April 30, 2016

Dear Mr. Adams,

So long have I awaited a resurrection of our correspondence. I read it with great pleasure upon my portico, and then read it again. The report that you have included with your letter however is as hideous as I recall your countenance to be. I trust the irony of its title is not lost on the same modest intellect to which crafted the Sedition Act; this report of Mr. Wells is neither a report nor is it crafted well, but is an offense to minds accustomed to reasoned decretum, an offense so uncontested that I question whether our dear citizens are at present capable of offense or contention. Tried as we are in the school of oppression and despotism, I concur that we are compelled to act, as this usurpation of rights may foretell a greater calamity for the Greater Republic.

While Mr. Goodell’s offenses are self-evident or undeniable however, I fear our dear citizenry are so now habituated to passive submission and self-amusement that they are complicit in this despotism. This case is not merely an affliction of contractual application, but is evidence of a pathology that infects this game of football and so too every working organ of our dear Union. The burden of remedying the scourge falls now upon these Patriots from New England and we patriots from history.

How though shall such scourge be remedied?

My conscience is rightly stirred, as I am dear sir, your affectionate friend,

Thomas Jefferson

p.s. Please tell Mrs. Adams that I lay not with servants, but with the fine, free and diverse women of Charlottesville, if their Residential Advisor permits my visitations.