In his annual message to Congress of 3 Dec. 1805, TJ expressed hopes that European belligerent nations would deal justly with the neutral United States, but added that “should any nation decieve itself by false calculations, and disappoint that expectation, we must join in the unprofitable contest, of trying which party can do the other the most harm” (DLC).

Medicine was the profession which properly followed, never fails yielding a maintenance. never again to provoke the meanest foe apparently alludes to Aesop’s fable of the bull and the mouse.

The project for a hospital was probably a copy of the printed circular and prospectus that Ewell sent James Madison around this time. The circular, which is dated Washington, September 1820, and concludes with Ewell’s printed signature, reads “Sir: I take the liberty of directing this to you, to ask your encouragement of an establishment designed to promote medical science, by the means of relieving the diseased poor around us. There is not in our country a population equal to that of this city and Georgetown, (exceeding twenty thousand,) which has not some medical institution for the relief of the sick. In addition to the number of poor common to such a population, there are many more arising from the resort of strangers to the seat of government. It is not to be denied, that many cases of severe suffering, even of death, have occurred, from the want of an Hospital in Washington.
 Although anxious to make this establishment, I am not unconscious that many philanthropists believe that hospitals have done more harm than good. But the fact is, that the injuries have proceeded from those who planned them. Splendid buildings have been erected, chiefly to display the vanity of the founders. It appears always to have been forgotten that the best means of relieving the sick is to accommodate them in the manner to which they have been accustomed. Instead, therefore, of a large house, of crowded rooms, generating and diffusing the foulest atmosphere, there should have been small and detached buildings, such as the inhabitants of hospitals are accustomed to at their homes. It is from this view that I propose to establish the Columbia Hospital, on some square convenient to the City and Georgetown, which shall be selected by the majority of the contributors.
 The regulations of the establishment will be such as are believed to be unexceptionable. Its government and use of funds are to be conducted exclusively by the clergymen of the county, who will monthly meet for the management. The medical department will be as exclusively under the direction of the regularly qualified physicians of the City and Georgetown; and every clergyman, physician, and contributor to the Hospital, shall have the right of ordering the admission of any sick person deemed a proper object.
 In order to add to the utility of this institution, a part of it will be assigned for a lying-in-hospital, where women will be instructed in the duties they should perform to each other in child-bed; a school from which much good may be expected.
 Should you approve of this establishment, I hope you will be pleased to request the gentlemen of your particular acquaintance to join in the subscription, and to return this to me as soon as convenient.
 Respectfully, your obedient servant.”

The undated prospectus, on the verso of the circular, is entitled “COLUMBIA HOSPITAL” and promises to give the “OUTLINES Of the Institution designed, in the least expensive and most expeditious way.” It reads “First. To relieve the poor who are sick and have no accommodations at home.
 Second. To administer medicines to those requiring, and unable to pay for them at their houses.
 Third. To promote Medical Science by making the practice public; so as to lessen the impositions of pretenders to great skill among the unknowing part of society.
 Article I. The Board of Management of the Institution, governing exclusively, excepting in the Medical Department, to consist of all the Clergymen, and of all the Members of the Corporations of Washington and Georgetown, to meet and regulate as they shall, by a majority, determine.
 Article II. The Medical Department to be exclusively under the direction of the regularly qualified physicians of the two corporations, restricted to the republican rule, of letting each, in succession, share in the duties of the Hospital, and the practice as dispensary physicians; every physician having the right to witness the practice of each other at the hours of prescription.
 Article III. All persons connected with the management, and all contributors, shall have the right of sending such patients to the Hospital as they may deem worthy objects; excepting that the owners of slaves shall pay as much as the cost of their accommodation.
 Article IV. The Hospital to be seated convenient to Georgetown and Washington; to consist of small buildings, of the plainest kind, detached from each other to prevent the propagation of infectious diseases, and maniacs from being made more mad by hearing each other’s cries; each house not to contain more than six or eight persons, excepting a centre building for the resident officers, an apothecary shop, and a room for teaching women the duties they should perform to each other in child-bed, or for other purposes of lecturing.
 The subscribers agree to pay the sums annexed to our names, for the establishment of the Columbia Hospital, one half in six months, the remainder in one year: provided, the Mayors of Washington and Georgetown shall certify that the amount is due for the materials and building of houses designed for the use of the sick, according to the plan stated above” (DLC: Madison Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division; circular printed in Madison, Papers, Retirement Ser., 2:99–100; prospectus printed in Washington Daily National Intelligencer, 6 Sept. 1820, and elsewhere).

A variant of the phrase gathered to yr fathers appears in the Bible (Judges 2.10).