We find the following excellent letter in the appendix to Mr. J. E. Sprague’s interesting Eulogy on John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.
Letter from Mr. Jefferson to Mr. Adams, on the death of his wife.
Monticello, Nov. 13, 1818.
The public papers, my dear friend, announce the fatal event of which your letter of October 20th, had given me ominous foreboding. Tried myself in the school of affliction, by the loss of every form of connexion which can rive the human heart, I know well and feel what you have lost,—what you have suffered,—are suffering,—and have yet to endure. The same trials have taught me that for ills so immeasurable, time and silence are the only medicines. I will not therefore by useless condolences, open afresh the sluices of your grief, nor, although mingling sincerely, my tears with yours, will I say a word more, where words are vain; but that it is of some comfort to us both, that the term is not very distant, at which we are to deposit, in the same cerement, our sorrows and our suffering bodies; and to ascend in essence, to an ecstatic meeting with the friends we have loved and lost, and whom we shall still love and never lose again. God bless you and support you under your heavy affliction.
THOMAS JEFFERSON.