I am certainly not an advocate for frequent and untried changes in laws and constitutions. I think moderate imperfections had better be borne with; because, when once known, we accommodate ourselves to them, and find practical means of correcting their ill effects. But I know also, that laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed, and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy, as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.

Removing or preventing corrupting dependence would enable men to be equal in practice. At age 16 Jefferson entered the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg and first met the law professor George Wythe who became his influential mentor. I contemplate it as a blot left in all our constitutions which if not covered will end in their destruction which is already hit by the gamblers in corruption and is sweeping away in its progress the fortunes and morals of our citizens.

Thomas Jefferson (April 13 1743 (April 2 1743 O. Elected Vice President in 1796 when he came in second to John Adams of the Federalists Jefferson opposed Adams and with Madison secretly wrote the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions which attempted to nullify the Alien and Sedition Acts. In 1803 President Jefferson initiated a process of Indian tribal removal and relocation to the Louisiana Territory west of the Mississippi River in order to open lands for eventual American settlers.