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lions now prove that at the time Mayer saw his 964th star, the planet Herschel should have been precisely in the place where he noted that star. I shall send you also a little publication here, called the Bibliotheque Physico-oeconomique. It will communi cate all the improvements and new discoveries in the arts and sciences, made in Europe for some years past. I shall be happy to hear from you often. Details, political and literary, and even of the small history oi our country, are the most pleasing commu nications possible. Present me affectionately to Mrs. Page, and to your family, in the members of which, though unknown to me, I feel an interest on account of their parents. Believe me to be with warm esteem, Dear Page, your sincere friend and servant,
TH: JEFFERSON.
LETTER XUVJI.
TO JOHN JAY.
(Private.) Paris, August 23, 1785.
DEAR SIR,
I shall sometimes ask your permission to write you letters, not official, but private. The present is of this kind, and is occasioned by the question proposed in yours of June the 14th; whether it would be useful to us, to carry all our own productions, or none ?
Were we perfectly free to decide this question, I should reason as follows. We have now lands enough to employ an infinite num ber of people in their cultivation. Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most in dependent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country, and wedded to its liberty and interests, by the most lasting bonds. As long, therefore, as they can find employment in this line, I would not convert them into mariners, artisans, or any thing else. But our citizens will find employment in this line, till their numbers, and of course their productions, become too great for the demand both internal and foreign. This is not the case as yet, and proba bly will not be for a considerable time. As soon as it is, the sur plus of hands must be turned to something else. I should then, perhaps, wish to turn them to the sea in preference to manufac tures ; because, comparing the characters of the two classes, I find the former the most valuable citizens. I consider the class of ar tificers as the panders of vice, and the instruments by which the liberties of a country are generally overturned. However, we are
