"I am pleased with the style and diction of your laws. plain and intelligible as the ordinary writings of common sense, I hope it will produce imitation. of all countries on earth of which I have any knolege, the style of the acts of the British parliament is the most barbarous, uncouth, and unintelligible. it can be understood by those alone who are in the daily habit of studying such tautologous, involved and parenthetical jargon. where they found their model I know not. neither ancient nor modern codes, nor even their own early statutes furnish any such example. and, like faithful apes, we copy it faithfully." — Thomas Jefferson to Edward Livingston, 25 March 1825