The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 5 (of 9): Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and PrivateJefferson, Thomas
History
The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 5 (of 9): Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and Private
Jefferson, Thomas
United States -- Politics and government -- 1775-1783; United States -- Politics and government -- 1783-1865
ministers can go into a court in London as witnesses, without interruption
to their executive duties, it is inferred that they would go to a court
one thousand or one thousand five hundred miles off, and that ours are
to be dragged from Maine to Orleans by every criminal who will swear that
their testimony "may be of use to him." The Judge says, "_it is apparent_
that the President's duties as chief magistrate do not demand his whole
time, and are not unremitting." If he alludes to our annual retirement
from the seat of government, during the sickly season, he should be told
that such arrangements are made for carrying on the public business, at
and between the several stations we take, that it goes on as unremittingly
there, as if we were at the seat of government. I pass more hours in
public business at Monticello than I do here, every day; and it is much
more laborious, because all must be done in writing. Our stations being
known, all communications come to them regularly, as to fixed points. It
would be very different were we always on the road, or placed in the noisy
and crowded taverns where courts are held. Mr. Rodney is expected here
every hour, having been kept away by a sick child.
I salute you with friendship and respect.
TO DOCTOR WISTAR.
WASHINGTON, June 21, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--I have a grandson, the son of Mr. Randolph, now about fifteen
years of age, in whose education I take a lively interest. * * * * * I am
not a friend to placing young men in populous cities, because they acquire
there habits and partialities which do not contribute to the happiness
of their after life. But there are particular branches of science, which
are not so advantageously taught anywhere else in the United States as
in Philadelphia. The garden at the Woodlands for Botany, Mr. Peale's
Museum for Natural History, your Medical school for Anatomy, and the able
professors in all of them, give advantages not to be found elsewhere. We
propose, therefore, to send him to Philadelphia to attend the schools
of Botany, Natural History, Anatomy, and perhaps Surgery; but not of
Medicine. And why not of Medicine, you will ask? Being led to the subject,
I will avail myself of the occasion to express my opinions on that
science, and the extent of my medical creed. But, to finish first with
respect to my grandson, I will state the favor I ask of you, and which is
the object of this letter.
* * * * *
This subject dismissed, I may now take up that which it led to, and
further tax your patience with unlearned views of medicine; which, as in
most cases, are, perhaps, the more confident in proportion as they are
less enlightened.
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