now to relieve
you from this letter of unmerciful length. Indeed, I wonder how I have
accomplished it, with two crippled wrists, the one scarcely able to move
my pen, the other to hold my paper. But I am hurried sometimes beyond
the sense of pain, when unbosoming myself to friends who harmonize with
me in principle. You and I may differ occasionally in details of minor
consequence, as no two minds, more than two faces, are the same in
every feature. But our general objects are the same; to preserve the
republican form and principles of our constitution, and cleave to the
salutary distribution of powers which that has established. These are
the two sheet anchors of our Union. If driven from either, we shall be
in danger of foundering. To my prayers for its safety and perpetuity, I
add those for the continuation of your health, happiness, and usefulness
to your country.

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER CLXXIII.--TO JAMES MADISON, August 30,1823

TO JAMES MADISON.

Monticello, August 30,1823.

Dear Sir,

I received the enclosed letters from the President, with a request that
after perusal I would forward them to you, for perusal by yourself also,
and to be returned then to him.

You have doubtless seen Timothy Pickering's fourth of July observations
on the Declaration of Independence. If his principles and prejudices,
personal and political, gave us no reason to doubt whether he had truly
quoted the information he alleges to have received from Mr. Adams, I
should then say, that in some of the particulars, Mr. Adams's memory
has led him into unquestionable error. At the age of eighty-eight, and
forty-seven years after the transactions of Independence, this is not
wonderful. Nor should I, at the age of eighty, on the small advantage
of that difference only, venture to oppose my memory to his, were it
not supported by written notes, taken by myself at the moment and on the
spot. He says, 'The committee of five, to wit, Doctor Franklin,
Sherman, Livingston, and ourselves, met, discussed the subject, and
then appointed him and myself to make the draught; that, we, as a
sub-committee, met, and after the urgencies of each on the other, I
consented to undertake the task; that, the draught being made, we, the
sub-committee, met, and conned the paper over, and he does not remember
that he made or suggested a single alteration.' Now these details
are quite incorrect. The committee of five met; no such thing as a
sub-committe