On my choice of women companionship

To answer the singular allegation that I should harbor an attachment toward a servant of my household, I can only pronounce it a notion utterly foreign to my disposition and taste.

Prior to my departure for France, the late Mrs. Jefferson had already passed from this life. During my subsequent residence in Paris, I was fortunate to enjoy the society of many ladies of high accomplishment—a fact to which Dr. Franklin could readily attest—and indeed, my heart was profoundly captivated by the virtues and genius of Maria Cosway. I was therefore never in want of elevated companionship.

Following my return to America, throughout my tenure as Secretary of State, Vice President, and President, as well as within the subsequent quiet of my retirement, there was no scarcity of refined and amiable American women who, cognizant of my status as a widower, favored me with their esteem. Had I sought companionship, it was ever at my disposal among the most cultivated minds of the republic.

I am deeply chagrined to find myself compelled to offer an elucidation upon a matter so personal; yet it is an unpleasant obligation forced upon me by the persistent misconceptions of uninformed individuals, who erroneously imagine me capable of seeking a connection, much less an intimate one, with a domestic servant.