A remarkably prescient letter written by Thomas Jefferson, the third US president, advising how the newly created country could prosper, has been put up for sale by a private collector.
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country → write → collector
The handwritten document from 1787 warns specifically against many of the missteps Donald Trump has taken to drag down his own second term of office.
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Trump → warn → office
Written in Paris, where Jefferson was the fledgling government’s minister to France, the note to David Rittenhouse, a friend and fellow member of the American Philosophical Society, muses on the priorities and principles he believed future presidents should follow.
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presidents → write → priorities
Previously on display at Texas A&M University, the letter and a book described as “a major European scientific work”, an accompanying gift from Jefferson to Rittenhouse, have a guide price of $285,000 through the Raab Collection, a Pennsylvania-based dealer in historical artifacts and documents.
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letter → describe → artifacts
“Peace should be our plan, and the payment of our debts, improvement of our constitutions and extension of agriculture our principal objects,” Jefferson wrote, sharing his thoughts about that year’s landmark federal convention in Philadelphia, later known as the constitutional convention, which debated and signed the US constitution.
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which → write → constitution
Almost 240 years later, Trump, who has frequently hailed Jefferson as one of his political heroes, and installed a lifesize bronze statue of him in the White House Rose Garden in July to mark the US semiquincentennial, appears to have eschewed every element of his predecessor’s advice.
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who → hail → advice
His hugely unpopular war in Iran endures; the national debt has surpassed $40tn for the first time; Trump’s “blitzkrieg” on the constitution continues; and he is at odds with American farmers over his administration’s treatment of the agricultural sector.
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he → endure → sector
Nathan Raab, president of the Raab Collection, said it was difficult not to draw parallels between Jefferson’s caution contained in a highly personal document drafted barely a decade after the dawn of the new nation, and the volatility of politics in 2026.
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it → say → 2026
“Leaving out the various partisan positions, the prescience here is that the same issues that the founding fathers were dealing with during the constitutional convention of the founding of our country are issues that still make headlines today,” he said.
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he → leave → headlines
“Things change, yet things stay the same, and here we are confronting many of the same issues that were on the lips of our founding fathers, or the tip of their quills, back in 1787.
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that → change → 1787
“These are fundamental issues that, really, have faced our country for a long time.
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that → face → time
Of all the issues that have come and gone – isolation, war, peace – on the other end spending and debt have remained.”
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spending → come → end
Jefferson’s letter covers more ground than only his thoughts on the nation’s future direction.
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letter → cover → direction
He shares with Rittenhouse, a fellow scientist and avid astronomer who built precision telescopes and early models of the solar system, his love of “the west”, and fear of another conflict with England four years after the end of the revolutionary war.
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who → share → war
“Digging out of a hole of debt, funding not only the war debts but also the creation of this new country, was something that was very much an issue,” Raab said.
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Raab → dig → country
“What I love about this letter is it’s kind of a general warning.
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it → love → letter
He’s not saying, ‘So and so said this, and therefore we must counter with this message.’
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we → say → message
He’s giving in one broad stroke what he feels should be the priorities of the convention and the country.
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he → give → convention
“He kept in contact with people who were involved in the convention and was in the loop as much as you could be when a letter took three weeks or so to reach England.
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letter → keep → England
But he certainly didn’t have updated information, which is illustrated by the fact that the day he wrote this letter, the convention finished.
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convention → have → letter
“He had no way of knowing.
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He → have → way
He wouldn’t know for weeks.”
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He → know → weeks
Raab’s company has handled numerous Jefferson documents previously, including the sale in 2024 of a letter written in 1802 revealing his precarious financial situation, and last year’s uncovering of a note he wrote to Virginia’s then governor Benjamin Harrison in 1783 expounding the rights of citizens to bear arms in revolutionary causes.
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he → handle → causes
But Raab said he has never seen anything as impressive as the letter and book given to Rittenhouse.
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he → say → Rittenhouse
“This is at the very top,” he said.
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he → say → top
“The breadth of knowledge that [Jefferson] brought to this letter, the many subjects in which he is completely conversant.
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he → bring → which
He’s talking to a prominent scientist as well.
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He → talk → scientist
“The important warning that he offers at the end is just so relevant today, it’s impossible to miss.
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it → offer → end
I think it’s intentional that he saved that to the end of the letter.
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he → think → letter
And the idea that Jefferson, a very famous book buyer and collector, is sending books to another founding father, David Rittenhouse, and the book is still together with the letter, that’s just incredible.”
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that → send → letter
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