Jefferson, Thomas

3 pages (9 3/4 x 7 3/4 in.; 248 x 197 mm) on a bifolium of wove paper, Monticello, 15 January 1811, to Thomas Law, docketed on verso of second leaf, "1811 | Thos Jefferson Esqr | Jany 15"; separated at folds with the top third of each leaf completely detached from the rest of the sheet, touching, but not affecting legibility of, about twelve words; central fold and the lower two horizontal folds separating but still attached.

Thomas Rumbold, 1st Baronet (husband of Joanna Law, daughter of the recipient) — by descent to the present owner

The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Retirement Series, ed. Looney, 3:298–99 (text from Jefferson's polygraph copy; the original letter is unlocated)

On the eve of the War of 1812, Jefferson reflects on the contentious nature of the Great Britain's relationship with the United States, claiming that England had never "forgiven our resistance to their usurpations" and charging that virtually every "administration since our Revolution has been equally wanton in their injuries and insults, & has manifested equal hatred and aversion."

Jefferson's correspondent was Thomas Law, an English employee of the East India Company who immigrated to the United States in 1794. Two years later he married Martha Washington's oldest grandchild, Elizabeth Parke Custis, although they were divorced in 1811. He became a friend of Jefferson during the latter's retirement and the present letter was precipitated by Law's gift of a copy of his Thoughts on Instinctive Impulses (Philadelphia, 1810; The Library of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Sowerby, 3250). In his letter of transmittal, Law also mentioned that he had written to Jacob Wagner, editor of the anti-Jefferson Federal Republican, challenging the accuracy of a story he had published about Jefferson's dealings, as president, with Charles James Fox, the British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. After initially thanking Law for his gift and briefly commenting of Wagner's defamation, Jefferson launches an involved and introspective analysis of the troubled connection between his country and Fox's, revealing his "genuine sentiments with respect to England."

"An absence from home of some length has prevented my sooner acknowledging the receipt of your letter, covering the printed pamphlet, which the same absence has as yet prevented me from taking up, but which I know I shall read with great pleasure. your favor of December the 22nd is also received. mr. Wagner's malignity, like that of the rest of his tribe of brother printers, who deal out calumnies for federal readers, gives me no pain. when a printer cooks up a falsehood, it is as easy to put it into the mouth of a mr. Fox, as of a smaller man, and safer into that of a dead than a living one. your sincere attachment to this country, as well as to your native one, was never doubted by me: and in that persuasion, I felt myself free to express to you my genuine sentiments with respect to England. no man was more sensible than myself of the just value of the friendship of that country. there are between us so many of those circumstances which naturally produce & cement kind dispositions, that, if they could have forgiven our resistance to their usurpations, our connections might have been durable, and have insured duration to both our governments. I wished, therefore, a cordial friendship with them, and I spared no occasion of manifesting this in our correspondence and intercourse with them; not disguising, however, my desire of friendship with their enemy also. during the administration of mr. [Henry] Addington [Prime Minister, 1801–04], I thought I discovered some friendly symptoms on the part of that government; at least, we received some marks of respect from the administration, & some of regret at the wrongs we were suffering from their country. so, also, during the short interval of mr. Fox's power. but every other administration since our Revolution has been equally wanton in their injuries and insults, & has manifested equal hatred and aversion. instead, too, of cultivating the government itself, whose principles are those of the great mass of the nation, they have adopted the miserable policy of teazing & embarrassing it, by allying themselves with a faction here, not a tenth of the people, noisy and unprincipled, and which never can come into power while republicanism is the spirit of the nation, and that must continue to be so, until such a condensation of population shall have taken place as will require centuries."

Jefferson next describes his administration's dealings with Great Britain, and charges that her ministers too often act out of consideration for retaining their offices rather than advancing diplomacy. "with respect to myself, I saw great reason to believe their ministers were weak enough to credit the newspaper trash about a supposed personal enmity in myself towards England. this wretched party imputation was beneath the notice of wise men. England never did me a personal injury, other than in open war, and for numerous individuals there, I have great esteem and friendship. and I must have had a mind far below the duties of my station, to have felt either national partialities or antipathies in conducting the affairs confided to me. my affections were first for my own country, and then, generally, for all mankind; and nothing but minds placing themselves above the passions, in the functionaries of this country, could have preserved us from the war to which their provocations have been constantly urging us. the War interests in England include a numerous & wealthy part of their population: and their influence is deemed worth courting by ministers wishing to keep their places. continually endangered by a powerful opposition, they find it convenient to humor the popular passions at the expense of the public good. the shipping interest, commercial interest, & their janizaries of the navy, all fattening on war, will not be neglected by ministers of ordinary minds. their tenure of office is so infirm that they dare not follow the dictates of wisdom, justice, and the well calculated interests of their country. this vice, in the English constitution, renders a dependance on that government very unsafe."

Displaying a bit of optimism, Jefferson does express hope that George III's successor will evince "fairer & wiser dispositions towards" America, but presciently views the British Navy as the greatest threat to peace: "it shall be supported by permitting her to claim dominion of the ocean, and to levy tribute on every flag traversing that, as lately attempted & not yet relinquished, every nation must contest, even ad internecionem [to annihilation]. and yet, that, retiring from this enormity, she should continue able to take a fair share in the necessary equilibrium of power on that element, would be the desire of every nation."

Jefferson, who was sixty-eight when he wrote this letter and who would live for another fifteen years, closes this remarkable and revealing missive with the sentiments of a much older man. "I feel happy in withdrawing my mind from these anxieties, and resigning myself, for the remnant of life, to the care and guardianship of others. good wishes are all an old man has to offer to his country or friends. mine attend yourself, with sincere assurances of esteem and respect, which, however, I should be better pleased to tender you in person, should your rambles ever lead you into the vicinage of Monticello."