Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to Lafayette in 1823 that went as follows: "I do not believe with the Rochefoucaults and Montaignes, that fourteen of fifteen men are rogue. I believe a great abatement from that proportion may be made in favor of general honesty. But I have always found that rogues would be uppermost, and I do not know that the proportion is to strong for the higher orders... These set out with stealing the people's good opinion, and then steal from them the right of withdrawing it by contriving laws and associations against the power of the people themselves."

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