Your voyage has so far been favorable, and that it
may continue with entire prosperity, is the sincere prayer of that
friendship which I have ever borne you, and of which I now assure you,
with the tender of my high respect and affectionate salutations.
Th: Jefferson,
LETTER LXVI.--TO RICHARD M. JOHNSON, March 10, 1808
TO RICHARD M. JOHNSON.
Washington, March 10, 1808.
Sir,
I am sure you can too justly estimate my occupations, to need an apology
for this tardy acknowledgment of your favor of February the 27th. I
cannot but be deeply sensible of the good opinion you are pleased to
express of my conduct in the administration of our government. This
approbation of my fellow-citizens is the richest reward I can receive. I
am conscious of having always intended to do what was best for them: and
never, for a single moment, to have listened to any personal interest
of my own. It has been a source of great pain to me, to have met with
so many among our opponents, who had not the liberality to distinguish
between political and social opposition; who transferred at once to
the person, the hatred they bore to his political opinions. I suppose,
indeed, that in public life, a man whose political principles have any
decided character, and who has energy enough to give them effect, must
always expect to encounter political hostility from those of adverse
principles. But I came to the government under circumstances calculated
to generate peculiar acrimony.
Pages:
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188