Quarreling is part of society

[Here is a letter I wrote to John Taylor on June 4, 1798, where I point out that conflict is part of human nature.]

If to rid ourselves of the present rule of Massachusetts & Connecticut, we break the union, will the evil stop there? Suppose the N. England states alone cut off, will our natures be changed? Are we not men still to the South of that, & with all the passions of men? Immediately we shall see a Pennsylvania & a Virginia party arise in the residuary confederacy, and the public mind will be distracted with the same party spirit. What a game too will the one party have in their hands by eternally threatening the other that unless they do so & so, they will join their Northern neighbors.

If we reduce our Union to Virginia & N. Carolina, immediately the conflict will be established between the representatives of these two states, and they will end by breaking into their simple units. Seeing therefore that an association of men who will not quarrel with one another is a thing which never yet existed, from the greatest confederacy of nations down to a town meeting or a vestry, seeing that we must have somebody to quarrel with, I had rather keep our New-England associates for that purpose, than to see our bickerings transferred to others.