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, & 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 occupa

tions.

*

TO JAMES MONROE.

MON. MSS.

MONTICELLO Apr. 24. 94.

I wrote to Mr. Madison on the 3d inst. Since that I have received his of Mar. 24. 26. 31. & Apr. 14. and yours of Mar. 26. 31 & Apr. 2. which had been accumulating in the post office of Richmond. The spirit of war has grown much stronger in this part of the country, as I can judge of myself, and in other parts along the mountains from N. E. to S. W. as I have had opportunities of learning by enquiry. Some few very quiet people, not suffering themselves to be inflamed as others are by the kicks & cuffs Gt. Britain has been giving us, express a wish to remain in peace. But the mass of thinking men seem to be of opinion that we have borne as much as to invite eternal insults in

future should not a very spirited conduct be now assumed. For myself, I wish for peace, if it can be preserved, salvê fide et honore. I learn by your letters & mr. Madison's that a special mission to England is meditated, & H. the missionary. A more degrading measure could not have been proposed: and why is Pinckney to be recalled? For it is impossible he should remain there after such a testimony that he is not confided in. I suppose they think him not thorough fraud enough : I suspect too the mission, besides the object of placing the aristocracy of this country under the patronage of that government, has in view that of withdrawing H. from the disgrace & the public execrations which sooner or later must fall on the man who partly by erecting fictitious debt, partly by volunteering in the payment of the debts of others, who could have paid them so much more conveniently themselves, has alienated for ever all our ordinary & easy resources, & will oblige us hereafter to extraordinary ones for every little contingency out of the common line: and who has lately brought the P. forward with manifestations that the business of the treasury had got beyond the limits of his comprehension :-Let us turn to more pleasing themes.

DEAR SIR,-I am to thank you for the book you were so good as to transmit me, as well as the letter covering it, and your felicitations on my present

quiet. The difference of my present & past situation is such as to leave me nothing to regret, but that my retirement has been postponed four years too long. The principles on which I calculate the value of life, are entirely in favor of my present course. I return to farming with an ardor which I scarcely knew in my youth, and which has got the better entirely of my love of study. Instead of writing 10. or 12. letters a day, which I have been in the habit of doing as a thing of course, I put off answering my letters now, farmer-like, till a rainy day, & then find it sometimes postponed by other necessary occupations. The case of the Pays de Vaud is new to me. The claims of both parties are on grounds which, I fancy, we have taught the world to set little store by. The rights of one generation will scarcely be considered hereafter as depending on the paper transactions of another. My countrymen are groaning under the insults of Gr Britain. I hope some means will turn up of reconciling our faith & honor with peace. I confess to you I have seen enough of one war never to wish to see another. With wishes of every degree of happiness to you, both public & private, and with my best respects to mrs. Adams, I am, your affectionate & humble servant.

I

DEAR SIR,-In my new occupation of a farmer I find a good drilling machine indispensably necessary. remember your recommendation of one invented by

one of your neighbors; & your recommendation suf-
fices to satisfy me with it. I must therefore beg of
you to desire one to be made for me, & if you will
give me some idea of it's bulk, & whether it could
travel here on it's own legs, I will decide whether to
send express for it, or get it sent around by Rich-
mond. Mention at the same time the price of it & I
will have it put in your hands.—I remember I showed
you, for your advice, a plan of a rotation of crops
which I had contemplated to introduce into my own
lands. On a more minute examination of my lands
than I had before been able to take since my return
from Europe, I find their degradation by ill-usage
much beyond what I had expected, & at the same
time much more open land than I had calculated on.
One of these circumstances forces a milder course of
cropping on me, & the other enables me to adopt it.
I drop therefore two crops in my rotation, & instead
of 5. crops in 8. years take 3. in 6. years, in the fol-
lowing order.
I. wheat. 2. corn & potatoes in the
strongest moiety, potatoes alone or peas alone in the
other moiety according to it's strength. 3. wheat or
rye. 4. clover. 5. clover. 6. folding & buckwheat
dressing. In such of my fields as are too much worn
for clover, I propose to try S'foin, which I know will
grow in the poorest land, bring plentiful crops, & is a
great ameliorator. It is for this chiefly I want the
drilling machine as well as for Lucerne. My neigh-
bors to whom I had distributed some seed of the
Succory critybus, bro't from France by Young, &
sent to the President, are much pleased with it. I

am trying a patch of it this year. This drops from the tip of Lazarus' finger to cool your tongue. I have thought even father Abraham would approve. He refused it to Dives in the common hall, but in yours he could not do it. Pray let me have a copy of the pamphlet published on the subject of the bank. Not even the title of it has ever been seen by my neighbors. My best affections to the sound part of our representation in both houses, which I calculate to be 19/20ths. Adieu. Your's affectionately.

DEAR SIR,-Your several favors of Feb. 22, 27, & March 16. 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, & I cannot but hope that that triumph, & 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, & priests to the scaffolds which they have been so long deluging with human blood. I am still warm whenever I think of these scoundrels,