Jefferson to Samuel Smith, 1823. Our revenues liberated by the discharge of the public debt, and its surplus applied to canals, roads, schools, etc. Jefferson to Thaddeus Kosciusko, 1811. Jefferson to John Taylor, 1798. Jefferson to William C. Jarvis, 1820.
Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone.
The people themselves, therefore, are its only safe depositories. Educate and inform the whole mass of the people. Enable them to see that it is their interest to preserve peace and order, and they will preserve them. And it requires no very high degree of education to convince them of this. Jefferson to James Madison, 1787.