Thomas Jefferson Quote

Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country and wedded to its liberty and interests by the most lasting bands. As long therefore as they can find employment in this line, I would not convert them into mariners, artisans, or any thing else. But our citizens will find employment in this line till their numbers, and of course their productions, become too great for the demand both internal and foreign.

Letter to John Jay (August 23, 1785); reported in The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Julian P. Boyd (1953), vol. 8, p. 426. - Earlier drafts