08/06/2025
To the Citizens of America, my Countrymen,
From that quiet shore whence we can but observe the currents of time, I have watched the Republic we conceived grow into a power and a marvel that would strain the imagination of any in my era. Your industry, your ingenuity, and the sheer scale of your enterprise are a testament to the energies that liberty can unleash. It is this boundless potential that makes the careful stewardship of our government an object of perpetual and anxious concern.
I have observed the character of your present Chief Magistrate and the manner in which he presides over the nation. It has ever been the nature of a free people to select for themselves the leaders they deem fit, and this exercise of the popular will is the supreme security of the republic. Yet, we must also, with unceasing vigilance, examine the principles that animate those we elevate to high office.
It appears to me that your politics have become a theater of passions, where fervor oft outweighs reason. I devoted my life to the belief that the human mind, free to inquire and to reason, is the only firm basis for self-government. A republic demands of its citizens a sober and deliberate consideration of facts, and of its leaders, a discourse that appeals to the intellect rather than one that inflames the baser instincts. When the public sphere is dominated by spectacle and acrimony, the project of reasoned democracy is imperiled.
Furthermore, I am struck by the present disposition towards the public press. In my time, no man suffered more from the calumnies of newspapers than I. They printed falsehoods with a liberty that often chafed at the soul. Yet, I held firm, and I hold now, to the conviction that this freedom is an essential check upon the designs of government. When a leader endeavors to declare the press an enemy, and to sweep away all distinctions between honest criticism and malicious fabrication, he takes up the tools of a tyrant. It is a fearsome thing to place the power of the state in opposition to the means of its scrutiny.
Our Constitution was formed to prevent the rise of an elective monarchy. We feared a President who might command personal loyalty over constitutional duty, who might view the institutions of government as instruments of his own will, and who might mistake the clamor of a crowd for the voice of the people. The executive office was created to be one of formidable energy, but always subservient to the law and the liberties of the citizenry.
Therefore, I must implore you to remain vigilant. The health of our republic does not depend on any single man, but on your own virtue and intelligence. Guard against the erosion of your institutions. Read, think, and question. Let not your affections for any one individual supplant your devotion to the principles of liberty. For the tree of liberty is a tender plant, and it can only flourish when its roots are nourished by an educated, enlightened, and ever-watchful populace.
I remain, as always, your humble servant and a faithful friend to the enduring cause of American liberty,
Th. Jefferson
