As to myself, I shall take no part in any discussions.  I leave others to judge of what I have done, and to give me exactly that place which they shall think I have occupied.  Marshall has written libels on one side; others, I suppose, will be written on the other side; and the world will sift both, and separate the truth as well as they can.  I should see with reluctance the passions of that day rekindled in this, while so many of the actors are living, and all are too near the scene not to participate in sympathies with them.  About facts you and I cannot differ; because truth is our mutual guide.  And if any opinions you may express should be different from mine, I shall receive them with the liberality and indulgence which I ask for my own, and still cherish with warmth the sentiments of affectionate respect of which I can with so much truth tender you the assurance.

Th:  Jefferson.

LETTER CX.—­TO JOHN W. EPPES, June 24, 1813

TO JOHN W. EPPES.

Monticello, June 24, 1813.

Dear Sir,

This letter will be on politics only.  For although I do not often permit myself to think on that subject, it sometimes obtrudes itself, and suggests ideas which I am tempted to pursue.  Some of these, relating to the business of finance, I will hazard to you, as being at the head of that committee, but intended for yourself individually, or such as you trust, but certainly not for a mixed committee.

It is a wise rule, and should be fundamental in a government disposed to cherish its credit, and at the same time to restrain the use of it within the limits of its faculties, ’never to borrow a dollar without laying a tax in the same instant for paying the interest annually, and the principal within a given term; and to consider that tax as pledged to the creditors on the public faith.’  On such a pledge as this, sacredly observed, a government may always command, on a reasonable interest, all the lendable money of their citizens, while the necessity of an equivalent tax is a salutary warning to them and their constituents against oppressions, bankruptcy, and its inevitable consequence, revolution.  But the term of redemption must be moderate, and, at any rate, within the limits of their rightful powers.  But what limits, it will be asked, does this prescribe to their powers?  What is to hinder them from creating a perpetual debt?  The laws of nature, I answer.  The earth belongs to the living, not to the dead.  The will and the power of man expire with his life, by nature’s law.  Some societies give it an artificial continuance, for the encouragement of industry; some refuse it, as our aboriginal neighbors, whom we call barbarians.  The generations of men may be considered as bodies or corporations.  Each generation has the usufruct of the earth during the period of its continuance.  When it ceases to exist, the usufruct passes on to the succeeding