ed to suppose
that all there is anarchy, discontent, and civil war. Nothing, however,
is less true. There are not on the face of the earth, more tranquil
governments than ours, nor a happier and more contented people. Their
commerce has not as yet found the channels, which their new relations
with the world will offer to best advantage, and the old ones remain as
yet unopened by new conventions. This occasions a stagnation in the sale
of their produce, the only truth among all the circumstances published
about them. Their hatred against Great Britain, having lately received
from that nation new cause and new aliment, has taken a new spring.
Among the individuals of your acquaintance, nothing remarkable has
happened. No revolution in the happiness of any of them has taken place,
except that of the loss of their only child to Mr. and Mrs. Walker,
who, however, left them a grandchild for their solace, and that of your
humble servant, who remains with no other family than two daughters, the
elder here (who was of your acquaintance), the younger in Virginia,
but expected here the next summer. The character in which I am here,
at present, confines me to this place, and will confine me as long as I
continue in Europe. How long this will be, I cannot tell. I am now of
an age which does not easily accommodate itself to new manners and new
modes of living: and I am savage enough to prefer the woods, the wilds,
and the independence of Monticello, to all the brilliant pleasures
of this gay capital. I shall, therefore, rejoin myself to my native
country, with new attachments, and with exaggerated esteem for its
advantages; for though there is less wealth there, there is more
freedom, more ease, and less misery. I should like it better, however,
if it could tempt you once more to visit it: but that is not to be
expected. Be this as it may, and whether fortune means to allow or deny
me the pleasure of ever seeing you again, be assured that the worth
which gave birth to my attachment, and which still animates it, will
continue to keep it up while we both live, and that it is with sincerity
I subscribe myself, Dear Sir,

your friend and servant,

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER CVI.--TO JOHN LANGDON, September 11, 1785

TO JOHN LANGDON.

Paris, September 11, 1785.

Dear Sir,

Your Captain Yeaton being here, furnishes me an opportunity of paying
the tribute of my congratulations on your appointment to the government
of your Stat