LETTER CCXL.--TO A. H. ROWAN, September 26, 1798
TO A. H. ROWAN.
Monticello, September 26, 1798.
Sir,
To avoid the suspicions and curiosity of the post-office, which would
have been excited by seeing your name and mine on the back of a letter,
I have delayed acknowledging the receipt of your favor of July last,
till an occasion to write to an inhabitant of Wilmington gives me an
opportunity of putting my letter under cover to him. The system of alarm
and jealousy which has been so powerfully played off in England, has
been mimicked here, not entirely without success. The most long-sighted
politician could not, seven years ago, have imagined that the people of
this wide extended country could have been enveloped in such delusion,
and made so much afraid of themselves and their own power, as to
surrender it spontaneously to those who are manoeuvring them into a
form of government, the principal branches of which may be beyond their
control. The commerce of England, however, has spread its roots over
the whole face of our country. This is the real source of all the
obliquities of the public mind: and I should have had doubts of the
ultimate term they might attain; but happily, the game, to be worth
the playing of those engaged in it, must flush them with money.
Pages:
674
675
676
677
678
679
680
681
682
683
684
685
686
687
688
689
690
691
692
693
694
695
696
697
698