And if I remove beyond the reach of attentions to the
University, or beyond the bourne of life itself, as I soon must, it is a
comfort to leave that institution under your care, and an assurance
that it will not be wanting. It has also been a great solace to me, to
believe that you are engaged in vindicating to posterity the course we
have pursued for preserving to them, in all their purity, the blessings
of self-government, which we had assisted too in acquiring for them. If
ever the earth has beheld a system of administration conducted with a
single and steadfast eye to the general interest and happiness of those
committed to it, one which, protected by truth, can never know reproach,
it is that to which our lives have been devoted. To myself you have
been a pillar of support through life. Take care of me when dead, and be
assured that I shall leave with you my last affections.
Th: Jefferson.
[The following paper it is deemed proper to insert, as well
because of the explanation it contains of the reasons which
led the author to ask permission of the legislature to sell
his property by lottery, as of its otherwise interesting
character.]
THOUGHTS ON LOTTERIES.
It is a common idea that games of chance are immoral. But what is
chance? Nothing happens in this world without a cause. If we know the
cause, we do not call it chance; but if we do not know it, we say it was
produced by chance.
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