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Category: Thomas Jefferson

Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Eli Whitney Regarding the Cotton Gin

Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Eli Whitney Regarding the Cotton Gin

Jefferson, Thomas Nov. 16. 1793 Germantown Eli Whitney Whitney, Eli TO ELI WHITNEY J. MSS. Germantown, Nov. 16. 1793. Sir, — Your favor of Oct. 15. inclosing a drawing of your cotton gin, was received on the 6th inst. The only requisite of the law now uncomplied with is the forwarding a model, which being received your patent may be made out delivered to your order immediately. As the state of Virginia, of which I am, carries on household manufactures…

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Thomas Jefferson on congressional conflict of interest

Thomas Jefferson on congressional conflict of interest

“I said that the two great complaints were that the national debt was unnecessarily increased, that it had furnished the means of corrupting both branches of the legislature. That he must know everybody knew there was a considerable squadron in both whose votes were devoted to the paper stock-jobbing interest, that the names of a weighty number were known several others suspected on good grounds. That on examining the votes of these men they would be found uniformly for every…

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Thomas Jefferson on judicial power and ego

Thomas Jefferson on judicial power and ego

“It is not enough that honest men are appointed judges. All know the influence of interest on the mind of man, and how unconsciously his judgment is warped by that influence. To this bias add that of the esprit de corps, of their peculiar maxim and creed that “it is the office of a good judge to enlarge his jurisdiction,” and the absence of responsibility, and how can we expect impartial decision between the General government, of which they are…

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Thomas Jefferson on congressional corruption and bloat

Thomas Jefferson on congressional corruption and bloat

“That a system had there been contrived for deluging the states with paper money instead of gold silver, for withdrawing our citizens from the pursuits of commerce, manufactures, buildings, other branches of useful industry, to occupy themselves their capitals in a species of gambling, destructive of morality, which had introduced it’s poison into the government itself. That it was a fact, as certainly known as that he I were then conversing, that particular members of the legislature, while those laws…

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Thomas Jefferson on lawyers in Congress

Thomas Jefferson on lawyers in Congress

“I served with General Washington in the legislature of Virginia before the revolution, and, during it, with Dr. Franklin in Congress. I never heard either of them speak ten minutes at a time, nor to any but the main point which was to decide the question. They laid their shoulders to the great points, knowing that the little ones would follow of themselves. If the present Congress errs in too much talking, how can it be otherwise in a body…

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