Th: Jefferson.

LETTER LXXVIII.--TO M. DUPONT DE NEMOURS, March 2, 1809

TO M. DUPONT DE NEMOURS.

Washington, March 2, 1809.

Dear Sir,

My last to you was of May the 2nd; since which I have received yours of
May the 25th, June the 1st, July the 23rd, 24th, and September the 5th,
and distributed the two pamphlets according to your desire. They are
read with the delight which every thing from your pen gives.

After using every effort which could prevent or delay our being
entangled in the war of Europe, that seems now our only resource. The
edicts of the two belligerents, forbidding us to be seen on the ocean,
we met by an embargo. This gave us time to call home our seamen, ships,
and property, to levy men and put our sea-ports into a certain state
of defence. We have now taken off the embargo, except as to France
and England and their territories, because fifty millions of exports
annually sacrificed, are the treble of what war would cost us; besides,
that by war we should take something, and lose less than at present. But
to give you a true description of the state of things here, I must
refer you to Mr. Coles, the bearer of this, my secretary, a most worthy,
intelligent, and well-informed young man, whom I recommend to your
notice, and conversation on our affairs. His discretion and fidelity
may be relied on. I expect he will find you with Spain at your feet,
but England still afloat, and a barrier to the Spanish colonies. But all
these concerns I am now leaving to be settled by my friend Mr. Madison.
Within a few days I retire to my family, my books, and farms; and having
gained the harbor myself, I shall look on my friends still buffeting
the storm, with anxiety indeed, but not with envy. Never did a prisoner,
released from his chains, feel such relief as I shall on shaking off
the shackles of power. Nature intended me for the tranquil pursuits of
science, by rendering them my supreme delight. But the enormities of the
times in which I have lived, have forced me to take a part in resisting
them, and to commit myself on the boisterous ocean of political
passions. I thank God for the opportunity of retiring from them without
censure, and carrying with me the most consoling proofs of public
approbation. I leave every thing in the hands of men so able to take
care of them, that if we are destined to meet misfortunes, it will
be because no human wisdom could avert them. Should you return to the
United