The Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson
By Subject
CHARITY
I deem it the duty of every man to devote a certain portion of his
income for charitable purposes; and that it is his further duty to see
it so applied as to do the most good of which it is capable. This I
believe to be best insured, by keeping within the circle of his own
inquiry and information the subjects of distress to whose relief his
contributions shall be applied. If this rule be reasonable in private
life, it becomes so necessary in my situation, that to relinquish it
would leave me without rule or compass. The applications of this kind
from different parts of our own, and from foreign countries, are far
beyond any resources within my command. The mission of Serampore, in
the East Indies, the object of the present application, is but one of
many items. However disposed the mind may feel to unlimited good, our
means having limits, we are necessarily circumscribed by them. They
are too narrow to relieve even the distresses under my own eye; and to
desert these for others which we neither see nor know, is to omit
doing a certain good for one which is uncertain. I know, indeed, there
have been splendid associations for effecting benevolent purposes in
remote regions of the earth. But no experience of their effect has
proved that more good would not have been done by the same means
employed nearer home. In explaining, however, my own motives of
action, I must not be understood as impeaching those of others. Their
views are those of an expanded liberality. Mine may be too much
restrained by the law of usefulness. But it is a law to me, and with
minds like yours, will be felt as a justification. With this apology,
I pray you to accept my salutations, and assurances of high esteem and
respect.
Doctors Rogers and Slaughter, 2 March 1806
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