Consider this as written to Mr. Madison as
much as yourself and communicate it, if you think it will do any good
to those possessing our joint confidence or any others where it may be
useful and safe. Health and affectionate salutations.
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER CCLVII.--TO SAMUEL ADAMS
TO SAMUEL ADAMS.
Philadelphia, February 26,1800.
Dear Sir,
Mr. Erving delivered me your favor of January the 31st, and I thank
you for making me acquainted with him. You will always do me a favor
in giving me an opportunity of knowing gentlemen as estimable in their
principles and talents, as I find Mr. Erving to be. I have not yet seen
Mr. Winthrop. A letter from you, my respectable friend, after three and
twenty years of separation, has given me a pleasure I cannot express. It
recalls to my mind the anxious days we then passed in struggling for the
cause of mankind. Your principles have been tested in the crucible of
time, and have come out pure. You have proved that it was monarchy, and
not merely British monarchy, you opposed. A government by representees,
elected by the people at short periods, was our object, and our maxim at
that day was, 'Where annual election ends, tyranny begins'; nor have our
departures from it been sanctioned by the happiness of their effects.
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