4275. KINGS, Scaffolds for.—
Over the
foreign powers I am convinced the French
will triumph completely, and I cannot but
hope that that triumph, and the consequent
disgrace of the invading tyrants, is destined,
in the order of events, to kindle the wrath of
the people of Europe against those who have
dared to embroil them in such wickedness,
and to bring at length kings, nobles, and
priests to the scaffolds which they have been
so long deluging with human blood. I am
still warm whenever I think of those scoundrels,
though I do it as seldom as I can, preferring
infinitely to contemplate the tranquil
growth of my lucerne and potatoes. I have
so completely withdrawn myself from these
spectacles of usurpation and misrule, that I do
not take a single newspaper, nor read one a
month; and I feel myself infinitely the happier
for it.—
To Tench Coxe. Washington ed. iv, 104.
Ford ed., vi, 507.
(M.
May. 1794)
