I am induced, from my own feelings, to
recommend Colonel Humphreys to your care. He is sensible, prudent, and
honest, and may be very firmly relied on, in any office which requires
these talents. I pray you to accept assurance of the sincere esteem and
respect, with which I am,
Dear Sir, your most obedient
and most humble servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER XIII.--TO JAMES ROSS, May 8, 1786
TO JAMES ROSS.
Paris, May 8, 1786.
Dear Sir,
I have duly received your favor of October the 22nd, and am much
gratified by the communications therein made. It has given me details,
which do not enter into the views of my ordinary correspondents, and
which are very entertaining. I experience great satisfaction at seeing
my country proceed to facilitate the intercommunications of its several
parts, by opening rivers, canals, and roads. How much more rational is
this disposal of public money, than that of waging war.
Before the receipt of your letter, Morris's contract for sixty thousand
hogsheads of tobacco was concluded with the Farmers General. I have been
for some time occupied in endeavoring to destroy the root of the evils,
which the tobacco trade encounters in this country, by making the
ministers sensible, that merchants will not bring a commodity to a
market, where but one person is allowed to buy it; and that so long as
that single purchaser is obliged to go to foreign markets for it, he
must pay for it in coin, and not in commodities.
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