October 9

"If our house be on fire, without inquiring whether it was fired from within or without, we must try to extinguish it."

Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President, 1801-1809. From a letter to James Meriwether,Jr., May 9, 1798. James Meriwether was a fellow Virginian and correspondent of Jefferson. He appears to have been the uncle of the famed Meriwether Lewis, personal secretary of Jefferson during his Presidency, who was appointed by Jefferson to lead the Lewis and Clark Expedition to survey the Louisiana Purchase. Here Jefferson speaks about unsettled conditions with England. War was averted by John Adams and through Jefferson's Presidency but broke out as the War of 1812 under James Madison. "...At this moment all the passions are boiling over, and one who keeps himself cool and clear of the contagion, is so far below the point of ordinary conversation, that he finds himself insulated in every society. However, the fever will not last. War, land-tax, and stamp-tax are sedatives which must cool its ardor. They will bring on reflection, and that, with information, is all which our countrymen need, to bring themselves and their affairs to rights...It is our duty still to endeavor to avoid war: but if it shall actually take place, no matter by whom brought on, we must defend ourselves. If our house be on fire, without inquiring whether it was fired from within or without, we must try to extinguish it. In that, I have no doubt, we shall act as one man. But if we can ward off actual war till the crisis of England is over, I shall hope we may escape it altogether."