July 6

[This is from my letter to T.M. Randolph, Jr., July 6, 1787. My favorite exercise is walking.]

The journey which I propose to you need not be expensive, and would be very useful. With your talents and industry, with science, and that steadfast honesty which eternally pursues right, regardless of consequences, you may promise yourself everything — but health, without which there is no happiness.

An attention to health, then, should take place of every other object. The time necessary to secure this by active exercises, should be devoted to it, in preference to every other pursuit. I know the difficulty with which a studious man tears himself from his studies, at any given moment of the day. But his happiness, and that of his family, depend on it. The most uninformed mind, with a healthy body, is happier than the wisest valetudinarian.

[This is my letter to David Hall, dated July 6, 1802, on the importance of ensuring our Great Experiment is a success, for the sake of America and all of humanity.]

We have no interests nor passions different from those of our fellow citizens. We have the same object, the success of representative government. Nor are we acting for ourselves alone, but for the whole human race. The event of our experiment is to shew whether man can be trusted with self government. The eyes of suffering humanity are fixed on us with anxiety as their only hope, and on such a theatre & for such a cause we must suppress all smaller passions & local considerations. The leaders of Federalism say that man cannot be trusted with his own government. We must do no act which shall replace them in the direction of the experiment. We must not, by any departure from principle, dishearten the mass of our fellow citizens who have confided to us this interesting cause.