The practice of Kings marrying only in the families of Kings has been
that of Europe for some centuries. Now, take any race of animals,
confine them in idleness and inaction, whether in a sty, a stable, or a
state-room, pamper them with high diet, gratify all their sexual
appetites, immerse them in sensualities, nourish their passions, let
everything bend before them, and banish whatever might lead them to
think, and in a few generations they become all body and no mind; and
this, too, by a law of nature, by that very law by which we are in the
constant practice of changing the characters and propensities of the
animals we raise for our own purposes. Such is the regimen in raising
Kings, and in this way they have gone on for centuries.
--Thomas Jefferson, letter to Governor John Langdon, March 5, 1810
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