of a record under his eye. Burke again 
 has copied him, and being a second writer on the spot, 
 doubles the credit of the copy, when writers are so indif- 
 ferent as to the correctness of facts the verification of which 
 lies at their elbow, by what measure shall we estimate their 
 relation of things distant, or of those given to us thro’ the 
 obliquities of their own vision? our records it is true, in 
 the case under contemplation, were destroyed by the malice 
 and Vandalism of the British military, perhaps of their 
 government under whose orders they committed so much 
 useless mischief, but printed copies remained as your 
 examination has proved. those which were apocryphal 
 then ought not to have been hazarded without examination, 
 should you be able to ascertain the genuineness of the 6 th 
 and 7 th resolutions, I would ask a line of information, to 
 rectify or to confirm my own impressions respecting them, 
 ever affectionately yours. 
 
 Th: Jefferson. 
 
Jefferson’s Recollections of Patrick Henry. 
 
 19 
 
 Jefferson’s Remarks on the Case of Josiah Philips. 
 
 Monticello May 12. 15. 
 
 Dear Sir 
 
 Among some queries you addressed to me some time 
 ago, was one on the case of Josiah Philips, which hap- 
 pened early in the revolution, not aware that the propriety 
 of the proceeding in that case had been questioned and rep- 
 rehended, my answer was general on that query, an appli- 
 cation from another quarter having informed me of the 
 doubts which have been expressed on it, I have bestowed 
 more reflection on it, and I send you an extract from my 
 answer, by way of supplement to what I said to you on the 
 subject. I was then thoroughly persuaded of the correct- 
 ness of the proceeding, and am more and more convinced 
 by reflection, if I am in error, it is an error of principle. 
 I know of no substitute for the process of outlawry, so fa- 
 miliar to our law, or to it’s kindred process by act of at- 
 tainder, duly applied, which could have reached the case of 
 Josiah Philips, one of these, or absolute impunity seems 
 the only alternative, ever and affectionately 
 
 Your friend & servt. 
 
 Th: Jefferson 
 
 William Wirt esq. 
 
Thomas Jefferson’s letter, imparting further information 
 on Patrick Henry’s famous Resolution of 1765, 
 making comments on John Dickinson’s Farmer's 
 
 LETTERS, AND GIVING ANECDOTES OF FAMOUS 
 MEN OF THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 Monticello Aug. 5. 15. 
 
 Dear Sir 
 
 Your favor of July 24. came to hand on the 31 rt and I 
 will proceed to answer your enquiries, in the order they are 
 presented, as far as I am able. 
 
 I have no doubt that the 5 th of the Rhode island resolu- 
 tions, of which you have sent me a copy, is exactly the one 
 erased from our journals, the mr Lees, and especially Rich- 
 ard Henry, who was industrious, had a close correspond- 
 ence, I know, with the two Adamses, & probably with others 
 in that and the other Eastern states: and I think it was said 
 at the time that copies were sent off by them to the North- 
 ward, the very evening of the day on which they were 
 passed. I can readily enough believe these resolutions were 
 written by mr Henry himself, they bear the stamp of his 
 mind, strong without precision, that they were written 
 by Johnson who seconded them, was only the rumor of the 
 day, and very possibly unfounded, but how Edmund Ran- 
 dolph should have said they were written by William Flem- 
 ing, and mr Henry should have written that he shewed them 
 
 to William Fleming, is to me incomprehensible, there was 
 no William Fleming then, but the judge now living, whom 
 nobody will ever suspect of taking the lead in rebellion. I 
 am certain he was not then a member, and I think was 
 never a member until the revolution had made some 
 progress, of this however he will inform us with candor & 
 truth, his eldest brother John Fleming was a member, and 
 a great speaker in debate, to him they may have been shewn, 
 yet I should not have expected this, because he was ex- 
 tremely attached to Robinson, Peyton Randolph etc. and 
 at their beck, and had no independence or boldness of 
 mind, however he was attentive to his own popularity, 
 might have been overruled by views to that, and, with a 
 
Jefferson’s Recollections of Patrick Henry. 21 
 
 correction of the Christian name, mr Henry’s note is suffi- 
 cient authority to suppose he took the popular side on that 
 occasion. I remember nothing to the contrary. The op- 
 posers of the resolutions were Robinson, Peyton Randolph, 
 Pendleton, Wythe, Bland and all the cyphers of the Aris- 
 tocracy. no longer possessing the journals, I cannot recol- 
 lect nominally the others, they opposed them on the 
 ground that the same principles had been expressed in the 
 Petition etc. of the preceding year, to which an answer, not 
 yet received, was daily expected, that they were therein ex- 
 pressed in more conciliatory terms, and therefore more 
 likely to have good effect, the resolutions were carried 
 chiefly by the vote of the middle and upper country, to 
 state the differences between the classes of society, and the 
 lines of demarcation which separated them would be diffi- 
 cult. the law, you know, admitted none, except as to the 
 twelve counsellors yet in a country insulated from the Eu- 
 ropean world, insulated from its sister colonies with whom 
 there was scarcely any intercourse, little visited by foreign- 
 ers, & having little matter to act upon within itself, certain 
 families had risen to splendor by wealth and the preserva- 
 tion of it from generation to generation under the law of 
 entails; some had produced a series of men of talents; 
 families in general had remained stationary on the grounds 
 of their forefathers for there was no emigration to the 
 Westward in those days, the wild Irish who had gotten 
 possession of the valley between the blue ridge and North 
 mountain, forming a barrier over which none ventured to 
 leap, and would still less venture to settle among, in such 
 a state of things, scarcely admitting any change of station, 
 society would settle itself down into several strata, separated 
 by no marked lines, but a shading off imperceptibly, from 
 top to bottom, nothing disturbing the order of their repose, 
 there were then, Aristocrats, halfbreeds, pretenders, a solid 
 independent yeomanry, looking askance at those above, yet 
 not venturing to justle them ; and last, and lowest a feculum 
 of beings called Overseers, the most abject, degraded and 
 unprincipled race, always cap in hand to the Dons who em- 
 ployed them, and furnishing materials for the exercise of 
 their pride, insolence & spirit of domination. Your charac- 
 
22 Jefferson's Recollections of Patrick Henry: 
 
 ters are inimitably & justly drawn. I am not certain if 
 more might not be said of Col® Richard Bland, he was 
 the most learned & logical man of those who took promi- 
 nent lead in public affairs, profound in Constitutional lore, 
 a most ungraceful speaker (as were Peyton Randolph & 
 Robinson in a remarkable degree) he wrote the first 
 pamphlet on the nature of the connection with Or. Britain, 
 which had any pretension to accuracy of view on that sub- 
 ject; but it was a singular one. he would set out on sound 
 principles, pursue them logically till he found them leading 
 to the precipice which we had to leap, start back alarmed, 
 then resume his ground, go over it in another direction, be 
 led again by the correctness of his reasoning to the spme 
 place, and again back about, and try other processes to 
 reconcile right and wrong, but finally left his reader & 
 himself bewildered between the steady index of the com- 
 pass in their hand, and the phantasm to which it seemed 
 to point, still there was more sound matter in his pam- 
 phlet than in the celebrated Farmer’s letters, which were 
 really but an ignis fatuus, misleading us from true 
 principles. 
 
 Landon Carter’s measure you may take from the 1* 
 volume of the American Philosophical transactions, where 
 he has one or more long papers on the weavil and perhaps 
 other subjects, his speeches, like his writings were dull, 
 vapid, verbose, egoistical, smooth as the lullaby of the 
 nurse, and commanding, like that, the repose only of the 
 hearer. 
 
 You ask if you may quote me 1. for the loan office, 2. 
 Phillips’s case, and 3. the addresses prepared for Congress 
 by Henry and Lee — for the two first certainly, because with- 
 in my own knolege, especially citing the record in Phillips’s 
 case which of itself refutes the diatribes published on that 
 subject : but not for the addresses, because I was not present, 
 nor know any thing relative to them but by hearsay from 
 others, my first and principal information on that subject 
 I know I had from Ben. Harrison, on his return from the 
 first session of the old Congress, mr Pendleton also, I am 
 tolerably certain, mentioned it to me: but the transaction is 
 too distant, and my memory too indistinct to hazard as with 
 
23 
 
 Jefferson’s Recollections of Patrick Henry. 
 
 precision, even what I think I heard from them, in this 
 decay of memory mr Edmund Randolph must have suffered 
 at a much earlier period of life than myself. I cannot 
 otherwise account for his saying to you that Rob. Carter 
 Nicholas came into the legislature only on the death of 
 Peyton Randolph, which was in 1776. seven years before 
 that period I went first into the legislature myself, to wit in 
 1769 and mr Nicholas was then a member, and I think not 
 a new one. I remember it from an impressive circumstance, 
 it was the first assembly which met Lord Botetourt, being 
 called on his arrival — on receiving the Governor’s speech, 
 it was usual to move resolutions, as heads for an Address, 
 mr Pendleton asked me to draw the resolutions, which I did. 
 they were accepted by the house, and Pendleton, Nicholas, 
 myself and some others were appointed a Committee to pre- 
 pare the Address, the Committee desired me to do it; but 
 when presented, it was thought to pursue too strictly the 
 diction of the resolutions, and that their subjects were not 
 sufficiently amplified, mr Nicholas chiefly objected to it, 
 and was desired by the committee to draw one more at 
 large which he did, with amplification enough, and it was 
 accepted — being a young man, as well as a young member, 
 it made on me an impression proportioned to the sensibility 
 of that time of life — on a similar occasion some years after 
 I had reason to retain a remembrance of his presence while 
 Peyton Randolph was still living, on the receipt of L d 
 North’s propositions, in May or June 1775. Lord Dun- 
 more called the assembly. Peyton Randolph, then Presi- 
 dent of Congress, and Speaker of the House of Burgesses, 
 left the former body and came home to hold the assem- 
 bly, leaving in Congress the other delegates, who were the 
 antient leaders of our house, he therefore asked me to pre- 
 pare the answer to L d North’s proposition, which I did. 
 mr Nicholas, whose mind had as yet acquired no tone for 
 that contest, combated the answer from Alpha to Omega, 
 and succeeded in diluting it in one or two small instances, 
 it was firmly supported however in committee of the whole 
 by Peyton Randolph, who had brought with him the spirit 
 of the body over which he had presided, and it was carried 
 with very little alteration by strong majorities. I was the 
 
24 Jefferson's Recollections of Patrick Henry, 
 
 bearer of it myself to Congress, by whom, as it was the first 
 answer given to those propositions by any legislature, it was 
 received with peculiar satisfaction. I am sure that from 
 1769, if not earlier, to 1775. you will find mr Nicholas’s 
 name constantly in the journals, for he was an active mem- 
 ber. I think he represented James city county, whether, 
 on the death of Peyton Randolph he succeeded him for 
 'Williamsburg, I do not know, if he did, it may account for 
 mr Randolph’s error. 
 
 You ask some account of mr Henry’s mind, information & 
 manners in 59-60 when I first became acquainted with him. 
 we met at Nat. Dandridge’s in Hanover, about the Christ- 
 mas of that winter, and passed perhaps a fortnight together 
 at the revelries of the neighborhood & season, his manners 
 had something of the coarseness of the society he had fre- 
 quented: his passion was fiddling, dancing & pleasantry, he 
 excelled in the last, and it attached every one to him. the 
 occasion perhaps, as much as his idle disposition, prevented 
 his engaging in any conversation which might give the 
 measure either of his mind or information, opportunity 
 was not wanting: because mr John Campbell was there, 
 who had married mrs Spotswood, the sister of Col 0 Dan- 
 dridge. he was a man of science, & often introduced 
 conversations on scientific subjects. mr. Henry had a 
 little before broke up his store, or rather it had broken 
 him up, and within three months after he came to Wil- 
 liamsburg for his license, and told me, I think, he had 
 read law not more than six weeks. I have by this time 
 probably tired you with these old histories, and shall there- 
 fore only add the assurance of my great friendship & 
 respect. 
 
 Th: Jefferson 
 
Jefferson's Recollections of Patrick Henry. 
 
 25 
 
 Thomas Jefferson’s letter, correcting errors in the 
 
 MANUSCRIPT OF WlLLIAM WlRT’S LlFE OF 
 
 Patrick Henry. 
 
 Monticei.lo Sep. 4. 16. 
 
 Dear Sir 
 
 I have read with great delight the portion of the history 
 of mr Henry which you have been so kind as to favor me 
 with, and which is now returned : and I can say from my 
 own knolege of the cotemporary characters introduced into 
 the canvas, that you have given them quite as much lustre 
 as themselves would have asked, the exactness too of your 
 details has in several instances corrected the errors in my 
 own recollections where they had begun to faulter. in re- 
 sult, I scarcely find any thing needing revisal. yet to shew 
 you that T have scrupulously sought occasions of animad- 
 version, I will particularize the following passages which I 
 noted as I read them. 
 
 pa. 11. line 17. to bottom. I think this whole passage 
 had better be moderated, that mr Henry read Livy thro’ 
 once >a year is a known impossibility with those who knew 
 him. he may have read him once, and some general history 
 of Greece; but certainly not twice, a first reading of a 
 book he could accomplish sometimes, and on some subjects; 
 but never a second, he knew well the geography of his 
 own country, but certainly never made any other his study, 
 so as to our ancient charters, he had probably read those in 
 Stith’s history, but no man ever more undervalued char- 
 tered titles than himself, he drew all natural rights from 
 a purer source, the feelings of his own breast, he never, 
 in conversation or debate, mentioned a hero, a worthy, or a 
 fact in Greek or Roman history, but so vaguely & loosely 
 as to leave room to back out. if he found he had blundered, 
 the study and learning ascribed to him in this passage would 
 be inconsistent with the excellent and just picture given of 
 his indolence thro’ the rest of the work. 
 
 pa. 27. 1. 12. if the professor of the college was the writer 
 of the pamphlet, his name was Graham, not Greeme. he 
 was my master, & intimately known to me. 
 
26 Jefferson's Recollections of Patrick Henry. 
 
 pa. 33. 1. 4. enquire further into the faet alleged that 
 Henry was counsel for Littlepage. I am much persuaded 
 he was counsel for Dandridge. there was great personal 
 antipathy between him and Littlepage, and the closest in- 
 timacy with Dandridge, who was his near neighbor, in 
 whose house he was at home, & as one of the family, who 
 was his earliest and greatest admirer and patron, and whose 
 daughter became afterwards his second wife, it was in his 
 house that during a course of Christmas festivities, I first 
 became acquainted with mr Henry, this, it is true, is but 
 presumptive evidence, and may be overruled by direct 
 proof, but I am confident he could never have undertaken 
 any case against Dandridge, considering the union of their 
 bosoms, it would have been a great crime. 
 
 pa. 37. 1. 13. & pa. 55. 1. 6. from bottom, there was but 
 one clear & sound bottom on which the separation of the 
 chair and the treasury was decided, the legislature made 
 all their levies of money payable into the hands of their 
 speaker, over whom they had controul. the only hold the 
 Gov r had on him was a negative on his appointment as 
 Speaker at every new election, which, amounted conse- 
 quently to a negative on him as treasurer and disposed him 
 so far to be obsequious to the Governor. 
 
 pa. 57. 1. 11. strike out Starke, he was nobody; a mere 
 lounger at the bar, without business, without knolege, and 
 without principle. John Blair is omitted here, one of the 
 purest men then living, a well read lawyer, logical reasoner, 
 & only kept down by his insuperable diffidence. 
 
 These are the only passages which I thought might be 
 worthy of further enquiry ; and are so unimportant as 
 scarcely to be worth a defacement of the MS. by alteration. 
 — I shall set out for Bedford on the 8 th return a fort- 
 night after to pass a week here, and shall then go back to 
 Bedford to remain till the last of October, this knolege of 
 my movements will enable you to give a proper direction to 
 any further communications you may wish to make, accept 
 the assurance of my constant friendship & respect. 
 
 Th: Jefferson 
 
 Wiu.iam Wirt, Esq 
 
Jefferson’s Recollections of Patrick Henry. 
 
 27 
 
 Thomas Jefferson’s letter to William Wirt, making 
 
 IMPORTANT SUGGESTIONS AND CORRECTIONS IN THE TEXT 
 
 of Wirt’s life of Patrick Henry, and giving 
 his views of Henry’s military life. Also 
 
 COMPLIMENTS WlRT ON THE CHARACTER 
 OF HIS BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 Poplar Forest Sep. 29, 16. 
 
 Dear Sir 
 
 I found, on my arrival here the 2 d parcel of your sheets, 
 which I have read with the same avidity and pleasure as the 
 former, this proves they will experience no delay in my 
 hands, and that I consider them as worthy every thing I can 
 do for them, they need indeed but little, or rather I should 
 say nothing. I have however hazarded some suggestions 
 on a paper inclosed, when I read the former sheets, I did 
 not consider the article of style as within my jurisdiction, 
 however since you ask observations on that, and suggest 
 doubts entertained by yourself on a particular quality of it, 
 
 I will candidly say that I think some passages of the former 
 sheets too flowery for the sober taste of history, it will 
 please young readers in its present form, but to the older it 
 would give more pleasure and confidence to have some exu- 
 berances lightly pruned. I say lightly; because your style 
 is naturally rich and captivating, and would suffer if sub- 
 mitted to the rasp of a rude hand, a few excrescenses may 
 be rubbed off by a delicate touch : but better too little than 
 too much correction, in the 2 d parcel of sheets, altho’ read 
 with an eye to your request, I have found nothing of this 
 kind. I thus comply with your desire; but on the condition 
 originally prescribed, that you shall consider my observations 
 as mere suggestions, meant to recall the subject to a revi- 
 sion by yourself, and that no change be made in consequence 
 of them but on the confirmed dictates of your own judg- 
 ment. I have no amour-propre which will suffer by having 
 hazarded a false criticism, on the contrary I should regret 
 were the genuine character of your composition to be adul- 
 terated by any foreign ingredient. I return to Albemarle 
 within a week, shall stay there 10 days, come back and pass 
 
28 Jefferson's Recollections of Patrick Henry. 
 
 here October and part of November. I salute you affection- 
 ately. 
 
 Th. Jefferson 
 
 Mr. Wirt 
 
 page 92. There is one circumstance in my letter here quoted 
 which may not perhaps be exactly correct, to wit, whether 
 Gov 1 Livingston produced Jay’s draught in the House of 
 Congress, or in the Committee to which Lee’s draught was 
 recommitted ? the latter seems most agreeable to usuage ; and 
 lest I should have erred in this particular, I have so modi- 
 fied the quotation as to adapt it to either fact, this anecdote 
 will probably draw on me the wrath of the family & friends 
 of mr Lee, who are exceedingly jealous of the fame of 
 their eminent relation, it will only add however a vouche 
 a feu the more to the battery of obloquy which, reared in 
 94, has been incessantly directed on me, but without chang- 
 ing my course a single point, mr Jay’s rude address to 
 mr Lee in my presence, which I immediately diverted from 
 him would have been a mortifying addition to the anecdote; 
 but this does not belong to history. 
 
 pa. 92. Cap* Foy was private Secretary to L d Dunmore, 
 lived with him in the palace, was believed to be the chief 
 instigator of all his violences, and being very ill tempered, 
 haughty & presumptuous, was very obnoxious. 
 
 pa. 110. Was not William Nelson still living? if he was, 
 he was the President. I thought he retired to Hanover and 
 died there some time after these transactions, his brother 
 Thomas, the Secretary, succeeded as President only on his 
 death, whenever that took place. 
 
 pa. 128. that mr Henry wanted personal courage was the 
 very general belief of all his acquaintances, strengthened 
 perhaps by inference from the fact that his brother William, 
 and half brother Syme were notorious cowards, but I 
 know nothing of the facts on which this opinion of mr 
 Henry was founded; nor do I recollect having heard except 
 a single one related to me by Gov r Page, then a member of 
 the Committee of safety, this was that while mr Henry’s 
 corps was encamped near Williamsburg, a nocturnal alarm 
 took place, on a false report that the enemy had landed, I 
 
Jefferson's Recollections of Patrick Henry. 29 
 
 believe, at Burwell’s ferry: and were on their march to the 
 city, mr Henry was so panic struck as to be incapable of 
 giving an order, and the next in command was obliged td 
 array the men, and take the necessary measures for defence 
 the belief therefore that mr Henry was no souldier, which pre- 
 vailed with the Committee of safety, and also with our own 
 members of Congress, might justify them in not confiding to 
 him the military destinies of the state. the same doubt 
 occasioned a refusal of command sollicited by Col 0 Byrd, 
 one of our highest citizens in rank & wealth, who had been 
 Col 0 of a regiment in the war of 1755. it is true indeed 
 that mr Henry and mr Pendleton each, thought they saw 
 in the character of the other something which they con- 
 demned; of which those who knew both more intimately 
 than either did the other, acquitted both, and this distrust 
 they never dissembled in their private conversations, they 
 were always polite to each other, but nothing affectionate, 
 possibly some of this grudge might have incorporated itself 
 with mr Pendleton’s judgments on the military merit of 
 mr Henry: but since this trait in mr Henry’s charac- 
 ter has at least been believed, and no fact has been produced 
 to prove it ill-founded (for his march to Williamsburg 
 proved civil courage only, but not military, as he knew there 
 was no enemy to meet him) why bring it into view at all? 
 mr Henry’s transcendent eminence as an Orator & States- 
 man, and especially his unquestioned primacy in bringing 
 on the revolution give him a mass of fame sufficient to sat- 
 isfy any ambition, to claim for him questionable merits 
 detracts more than it adds in the estimate of his character. 
 Demosthenes like Henry was unquestioned as an Orator & 
 Statesman, but doubted as a soldier, but is it not found that, 
 on the former ground alone the Graecian is placed as high 
 as mortal man can be? the danger is that if this point be 
 urged it may produce contradiction and proof, which would 
 die away if not excited. I was as intimate, and more cor- 
 dial with mr Henry in those days, than perhaps any other 
 of those with whom he acted on the higher stage of affairs; 
 and my settled opinion was this. When mr Henry found 
 that the business of Congress had got into a regular train 
 of action, in which he could no longer maintain his emi- 
 
30 Jefferson’s Recollections of Patrick Henry. 
 
 nenee, it became his wish to withdraw; and the military 
 command in Virginia, which was conferred on him while 
 absent at Philadelphia, appeared to him as a god-send to 
 justify his retirement from Congress. I accompanied him 
 to Virginia on his return, which gave me some opportunity 
 of estimating his views on the occasion. I did not observe 
 that they were directed to military fame, or that he thought 
 his appointment had put him into the line of splendid util- 
 ity. indeed I doubted from his conversation, whether he 
 meant to accept it. add to this that his mind was not 
 formed for subordination, even to a Committee of safety, or 
 a Convention, he became anxious therefore to withdraw 
 from his military station, after it had served the purpose of 
 procuring him a decent retreat from his Congressional one; 
 and the question about rank furnished him plausible cause, 
 of this he availed himself, and thus got back to that ground 
 on which nature had formed him to command, he returned 
 to our civil councils which were his natural element, and 
 in which his eminence at once placed him at their head, 
 this I did then, and do still verily believe was the train of 
 views on which mr Heniy acted. I think that he felt him- 
 self at home in civil affairs and soaring above all: but not 
 at all so in military things: that he never had a wish or a 
 thought of pm-suing that career, in which there was already 
 a crowd of Generals, who must forever be above him, and 
 that his apparent resentment covered really a secret wish, 
 mr Henry was not a man who, on a nice punctilio of 
 honor, would have withdrawn from a post of his choice in 
 a cause in which he was so ardent. 
 
 If this be a true view of the question between mr Pen- 
 dleton & mr Henry, it would seem that all difficulty may be 
 avoided by striking out the whole of what relates to this 
 incident, and leaving it blank to bury the question as to 
 both in oblivion. While this would leave in quiet the 
 admirers of both parties, it would remove from the page of 
 history an example of sacrificing so holy a cause, and at so 
 early a period of it, to personal passions and interests: 
 which it is distressing, in such a case, to suppose but on 
 notorious fact. 
 
 pa. 137. Can this preamble be correctly copied from the 
 
Jefferson’g Recollections of Patrick Henry. 31 
 
 printed one? it is not grammar, my original draught did 
 not run so, as may be seen if examined. 
 
 pa. 144. I think that Congress only authorized Gen 1 
 Washington to extend military law (which always prevails 
 within a camp & to gunshot distance beyond the line of een- 
 tinels) to the distance of twenty miles around his camp, buf 
 I am not sure of this, and it ought to be enquired into; for 
 it is not useful that examples should be strained to furnish 
 precedents for so execrable a measure as the establishment 
 of a dictator. 
 
 Of the anecdote of popular violence on the flag of the 
 General assembly in 1769. I never before heard, nor can 
 I believe it true. I was in Williamsburg during the 4 courts 
 of Apr. June, Oct. & Dec. of that and of some years preceed- 
 ing & subsequent, and also during the autumn session of the 
 legislature of the same year, and do not remember to have 
 heard a word of such an act of insurgency of our people; 
 and had I ever heard it, I could not have forgotten so 
 unique a fact, it would have been the first instance of 
 actual riot, in our country below the mountains since Bacon’s 
 rebellion, the previous assemblages of people to ask their 
 stamp masters to resign were entirely peaceable, in 1769 
 the people were yet entirely submissive to the laws, and- 
 would have been unquestionably punished for any daring 
 breach of them. 
 
William Wirt s letter to Thomas Jefferson in refer- 
 ence TO MANUSCRIPT SENT HIM OF HIS LIFE OF 
 Patrick Henry. 
 
 ~ Richmond. Oct. 2. 1816. 
 
 Dear Sir 
 
 I sent you, about three or four weeks ago, a second, and 
 by the last mail, a third parcel of my biographical M.S. — 
 Not having heard of their arrival and having had frequent 
 proofs of the irregularity of the mails, I am fearful that the 
 packets have miscarried. I beg you to be assured that it is 
 not with the most distant intention of hurrying you in the 
 kind and obliging office you have undertaken for me, that 
 I drop this note: but simply and sincerely to ascertain 
 whether the parcels have arrived— because if they have not, 
 I will have them immediately recopied and forwarded, and 
 shall thus save time which w. d be otherwise lost, on the sup- 
 position that they have miscarried. — So far indeed from 
 hurrying you I feel myself much obliged by every hour of 
 the time which you are so good as to devote to this little 
 business and had much rather enlarge than contract your 
 opportunity for remark. 
 
 Respectfully and affectionately yours 
 
 „ _ Wm. Wirt 
 
 Ihomas Jefferson esq. 
 
Jefferson ’$ Recollections of Patrick Henry. 
 
 33 
 
 Thomas Jefferson’s Letter in reference to the case of 
 
 one Philips, a tory in the Revolution, and justly 
 criticising Edmund Randolph and Patrick Henry 
 for their incorrect version of the affair. 
 
 Monticello Oct. 8. 16 
 
 Dear Sir ^ .... 
 
 I received your 3 d parcel of sheets just as I was leaving 
 Poplar Forest, and have read them with the usual pleasure, 
 they relate however to the period of time exactly, during 
 which I was absent in Europe, consequently I am without 
 knolege of the facts they state, indeed they are mostly 
 new history to me. on the subject of style they are not 
 liable to the doubts I hazarded on the 1’* parcel, unless a 
 short passage in page 198; should be thought too poetical, 
 indeed as I read the 2 d & 3 d parcels with attentions to style 
 and found them not subject to the observations I made on 
 the first, (which were from memory only, & after I had 
 parted with them) I have suspected that revisal might have 
 corrected my opinion on the 1 st of this however you w’ill 
 judge, one only fact in the last sheets was within my 
 knolege, that relating to Philips, and on this I had formerly 
 given you explanations. I am very glad indeed that you 
 have examined the records, and established truth in this 
 case, how mr Randolph could indulge himself in a state- 
 ment of facts, so solemnly made, the falsehood of every 
 article of which had been known to himself particularly; 
 and how mr Henry could be silent under such a perversion 
 of facts known to himself, agreed on at a consultation with 
 members whom he invited to the palace to advise with on 
 the occasion, and done at his request according to what 
 w r as concluded, is perfectly unaccountable, not that I con- 
 sider mr Randolph as mistating intentionally, or desiring 
 to boulster an argument at the expence of an absent person : 
 for there were no uncordial dispositions between him & 
 myself; and as little do I impute to mr Henry any willing- 
 ness to leave on my shoulders a charge which he could so 
 easily have disproved, the fact must have been that they 
 were both out of their heads on that occasion : still not the 
 
34 Jefferson’s Recollections of Patrick Henry, 
 
 Jess injuriously to me, whom mr Randolph might as well 
 have named, as the journals shewed I was the first named 
 of the Committee, would it be out of place for you to refer 
 by a note to the countenance which judge Tucker has 
 given to this misrepresentation, by making strictures on it, 
 in his Blackstone, as if it were true ? it is such a calumny on 
 our revolutionary government as should be eradicated from 
 history, and especially from that of this state, which justly 
 prides itself on having gone thro’ the revolution without a 
 single example of capital punishment connected with that, 
 ever affectionately yours 
 
 „ Th : Jefferson 
 
 Mr. Wirt 
 
Jefferson’s Recollections of Patrick Henry. 
 
 35 
 
 Thomas Jefferson’s letter to William Wirt, advising 
 
 HIM TO PUBLISH HIS LIFE OF PATRICK HenRV, INTI- 
 MATING THAT THE MAGAZINES WILL CRITICISE IT, 
 
 AND COMPLIMENTING HIM ON THE ORIGINAL 
 STYLE OF ITS COMPOSITION AND PRAISING 
 THE WORK GENERALLY. 
 
 ~ ~ Poplar Forest Nov. 12. 16. 
 
 Dear Sir 
 
 Yours of Oct. 23. was received here on the 31 rt with 
 the last sheets of your work, they found me engaged in a 
 business which could not be postponed and have therefore 
 been detained longer than I wished, on the subject of our 
 antient aristocracy, I believe I have said nothing which 
 all who knew them will not confirm, and which their 
 reasonable descendants may not learn from every quarter, 
 it was the effect of the large accumulations of property 
 under the law of entails. the suppression of entails 
 reduced the spirit of the rich while the increased influ- 
 ence given by the new government to the people, raised 
 theirs, and brought things to their present level from 
 a condition which the present generation, who have not 
 seen it ean scarcely believe or conceive. I believe I 
 have named none particularly : that would be wrong, 
 you ask if I think your work would be the better . of re- 
 trenchment ? by no means ; I have seen nothing in it 
 which could be retrenched but to disadvantage : and again 
 whether, as a friend, I would advise it’s publication? on 
 that question I have no hesitation, on your own account as 
 well as that of the public, to the latter it will be valuable 
 and honorable to yourself, you must expect to be criticised, 
 and by a former letter I see you expect it. by the Quarterly 
 reviewers you will be hacked and hewed by the tomahawk 
 and scalping knife, those of Edinburgh, with the same 
 anti- American prejudices, but sometimes considering us as 
 allies against their administration, will do it more decently 
 — they will assume as a model for biography the familiar 
 manner of Plutarch, or scanty matter of Nepos, and try 
 you perhaps by these tests, but they can only prove that 
 
36 Jefferson’s Recollections of Patrick Henry. 
 
 your style is different from theirs, not that it is not good. 
 I have always very much despised the artificial canons of 
 criticism, when I have read a work in prose or poetry, or 
 seen a painting a statute etc. I have only asked myself 
 whether it gives me pleasure, whether it is animating, in- 
 teresting, attaching? if it is, it is good for these reasons, 
 on these grounds you will be safe, those who take up your 
 book will find they cannot lay it down, and this will be it’s 
 best criticism. You have certainly practised rigorously 
 the precept of “de mortuis nil nisi bonum.” this presents 
 a very difficult question, whether one only, or both sides of 
 the medal should be presented, it constitutes perhaps the 
 distinction between panegyric and history, on this opinions 
 are so much divided, and perhaps may be so on this feature 
 of your work, on the whole however you have nothing to 
 fear, at least if my views are not very different from the 
 common, and no one will see it ’s appearance with more 
 pleasure than myself, as no one can with more truth give you 
 assurances of great respect & affectionate attachment. 
 
 Th: Jefferson 
 
<s 
 

923.173 
 
 qJ45C 
 
 617426