The Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson
By Subject
KNOWLEDGE / SCIENTIFIC / ABSTRACT RESEARCH
In the line of science we have little new here. Our citizens almost
all follow some industrious occupation, and, therefore, have little
time to devote to abstract science. In the arts, and especially in the
mechanical arts, many ingenious improvements are made in consequence
of the patent-right giving exclusive use of them for fourteen years.
But the great mass of our people are agricultural; and the commercial
cities, though, by the command of newspapers, they make a great deal
of noise, have little effect in the direction of the government. They
are as different in sentiment and character from the country people as
any two distinct nations, and are clamorous against the order of
things established by the agricultural interest. Under this order, our
citizens generally are enjoying a very great degree of liberty and
security in the most temperate manner. Every man being at his ease,
feels an interest in the preservation of order, and comes forth to
preserve it at the first call of the magistrate. We are endeavoring,
too, to reduce the government to the practice of a rigorous economy,
to avoid burdening the people, and arming the magistrate with a
patronage of money, which might be used to corrupt and undermine the
principles of our government. I state these general outlines to you,
because I believe you take some interest in our fortune, and because
our newspapers, for the most part, present only the caricatures of
disaffected minds. Indeed, the abuses of the freedom of the press here
have been carried to a length never before known or borne by any
civilized nation. But it is so difficult to draw a clear line of
separation between the abuse and the wholesome use of the press, that
as yet we have found it better to trust the public judgment, rather
than the magistrate, with the discrimination between truth and
falsehood. And hitherto the public judgment has performed that office
with wonderful correctness.
to Pictet, 5 February 1803
|