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land of our own language; morals; manners; and habits。  To make the

selection we send a special agent; M'r Francis W。 Gilmer; who will

have the honor of delivering you this letter。  He is well educated

himself in most of the branches of science; of correct morals and

habits; an enlarged mind; and a discretion meriting entire

confidence。  From the universities of Oxford and Cambridge; where we

expect he will find persons duly qualified in the particular branches

in which these seminaries are respectively eminent; he will pass on

to Edinburg; distinguished for it's school of Medicine as well as of

other sciences; but when arrived there he will be a perfect stranger;

and would have to grope his way in darkness and uncertainty; you can

lighten his path; and to beseech you to do so is the object of this

letter。  Your knolege of persons and characters there can guard him

against being misled and lead him to the consummation of our wishes。

We do not expect to engage the high characters there who are at the

head of their schools; established in offices; honors; & emoluments

which can be bettered no where。  But we know there is always a junior

set of aspirants; treading on their heels; ready to take their

places; and as well & sometimes better qualified than they are。

These persons; unsettled as yet; surrounded by competitors of equal

claims; and perhaps greater credit and interest; may be willing to

accept immediately a comfortable certainty here in place of uncertain

hopes there; and a lingering delay of even these。  From this

description of persons we may hope to procure characters of the first

order of science。  But how to distinguish them?  For we are told that

were the mission of our agent once known; he would be overwhelmed

with applicants; unworthy as well as worthy; yet all supported on

recommendns and certificates equally exaggerated; and by names so

respectable as to confound all discrimination。  Yet this

discrimination is all important to us。  An unlucky selection at first

would blast all our prospects。  Let me beseech you; then; good Sir;

to lead Mr。 Gilmer by the hand in his researches; to instruct him as

to the competent characters; & guard him against those not so。

Besides the first degree of eminence in science; a professor with us

must be of sober and correct morals & habits; having the talent of

communicating his knolege with facility; and of an accomodating and

peaceable temper。  The latter is all important for the harmony of the

institution。  For minuter particulars I will refer you to Mr。 Gilmer;

who possesses a full knolege of everything & our full confidence in

everything。  He takes with him plans of our establm't; which will

shew the comfortable accommodns provided for the professors; whether

with or without families; and by the expensiveness and extent of the

scale they will see it is not an ephemeral thing to which they are

invited。




        A knolege of your character & disposns to do good dispenses

with all apology for the trouble I give you。  While the character and

success of this institN; involving the future hopes and happiness of

my country; will justify the anxieties I feel in the choice of it's

professors; I am sure the object will excite in your breast such

sympathies of kind disposN; as will give us the benefits we ask of

your counsels & attentions。  And; with my acknolegements for these;

accept assurances of constant and sincere attamt; esteem & respect。







        SAXONS; CONSTITUTIONS; AND A CASE OF PIOUS FRAUD




        _To Major John Cartwright_

        _Monticello; June 5; 1824_




        DEAR AND VENERABLE SIR;  I am much indebted for your kind

letter of February the 29th; and for your valuable volume on the

English constitution。  I have read this with pleasure and much

approbation; and think it has deduced the constitution of the English

nation from its rightful root; the Anglo…Saxon。  It is really

wonderful; that so many able and learned men should have failed in

their attempts to define it with correctness。  No wonder then; that

Paine; who thought more than he read; should have credited the great

authorities who have declared; that the will of parliament is the

constitution of England。  So Marbois; before the French revolution;

observed to me; that the Almanac Royal was the constitution of

France。  Your derivation of it from the Anglo…Saxons; seems to be

made on legitimate principles。  Having driven out the former

inhabitants of that part of the island called England; they became

aborigines as to you; and your lineal ancestors。  They doubtless had

a constitution; and although they have not left it in a written

formula; to the precise text of which you may always appeal; yet they

have left fragments of their history and laws; from which it may be

inferred with considerable certainty。  Whatever their history and

laws shew to have been practised with approbation; we may presume was

permitted by their constitution; whatever was not so practised; was

not permitted。  And although this constitution was violated and set

at naught by Norman force; yet force cannot change right。  A

perpetual claim was kept up by the nation; by their perpetual demand

of a restoration of their Saxon laws; which shews they were never

relinquished by the will of the nation。  In the pullings and haulings

for these antient rights; between the nation; and its kings of the

races of Plantagenets; Tudors and Stuarts; there was sometimes gain;

and sometimes loss; until the final re…conquest of their rights from

the Stuarts。  The destitution and expulsion of this race broke the

thread of pretended inheritance; extinguished all regal usurpations;

and the nation re…entered into all its rights; and although in their

bill of rights they specifically reclaimed some only; yet the

omission of the others was no renunciation of the right to assume

their exercise also; whenever occasion should occur。  The new King

received no rights or powers; but those expressly granted to him。  It

has ever appeared to me; that the difference between the whig and the

tory of England is; that the whig deduces his rights from the

Anglo…Saxon source; and the tory from the Norman。  And Hume; the

great apostle of toryism; says; in so many words; note AA to chapter

42; that; in the reign of the Stuarts; ‘it was the people who

encroached upon the sovereign; not the sovereign who attempted; as is

pretended; to usurp upon the people。' This supposes the Norman

usurpations to be rights in his successors。  And again; C; 159; ‘the

commons established a principle; which is noble in itself; and seems

specious; but is belied by all history and experience; _that the

people are the origin of all just power_。' And where else will this

degenerate son of science; this traitor to his fellow men; find the

origin of just powers; if not in the majority of the society?  Will

it be in the minority?  Or in an individual of that minority?




        Our Revolution commenced on more favorable ground。  It

presented us an album on which we were free to write what we pleased。

We had no occasion to search into musty records; to hunt up royal

parchments; or to investigate the laws and institutions of a

semi…barbarous ancestry。  We appealed to those of nature; and found

them engraved on our hearts。  Yet we did not avail ourselves of all

the advantages of our position。  We had never been permitted to

exercise self…government。  When forced to assume it; we were novices

in its science。  Its principles and forms had entered little into our

former education。  We established however some; although not all its

important principles。  The constitutions of most of our States

assert; that all power is inherent in the people; that they may

exercise it by themselves; in all cases to which they think

themselves competent; (as in electing their functionaries executive

and legislative; and deciding by a jury of themselves; in all

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