hy should we be dissocialized by mere
differences of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, or any
thing else. His opinions are as honestly formed as my own. Our different
views of the same subject are the result of a difference in our
organization and experience. I never withdrew from the society of any
man on this account, although many have done it from me; much less
should I do it from one with whom I had gone through, with hand and
heart, so many trying scenes. I wish, therefore, but for an apposite
occasion to express to Mr. Adams my unchanged affections for him. There
is an awkwardness which hangs over the resuming a correspondence so
long discontinued, unless something could arise which should call for a
letter. Time and chance may perhaps generate such an occasion, of which
I shall not be wanting in promptitude to avail myself. From this fusion
of mutual affections, Mrs. Adams is of course separated. It will only be
necessary that I never name her. In your letters to Mr. Adams, you can,
perhaps, suggest my continued cordiality towards him, and knowing this,
should an occasion of writing first present itself to him, he will
perhaps avail himself of it, as I certainly will, should it first occur
to me. No ground for jealousy now existing, he will certainly give fair
play to the natural warmth of his heart. Perhaps I may open the way
in some letter to my old friend Gerry, who I know is in habits of the
greatest intimacy with him.

I have thus, my friend, laid open my heart to you, because you were so
kind as to take an interest in healing again revolutionary affections,
which have ceased in expression only, but not in their existence. God
ever bless you, and preserve you in life and health.

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER XCIX.--TO JOHN ADAMS, January 21, 1812

TO JOHN ADAMS.

Monticello, January 21, 1812.

Dear Sir,

I thank you beforehand (for they are not yet arrived) for the specimens
of homespun you have been so kind as to forward me by post. I doubt not
their excellence, knowing how far you are advanced in these things
in your quarter. Here we do little in the fine way, but in coarse
and middling goods a great deal. Every family in the country is a
manufactory within itself, and is very generally able to make within
itself all the stouter and middling stuffs for its own clothing and
household use. We consider a sheep for every person in the family as
sufficient to clothe it, in addition to