May 14

[This is a letter I wrote to President George Washington on May 14, 1794, a few months after having resigned as his Secretary of State. After the last decade of public service, I found my farm at Monticello had degraded more than I had expected.]

I find on a more minute examination of my lands than the short visits heretofore made to them permitted, that a ten years' abandonment of them to the ravages of overseers, has brought on them a degree of degradation far beyond what I had expected. As this obliges me to adopt a milder course of cropping, so I find that they have enabled me to do it, by having opened a great deal of lands during my absence. I have therefore determined on a division of my farm into six fields, to be put under this rotation: first year, wheat; second, corn, potatoes, peas; third, rye or wheat, according to circumstances; fourth and fifth, clover where the fields will bring it, and buckwheat dressings where they will not; sixth, folding, and buckwheat dressings. But it will take me from three to six years to get this plan underway. I am not yet satisfied that my acquisition of overseers from the head of Elk has been a happy one, or that much will be done this year towards rescuing my plantations from their wretched condition. Time, patience and perseverance must be the remedy; and the maxim of your letter, "slow and sure," is not less a good one in agriculture than in politics. I sincerely wish it may extricate us from the event of a war, if this can be done saving our faith and our rights. My opinion of the British government is, that nothing will force them to do justice but the loud voice of their people, and that this can never be excited but by distressing their commerce.

[This is my letter to G. C. Edward Jenner, developer of the first smallpox vaccine, dated May 14, 1806. I received my first smallpox inoculation much earlier in 1766 (age 23) when I traveled to Philadelphia. It wasn't popular at the time, and even discouraged in Virginia. In August 1801 (when I was President), I expanded my commitment to smallpox inoculation, directing the inoculation of members of my family, household, and neighbors at Monticello, including slaves — about 200 people in total — using vaccines received from Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse, after successfully vaccinating his own children against smallpox. Dr. Waterhouse sent me a copy of his pamphlet "A Prospect of Exterminating the Small-Pox" in 1800. I sponsored him in distributing the vaccine to all of the Southern states.]

I have received the copy of the Evidence at large respecting the discovery of the Vaccine inoculation, which you have been pleased to send me, & for which I return you my thanks. Having been among the early converts, in this part of the globe, to it’s efficacy, I took an early part in recommending it to my countrymen. I avail myself of this occasion of rendering you my portion of the tribute of gratitude due to you from the whole human family. Medicine has never before produced any single improvement of such utility. Harvey’s discovery of the circulation of the blood was a beautiful addition to our knowledge of the animal economy. But on a review of the practice of medicine before & since that epoch, I do not see any great amelioration which has been derived from that discovery. You have erased from the Calendar of human afflictions one of its greatest. Yours is the comfortable reflection that mankind can never forget that you have lived. Future nations will know by history only that the loathsome smallpox has existed, & by you has been extirpated. Accept the most fervent wishes for your health & happiness, & assurances of the greatest respect & consideration.