I have the honor to be, with very great esteem and attachment, Dear Sir,
your most obedient and most humble servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER CXCVI.--TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE, May 6,1789
TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE.
Paris, May 6,1789.
My Dear Friend,
As it becomes more and more possible that the _Noblesse_ will go
wrong, I become uneasy for you. Your principles are decidedly with the
_Tiers-Etat_, and your instructions against them. A complaisance to the
latter on some occasions, and an adherence to the former on others, may
give an appearance of trimming between the two parties, which may lose
you both. You will, in the end, go over wholly to the _Tiers-Etat_,
because it will be impossible for you to live in a constant sacrifice of
your own sentiments to the prejudices of the _Noblesse_. But you would
be received by the _Tiers-Etat_, at any future day, coldly, and without
confidence. This appears to me the moment to take at once that honest
and manly stand with them, which your own principles dictate. This will
win their hearts for ever, be approved by the world, which marks and
honors you as the man of the people, and will be an eternal consolation
to yourself.
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