> {America's Undeclared War} by Daniel Lazare (reviewed in the June 4 {The
> New Yorker} Briefly Noted column) reportedly contains a letter by Thomas
> Jefferson "suggesting", says the review, "that yellow fever might be
> beneficial in reducing city populations."

Probably this one...

Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush
Monticello, Sep. 23, 1800.

Dear Sir,--I have to acknolege the receipt of your favor of Aug. 22, and
to congratulate you on the healthiness of your city. Still Baltimore,
Norfolk & Providence admonish us that we are not clear of our new
scourge. When great evils happen, I am in the habit of looking out for
what good may arise from them as consolations to us, and Providence has in
fact so established the order of things, as that most evils are the means
of producing some good. The yellow fever will discourage the growth of
great cities in our nation, & I view great cities as pestilential to the
morals, the health and the liberties of man. True, they nourish some of
the elegant arts, but the useful ones can thrive elsewhere, and less
perfection in the others, with more health, virtue & freedom, would be my
choice....

[transcription from The Works of Thomas Jefferson in Twelve Volumes.
Federal Edition. Collected and Edited by Paul Leicester Ford.]


Search the words "yellow fever" at
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/mtjhtml/mtjhome.html


Karen Stuart

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