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CITIES: SHOULD WE NOT BUILD THEM?
> I have heard or read somewhere that Thomas Jefferson advocated > that the new United States > of America NOT build cities and fall into the trap that Europe had > fallen into. Unfortunately, I > have not been able to find such a quote, only quotes criticizing cities > Thank you for your >attention. I am not aware of a quote in which Jefferson advises specifically not to build cities. Most of what he said regarding cities was, as you say, a critique of their effects. The closest that come to counseling against the building of cities are the following: "I think our governments will remain virtuous for many centuries as long as they are chiefly agricultural; and this will be as long as there shall be vacant lands in any part of America. When they get piled upon one another in large cities as in Europe, they will become corrupt as in Europe." --Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1787. Papers 12:442 "I view great cities as pestilential to the morals, the health and the liberties of man. True, they nourish some of the elegant arts; but the useful ones can thrive elsewhere; and less perfection in the others, with more health, virtue and freedom, would be my choice." --Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush, 1800. ME 10:173