nder cover to him. The system of alarm
and jealousy which has been so powerfully played off in England, has
been mimicked here, not entirely without success. The most long-sighted
politician could not, seven years ago, have imagined that the people of
this wide extended country could have been enveloped in such delusion,
and made so much afraid of themselves and their own power, as to
surrender it spontaneously to those who are manoeuvring them into a
form of government, the principal branches of which may be beyond their
control. The commerce of England, however, has spread its roots over
the whole face of our country. This is the real source of all the
obliquities of the public mind: and I should have had doubts of the
ultimate term they might attain; but happily, the game, to be worth
the playing of those engaged in it, must flush them with money. The
authorized expenses of this year are beyond those of any year in the
late war for independence, and they are of a nature to beget great
and constant expenses. The purse of the people is the real seat of
sensibility. It is to be drawn upon largely, and they will then listen
to truths which could not excite them through any other organ. In this
State, however, the delusion has not prevailed. They are sufficiently on
their guard to have justified the assurance, that should you choose it
for your asylum, the laws of the land, administered by upright judges,
would protect you from any exercise of power unauthorized by the
constitution of the United States. The _habeas corpus_ secures every man
here, alien or citizen, against every thing which is not law, whatever
shape it may assume. Should this, or any other circumstance, draw your
footsteps this way, I shall be happy to be among those who may have
an opportunity of testifying, by every attention in our power, the
sentiments of esteem and respect which the circumstances of your history
have inspired, and which are peculiarly felt by, Sir, your most obedient
and most humble servant,

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER CCXLI.--TO STEPHENS THOMPSON MASON, October 11, 1798

TO STEPHENS THOMPSON MASON.

Monticello, October 11, 1798.

Dear Sir,

I have to thank you for your favor of July the 6th, from Philadelphia.
I did not immediately acknowledge it, because I knew you would have come
away. The X. Y. Z. fever has considerably abated through the country, as
I am informed, and the alien and sedition laws are working hard. I fanc