Sketches of the Life, Writings, and Opinions of Thomas Jefferson: With Selections of the Most Valuable Portions of His Voluminous and Unrivaled Private CorrespondenceA. Francis and W. Boardman, 1832 - 556 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
Adams Adieu administration affectionate America appointed arrived assured body Britain British character Charlottesville circumstances citizens Colonies commerce Congress consider constitution Dabney Carr daugh daughter dear declared duties effect England Eppes Eppington established Europe executive favor federalists feel France give hand happiness heart honor hope House of Burgesses interest Jeffer John Adams King Legislature letter liberty Madame Madison Maria MARIA COSWAY Marquis de Lafayette Martha Jefferson Martha Jefferson Randolph Mary Jefferson measure ment mind Minister Monticello nation nature never object occasion opinion Paris party passed peace person Peyton Randolph Philadelphia pleasure political present President principles Randolph received render republican retirement Revolution sentiments sincere sister South Carolina thing thought tion treaty United Virginia vote Washington whole wish write wrote
Popular passages
Page 417 - If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.
Page 140 - Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God, if ever he had a chosen people, whose breasts he has made his peculiar deposit for substantial and genuine virtue.
Page 38 - And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God ? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath?
Page 168 - That no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.
Page 163 - Almighty God hath created the mind free, and manifested his supreme will that free it shall remain by making it altogether insusceptible of restraint; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments, or burthens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion...
Page 117 - He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither.
Page 474 - I believe this on the contrary the strongest government on earth. I believe it the only one where every man, at the call of the law, would fly to the standard of the law, and would meet invasions of the public order as his own personal concern.
Page 418 - ... a jealous care of the right of election by the people, a mild and safe corrective of abuses which are lopped by the sword of revolution where peaceable remedies are unprovided; absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority, the vital principle of republics from which there is no appeal but to force, the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism...
Page 163 - ... established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world, and through all time; that to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical...
Page 394 - I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.