Were they once under a government which should treat us with justice and equity—he wrote to John Adams—I should myself feel with great strength the ties that bind us together, of origin, language, laws and manners; and I am persuaded the two people would become in future as it was with the ancient Greeks, among whom it was reproachful for Greek to be found fighting against Greek in a foreign army.[507]
On the same day he wrote to the Secretary of State, James Monroe, about the proposed inscription to be engraved in a conspicuous place on the restored Capitol, and he had suggested that if any inscription was considered as necessary, it should simply state the bare facts, such as:
FOUNDED 1791. BURNT BY A BRITISH ARMY 1814. RESTORED BY CONGRESS 1817.
But a question of more importance was whether there should be any inscription at all. "The barbarism of the conflagration will immortalize that of the nation.... We have more reason to hate her than any nation in earth. But she is not now an object of hatred.... It is for the interest of all that she should be maintained nearly on a par with other members of the republic of nations."[508]
With regard to France, his correspondence with Du Pont de Nemours and Lafayette offers precious and significant testimony. Much as he loathed Bonaparte, he deplored the return of the Bourbons and the reactionary measures of the Restauration. His indignation ran high when he received
... the new treaty of the allied powers, declaring that the French nation shall not have Bonaparte and shall have Louis XVIII as their ruler. They are all then as great rascals as Bonaparte himself. While he was in the wrong, I wished him exactly as much success as would answer our purpose, and no more. Now that they are wrong and he in the right, he shall have all my prayers for success, and that he may dethrone every man of them.[509]
Writing to Albert Gallatin he indulged in a "poetical effusion" which shows how deeply his feelings were stirred:
I grieve for France ... and I trust they will finally establish for themselves a government of rational and well tempered liberty. So much science cannot be lost; so much light shed over them can never fail to produce to them some good in the end. Till then, we may ourselves fervently pray, with the liturgy a little parodied; Give peace till that time, oh Lord, because there is none other that will fight for us but only thee, oh God.[510]
When all was told, and it was realized that "the cannibals of Europe were going to eating one another again and the pugnacious humor of mankind seemed to be the law of his nature", the only course for the United States to follow was to keep out of the fray as much as possible and so to direct their policy as to give no pretext for the European powers to intervene in the New World.
Already, in 1812, Jefferson had formulated his views in the most unequivocal manner, when he wrote to Doctor John Crawford: