ommon good; and of which I pray you now to accept the most cordial and
respectful assurances.

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER LXXXVI.--TO CAESAR A. RODNEY, February 10, 1810

TO CAESAR A. RODNEY.

Monticello, February 10, 1810.

My Dear Sir,

I have to thank you for your favor of the 31st ultimo, which is just now
received. It has been peculiarly unfortunate for us, personally, that
the portion in the history of mankind, at which we were called to take a
share in the direction of their affairs, was such an one as history has
never before presented. At any other period, the even-handed justice
we have observed towards all nations, the efforts we have made to merit
their esteem by every act which candor or liberality could exercise,
would have preserved our peace, and secured the unqualified confidence
of all other nations in our faith and probity. But the hurricane which
is now blasting the world, physical and moral, has prostrated all the
mounds of reason as well as right. All those calculations which, at any
other period, would have been deemed honorable, of the existence of a
moral sense in man, individually or associated, of the connection
which the laws of nature have established between his duties and his
interests, of a regard for honest fame and the esteem of our follow-men,
have been a matter of reproach on us, as evidences of imbecility. As if
it could be a folly for an honest man to suppose that others could be
honest also, when it is their interest to be so. And when is this state
of things to end? The death of Bonaparte would, to be sure, remove the
first and chiefest apostle of the desolation of men and morals, and
might withdraw the scourge of the land. But what is to restore order
and safety on the ocean? The death of George III? Not at all. He is only
stupid; and his ministers, however weak and profligate in morals, are
ephemeral. But his nation is permanent, and it is that which is the
tyrant of the ocean. The principle that force is right, is become
the principle of the nation itself. They would not permit an honest
minister, were accident to bring such an one into power, to relax their
system of lawless piracy. These were the difficulties when I was with
you. I know they are not lessened, and I pity you.

It is a blessing, however, that our people are reasonable; that they are
kept so well informed of the state of things as to judge for themselves,
to see the true sources of their difficulties