<Text id=JefAddr>
<Author>Jefferson, Thomas</Author>
<Title>Addresses, Messages, and Replies</Title>
<Edition>[Selections. 1984] Writings. Library of America. New York: Literary Classics of the United States, 1984</Edition>
<Date>1781-1809</Date>
<body>
<loc><locdoc>JefAddr491</locdoc>
<div0 type=chapter n=1>
<milestone n=491>
<p><i>Response to the Citizens of Albemarle</i> February
12, 1790
<p>GENTLEMEN,
<p>The testimony of esteem with which you are pleased to
honour my return to my native country fills me with
gratitude and pleasure. While it shews that my absence has
not lost me your friendly recollection, it holds out the
comfortable hope that when the hour of retirement shall
come, I shall again find myself amidst those with whom I
have long lived, with whom I wish to live, and whose
affection is the source of my purest happiness. Their favor
was the door thro' which I was ushered on the stage of
public life; and while I have been led on thro' it's varying . . .
