exist. For in so complicated a
science as political economy, no one axiom can be laid down as wise and
expedient for all times and circumstances. Inattention to this is what
has called for this explanation, which reflection would have rendered
unnecessary with the candid, while nothing will do it with those who
use the former opinion only as a stalking-horse to cover their disloyal
propensities to keep us in eternal vassalage to a foreign and unfriendly
people.

I salute you with assurances of great respect and esteem.

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER CXXXIV.--TO WILLIAM H. CRAWFORD, June 20, 1816

TO WILLIAM H. CRAWFORD.

Monticello, June 20, 1816.

Dear Sir,

I am about to sin against all discretion, and knowingly, by adding to
the drudgery of your letter-reading, this acknowledgment of the receipt
of your favor of May the 31st, with the papers it covered. I cannot,
however, deny myself the gratification of expressing the satisfaction I
have received, not only from the general statement of affairs at Paris,
in yours of December the 12th, 1814, (as a matter of history which I had
not before received,) but most especially and superlatively, from the
perusal of your letter of the 8th of the same month to Mr. Fisk, on the
subject of drawbacks. This most heterogeneous principle was transplanted
into ours from the British system, by a man whose mind was really
powerful, but chained by native partialities to every thing English; who
had formed exaggerated ideas of the superior perfection of the English
constitution, the superior wisdom of their government, and sincerely
believed it for the good of this country to make them their model in
every thing; without considering that what might be wise and good for a
nation essentially commercial, and entangled in complicated intercourse
with numerous and powerful neighbors, might not be so for one
essentially agricultural, and insulated by nature from the abusive
governments of the old world.

The exercise, by our own citizens, of so much commerce as may suffice
to exchange our superfluities for our wants, may be advantageous for the
whole. But it does not follow, that, with a territory so boundless, it
is the interest of the whole to become a mere city of London, to carry
on the business of one half the world at the expense of eternal war with
the other half. The agricultural capacities of our country constitute
its distinguishing feature; and the adapting our policy and