Extract of a Letter from Mr. Jefferson to General Lafayette:

Monticello, May 17th, 1816.

...uncertain whether Mr. Gallatin is yet gone and of course whether this letter will reach him in time, or go by some other conveyance, it is most prudent to say little on politics. That the violations of all Rights committed on the continent by France, under the direction of Bonaparte as well as those on the ocean by England, merited a proper measure of retaliation and punishment I imagine yourselves are sensible. On England it is yet to come: and on France, had it proceeded but to a reasonable length, justice would not have condemned it. But it has past that term. The continuation of it becomes aggression; and the allies have gone on to commit equal violations on independant nations with those of Bonaparte. If there were another world to do it the same crusade ought now to be undertaken against them, which they enlisted against France. Still I believe the loss of the Battle of Waterloo was the salvation of France. Had Bonaparte obtained the victory, his talents, his egoism and destitution of moral principle, would have rivetted a military despotism on your necks. In your present situation, however afflicting and humiliating, I think it certain you will effect a constitution in which the will of the nation shall have an organised control over the actions of its government and its citizens a regular protection against its oppressions. I dare add no more, but my prayers for the events and that your steady pursuits of this object may be rewarded by the happiness of your seeing it realised before you sing your Nunc Dimittis. ^*

Thomas Jefferson

^* Nunc Dimittis: The canticle of Simeon, beginning "Nunc dimittis servum tuum" ("Now lettest thou thy servant depart"). Luke 2:29-32. (The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. 8th. Ed. Boston, Mass. Houghton Mifflin, 1980.