vance invented for the purposes of
corruption, and for assimilating us in all things to the rotten as well
as the sound parts of the British model. It would give you a fever, were
I to name to you the apostates who have gone over to these heresies, men
who were Samsons in the field and Solomons in the council, but who have
had their heads shorn by the harlot England. In short, we are likely
to preserve the liberty we have obtained only by unremitting labors and
perils. But we shall preserve it; and our mass of weight and wealth on
the good side is so great, as to leave no danger that force will ever
be attempted against us. We have only to awake and snap the Lilliputian
cords with which they have been entangling us during the first sleep
which succeeded our labors.

I will forward the testimonial of the death of Mrs. Mazzei, which I can
do the more incontrovertibly as she is buried in my grave-yard, and I
pass her gravel daily. The formalities of the proof you require, will
occasion delay. I begin to feel the effects of age. My health has
suddenly broken down, with symptoms which give me to believe I shall not
have much to encounter of the _tedium vita_. While it remains, however,
my heart will be warm in its friendships, and, among these, will
always foster the affections with which I am, Dear Sir, your friend and
servant,

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER CXCV.--TO COLONEL MONROE, June 12, 1796

TO COLONEL MONROE.

Monticello, June 12, 1796.

Dear Sir,

*****

Congress have risen. You will have seen by their proceedings the truth
of what I always observed to you, that one man outweighs them all in
influence over the people, who have supported his judgment against their
own and that of their representatives. Republicanism must lie on its
oars, resign the vessel to its pilot, and themselves to the course he
thinks best for them. I had always conjectured, from such facts as I
could get hold of, that our public debt was increasing about a million
of dollars a year. You will see by Gallatin's speeches that the thing
is proved. You will see farther, that we are completely saddled and
bridled, and that the bank is so firmly mounted on us that we must
go where they will guide. They openly publish a resolution, that the
national property being increased in value, they must by an increase
of circulating medium furnish an adequate representation of it, and
by further additions of active capital promote the enterprises o