Real Talk: Thomas Jefferson, Part 1

Forward-thinking enough to solve the problem of the militias in Iraq:

"The most economical as well as the most humane conduct towards [the Indians] is to bribe them into peace and to retain them in peace by eternal bribes." --Thomas Jefferson to Charles Carroll, 1791. ME 8:177

On containment:

"I freely admit the right of a nation to change its political principles and constitution at will, and the impropriety of any but its own citizens censuring that change." --Thomas Jefferson to the Earl of Buchan, 1803. ME 10:400

Yeah, sounds good,

"Although we have no right to intermeddle with the form of government of other nations, yet it is lawful to wish to see no emperors nor kings in our hemisphere." --Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, 1823.

Never mind. On to moral relativism!

"What might be wise and good for a nation essentially commercial and entangled in complicated intercourse with numerous and powerful neighbors, might not be so for one essentially agricultural and insulated by nature from the abusive governments of the old world." --Thomas Jefferson to William H. Crawford, 1816. ME 15:27

Thomas Jefferson, technocrat:

"The daily advance of science will enable [the existing generation] to administer the commonwealth with increased wisdom." --Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 1823. ME 15:494

Thomas Jefferson, Northern aggressor:

"I regret that I am now to die in the belief that the useless sacrifice of themselves by the generation of 1776 to acquire self-government and happiness to their country, is to be thrown away by the unwise and unworthy passions of their sons, and that my only consolation is to be that I live not to weep over it. If they would but dispassionately weigh the blessings they will throw away against an abstract principle more likely to be effected by union than by scission, they would pause before they would perpetrate this act of suicide on themselves and of treason against the hopes of the world." --Thomas Jefferson to John Holmes, 1820. ME 15:250

In  conclusion:

"We, too, shall encounter follies; but if great, they will be short, if long, they will be light; and the vigor of our country will get the better of them." --Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Digges, 1806. ME 11:113

haha whoops