HOPE FOR PEACE AND LIBERTY Jefferson letter to Adams,1821 I shall not die without a hope that light and liberty are on steady advance. We have seen, indeed, once within the records of history, a complete eclipse of the human mind continuing for centuries. And this, too, by swarms of the same northern barbarians, conquering and taking possesion of the countries and governments of the civilized world.
Should this be again attempted, should the same northern hordes, allured again by the corn, wine, and oil of the south, be able to seattle their swarms in the countries of their growth, the art of printing alone, and the vast dissemination of books, will maintain the mind where it is, and raise the conquering ruffians to the level of the qunquerors.
And even should the cloud of barbarism and despotism again obscure the science and liberties of Europe, this country remains to preserve and restore light and liberty to them. In short, the flames kindled on the 4th of July 1776, have spread over too much of the globe to be extinguished by the feeble engines of despotism; on the contrary, they will consume these engines and all who work them.
Sever Relations With and Internasional Agressor Jefferson letter to T. Coxe, 1794 I love peace, and I am anxious that we should give the world still another useful lesson, by showing to them other modes of punishing injuries than by war, which is as much a punishment to the punisher as to the sufferer. I love, therefore. The proposition of cutting off all communications with the nation [England] which has conducted itself so atrociously, this you will say, may bring on war. If it does, we will meet it like men; but it may not bring on war, and then the experiment will have been a happy one.
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