be ascribed to that difference of opinion.  A coalition of sentiments is not for the interest of the printers.  They, like the clergy, live by the zeal they can kindle, and the schisms they can create.  It is contest of opinion in politics as well as religion which makes us take great interest in them, and bestow our money liberally on those who furnish aliment to our appetite.  The mild and simple principles of the Christian philosophy would produce too much calm, too much regularity of good, to extract from its disciples a support for a numerous priesthood, were they not to sophisticate it, ramify it, split it into hairs, and twist its texts till they cover the divine morality of its author with mysteries, and require a priesthood to explain them.  The Quakers seem to have discovered this.  They have no priests, therefore no schisms.  They judge of the text by the dictates of common sense and common morality.  So the printers can never leave us in a state of perfect rest and union of opinion.  They would be no longer useful, and would have to go to the plough.  In the first moments of quietude which have succeeded the election, they seem to have aroused their lying faculties beyond their ordinary state, to re-agitate the public mind.  What appointments to office have they detailed which had never been thought of, merely to found a text for their calumniating commentaries.  However, the steady character of our countrymen is a rock to which we may safely moor:  and notwithstanding the efforts of the papers to disseminate early discontents, I expect that a just, dispassionate, and steady conduct will at length rally to a proper system the great body of our country.  Unequivocal in principle, reasonable in manner, we shall be able, I hope, to do a great deal of good to the cause of freedom and harmony.  I shall be happy to hear from you often, to know your own sentiments and those of others on the course of things, and to concur with you in efforts for the common good.  Your letters through the post will now come safely.  Present my best respects to Mrs. Gerry, and accept yourself assurances of my constant esteem and high consideration.

Th:  Jefferson.

LETTER CCLXXXIV.—­TO GIDEON GRANGER, May 3, 1801

TO GIDEON GRANGER.

Washington, May 3, 1801.

Dear Sir,

I wrote you on the 29th of March.  Yours of the 25th of that month, with the address it covered, had not reached this place on the 1st of April, when I set out on a short visit to my residence in Virginia, where some arrangements were necessary previous to my settlement here.  In fact, your letter came to me at Monticello only the 24th of April, two days before my departure from thence.  This, I hope, will sufficiently apologize for the delay of the answer, which those unapprized of these circumstances will have thought extraordinary.