I congratulate you on the accesion of your State to the new federal constitution.  This is the last I have yet heard of, but I expect daily to hear that my own has followed the good example, and suppose it to be already established.  Our government wanted bracing.  Still we must take care not to run from one extreme to another; not to brace too high.  I own, I join those in opinion, who think a bill of rights necessary.  I apprehend too, that the total abandonment of the principle of rotation in the offices of President and Senator, will end in abuse.  But my confidence is, that there will, for a long time, be virtue and good sense enough in our countrymen, to correct abuses.  We can surely boast of having set the world a beautiful example of a government reformed by reason alone, without bloodshed.  But the world is too far oppressed to profit by the example.  On this side of the Atlantic, the blood of the people has become an inheritance, and those who fatten on it, will not relinquish it easily.  The struggle in this country is, as yet, of doubtful issue.  It is, in fact, between the monarchy and the parliaments.  The nation is no otherwise concerned, but as both parties may be induced to let go some of its abuses, to court the public favor.  The danger is, that the people, deceived by a false cry of liberty, may be led to take side with one party, and thus give the other a pretext for crushing them still more.  If they can avoid the appeal to arms, the nation will be sure to gain much by this controversy.  But if that appeal is made, it will depend entirely on the disposition of the army, whether it issue in liberty or despotism.  Those dispositions are not as yet known.  In the mean time, there is great probability that the war kindled in the east, will spread from nation to nation, and, in the long run, become general.

*****

I am, with the most sincere esteem and attachment, my dear; Sir, your friend and servant,

Th:  Jefferson.

LETTER CXLVII.—­TO MR. BELLINI, July 25,1788

TO MR. BELLINI.

Paris, July 25,1788.

Dear Sir,

Though I have written to you seldom, you are often the object of my thoughts, and always of my affection.  The truth is, that the circumstances with which I am surrounded, offer little worth detailing to you.  You are too wise to feel an interest in the squabbles, in which the pride, the dissipations, and the tyranny of kings, keep this hemisphere constantly embroiled.  Science, indeed, finds some aliment here, and you are one of her sons.  But this I have pretty regularly communicated to Mr. Madison, with whom, I am sure, you participate of it.  It is with sincere pleasure I congratulate you on the good fortune of our friend Mazzei, who is appointed here, to correspond with the King of Poland.  The particular character given him is not well defined, but the salary is, which