Memoirs Correspondence and Private Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Late President of the United States. V. 2

Lee, and desired his respects to him, which I beg leave to communicate through you. Were he to come into the ministry, (of which there is not the most distant prospect) he must adopt the Kings system, or go out again, as he did before, for daring to depart from it. When we see, that through all the changes of ministry which have taken place during the present reign, there has never been a change of system with respect to A merica, we cannot reasonably doubt, that this is the system of the himself. His obstinacy of character we know; his hostility we have known, and it is embittered by ill success. If ever this nation, during his life, enter into arrangements with us, it must be in consequence of events, of which they do not at present see a possibility. The object of the present ministry is, to buoy up the nation with flattering calculations of their present prosperity, and to make them believe they are better without us, than with us. This they seriously believe; for what is it men cannot be made to believe! I dined the other day in a company of the ministerial party. AG eneral Clark, a Scotchman and ministerialist, sat next to me. He introduced the subject of American affairs, and in the course of the conversation, told me, that were America to petition parliament to be again received on their former footing, the petition would be very generally rejected. He was serious in this, and I think it was the sentiment of the company, and is the sentiment perhaps of the nation. In this they are wise, but for a foolisn reason. They think they lost more by suffering us to participate of their commercial privileges, at home and abroad, than they lose by our political severance. The true reason, however, why such an application should be rejected, is, that in a very short time, we should oblige them to add another hundred millions to their debt, in unsuccessful attemp
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