that
we ought to interpose at a proper time, and declare both to England and
France, that these islands are to rest with France, and that we will
make a common cause with the latter for that object. As to the naval
armament, the land armament, and the marine fortifications which are in
question with you, I have no doubt they will all be carried. Not that
the monocrats and papermen in Congress want war; but they want armies
and debts; and though we may hope that the sound part of Congress is
now so augmented as to insure a majority in cases of general interest
merely, yet I have always observed that in questions of expense, where
members may hope either for offices or jobs for themselves or their
friends, some few will be debauched, and that is sufficient to turn the
decision where a majority is, at most, but small. I have never seen a
Philadelphia paper since I left it, till those you enclosed me; and
I feel myself so thoroughly weaned from the interest I took in the
proceedings there, while there, that I have never had a wish to see one,
and believe that I never shall take another newspaper of any sort. I
find my mind totally absorbed in my rural occupations.

Accept sincere assurances of affection.

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER CLXXVIII.--TO TENCH COXE, May 1,1794

TO TENCH COXE.

Monticello, May 1,1794.

Dear Sir,

Your several favors of February the 22nd, 27th, and March the 16th,
which had been accumulating in Richmond during the prevalence of the
small pox in that place, were lately brought to me, on the permission
given the post to resume his communication. I am particularly to
thank you for your favor in forwarding the Bee. Your letters give a
comfortable view of French affairs, and later events seem to confirm it.
Over the foreign powers I am convinced they will triumph completely, and
I cannot but hope that that triumph, and the consequent disgrace of the
invading tyrants, is destined, in the order of events, to kindle the
wrath of the people of Europe against those who have dared to embroil
them in such wickedness, and to bring at length, kings, nobles, and
priests to the scaffolds which they have been so long deluging with
human blood. I am still warm whenever I think of these scoundrels,
though I do it as seldom as I can, preferring infinitely to contemplate
the tranquil growth of my lucerne and potatoes. I have so completely
withdrawn myself from these spectacles of usurpation and misrule, that I