The Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson
By Subject
LAND / LAND SALES TO RETIRE GOVERNMENT DEBT
I am much pleased with your land ordinance, and think it improved
from the first, in the most material circumstances. I had mistaken the
object of the division of the lands among the States. I am sanguine in
my expectations of lessening our debts by this fund, and have
expressed my expectations to the minister and others here. I see by
the public papers, you have adopted the dollar as your money unit. In
the arrangement of coins I proposed, I ought to have inserted a gold
coin of five dollars, which, being within two shillings of the value
of a guinea, would be very convenient.
to James Monroe, 28 August 1785
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