The Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson
By Subject
WEALTH / PRODUCTION OF / PROTECTING THE NATION'S MERCHANT SHIPS
And have our commercial citizens merited from their country its
encountering another war to protect their gambling enterprises? That
the persons of our citizens shall be safe in freely traversing the
ocean, that the transportation of our own produce, in our own vessels,
to the markets of our choice, and the return to us of the articles we
want for our own use, shall be unmolested, I hold to be fundamental,
and the gauntlet that must be for ever hurled at him who questions it.
But whether we shall engage in every war of Europe, to protect the
mere agency of our merchants and ship owners in carrying on the
commerce of other nations, even were these merchants and ship-owners
to take the side of their country in the contest, instead of that of
the enemy, is a question of deep and serious consideration, with
which, however, you and I shall have nothing to do; so we will leave
it to those whom it will concern.
to John Adams, 10 June 1815
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