I have done, and to give me exactly that place which they
shall think I have occupied. Marshall has written libels on one side;
others, I suppose, will be written on the other side; and the world will
sift both, and separate the truth as well as they can. I should see with
reluctance the passions of that day rekindled in this, while so many of
the actors are living, and all are too near the scene not to participate
in sympathies with them. About facts you and I cannot differ; because
truth is our mutual guide. And if any opinions you may express should
be different from mine, I shall receive them with the liberality and
indulgence which I ask for my own, and still cherish with warmth the
sentiments of affectionate respect of which I can with so much truth
tender you the assurance.

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER CX.--TO JOHN W. EPPES, June 24, 1813

TO JOHN W. EPPES.

Monticello, June 24, 1813.

Dear Sir,

This letter will be on politics only. For although I do not often permit
myself to think on that subject, it sometimes obtrudes itself, and
suggests ideas which I am tempted to pursue. Some of these, relating to
the business of finance, I will hazard to you, as being at the head of
that committee, but intended for yourself individually, or such as you
trust, but certainly not for a mixed committee.

It is a wise rule, and should be fundamental in a government disposed
to cherish its credit, and at the same time to restrain the use of it
within the limits of its faculties, 'never to borrow a dollar without
laying a tax in the same instant for paying the interest annually, and
the principal within a given term; and to consider that tax as pledged
to the creditors on the public faith.' On such a pledge as this,
sacredly observed, a government may always command, on a reasonable
interest, all the lendable money of their citizens, while the
necessity of an equivalent tax is a salutary warning to them and
their constituents against oppressions, bankruptcy, and its inevitable
consequence, revolution. But the term of redemption must be moderate,
and, at any rate, within the limits of their rightful powers. But what
limits, it will be asked, does this prescribe to their powers? What is
to hinder them from creating a perpetual debt? The laws of nature, I
answer. The earth belongs to the living, not to the dead. The will and
the power of man expire with his life, by nature's law. Some societies
give it an artificial con