fetters of that day strong enough to have bound so many. Will not Mrs.
Page, yourself, and family, think it prudent to seek a healthier region
for the months of August and September? And may we not flatter ourselves
that you will cast your eye on Monticello? We have not many summers
to live. While fortune places us then within striking distance, let us
avail ourselves of it, to meet and talk over the tales of other times.

Present me respectfully to Mrs. Page, and accept yourself my friendly
salutations, and assurances of constant affection.

Th: Jefferson.




LETTER, XIV.--TO P. MAZZEI, July 18, 1804


TO P. MAZZEI.

Washington, July 18, 1804.

My Dear Sir,

It is very long, I know, since I wrote you. So constant is the pressure
of business that there is never a moment, scarcely, that something
of public importance is not waiting for me. I have, therefore, on a
principle of conscience, thought it my duty to withdraw almost entirely
from all private correspondence, and chiefly the trans-Atlantic;
I scarcely write a letter a year to any friend beyond sea. Another