Letters / Jefferson, Thomas
Author: Jefferson, Thomas
Title: Letters
Publisher: Eris Etext Project
Tag(s): literature; state; jefferson; loss; mountains; government; desirous; people; time; thomas; fourth; colo; country; letters; stay; inevitable; american; american literature
Contributor(s): Eric Lease Morgan (Infomotions, Inc.)
Versions: original; local mirror; HTML (this file); printable
Services: find in a library; evaluate using concordance
Rights: GNU General Public License
Size: 301,646 words Grade range: 11-15 Readability (Flesch) score: 52
Identifier: jefferson-letters-256
LETTERS
by Thomas Jefferson
A YOUTH OF SIXTEEN
_To John Harvie_
_Shadwell, Jan. 14, 1760_
SIR, -- I was at Colo. Peter Randolph's about a Fortnight ago,
& my Schooling falling into Discourse, he said he thought it would be
to my Advantage to go to the College, & was desirous I should go, as
indeed I am myself for several Reasons. In the first place as long
as I stay at the Mountains the Loss of one fourth of my Time is
inevitable, by Company's coming here & detaining me from School. And
likewise my Absence will in a great Measure put a Stop to so much
Company, & by that Means lessen the Expences of the Estate in
House-Keeping. And on the other Hand by going to the College I shall
get a more universal Acquaintance, which may hereafter be serviceable
to me; & I suppose I can pursue my Studies in the Greek & Latin as
well there as here, & likewise learn something of the Mathematics. I
shall be glad of your opinion.
OLD COKE AND YOUNG LADIES
_To John Page_
_Fairfield, December 25, 1762_
DEAR PAGE, -- This very day, to others the day of greatest
mirth and jollity, sees me overwhelmed with more and greater
misfortunes than have befallen a descendant of Adam for these
thousand years past, I am sure; and perhaps, after excepting Job,
since the creation of the world. I think his misfortunes were
somewhat greater than mine: for although we may be pretty nearly on a
level in other respects, yet, I thank my God, I have the advantage of
brother Job in this, that Satan has not as yet put forth his hand to
load me with bodily afflictions. You must know, dear Page, that I am
now in a house surrounded with enemies, who take counsel together
against my soul; and when I lay me down to rest, they say among
themselves, come let us destroy him. I am sure if there is such a
thing as a Devil in this world, he must have been here last night and
have had some hand in contriving what happened to me. Do you think
the cursed rats (at his instigation, I suppose) did not eat up my
pocket-book, which was in my pocket, within a foot of my head? And
not contented with plenty for the present, they carried away my
jemmy-worked silk garters, and half a dozen new minuets I had just
got, to serve, I suppose, as provision for the winter. But of this I
should not have accused the Devil, (because, you know rats will be
rats, and hunger, without the addition of his instigations, might
have urged them to do this,) if something worse, and from a different
quarter, had not happened. You know it rained last night, or if you
do not know it, I am sure I do. When I went to bed, I laid my watch
in the usual place, and going to take her up after I arose this
morning, I found her in the same place, it's true! but _Quantum
mutatus ab illo!_ all afloat in water, let in at a leak in the roof
of the house, and as silent and still as the rats that had eat my
pocket-book. Now, you know, if chance had had anything to do in this
matter, there were a thousand other spots where it might have chanced
to leak as well as at this one, which was perpendicularly over my
watch. But I'll tell you; it's my opinion that the Devil came and
bored the hole over it on purpose. Well, as I was saying, my poor
watch had lost her speech. I should not have cared much for this,
but something worse attended it; the subtle particles of the water
with which the case was filled, had, by their penetration, so
overcome the cohesion of the particles of the paper, of which my dear
picture and watch-paper were composed, that, in attempting to take
them out to dry them, good God! _Mens horret referre!_ My cursed
fingers gave them such a rent, as I fear I never shall get over.
This, cried I, was the last stroke Satan had in reserve for me: he
knew I cared not for anything else he could do to me, and was
determined to try this last most fatal expedient. _"Multis fortunae
vulneribus percussus, huic uni me imparem sensi, et penitus
succubui!"_ I would have cried bitterly, but I thought it beneath the
dignity of a man, and a man too who had read {ton onton, ta men
ephemin, ta dok ephemin}. However, whatever misfortunes may attend
the picture or lover, my hearty prayers shall be, that all the health
and happiness which Heaven can send may be the portion of the
original, and that so much goodness may ever meet with what may be
most agreeable in this world, as I am sure it must be in the next.
And now, although the picture be defaced, there is so lively an image
of her imprinted in my mind, that I shall think of her too often, I
fear, for my peace of mind; and too often, I am sure, to get through
old Coke this winter; for God knows I have not seen him since I
packed him up in my trunk in Williamsburg. Well, Page, I do wish the
Devil had old Coke, for I am sure I never was so tired of an old dull
scoundrel in my life. What! are there so few inquietudes tacked to
this momentary life of our's, that we must need be loading ourselves
with a thousand more? Or, as brother Job says, (who, by the bye, I
think began to whine a little under his afflictions,) "Are not my
days few? Cease then, that I may take comfort a little before I go
whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness, and the
shadow of death." But the old fellows say we must read to gain
knowledge, and gain knowledge to make us happy and admired. _Mere
jargon!_ Is there any such thing as happiness in this world? No.
And as for admiration, I am sure the man who powders most, perfumes
most, embroiders most, and talks most nonsense, is most admired.
Though to be candid, there are some who have too much good sense to
esteem such monkey-like animals as these, in whose formation, as the
saying is, the tailors and barbers go halves with God Almighty; and
since these are the only persons whose esteem is worth a wish, I do
not know but that, upon the whole, the advice of these old fellows
may be worth following.
You cannot conceive the satisfaction it would give me to have a
letter from you. Write me very circumstantially everything which
happened at the wedding. Was she there? because, if she was, I ought
to have been at the Devil for not being there too. If there is any
news stirring in town or country, such as deaths, courtships, or
marriages, in the circle of my acquaintance, let me know it.
Remember me affectionately to all the young ladies of my
acquaintance, particularly the Miss Burwells, and Miss Potters, and
tell them that though that heavy earthly part of me, my body, be
absent, the better half of me, my soul, is ever with them; and that
my best wishes shall ever attend them. Tell Miss Alice Corbin that I
verily believe the rats knew I was to win a pair of garters from her,
or they never would have been so cruel as to carry mine away. This
very consideration makes me so sure of the bet, that I shall ask
everybody I see from that part of the world what pretty gentleman is
making his addresses to her. I would fain ask the favour of Miss
Becca Burwell to give me another watch-paper of her own cutting,
which I should esteem much more, though it were a plain round one,
than the nicest in the world cut by other hands -- however, I am
afraid she would think this presumption, after my suffering the other
to get spoiled. If you think you can excuse me to her for this, I
should be glad if you would ask her. Tell Miss Sukey Potter that I
heard, just before I came out of town, that she was offended with me
about something, what it is I do not know; but this I know, that I
never was guilty of the least disrespect to her in my life, either in
word or deed; as far from it as it has been possible for one to be.
I suppose when we meet next, she will be _endeavouring_ to repay an
imaginary affront with a real one: but she may save herself the
trouble, for nothing that she can say or do to me shall ever lessen
her in my esteem, and I am determined always to look upon her as the
same honest-hearted, good-humored, agreeable lady I ever did. Tell
-- tell -- in short, tell them all ten thousand things more than
either you or I can now or ever shall think of as long as we live.
My mind has been so taken up with thinking of my acquaintances,
that, till this moment, I almost imagined myself in Williamsburg,
talking to you in our old unreserved way; and never observed, till I
turned over the leaf, to what an immoderate size I had swelled my
letter -- however, that I may not tire your patience by further
additions, I will make but this one more, that I am sincerely and
affectionately, Dear Page, your friend and servant.
P. S. I am now within an easy day's ride of Shadwell, whither I
shall proceed in two or three days.
A VISIT TO ANNAPOLIS
_To John Page_
_Annapolis, May 25, 1766_
DEAR PAGE -- I received your last by T. Nelson whom I luckily
met on my road hither. surely never did small hero experience greater
misadventures than I did on the first two or three days of my
travelling. twice did my horse run away with me and greatly endanger
the breaking my neck on the first day. on the second I drove two
hours through as copious a rain as ever I have seen, without meeting
with a single house to which I could repair for shelter. on the third
in going through Pamunkey, being unacquainted with the ford, I passed
through water so deep as to run over the cushion as I sat on it, and
to add to the danger, at that instant one wheel mounted a rock which
I am confident was as high as the axle, and rendered it necessary for
me to exercise all my skill in the doctrine of gravity, in order to
prevent the center of gravity from being left unsupported the
consequence of which would according to Bob. Carter's opinion have
been the corruition of myself, chair and all into the water. whether
that would have been the case or not, let the learned determine: it
was not convenient for me to try the experiment at that time, and I
therefore threw my whole weight on the mounted wheel and escaped the
danger. I confess that on this occasion I was seised with a violent
hydrophobia. I had the pleasure of passing two or three days on my
way hither at the two Will. Fitzhugh's and Col'o. Harrison's where
were S. Potter, P. Stith, and Ben Harrison, since which time I have
seen no face known to me before, except Cap't. Mitchell's who is
here. -- but I will now give you some account of what I have seen in
this metropolis. the assembly happens to be sitting at this time.
their upper and lower house, as they call them, sit in different
houses. I went into the lower, sitting in an old courthouse, which,
judging from it's form and appearance, was built in the year one. I
was surprised on approaching it to hear as great a noise and hubbub
as you will usually observe at a publick meeting of the planters in
Virginia. the first object which struck me after my entrance was the
figure of a little old man dressed but indifferently, with a yellow
queue wig on, and mounted in the judge's chair. this the gentleman
who walked with me informed me was the speaker, a man of a very fair
character, but who by the bye, has very little the air of a speaker.
at one end of the justices' bench stood a man whom in another place I
should from his dress and phis have taken for Goodall the lawyer in
Williamsburgh, reading a bill then before the house with a schoolboy
tone and an abrupt pause at every half dozen words. this I found to
be the clerk of the assembly. the mob (for such was their appearance)
sat covered on the justices' and lawyers' benches, and were divided
into little clubs amusing themselves in the common chit chat way. I
was surprised to see them address the speaker without rising from
their seats, and three, four, and five at a time without being
checked. when a motion was made, the speaker instead of putting the
question in the usual form, only asked the gentlemen whether they
chose that such or such a thing should be done, and was answered by a
yes sir, or no sir: and tho' the voices appeared frequently to be
divided, they never would go to the trouble of dividing the house,
but the clerk entered the resolutions, I supposed, as he thought
proper. in short everything seems to be carried without the house in
general's knowing what was proposed. the situation of this place is
extremely beautiful, and very commodious for trade having a most
secure port capable of receiving the largest vessels, those of 400
hh'ds being able to brush against the sides of the dock. the houses
are in general better than those in Williamsburgh, but the gardens
more indifferent. the two towns seem much of a size. they have no
publick buildings worth mentioning except a governor's house, the
hull of which after being nearly finished, they have suffered to go
to ruin. I would give you an account of the rejoicings here on the
repeal of the stamp act, but this you will probably see in print
before my letter can reach you. I shall proceed tomorrow to
Philadelphia where I shall make the stay necessary for inoculation,
thence going on to New-York I shall return by water to Williamsburgh,
about the middle of July, till which time you have the prayers of
Dear Page
Your affectionate friend
P. S. I should be glad if you could in some indirect manner,
without discovering that it was my desire, let J. Randolph know when
I propose to be in the city of Williamsburgh.
THE STUDY OF LAW
_To Thomas Turpin_
_Shadwell, Feb. 5, 1769_
DEAR SIR, -- I am truly concerned that it is not in my power to
undertake the superintendance of your son in his studies; but my
situation both present and future renders it utterly impossible. I
do not expect to be here more than two months in the whole between
this and November next, at which time I propose to remove to another
habitation which I am about to erect, and on a plan so contracted as
that I shall have but one spare bedchamber for whatever visitants I
may have. nor have I reason to expect at any future day to pass a
greater proportion of my time at home. thus situated it would even
have been injustice to Phill to have undertaken to give him an
assistance which will not be within my power; a task which I
otherwise should with the greatest pleasure have taken on me, and
would have desired no higher satisfaction than to see him hold that
rank in the profession to which his genius and application must
surely advance him. these however encourage me to hope that the
presence of an assistant will be little necessary. I always was of
opinion that the placing a youth to study with an attorney was rather
a prejudice than a help. we are all too apt by shifting on them our
business, to incroach on that time which should be devoted to their
studies. the only help a youth wants is to be directed what books to
read, and in what order to read them. I have accordingly recommended
strongly to Phill to put himself into apprenticeship with no one, but
to employ his time for himself alone. to enable him to do this to
advantage I have laid down a plan of study which will afford him all
the assistance a tutor could, without subjecting him to the
inconvenience of expending his own time for the emolument of another.
one difficulty only occurs, that is, the want of books. but this I
am in hopes you will think less of remedying when it is considered
that had he been placed under the care of another, a proper
collection of books must have been provided for him before he engaged
in the practice of his profession; for a lawyer without books would
be like a workman without tools. the only difference then is that
they must now be procured something earlier. should you think it
necessary, it would be better to consider the money laid out in books
as a part of the provision made for him and to deduct it from what
you intended to give him, than that he should be without them. I
have given him a catalogue of such as will be necessary, amounting in
the whole to about pound 100 sterling, but divided into four
invoices. Should Phill enter on the plan of study recommended, I
shall endeavor as often as possible to take your house in on my way
to and from Williamsburgh as it will afford me the double
satisfaction of observing his progress in science and of seeing
yourself, my aunt, and the family. I am Dear Sir with great respect
Your most humble servant
A GENTLEMAN'S LIBRARY
_To Robert Skip with a List of Books_
_Monticello, Aug. 3, 1771_
I sat down with a design of executing your request to form a
catalogue of books to the amount of about 50 lib. sterl. But could
by no means satisfy myself with any partial choice I could make.
Thinking therefore it might be as agreeable to you I have framed such
a general collection as I think you would wish and might in time find
convenient to procure. Out of this you will chuse for yourself to
the amount you mentioned for the present year and may hereafter as
shall be convenient proceed in completing the whole. A view of the
second column in this catalogue would I suppose extort a smile from
the face of gravity. Peace to its wisdom! Let me not awaken it. A
little attention however to the nature of the human mind evinces that
the entertainments of fiction are useful as well as pleasant. That
they are pleasant when well written every person feels who reads.
But wherein is its utility asks the reverend sage, big with the
notion that nothing can be useful but the learned lumber of Greek and
Roman reading with which his head is stored?
I answer, everything is useful which contributes to fix in the
principles and practices of virtue. When any original act of charity
or of gratitude, for instance, is presented either to our sight or
imagination, we are deeply impressed with its beauty and feel a
strong desire in ourselves of doing charitable and grateful acts
also. On the contrary when we see or read of any atrocious deed, we
are disgusted with it's deformity, and conceive an abhorence of vice.
Now every emotion of this kind is an exercise of our virtuous
dispositions, and dispositions of the mind, like limbs of the body
acquire strength by exercise. But exercise produces habit, and in
the instance of which we speak the exercise being of the moral
feelings produces a habit of thinking and acting virtuously. We
never reflect whether the story we read be truth or fiction. If the
painting be lively, and a tolerable picture of nature, we are thrown
into a reverie, from which if we awaken it is the fault of the
writer. I appeal to every reader of feeling and sentiment whether
the fictitious murther of Duncan by Macbeth in Shakespeare does not
excite in him as great a horror of villany, as the real one of Henry
IV. by Ravaillac as related by Davila? And whether the fidelity of
Nelson and generosity of Blandford in Marmontel do not dilate his
breast and elevate his sentiments as much as any similar incident
which real history can furnish? Does he not in fact feel himself a
better man while reading them, and privately covenant to copy the
fair example? We neither know nor care whether Lawrence Sterne
really went to France, whether he was there accosted by the
Franciscan, at first rebuked him unkindly, and then gave him a peace
offering: or whether the whole be not fiction. In either case we
equally are sorrowful at the rebuke, and secretly resolve _we_ will
never do so: we are pleased with the subsequent atonement, and view
with emulation a soul candidly acknowleging it's fault and making a
just reparation. Considering history as a moral exercise, her
lessons would be too infrequent if confined to real life. Of those
recorded by historians few incidents have been attended with such
circumstances as to excite in any high degree this sympathetic
emotion of virtue. We are therefore wisely framed to be as warmly
interested for a fictitious as for a real personage. The field of
imagination is thus laid open to our use and lessons may be formed to
illustrate and carry home to the heart every moral rule of life.
Thus a lively and lasting sense of filial duty is more effectually
impressed on the mind of a son or daughter by reading King Lear, than
by all the dry volumes of ethics, and divinity that ever were
written. This is my idea of well written Romance, of Tragedy, Comedy
and Epic poetry. -- If you are fond of speculation the books under
the head of Criticism will afford you much pleasure. Of Politics and
Trade I have given you a few only of the best books, as you would
probably chuse to be not unacquainted with those commercial
principles which bring wealth into our country, and the
constitutional security we have for the enjoiment ofthat wealth. In
Law I mention a few systematical books, as a knowledge of the
minutiae of that science is not neces-sary for a private gentleman.
In Religion, History, Natural philosophy, I have followed the same
plan in general, -- But whence the necessity of this collection?
Come to the new Rowanty, from which you may reach your hand to a
library formed on a more extensive plan. Separated from each other
but a few paces the possessions of each would be open to the other.
A spring centrically situated might be the scene of every evening's
joy. There we should talk over the lessons of the day, or lose them
in music, chess or the merriments of our family companions. The
heart thus lightened our pillows would be soft, and health and long
life would attend the happy scene. Come then and bring our dear
Tibby with you, the first in your affections, and second in mine.
Offer prayers for me too at that shrine to which tho' absent I pray
continual devotions. In every scheme of happiness she is placed in
the foreground of the picture, as the princi-pal figure. Take that
away, and it is no picture for me. Bear my affections to Wintipock
clothed in the warmest expressions of sincerity; and to yourself be
every human felicity. Adieu.
ENCLOSURE
_FINE ARTS_.
Observations on gardening. Payne. 5/
Webb's essay on painting. 12mo 3/
Pope's Iliad. 18/
------- Odyssey. 15/
Dryden's Virgil. 12mo. 12/
Milton's works. 2 v. 8vo. Donaldson. Edinburgh 1762. 10/
Hoole's Tasso. 12mo. 5/
Ossian with Blair's criticisms. 2 v. 8vo. 10/
Telemachus by Dodsley. 6/
Capell's Shakespear. 12mo. 30/
Dryden's plays. 6v. 12mo. 18/
Addison's plays. 12mo. 3/
Otway's plays. 3 v. 12mo. 9/
Rowe's works. 2 v. 12mo. 6/
Thompson's works. 4 v. 12mo. 12/
Young's works. 4 v. 12mo. 12/
Home's plays. 12mo. 3/
Mallet's works. 3 v. 12mo. 9/
Mason's poetical works. 5/
Terence. Eng. 3/
Moliere. Eng. 15/
Farquhar's plays. 2 v. 12mo. 6/
Vanbrugh's plays. 2 v. 12mo. 6/
Steele's plays. 3/
Congreve's works. 3 v. 12mo. 9/
Garric's dramatic works. 2 v. 8vo. 10/
Foote's dramatic works. 2 v. 8vo. 10/
Rousseau's Eloisa. Eng. 4 v. 12mo. 12/
----- Emilius and Sophia. Eng. 4 v. 12mo. 12/
Marmontel's moral tales. Eng. 2 v. 12mo. 12/
Gil Blas. by Smollett. 6/
Don Quixot. by Smollett 4 v. 12mo. 12/
David Simple. 2 v. 12mo. 6/
Roderic Random. }
2 v. 12mo. 6/ }
Peregrine Pickle. } _these are written by Smollett_
4 v. 12mo. 12/ }
Launcelot }
Graves. 6/ }
Adventures of a }
guinea. 2 v. }
12mo. 6/ }
Pamela. 4 v. 12mo. }
12/ } _these are by Richardson._
Clarissa. 8 v. 12mo. }
24/
Grandison. 7 v. }
12mo. 9/ }
Fool of quality. 3 v. }
12mo. 9/ }
Feilding's works. 12 v. 12mo. pound 1.16
Constantia. 2 v. }
12mo. 6/ } _by Langhorne._
Solyman and }
Almena. 12mo. }
3/ }
Belle assemblee. 4 v. 12mo. 12/
Vicar of Wakefeild. 2 v. 12mo. 6/. by
Dr. Goldsmith
Sidney Bidulph. 5 v. 12mo. 15/
Lady Julia Mandeville. 2 v. 12mo. 6/
Almoran and Hamet. 2 v. 12mo. 6/
Tristam Shandy. 9 v. 12mo. pound 1.7
Sentimental journey. 2 v. 12mo. 6/
Fragments of antient poetry. Edinburgh. 2/
Percy's Runic poems. 3/
Percy's reliques of antient English
poetry. 3 v. 12mo. 9/
Percy's Han Kiou Chouan. 4 v. 12mo. 12/
Percy's Miscellaneous Chinese peices. 2 v. 12mo. 6/
Chaucer. 10/
Spencer. 6 v. 12mo. 15/
Waller's poems. 12mo. 3/
Dodsley's collection of poems. 6 v. 12mo. 18/
Pearch's collection of poems. 4 v. 12mo. 12/
Gray's works. 5/
Ogilvie's poems. 5/
Prior's poems. 2 v. 12mo. Foulis. 6/
Gay's works. 12mo. Foulis. 3/
Shenstone's works. 2 v. 12mo. 6/
Dryden's works. 4 v. 12mo. Foulis. 12/
Pope's works. by Warburton. 12mo. pound 1.4
Churchill's poems. 4 v. 12mo. 12/
Hudibrass. 3/
Swift's works. 21 v. small 8vo. pound 3.3
Swift's literary correspondence. 3 v. 9/
Spectator. 9 v. 12mo. pound 1.7
Tatler. 5 v. 12mo. 15/
Guardian. 2 v. 12mo. 6/
Freeholder. 12mo. 3/
Ld. Lyttleton's Persian letters. 12mo. 3/
_CRITICISM ON THE FINE ARTS._
Ld. Kaim's elements of criticism.
2 v. 8vo. 10/
Burke on the sublime and beautiful.
8vo. 5/
Hogarth's analysis of beauty. 4to.
pound 1.1
Reid on the human mind. 8vo. 5/
Smith's theory of moral sentiments.
8vo. 5/
Johnson's dictionary. 2 v. fol. pound 3
Capell's prolusions. 12mo. 3/
_POLITICKS, TRADE._
Montesquieu's spirit of the laws.
2 v. 12mo. 6/
Locke on government. 8vo. 5/
Sidney on government. 4to. 15/
Marmontel's Belisarius. 12mo. Eng.
3/
Ld. Bolingbroke's political works.
5 v. 8vo. pound 1.5
Montesquieu's rise & fall of the Roman
governmt. 12mo. 3/
Steuart's Political oeconomy. 2 v.
4to. pound 1.10
Petty's Political arithmetic. 8vo. 5/
_RELIGION._
Locke's conduct of the mind in
search of truth. 12mo. 3/
Xenophon's memoirs of Socrates. by
Feilding. 8vo. 5/
Epictetus. by Mrs. Carter. 2 v.
12mo. 6/
Antoninus by Collins. 3/
Seneca. by L'Estrange. 8vo. 5/
Cicero's Offices. by Guthrie. 8vo. 5/
Cicero's Tusculan questions. Eng. 3/
Ld. Bolingbroke's Philosophical
works. 5 v. 8vo. pound 1.5
Hume's essays. 4 v. 12mo. 12/
Ld. Kaim's Natural religion. 8vo. 6/
Philosophical survey of Nature. 3/
Oeconomy of human life. 2/
Sterne's sermons. 7 v. 12mo. pound 1.1
Sherlock on death. 8vo. 5/
Sherlock on a future state. 5/
_LAW._
Ld. Kaim's Principles of equity. fol.
pound 1.1
Blackstone's Commentaries. 4 v.
4to. pound 4.4
Cuningham's Law dictionary. 2 v.
fol. pound 3
_HISTORY. ANTIENT._
Bible. 6/
Rollin's Antient history. Eng. 13 v.
12mo. pound 1.19
Stanyan's Graecian history. 2 v. 8vo.
10/
Livy. (the late translation). 12/
Sallust by Gordon. 12mo. 12/
Tacitus by Gordon. 12mo. 15/
Caesar by Bladen. 8vo. 5/
Josephus. Eng. 1.0
Vertot's Revolutions of Rome. Eng.
9/
Plutarch's lives. by Langhorne. 6 v.
8vo. pound 1.10
Bayle's Dictionary. 5 v. fol. pound 7.10.
Jeffery's Historical & Chronological
chart. 15/
_HISTORY. MODERN._
Robertson's History of Charles the
Vth. 3 v. 4to. pound 3.3
Bossuet's history of France. 4 v.
12mo. 12/
Davila. by Farneworth. 2 v. 4to.
pound 1.10.
Hume's history of England. 8 v.
8vo. pound 2.8.
Clarendon's history of the rebellion.
6 v. 8vo. pound 1.10.
Robertson's history of Scotland.
2 v. 8vo. 12/
Keith's history of Virginia. 4to. 12/
Stith's history of Virginia. 6/
_NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. NATURAL HISTORY &c._
Nature displayed. Eng. 7 v. 12mo.
Franklin on Electricity. 4to. 10/
Macqueer's elements of Chemistry.
2 v. 8vo. 10/
Home's principles of agriculture.
8vo. 5/
Tull's horse-hoeing husbandry. 8vo.
5/
Duhamel's husbandry. 4to. 15/
Millar's Gardener's diet. fol. pound 2.10.
Buffon's natural history. Eng.
pound 2.10.
A compendium of Physic & Surgery.
Nourse. 12mo. 1765. 3/
Addison's travels. 12mo. 3/
Anson's voiage. 8vo. 6/
Thompson's travels. 2 v. 12mo. 6/
Lady M. W. Montague's letters. 3 v.
12mo. 9/
_MISCELLANEOUS._
Ld. Lyttleton's dialogues of the
dead. 8vo. 5/
Fenelon's dialogues of the dead.
Eng. 12mo. 3/
Voltaire's works. Eng. pound 4.
Locke on Education. 12mo. 3/
Owen's Dict. of arts & sciences 4 v.
8vo. pound 2.
THE SUBLINE OSSIAN
_To Charles McPherson_
_Albemarle, in Virga, Feb. 25, 1773_
DEAR SIR, -- Encouraged by the small acquaintance which I had
the pleasure of having contracted with you during your residence in
this country, I take the liberty of making the present application to
you. I understood you were related to the gentleman of your name
(Mr. James McPherson), to whom the world is so much indebted for the
elegant collection, arrangement, and translation of Ossian's poems.
These pieces have been and will, I think, during my life, continue to
be to me the sources of daily pleasures. The tender and the sublime
emotions of the mind were never before so wrought up by the human
hand. I am not ashamed to own that I think this rude bard of the
North the greatest poet that has ever existed. Merely for the
pleasure of reading his works, I am become desirous of learning the
language in which he sung, and of possessing his songs in their
original form. Mr. McPherson, I think, informs us he is possessed of
the originals. Indeed, a gentleman has lately told me he had seen
them in print; but I am afraid he has mistaken a specimen from
Temora, annexed to some of the editions of the translation, for the
whole works. If they are printed, it will abridge my request and
your trouble, to the sending me a printed copy; but if there be more
such, my petition is, that you would be so good as to use your
interest with Mr. McPherson to obtain leave to take a manuscript copy
of them, and procure it to be done. I would choose it in a fair,
round hand, on fine paper, with a good margin, bound in parchments as
elegantly as possible, lettered on the back, and marbled or gilt on
the edges of the leaves. I would not regard expense in doing this.
I would further beg the favor of you to give me a catalogue of the
books written in that language, and to send me such of them as may be
necessary for learning it. These will, of course, include a grammar
and dictionary. The cost of these, as well as the copy of Ossian,
will be (for me), on demand, answered by Mr. Alexander McCaul,
sometime of Virginia, merchant, but now of Glasgow, or by your friend
Mr. Ninian Minzees, of Richmond, in Virginia, to whose care the books
may be sent. You can, perhaps, tell me whether we may ever hope to
see any more of those Celtic pieces published. Manuscript copies of
any which are in print, it would at any time give me the greatest
happiness to receive. The glow of one warm thought is to me worth
more than money. I hear with pleasure from your friend that your
path through life is likely to be smoothed by success. I wish the
business and the pleasures of your situation would admit leisure now
and then to scribble a line to one who wishes you every felicity, and
would willingly merit the appellation of, dear sir, Your friend and
humble servant.
NEWS FROM BOSTON
_To William Small_
_May 7, 1775_
DEAR SIR, -- I had the pleasure by a gentleman who saw you at
Birmingham to hear of your welfare. By Capt. Aselby of the
True-patriot belonging to Messrs. Farrell & Jones of Bristol I send
you 3 doz. bottles of Madeira, being the half of a present which I
had laid by for you. The capt was afraid to take more on board lest
it should draw upon him the officers of the customs. The remaining
three doz. therefore I propose to send by Cap;att Drew belonging to
the same mercantile house, who is just arrived here. That which goes
by Aselby will be delivered by him to your order, the residue by
Drew, or by Farrell & Jones, I know not which as yet. I hope you
will find it fine as it came to me genuine from the island & has been
kept in my own cellar eight years. Within this week we have received
the unhappy news of an action of considerable magnitude, between the
King's troops and our brethren of Boston, in which it is said five
hundred of the former, with the Earl of Percy, are slain. That such
an action has occurred, is undoubted, though perhaps the
circumstances may not have reached us with truth. This accident has
cut off our last hope of reconciliation, and a phrensy of revenge
seems to have seized all ranks of people. It is a lamentable
circumstance, that the only mediatory power, acknowledged by both
parties, instead of leading to a reconciliation of his divided
people, should pursue the incendiary purpose of still blowing up the
flames, as we find him constantly doing, in every speech and public
declaration. This may, perhaps, be intended to intimidate into
acquiescence, but the effect has been most unfortunately otherwise.
A little knowledge of human nature, and attention to its ordinary
workings, might have foreseen that the spirits of the people here
were in a state, in which they were more likely to be provoked, than
frightened, by haughty deportment. And to fill up the measure of
irritation, a proscription of individuals has been substituted in the
room of just trial. Can it be believed, that a grateful people will
suffer those to be consigned to execution, whose sole crime has been
the developing and asserting their rights? Had the Parliament
possessed the power of reflection, they would have avoided a measure
as impotent, as it was inflammatory. When I saw Lord Chatham's bill,
I entertained high hope that a reconciliation could have been brought
about. The difference between his terms, and those offered by our
Congress, might have been accommodated, if entered on, by both
parties, with a dispostion to accommodate. But the dignity of
Parliament, it seems, can brook no opposition to its power. Strange,
that a set of men, who have made sale of their virtue to the
Minister, should yet talk of retaining dignity! But I am getting
into politics, though I sat down only to ask your acceptance of the
wine, and express my constant wishes for your happiness. This
however seems to be ensured by your philosophy & peaceful vocation.
I shall still hope that amidst public dissention private friendship
may be preserved inviolate and among the warmest you can ever possess
is that of your humble servt.
RECONCILIATION OR INDEPENDENCE
_To John Randolph_
_Monticello, August 25, 1775_
DEAR SIR, -- I received your message by Mr. Braxton &
immediately gave him an order on the Treasurer for the money which
the Treasurer assured me should be answered on his return. I now
send the bearer for the violin & such music appurtaining to her as
may be of no use to the young ladies. I beleive you had no case to
her. If so, be so good as to direct Watt Lenox to get from Prentis's
some bays or other coarse woollen to wrap her in & then to pack her
securely in a wooden box. I am sorry the situation of our country
should render it not eligible to you to remain longer in it. I hope
the returning wisdom of Great Britain will, ere long, put an end to
this unnatural contest. There may be people to whose tempers and
dispositions contention is pleasing, and who, therefore, wish a
continuance of confusion, but to me it is of all states but one, the
most horrid. My first wish is a restoration of our just rights; my
second, a return of the happy period, when, consistently with duty, I
may withdraw myself totally from the public stage, and pass the rest
of my days in domestic ease and tranquillity, banishing every desire
of ever hearing what passes in the world. Perhaps (for the latter
adds considerably to the warmth of the former wish), looking with
fondness towards a reconciliation with Great Britain, I cannot help
hoping you may be able to contribute towards expediting this good
work. I think it must be evident to yourself, that the Ministry have
been deceived by their officers on this side of the water, who (for
what purpose I cannot tell) have constantly represented the American
opposition as that of a small faction, in which the body of the
people took little part. This, you can inform them, of your own
knowledge, is untrue. They have taken it into their heads, too, that
we are cowards, and shall surrender at discretion to an armed force.
The past and future operations of the war must confirm or undeceive
them on that head. I wish they were thoroughly and minutely
acquainted with every circumstance relative to America, as it exists
in truth. I am persuaded, this would go far towards disposing them
to reconciliation. Even those in Parliament who are called friends
to America, seem to know nothing of our real determinations. I
observe, they pronounced in the last Parliament, that the Congress of
1774 did not mean to insist rigorously on the terms they held out,
but kept something in reserve, to give up; and, in fact, that they
would give up everything but the article of taxation. Now, the truth
is far from this, as I can affirm, and put my honor to the assertion.
Their continuance in this error may, perhaps, produce very ill
consequences. The Congress stated the lowest terms they thought
possible to be accepted, in order to convince the world they were not
unreasonable. They gave up the monopoly and regulation of trade, and
all acts of Parliament prior to 1764, leaving to British generosity
to render these, at some future time, as easy to America as the
interest of Britain would admit. But this was before blood was
spilt. I cannot affirm, but have reason to think, these terms would
not now be accepted. I wish no false sense of honor, no ignorance of
our real intentions, no vain hope thatpartial concessions of right
will be accepted, may induce the Ministry to trifle with
accommodation, till it shall be out of their power ever to
accommodate. If, indeed, Great Britain, disjointed from her
colonies, be a match for the most potent nations of Europe, with the
colonies thrown into their scale, they may go on securely. But if
they are not assured of this, it would be certainly unwise, by trying
the event of another campaign, to risk our accepting a foreign aid,
which, perhaps, may not be attainable, but on condition of
everlasting avulsion from Great Britain. This would be thought a
hard condition, to those who still wish for reunion with their parent
country. I am sincerely one of those, and would rather be in
dependence on Great Britain, properly limited, than on anyother
nation on earth, or than on no nation. But I am one of those, too,
who, rather than submit to the rights of legislating for us, assumed
by the British Parliament, and which late experience has shown they
will so cruelly exercise, would lend my hand to sink the whole Island
in the ocean.
If undeceiving the Minister, as to matters of fact, may change
his disposition, it will, perhaps, be in your power, by assisting to
do this, to render service to the whole empire, at the most critical
time, certainly, that it has ever seen. Whether Britain shall
continue the head of the greatest empire on earth, or shall return to
her original station in the political scale of Europe, depends,
perhaps, on the resolutions of the succeeding winter. God send they
may be wise and salutary for us all. I shall be glad to hear from
you as often as you may be disposed to think of things here. You may
be at liberty, I expect, to communicate some things, consistently
with your honor, and the duties you will owe to a protecting nation.
Such a communication among individuals, may be mutually beneficial to
the contending parties. On this or any future occasion, if I affirm
to you any facts, your knowledge of me will enable you to decide on
their credibility; if I hazard opinions on the dispositions of men or
other speculative points, you can only know they are my opinions. My
best wishes for your felicity, attend you, wherever you go, and
believe me to be assuredly, Your friend and servant.
P. S. My collection of classics, & of books of parliamentary
learning particularly is not so complete as I could wish. As you are
going to the land of literature & of books you may be willing to
dispose of some of yours here & replace them there in better
editions. I should be willing to treat on this head with any body
you may think proper to empower for that purpose.
SAXONS, NORMANS, AND LAND TENURE
_To Edmund Pendleton_
_Philadelphia, Aug. 13, 1776_
DEAR SIR, -- Your's of Aug. 3. came to hand yesterday; having
had no moment to spare since, I am obliged to set down to answer it
at a Committee table while the Committee is collecting. My thoughts
therefore on the subject you propose will be merely extempore. The
opinion that our lands were allodial possessions is one which I have
very long held, and had in my eye during a pretty considerable part
of my law reading which I found always strengthened it. It was
mentioned in a very hasty production, intended to have been put under
a course of severe correction, but produced afterwards to the world
in a way with which you are acquainted. This opinion I have thought
& still think to prove if ever I should have time to look into books
again. But this is only meant with respect to the English law as
transplanted here. How far our acts of assembly or acceptance of
grants may have converted lands which were allodial into feuds I have
never considered. This matter is now become a mere speculative
point; & we have it in our power to make it what it ought to be for
the public good.
It may be considered in the two points of view 1st. as bringing
a revenue into the public treasury. 2d. as a tenure. I have only
time to suggest hints on each of these heads. 1. Is it consistent
with good policy or free government to establish a perpetual revenue?
is it not against the practice of our wise British ancestors? have
not the instances in which we have departed from this in Virginia
been constantly condemned by the universal voice of our country? is
it safe to make the governing power when once seated in office,
independent of it's revenue? should we not have in contemplation &
prepare for an event (however deprecated) which may happen in the
possibility of things; I mean a reacknowledgment of the British
tyrant as our king, & previously strip him of every prejudicial
possession? Remember how universally the people run into the idea of
recalling Charles the 2d after living many years under a republican
government. -- As to the second was not the separation of the
property from the perpetual use of lands a mere fiction? Is not it's
history well known, & the purposes for which it was introduced, to
wit, the establishment of a military system of defence?
Was it not afterwards made an engine of immense oppression? Is
it wanting with us for the purpose of military defence? May not it's
other legal effects (such as them at least as are valuable) be
performed in other more simple ways? Has it not been the practice of
all other nations to hold their lands as their personal estate in
absolute dominion? Are we not the better for what we have hitherto
abolished of the feudal system? Has not every restitution of the
antient Saxon laws had happy effects? Is it not better now that we
return at once into that happy system of our ancestors, the wisest &
most perfect ever yet devised by the wit of man, as it stood before
the 8th century.
The idea of Congress selling out unlocated lands has been
sometimes dropped, but we have alwais met the hint with such
determined opposition that I believe it will never be proposed. -- I
am against selling the lands at all. The people who will migrate to
the Westward whether they form part of the old, or of a new colony
will be subject to their proportion of the Continental debt then
unpaid. They ought not to be subject to more. They will be a people
little able to pay taxes. There is no equity in fixing upon them the
whole burthen of this war, or any other proportion than we bear
ourselves. By selling the lands to them, you will disgust them, and
cause an avulsion of them from the common union. They will settle
the lands in spite of everybody. -- I am at the same time clear that
they should be appropriated in small quantities. It is said that
wealthy foreigners will come in great numbers, & they ought to pay
for the liberty we shall have provided for them. True, but make them
pay in settlers. A foreigner who brings a settler for every 100, or
200 acres of land to be granted him pays a better price than if he
had put into the public treasury 5/ or 5 pound. That settler will be
worth to the public 20 times as much every year, as on our old plan
he would have paid in one paiment. I have thrown these loose
thoughts together only in obedience to your letter, there is not an
atom of them which would not have occurred to you on a moment's
contemplation of the subject. Charge yourself therefore with the
trouble of reading two pages of such undigested stuff.
By Saturday's post the General wrote us that Ld. Howe had got
(I think 100) flat bottomed boats alongside, & 30 of them were then
loaded with men; by which it was concluded he was preparing to
attack, yet this is Tuesday & we hear nothing further. The General
has by his last return, 17000 some odd men, of whom near 4000 are
sick & near 3000 at out posts in Long Island &c. So you may say he
has but 10000 effective men to defend the works of New York. His
works however are good & his men in spirits, which I hope will be
equal to an addition of many thousands. He had called for 2000 men
from the flying camp which were then embarking to him & would
certainly be with him in time even if the attack was immediate. The
enemy have (since Clinton & his army joined them) 15.000 men of whom
not many are sick. Every influence of Congress has been exerted in
vain to double the General's force. It was impossible to prevail on
the people to leave their harvest. That is now in, & great numbers
are in motion, but they have no chance to be there in time. Should
however any disaster befall us at New York they will form a great
army on the spot to stop the progress of the enemy. I think there
cannot be less than 6 or 8000 men in this city & between it & the
flying camp. Our council complain of our calling away two of the
Virginia battalions. But is this reasonable. They have no British
enemy, & if human reason is of any use to conjecture future events,
they will not have one. Their Indian enemy is not to be opposed by
their regular battalions. Other colonies of not more than half their
military strength have 20 battalions in the field. Think of these
things & endeavor to reconcile them not only to this, but to yield
greater assistance to the common cause if wanted. I wish every
battalion we have was now in New York. -- We yesterday received
dispatches from the Commissioners at Fort Pitt. I have not read
them, but a gentleman who has, tells me they are favorable. The
Shawanese & Delewares are disposed to peace. I believe it, for this
reason. We had by different advices information from the Shawanese
that they should strike us, that this was against their will, but
that they must do what the Senecas bid them. At that time we knew
the Senecas meditated war. We directed a declaration to be made to
the six nations in general that if they did not take the most
decisive measures for the preservation of neutrality we would never
cease waging war with them while one was to be found on the face of
the earth. They immediately changed their conduct and I doubt not
have given corresponding information to the Shawanese and Delewares.
I hope the Cherokees will now be driven beyond the Missisipi &
that this in future will be declared to the Indians the invariable
consequence of their beginning a war. Our contest with Britain is
too serious and too great to permit any possibility of avocation from
the Indians. This then is the season for driving them off, & our
Southern colonies are happily rid of every other enemy & may exert
their whole force in that quarter.
I hope to leave this place some time this month.
I am Dear Sir, Your affectionate friend
P. S. Mr. Madison of the college & Mr. Johnson of Fredsb'gh
are arrived in New York. They say nothing material had happened in
England. The French ministry was changed.
THE VIRGINIA CONSTITUTION
_To Edmund Pendleton_
_Philadelpha, Aug. 26, 1776_
DEAR SIR -- Your's of the 10'th. inst. came to hand about three
days ago, the post having brought no mail with him the last week.
You seem to have misapprehended my proposition for the choice of a
Senate. I had two things in view: to get the wisest men chosen, & to
make them perfectly independent when chosen. I have ever observed
that a choice by the people themselves is not generally distinguished
for it's wisdom. This first secretion from them is usually crude &
heterogeneous. But give to those so chosen by the people a second
choice themselves, & they generally will chuse wise men. For this
reason it was that I proposed the representatives (& not the people)
should chuse the Senate, & thought I had notwithstanding that made
the Senators (when chosen) perfectly independant of their electors.
However I should have no objection to the mode of election proposed
in the printed plan of your committee, to wit, that the people of
each county should chuse twelve electors, who should meet those of
the other counties in the same district & chuse a senator. I should
prefer this too for another reason, that the upper as well as lower
house should have an opportunity of superintending & judging of the
situation of the whole state & be not all of one neighborhood as our
upper house used to be. So much for the wisdom of the Senate. To
make them independent, I had proposed that they should hold their
places for nine years, & then go out (one third every three years) &
be incapable for ever of being re-elected to that house. My idea was
that if they might be re-elected, they would be casting their eye
forward to the period of election (however distant) & be currying
favor with the electors, & consequently dependant on them. My reason
for fixing them in office for a term of years rather than for life,
was that they might have in idea that they were at a certain period
to return into the mass of the people & become the governed instead
of the governor which might still keep alive that regard to the
public good that otherwise they might perhaps be induced by their
independance to forget. Yet I could submit, tho' not so willingly to
an appointment for life, or to any thing rather than a mere creation
by & dependance on the people. I think the present mode of election
objectionable because the larger county will be able to send & will
always send a man (less fit perhaps) of their own county to the
exclusion of a fitter who may chance to live in a smaller county. --
I wish experience may contradict my fears. -- That the Senate as
well as lower [or shall I speak truth & call it upper] house should
hold no office of profit I am clear; but not that they should of
necessity possess distinguished property. You have lived longer than
I have and perhaps may have formed a different judgment on better
grounds; but my observations do not enable me to say I think
integrity the characteristic of wealth. In general I beleive the
decisions of the people, in a body, will be more honest & more
disinterested than those of wealthy men: & I can never doubt an
attachment to his country in any man who has his family & peculium in
it: -- Now as to the representative house which ought to be so
constructed as to answer that character truly. I was for extending
the right of suffrage (or in other words the rights of a citizen) to
all who had a permanent intention of living in the country. Take
what circumstances you please as evidence of this, either the having
resided a certain time, or having a family, or having property, any
or all of them. Whoever intends to live in a country must wish that
country well, & has a natural right of assisting in the preservation
of it. I think you cannot distinguish between such a person residing
in the country & having no fixed property, & one residing in a
township whom you say you would admit to a vote. -- The other point
of equal representation I think capital & fundamental. I am glad you
think an alteration may be attempted in that matter. -- The
fantastical idea of virtue & the public good being a sufficient
security to the state against the commission of crimes, which you say
you have heard insisted on by some, I assure you was never mine. It
is only the sanguinary hue of our penal laws which I meant to object
to. Punishments I know are necessary, & I would provide them, strict
& inflexible, but proportioned to the crime. Death might be
inflicted for murther & perhaps for treason if you would take out of
the description of treason all crimes which are not such in their
nature. Rape, buggery &c -- punish by castration. All other crimes
by working on high roads, rivers, gallies &c. a certain time
proportioned to the offence. But as this would be no punishment or
change of condition to slaves (me miserum!) let them be sent to other
countries. By these means we should be freed from the wickedness of
the latter, & the former would be living monuments of public
vengeance. Laws thus proportionate & mild should never be dispensed
with. Let mercy be the character of the lawgiver, but let the judge
be a mere machine. The mercies of the law will be dispensed equally
& impartially to every description of men; those of the judge, or of
the executive power, will be the eccentric impulses of whimsical,
capricious designing man. -- I am indebted to you for a topic to
deny to the Pensylvania claim to a line 39 complete degrees from the
equator. As an advocate I shall certainly insist on it; but I wish
they would compromise by an extension of Mason & Dixon's line. --
They do not agree to the temporary line proposed by our assembly.
We have assurance (not newspaper, but Official) that the French
governors of the West Indies have received orders not only to furnish
us with what we want but to protect our ships. They will convoy our
vessels, they say, thro' the line of British cruisers. What you will
see in the papers of capt Weeks is indubitably true. The inhabitants
of S't. Pierre's went out in boats to see the promised battle, but
the British captain chose not to shew. -- By our last letters from
N. York the enemy had landed 8000 men on Long island. On Friday a
small party, about 40, of them were out maroding & had got some
cattle in a barn. Some riflemen (with whom was our Jamieson)
attacked them, took away the cattle, they retired as far as the house
of Judge Lifford where were their officer's quarters, they were
beaten thence also, & the house burnt by the riflemen. It is alwais
supposed you know that good execution was done. One officer was
killed & left with 9 guineas in his pocket, which shews they were in
a hurry; the swords & fusees of three other officers were found, the
owners supposed to be killed or wounded & carried away. On Saturday
about 2000 of them attempted to march to Bedford. Colo Hans's
battalion of 300 Pennsylvania riflemen having posted themselves in a
cornfeild & a wood to advantage attacked them. The enemy had some of
their Jagers with the m, who it seems are German riflemen used to the
woods. General Sullivan (who commands during the illness of Gen'l.
Green) sent some musquetry to support the riflemen. The enemy gave
way & were driven half a mile beyond their former station. Among the
dead left on the way, were three Jagers. Gen'l. Washington had sent
over 6 battal's. to join Sullivan who had before three thousand, some
say & rightly I beleive 6000; & had posted 5 battalions more on the
water side ready to join Sullivan if the enemy should make that the
field of trial, or to return to N. York if wanted there. A general
embarkation was certainly begun. 13. transports crouded with men had
fallen down to the narrows & others loading. So that we expect every
hour to hear of this great affair. Washington by his last return had
23,000 men of whom however 5000 were sick. Since this, Colo Aylett
just returned from there, tells us he has received 16 new England
battalions, so that we may certainly hope he has 25,000 effective,
which is about the strength of the enemy probably, tho' we have never
heard certainly that their last 5000, are come, in which case I
should think they have but 20,000. Washington discovers a
confidence, which he usually does only on very good grounds. He sais
his men are high in spirits. Those ordered to Long island went with
the eagerness of young men going to a dance. A few more skirmishes
would be an excellent preparative for our people. Provisions on
Staten island were become so scarce that a cow sold for ten pounds, a
sheep for ten dollars. They were barreling up all the horse flesh
they could get. -- Colo Lee being not yet come I am still here, &
suppose I shall not get away till about this day se'nnight. I shall
see you in Williamsburgh the morning of the Assembly. Adieu.
FIRST LETTER TO ADAMS
_To John Adams_
_Williamsburgh, May 16, 1777_
DEAR SIR -- Matters in our part of the continent are too much
in quiet to send you news from hence. Our battalions for the
Continental service were some time ago so far filled as rendered the
recommendation of a draught from the militia hardly requisite, and
the more so as in this country it ever was the most unpopular and
impracticable thing that could be attempted. Our people even under
the monarchical government had learnt to consider it as the last of
all oppressions. I learn from our delegates that the Confederation
is again on the carpet. A great and a necessary work, but I fear
almost desperate. The point of representation is what most alarms
me, as I fear the great and small colonies are bitterly determined
not to cede. Will you be so good as to recollect the proposition I
formerly made you in private and try if you can work it into some
good to save our union? It was that any proposition might be
negatived by the representatives of a majority of the people of
America, or of a majority of the colonies of America. The former
secures the larger the latter the smaller colonies. I have mentioned
it to many here. The good whigs I think will so far cede their
opinions for the sake of the Union, and others we care little for.
The journals of congress not being printed earlier gives more
uneasiness than I would ever wish to see produced by any act of that
body, from whom alone I know our salvation can proceed. In our
assembly even the best affected think it an indignity to freemen to
be voted away life and fortune in the dark. Our house have lately
written for a M.S. copy of your journals, not meaning to desire a
communication of any thing ordered to be kept secret. I wish the
regulation of the post office adopted by Congress last September
could be put in practice. It was for the riders to travel night and
day, and to go their several stages three times a week. The speedy
and frequent communication of intelligence is really of great
consequence. So many falshoods have been propagated that nothing now
is beleived unless coming from Congress or camp. Our people merely
for want of intelligence which they may rely on are become lethargick
and insensible of the state they are in. Had you ever a leisure
moment I should ask a letter from you sometime directed to the care
of Mr. Dick, Fredericksburgh: but having nothing to give in return it
would be a tax on your charity as well as your time. The esteem I
have for you privately, as well as for your public importance will
always render assurances of your health and happiness agreeable. I
am Dear Sir Your friend and servt:
"THE FAVORITE PASSION OF MY SOUL"
_To Giovanni Fabbroni_
_Williamsburg in Virginia, June 8, 1778_
SIR, -- Your letter of Sep. 15. 1777 from Paris comes safe to
hand. We have not however had the pleasure of seeing Mr. De Cenis,
the bearer of it in this country, as he joined the army in
Pennsylvania as soon as he arrived. I should have taken particular
pleasure in serving him on your recommendation. From the kind
anxiety expressed in your letter as well as from other sources of
information we discover that our enemies have filled Europe with
Thrasonic accounts of victories they had never won and conquests they
were fated never to make. While these accounts alarmed our friends
in Europe they afforded us diversion. We have long been out of all
fear for the event of the war. I enclose you a list of the killed,
wounded, and captives of the enemy from the commencement of
hostilities at Lexington in April, 1775, until November, 1777, since
which there has been no event of any consequence. This is the best
history of the war which can be brought within the compass of a
letter. I believe the account to be near the truth, tho' it is
difficult to get at the numbers lost by an enemy with absolute
precision. Many of the articles have been communicated to us from
England as taken from the official returns made by their General. I
wish it were in my power to send you as just an account of our loss.
But this cannot be done without an application to the war office
which being in another county is at this time out of my reach. I
think that upon the whole it has been about one half the number lost
by them, in some instances more, but in others less. This difference
is ascribed to our superiority in taking aim when we fire; every
soldier in our army having been intimate with his gun from his
infancy. If there could have been a doubt before as to the event of
the war it is now totally removed by the interposition of France, &
the generous alliance she has entered into with us. Tho' much of my
time is employed in the councils of America I have yet a little
leisure to indulge my fondness for philosophical studies. I could
wish to correspond with you on subjects of that kind. It might not
be unacceptable to you to be informed for instance of the true power
of our climate as discoverable from the thermometer, from the force &
direction of the winds, the quantity of rain, the plants which grow
without shelter in winter &c. On the other hand we should be much
pleased with contemporary observations on the same particulars in
your country, which will give us a comparative view of the two
climates. Farenheit's thermometer is the only one in use with us, I
make my daily observations as early as possible in the morning &
again about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, these generally showing the
maxima of cold & heat in the course of 24 hours. I wish I could
gratify your Botanical taste; but I am acquainted with nothing more
than the first principles of that science; yet myself & my friends
may furnish you with any Botanical subjects which this country
affords, and are not to be had with you; and I shall take pleasure in
procuring them when pointed out by you. The greatest difficulty will
be the means of conveyance during the continuance of the war.
If there is a gratification which I envy any people in this
world, it is to your country its music. This is the favorite passion
of my soul, & fortune has cast my lot in a country where it is in a
state of deplorable barbarism. From the line of life in which we
conjecture you to be, I have for some time lost the hope of seeing
you here. Should the event prove so, I shall ask your assistance in
procuring a substitute, who may be a proficient in singing, & on the
Harpsichord. I should be contented to receive such an one two or
three years hence, when it is hoped he may come more safely and find
here a greater plenty of those useful things which commerce alone can
furnish. The bounds of an American fortune will not admit the
indulgence of a domestic band of musicians, yet I have thought that a
passion for music might be reconciled with that economy which we are
obliged to observe. I retain for instance among my domestic servants
a gardener (Ortolans), a weaver (Tessitore di lino e lin), a cabinet
maker (Stipeltaio) and a stone cutter (Scalpellino laborante in
piano) to which I would add a vigneron. In a country where like
yours music is cultivated and practised by every class of men I
suppose there might be found persons of those trades who could
perform on the French horn, clarinet or hautboy & bassoon, so that
one might have a band of two French horns, two clarinets, & hautboys
& a bassoon, without enlarging their domestic expenses. A certainty
of employment for a half dozen years, and at the end of that time to
find them if they choose a conveyance to their own country might
induce them to come here on reasonable wages. Without meaning to
give you trouble, perhaps it might be practicable for you in [your]
ordinary intercourse with your people, to find out such men disposed
to come to America. Sobriety and good nature would be desirable
parts of their characters. If you think such a plan practicable, and
will be so kind as to inform me what will be necessary to be done on
my part I will take care that it shall be done. The necessary
expenses, when informed of them, I can remit before they are wanting,
to any port in France, with which country alone we have safe
correspondence. I am Sir with much esteem your humble servant.
"A TRUE WHIG IN SCIENCE"
_To David Rittenhouse_
_Monticello in Albemarle, Virginia, July 19, 1778_
DEAR SIR, -- I sincerely congratulate you on the recovery of
Philadelphia, and wish it may be found uninjured by the enemy -- how
far the interests of literature may have suffered by the injury or
removal of the Orrery (as it is miscalled) the publick libraries,
your papers & implements, are doubts which still excite anxiety. We
were much disappointed in Virginia generally on the day of the great
eclipse, which proved to be cloudy. In Williamsburgh, where it was
total, I understand only the beginning was seen. At this place which
is in Lat. 38 degrees-8' and Longitude West from Williamsburgh about
1 degrees-45' as is conjectured, eleven digits only were supposed to
be covered, as it was not seen at all till the moon had advanced
nearly one third over the sun's disc. Afterwards it was seen at
intervals through the whole. The egress particularly was visible.
It proved however of little use to me for want of a time piece that
could be depended on; which circumstance, together with the
subsequent restoration of Philadelphia to you, has induced me to
trouble you with this letter to remind you of your kind promise of
making me an accurate clock; which being intended for astronomical
purposes only, I would have divested of all apparatus for striking or
for any other purpose, which by increasing it's complication might
disturb it's accuracy. A companion to it, for keeping seconds, and
which might be moved easily, would greatly add to it's value. The
theodolite, for which I spoke to you also, I can now dispense with,
having since purchased a most excellent one.
Writing to a philosopher, I may hope to be pardoned for
intruding some thoughts of my own tho' they relate to him personally.
Your time for two years past has, I believe, been principally
employed in the civil government of your country. Tho' I have been
aware of the authority our cause would acquire with the world from
it's being known that yourself & Doc't. Franklin were zealous friends
to it and am myself duly impressed with a sense of the arduousness of
government, and the obligation those are under who are able to
conduct it, yet I am also satisfied there is an order of geniusses
above that obligation, & therefore exempted from it, nobody can
conceive that nature ever intended to throw away a Newton upon the
occupations of a crown. It would have been a prodigality for which
even the conduct of providence might have been arraigned, had he been
by birth annexed to what was so far below him. Cooperating with
nature in her ordinary economy we should dispose of and employ the
geniusses of men according to their several orders and degrees. I
doubt not there are in your country many persons equal to the task of
conducting government: but you should consider that the world has but
one Ryttenhouse, & that it never had one before. The amazing
mechanical representation of the solar system which you conceived &
executed, has never been surpassed by any but the work of which it is
a copy. Are those powers then, which being intended for the
erudition of the world are, like air and light, the world's common
property, to be taken from their proper pursuit to do the commonplace
drudgery of governing a single state, a work which my be executed by
men of an ordinary stature, such as are always & everywhere to be
found? Without having ascended mount Sinai for inspiration, I can
pronounce that the precept, in the decalogue of the vulgar, that they
shall not make to themselves "the likeness of anything that is in the
heavens above" is reversed for you, and that you will fulfil the
highest purposes of your creation by employing yourself in the
perpetual breach of that inhibition. For my own country in
particular you must remember something like a promise that it should
be adorned with one of them. The taking of your city by the enemy
has hitherto prevented the proposition from being made & approved by
our legislature. The zeal of a true whig in science must excuse the
hazarding these free thoughts, which flow from a desire of promoting
the diffusion of knowledge & of your fame, and from one who can
assure you truly that he is with much sincerity & esteem Your most
obed't. & most humble serv't.
P. S. If you can spare as much time as to give me notice of
the receipt of this, & what hope I may form of my clocks, it will
oblige me. If sent to Fredericksburgh it will come safe to hand.
WAR AND HUMANITY
_To Patrick Henry_
_Albemarle, March 27, 1779_
Sir, -- A report prevailing here, that in consequence of some
powers from Congress, the Governor and Council have it in
contemplation to remove the Convention troops, either wholly or in
part, from their present situation, I take the liberty of troubling
you with some observations on that subject. The reputation and
interest of our country, in general, may be affected by such a
measure: it would, therefore, hardly be deemed an indecent liberty in
the most private citizen, to offer his thoughts to the consideration
of the Executive. The locality of my situation, particularly in the
neighborhood of the present barracks, and the public relation in
which I stand to the people among whom they are situated, together
with a confidence which a personal knowledge of the members of the
Executive gives me, that they will be glad of information from any
quarter, on a subject interesting to the public, induce me to hope
that they will acquit me of impropriety in the present
representation.
By an article in the Convention of Saratoga, it is stipulated,
on the part of the United States, that the officers shall not be
separated from their men. I suppose the term officers, includes
_general_ as well as _regimental_ officers. As there are general
officers who command all the troops, no part of them can be separated
from these officers without a violation of the article: they cannot,
of course, be separated from one another, unless the same general
officer could be in different places at the same time. It is true,
the article adds the words, "as far as circumstances will admit."
This was a necessary qualification; because, in no place in America,
I suppose, could there have been found quarters for both officers and
men together; those for the officers to be according to their rank.
So far, then, as the circumstances of the place where they should be
quartered, should render a separation necessary, in order to procure
quarters for the officers, according to their rank, the article
admits that separation. And these are the circumstances which must
have been under the contemplation of the parties; both of whom, and
all the world beside (who are ultimate judges in the case), would
still understand that they were to be as near in the environs of the
camp, as convenient quarters could be procured; and not that the
qualification of the article destroyed the article itself, and laid
it wholly at our discretion. Congress, indeed, have admitted of this
separation; but are they so far lords of right and wrong as that our
consciences may be quiet with their dispensation? Or is the case
amended by saying they leave it optional in the Governor and Council
to separate the troops or not? At the same time that it exculpates
not them, it is drawing the Governor and Council into a participation
in the breach of faith. If indeed it is only proposed, that a
separation of the troops shall be referred to the consent of their
officers; that is a very different matter. Having carefully avoided
conversation with them on public subjects, I cannot say, of my own
knowledge, how they would relish such a proposition. I have heard
from others, that they will choose to undergo anything together,
rather than to be separated, and that they will remonstrate against
it in the strongest terms. The Executive, therefore, if voluntary
agents in this measure, must be drawn into a paper war with them, the
more disagreeable, as it seems that faith and reason will be on the
other side. As an American, I cannot help feeling a thorough
mortification, that our Congress should have permitted an infraction
of our public honor; as a citizen of Virginia, I cannot help hoping
and confiding, that our Supreme Executive, whose acts will be
considered as the acts of the Commonwealth, estimate that honor too
highly to make its infraction their own act. I may be permitted to
hope, then, that if any removal takes place, it will be a general
one; and, as it is said to be left to the Governor and Council to
determine on this, I am satisfied that, suppressing every other
consideration, and weighing the matter dispassionately, they will
determine upon this sole question, Is it for the benefit of those for
whom they act, that the Convention troops should be removed from
among them? Under the head of interest, these circumstances, viz.,
the expense of building barracks, said to have been pound 25,000, and
of removing the troops back-wards and forwards, amounting to, I know
not how much, are not to be permitted, merely because they are
Continental expenses; for we are a part of the Continent; we must pay
a shilling of every dollar wasted. But the sums of money which, by
these troops, or on their account, are brought into, and expended in
this State, are a great and local advantage. This can require no
proof. If, at the conclusion of the war, for instance, our share of
the Continental debt should be twenty millions of dollars, or say
that we are called on to furnish an annual quota of two millions four
hundred thousand dollars, to Congress, to be raised by tax, it is
obvious that we should raise these given sums with greater or less
ease, in proportion to the greater or less quantity of money found in
circulation among us. I expect that our circulating money is
[increased?], by the presence of these troops, at the rate of $30,000
a week, at the least. I have heard, indeed, that an objection arises
to their being kept within this State, from the information of the
commissary that they cannot be subsisted here. In attending to the
information of that officer, it should be borne in mind that the
county of King William and its vicinities are one thing, the
territory of Virginia another. If the troops could be fed upon long
letters, I believe the gentleman at the head of that department in
this country, would be the best commissary upon earth. But till I
see him determined to act, not to write; to sacrifice his domestic
ease to the duties of his appointment, and apply to the resources of
this country, wheresoever they are to be had, I must entertain a
different opinion of him. I am mistaken if, for the animal
subsistence of the troops hitherto, we are not principally indebted
to the genius and exertions of Hawkins, during the very short time he
lived after his appointment to that department, by your board. His
eye immediately pervaded the whole State, it was reduced at once to a
regular machine, to a system, and the whole put into movement and
animation by the fiat of a comprehensive mind. If the Commonwealth
of Virginia cannot furnish these troops with bread, I would ask of
the commissariat, which of the thirteen is now become the grain
colony? If we are in danger of famine from the addition of four
thousand mouths, what is become of that surplus of bread, the
exportation of which used to feed the West Indies and Eastern States,
and fill the colony with hard money? When I urge the sufficiency of
this State, however, to subsist these troops, I beg to be understood,
as having in contemplation the quantity of provisions necessary for
their real use, and not as calculating what is to be lost by the
wanton waste, mismanagement, and carelessness of those employed about
it. If magazines of beef and pork are suffered to rot by slovenly
butchering, or for want of timely provision and sale; if quantities
of flour are exposed, by the commissaries entrusted with the keeping
it, to pillage and destruction; and if, when laid up in the
Continental stores, it is still to be embezzled and sold, the land of
Egypt itself would be insufficient for their supply, and their
removal would be necessary, not to a more plentiful country, but to
more able and honest commissaries. Perhaps the magnitude of this
question, and its relation to the whole State, may render it worth
while to await the opinion of the National Council, which is now to
meet within a few weeks. There is no danger of distress in the
meantime, as the commissaries affirm they have a great sufficiency of
provisions for some time to come. Should the measure of removing
them into another State be adopted, and carried into execution,
before the meeting of Assembly, no disapprobation of theirs will
bring them back, because they will then be in the power of others,
who will hardly give them up.
Want of information as to what may be the precise measure
proposed by the Governor and Council, obliges me to shift my ground,
and take up the subject in every possible form. Perhaps, they have
not thought to remove the troops out of this State altogether, but to
some other part of it. Here, the objections arising from the
expenses of removal, and of building new barracks, recur. As to
animal food, it may be driven to one part of the country as easily as
to another: that circumstance, therefore, may be thrown out of the
question. As to bread, I suppose they will require about forty or
forty-five thousand bushels of grain a year. The place to which it
is to be brought to them, is about the centre of the State. Besides,
that the country round about is fertile, all the grain made in the
counties adjacent to any kind of navigation, may be brought by water
to within twelve miles of the spot. For these twelve miles, wagons
must be employed; I suppose half a dozen will be a plenty. Perhaps,
this part of the expense might have been saved, had the barracks been
built on the water; but it is not sufficient to justify their being
abandoned now they are built. Wagonage, indeed, seems to the
commissariat an article not worth economising. The most wanton and
studied circuity of transportation has been practised: to mention
only one act, they have bought quantities of flour for these troops
in Cumberland, have ordered it to be wagoned down to Manchester, and
wagoned thence up to the barracks. This fact happened to fall within
my own knowledge. I doubt not there are many more such, in order
either to produce their total removal, or to run up the expenses of
the present situation, and satisfy Congress that the nearer they are
brought to the commissary's own bed, the cheaper they will be
subsisted. The grain made in the western counties may be brought
partly in wagons, as conveniently to this as to any other place;
perhaps more so, on account of its vicinity to one of the best passes
through the Blue Ridge; and partly by water, as it is near to James
river, to the navigation of which, ten counties are adjacent above
the falls. When I said that the grain might be brought hither from
all the counties of the State adjacent to navigation, I did not mean
to say it would be proper to bring it from all. On the contrary, I
think the commissary should be instructed, after the next harvest,
not to send one bushel of grain to the barracks from below the falls
of the rivers, or from the northern counties. The counties on tide
water are accessible to the calls for our own army. Their supplies
ought, therefore, to be husbanded for them. The counties in the
northwestern parts of the State are not only within reach for our own
grand army, but peculiarly necessary for the support of Macintosh's
army; or for the support of any other northwestern expedition, which
the uncertain conduct of the Indians should render necessary;
insomuch, that if the supplies of that quarter should be misapplied
to any other purpose, it would destroy, in embryo, every exertion,
either for particular or general safety there. The counties above
tide water, in the middle and southern and western parts of the
country, are not accessible to calls for either of those purposes,
but at such an expense of transportation as the article would not
bear. Here, then, is a great field, whose supplies of bread cannot
be carried to our army, or rather, which will raise no supplies of
bread, because there is nobody to eat them. Was it not, then, wise
in Congress to remove to that field four thousand idle mouths, who
must otherwise have interfered with the pasture of our own troops?
And, if they are removed to any other part of the country, will it
not defeat this wise purpose? The mills on the waters of James
river, above the falls, open to canoe navigation, are very many.
Some of them are of great note, as manufacturers. The barracks are
surrounded by mills. There are five or six round about
Charlottesville. Any two or three of the whole might, in the course
of the winter, manufacture flour sufficient for the year. To say the
worst, then, of this situation, it is but twelve miles wrong. The
safe custody of these troops is another circumstance worthy
consideration. Equally removed from the access of an eastern or
western enemy; central to the whole State, so that should they
attempt an irruption in any direction, they must pass through a great
extent of hostile country; in a neighborhood thickly inhabited by a
robust and hardy people zealous in the American cause, acquainted
with the use of arms, and the defiles and passes by which they must
issue: it would seem, that in this point of view, no place could have
been better chosen.
Their health is also of importance. I would not endeavor to
show that their lives are valuable to us, because it would suppose a
possibility, that humanity was kicked out of doors in America, and
interest only attended to. The barracks occupy the top and brow of a
very high hill, (you have been untruly told they were in a bottom.)
They are free from bog, have four springs which seem to be plentiful,
one within twenty yards of the piquet, two within fifty yards, and
another within two hundred and fifty, and they propose to sink wells
within the piquet. Of four thousand people, it should be expected,
according to the ordinary calculations, that one should die every
day. Yet, in the space of near three months, there have been but
four deaths among them; two infants under three weeks old, and two
others by apoplexy. The officers tell me, the troops were never
before so healthy since they were embodied.
But is an enemy so execrable, that, though in captivity, his
wishes and comforts are to be disregarded and even crossed? I think
not. It is for the benefit of mankind to mitigate the horrors of war
as much as possible. The practice, therefore, of modern nations, of
treating captive enemies with politeness and generosity, is not only
delightful in contemplation, but really interesting to all the world,
friends, foes, and neutrals. Let us apply this: the officers, after
considerable hardships, have all procured quarters, comfortable and
satisfactory to them. In order to do this, they were obliged, in
many instances, to hire houses for a year certain, and at such
exorbitant rents, as were sufficient to tempt independent owners to
go out of them, and shift as they could. These houses, in most
cases, were much out of repair. They have repaired them at a
considerable expense. One of the general officers has taken a place
for two years, advanced the rent for the whole time, and been
obliged, moreover, to erect additional buildings for the
accommodation of part of his family, for which there was not room in
the house rented. Independent of the brick work, for the carpentry
of these additional buildings, I know he is to pay fifteen hundred
dollars. The same gentleman, to my knowledge, has paid to one person
three thousand six hundred and seventy dollars for different articles
to fix himself commodiously. They have generally laid in their
stocks of grain and other provisions, for it is well known that
officers do not live on their rations. They have purchased cows,
sheep, &c., set in to farming, prepared their gardens, and have a
prospect of comfort and quiet before them. To turn to the soldiers:
the environs of the barracks are delightful, the ground cleared, laid
off in hundreds of gardens, each enclosed in its separate paling;
these well prepared, and exhibiting a fine appearance. General
Riedezel alone laid out upwards of two hundred pounds in garden seeds
for the German troops only. Judge what an extent of ground these
seeds would cover. There is little doubt that their own gardens will
furnish them a great abundance of vegetables through the year. Their
poultry, pigeons and other preparations of that kind, present to the
mind the idea of a company of farmers, rather than a camp of
soldiers. In addition to the barracks built for them by the public,
and now very comfortable, they have built great numbers for
themselves, in such messes as fancied each other; and the whole
corps, both officers and men, seem now happy and satisfied with their
situation. Having thus found the art of rendering captivity itself
comfortable, and carried it into execution, at their own great
expense and labor, their spirits sustained by the prospect of
gratifications rising before their eyes, does not every sentiment of
humanity revolt against the proposition of stripping them of all
this, and removing them into new situations, where, from the advanced
season of the year, no preparations can be made for carrying
themselves comfortably through the heats of summer; and when it is
known that the necessary advances for the conveniences already
provided, have exhausted their funds and left them unable to make the
like exertions anew. Again, review this matter, as it may regard
appearances. A body of troops, after staying a twelvemonth at
Boston, are ordered to take a march of seven hundred miles to
Virginia, where, it is said, they may be plentifully subsisted. As
soon as they are there, they are ordered on some other march,
because, in Virginia, it is said, they cannot be subsisted.
Indifferent nations will charge this either to ignorance, or to whim
and caprice; the parties interested, to cruelty. They now view the
proposition in that light, and it is said, there is a general and
firm persuasion among them, that they were marched from Boston with
no other purpose than to harass and destroy them with eternal
marches. Perseverance in object, though not by the most direct way,
is often more laudable than perpetual changes, as often as the object
shifts light. A character of steadiness in our councils, is worth
more than the subsistence of four thousand people.
There could not have been a more unlucky concurrence of
circumstances than when these troops first came. The barracks were
unfinished for want of laborers, the spell of weather the worst ever
known within the memory of man, no stores of bread laid in, the
roads, by the weather and number of wagons, soon rendered impassable:
not only the troops themselves were greatly disappointed, but the
people in the neighborhood were alarmed at the consequences which a
total failure of provisions might produce. In this worst state of
things, their situation was seen by many and disseminated through the
country, so as to occasion a general dissatisfaction, which even
seized the minds of reasonable men, who, if not affected by the
contagion, must have foreseen that the prospect must brighten, and
that great advantages to the people must necessarily arise. It has,
accordingly, so happened. The planters, being more generally sellers
than buyers, have felt the benefit of their presence in the most
vital part about them, their purses, and are now sensible of its
source. I have too good an opinion of their love of order to believe
that a removal of these troops would produce any irregular proofs of
their disapprobation, but I am well assured it would be extremely
odious to them.
To conclude. The separation of these troops would be a breach
of public faith, therefore I suppose it is impossible; if they are
removed to another State, it is the fault of the commissaries; if
they are removed to any other part of the State, it is the fault of
the commissaries; and in both cases, the public interest and public
security suffer, the comfortable and plentiful subsistence of our own
army is lessened, the health of the troops neglected, their wishes
crossed, and their comforts torn from them, the character of whim and
caprice, or, what is worse, of cruelty, fixed on us as a nation, and,
to crown the whole, our own people disgusted with such a proceeding.
I have thus taken the liberty of representing to you the facts
and the reasons, which seem to militate against the separation or
removal of these troops. I am sensible, however, that the same
subject may appear to different persons, in very different lights.
What I have urged as reasons, may, to sounder minds, be apparent
fallacies. I hope they will appear, at least, so plausible, as to
excuse the interposition of
Your Excellency's most obedient and most humble servant.
THE TRAITOR ARNOLD
_To J. P. G. Muhlenberg_
_Richmond, Jan. 31, 1781_
SIR, -- Acquainted as you are with the treasons of Arnold, I
need say nothing for your information, or to give you a proper
sentiment of them. You will readily suppose that it is above all
things desirable to drag him from those under whose wing he is now
sheltered. On his march to and from this place I am certain it might
have been done with facility by men of enterprise & firmness. I
think it may still be done though perhaps not quite so easily.
Having peculiar confidence in the men from the Western side of the
Mountains, I meant as soon as they should come down to get the
enterprise proposed to a chosen number of them, such whose courage &
whose fidelity would be above all doubt. Your perfect knowlege of
those men personally, and my confidence in your discretion, induce me
to ask you to pick from among them proper characters, in such number
as you think best, to reveal to them our desire, & engage them to
undertake to seize and bring off this greatest of all traitors.
Whether this may be best effected by their going in as friends &
awaiting their opportunity, or otherwise is left to themselves. The
smaller the number the better; so that they be sufficient to manage
him. Every necessary caution must be used on their part, to prevent
a discovery of their design by the enemy, as should they be taken,
the laws of war will justify against them the most rigorous sentence.
I will undertake if they are successful in bringing him off alive,
that they shall receive five thousand guineas reward among them. And
to men formed for such an enterprise it must be a great incitement to
know that their names will be recorded with glory in history with
those of Vanwert, Paulding & Williams. The enclosed order from Baron
Steuben will authorize you to call for & dispose of any force you may
think necessary, to place in readiness for covering the enterprise &
securing the retreat of the party. Mr. Newton the bearer of this, &
to whom its contents are communicated in confidence, will provide men
of trust to go as guides. These may be associated in the enterprise
or not, as you please; but let that point be previously settled that
no difficulties may arise as to the parties entitled to participate
of the reward. You know how necessary profound secrecy is in this
business, even if it be not undertaken.
WELCOME TO THE MARGUIS
_To Lafayette_
_Richmond, March 10th, 1781_
SIR, -- Intending that this shall await your arrival in this
State I with great joy welcome you on that event. I am induced to
from the very great esteem your personal character and the Hopes I
entertain of your relieving us from our enemy within this State.
Could any circumstances have rendered your presence more desirable or
more necessary it is the unfortunate one which obliges me to enclose
you the enclosed papers.
I trust that your future Acquaintance with the Executive of the
State will evince to you that among their faults is not to be counted
a want of dispostion to second the views of the Commander against our
common Enemy. We are too much interested in the present scene & have
too much at stake to leave a doubt on that Head. Mild Laws, a People
not used to prompt obedience, a want of provisions of War & means of
procuring them render our orders often ineffectual, oblige us to
temporise & when we cannot accomplish an object in one way to attempt
it in another. Your knowledge of these circumstances with a temper
to accommodate them ensure me your cooperation in the best way we
can, when we shall be able to pursue the way we would wish.
I still hope you will find our preparations not far short of
the Information I took the Liberty of giving you in my letter of the
8th instant. I shall be very happy to receive your first
Applications for whatever may be necessary for the public service and
to convince you of our disposition to promote it as far as the
Abilities of the State and Powers of the Executive will enable us.
APPEAL TO THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF
_To George Washington_
_Charlottesville, May 28th, 1781_
SIR, -- I make no doubt you will have heard, before this shall
have the honour of being presented to your Excellency, of the
junction of Ld Cornwallis with the force at Petersburg under Arnold,
who had succeeded to the command on the death of Majr. Genl Phillips.
I am now advised that they have evacuated Petersburg, joined at
Westover a reinforcement of 2000 men just arrived from New york,
crossed James River, and on the 26th instant, were three miles
advanced on their way towards Richmond; at which place Majr Genl the
Marquis Fayette, lay with three thousand men Regulars and militia:
these being the whole number we could arm, until the arrival of the
1100 arms from Rhode Island, which are about this time at the place
where our Public stores are deposited. The whole force of the Enemy
within this State, from the best intelligence I have been able to
get, is I think about 7000 men, infantry and cavalry, including,
also, the small garrison left at Portsmouth: a number of privateers,
which are constantly ravaging the Shores of our rivers, prevent us
from receiving any aid from the Counties lying on navigable waters;
and powerful operations meditated against our Western frontier, by a
joint force of British, and Indian Savages, have as your Excellency
before knew, obliged us to embody, between two and three thousand men
in that quarter. Your Excellency will judge from this State of
things, and from what you know of our country, what it may probably
suffer during the present campaign. Should the Enemy be able to
produce no opportunity of annihilating the Marquis's army a small
proportion of their force may yet restrain his movements effectually
while the greater part employed in detachment to waste an unarmed
country and lead the minds of the people to acquiesce under those
events which they see no human power prepared to ward off. We are
too far removed from the other scenes of war to say whether the main
force of the Enemy be within this State. But I suppose they cannot
anywhere spare so great an army for the operations of the field.
Were it possible for this circumstance to justify in your Excellency
a determination to lend us your personal aid, it is evident from the
universal voice, that the presence of their beloved Countryman, whose
talents have so long been successfully employed, in establishing the
freedom of kindred States, to whose person they have still flattered
themselves they retained some right and have ever looked up as their
dernier resort in distress. That your appearance among them I say
would restore full confidence of salvation, and would render them
equal to whatever is not impossible. I cannot undertake to foresee
and obviate the difficulties which lie in the way of such a
resolution: The whole subject is before you of which I see only
detached parts; and your judgment will be formed on a view of the
whole. Should the danger of this State and its consequence to the
Union be such as to render it best for the whole that you should
repair to its assistance the difficulty would be how to keep men out
of the field. I have undertaken to hint this matter to your
Excellency not only on my own sense of its importance to us but at
the solicitations of many members of weight in our Legislature which
has not yet Assembled to speak their own desires.
A few days will bring to me that relief which the constitution
has prepared for those oppressed with the labours of my office and a
long declared resolution of relinquishing it to abler hands has
prepared my way for retirement to a private station: still as an
individual I should feel the comfortable effects of your presence,
and have (what I thought could not have been) an additional motive
for that gratitude, esteem, & respect with which I have the honour to
be, your Excellency's most obedient humble servant.
LIMITS OF PUBLIC DUTY
_To James Monroe_
_Monticello, May 20, 1782_
DEAR SIR, -- I have been gratified with the receipt of your two
favours of the 6th & 11th inst. It gives me pleasure that your
county has been wise enough to enlist your talents into their
service. I am much obliged by the kind wishes you express of seeing
me also in Richmond, and am always mortified when anything is
expected from me which I cannot fulfill, & more especially if it
relate to the public service. Before I ventured to declare to my
countrymen my determination to retire from public employment, I
examined well my heart to know whether it were thoroughly cured of
every principle of political ambition, whether no lurking particle
remained which might leave me uneasy when reduced within the limits
of mere private life. I became satisfied that every fibre of that
passion was thoroughly eradicated. I examined also in other views my
right to withdraw. I considered that I had been thirteen years
engaged in public service, that during that time I had so totally
abandoned all attention to my private affairs as to permit them to
run into great disorder and ruin, that I had now a family advanced to
years which require my attention & instruction, that to these were
added the hopeful offspring of a deceased friend whose memory must be
forever dear to me who have no other reliance for being rendered
useful to themselves & their country, that by a constant sacrifice of
time, labour, loss, parental & family duties, I had been so far from
gaining the affection of my countrymen, which was the only reward I
ever asked or could have felt, that I had even lost the small
estimation I before possessed. That however I might have comforted
myself under the disapprobation of the well-meaning but uninformed
people yet that of their representatives was a shock on which I had
not calculated: that this indeed had been followed by an exculpatory
declaration. But in the meantime I had been suspected & suspended in
the eyes of the world without the least hint then or afterwards made
public which might restrain them from supposing that I stood
arraigned for treason of the heart and not merely weakness of the
head; and I felt that these injuries, for such they have been since
acknowledged had inflicted a wound on my spirit which will only be
cured by the all-healing grave. If reason & inclination unite in
justifying my retirement, the laws of my country are equally in favor
of it. Whether the state may command the political services of all
it's members to an indefinite extent, or if these be among the rights
never wholly ceded to the public power, is a question which I do not
find expressly decided in England. Obiter dictums on the subject I
have indeed met with, but the complexion of the times in which these
have dropped would generally answer them, besides that this species
of authority is not acknowledged in our profession. In this country
however since the present government has been established the point
has been settled by uniform, pointed & multiplied precedents.
Offices of every kind, and given by every power, have been daily &
hourly declined & resigned from the declaration of independance to
this moment. The genl assembly has accepted these without
discrimination of office, and without ever questioning them in point
of right. If a difference between the office of a delegate & any
other could ever have been supposed, yet in the case of Mr. Thompson
Mason who declined the office of delegate & was permitted so to do by
the house that supposition has been proved to be groundless. But
indeed no such distinction of offices can be admitted. Reason and
the opinions of the lawyers putting all on a footing as to this
question and so giving to the delegate the aid of all the precedents
of the refusal of other offices. The law then does not warrant the
assumption of such a power by the state over it's members. For if it
does where is that law? nor yet does reason, for tho' I will admit
that this does subject every individual if called on to an equal tour
of political duty yet it can never go so far as to submit to it his
whole existence. If we are made in some degree for others, yet in a
greater are we made for ourselves. It were contrary to feeling &
indeed ridiculous to suppose that a man had less right in himself
than one of his neighbors or indeed all of them put together. This
would be slavery & not that liberty which the bill of rights has made
inviolable and for the preservation of which our government has been
charged. Nothing could so completely divest us of that liberty as
the establishment of the opinion that the state has a _perpetual_
right to the services of all it's members. This to men of certain
ways of thinking would be to annihilate the blessing of existence; to
contradict the giver of life who gave it for happiness & not for
wretchedness; and certainly to such it were better that they had
never been born. However with these I may think public service &
private misery inseparably linked together, I have not the vanity to
count myself among those whom the state would think worth oppressing
with perpetual service. I have received a sufficient memento to the
contrary. I am persuaded that having hitherto dedicated to them the
whole of the active & useful part of my life I shall be permitted to
pass the rest in mental quiet. I hope too that I did not mistake the
modes any more than the matter of right when I preferred a simple act
of renunciation to the taking sanctuary under those disqualifications
provided by the law for other purposes indeed, but which afford
asylum also for rest to the wearied. I dare say you did not expect
by the few words you dropped on the right of renunciation to expose
yourself to the fatigue of so long a letter, but I wished you to see
that if I had done wrong I had been betrayed by a semblance of right
at least.
I take the liberty of inclosing to you a letter for Genl
Chastellux for which you will readily find means of conveyance. But
I meant to give you more trouble with the one to Pelham who lives in
the neighborhood of Manchester & to ask the favor of you to send it
by your servant express which I am in hopes may be done without
absenting him from your person but during those hours in which you
will be engaged in the house. I am anxious that it should be
received immediately. Mrs Jefferson has added another daughter to
our family. She has been ever since & still continues very
dangerously ill. It will give me great pleasure to see you here
whenever you can favor us with your company. You will find me still
busy but in lighter occupations. But in these & all others you will
find me to retain a due sense of your friendship & to be with sincere
esteem, Dr Sir
Your mo ob & mo hble servt.
P. S. did you ever receive a copy of the Parl. debates &
Histor. Register with a letter left for you with Mr Jas. Buchanan?
"A SINGLE EVENT. . ."
_To Chastellux_
_Ampthill, Nov. 26, 1782_
DEAR SIR, -- I received your friendly letters of ----- and June
30 but the latter not till the 17th of Oct. It found me a little
emerging from the stupor of mind which had rendered me as dead to the
world as she was whose loss occasioned it. Your letter recalled to
my memory that there were persons still living of much value to me.
If you should have thought me remiss in not testifying to you sooner
how deeply I had been impressed with your worth in the little time I
had the happiness of being with you you will I am sure ascribe it to
it's true cause the state of dreadful suspense in which I had been
kept all the summer & the catastrophe which closed it. Before that
event my scheme of life had been determined. I had folded myself in
the arms of retirement, and rested all prospects of future happiness
on domestic & literary objects. A single event wiped away all my
plans and left me a blank which I had not the spirits to fill up. In
this state of mind an appointment from Congress found me, requiring
me to cross the Atlantic. And that temptation might be added to duty
I was informed at the same time from his Excy the Chevalier de
Luzerne that a vessel of force would be sailing about the middle of
Dec. in which you would be passing to France. I accepted the
appointment and my only object now is so to hasten over those
obstacles which would retard my departure as to be ready to join you
in your voyage, fondly measuring your affections by my own &
presuming your consent. It is not certain that by any exertion I can
be in Philadelphia by the middle of December. The contrary is most
probable. But hoping it will not be much later and counting on those
procrastinations which usually attend the departure of vessels of
size I have hopes of being with you in time. This will give me full
leisure to learn the result of your observations on the natural
bridge, to communicate to you my answers to the queries of Monsr de
Marbois, to receive edification from you on these and on other
subjects of science, considering chess too as a matter of science.
Should I be able to get out in tolerable time and any extraordinary
delays attend the sailing of the vessel I shall certainly do myself
the honor of waiting on his Excy Count Rochambeau at his Head
quarters and assuring him in person of my high respect and esteem for
him -- an object of which I have never lost sight. To yourself I am
unable to express the warmth of those sentiments of friendship &
attachment with which I have the honour to be, Dr Sir,
Your most obedt & mo hble servt.
ADVICE TO A YOUNG DAUGHTER
_To Martha Jefferson_
_Annapolis, Nov. 28, 1783_
MY DEAR PATSY -- After four days journey I arrived here without
any accident and in as good health as when I left Philadelphia. The
conviction that you would be more improved in the situation I have
placed you than if still with me, has solaced me on my parting with
you, which my love for you has rendered a difficult thing. The
acquirements which I hope you will make under the tutors I have
provided for you will render you more worthy of my love, and if they
cannot increase it they will prevent it's diminution. Consider the
good lady who has taken you under her roof, who has undertaken to see
that you perform all your exercises, and to admonish you in all those
wanderings from what is right or what is clever to which your
inexperience would expose you, consider her I say as your mother, as
the only person to whom, since the loss with which heaven has been
pleased to afflict you, you can now look up; and that her displeasure
or disapprobation on any occasion will be an immense misfortune which
should you be so unhappy as to incur by any unguarded act, think no
concession too much to regain her good will. With respect to the
distribution of your time the following is what I should approve.
from 8. to 10 o'clock practise music.
from 10. to 1. dance one day and draw another
from 1. to 2. draw on the day you dance, and write a letter the
next day.
from 3. to 4. read French.
from 4. to 5. exercise yourself in music.
from 5. till bedtime read English, write &c.
Communicate this plan to Mrs. Hopkinson and if she approves of
it pursue it. As long as Mrs. Trist remains in Philadelphia
cultivate her affections. She has been a valuable friend to you and
her good sense and good heart make her valued by all who know her and
by nobody on earth more than by me. I expect you will write to me by
every post. Inform me what books you read, what tunes you learn, and
inclose me your best copy of every lesson in drawing. Write also one
letter every week either to your aunt Eppes, your aunt Skipwith, your
aunt Carr, or the little lady from whom I now inclose a letter, and
always put the letter you so write under cover to me. Take care that
you never spell a word wrong. Always before you write a word
consider how it is spelt, and if you do not remember it, turn to a
dictionary. It produces great praise to a lady to spell well. I
have placed my happiness on seeing you good and accomplished, and no
distress which this world can now bring on me could equal that of
your disappointing my hopes. If you love me then, strive to be good
under every situation and to all living creatures, and to acquire
those accomplishments which I have put in your power, and which will
go far towards ensuring you the warmest love of your affectionate
father,
P. S. Keep my letters and read them at times that you may
always have present in your mind those things which will endear you
to me.
THE MAMMOTH AND WESTERN EXPLORATION
_To George Rogers Clark_
_Annapolis, Dec. 4, 1783_
DEAR SIR -- I received here about a week ago your obliging
letter of Oct. 12. 1783. with the shells and seeds for which I return
you many thanks. You are also so kind as to keep alive the hope of
getting for me as many of the different species of bones, teeth and
tusks of the _Mammoth_ as can now be found. This will be most
acceptable. Pittsburg and Philadelphia or Winchester will be the
surest channel of conveyance. I find they have subscribed a very
large sum of money in England for exploring the country from the
Missisipi to California. They pretend it is only to promote knolege.
I am afraid they have thoughts of colonising into that quarter. Some
of us have been talking here in a feeble way of making the attempt to
search that country. But I doubt whether we have enough of that kind
of spirit to raise the money. How would you like to lead such a
party? Tho I am afraid our prospect is not worth asking the
question. The definitive treaty of peace is at length arrived. It
is not altered from the preliminaries. The cession of the territory
West of Ohio to the United states has been at length accepted by
Congress with some small alterations of the conditions. We are in
daily expectation of receiving it with the final approbation of
Virginia. Congress have been lately agitated by questions where they
should fix their residence. They first resolved on Trentown. The
Southern states however contrived to get a vote that they would give
half their time to Georgetown at the Falls of Patowmac. Still we
consider the matter as undecided between the Delaware and Patowmac.
We urge the latter as the only point of union which can cement us to
our Western friends when they shall be formed into separate states.
I shall always be happy to hear from you and am with very particular
esteem Dr. Sir Your friend & humble servt.
MORE ADVICE
_To Martha Jefferson_
_Annapolis, Dec. 11, 1783_
MY DEAR PATSY -- I wrote you by the post this day fortnight,
since which I h received two letters from you. I am afraid that you
may not have sent to the post office and therefore that my letter may
be still lying there. Tho' my business here may not let me write to
you every week yet it will not be amiss for you to enquire at the
office every week. I wrote to Mr. House by the last post. Perhaps
his letter may still be in the office. I hope you will have good
sense enough to disregard those foolish predictions that the world is
to be at an end soon. The almighty has never made known to any body
at what time he created it, nor will he tell any body when he means
to put an end to it, if ever he means to do it. As to preparations
for that event, the best way is for you to be always prepared for it.
The only way to be so is never to do nor say a bad thing. If ever
you are about to say any thing amiss or to do any thing wrong,
consider before hand. You will feel something within you which will
tell you it is wrong and ought not to be said or done: this is your
conscience, and be sure to obey it. Our maker has given us all, this
faithful internal Monitor, and if you always obey it, you will always
be prepared for the end of the world: or for a much more certain
event which is death. This must happen to all: it puts an end to the
world as to us, and the way to be ready for it is never to do a wrong
act. I am glad you are proceeding regularly under your tutors. You
must not let the sickness of your French master interrupt your
reading French, because you are able to do that with the help of your
dictionary. Remember I desired you to send me the best copy you
should make of every lesson Mr. Cimitiere should set you. In this I
hope you will be punctual because it will let me see how you are
going on. Always let me know too what tunes you play. Present my
compliments to Mrs. Hopkinson, Mrs. House and Mrs. Trist. I had a
letter from your uncle Eppes last week informing me that Polly is
very well, and Lucy recovered from an indispostion. I am my dear
Patsy your affectionate father,
AMERICAN "POLITICS & POVERTY"
_To Chastellux_
_Annapolis, Jan. 16, 1784_
DEAR SIR -- L't. Colo Franks being appointed to carry to Paris
one of the copies of our ratifn of the Def. treaty, & being to depart
in the instant of his appointm't. furnishes me a hasty oppy of
obtruding myself on your recollection. Should this prove troublesome
you must take the blame as having exposed yourself to my esteem by
letting me become acquainted with your merit. Our transactions on
this side the water must now have become uninteresting to the rest of
the world. We are busy however among ourselves endeavoring to get
our new governments into regular and concerted motion. For this
purpose I beleive we shall find some additions requisite to our
Confederation. As yet every thing has gone smoothly since the war.
We are diverted with the European acc'ts. of the anarchy & opposition
to govmt in America. Nothing can be more untrue than these
relations. There was indeed some disatisfaction in the army at not
being paid off before they were disbanded, and a very trifling mutiny
of 200 souldiers in Philadelphia, on the latter occasion Congress
left that place disgusted with the pusillanimity of the govmt and not
from any want of security to their own persons. The indignation
which the other states felt at this insult to their delegates has
enlisted them more warmly in support of Congress & the people, the
legislature, & the Exec. themselves of Pennsvta have made the most
satisfactory atonements. Some people also of warm blood undertook to
resolve as commees for proscribing the refugees. But they were few,
scattered here & there through the several states, were absolutely
unnoticed by those both in & out of power, and never expressed an
idea of not acquiescing ultimately under the decisions of their
governments. The greatest difficulty we find is to get money from
them. The reason is not founded in their unwillingness, but in their
real inability. You were a witness to the total destruction of our
commerce, devastation of our country, and absence of the precious
metals. It cannot be expected that these should flow in but through
the channels of commerce, or that these channels can be opened in the
first instant of peace. Time is requisite to avail ourselves of the
productions of the earth, and the first of these will be applied to
renew our stock of those necessaries of which we had been totally
exhausted. But enough of America it's politics & poverty. --
Science I suppose is going on with you rapidly as usual. I am in
daily hopes of seeing something from your pen which may portray us to
ourselves. Aware of the bias of self love & prejudice in myself and
that your pictures will be faithful I am determined to annihilate my
own opinions and give full credit to yours. I must caution you to
distrust information from my answers to Monsr. de Marbois' queries.
I have lately had a little leisure to revise them. I found some
things should be omitted, many corrected, and more supplied &
enlarged. They are swelled to treble bulk. Being now too much for
M.S. copies I think the ensuing spring to print a dozen or 20 copies
to be given to my friends, not suffering another to go out. As I
have presumed to place you in that number I shall take the liberty of
sending you a copy as a testimony of the sincere esteem and affection
with which I have the honor to be D'r Sir Your mo. ob. & mo. hbl
serv't
WESTERN COMMERCE
_To George Washington_
_Annapolis, Mar. 15, 1784_
D'r. SIR, -- Since my last nothing new has occurred, I suppose
the crippled state of Congress is not new to you. We have only 9
states present, 8. of whom are represented by two members each, and
of course, on all great questions not only an unanimity of States but
of members is necessary. An unanimity which never can be obtained on
a matter of any importance. The consequence is that we are wasting
our time & labour in vain efforts to do business. -- Nothing less
than the presence of 13. States, represented by an odd number of
delegates will enable us to get forward a single capital point. The
deed for the cession of Western territory by Virginia was executed &
accepted on the 1'st instant. I hope our country will of herself
determine to cede still further to the meridian of the mouth of the
great Kanhaway. Further she cannot govern; so far is necessary for
her own well being. The reasons which call for this boundary (which
will retain all the waters of the Kanhaway) are 1. That within that
are our lead mines. 2. This river rising in N. Carola traverses our
whole latitude and offers to every part of it a channel for
navigation & commerce to the Western Country, but 3. It is a channel
which can not be opened but at immense expense and with every
facility which an absolute power over both shores will give. 4. This
river & it's waters forms a band of good land passing along our whole
frontier, and forming on it a barrier which will be strongly seated.
5. For 180 miles beyond these waters is a mountainous barren which
can never be inhabited & will of course form a safe separation
between us & any other State. 6. This tract of country lies more
convenient to receive it's government from Virginia than from any
other State. 7. It will preserve to us all the upper parts of
Yohogany & Cheat rivers within which much will be done to open these
which are the true doors to the Western commerce. The union of this
navigation with that of the Patowmac is a subject on which I
mentioned that I would take the liberty of writing to you. I am sure
it's value and practicability are both well known to you. This is
the moment however for seizing it if ever we mean to have it. All
the world is becoming commercial. Was it practicable to keep our new
empire separated from them we might indulge ourselves in speculating
whether commerce contributes to the happiness of mankind. But we
cannot separate ourselves from them. Our citizens have had too full
a taste of the comforts furnished by the arts & manufactures to be
debarred the use of them. We must then in our defence endeavour to
share as large a portion as we can of this modern source of wealth &
power. That offered to us from the Western Country is under a
competition between the Hudson, the Patowmac & the Missisipi itself.
Down the last will pass all heavy commodities. But the navigation
through the gulf of Mexico is so dangerous, & that up the Missisipi
so difficult & tedious, that it is not probable that European
merchandize will return through that channel. It is most likely that
flour, lumber & other heavy articles will be floated on rafts which
will be themselves an article of sale as well as their loading, the
navigators returning by land or in light batteaux. There will
therefore be a rivalship between the Hudson & Patowmac for the
residue of the commerce of all the country Westward of L. Erie, on
the waters of the lakes, of the Ohio & upper parts of the Missisipi.
To go to N. York, that part of the trade which comes from the lakes
or their waters must first be brought into L. Erie. So also must
that which comes from the waters of the Missisipi, and of course must
cross at some portage into the waters of the lakes. When it shall
have entered L. Erie it must coast along it's Southern Shore on
account of the number & excellence of it's harbours, the Northern,
tho' shortest, having few harbours & these unsafe. Having reached
Cuyahoga, to proceed on to N. York will be 970 miles from thence &
five portages, whereas it is but 430 miles to Alexandria, if it turns
into the Cuyahoga & passes through that, Big beaver, Ohio, Yohogany
(or Monongahela & Cheat) & Patowmac, & there are but two portages.
For the trade of the Ohio or that which shall come into it from it's
own waters or the Missisipi, it is nearer to Alexandria than to New
York by 730 miles, and is interrupted by one portage only. Nature
then has declared in favour of the Patowmac, and through that channel
offers to pour into our lap the whole commerce of the Western world.
But unfortunately the channel by the Hudson is already open & known
in practice; ours is still to be opened. This is the moment in which
the trade of the West will begin to get into motion and to take it's
direction. It behoves us then to open our doors to it. I have
lately pressed this subject on my friends in the General assembly,
proposing to them to endeavor to have a tax laid which shall bring
into a separate chest from five to ten thousand pounds a year, to be
employed first in opening the upper waters of the Ohio & Patowmac,
where a little money & time will do a great deal, leaving the great
falls for the last part of the work. To remove the idea of
partiality I have suggested the propriety & justice of continuing
this fund till all the rivers shall be cleared successively. But a
most powerful objection always arises to propositions of this kind.
It is that public undertakings are carelessly managed and much money
spent to little purpose. To obviate this objection is the purpose of
my giving you the trouble of this discussion. You have retired from
public life. You have weighed this determination & it would be
impertinence in me to touch it. But would the superintendence of
this work break in too much on the sweets of retirement & repose? If
they would I stop here. Your future time & wishes are sacred in my
eye. If it would be only a dignified amusement to you, what a
monument of your retirement would it be! It is one which would
follow that of your public life and bespeak it the work of the same
great hand. I am confident that would you either alone or jointly
with any persons you think proper be willing to direct this business,
it would remove the only objection the weight of which I apprehend.
Tho' the tax should not come in till the fall, it's proceeds should
be anticipated by borrowing from some other fund to enable the work
to be begun this summer. When you view me as not owning, nor ever
having a prospect of owning one inch of land on any water either of
the Patowmac or Ohio, it will tend to apologize for the trouble I
have given you of this long letter, by showing that my zeal in this
business is public & pure. The best atonement for the time I have
occupied you will be not to add to it longer than while I assure you
of the sincerity & esteem with which I have the honour to be D'r. Sir
Your most obedient & most humble servt.
P. S. The hurry of time in my former letter prevented my
thanking you for your polite & friendly invitation to Mount Vernon.
I shall certainly pay my respects there to Mrs Washington & yourself
with great pleasure whenever it shall be in my power.
THE SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI
_To George Washington_
_Annapolis, Apr. 16, 1784_
DEAR SIR -- I received your favor of Apr. 8. by Colo. Harrison.
The subject of it is interesting, and, so far as you have stood
connected with it, has been matter of anxiety to me; because whatever
may be the ultimate fate of the institution of the Cincinnati, as in
it's course it draws to it some degree of disapprobation, I have
wished to see you standing on ground separated from it, and that the
character which will be handed to future ages at the head of our
revolution may in no instance be compromitted in subordinate
altercations. The subject has been at the point of my pen in every
letter I have written to you, but has been still restrained by the
reflection that you had among your friends more able counsellors,
and, in yourself, one abler than them all. Your letter has now
rendered a duty what was before a desire, and I cannot better merit
your confidence than by a full and free communication of facts &
sentiments, as far as they have come within my observation. When the
army was about to be disbanded, & the officers to take final leave,
perhaps never again to meet, it was natural for men who had
accompanied each other thro' so many scenes of hardship, of
difficulty and danger, who in a variety of instances must have been
rendered mutually dear by those aids & good offices to which their
situations had given occasion; it was natural I say for these to
seize with fondness any proposition which promised to bring them
together again at certain & regular periods. And this I take for
granted was the origin & object of this institution; & I have no
suspicion that they foresaw, much less intended, those mischiefs,
which exist perhaps in the forebodings of politicians only. I doubt
however whether, in it's execution, it would be found to answer the
wishes of those who framed it, and to foster those friendships it was
intended to preserve. The members would be brought together at their
annual assemblies no longer to encounter a common enemy, but to
encounter one another in debate & sentiment. For something I suppose
is to be done at these meetings, & however unimportant, it will
suffice to produce difference of opinion, contradiction & irritation.
The way to make friends quarrel is to put them in disputation under
the public eye. An experience of near twenty years has taught me
that few friendships stand this test, & that public assemblies, where
every one is free to act & speak, are the most powerful looseners of
the bands of private friendship. I think therefore that this
institution would fail in it's principal object, the perpetuation of
the personal friendships contracted thro' the war.
The objections of those who are opposed to the institution
shall be briefly sketched. You will readily fill them up. They urge
that it is against the confederation -- against the letter of some of
our constitutions; -- against the spirit of all of them -- that the
foundation on which all these are built is the natural equality of
man, the denial of every preeminence but that annexed to legal
office, & particularly the denial of a preeminence by birth; that
however, in their present dispositions, citizens might decline
accepting honorary instalments into the order, a time may come when a
change of dispositions would render these flattering, when a well
directed distribution of them might draw into the order all the men
of talents, of office & wealth, and in this case would probably
procure an ingraftment into the government; that in this they will be
supported by their foreign members, & the wishes & influence of
foreign courts; that experience has shewn that the hereditary
branches of modern governments are the patrons of privilege &
prerogative, & not of the natural rights of the people whose
oppressors they generally are: that besides these evils, which are
remote, others may take place more immediately; that a distinction is
kept up between the civil & military, which it is for the happiness
of both to obliterate; that when the members assemble they will be
proposing to do something, & what that something may be will depend
on actual circumstances; that being an organized body under habits of
subordination, the first obstructions to enterprize will be already
surmounted; that the moderation & virtue of a single character has
probably prevented this revolution from being closed as most others
have been, by a subversion of that liberty it was intended to
establish; that he is not immortal, & his successor, or some of his
successors, may be led by false calculation into a less certain road
to glory:
What are the sentiments of Congress on this subject, & what
line they will pursue, can only be stated conjecturally. Congress,
as a body, if left to themselves, will in my opinion say nothing on
the subject. They may however be forced into a declaration by
instructions from some of the states, or by other incidents. Their
sentiments, if forced from them, will be unfriendly to the
institution. If permitted to pursue their own path, they will check
it by side blows whenever it comes in their way, & ---, in
competitions for office, on equal or nearly equal ground, will give
silent preferences to those who are not of the fraternity. My
reasons for thinking this are 1. The grounds on which they lately
declined the foreign order proposed to be conferred on some of our
citizens. 2. The fourth of the fundamental articles of constitution
for the new states. I inclose you the report. It has been
considered by Congress, recommitted & reformed by a committee
according to sentiments expressed on other parts of it, but the
principle referred to, having not been controverted at all, stands in
this as in the original report. It is not yet confirmed by Congress.
3. Private conversations on this subject with the members. Since the
receipt of your letter I have taken occasion to extend these; not
indeed to the military members, because, being of the order, delicacy
forbade it; but to the others pretty generally; and among these I
have as yet found but one who is not opposed to the institution, &
that with an anguish of mind, tho' covered under a guarded silence,
which I have not seen produced by any circumstance before. I arrived
at Philadelphia before the separation of the last Congress, & saw
there & at Princetown some of its members not now in delegation.
Burke's piece happened to come out at that time, which occasioned
this institution to be the subject of conversation. I found the same
impressions made on them which their successors have received. I
hear from other quarters that it is disagreeable generally to such
citizens as have attended to it, & therefore will probably be so to
all when any circumstance shall present it to the notice of all.
This, Sir, is as faithful an account of sentiments & facts as I
am able to give you. You know the extent of the circle within which
my observations are at present circumscribed, & can estimate how far,
as forming a part of the general opinion, it may merit notice, or
ought to influence your particular conduct.
It remains now to pay obedience to that part of your letter
which requests sentiments on the most eligible measures to be pursued
by the society at their next meeting. I must be far from pretending
to be a judge of what would in fact be the most eligible measures for
the society. I can only give you the opinions of those with whom I
have conversed, & who, as I have before observed, are unfriendly to
it. They lead to these conclusions. 1. If the society proceeds
according to it's institution, it will be better to make no
applications to Congress on that subject or any other in their
associated character. 2. If they should propose to modify it, so as
to render it unobjectionable, I think this would not be effected
without such a modification as would amount almost to annihilation;
for such would it be to part with it's inheritability, it's
organization, & it's assemblies. 3. If they shall be disposed to
discontinue the whole, it would remain with them to determine whether
they would chuse it to be done by their own act only, or by a
reference of the matter to Congress which would infallibly produce a
recommendation of total discontinuance.
You will be sensible, Sir, that these communications are
without all reserve. I supposed such to be your wish, & mean them
but as materials with such others as you may collect, for your better
judgment to work on. I consider the whole matter as between
ourselves alone, having determined to take no active part in this or
anything else, which may lead to altercation, or disturb that quiet &
tranquillity of mind to which I consign the remaining portion of my
life. I have been thrown back by events on a stage where I had never
more thought to appear. It is but for a time however, & as a day
labourer, free to withdraw, or be withdrawn at will. While I remain
I shall pursue in silence the path of right, but in every situation,
public or private, I shall be gratified by all occasions of rendering
you service, & of convincing you there is no one to whom your
reputation & happiness are dearer.
HOT-AIR BALLOONS
_To Dr. Philip Turpin_
_Annapolis, Apr. 28, 1784_
DEAR SIR -- Supposing you may not have received intelligence to
be relied on as to the reality & extent of the late discovery of
traversing the air in ballons, & having lately perused a book in
which everything is brought together on that subject as low down as
Decemb. last, I will give you a detail of it. I will state the
several experiments, with the most interesting circumstances
attending them, by way of table, which will give you a clearer view &
in less compass.
They suppose the minimum of these ballons to be of 6 inches
diameter: these are constructed of gold-beaters' skin & filled with
inflammeable air. this air produced from iron-filings, the vitriolic
acid & distilled water is, in weight, to Atmospheric air as 7. to 43.
on an average of the trials: & when produced from the filings of
Zinc, the Marine acid & distilled water, is to the Atmospheric air as
5. to 53. or 1. to 10 1/2. but Montgolfier's air is half the weight
of Atmospheric. this is produced by burning straw & wool. the straw
must be dry & open, & the wool shred very fine, so that they may make
a clear flame, with as little smoke as possible. 50 lb. of straw & 5
lb. of wool filled the ballons of Oct. 19. & Nov. 21. in five
minutes. these ballons contained 60,000 cubic feet. no analysis of
this air is given us. Mons'r de Saintford the author of the book,
gives us a very great & useless display of Mathematical learning,
which certainly has as yet had very little to do with this discovery:
& when he comes to the chemical investigations, which are
interesting, he sais little. the ballons sometimes were torn by the
pressure of the internal air being insufficiently counteracted in the
higher regions of the Atmosphere. these rents were of 6. or 7. f.
length, yet the machine descended with a gentle equable motion & not
with an accelerated one. by the trials at Versailles & Champ de Mars
it appears that they will go with a moderate wind 150. leagues in 24
hours. there are yet two principal desiderata. 1. the cheapest &
easiest process of making the lightest inflammable air. 2. an
envelopment which will be light, strong, impervious to the air &
proof against rain. supplies of gas are desireable
too, without being oblirry fire with the machine: for in those
in which men ascended there was a store of straw & wool laid in the
gallery which surrounded the bottom of the ballon & in which the men
stood, & a chaffing dish of 3. feet cube in which they burnt the
materials to supply air. it is conjectured that these machines may be
guided by oars & raised & depressed by having vessels wherein, by the
aid of pumps, they can produce a vacuum or condensation of
atmospheric air at will. they are, from some new circumstances,
strengthened in the opinion that there are generally opposite or
different currents in the atmosphere: & that if the current next the
earth is not in the direction which suits you, by ascending higher
you may find one that does. between these there is probably a region
of eddy where you may be stationary if philosophical experiments be
your object. the uses of this discovery are suggested to be 1.
transportation of commodities under some circumstances. 2.
traversing deserts, countries possessed by an enemy, or ravaged by
infectious disorders, pathless & inaccessible mountains. 3.
conveying intelligence into a beseiged place, or perhaps enterprising
on it, reconnoitring an army &c. 4. throwing new lights on the
thermometer, barometer, hygrometer, rain, snow, hail, wind & other
phenomena of which the Atmosphere is the theatre. 5. the discovery
of the pole which is but one day's journey in a baloon. from where
the ice has hitherto stopped adventurers. 6. raising weights;
lightening ships over bars. 7. housebreaking, smuggling &c. some of
these objects are ludicrous, others serious, important & probable. I
will give you the figures of the baloons on the last page.
Congress has determined to adjourn on the 3d of June to meet in
November at Trenton. a vessel arrived here yesterday which left
London the 25th of March. she brings papers to the 20th of that
month. mr. Pitt was still in place, supported by the city of London,
the nation in general, & the House of Lords. still however the
majority in the H. of commons was against him, tho reduced to 12. it
was thought the parliament would be dissolved.
Be so good as to present my dutiful respects to my uncle & aunt
& to be assured of the esteem with which I am Dr. Sir
your friend & serv't
"NIL DESPERANDUM"
_To Richard Price_
_Paris, Feb. 1, 1785_
SIR, -- The copy of your Observations on the American
Revolution which you were so kind as to direct to me came duly to
hand, and I should sooner have acknowledged the receipt of it but
that I awaited a private conveiance for my letter, having experienced
much delay and uncertainty in the posts between this place and
London. I have read it with very great pleasure, as have done many
others to whom I have communicated it. The spirit which it breathes
is as affectionate as the observations themselves are wise and just.
I have no doubt it will be reprinted in America and produce much good
there. The want of power in the federal head was early perceived,
and foreseen to be the flaw in our constitution which might endanger
its destruction. I have the pleasure to inform you that when I left
America in July the people were becoming universally sensible of
this, and a spirit to enlarge the powers of Congress was becoming
general. Letters and other information recently received shew that
this has continued to increase, and that they are likely to remedy
this evil effectually. The happiness of governments like ours,
wherein the people are truly the mainspring, is that they are never
to be despaired of. When an evil becomes so glaring as to strike
them generally, they arrouse themselves, and it is redressed. He
only is then the popular man and can get into office who shews the
best dispositions to reform the evil. This truth was obvious on
several occasions during the late war, and this character in our
governments saved us. Calamity was our best physician. Since the
peace it was observed that some nations of Europe, counting on the
weakness of Congress and the little probability of a union in measure
among the States, were proposing to grasp at unequal advantages in
our commerce. The people are become sensible of this, and you may be
assured that this evil will be immediately redressed, and redressed
radically. I doubt still whether in this moment they will enlarge
those powers in Congress which are necessary to keep the peace among
the States. I think it possible that this may be suffered to lie
till some two States commit hostilities on each other, but in that
moment the hand of the union will be lifted up and interposed, and
the people will themselves demand a general concession to Congress of
means to prevent similar mischeifs. Our motto is truly "nil
desperandum." The apprehensions you express of danger from the want
of powers in Congress, led me to note to you this character in our
governments, which, since the retreat behind the Delaware, and the
capture of Charlestown, has kept my mind in perfect quiet as to the
ultimate fate of our union; and I am sure, from the spirit which
breathes thro your book, that whatever promises permanence to that
will be a comfort to your mind. I have the honour to be, with very
sincere esteem and respect, Sir,
Your most obedient and most humble serv't.
ON AMERICAN DEGENERACY
_To Chastellux_
_Paris, June 7, 1785_
DEAR SIR, -- I have been honored with the receipt of your
letter of the 2nd instant, and am to thank you, as I do sincerely,
for the partiality with which you receive the copy of the Notes on my
country. As I can answer for the facts therein reported on my own
observation, and have admitted none on the report of others, which
were not supported by evidence sufficient to command my own assent, I
am not afraid that you should make any extracts you please for the
Journal de Physique, which come within their plan of publication.
The strictures on slavery and on the constitution of Virginia, are
not of that kind, and they are the parts which I do not wish to have
made public, at least, till I know whether their publication would do
most harm or good. It is possible, that in my own country, these
strictures might produce an irritation, which would indispose the
people towards the two great objects I have in view; that is, the
emancipation of their slaves, and the settlement of their
constitution on a firmer and more permanent basis. If I learn from
thence, that they will not produce that effect, I have printed and
reserved just copies enough to be able to give one to every young man
at the College. It is to them I look, to the rising generation, and
not to the one now in power, for these great reformations. The other
copy, delivered at your hotel, was for Monsieur de Buffon. I meant
to ask the favor of you to have it sent to him, as I was ignorant how
to do it. I have one also for Monsieur Daubenton, but being utterly
unknown to him, I cannot take the liberty of presenting it, till I
can do it through some common acquaintance.
I will beg leave to say here a few words on the general
question of the degeneracy of animals in America. 1. As to the
degeneracy of the man of Europe transplanted to America, it is no
part of Monsieur de Buffon's system. He goes, indeed, within one
step of it, but he stops there. The Abbe Raynal alone has taken that
step. Your knowledge of America enables you to judge this question,
to say, whether the lower class of people in America, are less
informed and less susceptible of information, than the lower class in
Europe: and whether those in America, who have received such an
education as that country can give, are less improved by it than
Europeans of the same degree of education. 2. As to the aboriginal
man of America, I know of no respectable evidence on which the
opinion of his inferiority of genius has been founded, but that of
Don Ulloa. As to Robertson, he never was in America, he relates
nothing on his own knowledge, he is a compiler only of the relations
of others, and a mere translator of the opinions of Monsieur de
Buffon. I should as soon, therefore, add the translators of
Robertson to the witnesses of this fact, as himself. Paw, the
beginner of this charge, was a compiler from the works of others; and
of the most unlucky description; for he seems to have read the
writings of travellers, only to collect and republish their lies. It
is really remarkable, that in three volumes 12mo, of small print, it
is scarcely possible to find one truth, and yet, that the author
should be able to produce authority for every fact he states, as he
says he can. Don Ulloa's testimony is of the most respectable. He
wrote of what he saw, but he saw the Indian of South America only,
and that, after he had passed through ten generations of slavery. It
is very unfair, from this sample, to judge of the natural genius of
this race of men; and after supposing that Don Ulloa had not
sufficiently calculated the allowance which should be made for this
circumstance, we do him no injury in considering the picture he draws
of the present Indians of South America, as no picture of what their
ancestors were, three hundred years ago. It is in North America we
are to seek their original character. And I am safe in affirming,
that the proofs of genius given by the Indians of North America,
place them on a level with whites in the same uncultivated state.
The North of Europe furnishes subjects enough for comparison with
them, and for a proof of their equality. I have seen some thousands
myself, and conversed much with them, and have found in them a
masculine, sound understanding. I have had much information from men
who had lived among them, and whose veracity and good sense were so
far known to me, as to establish a reliance on their information.
They have all agreed in bearing witness in favor of the genius of
this people. As to their bodily strength, their manners rendering it
disgraceful to labor, those muscles employed in labor will be weaker
with them, than with the European laborer; but those which are
exerted in the chase, and those faculties which are employed in the
tracing an enemy or a wild beast, in contriving ambuscades for him,
and in carrying them through their execution, are much stronger than
with us, because they are more exercised. I believe the Indian,
then, to be, in body and mind, equal to the white man. I have
supposed the black man, in his present state, might not be so; but it
would be hazardous to affirm, that, equally cultivated for a few
generations, he would not become so. 3. As to the inferiority of the
other animals of America, without more facts, I can add nothing to
what I have said in my Notes.
As to the theory of Monsieur de Buffon, that heat is friendly,
and moisture adverse to the production of large animals, I am lately
furnished with a fact by Dr. Franklin, which proves the air of London
and of Paris to be more humid than that of Philadelphia, and so
creates a suspicion that the opinion of the superior humidity of
America may, perhaps, have been too hastily adopted. And supposing
that fact admitted, I think the physical reasonings urged to show,
that in a moist country animals must be small, and that in a hot one
they must be large, are not built on the basis of experiment. These
questions, however, cannot be decided, ultimately, at this day. More
facts must be collected, and more time flow off, before the world
will be ripe for decision. In the mean time, doubt is wisdom.
I have been fully sensible of the anxieties of your situation,
and that your attentions were wholly consecrated, where alone they
were wholly due, to the succour of friendship and worth. However
much I prize your society, I wait with patience the moment when I can
have it without taking what is due to another. In the mean time, I
am solaced with the hope of possessing your friendship, and that it
is not ungrateful to you to receive assurances of that with which I
have the honor to be, Dear Sir,
your most obedient,
and most humble servant,
SOME THOUGHTS ON TREATIES
_To James Monroe_
_Paris, June 17, 1785_
DEAR SIR, -- I received three days ago your favor of Apr. 12.
You therein speak of a former letter to me, but it has not come to
hand, nor any other of later date than the 14th of December. My last
letter to you was of the 11th of May by Mr. Adams who went in the
packet of that month. These conveiances are now becoming deranged.
We have had expectations of their coming to Havre which would
infinitely facilitate the communication between Paris & Congress: but
their deliberations on the subject seem to be taking another turn.
They complain of the expence, and that their commerce with us is too
small to justify it. They therefore talk of sending a packet every
six weeks only. The present one therefore, which should have sailed
about this time, will not sail until the 1st of July. However the
whole matter is as yet undecided. I have hoped that when Mr. St.
John arrives from N. York he will get them replaced on their monthly
system. By the bye what is the meaning of a very angry resolution of
Congress on this subject? I have it not by me and therefore cannot
cite it by date, but you will remember it, and will oblige me by
explaining it's foundation. This will be handed you by Mr. Otto who
comes to America as Charge des Affaires in the room of Mr. Marbois
promoted to the Intendancy of Hispaniola, which office is next to
that of Governor. He becomes the head of the civil as the Governor
is of the military department. I am much pleased with Otto's
appointment. He is good humored, affectionate to America, will see
things in a friendly light when they admit of it, in a rational one
always, and will not pique himself on writing every trifling
circumstance of irritation to his court. I wish you to be acquainted
with him, as a friendly intercourse between individuals who do
business together produces a mutual spirit of accommodation useful to
both parties. It is very much our interest to keep up the affection
of this country for us, which is considerable. A court has no
affections, but those of the people whom they govern influence their
decisions even in the most arbitrary governments. -- The negociations
between the Emperor & Dutch are spun out to an amazing length. At
present there is no apprehension but that they will terminate in
peace. This court seems to press it with ardour and the Dutch are
averse considering the terms cruel & unjust as they evidently are.
The present delays therefore are imputed to their coldness & to their
forms. In the mean time the Turk is delaying the demarcation of
limits between him and the emperor, is making the most vigorous
preparations for war, and has composed his ministry of war-like
characters deemed personally hostile to the emperor. Thus time seems
to be spinning outboth by the Dutch & Turks, & time is wanting for
France. Every year's delay is a great thing to her. It is not
impossible therefore but that she may secretly encourage the delays
of the Dutch & hasten the preparations of the Porte while she is
recovering vigour herself and, in order to be able to present such a
combination to the emperor as may dictate to him to be quiet. But
the designs of these courts are inscrutable. It is our interest to
pray that this country may have no continental war till our peace
with England is perfectly settled. The merchants of this country
continue as loud & furious as ever against the Arret of August 1784,
permitting our commerce with their islands to a certain degree. Many
of them have actually abandoned their trade. The Ministry are
disposed to be firm, but there is a point at which they will give
way, that is if the clamours should become such as to endanger their
places. It is evident that nothing can be done by us, at this time,
if we may hope it hereafter. I like your removal to N. York, and
hope Congress will continue there and never execute the idea of
building their federal town. Before it could be finished a change of
Members in Congress or the admission of new states would remove them
somewhere else. It is evident that when a sufficient number of the
Western states come in they will remove it to George town. In the
mean time it is our interest that it should remain where it is, and
give no new pretensions to any other place. I am also much pleased
with the proposition to the states to invest Congress with the
regulation of their trade, reserving it's revenue to the states. I
think it a happy idea, removing the only objection which could have
been justly made to the proposition. The time too is the present,
before the admission of the Western states. I am very differently
affected towards the new plan of opening our land office by dividing
the lands among the states and selling them at vendue. It separates
still more the interests of the states which ought to be made joint
in every possible instance in order to cultivate the idea of our
being one nation, and to multiply the instances in which the people
shall look up to Congress as their head. And when the states get
their portions they will either fool them away, or make a job of it
to serve individuals. Proofs of both these practices have been
furnished, and by either of them that invaluable fund is lost which
ought to pay our public debt. To sell them at vendue, is to give
them to the bidders of the day be they many or few. It is ripping up
the hen which lays golden eggs. If sold in lots at a fixed price as
first proposed, the best lots will be sold first. As these become
occupied it gives a value to the interjacent ones, and raises them,
tho' of inferior quality, to the price of the first. I send you by
Mr. Otto a copy of my book. Be so good as to apologize to Mr.
Thomson for my not sending him one by this conveiance. I could not
burthen Mr. Otto with more on so long a road as that from here to
l'Orient. I will send him one by a Mr. Williams who will go ere
long. I have taken measures to prevent it's publication. My reason
is that I fear the terms in which I speak of slavery and of our
constitution may produce an irritation which will revolt the minds of
our countrymen against reformation in these two articles, and thus do
more harm than good. I have asked of Mr. Madison to sound this
matter as far as he can, and if he thinks it will not produce that
effect, I have then copies enough printed to give one to each of the
young men at the college, and to my friends in the country.
_I am sorry_ to see a possibility of _A. L.'s being put into_
the _Treasury. He_ has no _talents_ for the _office_, and what _he
has_ will be _employed_ in _rummaging old accounts_ to _involve_ you
in _eternal war with R. M._ and _he_ will in a short time _introduce_
such _dissensions_ into the _Commission_ as to _break it up_. If _he
goes_ on the _other appointment to Kaskaskia he will produce a
revolt_ of that _settlement from_ the _U. S. I thank you_ for _your
attention_ to _my outfit. For_ the _articles_ of _household
furniture_, _clothes_, and a _carriage_, _I have already paid 28,000
livres_ and _have_ still _more_ to _pay._ For the _greatest part_ of
_this I_ have _been obliged_ to _anticipate my salary_ from which
_however I_ shall never be able to _repay_ it. _I find_ that by a
_rigid economy_, _bordering_ however on _meanness I_ can _save_
perhaps _$500_ a _month_, at _least_ in _the summer._ The _residue_
goes for _expences_ so much of _course_ & of _necessity that I_
cannot _avoid_ them _without abandoning all respect_ to _my public
character. Yet I_ will _pray you to touch_ this _string_, which _I
know to be a tender one_ with _Congress_ with the utmost _delicacy.
I_ had _rather be ruined_ in _my fortune_, than in their _esteem._ If
they _allow me half_ a _year's salary_ as an _outfit I_ can _get
through my debts in time. If they raise_ the _salary_ to what _it
was, or even pay our house rent_ & _taxes, I_ can _live with more
decency. I trust_ that _Mr. A.'s house_ at _the Hague_ & _Dr. F.'s
at Passy_ the _rent_ of which had been always _allowed him_ will
_give just expectations_ of the _same allowance_ to _me. Mr. Jay_
however did not _charge it. But he lived oeconomically_ and _laid up
money._ I will take the liberty of hazarding to you some thoughts on
the policy of entering into treaties with the European nations, and
the nature of them. I am not wedded to these ideas, and therefore
shall relinquish them chearfully when Congress shall adopt others,
and zealously endeavor to carry theirs into effect. First as to the
policy of making treaties. Congress, by the Confederation have no
original and inherent power over the commerce of the states. But by
the 9'th. article they are authorized to enter into treaties of
commerce. The moment these treaties are concluded the jurisdiction
of Congress over the commerce of the states springs into existence,
and that of the particular states is superseded so far as the
articles of the treaty may have taken up the subject. There are two
restrictions only on the exercise of the power of treaty by Congress.
1'st. that they shall not by such treaty restrain the legislatures of
the states from imposing such duties on foreigners as their own
people are subject to. 2'dly. nor from prohibiting the exportation or
importation of any particular species of goods. Leaving these two
points free, Congress may by treaty establish any system of commerce
they please. But, as I before observed, it is by treaty alone they
can do it. Though they may exercise their other powers by resolution
or ordinance, those over commerce can only be exercised by forming a
treaty, and this probably by an accidental wording of our
Confederation. If therefore it is better for the states that
Congress should regulate their commerce, it is proper that they
should form treaties with all nations with whom we may possibly
trade. You see that my primary object in the formation of treaties
is to take the commerce of the states out of the hands of the states,
and to place it under the superintendence of Congress, so far as the
imperfect provisions of our constitution will admit, and until the
states shall by new compact make them more perfect. I would say then
to every nation on earth, _by treaty_, your people shall trade freely
with us, & ours with you, paying no more than the most favoured
nation, in order to put an end to the right of individual states
acting by fits and starts to interrupt our commerce or to embroil us
with any nation. As to the terms of these treaties, the question
becomes more difficult. I will mention three different plans. 1.
that no duties shall be laid by either party on the productions of
the other. 2. that each may be permitted to equalize their duties to
those laid by the other. 3. that each shall pay in the ports of the
other such duties only as the most favoured nations pay. 1. Were the
nations of Europe as free and unembarrassed of established system as
we are, I do verily believe they would concur with us in the first
plan. But it is impossible. These establishments are fixed upon
them, they are interwoven with the body of their laws & the
organization of their government & they make a great part of their
revenue; they cannot then get rid of them. 2. The plan of equal
imposts presents difficulties insurmountable. For how are the equal
imposts to be effected? Is it by laying in the ports of A. an equal
percent on the goods of B. with that which B. has laid in his ports
on the goods of A.? But how are we to find what is that percent?
For this is not the usual form of imposts. They generally pay by the
ton, by the measure, by the weight, & not by the value. Besides if
A. sends a million's worth of goods to B. & takes back but the half
of that, and each pays the same percent, it is evident that A. pays
the double of what he recovers in the same way with B. This would be
our case with Spain. Shall we endeavour to effect equality then by
saying A. may levy so much on the sum of B.'s importations into his
ports, as B. does on the sum of A's importations into the ports of
B.? But how find out that sum? Will either party lay open their
custom house books candidly to evince this sum? Does either keep
their books so exactly as to be able to do it? This proposition was
started in Congress when our institutions were formed, as you may
remember, and the impossibility of executing it occasioned it to be
disapproved. Besides who should have a right of deciding when the
imposts were equal. A. would say to B. my imposts do not raise so
much as yours; I raise them therefore. B. would then say you have
made them greater than mine, I will raise mine, and thus a kind of
auction would be carried on between them, and a mutual imitation,
which would end in anything sooner than equality, and right. 3. I
confess then to you that I see no alternative left but that which
Congress adopted, of each party placing the other on the footing of
the most favoured nation. If the nations of Europe from their actual
establishments are not at liberty to say to America that she shall
trade in their ports duty free they may say she may trade there
paying no higher duties than the most favoured nation. And this is
valuable in many of these countries where a very great difference is
made between different nations. There is no difficulty in the
execution of this contract, because there is not a merchant who does
not know, or may not know, the duty paid by every nation on every
article. This stipulation leaves each party at liberty to regulate
their own commerce by general rules; while it secures the other from
partial and oppressive discriminations. The difficulty which arises
in our case is, with the nations having American territory. Access
to the West Indies is indispensably necessary to us. Yet how to gain
it, when it is the established system of these nations to exclude all
foreigners from their colonies. The only chance seems to be this,
our commerce to the mother countries is valuable to them. We must
endeavor then to make this the price of an admission into their West
Indies, and to those who refuse the admission we must refuse our
commerce or load theirs by odious discriminations in our ports. We
have this circumstance in our favour too, that what one grants us in
their islands, the others will not find it worth their while to
refuse. The misfortune is that with this country we gave this price
for their aid in the war, and we have now nothing more to offer. She
being withdrawn from the competition leaves Gr. Britain much more at
liberty to hold out against us. This is the difficult part of the
business of treaty, and I own it does not hold out the most
flattering prospect. -- I wish you would consider this subject and
write me your thoughts on it. Mr. Gherry wrote me on the same
subject. Will you give me leave to impose on you the trouble of
communicating this to him? It is long, and will save me much labour
in copying. I hope he will be so indulgent as to consider it as an
answer to that part of his letter, and will give me his further
thoughts on it.
Shall I send you so much of the Encyclopedia as is already
published or reserve it here till you come? It is about 40 vols.
which probably is about half the work. Give yourself no uneasiness
about the money. Perhaps I may find it convenient to ask you to pay
trifles occasionally for me in America. I sincerely wish you may
find it convenient to come here. The pleasure of the trip will be
less than you expect but the utility greater. It will make you adore
your own country, it's soil, it's climate, it's equality, liberty,
laws, people & manners. My God! how little do my country men know
what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other
people on earth enjoy. I confess I had no idea of it myself. While
we shall see multiplied instances of Europeans going to live in
America, I will venture to say no man now living will ever see an
instance of an American removing to settle in Europe & continuing
there. Come then & see the proofs of this, and on your return add
your testimony to that of every thinking American, in order to
satisfy our countrymen how much it is their interest to preserve
uninfected by contagion those peculiarities in their government &
manners to which they are indebted for these blessings. Adieu, my
dear friend. Present me affectionately to your collegues. If any of
them think me worth writing to, they may be assured that in the
epistolary account I will keep the debit side against them. Once
more adieu.
June 19. Since writing the above we receive the following
account. Mons. Pilatre de Rosiere, who has been waiting some months
at Boulogne for a fair wind to cross the channel, at length took his
ascent with a companion. The wind changed after a while and brought
him back on the French coast. Being at a height of about 6000 f.
some accident happened to his baloon of inflammable air. It burst,
they fell from that height & were crushed to atoms. There was a
Montgolfier combined with the baloon of inflammable air. It is
suspected the heat of the Montgolfier rarified too much the
inflammable air of the other & occasioned it to burst. The
Montgolfier came down in good order.
ROYAL SCANDAL AND THIRD-RANK BIRDS
_To Abigail Adams_
_Paris, June 21, 1785_
DEAR MADAM -- I have received duly the honor of your letter,
and am now to return you thanks for your condescension in having
taken the first step for settling a correspondence which I so much
desired; for I now consider it as _settled_ and proceed accordingly.
I have always found it best to remove obstacles first. I will do so
therefore in the present case by telling you that I consider your
boasts of the splendour of your city and of it's superb hackney
coaches as a flout, and declaring that I would not give the polite,
self-denying, feeling, hospitable, goodhumoured people of this
country and their amability in every point of view, (tho' it must be
confessed our streets are somewhat dirty, and our fiacres rather
indifferent) for ten such races of rich, proud, hectoring, swearing,
squibbing, carnivorous animals as those among whom you are; and that
I do love this _people_ with all my heart, and think that with a
better religion and a better form of government and their present
governors their condition and country would be most enviable. I pray
you to observe that I have used the term _people_ and that this is a
noun of the masculine as well as feminine gender. I must add too
that we are about reforming our fiacres, and that I expect soon an
Ordonance that all their drivers shall wear breeches unless any
difficulty should arise whether this is a subject for the police or
for the general legislation of the country, to take care of. We have
lately had an incident of some consequence, as it shews a spirit of
treason, and audaciousness which was hardly thought to exist in this
country. Some eight or ten years ago a Chevalier --- was sent on a
message of state to the princess of --- of --- of (before I proceed
an inch further I must confess my profound stupidity; for tho' I have
heard this story told fifty times in all it's circumstances, I
declare I am unable to recollect the name of the ambassador, the name
of the princess, and the nation he was sent to; I must therefore
proceed to tell you the naked story, shorn of all those precious
circumstances) some chevalier or other was sent on some business or
other to some princess or other. Not succeeding in his negociation,
he wrote on his return the following song.
Ennivre du brillant poste
Que j'occupe recemment,
Dans une chaise de poste
Je me campe fierement:
Et je vais en ambassade
Au nom de mon souverain
Dire que je suis malade,
Et que lui se porte bien.
Avec une joue enflee
Je debarque tout honteux:
La princesse boursoufflee,
Au lieu d'une, en avoit deux;
Et son altesse sauvage
Sans doute a trouve mauvais
Que j'eusse sur mon visage
La moitie de ses attraits.
Princesse, le roi mon maitre
M'a pris pour Ambassadeur;
Je viens vous faire connoitre
Quelle est pour vous son ardeur.
Quand vous seriez sous le chaume,
Il donneroit, m'a-t-il dit,
La moitie de son royaume
Pour celle de votre lit.
La princesse a son pupitre
Compose un remerciment:
Elle me donne une epitre
Que j'emporte lestement,
Et je m'en vais dans la rue
Fort satisfait d'ajouter
A l'honneur de l'avoir vue
Le plaisir de la quitter.
This song run through all companies and was known to every
body. A book was afterwards printed, with a regular license, called
`Les quatres saisons litteraires' which being a collection of little
things, contained this also and all the world bought it or might buy
it if they would, the government taking no notice of it. It being
the office of the Journal de Paris to give an account and criticism
of new publications, this book came in turn to be criticised by the
redacteur, and he happened to select and print in his journal this
song as a specimen of what the collection contained. He was seised
in his bed that night and has been never since heard of. Our
excellent journal de Paris then is suppressed and this bold traitor
has been in jail now three weeks, and for ought any body knows will
end his days there. Thus you see, madam, the value of energy in
government; our feeble republic would in such a case have probably
been wrapt in the flames of war and desolation for want of a power
lodged in a single hand to punish summarily those who write songs.
The fate of poor Pilatre de Rosiere will have reached you before this
does, and with more certainty than we yet know it. This will damp
for a while the ardor of the Phaetons of our race who are endeavoring
to learn us the way to heaven on wings of our own. I took a trip
yesterday to Sannois and commenced an acquaintance with the old
Countess d'Hocquetout. I received much pleasure from it and hope it
has opened a door of admission for me to the circle of literati with
which she is environed. I heard there the Nightingale in all it's
perfection: and I do not hesitate to pronounce that in America it
would be deemed a bird of the third rank only, our mockingbird, and
fox-coloured thrush being unquestionably superior to it. The squibs
against Mr. Adams are such as I expected from the polished, mild
tempered, truth speaking people he is sent to. It would be ill
policy to attempt to answer or refute them. But counter-squibs I
think would be good policy. Be pleased to tell him that as I had
before ordered his Madeira and Frontignac to be forwarded, and had
asked his orders to Mr. Garvey as to the residue, which I doubt not
he has given, I was afraid to send another order about the Bourdeaux
lest it should produce confusion. In stating my accounts with the
United states, I am at a loss whether to charge house rent or not.
It has always been allowed to Dr. Franklin. Does Mr. Adams mean to
charge this for Auteuil and London? Because if he does, I certainly
will, being convinced by experience that my expences here will
otherwise exceed my allowance. I ask this information of you, Madam,
because I think you know better than Mr. Adams what may be necessary
and right for him to do in occasions of this class. I will beg the
favor of you to present my respects to Miss Adams. I have no secrets
to communicate to her in cypher at this moment, what I write to Mr.
Adams being mere commonplace stuff, not meriting a communication to
the Secretary. I have the honour to be with the most perfect esteem
Dr. Madam Your most obedient and most humble servt.,
A STATUE OF WASHINGTON
_To the Virginia Delegates in Congress_
_Paris, July 12, 1785_
GENTLEMEN, -- In consequence of the orders of the Legislative &
Executive bodies of Virginia, I have engaged Monsr. Houdon to make
the Statue of Genl. Washington. For this purpose it is necessary for
him to see the General. He therefore goes with Doctr. Franklin, &
will have the honor of delivering you this himself. As his journey
is at the expence of the State according to our contract, I will pray
you to favor him with your patronage & counsels, and to protect him
as much as possible from those impositions to which strangers are but
too much exposed. I have advised him to proceed in the stages to the
General's. I have also agreed, if he can see General Greene & Gates,
whose busts he has a desire to make, that he may make a moderate
deviation for this purpose, after he is done with General Washington.
But the most important object with him is to be employed to
make General Washington's equestrian statue for Congress. Nothing
but the expectation of this could have engaged him to have undertaken
this voyage. The pedestrian statue for Virginia will not make it
worth the business he loses by absenting himself. I was therefore
obliged to assure him of my recommendations for this greater work.
Having acted in this for the state, you will I hope think yourselves
in some measure bound to patronize & urge his being employed by
Congress. I would not have done this myself, nor asked you to do it,
did I not see that it would be better for Congress to put this
business into his hands, than those of any other person living, for
these reasons: 1. he is without rivalship the first statuary of this
age; as a proof of which he receives orders from every other country
for things intended to be capital: 2. he will have seen General
Washington, have taken his measures in every part, and of course
whatever he does of him will have the merit of being original, from
which other workmen can only furnish copies. 3. He is in possession
of the house, the furnaces, & all the apparatus provided for making
the statue of Louis XV. If any other workman is employed, this will
all be to be provided anew and of course to be added to the price of
the statue, for no man can ever expect to make two equestrian
statues. The addition which this would be to the price will much
exceed the expectation of any person who has not seen that apparatus.
In truth it is immense. As to the price of the work it will be much
greater than Congress is aware of, probably. I have enquired
somewhat into this circumstance, and find the prices of those made
for two centuries past have been from 120.000 guineas down to 16.000
guineas, according to the size. And as far as I have seen, the
smaller they are, the more agreeable. The smallest yet made is
infinitely above the size of the life, and they all appear outree and
monstrous. That of Louis XV. is probably the best in the world, and
it is the smallest here. Yet it is impossible to find a point of
view from which it does not appear a monster, unless you go so far as
to lose sight of the features and finer lineaments of the face and
body. A statue is not made, like a mountain, to be seen at a great
distance. To perceive those minuter circumstances which constitute
its beauty you must be near it, and, in that case, it should be so
little above the size of the life, as to appear actually of that size
from your point of view. I should not therefore fear to propose that
the one intended by Congress should be considerably smaller than any
of those to be seen here; as I think it will be more beautiful, and
also cheaper. I have troubled you with these observations as they
have been suggested to me from an actual sight of works in this kind,
& supposed they might assist you in making up your minds on this
subject. In making a contract with Monsr. Houdon it would not be
proper to advance money, but as his disbursements and labour advance.
As it is a work of many years, this will render the expence
insensible. The pedestrian statue of marble is to take three years.
The equestrian of course much more. Therefore the sooner it is begun
the better.
"AN HONEST HEART. . . A KNOWING HEAD"
_To Peter Carr_
_Paris, August 19, 1785_
DEAR PETER, -- I received, by Mr. Mazzei, your letter of April
the 20th. I am much mortified to hear that you have lost so much
time; and that when you arrived in Williamsburg, you were not at all
advanced from what you were when you left Monticello. Time now
begins to be precious to you. Every day you lose, will retard a day
your entrance on that public stage whereon you may begin to be useful
to yourself. However, the way to repair the loss is to improve the
future time. I trust, that with your dispositions, even the
acquisition of science is a pleasing employment. I can assure you,
that the possession of it is, what (next to an honest heart) will
above all things render you dear to your friends, and give you fame
and promotion in your own country. When your mind shall be well
improved with science, nothing will be necessary to place you in the
highest points of view, but to pursue the interests of your country,
the interests of your friends, and your own interests also, with the
purest integrity, the most chaste honor. The defect of these virtues
can never be made up by all the other acquirements of body and mind.
Make these then your first object. Give up money, give up fame, give
up science, give the earth itself and all it contains, rather than do
an immoral act. And never suppose, that in any possible situation,
or under any circumstances, it is best for you to do a dishonorable
thing, however slightly so it may appear to you. Whenever you are to
do a thing, though it can never be known but to yourself, ask
yourself how you would act were all the world looking at you, and act
accordingly. Encourage all your virtuous dispositions, and exercise
them whenever an opportunity arises; being assured that they will
gain strength by exercise, as a limb of the body does, and that
exercise will make them habitual. From the practice of the purest
virtue, you may be assured you will derive the most sublime comforts
in every moment of life, and in the moment of death. If ever you
find yourself environed with difficulties and perplexing
circumstances, out of which you are at a loss how to extricate
yourself, do what is right, and be assured that that will extricate
you the best out of the worst situations. Though you cannot see,
when you take one step, what will be the next, yet follow truth,
justice, and plain dealing, and never fear their leading you out of
the labyrinth, in the easiest manner possible. The knot which you
thought a Gordian one, will untie itself before you. Nothing is so
mistaken as the supposition, that a person is to extricate himself
from a difficulty, by intrigue, by chicanery, by dissimulation, by
trimming, by an untruth, by an injustice. This increases the
difficulties ten fold; and those who pursue these methods, get
themselves so involved at length, that they can turn no way but their
infamy becomes more exposed. It is of great importance to set a
resolution, not to be shaken, never to tell an untruth. There is no
vice so mean, so pitiful, so contemptible; and he who permits himself
to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and third
time, till at length it becomes habitual; he tells lies without
attending to it, and truths without the world's believing him. This
falsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time
depraves all its good dispositions.
An honest heart being the first blessing, a knowing head is the
second. It is time for you now to begin to be choice in your
reading; to begin to pursue a regular course in it; and not to suffer
yourself to be turned to the right or left by reading any thing out
of that course. I have long ago digested a plan for you, suited to
the circumstances in which you will be placed. This I will detail to
you, from time to time, as you advance. For the present, I advise
you to begin a course of antient history, reading every thing in the
original and not in translations. First read Goldsmith's history of
Greece. This will give you a digested view of that field. Then take
up antient history in the detail, reading the following books, in the
following order: Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophontis Hellenica,
Xenophontis Anabasis, Arrian, Quintus Curtius, Diodorus Siculus,
Justin. This shall form the first stage of your historical reading,
and is all I need mention to you now. The next, will be of Roman
history (*). From that, we will come down to modern history. In
Greek and Latin poetry, you have read or will read at school, Virgil,
Terence, Horace, Anacreon, Theocritus, Homer, Euripides, Sophocles.
Read also Milton's Paradise Lost, Shakspeare, Ossian, Pope's and
Swift's works, in order to form your style in your own language. In
morality, read Epictetus, Xenophontis Memorabilia, Plato's Socratic
dialogues, Cicero's philosophies, Antoninus, and Seneca. In order to
assure a certain progress in this reading, consider what hours you
have free from the school and the exercises of the school. Give
about two of them, every day, to exercise; for health must not be
sacrificed to learning. A strong body makes the mind strong. As to
the species of exercise, I advise the gun. While this gives a
moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise, and
independence to the mind. Games played with the ball, and others of
that nature, are too violent for the body, and stamp no character on
the mind. Let your gun therefore be the constant companion of your
walks. Never think of taking a book with you. The object of walking
is to relax the mind. You should therefore not permit yourself even
to think while you walk; but divert your attention by the objects
surrounding you. Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate
yourself to walk very far. The Europeans value themselves on having
subdued the horse to the uses of man; but I doubt whether we have not
lost more than we have gained, by the use of this animal. No one has
occasioned so much, the degeneracy of the human body. An Indian goes
on foot nearly as far in a day, for a long journey, as an enfeebled
white does on his horse; and he will tire the best horses. There is
no habit you will value so much as that of walking far without
fatigue. I would advise you to take your exercise in the afternoon:
not because it is the best time for exercise, for certainly it is
not; but because it is the best time to spare from your studies; and
habit will soon reconcile it to health, and render it nearly as
useful as if you gave to that the more precious hours of the day. A
little walk of half an hour, in the morning, when you first rise, is
advisable also. It shakes off sleep, and produces other good effects
in the animal economy. Rise at a fixed and an early hour, and go to
bed at a fixed and early hour also. Sitting up late at night is
injurious to the health, and not useful to the mind. Having ascribed
proper hours to exercise, divide what remain, (I mean of your vacant
hours) into three portions. Give the principal to History, the other
two, which should be shorter, to Philosophy and Poetry. Write to me
once every month or two, and let me know the progress you make. Tell
me in what manner you employ every hour in the day. The plan I have
proposed for you is adapted to your present situation only. When
that is changed, I shall propose a corresponding change of plan. I
have ordered the following books to be sent to you from London, to
the care of Mr. Madison. Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon's
Hellenics, Anabasis and Memorabilia, Cicero's works, Baretti's
Spanish and English Dictionary, Martin's Philosophical Grammar, and
Martin's Philosophia Britannica. I will send you the following from
hence. Bezout's Mathematics, De la Lande's Astronomy, Muschenbrock's
Physics, Quintus Curtius, Justin, a Spanish Grammar, and some Spanish
books. You will observe that Martin, Bezout, De la Lande, and
Muschenbrock are not in the preceding plan. They are not to be
opened till you go to the University. You are now, I expect,
learning French. You must push this; because the books which will be
put into your hands when you advance into Mathematics, Natural
philosophy, Natural history, &c. will be mostly French, these
sciences being better treated by the French than the English writers.
Our future connection with Spain renders that the most necessary of
the modern languages, after the French. When you become a public
man, you may have occasion for it, and the circumstance of your
possessing that language, may give you a preference over other
candidates. I have nothing further to add for the present, but
husband well your time, cherish your instructors, strive to make
every body your friend; and be assured that nothing will be so
pleasing, as your success, to, Dear Peter,
Your's affectionately,
(*) Livy, Sullust, Caesar, Cicero's epistles, Suetonius,
Tacitus, Gibbon.
COMMERCE AND SEA POWER
_To John Jay_
_Paris, Aug. 23, 1785_
DEAR SIR, -- I shall sometimes ask your permission to write you
letters, not official but private. The present is of this kind, and
is occasioned by the question proposed in yours of June 14. "whether
it would be useful to us to carry all our own productions, or none?"
Were we perfectly free to decide this question, I should reason as
follows. We have now lands enough to employ an infinite number of
people in their cultivation. Cultivators of the earth are the most
valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independant,
the most virtuous, & they are tied to their country & wedded to it's
liberty & interests by the most lasting bonds. As long therefore as
they can find employment in this line, I would not convert them into
mariners, artisans or anything else. But our citizens will find
employment in this line till their numbers, & of course their
productions, become too great for the demand both internal & foreign.
This is not the case as yet, & probably will not be for a
considerable time. As soon as it is, the surplus of hands must be
turned to something else. I should then perhaps wish to turn them to
the sea in preference to manufactures, because comparing the
characters of the two classes I find the former the most valuable
citizens. I consider the class of artificers as the panders of vice
& the instruments by which the liberties of a country are generally
overturned. However we are not free to decide this question on
principles of theory only. Our people are decided in the opinion
that it is necessary for us to take a share in the occupation of the
ocean, & their established habits induce them to require that the sea
be kept open to them, and that that line of policy be pursued which
will render the use of that element as great as possible to them. I
think it a duty in those entrusted with the administration of their
affairs to conform themselves to the decided choice of their
constituents: and that therefore we should in every instance preserve
an equality of right to them in the transportation of commodities, in
the right of fishing, & in the other uses of the sea. But what will
be the consequence? Frequent wars without a doubt. Their property
will be violated on the sea, & in foreign ports, their persons will
be insulted, imprisoned &c. for pretended debts, contracts, crimes,
contraband, &c., &c. These insults must be resented, even if we had
no feelings, yet to prevent their eternal repetition, or in other
words, our commerce on the ocean & in other countries must be paid
for by frequent war. The justest dispositions possible in ourselves
will not secure us against it. It would be necessary that all other
nations were just also. Justice indeed on our part will save us from
those wars which would have been produced by a contrary disposition.
But to prevent those produced by the wrongs of other nations? By
putting ourselves in a condition to punish them. Weakness provokes
insult & injury, while a condition to punish it often prevents it.
This reasoning leads to the necessity of some naval force, that being
the only weapon with which we can reach an enemy. I think it to our
interest to punish the first insult; because an insult unpunished is
the parent of many others. We are not at this moment in a condition
to do it, but we should put ourselves into it as soon as possible.
If a war with England should take place, it seems to me that the
first thing necessary would be a resolution to abandon the carrying
trade because we cannot protect it. Foreign nations must in that
case be invited to bring us what we want & to take our productions in
their own bottoms. This alone could prevent the loss of those
productions to us & the acquisition of them to our enemy. Our seamen
might be employed in depredations on their trade. But how dreadfully
we shall suffer on our coasts, if we have no force on the water,
former experience has taught us. Indeed I look forward with horror
to the very possible case of war with an European power, & think
there is no protection against them but from the possession of some
force on the sea. Our vicinity to their West India possessions & to
the fisheries is a bridle which a small naval force on our part would
hold in the mouths of the most powerful of these countries. I hope
our land office will rid us of our debts, & that our first attention
then will be to the beginning a naval force of some sort. This alone
can countenance our people as carriers on the water, & I suppose them
to be determined to continue such.
I wrote you two public letters on the 14th inst., since which I
have received yours of July 13. I shall always be pleased to receive
from you in a private way such communications as you might not chuse
to put into a public letter.
BOOKS FOR A STATESMAN
_To James Madison_
_Paris, September 1, 1785_
DEAR SIR, -- My last to you by Monsieur de Doradour, was dated
May the 11th. Since that, I have received yours of January the 22nd,
with six copies of the revisal, and that of April the 27th, by Mr.
Mazzei.
All is quiet here. The Emperor and Dutch have certainly
agreed, though they have not published their agreement. Most of his
schemes in Germany must be postponed, if they are not prevented, by
the confederacy of many of the Germanic body, at the head of which is
the King of Prussia, and to which the Elector of Hanover is supposed
to have acceded. The object of the league is to preserve the members
of the empire in their present state. I doubt whether the jealousy
entertained of this prince, and which is so fully evidenced by this
league, may not defeat the election of his nephew to be King of the
Romans, and thus produce an instance of breaking the lineal
succession. Nothing is as yet done between him and the Turks. If
any thing is produced in that quarter, it will not be for this year.
The court of Madrid has obtained the delivery of the crew of the brig
Betsey, taken by the Emperor of Morocco. The Emperor had treated
them kindly, new clothed them, and delivered them to the Spanish
minister, who sent them to Cadiz. This is the only American vessel
ever taken by the Barbary States. The Emperor continues to give
proofs of his desire to be in friendship with us, or, in other words,
of receiving us into the number of his tributaries. Nothing further
need be feared from him. I wish the Algerines may be as easily dealt
with. I fancy the peace expected between them and Spain, is not
likely to take place. I am well informed that the late proceedings
in America, have produced a wonderful sensation in England in our
favor. I mean the disposition which seems to be becoming general, to
invest Congress with the regulation of our commerce, and, in the mean
time, the measures taken to defeat the avidity of the British
government, grasping at our carrying business. I can add with truth,
that it was not till these symptoms appeared in America, that I have
been able to discover the smallest token of respect towards the
United States, in any part of Europe. There was an enthusiasm
towards us, all over Europe, at the moment of the peace. The torrent
of lies published unremittingly, in every day's London paper, first
made an impression, and produced a coolness. The republication of
these lies in most of the papers of Europe, (done probably by
authority of the governments, to discourage emigrations) carried them
home to the belief of every mind. They supposed every thing in
America was anarchy, tumult, and civil war. The reception of the
Marquis Fayette gave a check to these ideas. The late proceedings
seem to be producing a decisive vibration in our favor. I think it
possible that England may ply before them. It is a nation which
nothing but views of interest can govern. If they produce us good
there, they will here also. The defeat of the Irish propositions is
also in our favor.
I have at length made up the purchase of books for you, as far
as it can be done at present. The objects which I have not yet been
able to get, I shall continue to seek for. Those purchased, are
packed this morning in two trunks, and you have the catalogue and
prices herein enclosed. The future charges of transportation shall
be carried into the next bill. The amount of the present is 1154
livres 13 sous, which, reckoning the French crown of six livres at
six shillings and eight pence, Virginia money, is pound 64, 3s.
which sum you will be so good as to keep in your hands, to be used
occasionally in the education of my nephews, when the regular
resources disappoint you. To the same use I would pray you to apply
twenty-five guineas, which I have lent the two Mr. Fitzhughs of
Marmion, and which I have desired them to repay into your hands. You
will of course deduct the price of the revisals, and of any other
articles you may have been so kind as to pay for me. Greek and Roman
authors are dearer here, than, I believe, any where in the world.
Nobody here reads them; wherefore they are not reprinted. Don Ulloa,
in the original, is not to be found. The collection of tracts on the
economies of different nations, we cannot find; nor Amelot's travels
into China. I shall send these two trunks of books to Havre, there
to wait a conveyance to America; for as to the fixing the packets
there, it is as uncertain as ever. The other articles you mention,
shall be procured as far as they can be. Knowing that some of them
would be better got in London, I commissioned Mr. Short, who was
going there, to get them. He has not yet returned. They will be of
such a nature, as that I can get some gentleman who may be going to
America, to take them in his portmanteau. Le Maire being now able to
stand on his own legs, there will be no necessity for your advancing
him the money I desired, if it is not already done. I am anxious to
hear from you on the subject of my Notes on Virginia. I have been
obliged to give so many of them here, that I fear their getting
published. I have received an application from the Directors of the
public buildings, to procure them a plan for their capitol. I shall
send them one taken from the best morsel of antient architecture now
remaining. It has obtained the approbation of fifteen or sixteen
centuries, and is, therefore, preferable to any design which might be
newly contrived. It will give more room, be more convenient, and
cost less, than the plan they sent me. Pray encourage them to wait
for it, and to execute it. It will be superior in beauty to any
thing in America, and not inferior to any thing in the world. It is
very simple. Have you a copying press? If you have not, you should
get one. Mine (exclusive of paper which costs a guinea a ream) has
cost me about fourteen guineas. I would give ten times that sum, to
have had it from the date of the stamp act. I hope you will be so
good as to continue your communications, both of the great and small
kind, which are equally useful to me. Be assured of the sincerity
with which I am, Dear Sir,
your friend and servant,
ENCLOSURE
_livres sous den_
Dictionnaire de Trevoux. 5 vol. fol. , 5f12 . . . 28 - 0 - 0
La Conquista di Mexico. De Solis. fol. 7f10.
relieure 7f . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 - 10
Traite de morale et de bonheur. 12mo. 2 v. in 1. 2 - 8
Wicquefort de l'Ambassadeur. 2. v. 4to. . . . . . 7 - 4
Burlamaqui. Principes du droit Politique 4to.
3f12 relieure 2f5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 - 17
Conquista de la China por el Tartaro por Palafox.
12mo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 -
Code de l'humanite de Felice. 13. v. 4to. . . . . 104 - 0
13. first livrasons of the Encyclopedie 47. vols.
4to. (being 48f less than subscription) . . . . 348 - 0
14th. livraison of do. 4. v. 4to. . . . . . . . . 24 - 0
Peyssonel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 - 0
Bibliotheque physico-oeconomique. 4. v. 12mo.
10f4. rel. 3f . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 - 4
Cultivateur Americain. 2. v. 8vo. 7f17. rel. 2f10. 10 - 7
Mirabeau sur l'ordre des Cincinnati. 10f10. rel. 1f5
(prohibited). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 - 15
Coutumes Amglo-Normads de Houard. 4. v.
4to. 40f rel. 10f . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 - 0
Memories sur l'Amerique 4 v. 4to. . . . . . . . . 24 - 0
Tott sur les Turcs. 4. v. in 2. 8vo. 10f. rel. 2f10 12 - 10
Neckar sur l'Administration des Finances de
France. 3. v. 12mo. 7f10 rel. 2f5 . . . . . . . 9 - 15
le bon-sens. 12mo. 6f rel. 15s (prohibited). . . 6 - 15
_livres sous den_
Mably. Princess de morale.
1. V. 12mo. . . . . 3 12 }
etude de l'histoire 1. . 2 10 }
maniere d'ecrire
l'histoire 1. . . . 2 8 }
constitution
d'Amerique 1. . . . 1 16 } relieure de
sur l'histoire de II vols. ,
France. 2. v. . . . 6 } 15s. 8f5 41 - 1
droit de l'Europe
3.v. . . . . . . 7 10 }
ordres des societies . . . 2 }
principes des
negotiations. . . . 2 10 }
entretiens de Phocion . . 2 }
des Romains . . . . . 2 10 }
-------
32 16
Wanting to complete Mably's works which I have
not been able to procure
les principes de legislation
sur les Grecs
sur la Pologne.
Chronologie des empires anciennes
de la Combe. 5 - 0 - 0
de l'histoire universelle
de Hornot. . 1. v. 8vo.4f 4 - 0 - 0
de l'histoire universelle
de Berlie. . 1.v. 8vo. 2f10 rel. 1f5 3 - 15
des empereurs Romains
par Richer. . 2. v. 8vo. 8f rel. 2f10 10 - 10
des Juifs . . . 1. v. 8vo. 3f10 rel. 1f5 4 - 15
de l'histoire universelle
par Du Fresnoy. 2. v. 8vo. 13f rel. 2f10 15 - 10
de l'histoire du Nord.
par La Combe .2. v. 8vo. 10f. rel. 2f10 12 - 10
de France. par
Henault. . . 3. v. 8vo. 12f. rel. 5f 15 - 15
_livres sous den_
Memories de Voltaire. 2. v. in 1. 2f10 rel. 15s. . 3 - 5 - 0
Linnaei Philosophia Botanica. 1. v. 8vo. 7f rel. 1f5 8 - 5
Genera plantarum 1. v. 8vo. 8f rel. 1f5 . . . . . 9 - 5
Species plantarum. 4. v. 8vo. 32f rel. 5f . . . . 37 - 0
Systema naturae 4. v. 8vo. 26f rel. 5f . . . . . . 31 - 0
Clayton. Flora Virginica. 4to. 12f. rel. 2f10. . . . 14 - 10
D'Albon sur l'interet de plusieurs nations. 4. v.
12mo. 12f. rel. 3f.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 - 0
Systeme de la nature de Diderot. 3. v. 8vo. 21f
(prohibited) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 - 0
Coussin histoire Romaine.
2.v.in 1. 12mo. }
de Constantinople 8. v. in 10. } 16. vols.
de l'empire de l'Occident 2. v. } 12mo. 36 - 0 - 0
de l'eglise. 5. v. in 3. }
Droit de la Nature. por Wolff. 6. v. 12mo. 15f rel.
4f10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 - 10
Voyage de Paget 8vo. 3. v. in 1. . . . . . . . . . . 9
Mirabeau. Ami des hommes 5. v. 12mo. }
Theorie de l'import 2. v. in 1. 12mo.} 12
BUFFON. SUPPLEMENT II. 12. Oiseaux 17. 18.
Mineraux 1. 2. 3. 4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24.
Lettres de Pascal. 12mo. 2f. rel. 15s. . . . . . . . 2 - 15
Le sage a la cour et le roi voiageur (prohibited). . 10 - 15
Principles de legislation universelle 2. v. 8vo. . . 12 - 0
Ordonnances de la Marine par Valin. 2. v. 4to. . . . 22
Diderot sur les sourds and muets }
12mo. 3f12. sur les } 4. v. 12mo. 13 - 7
aveugles 3f. sur la nature 3f. }
sur la morale 3f15 }
Mariana's history of Spain II. v. 12mo.. . . . . . . 21
2 trunks & packing paper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 - 0
----------
1154 - 13
CLIMATE AND AMERICAN CHARACTER
_To Chastellux_
_Paris, Sep. 2, 1785_
DEAR SIR, -- You were so kind as to allow me a fortnight to
read your journey through Virginia. but you should have thought of
this indulgence while you were writing it, and have rendered it less
interesting if you meant that your readers should have been longer
engaged with it. in fact I devoured it at a single meal, and a second
reading scarce allowed me sang-froid enough to mark a few errors in
the names of persons and places which I note on a paper herein
inclosed, with an inconsiderable error or two in facts which I have
also noted because I supposed you wished to state them correctly.
from this general approbation however you must allow me to except
about a dozen pages in the earlier part of the book which I read with
a continued blush from beginning to end, as it presented me a lively
picture of what I wish to be, but am not. no, my dear Sir, the
thousand millionth part of what you there say, is more than I
deserve. it might perhaps have passed in Europe at the time you wrote
it, and the exaggeration might not have been detected. but consider
that the animal is now brought there, and that every one will take
his dimensions for himself. the friendly complexion of your mind has
betrayed you into a partiality of which the European spectator will
be divested. respect to yourself therefore will require indispensably
that you expunge the whole of those pages except your own judicious
observations interspersed among them on animal and physical subjects.
with respect to my countrymen there is surely nothing which can
render them uneasy, in the observations made on them. they know that
they are not perfect, and will be sensible that you have viewed them
with a philanthropic eye. you say much good of them, and less ill
than they are conscious may be said with truth. I have studied their
character with attention. I have thought them, as you found them,
aristocratical, pompous, clannish, indolent, hospitable, and I should
have added, disinterested, but you say attached to their interest.
this is the only trait in their character wherein our observations
differ. I have always thought them so careless of their interests, so
thoughtless in their expences and in all their transactions of
business that I had placed it among the vices of their character, as
indeed most virtues when carried beyond certain bounds degenerate
into vices. I had even ascribed this to it's cause, to that warmth
of their climate which unnerves and unmans both body and mind. while
on this subject I will give you my idea of the characters of the
several states.
In the north they are In the south they are
cool fiery
sober voluptuary
laborious indolent
persevering unsteady
independant independant
jealous of their own liberties, zealous for their own liberties,
and just to those of others but trampling on those of
others.
interested generous
chicaning candid
superstitious and hypocritical in without attachment or
pretensions
their religion to any religon but that
of the heart.
these characteristics grow weaker and weaker by gradation from
North to South and South to North, insomuch that an observing
traveller, without the aid of the quadrant may always know his
latitude by the character of the people among whom he finds himself.
it is in Pennsylvania that the two characters seem to meet and blend,
and form a people free from the extremes both of vice and virtue.
peculiar circumstances have given to New York the character which
climate would have given had she been placed on the South instead of
the north side of Pennsylvania. perhaps too other circumstances may
have occasioned in Virginia a transplantation of a particular vice
foreign to it's climate. you could judge of this with more
impartiality than I could, and the probability is that your estimate
of them is the most just. I think it for their good that the vices
of their character should be pointed out to them that they may amend
them; for a malady of either body or mind once known is half cured.
I wish you would add to this piece your letter to mr. Madison on the
expediency of introducing the arts into America. I found in that a
great deal of matter, very many observations, which would be useful
to the legislators of America, and to the general mass of citizens.
I read it with great pleasure and analysed it's contents that I might
fix them in my own mind.
I have the honor to be with very sincere esteem, dear Sir, your
most obedient and most humble servt.
"THIS BEAUTIFUL ART"
_To James Madison_
_Paris, September 20, 1785_
DEAR SIR, -- By Mr. Fitzhugh, you will receive my letter of the
first instant. He is still here, and gives me an opportunity of
again addressing you much sooner than I should have done, but for the
discovery of a great piece of inattention. In that letter I send you
a detail of the cost of your books, and desire you to keep the amount
in your hands, as if I had forgot that a part of it was in fact your
own, as being a balance of what I had remained in your debt. I
really did not attend to it in the moment of writing, and when it
occurred to me, I revised my memorandum book from the time of our
being in Philadelphia together, and stated our account from the
beginning, lest I should forget or mistake any part of it. I enclose
you this statement. You will always be so good as to let me know,
from time to time, your advances for me. Correct with freedom all my
proceedings for you, as, in what I do, I have no other desire than
that of doing exactly what will be most pleasing to you.
I received this summer a letter from Messrs. Buchanan and Hay,
as Directors of the public buildings, desiring I would have drawn for
them, plans of sundry buildings, and, in the first place, of a
capitol. They fixed, for their receiving this plan, a day which was
within about six weeks of that on which their letter came to my hand.
I engaged an architect of capital abilities in this business. Much
time was requsite, after the external form was agreed on, to make the
internal distribution convenient for the three branches of
government. This time was much lengthened by my avocations to other
objects, which I had no right to neglect. The plan however was
settled. The gentlemen had sent me one which they had thought of.
The one agreed on here, is more convenient, more beautiful, gives
more room, and will not cost more than two thirds of what that would.
We took for our model what is called the Maison quarree of Nismes,
one of the most beautiful, if not the most beautiful and precious
morsel of architecture left us by antiquity. It was built by Caius
and Lucius Caesar, and repaired by Louis XIV., and has the suffrage
of all the judges of architecture, who have seen it, as yielding to
no one of the beautiful monuments of Greece, Rome, Palmyra, and
Balbec, which late travellers have communicated to us. It is very
simple, but it is noble beyond expression, and would have done honor
to our country, as presenting to travellers a specimen of taste in
our infancy, promising much for our maturer age. I have been much
mortified with information, which I received two days ago from
Virginia, that the first brick of the capitol would be laid within a
few days. But surely, the delay of this piece of a summer would have
been repaired by the savings in the plan preparing here, were we to
value its other superiorities as nothing. But how is a taste in this
beautiful art to be formed in our countrymen, unless we avail
ourselves of every occasion when public buildings are to be erected,
of presenting to them models for their study and imitation? Pray try
if you can effect the stopping of this work. I have written also to
E. R. on the subject. The loss will be only of the laying the bricks
already laid, or a part of them. The bricks themselves will do again
for the interior walls, and one side wall and one end wall may
remain, as they will answer equally well for our plan. This loss is
not to be weighed against the saving of money which will arise,
against the comfort of laying out the public money for something
honorable, the satisfaction of seeing an object and proof of national
good taste, and the regret and mortification of erecting a monument
of our barbarism, which will be loaded with execrations as long as it
shall endure. The plans are in good forwardness, and I hope will be
ready within three or four weeks. They could not be stopped now, but
on paying their whole price, which will be considerable. If the
undertakers are afraid to undo what they have done, encourage them to
it by a recommendation from the Assembly. You see I am an enthusiast
on the subject of the arts. But it is an enthusiasm of which I am
not ashamed, as its object is to improve the taste of my countrymen,
to increase their reputation, to reconcile to them the respect of the
world, and procure them its praise.
I shall send off your books, in two trunks, to Havre, within
two or three days, to the care of Mr. Limozin, American agent there.
I will advise you, as soon as I know by what vessel he forwards them.
Adieu.
Your's affectionately,
MARS AND MINERVA
_To Abigail Adams_
_Paris, Sep. 25, 1785_
DEAR MADAM -- Mr. Short's return the night before last availed
me of your favour of Aug. 12. I immediately ordered the shoes you
desired which will be ready tomorrow. I am not certain whether this
will be in time for the departure of Mr. Barclay or of Colo. Franks,
for it is not yet decided which of them goes to London. I have also
procured for you three plateaux de dessert with a silvered
ballustrade round them, and four figures of Biscuit. The former cost
192't, the latter 12't each, making together 240 livres or 10. Louis.
The merchant undertakes to send them by the way of Rouen through the
hands of Mr. Garvey and to have them delivered in London. There will
be some additional expences of packing, transportation and duties
here. Those in England I imagine you can save. When I know the
amount I will inform you of it, but there will be no occasion to
remit it here. With respect to the figures I could only find three
of those you named, matched in size. These were Minerva, Diana, and
Apollo. I was obliged to add a fourth, unguided by your choice.
They offered me a fine Venus; but I thought it out of taste to have
two at table at the same time. Paris and Helen were presented. I
conceived it would be cruel to remove them from their peculiar
shrine. When they shall pass the Atlantic, it will be to sing a
requiem over our freedom and happiness. At length a fine Mars was
offered, calm, bold, his faulchion not drawn, but ready to be drawn.
This will do, thinks I, for the table of the American Minister in
London, where those whom it may concern may look and learn that
though Wisdom is our guide, and the Song and Chase our supreme
delight, yet we offer adoration to that tutelar god also who rocked
the cradle of our birth, who has accepted our infant offerings, and
has shewn himself the patron of our rights and avenger of our wrongs.
The groupe then was closed, and your party formed. Envy and malice
will never be quiet. I hear it already whispered to you that in
admitting Minerva to your table I have departed from the principle
which made me reject Venus: in plain English that I have paid a just
respect to the daughter but failed to the mother. No Madam, my
respect to both is sincere. Wisdom, I know, is social. She seeks
her fellows. But Beauty is jealous, and illy bears the presence of a
rival -- but, Allons, let us turn over another leaf, and begin the
next chapter. I receive by Mr. Short a budget of London papers.
They teem with every horror of which human nature is capable.
Assassinations, suicides, thefts, robberies, and, what is worse than
assassination, theft, suicide or robbery, the blackest slanders!
Indeed the man must be of rock, who can stand all this; to Mr. Adams
it will be but one victory the more. It would have illy suited me.
I do not love difficulties. I am fond of quiet, willing to do my
duty, but irritable by slander and apt to be forced by it to abandon
my post. These are weaknesses from which reason and your counsels
will preserve Mr. Adams. I fancy it must be the quantity of animal
food eaten by the English which renders their character insusceptible
of civilisation. I suspect it is in their kitchens and not in their
churches that their reformation must be worked, and that Missionaries
of that description from hence would avail more than those who should
endeavor to tame them by precepts of religion or philosophy. But
what do the foolish printers of America mean by retailing all this
stuff in our papers? As if it was not enough to be slandered by
one's enemies without circulating the slanders among his friends
also.
To shew you how willingly I shall ever receive and execute your
commissions, I venture to impose one on you. From what I recollect
of the diaper and damask we used to import from England I think they
were better and cheaper than here. You are well acquainted with
those of both countries. If you are of the same opinion I would
trouble you to send me two sets of table cloths and napkins for 20
covers each, by Colo. Franks or Mr. Barclay who will bring them to
me. But if you think they can be better got here I would rather
avoid the trouble this commission will give. I inclose you a
specimen of what is offered me at 100. livres for the table cloth and
12 napkins. I suppose that, of the same quality, a table cloth 2.
aunes wide and 4. aunes long, and 20 napkins of 1. aune each, would
cost 7. guineas. -- I shall certainly charge the publick my house
rent and court taxes. I shall do more. I shall charge my outfit.
Without this I can never get out of debt. I think it will be
allowed. Congress is too reasonable to expect, where no imprudent
expences are incurred, none but those which are required by a decent
respect to the mantle with which they cover the public servants, that
such expences should be left as a burthen on our private fortunes.
But when writing to you, I fancy myself at Auteuil, and chatter on
till the last page of my paper awakes me from my reverie, and tells
me it is time to assure you of the sincere respect and esteem with
which I have the honour to be Dear Madam your most obedient and most
humble servt.,
P.S. The cask of wine at Auteuil, I take chearfully. I
suppose the seller will apply to me for the price. Otherwise, as I
do not know who he is, I shall not be able to find him out.
THE VAUNTED SCENE
_To Charles Bellini_
_Paris, September 30, 1785_
DEAR SIR, -- Your estimable favor, covering a letter to Mr.
Mazzei, came to hand on the 26th instant. The letter to Mr. Mazzei
was put into his hands in the same moment, as he happened to be
present. I leave to him to convey to you all his complaints, as it
will be more agreeable to me to express to you the satisfaction I
received, on being informed of your perfect health. Though I could
not receive the same pleasing news of Mrs. Bellini, yet the
philosophy with which I am told she bears the loss of health, is a
testimony the more, how much she deserved the esteem I bear her.
Behold me at length on the vaunted scene of Europe! It is not
necessary for your information, that I should enter into details
concerning it. But you are, perhaps, curious to know how this new
scene has struck a savage of the mountains of America. Not
advantageously, I assure you. I find the general fate of humanity
here, most deplorable. The truth of Voltaire's observation, offers
itself perpetually, that every man here must be either the hammer or
the anvil. It is a true picture of that country to which they say we
shall pass hereafter, and where we are to see God and his angels in
splendor, and crowds of the damned trampled under their feet. While
the great mass of the people are thus suffering under physical and
moral oppression, I have endeavored to examine more nearly the
condition of the great, to appreciate the true value of the
circumstances in their situation, which dazzle the bulk of
spectators, and, especially, to compare it with that degree of
happiness which is enjoyed in America, by every class of people.
Intrigues of love occupy the younger, and those of ambition, the
elder part of the great. Conjugal love having no existence among
them, domestic happiness, of which that is the basis, is utterly
unknown. In lieu of this, are substituted pursuits which nourish and
invigorate all our bad passions, and which offer only moments of
ecstacy, amidst days and months of restlessness and torment. Much,
very much inferior, this, to the tranquil, permanent felicity with
which domestic society in America, blesses most of its inhabitants;
leaving them to follow steadily those pursuits which health and
reason approve, and rendering truly delicious the intervals of those
pursuits.
In science, the mass of the people is two centuries behind
ours; their literati, half a dozen years before us. Books, really
good, acquire just reputation in that time, and so become known to
us, and communicate to us all their advances in knowledge. Is not
this delay compensated, by our being placed out of the reach of that
swarm of nonsensical publications, which issues daily from a thousand
presses, and perishes almost in issuing? With respect to what are
termed polite manners, without sacrificing too much the sincerity of
language, I would wish my countrymen to adopt just so much of
European politeness, as to be ready to make all those little
sacrifices of self, which really render European manners amiable, and
relieve society from the disagreeable scenes to which rudeness often
subjects it. Here, it seems that a man might pass a life without
encountering a single rudeness. In the pleasures of the table they
are far before us, because, with good taste they unite temperance.
They do not terminate the most sociable meals by transforming
themselves into brutes. I have never yet seen a man drunk in France,
even among the lowest of the people. Were I to proceed to tell you
how much I enjoy their architecture, sculpture, painting, music, I
should want words. It is in these arts they shine. The last of
them, particularly, is an enjoyment, the deprivation of which with
us, cannot be calculated. I am almost ready to say, it is the only
thing which from my heart I envy them, and which, in spite of all the
authority of the Decalogue, I do covet. But I am running on in an
estimate of things infinitely better known to you than to me, and
which will only serve to convince you, that I have brought with me
all the prejudices of country, habit and age. But whatever I may
allow to be charged to me as prejudice, in every other instance, I
have one sentiment at least, founded in reality: it is that of the
perfect esteem which your merit and that of Mrs. Bellini have
produced, and which will for ever enable me to assure you of the
sincere regard, with which I am, Dear Sir,
your friend and servant,
BRITISH HOSTILITY, AMERICAN COMMERCE
_To G. K. van Hogendorp_
_Paris, Oct. 13, 1785_
DEAR SIR, -- Having been much engaged lately, I have been
unable sooner to acknolege the receipt of your favor of Sep. 8. What
you are pleased to say on the subject of my Notes is more than they
deserve. The condition in which you first saw them would prove to
you how hastily they had been originally written; as you may remember
the numerous insertions I had made in them from time to time, when I
could find a moment for turning to them from other occupations. I
have never yet seen Monsr. de Buffon. He has been in the country all
the summer. I sent him a copy of the book, & have only heard his
sentiments on one particular of it, that of the identity of the
Mammoth & Elephant. As to this he retains his opinion that they are
the same. If you had formed any considerable expectations from our
Revised code of laws you will be much disappointed. It contains not
more than three or four laws which could strike the attention of the
foreigner. Had it been a digest of all our laws, it would not have
been comprehensible or instructive but to a native. But it is still
less so, as it digests only the British statutes & our own acts of
assembly, which are but a supplementary part of our law. The great
basis of it is anterior to the date of the Magna charta, which is the
oldest statute extant. The only merit of this work is that it may
remove from our book shelves about twenty folio volumes of our
statutes, retaining all the parts of them which either their own
merit or the established system of laws required.
You ask me what are those operations of the British nation
which are likely to befriend us, and how they will produce this
effect? The British government as you may naturally suppose have it
much at heart to reconcile their nation to the loss of America. This
is essential to the repose, perhaps even to the safety of the King &
his ministers. The most effectual engines for this purpose are the
public papers. You know well that that government always kept a kind
of standing army of news writers who without any regard to truth, or
to what should be like truth, invented & put into the papers whatever
might serve the minister. This suffices with the mass of the people
who have no means of distinguishing the false from the true
paragraphs of a newspaper. When forced to acknolege our independance
they were forced to redouble their efforts to keep the nation quiet.
Instead of a few of the papers formerly engaged, they now engaged
every one. No paper therefore comes out without a dose of paragraphs
against America. These are calculated for a secondary purpose also,
that of preventing the emigrations of their people to America. They
dwell very much on American bankruptcies. To explain these would
require a long detail, but would shew you that nine tenths of these
bankruptcies are truly English bankruptcies in no wise chargeable on
America. However they have produced effects the most desirable of
all others for us. They have destroyed our credit & thus checked our
disposition to luxury; & forcing our merchants to buy no more than
they have ready money to pay for, they force them to go to those
markets where that ready money will buy most. Thus you see they
check our luxury, they force us to connect ourselves with all the
world, & they prevent foreign emigrations to our country all of which
I consider as advantageous to us. They are doing us another good
turn. They attempt without disguise to possess themselves of the
carriage of our produce, & to prohibit our own vessels from
participating of it. This has raised a general indignation in
America. The states see however that their constitutions have
provided no means of counteracting it. They are therefore beginning
to invest Congress with the absolute power of regulating their
commerce, only reserving all revenue arising from it to the state in
which it is levied. This will consolidate our federal building very
much, and for this we shall be indebted to the British.
You ask what I think on the expediency of encouraging our
states to be commercial? Were I to indulge my own theory, I should
wish them to practise neither commerce nor navigation, but to stand
with respect to Europe precisely on the footing of China. We should
thus avoid wars, and all our citizens would be husbandmen. Whenever
indeed our numbers should so increase as that our produce would
overstock the markets of those nations who should come to seek it,
the farmers must either employ the surplus of their time in
manufactures, or the surplus of our hands must be employed in
manufactures, or in navigation. But that day would, I think be
distant, and we should long keep our workmen in Europe, while Europe
should be drawing rough materials & even subsistence from America.
But this is theory only, & a theory which the servants of America are
not at liberty to follow. Our people have a decided taste for
navigation & commerce. They take this from their mother country: &
their servants are in duty bound to calculate all their measures on
this datum: we wish to do it by throwing open all the doors of
commerce & knocking off its shackles. But as this cannot be done for
others, unless they will do it for us, & there is no great
probability that Europe will do this, I suppose we shall be obliged
to adopt a system which may shackle them in our ports as they do us
in theirs.
With respect to the sale of our lands, that cannot begin till a
considerable portion shall have been surveyed. They cannot begin to
survey till the fall of the leaf of this year, nor to sell probably
till the ensuing spring. So that it will be yet a twelve-month
before we shall be able to judge of the efficacy of our land office
to sink our national debt. It is made a fundamental that the
proceeds shall be solely & sacredly applied as a sinking fund to
discharge the capital only of the debt. It is true that the tobaccos
of Virginia go almost entirely to England. The reason is that they
owe a great debt there which they are paying as fast as they can. --
I think I have now answered your several queries, & shall be happy to
receive your reflections on the same subjects, & at all times to hear
of your welfare & to give you assurances of the esteem with which I
have the honor to be Dear Sir your most obedient & most humble
servant.
ON EUROPEAN EDUCATION
_To John Banister, Jr._
_Paris, October 15, 1785_
DEAR SIR, -- I should sooner have answered the paragraph in
your letter, of September the 19th, respecting the best seminary for
the education of youth, in Europe, but that it was necessary for me
to make inquiries on the subject. The result of these has been, to
consider the competition as resting between Geneva and Rome. They
are equally cheap, and probably are equal in the course of education
pursued. The advantage of Geneva, is, that students acquire there
the habit of speaking French. The advantages of Rome, are, the
acquiring a local knowledge of a spot so classical and so celebrated;
the acquiring the true pronunciation of the Latin language; a just
taste in the fine arts, more particularly those of painting,
sculpture, architecture, and music; a familiarity with those objects
and processes of agriculture, which experience has shewn best adapted
to a climate like ours; and lastly, the advantage of a fine climate
for health. It is probable, too, that by being boarded in a French
family, the habit of speaking that language may be obtained. I do
not count on any advantage to be derived in Geneva, from a familiar
acquaintance with the principles of that government. The late
revolution has rendered it a tyrannical aristocracy, more likely to
give ill, than good ideas to an American. I think the balance in
favor of Rome. Pisa is sometimes spoken of, as a place of education.
But it does not offer the first and third of the advantages of Rome.
But why send an American youth to Europe for education? What are the
objects of an useful American education? Classical knowledge, modern
languages, chiefly French, Spanish and Italian; Mathematics, Natural
philosophy, Natural history, Civil history, and Ethics. In Natural
philosophy, I mean to include Chemistry and Agriculture, and in
Natural history, to include Botany, as well as the other branches of
those departments. It is true that the habit of speaking the modern
languages, cannot be so well acquired in America; but every other
article can be as well acquired at William and Mary college, as at
any place in Europe. When college education is done with, and a
young man is to prepare himself for public life, he must cast his
eyes (for America) either on Law or Physic. For the former, where
can he apply so advantageously as to Mr. Wythe? For the latter, he
must come to Europe: the medical class of students, therefore, is the
only one which need come to Europe. Let us view the disadvantages of
sending a youth to Europe. To enumerate them all, would require a
volume. I will select a few. If he goes to England, he learns
drinking, horse racing and boxing. These are the peculiarities of
English education. The following circumstances are common to
education in that, and the other countries of Europe. He acquires a
fondness for European luxury and dissipation, and a contempt for the
simplicity of his own country; he is fascinated with the privileges
of the European aristocrats, and sees, with abhorrence, the lovely
equality which the poor enjoy with the rich, in his own country; he
contracts a partiality for aristocracy or monarchy; he forms foreign
friendships which will never be useful to him, and loses the season
of life for forming in his own country, those friendships, which, of
all others, are the most faithful and permanent; he is led by the
strongest of all the human passions, into a spirit for female
intrigue, destructive of his own and others' happiness, or a passion
for whores, destructive of his health, and, in both cases, learns to
consider fidelity to the marriage bed as an ungentlemanly practice,
and inconsistent with happiness; he recollects the voluptuary dress
and arts of the European women, and pities and despises the chaste
affections and simplicity of those of his own country; he retains,
through life, a fond recollection, and a hankering after those
places, which were the scenes of his first pleasures and of his first
connections; he returns to his own country, a foreigner, unacquainted
with the practices of domestic economy, necessary to preserve him
from ruin, speaking and writing his native tongue as a foreigner, and
therefore unqualified to obtain those distinctions, which eloquence
of the pen and tongue ensures in a free country; for I would observe
to you, that what is called style in writing or speaking, is formed
very early in life, while the imagination is warm, and impressions
are permament. I am of opinion, that there never was an instance of
a man's writing or speaking his native tongue with elegance, who
passed from fifteen to twenty years of age, out of the country where
it was spoken. Thus, no instance exists of a person's writing two
languages perfectly. That will always appear to be his native
language, which was most familiar to him in his youth. It appears to
me then, that an American coming to Europe for education, loses in
his knowledge, in his morals, in his health, in his habits, and in
his happiness. I had entertained only doubts on this head, before I
came to Europe: what I see and hear, since I came here, proves more
than I had even suspected. Cast your eye over America: who are the
men of most learning, of most eloquence, most beloved by their
countrymen, and most trusted and promoted by them? They are those
who have been educated among them, and whose manners, morals and
habits, are perfectly homogeneous with those of the country.
Did you expect by so short a question, to draw such a sermon on
yourself? I dare say you did not. But the consequences of foreign
education are alarming to me, as an American. I sin, therefore,
through zeal, whenever I enter on the subject. You are sufficiently
American to pardon me for it. Let me hear of your health, and be
assured of the esteem with which I am, Dear Sir,
your friend and servant,
PROPERTY AND NATURAL RIGHT
_To James Madison_
_Fontainebleau, Oct. 28, 1785_
DEAR SIR, -- Seven o'clock, and retired to my fireside, I have
determined to enter into conversation with you. This is a village of
about 15,000 inhabitants when the court is not here, and 20,000 when
they are, occupying a valley through which runs a brook and on each
side of it a ridge of small mountains, most of which are naked rock.
The King comes here, in the fall always, to hunt. His court attend
him, as do also the foreign diplomatic corps; but as this is not
indispensably required and my finances do not admit the expense of a
continued residence here, I propose to come occasionally to attend
the King's levees, returning again to Paris, distant forty miles.
This being the first trip, I set out yesterday morning to take a view
of the place. For this purpose I shaped my course towards the
highest of the mountains in sight, to the top of which was about a
league.
As soon as I had got clear of the town I fell in with a poor
woman walking at the same rate with myself and going the same course.
Wishing to know the condition of the laboring poor I entered into
conversation with her, which I began by enquiries for the path which
would lead me into the mountain: and thence proceeded to enquiries
into her vocation, condition and circumstances. She told me she was
a day laborer at 8 sous or 4d. sterling the day: that she had two
children to maintain, and to pay a rent of 30 livres for her house
(which would consume the hire of 75 days), that often she could no
employment and of course was without bread. As we had walked
together near a mile and she had so far served me as a guide, I gave
her, on parting, 24 sous. She burst into tears of a gratitude which
I could perceive was unfeigned because she was unable to utter a
word. She had probably never before received so great an aid. This
little _attendrissement_, with the solitude of my walk, led me into a
train of reflections on that unequal division of property which
occasions the numberless instances of wretchedness which I had
observed in this country and is to be observed all over Europe.
The property of this country is absolutely concentred in a very
few hands, having revenues of from half a million of guineas a year
downwards. These employ the flower of the country as servants, some
of them having as many as 200 domestics, not laboring. They employ
also a great number of manufacturers and tradesmen, and lastly the
class of laboring husbandmen. But after all there comes the most
numerous of all classes, that is, the poor who cannot find work. I
asked myself what could be the reason so many should be permitted to
beg who are willing to work, in a country where there is a very
considerable proportion of uncultivated lands? These lands are
undisturbed only for the sake of game. It should seem then that it
must be because of the enormous wealth of the proprietors which
places them above attention to the increase of their revenues by
permitting these lands to be labored. I am conscious that an equal
division of property is impracticable, but the consequences of this
enormous inequality producing so much misery to the bulk of mankind,
legislators cannot invent too many devices for subdividing property,
only taking care to let their subdivisions go hand in hand with the
natural affections of the human mind. The descent of property of
every kind therefore to all the children, or to all the brothers and
sisters, or other relations in equal degree, is a politic measure and
a practicable one. Another means of silently lessening the
inequality of property is to exempt all from taxation below a certain
point, and to tax the higher portions or property in geometrical
progression as they rise. Whenever there are in any country
uncultivated lands and unemployed poor, it is clear that the laws of
property have been so far extended as to violate natural right. The
earth is given as a common stock for man to labor and live on. If
for the encouragement of industry we allow it to be appropriated, we
must take care that other employment be provided to those excluded
from the appropriation. If we do not, the fundamental right to labor
the earth returns to the unemployed. It is too soon yet in our
country to say that every man who cannot find employment, but who can
find uncultivated land, shall be at liberty to cultivate it, paying a
moderate rent. But it is not too soon to provide by every possible
means that as few as possible shall be without a little portion of
land. The small landholders are the most precious part of a state.
The next object which struck my attention in my walk was the
deer with which the wood abounded. They were of the kind called
"Cerfs," and not exactly of the same species with ours. They are
blackish indeed under the belly, and not white as ours, and they are
more of the chestnut red; but these are such small differences as
would be sure to happen in two races from the same stock breeding
separately a number of ages. Their hares are totally different from
the animals we call by that name; but their rabbit is almost exactly
like him. The only difference is in their manners; the land on which
I walked for some time being absolutely reduced to a honeycomb by
their burrowing. I think there is no instance of ours burrowing.
After descending the hill again I saw a man cutting fern. I went to
him under pretence of asking the shortest road to town, and
afterwards asked for what use he was cutting fern. He told me that
this part of the country furnished a great deal of fruit to Paris.
That when packed in straw it acquired an ill taste, but that dry fern
preserved it perfectly without communicating any taste at all.
I treasured this observation for the preservation of my apples
on my return to my own country. They have no apples here to compare
with our Redtown pippin. They have nothing which deserves the name
of a peach; there being not sun enough to ripen the plum-peach and
the best of their soft peaches being like our autumn peaches. Their
cherries and strawberries are fair, but I think lack flavor. Their
plums I think are better; so also their gooseberries, and the pears
infinitely beyond anything we possess. They have nothing better than
our sweet-water; but they have a succession of as good from early in
the summer till frost. I am to-morrow to get [to] M. Malsherbes (an
uncle of the Chevalier Luzerne's) about seven leagues from hence, who
is the most curious man in France as to his trees. He is making for
me a collection of the vines from which the Burgundy, Champagne,
Bordeaux, Frontignac, and other of the most valuable wines of this
country are made. Another gentleman is collecting for me the best
eating grapes, including what we call the raisin. I propose also to
endeavor to colonize their hare, rabbit, red and grey partridge,
pheasants of different kinds, and some other birds. But I find that
I am wandering beyond the limits of my walk and will therefore bid
you adieu. Yours affectionately.
"OUR CONFEDERACY . . . THE NEST"
_To Archibald Stuart_
_Paris, Jan. 25, 1786_
DEAR SIR, -- I have received your favor of the 17th of October,
which though you mention as the third you have written me, is the
first which has come to hand. I sincerely thank you for the
communications it contains. Nothing is so grateful to me at this
distance as details both great & small of what is passing in my own
country. Of the latter we receive little here, because they either
escape my correspondents or are thought unworthy notice. This
however is a very mistaken opinion, as every one may observe by
recollecting that when he has been long absent from his neighborhood
the small news of that is the most pleasing and occupies his first
attention either when he meets with a person from thence, or returns
thither himself. I shall hope therefore that the letter in which you
have been so good as to give me the minute occurrences in the
neighborhood of Monticello may yet come to hand. And I venture to
rely on the many proofs of friendship I have received from you, for a
continuance of your favors. This will be the most meritorious as I
have nothing to give you in exchange. The quiet of Europe at this
moment furnishes little which can attract your notice. Nor will that
quiet be soon disturbed, at least for the current year. Perhaps it
hangs on the life of the K. of Prussia, and that hangs by a very
slender thread. American reputation in Europe is not such as to be
flattering to its citizens. Two circumstances are particularly
objected to us, the nonpaiment of our debts, and the want of energy
in our government. These discourage a connection with us. I own it
to be my opinion that good will arise from the destruction of our
credit. I see nothing else which can restrain our disposition to
luxury, and the loss of those manners which alone can preserve
republican government. As it is impossible to prevent credit, the
best way would be to cure it's ill effects by giving an instantaneous
recovery to the creditor; this would be reducing purchases on credit
to purchases for ready money. A man would then see a poison painted
on everything he wished but had not ready money to pay for. I fear
from an expression in your letter that the people of Kentucke think
of separating not only from Virginia (in which they are right) but
also from the confederacy. I own I should think this a most
calametous event, and such an one as every good citizen on both sides
should set himself against. Our present federal limits are not too
large for good government, nor will the increase of votes in Congress
produce any ill effect. On the contrary it will drown the little
divisions at present existing there. Our confederacy must be viewed
as the nest from which all America, North & South is to be peopled.
We should take care too, not to think it for the interest of that
great continent to press too soon on the Spaniards. Those countries
cannot be in better hands. My fear is that they are too feeble to
hold them till our population can be sufficiently advanced to gain it
from them piece by piece. The navigation of the Mississippi we must
have. This is all we are as yet ready to receive. I have made
acquaintance with a very sensible candid gentleman here who was in
South America during the revolt which took place there while our
revolution was working. He says that those disturbances (of which we
scarcely heard anything) cost on both sides an hundred thousand
lives. -- I have made a particular acquaintance here with Monsieur
de Buffon, and have a great desire to give him the best idea I can of
our elk. Perhaps your situation may enable you to aid me in this.
Were it possible, you could not oblige me more than by sending me the
horns, skeleton, & skin of an elk. The most desireable form of
receiving them would be to have the skin slit from the under paw
along the belly to the tail, & down the thighs to the knee, to take
the animal out, leaving the legs and hoofs, the bones of the head, &
the horns attached to the skin by sewing up the belly & shipping the
skin it would present the form of the animal. However as an
opportunity of doing this is scarcely expected I shall be glad to
receive them detached, packed in a box, & sent to Richmond to the
care of Doctor Currie. Every thing of this kind is precious here,
and to prevent my adding to your trouble I must close my letter with
assurances of the esteem & attachment with which I am Dr Sir Your
friend & servt.
P. S. I must add a prayer for some Peccan nuts, 100, if
possible, to be packed in a box of sand and sent me. They might come
either directly or via N. York.
A ROMAN TEMPLE FOR VIRGINA
_To William Buchanan and James Hay_
_Paris, January 26, 1786_
GENTLEMEN, -- I had the honor of writing to you, on the receipt
of your orders to procure draughts for the public buildings, and
again, on the 13th of August. In the execution of these orders, two
methods of proceeding presented themselves to my mind. The one was,
to leave to some architect to draw an external according to his
fancy, in which way, experience shews, that, about once in a thousand
times, a pleasing form is hit upon; the other was, to take some model
already devised, and approved by the general suffrage of the world.
I had no hesitation in deciding that the latter was best, nor after
the decision, was there any doubt what model to take. There is at
Nismes, in the south of France, a building called the Maison quarree,
erected in the time of the Caesars, and which is allowed, without
contradiction, to be the most perfect and precious remain of
antiquity in existence. Its superiority over any thing at Rome, in
Greece, at Balbec or Palmyra, is allowed on all hands; and this
single object has placed Nismes in the general tour of travellers.
Having not yet had leisure to visit it, I could only judge of it from
drawings, and from the relation of numbers who had been to see it. I
determined, therefore, to adopt this model, and to have all its
proportions justly observed. As it was impossible for a foreign
artist to know, what number and sizes of apartments would suit the
different corps of our government, nor how they should be connected
with one another, I undertook to form that arrangement, and this
being done, I committed them to an architect (Monsieur Clerissault)
who had studied this art twenty years in Rome, who had particularly
studied and measured the Maison quarree of Nismes, and had published
a book containing most excellent plans, descriptions, and
observations on it. He was too well acquainted with the merit of
that building, to find himself restrained by my injunctions not to
depart from his model. In one instance, only, he persuaded me to
admit of this. That was, to make the portico two columns deep only,
instead of three, as the original is. His reason was, that this
latter depth would too much darken the apartments. Economy might be
added, as a second reason. I consented to it, to satisfy him, and
the plans are so drawn. I knew that it would still be easy to
execute the building with a depth of three columns, and it is what I
would certainly recommend. We know that the Maison quarree has
pleased, universally, for near two thousand years. By leaving out a
column, the proportions will be changed, and perhaps the effect may
be injured more than is expected. What is good, is often spoiled by
trying to making it better.
The present is the first opportunity which has occurred of
sending the plans. You will, accordingly, receive herewith the
ground plan, the elevation of the front, and the elevation of the
side. The architect having been much busied, and knowing that this
was all which would be necessary in the beginning, has not yet
finished the sections of the building. They must go by some future
occasion, as well as the models of the front and side, which are
making in plaister of Paris. These were absolutely necessary for the
guide of workmen, not very expert in their art. It will add
considerably to the expense, and I would not have incurred it, but
that I was sensible of its necessity. The price of the model will be
fifteen guineas. I shall know in a few days, the cost of the
drawings, which probably will be the triple of the model: however,
this is but conjecture. I will make it as small as possible, pay it,
and render you an account in my next letter. You will find, on
examination, that the body of this building covers an area, but two
fifths of that which is proposed and begun; of course, it will take
but about one half the bricks; and, of course, this circumstance will
enlist all the workmen, and people of the art against the plan.
Again, the building begun, is to have four porticoes; this but one.
It is true that this will be deeper than those were probably
proposed, but even if it be made three columns deep, it will not take
half the number of columns. The beauty of this is insured by
experience, and by the suffrage of the whole world: the beauty of
that is problematical, as is every drawing, however well it looks on
paper, till it be actually executed: and though I suppose there is
more room in the plan begun, than in that now sent, yet there is
enough in this for all the three branches of government, and more
than enough is not wanted. This contains sixteen rooms; to wit, four
on the first floor, for the General Court, Delegates, lobby, and
conference. Eight on the second floor, for the Executive, the
Senate, and six rooms for committees and juries: and over four of
these smaller rooms of the second floor, are four mezzininos or
entresols, serving as offices for the clerks of the Executive, the
Senate, the Delegates, and the Court in actual session. It will be
an objection, that the work is begun on the other plan. But the
whole of this need not be taken to pieces, and of what shall be taken
to pieces, the bricks will do for inner work. Mortar never becomes
so hard and adhesive to the bricks, in a few months, but that it may
be easily chipped off. And upon the whole, the plan now sent will
save a great proportion of the expense.
Hitherto, I have spoken of the capitol only. The plans for the
prison, also, accompany this. They will explain themselves. I send,
also, the plan of the prison proposed at Lyons, which was sent me by
the architect, and to which we are indebted for the fundamental idea
of ours. You will see, that of a great thing a very small one is
made. Perhaps you may find it convenient to build, at first, only
two sides, forming an L; but of this, you are the best judges. It
has been suggested to me, that fine gravel, mixed in the mortar,
prevents the prisoners from cutting themselves out, as that will
destroy their tools. In my letter of August the 13th, I mentioned
that I could send workmen from hence. As I am in hopes of receiving
your orders precisely, in answer to that letter, I shall defer
actually engaging any, till I receive them. In like manner, I shall
defer having plans drawn for a Governor's house, &c., till further
orders; only assuring you, that the receiving and executing these
orders, will always give me a very great pleasure, and the more,
should I find that what I have done meets your approbation.
I have the honor to be, with sentiments of the most perfect
esteem, gentlemen,
your most obedient and
most humble servant,
THE NOTES, HOUDON, AND THE ENCYCLOPEDIE
_To James Madison_
_Paris, Feb. 8, 1786_
DEAR SIR, -- My last letters have been of the 1st & 20th of
Sep. and the 28th of Oct. Yours unacknowledged are of Aug. 20, Oct.
3, & Nov. 15. I take this the first safe opportunity of enclosing to
you the bills of lading for your books, & two others for your
namesake of Williamsburgh & for the attorney which I will pray you to
forward. I thank you for the communication of the remonstrance
against the assessment. Mazzei who is now in Holland promised me to
have it published in the Leyden gazette. It will do us great honour.
I wish it may be as much approved by our assembly as by the wisest
part of Europe. I have heard with great pleasure that our assembly
have come to the resolution of giving the regulation of their
commerce to the federal head. I will venture to assert that there is
not one of it's opposers who, placed on this ground, would not see
the wisdom of this measure. The politics of Europe render it
indispensably necessary that with respect to everything external we
be one nation only, firmly hooped together. Interior government is
what each state should keep to itself. If it could be seen in Europe
that all our states could be brought to concur in what the Virginia
assembly has done, it would produce a total revolution in their
opinion of us, and respect for us. And it should ever be held in
mind that insult & war are the consequences of a want of
respectability in the national character. As long as the states
exercise separately those acts of power which respect foreign
nations, so long will there continue to be irregularities committing
by some one or other of them which will constantly keep us on an ill
footing with foreign nations.
I thank you for your information as to my Notes. The copies I
have remaining shall be sent over to be given to some of my friends
and to select subjects in the college. I have been unfortunate here
with this trifle. I gave out a few copies only, & to confidential
persons, writing in every copy a restraint against it's publication.
Among others I gave a copy to a Mr. Williamos. He died. I
immediately took every precaution I could to recover this copy. But
by some means or other a bookseller had got hold of it. He employed
a hireling translator and was about publishing it in the most
injurious form possible. An Abbe Morellet, a man of letters here to
whom I had given a copy, got notice of this. He had translated some
passages for a particular purpose: and he compounded with the
bookseller to translate & give him the whole, on his declining the
first publication. I found it necessary to confirm this, and it will
be published in French, still mutilated however in it's freest parts.
I am now at a loss what to do as to England. Everything, good or
bad, is thought worth publishing there; and I apprehend a translation
back from the French, and a publication there. I rather believe it
will be most eligible to let the original come out in that country;
but am not yet decided.
I have purchased little for you in the book way, since I sent
the catalogue of my former purchases. I wish first to have your
answer to that, and your information what parts of those purchases
went out of your plan. You can easily say buy more of this kind,
less of that &c. My wish is to conform myself to yours. I can get
for you the original Paris edition in folio of the Encyclopedie for
620 livres, 35. vols.; a good edn in 39 vols, 4to, for 380#; and a
good one in 39 vols 8vo, for 280#. The new one will be superior in
far the greater number of articles: but not in all. And the
possession of the ancient one has moreover the advantage of supplying
present use. I have bought one for myself, but wait your orders as
to you. I remember your purchase of a watch in Philadelphia. If it
should not have proved good, you can probably sell her. In that case
I can get for you here, one made as perfect as human art can make it
for about 24 louis. I have had such a one made by the best & most
faithful hand in Paris. It has a second hand, but no repeating, no
day of the month, nor other useless thing to impede and injure the
movements which are necessary. For 12 louis more you can have in the
same cover, but on the back side & absolutely unconnected with the
movements of the watch, a pedometer which shall render you an exact
account of the distances you walk. Your pleasure hereon shall be
awaited.
Houdon is returned. He called on me the other day to
remonstrate against the inscription proposed for Genl W.'s statue.
He says it is too long to be put on the pedestal. I told him I was
not at liberty to permit any alteration, but I would represent his
objection to a friend who could judge of it's validity, and whether a
change could be authorized. This has been the subject of
conversations here, and various devices & inscriptions have been
suggested. The one which has appeared best to me may be translated
as follows: "Behold, Reader, the form of George Washington. For his
worth, ask History: that will tell it, when this stone shall have
yielded to the decays of time. His country erects this monument:
Houdon makes it." This for one side. On the 2d represent the
evacuation of Boston with the motto "Hostibus primum fugatis." On the
3d the capture of the Hessians with "Hostibus iterum devictis." On
the 4th the surrender of York, with "Hostibus ultimum debellatis."
This is seizing the three most brilliant actions of his military
life. By giving out here a wish of receiving mottos for this statue,
we might have thousands offered, of which still better might be
chosen. The artist made the same objection of length to the
inscription for the bust of the M. de la Fayette. An alteration of
that might come in time still, if an alteration was wished. However
I am not certain that it is desirable in either case. The state of
Georgia has given 20.000 acres of land to the Count d' Estaing. This
gift is considered here as very honourable to him, and it has
gratified him much. I am persuaded that a gift of lands by the state
of Virginia to the Marquis de la Fayette would give a good opinion
here of our character, and would reflect honour on the Marquis. Nor
am I sure that the day will not come when it might be an useful
asylum to him. The time of life at which he visited America was too
well adapted to receive good & lasting impressions to permit him ever
to accommodate himself to the principles of monarchical government;
and it will need all his own prudence & that of his friends to make
this country a safe residence for him. How glorious, how comfortable
in reflection will it be to have prepared a refuge for him in case of
a reverse. In the meantime he could settle it with tenants from the
freest part of this country, Bretagny. I have never suggested the
smallest idea of this kind to him: because the execution of it should
convey the first notice. If the state has not a right to give him
lands with their own officers, they could buy up at cheap prices the
shares of others. I am not certain however whether in the public or
private opinion, a similar gift to Count Rochambeau could be
dispensed with. If the state could give to both, it would be better:
but in any event, I think they should to the Marquis. C. Rochambeau
too has really deserved more attention than he has received. Why not
set up his bust, that of Gates, Greene, Franklin in your new capitol?
A propos of the Capitol. Do my dear friend exert yourself to get the
plan begun on set aside, & that adopted which was drawn here. It was
taken from a model which has been the admiration of 16. centuries,
which has been the object of as many pilgrimages as the tomb of
Mahomet: which will give unrivalled honour to our state, and furnish
a model whereon to form the taste of our young men. It will cost
much less too than the one begun, because it does not cover one half
the Area. Ask, if you please, a sight of my letter of Jan. 26 to
Messrs. Buchanan & Hay, which will spare me the repeating its
substance here.
Everything is quiet in Europe. I recollect but one new
invention in the arts which is worth mentioning. It is a mixture of
the arts of engraving & printing, rendering both cheaper. Write or
draw anything on a plate of brass with the ink of the inventor, and
in half an hour he gives you engraved copies of it so perfectly like
the original that they could not be suspected to be copies. His
types for printing a whole page are all in one solid piece. An
author therefore only prints a few copies of his work from time to
time as they are called for. This saves the loss of printing more
copies than may possibly be sold, and prevents an edition from being
ever exhausted.
I am with a lively esteem Dear Sir, your sincere friend &
servant.
P. S. Could you procure & send me an hundred or two nuts of the
peccan? they would enable me to oblige some characters here whom I
should be much gratified to oblige. They should come packed in sand.
The seeds of the sugar maple too would be a great present.
BRITISH ARTS AND BRITISH HATRED
_To John Page_
_Paris, May 4, 1786_
DEAR SIR, -- Your two favours of Mar 15 and Aug 23, 1785, by
Monsieur de la Croix came to hand on the 15th of November. His
return gives me an opportunity of sending you a copy of the nautical
almanacs for 1786, 7, 8, 9. There is no late and interesting
publication here, or I would send it by the same conveiance. With
these almanacs I pack a copy of some Notes I wrote for Monsr de
Marbois in the year 1781, of which I had a few printed here. They
were written in haste & for his private inspection. A few friends
having asked copies I found it cheaper to print than to write them.
One of these got into the hands of a bookseller who getting a bad
translation of them made, obliged me to consent that they should
appear on condition of their being translated by a better hand. I
apprehend therefore they will get further than I intended: tho' as
yet they are in few hands. They will offer nothing new to you, not
even as an oblation of my friendship for you which is as old almost
as we are ourselves. Mazzei brought me your favor of Apr 28. I
thank you much for your communications. Nothing can be more grateful
at such a distance. It is unfortunate that most people think the
occurrences passing daily under their eyes, are either known to all
the world, or not worth being known. They therefore do not give them
place in their letters. I hope you will be so good as to continue
your friendly information. The proceedings of our public bodies, the
progress of the public mind on interesting questions, the casualties
which happen among our private friends, and whatever is interesting
to yourself and family will always be anxiously received by me.
There is one circumstance in the work you were concerned in which has
not yet come to my knowledge, to wit how far Westward from Fort Pitt
does the Western boundary of Pennsylvania pass, and where does it
strike the Ohio? The proposition you mention from Mr. Anderson on
the purchase of tobacco, I would have made use of, but that I have
engaged the abuses of the tobacco trade on a more general scale. I
confess their redress does not appear with any certainty: but till I
see all hope of removing the evil by the roots, I cannot propose to
prune it's branches.
I returned but three or four days ago from a two months trip to
England. I traversed that country much, and own both town & country
fell short of my expectations. Comparing it with this, I found a
much greater proportion of barrens, a soil in other parts not
naturally so good as this, not better cultivated, but better manured,
& therefore more productive. This proceeds from the practice of long
leases there, and short ones here. The labouring people here are
poorer than in England. They pay about one half their produce in
rent, the English in general about a third. The gardening in that
country is the article in which it surpasses all the earth. I mean
their pleasure gardening. This indeed went far beyond my ideas. The
city of London, tho' handsomer than Paris, is not so handsome as
Philadelphia. Their architecture is in the most wretched stile I
ever saw, not meaning to except America where it is bad, nor even
Virginia where it is worse than in any other part of America, which I
have seen. The mechanical arts in London are carried to a wonderful
perfection. But of these I need not speak, because of them my
countrymen have unfortunately too many samples before their eyes. I
consider the extravagance which has seized them as a more baneful
evil than toryism was during the war. It is the more so as the
example is set by the best and most amiable characters among us.
Would that a missionary appear who would make frugality the basis of
his religious system, and go thro the land preaching it up as the
only road to salvation, I would join his school tho' not generally
disposed to seek my religion out of the dictates of my own reason &
feelings of my own heart. These things have been more deeply
impressed on my mind by what I have heard & seen in England. That
nation hates us, their ministers hate us, and their King more than
all other men. They have the impudence to avow this, tho' they
acknolege our trade important to them. But they say we cannot
prevent our countrymen from bringing that into their laps. A
conviction of this determines them to make no terms of commerce with
us. They say they will pocket our carrying trade as well as their
own. Our overtures of commercial arrangement have been treated with
a derision which shows their firm persuasion that we shall never
unite to suppress their commerce or even to impede it. I think their
hostility towards us is much more deeply rooted at present than
during the war. In the arts the most striking thing I saw there,
new, was the application of the principle of the steam-engine to
grist mills. I saw 8 pr. of stones which are worked by steam, and
they are to set up 30 pair in the same house. A hundred bushels of
coal a day are consumed at present. I do not know in what proportion
the consumption will be increased by the additional geer.
Be so good as to present my respects to Mrs. Page & your
family, to W. Lewis, F. Willis & their families and to accept
yourself assurances of the sincere regard with which I am Dr Sir your
affectionate friend & servt.
P. S. Mazzei is still here and will publish soon a book on the
subject of America.
WAR ON BARBARY
_To John Adams_
_Paris, July 11, 1786_
DEAR SIR -- Our instructions relative to the Barbary states
having required us to proceed by way of negotiation to obtain their
peace, it became our duty to do this to the best of our power.
Whatever might be our private opinions, they were to be suppressed,
and the line marked out to us, was to be followed. It has been so
honestly, and zealously. It was therefore never material for us to
consult together on the best plan of conduct towards these states. I
acknolege I very early thought it would be best to effect a peace
thro' the medium of war. Tho' it is a question with which we have
nothing to do, yet as you propose some discussion of it I shall
trouble you with my reasons. Of the 4. positions laid down in your
letter of the 3d. instant, I agree to the three first, which are in
substance that the good offices of our friends cannot procure us a
peace without paying it's price, that they cannot materially lessen
that price, and that paying it, we can have the peace in spight of
the intrigues of our enemies. As to the 4th. that the longer the
negotiation is delayed the larger will be the demand, this will
depend on the intermediate captures: if they are many and rich the
price may be raised; if few and poor it will be lessened. However if
it is decided that we shall buy a peace, I know no reason for
delaying the operation, but should rather think it ought to be
hastened. But I should prefer the obtaining it by war. 1. Justice
is in favor of this opinion. 2. Honor favors it. 3. It will procure
us respect in Europe, and respect is a safe-guard to interest. 4. It
will arm the federal head with the safest of all the instruments of
coercion over their delinquent members and prevent them from using
what would be less safe. I think that so far you go with me. But in
the next steps we shall differ. 5. I think it least expensive. 6.
Equally effectual. I ask a fleet of 150. guns, the one half of which
shall be in constant cruise. This fleet built, manned and victualled
for 6. months will cost 450,000 pound sterling. It's annual expence
is 300 pound sterl. a gun, including every thing: this will be 45,000
pound sterl. a year. I take British experience for the basis of my
calculations, tho' we know, from our own experience, that we can do,
in this way, for pounds lawful, what costs them pounds sterling.
Were we to charge all this to the Algerine war it would amount to
little more than we must pay if we buy peace. But as it is proper
and necessary that we should establish a small marine force (even
were we to buy a peace from the Algerines,) and as that force laid up
in our dockyards would cost us half as much annually as if kept in
order for service, we have a right to say that only 22,500 pound
sterl. per ann. should be charged to the Algerine war. 6. It will
be as effectual. To all the mismanagements of Spain and Portugal
urged to shew that war against those people is ineffectual, I urge a
single fact to prove the contrary where there is any management.
About 40. year ago, the Algerines having broke their treaty with
France, this court sent Monsr. de Massac with one large and two small
frigates, he blockaded the harbour of Algiers three months, and they
subscribed to the terms he dictated. If it be admitted however that
war, on the fairest prospects, is still exposed to incertainties, I
weigh against this the greater incertainty of the duration of a peace
bought with money, from such a people, from a Dey 80. years old, and
by a nation who, on the hypothesis of buying peace, is to have no
power on the sea to enforce an observance of it.
So far I have gone on the supposition that the whole weight of
this war would rest on us. But 1. Naples will join us. The
character of their naval minister (Acton), his known sentiments with
respect to the peace Spain is officiously trying to make for them,
and his dispositions against the Algerines give the greatest reason
to believe it. 2. Every principle of reason tells us Portugal will
join us. I state this as taking for granted, what all seem to
believe, that they will not be at peace with Algiers. I suppose then
that a Convention might be formed between Portugal, Naples and the
U.S. by which the burthen of the war might be quotaed on them
according to their respective wealth, and the term of it should be
when Algiers should subscribe to a peace with all three on equal
terms. This might be left open for other nations to accede to, and
many, if not most of the powers of Europe (except France, England,
Holland and Spain if her peace be made) would sooner or later enter
into the confederacy, for the sake of having their peace with the
Pyratical states guarantied by the whole. I suppose that in this
case our proportion of force would not be the half of what I first
calculated on.
These are the reasons which have influenced my judgment on this
question. I give them to you to shew you that I am imposed on by a
semblance of reason at least, and not with an expectation of their
changing your opinion. You have viewed the subject, I am sure in all
it's bearings. You have weighed both questions with all their
circumstances. You make the result different from what I do. The
same facts impress us differently. This is enough to make me suspect
an error in my process of reasoning tho' I am not able to detect it.
It is of no consequence; as I have nothing to say in the decision,
and am ready to proceed heartily on any other plan which may be
adopted, if my agency should be thought useful. With respect to the
dispositions of the states I am utterly uninformed. I cannot help
thinking however that on a view of all circumstances, they might be
united in either of the plans.
Having written this on the receipt of your letter, without
knowing of any opportunity of sending it, I know not when it will go:
I add nothing therefore on any other subject but assurances of the
sincere esteem and respect with which I am Dear Sir your friend and
servant,
"A CRUSADE AGAINST IGNORANCE"
_To George Wythe_
_Paris, August 13, 1786_
DEAR SIR, -- Your favors of Jan. 10 & Feb. 10, came to hand on
the 20th & 2d of May. I availed myself of the first opportunity
which occurred, by a gentleman going to England, of sending to Mr.
Joddrel a copy of the Notes on our country, with a line informing him
that it was you who had emboldened me to take that liberty. Madison,
no doubt, informed you of the reason why I had sent only a single
copy to Virginia. Being assured by him that they will not do the
harm I had apprehended, but on the contrary may do some good, I
propose to send thither the copies remaining on hand, which are fewer
than I had intended. But of the numerous corrections they need,
there are one or two so essential that I must have them made, by
printing a few new leaves & substituting them for the old. This will
be done while they are engraving a map which I have constructed of
the country from Albemarle sound to Lake Erie, & which will be
inserted in the book. A bad French translation which is getting out
here, will probably oblige me to publish the original more freely,
which it neither deserved nor was ever intended. Your wishes, which
are laws to me, will justify my destining a copy for you, otherwise I
should as soon have thought of sending you a hornbook; for there is
no truth there that which is not familiar to you, and it's errors I
should hardly have proposed to treat you with.
Immediately on the receipt of your letter, I wrote to a
correspondent at Florence to inquire after the family of Tagliaferro
as you desired. I received his answer two days ago, a copy of which
I now inclose. The original shall be sent by some other occasion. I
will have the copper-plate immediately engraved. This may be ready
within a few days, but the probability is that I shall be long
getting an opportunity of sending it to you, as these rarely occur.
You do not mention the size of the plate but, presuming it is
intended for labels for the inside of books, I shall have it made of
a proper size for that. I shall omit the word _agisos_, according to
the license you allow me, because I think the beauty of a motto is to
condense much matter in as few words as possible. The word omitted
will be supplied by every reader. The European papers have announced
that the assembly of Virginia were occupied on the revisal of their
code of laws. This, with some other similar intelligence, has
contributed much to convince the people of Europe, that what the
English papers are constantly publishing of our anarchy, is false; as
they are sensible that such a work is that of a people only who are
in perfect tranquillity. Our act for freedom of religion is
extremely applauded. The ambassadors & ministers of the several
nations of Europe resident at this court have asked of me copies of
it to send to their sovereigns, and it is inserted at full length in
several books now in the press; among others, in the new
Encyclopedie. I think it will produce considerable good even in
these countries where ignorance, superstition, poverty, & oppression
of body & mind in every form, are so firmly settled on the mass of
the people, that their redemption from them can never be hoped. If
the Almighty had begotten a thousand sons, instead of one, they would
not have sufficed for this task. If all the sovereigns of Europe
were to set themselves to work to emancipate the minds of their
subjects from their present ignorance & prejudices, & that as
zealously as they now endeavor the contrary, a thousand years would
not place them on that high ground on which our common people are now
setting out. Ours could not have been so fairly put into the hands
of their own common sense had they not been separated from their
parent stock & kept from contamination, either from them, or the
other people of the old world, by the intervention of so wide an
ocean. To know the worth of this, one must see the want of it here.
I think by far the most important bill in our whole code is that for
the diffusion of knowlege among the people. No other sure foundation
can be devised, for the preservation of freedom and happiness. If
anybody thinks that kings, nobles, or priests are good conservators
of the public happiness send them here. It is the best school in the
universe to cure them of that folly. They will see here with their
own eyes that these descriptions of men are an abandoned confederacy
against the happiness of the mass of the people. The omnipotence of
their effect cannot be better proved than in this country
particularly, where notwithstanding the finest soil upon earth, the
finest climate under heaven, and a people of the most benevolent, the
most gay and amiable character of which the human form is
susceptible, where such a people I say, surrounded by so many
blessings from nature, are yet loaded with misery by kings, nobles
and priests, and by them alone. Preach, my dear Sir, a crusade
against ignorance; establish & improve the law for educating the
common people. Let our countrymen know that the people alone can
protect us against these evils, and that the tax which will be paid
for this purpose is not more than the thousandth part of what will be
paid to kings, priests & nobles who will rise up among us if we leave
the people in ignorance. The people of England, I think, are less
oppressed than here. But it needs but half an eye to see, when among
them, that the foundation is laid in their dispositions for the
establishment of a despotism. Nobility, wealth & pomp are the
objects of their adoration. They are by no means the free-minded
people we suppose them in America. Their learned men too are few in
number, and are less learned and infinitely less emancipated from
prejudice than those of this country. An event too seems to be
preparing, in the order of things, which will probably decide the
fate of that country. It is no longer doubtful that the harbour of
Cherburg will be complete, that it will be a most excellent one, &
capacious enough to hold the whole navy of France. Nothing has ever
been wanting to enable this country to invade that, but a naval force
conveniently stationed to protect the transports. This change of
situation must oblige the English to keep up a great standing army,
and there is no King, who, with sufficient force, is not always ready
to make himself absolute. My paper warns me it is time to recommend
myself to the friendly recollection of Mrs. Wythe, of Colo.
Tagliaferro & his family & particularly of Mr. R. T.; and to assure
you of the affectionate esteem with which I am Dear Sir your friend
and servt.
EDUACTION OF A FUTURE SON-IN-LAW
_To Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr._
_Paris, Aug. 27, 1786_
DEAR SIR, -- I am honoured with your favour of the 16th
instant, and desirous, without delay, of manifesting my wishes to be
useful to you I shall venture to you some thoughts on the course of
your studies, which must be submitted to the better choice with which
you are surrounded. A longer race through life may have entitled me
to seize some truths which have not yet been presented to your
observation & more intimate knowledge of the country in which you are
to live & of the circumstances in which you will be placed, may
enable me to point your attention to the branches of science which
will administer the most to your happiness there. The foundations
which you have laid in languages and mathematics are proper for every
superstructure. The former exercises our memory while that and no
other faculty is yet matured & prevents our acquiring habits of
idleness. The latter gives exercise to our reason, as soon as that
has acquired a certain degree of strength, and stores the mind with
truths which are useful in other branches of science. At this moment
then a second order of preparation is to commence. I shall propose
to you that it be extensive, comprehending Astronomy, Natural
Philosophy (or Physics), Natural History, Anatomy, Botany &
Chemistry. No inquisitive mind will be content to be ignorant of any
of these branches. But I would advise you to be contented with a
course of lectures in most of them, without attempting to make
yourself master of the whole. This is more than any genius joined to
any length of life is equal to. You will find among them some one
study to which your mind will more particularly attach itself. This
then I would pursue & propose to attain eminence in. Your own
country furnishes the most aliment for Natural History, Botany &
Physics & as you express a fondness for the former you might make it
your principal object, endeavoring however to make yourself more
acquainted with the two latter than with other branches likely to be
less useful. In fact you will find botany offering it's charms to
you at every step -- during summer & Physics in every season. All
these branches of science will be better attained by attending
courses of lectures in them. You are now in a place where the best
courses upon earth are within your reach and being delivered in your
native language -- you lose no part of their benefit. Such an
opportunity you will never again have. I would therefore strongly
press on you to fix no other limit to your stay in Edinborough than
your having got thro this whole course. The omission of any one part
of it will be an affliction & loss to you as long as you live.
Beside the comfort of knowledge, every science is auxiliary to every
other. While you are attending these courses you can proceed by
yourself in a regular series of historical reading. It would be a
waste of time to attend a professor of this. It is to be acquired
from books and if you pursue it by yourself you can accommodate it to
your other reading so as to fill up those chasms of time not
otherwise appropriated. There are portions of the day too when the
mind should be eased, particularly after dinner it should be applied
to lighter occupation: history is of this kind. It exercises
principally the memory. Reflection also indeed is necessary but not
generally in a laborious degree. To conduct yourself in this branch
of science you have only to consider what aeras of it merit a grasp &
what a particular attention, & in each aera also to distinguish
between the countries the knowledge of whose history will be useful &
those where it suffices only to be not altogether ignorant. Having
laid down your plan as to the branches of history you would pursue,
the order of time will be your sufficient guide. After what you have
read in antient history I should suppose Millot's digest would be
useful & sufficient. The histories of Greece and Rome are worthy a
good degree of attention, they should be read in the original
authors. The transition from antient to modern history will be best
effected by reading Gibbon's. Then a general history of the
principal states of Europe, but particular ones of England. Here too
the original writers are to be preferred. Kennet published a
considerable collection of these in 3 vols. folio, but there are some
others not in his collection well worth being read. After the
history of England that of America will claim your attention. Here
too original authors & not compilers are best. An author who writes
of his own times or of times near his own presents in his own ideas &
manner the best picture of the moment of which he writes. History
need not be hurried but may give way to the other sciences because
history can be pursued after you shall have left your present
situation as well as while you remain in it. When you shall have got
thro this second order of preparation the study of the law is to be
begun. This like history is to be acquired from books. All the aid
you will want will be a catalogue of the books to be read & the order
in which they are to be read. It being absolutely indifferent in
what place you carry on this reading I should propose your doing it
in France. The advantages of this will be that you will at the same
time acquire the habit of speaking French which is the object of a
year or two. You may be giving attention to such of the fine arts as
your turn may lead you to & you will be forming an acquaintance with
the individuals & characters of a nation with whom we must long
remain in the closest intimacy & to whom we are bound by the strong
ties of gratitude and policy. A nation in short of the most amiable
dispositions on earth, the whole mass of which is penetrated with an
affection for us. You might before you return to your own country
make a visit to Italy also.
I should have performed the office of but half a friend were I
to confine myself to the improvement of the mind only. Knowledge
indeed is a desirable, a lovely possession, but I do not scruple to
say that health is more so. It is of little consequence to store the
mind with science if the body be permitted to become debilitated. If
the body be feeble, the mind will not be strong -- the sovereign
invigorator of the body is exercise, and of all exercises walking is
best. A horse gives but a kind of half exercise, and a carriage is
no better than a cradle. No one knows, till he tries, how easily a
habit of walking is acquired. A person who never walked three miles
will in the course of a month become able to walk 15 or 20 without
fatigue. I have known some great walkers & had particular accounts
of many more: and I never knew or heard of one who was not healthy &
long lived. This species of exercise therefore is much to be
advised. Should you be disposed to try it, as your health has been
feeble, it will be necessary for you to begin with a little, & to
increase it by degrees. For the same reason you must probably at
first ascribe to it the hours most precious for study, I mean those
about the middle of the day. But when you shall find yourself strong
you may venture to take your walks in the evening after the digestion
of the dinner is pretty well over. This is making a compromise
between health & study. The latter would be too much interrupted
were you to take from it the early hours of the day and habit will
soon render the evening's exercise as salutary as that of the
morning. I speak this from my own experience having, from an
attachment to study, very early in life, made this arrangement of my
time, having ever observed it, & still observing it, & always with
perfect success. Not less than two hours a day should be devoted to
exercise, and the weather should be little regarded. A person not
sick will not be injured by getting wet. It is but taking a cold
bath which never gives a cold to any one. Brute animals are the most
healthy, & they are exposed to all weather and, of men, those are
healthiest who are the most exposed. The recipe of those two
descriptions of beings is simple diet, exercise and the open air, be
it's state what it will; and we may venture to say that this recipe
will give health & vigor to every other description. -- By this time
I am sure you will think I have sermonized enough. I have given you
indeed a lengthy lecture. I have been led through it by my zeal to
serve you; if in the whole you find one useful counsel, that will be
my reward, & a sufficient one. Few persons in your own country have
started from as advantageous ground as that whereon you will be
placed. Nature and fortune have been liberal to you. Every thing
honourable or profitable there is placed within your own reach, and
will depend on your own efforts. If these are exerted with
assiduity, and guided by unswerving honesty, your success is
infallible: and that it may be as great as you wish is the sincere
desire of Dear Sir, your most affectionate humble servant.
P.S. Be so good as to present me affectionately to your brother
& cousin.
ARCHAEOLOGY, LEDYARD, A NEW INVENTION
_To Ezra Stiles_
_Paris, Sep. 1, 1786_
SIR, -- I am honoured with your letter of May 8. That which
you mention to have written in the winter preceding never came to
hand. I return you my thanks for the communications relative to the
Western country. When we reflect how long we have inhabited those
parts of America which lie between the Alleghaney & the ocean, that
no monument has ever been found in them which indicated the use of
iron among its' aboriginal inhabitants, that they were as far
advanced in arts, at least, as the inhabitants on the other side the
Alleghaney, a good degree of infidelity may be excused as to the new
discoveries which suppose regular fortifications of brickwork to have
been in use among the Indians on the waters of the Ohio.
Intrenchments of earth they might indeed make: but brick is more
difficult. The art of making it may have preceded the use of iron,
but it would suppose a greater degree of industry than men in the
hunter state usually possess. I should like to know whether General
Parsons himself saw actual bricks among the remains of fortification.
I suppose the settlement of our continent is of the most remote
antiquity. The similitude between its' inhabitants & those of
Eastern parts of Asia renders it probable that ours are descended
from them or they from ours. The latter is my opinion, founded on
this single fact. Among the red inhabitants of Asia there are but a
few languages radically different, but among our Indians the number
of languages is infinite which are so radically different as to
exhibit at present no appearance of their having been derived from a
common source. The time necessary for the generation of so many
languages must be immense. A countryman of yours, a Mr. Lediard, who
was with Capt. Cook on his last voiage, proposes either to go to
Kamschatka, cross from thence to the Western side of America, and
penetrate through the Continent to our side of it, or to go to
Kentucke, & thence penetrate Westwardly to the South sea, the vent
from hence lately to London, where if he finds a passage to
Kamschatka or the Western coast of America he would avail himself of
it: otherwise he proposes to return to our side of America to attempt
that route. I think him well calculated for such an enterprise, &
wish he may undertake it. Another countryman of yours Mr. Trumbul
has paid us a visit here & brought with him two pictures which are
the admiration of the Connoisseurs. His natural talents for this art
seem almost unparalleled. I send you the 5th & 6th vols. of the
_Bibliotheque physico ecconomie_ erroneously lettered as the 7th &
8th, which are not yet come out. I inclose with them the article
"Etats Unis" of the new Encyclopedie. This article is recently
published, & a few copies have been printed separate. For this
twelvemonth past little new & excellent has appeared either in
literature or the arts. An Abbe Rochon has applied the metal called
platina to the telescope instead of the mixed metal of which the
specula were formerly composed. It is insusceptible of rust, as gold
is, and he thinks it's reflective power equal to that of the mixed
metal. He has observed a very curious effect of the natural
chrystals, & especially of those of Iceland; which is that lenses
made of them have two distinct focuses, and present you the object
distinctly at two different distances. This I have seen myself. A
new method of copying has been invented here. I called on the
inventor, & he presented me a plate of copper, a pen & ink. I wrote
a note on the plate, and in about three quarters of an hour he
brought me an hundred copies, as perfect as the imagination can
conceive. Had I written my name, he could have put it to so many
bonds, so that I should have acknoleged the Signature to be my own.
The copying of paintings in England is very conceivable. Any number
may be taken, which shall give you the true lineaments & colouring of
the original without injuring that. This is so like creation, that
had I not seen it, I should have doubted it. -- The death of the K.
of Prussia, which happened on the 17th inst. will probably employ the
pens, if not the swords of politicians. We had exchanged the
ratifications of our treaty with him. The articles of this which
were intended to prevent or miticate wars, by lessening their aliment
are so much applauded in Europe that I think the example will be
followed. I have the honour to be with very sincere esteem, Dear
Sir, your most obedt. humble servant.
"DIALOGUE BETWEEN MY HEAD & MY HEART"
_To Maria Cosway_
_Paris, October 12, 1786_
MY DEAR MADAM, -- Having performed the last sad office of
handing you into your carriage at the pavillon de St. Denis, and seen
the wheels get actually into motion, I turned on my heel & walked,
more dead than alive, to the opposite door, where my own was awaiting
me. Mr. Danquerville was missing. He was sought for, found, &
dragged down stairs. We were crammed into the carriage, like
recruits for the Bastille, & not having soul enough to give orders to
the coachman, he presumed Paris our destination, & drove off. After
a considerable interval, silence was broke with a _"Je suis vraiment
afflige du depart de ces bons gens."_ This was a signal for a mutual
confession of distress. We began immediately to talk of Mr. & Mrs.
Cosway, of their goodness, their talents, their amiability; & tho we
spoke of nothing else, we seemed hardly to have entered into matter
when the coachman announced the rue St. Denis, & that we were
opposite Mr. Danquerville's. He insisted on descending there &
traversing a short passage to his lodgings. I was carried home.
Seated by my fireside, solitary & sad, the following dialogue took
place between my Head & my Heart:
_Head._ Well, friend, you seem to be in a pretty trim.
_Heart._ I am indeed the most wretched of all earthly beings.
Overwhelmed with grief, every fibre of my frame distended beyond its
natural powers to bear, I would willingly meet whatever catastrophe
should leave me no more to feel or to fear.
_Head._ These are the eternal consequences of your warmth &
precipitation. This is one of the scrapes into which you are ever
leading us. You confess your follies indeed; but still you hug &
cherish them; & no reformation can be hoped, where there is no
repentance.
_Heart._ Oh, my friend! this is no moment to upbraid my
foibles. I am rent into fragments by the force of my grief! If you
have any balm, pour it into my wounds; if none, do not harrow them by
new torments. Spare me in this awful moment! At any other I will
attend with patience to your admonitions.
_Head._ On the contrary I never found that the moment of
triumph with you was the moment of attention to my admonitions.
While suffering under your follies, you may perhaps be made sensible
of them, but, the paroxysm over, you fancy it can never return.
Harsh therefore as the medicine may be, it is my office to administer
it. You will be pleased to remember that when our friend Trumbull
used to be telling us of the merits & talents of these good people, I
never ceased whispering to you that we had no occasion for new
acquaintance; that the greater their merits & talents, the more
dangerous their friendship to our tranquillity, because the regret at
parting would be greater.
_Heart._ Accordingly, Sir, this acquaintance was not the
consequence of my doings. It was one of your projects which threw us
in the way of it. It was you, remember, & not I, who desired the
meeting at Legrand & Molinos. I never trouble myself with domes nor
arches. The Halle aux bleds might have rotted down before I should
have gone to see it. But you, forsooth, who are eternally getting us
to sleep with your diagrams & crotchets, must go & examine this
wonderful piece of architecture. And when you had seen it, oh! it
was the most superb thing on earth! What you had seen there was
worth all you had yet seen in Paris! I thought so too. But I meant
it of the lady & gentleman to whom we had been presented; & not of a
parcel of sticks & chips put together in pens. You then, Sir, & not
I, have been the cause of the present distress.
_Head._ It would have been happy for you if my diagrams &
crotchets had gotten you to sleep on that day, as you are pleased to
say they eternally do. My visit to Legrand & Molinos had public
utility for it's object. A market is to be built in Richmond. What
a commodious plan is that of Legrand & Molinos; especially if we put
on it the noble dome of the Halle aux bleds. If such a bridge as
they shewed us can be thrown across the Schuylkill at Philadelphia,
the floating bridges taken up & the navigation of that river opened,
what a copious resource will be added, of wood & provisions, to warm
& feed the poor of that city? While I was occupied with these
objects, you were dilating with your new acquaintances, & contriving
how to prevent a separation from them. Every soul of you had an
engagement for the day. Yet all these were to be sacrificed, that
you might dine together. Lying messengers were to be despatched into
every quarter of the city, with apologies for your breach of
engagement. You particularly had the effrontery to send word to the
Dutchess Danville that, on the moment we were setting out to dine
with her, despatches came to hand which required immediate attention.
You wanted me to invent a more ingenious excuse; but I knew you were
getting into a scrape, & I would have nothing to do with it. Well,
after dinner to St. Cloud, from St. Cloud to Ruggieri's, from
Ruggieri to Krumfoltz, & if the day had been as long as a Lapland
summer day, you would still have contrived means among you to have
filled it.
_Heart._ Oh! my dear friend, how you have revived me by
recalling to my mind the transactions of that day! How well I
remember them all, & that when I came home at night & looked back to
the morning, it seemed to have been a month agone. Go on then, like
a kind comforter & paint to me the day we went to St. Germains. How
beautiful was every object! the Port de Reuilly, the hills along the
Seine, the rainbows of the machine of Marly, the terrace of St.
Germains, the chateaux, the gardens, the statues of Marly, the
pavillon of Lucienne. Recollect too Madrid, Bagatelle, the King's
garden, the Dessert. How grand the idea excited by the remains of
such a column! The spiral staircase too was beautiful. Every moment
was filled with something agreeable. The wheels of time moved on
with a rapidity of which those of our carriage gave but a faint idea.
And yet in the evening when one took a retrospect of the day, what a
mass of happiness had we travelled over! Retrace all those scenes to
me, my good companion, & I will forgive the unkindness with which you
were chiding me. The day we went to St. Germains was a little too
warm, I think; was it not?
_Head._ Thou art the most incorrigible of all the beings that
ever sinned! I reminded you of the follies of the first day,
intending to deduce from thence some useful lessons for you, but
instead of listening to these, you kindle at the recollection, you
retrace the whole series with a fondness which shews you want nothing
but the opportunity to act it over again. I often told you during
its course that you were imprudently engaging your affections under
circumstances that must have cost you a great deal of pain: that the
persons indeed were of the greatest merit, possessing good sense,
good humour, honest hearts, honest manners, & eminence in a lovely
art; that the lady had moreover qualities & accomplishments,
belonging to her sex, which might form a chapter apart for her: such
as music, modesty, beauty, & that softness of disposition which is
the ornament of her sex & charm of ours, but that all these
considerations would increase the pang of separation: that their stay
here was to be short: that you rack our whole system when you are
parted from those you love, complaining that such a separation is
worse than death, inasmuch as this ends our sufferings, whereas that
only begins them: & that the separation would in this instance be the
more severe as you would probably never see them again.
_Heart._ But they told me they would come back again the next
year.
_Head._ But in the meantime see what you suffer: & their return
too depends on so many circumstances that if you had a grain of
prudence you would not count upon it. Upon the whole it is
improbable & therefore you should abandon the idea of ever seeing
them again.
_Heart._ May heaven abandon me if I do!
_Head._ Very well. Suppose then they come back. They are to
stay two months, & when these are expired, what is to follow?
Perhaps you flatter yourself they may come to America?
_Heart._ God only knows what is to happen. I see nothing
impossible in that supposition. And I see things wonderfully
contrived sometimes to make us happy. Where could they find such
objects as in America for the exercise of their enchanting art?
especially the lady, who paints landscapes so inimitably. She wants
only subjects worthy of immortality to render her pencil immortal.
The Falling Spring, the Cascade of Niagara, the Passage of the
Potowmac through the Blue Mountains, the Natural bridge. It is worth
a voyage across the Atlantic to see these objects; much more to
paint, and make them, & thereby ourselves, known to all ages. And
our own dear Monticello, where has nature spread so rich a mantle
under the eye? mountains, forests, rocks, rivers. With what majesty
do we there ride above the storms! How sublime to look down into the
workhouse of nature, to see her clouds, hail, snow, rain, thunder,
all fabricated at our feet! and the glorious sun when rising as if
out of a distant water, just gilding the tops of the mountains, &
giving life to all nature! I hope in God no circumstance may ever
make either seek an asylum from grief! With what sincere sympathy I
would open every cell of my composition to receive the effusion of
their woes! I would pour my tears into their wounds: & if a drop of
balm could be found on the top of the Cordilleras, or at the remotest
sources of the Missouri, I would go thither myself to seek & to bring
it. Deeply practised in the school of affliction, the human heart
knows no joy which I have not lost, no sorrow of which I have not
drunk! Fortune can present no grief of unknown form to me! Who then
can so softly bind up the wound of another as he who has felt the
same wound himself? But Heaven forbid they should ever know a
sorrow! Let us turn over another leaf, for this has distracted me.
_Head._ Well. Let us put this possibility to trial then on
another point. When you consider the character which is given of our
country by the lying newspapers of London, & their credulous copyers
in other countries; when you reflect that all Europe is made to
believe we are a lawless banditti, in a state of absolute anarchy,
cutting one another's throats, & plundering without distinction, how
can you expect that any reasonable creature would venture among us?
_Heart._ But you & I know that all this is false: that there is
not a country on earth where there is greater tranquillity, where the
laws are milder, or better obeyed: where every one is more attentive
to his own business, or meddles less with that of others: where
strangers are better received, more hospitably treated, & with a more
sacred respect.
_Head._ True, you & I know this, but your friends do not know
it.
_Heart._ But they are sensible people who think for themselves.
They will ask of impartial foreigners who have been among us, whether
they saw or heard on the spot any instances of anarchy. They will
judge too that a people occupied as we are in opening rivers, digging
navigable canals, making roads, building public schools, establishing
academies, erecting busts & statues to our great men, protecting
religious freedom, abolishing sanguinary punishments, reforming &
improving our laws in general, they will judge I say for themselves
whether these are not the occupations of a people at their ease,
whether this is not better evidence of our true state than a London
newspaper, hired to lie, & from which no truth can ever be extracted
but by reversing everything it says.
_Head._ I did not begin this lecture my friend with a view to
learn from you what America is doing. Let us return then to our
point. I wished to make you sensible how imprudent it is to place
your affections, without reserve, on objects you must so soon lose, &
whose loss when it comes must cost you such severe pangs. Remember
the last night. You knew your friends were to leave Paris to-day.
This was enough to throw you into agonies. All night you tossed us
from one side of the bed to the other. No sleep, no rest. The poor
crippled wrist too, never left one moment in the same position, now
up, now down, now here, now there; was it to be wondered at if it's
pains returned? The Surgeon then was to be called, & to be rated as
an ignoramus because he could not divine the cause of this
extraordinary change. In fine, my friend, you must mend your
manners. This is not a world to live at random in as you do. To
avoid those eternal distresses, to which you are forever exposing us,
you must learn to look forward before you take a step which may
interest our peace. Everything in this world is a matter of
calculation. Advance then with caution, the balance in your hand.
Put into one scale the pleasures which any object may offer; but put
fairly into the other the pains which are to follow, & see which
preponderates. The making an acquaintance is not a matter of
indifference. When a new one is proposed to you, view it all round.
Consider what advantages it presents, & to what inconveniences it may
expose you. Do not bite at the bait of pleasure till you know there
is no hook beneath it. The art of life is the art of avoiding pain:
& he is the best pilot who steers clearest of the rocks & shoals with
which he is beset. Pleasure is always before us; but misfortune is
at our side: while running after that, this arrests us. The most
effectual means of being secure against pain is to retire within
ourselves, & to suffice for our own happiness. Those, which depend
on ourselves, are the only pleasures a wise man will count on: for
nothing is ours which another may deprive us of. Hence the
inestimable value of intellectual pleasures. Even in our power,
always leading us to something new, never cloying, we ride serene &
sublime above the concerns of this mortal world, contemplating truth
& nature, matter & motion, the laws which bind up their existence, &
that eternal being who made & bound them up by those laws. Let this
be our employ. Leave the bustle & tumult of society to those who
have not talents to occupy themselves without them. Friendship is
but another name for an alliance with the follies & the misfortunes
of others. Our own share of miseries is sufficient: why enter then
as volunteers into those of another? Is there so little gall poured
into our cup that we must needs help to drink that of our neighbor?
A friend dies or leaves us: we feel as if a limb was cut off. He is
sick: we must watch over him, & participate of his pains. His
fortune is shipwrecked; ours must be laid under contribution. He
loses a child, a parent, or a partner: we must mourn the loss as if
it were our own.
_Heart._ And what more sublime delight than to mingle tears
with one whom the hand of heaven hath smitten! to watch over the bed
of sickness, & to beguile it's tedious & it's painful moments! to
share our bread with one to whom misfortune has left none! This
world abounds indeed with misery: to lighten it's burthen we must
divide it with one another. But let us now try the virtues of your
mathematical balance, & as you have put into one scale the burthen of
friendship, let me put it's comforts into the other. When
languishing then under disease, how grateful is the solace of our
friends! how are we penetrated with their assiduities & attentions!
how much are we supported by their encouragements & kind offices!
When heaven has taken from us some object of our love, how sweet is
it to have a bosom whereon to recline our heads, & into which we may
pour the torrent of our tears! Grief, with such a comfort, is almost
a luxury! In a life where we are perpetually exposed to want &
accident, yours is a wonderful proposition, to insulate ourselves, to
retire from all aid, & to wrap ourselves in the mantle of
self-sufficiency! For assuredly nobody will care for him who cares
for nobody. But friendship is precious, not only in the shade but in
the sunshine of life; & thanks to a benevolent arrangement of things,
the greater part of life is sunshine. I will recur for proof to the
days we have lately passed. On these indeed the sun shone brightly.
How gay did the face of nature appear! Hills, valleys, chateaux,
gardens, rivers, every object wore it's liveliest hue! Whence did
they borrow it? From the presence of our charming companion. They
were pleasing, because she seemed pleased. Alone, the scene would
have been dull & insipid: the participation of it with her gave it
relish. Let the gloomy monk, sequestered from the world, seek
unsocial pleasures in the bottom of his cell! Let the sublimated
philosopher grasp visionary happiness while pursuing phantoms dressed
in the garb of truth! Their supreme wisdom is supreme folly; & they
mistake for happiness the mere absence of pain. Had they ever felt
the solid pleasure of one generous spasm of the heart, they would
exchange for it all the frigid speculations of their lives, which you
have been vaunting in such elevated terms. Believe me then my
friend, that that is a miserable arithmetic which could estimate
friendship at nothing, or at less than nothing. Respect for you has
induced me to enter into this discussion, & to hear principles
uttered which I detest & abjure. Respect for myself now obliges me
to recall you into the proper limits of your office. When nature
assigned us the same habitation, she gave us over it a divided
empire. To you she allotted the field of science; to me that of
morals. When the circle is to be squared, or the orbit of a comet to
be traced; when the arch of greatest strength, or the solid of least
resistance is to be investigated, take up the problem; it is yours;
nature has given me no cognizance of it. In like manner, in denying
to you the feelings of sympathy, of benevolence, of gratitude, of
justice, of love, of friendship, she has excluded you from their
controul. To these she has adapted the mechanism of the heart.
Morals were too essential to the happiness of man to be risked on the
incertain combinations of the head. She laid their foundation
therefore in sentiment, not in science. That she gave to all, as
necessary to all: this to a few only, as sufficing with a few. I
know indeed that you pretend authority to the sovereign controul of
our conduct in all its parts: & a respect for your grave saws &
maxims, a desire to do what is right, has sometimes induced me to
conform to your counsels. A few facts however which I can readily
recall to your memory, will suffice to prove to you that nature has
not organized you for our moral direction. When the poor wearied
souldier whom we overtook at Chickahomony with his pack on his back,
begged us to let him get up behind our chariot, you began to
calculate that the road was full of souldiers, & that if all should
be taken up our horses would fail in their journey. We drove on
therefore. But soon becoming sensible you had made me do wrong, that
tho we cannot relieve all the distressed we should relieve as many as
we can, I turned about to take up the souldier; but he had entered a
bye path, & was no more to be found; & from that moment to this I
could never find him out to ask his forgiveness. Again, when the
poor woman came to ask a charity in Philadelphia, you whispered that
she looked like a drunkard, & that half a dollar was enough to give
her for the ale-house. Those who want the dispositions to give,
easily find reasons why they ought not to give. When I sought her
out afterwards, & did what I should have done at first, you know that
she employed the money immediately towards placing her child at
school. If our country, when pressed with wrongs at the point of the
bayonet, had been governed by it's heads instead of it's hearts,
where should we have been now? Hanging on a gallows as high as
Haman's. You began to calculate & to compare wealth and numbers: we
threw up a few pulsations of our warmest blood; we supplied
enthusiasm against wealth and numbers; we put our existence to the
hazard when the hazard seemed against us, and we saved our country:
justifying at the same time the ways of Providence, whose precept is
to do always what is right, and leave the issue to him. In short, my
friend, as far as my recollection serves me, I do not know that I
ever did a good thing on your suggestion, or a dirty one without it.
I do forever then disclaim your interference in my province. Fill
papers as you please with triangles & squares: try how many ways you
can hang & combine them together. I shall never envy nor controul
your sublime delights. But leave me to decide when & where
friendships are to be contracted. You say I contract them at random.
So you said the woman at Philadelphia was a drunkard. I receive no
one into my esteem till I know they are worthy of it. Wealth, title,
office, are no recommendations to my friendship. On the contrary
great good qualities are requisite to make amends for their having
wealth, title, & office. You confess that in the present case I
could not have made a worthier choice. You only object that I was so
soon to lose them. We are not immortal ourselves, my friend; how can
we expect our enjoyments to be so? We have no rose without it's
thorn; no pleasure without alloy. It is the law of our existence; &
we must acquiesce. It is the condition annexed to all our pleasures,
not by us who receive, but by him who gives them. True, this
condition is pressing cruelly on me at this moment. I feel more fit
for death than life. But when I look back on the pleasures of which
it is the consequence, I am conscious they were worth the price I am
paying. Notwithstanding your endeavours too to damp my hopes, I
comfort myself with expectations of their promised return. Hope is
sweeter than despair, & they were too good to mean to deceive me. In
the summer, said the gentleman; but in the spring, said the lady: & I
should love her forever, were it only for that! Know then, my
friend, that I have taken these good people into my bosom; that I
have lodged them in the warmest cell I could find: that I love them,
& will continue to love them through life: that if fortune should
dispose them on one side the globe, & me on the other, my affections
shall pervade it's whole mass to reach them. Knowing then my
determination, attempt not to disturb it. If you can at any time
furnish matter for their amusement, it will be the office of a good
neighbor to do it. I will in like manner seize any occasion which
may offer to do the like good turn for you with Condorcet,
Rittenhouse, Madison, La Cretelle, or any other of those worthy sons
of science whom you so justly prize.
I thought this a favorable proposition whereon to rest the
issue of the dialogue. So I put an end to it by calling for my
night-cap. Methinks I hear you wish to heaven I had called a little
sooner, & so spared you the ennui of such a sermon. I did not
interrupt them sooner because I was in a mood for hearing sermons.
You too were the subject; & on such a thesis I never think the theme
long; not even if I am to write it, and that slowly & awkwardly, as
now, with the left hand. But that you may not be discouraged from a
correspondence which begins so formidably, I will promise you on my
honour that my future letters shall be of a reasonable length. I
will even agree to express but half my esteem for you, for fear of
cloying you with too full a dose. But, on your part, no curtailing.
If your letters are as long as the bible, they will appear short to
me. Only let them be brimful of affection. I shall read them with
the dispositions with which Arlequin, in _Les deux billets_ spelt the
words "_je t'aime_," and wished that the whole alphabet had entered
into their composition.
We have had incessant rains since your departure. These make
me fear for your health, as well as that you had an uncomfortable
journey. The same cause has prevented me from being able to give you
any account of your friends here. This voyage to Fontainebleau will
probably send the Count de Moustier & the Marquise de Brehan to
America. Danquerville promised to visit me, but has not done it as
yet. De la Tude comes sometimes to take family soup with me, &
entertains me with anecdotes of his five & thirty years imprisonment.
How fertile is the mind of man which can make the Bastile & Dungeon
of Vincennes yield interesting anecdotes! You know this was for
making four verses on Mme de Pompadour. But I think you told me you
did not know the verses. They were these: _"Sans esprit, sans
sentiment, Sans etre belle, ni neuve, En France on peut avoir le
premier amant: Pompadour en est l' epreuve."_ I have read the memoir
of his three escapes. As to myself my health is good, except my
wrist which mends slowly, & my mind which mends not at all, but
broods constantly over your departure. The lateness of the season
obliges me to decline my journey into the south of France. Present
me in the most friendly terms to Mr. Cosway, & receive me into your
own recollection with a partiality & a warmth, proportioned, not to
my own poor merit, but to the sentiments of sincere affection &
esteem with which I have the honour to be, my dear Madam, your most
obedient humble servant.
HOMER, NEW JERSEY FARMERS, AND THE WHEEL
_To St. John de Crevecoeur_
_Paris, January 15, 1787_
DEAR SIR, -- I see by the Journal of this morning, that they
are robbing us of another of our inventions to give it to the
English. The writer, indeed, only admits them to have revived what
he thinks was known to the Greeks, that is, the making the
circumference of a wheel of one single piece. The farmers in New
Jersey were the first who practised it, and they practised it
commonly. Dr. Franklin, in one of his trips to London, mentioned
this practice to the man now in London, who has the patent for making
those wheels. The idea struck him. The Doctor promised to go to his
shop, and assist him in trying to make the wheel of one piece. The
Jersey farmers do it by cutting a young sapling, and bending it,
while green and juicy, into a circle; and leaving it so until it
becomes perfectly seasoned. But in London there are no saplings.
The difficulty was, then, to give to old wood the pliancy of young.
The Doctor and the workman labored together some weeks, and
succeeded; and the man obtained a patent for it, which has made his
fortune. I was in his shop in London, he told me the whole story
himself, and acknowledged, not only the origin of the idea, but how
much the assistance of Dr. Franklin had contributed to perform the
operation on dry wood. He spoke of him with love and gratitude. I
think I have had a similar account from Dr. Franklin, but cannot be
quite certain. I know, that being in Philadelphia when the first set
of patent wheels arrived from London, and were spoken of by the
gentleman (an Englishman) who brought them, as a wonderful discovery,
the idea of its being a new discovery was laughed at by the
Philadelphians, who, in their Sunday parties across the Delaware, had
seen every farmer's cart mounted on such wheels. The writer in the
paper, supposes the English workman got his idea from Homer. But it
is more likely the Jersey farmer got his idea from thence, because
ours are the only farmers who can read Homer; because, too, the
Jersey practice is precisely that stated by Homer: the English
practice very different. Homer's words are (comparing a young hero
killed by Ajax to a poplar felled by a workman) literally thus: `He
fell on the ground, like a poplar, which has grown smooth, in the
west part of a great meadow; with its branches shooting from its
summit. But the chariot maker, with his sharp axe, has felled it,
that he may bend a wheel for a beautiful chariot. It lies drying on
the banks of the river.' Observe the circumstances which coincide
with the Jersey practice. 1. It is a tree growing in a moist place,
full of juices and easily bent. 2. It is cut while green. 3. It is
bent into the circumference of a wheel. 4. It is left to dry in that
form. You, who write French well and readily, should write a line
for the Journal, to reclaim the honor of our farmers. Adieu. Yours
affectionately,
"THE PEOPLE ARE THE ONLY CENSORS . . ."
_To Edward Carrington_
_Paris, Jan. 16, 1787_
DEAR SIR, -- Uncertain whether you might be at New York at the
moment of Colo. Franks's arrival, I have inclosed my private letters
for Virginia under cover to our delegation in general, which
otherwise I would have taken the liberty to inclose particularly to
you, as best acquainted with the situation of the persons to whom
they are addressed. Should this find you at New York, I will still
ask your attention to them. The two large packages addressed to
Colo. N. Lewis contain seeds, not valuable enough to pay passage, but
which I would wish to be sent by the stage, or any similar quick
conveyance. The letters to Colo. Lewis & Mr. Eppes (who take care of
my affairs) are particularly interesting to me. The package for
Colo. Richd. Cary our judge of Admiralty near Hampton, contains seeds
& roots, not to be sent by Post. Whether they had better go by the
stage, or by water, you will be the best judge. I beg your pardon
for giving you this trouble. But my situation & your goodness will I
hope excuse it. In my letter to Mr. Jay, I have mentioned the
meeting of the Notables appointed for the 29th inst. It is now put
off to the 7th or 8th of next month. This event, which will hardly
excite any attention in America, is deemed here the most important
one which has taken place in their civil line during the present
century. Some promise their country great things from it, some
nothing. Our friend de La Fayette was placed on the list originally.
Afterwards his name disappeared; but finally was reinstated. This
shews that his character here is not considered as an indifferent
one; and that it excites agitation. His education in our school has
drawn on him a very jealous eye from a court whose principles are the
most absolute despotism. But I hope he has nearly passed his crisis.
The King, who is a good man, is favorably disposed towards him: & he
is supported by powerful family connections, & by the public good
will. He is the youngest man of the Notables except one whose office
placed him on the list.
The Count de Vergennes has within these ten days had a very
severe attack of what is deemed an unfixed gout. He has been well
enough however to do business to-day. But anxieties for him are not
yet quieted. He is a great & good minister, and an accident to him
might endanger the peace of Europe.
The tumults in America, I expected would have produced in
Europe an unfavorable opinion of our political state. But it has
not. On the contrary, the small effect of these tumults seems to
have given more confidence in the firmness of our governments. The
interposition of the people themselves on the side of government has
had a great effect on the opinion here. I am persuaded myself that
the good sense of the people will always be found to be the best
army. They may be led astray for a moment, but will soon correct
themselves. The people are the only censors of their governors: and
even their errors will tend to keep these to the true principles of
their institution. To punish these errors too severely would be to
suppress the only safeguard of the public liberty. The way to
prevent these irregular interpositions of the people is to give them
full information of their affairs thro' the channel of the public
papers, & to contrive that those papers should penetrate the whole
mass of the people. The basis of our governments being the opinion
of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right;
and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government
without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not
hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But I should mean that every
man should receive those papers & be capable of reading them. I am
convinced that those societies (as the Indians) which live without
government enjoy in their general mass an infinitely greater degree
of happiness than those who live under the European governments.
Among the former, public opinion is in the place of law, & restrains
morals as powerfully as laws ever did anywhere. Among the latter,
under pretence of governing they have divided their nations into two
classes, wolves & sheep. I do not exaggerate. This is a true
picture of Europe. Cherish therefore the spirit of our people, and
keep alive their attention. Do not be too severe upon their errors,
but reclaim them by enlightening them. If once they become
inattentive to the public affairs, you & I, & Congress & Assemblies,
judges & governors shall all become wolves. It seems to be the law
of our general nature, in spite of individual exceptions; and
experience declares that man is the only animal which devours his own
kind, for I can apply no milder term to the governments of Europe,
and to the general prey of the rich on the poor. The want of news
has led me into disquisition instead of narration, forgetting you
have every day enough of that. I shall be happy to hear from you
sometimes, only observing that whatever passes thro' the post is
read, & that when you write what should be read by myself only, you
must be so good as to confide your letter to some passenger or
officer of the packet. I will ask your permission to write to you
sometimes, and to assure you of the esteem & respect with which I
have honour to be Dear Sir your most obedient & most humble servt.
REBELLION, SECESSION, AND DIPLOMACY
_To James Madison_
_Paris, Jan. 30, 1787_
DEAR SIR, -- My last to you was of the 16th of Dec, since which
I have received yours of Nov 25, & Dec 4, which afforded me, as your
letters always do, a treat on matters public, individual &
oeconomical. I am impatient to learn your sentiments on the late
troubles in the Eastern states. So far as I have yet seen, they do
not appear to threaten serious consequences. Those states have
suffered by the stoppage of the channels of their commerce, which
have not yet found other issues. This must render money scarce, and
make the people uneasy. This uneasiness has produced acts absolutely
unjustifiable; but I hope they will provoke no severities from their
governments. A consciousness of those in power that their
administration of the public affairs has been honest, may perhaps
produce too great a degree of indignation: and those characters
wherein fear predominates over hope may apprehend too much from these
instances of irregularity. They may conclude too hastily that nature
has formed man insusceptible of any other government but that of
force, a conclusion not founded in truth, nor experience. Societies
exist under three forms sufficiently distinguishable. 1. Without
government, as among our Indians. 2. Under governments wherein the
will of every one has a just influence, as is the case in England in
a slight degree, and in our states, in a great one. 3. Under
governments of force: as is the case in all other monarchies and in
most of the other republics. To have an idea of the curse of
existence under these last, they must be seen. It is a government of
wolves over sheep. It is a problem, not clear in my mind, that the
1st condition is not the best. But I believe it to be inconsistent
with any great degree of population. The second state has a great
deal of good in it. The mass of mankind under that enjoys a precious
degree of liberty & happiness. It has it's evils too: the principal
of which is the turbulence to which it is subject. But weigh this
against the oppressions of monarchy, and it becomes nothing. _Malo
periculosam libertatem quam quietam servitutem_. Even this evil is
productive of good. It prevents the degeneracy of government, and
nourishes a general attention to the public affairs. I hold it that a
little rebellion now and then is a good thing, & as necessary in the
political world as storms in the physical. Unsuccessful rebellions
indeed generally establish the encroachments on the rights of the
people which have produced them. An observation of this truth should
render honest republican governors so mild in their punishment of
rebellions, as not to discourage them too much. It is a medicine
necessary for the sound health of government. If these transactions
give me no uneasiness, I feel very differently at another piece of
intelligence, to wit, the possibility that the navigation of the
Mississippi may be abandoned to Spain. I never had any interest
Westward of the Alleghaney; & I never will have any. But I have had
great opportunities of knowing the character of the people who
inhabit that country. And I will venture to say that the act which
abandons the navigation of the Mississippi is an act of separation
between the Eastern & Western country. It is a relinquishment of
five parts out of eight of the territory of the United States, an
abandonment of the fairest subject for the paiment of our public
debts, & the chaining those debts on our own necks _in perpetuum_. I
have the utmost confidence in the honest intentions of those who
concur in this measure; but I lament their want of acquaintance with
the character & physical advantages of the people who, right or
wrong, will suppose their interests sacrificed on this occasion to
the contrary interests of that part of the confederacy in possession
of present power. If they declare themselves a separate people, we
are incapable of a single effort to retain them. Our citizens can
never be induced, either as militia or as souldiers, to go there to
cut the throats of their own brothers & sons, or rather to be
themselves the subjects instead of the perpetrators of the parricide.
Nor would that country requite the cost of being retained against the
will of it's inhabitants, could it be done. But it cannot be done.
They are able already to rescue the navigation of the Mississippi out
of the hands of Spain, & to add New Orleans to their own territory.
They will be joined by the inhabitants of Louisiana. This will bring
on a war between them & Spain; and that will produce the question
with us whether it will not be worth our while to become parties with
them in the war, in order to reunite them with us, & thus correct our
error? & were I to permit my forebodings to go one step further, I
should predict that the inhabitants of the U S would force their
rulers to take the affirmative of that question. I wish I may be
mistaken in all these opinions.
We have for some time expected that the Chevalier de la Luzerne
would obtain a promotion in the diplomatic line, by being appointed
to some of the courts where this country keeps an ambassador. But
none of the vacancies taking place which had been counted on, I think
the present disposition is to require his return to his station in
America. He told me himself lately, that he should return in the
spring. I have never pressed this matter on the court, tho' I knew
it to be desirable and desired on our part; because if the compulsion
on him to return had been the work of Congress, he would have
returned in such ill temper with them, as to disappoint them in the
good they expected from it. He would forever have laid at their door
his failure of promotion. I did not press it for another reason,
which is that I have great reason to believe that the character of
the Count de Moustier, who would go were the Chevalier to be
otherwise provided for, would give the most perfect satisfaction in
America.
As you are now returned into Congress it will become of
importance that you should form a just estimate of certain public
characters: on which therefore I will give you such notes as my
knolege of them has furnished me with. You will compare them with
the materials you are otherwise possessed of, and decide on a view of
the whole. You know the opinion I _formerly_ entertained of _my
friend Mr_. _Adams_. Yourself & the governor were the first who
_shook_ that opinion. I afterwards saw proofs which _convicted him_
of a degree of _vanity_, and of a _blindness_ to it, of which no germ
_had appeared_ in Congress. A 7-_month's_ intimacy with him _here_
and _as_ many _weeks_ in _London_ have given me opportunities of
studying him closely. _He is vain,_ _irritable and a bad calculator
of_ the force & probable effect of the motives which govern men.
This is _all_ the _ill_ which can possibly be _said of him_. He is
as disinterested as the being which made him: he is profound in his
views: and accurate in his judgment _except where knowledge of the
world_ is necessary to form a judgment. He is so amiable, that I
pronounce you will love him, if ever you become acquainted with him.
He would be, as he was, a great man in _Congress_. _Mr_.
_Carmichael_, is, I think, very little _known_ in _America_. I never
_saw him_, & while I was _in Congress I_ formed rather a
_disadvantageous idea_ of him. His letters, received then, showed
him _vain_, & more attentive to _ceremony & etiquette_ than we
suppose men _of sense_ should be. _I_ have now a constant
correspondence with him, and find _him_ a little _hypochondriac_ and
_discontented_. He possesses very _good understanding_, tho' not of
the _first order_. _I have_ had great opportunities of _searching
into_ his _character_, and have availed myself _of them_. Many
persons of different nations, _coming_ from _Madrid_ to _Paris_, all
speak of _him as_ in _high esteem_, & _I think_ it certain that he
has more of the _Count de Florida Blanca's friendship_, than any
_diplomatic_ character at _that court_. As long as this _minister_
is in _office_, _Carmichael_ can do _more than_ any other _person
who_ could be _sent there_. You will see _Franks_, _and_ doubtless
he will be _asking some appointment_. I wish there may be any one
for _which_ he is _fit_. He is _light, indiscreet, active, honest,
affectionate_. Tho' _Bingham_ is not in _diplomatic office_, yet as
he wishes to be so, I will mention such circumstances of _him_, _as
you might_ otherwise be _deceived in_. _He will_ make _you believe
he_ was on the most intimate footing with the first _characters in
Europe_, & versed in the _secrets_ of every _cabinet_. Not a word of
this _is true_. _He_ had a rage for being _presented_ to _great
men_, & had no _modesty_ in the methods by which he could if _he
attained acquaintance_. Afterwards it was with such 90 who were
susceptible of impression from the _beauty of his wife_. I must
_except_ the Marquis de Bonclearren who had been an _old
acquaintance_.
The _Marquis de La Fayette_ is a most valuable _auxiliary to
me_. His _zeal_ is unbounded, & his _weight_ with those in _power_,
_great_. His _education_ having been merely _military_, _commerce_
was an unknown field to him. But his good sense enabling him to
_comprehend_ perfectly whatever is _explained to him_, _his agency_
has been very _efficacious_. _He_ has a great deal of _sound
genius_, is well _remarked_ by the _King_, & rising in _popularity_.
_He_ has nothing against _him_, _but_ the _suspicion_ of _republican
principles_. I think he will one day _be of_ the _ministry_. His
foible is, a _canine appetite for popularity and fame_; but he will
get _above_ this. _The Count de Vergennes_ is _ill_. The
possibility of his _recovery_, renders it dangerous for _us to
express a doubt of it: but_ he is _in danger_. He is _a great
minister_ in _European affairs_, but has very _imperfect ideas_ of
_our institutions_, _and no confidence in_ them. His _devotion_ to
the principles of _pure despotism_, renders him _unaffectionate to
our governments_. But _his fear_ of _England makes him value us_ as
a _make weight_. He is _cool, reserved in political conversations,
but free and familiar_ on other _subjects_, and a very _attentive,
agreeable person_ to _do business with_. It is _impossible_ to have
a clearer, better _organized head_; but _age_ has _chilled his
heart_. Nothing should be spared, on our part, to attach this
country to us. It is the only one on which we can rely for support,
under every event. Its inhabitants love us more, I think, than they
do any other nation on earth. This is very much the effect of the
good dispositions with which the French officers returned. In a
former letter, I mentioned to you the dislocation of my wrist. I can
make not the least use of it, except for the single article of
writing, though it is going on five months since the accident
happened. I have great anxieties, lest I should never recover any
considerable use of it. I shall, by the advice of my surgeons, set
out in a fortnight for the waters of Aix, in Provence. I chose these
out of several they proposed to me, because if they fail to be
effectual, my journey will not be useless altogether. It will give
me an opportunity of examining the canal of Languedoc, and of
acquiring knowledge of that species of navigation, which may be
useful hereafter; but more immediately, it will enable me to make the
tour of the ports concerned in commerce with us, to examine, on the
spot, the defects of the late regulations respecting our commerce, to
learn the further improvements which may be made in it, and on my
return, to get this business finished. I shall be absent between two
and three months, unless anything happens to recall me here sooner,
which may always be effected in ten days, in whatever part of my
route I may be. In speaking _of characters_, I omitted _those of
Reyneval and Hennin_, the _two eyes_ of _Count de Vergennes_. The
_former_ is the most important _character_, _because possessing_ the
most of the _confidence_ of the _Count_. _He_ is rather _cunning_
than _wise_, his views of things being neither _great_ nor _liberal_.
_He governs_ himself by _principles_ which he has _learned_ by
_rote_, and is _fit only_ for the _details_ of _execution_. _His
heart_ is susceptible of little _passions_ but not of _good ones_.
_He_ is _brother_-_in_-_law_ to _M_. _Gerard_, from whom he received
_disadvantageous impressions_ of _us_, _which_ cannot be _effaced_.
_He_ has much _duplicity_. _Hennin_ is a _philosopher, sincere,
friendly, liberal, learned, beloved_ by everybody; the _other_ by
_nobody_. I _think_ it a great _misfortune_ that the _United States_
are in the _department_ of the _former_. As particulars of this kind
may be useful to you, in your present situation, I may hereafter
continue the chapter. I know it will be safely lodged in your
discretion.
Feb. 5. Since writing thus far, _Franks_ is _returned_ from
_England_. _I learn_ that _Mr_. _Adams_ desires to be _recalled_, &
that _Smith_ should be _appointed charge des affaires_ there. It is
not for me to decide whether any _diplomatic character_ should be
_kept_ at a _court_, which _keeps_ none with _us_. You can judge of
_Smith's_ abilities by _his letters_. They are not of the _first
order_, but they are _good_. For his _honesty_, he is like our
friend _Monroe_; turn his _soul_ wrong side outwards, and there is
not a speck on it. _He_ has one _foible_, an _excessive
inflammability_ of _temper_, but he feels it when it comes on, and
has _resolution enough_ to _suppress_ it, and to _remain silent_ till
it _passes_ over.
I send you by Colo. Franks, your pocket telescope, walking
stick & chemical box. The two former could not be combined together.
The latter could not be had in the form you referred to. Having a
great desire to have a portable copying machine, & being satisfied
from some experiments that the principle of the large machine might
be applied in a small one, I planned one when in England & had it
made. It answers perfectly. I have since set a workman to making
them here, & they are in such demand that he has his hands full.
Being assured that you will be pleased to have one, when you shall
have tried it's convenience, I send you one by Colo. Franks. The
machine costs 96 livres, the appendages 24 livres, and I send you
paper & ink for 12 livres; in all 132 livres. There is a printed
paper of directions; but you must expect to make many essays before
you succeed perfectly. A soft brush, like a shaving brush, is more
convenient than the sponge. You can get as much ink & paper as you
please from London. The paper costs a guinea a ream.
"THE EMPTY BUSTLE OF PARIS"
_To Anne Willing Bingham_
_Paris, February 7, 1787_
I know, Madam, that the twelve month is not yet expired; but it
will be, nearly, before this will have the honor of being put into
your hands. You are then engaged to tell me, truly and honestly,
whether you do not find the tranquil pleasures of America, preferable
to the empty bustle of Paris. For to what does that bustle tend? At
eleven o'clock, it is day, _chez madame_. The curtains are drawn.
Propped on bolsters and pillows, and her head scratched into a little
order, the bulletins of the sick are read, and the billets of the
well. She writes to some of her acquaintance, and receives the
visits of others. If the morning is not very thronged, she is able
to get out and hobble round the cage of the Palais royal; but she
must hobble quickly, for the _coeffeur's_ turn is come; and a
tremendous turn it is! Happy, if he does not make her arrive when
dinner is half over! The torpitude of digestion a little passed, she
flutters half an hour through the streets, by way of paying visits,
and then to the spectacles. These finished, another half hour is
devoted to dodging in and out of the doors of her very sincere
friends, and away to supper. After supper, cards; and after cards,
bed; to rise at noon the next day, and to tread, like a mill horse,
the same trodden circle over again. Thus the days of life are
consumed, one by one, without an object beyond the present moment;
ever flying from the ennui of that, yet carrying it with us;
eternally in pursuit of happiness, which keeps eternally before us.
If death or bankruptcy happen to trip us out of the circle, it is
matter for the buz of the evening, and is completely forgotten by the
next morning. In America, on the other hand, the society of your
husband, the fond cares for the children, the arrangements of the
house, the improvements of the grounds, fill every moment with a
healthy and an useful activity. Every exertion is encouraging,
because to present amusement, it joins the promise of some future
good. The intervals of leisure are filled by the society of real
friends, whose affections are not thinned to cob-web, by being spread
over a thousand objects. This is the picture, in the light it is
presented to my mind; now let me have it in yours. If we do not
concur this year, we shall the next; or if not then, in a year or two
more. You see I am determined not to suppose myself mistaken.
To let you see that Paris is not changed in its pursuits, since
it was honored with your presence, I send you its monthly history.
But this relating only to the embellishments of their persons, I must
add, that those of the city go on well also. A new bridge, for
example, is begun at the Place Louis Quinze; the old ones are
clearing of the rubbish which encumbered them in the form of houses;
new hospitals erecting; magnificent walls of inclosure, and Custom
houses at their entrances, &c. &c. &c. I know of no interesting
change among those whom you honored with your acquaintance, unless
Monsieur de Saint James was of that number. His bankruptcy, and
taking asylum in the Bastile, have furnished matter of aston-ishment.
His garden, at the Pont de Neuilly, where, on seventeen acres of
ground he had laid out fifty thousand louis, will probably sell for
somewhat less money. The workmen of Paris are making rapid strides
towards English perfection. Would you believe, that in the course of
the last two years, they have learned even to surpass their London
rivals in some articles? Commission me to have you a phaeton made,
and if it is not as much handsomer than a London one, as that is than
a Fiacre, send it back to me. Shall I fill the box with caps,
bonnets, &c.? Not of my own choosing, but -- I was going to say, of
Mademoiselle Bertin's, forgetting for the moment, that she too is
bankrupt. They shall be chosen then by whom you please; or, if you
are altogether nonplused by her eclipse, we will call an Assemblee
des Notables, to help you out of the difficulty, as is now the
fashion. In short, honor me with your commands of any kind, and they
shall be faithfully executed. The packets now established from Havre
to New York, furnish good opportunities of sending whatever you wish.
I shall end where I began, like a Paris day, reminding you of
your engagement to write me a letter of respectable length, an
engagement the more precious to me, as it has furnished me the
occasion, after presenting my respects to Mr. Bingham, of assuring
you of the sincerity of those senti-ments of esteem and respect, with
which I have the honor to be, Dear Madam, your most obedient and most
humble servant,
"A LITTLE REBELLION NOW AND THEN"
_To Abigail Adams_
_Paris, Feb. 22, 1787_
DEAR MADAM -- I am to acknolege the honor of your letter of
Jan. 29. and of the papers you were so good as to send me. They were
the latest I had seen or have yet seen. They left off too in a
critical moment; just at the point where the Malcontents make their
submission on condition of pardon, and before the answer of
government was known. I hope they pardoned them. The spirit of
resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I
wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when
wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all. I like a
little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the Atmosphere.
It is wonderful that no letter or paper tells us who is president of
Congress, tho' there are letters in Paris to the beginning of
January. I suppose I shall hear when I come back from my journey,
which will be eight months after he will have been chosen. And yet
they complain of us for not giving them intelligence. Our Notables
assembled to-day, and I hope before the departure of Mr. Cairnes I
shall have heard something of their proceedings worth communicating
to Mr. Adams. The most remarkeable effect of this convention as yet
is the number of puns and bon mots it has generated. I think were
they all collected it would make a more voluminous work than the
Encyclopedie. This occasion, more than any thing I have seen,
convinces me that this nation is incapable of any serious effort but
under the word of command. The people at large view every object
only as it may furnish puns and bon mots; and I pronounce that a good
punster would disarm the whole nation were they ever so seriously
disposed to revolt. Indeed, Madam, they are gone. When a measure so
capable of doing good as the calling the Notables is treated with so
much ridicule, we may conclude the nation desperate, and in charity
pray that heaven may send them good kings. -- The bridge at the
place Louis XV. is begun. The hotel dieu is to be abandoned and new
ones to be built. The old houses on the old bridges are in a course
of demolition. This is all I know of Paris. We are about to lose
the Count d'Aranda, who has desired and obtained his recall. Fernand
Nunnez, before destined for London is to come here. The Abbes Arnoux
and Chalut are well. The Dutchess Danville somewhat recovered from
the loss of her daughter. Mrs. Barrett very homesick, and fancying
herself otherwise sick. They will probably remove to Honfleur. This
is all our news. I have only to add then that Mr. Cairnes has taken
charge of 15. aunes of black lace for you at 9 livres the aune,
purchased by Petit and therefore I hope better purchased than some
things have been for you; and that I am with sincere esteem Dear
Madam your affectionate humble servt.,
THE MAISON CARREE
_To Madame de Tesse_
_Nismes, March 20, 1787_
Here I am, Madam, gazing whole hours at the Maison quarree,
like a lover at his mistress. The stocking weavers and silk spinners
around it, consider me as a hypochondriac Englishman, about to write
with a pistol, the last chapter of his history. This is the second
time I have been in love since I left Paris. The first was with a
Diana at the Chateau de Laye-Epinaye in Beaujolois, a delicious
morsel of sculpture, by M. A. Slodtz. This, you will say, was a
rule, to fall in love with a female beauty: but with a house! It is
out of all precedent. No, Madam, it is not without a precedent, in
my own history. While in Paris, I was violently smitten with the
Hotel de Salm, and used to go to the Thuileries almost daily, to look
at it. The _loueuse des chaises_, inattentive to my passion, never
had the complaisance to place a chair there, so that sitting on the
parapet, and twisting my neck round to see the object of my
admiration, I generally left it with a _torti_-_colli_.
From Lyons to Nismes I have been nourished with the remains of
Roman grandeur. They have always brought you to my mind, because I
know your affection for whatever is Roman and noble. At Vienne I
thought of you. But I am glad you were not there; for you would have
seen me more angry than, I hope, you will ever see me. The
Praetorian palace, as it is called, comparable, for its fine
proportions, to the Maison quarree, defaced by the barbarians who
have converted it to its present purpose, its beautiful fluted
Corinthian columns cut out, in part, to make space for Gothic
windows, and hewed down, in the residue, to the plane of the
building, was enough, you must admit, to disturb my composure. At
Orange too, I thought of you. I was sure you had seen with pleasure,
the sublime triumphal arch of Marius at the entrance of the city. I
went then to the Arenae. Would you believe, Madam, that in this
eighteenth century, in France, under the reign of Louis XVI. they are
at this momont pulling down the circular wall of this superb remain,
to pave a road? And that too from a hill which is itself an entire
mass of stone, just as fit, and more accessible? A former intendant,
a M. de Basville has rendered his memory dear to the traveller and
amateur, by the pains he took to preserve and restore these monuments
of antiquity. The present one (I do not know who he is) is
demolishing the object, to make a good road to it. I thought of you
again, and I was then in great good humor, at the Pont du Gard, a
sublime antiquity, and well preserved. But most of all here, where
Roman taste, genius and magnificence, excite ideas analogous to yours
at every step. I could no longer oppose the inclination to avail
myself of your permission to write to you, a permission given with
too much complaisance by you, and used by me, with too much
indiscretion. Madame de Tott did me the same honor. But she, being
only the descendant of some of those puny heroes who boiled their own
kettles before the walls of Troy, I shall write to her from a
Grecian, rather than a Roman canton: when I shall find myself, for
example among her Phocaean relations at Marseilles.
Loving, as you do madam, the precious remains of antiquity,
loving architecture, gardening, a warm sun and a clear sky, I wonder
you have never thought of moving Chaville to Nismes. This, as you
know, has not always been deemed impracticable; and therefore, the
next time a _Sur-intendant des batiments du roi_, after the example
of M. Colbert, sends persons to Nismes to move the Maison quarree to
Paris, that they may not come empty handed, desire them to bring
Chaville with them, to replace it. A propos of Paris. I have now
been three weeks from there, without knowing any thing of what has
passed. I suppose I shall meet it all at Aix, where I have directed
my letters to be lodged, _poste restante_. My journey has given me
leisure to reflect on this Assemblee des Notables. Under a good and
a young King, as the present, I think good may be made of it. I
would have the deputies then, by all means, so conduct themselves as
to encourage him to repeat the calls of this Assembly. Their first
step should be, to get themselves divided into two chambers instead
of seven; the Noblesse and the Commons separately. The second, to
persuade the King, instead of choosing the deputies of the Commons
himself, to summon those chosen by the people for the Provincial
administrations. The third, as the Noblesse is too numerous to be
all of the Assemblee, to obtain permission for that body to choose
its own deputies. Two Houses, so elected, would contain a mass of
wisdom which would make the people happy, and the King great; would
place him in history where no other act can possibly place him. They
would thus put themselves in the track of the best guide they can
follow, they would soon overtake it, become its guide in turn, and
lead to the wholesome modifications wanting in that model, and
necessary to constitute a rational government. Should they attempt
more than the established habits of the people are ripe for, they may
lose all, and retard indefinitely the ultimate object of their aim.
These, Madam, are my opinions; but I wish to know yours, which, I am
sure, will be better.
From a correspondent at Nismes, you will not expect news. Were
I to attempt to give you news, I should tell you stories one thousand
years old. I should detail to you the intrigues of the courts of the
Caesars, how they affect us here, the oppressions of their praetors,
prefects, &c. I am immersed in antiquities from morning to night.
For me, the city of Rome is actually existing in all the splendor of
its empire. I am filled with alarms for the event of the irruptions
daily making on us, by the Goths, the Visigoths, Ostrogoths, and
Vandals, lest they should re-conquer us to our original barbarism.
If I am sometimes induced to look forward to the eighteenth century,
it is only when recalled to it by the recollection of your goodness
and friendship, and by those sentiments of sincere esteem and
respect, with which I have the honor to be, Madam, your most obedient
and most humble servant,
THE REWARDS OF TRAVEL
_To Lafayette_
_Nice, April 11, 1787_
Your head, my dear friend, is full of Notable things; and being
better employed, therefore, I do not expect letters from you. I am
constantly roving about, to see what I have never seen before, and
shall never see again. In the great cities, I go to see what
travellers think alone worthy of being seen; but I make a job of it,
and generally gulp it all down in a day. On the other hand, I am
never satiated with rambling through the fields and farms, examining
the culture and cultivators, with a degree of curiosity which makes
some take me to be a fool, and others to be much wiser than I am. I
have been pleased to find among the people a less degree of physical
misery than I had expected. They are generally well clothed, and
have a plenty of food, not animal indeed, but vegetable, which is as
wholesome. Perhaps they are over worked, the excess of the rent
required by the landlord, obliging them to too many hours of labor in
order to produce that, and where-with to feed and clothe themselves.
The soil of Champagne and Burgundy I have found more universally good
than I had expected, and as I could not help making a comparison with
England, I found that comparison more unfavorable to the latter than
is generally admitted. The soil, the climate, and the productions
are superior to those of England, and the husbandry as good, except
in one point; that of manure. In England, long leases for twenty-one
years, or three lives, to wit, that of the farmer, his wife, and son,
renewed by the son as soon as he comes to the possession, for his own
life, his wife's and eldest child's, and so on, render the farms
there almost hereditary, make it worth the farmer's while to manure
the lands highly, and give the landlord an opportunity of
occasionally making his rent keep pace with the improved state of the
lands. Here the leases are either during pleasure, or for three,
six, or nine years, which does not give the farmer time to repay
himself for the expensive operation of well manuring, and therefore,
he manures ill, or not at all. I suppose, that could the practice of
leasing for three lives be introduced in the whole kingdom, it would,
within the term of your life, increase agricultural productions fifty
per cent; or were any one proprietor to do it with his own lands, it
would increase his rents fifty per cent, in the course of twenty-five
years. But I am told the laws do not permit it. The laws then, in
this particular, are unwise and unjust, and ought to give that
permission. In the southern provinces, where the soil is poor, the
climate hot and dry, and there are few animals, they would learn the
art, found so precious in England, of making vegetable manure, and
thus improving these provinces in the article in which nature has
been least kind to them. Indeed, these provinces afford a singular
spectacle. Calculating on the poverty of their soil, and their
climate by its latitude only, they should have been the poorest in
France. On the contrary, they are the richest, from one fortuitous
circumstance. Spurs or ramifications of high mountains, making down
from the Alps, and as it were, reticulating these provinces, give to
the vallies the protection of a particular inclosure to each, and the
benefit of a general stagnation of the northern winds produced by the
whole of them, and thus countervail the advantage of several degrees
of latitude. From the first olive fields of Pierrelatte, to the
orangeries of Hieres, has been continued rapture to me. I have often
wished for you. I think you have not made this journey. It is a
pleasure you have to come, and an improvement to be added to the many
you have already made. It will be a great comfort to you, to know,
from your own inspection, the condition of all the provinces of your
own country, and it will be interesting to them at some future day,
to be known to you. This is, perhaps, the only moment of your life
in which you can acquire that knowledge. And to do it most
effectually, you must be absolutely incognito, you must ferret the
people out of their hovels as I have done, look into their kettles,
eat their bread, loll on their beds under pretence of resting
yourself, but in fact to find if they are soft. You will feel a
sublime pleasure in the course of this investigation, and a sublimer
one hereafter, when you shall be able to apply your knowledge to the
softening of their beds, or the throwing a morsel of meat into their
kettle of vegetables.
You will not wonder at the subjects of my letter: they are the
only ones which have been presented to my mind for some time past;
and the waters must always be what are the fountains from which they
flow. According to this, indeed, I should have intermixed, from
beginning to end, warm expressions of friendship to you. But,
according to the ideas of our country, we do not permit ourselves to
speak even truths, when they may have the air of flattery. I content
myself, therefore, with saying once for all, that I love you, your
wife and children. Tell them so, and adieu.
Yours affectionately,
"THE GRAND RECIPE FOR FELICITY"
_To Martha Jefferson_
_May 21, 1787_
I write to you, my dear Patsy, from the Canal of Languedoc, on
which I am at present sailing, as I have been for a week past,
cloudless skies above, limpid waters below, and find on each hand a
row of nightingales in full chorus. This delightful bird had given
me a rich treat before at the fountain of Vaucluse. After visiting
the tomb of Laura at Avignon, I went to see this fountain, a noble
one of itself, and rendered for ever famous by the songs of Petrarch
who lived near it. I arrived there somewhat fatigued, and sat down
by the fountain to repose myself. It gushes, of the size of a river,
from a secluded valley of the mountain, the ruins of Petrarch's
chateau being perched on a rock 200 feet perpendicular above. To add
to the enchantment of the scene, every tree and bush was filled with
nightingales in full song. I think you told me you had not yet
noticed this bird. As you have trees in the garden of the convent,
there must be nightingales in them, and this is the season of their
song. Endeavor my dear, to make yourself acquainted with the music
of this bird, that when you return to your own country you may be
able to estimate it's merit in comparison with that of the mocking
bird. The latter has the advantage of singing thro' a great part of
the year, whereas the nightingale sings but about 5. or 6 weeks in
the spring, and a still shorter term and with a more feeble voice in
the fall. I expect to be at Paris about the middle of next month.
By that time we may begin to expect our dear Polly. It will be a
circumstance of inexpressible comfort to me to have you both with me
once more. The object most interesting to me for the residue of my
life, will be to see you both developing daily those principles of
virtue and goodness which will make you valuable to others and happy
in yourselves, and acquiring those talents and that degree of science
which will guard you at all times against ennui, the most dangerous
poison of life. A mind always employed is always happy. This is the
true secret, the grand recipe for felicity. The idle are the only
wretched. In a world which furnishes so many emploiments which are
useful, and so many which are amusing, it is our own fault if we ever
know what ennui is, or if we are ever driven to the miserable
resource of gaming, which corrupts our dispositions, and teaches us a
habit of hostility against all mankind. We are now entering the port
of Toulouse, where I quit my bark; and of course must conclude my
letter. Be good and be industrious, and you will be what I shall
most love in the world. Adieu my dear child. Yours affectionately,
AFFAIRS OF DIPLOMACY
_To John Adams_
_Paris, July 1, 1787_
DEAR SIR -- I returned about three weeks ago from a very
useless voiage. Useless, I mean, as to the object which first
suggested it, that of trying the effect of the mineral waters of Aix
en Provence on my hand. I tried these because recommended among six
or eight others as equally beneficial, and because they would place
me at the beginning of a tour to the seaports of Marseilles,
Bourdeaux, Nantes and Lorient which I had long meditated, in hopes
that a knowlege of the places and persons concerned in our commerce
and the information to be got from them might enable me sometimes to
be useful. I had expected to satisfy myself at Marseilles of the
causes of the difference of quality between the rice of Carolina and
that of Piedmont which is brought in quantities to Marseilles. Not
being able to do it, I made an excursion of three weeks into the rice
country beyond the Alps, going through it from Vercelli to Pavia
about 60 miles. I found the difference to be, not in the management
as had been supposed both here and in Carolina, but in the species of
rice, and I hope to enable them in Carolina to begin the Cultivation
of the Piedmont rice and carry it on hand in hand with their own that
they may supply both qualities, which is absolutely necessary at this
market. I had before endeavored to lead the depot of rice from Cowes
to Honfleur and hope to get it received there on such terms as may
draw that branch of commerce from England to this country. It is an
object of 250,000 guineas a year. While passing thro' the towns of
Turin, Milan and Genoa, I satisfied myself of the practicability of
introducing our whale oil for their consumption and I suppose it
would be equally so in the other great cities of that country. I was
sorry that I was not authorized to set the matter on foot. The
merchants with whom I chose to ask conferences, met me freely, and
communicated fully, knowing I was in a public character. I could
however only prepare a disposition to meet our oil merchants. On the
article of tobacco I was more in possession of my ground, and put
matters into a train for inducing their government to draw their
tobaccos directly from the U.S. and not as heretofore from G.B. I am
now occupied with the new ministry here to put the concluding hand to
the new regulations for our commerce with this country, announced in
the letter of M. de Calonnes which I sent you last fall. I am in
hopes in addition to those, to obtain a suppression of the duties on
Tar, pitch, and turpentine, and an extension of the privileges of
American _whale_ oil, to their _fish_ oils in general. I find that
the quantity of Codfish oil brought to Lorient is considerable. This
being got off hand (which will be in a few days) the chicaneries and
vexations of the farmers on the article of tobacco, and their
elusions of the order of Bernis, call for the next attention. I have
reason to hope good dispositions in the new ministry towards our
commerce with this country. Besides endeavoring on all occasions to
multiply the points of contact and connection with this country,
which I consider as our surest main-stay under every event, I have
had it much at heart to remove from between us every subject of
misunderstanding or irritation. Our debts to the king, to the
officers, and the farmers are of this description. The having
complied with no part of our engagements in these draws on us a great
deal of censure, and occasioned a language in the Assemblees des
notables very likely to produce dissatisfaction between us. Dumas
being on the spot in Holland, I had asked of him some time ago, in
confidence, his opinion on the practicability of transferring these
debts from France to Holland, and communicated his answer to
Congress, pressing them to get you to go over to Holland and try to
effect this business. Your knowlege of the ground and former
successes occasioned me to take this liberty without consulting you,
because I was sure you would not weigh your personal trouble against
public good. I have had no answer from Congress, but hearing of your
journey to Holland have hoped that some money operation had led you
there. If it related to the debts of this country I would ask a
communication of what you think yourself at liberty to communicate,
as it might change the form of my answers to the eternal applications
I receive. The debt to the officers of France carries an interest of
about 2000 guineas, so we may suppose it's principal is between 30.
and 40,000. This makes more noise against [us] than all our other
debts put together.
I send you the arrets which begin the reformation here, and
some other publications respecting America: together with copies of
letters received from Obryon and Lambe. It is believed that a naval
armament has been ordered at Brest in correspondence with that of
England. We know certainly that orders are given to form a camp in
the neighborhood of Brabant, and that Count Rochambeau has the
command of it. It's amount I cannot assert. Report says 15,000 men.
This will derange the plans of oeconomy. I take the liberty of
putting under your cover a letter for Mrs. Kinloch of South Carolina,
with a packet, and will trouble you to enquire for her and have them
delivered. The packet is of great consequence, and therefore
referred to her care, as she will know the safe opportunities of
conveying it. Should you not be able to find her, and can forward
the packet to it's address by any very safe conveiance I will beg you
to do it. I have the honour to be with sentiments of the most
perfect friendship and esteem Dear Sir your most obedient and most
humble servant,
"A PEEP . . . INTO ELYSIUM"
_To Maria Cosway_
_Paris, July 1, 1787_
You conclude, Madam, from my long silence that I am gone to the
other world. Nothing else would have prevented my writing to you so
long. I have not thought of you the less, but I took a peep only
into Elysium. I entered it at one door, & came out at another,
having seen, as I past, only Turin, Milan, & Genoa. I calculated the
hours it would have taken to carry me on to Rome, but they were
exactly so many more than I had to spare. Was not this provoking?
In thirty hours from Milan I could have been at the espousals of the
Doge and the Adriatic, but I am born to lose every thing I love. Why
were you not with me? So many enchanting scenes which only wanted
your pencil to consecrate them to fame. Whenever you go to Italy you
must pass at the Col de Tende. You may go in your chariot in full
trot from Nice to Turin, as if there were no mountain. But have your
pallet & pencil ready: for you will be sure to stop in the passage,
at the chateau de Saorgio. Imagine to yourself, madam, a castle &
village hanging to a cloud in front, on one hand a mountain cloven
through to let pass a gurgling stream; on the other a river, over
which is thrown a magnificent bridge; the whole formed into a bason,
it's sides shagged with rocks, olive trees, vines, herds, &c. I
insist on your painting it. How do you do? How have you done? and
when are you coming here? If not at all, what did you ever come for?
Only to make people miserable at losing you. Consider that you are
but a day from Paris. If you come by the way of St. Omers, which is
but two posts further, you will see a new & beautiful country. Come
then, my dear Madam, and we will breakfast every day _a Angloise_,
hie away to the Desert, dine under the bowers of Marly, and forget
that we are ever to part again. I received, in the moment of my
departure your favor of Feb. 15. and long to receive another: but
lengthy, warm, & flowing from the heart, as do the sentiments of
friendship & esteem with which I have the honor to be, dear Madam,
your affectionate friend and servant.
"THE HOMAGE OF REASON"
_To Peter Carr_
_Paris, Aug. 10, 1787_
DEAR PETER, -- I have received your two letters of Decemb. 30
and April 18, and am very happy to find by them, as well as by
letters from Mr. Wythe, that you have been so fortunate as to attract
his notice & good will; I am sure you will find this to have been one
of the most fortunate events of your life, as I have ever been
sensible it was of mine. I inclose you a sketch of the sciences to
which I would wish you to apply in such order as Mr. Wythe shall
advise; I mention also the books in them worth your reading, which
submit to his correction. Many of these are among your father's
books, which you should have brought to you. As I do not recollect
those of them not in his library, you must write to me for them,
making out a catalogue of such as you think you shall have occasion
for in 18 months from the date of your letter, & consulting Mr. Wythe
on the subject. To this sketch I will add a few particular
observations.
1. Italian. I fear the learning this language will confound
your French and Spanish. Being all of them degenerated dialects of
the Latin, they are apt to mix in conversation. I have never seen a
person speaking the three languages who did not mix them. It is a
delightful language, but late events having rendered the Spanish more
useful, lay it aside to prosecute that.
2. Spanish. Bestow great attention on this, & endeavor to
acquire an accurate knowlege of it. Our future connections with
Spain & Spanish America will render that language a valuable
acquisition. The antient history of a great part of America, too, is
written in that language. I send you a dictionary.
3. Moral philosophy. I think it lost time to attend lectures in
this branch. He who made us would have been a pitiful bungler if he
had made the rules of our moral conduct a matter of science. For one
man of science, there are thousands who are not. What would have
become of them? Man was destined for society. His morality
therefore was to be formed to this object. He was endowed with a
sense of right & wrong merely relative to this. This sense is as
much a part of his nature as the sense of hearing, seeing, feeling;
it is the true foundation of morality, & not the {to kalon}, truth,
&c. as fanciful writers have imagined. The moral sense, or
conscience, is as much a part of man as his leg or arm. It is given
to all human beings in a stronger or weaker degree, as force of
members is given them in a greater or less degree. It may be
strengthened by exercise, as may any particular limb of the body.
This sense is submitted indeed in some degree to the guidance of
reason; but it is a small stock which is required for this: even a
less one than what we call common sense. State a moral case to a
ploughman & a professor. The former will decide it as well, & often
better than the latter, because he has not been led astray by
artificial rules. In this branch therefore read good books because
they will encourage as well as direct your feelings. The writings of
Sterne particularly form the best course of morality that ever was
written. Besides these read the books mentioned in the enclosed
paper; and above all things lose no occasion of exercising your
dispositions to be grateful, to be generous, to be charitable, to be
humane, to be true, just, firm, orderly, courageous &c. Consider
every act of this kind as an exercise which will strengthen your
moral faculties, & increase your worth.
4. Religion. Your reason is now mature enough to examine this
object. In the first place divest yourself of all bias in favour of
novelty & singularity of opinion. Indulge them in any other subject
rather than that of religion. It is too important, & the
consequences of error may be too serious. On the other hand shake
off all the fears & servile prejudices under which weak minds are
servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her
tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the
existence of a god; because, if there be one, he must more approve of
the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear. You will
naturally examine first the religion of your own country. Read the
bible then, as you would read Livy or Tacitus. The facts which are
within the ordinary course of nature you will believe on the
authority of the writer, as you do those of the same kind in Livy &
Tacitus. The testimony of the writer weighs in their favor in one
scale, and their not being against the laws of nature does not weigh
against them. But those facts in the bible which contradict the laws
of nature, must be examined with more care, and under a variety of
faces. Here you must recur to the pretensions of the writer to
inspiration from god. Examine upon what evidence his pretensions are
founded, and whether that evidence is so strong as that its falsehood
would be more improbable than a change in the laws of nature in the
case he relates. For example in the book of Joshua we are told the
sun stood still several hours. Were we to read that fact in Livy or
Tacitus we should class it with their showers of blood, speaking of
statues, beasts, &c. But it is said that the writer of that book was
inspired. Examine therefore candidly what evidence there is of his
having been inspired. The pretension is entitled to your inquiry,
because millions believe it. On the other hand you are astronomer
enough to know how contrary it is to the law of nature that a body
revolving on its axis as the earth does, should have stopped, should
not by that sudden stoppage have prostrated animals, trees,
buildings, and should after a certain time have resumed its
revolution, & that without a second general prostration. Is this
arrest of the earth's motion, or the evidence which affirms it, most
within the law of probabilities? You will next read the new
testament. It is the history of a personage called Jesus. Keep in
your eye the opposite pretensions 1. of those who say he was begotten
by god, born of a virgin, suspended & reversed the laws of nature at
will, & ascended bodily into heaven: and 2. of those who say he was a
man of illegitimate birth, of a benevolent heart, enthusiastic mind,
who set out without pretensions to divinity, ended in believing them,
& was punished capitally for sedition by being gibbeted according to
the Roman law which punished the first commission of that offence by
whipping, & the second by exile or death _in furca_. See this law in
the Digest Lib. 48. tit. 19. 28. 3. & Lipsius Lib. 2. de cruce. cap.
2. These questions are examined in the books I have mentioned under
the head of religion, & several others. They will assist you in your
inquiries, but keep your reason firmly on the watch in reading them
all. Do not be frightened from this inquiry by any fear of it's
consequences. If it ends in a belief that there is no god, you will
find incitements to virtue in the comfort & pleasantness you feel in
it's exercise, and the love of others which it will procure you. If
you find reason to believe there is a god, a consciousness that you
are acting under his eye, & that he approves you, will be a vast
additional incitement; if that there be a future state, the hope of a
happy existence in that increases the appetite to deserve it; if that
Jesus was also a god, you will be comforted by a belief of his aid
and love. In fine, I repeat that you must lay aside all prejudice on
both sides, & neither believe nor reject anything because any other
persons, or description of persons have rejected or believed it.
Your own reason is the only oracle given you by heaven, and you are
answerable not for the rightness but uprightness of the decision. I
forgot to observe when speaking of the new testament that you should
read all the histories of Christ, as well of those whom a council of
ecclesiastics have decided for us to be Pseudo-evangelists, as those
they named Evangelists. Because these Pseudo-evangelists pretended
to inspiration as much as the others, and you are to judge their
pretensions by your own reason, & not by the reason of those
ecclesiastics. Most of these are lost. There are some however still
extant, collected by Fabricius which I will endeavor to get & send
you.
5. Travelling. This makes men wiser, but less happy. When men
of sober age travel, they gather knolege which they may apply
usefully for their country, but they are subject ever after to
recollections mixed with regret, their affections are weakened by
being extended over more objects, & they learn new habits which
cannot be gratified when they return home. Young men who travel are
exposed to all these inconveniences in a higher degree, to others
still more serious, and do not acquire that wisdom for which a
previous foundation is requisite by repeated & just observations at
home. The glare of pomp & pleasure is analogous to the motion of
their blood, it absorbs all their affection & attention, they are
torn from it as from the only good in this world, and return to their
home as to a place of exile & condemnation. Their eyes are for ever
turned back to the object they have lost, & it's recollection poisons
the residue of their lives. Their first & most delicate passions are
hackneyed on unworthy objects here, & they carry home only the dregs,
insufficient to make themselves or anybody else happy. Add to this
that a habit of idleness, an inability to apply themselves to
business is acquired & renders them useless to themselves & their
country. These observations are founded in experience. There is no
place where your pursuit of knolege will be so little obstructed by
foreign objects as in your own country, nor any wherein the virtues
of the heart will be less exposed to be weakened. Be good, be
learned, & be industrious, & you will not want the aid of travelling
to render you precious to your country, dear to your friends, happy
within yourself. I repeat my advice to take a great deal of
exercise, & on foot. Health is the first requisite after morality.
Write to me often & be assured of the interest I take in your
success, as well as of the warmth of those sentiments of attachment
with which I am, dear Peter, your affectionate friend.
P.S. Let me know your age in your next letter. Your cousins
here are well & desire to be remembered to you.
ENCLOSURE
Antient history. Herodot. Thucyd. Xenoph. hellen. Xenoph. Anab.
Q. Curt. Just.
Livy. Polybius. Sallust. Caesar. Suetonius. Tacitus. Aurel.
Victor. Herodian.
Gibbons' decline of the Roman empire. Milot histoire ancienne.
Mod. hist. English. Tacit. Germ. & Agricole -- Hume to the end of
H.VI. then Habington's E.IV. -- S't. Thomas Moor's E.5. &
R.3. -- L'd Bacon's H.7. -- L'd. Herbert of Cherbury's H.8. -- K.
Edward's journal (in Burnet) B'p. of Hereford's E.6. & Mary.--
Cambden's Eliz. -- Wilson's Jac.I. -- Ludlow (omit Clarendon as
too seducing for a young republican. By and by read him)
Burnet's Charles 2. Jac.2. W'm. & Mary & Anne -- L'd Orrery down to
George 1. & 2. -- Burke's G.3. -- Robertson's hist. of Scotland.
American. Robertson's America. -- Douglass's N. America --
Hutcheson's Massachusets. Smith's N. York. -- Smith's N. Jersey
-- Franklin's review of Pennsylvania. -- Smith's, Stith's,
Keith's, & Beverley's hist. of Virginia
Foreign. Mallet's North'n. Antiquities by Percy --
Puffendorf's hist'y.
of Europe & Martiniere's of Asia, Africa & America -- Milot
histoire Moderne. Voltaire histoire universelle -- Milot hist. de
France -- Mariana's hist. of Spain in Span. -- Robertson's Charles
V. -- Watson's Phil. II. & III. -- Grotii Belgica. Mosheim's
Ecclesiastical history.
Poetry Homer -- Milton -- Ossian -- Sophocles -- Aeschylus
-- Eurip. -- Metastasio -- Shakesp. -- Theocritus
-- Anacreon [ . . . ]
Mathematics Bezout & whatever else Mr. Madison recommends.
Astronomy Delalande &'c. as Mr. Madison shall recommend.
Natural Philosophy. Musschenbroeck.
Botany. Linnaei Philosophia Botanica -- Genera plantarum --
Species plantarum -- Gronorii flora [ . . . ]
Chemistry. Fourcroy.
Agriculture. Home's principles of Agriculture -- Tull &c.
Anatomy. Cheselden.
Morality. The Socratic dialogues -- Cicero's Philosophies -- Kaim's
principles of Nat'l. religion -- Helvetius de l'esprit et
de l'homme. Locke's Essay. -- Lucretius -- Traite de Morale
& du bonheur
Religion. Locke's Conduct of the mind. -- Middleton's works --
Bolingbroke's philosoph. works -- Hume's essays -- Voltaire's
works -- Beattie
Politics & Law. Whatever Mr. Wythe pleases, who will be so good
as to correct also all the preceding articles which are only
intended as a groundwork to be finished by his pencil.
REVOLT OF THE NOBLES
_To John Adams_
_Paris, Aug. 30, 1787_
DEAR SIR -- Since your favor of July 10. mine have been of July
17. 23 and 28. The last inclosed a bill of exchange from Mr. Grand
on Tessier for pound 46-17-10 sterl. to answer Genl. Sullivan's bill
for that sum. I hope it got safe to hand, tho' I have been anxious
about it as it went by post and my letters thro' that channel
sometimes miscarry.
From the separation of the Notables to the present moment has
been perhaps the most interesting interval ever known in this
country. The propositions of the Government, approved by the
Notables, were precious to the nation and have been in an honest
course of execution, some of them being carried into effect, and
others preparing. Above all the establishment of the Provincial
assemblies, some of which have begun their sessions, bid fair to be
the instrument for circumscribing the power of the crown and raising
the people into consideration. The election given to them is what
will do this. Tho' the minister who proposed these improvements
seems to have meant them as the price of the new supplies, the game
has been so played as to secure the improvements to the nation
without securing the price. The Notables spoke softly on the subject
of the additional supplies, but the parliament took them up roundly,
refused to register the edicts for the new taxes, till compelled in a
bed of justice and prefered themselves to be transferred to Troyes
rather than withdraw their opposition. It is urged principally
against the king, that his revenue is 130. millions more than that of
his predecessor was, and yet he demands 120. millions further. You
will see this well explained in the `Conference entre un ministre
d'etat et un Conseiller au parlement' which I send you with some
other small pamphlets. In the mean time all tongues in Paris (and in
France as it is said) have been let loose, and never was a license of
speaking against the government exercised in London more freely or
more universally. Caracatures, placards, bon mots, have been
indulged in by all ranks of people, and I know of no well attested
instance of a single punishment. For some time mobs of 10; 20;
30,000 people collected daily, surrounded the parliament house,
huzzaed the members, even entered the doors and examined into their
conduct, took the horses out of the carriages of those who did well,
and drew them home. The government thought it prudent to prevent
these, drew some regiments into the neighborhood, multiplied the
guards, had the streets constantly patrolled by strong parties,
suspended privileged places, forbad all clubs, etc. The mobs have
ceased: perhaps this may be partly owing to the absence of
parliament. The Count d'Artois, sent to hold a bed of justice in the
Cour des Aides, was hissed and hooted without reserve by the
populace; the carriage of Madame de (I forget the name) in the
queen's livery was stopped by the populace under a belief that it was
Madame de Polignac's whom they would have insulted, the queen going
to the theater at Versailles with Madame de Polignac was received
with a general hiss. The king, long in the habit of drowning his
cares in wine, plunges deeper and deeper; the queen cries but sins
on. The Count d'Artois is detested, and Monsieur [Louis, Comte de
Provence] the general favorite. The Archbishop of Thoulouse is made
Ministre principale, a virtuous, patriotic and able character. The
Marechal de Castries retired yesterday notwithstanding strong
sollicitations to remain in office. The Marechal de Segur retired at
the same time, prompted to it by the court. Their successors are not
yet known. M. de St. Prist goes Ambassador to Holland in the room of
Verac transferred to Switzerland, and the Count de Moustier goes to
America in the room of the Chevalier de la Luzerne who has a promise
of the first vacancy. These nominations are not yet made formally,
but they are decided on and the parties are ordered to prepare for
their destination. As it has been long since I have had a
confidential conveiance to you, I have brought together the principal
facts from the adjournment of the Notables to the present moment
which, as you will perceive from their nature, required a
confidential conveyance. I have done it the rather because, tho' you
will have heard many of them and seen them in the public papers, yet
floating in the mass of lies which constitute the atmospheres of
London and Paris, you may not have been sure of their truth: and I
have mentioned every truth of any consequence to enable you to stamp
as false the facts pretermitted. I think that in the course of three
months the royal authority has lost, and the rights of the nation
gained, as much ground, by a revolution of public opinion only, as
England gained in all her civil wars under the Stuarts. I rather
believe too they will retain the ground gained, because it is
defended by the young and the middle aged, in opposition to the old
only. The first party increases, and the latter diminishes daily
from the course of nature. You may suppose that under this
situation, war would be unwelcome to France. She will surely avoid
it if not forced by the courts of London and Berlin. If forced, it
is probable she will change the system of Europe totally by an
alliance with the two empires, to whom nothing would be more
desireable. In the event of such a coalition, not only Prussia but
the whole European world must receive from them their laws. But
France will probably endeavor to preserve the present system if it
can be done by sacrifising to a certain degree the pretensions of the
patriotic party in Holland. But of all these matters you can judge,
in your position, where less secrecy is observed, better than I can.
I have news from America as late as July 19. Nothing had then
transpired from the Federal convention. I am sorry they began their
deliberations by so abominable a precedent as that of tying up the
tongues of their members. Nothing can justify this example but the
innocence of their intentions, and ignorance of the value of public
discussions. I have no doubt that all their other measures will be
good and wise. It is really an assembly of demigods. Genl.
Washington was of opinion they should not separate till October. I
have the honour to be with every sentiment of friendship and respect
Dear Sir Your most obedient and most humble servant,
A MOOSE FROM NEW HAMPSHIRE
_To Buffon_
_Paris, Octob. 1, 1787_
SIR, -- I had the honour of informing you some time ago that I
had written to some of my friends in America, desiring they would
send me such of the spoils of the Moose, Caribou, Elk & deer as might
throw light on that class of animals; but more particularly to send
me the complete skeleton, skin, & horns of the Moose, in such
condition as that the skin might be sewed up & stuffed on it's
arrival here. I am happy to be able to present to you at this moment
the bones & skin of a Moose, the horns of the Caribou, the elk, the
deer, the spiked horned buck, & the Roebuck of America. They all
come from New Hampshire & Massachusetts. I give you their popular
names, as it rests with yourself to decide their real names. The
skin of the Moose was drest with the hair on, but a great deal of it
has come off, and the rest is ready to drop off. The horns of the
elk are remarkably small. I have certainly seen of them which would
have weighed five or six times as much. This is the animal which we
call elk in the Southern parts of America, and of which I have given
some description in the Notes on Virginia, of which I had the honour
of presenting you a copy. I really doubt whether the flat-horned elk
exists in America; and I think this may be properly classed with the
elk, the principal difference being in the horns. I have seen the
Daim, the Cerf, the Chevreuil of Europe. But the animal we call Elk,
and which may be distinguished as the Round-horned elk, is very
different from them. I have never seen the Brand-hirtz or Cerf
d'Ardennes, nor the European elk. Could I get a sight of them I
think I should be able to say to which of them the American elk
resembles most, as I am tolerably well acquainted with that animal.
I must observe also that the horns of the Deer, which accompany these
spoils, are not of the fifth or sixth part of the weight of some that
I have seen. This individual has been of age, according to our
method of judging. I have taken measures particularly to be
furnished with large horns of our elk & our deer, & therefore beg of
you not to consider those now sent as furnishing a specimen of their
ordinary size. I really suspect you will find that the Moose, the
Round horned elk, & the American deer are species not existing in
Europe. The Moose is perhaps of a new class. I wish these spoils,
Sir, may have the merit of adding anything new to the treasures of
nature which have so fortunately come under your observation, & of
which she seems to have given you the key: they will in that case be
some gratification to you, which it will always be pleasing to me to
have procured, having the honor to be with sentiments of the most
perfect esteem & respect, Sir, your most obedient, & most humble
servant.
THE NEW CONSTITUTION
_To William S. Smith_
_Paris, Nov. 13, 1787_
DEAR SIR, -- I am now to acknoledge the receipt of your favors
of October the 4th, 8th, & 26th. In the last you apologise for your
letters of introduction to Americans coming here. It is so far from
needing apology on your part, that it calls for thanks on mine. I
endeavor to shew civilities to all the Americans who come here, &
will give me opportunities of doing it: and it is a matter of comfort
to know from a good quarter what they are, & how far I may go in my
attentions to them. Can you send me Woodmason's bills for the two
copying presses for the M. de la Fayette, & the M. de Chastellux?
The latter makes one article in a considerable account, of old
standing, and which I cannot present for want of this article. -- I
do not know whether it is to yourself or Mr. Adams I am to give my
thanks for the copy of the new constitution. I beg leave through you
to place them where due. It will be yet three weeks before I shall
receive them from America. There are very good articles in it: &
very bad. I do not know which preponderate. What we have lately
read in the history of Holland, in the chapter on the Stadtholder,
would have sufficed to set me against a chief magistrate eligible for
a long duration, if I had ever been disposed towards one: & what we
have always read of the elections of Polish kings should have forever
excluded the idea of one continuable for life. Wonderful is the
effect of impudent & persevering lying. The British ministry have so
long hired their gazetteers to repeat and model into every form lies
about our being in anarchy, that the world has at length believed
them, the English nation has believed them, the ministers themselves
have come to believe them, & what is more wonderful, we have believed
them ourselves. Yet where does this anarchy exist? Where did it
ever exist, except in the single instance of Massachusetts? And can
history produce an instance of rebellion so honourably conducted? I
say nothing of it's motives. They were founded in ignorance, not
wickedness. God forbid we should ever be 20 years without such a
rebellion. The people cannot be all, & always, well informed. The
part which is wrong will be discontented in proportion to the
importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under
such misconceptions it is a lethargy, the forerunner of death to the
public liberty. We have had 13. states independent 11. years. There
has been one rebellion. That comes to one rebellion in a century & a
half for each state. What country before ever existed a century &
half without a rebellion? & what country can preserve it's liberties
if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people
preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy
is to set them right as to facts, pardon & pacify them. What signify
a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be
refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants. It
is it's natural manure. Our Convention has been too much impressed
by the insurrection of Massachusetts: and in the spur of the moment
they are setting up a kite to keep the hen-yard in order. I hope in
God this article will be rectified before the new constitution is
accepted. -- You ask me if any thing transpires here on the subject
of S. America? Not a word. I know that there are combustible
materials there, and that they wait the torch only. But this country
probably will join the extinguishers. -- The want of facts worth
communicating to you has occasioned me to give a little loose to
dissertation. We must be contented to amuse, when we cannot inform.
MORE ON THE CONSTITUTION
_To John Adams_
_Paris, Nov. 13, 1787_
DEAR SIR -- This will be delivered you by young Mr. Rutledge.
Your knowledge of his father will introduce him to your notice. He
merits it moreover on his own account.
I am now to acknolege your favors of Oct. 8 and 26. That of
August 25. was duly received, nor can I recollect by what accident I
was prevented from acknoleging it in mine of Sep. 28. It has been
the source of my subsistence hitherto, and must continue to be so
till I receive letters on the affairs of money from America. Van
Staphorsts & Willinks have answered my draughts. -- Your books for M.
de la Fayette are received here. I will notify it to him, who is at
present with his provincial assembly in Auvergne.
Little is said lately of the progress of the negociations
between the courts of Petersburg, Vienna, and Versailles. The
distance of the former and the cautious, unassuming character of it's
minister here is one cause of delays: a greater one is the greediness
and instable character of the emperor. Nor do I think that the
Principal here [Brienne] will be easily induced to lend himself to
any connection which shall threaten a war within a considerable
number of years. His own reign will be that of peace only, in all
probability; and were any accident to tumble him down, this country
would immediately gird on it's sword and buckler, and trust to
occurrences for supplies of money. The wound their honour has
sustained festers in their hearts, and it may be said with truth that
the Archbishop and a few priests, determined to support his measures
because proud to see their order come again into power, are the only
advocates for the line of conduct which has been pursued. It is said
and believed thro' Paris literally that the Count de Monmorin
`pleuroit comme un enfant ["wept like a child"]' when obliged to sign
the counter declaration. Considering the phrase as figurative, I
believe it expresses the distress of his heart. Indeed he has made
no secret of his individual opinion. In the mean time the Principal
goes on with a firm and patriotic spirit, in reforming the cruel
abuses of the government and preparing a new constitution which will
give to this people as much liberty as they are capable of managing.
This I think will be the glory of his administration, because, tho' a
good theorist in finance, he is thought to execute badly. They are
about to open a loan of 100. millions to supply present wants, and it
is said the preface of the Arret will contain a promise of the
Convocation of the States general during the ensuing year. 12. or 15.
provincial assemblies are already in action, and are going on well;
and I think that tho' the nation suffers in reputation, it will gain
infinitely in happiness under the present administration. I inclose
to Mr. Jay a pamphlet which I will beg of you to forward. I leave it
open for your perusal. When you shall have read it, be so good as to
stick a wafer in it. It is not yet published, nor will be for some
days. This copy has been ceded to me as a favor.
How do you like our new constitution? I confess there are
things in it which stagger all my dispositions to subscribe to what
such an assembly has proposed. The house of federal representatives
will not be adequate to the management of affairs either foreign or
federal. Their President seems a bad edition of a Polish king. He
may be reelected from 4. years to 4. years for life. Reason and
experience prove to us that a chief magistrate, so continuable, is an
officer for life. When one or two generations shall have proved that
this is an office for life, it becomes on every succession worthy of
intrigue, of bribery, of force, and even of foreign interference. It
will be of great consequence to France and England to have America
governed by a Galloman or Angloman. Once in office, and possessing
the military force of the union, without either the aid or check of a
council, he would not be easily dethroned, even if the people could
be induced to withdraw their votes from him. I wish that at the end
of the 4. years they had made him for ever ineligible a second time.
Indeed I think all the good of this new constitution might have been
couched in three or four new articles to be added to the good, old,
and venerable fabrick, which should have been preserved even as a
religious relique. -- Present me and my daughters affectionately to
Mrs. Adams. The younger one continues to speak of her warmly.
Accept yourself assurances of the sincere esteem and respect with
which I have the honour to be, Dear Sir, your friend and servant,
P. S. I am in negociation with de la Blancherie. You shall
hear from me when arranged.
OBJECTIONS TO THE CONSTITUTION
_To James Madison_
_Paris, Dec. 20, 1787_
DEAR SIR, -- My last to you was of Oct. 8 by the Count de
Moustier. Yours of July 18. Sep. 6. & Oct. 24. have been
successively received, yesterday, the day before & three or four days
before that. I have only had time to read the letters, the printed
papers communicated with them, however interesting, being obliged to
lie over till I finish my dispatches for the packet, which dispatches
must go from hence the day after tomorrow. I have much to thank you
for. First and most for the cyphered paragraph respecting myself.
These little informations are very material towards forming my own
decisions. I would be glad even to know when any individual member
thinks I have gone wrong in any instance. If I know myself it would
not excite ill blood in me, while it would assist to guide my
conduct, perhaps to justify it, and to keep me to my duty, alert. I
must thank you too for the information in Thos. Burke's case, tho'
you will have found by a subsequent letter that I have asked of you a
further investigation of that matter. It is to gratify the lady who
is at the head of the Convent wherein my daughters are, & who, by her
attachment & attention to them, lays me under great obligations. I
shall hope therefore still to receive from you the result of the
further enquiries my second letter had asked. -- The parcel of rice
which you informed me had miscarried accompanied my letter to the
Delegates of S. Carolina. Mr. Bourgoin was to be the bearer of both
& both were delivered together into the hands of his relation here
who introduced him to me, and who at a subsequent moment undertook to
convey them to Mr. Bourgoin. This person was an engraver
particularly recommended to D'r. Franklin & Mr. Hopkinson. Perhaps
he may have mislaid the little parcel of rice among his baggage. -- I
am much pleased that the sale of Western lands is so successful. I
hope they will absorb all the Certificates of our Domestic debt
speedily, in the first place, and that then offered for cash they
will do the same by our foreign one.
The season admitting only of operations in the Cabinet, and
these being in a great measure secret, I have little to fill a
letter. I will therefore make up the deficiency by adding a few
words on the Constitution proposed by our Convention. I like much
the general idea of framing a government which should go on of itself
peaceably, without needing continual recurrence to the state
legislatures. I like the organization of the government into
Legislative, Judiciary & Executive. I like the power given the
Legislature to levy taxes, and for that reason solely approve of the
greater house being chosen by the people directly. For tho' I think
a house chosen by them will be very illy qualified to legislate for
the Union, for foreign nations &c. yet this evil does not weigh
against the good of preserving inviolate the fundamental principle
that the people are not to be taxed but by representatives chosen
immediately by themselves. I am captivated by the compromise of the
opposite claims of the great & little states, of the latter to equal,
and the former to proportional influence. I am much pleased too with
the substitution of the method of voting by persons, instead of that
of voting by states: and I like the negative given to the Executive
with a third of either house, though I should have liked it better
had the Judiciary been associated for that purpose, or invested with
a similar and separate power. There are other good things of less
moment. I will now add what I do not like. First the omission of a
bill of rights providing clearly & without the aid of sophisms for
freedom of religion, freedom of the press, protection against
standing armies, restriction against monopolies, the eternal &
unremitting force of the habeas corpus laws, and trials by jury in
all matters of fact triable by the laws of the land & not by the law
of nations. To say, as Mr. Wilson does that a bill of rights was not
necessary because all is reserved in the case of the general
government which is not given, while in the particular ones all is
given which is not reserved, might do for the audience to whom it was
addressed, but is surely a gratis dictum, opposed by strong
inferences from the body of the instrument, as well as from the
omission of the clause of our present confederation which had
declared that in express terms. It was a hard conclusion to say
because there has been no uniformity among the states as to the cases
triable by jury, because some have been so incautious as to abandon
this mode of trial, therefore the more prudent states shall be
reduced to the same level of calamity. It would have been much more
just & wise to have concluded the other way that as most of the
states had judiciously preserved this palladium, those who had
wandered should be brought back to it, and to have established
general right instead of general wrong. Let me add that a bill of
rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on
earth, general or particular, & what no just government should
refuse, or rest on inferences. The second feature I dislike, and
greatly dislike, is the abandonment in every instance of the
necessity of rotation in office, and most particularly in the case of
the President. Experience concurs with reason in concluding that the
first magistrate will always be re-elected if the Constitution
permits it. He is then an officer for life. This once observed, it
becomes of so much consequence to certain nations to have a friend or
a foe at the head of our affairs that they will interfere with money
& with arms. A Galloman or an Angloman will be supported by the
nation he befriends. If once elected, and at a second or third
election out voted by one or two votes, he will pretend false votes,
foul play, hold possession of the reins of government, be supported
by the States voting for him, especially if they are the central ones
lying in a compact body themselves & separating their opponents: and
they will be aided by one nation of Europe, while the majority are
aided by another. The election of a President of America some years
hence will be much more interesting to certain nations of Europe than
ever the election of a king of Poland was. Reflect on all the
instances in history antient & modern, of elective monarchies, and
say if they do not give foundation for my fears. The Roman emperors,
the popes, while they were of any importance, the German emperors
till they became hereditary in practice, the kings of Poland, the
Deys of the Ottoman dependances. It may be said that if elections
are to be attended with these disorders, the seldomer they are
renewed the better. But experience shews that the only way to
prevent disorder is to render them uninteresting by frequent changes.
An incapacity to be elected a second time would have been the only
effectual preventative. The power of removing him every fourth year
by the vote of the people is a power which will not be exercised.
The king of Poland is removeable every day by the Diet, yet he is
never removed. -- Smaller objections are the Appeal in fact as well
as law, and the binding all persons Legislative Executive & Judiciary
by oath to maintain that constitution. I do not pretend to decide
what would be the best method of procuring the establishment of the
manifold good things in this constitution, and of getting rid of the
bad. Whether by adopting it in hopes of future amendment, or, after
it has been duly weighed & canvassed by the people, after seeing the
parts they generally dislike, & those they generally approve, to say
to them `We see now what you wish. Send together your deputies
again, let them frame a constitution for you omitting what you have
condemned, & establishing the powers you approve. Even these will be
a great addition to the energy of your government.' -- At all events
I hope you will not be discouraged from other trials, if the present
one should fail of its full effect. -- I have thus told you freely
what I like & dislike: merely as a matter of curiosity, for I know
your own judgment has been formed on all these points after having
heard everything which could be urged on them. I own I am not a
friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive. The
late rebellion in Massachusetts has given more alarm than I think it
should have done. Calculate that one rebellion in 13 states in the
course of 11 years, is but one for each state in a century & a half.
No country should be so long without one. Nor will any degree of
power in the hands of government prevent insurrections. France, with
all it's despotism, and two or three hundred thousand men always in
arms has had three insurrections in the three years I have been here
in every one of which greater numbers were engaged than in
Massachusetts & a great deal more blood was spilt. In Turkey, which
Montesquieu sup-poses more despotic, insurrections are the events of
every day. In England, where the hand of power is lighter than here,
but heavier than with us they happen every half dozen years. Compare
again the ferocious depredations of their insurgents with the order,
the moderation & the almost self extinguishment of ours. -- After
all, it is my principle that the will of the majority should always
prevail. If they approve the proposed Convention in all it's parts,
I shall concur in it chearfully, in hopes that they will amend it
whenever they shall find it work wrong. 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.
Above all things I hope the education of the common people will be
attended to; convinced that on their good sense we may rely with the
most security for the preservation of a due degree of liberty. I
have tired you by this time with my disquisitions & will therefore
only add assurances of the sincerity of those sentiments of esteem &
attachment with which I am Dear Sir your affectionate friend &
servant
P. S. The instability of our laws is really an immense evil. I
think it would be well to provide in our constitutions that there
shall always be a twelve-month between the ingross-ing a bill &
passing it: that it should then be offered to it's passage without
changing a word: and that if circum-stances should be thought to
require a speedier passage, it should take two thirds of both houses
instead of a bare majority.
A STRATEGY ON RATIFICATION
_To Alexander Donald_
_Paris, February 7, 1788_
DEAR SIR, -- I received duly your friendly letter of November
the 12th. By this time, you will have seen published by Congress,
the new regulations obtained from this court, in favor of our
commerce. You will observe, that the arrangement relative to tobacco
is a continuation of the order of Berni for five years, only leaving
the price to be settled between the buyer and seller. You will see
too, that all contracts for tobacco are forbidden, till it arrives in
France. Of course, your proposition for a contract is precluded. I
fear the prices here will be low, especially if the market be
crowded. You should be particularly attentive to the article, which
requires that the tobacco should come in French or American bottoms,
as this article will, in no instance, be departed from.
I wish with all my soul, that the nine first conventions may
accept the new constitution, because this will secure to us the good
it contains, which I think great and important. But I equally wish,
that the four latest conventions, which ever they be, may refuse to
accede to it, till a declaration of rights be annexed. This would
probably command the offer of such a declaration, and thus give to
the whole fabric, perhaps as much perfection as any one of that kind
ever had. By a declaration of rights, I mean one which shall
stipulate freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of
commerce against monopolies, trial by juries in all cases, no
suspensions of the habeas corpus, no standing armies. These are
fetters against doing evil, which no honest government should
decline. There is another strong feature in the new constitution,
which I as strongly dislike. That is, the perpetual reeligibility of
the President. Of this I expect no amendment at present, because I
do not see that any body has objected to it on your side the water.
But it will be productive of cruel distress to our country, even in
your day and mine. The importance to France and England, to have our
government in the hands of a friend or a foe, will occasion their
interference by money, and even by arms. Our President will be of
much more consequence to them than a King of Poland. We must take
care, however, that neither this, nor any other objection to the new
form, produces a schism in our Union. That would be an incurable
evil, because near friends falling out, never re-unite cordially;
whereas, all of us going together, we shall be sure to cure the evils
of our new constitution, before they do great harm. The box of books
I had taken the liberty to address to you, is but just gone from
Havre for New York. I do not see, at present, any symptoms strongly
indicating war. It is true, that the distrust existing between the
two courts of Versailles and London, is so great, that they can
scarcely do business together. However, the difficulty and doubt of
obtaining money make both afraid to enter into war. The little
preparations for war, which we see, are the effect of distrust,
rather then of a design to commence hostilities. And in such a state
of mind, you know, small things may produce a rupture: so that though
peace is rather probable, war is very possible.
Your letter has kindled all the fond recollections of antient
times; recollections much dearer to me than any thing I have known
since. There are minds which can be pleased by honors and
preferments; but I see nothing in them but envy and enmity. It is
only necessary to possess them, to know how little they contribute to
happiness, or rather how hostile they are to it. No attachments
soothe the mind so much as those contracted in early life; nor do I
recollect any societies which have given me more pleasure, than those
of which you have partaken with me. I had rather be shut up in a
very modest cottage, with my books, my family and a few old friends,
dining on simple bacon, and letting the world roll on as it liked,
than to occupy the most splendid post, which any human power can
give. I shall be glad to hear from you often. Give me the small
news as well as the great. Tell Dr. Currie, that I believe I am
indebted to him a letter, but that like the mass of our countrymen, I
am not, at this moment, able to pay all my debts; the post being to
depart in an hour, and the last stroke of a pen I am able to send by
it, being that which assures you of the sentiments of esteem and
attachment, with which I am, Dear Sir, your affectionate friend and
servant,
"A SON OF NATURE"
_To Maria Cosway_
_Paris, April 24, 1788_
I arrived here, my dear friend, the last night, and in a bushel
of letters presented me by way of reception, I saw that one was of
your handwriting. It is the only one I have yet opened, and I answer
it before I open another. I do not think I was in arrears in our
epistolary account when I left Paris. In affection I am sure you
were greatly my debtor. I often determined during my journey to
write to you: but sometimes the fatigue of exercise, and sometimes
fatigued attention hindered me.
At Dusseldorff I wished for you much. I surely never saw so
precious a collection of paintings. Above all things those of Van
der Werff affected me the most. His picture of Sarah delivering Agar
to Abraham is delicious. I would have agreed to have been Abraham
though the consequence could have been that I should have been dead
five or six thousand years. Carlo Dolce became also a violent
favorite. I am so little of a connoisseur that I preferred the works
of these two authors to the old faded red things of Rubens. I am but
a son of nature, loving what I see & feel, without being able to give
a reason, nor caring much whether there be one. At Heidelberg I
wished for you too. In fact I led you by the hand thro' the whole
garden.
I was struck with the resemblance of this scene to that of
Vaucluse as seen from what is called the chateau of Petrarch. Nature
has formed both on the same sketch, but she has filled up that of
Heidelberg with a bolder hand, the river is larger, the mountains
more majestic and better clothed. Art too has seconded her views.
The chateau of Petrarch is the ruin of a modest country house, that
of Heidelberg would stand well along side the pyramids of Egypt. It
is certainly the most magnificent ruin after those left us by the
antients.
At Strasbourg I sat down to write to you, but for my soul I
could think of nothing at Strasbourg but the promontory of noses, of
Diego, of Slawkenburgius his historiaga, & the procession of the
Strasburgers to meet the man with the nose. Had I written to you
from thence it would have been a continuation of Sterne upon noses, &
I knew that nature had not formed me for a Continuator of Sterne: so
let it alone till I came here and received your angry letter. It is
a proof of your esteem, but I love better to have soft testimonials
of it.
You must therefore now write me a letter teeming with
affection; such as I feel for you. So much I have no right to ask.
Being but just arrived I am not _au fait_ of the small news affecting
your acquaintances here. I know only that the princess Lubomirski is
still here & that she has taken the house that was M. de Simoulin's.
When you come again therefore you will be somewhat nearer to me, but
not near enough: and still surrounded by a numerous cortege, so that
I shall see you only by scraps as I did when you were here last. The
time before we were half days & whole days together, & I found this
too little. Adieu! God bless you!
Your's affectionately
"AMAZONS AND ANGELS"
_To Anne Willing Bingham_
_Paris, May 11, 1788_
DEAR MADAM, -- A gentleman going to Philadelphia furnishes me
the occasion of sending you some numbers of the Cabinet des Modes &
some new theatrical pieces. These last have had great success on the
stage, where they have excited perpetual applause. We have now need
of something to make us laugh, for the topics of the times are sad
and eventful. The gay and thoughtless Paris is now become a furnace
of Politics. All the world is now politically mad. Men, women,
children talk nothing else, & you know that naturally they talk much,
loud & warm. Society is spoilt by it, at least for those who, like
myself, are but lookers on. -- You too have had your political
fever. But our good ladies, I trust, have been too wise to wrinkle
their foreheads with politics. They are contented to soothe & calm
the minds of their husbands returning ruffled from political debate.
They have the good sense to value domestic happiness above all other,
and the art to cultivate it beyond all others. There is no part of
the earth where so much of this is enjoyed as in America. You agree
with me in this; but you think that the pleasures of Paris more than
supply its wants; in other words that a Parisian is happier than an
American. You will change your opinion, my dear Madam, and come over
to mine in the end. Recollect the women of this capital, some on
foot, some on horses, & some in carriages hunting pleasure in the
streets, in routs & assemblies, and forgetting that they have left it
behind them in their nurseries; compare them with our own
countrywomen occupied in the tender and tranquil amusements of
domestic life, and confess that it is a comparison of Amazons and
Angels. -- You will have known from the public papers that Monsieur
de Buffon, the father, is dead & you have known long ago that the son
and his wife are separated. They are pursuing pleasure in opposite
directions. Madame de Rochambeau is well: so is Madame de la
Fayette. I recollect no other Nouvelles de societe interesting to
you. And as for political news of battles & sieges, Turks &
Russians, I will not detail them to you, because you would be less
handsome after reading them. I have only to add then, what I take a
pleasure in repeating, tho' it will be the thousandth time that I
have the honour to be with sentiments of very sincere respect &
attachment, dear Madam, your most obedient & most humble servant.
"THE CRUMBS OF SCIENCE"
_To the Rev. James Madison_
_Paris, July 19, 1788_
DEAR SIR, -- My last letter to you was of the 13th of August
last. As you seem willing to accept of the crumbs of science on
which we are subsisting here, it is with pleasure I continue to hand
them on to you, in proportion as they are dealt out. Herschel's
volcano in the moon you have doubtless heard of, and placed among the
other vagaries of a head, which seems not organised for sound
induction. The wildness of the theories hitherto proposed by him, on
his own discoveries, seems to authorise us to consider his merit as
that of a good optician only. You know also, that Doctor Ingenhouse
had discovered, as he supposed, from experiment, that vegetation
might be promoted by occasioning streams of the electrical fluid to
pass through a plant, and that other physicians had received and
confirmed this theory. He now, however, retracts it, and finds by
more decisive experiments, that the electrical fluid can neither
forward nor retard vegetation. Uncorrected still of the rage of
drawing general conclusions from partial and equivocal observations,
he hazards the opinion that _light_ promotes vegetation. I have
heretofore supposed from observation, that light affects the color of
living bodies, whether vegetable or animal; but that either the one
or the other receives _nutriment_ from that fluid, must be permitted
to be doubted of, till better confirmed by observation. It is always
better to have no ideas, than false ones; to believe nothing, than to
believe what is wrong. In my mind, theories are more easily
demolished than rebuilt.
An Abbe here, has shaken, if not destroyed, the theory of de
Dominis, Descartes and Newton, for explaining the phenomenon of the
rainbow. According to that theory, you know, a cone of rays issuing
from the sun, and falling on a cloud in the opposite part of the
heavens, is reflected back in the form of a smaller cone, the apex of
which is the eye of the observer: so that the eye of the observer
must be in the axis of both cones, and equally distant from every
part of the bow. But he observes, that he has repeatedly seen bows,
the one end of which has been very near to him, and the other at a
very great distance. I have often seen the same thing myself. I
recollect well to have seen the end of a rainbow between myself and a
house, or between myself and a bank, not twenty yards distant; and
this repeatedly. But I never saw, what he says he has seen,
different rainbows at the same time, intersecting each other. I
never saw coexistent bows, which were not concentric also. Again,
according to the theory, if the sun is in the horizon, the horizon
intercepts the lower half of the bow, if above the horizon, that
intercepts more than the half, in proportion. So that generally, the
bow is less than a semicircle, and never more. He says he has seen
it more than a semicircle. I have often seen the leg of the bow
below my level. My situation at Monticello admits this, because
there is a mountain there in the opposite direction of the
afternoon's sun, the valley between which and Monticello, is five
hundred feet deep. I have seen a leg of a rainbow plunge down on the
river running through the valley. But I do not recollect to have
remarked at any time, that the bow was more than half a circle. It
appears to me, that these facts demolish the Newtonian hypothesis,
but they do not support that erected in its stead by the Abbe. He
supposes a cloud between the sun and observer, and that through some
opening in that cloud, the rays pass, and form an iris on the
opposite part of the heavens, just as a ray passing through a hole in
the shutter of a darkened room, and falling on a prism there, forms
the prismatic colors on the opposite wall. According to this, we
might see bows of more than the half circle, as often as of less. A
thousand other objections occur to this hypothesis, which need not be
suggested to you. The result is, that we are wiser than we were, by
having an error the less in our catalogue; but the blank occasioned
by it, must remain for some happier hypothesist to fill up.
The dispute about the conversion and reconversion of water and
air, is still stoutly kept up. The contradictory experiments of
chemists, leave us at liberty to conclude what we please. My
conclusion is, that art has not yet invented sufficient aids, to
enable such subtle bodies to make a well defined impression on organs
as blunt as ours: that it is laudable to encourage investigation, but
to hold back conclusion. Speaking one day with Monsieur de Buffon,
on the present ardor of chemical inquiry, he affected to consider
chemistry but as cookery, and to place the toils of the laboratory on
a footing with those of the kitchen. I think it, on the contrary,
among the most useful of sciences, and big with future discoveries
for the utility and safety of the human race. It is yet, indeed, a
mere embryon. Its principles are contested; experiments seem
contradictory; their subjects are so minute as to escape our senses;
and their result too fallacious to satisfy the mind. It is probably
an age too soon, to propose the establishment of a system. The
attempt, therefore, of Lavoisier to reform the chemical nomenclature,
is premature. One single experiment may destroy the whole filiation
of his terms, and his string of sulphates, sulfites and sulfures, may
have served no other end, than to have retarded the progress of the
science, by a jargon, from the confusion of which, time will be
requisite to extricate us. Accordingly, it is not likely to be
admitted generally.
You are acquainted with the properties of the composition of
nitre, salt of tartar and sulphur, called pulvis fulminans. Of this,
the explosion is produced by heat alone. Monsieur Bertholet, by
dissolving silver in the nitrous acid, precipitating it with lime
water, and drying the precipitate on ammoniac, has discovered a
powder which fulminates most powerfully, on coming into contact with
any substance whatever. Once made, it cannot be touched. It cannot
be put into a bottle, but must remain in the capsula, where dried.
The property of the spathic acid, to corrode flinty substances, has
been lately applied by a Mr. Puymaurin, to engrave on glass, as
artists engrave on copper, with aquafortis. M. de la Place has
discovered, that the secular acceleration and retardation of the
moon's motion, is occasioned by the action of the sun, in proportion
as his excentricity changes, or, in other words, as the orbit of the
earth increases or diminishes. So that this irregularity is now
perfectly calculable.
Having seen announced in a gazette, that some person had found
in a library of Sicily, an Arabic translation of Livy, which was
thought to be complete, I got the charge des affaires of Naples here,
to write to Naples to inquire into the fact. He obtained in answer,
that an Arabic translation was found, and that it would restore to us
seventeen of the books lost, to wit, from the sixtieth to the
seventy-seventh, inclusive: that it was in possession of an Abbe
Vella, who, as soon as he shall have finished a work he has on hand,
will give us an Italian, and perhaps a Latin translation of this
Livy. There are persons, however, who doubt the truth of this
discovery, founding their doubts on some personal cricumstances
relating to the person who says he has this translation. I find,
nevertheless, that the charge des affaires believes in the discovery,
which makes me hope it may be true.
A countryman of ours, a Mr. Ledyard of Connecticut, set out
from hence some time ago for St. Petersburg, to go thence to
Kamtschatka, thence to cross over to the western coast of America ,
and penetrate through the continent, to the other side of it. He had
got within a few days' journey of Kamtschatka, when he was arrested
by order of the Empress of Russia, sent back, and turned adrift in
Poland. He went to London; engaged under the auspices of a private
society, formed there for pushing discoveries into Africa; passed by
this place, which he left a few days ago for Marseilles, where he
will embark for Alexandria and Grand Cairo; thence explore the Nile
to its source; cross the head of the Niger, and descend that to its
mouth. He promises me, if he escapes through his journey, he will go
to Kentucky, and endeavor to penetrate westwardly to the South Sea.
The death of M. de Buffon you have heard long ago. I do not
know whether we shall have any thing posthumous of his. As to
political news, this country is making its way to a good
constitution. The only danger is, they may press so fast as to
produce an appeal to arms, which might have an unfavorable issue for
them. As yet, the appeal is not made. Perhaps the war which seems
to be spreading from nation to nation, may reach them: this would
insure the calling of the States General, and this, as is supposed,
the establishment of a constitution.
I have the honor to be, with sentiments of sincere esteem and
respect, Dear Sir, your friend and servant,
"A MONOPOLY OF DESPOTISM"
_To St. John de Crevecoeur_
_Paris, August 9, 1788_
DEAR SIR, -- While our second revolution is just brought to a
happy end with you, yours here, is but cleverly under way. For some
days, I was really melancholy with the apprehension, that arms would
be appealed to, and the opposition crushed in its first efforts. But
things seem now to wear a better aspect. While the opposition keeps
at its highest wholesome point, government, unwilling to draw the
sword, is not forced to do it. The contest here is exactly what it
was in Holland: a contest between the monarchical and aristocratical
parts of the government, for a monopoly of despotism over the people.
The aristocracy in Holland, seeing that their common prey was likely
to escape out of their clutches, chose rather to retain its former
portion, and therefore coalesced with the single head. The people
remained victims. Here, I think, it will take a happier turn. The
parliamentary part of the aristocracy is alone firmly united. The
Noblesse and Clergy, but especially the former, are divided partly
between the parliamentary and the despotic party, and partly united
with the real patriots, who are endeavoring to gain for the nation
what they can, both from the parliamentary and the single despotism.
I think I am not mistaken in believing, that the King and some of his
ministers are well affected to this band; and surely, that they will
make great cessions to the people, rather than small ones to the
parliament. They are, accordingly, yielding daily to the national
reclamations, and will probably end, in according a well tempered
constitution. They promise the States General for the next year, and
I have good information that an _Arret_ will appear the day after
tomorrow, announcing them for May, 1789. How they will be composed,
and what they will do, cannot be foreseen. Their convocation,
however, will tranquillise the public mind, in a great degree, till
their meeting. There are, however, two intervening difficulties. 1.
Justice cannot till then continue completely suspended, as it now is.
The parliament will not resume their functions, but in their entire
body. The baillages are afraid to accept of them. What will be
done? 2. There are well founded fears of a bankruptcy before the
month of May. In the mean time, the war is spreading from nation to
nation. Sweden has commenced hostilities against Russia; Denmark is
shewing its teeth against Sweden; Prussia against Denmark; and
England too deeply engaged in playing the back game, to avoid coming
forward, and dragging this country and Spain in with her. But even
war will not prevent the assembly of the States General, because it
cannot be carried on without them. War, however, is not the most
favorable moment for divesting the monarchy of power. On the
contrary, it is the moment when the energy of a single hand, shews
itself in the most seducing form.
Your friend the Countess d'Houdetot has had a long illness at
Sanois. She was well enough the other day to come to Paris & was so
good as to call on me, as I did also on her, without finding each
other. The Dutchess Danville is in the country altogether. Your
sons are well. Their master speaks very highly of the genius &
application of Aly, and more favorably of the genius than application
of the younger. They are both fine lads, and will make you very
happy. I am not certain whether more exercise than the rules of the
school admit would not be good for Aly. I conferred the other day on
this subject with M. le Moine, who seems to be of that opinion, &
disposed to give him every possible indulgence.
A very considerable portion of this country, has been desolated
by a hail. I considered the newspaper accounts, of hailstones of ten
pounds weight, as exaggerations. But in a conversation with the Duke
de la Rochefoucaut, the other day, he assured me, that though he
could not say he had seen such himself, yet he considered the fact as
perfectly established. Great contributions, public and private, are
making for the sufferers. But they will be like the drop of water
from the finger of Lazarus. There is no remedy for the present evil,
nor way to prevent future ones, but to bring the people to such a
state of ease, as not to be ruined by the loss of a single crop.
This hail may be considered as the _coup de grace_ to an expiring
victim. In the arts, there is nothing new discovered since you left
us, which is worth communicating. Mr. Payne's iron bridge was
exhibited here, with great approbation. An idea has been encouraged,
of executing it in three arches, at the King's garden. But it will
probably not be done.
I am, with sentiments of perfect esteem and attachment, Dear
Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant,
COMMERCE, WAR, AND REVOLUTION
_To George Washington_
_Paris, Dec. 4, 1788_
SIR, -- Your favor of Aug. 31. came to hand yesterday; and a
confidential conveiance offering, by the way of London, I avail
myself of it to acknolege the receipt.
I have seen, with infinite pleasure, our new constitution
accepted by 11. states, not rejected by the 12th. and that the 13th.
happens to be a state of the least importance. It is true, that the
minorities in most of the accepting states have been very
respectable, so much so as to render it prudent, were it not
otherwise reasonable, to make some sacrifice to them. I am in hopes
that the annexation of the bill of rights to the constitution will
alone draw over so great a proportion of the minorities, as to leave
little danger in the opposition of the residue; and that this
annexation may be made by Congress and the assemblies, without
calling a convention which might endanger the most valuable parts of
the system. Calculation has convinced me that circumstances may
arise, and probably will arise, wherein all the resources of taxation
will be necessary for the safety of the state. For tho' I am
decidedly of opinion we should take no part in European quarrels, but
cultivate peace and commerce with all, yet who can avoid seeing the
source of war, in the tyranny of those nations who deprive us of the
natural right of trading with our neighbors? The products of the
U.S. will soon exceed the European demand: what is to be done with
the surplus, when there shall be one? It will be employed, without
question, to open by force a market for itself with those placed on
the same continent with us, and who wish nothing better. Other
causes too are obvious, which may involve us in war; and war requires
every resource of taxation & credit. The power of making war often
prevents it, and in our case would give efficacy to our desire of
peace. If the new government wears the front which I hope it will, I
see no impossibility in the availing ourselves of the wars of others
to open the other parts of America to our commerce, as the price of
our neutrality.
The campaign between the Turks & two empires has been clearly
in favor of the former. The emperor is secretly trying to bring
about a peace. The alliance between England, Prussia and Holland,
(and some suspect Sweden also) renders their mediation decisive
whenever it is proposed. They seemed to interpose it so
magisterially between Denmark & Sweden, that the former submitted to
it's dictates, and there was all reason to believe that the war in
the North-Western parts of Europe would be quieted. All of a sudden
a new flame bursts out in Poland. The king and his party are devoted
to Russia. The opposition rely on the protection of Prussia. They
have lately become the majority in the confederated diet, and have
passed a vote for subjecting their army to a commission independent
of the king, and propose a perpetual diet in which case he will be a
perpetual cypher. Russia declares against such a change in their
constitution, and Prussia has put an army into readiness for marching
at a moment's warning on the frontiers of Poland. These events are
too recent to see as yet what turn they will take, or what effect
they will have on the peace of Europe. So is that also of the lunacy
of the king of England, which is a decided fact, notwithstanding all
the stuff the English papers publish about his fevers, his deliriums
&c. The truth is that the lunacy declared itself almost at once; and
with as few concomitant complaints as usually attend the first
development of that disorder. I suppose a regency will be
established, and if it consist of a plurality of members it will
probably be peaceable. In this event it will much favor the present
wishes of this country, which are so decidedly for peace, that they
refused to enter into the mediation between Sweden and Russia, lest
it should commit them. As soon as the convocation of the
States-general was announced, a tranquillity took place thro' the
whole kingdom. Happily no open rupture had taken place in any part
of it. The parliaments were re-instated in their functions at the
same time. This was all they desired, and they had called for the
States general only through fear that the crown could not otherwise
be forced to re-instate them. Their end obtained, they began to
foresee danger to themselves in the States general. They began to
lay the foundations for cavilling at the legality of that body, if
it's measures should be hostile to them. The court, to clear itself
of the dispute, convened the Notables who had acted with general
approbation on the former occasion, and referred to them the forms of
calling and organising the States-general. These Notables consist
principally of nobility & clergy, the few of the tiers etat among
them being either parliament-men, or other privileged persons. The
court wished that in the future States general the members of the
Tiersetat should equal those of both the other orders, and that they
should form but one house, all together, & vote by persons, not by
orders. But the Notables, in the true spirit of priests and nobles,
combining together against the people, have voted by 5 bureaux out of
6. that the people or tiers etat shall have no greater number of
deputies than each of the other orders separately, and that they
shall vote by orders: so that two orders concurring in a vote, the
third will be overruled, for it is not here as in England where each
of the three branches has a negative on the other two. If this
project of theirs succeeds, a combination between the two houses of
clergy & nobles, will render the representation of the Tiers etat
merely nugatory. The bureaux are to assemble together to consolidate
their separate votes; but I see no reasonable hope of their changing
this. Perhaps the king, knowing that he may count on the support of
the nation and attach it more closely to him, may take on himself to
disregard the opinion of the Notables in this instance, and may call
an equal representation of the people, in which precedents will
support him. In every event, I think the present disquiet will end
well. The nation has been awaked by our revolution, they feel their
strength, they are enlightened, their lights are spreading, and they
will not retrograde. The first states general may establish 3.
important points without opposition from the court. 1. their own
periodical convocation. 2. their exclusive right of taxation (which
has been confessed by the king.) 3. the right of registering laws and
of previously proposing amendments to them, as the parliaments have
by usurpation been in the habit of doing. The court will consent to
this from it's hatred to the parliaments, and from the desire of
having to do with one rather than many legislatures. If the states
are prudent they will not aim at more than this at first, lest they
should shock the dispositions of the court, and even alarm the public
mind, which must be left to open itself by degrees to successive
improvements. These will follow from the nature of things. How far
they can proceed, in the end, towards a thorough reformation of
abuse, cannot be foreseen. In my opinion a kind of influence, which
none of their plans of reform take into account, will elude them all;
I mean the influence of women in the government. The manners of the
nation allow them to visit, alone, all persons in office, to sollicit
the affairs of the husband, family, or friends, and their
sollicitations bid defiance to laws and regulations. This obstacle
may seem less to those who, like our countrymen, are in the habit of
considering Right, as a barrier against all sollicitation. Nor can
such an one, without the evidence of his own eyes, believe the
desperate state to which things are reduced in this country from the
omnipotence of an influence which, fortunately for the happiness of
the sex itself, does not endeavor to extend itself in our country
beyond the domestic line.
Your communications to the Count de Moustier, whatever they may
have been, cannot have done injury to my endeavors here to open the
W. Indies to us. On this head the ministers are invincibly mute,
tho' I have often tried to draw them into the subject. I have
therefore found it necessary to let it lie till war or other
circumstance may force it on. Whenever they are in war with England,
they must open the islands to us, and perhaps during that war they
may see some price which might make them agree to keep them always
open. In the meantime I have laid my shoulder to the opening the
markets of this country to our produce, and rendering it's
transportation a nursery for our seamen. A maritime force is the
only one by which we can act on Europe. Our navigation law (if it be
wise to have any) should be the reverse of that of England. Instead
of confining _importations_ to home-bottoms or those of the
_producing_ nations, I think we should confine _exportations_ to home
bottoms or to those of nations _having treaties with us_. Our
exportations are heavy, and would nourish a great force of our own,
or be a tempting price to the nation to whom we should offer a
participation of it in exchange for free access to all their
possessions. This is an object to which our government alone is
adequate in the gross, but I have ventured to pursue it, here, so far
as the consumption of productions by this country extends. Thus in
our arrangements relative to tobacco, none can be received here but
in French or American bottoms. This is emploiment for nearly 2000
seamen, and puts nearly that number of British out of employ. By the
_Arret_ of Dec, 1787, it was provided that our whale oils should not
be received here but in French or American bottoms, and by later
regulations all oils but those of France and America are excluded.
This will put 100 English whale vessels immediately out of employ,
and 150. ere long; and call so many of French & American into
service. We have had 6000 seamen formerly in this business, the
whole of whom we have been likely to lose. The consumption of rice
is growing fast in this country, and that of Carolina gaining ground
on every other kind. I am of opinion the whole of the Carolina rice
can be consumed here. It's transportation employs 2500 sailors,
almost all of them English at present; the rice being deposited at
Cowes & brought from thence here. It would be dangerous to confine
this transportation to French & American bottoms the ensuing year,
because they will be much engrossed by the transportation of wheat &
flour hither, and the crop of rice might lie on hand for want of
vessels; but I see no objections to the extensions of our principle
to this article also, beginning with the year 1790. However, before
there is a necessity of deciding on this I hope to be able to consult
our new government in person, as I have asked of Congress a leave of
absence for 6. months, that is to say from April to November next.
It is necessary for me to pay a short visit to my native country,
first to reconduct my family thither, and place them in the hands of
their friends, & secondly to place my private affairs under certain
arrangements. When I left my own house, I expected to be absent but
5 months, & I have been led by events to an absence of 5 years. I
shall hope therefore for the pleasure of personal conferences with
your Excellency on the subject of this letter and others interesting
to our country, of getting my own ideas set to rights by a
communication of yours, and of taking again the tone of sentiment of
my own country which we lose in some degree after a certain absence.
You know doubtless of the death of the Marquise de Chastellux. The
Marquis de La Fayette is out of favor with the court, but high in
favor with the nation. I once feared for his personal liberty, but I
hope he is on safe ground at present. On the subject of the whale
fishery I inclose you some observations I drew up for the ministry
here, in order to obtain a correction of their _Arret_ of Sepr last,
whereby they had involved our oils with the English in a general
exclusion from their ports. They will accordingly correct this, so
that our oils will participate with theirs in the monopoly of their
markets. There are several things incidentally introduced which do
not seem pertinent to the general question. They were rendered
necessary by particular circumstances the explanation of which would
add to a letter already too long. I will trespass no further then
than to assure you of the sentiments of sincere attachment and
respect with which I have the honor to be your Excellency's most
obedt. humble servant.
P.S. The observations inclosed, tho' printed, have been put
into confidential hands only.
CONVENING THE ESTATES GENERAL
_To Richard Price_
_Paris, January 8, 1789_
DEAR SIR, -- I was favored with your letter of October 26th,
and far from finding any of its subjects uninteresting as you
apprehend, they were to me, as everything which comes from you,
pleasing and instructive. I concur with you strictly in your opinion
of the comparative merits of atheism and demonism, and really see
nothing but the latter in the being worshipped by many who think
themselves Christians. Your opinions and writings will have effect
in bringing others to reason on this subject. Our new Constitution,
of which you speak also, has succeeded beyond what I apprehended it
would have done. I did not at first believe that eleven States out
of thirteen would have consented to a plan consolidating them as much
into one. A change in their dispositions, which had taken place
since I left them, had rendered this consolidation necessary, that is
to say, had called for a federal government which could walk upon its
own legs, without leaning for support on the State legislatures. A
sense of necessity, and a submission to it, is to me a new and
consolatory proof that, whenever the people are well-informed, they
can be trusted with their own government; that, whenever things get
so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set
them to rights. You say you are not sufficiently informed about the
nature and circumstances of the present struggle here. Having been
on the spot from its first origin, and watched its movements as an
uninterested spectator, with no other bias than a love of mankind, I
will give you my ideas of it. Though celebrated writers of this and
other countries had already sketched good principles on the subject
of government, yet the American war seems first to have awakened the
thinking part of this nation in general from the sleep of despotism
in which they were sunk. The officers too who had been to America,
were mostly young men, less shackled by habit and prejudice, and more
ready to assent to the dictates of common sense and common right.
They came back impressed with these. The press, notwithstanding its
shackles, began to disseminate them; conversation, too, assumed new
freedom; politics became the theme of all societies, male and female,
and a very extensive and zealous party was formed, which may be
called the Patriotic party, who, sensible of the abusive government
under which they lived, longed for occasions of reforming it. This
party comprehended all the honesty of the kingdom, sufficiently at
its leisure to think; the men of letters, the easy bourgeois, the
young nobility, partly from reflection, partly from mode; for those
sentiments became a matter of mode, and as such united most of the
young women to the party. Happily for the nation, it happened that,
at the same moment, the dissipations of the court had exhausted the
money and credit of the State, and M. de Calonnes found himself
obliged to appeal to the nation, and to develop to it the ruin of
their finances. He had no idea of supplying the deficit by
economies, he saw no means but new taxes. To tempt the nation to
consent to these some douceurs were necessary. The Notables were
called in 1787. The leading vices of the constitution and
administration were ably sketched out, good remedies proposed, and
under the splendor of the propositions, a demand for more money was
couched. The Notables concurred with the minister in the necessity
of reformation, adroitly avoided the demand of money, got him
displaced, and one of their leading men placed in his room. The
archbishop of Thoulouse, by the aid of the hopes formed of him, was
able to borrow some money, and he reformed considerably the expenses
of the court. Notwithstanding the prejudices since formed against
him, he appeared to me to pursue the reformation of the laws and
constitution as steadily as a man could do who had to drag the court
after him, and even to conceal from them the consequences of the
measures he was leading them into. In his time the criminal laws
were reformed, provincial assemblies and States established in most
of the provinces, the States General promised, and a solemn
acknowledgment made by the King that he could not impose a new tax
without the consent of the nation. It is true he was continually
goaded forward by the public clamors, excited by the writings and
workings of the Patriots, who were able to keep up the public
fermentation at the exact point which borders on resistance, without
entering on it. They had taken into their alliance the Parliaments
also, who were led, by very singular circumstances, to espouse, for
the first time, the rights of the nation. They had from old causes
had personal hostility against M. de Calonnes. They refused to
register his laws or his taxes, and went so far as to acknowledge
they had no power to do it. They persisted in this with his
successor, who therefore exiled them. Seeing that the nation did not
interest themselves much for their recall, they began to fear that
the new judicatures proposed in their place would be established and
that their own suppression would be perpetual. In short, they found
their own strength insufficient to oppose that of the King. They
therefore insisted that the States General should be called. Here
they became united with and supported by the Patriots, and their
joint influence was sufficient to produce the promise of that
assembly. I always suspected that the archbishops had no objections
to this force under which they laid him. But the Patriots and
Parliament insisted it was their efforts which extorted the promise
against his will. The re-establishment of the Parliament was the
effect of the same coalition between the Patriots and Parliament;
but, once re-established, the latter began to see danger in that very
power, the States General, which they had called for in a moment of
despair, but which they now foresaw might very possibly abridge their
powers. They began to prepare grounds for questioning their
legality, as a rod over the head of the States, and as a refuge if
they should really extend their reformations to them. Mr. Neckar
came in at this period and very dexterously disembarrassed the
administration of these disputes by calling the notables to advise
the form of calling and constituting the States. The court was well
disposed towards the people, not from principles of justice or love
to them; but they want money. No more can be had from the people.
They are squeezed to the last drop. The clergy and nobles, by their
privileges and influence, have kept their property in a great measure
untaxed hitherto. They then remain to be squeezed, and no agent is
powerful enough for this but the people. The court therefore must
ally itself with the people. But the Notables, consisting mostly of
privileged characters, had proposed a method of composing the States,
which would have rendered the voice of the people, or Tiers Etats, in
the States General, inefficient for the purpose of the court. It
concurred then with the Patriots in intriguing with the Parliament to
get them to pass a vote in favor of the rights of the people. This
vote, balancing that of the Notables, has placed the court at liberty
to follow its own views, and they have determined that the Tiers Etat
shall have in the States General as many votes as the clergy and
nobles put together. Still a great question remains to be decided,
that is, shall the States General vote by orders, or by persons?
precedents are both ways. The clergy will move heaven and earth to
obtain the suffrage by orders, because that parries the effect of all
hitherto done for the people. The people will probably send their
deputies expressly instructed to consent to no tax, to no adoption of
the public debts, unless the unprivileged part of the nation has a
voice equal to that of the privileged; that is to say, unless the
voice of the Tiers Etat be equalled to that of the clergy and nobles.
They will have the young noblesse in general on their side, and the
King and court. Against them will be the ancient nobles and the
clergy. So that I hope, upon the whole, that by the time they meet,
there will be a majority of the nobles themselves in favor of the
Tiers Etat. So far history. We are now to come to prophecy; for you
will ask, to what will all this lead? I answer, if the States
General do not stumble at the threshold on the question before
stated, and which must be decided before they can proceed to
business, then they will in their first session easily obtain, 1.
Their future periodical convocation of the States. 2. Their
exclusive right to raise and appropriate money which includes that of
establishing a civil list. 3. A participation in legislation;
probably at first, it will only be a transfer to them of the portion
of it now exercised by parliament, that is to say, a right to propose
amendments and a negative. But it must infallibly end in a right of
origination. 4. Perhaps they may make a declaration of rights. It
will be attempted at least. Two other objects will be attempted,
viz., a habeas corpus law and a free press. But probably they may
not obtain these in the first session, or with modifications only,
and the nation must be left to ripen itself more for their unlimited
adoption. Upon the whole, it has appeared to me that the basis of
the present struggle is an illumination of the public mind as to the
rights of the nation, aided by fortunate incidents; that they can
never retrograde, but from the natural progress of things, must press
forward to the establishment of a constitution which shall assure to
them a good degree of liberty. They flatter themselves they shall
form a better constitution than the English. I think it will be
better in some points -- worse in others. It will be better in the
article of representation, which will be more equal. It will be
worse, as their situation obliges them to keep up the dangerous
machine of a standing army. I doubt, too, whether they will obtain
the trial by jury, because they are not sensible of its value.
I am sure I have by this time heartily tired you with this long
epistle, and that you will be glad to see it brought to an end, with
assurances of the sentiments of esteem and respect with which I have
the honor to be, dear Sir, your most obedient, and most humble
servant.
BACON, LOCKE, AND NEWTON
_To John Trumbull_
_Paris, Feb. 15, 1789_
DEAR SIR, -- I have duly received your favor of the 5'th. inst.
With respect to the busts & pictures I will put off till my return
from America all of them except Bacon, Locke and Newton, whose
pictures I will trouble you to have copied for me: and as I consider
them as the three greatest men that have ever lived, without any
exception, and as having laid the foundation of those superstructures
which have been raised in the Physical & Moral sciences, I would wish
to form them into a knot on the same canvas, that they may not be
confounded at all with the herd of other great men. To do this I
suppose we need only desire the copyist to draw the three busts in
three ovals all contained in a larger oval in some such form as this
each bust to be the size of life.
xxx. The large oval would I suppose be about between four &
five feet. Perhaps you can suggest a better way of accomplishing my
idea. In your hands be it, as well as the subaltern expences you
mention. I trouble you with a letter to Mrs. Church. We have no
important news here but of the revolution of Geneva which is not yet
sufficiently explained. But they have certainly reformed their
government. I am with great respect D'r. Sir Your affectionate
friend & humble serv't.
"NEITHER FEDERALIST NOR ANTIFEDERALIST"
_To Francis Hopkinson_
_Paris, Mar. 13, 1789_
DEAR SIR, -- Since my last, which was of Dec. 21. yours of Dec.
9. & 21. are received. Accept my thanks for the papers and pamphlets
which accompanied them, and mine & my daughter's for the book of
songs. I will not tell you how much they have pleased us, nor how
well the last of them merits praise for it's pathos, but relate a
fact only, which is that while my elder daughter was playing it on
the harpsichord, I happened to look towards the fire & saw the
younger one all in tears. I asked her if she was sick? She said
`no; but the tune was so mournful.' -- The Editor of the Encyclopedie
has published something as to an advanced price on his future
volumes, which I understand alarms the subscribers. It was in a
paper which I do not take & therefore I have not yet seen it, nor can
say what it is. -- I hope that by this time you have ceased to make
wry faces about your vinegar, and that you have received it safe &
good. You say that I have been dished up to you as an
antifederalist, and ask me if it be just. My opinion was never
worthy enough of notice to merit citing; but since you ask it I will
tell it you. I am not a Federalist, because I never submitted the
whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever
in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else where I
was capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last
degradation of a free and moral agent. If I could not go to heaven
but with a party, I would not go there at all. Therefore I protest
to you I am not of the party of federalists. But I am much farther
from that of the Antifederalists. I approved, from the first moment,
of the great mass of what is in the new constitution, the
consolidation of the government, the organization into Executive
legislative & judiciary, the subdivision of the legislative, the
happy compromise of interests between the great & little states by
the different manner of voting in the different houses, the voting by
persons instead of states, the qualified negative on laws given to
the Executive which however I should have liked better if associated
with the judiciary also as in New York, and the power of taxation. I
thought at first that the latter might have been limited. A little
reflection soon convinced me it ought not to be. What I disapproved
from the first moment also was the want of a bill of rights to guard
liberty against the legislative as well as executive branches of the
government, that is to say to secure freedom in religion, freedom of
the press, freedom from monopolies, freedom from unlawful
imprisonment, freedom from a permanent military, and a trial by jury
in all cases determinable by the laws of the land. I disapproved
also the perpetual reeligibility of the President. To these points
of disapprobation I adhere. My first wish was that the 9. first
conventions might accept the constitution, as the means of securing
to us the great mass of good it contained, and that the 4. last might
reject it, as the means of obtaining amendments. But I was corrected
in this wish the moment I saw the much better plan of Massachusetts
and which had never occurred to me. With respect to the declaration
of rights I suppose the majority of the United states are of my
opinion: for I apprehend all the antifederalists, and a very
respectable proportion of the federalists think that such a
declaration should now be annexed. The enlightened part of Europe
have given us the greatest credit for inventing this instrument of
security for the rights of the people, and have been not a little
surprised to see us so soon give it up. With respect to the
re-eligibility of the president, I find myself differing from the
majority of my countrymen, for I think there are but three states out
of the 11. which have desired an alteration of this. And indeed,
since the thing is established, I would wish it not to be altered
during the life of our great leader, whose executive talents are
superior to those I believe of any man in the world, and who alone by
the authority of his name and the confidence reposed in his perfect
integrity, is fully qualified to put the new government so under way
as to secure it against the efforts of opposition. But having
derived from our error all the good there was in it I hope we shall
correct it the moment we can no longer have the same name at the
helm. These, my dear friend, are my sentiments, by which you will
see I was right in saying I am neither federalist nor antifederalist;
that I am of neither party, nor yet a trimmer between parties. These
my opinions I wrote within a few hours after I had read the
constitution, to one or two friends in America. I had not then read
one single word printed on the subject. I never had an opinion in
politics or religion which I was afraid to own. A costive reserve on
these subjects might have procured me more esteem from some people,
but less from myself. My great wish is to go on in a strict but
silent performance of my duty; to avoid attracting notice & to keep
my name out of newspapers, because I find the pain of a little
censure, even when it is unfounded, is more acute than the pleasure
of much praise. The attaching circumstance of my present office is
that I can do it's duties unseen by those for whom they are done. --
You did not think, by so short a phrase in your letter, to have drawn
on yourself such an egotistical dissertation.
A BILL OF RIGHTS
_To James Madison_
_Paris, Mar 15, 1789_
DEAR SIR, -- I wrote you last on the 12th of Jan. since which I
have received yours of Octob 17, Dec 8 & 12. That of Oct. 17. came
to hand only Feb 23. How it happened to be four months on the way, I
cannot tell, as I never knew by what hand it came. Looking over my
letter of Jan 12th, I remark an error of the word "probable" instead
of "improbable," which doubtless however you had been able to
correct. Your thoughts on the subject of the Declaration of rights
in the letter of Oct 17. I have weighed with great satisfaction.
Some of them had not occurred to me before, but were acknoleged just
in the moment they were presented to my mind. In the arguments in
favor of a declaration of rights, you omit one which has great weight
with me, the legal check which it puts into the hands of the
judiciary. This is a body, which if rendered independent & kept
strictly to their own department merits great confidence for their
learning & integrity. In fact what degree of confidence would be too
much for a body composed of such men as Wythe, Blair & Pendleton? On
characters like these the _"civium ardor prava jubentium"_ would make
no impression. I am happy to find that on the whole you are a friend
to this amendment. The Declaration of rights is like all other human
blessings alloyed with some inconveniences, and not accomplishing
fully it's object. But the good in this instance vastly overweighs
the evil. I cannot refrain from making short answers to the
objections which your letter states to have been raised. 1. That the
rights in question are reserved by the manner in which the federal
powers are granted. Answer. A constitutive act may certainly be so
formed as to need no declaration of rights. The act itself has the
force of a declaration as far as it goes; and if it goes to all
material points nothing more is wanting. In the draught of a
constitution which I had once a thought of proposing in Virginia, &
printed afterwards, I endeavored to reach all the great objects of
public liberty, and did not mean to add a declaration of rights.
Probably the object was imperfectly executed; but the deficiencies
would have been supplied by others, in the course of discussion. But
in a constitutive act which leaves some precious articles unnoticed,
and raises implications against others, a declaration of rights
becomes necessary by way of supplement. This is the case of our new
federal constitution. This instrument forms us into one state as to
certain objects, and gives us a legislative & executive body for
these objects. It should therefore guard us against their abuses of
power within the field submitted to them. 2. A positive declaration
of some essential rights could not be obtained in the requisite
latitude. Answer. Half a loaf is better than no bread. If we
cannot secure all our rights, let us secure what we can. 3. The
limited powers of the federal government & jealousy of the
subordinate governments afford a security which exists in no other
instance. Answer. The first member of this seems resolvable into
the first objection before stated. The jealousy of the subordinate
governments is a precious reliance. But observe that those
governments are only agents. They must have principles furnished
them whereon to found their opposition. The declaration of rights
will be the text whereby they will try all the acts of the federal
government, In this view it is necessary to the federal government
also; as by the same text they may try the opposition of the
subordinate governments. 4. Experience proves the inefficacy of a
bill of rights. True. But tho it is not absolutely efficacious
under all circumstances, it is of great potency always, and rarely
inefficacious. A brace the more will often keep up the building
which would have fallen with that brace the less. There is a
remarkable difference between the characters of the Inconveniences
which attend a Declaration of rights, & those which attend the want
of it. The inconveniences of the Declaration are that it may cramp
government in it's useful exertions. But the evil of this is
short-lived, trivial & reparable. The inconveniences of the want of
a Declaration are permanent, afflicting & irreparable. They are in
constant progression from bad to worse. The executive in our
governments is not the sole, it is scarcely the principal object of
my jealousy. The tyranny of the legislatures is the most formidable
dread at present, and will be for long years. That of the executive
will come in it's turn, but it will be at a remote period. I know
there are some among us who would now establish a monarchy. But they
are inconsiderable in number and weight of character. The rising
race are all republicans. We were educated in royalism; no wonder if
some of us retain that idolatry still. Our young people are educated
in republicanism, an apostasy from that to royalism is unprecedented
& impossible. I am much pleased with the prospect that a declaration
of rights will be added; and hope it will be done in that way which
will not endanger the whole frame of the government, or any essential
part of it.
I have hitherto avoided public news in my letters to you,
because your situation insured you a communication of my letters to
Mr. Jay. This circumstance being changed, I shall in future indulge
myself in these details to you. There had been some slight hopes
that an accommodation might be affected between the Turks & two
empires but these hopes do not strengthen, and the season is
approaching which will put an end to them for another campaign at
least. The accident to the King of England has had great influence
on the affairs of Europe. His mediation joined with that of Prussia,
would certainly have kept Denmark quiet, and so have left the two
empires in the hands of the Turks & Swedes. But the inactivity to
which England is reduced, leaves Denmark more free, and she will
probably go on in opposition to Sweden. The K. of Prussia too had
advanced so far that he can scarcely retire. This is rendered the
more difficult by the troubles he has excited in Poland. He cannot
well abandon the party he had brought forward there so that it is
very possible he may be engaged in the ensuing campaign. France will
be quiet this year, because this year at least is necessary for
settling her future constitution. The States will meet the 27th of
April: and the public mind will I think by that time be ripe for a
just decision of the Question whether they shall vote by orders or
persons. I think there is a majority of the nobles already for the
latter. If so, their affairs cannot but go on well. Besides
settling for themselves a tolerably free constitution, perhaps as
free a one as the nation is yet prepared to bear, they will fund
their public debts. This will give them such a credit as will enable
them to borrow any money they may want, & of course to take the field
again when they think proper. And I believe they mean to take the
field as soon as they can. The pride of every individual in the
nation suffers under the ignominies they have lately been exposed to
and I think the states general will give money for a war to wipe off
the reproach. There have arisen new bickerings between this court &
the Hague, and the papers which have passed shew the most bitter
acrimony rankling at the heart of this ministry. They have recalled
their ambassador from the Hague without appointing a successor. They
have given a note to the Diet of Poland which shews a disapprobation
of their measures. The insanity of the King of England has been
fortunate for them as it gives them time to put their house in order.
The English papers tell you the King is well: and even the English
ministry say so. They will naturally set the best foot foremost: and
they guard his person so well that it is difficult for the public to
contradict them. The King is probably better, but not well by a
great deal. 1. He has been bled, and judicious physicians say that
in his exhausted state nothing could have induced a recurrence to
bleeding but symptoms of relapse. 2. The Prince of Wales tells the
Irish deputation he will give them a definitive answer in some days;
but if the king had been well he could have given it at once. 3.
They talk of passing a standing law for providing a regency in
similar cases. They apprehend then they are not yet clear of the
danger of wanting a regency. 4. They have carried the king to
church; but it was his private chapel. If he be well why do not they
shew him publicly to the nation, & raise them from that consternation
into which they have been thrown by the prospect of being delivered
over to the profligate hands of the prince of Wales. In short,
judging from little facts which are known in spite of their teeth the
King is better, but not well. Possibly he is getting well, but
still, time will be wanting to satisfy even the ministry that it is
not merely a lucid interval. Consequently they cannot interrupt
France this year in the settlement of her affairs, & after this year
it will be too late.
As you will be in a situation to know when the leave of absence
will be granted me which I have asked, will you be so good as to
communicate it by a line to Mr. Lewis & Mr. Eppes? I hope to see you
in the summer, and that if you are not otherwise engaged, you will
encamp with me at Monticello for awhile.
SCIENCE AND LIBERTY
_To Joseph Willard_
_Paris, March 24, 1789_
SIR, -- I have been lately honored with your letter of
September the 24th, 1788, accompanied by a diploma for a Doctorate of
Laws, which the University of Harvard has been pleased to confer on
me. Conscious how little I merit it, I am the more sensible of their
goodness and indulgence to a stranger, who has had no means of
serving or making himself known to them. I beg you to return them my
grateful thanks, and to assure them that this notice from so eminent
a seat of science, is very precious to me.
The most remarkable publications we have had in France, for a
year or two past, are the following. `Les voyages d'Anacharsis par
l'Abbe Barthelemi,' seven volumes, octavo. This is a very elegant
digest of whatever is known of the Greeks; useless, indeed, to him
who has read the original authors, but very proper for one who reads
modern languages only. The works of the King of Prussia. The Berlin
edition is in sixteen volumes, octavo. It is said to have been
gutted at Berlin; and here it has been still more mangled. There are
one or two other editions published abroad, which pretend to have
rectified the maltreatment both of Berlin and Paris. Some time will
be necessary to settle the public mind, as to the best edition.
Montignot has given us the original Greek, and a French
translation of the seventh book of Potolemy's great work, under the
title of `Etat des etoiles fixes au second siecle,' in quarto. He
has given the designation of the same stars by Flamstead and Beyer,
and their position in the year 1786. A very remarkable work is the
`Mechanique Analytique,' of Le Grange, in quarto. He is allowed to
be the greatest mathematician now living, and his personal worth is
equal to his science. The object of his work is to reduce all the
principles of mechanics to the single one of the equilibrium, and to
give a simple formula applicable to them all. The subject is treated
in the algebraic method, without diagrams to assist the conception.
My present occupations not permitting me to read any thing which
requires a long and undisturbed attention, I am not able to give you
the character of this work from my own examination. It has been
received with great approbation in Europe. In Italy, the works of
Spallanzani on digestion and generation, are valuable. Though,
perhaps, too minute, and therefore tedious, he has developed some
useful truths, and his book is well worth attention; it is in four
volumes, octavo. Clavigaro, an Italian also, who has resided
thirty-six years in Mexico, has given us a history of that country,
which certainly merits more respect than any other work on the same
subject. He corrects many errors of Dr. Robertson; and though sound
philosophy will disapprove many of his ideas, we must still consider
it as an useful work, and assuredly the best we possess on the same
subject. It is in four thin volumes, small quarto. De la Land has
not yet published a fifth volume.
The chemical dispute about the conversion and reconversion of
air and water, continues still undecided. Arguments and authorities
are so balanced, that we may still safely believe, as our fathers did
before us, that these principles are distinct. A schism of another
kind, has taken place among the chemists. A particular set of them
here, have undertaken to remodel all the terms of the science, and to
give to every substance a new name, the composition, and especially
the termination of which, shall define the relation in which it
stands to other substances of the same family. But the science seems
too much in its infancy as yet, for this reformation; because, in
fact, the reformation of this year must be reformed again the next
year, and so on, changing the names of substances as often as new
experiments develope properties in them undiscovered before. The new
nomenclature has, accordingly, been already proved to need numerous
and important reformations. Probably it will not prevail. It is
espoused by the minority only here, and by very few, indeed, of the
foreign chemists. It is particularly rejected in England.
In the arts, I think two of our countrymen have presented the
most important inventions. Mr. Paine, the author of Common Sense,
has invented an iron bridge, which promises to be cheaper by a great
deal than stone, and to admit of a much greater arch. He supposes it
may be ventured for an arch of five hundred feet. He has obtained a
patent for it in England, and is now executing the first experiment
with an arch of between ninety and one hundred feet. Mr. Rumsey has
also obtained a patent for his navigation by the force of steam, in
England, and is soliciting a similar one here. His principal merit
is in the improvement of the boiler, and, instead of the complicated
machinery of oars and paddles, proposed by others, the substitution
of so simple a thing as the reaction of a stream of water on his
vessel. He is building a sea vessel at this time in England, and she
will be ready for an experiment in May. He has suggested a great
number of mechanical improvements in a variety of branches; and upon
the whole, is the most original and the greatest mechanical genius I
have ever seen. The return of la Peyrouse (whenever that shall
happen) will probably add to our knowledge in Geography, Botany and
Natural History. What a field have we at our doors to signalise
ourselves in! The Botany of America is far from being exhausted, its
Mineralogy is untouched, and its Natural History or Zoology, totally
mistaken and misrepresented. As far as I have seen, there is not one
single species of terrestrial birds common to Europe and America, and
I question if there be a single species of quadrupeds. (Domestic
animals are to be excepted.) It is for such institutions as that over
which you preside so worthily, Sir, to do justice to our country, its
productions and its genius. It is the work to which the young men,
whom you are forming, should lay their hands. We have spent the
prime of our lives in procuring them the precious blessing of
liberty. Let them spend theirs in shewing that it is the great
parent of _science_ and of virtue; and that a nation will be great in
both, always in proportion as it is free. Nobody wishes more warmly
for the success of your good exhortations on this subject, than he
who has the honor to be, with sentiments of great esteem and respect,
Sir, your most obedient humble servant,
A REPORT FROM VERSAILLES
_To John Jay_
_Paris, May 9, 1789_
SIR, -- Since my letter of March the 1st, by the way of Havre,
and those of March the 12th and 15th, by the way of London, no
opportunity of writing has occurred, till the present to London.
There are no symptoms of accommodation between the Turks and
two empires, nor between Russia and Sweden. The Emperor was, on the
16th of the last month, expected to die, certainly; he was, however,
a little better when the last news came away, so that hopes were
entertained of him; but it is agreed that he cannot get the better of
his complaints ultimately, so that his life is not at all counted on.
The Danes profess, as yet, to do no more against Sweden than furnish
their stipulated aid. The agitation of Poland is still violent,
though somewhat moderated by the late change in the demeanor of the
King of Prussia. He is much less thrasonic than he was. This is
imputed to the turn which the English politics may be rationally
expected to take. It is very difficult to get at the true state of
the British King; but from the best information we can get, his
madness has gone off, but he is left in a state of imbecility and
melancholy. They are going to carry him to Hanover, to see whether
such a journey may relieve him. The Queen accompanies him. If
England should, by this accident, be reduced to inactivity, the
southern countries of Europe may escape the present war. Upon the
whole, the prospect for the present year, if no unforeseen accident
happens, is, certain peace for the powers not already engaged, a
probability that Denmark will not become a principal, and a mere
possibility that Sweden and Russia may be accommodated. The interior
disputes of Sweden are so exactly detailed in the Leyden gazette,
that I have nothing to add on that subject.
The revolution of this country has advanced thus far, without
encountering any thing which deserves to be called a difficulty.
There have been riots in a few instances, in three or four different
places, in which there may have been a dozen or twenty lives lost.
The exact truth is not to be got at. A few days ago, a much more
serious riot took place in this city, in which it became necessary
for the troops to engage in regular action with the mob, and probably
about one hundred of the latter were killed. Accounts vary from
twenty to two hundred. They were the most abandoned banditti of
Paris, and never was a riot more unprovoked and unpitied. They
began, under a pretence that a paper manufacturer had proposed in an
assembly, to reduce their wages to fifteen sous a day. They rifled
his house, destroyed every thing in his magazines and shops, and were
only stopped in their career of mischief, by the carnage above
mentioned. Neither this nor any other of the riots, have had a
professed connection with the great national reformation going on.
They are such as have happened every year since I have been here, and
as will continue to be produced by common incidents. The States
General were opened on the 4th instant, by a speech from the throne,
one by the Garde des Sceaux, and one from Mr. Neckar. I hope they
will be printed in time to send you herewith: lest they should not, I
will observe, that that of Mr. Neckar stated the real and ordinary
deficit to be fifty-six millions, and that he shewed that this could
be made up without a new tax, by economies and bonifications which he
specified. Several articles of the latter are liable to the
objection, that they are proposed on branches of the revenue, of
which the nation has demanded a suppression. He tripped too lightly
over the great articles of constitutional reformation, these being
not as clearly enounced in this discourse as they were in his
`Rapport au roy,' which I sent you some time ago. On the whole, his
discourse has not satisfied the patriotic party. It is now, for the
first time, that their revolution is likely to receive a serious
check, and begins to wear a fearful appearance. The progress of
light and liberality in the order of the Noblesse, has equalled
expectation in Paris only, and its vicinities. The great mass of
deputies of that order, which come from the country, shew that the
habits of tyranny over the people, are deeply rooted in them. They
will consent, indeed, to equal taxation; but five-sixths of that
chamber are thought to be, decidedly, for voting by orders; so that,
had this great preliminary question rested on this body, which formed
heretofore the sole hope, that hope would have been completely
disappointed. Some aid, however, comes in from a quarter whence none
was expected. It was imagined the ecclesiastical elections would
have been generally in favor of the higher clergy; on the contrary,
the lower clergy have obtained five-sixths of these deputations.
These are the sons of peasants, who have done all the drudgery of the
service, for ten, twenty and thirty guineas a year, and whose
oppressions and penury, contrasted with the pride and luxury of the
higher clergy, have rendered them perfectly disposed to humble the
latter. They have done it, in many instances, with a boldness they
were thought insusceptible of. Great hopes have been formed, that
these would concur with the Tiers Etat, in voting by persons. In
fact, about half of them seem as yet so disposed; but the bishops are
intriguing, and drawing them over with the address which has ever
marked ecclesiastical intrigue. The deputies of the Tiers Etat seem,
almost to a man, inflexibly determined against the vote by orders.
This is the state of parties, as well as can be judged from
conversation only, during the fortnight they have been now together.
But as no business has been yet begun, no votes as yet taken, this
calculation cannot be considered as sure. A middle proposition is
talked of, to form the two privileged orders into one chamber. It is
thought more possible to bring them into it, than the Tiers Etat.
Another proposition is, to distinguish questions, referring those of
certain descriptions to a vote by persons, others to a vote by
orders. This seems to admit of endless altercation, and the Tiers
Etat manifest no respect for that, or any other modification
whatever. Were this single question accommodated, I am of opinion,
there would not occur the least difficulty in the great and essential
points of constitutional reformation. But on this preliminary
question the parties are so irreconcilable, that it is impossible to
foresee what issue it will have. The Tiers Etat, as constituting the
nation, may propose to do the business of the nation, either with or
without the minorities in the Houses of Clergy and Nobles, which side
with them. In that case, if the King should agree to it, the
majorities in those two Houses would secede, and might resist the tax
gatherers. This would bring on a civil war. On the other hand, the
privileged orders, offering to submit to equal taxation, may propose
to the King to continue the government in its former train, resuming
to himself the power of taxation. Here, the tax gatherers might be
resisted by the people. In fine, it is but too possible, that
between parties so animated, the King may incline the balance as he
pleases. Happy that he is an honest, unambitious man, who desires
neither money nor power for himself; and that his most operative
minister, though he has appeared to trim a little, is still, in the
main, a friend to public liberty.
I mentioned to you in a former letter, the construction which
our bankers at Amsterdam had put on the resolution of Congress,
appropriating the last Dutch loan, by which the money for our
captives would not be furnished till the end of the year 1790.
Orders from the board of treasury, have now settled this question.
The interest of the next month is to be first paid, and after that,
the money for the captives and foreign officers is to be furnished,
before any other payment of interest. This insures it when the next
February interest becomes payable. My representations to them, on
account of the contracts I had entered into for making the medals,
have produced from them the money for that object, which is lodged in
the hands of Mr. Grand.
Mr. Neckar, in his discourse, proposes among his bonifications
of revenue, the suppression of our two free ports of Bayonne and
L'Orient, which he says, occasion a loss of six hundred thousand
livres annually, to the crown, by contraband. (The speech being not
yet printed, I state this only as it struck my ear when he delivered
it. If I have mistaken it, I beg you to receive this as my apology,
and to consider what follows, as written on that idea only.) I have
never been able to see that these free ports were worth one copper to
us. To Bayonne our trade never went, and it is leaving L'Orient.
Besides, the right of entrepot is a perfect substitute for the right
of free port. The latter is a little less troublesome only, to the
merchants and captains. I should think, therefore, that a thing so
useless to us and prejudicial to them might be relinquished by us, on
the common principles of friendship. I know the merchants of these
ports will make a clamour, because the franchise covers their
contraband with all the world. Has Monsieur de Moustier said any
thing to you on this subject? It has never been mentioned to me. If
not mentioned in either way, it is rather an indecent proceeding,
considering that this right of free port is founded in treaty. I
shall ask of M. de Montmorin, on the first occasion, whether he has
communicated this to you through his minister; and if he has not, I
will endeavor to notice the infraction to him in such manner, as
neither to reclaim nor abandon the right of free port, but leave our
government free to do either.
The gazettes of France and Leyden, as usual, will accompany
this. I am in hourly expectation of receiving from you my leave of
absence, and keep my affairs so arranged, that I can leave Paris
within eight days after receiving the permission. I have the honor
to be, with sentiments of the most perfect esteem and respect, Sir,
your most obedient and most humble servant,
A CHARTER FOR FRANCE
_To Rabout de St. Etienne, with Draft of a Charter of Rights_
_Paris, June 3, 1789_
SIR, -- After you quitted us yesterday evening, we continued
our conversation (Monsr. de la Fayette, Mr. Short & myself) on the
subject of the difficulties which environ you. The desirable object
being to secure the good which the King has offered & to avoid the
ill which seems to threaten, an idea was suggested, which appearing
to make an impression on Monsr. de la Fayette, I was encouraged to
pursue it on my return to Paris, to put it into form, & now to send
it to you & him. It is this, that the King, in a _seance royale_
should come forward with a Charter of Rights in his hand, to be
signed by himself & by every member of the three orders. This
charter to contain the five great points which the Resultat of
December offered on the part of the King, the abolition of pecuniary
privileges offered by the privileged orders, & the adoption of the
National debt and a grant of the sum of money asked from the nation.
This last will be a cheap price for the preceding articles, and let
the same act declare your immediate separation till the next
anniversary meeting. You will carry back to your constituents more
good than ever was effected before without violence, and you will
stop exactly at the point where violence would otherwise begin. Time
will be gained, the public mind will continue to ripen & to be
informed, a basis of support may be prepared with the people
themselves, and expedients occur for gaining still something further
at your next meeting, & for stopping again at the point of force. I
have ventured to send to yourself & Monsieur de la Fayette a sketch
of my ideas of what this act might contain without endangering any
dispute. But it is offered merely as a canvas for you to work on, if
it be fit to work on at all. I know too little of the subject, & you
know too much of it to justify me in offering anything but a hint. I
have done it too in a hurry: insomuch that since committing it to
writing it occurs to me that the 5'th. article may give alarm, that
it is in a good degree included in the 4'th., and is therefore
useless. But after all what excuse can I make, Sir, for this
presumption. I have none but an unmeasureable love for your nation
and a painful anxiety lest Despotism, after an unaccepted offer to
bind it's own hands, should seize you again with tenfold fury.
Permit me to add to these very sincere assurances of the sentiments
of esteem & respect with which I have the honor to be, Sir, Your most
obed't. & most humble serv't.
_A Charter of Rights, solemnly established by the King and
Nation._
1. The States General shall assemble, uncalled, on the first
day of November, annually, and shall remain together so long as they
shall see cause. They shall regulate their own elections and
proceedings, and until they shall ordain otherwise, their elections
shall be in the forms observed in the present year, and shall be
triennial.
2. The States General alone shall levy money on the nation, and
shall appropriate it.
3. Laws shall be made by the States General only, with the
consent of the King.
4. No person shall be restrained of his liberty, but by regular
process from a court of justice, authorized by a general law.
(Except that a Noble may be imprisoned by order of a court of
justice, on the prayer of twelve of his nearest relations.) On
complaint of an unlawful imprisonment, to any judge whatever, he
shall have the prisoner immediately brought before him, and shall
discharge him, if his imprisonment be unlawful. The officer in whose
custody the prisoner is, shall obey the orders of the judge; and both
judge and officer shall be responsible, civilly and criminally, for a
failure of duty herein.
5. The military shall be subordinate to the civil authority.
6. Printers shall be liable to legal prosecution for printing
and publishing false facts, injurious to the party prosecuting; but
they shall be under no other restraint.
7. All pecuniary privileges and exemptions, enjoyed by any
description of persons, are abolished.
8. All debts already contracted by the King, are hereby made
the debts of the nation; and the faith thereof is pledged for their
payment in due time.
9. Eighty millions of livres are now granted to the King, to be
raised by loan, and reimbursed by the nation; and the taxes
heretofore paid, shall continue to be paid to the end of the present
year, and no longer.
10. The States General shall now separate, and meet again on
the 1st day of November next.
Done, on behalf of the whole nation, by the King and their
representatives in the States General, at Versailles, this -- day of
June, 1789.
Signed by the King, and by every member individually, and in
his presence.
"THE FIRST CHAPTER . . . OF EUROPEAN LIBERTY"
_To Diodati_
_a Paris, ce 3'me. Aout 1789_
Je viens de recevoir, mon chere Monsieur, l'honneur de votre
lettre du 24. Juillet. La peine avec laquelle je m'exprime en
Fransois feroit que ma reponse seroit bien courte s'il ne m'etoit pas
permis de repondre que dans cette langue. Mais je ssais qu'avec
quelque connoissance de la langue Angloise vous meme, vous aurez une
aide tres suffisante dans Madame la comtesse que j'ose prier
d'ajouter a ses amities multipliees devers moi celle de devenir
l'interprete de ce que vais ecrire en ma propre langue, et qu'elle
embellira en la rendant en Fransois.
I presume that your correspondents here have given you a
history of all the events which have happened. The Leyden gazette,
tho' it contains several inconsiderable errors, gives on the whole a
just enough idea. It is impossible to conceive a greater
fermentation than has worked in Paris, nor do I believe that so great
a fermentation ever produced so little injury in any other place. I
have been thro' it daily, have observed the mobs with my own eyes in
order to be satisfied of their objects, and declare to you that I saw
so plainly the legitimacy of them, that I have slept in my house as
quietly thro' the whole as I ever did in the most peaceable moments.
So strongly fortified was the despotism of this government by long
possession, by the respect & the fears of the people, by possessing
the public force, by the imposing authority of forms and of faste,
that had it held itself on the defensive only, the national assembly
with all their good sense, would probably have only obtained a
considerable improvement of the government, not a total revision of
it. But, ill informed of the spirit of their nation, the despots
around the throne had recourse to violent measures, the forerunners
of force. In this they have been completely overthrown, & the nation
has made a total resumption of rights, which they had certainly never
before ventured even to think of. The National assembly have now as
clean a canvas to work on here as we had in America. Such has been
the firmness and wisdom of their proceedings in moments of adversity
as well as prosperity, that I have the highest confidence that they
will use their power justly. As far as I can collect from
conversation with their members, the constitution they will propose
will resemble that of England in it's outlines, but not in it's
defects. They will certainly leave the king possessed completely of
the Executive powers, & particularly of the public force. Their
legislature will consist of one order only, & not of two as in
England: the representation will be equal & not abominably partial as
that of England: it will be guarded against corruption, instead of
having a majority sold to the king, & rendering his will absolute:
whether it will be in one chamber, or broke into two cannot be
foreseen. They will meet at certain epochs & sit as long as they
please, instead of meeting only when, & sitting only as long as the
king pleases as in England. There is a difference of opinion whether
the king shall have an absolute, or only a qualified Negative on
their acts. The parliaments will probably be suppressed; & juries
provided in criminal cases perhaps even in civil ones. This is what
appears probable at present. The Assembly is this day discussing the
question whether they will have a declaration of rights. Paris has
been led by events to assume the government of itself. It has
hitherto worn too much the appearance of conformity to continue thus
independently of the will of the nation. Reflection will probably
make them sensible that the security of all depends on the dependance
of all on the national legislature. I have so much confidence on the
good sense of man, and his qualifications for self-government, that I
am never afraid of the issue where reason is left free to exert her
force; and I will agree to be stoned as a false prophet if all does
not end well in this country. Nor will it end with this country.
Hers is but the first chapter of the history of European liberty.
The capture of the Baron Besenval is very embarrassing for the
States general. They are principled against retrospective laws, &
will make it one of the corner stones of their new building. But it
is very doubtful whether the antient laws will condemn him, and
whether the people will permit him to be acquitted. The Duke de la
Vauguyon also & his son are taken at Havre. -- In drawing the
parallel between what England is, & what France is to be I forgot to
observe that the latter will have a real constitution, which cannot
be changed by the ordinary legislature; whereas England has no
constitution at all: that is to say there is not one principle of
their government which the parliament does not alter at pleasure.
The omnipotence of parliament is an established principle with them.
-- Postponing my departure to America till the end of September I
shall hope to have the pleasure of seeing you at Paris before I go, &
of renewing in person to yourself & Madame la Comtesse assurances of
those sentiments of respect & attachment with which I have the honor
to be Dear Sir your most obedient humble serv't.
P. S. It is rumored & beleived in Paris that the English have
fomented with money the tumults of this place, & that they are arming
to attack France. I have never seen any reason to believe either of
these rumors.
"THE EARTH BELONGS TO THE LIVING"
_To James Madison_
_Paris, September 6, 1789_
DEAR SIR, -- I sit down to write to you without knowing by what
occasion I shall send my letter. I do it because a subject comes
into my head which I would wish to develope a little more than is
practicable in the hurry of the moment of making up general
despatches.
The question Whether one generation of men has a right to bind
another, seems never to have been started either on this or our side
of the water. Yet it is a question of such consequences as not only
to merit decision, but place also, among the fundamental principles
of every government. The course of reflection in which we are
immersed here on the elementary principles of society has presented
this question to my mind; and that no such obligation can be
transmitted I think very capable of proof. I set out on this ground
which I suppose to be self evident, "_that the earth belongs in
usufruct to the living_;" that the dead have neither powers nor
rights over it. The portion occupied by an individual ceases to be
his when himself ceases to be, and reverts to the society. If the
society has formed no rules for the appropriation of its lands in
severalty, it will be taken by the first occupants. These will
generally be the wife and children of the decedent. If they have
formed rules of appropriation, those rules may give it to the wife
and children, or to some one of them, or to the legatee of the
deceased. So they may give it to his creditor. But the child, the
legatee or creditor takes it, not by any natural right, but by a law
of the society of which they are members, and to which they are
subject. Then no man can by _natural right_ oblige the lands he
occupied, or the persons who succeed him in that occupation, to the
paiment of debts contracted by him. For if he could, he might during
his own life, eat up the usufruct of the lands for several
generations to come, and then the lands would belong to the dead, and
not to the living, which would be reverse of our principle. What is
true of every member of the society individually, is true of them all
collectively, since the rights of the whole can be no more than the
sum of the rights of individuals. To keep our ideas clear when
applying them to a multitude, let us suppose a whole generation of
men to be born on the same day, to attain mature age on the same day,
and to die on the same day, leaving a succeeding generation in the
moment of attaining their mature age all together. Let the ripe age
be supposed of 21. years, and their period of life 34. years more,
that being the average term given by the bills of mortality to
persons who have already attained 21. years of age. Each successive
generation would, in this way, come on and go off the stage at a
fixed moment, as individuals do now. Then I say the earth belongs to
each of these generations during it's course, fully, and in their own
right. The 2d. generation receives it clear of the debts and
incumbrances of the 1st., the 3d. of the 2d. and so on. For if the
1st. could charge it with a debt, then the earth would belong to the
dead and not the living generation. Then no generation can contract
debts greater than may be paid during the course of it's own
existence. At 21. years of age they may bind themselves and their
lands for 34. years to come: at 22. for 33: at 23 for 32. and at 54
for one year only; because these are the terms of life which remain
to them at those respective epochs. But a material difference must
be noted between the succession of an individual and that of a whole
generation. Individuals are parts only of a society, subject to the
laws of a whole. These laws may appropriate the portion of land
occupied by a decedent to his creditor rather than to any other, or
to his child, on condition he satisfies his creditor. But when a
whole generation, that is, the whole society dies, as in the case we
have supposed, and another generation or society succeeds, this forms
a whole, and there is no superior who can give their territory to a
third society, who may have lent money to their predecessors beyond
their faculty of paying.
What is true of a generation all arriving to self-government on
the same day, and dying all on the same day, is true of those on a
constant course of decay and renewal, with this only difference. A
generation coming in and going out entire, as in the first case,
would have a right in the 1st year of their self dominion to contract
a debt for 33. years, in the 10th. for 24. in the 20th. for 14. in
the 30th. for 4. whereas generations changing daily, by daily deaths
and births, have one constant term beginning at the date of their
contract, and ending when a majority of those of full age at that
date shall be dead. The length of that term may be estimated from
the tables of mortality, corrected by the circumstances of climate,
occupation &c. peculiar to the country of the contractors. Take, for
instance, the table of M. de Buffon wherein he states that 23,994
deaths, and the ages at which they happened. Suppose a society in
which 23,994 persons are born every year and live to the ages stated
in this table. The conditions of that society will be as follows.
1st. it will consist constantly of 617,703 persons of all ages. 2dly.
of those living at any one instant of time, one half will be dead in
24. years 8. months. 3dly. 10,675 will arrive every year at the age
of 21. years complete. 4thly. it will constantly have 348,417 persons
of all ages above 21. years. 5ly. and the half of those of 21. years
and upwards living at any one instant of time will be dead in 18.
years 8. months, or say 19. years as the nearest integral number.
Then 19. years is the term beyond which neither the representatives
of a nation, nor even the whole nation itself assembled, can validly
extend a debt.
To render this conclusion palpable by example, suppose that
Louis XIV. and XV. had contracted debts in the name of the French
nation to the amount of 10.000 milliards of livres and that the whole
had been contracted in Genoa. The interest of this sum would be 500
milliards, which is said to be the whole rent-roll, or nett proceeds
of the territory of France. Must the present generation of men have
retired from the territory in which nature produced them, and ceded
it to the Genoese creditors? No. They have the same rights over the
soil on which they were produced, as the preceding generations had.
They derive these rights not from their predecessors, but from
nature. They then and their soil are by nature clear of the debts of
their predecessors. Again suppose Louis XV. and his contemporary
generation had said to the money lenders of Genoa, give us money that
we may eat, drink, and be merry in our day; and on condition you will
demand no interest till the end of 19. years, you shall then forever
after receive an annual interest of (*) 12.'5 per cent. The money is
lent on these conditions, is divided among the living, eaten, drank,
and squandered. Would the present generation be obliged to apply the
produce of the earth and of their labour to replace their
dissipations? Not at all.
(*) 100 pound at a compound interest of 6 per cent makes at the
end of 19 years an aggregate of principal and interest of pound
252.14 the interest of which is a pound 12 degrees degrees. 12".
7'd. which is nearly 12". p'r. cent on the first capital of pound
100.
I suppose that the received opinion, that the public debts of
one generation devolve on the next, has been suggested by our seeing
habitually in private life that he who succeeds to lands is required
to pay the debts of his ancestor or testator, without considering
that this requisition is municipal only, not moral, flowing from the
will of the society which has found it convenient to appropriate the
lands become vacant by the death of their occupant on the condition
of a paiment of his debts; but that between society and society, or
generation and generation there is no municipal obligation, no umpire
but the law of nature. We seem not to have perceived that, by the
law of nature, one generation is to another as one independant nation
to another."
The interest of the national debt of France being in fact but a
two thousandth part of it's rent-roll, the paiment of it is
practicable enough; and so becomes a question merely of honor or
expediency. But with respect to future debts; would it not be wise
and just for that nation to declare in the constitution they are
forming that neither the legislature, nor the nation itself can
validly contract more debt, than they may pay within their own age,
or within the term of 19. years? And that all future contracts shall
be deemed void as to what shall remain unpaid at the end of 19. years
from their date? This would put the lenders, and the borrowers also,
on their guard. By reducing too the faculty of borrowing within its
natural limits, it would bridle the spirit of war, to which too free
a course has been procured by the inattention of money lenders to
this law of nature, that succeeding generations are not responsible
for the preceding.
On similar ground it may be proved that no society can make a
perpetual constitution, or even a perpetual law. The earth belongs
always to the living generation. They may manage it then, and what
proceeds from it, as they please, during their usufruct. They are
masters too of their own persons, and consequently may govern them as
they please. But persons and property make the sum of the objects of
government. The constitution and the laws of their predecessors
extinguished them, in their natural course, with those whose will
gave them being. This could preserve that being till it ceased to be
itself, and no longer. Every constitution, then, and every law,
naturally expires at the end of 19. years. If it be enforced longer,
it is an act of force and not of right.
It may be said that the succeeding generation exercising in
fact the power of repeal, this leaves them as free as if the
constitution or law had been expressly limited to 19. years only. In
the first place, this objection admits the right, in proposing an
equivalent. But the power of repeal is not an equivalent. It might
be indeed if every form of government were so perfectly contrived
that the will of the majority could always be obtained fairly and
without impediment. But this is true of no form. The people cannot
assemble themselves; their representation is unequal and vicious.
Various checks are opposed to every legislative proposition.
Factions get possession of the public councils. Bribery corrupts
them. Personal interests lead them astray from the general interests
of their constituents; and other impediments arise so as to prove to
every practical man that a law of limited duration is much more
manageable than one which needs a repeal.
This principle that the earth belongs to the living and not to
the dead is of very extensive application and consequences in every
country, and most especially in France. It enters into the
resolution of the questions Whether the nation may change the descent
of lands holden in tail? Whether they may change the appropriation
of lands given antiently to the church, to hospitals, colleges,
orders of chivalry, and otherwise in perpetuity? whether they may
abolish the charges and privileges attached on lands, including the
whole catalogue ecclesiastical and feudal? it goes to hereditary
offices, authorities and jurisdictions; to hereditary orders,
distinctions and appellations; to perpetual monopolies in commerce,
the arts or sciences; with a long train of _et ceteras_: and it
renders the question of reimbursement a question of generosity and
not of right. In all these cases the legislature of the day could
authorize such appropriations and establishments for their own time,
but no longer; and the present holders, even where they or their
ancestors have purchased, are in the case of _bona fide_ purchasers
of what the seller had no right to convey.
Turn this subject in your mind, my Dear Sir, and particularly
as to the power of contracting debts, and develope it with that
perspicuity and cogent logic which is so peculiarly yours. Your
station in the councils of our country gives you an opportunity of
producing it to public consideration, of forcing it into discussion.
At first blush it may be rallied as a theoretical speculation; but
examination will prove it to be solid and salutary. It would furnish
matter for a fine preamble to our first law for appropriating the
public revenue; and it will exclude, at the threshold of our new
government the contagious and ruinous errors of this quarter of the
globe, which have armed despots with means not sanctioned by nature
for binding in chains their fellow-men. We have already given, in
example one effectual check to the Dog of war, by transferring the
power of letting him loose from the executive to the Legislative
body, from those who are to spend to those who are to pay. I should
be pleased to see this second obstacle held out by us also in the
first instance. No nation can make a declaration against the
validity of long-contracted debts so disinterestedly as we, since we
do not owe a shilling which may not be paid with ease principal and
interest, within the time of our own lives. Establish the principle
also in the new law to be passed for protecting copy rights and new
inventions, by securing the exclusive right for 19. instead of 14.
years _[a line entirely faded]_ an instance the more of our taking
reason for our guide instead of English precedents, the habit of
which fetters us, with all the political herecies of a nation,
equally remarkable for it's encitement from some errors, as long
slumbering under others. I write you no news, because when an
occasion occurs I shall write a separate letter for that.
ADIEU TO FRANCE
_To Madame d'Enville_
_New York, April 2, 1790_
I had hoped, Madame la Duchesse, to have again had the honor of
paying my respects to you in Paris, but the wish of our government
that I should take a share in its administration, has become a law to
me. Could I have persuaded myself that public offices were made for
private convenience, I should undoubtedly have preferred a
continuance in that which placed me nearer to you; but believing on
the contrary that a good citizen should take his stand where the
public authority marshals him, I have acquiesced. Among the
circumstances which reconcile me to my new position the most powerful
is the opportunities it will give me of cementing the friendship
between our two nations. Be assured that to do this is the first
wish of my heart. I have but one system of ethics for men & for
nations -- to be grateful, to be faithful to all engagements and
under all circumstances, to be open & generous, promotes in the long
run even the interests of both; and I am sure it promotes their
happiness. The change in your government will approximate us to one
another. You have had some checks, some horrors since I left you;
but the way to heaven, you know, has always been said to be strewed
with thorns. Why your nation have had fewer than any other on earth,
I do not know, unless it be that it is the best on earth. If I
assure you, Madam, moreover, that I consider yourself personally as
with the foremost of your nation in every virtue, it is not flattery,
my heart knows not that, it is a homage to sacred truth, it is a
tribute I pay with cordiality to a character in which I saw but one
error; it was that of treating me with a degree of favor I did not
merit. Be assured I shall ever retain a lively sense of all your
goodness to me, which was a circumstance of principal happiness to me
during my stay in Paris. I hope that by this time you have seen that
my prognostications of a successful issue to your revolution have
been verified. I feared for you during a short interval; but after
the declaration of the army, tho' there might be episodes of
distress, the denoument was out of doubt. Heaven send that the
glorious example of your country may be but the beginning of the
history of European liberty, and that you may live many years in
health & happiness to see at length that heaven did not make man in
it's wrath. Accept the homage of those sentiments of sincere and
respectfull esteem with which I have the honor to be, Madame la
Duchesse, your most affectionate & obedient humble servant.
READING THE LAW
_To John Garland Jefferson_
_New York, June 11, 1790_
DEAR SIR, -- Your uncle mr Garland informs me, that, your
education being finished, you are desirous of obtaining some
clerkship or something else under government whereby you may turn
your talents to some account for yourself and he had supposed it
might be in my power to provide you with some such office. His
commendations of you are such as to induce me to wish sincerely to be
of service to you. But there is not, and has not been, a single
vacant office at my disposal. Nor would I, as your friend, ever
think of putting you into the petty clerkships in the several
offices, where you would have to drudge through life for a miserable
pittance, without a hope of bettering your situation. But he tells
me you are also disposed to the study of the law. This therefore
brings it more within my power to serve you. It will be necessary
for you in that case to go and live somewhere in my neighborhood in
Albemarle. The inclosed letter to Colo. Lewis near Charlottesville
will show you what I have supposed could be best done for you there.
It is a general practice to study the law in the office of some
lawyer. This indeed gives to the student the advantage of his
instruction. But I have ever seen that the services expected in
return have been more than the instructions have been worth. All
that is necessary for a student is access to a library, and
directions in what order the books are to be read. This I will take
the liberty of suggesting to you, observing previously that as other
branches of science, and especially history, are necessary to form a
lawyer, these must be carried on together. I will arrange the books
to be read into three columns, and propose that you should read those
in the first column till 12. oclock every day: those in the 2d. from
12. to 2. those in the 3d. after candlelight, leaving all the
afternoon for exercise and recreation, which are as necessary as
reading: I will rather say more necessary, because health is worth
more than learning.
1st.
Coke on Littleton
Coke's 2d. 3d. & 4th.
institutes.
Coke's reports.
Vaughan's do
Salkeld's
Ld. Raymond's
Strange's.
Burrows's
Kaim's Principles of equity.
Vernon's reports.
Peere Williams.
Precedents in Chancery.
Tracy Atheyns.
Verey.
Hawkin's Pleas of the crown.
Blackstone.
Virginia laws.
2d.
Dalrymple's feudal system.
Hale's history of the Com. law.
Gilbert on Devises
Uses.
Tenures.
Rents.
Distresses.
Ejectments.
Executions.
Evidence.
Sayer's law of costs.
Lambard's circonantia.
Bacon. voce Pleas & Pleadings.
Cunningham's law of bills.
Molloy de jure maritimo.
Locke on government.
Montesquieu's Spirit of law.
Smith's wealth of nations.
Beccaria.
Kaim's moral essays.
Vattel's law of nations.
3d.
Mallet's North antiquit'.
History of England in 3. vols folio compiled by Kennet.
Ludlow's memoirs
Burnet's history.
Ld. Orrery's history.
Burke's George III.
Robertson's hist. of Scotl'd
Robertson's hist. of America.
Other American histories.
Voltaire's historical works.
Should there be any little intervals in the day not otherwise
occupied fill them up by reading Lowthe's grammar, Blair's lectures
on rhetoric, Mason on poetic & prosaic numbers, Bolingbroke's works
for the sake of the stile, which is declamatory & elegant, the
English poets for the sake of the style also.
As mr Peter Carr in Goochland is engaged in a course of law
reading, and has my books for that purpose, it will be necessary for
you to go to mrs Carr's, and to receive such as he shall be then done
with, and settle with him a plan of receiving from him regular the
before mentioned books as fast as he shall get through them. The
losses I have sustained by lending my books will be my apology to you
for asking your particular attention to the replacing them in the
presses as fast as you finish them, and not to lend them to any body
else, nor suffer anybody to have a book out of the Study under cover
of your name. You will find, when you get there, that I have had
reason to ask this exactness.
I would have you determine beforehand to make yourself a
thorough lawyer, & not be contented with a mere smattering. It is
superiority of knowledge which can alone lift you above the heads of
your competitors, and ensure you success. I think therefore you must
calculate on devoting between two & three years to this course of
reading, before you think of commencing practice. Whenever that
begins, there is an end of reading.
I shall be glad to hear from you from time to time, and shall
hope to see you in the fall in Albemarle, to which place I propose a
visit in that season. In the mean time wishing you all the industry
of patient perseverance which this course of reading will require I
am with great esteem Dear Sir Your most obedient friend & servant.
WHIPPOORWILLS AND STRAWBERRIES
_To Mary Jefferson_
_New York, June 13, 1790_
MY DEAR MARIA -- I have recieved your letter of May 23. which
was in answer to mine of May 2. but I wrote you also on the 23d. of
May, so that you still owe me an answer to that, which I hope is now
on the road. In matters of correspondence as well as of money you
must never be in debt. I am much pleased with the account you give
me of your occupations, and the making the pudding is as good an
article of them as any. When I come to Virginia I shall insist on
eating a pudding of your own making, as well as on trying other
specimens of your skill. You must make the most of your time while
you are with so good an aunt who can learn you every thing. We had
not peas nor strawberries here till the 8th. day of this month. On
the same day I heard the first Whip-poor-will whistle. Swallows and
martins appeared here on the 21st. of April. When did they appear
with you? And when had you peas, strawberries, and whip-poor-wills
in Virginia? Take notice hereafter whether the whip-poor-wills
always come with the strawberries and peas. Send me a copy of the
maxims I gave you, also a list of the books I promised you. I have
had a long touch of my periodical headach, but a very moderate one.
It has not quite left me yet. Adieu, my dear, love your uncle, aunt
and cousins, and me more than all. Your's affectionately,
RICE FROM TIMOR AND AFRICA
_To Samuel Vaughan, Jr._
_Philadelphia, Nov. 27, 1790_
DEAR SIR -- I feel myself much indebted to Mr. Vaughan your
father for the opportunity he has furnished me of a direct
correspondence with you, and also to yourself for the seeds of the
Mountain rice you have been so good as to send me. I had before
received from your brother in London some of the same parcel brought
by Capt. Bligh; but it was so late in the spring of the present year
that tho the plants came up and grew luxuriantly, they did not
produce seed. Your present will enable me to enlarge the experiment
I propose for the next year, and for which I had still reserved a few
seeds of the former parcel. About two months ago I was fortunate
enough to recieve a cask of mountain rice from the coast of Africa.
This has enabled me to engage so many persons in the experiment as to
be tolerably sure it will be fairly made by some of them. It will
furnish also a comparison with that from Timor. I have the success
of this species of rice at heart, because it will not only enable
other states to cultivate rice which have not lands susceptible of
inundation but because also if the rice be as good as is said, it may
take place of the wet rice in the Southern states, & by superseding
the necessity of overflowing their lands, save them from the
pestilential & mortal fevers brought on by that operation.
We have lately had introduced a plant of the Melon species
which, from it's external resemblance to the pumpkin, we have called
a pumpkin, distinguishing it specifically as the _potatoe-pumpkin_,
on account of the extreme resemblance of it's taste to that of the
sweet-potatoe. It is as yet but little known, is well esteemed at
our table, and particularly valued by our negroe's. Coming much
earlier than the real potatoe, we are so much the sooner furnished
with a substitute for that root. I know not from whence it came; so
that perhaps it may be originally from your islands. In that case
you will only have the trouble of throwing away the few seeds I
enclose you herewith. On the other hand, if unknown with you, I
think it will probably succeed in the islands, and may add to the
catalogue of plants which will do as substitutes for bread. I have
always thought that if in the experiments to introduce or to
communicate new plants, one species in an hundred is found useful &
succeeds, the ninety nine found otherwise are more than paid for. My
present situation & occupations are not friendly to agricultural
experiments, however strongly I am led to them by inclination. I
will ask permission to address myself to you for such seeds as might
be worth trying from your quarter, freely offering you reciprocal
services in the same or any other line in which you will be so good
as to command them. I have the honor to be with great respect &
esteem, Sir Your most obedt. & most humble servt,
"A SCOLDING LETTER"
_To Martha Jefferson Randolph_
_Philadelphia, Dec. 23, 1790_
MY DEAR DAUGHTER -- This is a scolding letter for you all. I
have not recieved a scrip of a pen from home since I left it which is
now eleven weeks. I think it so easy for you to write me one letter
every week, which will be but once in three weeks for each of you,
when I write one every week who have not one moment's repose from
business from the first to the last moment of the week. Perhaps you
think you have nothing to say to me. It is a great deal to say you
are all well, or that one has a cold, another a fever &c., besides
that there is not a sprig of grass that shoots uninteresting to me,
nor any thing that moves, from yourself down to Bergere or Grizzle.
Write then my dear daughter punctually on your day, and Mr. Randolph
and Polly on theirs. I suspect you may have news to tell me of
yourself of the most tender interest to me. Why silent then?
I am still without a house, and consequently without a place to
open my furniture. This has prevented my sending you what I was to
send for Monticello. In the mean time the river is frozen up so as
that no vessel can get out, nor probably will these two months: so
that you will be much longer without them than I had hoped. I know
how inconvenient this will be and am distressed at it; but there is
no help. I send a pamphlet for Mr. Randolph. My best affections to
him, Polly and yourself. Adieu my dear,
A HERETICAL SECT
_To George Mason_
_Philadelphia, Feb. 4, 1791_
DEAR SIR, -- I am to make you my acknowledgments for your favor
of Jan. 10, & the information from France which it contained. It
confirmed what I had heard more loosely before, and accounts still
more recent are to the same effect. I look with great anxiety for
the firm establishment of the new government in France, being
perfectly convinced that if it takes place there, it will spread
sooner or later all over Europe. On the contrary a check there would
retard the revival of liberty in other countries. I consider the
establishment and success of their government as necessary to stay up
our own, and to prevent it from falling back to that kind of Half-way
house, the English constitution. It cannot be denied that we have
among us a sect who believe that to contain whatever is perfect in
human institutions; that the members of this sect have, many of them,
names & offices which stand high in the estimation of our countrymen.
I still rely that the great mass of our community is untainted with
these heresies, as is it's head. On this I build my hope that we
have not laboured in vain, and that our experiment will still prove
that men can be governed by reason. You have excited my curiosity in
saying "there is a particular circumstance, little attended to, which
is continually sapping the republicanism of the United States." What
is it? What is said in our country of the fiscal arrangements now
going on? I really fear their effect when I consider the present
temper of the Southern states. Whether these measures be right or
wrong abstractedly, more attention should be paid to the general
opinion. However, all will pass -- the excise will pass -- the bank
will pass. The only corrective of what is corrupt in our present
form of government will be the augmentation of the numbers in the
lower house, so as to get a more agricultural representation, which
may put that interest above that of the stock-jobbers.
I had no occasion to sound Mr. Madison on your fears expressed
in your letter. I knew before, as possessing his sentiments fully on
that subject, that his value for you was undiminished. I have always
heard him say that though you and he appeared to differ in your
systems, yet you were in truth nearer together than most persons who
were classed under the same appellation. You may quiet yourself in
the assurance of possessing his complete esteem. I have been
endeavoring to obtain some little distinction for our useful
customers, the French. But there is a particular interest opposed to
it, which I fear will prove too strong. We shall soon see. I will
send you a copy of a report I have given in, as soon as it is
printed. I know there is one part of it contrary to your sentiments;
yet I am not sure you will not become sensible that a change should
be slowly preparing. Certainly, whenever I pass your road, I shall
do myself the pleasure of turning into it. Our last year's
experiment, however, is much in favor of that by Newgate.
MONUMENTS OF THE PAST
_To Ebenezer Hazard_
_Philadelphia, February 18, 1791_
SIR, -- I return you the two volumes of records, with thanks
for the opportunity of looking into them. They are curious monuments
of the infancy of our country. I learn with great satisfaction that
you are about committing to the press the valuable historical and
State papers you have been so long collecting. Time and accident are
committing daily havoc on the originals deposited in our public
offices. The late war has done the work of centuries in this
business. The last cannot be recovered, but let us save what
remains; not by vaults and locks which fence them from the public eye
and use in consigning them to the waste of time, but by such a
multiplication of copies, as shall place them beyond the reach of
accident. This being the tendency of your undertaking, be assured
there is no one who wishes it more success than, Sir, your most
obedient and most humble servant.
MEMORIES OF FRANKLIN
_To the Rev. William Smith_
_Philadelphia, Feb. 19, 1791_
DEAR SIR, -- I feel both the wish & the duty to communicate, in
compliance with your request, whatever, within my knowledge, might
render justice to the memory of our great countryman, D'r Franklin,
in whom Philosophy has to deplore one of it's principal luminaries
extinguished. But my opportunities of knowing the interesting facts
of his life have not been equal to my desire of making them known. I
could indeed relate a number of those bon mots, with which he used to
charm every society, as having heard many of them. But these are not
your object. Particulars of greater dignity happened not to occur
during his stay of nine months, after my arrival in France.
A little before that, Argand had invented his celebrated lamp,
in which the flame is spread into a hollow cylinder, & thus brought
into contact with the air within as well as without. Doct'r Franklin
had been on the point of the same discovery. The idea had occurred
to him; but he had tried a bull-rush as a wick, which did not
succeed. His occupations did not permit him to repeat & extend his
trials to the introduction of a larger column of air than could pass
through the stem of a bull-rush.
The animal magnetism too of the maniac Mesmer, had just
received its death wound from his hand in conjunction with his
brethren of the learned committee appointed to unveil that compound
of fraud & folly. But, after this, nothing very interesting was
before the public, either in philosophy or politics, during his stay;
& he was principally occupied in winding up his affairs there.
I can only therefore testify in general that there appeared to
me more respect & veneration attached to the character of Doctor
Franklin in France, than to that of any other person in the same
country, foreign or native. I had opportunities of knowing
particularly how far these sentiments were felt by the foreign
ambassadors & ministers at the court of Versailles. The fable of his
capture by the Algerines, propagated by the English newspapers,
excited no uneasiness; as it was seen at once to be a dish cooked up
to the palate of their readers. But nothing could exceed the anxiety
of his diplomatic brethren, on a subsequent report of his death,
which, tho' premature, bore some marks of authenticity.
I found the ministers of France equally impressed with the
talents & integrity of Doct'r Franklin. The C't de Vergennes
particularly gave me repeated and unequivocal demonstrations of his
entire confidence in him.
When he left Passy, it seemed as if the village had lost its
patriarch. On taking leave of the court, which he did by letter, the
King ordered him to be handsomely complimented, & furnished him with
a litter & mules of his own, the only kind of conveyance the state of
his health could bear.
No greater proof of his estimation in France can be given than
the late letters of condolence on his death, from the National
Assembly of that country, & the Community of Paris, to the President
of the United States, & to Congress, and their public mourning on
that event. It is, I believe, the first instance of that homage
having been paid by a public body of one nation to a private citizen
of another.
His death was an affliction which was to happen to us at some
time or other. We have reason to be thankful he was so long spared;
that the most useful life should be the longest also; that it was
protracted so far beyond the ordinary span allotted to man, as to
avail us of his wisdom in the establishment of our own freedom, & to
bless him with a view of its dawn in the east, where they seemed,
till now, to have learned everything, but how to be free.
The succession to D'r Franklin, at the court of France, was an
excellent school of humility. On being presented to any one as the
minister of America, the commonplace question used in such cases was
_"c'est vous, Monsieur, qui remplace le Docteur Franklin?"_ "it is
you, Sir, who replace Doctor Franklin?" I generally answered, "no one
can replace him, Sir: I am only his successor."
These small offerings to the memory of our great & dear friend,
whom time will be making greater while it is spunging us from it's
records, must be accepted by you, Sir, in that spirit of love &
veneration for him, in which they are made; and not according to
their insignificance in the eyes of a world, who did not want this
mite to fill up the measure of his worth.
CAPITOL ON THE POTOMAC
_To Major L'Enfant_
_Philadelphia, April 10, 1791_
SIR, -- I am favored with your letter of the 4th instant, and
in compliance with your request, I have examined my papers, and found
the plans of Frankfort-on-the-Mayne, Carlsruhe, Amsterdam, Strasburg,
Paris, Orleans, Bordeaux, Lyons, Montpelier, Marseilles, Turin, and
Milan, which I send in a roll by the post. They are on large and
accurate scales, having been procured by me while in those respective
cities myself. As they are connected with the notes I made in my
travels, and often necessary to explain them to myself, I will beg
your care of them, and to return them when no longer useful to you,
leaving you absolutely free to keep them as long as useful. I am
happy that the President has left the planning of the town in such
good hands, and have no doubt it will be done to general
satisfaction. Considering that the grounds to be reserved for the
public are to be paid for by the acre, I think very liberal
reservations should be made for them; and if this be about the Tyber
and on the back of the town, it will be of no injury to the commerce
of the place, which will undoubtedly establish itself on the deep
waters towards the eastern branch and mouth of Rock Creek; the water
about the mouth of the Tyber not being of any depth. Those connected
with the government will prefer fixing themselves near the public
grounds in the centre, which will also be convenient to be resorted
to as walks from the lower and upper town. Having communicated to
the President, before he went away, such general ideas on the subject
of the town as occurred to me, I make no doubt that, in explaining
himself to you on the subject, he has interwoven with his own ideas,
such of mine as he approved. For fear of repeating therefore what he
did not approve, and having more confidence in the unbiassed state of
his mind, than in my own, I avoided interfering with what he may have
expressed to you. Whenever it is proposed to prepare plans for the
Capitol, I should prefer the adoption of some one of the models of
antiquity, which have had the approbation of thousands of years; and
for the President's house, I should prefer the celebrated fronts of
modern buildings, which have already received the approbation of all
good judges. Such are the Galerie du Louire, the Gardes meubles, and
two fronts of the Hotel de Salm. But of this it is yet time enough
to consider. In the meantime I am, with great esteem, Sir, your most
obedient humble servant.
A NOTE ON INDIAN POLICY
_To Charles Carroll_
_Philadelphia, April 15, 1791_
DEAR SIR, -- I received last night your favor of the 10th, with
Mr. Brown's receipt, and thank you for the trouble you have been so
kind as to take in this business.
Our news from the westward is disagreeable. Constant murders
committing by the Indians, and their combination threatens to be more
and more extensive. I hope we shall give them a thorough drubbing
this summer, and then change our tomahawk into a golden chain of
friendship. The most economical as well as most humane conduct
towards them is to bribe them into peace, and to retain them in peace
by eternal bribes. The expedition this year would have served for
presents on the most liberal scale for one hundred years; nor shall
we otherwise ever get rid of any army, or of our debt. The least rag
of Indian depredation will be an excuse to raise troops for those who
love to have troops, and for those who think that a public debt is a
good thing. Adieu, my dear Sir. Yours affectionately.
BURKE, PAINE, AND MR. ADAMS
_To the President of the United States_
(GEORGE WASHINGTON)
_Philadelphia, May 8, 1791_
SIR, -- The last week does not furnish one single public event
worthy communicating to you: so that I have only to say "all is
well." Paine's answer to Burke's pamphlet begins to produce some
squibs in our public papers. In Fenno's paper they are Burkites, in
the others, Painites. One of Fenno's was evidently from the author
of the discourses on Davila. I am afraid the indiscretion of a
printer has committed me with my friend Mr. Adams, for whom, as one
of the most honest & disinterested men alive, I have a cordial
esteem, increased by long habits of concurrence in opinion in the
days of his republicanism; and even since his apostacy to hereditary
monarchy & nobility, tho' we differ, we differ as friends should do.
Beckley had the only copy of Paine's pamphlet, & lent it to me,
desiring when I should have read it, that I would send it to a Mr. J.
B. Smith, who had asked it for his brother to reprint it. Being an
utter stranger to J. B. Smith, both by sight & character I wrote a
note to explain to him why I (a stranger to him) sent him a pamphlet,
to wit, that Mr. Beckley had desired it; & to take off a little of
the dryness of the note, I added that I was glad to find it was to be
reprinted, that something would at length be publicly said against
the political heresies which had lately sprung up among us, & that I
did not doubt our citizens would rally again round the standard of
common sense. That I had in my view the Discourses on Davila, which
have filled Fenno's papers, for a twelvemonth, without contradiction,
is certain, but nothing was ever further from my thoughts than to
become myself the contradictor before the public. To my great
astonishment however, when the pamphlet came out, the printer had
prefixed my note to it, without having given me the most distant hint
of it. Mr. Adams will unquestionably take to himself the charge of
political heresy, as conscious of his own views of drawing the
present government to the form of the English constitution, and, I
fear will consider me as meaning to injure him in the public eye. I
learn that some Anglo men have censured it in another point of view,
as a sanction of Paine's principles tends to give offence to the
British government. Their real fear however is that this popular &
republican pamphlet, taking wonderfully, is likely at a single stroke
to wipe out all the unconstitutional doctrines which their
bell-weather Davila has been preaching for a twelvemonth. I
certainly never made a secret of my being anti-monarchical, &
anti-aristocratical; but I am sincerely mortified to be thus brought
forward on the public stage, where to remain, to advance or to
retire, will be equally against my love of silence & quiet, & my
abhorrence of dispute. -- I do not know whether you recollect that
the records of Virginia were destroyed by the British in the year
1781. Particularly the transactions of the revolution before that
time. I am collecting here all the letters I wrote to Congress while
I was in the administration there, and this being done I shall then
extend my views to the transactions of my predecessors, in order to
replace the whole in the public offices in Virginia. I think that
during my administration, say between June 1. 1779. & June 1. 1781.
I had the honor of writing frequent letters to you on public affairs,
which perhaps may be among your papers at Mount Vernon. Would it be
consistent with any general resolution you have formed as to your
papers, to let my letters of the above period come here to be copied,
in order to make them a part of the records I am endeavoring to
restore for the state? or would their selection be too troublesome?
if not, I would beg the loan of them, under an assurance that they
shall be taken the utmost care of, & safely returned to their present
deposit.
The quiet & regular movements of our political affairs leaves
nothing to add but constant prayers for your health & welfare and
assurances of the sincere respect & attachment of Sir Your most
obedient, & most humble servt.
A NORTHERN TOUR
_To Thomas Mann Randolph_
_Bennington, in Vermont, June 5, 1791_
DEAR SIR, -- Mr. Madison & myself are so far on the tour we had
projected. We have visited in the course of it the principal scenes
of Genl. Burgoyne's misfortunes to wit the grounds at Stillwater
where the action of that name was fought, & particularly the
breastworks which cost so much blood to both parties, the encampments
at Saratoga & ground where the British piled their arms, the field of
the battle of Bennington about 9 miles from this place. We have also
visited Forts Wm. Henry & George, Ticonderoga, Crown point, &c. which
have been scenes of blood from a very early part of our history. We
were more pleased however with the botanical objects which
continually presented themselves. Those either unknown or rare in
Virgna were the Sugar maple in vast abundance, the Silver fir, White
pine, Pitch pine, Spruce pine, a shrub with decumbent stems which
they call Juniper, an azalea very different from the nudiflora, with
very large clusters of flowers, more thickly set on the branches, of
a deeper red, & high pink-fragrance. It is the richest shrub I have
seen. The honeysuckle of the gardens growing wild on the banks' of
L. George, the paper-birch, an Aspen with a velvet leaf, a
shrub-willow with downy catkins, a wild gooseberry, the wild cherry
with single fruit (not the bunch cherry) strawberries in abundance.
From the Highlands to the lakes it is a limestone country. It is in
vast quantities on the Eastern sides of the lakes, but none on the
Western sides. The Sandy hill falls & Wing's falls, two very
remarkable cataracts of the Hudson of about 35 f. or 40 f. each
between F. Edward & F. George are of limestone, in horizontal strata.
Those of the Cohoes, on the W. side of the Hudson, & of 70 f. height,
we thought not of limestone. We have met with a small red squirrel
of the color of our fox-squirrel, with a black stripe on each side,
weighing about 6 oz. generally, and in such abundance on L. Champlain
particularly as that twenty odd were killed at the house we lodged in
opposite Crown point the morning we arrived there, without going 10
yards from the door. We killed 3 crossing the lakes, one of them
just as he was getting ashore where it was 3 miles wide, & where with
the high wind then blowing he must have made it 5 or 6 miles.
I think I asked the favr. of you to send for Anthony in the
season for inoculn, as well as to do what is necessary in the
orchard, as to pursue the object of inoculating all the Spontaneous
cherry trees in the fields with good fruit.
We have now got over about 400 miles of our tour and have still
about 450 more to go over. Arriving here on the Saturday evening,
and the laws of the state not permitting us to travel on the Sunday,
has given me time to write to you from hence. I expect to be at
Philadelphia by the 20th or 21st. I am, with great & sincere esteem
Dear Sir yours affectionately.
BREACH OF A FRIENDSHIP
_To John Adams_
_Philadelphia, July 17, 1791_
DEAR SIR -- I have a dozen times taken up my pen to write to
you and as often laid it down again, suspended between opposing
considerations. I determine however to write from a conviction that
truth, between candid minds, can never do harm.
The first of Paine's pamphlets on the Rights of man, which came
to hand here, belonged to Mr. Beckley. He lent it to Mr. Madison
who lent it to me; and while I was reading it Mr. Beckley called on
me for it, and, as I had not finished it, he desired me, as soon as I
should have done so, to send it to Mr. Jonathan B. Smith, whose
brother meant to reprint it. I finished reading it, and, as I had no
acquaintance with Mr. Jonathan B. Smith, propriety required that I
should explain to him why I, a stranger to him, sent him the
pamphlet. I accordingly wrote a note of compliment informing him
that I did it at the desire of Mr. Beckley, and, to take off a little
of the dryness of the note, I added that I was glad it was to be
reprinted here, and that something was to be publicly said against
the political heresies which had sprung up among us etc. I thought
so little of this note that I did not even keep a copy of it: nor
ever heard a tittle more of it till, the week following, I was
thunderstruck with seeing it come out at the head of the pamphlet. I
hoped however it would not attract notice. But I found on my return
from a journey of a month that a writer came forward under the
signature of Publicola, attacking not only the author and principles
of the pamphlet, but myself as it's sponsor, by name. Soon after
came hosts of other writers defending the pamphlet and attacking you
by name as the writer of Publicola. Thus were our names thrown on
the public stage as public antagonists. That you and I differ in our
ideas of the best form of government is well known to us both: but we
have differed as friends should do, respecting the purity of each
other's motives, and confining our difference of opinion to private
conversation. And I can declare with truth in the presence of the
almighty that nothing was further from my intention or expectation
than to have had either my own or your name brought before the public
on this occasion. The friendship and confidence which has so long
existed between us required this explanation from me, and I know you
too well to fear any misconstruction of the motives of it. Some
people here who would wish me to be, or to be thought, guilty of
improprieties, have suggested that I was Agricola, that I was Brutus
etc. etc. I never did in my life, either by myself or by any other,
have a sentence of mine inserted in a newspaper without putting my
name to it; and I believe I never shall.
While the empress is refusing peace under a mediation unless
Oczakow and it's territory be ceded to her, she is offering peace on
the perfect statu quo to the Porte, if they will conclude it without
a mediation. France has struck a severe blow at our navigation by a
difference of duty on tob[acc]o carried in our and their ships, and
by taking from foreign built ships the capability of naturalization.
She has placed our whale oil on rather a better footing than ever by
consolidating the duties into a single one of 6. livres. They
amounted before to some sous over that sum. I am told (I know not
how truly) that England has prohibited our spermaceti oil altogether,
and will prohibit our wheat till the price there is 52/ the quarter,
which it almost never is. We expect hourly to hear the true event of
Genl. Scott's expedition. Reports give favorable hopes of it. Be so
good as to present my respectful compliments to Mrs. Adams and to
accept assurances of the sentiments of sincere esteem and respect
with which I am Dear Sir Your friend and servant.
HOPE FOR "OUR BLACK BRETHREN"
_To Benjamin Banneker_
_Philadelphia, Aug. 30, 1791_
SIR, -- I thank you sincerely for your letter of the 19th
instant and for the Almanac it contained. No body wishes more than I
do to see such proofs as you exhibit, that nature has given to our
black brethren, talents equal to those of the other colors of men,
and that the appearance of a want of them is owing merely to the
degraded condition of their existence, both in Africa & America. I
can add with truth, that no body wishes more ardently to see a good
system commenced for raising the condition both of their body & mind
to what it ought to be, as fast as the imbecility of their present
existence, and other circumstances which cannot be neglected, will
admit. I have taken the liberty of sending your Almanac to Monsieur
de Condorcet, Secretary of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, and
member of the Philanthropic society, because I considered it as a
document to which your whole colour had a right for their
justification against the doubts which have been entertained of them.
I am with great esteem, Sir Your most obed't humble serv't.
STRENGTHENING THE STATE GOVERNMENTS
_To Archibald Stuart_
_Philadelphia, Dec. 23, 1791_
DEAR SIR, -- I received duly your favor of Octob 22. and should
have answered it by the gentleman who delivered it, but that he left
town before I knew of it.
That it is really important to provide a constitution for our
state cannot be doubted: as little can it be doubted that the
ordinance called by that name has important defects. But before we
attempt it, we should endeavor to be as certain as is practicable
that in the attempt we should not make bad worse. I have understood
that Mr. Henry has always been opposed to this undertaking: and I
confess that I consider his talents and influence such as that, were
it decided that we should call a Convention for the purpose of
amending, I should fear he might induce that convention either to fix
the thing as at present, or change it for the worse. Would it not
therefore be well that means should be adopted for coming at his
ideas of the changes he would agree to, & for communicating to him
those which we should propose? Perhaps he might find ours not so
distant from his but that some mutual sacrifices might bring them
together.
I shall hazard my own ideas to you as hastily as my business
obliges me. I wish to preserve the line drawn by the federal
constitution between the general & particular governments as it
stands at present, and to take every prudent means of preventing
either from stepping over it. Tho' the experiment has not yet had a
long enough course to shew us from which quarter encroachments are
most to be feared, yet it is easy to foresee from the nature of
things that the encroachments of the state governments will tend to
an excess of liberty which will correct itself (as in the late
instance) while those of the general government will tend to
monarchy, which will fortify itself from day to day, instead of
working its own cure, as all experience shews. I would rather be
exposed to the inconve-niencies attending too much liberty than those
attending too small a degree of it. Then it is important to
strengthen the state governments: and as this cannot be done by any
change in the federal constitution, (for the preservation of that is
all we need contend for,) it must be done by the states themselves,
erecting such barriers at the constitutional line as cannot be
surmounted either by themselves or by the general government. The
only barrier in their power is a wise government. A weak one will
lose ground in every contest. To obtain a wise & an able government,
I consider the following changes as important. Render the
legislature a desirable station by lessening the number of
representatives (say to 100) and lengthening somewhat their term, and
proportion them equally among the electors: adopt also a better mode
of appointing Senators. Render the Executive a more desirable post
to men of abilities by making it more independant of the legislature.
To wit, let him be chosen by other electors, for a longer time, and
ineligible for ever after. Responsibility is a tremendous engine in
a free government. Let him feel the whole weight of it then by
taking away the shelter of his executive council. Experience both
ways has already established the superiority of this measure. Render
the Judiciary respectable by every possible means, to wit, firm
tenure in office, competent salaries, and reduction of their numbers.
Men of high learning and abilities are few in every country; & by
taking in those who are not so, the able part of the body have their
hands tied by the unable. This branch of the government will have
the weight of the conflict on their hands, because they will be the
last appeal of reason. -- These are my general ideas of amendments;
but, preserving the ends, I should be flexible & conciliatory as to
the means. You ask whether Mr. Madison and myself could attend on a
convention which should be called? Mr. Madison's engagements as a
member of Congress will probably be from October to March or April in
every year. Mine are constant while I hold my office, and my
attendance would be very unimportant. Were it otherwise, my office
should not stand in the way of it. I am with great & sincere esteem,
Dr Sir, your friend & servt.
"A STEPPING STONE TO MONARCHY"
_To the President of the United States_
(GEORGE WASHINGTON)
_Philadelphia, May 23, 1792_
DEAR SIR, -- I have determined to make the subject of a letter,
what for some time past, has been a subject of inquietude to my mind
without having found a good occasion of disburthening itself to you
in conversation, during the busy scenes which occupied you here.
Perhaps too you may be able, in your present situation, or on the
road, to give it more time & reflection than you could do here at any
moment.
When you first mentioned to me your purpose of retiring from
the government, tho' I felt all the magnitude of the event, I was in
a considerable degree silent. I knew that, to such a mind as yours,
persuasion was idle & impertinent: that before forming your decision,
you had weighed all the reasons for & against the measure, had made
up your mind on full view of them, & that there could be little hope
of changing the result. Pursuing my reflections too I knew we were
some day to try to walk alone; and if the essay should be made while
you should be alive & looking on, we should derive confidence from
that circumstance, & resource if it failed. The public mind too was
calm & confident, and therefore in a favorable state for making the
experiment. Had no change of circumstances intervened, I should not,
with any hope of success, have now ventured to propose to you a
change of purpose. But the public mind is no longer confident and
serene; and that from causes in which you are in no ways personally
mixed. Tho these causes have been hackneyed in the public papers in
detail, it may not be amiss, in order to calculate the effect they
are capable of producing, to take a view of them in the mass, giving
to each the form, real or imaginary, under which they have been
presented.
It has been urged then that a public debt, greater than we can
possibly pay before other causes of adding new debt to it will occur,
has been artificially created, by adding together the whole amount of
the debtor & creditor sides of accounts, instead of taking only their
balances, which could have been paid off in a short time: That this
accumulation of debt has taken for ever out of our power those easy
sources of revenue, which, applied to the ordinary necessities and
exigencies of government, would have answered them habitually, and
covered us from habitual murmurings against taxes & tax-gatherers,
reserving extraordinary calls, for those extraordinary occasions
which would animate the people to meet them: That though the calls
for money have been no greater than we must generally expect, for the
same or equivalent exigencies, yet we are already obliged to strain
the impost till it produces clamour, and will produce evasion, & war
on our own citizens to collect it: and even to resort to an _Excise_
law, of odious character with the people, partial in it's operation,
unproductive unless enforced by arbitrary & vexatious means, and
committing the authority of the government in parts where resistance
is most probable, & coercion least practicable. They cite
propositions in Congress and suspect other projects on foot still to
increase the mass of debt. They say that by borrowing at 2/3 of the
interest, we might have paid off the principal in 2/3 of the time:
but that from this we are precluded by it's being made irredeemable
but in small portions & long terms: That this irredeemable quality
was given it for the avowed purpose of inviting it's transfer to
foreign countries. They predict that this transfer of the principal,
when compleated, will occasion an exportation of 3. millions of
dollars annually for the interest, a drain of coin, of which as there
has been no example, no calculation can be made of it's consequences:
That the banishment of our coin will be compleated by the creation of
10. millions of paper money, in the form of bank bills, now issuing
into circulation. They think the 10. or 12. percent annual profit
paid to the lenders of this paper medium taken out of the pockets of
the people, who would have had without interest the coin it is
banishing: That all the capital employed in paper speculation is
barren & useless, producing, like that on a gaming table, no
accession to itself, and is withdrawn from commerce & agriculture
where it would have produced addition to the common mass: That it
nourishes in our citizens habits of vice and idleness instead of
industry & morality: That it has furnished effectual means of
corrupting such a portion of the legislature, as turns the balance
between the honest voters which ever way it is directed: That this
corrupt squadron, deciding the voice of the legislature, have
manifested their dispositions to get rid of the limitations imposed
by the constitution on the general legislature, limitations, on the
faith of which, the states acceded to that instrument: That the
ultimate object of all this is to prepare the way for a change, from
the present republican form of government, to that of a monarchy, of
which the English constitution is to be the model. That this was
contemplated in the Convention is no secret, because it's partisans
have made none of it. To effect it then was impracticable, but they
are still eager after their object, and are predisposing every thing
for it's ultimate attainment. So many of them have got into the
legislature, that, aided by the corrupt squadron of paper dealers,
who are at their devotion, they make a majority in both houses. The
republican party, who wish to preserve the government in it's present
form, are fewer in number. They are fewer even when joined by the
two, three, or half dozen anti-federalists, who, tho they dare not
avow it, are still opposed to any general government: but being less
so to a republican than a monarchical one, they naturally join those
whom they think pursuing the lesser evil.
Of all the mischiefs objected to the system of measures before
mentioned, none is so afflicting, and fatal to every honest hope, as
the corruption of the legislature. As it was the earliest of these
measures, it became the instrument for producing the rest, & will be
the instrument for producing in future a king, lords & commons, or
whatever else those who direct it may chuse. Withdrawn such a
distance from the eye of their constituents, and these so dispersed
as to be inaccessible to public information, & particularly to that
of the conduct of their own representatives, they will form the most
corrupt government on earth, if the means of their corruption be not
prevented. The only hope of safety hangs now on the numerous
representation which is to come forward the ensuing year. Some of
the new members will probably be either in principle or interest,
with the present majority, but it is expected that the great mass
will form an accession to the republican party. They will not be
able to undo all which the two preceding legislatures, & especially
the first, have done. Public faith & right will oppose this. But
some parts of the system may be rightfully reformed; a liberation
from the rest unremittingly pursued as fast as right will permit, &
the door shut in future against similar commitments of the nation.
Should the next legislature take this course, it will draw upon them
the whole monarchical & paper interest. But the latter I think will
not go all lengths with the former, because creditors will never, of
their own accord, fly off entirely from their debtors. Therefore
this is the alternative least likely to produce convulsion. But
should the majority of the new members be still in the same
principles with the present, & shew that we have nothing to expect
but a continuance of the same practices, it is not easy to conjecture
what would be the result, nor what means would be resorted to for
correction of the evil. True wisdom would direct that they should be
temperate & peaceable, but the division of sentiment & interest
happens unfortunately to be so geographical, that no mortal can say
that what is most wise & temperate would prevail against what is most
easy & obvious. I can scarcely contemplate a more incalculable evil
than the breaking of the union into two or more parts. Yet when we
review the mass which opposed the original coalescence, when we
consider that it lay chiefly in the Southern quarter, that the
legislature have availed themselves of no occasion of allaying it,
but on the contrary whenever Northern & Southern prejudices have come
into conflict, the latter have been sacrificed & the former soothed;
that the owners of the debt are in the Southern & the holders of it
in the Northern division; that the Anti-federal champions are now
strengthened in argument by the fulfilment of their predictions; that
this has been brought about by the Monarchical federalists
themselves, who, having been for the new government merely as a
stepping stone to monarchy, have themselves adopted the very
constructions of the constitution, of which, when advocating it's
acceptance before the tribunal of the people, they declared it
insusceptible; that the republican federalists, who espoused the same
government for it's intrinsic merits, are disarmed of their weapons,
that which they denied as prophecy being now become true history: who
can be sure that these things may not proselyte the small number
which was wanting to place the majority on the other side? And this
is the event at which I tremble, & to prevent which I consider your
continuance at the head of affairs as of the last importance. The
confidence of the whole union is centred in you. Your being at the
helm, will be more than an answer to every argument which can be used
to alarm & lead the people in any quarter into violence or secession.
North & South will hang together, if they have you to hang on; and,
if the first correction of a numerous representation should fail in
it's effect, your presence will give time for trying others not
inconsistent with the union & peace of the states.
I am perfectly aware of the oppression under which your present
office lays your mind, & of the ardor with which you pant for
retirement to domestic life. But there is sometimes an eminence of
character on which society have such peculiar claims as to controul
the predelection of the individual for a particular walk of
happiness, & restrain him to that alone arising from the present &
future benedictions of mankind. This seems to be your condition, &
the law imposed on you by providence in forming your character, &
fashioning the events on which it was to operate; and it is to
motives like these, & not to personal anxieties of mine or others who
have no right to call on you for sacrifices, that I appeal from your
former determination & urge a revisal of it, on the ground of change
in the aspect of things. Should an honest majority result from the
new & enlarged representation; should those acquiesce whose
principles or interest they may controul, your wishes for retirement
would be gratified with less danger, as soon as that shall be
manifest, without awaiting the completion of the second period of
four years. One or two sessions will determine the crisis; and I
cannot but hope that you can resolve to add one or two more to the
many years you have already sacrificed to the good of mankind.
The fear of suspicion that any selfish motive of continuance in
office may enter into this sollicitation on my part obliges me to
declare that no such motive exists. It is a thing of mere
indifference to the public whether I retain or relinquish my purpose
of closing my tour with the first periodical renovation of the
government. I know my own measure too well to suppose that my
services contribute any thing to the public confidence, or the public
utility. Multitudes can fill the office in which you have been
pleased to place me, as much to their advantage & satisfaction. I
therefore have no motive to consult but my own inclination, which is
bent irresistibly on the tranquil enjoyment of my family, my farm, &
my books. I should repose among them it is true, in far greater
security, if I were to know that you remained at the watch, and I
hope it will be so. To the inducements urged from a view of our
domestic affairs, I will add a bare mention, of what indeed need only
be mentioned, that weighty motives for your continuance are to be
found in our foreign affairs. I think it probable that both the
Spanish & English negotiations, if not completed before your purpose
is known, will be suspended from the moment it is known; & that the
latter nation will then use double diligence in fomenting the Indian
war. -- With my wishes for the future, I shall at the same time
express my gratitude for the past, at least my portion in it; & beg
permission to follow you whether in public or private life with those
sentiments of sincere attachment & respect, with which I am
unalterably, Dear Sir, Your affectionate friend & humble servant.
"THE MONSTER ARISTOCRACY"
_To Lafayette_
_Philadelphia, June 16, 1792_
Behold you, then, my dear friend, at the head of a great army,
establishing the liberties of your country against a foreign enemy.
May heaven favor your cause, and make you the channel thro' which it
may pour it's favors. While you are exterminating the monster
aristocracy, & pulling out the teeth & fangs of it's associate
monarchy, a contrary tendency is discovered in some here. A sect has
shewn itself among us, who declare they espoused our new
constitution, not as a good & sufficient thing itself, but only as a
step to an English constitution, the only thing good & sufficient in
itself, in their eye. It is happy for us that these are preachers
without followers, and that our people are firm & constant in their
republican purity. You will wonder to be told that it is from the
Eastward chiefly that these champions for a king, lords & commons
come. They get some important associates from New York, and are
puffed off by a tribe of Agioteurs which have been hatched in a bed
of corruption made up after the model of their beloved England. Too
many of these stock jobbers & king-jobbers have come into our
legislature, or rather too many of our legislature have become stock
jobbers & king-jobbers. However the voice of the people is beginning
to make itself heard, and will probably cleanse their seats at the
ensuing election. -- The machinations of our old enemies are such as
to keep us still at bay with our Indian neighbors. -- What are you
doing for your colonies? They will be lost if not more effectually
succoured. Indeed no future efforts you can make will ever be able
to reduce the blacks. All that can be done in my opinion will be to
compound with them as has been done formerly in Jamaica. We have
been less zealous in aiding them, lest your government should feel
any jealousy on our account. But in truth we as sincerely wish their
restoration, and their connection with you, as you do yourselves. We
are satisfied that neither your justice nor their distresses will
ever again permit their being forced to seek at dear & distant
markets those first necessaries of life which they may have at
cheaper markets placed by nature at their door, & formed by her for
their support. -- What is become of Mde de Tessy and Mde de Tott? I
have not heard of them since they went to Switzerland. I think they
would have done better to have come & reposed under the Poplars of
Virginia. Pour into their bosoms the warmest effusions of my
friendship & tell them they will be warm and constant unto death.
Accept of them also for Mde de la Fayette & your dear children -- but
I am forgetting that you are in the field of war, & they I hope in
those of peace. Adieu my dear friend! God bless you all. Yours
affectionately.
THE RIGHTS OF MAN
_To Thomas Paine_
_Philadelphia, June 19, 1792_
DEAR SIR, -- I received with great pleasure the present of your
pamphlets, as well for the thing itself as that it was a testimony of
your recollection. Would you believe it possible that in this
country there should be high & important characters who need your
lessons in republicanism, & who do not heed them? It is but too true
that we have a sect preaching up & pouting after an English
constitution of king, lords, & commons, & whose heads are itching for
crowns, coronets & mitres. But our people, my good friend, are firm
and unanimous in their principles of republicanism & there is no
better proof of it than that they love what you write and read it
with delight. The printers season every newspaper with extracts from
your last, as they did before from your first part of the Rights of
Man. They have both served here to separate the wheat from the
chaff, and to prove that tho' the latter appears on the surface, it
is on the surface only. The bulk below is sound & pure. Go on then
in doing with your pen what in other times was done with the sword:
shew that reformation is more practicable by operating on the mind
than on the body of man, and be assured that it has not a more
sincere votary nor you a more ardent well-wisher than Yrs. &c.
THE CONFLICT WITH HAMILTON
_To the President of the United States_
(GEORGE WASHINGTON)
_Monticello, Sep. 9, 1792_
DEAR SIR, -- I received on the 2d inst the letter of Aug 23,
which you did me the honor to write me; but the immediate return of
our post, contrary to his custom, prevented my answer by that
occasion. The proceedings of Spain mentioned in your letter are
really of a complexion to excite uneasiness, & a suspicion that their
friendly overtures about the Missisipi have been merely to lull us
while they should be strengthening their holds on that river. Mr.
Carmichael's silence has been long my astonishment: and however it
might have justified something very different from a new appointment,
yet the public interest certainly called for his junction with Mr.
Short as it is impossible but that his knolege of the ground of
negotiation of persons & characters, must be useful & even necessary
to the success of the mission. That Spain & Gr Britain may
understand one another on our frontiers is very possible; for however
opposite their interests or disposition may be in the affairs of
Europe, yet while these do not call them into opposite action, they
may concur as against us. I consider their keeping an agent in the
Indian country as a circumstance which requires serious interference
on our part; and I submit to your decision whether it does not
furnish a proper occasion to us to send an additional instruction to
Messrs. Carmichael & Short to insist on a mutual & formal
stipulation to forbear employing agents or pensioning any persons
within each other's limits: and if this be refused, to propose the
contrary stipulation, to wit, that each party may freely keep agents
within the Indian territories of the other, in which case we might
soon sicken them of the license.
I now take the liberty of proceeding to that part of your
letter wherein you notice the internal dissentions which have taken
place within our government, & their disagreeable effect on it's
movements. That such dissentions have taken place is certain, & even
among those who are nearest to you in the administration. To no one
have they given deeper concern than myself: to no one equal
mortification at being myself a part of them. Tho' I take to myself
no more than my share of the general observations of your letter, yet
I am so desirous ever that you should know the whole truth, & believe
no more than the truth, that I am glad to seize every occasion of
developing to you whatever I do or think relative to the government;
& shall therefore ask permission to be more lengthy now than the
occasion particularly calls for, or could otherwise perhaps justify.
When I embarked in the government, it was with a determination
to intermeddle not at all with the legislature, & as little as
possible with my co-departments. The first and only instance of
variance from the former part of my resolution, I was duped into by
the Secretary of the Treasury and made a tool for forwarding his
schemes, not then sufficiently understood by me; and of all the
errors of my political life, this has occasioned me the deepest
regret. It has ever been my purpose to explain this to you, when,
from being actors on the scene, we shall have become uninterested
spectators only. The second part of my resolution has been
religiously observed with the war department; & as to that of the
Treasury, has never been farther swerved from than by the mere
enunciation of my sentiments in conversation, and chiefly among those
who, expressing the same sentiments, drew mine from me. If it has
been supposed that I have ever intrigued among the members of the
legislatures to defeat the plans of the Secretary of the Treasury, it
is contrary to all truth. As I never had the desire to influence the
members, so neither had I any other means than my friendships, which
I valued too highly to risk by usurpations on their freedom of
judgment, & the conscientious pursuit of their own sense of duty.
That I have utterly, in my private conversations, disapproved of the
system of the Secretary of the treasury, I acknolege & avow: and this
was not merely a speculative difference. His system flowed from
principles adverse to liberty, & was calculated to undermine and
demolish the republic, by creating an influence of his department
over the members of the legislature. I saw this influence actually
produced, & it's first fruits to be the establishment of the great
outlines of his project by the votes of the very persons who, having
swallowed his bait were laying themselves out to profit by his plans:
& that had these persons withdrawn, as those interested in a question
ever should, the vote of the disinterested majority was clearly the
reverse of what they made it. These were no longer the votes then of
the representatives of the people, but of deserters from the rights &
interests of the people: & it was impossible to consider their
decisions, which had nothing in view but to enrich themselves, as the
measures of the fair majority, which ought always to be respected.
-- If what was actually doing begat uneasiness in those who wished
for virtuous government, what was further proposed was not less
threatening to the friends of the Constitution. For, in a Report on
the subject of manufactures (still to be acted on) it was expressly
assumed that the general government has a right to exercise all
powers which may be for the _general welfare_, that is to say, all
the legitimate powers of government: since no government has a
legitimate right to do what is not for the welfare of the governed.
There was indeed a sham-limitation of the universality of this power
_to cases where money is to be employed_. But about what is it that
money cannot be employed? Thus the object of these plans taken
together is to draw all the powers of government into the hands of
the general legislature, to establish means for corrupting a
sufficient corps in that legislature to divide the honest votes &
preponderate, by their own, the scale which suited, & to have that
corps under the command of the Secretary of the Treasury for the
purpose of subverting step by step the principles of the
constitution, which he has so often declared to be a thing of nothing
which must be changed. Such views might have justified something
more than mere expressions of dissent, beyond which, nevertheless, I
never went. -- Has abstinence from the department committed to me
been equally observed by him? To say nothing of other interferences
equally known, in the case of the two nations with which we have the
most intimate connections, France & England, my system was to give
some satisfactory distinctions to the former, of little cost to us,
in return for the solid advantages yielded us by them; & to have met
the English with some restrictions which might induce them to abate
their severities against our commerce. I have always supposed this
coincided with your sentiments. Yet the Secretary of the treasury,
by his cabals with members of the legislature, & by high-toned
declamation on other occasions, has forced down his own system, which
was exactly the reverse. He undertook, of his own authority, the
conferences with the ministers of those two nations, & was, on every
consultation, provided with some report of a conversation with the
one or the other of them, adapted to his views. These views, thus
made to prevail, their execution fell of course to me; & I can safely
appeal to you, who have seen all my letters & proceedings, whether I
have not carried them into execution as sincerely as if they had been
my own, tho' I ever considered them as inconsistent with the honor &
interest of our country. That they have been inconsistent with our
interest is but too fatally proved by the stab to our navigation
given by the French. -- So that if the question be By whose fault is
it that Colo Hamilton & myself have not drawn together? the answer
will depend on that to two other questions; whose principles of
administration best justify, by their purity, conscientious
adherence? and which of us has, notwithstanding, stepped farthest
into the controul of the department of the other?
To this justification of opinions, expressed in the way of
conversation, against the views of Colo Hamilton, I beg leave to add
some notice of his late charges against me in Fenno's gazette; for
neither the stile, matter, nor venom of the pieces alluded to can
leave a doubt of their author. Spelling my name & character at full
length to the public, while he conceals his own under the signature
of "an American" he charges me 1. With having written letters from
Europe to my friends to oppose the present constitution while
depending. 2. With a desire of not paying the public debt. 3. With
setting up a paper to decry & slander the government. 1. The first
charge is most false. No man in the U.S. I suppose, approved of
every title in the constitution: no one, I believe approved more of
it than I did: and more of it was certainly disproved by my accuser
than by me, and of it's parts most vitally republican. Of this the
few letters I wrote on the subject (not half a dozen I believe) will
be a proof: & for my own satisfaction & justification, I must tax you
with the reading of them when I return to where they are. You will
there see that my objection to the constitution was that it wanted a
bill of rights securing freedom of religion, freedom of the press,
freedom from standing armies, trial by jury, & a constant Habeas
corpus act. Colo Hamilton's was that it wanted a king and house of
lords. The sense of America has approved my objection & added the
bill of rights, not the king and lords. I also thought a longer term
of service, insusceptible of renewal, would have made a President
more independant. My country has thought otherwise, & I have
acquiesced implicitly. He wishes the general government should have
power to make laws binding the states in all cases whatsoever. Our
country has thought otherwise: has he acquiesced? Notwithstanding my
wish for a bill of rights, my letters strongly urged the adoption of
the constitution, by nine states at least, to secure the good it
contained. I at first thought that the best method of securing the
bill of rights would be for four states to hold off till such a bill
should be agreed to. But the moment I saw Mr. Hancock's proposition
to pass the constitution as it stood, and give perpetual instructions
to the representatives of every state to insist on a bill of rights,
I acknoleged the superiority of his plan, & advocated universal
adoption. 2. The second charge is equally untrue. My whole
correspondence while in France, & every word, letter, & act on the
subject since my return, prove that no man is more ardently intent to
see the public debt soon & sacredly paid off than I am. This exactly
marks the difference between Colo Hamilton's views & mine, that I
would wish the debt paid to morrow; he wishes it never to be paid,
but always to be a thing where with to corrupt & manage the
legislature. 3. I have never enquired what number of sons, relations
& friends of Senators, representatives, printers or other useful
partisans Colo Hamilton has provided for among the hundred clerks of
his department, the thousand excisemen, custom-house officers, loan
officers &c. &c. &c. appointed by him, or at his nod, and spread over
the Union; nor could ever have imagined that the man who has the
shuffling of millions backwards & forwards from paper into money &
money into paper, from Europe to America, & America to Europe, the
dealing out of Treasury-secrets among his friends in what time &
measure he pleases, and who never slips an occasion of making friends
with his means, that such an one I say would have brought forward a
charge against me for having appointed the poet Freneau translating
clerk to my office, with a salary of 250. dollars a year. That fact
stands thus. While the government was at New York I was applied to
on behalf of Freneau to know if there was any place within my
department to which he could be appointed. I answered there were but
four clerkships, all of which I found full, and continued without any
change. When we removed to Philadelphia, Mr. Pintard the translating
clerk, did not chuse to remove with us. His office then became
vacant. I was again applied to there for Freneau, & had no
hesitation to promise the clerkship for him. I cannot recollect
whether it was at the same time, or afterwards, that I was told he
had a thought of setting up a newspaper there. But whether then, or
afterwards, I considered it as a circumstance of some value, as it
might enable me to do, what I had long wished to have done, that is,
to have the material parts of the Leyden gazette brought under your
eye & that of the public, in order to possess yourself & them of a
juster view of the affairs of Europe than could be obtained from any
other public source. This I had ineffectually attempted through the
press of Mr. Fenno while in New York, selecting & translating
passages myself at first then having it done by Mr. Pintard the
translating clerk, but they found their way too slowly into Mr.
Fenno's papers. Mr. Bache essayed it for me in Philadelphia, but his
being a daily paper, did not circulate sufficiently in the other
states. He even tried, at my request, the plan of a weekly paper of
recapitulation from his daily paper, in hopes that that might go into
the other states, but in this too we failed. Freneau, as translating
clerk, & the printer of a periodical paper likely to circulate thro'
the states (uniting in one person the parts of Pintard & Fenno)
revived my hopes that the thing could at length be effected. On the
establishment of his paper therefore, I furnished him with the Leyden
gazettes, with an expression of my wish that he could always
translate & publish the material intelligence they contained; & have
continued to furnish them from time to time, as regularly as I
received them. But as to any other direction or indication of my
wish how his press should be conducted, what sort of intelligence he
should give, what essays encourage, I can protest in the presence of
heaven, that I never did by myself or any other, directly or
indirectly, say a syllable, nor attempt any kind of influence. I can
further protest, in the same awful presence, that I never did by
myself or any other, directly or indirectly, write, dictate or
procure any one sentence or sentiment to be inserted _in his, or any
other gazette_, to which my name was not affixed or that of my
office. -- I surely need not except here a thing so foreign to the
present subject as a little paragraph about our Algerine captives,
which I put once into Fenno's paper. -- Freneau's proposition to
publish a paper, having been about the time that the writings of
Publicola, & the discourses on Davila had a good deal excited the
public attention, I took for granted from Freneau's character, which
had been marked as that of a good whig, that he would give free place
to pieces written against the aristocratical & monarchical principles
these papers had inculcated. This having been in my mind, it is
likely enough I may have expressed it in conversation with others;
tho' I do not recollect that I did. To Freneau I think I could not,
because I had still seen him but once, & that was at a public table,
at breakfast, at Mrs. Elsworth's, as I passed thro' New York the
last year. And I can safely declare that my expectations looked only
to the chastisement of the aristocratical & monarchical writers, &
not to any criticisms on the proceedings of government: Colo Hamilton
can see no motive for any appointment but that of making a convenient
partizan. But you Sir, who have received from me recommendations of
a Rittenhouse, Barlow, Paine, will believe that talents & science are
sufficient motives with me in appointments to which they are fitted:
& that Freneau, as a man of genius, might find a preference in my eye
to be a translating clerk, & make good title to the little aids I
could give him as the editor of a gazette, by procuring subscriptions
to his paper, as I did some, before it appeared, & as I have with
pleasure done for the labours of other men of genius. I hold it to
be one of the distinguishing excellencies of elective over hereditary
succesions, that the talents, which nature has provided in sufficient
proportion, should be selected by the society for the government of
their affairs, rather than that this should be transmitted through
the loins of knaves & fools passing from the debauches of the table
to those of the bed. Colo Hamilton, alias "Plain facts," says that
Freneau's salary began before he resided in Philadelphia. I do not
know what quibble he may have in reserve on the word "residence." He
may mean to include under that idea the removal of his family; for I
believe he removed, himself, before his family did, to Philadelphia.
But no act of mine gave commencement to his salary before he so far
took up his abode in Philadelphia as to be sufficiently in readiness
for the duties of the office. As to the merits or demerits of his
paper, they certainly concern me not. He & Fenno are rivals for the
public favor. The one courts them by flattery, the other by censure,
& I believe it will be admitted that the one has been as servile, as
the other severe. But is not the dignity, & even decency of
government committed, when one of it's principal ministers enlists
himself as an anonymous writer or paragraphist for either the one or
the other of them? -- No government ought to be without censors: &
where the press is free, no one ever will. If virtuous, it need not
fear the fair operation of attack & defence. Nature has given to man
no other means of sifting out the truth either in religion, law, or
politics. I think it as honorable to the government neither to know,
nor notice, it's sycophants or censors, as it would be undignified &
criminal to pamper the former & persecute the latter. -- So much for
the past. A word now of the future.
When I came into this office, it was with a resolution to
retire from it as soon as I could with decency. It pretty early
appeared to me that the proper moment would be the first of those
epochs at which the constitution seems to have contemplated a
periodical change or renewal of the public servants. In this I was
confirmed by your resolution respecting the same period; from which
however I am happy in hoping you have departed. I look to that
period with the longing of a wave-worn mariner, who has at length the
land in view, & shall count the days & hours which still lie between
me & it. In the meanwhile my main object will be to wind up the
business of my office avoiding as much as possible all new
enterprize. With the affairs of the legislature, as I never did
intermeddle, so I certainly shall not now begin. I am more desirous
to predispose everything for the repose to which I am withdrawing,
than expose it to be disturbed by newspaper contests. If these
however cannot be avoided altogether, yet a regard for your quiet
will be a sufficient motive for my deferring it till I become merely
a private citizen, when the propriety or impropriety of what I may
say or do may fall on myself alone. I may then too avoid the charge
of misapplying that time which now belonging to those who employ me,
should be wholly devoted to their service. If my own justification,
or the interests of the republic shall require it, I reserve to
myself the right of then appealing to my country, subscribing my name
to whatever I write, & using with freedom & truth the facts & names
necessary to place the cause in it's just form before that tribunal.
To a thorough disregard of the honors & emoluments of office I join
as great a value for the esteem of my countrymen, & conscious of
having merited it by an integrity which cannot be reproached, & by an
enthusiastic devotion to their rights & liberty, I will not suffer my
retirement to be clouded by the slanders of a man whose history, from
the moment at which history can stoop to notice him, is a tissue of
machinations against the liberty of the country which has not only
received and given him bread, but heaped it's honors on his head. --
Still however I repeat the hope that it will not be necessary to make
such an appeal. Though little known to the people of America, I
believe that, as far as I am known, it is not as an enemy to the
republic, nor an intriguer against it, nor a waster of it's revenue,
nor prostitutor of it to the purposes of corruption, as the American
represents me; and I confide that yourself are satisfied that, as to
dissensions in the newspapers, not a syllable of them has ever
proceeded from me; & that no cabals or intrigues of mine have
produced those in the legislature, & I hope I may promise, both to
you & myself, that none will receive aliment from me during the short
space I have to remain in office, which will find ample employment in
closing the present business of the department. -- Observing that
letters written at Mount Vernon on the Monday, & arriving at Richmond
on the Wednesday, reach me on Saturday, I have now the honor to
mention that the 22d instant will be the last of our post-days that I
shall be here, & consequently that no letter from you after the 17th,
will find me here. Soon after that I shall have the honor of
receiving at Mount Vernon your orders for Philadelphia, & of there
also delivering you the little matter which occurs to me as proper
for the opening of Congress, exclusive of what has been recommended
in former speeches, & not yet acted on. In the meantime & ever I am
with great and sincere affection & respect, dear Sir, your most
obedient and most humble servant.
"THE WILL OF THE NATION"
_To the U.S. Minister to France_
(Gouverneur Morris)
_Philadelphia, Dec. 30, 1792_
DEAR SIR -- My last to you was of Mar. 7. since which I have
received your Nos. 8. and 9. I am apprehensive that your situation
must have been difficult during the transition from the late form of
government to the re-establishment of some other legitimate
authority, and that you may have been at a loss to determine with
whom business might be done. Nevertheless when principles are well
understood their application is less embarrassing. We surely cannot
deny to any nation that right whereon our own government is founded,
that every one may govern itself under whatever forms it pleases, and
change these forms at it's own will, and that it may transact it's
business with foreign nations through whatever organ it thinks
proper, whether King, convention, assembly, committee, President, or
whatever else it may chuse. The will of the nation is the only thing
essential to be regarded. On the dissolution of the late
constitution in France, by removing so integral a part of it as the
King, the National Assembly, to whom a part only of the public
authority had been delegated, sensible of the incompetence of their
powers to transact the affairs of the nation legitimately, incited
their fellow citizens to appoint a national convention during this
defective state of the national authority. Duty to our constituents
required that we should suspend paiment of the monies yet unpaid of
our debt to that country, because there was no person or persons
substantially authorized by the nation of France to receive the
monies and give us a good acquittal. On this ground my last letter
desired you to suspend paiments till further orders, with an
assurance, if necessary, that the suspension should not be continued
a moment longer than should be necessary for us to see the
re-establishment of some person or body of persons with authority to
receive and give us a good acquittal. Since that we learn that a
Convention is assembled, invested with full powers by the nation to
transact it's affairs. Tho' we know that from the public papers
only, instead of waiting for a formal annunciation of it, we hasten
to act upon it by authorizing you, if the fact be true, to consider
the suspension of paiment, directed in my last letter, as now taken
off, and to proceed as if it had never been imposed; considering the
Convention, or the government they shall have established as the
lawful representatives of the Nation and authorized to act for them.
Neither the honor nor inclination of our country would justify our
withholding our paiment under a scrupulous attention to forms. On
the contrary they lent us that money when we were under their
circumstances, and it seems providential that we can not only repay
them the same sum, but under the same circumstances. Indeed, we wish
to omit no opportunity of convincing them how cordially we desire the
closest union with them: Mutual good offices, mutual affection and
similar principles of government seem to have destined the two people
for the most intimate communion, and even for a complete exchange of
citizenship among the individuals composing them.
During the fluctuating state of the Assignats of France, I must
ask the favor of you to inform me in every letter of the rate of
exchange between them & coin, this being necessary for the regulation
of our custom houses. We are continuing our supplies to the island
of St. Domingo at the request of the Minister of France here. We
would wish however to receive a more formal sanction from the
government of France than has yet been given. Indeed, we know of
none but a vote of the late National Assembly for 4 millions of
livres of our debt, sent to the government of St. Domingo,
communicated by them to the Minister here, & by him to us. And this
was in terms not properly applicable to the form of our advances. We
wish therefore for a full sanction of the past & a complete
expression of the desires of their government as to future supplies
to their colonies. Besides what we have furnished publicly,
individual merchants of the U.S. have carried considerable supplies
to the island of St. Domingo, which have been sometimes purchased,
sometimes taken by force, and bills given by the administration of
the colony on the minister here, which have been protested for want
of funds. We have no doubt that justice will be done to these
PAEAN TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
_To William Short_
_Philadelphia, Jan. 3, 1793_
DEAR SIR, -- My last private letter to you was of Oct. 16.
since which I have received your No. 103, 107, 108, 109, 110, 112,
113 & 114 and yesterday your private one of Sep 15, came to hand.
The tone of your letters had for some time given me pain, on account
of the extreme warmth with which they censured the proceedings of the
Jacobins of France. I considered that sect as the same with the
Republican patriots, & the Feuillants as the Monarchical patriots,
well known in the early part of the revolution, & but little distant
in their views, both having in object the establishment of a free
constitution, & differing only on the question whether their chief
Executive should be hereditary or not. The Jacobins (as since
called) yielded to the Feuillants & tried the experiment of retaining
their hereditary Executive. The experiment failed completely, and
would have brought on the reestablishment of despotism had it been
pursued. The Jacobins saw this, and that the expunging that officer
was of absolute necessity. And the Nation was with them in opinion,
for however they might have been formerly for the constitution framed
by the first assembly, they were come over from their hope in it, and
were now generally Jacobins. In the struggle which was necessary,
many guilty persons fell without the forms of trial, and with them
some innocent. These I deplore as much as any body, & shall deplore
some of them to the day of my death. But I deplore them as I should
have done had they fallen in battle. It was necessary to use the arm
of the people, a machine not quite so blind as balls and bombs, but
blind to a certain degree. A few of their cordial friends met at
their hands the fate of enemies. But time and truth will rescue &
embalm their memories, while their posterity will be enjoying that
very liberty for which they would never have hesitated to offer up
their lives. The liberty of the whole earth was depending on the
issue of the contest, and was ever such a prize won with so little
innocent blood? My own affections have been deeply wounded by some
of the martyrs to this cause, but rather than it should have failed,
I would have seen half the earth desolated. Were there but an Adam &
an Eve left in every country, & left free, it would be better than as
it now is. I have expressed to you my sentiments, because they are
really those of 99. in an hundred of our citizens. The universal
feasts, and rejoicings which have lately been had on account of the
successes of the French shewed the genuine effusions of their hearts.
You have been wounded by the sufferings of your friends, and have by
this circumstance been hurried into a temper of mind which would be
extremely disrelished if known to your countrymen. The _reserve of
the President of the United States_ had never permitted me to
discover the light in which he viewed it, and as I was more anxious
that you should satisfy him than me, I had still avoided explanations
with you on the subject. But your 113. induced him to break silence
and to notice the extreme acrimony of your expressions. He added
that he had been informed the sentiments you expressed _in your
conversations_ were equally offensive to our allies, & that you
should consider yourself as the representative of your country and
that what you say might be imputed to your constituents. He desired
me therefore to write to you on this subject. He added that he
considered _France as the sheet anchor of this country and its
friendship as a first object._ There are in the U.S. some characters
of opposite principles; some of them are high in office, others
possessing great wealth, and all of them hostile to France and fondly
looking to England as the staff of their hope. These I named to you
on a former occasion. Their prospects have certainly not brightened.
Excepting them, this country is entirely republican, friends to the
constitution, anxious to preserve it and to have it administered
according to it's own republican principles. The little party above
mentioned have espoused it only as a stepping stone to monarchy, and
have endeavored to approximate it to that in it's administration in
order to render it's final transition more easy. The successes of
republicanism in France have given the coup de grace to their
prospects, and I hope to their projects. -- I have developed to you
faithfully the sentiments of your country, that you may govern
yourself accordingly. I know your republicanism to be pure, and that
it is no decay of that which has embittered you against it's votaries
in France, but too great a sensibility at the partial evil which it's
object has been accomplished there. I have written to you in the
stile to which I have been always accustomed with you, and which
perhaps it is time I should lay aside. But while old men are
sensible enough of their own advance in years, they do not
sufficiently recollect it in those whom they have seen young. In
writing too the last private letter which will probably be written
under present circumstances, in contemplating that your
correspondence will shortly be turned over to I know not whom, but
certainly to some one not in the habit of considering your interests
with the same fostering anxieties I do, I have presented things
without reserve, satisfied you will ascribe what I have said to it's
true motive, use it for your own best interest, and in that fulfil
completely what I had in view.
With respect to the subject of your letter of Sep. 15. you will
be sensible that many considerations would prevent my undertaking the
reformation of a system with which I am so soon to take leave. It is
but common decency to leave to my successor the moulding of his own
business. -- Not knowing how otherwise to convey this letter to you
with certainty, I shall appeal to the friendship and honour of the
Spanish commissioners here, to give it the protection of their cover,
as a letter of private nature altogether. We have no remarkable
event here lately, but the death of Dr. Lee; nor have I anything new
to communicate to you of your friends or affairs. I am with
unalterable affection & wishes for your prosperity, my dear Sir, you
sincere friend and servant.
PEACEABLE COERCION
_To James Madison_
_March 24, 1793_
The idea seems to gain credit that the naval powers combined
against France will prohibit supplies even of provisions to that
country. Should this be formally notified I should suppose Congress
would be called, because it is a justifiable cause of war, & as the
Executive cannot decide the question of war on the affirmative side,
neither ought it to do so on the negative side, by preventing the
competent body from deliberating on the question. But I should hope
that war would not be their choice. I think it will furnish us a
happy opportunity of setting another example to the world, by shewing
that nations may be brought to do justice by appeals to their
interests as well as by appeals to arms. I should hope that Congress
instead of a denunciation of war, would instantly exclude from our
ports all the manufactures, produce, vessels & subjects of the
nations committing this aggression, during the continuance of the
aggression & till full satisfaction made for it. This would work
well in many ways, safely in all, & introduce between nations another
umpire than arms. It would relieve us too from the risks & the
horrors of cutting throats. The death of the king of France has not
produced as open condemnations from the Monocrats as I expected. I
dined the other day in a company where the subject was discussed. I
will name the company in the order in which they manifested their
partialities; beginning with the warmest Jacobinism & proceeding by
shades to the most heart felt aristocracy. Smith (N.Y.) Coxe.
Stewart. T. Shippen. Bingham. Peters. Breck. Meredith. Wolcott. It
is certain that the ladies of this city, of the first circle are all
open-mouthed against the murderers of a sovereign, and they generally
speak those sentiments which the more cautious husband smothers. I
believe it is pretty certain that Smith (S.C.) and Miss A. are not to
come together. Ternant has at length openly hoisted the flag of
monarchy by going into deep mourning for his prince. I suspect he
thinks a cessation of his visits to me a necessary accompaniment to
this pious duty. A connection between him & Hamilton seems to be
springing up. On observing that Duer was secretary to the old board
of treasury, I suspect him to have been the person who suggested to
Hamilton the letter of mine to that board which he so tortured in his
Catullus. Dunlap has refused to print the piece which we had heard
of before your departure, and it has been several days in Bache's
hands, without any notice of it. The President will leave this about
the 27th inst., & return about the 20th of April. Adieu.
THE GALLANT GENET
_To James Madison_
_Phila, May 19, 1793_
I wrote you last on the 13'th.. Since that I have received
yours of the 8'th.. I have scribbled on a separate paper some
general notes on the plan of a house you enclosed. I have done more.
I have endeavored to throw the same area, the same extent of walls,
the same number of rooms, &of the same size, into another form so as
to offer a choiceto the builder. Indeed I varied my plan by shewing
that itwould be with alcove bed rooms, to which I am much attached.
I dare say you will have judged from the pusillanimity of the
proclamation, from whose pen it came. A fear lest any affection
should be discovered is distinguishable enough. This base fear will
produce the very evil they wish to avoid. For our constituents
seeing that the government does not express their mind, perhaps
rather leans the other way, are coming forward to express it
themselves. It was suspected that there was not a clear mind in the
P.'s counsellors to receive Genet. The citizens however determined
to receive him. Arrangements were taken for meeting him at Gray's
ferry in a great body. He escaped that by arriving in town with the
letters which brought information that he was on the road. The
merchants _i.e._ Fitzsimmons & co. were to present an address to _the
P._ on the neutrality proclaimed. It contained much wisdom but no
affection. You will see it in the papers inclosed. The citizens
determined to address _Genet._ Rittenhouse, Hutcheson, Dallas,
Sargeant &c. were at the head of it. Tho a select body of only 30.
was appointed to present it, yet a vast concourse of people attended
them. I have not seen it; but it is understood to be the counter
address. -- Ternant's hopes of employment in the French army turn out
to be without grounds. He is told by the minister of war expressly
that the places of Marechal de camp are all full. He thinks it more
prudent therefore to remain in America. He delivered yesterday his
letters of recall, & Mr. Genet presented his of credence. It is
impossible for anything to be more affectionate, more magnanimous
than the purport of his mission. `We know that under present
circumstances we have a right to call upon you for the guarantee of
our islands. But we do not desire it. We wish you to do nothing but
what is for your own good, and we will do all in our power to promote
it. Cherish your own peace & prosperity. You have expressed a
willingness to enter into a more liberal treaty of commerce with us;
I bring full powers (& he produced them) to form such a treaty, and a
preliminary decree of the National convention to lay open our country
& it's colonies to you for every purpose of utility, without your
participating the burthens of maintaining & defending them. We see
in you the only person on earth who can love us sincerely & merit to
be so loved.' In short he offers everything & asks nothing. Yet I
know the offers will be opposed, & suspect they will not be accepted.
In short, my dear Sir, it is impossible for you to conceive what is
passing in our conclave: and it is evident that one or two at least,
under pretence of avoiding war on the one side have no great
antipathy to run foul of it on the other, and to make a part in the
confederacy of princes against human liberty. -- The people in the
Western parts of this state have been to the excise officer &
threatened to burn his house &c. They were blacked & otherwise
disguised so as to be unknown. He has resigned, and H. says there
is no possibility of getting the law executed there, & that probably
the evil will spread. A proclamation is to be issued, and another
instance of my being forced to appear to approve what I have
condemned uniformly from it's first conception.
I expect every day to receive from Mr. Pinckney the model of
the Scotch threshing machine. It was to have come in a ship which
arrived 3. weeks ago, but the workman had not quite finished it. Mr.
P. writes me word that the machine from which my model is taken
threshes 8. quarters (64. bushels) of oats _an hour_, with 4. horses
& 4. men. I hope to get it in time to have one erected at Monticello
to clean out the present crop. -- I inclose you the pamphlet you
desired. Adieu.
THE DEBT OF SERVICE
_To James Madison_
_June 9, 1793_
I have to acknolege the receipt of your two favors of May 27 &
29, since the date of my last which was of the 2 inst. In that of
the 27th you say `you must not make your final exit from public life
till it will be marked with justifying circumstances which all good
citizens will respect, & to which your friends can appeal.' -- To my
fellow-citizens the debt of service has been fully & faithfully paid.
I acknolege that such a debt exists, that a tour of duty, in whatever
line he can be most useful to his country, is due from every
individual. It is not easy perhaps to say of what length exactly
this tour should be, but we may safely say of what length it should
not be. Not of our whole life, for instance, for that would be to be
born a slave -- not even of a very large portion of it. I have now
been in the public service four & twenty years; one half of which has
been spent in total occupation with their affairs, & absence from my
own. I have served my tour then. No positive engagement, by word or
deed, binds me to their further service. No commitment of their
interests in any enterprise by me requires that I should see them
through it. -- I am pledged by no act which gives any tribunal a call
upon me before I withdraw. Even my enemies do not pretend this. I
stand clear then of public right on all points. -- My friends I have
not committed. No circumstances have attended my passage from office
to office, which could lead them, & others through them, into
deception as to the time I might remain; & particularly they & all
have known with what reluctance I engaged & have continued in the
present one, & of my uniform determination to retire from it at an
early day. -- If the public then has no claim on me, & my friends
nothing to justify; the decision will rest on my own feelings alone.
There has been a time when these were very different from what they
are now: when perhaps the esteem of the world was of higher value in
my eye than everything in it. But age, experience & reflection,
preserving to that only it's due value, have set a higher on
tranquility. The motion of my blood no longer keeps time with the
tumult of the world. It leads me to seek for happiness in the lap
and love of my family, in the society of my neighbors & my books, in
the wholesome occupations of my farm & my affairs, in an interest or
affection in every bud that opens, in every breath that blows around
me, in an entire freedom of rest or motion, of thought or
incogitancy, owing account to myself alone of my hours & actions.
What must be the principle of that calculation which should balance
against these the circumstances of my present existence! worn down
with labours from morning to night, & day to day; knowing them as
fruitless to others as they are vexatious to myself, committed singly
in desperate & eternal contest against a host who are systematically
undermining the public liberty & prosperity, even the rare hours of
relaxation sacrificed to the society of persons in the same
intentions, of whose hatred I am conscious even in those moments of
conviviality when the heart wishes most to open itself to the
effusions of friendship & confidence, cut off from my family &
friends, my affairs abandoned to chaos & derangement, in short giving
everything I love, in exchange for everything I hate, and all this
without a single gratification in possession or prospect, in present
enjoyment or future wish. -- Indeed my dear friend, duty being out of
the question, inclination cuts off all argument, & so never let there
be more between you & me, on this subject.
I inclose you some papers which have passed on the subject of a
new loan. You will see by them that the paper-Coryphaeus is either
undaunted, or desperate. I believe that the statement inclosed has
secured a decision against his proposition. -- I dined yesterday in a
company where Morris & Bingham were, & happened to sit between them.
In the course of a conversation after dinner Morris made one of his
warm declarations that after the expiration of his present Senatorial
term nothing on earth should ever engage him to serve again in any
public capacity. He did this with such solemnity as renders it
impossible he should not be in earnest. -- The President is not well.
Little lingering fevers have been hanging about him for a week or ten
days, and have affected his looks most remarkably. He is also
extremely affected by the attacks made & kept up on him in the public
papers. I think he feels those things more than any person I ever
yet met with. I am sincerely sorry to see them. I remember an
observation of yours, made when I first went to New York, that the
satellites & sycophants which surrounded him had wound up the
ceremonials of the government to a pitch of stateliness which nothing
but his personal character could have supported, & which no character
after him could ever maintain. It appears now that even his will be
insufficient to justify them in the appeal of the times to common
sense as the arbiter of everything. Naked he would have been
sanctimoniously reverenced, but inveloped in the rags of royalty,
they can hardly be torn off without laceration. It is the more
unfortunate that this attack is planted on popular ground, on the
love of the people to France & it's cause, which is universal. --
Genet mentions freely enough in conversation that France does not
wish to involve us in the war by our guarantee. The information from
St. Domingo & Martinique is that those two islands are disposed &
able to resist any attack which Great Britain can make on them by
land. A blockade would be dangerous, could it be maintained in that
climate for any length of time. I delivered to Genet your letter to
Roland. As the latter is out of office, he will direct it to the
Minister of the Interior. I found every syllable of it strictly
proper. Your ploughs shall be duly attended to. Have you ever taken
notice of Tull's horse-houghing plough? I am persuaded that that,
where you wish your work to be very exact, & our great plough where a
less degree will suffice, leave us nothing to wish for from other
countries as to ploughs, under our circumstances. -- I have not yet
received my threshing machine. I fear the late long & heavy rains
must have extended to us, & affected our wheat. Adieu. Yours
affectionately.
"MY FAMILY, MY FARM, AND MY BOOKS"
_To Mrs. Church_
_Germantown, Nov. 27th, 1793_
I have received, my good friend, your kind letter of August
19th, with the extract from that of Lafayette, for whom my heart has
been constantly bleeding. The influence of the United States has
been put into action, as far as it could be either with decency or
effect. But I fear that distance and difference of principle give
little hold to General Washington on the jailers of Lafayette.
However, his friends may be assured that our zeal has not been
inactive. Your letter gives me the first information that our dear
friend Madame de Corny has been, as to her fortune among the victims
of the times. Sad times, indeed! and much lamented victim! I know
no country where the remains of a fortune could place her so much at
her ease as this, and where public esteem is so attached to worth,
regardless of wealth; but our manners, and the state of our society
here, are so different from those to which her habits have been
formed, that she would lose more perhaps in that scale. And Madame
Cosway in a convent! I knew that to much goodness of heart she
joined enthusiasm and religion; but I thought that very enthusiasm
would have prevented her from shutting up her adoration of the God of
the universe within the walls of a cloister; that she would rather
have sought the _mountain-top._ How happy should I be that it were
_mine_ that you, she, and Madame de Corny would seek. You say,
indeed, that you are coming to America, but I know that means New
York. In the meantime I am going to Virginia. I have at length
become able to fix that to the beginning of the new year. I am then
to be liberated from the hated occupations of politics, and to remain
in the bosom of my family, my farm, and my books. I have my house to
build, my fields to farm, and to watch for the happiness of those who
labor for mine. I have one daughter married to a man of science,
sense, virtue, and competence; in whom indeed I have nothing more to
wish. They live with me. If the other shall be as fortunate, in due
process of time I shall imagine myself as blessed as the most blessed
of the patriarchs. Nothing could then withdraw my thoughts a moment
from home but the recollection of my friends abroad. I often put the
question, whether yourself and Kitty will ever come to see your
friends at Monticello? but it is my affection and not my experience
of things which has leave to answer, and I am determined to believe
the answer, because in that belief I find I sleep sounder, and wake
more cheerful. _En attendant_, God bless you.
Accept the homage of my sincere and constant affection.
"LUCERNE AND POTATOES"
_To Tench Coxe_
_Monticello, May 1, 1794_
DEAR SIR, -- Your several favors of Feb. 22, 27, & March 16.
which had been accumulating in Richmond during the prevalence of the
small pox in that place, were lately brought to me, on the permission
given the post to resume his communication. I am particularly to
thank you for your favor in forwarding the Bee. Your letters give a
comfortable view of French affairs, and later events seem to confirm
it. Over the foreign powers I am convinced they will triumph
completely, & I cannot but hope that that triumph, & the consequent
disgrace of the invading tyrants, is destined, in the order of
events, to kindle the wrath of the people of Europe against those who
have dared to embroil them in such wickedness, and to bring at
length, kings, nobles, & priests to the scaffolds which they have
been so long deluging with human blood. I am still warm whenever I
think of these scoundrels, tho I do it as seldom as I can, preferring
infinitely to contemplate the tranquil growth of my lucerne &
potatoes. I have so completely withdrawn myself from these
spectacles of usurpation & misrule, that I do not take a single
newspaper, nor read one a month; & I feel myself infinitely the
happier for it. We are alarmed here with the apprehensions of war;
and sincerely anxious that it may be avoided; but not at the expense
either of our faith or honor. It seems much the general opinion
here, that the latter has been too much wounded not to require
reparation, & to seek it even in war, if that be necessary. As to
myself, I love peace, and I am anxious that we should give the world
still another useful lesson, by showing to them other modes of
punishing injuries than by war, which is as much a punishment to the
punisher as to the sufferer. I love, therefore, mr. Clarke's
proposition of cutting off all communication with the nation which
has conducted itself so atrociously. This, you will say, may bring
on war. If it does, we will meet it like men; but it may not bring
on war, & then the experiment will have been a happy one. I believe
this war would be vastly more unanimously approved than any one we
ever were engaged in; because the aggressions have been so wanton &
bare-faced, and so unquestionably against our desire. -- I am sorry
mr. Cooper & Priestly did not take a more general survey of our
country before they fixed themselves. I think they might have
promoted their own advantage by it, and have aided the introduction
of our improvement where it is more wanting. The prospect of wheat
for the ensuing year is a bad one. This is all the sort of news you
can expect from me. From you I shall be glad to hear all sort of
news, & particularly any improvements in the arts applicable to
husbandry or household manufacture.
WHISKEY REBELS AND DEMOCRATIC SOCIETIES
_To James Madison_
_Monticello, Dec. 28, 1794_
DEAR SIR, -- I have kept mr. Jay's letter a post or two, with
an intention of considering attentively the observation it contains;
but I have really now so little stomach for anything of that kind,
that I have not resolution enough even to endeavor to understand the
observations. I therefore return the letter, not to delay your
answer to it, and beg you in answering for yourself to assure him of
my respects and thankful acceptance of Chalmers' Treaties, which I do
not possess, and if you possess yourself of the scope of his
reasoning, make any answer to it you please for me. If it had been
on the rotation of my crops, I would have answered myself, lengthily
perhaps, but certainly _con gusto._
The denunciation of the democratic societies is one of the
extraordinary acts of boldness of which we have seen so many from the
fraction of monocrats. It is wonderful indeed, that the President
should have permitted himself to be the organ of such an attack on
the freedom of discussion, the freedom of writing, printing &
publishing. It must be a matter of rare curiosity to get at the
modifications of these rights proposed by them, and to see what line
their ingenuity would draw between democratical societies, whose
avowed object is the nourishment of the republican principles of our
constitution, and the society of the Cincinnati, _a self-created_
one, carving out for itself hereditary distinctions, lowering over
our Constitution eternally, meeting together in all parts of the
Union, periodically, with closed doors, accumulating a capital in
their separate treasury, corresponding secretly & regularly, & of
which society the very persons denouncing the democrats are
themselves the fathers, founders, & high officers. Their sight must
be perfectly dazzled by the glittering of crowns & coronets, not to
see the extravagance of the proposition to suppress the friends of
general freedom, while those who wish to confine that freedom to the
few, are permitted to go on in their principles & practices. I here
put out of sight the persons whose misbehavior has been taken
advantage of to slander the friends of popular rights; and I am happy
to observe, that as far as the circle of my observation & information
extends, everybody has lost sight of them, and views the abstract
attempt on their natural & constitutional rights in all it's
nakedness. I have never heard, or heard of, a single expression or
opinion which did not condemn it as an inexcusable aggression. And
with respect to the transactions against the excise law, it appears
to me that you are all swept away in the torrent of governmental
opinions, or that we do not know what these transactions have been.
We know of none which, according to the definitions of the law, have
been anything more than riotous. There was indeed a meeting to
consult about a separation. But to consult on a question does not
amount to a determination of that question in the affirmative, still
less to the acting on such a determination; but we shall see, I
suppose, what the court lawyers, & courtly judges, & would-be
ambassadors will make of it. The excise law is an infernal one. The
first error was to admit it by the Constitution; the 2d., to act on
that admission; the 3d & last will be, to make it the instrument of
dismembering the Union, & setting us all afloat to chuse which part
of it we will adhere to. The information of our militia, returned
from the Westward, is uniform, that tho the people there let them
pass quietly, they were objects of their laughter, not of their fear;
that 1000 men could have cut off their whole force in a thousand
places of the Alleganey; that their detestation of the excise law is
universal, and has now associated to it a detestation of the
government; & that separation which perhaps was a very distant &
problematical event, is now near, & certain, & determined in the mind
of every man. I expected to have seen some justification of arming
one part of the society against another; of declaring a civil war the
moment before the meeting of that body which has the sole right of
declaring war; of being so patient of the kicks & scoffs of our
enemies, & rising at a feather against our friends; of adding a
million to the public debt & deriding us with recommendations to pay
it if we can &c., &c. But the part of the speech which was to be
taken as a justification of the armament, reminded me of parson
Saunders' demonstration why minus into minus make plus. After a
parcel of shreds of stuff from Aesop's fables, and Tom Thumb, he
jumps all at once into his Ergo, minus multiplied into minus make
plus. Just so the 15,000 men enter after the fables, in the speech.
-- However, the time is coming when we shall fetch up the leeway of
our vessel. The changes in your house, I see, are going on for the
better, and even the Augean herd over your heads are slowly purging
off their impurities. Hold on then, my dear friend, that we may not
shipwreck in the meanwhile. I do not see, in the minds of those with
whom I converse, a greater affliction than the fear of your
retirement; but this must not be, unless to a more splendid & a more
efficacious post. There I should rejoice to see you; I hope I may
say, I shall rejoice to see you. I have long had much in my mind to
say to you on that subject. But double delicacies have kept me
silent. I ought perhaps to say, while I would not give up my own
retirement for the empire of the universe, how I can justify wishing
one whose happinesss I have so much at heart as yours, to take the
front of the battle which is fighting for my security. This would be
easy enough to be done, but not at the heel of a lengthy epistle.
Let us quit this, and turn to the fine weather we are basking
in. We have had one of our tropical winters. Once only a snow of 3.
inches deep, which went off the next day, and never as much ice as
would have cooled a bottle of wine. And we have now but a month to
go through of winter weather. For February always gives us a good
sample of the spring of which it is the harbinger. I recollect no
small news interesting to you. You will have heard, I suppose, that
Wilson Nicholas has bought Carr's Carrsgrove and Harvey's barracks.
I rejoice in the prosperity of a virtuous man, and hope his
prosperity will not taint his virtue. Present me respectfully to
Mrs. Madison, and pray her to keep you where you are for her own
satisfaction and the public good; and accept the cordial affections
of all. Adieu.
FARMING
_To John Taylor_
_Monticello, Dec. 29, 1794_
DEAR SIR, -- I have long owed you a letter, for which my
conscience would not have let me rest in quiet but on the
consideration that the paiment would not be worth your acceptance.
The debt is not merely for a letter the common traffic of every day,
but for valuable ideas, which instructed me, which I have adopted, &
am acting on them. I am sensible of the truth of your observations
that the atmosphere is the great storehouse of matter for recruiting
our lands, that tho' efficacious, it is slow in it's operation, and
we must therefore give them time instead of the loads of quicker
manure given in other countries, that for this purpose we must avail
ourselves of the great quantities of land we possess in proportion to
our labour, and that while putting them to nurse with the atmosphere,
we must protect them from the bite & tread of animals, which are
nearly a counterpoise for the benefits of the atmosphere. As good
things, as well as evil, go in a train, this relieves us from the
labor & expence of crossfences, now very sensibly felt on account of
the scarcity & distance of timber. I am accordingly now engaged in
applying my cross fences to the repair of the outer ones and
substituting rows of peach trees to preserve the boundaries of the
fields. And though I observe your strictures on rotations of crops,
yet it appears that in this I differ from you only in words. You
keep half your lands in culture, the other half at nurse; so I
propose to do. Your scheme indeed requires only four years & mine
six; but the proportion of labour & rest is the same. My years of
rest, however, are employed, two of them in producing clover, yours
in volunteer herbage. But I still understand it to be your opinion
that clover is best where lands will produce them. Indeed I think
that the important improvement for which the world is indebted to
Young is the substitution of clover crops instead of unproductive
fallows; & the demonstration that lands are more enriched by clover
than by volunteer herbage or fallows; and the clover crops are highly
valuable. That our red lands which are still in tolerable heart will
produce fine clover I know from the experience of the last year; and
indeed that of my neighbors had established the fact. And from
observations on accidental plants in the feilds which have been
considerably harrassed with corn, I believe that even these will
produce clover fit for soiling of animals green. I think, therefore,
I can count on the success of that improver. My third year of rest
will be devoted to cowpenning, & to a trial of the buckwheat
dressing. A further progress in surveying my open arable lands has
shewn me that I can have 7 fields in each of my farms where I
expected only six; consequently that I can add more to the portion of
rest & ameliorating crops. I have doubted on a question on which I
am sure you can advise me well, whether I had better give this newly
acquired year as an addition to the continuance of my clover, or
throw it with some improving crop between two of my crops of grain,
as for instance between my corn & rye. I strongly incline to the
latter, because I am not satisfied that one cleansing crop in seven
years will be sufficient; and indeed I think it important to separate
my exhausting crops by alternations of amelioraters. With this view
I think to try an experiment of what Judge Parker informs me he
practises. That is, to turn in my wheat stubble the instant the
grain is off, and sow turneps to be fed out by the sheep. But
whether this will answer in our fields which are harrassed, I do not
know. We have been in the habit of sowing only our freshest lands in
turneps, hence a presumption that wearied lands will not bring them.
But Young's making turneps to be fed on by sheep the basis of his
improvement of poor lands, affords evidence that tho they may not
bring great crops, they will bring them in a sufficient degree to
improve the lands. I will try that experiment, however, this year,
as well as the one of buckwheat. I have also attended to another
improver mentioned by you, the winter-vetch, & have taken measures to
get the seed of it from England, as also of the Siberian vetch which
Millar greatly commends, & being a biennial might perhaps take the
place of clover in lands which do not suit that. The winter vetch I
suspect may be advantageously thrown in between crops, as it gives a
choice to use it as green feed in the spring if fodder be run short,
or to turn it in as a green-dressing. My rotation, with these
amendments, is as follows: --
1. Wheat, followed the same year by turneps, to be fed on by
the sheep.
2. Corn & potatoes mixed, & in autumn the vetch to be used as
fodder in the spring if wanted, or to be turned in as a dressing.
3. Peas or potatoes, or both according to the quality of the
field.
4. Rye and clover sown on it in the spring. Wheat may be
substituted here for rye, when it shall be found that the 2'd., 3'd.,
5'th., & 6'th. fields will subsist the farm.
5. Clover.
6. Clover, & in autumn turn it in & sow the vetch.
7. Turn in the vetch in the spring, then sow buckwheat & turn
that in, having hurdled off the poorest spots for cow-penning. In
autumn sow wheat to begin the circle again.
I am for throwing the whole force of my husbandry on the
wheat-field, because it is the only one which is to go to market to
produce money. Perhaps the clover may bring in something in the form
of stock. The other feilds are merely for the consumption of the
farm. Melilot, mentioned by you, I never heard of. The horse bean I
tried this last year. It turned out nothing. The President has
tried it without success. An old English farmer of the name of
Spuryear, settled in Delaware, has tried it there with good success;
but he told me it would not do without being well shaded, and I think
he planted it among his corn for that reason. But he acknoleged our
pea was as good an ameliorater & a more valuable pulse, as being food
for man as well as horse. The succory is what Young calls Chicoria
Intubus. He sent some seed to the President, who gave me some, & I
gave it to my neighbors to keep up till I should come home. One of
them has cultivated it with great success, is very fond of it, and
gave me some seed which I sowed last spring. Tho' the summer was
favorable it came on slowly at first, but by autumn became large &
strong. It did not seed that year, but will the next, & you shall be
furnished with seed. I suspect it requires rich ground, & then
produces a heavy crop for green feed for horses & cattle. I had poor
success with my potatoes last year, not having made more than 60 or
70 bushels to the acre. But my neighbors having made good crops, I
am not disheartened. The first step towards the recovery of our
lands is to find substitutes for corn & bacon. I count on potatoes,
clover, & sheep. The two former to feed every animal on the farm
except my negroes, & the latter to feed them, diversified with
rations of salted fish & molasses, both of them wholesome, agreeable,
& cheap articles of food.
For pasture I rely on the forests by day, & soiling in the
evening. Why could we not have a moveable airy cow house, to be set
up in the middle of the feild which is to be dunged, & soil our
cattle in that thro' the summer as well as winter, keeping them
constantly up & well littered? This, with me, would be in the clover
feild of the 1'st. year, because during the 2'd. year it would be
rotting, and would be spread on it in fallow the beginning of the
3'd., but such an effort would be far above the present tyro state of
my farming. The grosser barbarisms in culture which I have to
encounter, are more than enough for all my attentions at present.
The dung-yard must be my last effort but one. The last would be
irrigation. It might be thought at first view, that the
interposition of these ameliorations or dressings between my crops
will be too laborious, but observe that the turneps & two dressings
of vetch do not cost a single ploughing. The turning in the
wheat-stubble for the turneps is the fallow for the corn of the
succeeding year. The 1'st. sowing of vetches is on the corn (as is
now practised for wheat), and the turning it in is the
flush-ploughing for the crop of potatoes & peas. The 2'd. sowing of
the vetch is on the wheat fallow, & the turning it in is the
ploughing necessary for sowing the buckwheat. These three
ameliorations, then, will cost but a harrowing each. On the subject
of the drilled husbandry, I think experience has established it's
preference for some plants, as the turnep, pea, bean, cabbage, corn,
&c., and that of the broadcast for other plants as all the bread
grains & grasses, except perhaps lucerne & S't. foin in soils &
climates very productive of weeds. In dry soils & climates the
broadcast is better for lucerne & S't. foin, as all the south of
France can testify.
I have imagined and executed a mould-board which may be
mathematically demonstrated to be perfect, as far as perfection
depends on mathematical principles, and one great circumstance in
it's favor is that it may be made by the most bungling carpenter, &
cannot possibly vary a hair's breadth in it's form, but by gross
negligence. You have seen the musical instrument called a sticcado.
Suppose all it's sticks of equal length, hold the fore-end
horizontally on the floor to receive the turf which presents itself
horizontally, and with the right hand twist the hind-end to the
perpendicular, or rather as much beyond the perpendicular as will be
necessary to cast over the turf completely. This gives an idea (tho
not absolutely exact) of my mould-board. It is on the principle of
two wedges combined at right angles, the first in the direct line of
the furrow to raise the turf gradually, the other across the furrow
to turn it over gradually. For both these purposes the wedge is the
instrument of the least resistance. I will make a model of the
mould-board & lodge it with Col'o. Harvie in Richmond for you. This
brings me to my thanks for the drill plough lodged with him for me,
which I now expect every hour to receive, and the price of which I
have deposited in his hands to be called for when you please. A good
instrument of this kind is almost the greatest desideratum in
husbandry. I am anxious to conjecture beforehand what may be
expected from the sowing turneps in jaded ground, how much from the
acre, & how large they will be? Will your experience enable you to
give me a probable conjecture? Also what is the produce of potatoes,
& what of peas in the same kind of ground? It must now have been
several pages since you began to cry out `mercy.' In mercy then I
will here finish with my affectionate remembrance to my old friend.
Mr. Pendleton, & respects to your fireside, & to yourself assurances
of the sincere esteem of, dear Sir,
Your friend & serv't,
THE GENEVA ACADEMY
_To Fransois D'Ivernois_
_Monticello, in Virginia, Feb. 6, 1795_
DEAR SIR, -- Your several favors on the affairs of Geneva found
me here, in the month of December last. It is now more than a year
that I have withdrawn myself from public affairs, which I never liked
in my life, but was drawn into by emergencies which threatened our
country with slavery, but ended in establishing it free. I have
returned, with infinite appetite, to the enjoyment of my farm, my
family & my books, and had determined to meddle in nothing beyond
their limits. Your proposition, however, for transplanting the
college of Geneva to my own country, was too analogous to all my
attachments to science, & freedom, the first-born daughter of
science, not to excite a lively interest in my mind, and the essays
which were necessary to try it's practicability. This depended
altogether on the opinions & dispositions of our State legislature,
which was then in session. I immediately communicated your papers to
a member of the legislature, whose abilities & zeal pointed him out
as proper for it, urging him to sound as many of the leading members
of the legislature as he could, & if he found their opinions
favorable, to bring forward the proposition; but if he should find it
desperate, not to hazard it; because I thought it best not to commit
the honor either of our State or of your college, by an useless act
of eclat. It was not till within these three days that I have had an
interview with him, and an account of his proceedings. He
communicated the papers to a great number of the members, and
discussed them maturely, but privately, with them. They were
generally well-disposed to the proposition, and some of them warmly;
however, there was no difference of opinion in the conclusion, that
it could not be effected. The reasons which they thought would with
certainty prevail against it, were 1. that our youth, not
familiarized but with their mother tongue, were not prepared to
receive instructions in any other; 2d. that the expence of the
institution would excite uneasiness in their constituents, & endanger
it's permanence; & 3. that it's extent was disproportioned to the
narrow state of the population with us. Whatever might be urged on
these several subjects, yet as the decision rested with others, there
remained to us only to regret that circumstances were such, or were
thought to be such, as to disappoint your & our wishes. I should
have seen with peculiar satisfaction the establishment of such a mass
of science in my country, and should probably have been tempted to
approach myself to it, by procuring a residence in it's neighborhood,
at those seasons of the year at least when the operations of
agriculture are less active and interesting. I sincerely lament the
circumstances which have suggested this emigration. I had hoped that
Geneva was familiarized to such a degree of liberty, that they might
without difficulty or danger fill up the measure to its maximum; a
term, which, though in the insulated man, bounded only by his natural
powers, must, in society, be so far restricted as to protect himself
against the evil passions of his associates, & consequently, them
against him. I suspect that the doctrine, that small States alone
are fitted to be republics, will be exploded by experience, with some
other brilliant fallacies accredited by Montesquieu & other political
writers. Perhaps it will be found, that to obtain a just republic
(and it is to secure our just rights that we resort to government at
all) it must be so extensive as that local egoisms may never reach
it's greater part; that on every particular question, a majority may
be found in it's councils free from particular interests, and giving,
therefore, an uniform prevalence to the principles of justice. The
smaller the societies, the more violent & more convulsive their
schisms. We have chanced to live in an age which will probably be
distinguished in history, for it's experiments in government on a
larger scale than has yet taken place. But we shall not live to see
the result. The grosser absurdities, such as hereditary
magistracies, we shall see exploded in our day, long experience
having already pronounced condemnation against them. But what is to
be the substitute? This our children or grand children will answer.
We may be satisfied with the certain knowledge that none can ever be
tried, so stupid, so unrighteous, so oppressive, so destructive of
every end for which honest men enter into government, as that which
their forefathers had established, & their fathers alone venture to
tumble headlong from the stations they have so long abused. It is
unfortunate, that the efforts of mankind to recover the freedom of
which they have been so long deprived, will be accompanied with
violence, with errors, & even with crimes. But while we weep over
the means, we must pray for the end. -- But I have been insensibly
led by the general complexion of the times, from the particular case
of Geneva, to those to which it bears no similitude. Of that we hope
good things. Its inhabitants must be too much enlightened, too well
experienced in the blessings of freedom and undisturbed industry, to
tolerate long a contrary state of things. I shall be happy to hear
that their government perfects itself, and leaves room for the
honest, the industrious & wise; in which case, your own talents, &
those of the persons for whom you have interested yourself, will, I
am sure, find welcome & distinction. My good wishes will always
attend you, as a consequence of the esteem & regard with which I am,
Dear Sir, your most obedient & most humble servant.
ABJURING THE PRESIDENCY
_To James Madison_
_Monticello, Apr. 27, 1795_
DEAR SIR, -- Your letter of Mar 23. came to hand the 7th of
April, and notwithstanding the urgent reasons for answering a part of
it immediately, yet as it mentioned that you would leave Philadelphia
within a few days, I feared that the answer might pass you on the
road. A letter from Philadelphia by the last post having announced
to me your leaving that place the day preceding it's date, I am in
hopes this will find you in Orange. In mine, to which yours of Mar
23. was an answer, I expressed my hope of the only change of position
I ever wished to see you make, and I expressed it with entire
sincerity, because there is not another person in the U S. who being
placed at the helm of our affairs, my mind would be so completely at
rest for the fortune of our political bark. The wish too was pure, &
unmixed with anything respecting myself personally. For as to
myself, the subject had been thoroughly weighed & decided on, & my
retirement from office had been meant from all office high or low,
without exception. I can say, too, with truth, that the subject had
not been presented to my mind by any vanity of my own. I know myself
& my fellow citizens too well to have ever thought of it. But the
idea was forced upon me by continual insinuations in the public
papers, while I was in office. As all these came from a hostile
quarter, I knew that their object was to poison the public mind as to
my motives, when they were not able to charge me with facts. But the
idea being once presented to me, my own quiet required that I should
face it & examine it. I did so thoroughly, & had no difficulty to
see that every reason which had determined me to retire from the
office I then held, operated more strongly against that which was
insinuated to be my object. I decided then on those general grounds
which could alone be present to my mind at the time, that is to say,
reputation, tranquillity, labor; for as to public duty, it could not
be a topic of consideration in my case. If these general
considerations were sufficient to ground a firm resolution never to
permit myself to think of the office, or to be thought of for it, the
special ones which have supervened on my retirement, still more
insuperably bar the door to it. My health is entirely broken down
within the last eight months; my age requires that I should place my
affairs in a clear state; these are sound if taken care of, but
capable of considerable dangers if longer neglected; and above all
things, the delights I feel in the society of my family, and the
agricultural pursuits in which I am so eagerly engaged. The little
spice of ambition which I had in my younger days has long since
evaporated, and I set still less store by a posthumous than present
name. In stating to you the heads of reasons which have produced my
determination, I do not mean an opening for future discussion, or
that I may be reasoned out of it. The question is forever closed
with me; my sole object is to avail myself of the first opening ever
given me from a friendly quarter (and I could not with decency do it
before), of preventing any division or loss of votes, which might be
fatal to the Republican interest. If that has any chance of
prevailing, it must be by avoiding the loss of a single vote, and by
concentrating all its strength on one object. Who this should be, is
a question I can more freely discuss with anybody than yourself. In
this I painfully feel the loss of Monroe. Had he been here, I should
have been at no loss for a channel through which to make myself
understood; if I have been misunderstood by anybody through the
instrumentality of mr. Fenno & his abettors. -- I long to see you. I
am proceeding in my agricultural plans with a slow but sure step. To
get under full way will require 4. or 5. years. But patience &
perseverance will accomplish it. My little essay in red clover, the
last year, has had the most encouraging success. I sowed then about
40. acres. I have sowed this year about 120. which the rain now
falling comes very opportunely on. From 160. to 200. acres, will
be my yearly sowing. The seed-box described in the agricultural
transactions of New York, reduces the expense of seeding from 6/ to
2/3 the acre, and does the business better than is possible to be
done by the human hand. May we hope a visit from you? If we may,
let it be after the middle of May, by which time I hope to be
returned from Bedford. I had had a proposition to meet mr. Henry
there this month, to confer on the subject of a convention, to the
calling of which he is now become a convert. The session of our
district court furnished me a just excuse for the time; but the
impropriety of my entering into consultation on a measure in which I
would take no part, is a permanent one.
Present my most respectful compliments to mrs. Madison, & be
assured of the warm attachment of, Dear Sir, yours affectionately.
A NAIL-MAKER
_To Jean Nicolas Demeunier_
_Monticello, Virginia, Apr. 29, 1795_
DEAR SIR, -- Your favor of Mar. 30. from Philadelphia came to
my hands a few days ago. That which you mention to have written from
London has never been received; nor had I been able to discover what
has been your fortune during the troubles of France after the death
of the King. Being thoroughly persuaded that under all circumstances
your conduct had been entirely innocent & friendly to the freedom of
your country, I had hopes that you had not been obliged to quit your
own country. Being myself a warm zealot for the attainment &
enjoiment by all mankind of as much liberty, as each may exercise
without injury to the equal liberty of his fellow citizens, I have
lamented that in France the endeavours to obtain this should have
been attended with the effusion of so much blood. I was intimate
with the leading characters of the year 1789. So I was with those of
the Brissotine party who succeeded them: & have always been persuaded
that their views were upright. Those who have followed have been
less known to me: but I have been willing to hope that they also
meant the establishment of a free government in their country,
excepting perhaps the party which has lately been suppressed. The
government of those now at the head of affairs appears to hold out
many indications of good sense, moderation & virtue; & I cannot but
presume from their character as well as your own that you would find
a perfect safety in the bosom of your own country. I think it
fortunate for the United States to have become the asylum for so many
virtuous patriots of different denominations: but their
circumstances, with which you were so well acquainted before, enabled
them to be but a bare asylum, & to offer nothing for them but an
entire freedom to use their own means & faculties as they please.
There is no such thing in this country as what would be called wealth
in Europe. The richest are but a little at ease, & obliged to pay
the most rigorous attention to their affairs to keep them together.
I do not mean to speak here of the Beaujons of America. For we have
some of these tho' happily they are but ephemeral. Our public
oeconomy also is such as to offer drudgery and subsistence only to
those entrusted with its administration, a wise & necessary
precaution against the degeneracy of the public servants. In our
private pursuits it is a great advantage that every honest employment
is deemed honorable. I am myself a nail-maker. On returning home
after an absence of ten years, I found my farms so much deranged that
I saw evidently they would be a burden to me instead of a support
till I could regenerate them; & consequently that it was necessary
for me to find some other resource in the meantime. I thought for
awhile of taking up the manufacture of pot-ash, which requires but
small advances of money. I concluded at length however to begin a
manufacture of nails, which needs little or no capital, & I now
employ a dozen little boys from 10. to 16. years of age, overlooking
all the details of their business myself & drawing from it a profit
on which I can get along till I can put my farms into a course of
yielding profit. My new trade of nail-making is to me in this
country what an additional title of nobility or the ensigns of a new
order are in Europe. In the commercial line, the grocers business is
that which requires the least capital in this country. The grocer
generally obtains a credit of three months, & sells for ready money
so as to be able to make his paiments & obtain a new supply. But I
think I have observed that your countrymen who have been obliged to
work out their own fortunes here, have succeeded best with a small
farm. Labour indeed is dear here, but rents are low & on the whole a
reasonable profit & comfortable subsistence results. It is at the
same time the most tranquil, healthy, & independent. And since you
have been pleased to ask my opinion as to the best way of employing
yourself till you can draw funds from France or return there
yourself, I do presume that this is the business which would yield
the most happiness & contentment to one of your philosophic turn.
But at the distance I am from New York, where you seem disposed to
fix yourself, & little acquainted with the circumstances of that
place I am much less qualified than disposed to suggest to you
emploiments analogous to your turn of mind & at the same time to the
circumstances of your present situation. Be assured that it will
always give me lively pleasure to learn that your pursuits, whatever
they may be may lead you to contentment & success, being with very
sincere esteem & respect, dear sir, your most obedient servant.
ROGUES AND A TREATY
_To Mann Page_
_Monticello, Aug. 30, 1795_
It was not in my power to attend at Fredericksburg according to
the kind invitation in your letter, and in that of mr. Ogilvie. The
heat of the weather, the business of the farm, to which I have made
myself necessary, forbade it; and to give one round reason for all,
_mature sanus_, I have laid up my Rosinante in his stall, before his
unfitness for the road shall expose him faultering to the world. But
why did not I answer you in time? Because, in truth, I am
encouraging myself to grow lazy, and I was sure you would ascribe the
delay to anything sooner than a want of affection or respect to you,
for this was not among the possible causes. In truth, if anything
could ever induce me to sleep another night out of my own house, it
would have been your friendly invitation and my sollicitude for the
subject of it, the education of our youth. I do most anxiously wish
to see the highest degrees of education given to the higher degrees
of genius, and to all degrees of it, so much as may enable them to
read & understand what is going on in the world, and to keep their
part of it going on right: for nothing can keep it right but their
own vigilant & distrustful superintendence. I do not believe with
the Rochefoucaults & Montaignes, that fourteen out of fifteen men are
rogues: 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 too
strong for the higher orders, and for those who, rising above the
swinish multitude, always contrive to nestle themselves into the
places of power & profit. These rogues 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. Our part of the country is in considerable
fermentation, on what they suspect to be a recent roguery of this
kind. They say that while all hands were below deck mending sails,
splicing ropes, and every one at his own business, & the captain in
his cabbin attending to his log book & chart, a rogue of a pilot has
run them into an enemy's port. But metaphor apart, there is much
dissatisfaction with mr. Jay & his treaty. For my part, I consider
myself now but as a passenger, leaving the world, & it's government
to those who are likely to live longer in it. That you may be among
the longest of these, is my sincere prayer. After begging you to be
the bearer of my compliments & apologies to mr. Ogilvie, I bid you
an affectionate farewell, always wishing to hear from you.
THE LAWS OF VIRGINIA
_To George Wythe_
_Monticello, January 16, 1796_
In my letter which accompanied the box containing my collection
of Printed laws, I promised to send you by post a statement of the
contents of the box. On taking up the subject I found it better to
take a more general view of the whole of the laws I possess, as well
Manuscript as printed, as also of those which I do not possess, and
suppose to be no longer extant. This general view you will have in
the enclosed paper, whereof the articles stated to be printed
constitute the contents of the box I sent you. Those in MS. were not
sent, because not supposed to have been within your view, and because
some of them will not bear removal, being so rotten, that in turning
over a leaf it sometimes falls into powder. These I preserve by
wrapping & sewing them up in oiled cloth, so that neither air nor
moisture can have access to them. Very early in the course of my
researches into the laws of Virginia, I observed that many of them
were already lost, and many more on the point of being lost, as
existing only in single copies in the hands of careful or curious
individuals, on whose death they would probably be used for waste
paper. I set myself therefore to work, to collect all which were
then existing, in order that when the day should come in which the
public should advert to the magnitude of their loss in these precious
monuments of our property, and our history, a part of their regret
might be spared by information that a portion has been saved from the
wreck, which is worthy of their attention & preservation. In
searching after these remains, I spared neither time, trouble, nor
expense; and am of opinion that scarcely any law escaped me, which
was in being as late as the year 1778 in the middle or Southern parts
of the State. In the Northern parts, perhaps something might still
be found. In the clerk's office in the antient counties, some of
these MS. copies of the laws may possibly still exist, which used to
be furnished at the public expense to every county, before the use of
the press was introduced; and in the same places, and in the hands of
antient magistrates or of their families, some of the fugitive sheets
of the laws of separate sessions, which have been usually distributed
since the practice commenced of printing them. But recurring to what
we actually possess, the question is, what means will be the most
effectual for preserving these remains from future loss? All the
care I can take of them, will not preserve them from the worm, from
the natural decay of the paper, from the accidents of fire, or those
of removal when it is necessary for any public purposes, as in the
case of those now sent you. Our experience has proved to us that a
single copy, or a few, deposited in MS. in the public offices, cannot
be relied on for any great length of time. The ravages of fire and
of ferocious enemies have had but too much part in producing the very
loss we are now deploring. How many of the precious works of
antiquity were lost while they were preserved only in manuscript?
Has there ever been one lost since the art of printing has rendered
it practicable to multiply & disperse copies? This leads us then to
the only means of preserving those remains of our laws now under
consideration, that is, a multiplication of printed copies. I think
therefore that there should be printed at public expense, an edition
of all the laws ever passed by our legislatures which can now be
found; that a copy should be deposited in every public library in
America, in the principal public offices within the State, and some
perhaps in the most distinguished public libraries of Europe, and
that the rest should be sold to individuals, towards reimbursing the
expences of the edition. Nor do I think that this would be a
voluminous work. The MSS. would probably furnish matter for one
printed volume in folio, would comprehend all the laws from 1624 to
1701, which period includes Purvis. My collection of Fugitive sheets
forms, as we know, two volumes, and comprehends all the extant laws
from 1734 to 1783; and the laws which can be gleaned up from the
Revisals to supply the chasm between 1701 & 1734, with those from
1783 to the close of the present century, (by which term the work
might be compleated,) would not be more than the matter of another
volume. So that four volumes in folio, would give every law ever
passed which is now extant; whereas those who wish to possess as many
of them as can be procured, must now buy the six folio volumes of
Revisals, to wit, Purvis & those of 1732, 1748, 1768, 1783, & 1794,
and in all of them possess not one half of what they wish. What
would be the expence of the edition I cannot say, nor how much would
be reimbursed by the sales; but I am sure it would be moderate,
compared with the rates which the public have hitherto paid for
printing their laws, provided a sufficient latitude be given as to
printers & places. The first step would be to make out a single copy
for the MSS., which would employ a clerk about a year or something
more, to which expence about a fourth should be added for the
collation of the MSS., which would employ 3. persons at a time about
half a day, or a day in every week. As I have already spent more
time in making myself acquainted with the contents & arrangement of
these MSS. than any other person probably ever will, & their
condition does not admit their removal to a distance, I will
chearfully undertake the direction & superintendence of this work, if
it can be done in the neighboring towns of Charlottesville or Milton,
farther than which I could not undertake to go from home. For the
residue of the work, my printed volumes might be delivered to the
Printer.
I have troubled you with these details, because you are in the
place where they may be used for the public service, if they admit of
such use, & because the order of assembly, which you mention, shews
they are sensible of the necessity of preserving such of these laws
as relate to our landed property; and a little further consideration
will perhaps convince them that it is better to do the whole work
once for all, than to be recurring to it by piece-meal, as particular
parts of it shall be required, & that too perhaps when the materials
shall be lost. You are the best judge of the weight of these
observations, & of the mode of giving them any effect they may merit.
Adieu affectionately.
"AN AGE OF EXPERIMENTS"
_To John Adams_
_Monticello, Feb. 28, 1796_
I am to thank you, my dear Sir, for forwarding Mr. D'Ivernois'
book on the French revolution. I recieve every thing with respect
which comes from him. But it is on politics, a subject I never
loved, and now hate. I will not promise therefore to read it
thoroughly. I fear the oligarchical executive of the French will not
do. We have always seen a small council get into cabals and
quarrels, the more bitter and relentless the fewer they are. We saw
this in our committee of the states; and that they were, from their
bad passions, incapable of doing the business of their country. I
think that for the prompt, clear and consistent action so necessary
in an Executive, unity of person is necessary as with us. I am aware
of the objection to this, that the office becoming more important may
bring on serious discord in elections. In our country I think it
will be long first; not within our day; and we may safely trust to
the wisdom of our successors the remedies of the evil to arise in
theirs. Both experiments however are now fairly committed, and the
result will be seen. Never was a finer canvas presented to work on
than our countrymen. All of them engaged in agriculture or the
pursuits of honest industry, independant in their circumstances,
enlightened as to their rights, and firm in their habits of order and
obedience to the laws. This I hope will be the age of experiments in
government, and that their basis will be founded on principles of
honesty, not of mere force. We have seen no instance of this since
the days of the Roman republic, nor do we read of any before that.
Either force or corruption has been the principle of every modern
government, unless the Dutch perhaps be excepted, and I am not well
enough informed to except them absolutely. If ever the morals of a
people could be made the basis of their own government, it is our
case; and he who could propose to govern such a people by the
corruption of their legislature, before he could have one night of
quiet sleep, must convince himself that the human soul as well as
body is mortal. I am glad to see that whatever grounds of
apprehension may have appeared of a wish to govern us otherwise than
on principles of reason and honesty, we are getting the better of
them. I am sure, from the honesty of your heart, you join me in
detestation of the corruption of the English government, and that no
man on earth is more incapable than yourself of seeing that copied
among us, willingly. I have been among those who have feared the
design to introduce it here, and it has been a strong reason with me
for wishing there was an ocean of fire between that island and us.
But away politics.
I owe a letter to the Auditor [Richard Harrison] on the subject
of my accounts while a foreign minister, and he informs me yours hang
on the same difficulties with mine. Before the present government
there was a usage either practised on or understood which regulated
our charges. This government has directed the future by a law. But
this is not retrospective, and I cannot conceive why the treasury
cannot settle accounts under the old Congress on the principles that
body acted on. I shall very shortly write to Mr. Harrison on this
subject, and if we cannot have it settled otherwise I suppose we must
apply to the legislature. In this I will act in concert with you if
you approve of it. Present my very affectionate respects to Mrs.
Adams, and be assured that no one more cordially esteems your virtues
than Dear Sir Your sincere friend and servt.
"THE BOISTEROUS SEA OF LIBERTY"
_To Philip Mazzei_
_Monticello, Apr. 24, 1796_
MY DEAR FRIEND, -- Your letter of Oct. 26. 1795. is just
received and gives me the first information that the bills forwarded
for you to V. S. & H. of Amsterdam on V. Anderson for pound 39-17-10
1/2 & on George Barclay for pound 70-8-6 both of London have been
protested. I immediately write to the drawers to secure the money if
still unpaid. I wonder I have never had a letter from our friends of
Amsterdam on that subject as well as acknoleging the subsequent
remittances. Of these I have apprised you by triplicates, but for
fear of miscarriage will just mention that on Sep. 8. I forwarded
them Hodgden's bill on Robinson Saunderson & Rumney of Whitehaven for
pound 300. and Jan. 31. that of the same on the same for pound
137-16-6 both received from mr. Blair for your stock sold out. I
have now the pleasure to inform you that Dohrman has settled his
account with you, has allowed the New York damage of 20. per cent
for the protest, & the New York interest of 7. per cent. and after
deducting the partial payments for which he held receipts the balance
was three thousand & eighty-seven dollars which sum he has paid into
mr. Madison's hands & as he (mr. Madison) is now in Philadelphia, I
have desired him to invest the money in good bills on Amsterdam &
remit them to the V. Staphorsts & H. whom I consider as possessing
your confidence as they do mine beyond any house in London. The
pyracies of that nation lately extended from the sea to the debts due
from them to other nations renders theirs an unsafe medium to do
business through. I hope these remittances will place you at your
ease & I will endeavor to execute your wishes as to the settlement of
the other small matters you mention: tho' from them I expect little.
E. R. is bankrupt, or tantamount to it. Our friend M. P. is
embarrassed, having lately sold the fine lands he lives on, & being
superlatively just & honorable I expect we may get whatever may be in
his hands. Lomax is under greater difficulties with less means, so
that I apprehend you have little more to expect from this country
except the balance which will remain for Colle after deducting the
little matter due to me, & what will be recovered by Anthony. This
will be decided this summer.
I have written to you by triplicates with every remittance I
sent to the V. S. & H. & always recapitulated in each letter the
objects of the preceding ones. I enclosed in two of them some seeds
of the squash as you desired. Send me in return some seeds of the
winter vetch, I mean that kind which is sewn in autumn & stands thro
the cold of winter, furnishing a crop of green fodder in March. Put
a few seeds in every letter you may write to me. In England only the
spring vetch can be had. Pray fail not in this. I have it greatly
at heart.
The aspect of our politics has wonderfully changed since you
left us. In place of that noble love of liberty, & republican
government which carried us triumphantly thro' the war, an Anglican
monarchical, & aristocratical party has sprung up, whose avowed
object is to draw over us the substance, as they have already done
the forms, of the British government. The main body of our citizens,
however, remain true to their republican principles; the whole landed
interest is republican, and so is a great mass of talents. Against
us are the Executive, the Judiciary, two out of three branches of the
legislature, all the officers of the government, all who want to be
officers, all timid men who prefer the calm of despotism to the
boisterous sea of liberty, British merchants & Americans trading on
British capitals, speculators & holders in the banks & public funds,
a contrivance invented for the purposes of corruption, & for
assimilating us in all things to the rotten as well as the sound
parts of the British model. It would give you a fever were I to name
to you the apostates who have gone over to these heresies, men who
were Samsons in the field & Solomons in the council, but who have had
their heads shorn by the harlot England. In short, we are likely to
preserve the liberty we have obtained only by unremitting labors &
perils. But we shall preserve them; and our mass of weight & wealth
on the good side is so great, as to leave no danger that force will
ever be attempted against us. We have only to awake and snap the
Lilliputian cords with which they have been entangling us during the
first sleep which succeeded our labors. I will forward the
testimonial of the death of mrs. Mazzei, which I can do the more
incontrovertibly as she is buried in my grave yard, and I pass her
grave daily. The formalities of the proof you require, will occasion
delay. John Page & his son Mann are well. The father remarried to a
lady from N. York. Beverley Randolph e la sua consorte living &
well. Their only child married to the 2d of T. M. Randolph. The
eldest son you know married my eldest daughter, is an able learned &
worthy character, but kept down by ill health. They have two
children & still live with me. My younger daughter well. Colo.
Innis is well, & a true republican still as are all those before
named. Colo. Monroe is our M. P. at Paris a most worthy patriot &
honest man. These are the persons you inquire after. I begin to
feel the effects of age. My health has suddenly broke down, with
symptoms which give me to believe I shall not have much to encounter
of the _tedium vitae_. While it remains, however, my heart will be
warm in it's friendships, and among these, will always foster the
affection with which I am, dear Sir, your friend and servant.
AN ENTENTE WITH ADAMS
_To James Madison, with Enclosure_
_Jan. 1, 1797_
Yours of Dec. 19. has come safely. The event of the election
has never been a matter of doubt in my mind. I knew that the Eastern
states were disciplined in the schools of their town meetings to
sacrifice differences of opinion to the great object of operating in
phalanx, & that the more free & moral agency practiced in the other
states would always make up the supplement of their weight. Indeed
the vote comes much nearer an equality than I had expected. I know
the difficulty of obtaining belief to one's declarations of a
disinclination to honors, & that it is greatest with those who still
remain in the world. But no arguments were wanting to reconcile me
to a relinquishment of the first office or acquiescence under the
second. As to the first it was impossible that a more solid
unwillingness settled on full calculation, could have existed in any
man's mind, short of the degree of absolute refusal. The only view
on which I would have gone into it for awhile was to put our vessel
on her republican tack before she should be thrown too much to
leeward of her true principles. As to the second, it is the only
office in the world about which I am unable to decide in my own mind
whether I had rather have it or not have it. Pride does not enter
into the estimate; for I think with the Romans that the general of
today should be a soldier tomorrow if necessary. I can particularly
have no feelings which would revolt at a secondary position to mr.
Adams. I am his junior in life, was his junior in Congress, his
junior in the diplomatic line, his junior lately in the civil
government. Before the receipt of your letter I had written the
enclosed one to him. I had intended it some time, but had deferred
it from time to time under the discouragement of a despair of making
him believe I could be sincere in it. The papers by the last post
not rendering it necessary to change anything in the letter I enclose
it open for your perusal, not only that you may possess the actual
state of dispositions between us, but that if anything should render
the delivery of it ineligible in your opinion, you may return it to
me. If mr. Adams can be induced to administer the government on it's
true principles, & to relinquish his bias to an English constitution,
it is to be considered whether it would not be on the whole for the
public good to come to a good understanding with him as to his future
elections. He is perhaps the only sure barrier against Hamilton's
getting in.
Since my last I have received a packet of books & pamphlets,
the choiceness of which testifies that they come from you. The
incidents of Hamilton's insurrection is a curious work indeed. The
hero of it exhibits himself in all the attitudes of a dexterous
balance master.
The Political progress is a work of value & of a singular
complexion. The eye of the author seems to be a natural achromatic,
which divests every object of the glare of colour. The preceding
work under the same title had the same merit. One is disgusted
indeed with the ulcerated state which it presents of the human mind:
but to cure an ulcer we must go to its bottom: & no writer has ever
done this more radically than this one. The reflections into which
he leads one are not flattering to our species. In truth I do not
recollect in all the animal kingdom a single species but man which is
eternally & systematically engaged in the destruction of its own
species. What is called civilization seems to have no other effect
on him than to teach him to pursue the principle of bellum omnium in
omnia on a larger scale, & in place of the little contests of tribe
against tribe, to engage all the quarters of the earth in the same
work of destruction. When we add to this that as to the other
species of animals, the lions & tigers are mere lambs compared with
man as a destroyer, we must conclude that it is in man alone that
nature has been able to find a sufficient barrier against the too
great multiplication of other animals & of man himself, an
equilibriating power against the fecundity of generation. My
situation points my views chiefly to his wars in the physical world:
yours perhaps exhibit him as equally warring in the moral one. We
both, I believe, join in wishing to see him softened. Adieu.
ENCLOSURE TO JOHN ADAMS
_Monticello, Dec. 28, 1796_
DEAR SIR -- The public and the public papers have been much
occupied lately in placing us in a point of opposition to each other.
I trust with confidence that less of it has been felt by ourselves
personally. In the retired canton where I am, I learn little of what
is passing: pamphlets I see never; papers but a few; and the fewer
the happier. Our latest intelligence from Philadelphia at present is
of the 16th. inst. but tho' at that date your election to the first
magistracy seems not to have been known as a fact, yet with me it has
never been doubted. I knew it impossible you should lose a vote
North of the Delaware, and even if that of Pensylvania should be
against you in the mass, yet that you would get enough South of that
to place your succession out of danger. I have never one single
moment expected a different issue: and tho' I know I shall not be
believed, yet it is not the less true that I have never wished it.
My neighbors, as my compurgators, could aver that fact, because they
see my occupations and my attachment to them. Indeed it is possible
that you may be cheated of your succession by a trick worthy the
subtlety of your arch-friend [Alexander Hamilton] of New York, who
has been able to make of your real friends tools to defeat their and
your just wishes. Most probably he will be disappointed as to you;
and my inclinations place me out of his reach. I leave to others the
sublime delights of riding in the storm, better pleased with sound
sleep and a warm birth below, with the society of neighbors, friends
and fellow laborers of the earth, than of spies and sycophants. No
one then will congratulate you with purer disinterestedness than
myself. The share indeed which I may have had in the late vote, I
shall still value highly, as an evidence of the share I have in the
esteem of my fellow citizens. But while, in this point of view, a
few votes less would be little sensible, the difference in the effect
of a few more would be very sensible and oppressive to me. I have no
ambition to govern men. It is a painful and thankless office. Since
the day too on which you signed the treaty of Paris our horizon was
never so overcast. I devoutly wish you may be able to shun for us
this war by which our agriculture, commerce and credit will be
destroyed. If you are, the glory will be all your own; and that your
administration may be filled with glory and happiness to yourself and
advantage to us is the sincere wish of one who tho', in the course of
our voyage thro' life, various little incidents have happened or been
contrived to separate us, retains still for you the solid esteem of
the moments when we were working for our independance, and sentiments
of respect and affectionate attachment.
"PERFECTLY NEUTRAL AND INDEPENDENT"
_To Elbridge Gerry_
_Philadelphia, May 13, 1797_
MY DEAR FRIEND, -- Your favor of the 4th instt came to hand
yesterday. That of the 4th of Apr, with the one for Monroe, has
never been received. The first, of Mar 27, did not reach me till Apr
21, when I was within a few days of setting out for this place, & I
put off acknoleging it till I should come here. I entirely commend
your dispositions towards mr. Adams; knowing his worth as intimately
and esteeming it as much as any one, and acknoleging the preference
of his claims, if any I could have had, to the high office conferred
on him. But in truth, I had neither claims nor wishes on the
subject, tho I know it will be difficult to obtain belief of this.
When I retired from this place & the office of Secy of state, it was
in the firmest contemplation of never more returning here. There had
indeed been suggestions in the public papers, that I was looking
towards a succession to the President's chair, but feeling a
consciousness of their falsehood, and observing that the suggestions
came from hostile quarters, I considered them as intended merely to
excite public odium against me. I never in my life exchanged a word
with any person, on the subject, till I found my name brought forward
generally, in competition with that of mr. Adams. Those with whom I
then communicated, could say, if it were necessary, whether I met the
call with desire, or even with a ready acquiescence, and whether from
the moment of my first acquiescence, I did not devoutly pray that the
very thing might happen which has happened. The second office of
this government is honorable & easy, the first is but a splendid
misery.
You express apprehensions that stratagems will be used, to
produce a misunderstanding between the President and myself. Tho not
a word having this tendency has ever been hazarded to me by any one,
yet I consider as a certainty that nothing will be left untried to
alienate him from me. These machinations will proceed from the
Hamiltons by whom he is surrounded, and who are only a little less
hostile to him than to me. It cannot but damp the pleasure of
cordiality, when we suspect that it is suspected. I cannot help
fearing, that it is impossible for mr. Adams to believe that the
state of my mind is what it really is; that he may think I view him
as an obstacle in my way. I have no supernatural power to impress
truth on the mind of another, nor he any to discover that the
estimate which he may form, on a just view of the human mind as
generally constituted, may not be just in its application to a
special constitution. This may be a source of private uneasiness to
us; I honestly confess that it is so to me at this time. But neither
of us are capable of letting it have effect on our public duties.
Those who may endeavor to separate us, are probably excited by the
fear that I might have influence on the executive councils; but when
they shall know that I consider my office as constitutionally
confined to legislative functions, and that I could not take any part
whatever in executive consultations, even were it proposed, their
fears may perhaps subside, & their object be found not worth a
machination.
I do sincerely wish with you, that we could take our stand on a
ground perfectly neutral & independent towards all nations. It has
been my constant object thro public life; and with respect to the
English & French, particularly, I have too often expressed to the
former my wishes, & made to them propositions verbally & in writing,
officially & privately, to official & private characters, for them to
doubt of my views, if they would be content with equality. Of this
they are in possession of several written & formal proofs, in my own
hand writing. But they have wished a monopoly of commerce &
influence with us; and they have in fact obtained it. When we take
notice that theirs is the workshop to which we go for all we want;
that with them centre either immediately or ultimately all the labors
of our hands and lands; that to them belongs either openly or
secretly the great mass of our navigation; that even the factorage of
their affairs here, is kept to themselves by factitious citizenships;
that these foreign & false citizens now constitute the great body of
what are called our merchants, fill our sea ports, are planted in
every little town & district of the interior country, sway everything
in the former places by their own votes, & those of their dependants,
in the latter, by their insinuations & the influence of their
ledgers; that they are advancing fast to a monopoly of our banks &
public funds, and thereby placing our public finances under their
control; that they have in their alliance the most influential
characters in & out of office; when they have shewn that by all these
bearings on the different branches of the government, they can force
it to proceed in whatever direction they dictate, and bend the
interests of this country entirely to the will of another; when all
this, I say, is attended to, it is impossible for us to say we stand
on independent ground, impossible for a free mind not to see & to
groan under the bondage in which it is bound. If anything after this
could excite surprise, it would be that they have been able so far to
throw dust in the eyes of our own citizens, as to fix on those who
wish merely to recover self-government the charge of subserving one
foreign influence, because they resist submission to another. But
they possess our printing presses, a powerful engine in their
government of us. At this very moment, they would have drawn us into
a war on the side of England, had it not been for the failure of her
bank. Such was their open & loud cry, & that of their gazettes till
this event. After plunging us in all the broils of the European
nations, there would remain but one act to close our tragedy, that
is, to break up our Union; and even this they have ventured seriously
& solemnly to propose & maintain by arguments in a Connecticut paper.
I have been happy, however, in believing, from the stifling of this
effort, that that dose was found too strong, & excited as much
repugnance there as it did horror in other parts of our country, &
that whatever follies we may be led into as to foreign nations, we
shall never give up our Union, the last anchor of our hope, & that
alone which is to prevent this heavenly country from becoming an
arena of gladiators. Much as I abhor war, and view it as the
greatest scourge of mankind, and anxiously as I wish to keep out of
the broils of Europe, I would yet go with my brethren into these,
rather than separate from them. But I hope we may still keep clear
of them, notwithstanding our present thraldom, & that time may be
given us to reflect on the awful crisis we have passed through, and
to find some means of shielding ourselves in future from foreign
influence, political, commercial, or in whatever other form it may be
attempted. I can scarcely withhold myself from joining in the wish
of Silas Deane, that there were an ocean of fire between us & the old
world.
A perfect confidence that you are as much attached to peace &
union as myself, that you equally prize independence of all nations,
and the blessings of self-government, has induced me freely to
unbosom myself to you, and let you see the light in which I have
viewed what has been passing among us from the beginning of the war.
And I shall be happy, at all times, in an intercommunication of
sentiments with you, believing that the dispositions of the different
parts of our country have been considerably misrepresented &
misunderstood in each part, as to the other, and that nothing but
good can result from an exchange of information & opinions between
those whose circumstances & morals admit no doubt of the integrity of
their views.
I remain, with constant and sincere esteem, Dear Sir, your
affectionate friend and servant.
PEACE AND COMMERCE
_To Thomas Pinckney_
_Philadelphia, May 29, 1797_
DEAR SIR, -- I received from you, before you left England, a
letter enclosing one from the Prince of Parma. As I learnt soon
after that you were shortly to return to America, I concluded to join
my acknolegments of it to my congratulations on your arrival; & both
have been delayed by a blameable spirit of procrastination, forever
suggesting to our indolence that we need not do to-day what may be
done to-morrow. Accept these now in all the sincerity of my heart.
It is but lately I have answered the Prince's letter. It required
some time to establish arrangements which might effect his purpose, &
I wished also to forward a particular article or two of curiosity.
You have found on your return a higher style of political difference
than you had left here. I fear this is inseparable from the
different constitutions of the human mind, & that degree of freedom
which permits unrestrained expression. Political dissension is
doubtless a less evil than the lethargy of despotism, but still it is
a great evil, and it would be as worthy the efforts of the patriot as
of the philosopher, to exclude it's influence, if possible, from
social life. The good are rare enough at best. There is no reason
to subdivide them by artificial lines. But whether we shall ever be
able so far to perfect the principles of society, as that political
opinions shall, in it's intercourse, be as inoffensive as those of
philosophy, mechanics, or any other, may well be doubted. Foreign
influence is the present & just object of public hue and cry, & -- ,
as often happens, the most guilty are foremost & loudest in the cry.
If those who are truly independent, can so trim our vessels as to
beat through the waves now agitating us, they will merit a glory the
greater as it seems less possible. When I contemplate the spirit
which is driving us on here, & that beyond the water which will view
us as but a mouthful the more, I have little hope of peace. I
anticipate the burning of our sea ports, havoc of our frontiers,
household insurgency, with a long train of et ceteras, which is
enough for a man to have met once in his life. The exchange, which
is to give us new neighbors in Louisiana (probably the present French
armies when disbanded) has opened us to combinations of enemies on
that side where we are most vulnerable. War is not the best engine
for us to resort to, nature has given us one _in our commerce_,
which, if properly managed, will be a better instrument for obliging
the interested nations of Europe to treat us with justice. If the
commercial regulations had been adopted which our legislature were at
one time proposing, we should at this moment have been standing on
such an eminence of safety & respect as ages can never recover. But
having wandered from that, our object should now be to get back, with
as little loss as possible, & when peace shall be restored to the
world, endeavor so to form our _commercial_ regulations as that
justice from other nations shall be their mechanical result. I am
happy to assure you that the conduct of Gen'l. Pinckney has met
universal approbation. It was marked with that coolness, dignity, &
good sense which we expected from him. I am told that the French
government had taken up an unhappy idea, that Monroe was recalled for
the candor of his conduct in what related to the British treaty, &
Gen'l. Pinckney was sent as having other dispositions towards them.
I learn further, that some of their well-informed citizens here are
setting them right as to Genl. Pinckney's dispositions, so well
known to have been just towards them; & I sincerely hope, not only
that he may be employed as envoy extraordinary to them, but that
their minds will be better prepared to receive him. I candidly
acknolege, however, that I do not think the speech & addresses of
Congress as conciliatory as the preceding irritations on both sides
would have rendered wise. I shall be happy to hear from you at all
times, to make myself useful to you whenever opportunity offers, and
to give every proof of the sincerity of the sentiments of esteem &
respect with which I am, Dear Sir, your most obedient and most humble
servant.
DOMESTIC AFFECTIONS
_To Martha Jefferson Randolph_
_Philadelphia, June 8, 1797_
MY DEAR MARTHA -- Yours of May 20 came to hand the 1st. inst. I
imagine you recieved mine of May 18. about six days after the date of
yours. It was written the first post day after my arrival here. The
commission you inclosed for Maria is executed, and the things are in
the care of Mr. Boyce of Richmond, who is returning from hence with
some goods of his own, and will deliver them to Mr. Johnston. I
recieve with inexpressible pleasure the information your letter
contained. After your own happy establishment, which has given me an
inestimable friend to whom I can leave the care of every thing I
love, the only anxiety I had remaining was to see Maria also so
asociated as to ensure her happiness. She could not have been more
so to my wishes, if I had had the whole earth free to have chosen a
partner for her. I now see our fireside formed into a groupe, no one
member of which has a fibre in their composition which can ever
produce any jarring or jealousies among us. No irregular passions,
no dangerous bias, which may render problematical the future fortunes
and happiness of our descendants. We are quieted as to their
condition for at least one generation more. In order to keep us all
together, instead of a present provision in Bedford, as in your case,
I think to open and resettle the plantation of Pantops for them.
When I look to the ineffable pleasures of my family society, I become
more and more disgusted with the jealousies, the hatred, and the
rancorous and malignant passions of this scene, and lament my having
ever again been drawn into public view. Tranquility is now my
object. I have seen enough of political honors to know that they are
but splendid torments: and however one might be disposed to render
services on which any of their fellow citizens should set a value;
yet when as many would deprecate them as a public calamity, one may
well entertain a modest doubt of their real importance, and feel the
impulse of duty to be very weak. The real difficulty is that being
once delivered into the hands of others, whose feelings are friendly
to the individual and warm to the public cause, how to withdraw from
them without leaving a dissatisfaction in their mind, and an
impression of pusillanimity with the public.
Congress, in all probability will rise on Saturday the 17th.
inst. the day after you will recieve this. I shall leave
Philadelphia Monday the 19th. pass a day at Georgetown and a day at
Fredericksburg, at which place I wish my _chair_ and horses to be
Sunday evening the 25th. Of course they must set out Saturday
morning the 24th. This gives me the chance of another post, as you
will, the evening before that, recieve by the post a letter of a week
later date than this, so that if any thing should happen within a
week to delay the rising of Congress, I may still notify it and
change the time of the departure of my horses. Jupiter must pursue
the rout by Noel's to which he will come the first day, and by Chew's
to Fredericksburg the next. I fix his rout because were any accident
to get me along earlier, or him later, we might meet on the road.
Not yet informed that Mr. Randolph is returned I have thought it
safest to commit this article to my letter to you. The news of the
day I shall write to him. My warmest love to yourself and Maria.
Adieu affectionately.
PATIENCE AND THE REIGN OF WITCHES
_To John Taylor_
_Philadelphia, June 4, 1798_
I now inclose you Mr. Martin's patent. A patent had actually
been made out on the first description, and how to get this
suppressed and another made for a second invention, without a second
fee, was the difficulty. I practised a little art in a case where
honesty was really on our side, & nothing against us but the rigorous
letter of the law, and having obtained the 1st specification and got
the 2d put in its place, a second patent has been formed, which I now
inclose with the first specification.
I promised you, long ago, a description of a mould board. I
now send it; it is a press copy & therefore dim. It will be less so
by putting a sheet of white paper behind the one you are reading. I
would recommend to you first to have a model made of about 3 i. to
the foot, or 1/4 the real dimensions, and to have two blocks, the
1'st of which, after taking out the pyramidal piece & sawing it
crosswise above & below, should be preserved in that form to instruct
workmen in making the large & real one. The 2'd block may be carried
through all the operations, so as to present the form of the mould
board complete. If I had an opportunity of sending you a model I
would do it. It has been greatly approved here, as it has been
before by some very good judges at my house, where I have used it for
5 years with entire approbation.
Mr. New shewed me your letter on the subject of the patent,
which gave me an opportunity of observing what you said as to the
effect with you of public proceedings, and that it was not unusual
now to estimate the separate mass of Virginia and N. Carolina with a
view to their separate existence. It is true that we are compleatly
under the saddle of Massachusets & Connecticut, and that they ride us
very hard, cruelly insulting our feelings as well as exhausting our
strength and substance. Their natural friends, the three other
eastern States, join them from a sort of family pride, and they have
the art to divide certain other parts of the Union so as to make use
of them to govern the whole. This is not new. It is the old
practice of despots to use a part of the people to keep the rest in
order, and those who have once got an ascendency and possessed
themselves of all the resources of the nation, their revenues and
offices, have immense means for retaining their advantages. But our
present situation is not a natural one. The body of our countrymen
is substantially republican through every part of the Union. It was
the irresistable influence & popularity of Gen'1 Washington, played
off by the cunning of Hamilton, which turned the government over to
anti-republican hands, or turned the republican members, chosen by
the people, into anti-republicans. He delivered it over to his
successor in this state, and very untoward events, since improved
with great artifice, have produced on the public mind the impression
we see; but still, I repeat it, this is not the natural state. Time
alone would bring round an order of things more correspondent to the
sentiments of our constituents; but are there not events impending
which will do it within a few months? The invasion of England, the
public and authentic avowal of sentiments hostile to the leading
principles of our Constitution, the prospect of a war in which we
shall stand alone, land-tax, stamp-tax, increase of public debt, &c.
Be this as it may, in every free & deliberating society there must,
from the nature of man, be opposite parties & violent dissensions &
discords; and one of these, for the most part, must prevail over the
other for a longer or shorter time. Perhaps this party division is
necessary to induce each to watch & delate to the people the
proceedings of the other. But if on a temporary superiority of the
one party, the other is to resort to a scission of the Union, no
federal government can ever exist. If to rid ourselves of the
present rule of Massachusets & Connecticut we break the Union, will
the evil stop there? Suppose the N. England States alone cut off,
will our natures be changed? are we not men still to the south of
that, & with all the passions of men? Immediately we shall see a
Pennsylvania & a Virginia party arise in the residuary confederacy,
and the public mind will be distracted with the same party spirit.
What a game, too, will the one party have in their hands by eternally
threatening the other that unless they do so & so, they will join
their Northern neighbors. If we reduce our Union to Virginia & N.
Carolina, immediately the conflict will be established between the
representatives of these two States, and they will end by breaking
into their simple units. Seeing, therefore, that an association of
men who will not quarrel with one another is a thing which never yet
existed, from the greatest confederacy of nations down to a town
meeting or a vestry, seeing that we must have somebody to quarrel
with, I had rather keep our New England associates for that purpose
than to see our bickerings transferred to others. They are
circumscribed within such narrow limits, & their population so full,
that their numbers will ever be the minority, and they are marked,
like the Jews, with such a peculiarity of character as to constitute
from that circumstance the natural division of our parties. A little
patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore
their government to it's true principles. It is true that in the
mean time we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the
horrors of a war & long oppressions of enormous public debt. But who
can say what would be the evils of a scission, and when & where they
would end? Better keep together as we are, hawl off from Europe as
soon as we can, & from all attachments to any portions of it. And if
we feel their power just sufficiently to hoop us together, it will be
the happiest situation in which we can exist. If the game runs
sometimes against us at home we must have patience till luck turns, &
then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the _principles_ we
have lost, for this is a game where principles are the stake. Better
luck, therefore, to us all; and health, happiness, & friendly
salutations to yourself. Adieu.
P. S. It is hardly necessary to caution you to let nothing of
mine get before the public. A single sentence, got hold of by the
Porcupines, will suffice to abuse & persecute me in their papers for
months.
WILD HORSES
_To Philip Nolan_
_Philadelphia, June 24, 1798_
SIR, -- It is sometime since I have understood that there are
large herds of horses in a wild state, in the country west of the
Mississippi, and have been desirous of obtaining details of their
history in that State. Mr. Brown, Senator from Kentucky, informs me
it would be in your power to give interesting information on this
subject, and encourages me to ask it. The circumstances of the old
world have, beyond the records of history, been such as admitted not
that animal to exist in a state of nature. The condition of America
is rapidly advancing to the same. The present then is probably the
only moment in the age of the world, and the herds above mentioned
the only subjects, of which we can avail ourselves to obtain what has
never yet been recorded, and never can be again in all probability.
I will add that your information is the sole reliance, as far as I
can at present see, for obtaining this desideratum. You will render
to natural history a very acceptable service, therefore, if you will
enable our Philosophical society to add so interesting a chapter to
the history of this animal. I need not specify to you the particular
facts asked for; as your knowledge of the animal in his domesticated,
as well as his wild state, will naturally have led your attention to
those particulars in the manners, habits, and laws of his existence,
which are peculiar to his wild state. I wish you not to be anxious
about the form of your information, the exactness of the substance
alone is material; and if, after giving in a first letter all the
facts you at present possess, you would be so good, on subsequent
occasions, as to furnish such others in addition, as you may acquire
from time to time, your communications will always be thankfully
received, if addressed to me at Monticello; and put into any post
office in Kentucky or Tennessee, they will reach me speedily and
safely, and will be considered as obligations on, sir, your most
obedient, humble servant.
SUFFERANCE OF CALUMNY
_To Samuel Smith_
_Monticello, Aug. 22, 1798_
DEAR SIR, -- Your favor of Aug 4 came to hand by our last post,
together with the "extract of a letter from a gentleman of
Philadelphia, dated July 10," cut from a newspaper stating some facts
which respect me. I shall notice these facts. The writer says that
"the day after the last despatches were communicated to Congress,
Bache, Leib, &c., and a Dr. Reynolds were _closeted_ with me." If the
receipt of visits in my public room, the door continuing free to
every one who should call at the same time, may be called
_closeting_, then it is true that I was _closeted_ with every person
who visited me; in no other sense is it true as to any person. I
sometimes received visits from Mr. Bache & Dr. Leib. I received them
always with pleasure, because they are men of abilities, and of
principles the most friendly to liberty & our present form of
government. Mr. Bache has another claim on my respect, as being the
grandson of Dr. Franklin, the greatest man & ornament of the age and
country in which he lived. Whether I was visited by Mr. Bache or Dr.
Leib the day after the communication referred to, I do not remember.
I know that all my motions at Philadelphia, here, and everywhere, are
watched & recorded. Some of these spies, therefore, may remember
better than I do, the dates of these visits. If they say these two
gentlemen visited me on the day after the communications, as their
trade proves their accuracy, I shall not contradict them, tho' I
affirm that I do not recollect it. However, as to Dr. Reynolds I can
be more particular, because I never saw him but once, which was on an
introductory visit he was so kind as to pay me. This, I well
remember, was before the communication alluded to, & that during the
short conversation I had with him, not one word was said on the
subject of any of the communications. Not that I should not have
spoken freely on their subject to Dr. Reynolds, as I should also have
done to the letter writer, or to any other person who should have
introduced the subject. I know my own principles to be pure, &
therefore am not ashamed of them. On the contrary, I wish them
known, & therefore willingly express them to every one. They are the
same I have acted on from the year 1775 to this day, and are the
same, I am sure, with those of the great body of the American people.
I only wish the real principles of those who censure mine were also
known. But warring against those of the people, the delusion of the
people is necessary to the dominant party. I see the extent to which
that delusion has been already carried, and I see there is no length
to which it may not be pushed by a party in possession of the
revenues & the legal authorities of the U S, for a short time indeed,
but yet long enough to admit much particular mischief. There is no
event, therefore, however atrocious, which may not be expected. I
have contemplated every event which the Maratists of the day can
perpetrate, and am prepared to meet every one in such a way, as shall
not be derogatory either to the public liberty or my own personal
honor. The letter writer says, I am "for peace; but it is only with
France." He has told half the truth. He would have told the whole,
if he had added England. I am for peace with both countries. I know
that both of them have given, & are daily giving, sufficient cause of
war; that in defiance of the laws of nations, they are every day
trampling on the rights of all the neutral powers, whenever they can
thereby do the least injury, either to the other. But, as I view a
peace between France & England the ensuing winter to be certain, I
have thought it would have been better for us to continue to bear
from France through the present summer, what we have been bearing
both from her & England these four years, and still continue to bear
from England, and to have required indemnification in the hour of
peace, when I verily believe it would have been yielded by both.
This seems to be the plan of the other neutral nations; and whether
this, or the commencing war on one of them, as we have done, would
have been wisest, time & events must decide. But I am quite at a
loss on what ground the letter writer can question the opinion, that
France had no intention of making war on us, & was willing to treat
with Mr. Gerry, when we have this from Taleyrand's letter, and from
the written and verbal information of our envoys. It is true then,
that, as with England, we might of right have chosen either peace or
war, & have chosen peace, and prudently in my opinion, so with
France, we might also of right have chosen either peace or war, & we
have chosen war. Whether the choice may be a popular one in the
other States, I know not. Here it certainly is not; & I have no
doubt the whole American people will rally ere long to the same
sentiment, & rejudge those who, at present, think they have all
judgment in their own hands.
These observations will show you, how far the imputations in
the paragraph sent me approach the truth. Yet they are not intended
for a newspaper. At a very early period of my life, I determined
never to put a sentence into any newspaper. I have religiously
adhered to the resolution through my life, and have great reason to
be contented with it. Were I to undertake to answer the calumnies of
the newspapers, it would be more than all my own time, & that of 20.
aids could effect. For while I should be answering one, twenty new
ones would be invented. I have thought it better to trust to the
justice of my countrymen, that they would judge me by what they _see_
of my conduct on the stage where they have placed me, & what they
know of me _before_ the epoch since which a particular party has
supposed it might answer some view of theirs to vilify me in the
public eye. Some, I know, will not reflect how apocryphal is the
testimony of enemies so palpably betraying the views with which they
give it. But this is an injury to which duty requires every one to
submit whom the public think proper to call inn to it's councils. I
thank you, my dear Sir, for the interest you have taken for me on
this occasion. Though I have made up my mind not to suffer calumny
to disturb my tranquillity, yet I retain all my sensibilities for the
approbation of the good & just. That is, indeed, the chief
consolations for the hatred of so many, who, without the least
personal knowledge, & on the sacred evidence of Porcupine & Fenno
alone, cover me with their implacable hatred. The only return I will
ever make them, will be to do them all the good I can, in spite of
their teeth.
I have the pleasure to inform you that all your friends in this
quarter are well, and to assure you of the sentiments of sincere
esteem & respect with which I am, dear Sir, your friend and servant.
A PROFESSION OF POLITICAL FAITH
_To Elbridge Gerry_
_Philadelphia, Jan. 26, 1799_
MY DEAR SIR, -- Your favor of Nov. 12 was safely delivered to
me by mr. Binney, but not till Dec. 28, as I arrived here only three
days before that date. It was received with great satisfaction. Our
very long intimacy as fellow-laborers in the same cause, the recent
expressions of mutual confidence which had preceded your mission, the
interesting course which that had taken, & particularly & personally
as it regarded yourself, made me anxious to hear from you on your
return. I was the more so too, as I had myself during the whole of
your absence, as well as since your return, been a constant butt for
every shaft of calumny which malice & falsehood could form, & the
presses, public speakers, or private letters disseminate. One of
these, too, was of a nature to touch yourself; as if, wanting
confidence in your efforts, I had been capable of usurping powers
committed to you, & authorizing negociations private & collateral to
yours. The real truth is, that though Dr Logan, the pretended
missionary, about 4. or 5. days before he sailed for Hamburgh, told
me he was going there, & thence to Paris, & asked & received from me
a certificate of his citizenship, character, & circumstances of life,
merely as a protection, should he be molested on his journey, in the
present turbulent & suspicious state of Europe, yet I had been led to
consider his object as relative to his private affairs; and tho',
from an intimacy of some standing, he knew well my wishes for peace
and my political sentiments in general, he nevertheless received then
no particular declaration of them, no authority to communicate them
to any mortal, nor to speak to any one in my name, or in anybody's
name, on that, or on any other subject whatever; nor did I write by
him a scrip of a pen to any person whatever. This he has himself
honestly & publicly declared since his return; & from his well-known
character & every other circumstance, every candid man must perceive
that his enterprise was dictated by his own enthusiasm, without
consultation or communication with any one; that he acted in Paris on
his own ground, & made his own way. Yet to give some color to his
proceedings, which might implicate the republicans in general, &
myself particularly, they have not been ashamed to bring forward a
suppositious paper, drawn by one of their own party in the name of
Logan, and falsely pretended to have been presented by him to the
government of France; counting that the bare mention of my name
therein, would connect that in the eye of the public with this
transaction. In confutation of these and all future calumnies, by
way of anticipation, I shall make to you a profession of my political
faith; in confidence that you will consider every future imputation
on me of a contrary complexion, as bearing on its front the mark of
falsehood & calumny.
I do then, with sincere zeal, wish an inviolable preservation
of our present federal constitution, according to the true sense in
which it was adopted by the States, that in which it was advocated by
it's friends, & not that which it's enemies apprehended, who
therefore became it's enemies; and I am opposed to the monarchising
it's features by the forms of it's administration, with a view to
conciliate a first transition to a President & Senate for life, &
from that to a hereditary tenure of these offices, & thus to worm out
the elective principle. I am for preserving to the States the powers
not yielded by them to the Union, & to the legislature of the Union
it's constitutional share in the division of powers; and I am not for
transferring all the powers of the States to the general government,
& all those of that government to the Executive branch. I am for a
government rigorously frugal & simple, applying all the possible
savings of the public revenue to the discharge of the national debt;
and not for a multiplication of officers & salaries merely to make
partisans, & for increasing, by every device, the public debt, on the
principle of it's being a public blessing. I am for relying, for
internal defence, on our militia solely, till actual invasion, and
for such a naval force only as may protect our coasts and harbors
from such depredations as we have experienced; and not for a standing
army in time of peace, which may overawe the public sentiment; nor
for a navy, which, by it's own expenses and the eternal wars in which
it will implicate us, will grind us with public burthens, & sink us
under them. I am for free commerce with all nations; political
connection with none; & little or no diplomatic establishment. And I
am not for linking ourselves by new treaties with the quarrels of
Europe; entering that field of slaughter to preserve their balance,
or joining in the confederacy of kings to war against the principles
of liberty. I am for freedom of religion, & against all maneuvres to
bring about a legal ascendancy of one sect over another: for freedom
of the press, & against all violations of the constitution to silence
by force & not by reason the complaints or criticisms, just or
unjust, of our citizens against the conduct of their agents. And I
am for encouraging the progress of science in all it's branches; and
not for raising a hue and cry against the sacred name of philosophy;
for awing the human mind by stories of raw-head & bloody bones to a
distrust of its own vision, & to repose implicitly on that of others;
to go backwards instead of forwards to look for improvement; to
believe that government, religion, morality, & every other science
were in the highest perfection in ages of the darkest ignorance, and
that nothing can ever be devised more perfect than what was
established by our forefathers. To these I will add, that I was a
sincere well-wisher to the success of the French revolution, and
still wish it may end in the establishment of a free & well-ordered
republic; but I have not been insensible under the atrocious
depredations they have committed on our commerce. The first object
of my heart is my own country. In that is embarked my family, my
fortune, & my own existence. I have not one farthing of interest,
nor one fibre of attachment out of it, nor a single motive of
preference of any one nation to another, but in proportion as they
are more or less friendly to us. But though deeply feeling the
injuries of France, I did not think war the surest means of
redressing them. I did believe, that a mission sincerely disposed to
preserve peace, would obtain for us a peaceable & honorable
settlement & retribution; and I appeal to you to say, whether this
might not have been obtained, if either of your colleagues had been
of the same sentiment with yourself.
These, my friend, are my principles; they are unquestionably
the principles of the great body of our fellow citizens, and I know
there is not one of them which is not yours also. In truth, we never
differed but on one ground, the funding system; and as, from the
moment of it's being adopted by the constituted authorities, I became
religiously principled in the sacred discharge of it to the uttermost
farthing, we are united now even on that single ground of difference.
I turn now to your inquiries. The enclosed paper will answer
one of them. But you also ask for such political information as may
be possessed by me, & interesting to yourself in regard to your
embassy. As a proof of my entire confidence in you, I shall give it
fully & candidly. When Pinckney, Marshall, and Dana, were nominated
to settle our differences with France, it was suspected by many, from
what was understood of their dispositions, that their mission would
not result in a settlement of differences, but would produce
circumstances tending to widen the breach, and to provoke our
citizens to consent to a war with that nation, & union with England.
Dana's resignation & your appointment gave the first gleam of hope of
a peaceable issue to the mission. For it was believed that you were
sincerely disposed to accommodation; & it was not long after your
arrival there, before symptoms were observed of that difference of
views which had been suspected to exist. In the meantime, however,
the aspect of our government towards the French republic had become
so ardent, that the people of America generally took the alarm. To
the southward, their apprehensions were early excited. In the
Eastern States also, they at length began to break out. Meetings
were held in many of your towns, & addresses to the government agreed
on in opposition to war. The example was spreading like a wildfire.
Other meetings were called in other places, & a general concurrence
of sentiment against the apparent inclinations of the government was
imminent; when, most critically for the government, the despatches of
Octr 22, prepared by your colleague Marshall, with a view to their
being made public, dropped into their laps. It was truly a God-send
to them, & they made the most of it. Many thousands of copies were
printed & dispersed gratis, at the public expence; & the zealots for
war co-operated so heartily, that there were instances of single
individuals who printed & dispersed 10. or 12,000 copies at their own
expence. The odiousness of the corruption supposed in those papers
excited a general & high indignation among the people. Unexperienced
in such maneuvres, they did not permit themselves even to suspect
that the turpitude of private swindlers might mingle itself
unobserved, & give it's own hue to the communications of the French
government, of whose participation there was neither proof nor
probability. It served, however, for a time, the purpose intended.
The people, in many places, gave a loose to the expressions of their
warm indignation, & of their honest preference of war to dishonor.
The fever was long & successfully kept up, and in the meantime, war
measures as ardently crowded. Still, however, as it was known that
your colleagues were coming away, and yourself to stay, though
disclaiming a separate power to conclude a treaty, it was hoped by
the lovers of peace, that a project of treaty would have been
prepared, ad referendum, on principles which would have satisfied our
citizens, & overawed any bias of the government towards a different
policy. But the expedition of the Sophia, and, as was supposed, the
suggestions of the person charged with your despatches, & his
probable misrepresentations of the real wishes of the American
people, prevented these hopes. They had then only to look forward to
your return for such information, either through the Executive, or
from yourself, as might present to our view the other side of the
medal. The despatches of Oct 22, 97, had presented one face. That
information, to a certain degree, is now received, & the public will
see from your correspondence with Taleyrand, that France, as you
testify, "was sincere and anxious to obtain a reconciliation, not
wishing us to break the British treaty, but only to give her
equivalent stipulations; and in general was disposed to a liberal
treaty." And they will judge whether mr. Pickering's report shews an
inflexible determination to believe no declarations the French
government can make, nor any opinion which you, judging on the spot &
from actual view, can give of their sincerity, and to meet their
designs of peace with operations of war. The alien & sedition acts
have already operated in the South as powerful sedatives of the X. Y.
Z. inflammation. In your quarter, where violations of principle are
either less regarded or more concealed, the direct tax is likely to
have the same effect, & to excite inquiries into the object of the
enormous expences & taxes we are bringing on. And your information
supervening, that we might have a liberal accommodation if we would,
there can be little doubt of the reproduction of that general
movement, by the despatches of Oct. 22. And tho' small checks &
stops, like Logan's pretended embassy, may be thrown in the way from
time to time, & may a little retard it's motion, yet the tide is
already turned, and will sweep before it all the feeble obstacles of
art. The unquestionable republicanism of the American mind will
break through the mist under which it has been clouded, and will
oblige it's agents to reform the principles & practices of their
administration.
You suppose that you have been abused by both parties. As far
as has come to my knowledge, you are misinformed. I have never seen
or heard a sentence of blame uttered against you by the republicans;
unless we were so to construe their wishes that you had more boldly
co-operated in a project of a treaty, and would more explicitly
state, whether there was in your colleages that flexibility, which
persons earnest after peace would have practised? Whether, on the
contrary, their demeanor was not cold, reserved, and distant, at
least, if not backward? And whether, if they had yielded to those
informal conferences which Taleyrand seems to have courted, the
liberal accommodation you suppose might not have been effected, even
with their agency? Your fellow-citizens think they have a right to
full information, in a case of such great concern to them. It is
their sweat which is to earn all the expences of the war, and their
blood which is to flow in expiation of the causes of it. It may be
in your power to save them from these miseries by full communications
and unrestrained details, postponing motives of delicacy to those of
duty. It rests for you to come forward independently; to take your
stand on the high ground of your own character; to disregard calumny,
and to be borne above it on the shoulders of your grateful fellow
citizens; or to sink into the humble oblivion, to which the
Federalists (self-called) have secretly condemned you; and even to be
happy if they will indulge you with oblivion, while they have beamed
on your colleagues meridian splendor. Pardon me, my dear Sir, if my
expressions are strong. My feelings are so much more so, that it is
with difficulty I reduce them even to the tone I use. If you doubt
the dispositions towards you, look into the papers, on both sides,
for the toasts which were given throughout the States on the 4th of
July. You will there see whose hearts were with you, and whose were
ulcerated against you. Indeed, as soon as it was known that you had
consented to stay in Paris, there was no measure observed in the
execrations of the war party. They openly wished you might be
guillotined, or sent to Cayenne, or anything else. And these
expressions were finally stifled from a principle of policy only, &
to prevent you from being urged to a justification of yourself. From
this principle alone proceed the silence and cold respect they
observe towards you. Still, they cannot prevent at times the flames
bursting from under the embers, as mr. Pickering's letters, report, &
conversations testify, as well as the indecent expressions respecting
you, indulged by some of them in the debate on these despatches.
These sufficiently show that you are never more to be honored or
trusted by them, and that they await to crush you for ever, only till
they can do it without danger to themselves.
When I sat down to answer your letter, but two courses
presented themselves, either to say nothing or everything; for half
confidences are not in my character. I could not hesitate which was
due to you. I have unbosomed myself fully; & it will certainly be
highly gratifying if I receive like confidence from you. For even if
we differ in principle more than I believe we do, you & I know too
well the texture of the human mind, & the slipperiness of human
reason, to consider differences of opinion otherwise than differences
of form or feature. Integrity of views more than their soundness, is
the basis of esteem. I shall follow your direction in conveying this
by a private hand; tho' I know not as yet when one worthy of
confidence will occur. And my trust in you leaves me without a fear
that this letter, meant as a confidential communication of my
impressions, will ever go out of your hand, or be suffered in anywise
to commit my name. Indeed, besides the accidents which might happen
to it even under your care, considering the accident of death to
which you are liable, I think it safest to pray you, after reading it
as often as you please, to destroy at least the 2d & 3d leaves. The
1st contains principles only, which I fear not to avow; but the 2d &
3d contain facts stated for your information, and which, though
sacredly conformable to my firm belief, yet would be galling to some,
& expose me to illiberal attacks. I therefore repeat my prayer to
burn the 2d & 3d leaves. And did we ever expect to see the day,
when, breathing nothing but sentiments of love to our country & it's
freedom & happiness, our correspondence must be as secret as if we
were hatching it's destruction! Adieu, my friend, and accept my
sincere & affectionate salutations. I need not add my signature.
"THE SPIRIT OF 1776"
_To Thomas Lomax_
_Monticello, Mar. 12, 1799_
DEAR SIR, -- Your welcome favor of last month came to my hands
in Philadelphia. So long a time has elapsed since we have been
separated by events, that it was like a letter from the dead, and
recalled to my memory very dear recollections. My subsequent journey
through life has offered nothing which, in comparison with those, is
not cheerless & dreary. It is a rich comfort sometimes to look back
on them.
I take the liberty of enclosing a letter to mr. Baylor, open,
because I solicit your perusal of it. It will, at the same time,
furnish the apology for my not answering you from Philadelphia. You
ask for any communication I may be able to make, which may administer
comfort to you. I can give that which is solid. The spirit of 1776
is not dead. It has only been slumbering. The body of the American
people is substantially republican. But their virtuous feelings have
been played on by some fact with more fiction; they have been the
dupes of artful man;oeuvres, & made for a moment to be willing
instruments in forging chains for themselves. But time & truth have
dissipated the delusion, & opened their eyes. They see now that
France has sincerely wished peace, & their seducers have wished war,
as well for the loaves & fishes which arise out of war expences, as
for the chance of changing the constitution, while the people should
have time to contemplate nothing but the levies of men and money.
Pennsylvania, Jersey & N York are coming majestically round to the
true principles. In Pensylva, 13. out of 22. counties had already
petitioned on the alien & sedition laws. Jersey & N Y had begun the
same movement, and tho' the rising of Congress stops that channel for
the expression of their sentiment, the sentiment is going on rapidly,
& before their next meeting those three States will be solidly
embodied in sentiment with the six Southern & Western ones. The
atrocious proceedings of France towards this country, had well nigh
destroyed its liberties. The Anglomen and monocrats had so artfully
confounded the cause of France with that of freedom, that both went
down in the same scale. I sincerely join you in abjuring all
political connection with every foreign power; and tho I cordially
wish well to the progress of liberty in all nations, and would
forever give it the weight of our countenance, yet they are not to be
touched without contamination from their other bad principles.
Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto.
Accept assurances of the constant & unaltered affection of,
dear Sir, your sincere friend and servant.
FREEDOM OF MIND
_To William Green Munford_
_Monticello, June 18, 1799_
DEAR SIR -- I have to acknolege the reciept of your favor of
May 14 in which you mention that you have finished the 6. first books
of Euclid, plane trigonometry, surveying & algebra and ask whether I
think a further pursuit of that branch of science would be useful to
you. There are some propositions in the latter books of Euclid, &
some of Archimedes, which are useful, & I have no doubt you have been
made acquainted with them. Trigonometry, so far as this, is most
valuable to every man. There is scarcely a day in which he will not
resort to it for some of the purposes of common life. The science of
calculation also is indispensible as far as the extraction of the
square & cube roots; algebra as far as the quadratic equation & the
use of logarithms are often of value in ordinary cases: but all
beyond these is but a luxury; a delicious luxury indeed; but not to
be indulged in by one who is to have a profession to follow for his
subsistence. In this light I view the conic sections, curves of the
higher orders, perhaps even spherical trigonometry, algebraical
operations beyond the 2d dimension, and fluxions. There are other
branches of science however worth the attention of every man.
Astronomy, botany, chemistry, natural philosophy, natural history,
anatomy. Not indeed to be a proficient in them; but to possess their
general principles & outlines, so as that we may be able to amuse and
inform ourselves further in any of them as we proceed through life &
have occasion for them. Some knowledge of them is necessary for our
character as well as comfort. The general elements of astronomy & of
natural philosophy are best acquired at an academy where we can have
the benefit of the instruments & apparatus usually provided there:
but the others may well be acquired from books alone as far as our
purposes require. I have indulged myself in these observations to
you, because the evidence cannot be unuseful to you of a person who
has often had occasion to consider which of his acquisitions in
science have been really useful to him in life, and which of them
have been merely a matter of luxury.
I am among those who think well of the human character
generally. I consider man as formed for society, and endowed by
nature with those dispositions which fit him for society. I believe
also, with Condorcet, as mentioned in your letter, that his mind is
perfectible to a degree of which we cannot as yet form any
conception. It is impossible for a man who takes a survey of what is
already known, not to see what an immensity in every branch of
science yet remains to be discovered, & that too of articles to which
our faculties seem adequate. In geometry & calculation we know a
great deal. Yet there are some desiderata. In anatomy great
progress has been made; but much is still to be acquired. In natural
history we possess knowlege; but we want a great deal. In chemistry
we are not yet sure of the first elements. Our natural philosophy is
in a very infantine state; perhaps for great advances in it, a
further progress in chemistry is necessary. Surgery is well
advanced; but prodigiously short of what may be. The state of
medecine is worse than that of total ignorance. Could we divest
ourselves of every thing we suppose we know in it, we should start
from a higher ground & with fairer prospects. From Hippocrates to
Brown we have had nothing but a succession of hypothetical systems
each having it's day of vogue, like the fashions & fancies of caps &
gowns, & yielding in turn to the next caprice. Yet the human frame,
which is to be the subject of suffering & torture under these learned
modes, does not change. We have a few medecines, as the bark, opium,
mercury, which in a few well defined diseases are of unquestionable
virtue: but the residuary list of the materia medica, long as it is,
contains but the charlataneries of the art; and of the diseases of
doubtful form, physicians have ever had a false knowlege, worse than
ignorance. Yet surely the list of unequivocal diseases & remedies is
capable of enlargement; and it is still more certain that in the
other branches of science, great fields are yet to be explored to
which our faculties are equal, & that to an extent of which we cannot
fix the limits. I join you therefore in branding as cowardly the
idea that the human mind is incapable of further advances. This is
precisely the doctrine which the present despots of the earth are
inculcating, & their friends here re-echoing; & applying especially
to religion & politics; `that it is not probable that any thing
better will be discovered than what was known to our fathers.' We are
to look backwards then & not forwards for the improvement of science,
& to find it amidst feudal barbarisms and the fires of Spital-fields.
But thank heaven the American mind is already too much opened, to
listen to these impostures; and while the art of printing is left to
us, science can never be retrograde; what is once acquired of real
knowlege can never be lost. To preserve the freedom of the human
mind then & freedom of the press, every spirit should be ready to
devote itself to martyrdom; for as long as we may think as we will, &
speak as we think, the condition of man will proceed in improvement.
The generation which is going off the stage has deserved well of
mankind for the struggles it has made, & for having arrested that
course of despotism which had overwhelmed the world for thousands &
thousands of years. If there seems to be danger that the ground they
have gained will be lost again, that danger comes from the generation
your cotemporary. But that the enthusiasm which characterises youth
should lift its parricide hands against freedom & science, would be
such a monstrous phaenomenon as I cannot place among possible things
in this age & this country. Your college at least has shewn itself
incapable of it; and if the youth of any other place have seemed to
rally under other banners it has been from delusions which they will
soon dissipate. I shall be happy to hear from you from time to time,
& of your progress in study, and to be useful to you in whatever is
in my power; being with sincere esteem Dear Sir your friend & servt
COMMON LAW AND THE WILL OF THE NATION
_To Edmund Randolph_
_Monticello, Aug. 18, 1799_
DEAR SIR, -- I received only two days ago your favor of the
12th, and as it was on the eve of the return of our post, it was not
possible to make so prompt a despatch of the answer. Of all the
doctrines which have ever been broached by the federal government,
the novel one, of the common law being in force & cognizable as an
existing law in their courts, is to me the most formidable. All
their other assumptions of un-given powers have been in the detail.
The bank law, the treaty doctrine, the sedition act, alien act, the
undertaking to change the state laws of evidence in the state courts
by certain parts of the stamp act, &c., &c., have been solitary,
unconsequential, timid things, in comparison with the audacious,
barefaced and sweeping pretension to a system of law for theU S,
without the adoption of their legislature, and so infinitively beyond
their power to adopt. If this assumption be yielded to, the state
courts may be shut up, as there will then be nothing to hinder
citizens of the same state suing each other in the federal courts in
every case, as on a bond for instance, because the common law obliges
payment of it, & the common law they say is their law. I am happy
you have taken up the subject; & I have carefully perused &
considered the notes you enclosed, and find but a single paragraph
which I do not approve. It is that wherein (page 2.) you say, that
laws being emanations from the legislative department, &, when once
enacted, continuing in force from a presumption that their will so
continues, that that presumption fails & the laws of course fall, on
the destruction of that legislative department. I do not think this
is the true bottom on which laws & the administering them rest. The
whole body of the nation is the sovereign legislative, judiciary and
executive power for itself. The inconvenience of meeting to exercise
these powers in person, and their inaptitude to exercise them, induce
them to appoint special organs to declare their legislative will, to
judge & to execute it. It is the will of the nation which makes the
law obligatory; it is their will which creates or annihilates the
organ which is to declare & announce it. They may do it by a single
person, as an Emperor of Russia, (constituting his declarations
evidence of their will,) or by a few persons, as the Aristocracy of
Venice, or by a complication of councils, as in our former regal
government, or our present republican one. The law being law because
it is the will of the nation, is not changed by their changing the
organ through which they chuse to announce their future will; no more
than the acts I have done by one attorney lose their obligation by my
changing or discontinuing that attorney. This doctrine has been, in
a certain degree sanctioned by the federal executive. For it is
precisely that on which the continuance of obligation from our treaty
with France was established, and the doctrine was particularly
developed in a letter to Gouverneur Morris, written with the
approbation of President Washington and his cabinet. Mercer once
prevailed on the Virginia Assembly to declare a different doctrine in
some resolutions. These met universal disapprobation in this, as
well as the other States, and if I mistake not, a subsequent Assembly
did something to do away the authority of their former unguarded
resolutions. In this case, as in all others, the true principle will
be quite as effectual to establish the just deductions, for before
the revolution, the nation of Virginia had, by the organs they then
thought proper to constitute, established a system of laws, which
they divided into three denominations of 1, common law; 2, statute
law; 3, Chancery: or if you please, into two only, of 1, common law;
2, Chancery. When, by the declaration of Independence, they chose to
abolish their former organs of declaring their will, the acts of will
already formally & constitutionally declared, remained untouched.
For the nation was not dissolved, was not annihilated; it's will,
therefore, remained in full vigor; and on the establishing the new
organs, first of a convention, & afterwards a more complicated
legislature, the old acts of national will continued in force, until
the nation should, by its new organs, declare it's will changed. The
common law, therefore, which was not in force when we landed here,
nor till we had formed ourselves into a nation, and had manifested by
the organs we constituted that the common law was to be our law,
continued to be our law, because the nation continued in being, &
because though it changed the organs for the future declarations of
its will, yet it did not change its former declarations that the
common law was it's law. Apply these principles to the present case.
Before the revolution there existed no such nation as the U S; they
then first associated as a nation, but for special purposes only.
They had all their laws to make, as Virginia had on her first
establishment as a nation. But they did not, as Virginia had done,
proceed to adopt a whole system of laws ready made to their hand. As
their association as a nation was only for special purposes, to wit,
for the management of their concerns with one another & with foreign
nations, and the states composing the association chose to give it
powers for those purposes & no others, they could not adopt any
general system, because it would have embraced objects on which this
association had no right to form or declare a will. It was not the
organ for declaring a national will in these cases. In the cases
confided to them, they were free to declare the will of the nation,
the law; but till it was declared there could be no law. So that the
common law did not become, ipso facto, law on the new association; it
could only become so by a positive adoption, & so far only as they
were authorized to adopt.
I think it will be of great importance, when you come to the
proper part, to portray at full length the consequences of this new
doctrine, that the common law is the law of theU S, & that their
courts have, of course, jurisdiction co-extensive with that law, that
is to say, general over all cases & persons. But, great heavens!
Who could have conceived in 1789 that within ten years we should have
to combat such windmills. Adieu. Yours affectionately.
IDEAS FOR A UNIVERSITY
_To Dr. Joseph Priestley_
_Philadelphia, Jan. 18, 1800_
DEAR SIR, -- I have to thank you for the pamphlets you were so
kind as to send me. You will know what I thought of them by my
having before sent a dozen sets to Virginia to distribute among my
friends. Yet I thank you not the less for these, which I value the
more as they came from yourself. The stock of them which Campbell
had was, I believe, exhausted the first or second day of advertising
them. The Papers of political arithmetic, both in your & Mr.
Cooper's pamphlets, are the most precious gifts that can be made to
us; for we are running navigation mad, & commerce mad, & navy mad,
which is worst of all. How desirable is it that you could pursue
that subject for us. From the Porcupines of our country you will
receive no thanks; but the great mass of our nation will edify &
thank you. How deeply have I been chagrined & mortified at the
persecutions which fanaticism & monarchy have excited against you,
even here! At first I believed it was merely a continuance of the
English persecution. But I observe that on the demise of Porcupine &
division of his inheritance between Fenno & Brown, the latter (tho'
succeeding only to the _federal_ portion of Porcupinism, not the
_Anglican_, which is Fenno's part) serves up for the palate of his
sect, dishes of abuse against you as high seasoned as Porcupine's
were. You have sinned against church & king, & can therefore never
be forgiven. How sincerely have I regretted that your friend, before
he fixed his choice of a position, did not visit the vallies on each
side of the blue ridge in Virginia, as Mr. Madison & myself so much
wished. You would have found there equal soil, the finest climate &
most healthy one on the earth, the homage of universal reverence &
love, & the power of the country spread over you as a shield. But
since you would not make it your country by adoption, you must now do
it by your good offices. I have one to propose to you which will
produce their good, & gratitude to you for ages, and in the way to
which you have devoted a long life, that of spreading light among
men.
We have in that state a college (Wm. & Mary) just well enough
endowed to draw out the miserable existence to which a miserable
constitution has doomed it. It is moreover eccentric in it's
position, exposed to bilious diseases as all the lower country is, &
therefore abandoned by the public care, as that part of the country
itself is in a considerable degree by it's inhabitants. We wish to
establish in the upper & healthier country, & more centrally for the
state, an University on a plan so broad & liberal & _modern_, as to
be worth patronizing with the public support, and be a temptation to
the youth of other states to come and drink of the cup of knowledge &
fraternize with us. The first step is to obtain a good plan; that
is, a judicious selection of the sciences, & a practicable grouping
of some of them together, & ramifying of others, so as to adapt the
professorships to our uses & our means. In an institution meant
chiefly for use, some branches of science, formerly esteemed, may be
now omitted; so may others now valued in Europe, but useless to us
for ages to come. As an example of the former, the oriental
learning, and of the latter, almost the whole of the institution
proposed to Congress by the Secretary of war's report of the 5th
inst. Now there is no one to whom this subject is so familiar as
yourself. There is no one in the world who, equally with yourself,
unites this full possession of the subject with such a knowledge of
the state of our existence, as enables you to fit the garment to him
who is to _pay_ for it & to _wear_ it. To you therefore we address
our solicitations, and to lessen to you as much as possible the
ambiguities of our object, I will venture even to sketch the sciences
which seem useful & practicable for us, as they occur to me while
holding my pen. Botany, Chemistry, Zoology, Anatomy, Surgery,
Medicine, Natl Philosophy, Agriculture, Mathematics, Astronomy,
Geology, Geography, Politics, Commerce, History, Ethics, Law, Arts,
Finearts. This list is imperfect because I make it hastily, and
because I am unequal to the subject. It is evident that some of
these articles are too much for one professor & must therefore be
ramified; others may be ascribed in groups to a single professor.
This is the difficult part of the work, & requires a head perfectly
knowing the extent of each branch, & the limits within which it may
be circumscribed, so as to bring the whole within the powers of the
fewest professors possible, & consequently within the degree of
expence practicable for us. We should propose that the professors
follow no other calling, so that their whole time may be given to
their academical functions; and we should propose to draw from Europe
the first characters in science, by considerable temptations, which
would not need to be repeated after the first set should have
prepared fit successors & given reputation to the institution. From
some splendid characters I have received offers most perfectly
reasonable & practicable.
I do not propose to give you all this trouble merely of my own
head, that would be arrogance. It has been the subject of
consultation among the ablest and highest characters of our State,
who only wait for a plan to make a joint & I hope successful effort
to get the thing carried into effect. They will receive your ideas
with the greatest deference & thankfulness. We shall be here
certainly for two months to come; but should you not have leisure to
think of it before Congress adjourns, it will come safely to me
afterwards by post, the nearest post office being Milton.
Will not the arrival of Dupont tempt you to make a visit to
this quarter? I have no doubt the alarmists are already whetting
their shafts for him also, but their glass is nearly run out, and the
day I believe is approaching when we shall be as free to pursue what
is true wisdom as the effects of their follies will permit; for some
of them we shall be forced to wade through because we are emerged in
them.
Wishing you that pure happiness which your pursuits and
circumstances offer, and which I am sure you are too wise to suffer a
diminution of by the pigmy assaults made on you, and with every
sentiment of affectionate esteem & respect, I am, dear Sir, your most
humble, and most obedient servant.
"A SUBLIME LUXURY"
_To Dr. Joseph Priestley_
_Philadelphia, Jan. 27, 1800_
DEAR SIR, -- In my letter of the 18th, I omitted to say any
thing of the languages as part of our proposed university. It was
not that I think, as some do, that they are useless. I am of a very
different opinion. I do not think them essential to the obtaining
eminent degrees of science; but I think them very useful towards it.
I suppose there is a portion of life during which our faculties are
ripe enough for this, & for nothing more useful. I think the Greeks
& Romans have left us the present models which exist of fine
composition, whether we examine them as works of reason, or of style
& fancy; and to them we probably owe these characteristics of modern
composition. I know of no composition of any other antient people,
which merits the least regard as a model for it's matter or style.
To all this I add, that to read the Latin & Greek authors in their
original, is a sublime luxury; and I deem luxury in science to be at
least as justifiable as in architecture, painting, gardening, or the
other arts. I enjoy Homer in his own language infinitely beyond
Pope's translation of him, & both beyond the dull narrative of the
same events by Dares Phrygius; & it is an innocent enjoyment. I
thank on my knees, him who directed my early education, for having
put into my possession this rich source of delight; and I would not
exchange it for anything which I could then have acquired, & have not
since acquired. With this regard for those languages, you will
acquit me of meaning to omit them. About 20. years ago, I drew a
bill for our legislature, which proposed to lay off every county into
hundreds or townships of 5. or 6. miles square, in the centre of each
of which was to be a free English school; the whole state was further
laid off into 10. districts, in each of which was to be a college for
teaching the languages, geography, surveying, and other useful things
of that grade; and then a single University for the sciences. It was
received with enthusiasm; but as I had proposed that Wm & Mary, under
an improved form, should be the University, & that was at that time
pretty highly Episcopal, the dissenters after a while began to
apprehend some secret design of a preference to that sect and nothing
could then be done. About 3. years ago they enacted that part of my
bill which related to English schools, except that instead of
obliging, they left it optional in the court of every county to carry
it into execution or not. I think it probable the part of the plan
for the middle grade of education, may also be brought forward in due
time. In the meanwhile, we are not without a sufficient number of
good country schools, where the languages, geography, & the first
elements of Mathematics, are taught. Having omitted this information
in my former letter, I thought it necessary now to supply it, that
you might know on what base your superstructure was to be reared. I
have a letter from M. Dupont, since his arrival at N. York, dated the
20th, in which he says he will be in Philadelphia within about a
fortnight from that time; but only on a visit. How much would it
delight me if a visit from you at the same time, were to shew us two
such illustrious foreigners embracing each other in my country, as
the asylum for whatever is great & good. Pardon, I pray you, the
temporary delirium which has been excited here, but which is fast
passing away. The Gothic idea that we are to look backwards instead
of forwards for the improvement of the human mind, and to recur to
the annals of our ancestors for what is most perfect in government,
in religion & in learning, is worthy of those bigots in religion &
government, by whom it has been recommended, & whose purposes it
would answer. But it is not an idea which this country will endure;
and the moment of their showing it is fast ripening; and the signs of
it will be their respect for you, & growing detestation of those who
have dishonored our country by endeavors to disturb our tranquility
in it. No one has felt this with more sensibility than, my dear Sir,
your respectful & affectionate friend & servant.
THE 18TH BRUMAIRE
_To John Breckinridge_
_Philadelphia, Jan. 29, 1800_
DEAR SIR, -- Your favor of the 13th has been duly received, as
had been that containing the resolutions of your legislature on the
subject of the former resolutions. I was glad to see the subject
taken up, and done with so much temper, firmness and propriety. From
the reason of the thing I cannot but hope that the Western country
will be laid off into a separate Judiciary district. From what I
recollect of the dispositions on the same subject at the last
session, I should expect that the partiality to a general & uniform
system would yield to geographical & physical impracticabilities. I
was once a great advocate for introducing into chancery viva voce
testimony, & trial by jury. I am still so as to the latter, but have
retired from the former opinion on the information received from both
your state & ours, that it worked inconveniently. I introduced it
into the Virginia law, but did not return to the bar, so as to see
how it answered. But I do not understand how the viva voce
examination comes to be practiced in the Federal court with you, &
not in your own courts; the Federal courts being decided by law to
proceed & decide by the laws of the states.
A great revolution has taken place at Paris. The people of
that country having never been in the habit of self-government, are
not yet in the habit of acknoleging that fundamental law of nature,
by which alone self government can be exercised by a society, I mean
the _lex majoris partis_. Of the sacredness of this law, our
countrymen are impressed from their cradle, so that with them it is
almost innate. This single circumstance may possibly decide the fate
of the two nations. One party appears to have been prevalent in the
Directory & council of 500. the other in the council of antients.
Sieyes & Ducos, the minority in the Directory, not being able to
carry their points there seem to have gained over Buonaparte, &
associating themselves with the majority of the Council of antients,
have expelled (*) 120. odd members the most obnoxious of the minority
of the Elders, & of the majority of the council of 500. so as to give
themselves a majority in the latter council also. They have
established Buonaparte, Sieyes & Ducos into an executive, or rather
Dictatorial consulate, given them a committee of between 20. & 30.
from each council, & have adjourned to the 20th of Feb. Thus the
Constitution of the 3d year which was getting consistency & firmness
from time is demolished in an instant, and nothing is said about a
new one. How the nation will bear it is yet unknown. Had the
Consuls been put to death in the first tumult & before the nation had
time to take sides, the Directory & councils might have reestablished
themselves on the spot. But that not being done, perhaps it is now
to be wished that Buonaparte may be spared, as, according to his
protestations, he is for liberty, equality & representative
government, and he is more able to keep the nation together, & to
ride out the storm than any other. Perhaps it may end in their
establishing a single representative & that in his person. I hope it
will not be for life, for fear of the influence of the example on our
countrymen. It is very material for the latter to be made sensible
that their own character & situation are materially different from
the French; & that whatever may be the fate of republicanism there,
we are able to preserve it inviolate here: we are sensible of the
duty & expediency of submitting our opinions to the will of the
majority and can wait with patience till they get right if they
happen to be at any time wrong. Our vessel is moored at such a
distance, that should theirs blow up, ours is still safe, if we will
but think so.
(*) 60. were expelled from the 500, so as to change the
majority there to the other side. It seems doubtful whether any were
expelled from the Antients. The majority there was already with the
Consular party.
I had recommended the enclosed letter to the care of the
postmaster at Louisville; but have been advised it is better to get a
friend to forward it by some of the boats. I will ask that favor of
you. It is the duplicate of one with the same address which I
inclosed last week to mr. Innes & should therefore go by a different
conveyance. I am with great esteem dear sir your friend & servant.
ILLUMINATISM
_To Bishop James Madison_
_Philadelphia, Jan. 31, 1800_
DEAR SIR, -- I have received your favor of the 17th, &
communicated it to Mr. Smith. I lately forwarded your letter from
Dr. Priestley, endorsed `with a book'; I struck those words through
with my pen, because no book had then come. It is now received, &
shall be forwarded to Richmond by the first opportunity: but such
opportunities are difficult to find; gentlemen going in the stage not
liking to take charge of a packet which is to be attended to every
time the stage is changed. The best chance will be by some captain
of a vessel going round to Richmond. I shall address it to the care
of Mr. George Jefferson there.
I have lately by accident got a sight of a single volume (the
3d.) of the Abbe Barruel's `Antisocial conspiracy,' which gives me
the first idea I have ever had of what is meant by the Illuminatism
against which `illuminate Morse' as he is now called, & his
ecclesiastical & monarchical associates have been making such a hue
and cry. Barruel's own parts of the book are perfectly the ravings
of a Bedlamite. But he quotes largely from Wishaupt whom he
considers as the founder of what he calls the order. As you may not
have had an opportunity of forming a judgment of this cry of `mad
dog' which has been raised against his doctrines, I will give you the
idea I have formed from only an hour's reading of Barruel's
quotations from him, which you may be sure are not the most
favorable. Wishaupt seems to be an enthusiastic Philanthropist. He
is among those (as you know the excellent Price and Priestley also
are) who believe in the indefinite perfectibility of man. He thinks
he may in time be rendered so perfect that he will be able to govern
himself in every circumstance so as to injure none, to do all the
good he can, to leave government no occasion to exercise their powers
over him, & of course to render political government useless. This
you know is Godwin's doctrine, and this is what Robinson, Barruel &
Morse had called a conspiracy against all government. Wishaupt
believes that to promote this perfection of the human character was
the object of Jesus Christ. That his intention was simply to
reinstate natural religion, & by diffusing the light of his morality,
to teach us to govern ourselves. His precepts are the love of god &
love of our neighbor. And by teaching innocence of conduct, he
expected to place men in their natural state of liberty & equality.
He says, no one ever laid a surer foundation for liberty than our
grand master, Jesus of Nazareth. He believes the Free masons were
originally possessed of the true principles & objects of
Christianity, & have still preserved some of them by tradition, but
much disfigured. The means he proposes to effect this improvement of
human nature are `to enlighten men, to correct their morals & inspire
them with benevolence. Secure of our success, sais he, we abstain
from violent commotions. To have foreseen the happiness of posterity
& to have prepared it by irreproachable means, suffices for our
felicity. The tranquility of our consciences is not troubled by the
reproach of aiming at the ruin or overthrow of states or thrones.' As
Wishaupt lived under the tyranny of a despot & priests, he knew that
caution was necessary even in spreading information, & the principles
of pure morality. He proposed therefore to lead the Free masons to
adopt this object & to make the objects of their institution the
diffusion of science & virtue. He proposed to initiate new members
into his body by gradations proportioned to his fears of the
thunderbolts of tyranny. This has given an air of mystery to his
views, was the foundation of his banishment, the subversion of the
masonic order, & is the colour for the ravings against him of
Robinson, Barruel & Morse, whose real fears are that the craft would
be endangered by the spreading of information, reason, & natural
morality among men. This subject being new to me, I have imagined
that if it be so to you also, you may receive the same satisfaction
in seeing, which I have had in forming the analysis of it: & I
believe you will think with me that if Wishaupt had written here,
where no secrecy is necessary in our endeavors to render men wise &
virtuous, he would not have thought of any secret machinery for that
purpose. As Godwin, if he had written in Germany, might probably
also have thought secrecy & mysticism prudent. I will say nothing to
you on the late revolution of France, which is painfully interesting.
Perhaps when we know more of the circumstances which gave rise to it,
& the direction it will take, Buonaparte, its chief organ, may stand
in a better light than at present. I am with great esteem, dear sir,
your affectionate friend.
"A FEW PLAIN DUTIES"
_To Gideon Granger_
_Monticello, Aug. 13, 1800_
DEAR SIR, -- I received with great pleasure your favor of June
4, and am much comforted by the appearance of a change of opinion in
your state; for tho' we may obtain, & I believe shall obtain, a
majority in the legislature of the United States, attached to the
preservation of the Federal constitution according to it's obvious
principles, & those on which it was known to be received; attached
equally to the preservation to the states of those rights
unquestionably remaining with them; friends to the freedom of
religion, freedom of the press, trial by jury & to economical
government; opposed to standing armies, paper systems, war, & all
connection, other than commerce, with any foreign nation; in short, a
majority firm in all those principles which we have espoused and the
federalists have opposed uniformly; still, should the whole body of
New England continue in opposition to these principles of government,
either knowingly or through delusion, our government will be a very
uneasy one. It can never be harmonious & solid, while so respectable
a portion of it's citizens support principles which go directly to a
change of the federal constitution, to sink the state governments,
consolidate them into one, and to monarchize that. Our country is
too large to have all its affairs directed by a single government.
Public servants at such a distance, & from under the eye of their
constituents, must, from the circumstance of distance, be unable to
administer & overlook all the details necessary for the good
government of the citizens, and the same circumstance, by rendering
detection impossible to their constituents, will invite the public
agents to corruption, plunder & waste. And I do verily believe, that
if the principle were to prevail, of a common law being in force in
the U S, (which principle possesses the general government at once of
all the powers of the state governments, and reduces us to a single
consolidated government,) it would become the most corrupt government
on the earth. You have seen the practises by which the public
servants have been able to cover their conduct, or, where that could
not be done, delusions by which they have varnished it for the eye of
their constituents. What an augmentation of the field for jobbing,
speculating, plundering, office-building & office-hunting would be
produced by an assumption of all the state powers into the hands of
the general government. The true theory of our constitution is
surely the wisest & best, that the states are independent as to
everything within themselves, & united as to everything respecting
foreign nations. Let the general government be reduced to foreign
concerns only, and let our affairs be disentangled from those of all
other nations, except as to commerce, which the merchants will manage
the better, the more they are left free to manage for themselves, and
our general government may be reduced to a very simple organization,
& a very unexpensive one; a few plain duties to be performed by a few
servants. But I repeat, that this simple & economical mode of
government can never be secured, if the New England States continue
to support the contrary system. I rejoice, therefore, in every
appearance of their returning to those principles which I had always
imagined to be almost innate in them. In this State, a few persons
were deluded by the X. Y. Z. duperies. You saw the effect of it in
our last Congressional representatives, chosen under their influence.
This experiment on their credulity is now seen into, and our next
representation will be as republican as it has heretofore been. On
the whole, we hope, that by a part of the Union having held on to the
principles of the constitution, time has been given to the states to
recover from the temporary frenzy into which they had been decoyed,
to rally round the constitution, & to rescue it from the destruction
with which it had been threatened even at their own hands. I see
copied from the American Magazine two numbers of a paper signed Don
Quixotte, most excellently adapted to introduce the real truth to the
minds even of the most prejudiced.
I would, with great pleasure, have written the letter you
desired in behalf of your friend, but there are existing
circumstances which render a letter from me to that magistrate as
improper as it would be unavailing. I shall be happy, on some more
fortunate occasion, to prove to you my desire of serving your wishes.
I sometime ago received a letter from a Mr. M'Gregory of Derby,
in your State; it is written with such a degree of good sense &
appearance of candor, as entitles it to an answer. Yet the writer
being entirely unknown to me, and the stratagems of the times very
multifarious, I have thought it best to avail myself of your
friendship, & enclose the answer to you. You will see it's nature.
If you find from the character of the person to whom it is addressed,
that no improper use would probably be made of it, be so good as to
seal & send it. Otherwise suppress it.
How will the vote of your State and R I be as to A. and P.?
I am, with great and sincere esteem, dear Sir, your friend and
servant.
"I HAVE SWORN UPON THE ALTAR OF GOD . . . "
_To Dr. Benjamin Rush_
_Monticello, Sep. 23, 1800_
DEAR SIR, -- I have to acknolege the receipt of your favor of
Aug. 22, and to congratulate you on the healthiness of your city.
Still Baltimore, Norfolk & Providence admonish us that we are not
clear of our new scourge. When great evils happen, I am in the habit
of looking out for what good may arise from them as consolations to
us, and Providence has in fact so established the order of things, as
that most evils are the means of producing some good. The yellow
fever will discourage the growth of great cities in our nation, & 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 & freedom, would be my choice.
I agree with you entirely, in condemning the mania of giving
names to objects of any kind after persons still living. Death alone
can seal the title of any man to this honor, by putting it out of his
power to forfeit it. There is one other mode of recording merit,
which I have often thought might be introduced, so as to gratify the
living by praising the dead. In giving, for instance, a commission
of chief justice to Bushrod Washington, it should be in consideration
of his integrity, and science in the laws, and of the services
rendered to our country by his illustrious relation, &c. A
commission to a descendant of Dr. Franklin, besides being in
consideration of the proper qualifications of the person, should add
that of the great services rendered by his illustrious ancestor, Bn
Fr, by the advancement of science, by inventions useful to man, &c.
I am not sure that we ought to change all our names. And during the
regal government, sometimes, indeed, they were given through
adulation; but often also as the reward of the merit of the times,
sometimes for services rendered the colony. Perhaps, too, a name
when given, should be deemed a sacred property.
I promised you a letter on Christianity, which I have not
forgotten. On the contrary, it is because I have reflected on it,
that I find much more time necessary for it than I can at present
dispose of. I have a view of the subject which ought to displease
neither the rational Christian nor Deists, and would reconcile many
to a character they have too hastily rejected. I do not know that it
would reconcile the _genus irritabile vatum_ who are all in arms
against me. Their hostility is on too interesting ground to be
softened. The delusion into which the X. Y. Z. plot shewed it
possible to push the people; the successful experiment made under the
prevalence of that delusion on the clause of the constitution, which,
while it secured the freedom of the press, covered also the freedom
of religion, had given to the clergy a very favorite hope of
obtaining an establishment of a particular form of Christianity thro'
the U. S.; and as every sect believes its own form the true one,
every one perhaps hoped for his own, but especially the Episcopalians
& Congregationalists. The returning good sense of our country
threatens abortion to their hopes, & they believe that any portion of
power confided to me, will be exerted in opposition to their schemes.
And they believe rightly; for I have sworn upon the altar of god,
eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.
But this is all they have to fear from me: & enough too in their
opinion, & this is the cause of their printing lying pamphlets
against me, forging conversations for me with Mazzei, Bishop Madison,
&c., which are absolute falsehoods without a circumstance of truth to
rest on; falsehoods, too, of which I acquit Mazzei & Bishop Madison,
for they are men of truth.
But enough of this: it is more than I have before committed to
paper on the subject of all the lies that has been preached and
printed against me. I have not seen the work of Sonnoni which you
mention, but I have seen another work on Africa, (Parke's,) which I
fear will throw cold water on the hopes of the friends of freedom.
You will hear an account of an attempt at insurrection in this state.
I am looking with anxiety to see what will be it's effect on our
state. We are truly to be pitied. I fear we have little chance to
see you at the Federal city or in Virginia, and as little at
Philadelphia. It would be a great treat to receive you here. But
nothing but sickness could effect that; so I do not wish it. For I
wish you health and happiness, and think of you with affection.
Adieu.
"PHILOSOPHICAL VEDETTE" AT A DISTANCE
_To William Dunbar_
_Washington, Jan. 12, 1801_
DEAR SIR, -- Your favor of July 14, with the papers
accompanying it, came safely to hand about the last of October. That
containing remarks on the line of demarcation I perused according to
your permission, and with great satisfaction, and then enclosed to a
friend in Philadelphia, to be forwarded to it's address. The papers
addressed to me, I took the liberty of communicating to the
Philosophical society. That on the language by signs is quite new.
Soon after receiving your meteorological diary, I received one of
Quebec; and was struck with the comparison between - 32 & + 19 3/4
the lowest depression of the thermometer at Quebec & the Natchez. I
have often wondered that any human being should live in a cold
country who can find room in a warm one. I have no doubt but that
cold is the source of more sufferance to all animal nature than
hunger, thirst, sickness, & all the other pains of life & of death
itself put together. I live in a temperate climate, and under
circumstances which do not expose me often to cold. Yet when I
recollect on one hand all the sufferings I have had from cold, & on
the other all my other pains, the former preponderate greatly. What
then must be the sum of that evil if we take in the vast proportion
of men who are obliged to be out in all weather, by land & by sea,
all the families of beasts, birds, reptiles, & even the vegetable
kingdom! for that too has life, and where there is life there may be
sensation. I remark a rainbow of a great portion of the circle
observed by you when on the line of demarcation. I live in a
situation which has given me an opportunity of seeing more than the
semicircle often. I am on a hill 500 f. perpendicularly high. On
the east side it breaks down abruptly to the base, where a river
passes through. A rainbow, therefore, about sunset, plunges one of
it's legs down to the river, 500 f. below the level of the eye on the
top of the hill. I have twice seen bows formed by the moon. They
were of the color of the common circle round the moon, and were very
near, being within a few paces of me in both instances. I thank you
for the little vocabularies of Bedais, Jankawis and Teghas. I have
it much at heart to make as extensive a collection as possible of the
Indian tongues. I have at present about 30. tolerably full, among
which the number radically different, is truly wonderful. It is
curious to consider how such handfuls of men came by different
languages, & how they have preserved them so distinct. I at first
thought of reducing them all to one orthography, but I soon become
sensible that this would occasion two sources of error instead of
one. I therefore think it best to keep them in the form of
orthography in which they were taken, only noting whether that were
English, French, German, or what. I have never been a very punctual
correspondent, and it is possible that new duties may make me less
so. I hope I shall not on that account lose the benefit of your
communications. Philosophical vedette at the distance of one
thousand miles, and on the verge of the terra incognita of our
continent, is precious to us here. I pray you to accept assurances
of my high consideration & esteem, and friendly salutations.
THE REVOLUTION OF 1800
_To John Dickinson_
_Washington, Mar. 6, 1801_
DEAR SIR, -- No pleasure can exceed that which I received from
reading your letter of the 21st ult. It was like the joy we expect
in the mansions of the blessed, when received with the embraces of
our fathers, we shall be welcomed with their blessing as having done
our part not unworthily of them. The storm through which we have
passed, has been tremendous indeed. The tough sides of our Argosie
have been thoroughly tried. Her strength has stood the waves into
which she was steered, with a view to sink her. We shall put her on
her republican tack, & she will now show by the beauty of her motion
the skill of her builders. Figure apart, our fellow citizens have
been led hood-winked from their principles, by a most extraordinary
combination of circumstances. But the band is removed, and they now
see for themselves. I hope to see shortly a perfect consolidation,
to effect which, nothing shall be spared on my part, short of the
abandonment of the principles of our revolution. A just and solid
republican government maintained here, will be a standing monument &
example for the aim & imitation of the people of other countries; and
I join with you in the hope and belief that they will see, from our
example, that a free government is of all others the most energetic;
that the inquiry which has been excited among the mass of mankind by
our revolution & it's consequences, will ameliorate the condition of
man over a great portion of the globe. What a satisfaction have we
in the contemplation of the benevolent effects of our efforts,
compared with those of the leaders on the other side, who have
discountenanced all advances in science as dangerous innovations,
have endeavored to render philosophy and republicanism terms of
reproach, to persuade us that man cannot be governed but by the rod,
&c. I shall have the happiness of living & dying in the contrary
hope. Accept assurances of my constant & sincere respect and
attachment, and my affectionate salutations.
SOMETHING NEW UNDER THE SUN
_To Dr. Joseph Priestley_
_Washington, Mar. 21, 1801_
DEAR SIR, -- I learnt some time ago that you were in
Philadelphia, but that it was only for a fortnight; & supposed you
were gone. It was not till yesterday I received information that you
were still there, had been very ill, but were on the recovery. I
sincerely rejoice that you are so. Yours is one of the few lives
precious to mankind, & for the continuance of which every thinking
man is solicitous. Bigots may be an exception. What an effort, my
dear Sir, of bigotry in Politics & Religion have we gone through!
The barbarians really flattered themselves they should be able to
bring back the times of Vandalism, when ignorance put everything into
the hands of power & priestcraft. All advances in science were
proscribed as innovations. They pretended to praise and encourage
education, but it was to be the education of our ancestors. We were
to look backwards, not forwards, for improvement; the President
himself declaring, in one of his answers to addresses, that we were
never to expect to go beyond them in real science. This was the real
ground of all the attacks on you. Those who live by mystery &
_charlatanerie_, fearing you would render them useless by simplifying
the Christian philosophy, -- the most sublime & benevolent, but most
perverted system that ever shone on man, -- endeavored to crush your
well-earnt & well-deserved fame. But it was the Lilliputians upon
Gulliver. Our countrymen have recovered from the alarm into which
art & industry had thrown them; science & honesty are replaced on
their high ground; and you, my dear Sir, as their great apostle, are
on it's pinnacle. It is with heartfelt satisfaction that, in the
first moments of my public action, I can hail you with welcome to our
land, tender to you the homage of it's respect & esteem, cover you
under the protection of those laws which were made for the wise and
good like you, and disdain the legitimacy of that libel on
legislation, which under the form of a law, was for some time placed
among them.
As the storm is now subsiding, and the horizon becoming serene,
it is pleasant to consider the phenomenon with attention. We can no
longer say there is nothing new under the sun. For this whole
chapter in the history of man is new. The great extent of our
Republic is new. Its sparse habitation is new. The mighty wave of
public opinion which has rolled over it is new. But the most
pleasing novelty is, it's so quickly subsiding over such an extent of
surface to it's true level again. The order & good sense displayed
in this recovery from delusion, and in the momentous crisis which
lately arose, really bespeak a strength of character in our nation
which augurs well for the duration of our Republic; & I am much
better satisfied now of it's stability than I was before it was
tried. I have been, above all things, solaced by the prospect which
opened on us, in the event of a non-election of a President; in which
case, the federal government would have been in the situation of a
clock or watch run down. There was no idea of force, nor of any
occasion for it. A convention, invited by the Republican members of
Congress, with the virtual President & Vice President, would have
been on the ground in 8. weeks, would have repaired the Constitution
where it was defective, & wound it up again. This peaceable &
legitimate resource, to which we are in the habit of implicit
obedience, superseding all appeal to force, and being always within
our reach, shows a precious principle of self-preservation in our
composition, till a change of circumstances shall take place, which
is not within prospect at any definite period.
But I have got into a long disquisition on politics, when I
only meant to express my sympathy in the state of your health, and to
tender you all the affections of public & private hospitality. I
should be very happy indeed to see you here. I leave this about the
30th inst., to return about the twenty-fifth of April. If you do not
leave Philadelphia before that, a little excursion hither would help
your health. I should be much gratified with the possession of a
guest I so much esteem, and should claim a right to lodge you, should
you make such an excursion.
WISDOM AND PATRIOTISM
_To Moses Robinson_
_Washington, March 23, 1801_
DEAR SIR, -- I have to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of
the 3rd instant, and to thank you for the friendly expressions it
contains. I entertain real hope that the whole body of your fellow
citizens (many of whom had been carried away by the X. Y. Z.
business) will shortly be consolidated in the same sentiments. When
they examine the real principles of both parties, I think they will
find little to differ about. I know, indeed, that there are some of
their leaders who have so committed themselves, that pride, if no
other passion, will prevent their coalescing. We must be easy with
them. The eastern States will be the last to come over, on account
of the dominion of the clergy, who had got a smell of union between
Church and State, and began to indulge reveries which can never be
realised in the present state of science. If, indeed, they could
have prevailed on us to view all advances in science as dangerous
innovations, and to look back to the opinions and practices of our
forefathers, instead of looking forward, for improvement, a promising
groundwork would have been laid. But I am in hopes their good sense
will dictate to them, that since the mountain will not come to them,
they had better go to the mountain: that they will find their
interest in acquiescing in the liberty and science of their country,
and that the Christian religion, when divested of the rags in which
they have enveloped it, and brought to the original purity and
simplicity of its benevolent institutor, is a religion of all others
most friendly to liberty, science, and the freest expansion of the
human mind.
I sincerely wish with you, we could see our government so
secured as to depend less on the character of the person in whose
hands it is trusted. Bad men will sometimes get in, and with such an
immense patronage, may make great progress in corrupting the public
mind and principles. This is a subject with which wisdom and
patriotism should be occupied.
I pray you to accept assurances of my high respect and esteem.
RECONCILIATION AND REFORM
_To Elbridge Gerry_
_Washington, Mar. 29, 1801_
MY DEAR SIR, -- Your two letters of Jan. 15 and Feb. 24, came
safely to hand, and I thank you for the history of a transaction
which will ever be interesting in our affairs. It has been very
precisely as I had imagined. I thought, on your return, that if you
had come forward boldly, and appealed to the public by a full
statement, it would have had a great effect in your favor personally,
& that of the republican cause then oppressed almost unto death. But
I judged from a tact of the southern pulse. I suspect that of the
north was different and decided your conduct; and perhaps it has been
as well. If the revolution of sentiment has been later, it has
perhaps been not less sure. At length it is arrived. What with the
natural current of opinion which has been setting over to us for 18.
months, and the immense impetus which was given it from the 11th to
the 17th of Feb., we may now say that the U.S. from N.Y. southwardly,
are as unanimous in the principles of '76, as they were in '76. The
only difference is, that the leaders who remain behind are more
numerous & bolder than the apostles of toryism in '76. The reason
is, that we are now justly more tolerant than we could safely have
been then, circumstanced as we were. Your part of the Union tho' as
absolutely republican as ours, had drunk deeper of the delusion, & is
therefore slower in recovering from it. The aegis of government, &
the temples of religion & of justice, have all been prostituted there
to toll us back to the times when we burnt witches. But your people
will rise again. They will awake like Sampson from his sleep, &
carry away the gates & posts of the city. You, my friend, are
destined to rally them again under their former banner, and when
called to the post, exercise it with firmness & with inflexible
adherence to your own principles. The people will support you,
notwithstanding the howlings of the ravenous crew from whose jaws
they are escaping. It will be a great blessing to our country if we
can once more restore harmony and social love among its citizens. I
confess, as to myself, it is almost the first object of my heart, and
one to which I would sacrifice everything but principle. With the
people I have hopes of effecting it. But their Coryphaei are
incurables. I expect little from them.
I was not deluded by the eulogiums of the public papers in the
first moments of change. If they could have continued to get all the
loaves & fishes, that is, if I would have gone over to them, they
would continue to eulogise. But I well knew that the moment that
such removals should take place, as the justice of the preceding
administration ought to have executed, their hue and cry would be set
up, and they would take their old stand. I shall disregard that
also. Mr. Adams' last appointments, when he knew he was naming
counsellors & aids for me & not for himself, I set aside as far as
depends on me. Officers who have been guilty of gross abuses of
office, such as marshals packing juries, &c., I shall now remove, as
my predecessor ought in justice to have done. The instances will be
few, and governed by strict rule, & not party passion. The right of
opinion shall suffer no invasion from me. Those who have acted well
have nothing to fear, however they may have differed from me in
opinion: those who have done ill, however, have nothing to hope; nor
shall I fail to do justice lest it should be ascribed to that
difference of opinion. A coalition of sentiments is not for the
interest of printers. They, like the clergy, live by the zeal they
can kindle, and the schisms they can create. It is contest of
opinion in politics as well as religion which makes us take great
interest in them, and bestow our money liberally on those who furnish
aliment to our appetite. The mild and simple principles of the
Christian philosophy would produce too much calm, too much regularity
of good, to extract from it's disciples a support for a numerous
priesthood, were they not to sophisticate it, ramify it, split it
into hairs, and twist it's texts till they cover the divine morality
of it's author with mysteries, and require a priesthood to explain
them. The Quakers seem to have discovered this. They have no
priests, therefore no schisms. They judge of the text by the
dictates of common sense & common morality. So the printers can
never leave us in a state of perfect rest and union of opinion. They
would be no longer useful, and would have to go to the plough. In
the first moments of quietude which have succeeded the election, they
seem to have aroused their lying faculties beyond their ordinary
state, to re-agitate the public mind. What appointments to office
have they detailed which had never been thought of, merely to found a
text for their calumniating commentaries. However, the steady
character of our countrymen is a rock to which we may safely moor;
and notwithstanding the efforts of the papers to disseminate early
discontents, I expect that a just, dispassionate and steady conduct,
will at length rally to a proper system the great body of our
country. Unequivocal in principle, reasonable in manner, we shall be
able I hope to do a great deal of good to the cause of freedom &
harmony. I shall be happy to hear from you often, to know your own
sentiments & those of others on the course of things, and to concur
with you in efforts for the common good. Your letters through the
post will now come safely. Present my best respects to Mrs. Gerry, &
accept yourself assurances of my constant esteem and high
consideration.
"FREE SHIPS MAKE FREE GOODS"
_To the U.S. Minister to France_
(ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON)
_Monticello, Sep. 9, 1801_
DEAR SIR, -- You will receive, probably by this post, from the
Secretary of State, his final instructions for your mission to
France. We have not thought it necessary to say anything in them on
the great question of the maritime law of nations, which at present
agitates Europe; that is to say, whether free ships shall make free
goods; because we do not mean to take any side in it during the war.
But, as I had before communicated to you some loose thoughts on that
subject, and have since considered it with somewhat more attention, I
have thought it might not be unuseful that you should possess my
ideas in a more matured form than that in which they were before
given. Unforeseen circumstances may perhaps oblige you to hazard an
opinion, on some occasion or other, on this subject, and it is better
that it should not be at variance with ours. I write this, too,
myself, that it may not be considered as official, but merely my
individual opinion, unadvised by those official counsellors whose
opinions I deem my safest guide, & should unquestionably take in
form, were circumstances to call for a solemn decision of the
question.
When Europe assumed the general form in which it is occupied by
the nations now composing it, and turned its attention to maritime
commerce, we found among its earliest practices, that of taking the
goods of an enemy from the ship of a friend; and that into this
practice every maritime State went sooner or later, as it appeared on
the theatre of the ocean. If, therefore, we are to consider the
practice of nations as the sole & sufficient evidence of the law of
nature among nations, we should unquestionably place this principle
among those of natural laws. But it's inconveniences, as they
affected neutral nations peaceably pursuing their commerce, and it's
tendency to embroil them with the powers happening to be at war, and
thus to extend the flames of war, induced nations to introduce by
special compacts, from time to time, a more convenient rule; that
"free ships should make free goods;" and this latter principle has by
every maritime nation of Europe been established, to a greater or
less degree, in it's treaties with other nations; insomuch, that all
of them have, more or less frequently, assented to it, as a rule of
action in particular cases. Indeed, it is now urged, and I think
with great appearance of reason, that this is genuine principle
dictated by national morality; & that the first practice arose from
accident, and the particular convenience of the States which first
figured on the water, rather than from well-digested reflections on
the relations of friend and enemy, on the rights of territorial
jurisdiction, & on the dictates of moral law applied to these. Thus
it had never been supposed lawful, in the territory of a friend to
seize the goods of an enemy. On an element which nature has not
subjected to the jurisdiction of any particular nation, but has made
common to all for the purposes to which it is fitted, it would seem
that the particular portion of it which happens to be occupied by the
vessel of any nation, in the course of it's voyage, is for the
moment, the exclusive property of that, and nation, with the vessel,
is exempt from intrusion by any other, & from it's jurisdiction, as
much as if it were lying in the harbor of it's sovereign. In no
country, we believe, is the rule otherwise, as to the subjects of
property common to all. Thus the place occupied by an individual in
a highway, a church, a theatre, or other public assembly, cannot be
intruded on, while it's occupant holds it for the purposes of it's
institution. The persons on board a vessel traversing the ocean,
carry with them the laws of their nation, have among themselves a
jurisdiction, a police, not established by their individual will, but
by the authority of their nation, of whose territory their vessel
still seems to compose a part, so long as it does not enter the
exclusive territory of another. No nation ever pretended a right to
govern by their laws the ship of another nation navigating the ocean.
By what law then can it enter that ship while in peaceable & orderly
use of the common element? We recognize no natural precept for
submission to such a right; & perceive no distinction between the
movable & immovable jurisdiction of a friend, which would authorize
the entering the one & not the other, to seize the property of an
enemy.
It may be objected that this proves too much, as it proves you
cannot enter the ship of a friend to search for contraband of war.
But this is not proving too much. We believe the practice of seizing
what is called contraband of war, is an abusive practice, not founded
in natural right. War between two nations cannot diminish the rights
of the rest of the world remaining at peace. The doctrine that the
rights of nations remaining quietly under the exercise of moral &
social duties, are to give way to the convenience of those who prefer
plundering & murdering one another, is a monstrous doctrine; and
ought to yield to the more rational law, that "the wrongs which two
nations endeavor to inflict on each other, must not infringe on the
rights or conveniences of those remaining at peace." And what is
_contraband_, by the law of nature? Either everything which may aid
or comfort an enemy, or nothing. Either all commerce which would
accommodate him is unlawful, or none is. The difference between
articles of one or another description, is a difference in degree
only. No line between them can be drawn. Either all intercourse
must cease between neutrals & belligerents, or all be permitted. Can
the world hesitate to say which shall be the rule? Shall two nations
turning tigers, break up in one instant the peaceable relations of
the whole world? Reason & nature clearly pronounce that the neutral
is to go onin the enjoyment of all it's rights, that it's commerce
remains free, not subject to the jurisdiction of another, nor
consequently it's vessels to search, or to enquiries whether their
contents are the property of an enemy, or are of those which have
been called contraband of war.2
Nor does this doctrine contravene the right of preventing
vessels from entering a blockaded port. This right stands on other
ground. When the fleet of any nation actually beleaguers the port of
its enemy, no other has a right to enter their line, any more than
their line of battle in the open sea, or their lines of
circumvallation, or of encampment, or of battle array on land. The
space included within their lines in any of those cases, is either
the property of their enemy, or it is common property assumed and
possessed for the moment, which cannot be intruded on, even by a
neutral, without committing the very trespass we are now considering,
that of intruding into the lawful possession of a friend.
Although I consider the observance of these principles as of
great importance to the interests of peaceable nations, among whom I
hope the U S will ever place themselves, yet in the present state of
things they are not worth a war. Nor do I believe war the most
certain means of enforcing them. Those peaceable coercions which are
in the power of every nation, if undertaken in concert & in time of
peace, are more likely to produce the desired effect.
The opinions I have here given are those which have generally
been sanctioned by our government. In our treaties with France, the
United Netherlands, Sweden & Prussia, the principle of free bottom,
free goods, was uniformly maintained. In the instructions of 1784,
given by Congress to their ministers appointed to treat with the
nations of Europe generally, the same principle, and the doing away
contraband of war, were enjoined, and were acceded to in the treaty
signed with Portugal. In the late treaty with England, indeed, that
power perseveringly refused the principle of free bottoms, free
goods; and it was avoided in the late treaty with Prussia, at the
instance of our then administration, lest it should seem to take side
in a question then threatening decision by the sword. At the
commencement of the war between France & England, the representative
of the French republic then residing in the U S, complaining that the
British armed ships captured French property in American bottoms,
insisted that the principle of "free bottoms, free goods," was of the
acknowledged law of nations; that the violation of that principle by
the British was a wrong committed on us, and such an one as we ought
to repel by joining in a war against that country. We denied his
position, and appealed to the universal practice of Europe, in proof
that the principle of "free bottoms, free goods," was not
acknowledged as of the natural law of nations, but only of it's
conventional law. And I believe we may safely affirm, that not a
single instance can be produced where any nation of Europe, acting
professedly under the law of nations alone, unrestrained by treaty,
has, either by it's executive or judiciary organs, decided on the
principle of "free bottoms, free goods." Judging of the law of
nations by what has been _practised_ among nations, we were
authorized to say that the contrary principle was their rule, and
this but an exception to it, introduced by special treaties in
special cases only; that having no treaty with England substituting
this instead of the ordinary rule, we had neither the right nor the
disposition to go to war for it's establishment. But though we would
not then, nor will we now, engage in war to establish this principle,
we are nevertheless sincerely friendly to it. We think that the
nations of Europe have originally set out in error; that experience
has proved the error oppressive to the rights and interests of the
peaceable part of mankind; that every nation but one has acknoleged
this, by consenting to the change, & that one has consented in
particular cases; that nations have a right to correct an erroneous
principle, & to establish that which is right as their rule of
action; and if they should adopt measures for effecting this in a
peaceable way, we shall wish them success, and not stand in their way
to it. But should it become, at any time, expedient for us to
co-operate in the establishment of this principle, the opinion of the
executive, on the advice of it's constitutional counsellors, must
then be given; & that of the legislature, an independent & essential
organ in the operation, must also be expressed; in forming which,
they will be governed, every man by his own judgment, and may, very
possibly, judge differently from the executive. With the same honest
views, the most honest men often form different conclusions. As far,
however, as we can judge, the principle of "free bottoms, free
goods," is that which would carry the wishes of our nation.
Wishing you smooth seas and prosperous gales, with the
enjoyment of good health, I tender you the assurances of my constant
friendship & high consideration and respect.
INTERCHANGEABLE PARTS
_To James Monroe_
_Washington, Nov. 14, 1801_
DEAR SIR, -- The bearer hereof is Mr. Whitney at Connecticut a
mechanic of the first order of ingenuity, who invented the cotton gin
now so much used in the South; he is at the head of a considerable
gun manufactory in Connecticut, and furnishes the U.S. with muskets
undoubtedly the best they receive. He has invented molds and
machines for making all the pieces of his locks so exactly equal,
that take 100 locks to pieces and mingle their parts and the hundred
locks may be put together as well by taking the first pieces which
come to hand. This is of importance in repairing, because out of 10
locks e.g. disabled for the want of different pieces, 9 good locks
may be put together without employing a smith. Leblanc in France had
invented a similar process in 1788 and had extended it to the barrel,
mounting & stock. I endeavored to get the U.S. to bring him over,
which he was ready for on moderate terms. I failed and I do not know
what became of him. Mr. Whitney has not yet extended his
improvements beyond the lock. I think it possible he might be
engaged in our manufactory of Richmd. tho' I have not asked him the
question. I know nothing of his moral character. He is now on his
way to S. Carola. on the subject of his gin. Health & happiness cum
caeteris votis.
AFRICAN COLONIZATION
_To the Governor of Virginia_
(JAMES MONROE)
_Washington, Nov. 24, 1801_
DEAR SIR, -- I had not been unmindful of your letter of June
15, covering a resolution of the House of Representatives of
Virginia, and referred to in yours of the 17th inst. The importance
of the subject, and the belief that it gave us time for consideration
till the next meeting of the Legislature, have induced me to defer
the answer to this date. You will perceive that some circumstances
connected with the subject, & necessarily presenting themselves to
view, would be improper but for yours' & the legislative ear. Their
publication might have an ill effect in more than one quarter. In
confidence of attention to this, I shall indulge greater freedom in
writing.
Common malefactors, I presume, make no part of the object of
that resolution. Neither their numbers, nor the nature of their
offences, seem to require any provisions beyond those practised
heretofore, & found adequate to the repression of ordinary crimes.
Conspiracy, insurgency, treason, rebellion, among that description of
persons who brought on us the alarm, and on themselves the tragedy,
of 1800, were doubtless within the view of every one; but many
perhaps contemplated, and one expression of the resolution might
comprehend, a much larger scope. Respect to both opinions makes it
my duty to understand the resolution in all the extent of which it is
susceptible.
The idea seems to be to provide for these people by a purchase
of lands; and it is asked whether such a purchase can be made of the
U S in their western territory? A very great extent of country,
north of the Ohio, has been laid off into townships, and is now at
market, according to the provisions of the acts of Congress, with
which you are acquainted. There is nothing which would restrain the
State of Virginia either in the purchase or the application of these
lands; but a purchase, by the acre, might perhaps be a more expensive
provision than the H of Representatives contemplated. Questions
would also arise whether the establishment of such a colony within
our limits, and to become a part of our union, would be desirable to
the State of Virginia itself, or to the other States --- especially
those who would be in its vicinity?
Could we procure lands beyond the limits of the U S to form a
receptacle for these people? On our northern boundary, the country
not occupied by British subjects, is the property of Indian nations,
whose title would be to be extinguished, with the consent of Great
Britain; & the new settlers would be British subjects. It is hardly
to be believed that either Great Britain or the Indian proprietors
have so disinterested a regard for us, as to be willing to relieve
us, by receiving such a colony themselves; and as much to be doubted
whether that race of men could long exist in so rigorous a climate.
On our western & southern frontiers, Spain holds an immense country,
the occupancy of which, however, is in the Indian natives, except a
few insulated spots possessed by Spanish subjects. It is very
questionable, indeed, whether the Indians would sell? whether Spain
would be willing to receive these people? and nearly certain that she
would not alienate the sovereignty. The same question to ourselves
would recur here also, as did in the first case: should we be willing
to have such a colony in contact with us? However our present
interests may restrain us within our own limits, it is impossible not
to look forward to distant times, when our rapid multiplication will
expand itself beyond those limits, & cover the whole northern, if not
the southern continent, with a people speaking the same language,
governed in similar forms, & by similar laws; nor can we contemplate
with satisfaction either blot or mixture on that surface. Spain,
France, and Portugal hold possessions on the southern continent, as
to which I am not well enough informed to say how far they might meet
our views. But either there or in the northern continent, should the
constituted authorities of Virginia fix their attention, of
preference, I will have the dispositions of those powers sounded in
the first instance.
The West Indies offer a more probable & practicable retreat for
them. Inhabited already by a people of their own race & color;
climates congenial with their natural constitution; insulated from
the other descriptions of men; nature seems to have formed these
islands to become the receptacle of the blacks transplanted into this
hemisphere. Whether we could obtain from the European sovereigns of
those islands leave to send thither the persons under consideration,
I cannot say; but I think it more probable than the former
propositions, because of their being already inhabited more or less
by the same race. The most promising portion of them is the island
of St. Domingo, where the blacks are established into a sovereignty
_de facto_, & have organized themselves under regular laws &
government. I should conjecture that their present ruler might be
willing, on many considerations, to receive even that description
which would be exiled for acts deemed criminal by us, but
meritorious, perhaps, by him. The possibility that these exiles
might stimulate & conduct vindicative or predatory descents on our
coasts, & facilitate concert with their brethren remaining here,
looks to a state of things between that island & us not probable on a
contemplation of our relative strength, and of the disproportion
daily growing; and it is overweighed by the humanity of the measures
proposed, & the advantages of disembarrassing ourselves of such
dangerous characters. Africa would offer a last & undoubted resort,
if all others more desirable should fail us. Whenever the
Legislature of Virginia shall have brought it's mind to a point, so
that I may know exactly what to propose to foreign authorities, I
will execute their wishes with fidelity & zeal. I hope, however,
they will pardon me for suggesting a single question for their own
consideration. When we contemplate the variety of countries & of
sovereigns towards which we may direct our views, the vast
revolutions & changes of circumstances which are now in a course of
progression, the possibilities that arrangements now to be made, with
a view to any particular plan, may, at no great distance of time, be
totally deranged by a change of sovereignty, of government, or of
other circumstances, it will be for the Legislature to consider
whether, after they shall have made all those general provisions
which may be fixed by legislative authority, it would be reposing too
much confidence in their Executive to leave the place of relegation
to be decided on by _them_. They could accommodate their
arrangements to the actual state of things, in which countries or
powers may be found to exist at the day; and may prevent the effect
of the law from being defeated by intervening changes. This,
however, is for them to decide. Our duty will be to respect their
decision.
LIMITS OF THE PRACTICABLE
_To P. S. Dupont de Nemours_
_Washington, Jan. 18, 1802_
DEAR SIR, -- It is rare I can indulge myself in the luxury of
philosophy. Your letters give me a few of those delicious moments.
Placed as you are in a great commercial town, with little opportunity
of discovering the dispositions of the country portions of our
citizens, I do not wonder at your doubts whether they will generally
and sincerely concur in the sentiments and measures developed in my
message of the 7th Jany. But from 40. years of intimate conversation
with the agricultural inhabitants of my country, I can pronounce them
as different from those of the cities, as those of any two nations
known. The sentiments of the former can in no degree be inferred
from those of the latter. You have spoken a profound truth in these
words, "Il y a dans les etats unis un bon sens silencieux, un esprit
de justice froide, qui lorsqu'il est question d'emettre un _vote_
comme les bavardages de ceux qui font les habiles." A plain country
farmer has written lately a pamphlet on our public affairs. His
testimony of the sense of the country is the best which can be
produced of the justness of your observation. His words are "The
tongue of man is not his whole body. So, in this case, the noisy
part of the community was not all the body politic. During the
career of fury and contention (in 1800) the sedate, grave part of the
people were still; hearing all, and judging for themselves, what
method to take, when the constitutional time of action should come,
the exercise of the right of suffrage." The majority of the present
legislature are in unison with the agricultural part of our citizens,
and you will see that there is nothing in the message, to which they
do not accord. Some things may perhaps be left undone from motives
of compromise for a time, and not to alarm by too sudden a
reformation, but with a view to be resumed at another time. I am
perfectly satisfied the effect of the proceedings of this session of
congress will be to consolidate the great body of well meaning
citizens together, whether federal or republican, heretofore called.
I do not mean to include royalists or priests. Their opposition is
immovable. But they will be vox et preterea nihil, leaders without
followers. I am satisfied that within one year from this time were
an election to take place between two candidates merely republican
and federal, where no personal opposition existed against either, the
federal candidate would not get the vote of a single elector in the
U.S. I must here again appeal to the testimony of my farmer, who
says "The great body of the people are one in sentiment. If the
federal party and the republican party, should each of them choose a
convention to frame a constitution of government or a code of laws,
there would be no radical difference in the results of the two
conventions." This is most true. The body of our people, tho'
divided for a short time by an artificial panic, and called by
different names, have ever had the same object in view, to wit, the
maintenance of a federal, republican government, and have never
ceased to be all federalists, all republicans: still excepting the
noisy band of royalists inhabiting cities chiefly, and priests both
of city and country. When I say that in an election between a
republican and federal candidate, free from personal objection, the
former would probably get every vote, I must not be understood as
placing myself in that view. It was my destiny to come to the
government when it had for several years been committed to a
particular political sect, to the absolute and entire exclusion of
those who were in sentiment with the body of the nation. I found the
country entirely in the enemies hands. It was necessary to dislodge
some of them. Out of many thousands of officers in the U.S. 9. only
have been removed for political principle, and 12. for delinquincies
chiefly pecuniary. The whole herd have squealed out, as if all their
throats were cut. These acts of justice few as they have been, have
raised great personal objections to me, of which a new character
would be [_faded_]. When this government was first established, it
was possible to have kept it going on true principles, but the
contracted, English, half-lettered ideas of Hamilton, destroyed that
hope in the bud. We can pay off his debt in 15. years; but we can
never get rid of his financial system. It mortifies me to be
strengthening principles which I deem radically vicious, but this
vice is entailed on us by the first error. In other parts of our
government I hope we shall be able by degrees to introduce sound
principles and make them habitual. What is practicable must often
controul what is pure theory; and the habits of the governed
determine in a great degree what is practicable. Hence the same
original principles, modified in practice according to the different
habits of different nations, present governments of very different
aspects. The same principles reduced to forms of practice
accommodated to our habits, and put into forms accommodated to the
habits of the French nation would present governments very unlike
each other. I have no doubt but that a great man, thoroughly knowing
the habits of France, might so accommodate to them the principles of
free government as to enable them to live free. But in the hands of
those who have not this coup d'oeil, many unsuccessful experiments I
fear are yet to be tried before they will settle down in freedom and
tranquility. I applaud therefore your determination to remain here,
tho' for yourself and the adults of your family the dissimilitude of
our manners and the difference of tongue will be sources of real
unhappiness. Yet less so than the horrors and dangers which France
would present to you, and as to those of your family still in
infancy, they will be formed to the circumstances of the country, and
will, I doubt not, be happier here than they could have been in
Europe under any circumstances. Be so good as to make my respectful
salutations acceptable to Made. Dupont, and all of your family and to
be assured yourself of my constant and affectionate esteem.
"TO BE LOVED BY EVERY BODY"
_To Anne Cary, Thomas Jefferson, and
Ellen Wayles Randolph_
_Washington, Mar. 2, 1802_
MY DEAR CHILDREN -- I am very happy to find that two of you can
write. I shall now expect that whenever it is inconvenient for your
papa and mama to write, one of you will write on a piece of paper
these words `all is well' and send it for me to the post office. I
am happy too that Miss Ellen can now read so readily. If she will
make haste and read through all the books I have given her, and will
let me know when she is through them, I will go and carry her some
more. I shall now see whether she wishes to see me as much as she
says. I wish to see you all: and the more I perceive that you are
all advancing in your learning and improving in good dispositions the
more I shall love you, and the more every body will love you. It is
a charming thing to be loved by every body: and the way to obtain it
is, never to quarrel or be angry with any body and to tell a story.
Do all the kind things you can to your companions, give them every
thing rather than to yourself. Pity and help any thing you see in
distress and learn your books and improve your minds. This will make
every body fond of you, and desirous of doing it to you. Go on then
my dear children, and, when we meet at Monticello, let me see who has
improved most. I kiss this paper for each of you: it will therefore
deliver the kisses to yourselves, and two over, which one of you must
deliver to your Mama for me; and present my affectionate attachment
to your papa. Yourselves love and Adieux.
THE PROGRESS OF REFORM
_To General Thaddeus Kosciusko_
_Washington, April 2, 1802_
DEAR GENERAL, -- It is but lately that I have received your
letter of the 25th Frimaire (December 15) wishing to know whether
some officers of your country could expect to be employed in this
country. To prevent a suspense injurious to them, I hasten to inform
you, that we are now actually engaged in reducing our military
establishment one third, and discharging one third of our officers.
We keep in service no more than men enough to garrison the small
posts dispersed at great distances on our frontiers, which garrisons
will generally consist of a captain's company only, and in no case of
more than two or three, in not one, of a sufficient number to require
a field officer; and no circumstance whatever can bring these
garrisons together, because it would be an abandonment of their
forts. Thus circumstanced, you will perceive the entire
impossibility of providing for the persons you recommend. I wish it
had been in my power to give you a more favorable answer; but next to
the fulfilling your wishes, the most grateful thing I can do is to
give a faithful answer. The session of the first Congress convened
since republicanism has recovered its ascendancy, is now drawing to a
close. They will pretty completely fulfil all the desires of the
people. They have reduced the army and navy to what is barely
necessary. They are disarming executive patronage and preponderance,
by putting down one half the offices of the United States, which are
no longer necessary. These economies have enabled them to suppress
all the internal taxes, and still to make such provision for the
payment of their public debt as to discharge that in eighteen years.
They have lopped off a parasite limb, planted by their predecessors
on their judiciary body for party purposes; they are opening the
doors of hospitality to the fugitives from the oppressions of other
countries; and we have suppressed all those public forms and
ceremonies which tended to familiarise the public eye to the
harbingers of another form of government. The people are nearly all
united; their quondam leaders, infuriated with the sense of their
impotence, will soon be seen or heard only in the newspapers, which
serve as chimnies to carry off noxious vapors and smoke, and all is
now tranquil, firm and well, as it should be. I add no signature
because unnecessary for you. God bless you, and preserve you still
for a season of usefulness to your country.
THE AFFAIR OF LOUISIANA
_To the U.S. Minister to France_
(ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON)
_Washington, Apr. 18, 1802_
DEAR SIR -- A favorable and a confidential opportunity offering
by Mr. Dupont de Nemours, who is revisiting his native country gives
me an opportunity of sending you a cipher to be used between us,
which will give you some trouble to understand, but, once understood,
is the easiest to use, the most indecipherable, and varied by a new
key with the greatest facility of any one I have ever known. I am in
hopes the explanation inclosed will be sufficient. Let our key of
letters be [_some figures which are illegible_] and the key of lines
be [_figures illegible_] and lest we should happen to lose our key or
be absent from it, it is so formed as to be kept in the memory and
put upon paper at pleasure; being produced by writing our names and
residences at full length, each of which containing 27 letters is
divided into two parts of 9. letters each; and each of the 9. letters
is then numbered according to the place it would hold if the 9. were
arranged alphabetically, thus [_so blotted as to be illegible]. The
numbers over the letters being then arranged as the letters to which
they belong stand in our names, we can always construct our key. But
why a cipher between us, when official things go naturally to the
Secretary of State, and things not political need no cipher. 1.
matters of a public nature, and proper to go on our records, should
go to the secretary of state. 2. matters of a public nature not
proper to be placed on our records may still go to the secretary of
state, headed by the word `private.' But 3. there may be matters
merely personal to ourselves, and which require the cover of a cipher
more than those of any other character. This last purpose and others
which we cannot foresee may render it convenient and advantageous to
have at hand a mask for whatever may need it. But writing by Mr.
Dupont I need no cipher. I require from him to put this into your
own and no other hand, let the delay occasioned by that be what it
will.
The cession of Louisiana and the Floridas by Spain to France
works most sorely on the U.S. On this subject the Secretary of State
has written to you fully. Yet I cannot forbear recurring to it
personally, so deep is the impression it makes in my mind. It
compleatly reverses all the political relations of the U.S. and will
form a new epoch in our political course. Of all nations of any
consideration France is the one which hitherto has offered the fewest
points on which we could have any conflict of right, and the most
points of a communion of interests. From these causes we have ever
looked to her as our _natural friend_, as one with which we never
could have an occasion of difference. Her growth therefore we viewed
as our own, her misfortunes ours. There is on the globe one single
spot, the possessor of which is our natural and habitual enemy. It
is New Orleans, through which the produce of three-eighths of our
territory must pass to market, and from its fertility it will ere
long yield more than half of our whole produce and contain more than
half our inhabitants. France placing herself in that door assumes to
us the attitude of defiance. Spain might have retained it quietly
for years. Her pacific dispositions, her feeble state, would induce
her to increase our facilities there, so that her possession of the
place would be hardly felt by us, and it would not perhaps be very
long before some circumstance might arise which might make the
cession of it to us the price of something of more worth to her. Not
so can it ever be in the hands of France. The impetuosity of her
temper, the energy and restlessness of her character, placed in a
point of eternal friction with us, and our character, which though
quiet, and loving peace and the pursuit of wealth, is high-minded,
despising wealth in competition with insult or injury, enterprising
and energetic as any nation on earth, these circumstances render it
impossible that France and the U.S. can continue long friends when
they meet in so irritable a position. They as well as we must be
blind if they do not see this; and we must be very improvident if we
do not begin to make arrangements on that hypothesis. The day that
France takes possession of N. Orleans fixes the sentence which is to
restrain her forever within her low water mark. It seals the union
of two nations who in conjunction can maintain exclusive possession
of the ocean. From that moment we must marry ourselves to the
British fleet and nation. We must turn all our attentions to a
maritime force, for which our resources place us on very high
grounds: and having formed and cemented together a power which may
render reinforcement of her settlements here impossible to France,
make the first cannon, which shall be fired in Europe the signal for
tearing up any settlement she may have made, and for holding the two
continents of America in sequestration for the common purposes of the
united British and American nations. This is not a state of things
we seek or desire. It is one which this measure, if adopted by
France, forces on us, as necessarily as any other cause, by the laws
of nature, brings on its necessary effect. It is not from a fear of
France that we deprecate this measure proposed by her. For however
greater her force is than ours compared in the abstract, it is
nothing in comparison of ours when to be exerted on our soil. But it
is from a sincere love of peace, and a firm persuasion that bound to
France by the interests and the strong sympathies still existing in
the minds of our citizens, and holding relative positions which
ensure their continuance we are secure of a long course of peace.
Whereas the change of friends, which will be rendered necessary if
France changes that position, embarks us necessarily as a belligerent
power in the first war of Europe. In that case France will have held
possession of New Orleans during the interval of a peace, long or
short, at the end of which it will be wrested from her. Will this
short-lived possession have been an equivalent to her for the
transfer of such a weight into the scale of her enemy? Will not the
amalgamation of a young, thriving, nation continue to that enemy the
health and force which are at present so evidently on the decline?
And will a few years possession of N. Orleans add equally to the
strength of France? She may say she needs Louisiana for the supply
of her West Indies. She does not need it in time of peace. And in
war she could not depend on them because they would be so easily
intercepted. I should suppose that all these considerations might in
some proper form be brought into view of the government of France.
Tho' stated by us, it ought not to give offence; because we do not
bring them forward as a menace, but as consequences not controulable
by us, but inevitable from the course of things. We mention them not
as things which we desire by any means, but as things we deprecate;
and we beseech a friend to look forward and to prevent them for our
common interests.
If France considers Louisiana however as indispensable for her
views she might perhaps be willing to look about for arrangements
which might reconcile it to our interests. If anything could do this
it would be the ceding to us the island of New Orleans and the
Floridas. This would certainly in a great degree remove the causes
of jarring and irritation between us, and perhaps for such a length
of time as might produce other means of making the measure
permanently conciliatory to our interests and friendships. It would
at any rate relieve us from the necessity of taking immediate
measures for countervailing such an operation by arrangements in
another quarter. Still we should consider N. Orleans and the
Floridas as equivalent for the risk of a quarrel with France produced
by her vicinage. I have no doubt you have urged these considerations
on every proper occasion with the government where you are. They are
such as must have effect if you can find the means of producing
thorough reflection on them by that government. The idea here is
that the troops sent to St. Domingo, were to proceed to Louisiana
after finishing their work in that island. If this were the
arrangement, it will give you time to return again and again to the
charge, for the conquest of St. Domingo will not be a short work. It
will take considerable time to wear down a great number of souldiers.
Every eye in the U.S. is now fixed on this affair of Louisiana.
Perhaps nothing since the revolutionary war has produced more uneasy
sensations through the body of the nation. Notwithstanding temporary
bickerings have taken place with France, she has still a strong hold
on the affections of our citizens generally. I have thought it not
amiss, by way of supplement to the letters of the Secretary of State
to write you this private one to impress you with the importance we
affix to this transaction. I pray you to cherish Dupont. He has the
best dispositions for the continuance of friendship between the two
nations, and perhaps you may be able to make a good use of him.
Accept assurances of my affectionate esteem and high consideration.
DRY-DOCKING THE NAVY
_To Benjamin H. Latrobe_
_Washington, Nov. 2, 1802_
DEAR SIR -- The placing of a navy in a state of perfect
preservation, so that at the beginning of a subsequent war it shall
be as sound as at the end of the preceding one when laid up, and the
lessening the expence of repairs, perpetually necessary while they
lie in the water, are objects of the first importance to a nation
which to a certain degree must be maritime. The dry docks of Europe,
being below the level of tide water, are very expensive in their
construction and in the manner of keeping them clear of water, and
are only practicable at all where they have high tides: insomuch that
no nation has ever proposed to lay up their whole navy in dry docks.
But if the dry dock were above the level of tide water, and there be
any means of raising the vessels up into them, and of covering the
dock with a roof, thus withdrawn from the rot and the sun, they would
last as long as the interior timbers, doors and floors of a house.
The vast command of running water at this place, at different heights
from 30 to 200 feet above tide water, enables us to effect this
desirable object by forming a lower bason into which the tide water
shall float the vessel and then have its gates closed, and adjoining
to this, but 24 feet higher, an upper bason 275 feet wide, and 800 f.
long (sufficient to contain 12 frigates) into which running water can
be introduced from above, so that filling both basons (as in a lock)
the vessel shall be raised up and floated into the upper one, and the
water being discharged leave her dry. Over a bason not wider than
175 feet, a roof can be thrown, in the manner of that of the Halle au
ble at Paris, which needing no underworks to support it, will permit
the bason to be entirely open and free for the movement of the
vessels. I mean to propose the construction of one of these to the
National legislature, convinced it will be a work of no great cost,
that it will save us great annual expence, and be an encouragement to
prepare in peace the vessels we shall need in war, when we find they
can be kept in a state of perfect preservation and without expence.
The first thing to be done is to chuse from which of the
streams we will derive our water for the lock. These are the Eastern
branch, Tyber, Rock creek, and the Potomak itself. Then to trace the
canal, draw plans of that and of the two basons, and calculate the
expence of the whole, that we may lead the legislature to no expence
in the execution of which they shall not be apprised in the
beginning. For this I ask your aid, which will require your coming
here. Some surveys and elevations have been already made by Mr. N.
King, a very accurate man in that line, and who will assist in any
thing you desire, and execute on the ground any tracings you may
direct, unless you prefer doing them yourself. It is very material
too that this should be done immediately, as we have little more than
4 weeks to the meeting of the legislature, and there will then be but
2 weeks for them to consider and decide before the day arrives (Jan.
1) at which alone any number of labourers can be hired here. Should
that pass either the work must lie over for a year, or be executed by
day labourers at double expence. I propose that such a force shall
be provided as to compleat the work in one year. If this results, as
it will receive all our present ships, the next work will be a second
one, to build and lay up additional ships. On the subject of your
superintending the execution of the work it would be premature to say
any thing till the legislature shall have declared their will. Be so
good as to let me hear from you immediately, if you cannot come so
soon as you can write. Accept my best wishes and respects.
"A NOISELESS COURSE"
_To Thomas Cooper_
_Washington, Nov. 29, 1802_
DEAR SIR, -- Your favor of Oct 25 was received in due time, and
I thank you for the long extract you took the trouble of making from
Mr. Stone's letter. Certainly the information it communicates as to
Alexander kindles a great deal of interest in his existence, and
strong spasms of the heart in his favor. Tho his means of doing good
are great, yet the materials on which he is to work are refractory.
Whether he engages in private correspondences abroad, as the King of
Prussia did much, his grandmother sometimes, I know not; but
certainly such a correspondence would be very interesting to those
who are sincerely anxious to see mankind raised from their present
abject condition. It delights me to find that there are persons who
still think that all is not lost in France: that their retrogradation
from a limited to an unlimited despotism, is but to give themselves a
new impulse. But I see not how or when. The press, the only tocsin
of a nation, is compleatly silenced there, and all means of a general
effort taken away. However, I am willing to hope, as long as anybody
will hope with me; and I am entirely persuaded that the agitations of
the public mind advance its powers, and that at every vibration
between the points of liberty and despotism, something will be gained
for the former. As men become better informed, their rulers must
respect them the more. I think you will be sensible that our
citizens are fast returning, from the panic into which they were
artfully thrown to the dictates of their own reason; and I believe
the delusions they have seen themselves hurried into will be useful
as a lesson under similar attempts on them in future. The good
effects of our late fiscal arrangements will certainly tend to unite
them in opinion, and in a confidence as to the views of their public
functionaries, legislative & executive. The path we have to pursue
is so quiet that we have nothing scarcely to propose to our
Legislature. A noiseless course, not meddling with the affairs of
others, unattractive of notice, is a mark that society is going on in
happiness. If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors
of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must
become happy. Their finances are now under such a course of
application as nothing could derange but war or federalism. The
gripe of the latter has shown itself as deadly as the jaws of the
former. Our adversaries say we are indebted to their providence for
the means of paying the public debt. We never charged them with the
want of foresight in providing money, but with the misapplication of
it after they have levied it. We say they raised not only enough,
but too much; and that after giving back the surplus we do more with
a part than they did with the whole.
Your letter of Nov 18 is also received. The places of
midshipman are so much sought that (being limited) there is never a
vacancy. Your son shall be set down for the 2d, which shall happen;
the 1st being anticipated. We are not long generally without
vacancies happening. As soon as he can be appointed you shall know
it. I pray you to accept assurances of my great attachment and
respect.
CRISIS ON THE MISSISSIPPI
_To the Special Envoy to France_
(JAMES MONROE)
_Washington, Jan. 13, 1803_
DEAR SIR, -- I dropped you a line on the 10th informing you of
a nomination I had made of you to the Senate, and yesterday I
enclosed you their approbation not then having time to write. The
agitation of the public mind on occasion of the late suspension of
our right of deposit at N. Orleans is extreme. In the western
country it is natural and grounded on honest motives. In the
seaports it proceeds from a desire for war which increases the
mercantile lottery; in the federalists generally and especially those
of Congress the object is to force us into war if possible, in order
to derange our finances, or if this cannot be done, to attach the
western country to them, as their best friends, and thus get again
into power. Remonstrances memorials &c. are now circulating through
the whole of the western country and signing by the body of the
people. The measures we have been pursuing being invisible, do not
satisfy their minds. Something sensible therefore was become
necessary; and indeed our object of purchasing N. Orleans and the
Floridas is a measure liable to assume so many shapes, that no
instructions could be squared to fit them, it was essential then to
send a minister extraordinary to be joined with the ordinary one,
with discretionary powers, first however well impressed with all our
views and therefore qualified to meet and modify to these every form
of proposition which could come from the other party. This could be
done only in full and frequent oral communications. Having
determined on this, there could not be two opinions among the
republicans as to the person. You possess the unlimited confidence
of the administration and of the western people; and generally of the
republicans everywhere; and were you to refuse to go, no other man
can be found who does this. The measure has already silenced the
Feds. here. Congress will no longer be agitated by them: and the
country will become calm as fast as the information extends over it.
All eyes, all hopes, are now fixed on you; and were you to decline,
the chagrin would be universal, and would shake under your feet the
high ground on which you stand with the public. Indeed I know
nothing which would produce such a shock, for on the event of this
mission depends the future destinies of this republic. If we cannot
by a purchase of the country insure to ourselves a course of
perpetual peace and friendship with all nations, then as war cannot
be distant, it behooves us immediately to be preparing for that
course, without, however, hastening it, and it may be necessary (on
your failure on the continent) to cross the channel.
We shall get entangled in European politics, and figuring more,
be much less happy and prosperous. This can only be prevented by a
successful issue to your present mission. I am sensible after the
measures you have taken for getting into a different line of
business, that it will be a great sacrifice on your part, and
presents from the season and other circumstances serious
difficulties. But some men are born for the public. Nature by
fitting them for the service of the human race on a broad scale, has
stamped with the evidences of her destination and their duty.
But I am particularly concerned that in the present case you
have more than one sacrifice to make. To reform the prodigalities of
our predecessors is understood to be peculiarly our duty, and to
bring the government to a simple and economical course. They, in
order to increase expense, debt, taxation, and patronage tried always
how much they could give. The outfit given to ministers resident to
enable them to furnish their house, but given by no nation to a
temporary minister, who is never expected to take a house or to
entertain, but considered on a footing of a voyageur, they gave to
their extraordinary missionaries by wholesale. In the beginning of
our administration, among other articles of reformation in expense,
it was determined not to give an outfit to missionaries
extraordinary, and not to incur the expense with any minister of
sending a frigate to carry him or bring him. The Boston happened to
be going to the Mediterranean, and was permitted therefore to take up
Mr. Livingstone and touch in a port of France. A frigate was denied
to Charles Pinckney and has been refused to Mr. King for his return.
Mr. Madison's friendship and mine to you being so well known, the
public will have eagle eyes to watch if we grant you any indulgencies
of the general rule; and on the other hand, the example set in your
case will be more cogent on future ones, and produce greater
approbation to our conduct. The allowance therefore will be in this
and all similar cases, all the expenses of your journey and voiage,
taking a ship's cabin to yourself, 9,000 D. a year from your leaving
home till the proceedings of your mission are terminated, and then
the quarter's salary for the expenses of the return as prescribed by
law. As to the time of your going you cannot too much hasten it, as
the moment in France is critical. St. Domingo delays their taking
possession of Louisiana, and they are in the last distress for money
for current purposes. You should arrange your affairs for an absence
of a year at least, perhaps for a long one. It will be necessary for
you to stay here some days on your way to New York. You will receive
here what advance you chuse. Accept assurances of my constant and
affectionate attachment.
CIVILIZATION OF THE INDIANS
_To Benjamin Hawkins_
_Washington, Feb. 18, 1803_
DEAR SIR, -- Mr. Hill's return to you offers so safe a
conveyance for a letter, that I feel irresistibly disposed to write
one, tho' there is but little to write about. You have been so long
absent from this part of the world, and the state of society so
changed in that time, that details respecting those who compose it
are no longer interesting or intelligible to you. One source of
great change in social intercourse arose while you were with us, tho'
it's effects were as yet scarcely sensible on society or government.
I mean the British treaty, which produced a schism that went on
widening and rankling till the years '98, '99, when a final
dissolution of all bonds, civil & social, appeared imminent. In that
awful crisis, the people awaked from the phrenzy into which they had
been thrown, began to return to their sober and ancient principles, &
have now become five-sixths of one sentiment, to wit, for peace,
economy, and a government bottomed on popular election in its
legislative & executive branches. In the public counsels the federal
party hold still one-third. This, however, will lessen, but not
exactly to the standard of the people; because it will be forever
seen that of bodies of men even elected by the people, there will
always be a greater proportion aristocratic than among their
constituents. The present administration had a task imposed on it
which was unavoidable, and could not fail to exert the bitterest
hostility in those opposed to it. The preceding administration left
99. out of every hundred in public offices of the federal sect.
Republicanism had been the mark on Cain which had rendered those who
bore it exiles from all portion in the trusts & authorities of their
country. This description of citizens called imperiously & justly
for a restoration of right. It was intended, however, to have
yielded to this in so moderate a degree as might conciliate those who
had obtained exclusive possession; but as soon as they were touched,
they endeavored to set fire to the four corners of the public fabric,
and obliged us to deprive of the influence of office several who were
using it with activity and vigilance to destroy the confidence of the
people in their government, and thus to proceed in the drudgery of
removal farther than would have been, had not their own hostile
enterprises rendered it necessary in self-defence. But I think it
will not be long before the whole nation will be consolidated in
their ancient principles, excepting a few who have committed
themselves beyond recall, and who will retire to obscurity & settled
disaffection.
Altho' you will receive, thro' the official channel of the War
Office, every communication necessary to develop to you our views
respecting the Indians, and to direct your conduct, yet, supposing it
will be satisfactory to you, and to those with whom you are placed,
to understand my personal dispositions and opinions in this
particular, I shall avail myself of this private letter to state them
generally. I consider the business of hunting as already become
insufficient to furnish clothing and subsistence to the Indians. The
promotion of agriculture, therefore, and household manufacture, are
essential in their preservation, and I am disposed to aid and
encourage it liberally. This will enable them to live on much
smaller portions of land, and indeed will render their vast forests
useless but for the range of cattle; for which purpose, also, as they
become better farmers, they will be found useless, and even
disadvantageous. While they are learning to do better on less land,
our increasing numbers will be calling for more land, and thus a
coincidence of interests will be produced between those who have
lands to spare, and want other necessaries, and those who have such
necessaries to spare, and want lands. This commerce, then, will be
for the good of both, and those who are friends to both ought to
encourage it. You are in the station peculiarly charged with this
interchange, and who have it peculiarly in your power to promote
among the Indians a sense of the superior value of a little land,
well cultivated, over a great deal, unimproved, and to encourage them
to make this estimate truly. The wisdom of the animal which
amputates & abandons to the hunter the parts for which he is pursued
should be theirs, with this difference, that the former sacrifices
what is useful, the latter what is not. In truth, the ultimate point
of rest & happiness for them is to let our settlements and theirs
meet and blend together, to intermix, and become one people.
Incorporating themselves with us as citizens of the U.S., this is
what the natural progress of things will of course bring on, and it
will be better to promote than to retard it. Surely it will be
better for them to be identified with us, and preserved in the
occupation of their lands, than be exposed to the many casualties
which may endanger them while a separate people. I have little doubt
but that your reflections must have led you to view the various ways
in which their history may terminate, and to see that this is the one
most for their happiness. And we have already had an application
from a settlement of Indians to become citizens of the U.S. It is
possible, perhaps probable, that this idea may be so novel as that it
might shock the Indians, were it even hinted to them. Of course, you
will keep it for your own reflection; but, convinced of its
soundness, I feel it consistent with pure morality to lead them
towards it, to familiarize them to the idea that it is for their
interest to cede lands at times to the U S, and for us thus to
procure gratifications to our citizens, from time to time, by new
acquisitions of land. From no quarter is there at present so strong
a pressure on this subject as from Georgia for the residue of the
fork of Oconee & Ockmulgee; and indeed I believe it will be difficult
to resist it. As it has been mentioned that the Creeks had at one
time made up their minds to sell this, and were only checked in it by
some indiscretions of an individual, I am in hopes you will be able
to bring them to it again. I beseech you to use your most earnest
endeavors; for it will relieve us here from a great pressure, and
yourself from the unreasonable suspicions of the Georgians which you
notice, that you are more attached to the interests of the Indians
than of the U S, and throw cold water on their willingness to part
with lands. It is so easy to excite suspicion, that none are to be
wondered at; but I am in hopes it will be in your power to quash them
by effecting the object.
Mr. Madison enjoys better health since his removal to this
place than he had done in Orange. Mr. Giles is in a state of health
feared to be irrecoverable, although he may hold on for some time,
and perhaps be re-established. Browze Trist is now in the
Mississippi territory, forming an establishment for his family, which
is still in Albemarle, and will remove to the Mississippi in the
spring. Mrs. Trist, his mother, begins to yield a little to time. I
retain myself very perfect health, having not had 20. hours of fever
in 42 years past. I have sometimes had a troublesome headache, and
some slight rheumatic pains; but now sixty years old nearly, I have
had as little to complain of in point of health as most people. I
learn you have the gout. I did not expect that Indian cookery or
Indian fare would produce that; but it is considered as a security
for good health otherwise. That it may be so with you, I sincerely
pray, and tender you my friendly and respectful salutations.
MACHIAVELLIAN BENEVOLENCE AND THE INDIANS
_To Governor William H. Harrison_
_Washington, February 27, 1803_
DEAR SIR, -- While at Monticello in August last I received your
favor of August 8th, and meant to have acknowledged it on my return
to the seat of government at the close of the ensuing month, but on
my return I found that you were expected to be on here in person, and
this expectation continued till winter. I have since received your
favor of December 30th.
In the former you mentioned the plan of the town which you had
done me the honor to name after me, and to lay out according to an
idea I had formerly expressed to you. I am thoroughly persuaded that
it will be found handsome and pleasant, and I do believe it to be the
best means of preserving the cities of America from the scourge of
the yellow fever, which being peculiar to our country, must be
derived from some peculiarity in it. That peculiarity I take to be
our cloudless skies. In Europe, where the sun does not shine more
than half the number of days in the year which it does in America,
they can build their town in a solid block with impunity; buthere a
constant sun produces too great an accumulation ofheat to admit that.
Ventilation is indispensably necessary. Experience has taught us
that in the open air of the country the yellow fever is not only not
generated,but ceases to be infectious. I cannot decidefrom the
drawing you sent me, whether you havelaid off streets round the
squares thus: (Illustration omitted) or only the diagonal streets
therein marked. The former was my idea, and is, I imagine, most
convenient.
You will receive herewith an answer to your letter as President
of the Convention; and from the Secretary of War you receive from
time to time information and instructions as to our Indian affairs.
These communications being for the public records, are restrained
always to particular objects and occasions; but this letter being
unofficial and private, I may with safety give you a more extensive
view of our policy respecting the Indians, that you may the better
comprehend the parts dealt out to you in detail through the official
channel, and observing the system of which they make a part, conduct
yourself in unison with it in cases where you are obliged to act
without instruction. Our system is to live in perpetual peace with
the Indians, to cultivate an affectionate attachment from them, by
everything just and liberal which we can do for them within the
bounds of reason, and by giving them effectual protection against
wrongs from our own people. The decrease of game rendering their
subsistence by hunting insufficient, we wish to draw them to
agriculture, to spinning and weaving. The latter branches they take
up with great readiness, because they fall to the women, who gain by
quitting the labors of the field for those which are exercised within
doors. When they withdraw themselves to the culture of a small piece
of land, they will perceive how useless to them are their extensive
forests, and will be willing to pare them off from time to time in
exchange for necessaries for their farms and families. To promote
this disposition to ex-change lands, which they have to spare and we
want, for necessaries, which we have to spare and they want, we
shallpush our trading uses, and be glad to see the good and
influential individuals among them run in debt, because we ob-serve
that when these debts get beyond what the individuals can pay, they
become willing to lop them off by a cession of lands. At our trading
houses, too, we mean to sell so low as merely to repay us cost and
charges, so as neither to lessen or enlarge our capital. This is
what private traders cannot do, for they must gain; they will
consequently retire from the competition, and we shall thus get clear
of this pest without giving offence or umbrage to the Indians. In
this way our settlements will gradually circumscribe and approach the
Indians, and they will in time either incorporate with us as citizens
of the United States, or remove beyond the Mississippi. The former
is certainly the termination of their history most happy for
themselves; but, in the whole course of this, it is essential to
cultivate their love. As to their fear, we presume that our strength
and their weakness is now so visible that they must see we have only
to shut our hand to crush them, and that all our liberalities to them
proceed from motives of pure humanity only. Should any tribe be
fool-hardy enough to take up the hatchet at any time, the seizing the
whole country of that tribe, and driving them across the Mississippi,
as the only condition of peace, would be an example to others, and a
furtherance of our final consolidation.
Combined with these views, and to be prepared against the
occupation of Louisiana by a powerful and enterprising people, it is
important that, setting less value on interior extension of purchases
from the Indians, we bend our whole views to the purchase and
settlement of the country on the Mississippi, from its mouth to its
northern regions, that we may be able to present as strong a front on
our western as on our eastern border, and plant on the Mississippi
itself the means of its own defence. We now own from 31 to the
Yazoo, and hope this summer to purchase what belongs to the Choctaws
from the Yazoo up to their boundary, supposed to be about opposite
the mouth of Acanza. We wish at the same time to begin in your
quarter, for which there is at present a favorable opening. The
Cahokias extinct, we are entitled to their country by our paramount
sovereignty. The Piorias, we understand, have all been driven off
from their country, and we might claim it in the same way; but as we
understand there is one chief remaining, who would, as the survivor
of the tribe, sell the right, it is better to give him such terms as
will make him easy for life, and take a conveyance from him. The
Kaskaskias being reduced to a few families, I presume we may purchase
their whole country for what would place every individual of them at
his ease, and be a small price to us, -- say by laying off for each
family, whenever they would choose it, as much rich land as they
could cultivate, adjacent to each other, enclosing the whole in a
single fence, and giving them such an annuity in money or goods
forever as would place them in happiness; and we might take them also
under the protection of the United States. Thus possessed of the
rights of these tribes, we should proceed to the settling their
boundaries with the Poutewatamies and Kickapoos; claiming all
doubtful territory, but paying them a price for the relinquishment of
their concurrent claim, and even prevailing on them, if possible, to
_cede_, for a price, such of their own unquestioned territory as
would give us a convenient northern boundary. Before broaching this,
and while we are bargaining with the Kaskaskies, the minds of the
Poutewatamies and Kickapoos should be soothed and conciliated by
liberalities and sincere assurances of friendship. Perhaps by
sending a well-qualified character to stay some time in Decoigne's
village, as if on other business, and to sound him and introduce the
subject by degrees to his mind and that of the other heads of
families, inculcating in the way of conversation, all those
considerations which prove the advantages they would receive by a
cession on these terms, the object might be more easily and
effectually obtained than by abruptly proposing it to them at a
formal treaty. Of the means, however, of obtaining what we wish, you
will be the best judge; and I have given you this view of the system
which we suppose will best promote the interests of the Indians and
ourselves, and finally consolidate our whole country to one nation
only; that you may be enabled the better to adapt your means to the
object, for this purpose we have given you a general commission for
treating. The crisis is pressing: whatever can now be obtained must
be obtained quickly. The occupation of New Orleans, hourly expected,
by the French, is already felt like a light breeze by the Indians.
You know the sentiments they entertain of that nation; under the hope
of their protection they will immediately stiffen against cessions of
lands to us. We had better, therefore, do at once what can now be
done.
I must repeat that this letter is to be considered as private
and friendly, and is not to control any particular instructions which
you may receive through official channel. You will also perceive how
sacredly it must be kept within your own breast, and especially how
improper to be understood by the Indians. For their interests and
their tranquillity it is best they should see only the present age of
their history. I pray you to accept assurances of my esteem and high
consideration.
JESUS, SOCRATES, AND OTHERS
_To Dr. Joseph Priestley_
_Washington, Apr. 9, 1803_
DEAR SIR, -- While on a short visit lately to Monticello, I
received from you a copy of your comparative view of Socrates &
Jesus, and I avail myself of the first moment of leisure after my
return to acknolege the pleasure I had in the perusal of it, and the
desire it excited to see you take up the subject on a more extensive
scale. In consequence of some conversation with Dr. Rush, in the
year 1798-99, I had promised some day to write him a letter giving
him my view of the Christian system. I have reflected often on it
since, & even sketched the outlines in my own mind. I should first
take a general view of the moral doctrines of the most remarkable of
the antient philosophers, of whose ethics we have sufficient
information to make an estimate, say of Pythagoras, Epicurus,
Epictetus, Socrates, Cicero, Seneca, Antoninus. I should do justice
to the branches of morality they have treated well; but point out the
importance of those in which they are deficient. I should then take
a view of the deism and ethics of the Jews, and show in what a
degraded state they were, and the necessity they presented of a
reformation. I should proceed to a view of the life, character, &
doctrines of Jesus, who sensible of incorrectness of their ideas of
the Deity, and of morality, endeavored to bring them to the
principles of a pure deism, and juster notions of the attributes of
God, to reform their moral doctrines to the standard of reason,
justice & philanthropy, and to inculcate the belief of a future
state. This view would purposely omit the question of his divinity,
& even his inspiration. To do him justice, it would be necessary to
remark the disadvantages his doctrines have to encounter, not having
been committed to writing by himself, but by the most unlettered of
men, by memory, long after they had heard them from him; when much
was forgotten, much misunderstood, & presented in very paradoxical
shapes. Yet such are the fragments remaining as to show a master
workman, and that his system of morality was the most benevolent &
sublime probably that has been ever taught, and consequently more
perfect than those of any of the antient philosophers. His character
& doctrines have received still greater injury from those who pretend
to be his special disciples, and who have disfigured and
sophisticated his actions & precepts, from views of personal
interest, so as to induce the unthinking part of mankind to throw off
the whole system in disgust, and to pass sentence as an impostor on
the most innocent, the most benevolent, the most eloquent and sublime
character that ever has been exhibited to man. This is the outline;
but I have not the time, & still less the information which the
subject needs. It will therefore rest with me in contemplation only.
You are the person who of all others would do it best, and most
promptly. You have all the materials at hand, and you put together
with ease. I wish you could be induced to extend your late work to
the whole subject. I have not heard particularly what is the state
of your health; but as it has been equal to the journey to
Philadelphia, perhaps it might encourage the curiosity you must feel
to see for once this place, which nature has formed on a beautiful
scale, and circumstances destine for a great one. As yet we are but
a cluster of villages; we cannot offer you the learned society of
Philadelphia; but you will have that of a few characters whom you
esteem, & a bed & hearty welcome with one who will rejoice in every
opportunity of testifying to you his high veneration & affectionate
attachment.
THE MORALS OF JESUS
_To Dr. Benjamin Rush, with a Syllabus_
_Washington, Apr. 21, 1803_
DEAR SIR, -- In some of the delightful conversations with you,
in the evenings of 1798-99, and which served as an anodyne to the
afflictions of the crisis through which our country was then
laboring, the Christian religion was sometimes our topic; and I then
promised you, that one day or other, I would give you my views of it.
They are the result of a life of inquiry & reflection, and very
different from that anti-Christian system imputed to me by those who
know nothing ofmy opinions. To the corruptions of Christianity I am
indeed opposed; but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself. I
am a Christian, in the only sense he wished any one to be; sincerely
attached to his doctrines, in preference to all others; ascribing to
himself every _human_ excellence; & believing he never claimed any
other. At the short intervals since these conversations, when I
could justifiably abstract my mind from public affairs, the subject
has been under my contemplation. But the more I considered it, the
more it expanded beyond the measure of either my time or information.
In the moment of my late departure from Monticello, I received from
Doctr Priestley, his little treatise of "Socrates & Jesus compared."
This being a section of the general view I had taken of the field, it
became a subject of reflection while on the road, and unoccupied
otherwise. The result was, to arrange in my mind a syllabus, or
outline of such an estimate of the comparative merits of
Christianity, as I wished to see executed by some one of more leisure
and information for the task, than myself. This I now send you, as
the only discharge of my promise I can probably ever execute. And in
confiding it to you, I know it will not be exposed to the malignant
perversions of those who make every word from me a text for new
misrepresentations & calumnies. I am moreover averse to the
communication of my religious tenets to the public; because it would
countenance the presumption of those who have endeavored to draw them
before that tribunal, and to seduce public opinion to erect itself
into that inquisition over the rights of conscience, which the laws
have so justly proscribed. It behoves every man who values liberty
of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of
others; or their case may, by change of circumstances, become his
own. It behoves him, too, in his own case, to give no example of
concession, betraying the common right of independent opinion, by
answering questions of faith, which the laws have left between God &
himself. Accept my affectionate salutations.
SYLLABUS OF AN ESTIMATE OF THE MERIT OF THE DOCTRINES OF JESUS,
COMPARED WITH THOSE OF OTHERS
_April, 1803_
In a comparative view of the Ethics of the enlightened nations
of antiquity, of the Jews and of Jesus, no notice should be taken of
the corruptions of reason among the ancients, to wit, the idolatry &
superstition of the vulgar, nor of the corruptions of Christianity by
the learned among its professors.
Let a just view be taken of the moral principles inculcated by
the most esteemed of the sects of ancient philosophy, or of their
individuals; particularly Pythagoras, Socrates, Epicurus, Cicero,
Epictetus, Seneca, Antoninus.
I. PHILOSOPHERS. 1. Their precepts related chiefly to
ourselves, and the government of those passions which, unrestrained,
would disturb our tranquillity of mind. In this branch of philosophy
they were really great.
2. In developing our duties to others, they were short and
defective. They embraced, indeed, the circles of kindred & friends,
and inculcated patriotism, or the love of our country in the
aggregate, as a primary obligation: toward our neighbors & countrymen
they taught justice, but scarcely viewed them as within the circle of
benevolence. Still less have they inculcated peace, charity & love
to our fellow men, or embraced with benevolence the whole family of
mankind.
II. JEWS. 1. Their system was Deism; that is, the belief of one
only God. But their ideas of him & of his attributes were degrading
& injurious.
2. Their Ethics were not only imperfect, but often
irreconcilable with the sound dictates of reason & morality, as they
respect intercourse with those around us; & repulsive & anti-social,
as respecting other nations. They needed reformation, therefore, in
an eminent degree.
III. JESUS. In this state of things among the Jews, Jesus
appeared. His parentage was obscure; his condition poor; his
education null; his natural endowments great; his life correct and
innocent: he was meek, benevolent, patient, firm, disinterested, & of
the sublimest eloquence.
The disadvantages under which his doctrines appear are
remarkable.
1. Like Socrates & Epictetus, he wrote nothing himself.
2. But he had not, like them, a Xenophon or an Arrian to write
for him. On the contrary, all the learned of his country, entrenched
in its power and riches, were opposed to him, lest his labors should
undermine their advantages; and the committing to writing his life &
doctrines fell on the most unlettered & ignorant men; who wrote, too,
from memory, & not till long after the transactions had passed.
3. According to the ordinary fate of those who attempt to
enlighten and reform mankind, he fell an early victim to the jealousy
& combination of the altar and the throne, at about 33. years of age,
his reason having not yet attained the _maximum_ of its energy, nor
the course of his preaching, which was but of 3. years at most,
presented occasions for developing a complete system of morals.
4. Hence the doctrines which he really delivered were defective
as a whole, and fragments only of what he did deliver have come to us
mutilated, misstated, & often unintelligible.
5. They have been still more disfigured by the corruptions of
schismatising followers, who have found an interest in sophisticating
& perverting the simple doctrines he taught by engrafting on them the
mysticisms of a Grecian sophist, frittering them into subtleties, &
obscuring them with jargon, until they have caused good men to reject
the whole in disgust, & to view Jesus himself as an impostor.
Notwithstanding these disadvantages, a system of morals is
presented to us, which, if filled up in the true style and spirit of
the rich fragments he left us, would be the most perfect and sublime
that has ever been taught by man.
The question of his being a member of the Godhead, or in direct
communication with it, claimed for him by some of his followers, and
denied by others, is foreign to the present view, which is merely an
estimate of the intrinsic merit of his doctrines.
1. He corrected the Deism of the Jews, confirming them in their
belief of one only God, and giving them juster notions of his
attributes and government.
2. His moral doctrines, relating to kindred & friends, were
more pure & perfect than those of the most correct of the
philosophers, and greatly more so than those of the Jews; and they
went far beyond both in inculcating universal philanthropy, not only
to kindred and friends, to neighbors and countrymen, but to all
mankind, gathering all into one family, under the bonds of love,
charity, peace, common wants and common aids. A development of this
head will evince the peculiar superiority of the system of Jesus over
all others.
3. The precepts of philosophy, & of the Hebrew code, laid hold
of actions only. He pushed his scrutinies into the heart of man;
erected his tribunal in the region of his thoughts, and purified the
waters at the fountain head.
4. He taught, emphatically, the doctrines of a future state,
which was either doubted, or disbelieved by the Jews; and wielded it
with efficacy, as an important incentive, supplementary to the other
motives to moral conduct.
EXPEDITION TO THE PACIFIC
_Instructions to Captain Lewis_
_June 20, 1803_
To Merryweather Lewis, Esq., Captain of the 1st Regiment of
Infantry of the United States of America.
Your situation as Secretary of the President of the United
States has made you acquainted with the objects of my confidential
message of Jan. 18, 1803, to the legislature. You have seen the act
they passed, which, tho' expressed in general terms, was meant to
sanction those objects, and you are appointed to carry them into
execution.
Instruments for ascertaining by celestial observations the
geography of the country thro' which you will pass, have been already
provided. Light articles for barter, & presents among the Indians,
arms for your attendants, say for from 10 to 12 men, boats, tents, &
other travelling apparatus, with ammunition, medicine, surgical
instruments & provision you will have prepared with such aids as the
Secretary at War can yield in his department; & from him also you
will receive authority to engage among our troops, by voluntary
agreement, the number of attendants above mentioned, over whom you,
as their commanding officer are invested with all the powers the laws
give in such a case.
As your movements while within the limits of the U.S. will be
better directed by occasional communications, adapted to
circumstances as they arise, they will not be noticed here. What
follows will respect your proceedings after your departure from the
U.S.
Your mission has been communicated to the Ministers here from
France, Spain, & Great Britain, and through them to their
governments: and such assurances given them as to it's objects as we
trust will satisfy them. The country of Louisiana having been ceded
by Spain to France, the passport you have from the Minister of
France, the representative of the present sovereign of the country,
will be a protection with all it's subjects: And that from the
Minister of England will entitle you to the friendly aid of any
traders of that allegiance with whom you may happen to meet.
The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri river, &
such principal stream of it, as, by it's course & communication with
the water of the Pacific Ocean may offer the most direct &
practicable water communication across this continent, for the
purposes of commerce.
Beginning at the mouth of the Missouri, you will take
observations of latitude and longitude at all remarkable points on
the river, & especially at the mouths of rivers, at rapids, at
islands & other places & objects distinguished by such natural marks
& characters of a durable kind, as that they may with certainty be
recognized hereafter. The courses of the river between these points
of observation may be supplied by the compass, the log-line & by
time, corrected by the observations themselves. The variations of
the compass too, in different places should be noticed.
The interesting points of the portage between the heads of the
Missouri & the water offering the best communication with the Pacific
Ocean should be fixed by observation & the course of that water to
the ocean, in the same manner as that of the Missouri.
Your observations are to be taken with great pains & accuracy,
to be entered distinctly, & intelligibly for others as well as
yourself, to comprehend all the elements necessary, with the aid of
the usual tables to fix the latitude & longitude of the places at
which they were taken, & are to be rendered to the war office, for
the purpose of having the calculations made concurrently by proper
persons within the U.S. Several copies of these as well as of your
other notes, should be made at leisure times & put into the care of
the most trustworthy of your attendants, to guard by multiplying them
against the accidental losses to which they will be exposed. A
further guard would be that one of these copies be written on the
paper of the birch, as less liable to injury from damp than common
paper.
The commerce which may be carried on with the people inhabiting
the line you will pursue, renders a knolege of these people
important. You will therefore endeavor to make yourself acquainted,
as far as a diligent pursuit of your journey shall admit.
with the names of the nations & their numbers;
the extent & limits of their possessions;
their relations with other tribes or nations;
their language, traditions, monuments;
their ordinary occupations in agriculture, fishing, hunting,
war, arts, & the implements for these;
their food, clothing, & domestic accommodations;
the diseases prevalent among them, & the remedies they
use;
moral and physical circumstance which distinguish them
from the tribes they know;
peculiarities in their laws, customs & dispositions;
and articles of commerce they may need or furnish & to
what extent.
And considering the interest which every nation has in
extending & strengthening the authority of reason & justice among the
people around them, it will be useful to acquire what knolege you can
of the state of morality, religion & information among them, as it
may better enable those who endeavor to civilize & instruct them, to
adapt their measures to the existing notions & practises of those on
whom they are to operate.
Other objects worthy of notice will be
the soil & face of the country, its growth & vegetable
productions; especially those not of the U.S.
the animals of the country generally, & especially those not
known in the U.S.
The remains & accounts of any which may be deemed rare or
extinct;
the mineral productions of every kind; but more particularly
metals, limestone, pit coal & saltpetre; salines & mineral waters,
noting the temperature of the last & such circumstances as may
indicate their character; volcanic appearances;
climate as characterized by the thermometer, by the proportion
of rainy, cloudy & clear days, by lightening, hail, snow, ice, by the
access & recess of frost, by the winds, prevailing at different
seasons, the dates at which particular plants put forth or lose their
flowers, or leaf, times of appearance of particular birds, reptiles
or insects.
Altho' your route will be along the channel of the Missouri,
yet you will endeavor to inform yourself by inquiry, of the character
and extent of the country watered by its branches, and especially on
it's southern side. The north river or Rio Bravo which runs into the
gulph of Mexico, and the north river, or Rio colorado, which runs
into the gulph of California, are understood to be the principal
streams heading opposite to the waters of the Missouri, & running
Southwardly. Whether the dividing grounds between the Missouri &
them are mountains or flatlands, what are their distance from the
Missouri, the character of the intermediate country, & the people
inhabiting it, are worthy of particular enquiry. The northern waters
of the Missouri are less to be enquired after, because they have been
ascertained to a considerable degree, and are still in a course of
ascertainment by English traders & travellers. But if you can learn
anything certain of the most northern source of the Mississippi, & of
it's position relative to the lake of the woods, it will be
interesting to us. Some account too of the path of the Canadian
traders from the Mississippi, at the mouth of the Ouisconsin river,
to where it strikes the Missouri and of the soil and rivers in it's
course, is desirable.
In all your intercourse with the natives treat them in the most
friendly & conciliatory manner which their own conduct will admit;
allay all jealousies as to the object of your journey, satisfy them
of it's innocence, make them acquainted with the position, extent,
character, peaceable & commercial dispositions of the U.S., of our
wish to be neighborly, friendly & useful to them, & of our
dispositions to a commercial intercourse with them; confer with them
on the points most convenient as mutual emporiums, & the articles of
most desirable interchange for them & us. If a few of their
influential chiefs, within practicable distance, wish to visit us,
arrange such a visit with them, and furnish them with authority to
call on our officers, on their entering the U.S. to have them
conveyed to this place at the public expense. If any of them should
wish to have some of their young people brought up with us, & taught
such arts as may be useful to them, we will receive, instruct & take
care of them. Such a mission, whether of influential chiefs, or of
young people, would give some security to your own party. Carry with
you some matter of the kine-pox, inform those of them with whom you
may be of it's efficacy as a preservative from the small-pox; and
instruct & encourage them in the use of it. This may be especially
done wherever you may winter.
As it is impossible for us to foresee in what manner you will
be received by those people, whether with hospitality or hostility,
so is it impossible to prescribe the exact degree of perseverance
with which you are to pursue your journey. We value too much the
lives of citizens to offer them to probably destruction. Your
numbers will be sufficient to secure you against the unauthorized
opposition of individuals, or of small parties: but if a superior
force, authorized or not authorized, by a nation, should be arrayed
against your further passage, & inflexibly determined to arrest it,
you must decline it's further pursuit, & return. In the loss of
yourselves, we should lose also the information you will have
acquired. By returning safely with that, you may enable us to renew
the essay with better calculated means. To your own discretion
therefore must be left the degree of danger you may risk, & the point
at which you should decline, only saying we wish you to err on the
side of your safety, & to bring back your party safe, even if it be
with less information.
As far up the Missouri as the white settlements extend, an
intercourse will probably be found to exist between them and the
Spanish posts at St. Louis, opposite Cahokia, or Ste. Genevieve
opposite Kaskaskia. From still farther up the river, the traders may
furnish a conveyance for letters. Beyond that you may perhaps be
able to engage Indians to bring letters for the government to Cahokia
or Kaskaskia on promising that they shall there receive such special
compensation as you shall have stipulated with them. Avail yourself
of these means to communicate to us at seasonable intervals a copy of
your journal, notes & observations of every kind, putting into cipher
whatever might do injury if betrayed.
Should you reach the Pacific Ocean inform yourself of the
circumstances which may decide whether the furs of those parts may
not be collected as advantageously at the head of the Missouri
(convenient as is supposed to the waters of the Colorado & Oregon or
Columbia) as at Nootka Sound or any other point of that coast; & that
trade be consequently conducted through the Missouri & U.S. more
beneficially than by the circumnavigation now practised.
On your arrival on that coast endeavor to learn if there be any
port within your reach frequented by the sea-vessels of any nation,
and to send two of your trusted people back by sea, in such way as
shall appear practicable, with a copy of your notes. And should you
be of opinion that the return of your party by the way they went will
be eminently dangerous, then ship the whole, & return by sea by way
of Cape Horn or the Cape of Good Hope, as you shall be able. As you
will be without money, clothes or provisions, you must endeavor to
use the credit of the U.S. to obtain them; for which purpose open
letters of credit shall be furnished you authorizing you to draw on
the Executive of the U.S. or any of its officers in any part of the
world, in which drafts can be disposed of, and to apply with our
recommendations to the consuls, agents, merchants or citizens of any
nation with which we have intercourse, assuring them in our name that
any aids they may furnish you, shall be honorably repaid and on
demand. Our consuls Thomas Howes at Batavia in Java, William
Buchanan of the Isles of France and Bourbon & John Elmslie at the
Cape of Good Hope will be able to supply your necessities by drafts
on us.
Should you find it safe to return by the way you go, after
sending two of your party round by sea, or with your whole party, if
no conveyance by sea can be found, do so; making such observations on
your return as may serve to supply, correct or confirm those made on
your outward journey.
In re-entering the U.S. and reaching a place of safety,
discharge any of your attendants who may desire & deserve it:
procuring for them immediate paiment of all arrears of pay &
cloathing which may have incurred since their departure & assure them
that they shall be recommended to the liberality of the Legislature
for the grant of a souldier's portion of land each, as proposed in my
message to Congress: & repair yourself with your papers to the seat
of government.
To provide, on the accident of your death, against anarchy,
dispersion & the consequent danger to your party, and total failure
of the enterprise, you are hereby authorized by any instrument signed
& written in your own hand to name the person among them who shall
succeed to the command on your decease, & by like instruments to
change the nomination from time to time, as further experience of the
characters accompanying you shall point out superior fitness: and all
the powers & authorities given to yourself are, in the event of your
death transferred to & vested in the successor so named, with further
power to him, & his successors in like manner to name each his
successor, who, on the death of his predecessor shall be invested
with all the powers & authorities given to yourself.
Given under my hand at the city of Washington, this 20th day of
June, 1803.
A NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY
_To Sir John Sinclair_
_Washington, June 30, 1803_
DEAR SIR, -- It is so long since I have had the pleasure of
writing to you, that it would be vain to look back to dates to
connect the old and the new. Yet I ought not to pass over my
acknowledgments to you for various publications received from time to
time, and with great satisfaction and thankfulness. I send you a
small one in return, the work of a very unlettered farmer, yet
valuable, as it relates plain facts of importance to farmers. You
will discover that Mr. Binns is an enthusiast for the use of gypsum.
But there are two facts which prove he has a right to be so: 1. He
began poor, andhas made himself tolerably rich by his farming alone.
2. The county of Loudon, in which he lives, had been so exhausted and
wasted by bad husbandry, that it began to depopulate, the inhabitants
going Southwardly in quest of better lands. Binns' success has
stopped that emigration. It is now becoming one of the most
productive counties of the State of Virginia, and the price given for
the lands is multiplied manifold.
We are still uninformed here whether you are again at war.
Bonaparte has produced such a state of things in Europe as it would
seem difficult for him to relinquish in any sensible degree, and
equally dangerous for Great Britain to suffer to go on, especially if
accompanied by maritime preparations on his part. The events which
have taken place in France have lessened in the American mind the
motives of interest which it felt in that revolution, and its amity
towards that country now rests on its love of peace and commerce. We
see, at the same time, with great concern, the position in which
Great Britain is placed, and should be sincerely afflicted were any
disaster to deprive mankind of the benefit of such a bulwark against
the torrent which has for some time been bearing down all before it.
But her power and powers at sea seem to render everything safe in the
end. Peace is our passion, and the wrongs might drive us from it.
We prefer trying _ever_ other just principles, right and safety,
before we would recur to war.
I hope your agricultural institution goes on with success. I
consider you as the author of all the good it shall do. A better
idea has never been carried into practice. Our agricultural society
has at length formed itself. Like our American Philosophical
Society, it is voluntary, and unconnected with the public, and is
precisely an execution of the plan I formerly sketched to you. Some
State societies have been formed heretofore; the others will do the
same. Each State society names two of its members of Congress to be
their members in the Central society, which is of course together
during the sessions of Congress. They are to select matter from the
proceedings of the State societies, and to publish it; so that their
publications may be called _l'esprit des societes d'agriculture_, &c.
The Central society was formed the last winter only, so that it will
be some time before they get under way. Mr. Madison, the Secretary
of State, was elected their President.
Recollecting with great satisfaction our friendly intercourse
while I was in Europe, I nourish the hope it still preserves a place
in your mind; and with my salutations, I pray you to accept
assurances of my constant attachment and high respect.
PEACE FOUNDED ON INTEREST
_To the Earl of Buchan_
_Washington, July 10, 1803_
MY LORD, -- I received, through the hands of Mr. Lenox, on his
return to the United States, the valuable volume you were so good as
to send me on the life and writings of Fletcher, of Saltoun. The
political principles of that patriot were worthy the purest periods
of the British Constitution; they are those which were in vigor at
the epoch of the American emigration. Our ancestors brought them
here, and they needed little strengthening to make us what we are.
But in the weakened condition of English whigism at this day, it
requires more firmness to publish and advocate them than it then did
to act on them. This merit is peculiarly your Lordship's; and no one
honors it more than myself. While I freely admit the right of a
nation to change its political principles and constitution at will,
and the impropriety of any but its own citizens censuring that
change, I expect your Lordship has been disappointed, as I
acknowledge I have been, in the issue of the convulsions on the other
side the channel. This has certainly lessened the interest which the
philanthropist warmly felt in those struggles. Without befriending
human liberty, a gigantic force has risen up which seems to threaten
the world. But it hangs on the thread of opinion, which may break
from one day to another. I feel real anxiety on the conflict to
which imperious circumstances seem to call your nation, and bless the
Almighty Being, who, in gathering together the waters under the
heavens into one place, divided the dry land of your hemisphere from
the dry lands of ours, and said, at least be there peace. I hope
that peace and amity with all nations will long be the character of
our land, and that its prosperity under the Charter will react on the
mind of Europe, and profit her by the example. My hope of preserving
peace for our country is not founded in the greater principles of
non-resistance under every wrong, but in the belief that a just and
friendly conduct on our part will procure justice and friendship from
others. In the existing contest, each of the combatants will find an
interest in our friendship. I cannot say we shall be unconcerned
spectators of this combat. We feel for human sufferings, and we wish
the good of all. We shall look on, therefore, with the sensations
which these dispositions and the events of the war will produce.
I feel a pride in the justice which your Lordship's sentiments
render to the character of my illustrious countryman, Washington.
The moderation of his desires, and the strength of his judgment,
enabled him to calculate correctly, that the road to that glory which
never dies is to use power for the support of the laws and liberties
of our country, not for their destruction; and his will accordingly
survives the wreck of everything now living.
Accept, my lord, the tribute of esteem, from one who renders it
with warmth to the disinterested friend of mankind, and assurances of
my high consideration and respect.
PHILOSOPHY AND BLASTED HOPES
_To Pierre J. G. Cabanis_
_Washington, July 12, 1803_
DEAR SIR, -- I lately received your friendly letter of 28
Vendem. an. 11, with the two volumes on the relations between the
physical and moral faculties of man. This has ever been a subject of
great interest to the inquisitive mind, and it could not have got
into better hands for discussion than yours. That thought may be a
faculty of our material organization, has been believed in the gross;
and though the "modus operandi" of nature, in this, as in most other
cases, can never be developed and demonstrated to beings limited as
we are, yet I feel confident you will have conducted us as far on the
road as we can go, and have lodged us within reconnoitering distance
of the citadel itself. While _here_, I have time to read nothing.
But our annual recess for the months of August and September is now
approaching, during which time I shall be at the Montrials, where I
anticipate great satisfaction in the presence of these volumes. It
is with great satisfaction, too, I recollect the agreeable hours I
have past with yourself and M. de La Roche, at the house of our late
excellent friend, Madame Helvetius, and elsewhere; and I am happy to
learn you continue your residence there. Antevil always appeared to
me a delicious village, and Madame Helvetius's the most delicious
spot in it. In those days how sanguine we were! and how soon were
the virtuous hopes and confidence of every good man blasted! and how
many excellent friends have we lost in your efforts towards
self-government, _et cui bono_? But let us draw a veil over the
dead, and hope the best for the living. If the hero who has saved
you from a combination of enemies, shall also be the means of giving
you as great a portion of liberty as the opinions, habits and
character of the nation are prepared for, progressive preparation may
fit you for progressive portions of that first of blessings, and you
may in time attain what we erred in supposing could be hastily seized
and maintained, in the present state of political information among
your citizens at large. In this way all may end well.
You are again at war, I find. But we, I hope, shall be
permitted to run the race of peace. Your government has wisely
removed what certainly endangered collision between us. I now see
nothing which need ever interrupt the friendship between France and
this country. Twenty years of peace, and the prosperity so visibly
flowing from it, have but strengthened our attachment to it, and the
blessings it brings, and we do not despair of being always a
peaceable nation. We think that peaceable means may be devised of
keeping nations in the path of justice towards us, by making justice
their interest, and injuries to react on themselves. Our distance
enables us to pursue a course which the crowded situation of Europe
renders perhaps impracticable there.
Be so good as to accept for yourself and M. de La Roche, my
friendly salutations, and assurances of great consideration and
respect.
THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE
_To John C. Breckinridge_
_Monticello, Aug. 12, 1803_
DEAR SIR, -- The enclosed letter, tho' directed to you, was
intended to me also, and was left open with a request, that when
perused, I would forward it to you. It gives me occasion to write a
word to you on the subject of Louisiana, which being a new one, an
interchange of sentiments may produce correct ideas before we are to
act on them.
Our information as to the country is very incompleat; we have
taken measures to obtain it in full as to the settled part, which I
hope to receive in time for Congress. The boundaries, which I deem
not admitting question, are the high lands on the western side of the
Missisipi enclosing all it's waters, the Missouri of course, and
terminating in the line drawn from the northwestern point of the Lake
of the Woods to the nearest source of the Missipi, as lately settled
between Gr Britain and the U S. We have some claims, to extend on
the sea coast Westwardly to the Rio Norte or Bravo, and better, to go
Eastwardly to the Rio Perdido, between Mobile & Pensacola, the
antient boundary of Louisiana. These claims will be a subject of
negociation with Spain, and if, as soon as she is at war, we push
them strongly with one hand, holding out a price in the other, we
shall certainly obtain the Floridas, and all in good time. In the
meanwhile, without waiting for permission, we shall enter into the
exercise of the natural right we have always insisted on with Spain,
to wit, that of a nation holding the upper part of streams, having a
right of innocent passage thro' them to the ocean. We shall prepare
her to see us practise on this, & she will not oppose it by force.
Objections are raising to the Eastward against the vast extent
of our boundaries, and propositions are made to exchange Louisiana,
or a part of it, for the Floridas. But, as I have said, we shall get
the Floridas without, and I would not give one inch of the waters of
the Mississippi to any nation, because I see in a light very
important to our peace the exclusive right to it's navigation, & the
admission of no nation into it, but as into the Potomak or Delaware,
with our consent & under our police. These federalists see in this
acquisition the formation of a new confederacy, embracing all the
waters of the Missipi, on both sides of it, and a separation of it's
Eastern waters from us. These combinations depend on so many
circumstances which we cannot foresee, that I place little reliance
on them. We have seldom seen neighborhood produce affection among
nations. The reverse is almost the universal truth. Besides, if it
should become the great interest of those nations to separate from
this, if their happiness should depend on it so strongly as to induce
them to go through that convulsion, why should the Atlantic States
dread it? But especially why should we, their present inhabitants,
take side in such a question? When I view the Atlantic States,
procuring for those on the Eastern waters of the Missipi friendly
instead of hostile neighbors on it's Western waters, I do not view it
as an Englishman would the procuring future blessings for the French
nation, with whom he has no relations of blood or affection. The
future inhabitants of the Atlantic & Missipi States will be our sons.
We leave them in distinct but bordering establishments. We think we
see their happiness in their union, & we wish it. Events may prove
it otherwise; and if they see their interest in separation, why
should we take side with our Atlantic rather than our Missipi
descendants? It is the elder and the younger son differing. God
bless them both, & keep them in union, if it be for their good, but
separate them, if it be better. The inhabited part of Louisiana,
from Point Coupee to the sea, will of course be immediately a
territorial government, and soon a State. But above that, the best
use we can make of the country for some time, will be to give
establishments in it to the Indians on the East side of the Missipi,
in exchange for their present country, and open land offices in the
last, & thus make this acquisition the means of filling up the
Eastern side, instead of drawing off it's population. When we shall
be full on this side, we may lay off a range of States on the Western
bank from the head to the mouth, & so, range after range, advancing
compactly as we multiply.
This treaty must of course be laid before both Houses, because
both have important functions to exercise respecting it. They, I
presume, will see their duty to their country in ratifying & paying
for it, so as to secure a good which would otherwise probably be
never again in their power. But I suppose they must then appeal to
_the nation_ for an additional article to the Constitution, approving
& confirming an act which the nation had not previously authorized.
The constitution has made no provision for our holding foreign
territory, still less for incorporating foreign nations into our
Union. The Executive in seizing the fugitive occurrence which so
much advances the good of their country, have done an act beyond the
Constitution. The Legislature in casting behind them metaphysical
subtleties, and risking themselves like faithful servants, must
ratify & pay for it, and throw themselves on their country for doing
for them unauthorized what we know they would have done for
themselves had they been in a situation to do it. It is the case of
a guardian, investing the money of his ward in purchasing an
important adjacent territory; & saying to him when of age, I did this
for your good; I pretend to no right to bind you: you may disavow me,
and I must get out of the scrape as I can: I thoughtit my duty to
risk myself for you. But we shall not be disavowed by the nation,
and their act of indemnity will confirm & not weaken the
Constitution, by more strongly marking out its lines.
We have nothing later from Europe than the public papers give.
I hope yourself and all the Western members will make a sacred point
of being at the first day of the meeting of Congress; for _vestra res
agitur._
Accept my affectionate salutations & assurances of esteem &
respect.
A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT
_To Wilson Cary Nicholas_
_Monticello, Sep. 7, 1803_
DEAR SIR, -- Your favor of the 3d was delivered me at court;
but we were much disappointed at not seeing you here, Mr. Madison &
the Gov. being here at the time. I enclose you a letter from Monroe
on the subject of the late treaty. You will observe a hint in it, to
do without delay what we are bound to do. There is reason, in the
opinion of our ministers, to believe, that if the thing were to do
over again, it could not be obtained, & that if we give the least
opening, they will declare the treaty void. A warning amounting to
that has been given to them, & an unusual kind of letter written by
their minister to our Secretary of State, direct. Whatever Congress
shall think it necessary to do, should be done with as little debate
as possible, & particularly so far as respects the constitutional
difficulty. I am aware of the force of the observations you make on
the power given by the Constn to Congress, to admit new States into
the Union, without restraining the subject to the territory then
constituting the U S. But when I consider that the limits of the U S
are precisely fixed by the treaty of 1783, that the Constitution
expressly declares itself to be made for the U S, I cannot help
believing the intention was to permit Congress to admit into the
Union new States, which should be formed out of the territory for
which, & under whose authority alone, they were then acting. I do
not believe it was meant that they might receive England, Ireland,
Holland, &c. into it, which would be the case on your construction.
When an instrument admits two constructions, the one safe, the other
dangerous, the one precise, the other indefinite, I prefer that which
is safe & precise. I had rather ask an enlargement of power from the
nation, where it is found necessary, than to assume it by a
construction which would make our powers boundless. Our peculiar
security is in possession of a written Constitution. Let us not make
it a blank paper by construction. I say the same as to the opinion
of those who consider the grant of the treaty making power as
boundless. If it is, then we have no Constitution. If it has
bounds, they can be no others than the definitions of the powers
which that instrument gives. It specifies & delineates the
operations permitted to the federal government, and gives all the
powers necessary to carry these into execution. Whatever of these
enumerated objects is proper for a law, Congress may make the law;
whatever is proper to be executed by way of a treaty, the President &
Senate may enter into the treaty; whatever is to be done by a
judicial sentence, the judges may pass the sentence. Nothing is more
likely than that their enumeration of powers is defective. This is
the ordinary case of all human works. Let us go on then perfecting
it, by adding, by way of amendment to the Constitution, those powers
which time & trial show are still wanting. But it has been taken too
much for granted, that by this rigorous construction the treaty power
would be reduced to nothing. I had occasion once to examine its
effect on the French treaty, made by the old Congress, & found that
out of thirty odd articles which that contained, there were one, two,
or three only which could not now be stipulated under our present
Constitution. I confess, then, I think it important, in the present
case, to set an example against broad construction, by appealing for
new power to the people. If, however, our friends shall think
differently, certainly I shall acquiesce with satisfaction;
confiding, that the good sense of our country will correct the evil
of construction when it shall produce ill effects.
No apologies for writing or speaking to me freely are
necessary. On the contrary, nothing my friends can do is so dear to
me, & proves to me their friendship so clearly, as the information
they give me of their sentiments & those of others on interesting
points where I am to act, and where information & warning is so
essential to excite in me that due reflection which ought to precede
action. I leave this about the 21st, and shall hope the District
Court will give me an opportunity of seeing you.
Accept my affectionate salutations, & assurances of cordial
esteem & respect.
JESUS, LOUISIANA, AND MALTHUS
_To Dr. Joseph Priestley_
_Washington, Jan. 29, 1804_
DEAR SIR, -- Your favor of December 12 came duly to hand, as
did the 2'd. letter to Doctor Linn, and the treatise of Phlogiston,
for which I pray you to accept my thanks. The copy for Mr.
Livingston has been delivered, together with your letter to him, to
Mr. Harvie, my secretary, who departs in a day or two for Paris, &
will deliver them himself to Mr. Livingston, whose attention to your
matter cannot be doubted. I have also to add my thanks to Mr.
Priestley, your son, for the copy of your Harmony, which I have gone
through with great satisfaction. It is the first I have been able to
meet with, which is clear of those long repetitions of the same
transaction, as if it were a different one because related with some
different circumstances.
I rejoice that you have undertaken the task of comparing the
moral doctrines of Jesus with those of the ancient Philosophers. You
are so much in possession of the whole subject, that you will do it
easier & better than any other person living. I think you cannot
avoid giving, as preliminary to the comparison, a digest of his moral
doctrines, extracted in his own words from the Evangelists, and
leaving out everything relative to his personal history and
character. It would be short and precious. With a view to do this
for my own satisfaction, I had sent to Philadelphia to get two
testaments Greek of the same edition, & two English, with a design to
cut out the morsels of morality, and paste them on the leaves of a
book, in the manner you describe as having been pursued in forming
your Harmony. But I shall now get the thing done by better hands.
I very early saw that Louisiana was indeed a speck in our
horizon which was to burst in a tornado; and the public are
unapprized how near this catastrophe was. Nothing but a frank &
friendly development of causes & effects on our part, and good sense
enough in Bonaparte to see that the train was unavoidable, and would
change the face of the world, saved us from that storm. I did not
expect he would yield till a war took place between France and
England, and my hope was to palliate and endure, if Messrs. Ross,
Morris, &c. did not force a premature rupture, until that event. I
believed the event not very distant, but acknolege it came on sooner
than I had expected. Whether, however, the good sense of Bonaparte
might not see the course predicted to be necessary & unavoidable,
even before a war should be imminent, was a chance which we thought
it our duty to try; but the immediate prospect of rupture brought the
case to immediate decision. The _denoument_ has been happy; and I
confess I look to this duplication of area for the extending a
government so free and economical as ours, as a great achievement to
the mass of happiness which is to ensue. Whether we remain in one
confederacy, or form into Atlantic and Mississippi confederacies, I
believe not very important to the happiness of either part. Those of
the western confederacy will be as much our children & descendants as
those of the eastern, and I feel myself as much identified with that
country, in future time, as with this; and did I now foresee a
separation at some future day, yet I should feel the duty & the
desire to promote the western interests as zealously as the eastern,
doing all the good for both portions of our future family which
should fall within my power.
Have you seen the new work of Malthus on population? It is one
of the ablest I have ever seen. Altho' his main object is to
delineate the effects of redundancy of population, and to test the
poor laws of England, & other palliations for that evil, several
important questions in political economy, allied to his subject
incidentally, are treated with a masterly hand. It is a single 4'to.
volume, and I have been only able to read a borrowed copy, the only
one I have yet heard of. Probably our friends in England will think
of you, & give you an opportunity of reading it. Accept my
affectionate salutations, and assurances of great esteem & respect.
MALTHUS AND THE NEW WORLD
_To Jean Baptiste Say_
_Washington, February 1, 1804_
DEAR SIR, -- I have to acknowledge the receipt of your obliging
letter, and with it, of two very interesting volumes on Political
Economy. These found me engaged in giving the leisure moments I
rarely find, to the perusal of Malthus' work on population, a work of
sound logic, in which some of the opinions of Adam Smith, as well as
of the economists, are ably examined. I was pleased, on turning to
some chapters where you treat the same questions, to find his
opinions corroborated by yours. I shall proceed to the reading of
your work with great pleasure. In the meantime, the present
conveyance, by a gentleman of my family going to Paris, is too safe
to hazard a delay in making my acknowledgments for this mark of
attention, and for having afforded to me a satisfaction, which the
ordinary course of literary communications could not have given me
for a considerable time.
The differences of circumstance between this and the old
countries of Europe, furnish differences of fact whereon to reason,
in questions of political economy, and will consequently produce
sometimes a difference of result. There, for instance, the quantity
of food is fixed, or increasing in a slow and only arithmetical
ratio, and the proportion is limited by the same ratio.
Supernumerary births consequently add only to your mortality. Here
the immense extent of uncultivated and fertile lands enables every
one who will labor to marry young, and to raise a family of any size.
Our food, then, may increase geometrically with our laborers, and our
births, however multiplied, become effective. Again, there the best
distribution of labor is supposed to be that which places the
manufacturing hands alongside the agricultural; so that the one part
shall feed both, and the other part furnish both with clothes and
other comforts. Would that be best here? Egoism and first
appearances say yes. Or would it be better that all our laborers
should be employed in agriculture? In this case a double or treble
portion of fertile lands would be brought into culture; a double or
treble creation of food be produced, and its surplus go to nourish
the now perishing births of Europe, who in return would manufacture
and send us in exchange our clothes and other comforts. Morality
listens to this, and so invariably do the laws of nature create our
duties and interests, that when they seem to be at variance, we ought
to suspect some fallacy in our reasonings. In solving this question,
too, we should allow its just weight to the moral and physical
preference of the agricultural, over the manufacturing, man. My
occupations permit me only to ask questions. They deny me the time,
if I had the information, to answer them. Perhaps, as worthy the
attention of the author of the Traite d'Economie Politique, I shall
find them answered in that work. If they are not, the reason will
have been that you wrote for Europe; while I shall have asked them
because I think for America. Accept, Sir, my respectful salutations,
and assurances of great consideration.
GRIEF AND GRIEVANCES
_To Abigail Adams_
_Washington, June 13, 1804_
DEAR MADAM -- The affectionate sentiments which you have had
the goodness to express in your letter of May 20. towards my dear
departed daughter, have awakened in me sensibilities natural to the
occasion, and recalled your kindnesses to her which I shall ever
remember with gratitude and friendship. I can assure you with truth
they had made an indelible impression on her mind, and that, to the
last, on our meetings after long separations, whether I had heard
lately of you, and how you did, were among the earliest of her
enquiries. In giving you this assurance I perform a sacred duty for
her, and at the same time am thankful for the occasion furnished me
of expressing my regret that circumstances should have arisen which
have seemed to draw a line of separation between us. The friendship
with which you honoured me has ever been valued, and fully
reciprocated; and altho' events have been passing which might be
trying to some minds, I never believed yours to be of that kind, nor
felt that my own was. Neither my estimate of your character, nor the
esteem founded in that, have ever been lessened for a single moment,
although doubts whether it would be acceptable may have forbidden
manifestations of it. Mr. Adams's friendship and mine began at an
earlier date. It accompanied us thro' long and important scenes.
The different conclusions we had drawn from our political reading and
reflections were not permitted to lessen mutual esteem, each party
being conscious they were the result of an honest conviction in the
other. Like differences of opinion existing among our fellow
citizens attached them to the one or the other of us, and produced a
rivalship in their minds which did not exist in ours. We never stood
in one another's way: for if either had been withdrawn at any time,
his favorers would not have gone over to the other, but would have
sought for some one of homogeneous opinions. This consideration was
sufficient to keep down all jealousy between us, and to guard our
friendship from any disturbance by sentiments of rivalship: and I can
say with truth that one act of Mr. Adams's life, and one only, ever
gave me a moment's personal displeasure. I did consider his last
appointments to office as personally unkind. They were from among my
most ardent political enemies, from whom no faithful cooperation
could ever be expected, and laid me under the embarrasment of acting
thro' men whose views were to defeat mine; or to encounter the odium
of putting others in their places. It seemed but common justice to
leave a successor free to act by instruments of his own choice. If
my respect for him did not permit me to ascribe the whole blame to
the influence of others, it left something for friendship to forgive,
and after brooding over it for some little time, and not always
resisting the expression of it, I forgave it cordially, and returned
to the same state of esteem and respect for him which had so long
subsisted. Having come into life a little later than Mr. Adams, his
career has preceded mine, as mine is followed by some other, and it
will probably be closed at the same distance after him which time
originally placed between us. I maintain for him, and shall carry
into private life an uniform and high measure of respect and good
will, and for yourself a sincere attachment. I have thus, my dear
Madam, opened myself to you without reserve, which I have long wished
an opportunity of doing; and, without knowing how it will be
recieved, I feel relief from being unbosomed. And I have now only to
entreat your forgiveness for this transition from a subject of
domestic affliction to one which seems of a different aspect. But
tho connected with political events, it has been viewed by me most
strongly in it's unfortunate bearings on my private friendships. The
injury these have sustained has been a heavy price for what has never
given me equal pleasure. That you may both be favored with health,
tranquility and long life, is the prayer of one who tenders you the
assurances of his highest consideration and esteem.
FREEDOM OF THE PRESS
_To Judge John Tyler_
_Washington, June 28, 1804_
DEAR SIR, -- Your favor of the 10th instant has been duly
received. Amidst the direct falsehoods, the misrepresentations of
truth, the calumnies and the insults resorted to by a faction to
mislead the public mind, and to overwhelm those entrusted with its
interests, our support is to be found in the approving voice of our
conscience and country, in the testimony of our fellow citizens, that
their confidence is not shaken by these artifices. When to the
plaudits of the honest multitude, the sober approbation of the sage
in his closet is added, it becomes a gratification of an higher
order. It is the sanction of wisdom superadded to the voice of
affection. The terms, therefore, in which you are so good as to
express your satisfaction with the course of the present
administration cannot but give me great pleasure. I may err in my
measures, but never shall deflect from the intention to fortify the
public liberty by every possible means, and to put it out of the
power of the few to riot on the labors of the many. No experiment
can be more interesting than that we are now trying, and which we
trust will end in establishing the fact, that man may be governed by
reason and truth. Our first object should therefore be, to leave
open to him all the avenues to truth.The most effectual hitherto
found, is the freedom of the press. It is therefore, the first shut
up by those who fear the investigation of their actions. The
firmness with which the people have withstood the late abuses of the
press, the discernment they have manifested between truth and
falsehood, show that they may safely be trusted to hear everything
true and false, and to form a correct judgment between them. As
little is it necessary to impose on their senses, or dazzle their
minds by pomp, splendor, or forms. Instead of this artificial, how
much surer is that real respect, which results from the use of their
reason, and the habit of bringing everything to the test of common
sense.
I hold it, therefore, certain, that to open the doors of truth,
and to fortify the habit of testing everything by reason, are the
most effectual manacles we can rivet on the hands of our successors
to prevent their manacling the people with their own consent. The
panic into which they were artfully thrown in 1798, the frenzy which
was excited in them by their enemies against their apparent readiness
to abandon all the principles established for their own protection,
seemed for awhile to countenance the opinions of those who say they
cannot be trusted with their own government. But I never doubted
their rallying; and they did rally much sooner than I expected. On
the whole, that experiment on their credulity has confirmed my
confidence in their ultimate good sense and virtue.
I lament to learn that a like misfortune has enabled you to
estimate the afflictions of a father on the loss of a beloved child.
However terrible the possibility of such another accident, it is
still a blessing for you of inestimable value that you would not even
then descend childless to the grave. Three sons, and hopeful ones
too, are a rich treasure. I rejoice when I hear of young men of
virtue and talents, worthy to receive, and likely to preserve the
splendid inheritance of self-government, which we have acquired and
shaped for them.
The complement of midshipmen for the Tripoline squadron, is
full; and I hope the frigates have left the Capes by this time. I
have, however, this day, signed warrants of midshipmen for the two
young gentlemen you recommended. These will be forwarded by the
Secretary of the Navy. He tells me that their first services will be
to be performed on board the gun boats.
Accept my friendly salutations, and assurances of great esteem
and respect.
"THE OFFICE OF HANGMAN"
_To Larkin Smith_
_Washington, Nov. 26, 1804_
SIR, -- Your letter of the 10th came to hand yesterday evening.
It was written with frankness and independance and will be answered
in the same way. You complain that I did not answer your letters
applying for office. But if you will reflect a moment you may judge
whether this ought to be expected. To the successful applicant for
an office the commission is the answer. To the unsuccessful
multitude am I to go with every one into the reasons for not
appointing him? Besides that this correspondence would literally
engross my whole time, into what controversies would it lead me.
Sensible of this dilemma, from the moment of coming into office I
laid it down as a rule to leave the applicants to collect their
answer from the facts. To entitle myself to the benefit of the rule
in any case it must be observed in every one: and I never have
departed from it in a single case, not even for my bosom friends.
You observe that you are, or probably will be appointed an elector.
I have no doubt you will do your duty with a conscientious regard to
the public good & to that only. Your decision in favor of another
would not excite in my mind the slightest dissatisfaction towards
you. On the contrary I should honor the integrity of your choice.
In the nominations I have to make, do the same justice to my motives.
Had you hundreds to nominate, instead of one, be assured they would
not compose for you a bed of roses. You would find yourself in most
cases with one loaf and ten wanting bread. Nine must be
disappointed, perhaps become secret, if not open enemies. The
transaction of the great interests of our country costs us little
trouble or difficulty. There the line is plain to men of some
experience. But the task of appointment is a heavy one indeed. He
on whom it falls may envy the lot of a Sisyphus or Ixion. Their
agonies were of the body: this of the mind. Yet, like the office of
hangman it must be executed by some one. It has been assigned to me
and made my duty. I make up my mind to it therefore, & abandon all
regard to consequences. Accept my salutations & assurances of
respect.
BLUEPRINT OF THE UNIVERSITY
_To Littleton Waller Tazewell_
_Washington, Jan. 5, 1805_
DEAR SIR, -- Your favor of December 24 never came to my hands
till last night. It's importance induces me to hasten the answer.
No one can be more rejoiced at the information that the legislature
of Virginia are likely at length to institute an University on a
liberal plan. Convinced that the people are the only safe
depositories of their own liberty, & that they are not safe unless
enlightened to a certain degree, I have looked on our present state
of liberty as a short-lived possession unless the mass of the people
could be informed to a certain degree. This requires two grades of
education. First some institution where science in all it's branches
is taught, and in the highest degree to which the human mind has
carried it. This would prepare a few subjects in every State, to
whom nature has given minds of the first order. Secondly such a
degree of learning given to every member of the society as will
enable him to read, to judge & to vote understandingly on what is
passing. This would be the object of the township schools. I
understand from your letter that the first of these only is under
present contemplation. Let us receive with contentment what the
legislature is now ready to give. The other branch will be
incorporated into the system at some more favorable moment.
The first step in this business will be for the legislature to
pass an act of establishment equivalent to a charter. This should
deal in generals only. It's provisions should go 1. to the object of
the institution. 2. it's location. 3. it's endowment. 4. it's
Direction. On each of these heads I will hazard a first thought or
two. 1. It's object should be defined only generally for teaching
the useful branches of science, leaving the particulars to the
direction of the day. Science is progressive. What was useful two
centuries ago is now become useless, e.g. one half the professorships
of Wm & Mary. What is now deemed useful will in some of it's parts
become useless in another century. The visitors will be the best
qualified to keep their institution up in even pace with the science
of the times. Every one knows that Oxford, Cambridge, the Sorbonne,
etc. are now a century or two behind the science of the age. 2. The
location. The legislature is the proper judges of a general
position, within certain limits, as for instance the county in which
it shall be. To fix on the spot identically they would not be so
competent as persons particularly appointed to examine the grounds.
This small degree of liberty in location would place the landholders
in the power of the purchasers: to fix the spot would place the
purchaser in the power of the landholder. 3. It's endowment. Bank
stock, or public stock of any kind should be immediately converted
into real estate. In the form of stock it is a dead fund, it's
depreciation being equal to it's interest. Every one must see that
money put into our funds when first established (in 1791) with all
its interest from that day would not buy more now than the principal
would then have done. Mr. Pitt states to parliament that the
expenses of living in England have, in the last 20 years, increased
50. percent: that is that money has depreciated that much. Even the
precious metals depreciate slowly so that in perpetual institutions,
as colleges, that ought to be guarded against. But in countries
admitting paper, the abusive emissions of that produces two, three or
four courses of depreciation & annihilation in a century. Lands will
keep _advancing_ nominally so as to keep _even_ really. Canal shares
are as good as lands, perhaps better: but the whole funds should not
be risked in any one form. They should be vested in the visitors,
without any power given them to lessen their capital, or even to
_change_ what is real. 4. The Direction. This would of course be in
the hands of Visitors. The legislature would name the first set, &
lay down the laws of their succession. On death or resignation the
legislature or the Chancellor might name three persons of whom the
visitors should chuse one. The visitors should be few. If many,
those half qualified would by their numbers bring every thing down to
the level of their own capacities, by out-voting the few of real
science. I doubt if they should exceed five. For this is an office
for which good sense alone does not qualify a man. To analyse
science into it's different branches, to distribute these into
professorships, to superintend the course practiced by each
professor, he must know what these sciences are and possess their
outlines at least. Can any state in the union furnish more than 5.
men so qualified as to the whole field of the sciences. The Visitors
should receive no pay. Such qualifications are properly rewarded by
honor, not by money.
The charter being granted & the Visitors named, these become
then the agents as to every thing else. Their first objects will be
1. the special location. 2. the institution of professorships. 3.
the employment of their capital. 4. the necessary buildings. A word
on each. 1. Special location needs no explanation. 2.
Professorships. They would have to select all the branches of
science deemed useful at this day, & in this country: to groupe as
many of these together as could be taught by one professor and thus
reduce the number of professors to the minimum consistent with the
essential object. Having for some years entertained the hope that
our country would some day establish an institution on a liberal
scale, I have been taking measures to have in readiness such
materials as would require time to collect. I have from Dr.
Priestley a designation of the branches of science grouped into
professorships which he furnished at my request. He was an excellent
judge of what may be called the old studies, of those useful and
those useless. I have the same thing from Mr. Dupont, a good judge
of the new branches. His letter to me is quite a treatise. I have
the plan of the institutions of Edinburgh, & those of the National
institute of France; and I expect from Mr. Pictet, one of the most
celebrated professors of Geneva, their plan, in answer to a letter
written some time ago. From these the Visitors could select the
branches useful for the country & how to groupe them. A hasty view
of the subject on a former occasion led me to believe 10.
professorships would be necessary, but not all immediately. Half a
dozen of the most urgent would make a good beginning. The salaries
of the first professors should be very liberal, that we might draw
the first names of Europe to our institution in order to give it a
celebrity in the outset, which will draw to it the youth of all the
states, and make Virginia their cherished & beloved Alma mater. I
have good reasons to believe we can command the services of some of
the first men of Europe. 3. The emploiment of their capital. On
this subject others are so much better judges than myself that I
shall say nothing. 4. Buildings. The greatest danger will be their
over-building themselves, by attempting a large house in the
beginning, sufficient to contain the whole institution. Large houses
are always ugly, inconvenient, exposed to the accident of fire, and
bad in cases of infection. A plain small house for the school &
lodging of each professor is best. These connected by covered ways
out of which the rooms of the students should open would be best.
These may then be built only as they shall be wanting. In fact an
University should not be an house but a village. This will much
lessen their first expenses.
Not having written any three lines of this without interruption
it has been impossible to keep my ideas rallied to the subject. I
must let these hasty outlines go therefore as they are. Some are
premature, some probably immature: but make what use you please of
them except letting them get into print. Should this establishment
take place on a plan worthy of approbation, I shall have a valuable
legacy to leave it, to wit, my library, which certainly has not cost
less than 15,000 Dollars. But it's value is more in the selection, a
part of which, that which respects America, is the result of my own
personal searches in Paris for 6. or 7. years, & of persons employed
by me in England, Holland, Germany and Spain to make similar
searches. Such a collection on that subject can never again be made.
With my sincere wishes for the success of this measure accept my
salutations & assurances of great esteem & respect.
THE TWO-TERM PRECEDENT
_To John Taylor_
_Washington, Jan. 6, 1805_
DEAR SIR, -- Your favor of Dec. 26th has been duly received,
and was received as a proof of your friendly partialities to me, of
which I have so often had reason to be sensible. My opinion
originally was that the President of the U.S. should have been
elected for 7. years, & forever ineligible afterwards. I have since
become sensible that 7. years is too long to be irremovable, and that
there should be a peaceable way of withdrawing a man in midway who is
doing wrong. The service for 8. years with a power to remove at the
end of the first four, comes nearly to my principle as corrected by
experience. And it is in adherence to that that I determined to
withdraw at the end of my second term. The danger is that the
indulgence & attachments of the people will keep a man in the chair
after he becomes a dotard, that reelection through life shall become
habitual, & election for life follow that. Genl. Washington set the
example of voluntary retirement after 8. years. I shall follow it,
and a few more precedents will oppose the obstacle of habit to anyone
after a while who shall endeavor to extend his term. Perhaps it may
beget a disposition to establish it by an amendment of the
constitution. I believe I am doing right, therefore, in pursuing my
principle. I had determined to declare my intention, but I have
consented to be silent on the opinion of friends, who think it best
not to put a continuance out of my power in defiance of all
circumstances. There is, however, but one circumstance which could
engage my acquiescence in another election, to wit, such a division
about a successor as might bring in a Monarchist. But this
circumstance is impossible. While, therefore, I shall make no formal
declarations to the public of my purpose, I have freely let it be
understood in private conversation. In this I am persuaded yourself
& my friends generally will approve of my views: and should I at the
end of a 2d term carry into retirement all the favor which the 1st
has acquired, I shall feel the consolation of having done all the
goodin my power, and expect with more than composure thetermination
of a life no longer valuable to others or of im-portance to myself.
Accept my affectionate salutations & assurances of great esteem &
respect.
CLIMATE, FEVERS, AND THE POLYGRAPH
_To C. F. de C. Volney_
_Washington, February 8, 1805_
DEAR SIR, -- Your letter of November the 26th came to hand May
the 14th; the books some time after, which were all distributed
according to direction. The copy for the East Indies went
immediately by a safe conveyance. The letter of April the 28th, and
the copy of your work accompanying that, did not come to hand till
August. That copy was deposited in the Congressional library. It
was not till my return here from my autumnal visit to Monticello,
that I had an opportunity of reading your work. I have read it, and
with great satisfaction. Of the first part I am less a judge than
most people, having never travelled westward of Staunton, so as to
know any thing of the face of the country; nor much indulged myself
in geological inquiries, from a belief that the skin-deep scratches
which we can make or find on the surface of the earth, do not repay
our time with as certain and useful deductions, as our pursuits in
some other branches. The subject of our winds is more familiar to
me. On that, the views you have taken are always great, supported in
their outlines by your facts; and though more extensive observations,
and longer continued, may produce some anomalies, yet they will
probably take their place in this first great canvass which you have
sketched. In no case, perhaps, does habit attach our choice or
judgment more than in climate. The Canadian glows with delight in
his sleigh and snow, the very idea of which gives me the shivers.
The comparison of climate between Europe and North America, taking
together its corresponding parts, hangs chiefly on three great
points. 1. The changes between heat and cold in America, are greater
and more frequent, and the extremes comprehend a greater scale on the
thermometer in America than in Europe. Habit, however, prevents
these from affecting us more than the smaller changes of Europe
affect the European. But he is greatly affected by ours. 2. Our sky
is always clear; that of Europe always cloudy. Hence a greater
accumulation of heat here than there, in the same parallel. 3. The
changes between wet and dry are much more frequent and sudden in
Europe than in America. Though we have double the rain, it falls in
half the time. Taking all these together, I prefer much the climate
of the United States to that of Europe. I think it a more cheerful
one. It is our cloudless sky which has eradicated from our
constitutions all disposition to hang ourselves, which we might
otherwise have inherited from our English ancestors. During a
residence of between six and seven years in Paris, I never, but once,
saw the sun shine through a whole day, without being obscured by a
cloud in any part of it: and I never saw the moment, in which,
viewing the sky through its whole hemisphere, I could say there was
not the smallest speck of a cloud in it. I arrived at Monticello, on
my return from France, in January, and during only two months' stay
there, I observed to my daughters, who had been with me to France,
that twenty odd times within that term, there was not a speck of a
cloud in the whole hemisphere. Still I do not wonder that an
European should prefer his grey to our azure sky. Habit decides our
taste in this, as in most other cases.
The account you give of the yellow fever, is entirely agreeable
to what we then knew of it. Further experience has developed more
and more its peculiar character. Facts appear to have established
that it is originated here by a local atmosphere, which is never
generated but in the lower, closer, and dirtier parts of our large
cities, in the neighborhood of the water; and that, to catch the
disease, you must enter the local atmosphere. Persons having taken
the disease in the infected quarter, and going into the country, are
nursed and buried by their friends, without an example of
communicating it. A vessel going from the infected quarter, and
carrying its atmosphere in its hold into another State, has given the
disease to every person who there entered her. These have died in
the arms of their families without a single communication of the
disease. It is certainly, therefore, an epidemic, not a contagious
disease; and calls on the chemists for some mode of purifying the
vessel by a decomposition of its atmosphere, if ventilation be found
insufficient. In the long scale of bilious fevers, graduated by many
shades, this is probably the last and most mortal term. It seizes
the native of the place equally with strangers. It has not been long
known in any part of the United States. The shade next above it,
called the stranger's fever, has been coeval with the settlement of
the larger cities in the southern parts, to wit, Norfolk, Charleston,
New Orleans. Strangers going to these places in the months of July,
August or September, find this fever as mortal as the genuine yellow
fever. But it rarely attacks those who have resided in them some
time. Since we have known that kind of yellow fever which is no
respecter of persons, its name has been extended to the stranger's
fever, and every species of bilious fever which produces a black
vomit, that is to say, a discharge of very dark bile. Hence we hear
of yellow fever on the Alleganey mountains, in Kentucky, &c. This is
a matter of definition only: but it leads into error those who do not
know how loosely and how interestedly some physicians think and
speak. So far as we have yet seen, I think we are correct insaying,
that the yellow fever which seizes on all indiscriminately, is an
ultimate degree of bilious fever never known in the United States
till lately, nor farther south, as yet, than Alexandria, and that
what they have recently called the yellow fever in New Orleans,
Charleston and Norfolk, is what has always been known in those places
as confined chiefly to strangers, and nearly as mortal _to them_, as
the other is to _all_ its subjects. But both grades are local: the
stranger's fever less so, as it sometimes extends a little into the
neighborhood; but the yellow fever rigorously so, confined within
narrow and well defined limits, and not communicable out of those
limits. Such a constitution of atmosphere being requisite to
originate this disease as is generated only in low, close, and
ill-cleansed parts of a town, I have supposed it practicable to
prevent its generation by building our cities on a more open plan.
Take, for instance, the chequer board for a plan. Let the black
squares only be building squares, and the white ones be left open, in
turf and trees. Every square of houses will be surrounded by four
open squares, and every house will front an open square. The
atmosphere of such a town would be like that of the country,
insusceptible of the miasmata which produce yellow fever. I have
accordingly proposed that the enlargements of the city of New
Orleans, which must immediately take place, shall be on this plan.
But it is only in case of enlargements to be made, or of cities to be
built, that this means of prevention can be employed.
The _genus irritabile vatum_ could not let the author of the
Ruins publish a new work, without seeking in it the means of
discrediting that puzzling composition. Some one of those holy
calumniators has selected from your new work every scrap of a
sentence, which, detached from its context, could displease an
American reader. A cento has been made of these, which has run
through a particular description of newspapers, and excited a
disapprobation even in friendly minds, which nothing but the reading
of the book will cure. But time and truth will at length correct
error.
Our countrymen are so much occupied in the busy scenes of life,
that they have little time to write or invent. A good invention
here, therefore, is such a rarity as it is lawful to offer to the
acceptance of a friend. A Mr. Hawkins of Frankford, near
Philadelphia, has invented a machine which he calls a polygraph, and
which carries two, three, or four pens. That of two pens, with which
I am now writing, is best; and is so perfect that I have laid aside
the copying-press, for a twelve month past, and write always with the
polygraph. I have directed one to be made, of which I ask your
acceptance. By what conveyance I shall send it while Havre is
blockaded, I do not yet know. I think you will be pleased with it,
and will use it habitually as I do; because it requires only that
degree of mechanical attention which I know you to possess. I am
glad to hear that M. Cabanis is engaged in writing on the reformation
of medicine. It needs the hand of a reformer, and cannot be in
better hands than his. Will you permit my rekspects to him and the
Abbe de la Roche to find a place here.
A word now on our political state. The two parties which
prevailed with so much violence when you were here, are almost wholly
melted into one. At the late Presidential election I have received
one hundred and sixty-two votes against fourteen only. Connecticut
is still federal by a small majority; and Delaware on a poise, as she
has been since 1775, and will be till Anglomany with her yields to
Americanism. Connecticut will be with us in a short time. Though
the people in mass have joined us, their leaders had committed
themselves too far to retract. Pride keeps them hostile; they brood
over their angry passions, and give them vent in the newspapers which
they maintain. They still make as much noise as if they were the
whole nation. Unfortunately, these being the mercantile papers,
published chiefly in the sea ports, are the only ones which find
their way to Europe, and make very false impressions there. I am
happy to hear that the late derangement of your health is going
off,and that you are re-established. I sincerely pray for the
continuance of that blessing, and with my affectionate salutations,
tender you assurances of great respect and attachment.
P. S. The sheets which you receive are those of the copying pen
of the polygraph, not of the one with which I have written.
NEWS OF CAPTAIN LEWIS
_To C. F. de C. Volney_
_Washington, Feb. 11, 1806_
DEAR SIR, -- Since mine of Feb. 18 of the last year, I have
received yours of July 2. I have been constantly looking out for an
opportunity of sending your Polygraph; but the blockade of Havre has
cut off that resource, and I have feared to send it to a port from
which there would be only land carriage. A safe conveyance now
offering to Nantes, & under the particular care of Mr. Skipwith, who
is returning to France, he will take care of it from Nantes by land
if an easy carriage is found, or if not, then by the canal of Briare.
Another year's constant use of a similar one attaches me more and
more to it as a most valuable convenience. I send you also a
pamphlet published here against the English doctrine which denies to
neutrals a trade in war not open to them in peace in which you will
find it pulverized by a logic not to be controverted.
Our last news of Captn Lewis was that he had reached the upper
part of the Missouri, & had taken horses to cross the Highlands to
the Columbia river. He passed the last winter among the Manians 1610
miles above the mouth of the river. So far he had delineated it with
as great accuracy as will probably be ever applied to it, as his
courses & distances by mensuration were corrected by almost daily
observations of latitude and longitude. With his map he sent us
specimens or information of the following animals not before known to
the northern continent of America. 1. The horns of what is perhaps a
species of Ovis Ammon. 2. A new variety of the deer having a black
tail. 3. An antelope. 4. The badger, not before known out of
Europe. 5. A new species of marmotte. 6. A white weasel. 7. The
magpie. 8. The Prairie hen, said to resemble the Guinea hen
(peintade). 9. A prickly lizard. To these are added a considerable
collection of minerals, not yet analyzed. He wintered in Lat. 47
degrees 20' and found the maximum of cold 43 degrees below the zero
of Fahrenheit. We expect he has reached the Pacific, and is now
wintering on the head of the Missouri, and will be here next autumn.
Having been disappointed in our view of sending an exploring party up
the Red river the last year, they were sent up the Washita, as far as
the hot springs, under the direction of Mr. Dunbar. He found the
temperature of the springs 150 degrees of Fahrenheit & the water
perfectly potable when cooled. We obtain also the geography of that
river, so far with perfect accuracy. Our party is just at this time
setting out from Natchez to ascend the Red river. These expeditions
are so laborious, & hazardous, that men of science, used to the
temperature & inactivity of their closet, cannot be induced to
undertake them. They are headed therefore by persons qualified
expressly to give us the geography of the rivers with perfect
accuracy, and of good common knolege and observation in the animal,
vegetable & mineral departments. When the route shall be once open
and known, scientific men will undertake, & verify & class it's
subjects. Our emigration to the western country from these states
the last year is estimated at about 100,000. I conjecture that about
one-half the number of our increase will emigrate westwardly
annually. A newspaper paragraph tells me, with some details, that
the society of agriculture of Paris had thought a mould-board of my
construction worthy their notice & Mr. Dupont confirms it in a
letter, but not specifying anything particular. I send him a model
with an advantageous change in the form, in which however the
principle is rigorously the same. I mention this to you lest he
should have left France for America, and I notice it no otherwise
lest there should have been any error in the information. Present my
respectful salutations to Doctr. Cabanis & accept them yourself with
assurances of my constant friendship & attachment.
A NATIONAL ACADEMY
_To Joel Barlow_
_Feb. 24, 1806_
I return you the draft of the bill for the establishment of a
National Academy & University at the city of Washington, with such
alterations as we talked over the last night. They are chiefly
verbal. I have often wished we could have a Philosophical society or
academy so organized as that while the central academy should be at
the seat of government, it's members dispersed over the states,
should constitute filiated academies in each state, publish their
communications, from which the central academy should select
unpublished what should be most choice. In this way all the members
wheresoever dispersed might be brought into action, and an useful
emulation might arise between the filiated societies. Perhaps the
great societies now existing might incorporate themselves in this way
with the National one. But time does not allow me to pursue this
idea, nor perhaps had we time at all to get it into the present bill.
I procured an Agricultural society to be established (voluntarily) on
this plan, but it has done nothing. Friendly salutations.
COURTING ALEXANDER
_To the Emperor Alexander_
_Washington, April 19, 1806_
I owe an acknowledgment to your Imperial Majesty for the great
satisfaction I have received from your letter of Aug. 20, 1805, and
embrace the opportunity it affords of giving expression to the
sincere respect and veneration I entertain for your character. It
will be among the latest and most soothing comforts of my life, to
have seen advanced to the government of so extensive a portion of the
earth, and at so early a period of his life, a sovereign whose ruling
passion is the advancement of the happiness and prosperity of his
people; and not of his own people only, but who can extend his eye
and his good will to a distant and infant nation, unoffending in its
course, unambitious in its views.
The events of Europe come to us so late, and so suspiciously,
that observations on them would certainly be stale, and possibly wide
of their actual state. From their general aspect, however, I collect
that your Majesty's interposition in them has been disinterested and
generous, and having in view only the general good of the great
European family. When you shall proceed to the pacification which is
to re-establish peace and commerce, the same dispositions of mind
will lead you to think of the general intercourse of nations, and to
make that provision for its future maintenance which, in times past,
it has so much needed. The northern nations of Europe, at the head
of which your Majesty is distinguished, are habitually peaceable.
The United States of America, like them, are attached to peace. We
have then with them a common interest in the neutral rights. Every
nation indeed, on the continent of Europe, belligerent as well as
neutral, is interested in maintaining these rights, in liberalizing
them progressively with the progress of science and refinement of
morality, and in relieving them from restrictions which the extension
of the arts has long since rendered unreasonable and vexatious.
Two personages in Europe, of which your Majesty is one, have it
in their power, at the approaching pacification, to render eminent
service to nations in general, by incorporating into the act of
pacification, a correct definition of the rights of neutrals on the
high seas. Such a definition, declared by all the powers lately or
still belligerent, would give to those rights a precision and
notoriety, and cover them with an authority, which would protect them
in an important degree against future violation; and should any
further sanction be necessary, that of an exclusion of the violating
nation from commercial intercourse with all the others, would be
preferred to war, as more analogous to the offence, more easy and
likely to be executed with good faith. The essential articles of
these rights, too, are so few and simple as easily to be defined.
Having taken no part in the past or existing troubles of
Europe, we have no part to act in its pacification. But as
principles may then be settled in which we have a deep interest, it
is a great happiness for us that they are placed under the protection
of an umpire, who, looking beyond the narrow bounds of an individual
nation, will take under the cover of his equity the rights of the
absent and unrepresented. It is only by a happy concurrence of good
characters and good occasions, that a step can now and then be taken
to advance the well-being of nations. If the present occasion be
good, I am sure your Majesty's character will not be wanting to avail
the world of it. By monuments of such good offices, may your life
become an epoch in the history of the condition of man; and may He
who called it into being, for the good of the human family, give it
length of days and success, and have it always in His holy keeping.
A TRIBUTE OF GRATITUDE
_To Dr. Edward Jenner_
_Monticello, May 14, 1806_
SIR, -- I have received a copy of the evidence at large
respecting the discovery of the vaccine inoculation which you have
been pleased to send me, and for which I return you my thanks.
Having been among the early converts, in this part of the globe, to
its efficiency, I took an early part in recommending it to my
countrymen. I avail myself of this occasion of rendering you a
portion of the tribute of gratitude due to you from the whole human
family. Medicine has never before produced any single improvement of
such utility. Harvey's discovery of the circulation of the blood was
a beautiful addition to our knowledge of the animal economy, but on a
review of the practice of medicine before and since that epoch, I do
not see any great amelioration which has been derived from that
discovery. You have erased from the calendar of human afflictions
one of its greatest. Yours is the comfortable reflection that
mankind can never forget that you have lived. Future nations will
know by history only that the loathsome small-pox has existed and by
you has been extirpated.
Accept my fervent wishes for your health and happiness and
assurances of the greatest respect and consideration.
SCHISM AND THE MAJORITY LEADSHIP
_To Barnabas Bidwell_
_Washington, July 5, 1806_
SIR, -- Your favor of June the 21st has been duly received. We
have not as yet heard from General Skinner on the subject of his
office. Three persons are proposed on the most respectable
recommendations, and under circumstances of such equality as renders
it difficult to decide between them. But it shall be done
impartially. I sincerely congratulate you on the triumph of
republicanism in Massachusetts. The Hydra of federalism has now lost
all its heads but two. Connecticut I think will soon follow
Massachusetts. Delaware will probably remain what it ever has been,
a mere county of England, conquered indeed, and held under by force,
but always disposed to counter-revolution. I speak of its majority
only.
Our information from London continues to give us hopes of an
accommodation there on both the points of `accustomed commerce and
impressment.' In this there must probably be some mutual concession,
because we cannot expect to obtain every thing and yield nothing.
But I hope it will be such an one as may be accepted. The arrival of
the Hornet in France is so recently known, that it will yet be some
time before we learn our prospects there. Notwithstanding the
efforts made here, and made professedly to assassinate that
negotiation in embryo, if the good sense of Buonaparte should prevail
over his temper, the present state of things in Europe may induce him
to require of Spain that she should do us justice at least. That he
should require her to sell us East Florida, we have no right to
insist: yet there are not wanting considerations which may induce him
to wish a permanent foundation for peace laid between us. In this
treaty, whatever it shall be, our old enemies the federalists, and
their new friends, will find enough to carp at. This is a thing of
course, and I should suspect error where they found no fault. The
buzzard feeds on carrion only. Their rallying point is `war with
France and Spain, and alliance with Great Britain:' and every thing
is wrong with them which checks their new ardor to be fighting for
the liberties of mankind; on the sea always excepted. There one
nation is to monopolise all the liberties of the others.
I read, with extreme regret, the expressions of an inclination
on your part to retire from Congress. I will not say that this time,
more than all others, calls for the service of every man; but I will
say, there never was a time when the services of those who possess
talents, integrity, firmness and sound judgment, were more wanted in
Congress. Some one of that description is particularly wanted to
take the lead in the House of Representatives, to consider the
business of the nation as his own business, to take it up as if he
were singly charged with it, and carry it through. I do not mean
that any gentleman, relinquishing his own judgment, should implicitly
support all the measures of the administration; but that,where he
does not disapprove of them, he should not suffer them to go off in
sleep, but bring them to the attention of the House, and give them a
fair chance. Where he disapproves, he will of course leave them to
be brought forward by those who concur in the sentiment. Shall I
explain my idea by an example? The classification of the militia was
communicated to General Varnum and yourself merely as a proposition,
which, if you approved, it was trusted you would support. I knew,
indeed, that General Varnum was opposed to any thing which might
break up the present organization of the militia: but when so
modified as to avoid this, I thought he might, perhaps, be reconciled
to it. As soon as I found it did not coincide with your sentiments,
I could not wish you to support it; but using the same freedom of
opinion, I procured it to be brought forward elsewhere. It failed
there also, and for a time perhaps, may not prevail: but a militia
can never be used for distant service on any other plan; and
Buonaparte will conquer the world, if they do not learn his secret of
composing armies of young men only, whose enthusiasm and health
enable them to surmount all obstacles. When a gentleman, through
zeal for the public service, undertakes to do the public business, we
know that we shall hear the cant of backstairs counsellors. But we
never heard this while the declaimer was himself a backstairs man, as
he calls it, but in the confidence and views of the administration,
as may more properly and respectfully be said. But if the members
are to know nothing but what is important enough to be put into a
public message, and indifferent enough to be made known to all the
world; if the executive is to keep all other information to himself,
and the House to plunge on in the dark, it becomes a government of
chance and not of design. The imputation was one of those artifices
used to despoil an adversary of his most effectual arms; and men of
mind will place themselves above a gabble of this order. The last
session of Congress was indeed an uneasy one for a time: but as soon
as the members penetrated into the views of those who were taking a
new course, they rallied in as solid a phalanx as I have ever seen
act together. Indeed I have never seen a House of better
dispositions. They want only a man of business & in whom they can
confide to conduct things in the house; and they are as much disposed
to support him as can be wished. It is only speaking a truth to say
that all eyes look to you. It was not perhaps expected from a new
member, at his first session, & before the forms & style of doing
business were familiar. But it would be a subject of deep regret
were you to refuse yourself to the conspicuous part in the business
of the house which all assign you. Perhaps I am not entitled to
speak with so much frankness; but it proceeds from no motive which
has not a right to your forgiveness. Opportunities of candid
explanation are so seldom afforded me, that I must not lose them when
they occur.
The information I receive from your quarter agrees with that
from the south; that the late schism has made not the smallest
impression on the public, and that the seceders are obliged to give
to it other grounds than those which we know to be the true ones.
All we have to wish is, that at the ensuing session, every one may
take the part openly which he secretly befriends. I recollect
nothing new and true, worthy communicating to you. As for what is
not true, you will always find abundance in the newspapers. Among
other things, are those perpetual alarms as to the Indians, for no
one ofwhich has there ever been the slightest ground. They are the
suggestions of hostile traders, always wishing to embroil us with the
Indians, to perpetuate their own extortionate commerce. I salute you
with esteem and respect.
GARDENS FOR MONTICELLO
_To William Hamilton_
_Washington, July, 1806_
Your favor of the 7'th came duly to hand and the plant you are
so good as to propose to send me will be thankfully rec'd. The
little Mimosa Julibrisin you were so kind as to send me the last year
is flourishing. I obtained from a gardener in this nbh'd
[neighborhood] 2 plants of the paper mulberry; but the parent plant
being male, we are to expect no fruit from them,unless your [trees]
should chance to be of the sex wanted. at a future day, say two years
hence I shall ask from you some seeds of the Mimosa Farnesiana or
Nilotica, of which you were kind enough before to furnish me some.
but the plants have been lost during my absence from home. I
remember seeing in your greenhouse a plant of a couple of feet height
in a pot the fragrance of which (from it's gummy bud if I recollect
rightly) was peculiarly agreeable to me and you were so kind as to
remark that it required only a greenhouse, and that you would furnish
me one when I should be in a situation to preserve it. but it's name
has entirely escaped me & I cannot suppose you can recollect or
conjecture in your vast collection what particular plant this might
be. I must acquiese therefore in a privation which my own defect of
memory has produced, unless indeed I could some of these days make an
impromptu visit to Phila. & recognise it myself at the Woodlands.
Having decisively made up my mind for retirement at the end of
my present term, my views and attentions are all turned homewards. I
have hitherto been engaged in my buildings which will be finished in
the course of the present year. The improvement of my grounds has
been reserved formy occupation on my return home. For this reason it
is that I have put off to the fall of the year after next the
collection of such curious trees as will bear our winters in the open
air.
The grounds which I destine to improve in the style of the
English gardens are in a form very difficult to be managed. They
compose the northern quadrant of a mountain for about 2/3 of its
height & then spread for the upper third over its whole crown. They
contain about three hundred acres, washed at the foot for about a
mile, by a river of the size of the Schuylkill. The hill is
generally too steep for direct ascent, but we make level walks
successively along it's side, which in it's upper part encircle the
hill & intersect these again by others of easy ascent in various
parts. They are chiefly still in their native woods, which are
majestic, and very generally a close undergrowth, which I have not
suffered to be touched, knowing how much easier it is to cut away
than to fill up. The upper third is chiefly open, but to the South
is covered with a dense thicket of Scotch broom (Spartium scoparium
Lin.) which being favorably spread before the sun will admit of
advantageous arrangement for winter enjoyment. You are sensible that
this disposition of the ground takes from me the first beauty in
gardening, the variety of hill & dale, & leaves me as an awkward
substitute a few hanging hollows & ridges, this subject is so unique
and at the same time refractory, that to make a disposition analogous
to its character would require much more of the genius of the
landscape painter & gardener than I pretend to. I had once hoped to
get Parkins to go and give me some outlines, but I was disappointed.
Certainly I could never wish your health to be such as to render
travelling necessary; but should a journey at any time promise
improvement to it, there is no one on which you would be received
with more pleasure than at Monticello. Should I be there you will
have an opportunity of indulging on a new field some of the taste
which has made the Woodlands the only rival which I have known in
America to what may be seen in England.
Thither without doubt we are to go for models in this art.
Their sunless climate has permitted them to adopt what is certainly a
beauty of the very first order in landscape. Their canvas is of open
ground, variegated with clumps of trees distributed with taste. They
need no more of wood than will serve to embrace a lawn or a glade.
But under the beaming, constant and almost vertical sun of Virginia,
shade is our Elysium. In the absence of this no beauty of the eye
can be enjoyed. This organ must yield it's gratification to that of
the other senses; without the hope of any equivalent to the beauty
relinquished. The only substitute I have been able to imagine is
this. Let your ground be covered with trees of the loftiest stature.
Trim up their bodies as high as the constitution & form of the tree
will bear, but so as that their tops shall still unite & yeild dense
shade. A wood, so open below, will have nearly the appearance of
open grounds. Then, when in the open ground you would plant a clump
of trees, place a thicket of shrubs presenting a hemisphere the crown
of which shall distinctly show itself under the branches of the
trees. This may be effected by a due selection & arrangement of the
shrubs, & will I think offer a group not much inferior to that of
trees. The thickets may be varied too by making some of them of
evergreens altogether, our red cedar made to grow in a bush,
evergreen privet, pyrocanthus, Kalmia, Scotch broom. Holly would be
elegant but it does not grow in my part of the country.
Of prospect I have a rich profusion and offering itself at
every point of the compass. Mountains distant & near, smooth &
shaggy, single & in ridges, a little river hiding itself among the
hills so as to shew in lagoons only, cultivated grounds under the eye
and two small villages. To prevent a satiety of this is the
principal difficulty. It may be successively offered, & in different
portions through vistas, or which will be better, between thickets so
disposed as to serve as vistas, with the advantage of shifting the
scenes as you advance on your way.
You will be sensible by this time of the truth of my
information that my views are turned so steadfastly homeward that the
subject runs away with me whenever I get on it. I sat down to thank
you for kindnesses received, & to bespeak permission to ask further
contributions from your collection & I have written you a treatise on
gardening generally, in which art lessons would come with more
justice from you to me.
DISCONTENTS IN THE WEST
_To John Dickinson_
_Washington, Jan. 13, 1807_
MY DEAR AND ANCIENT FRIEND, -- I have duly received your favor
of the 1st inst., and am ever thankful for communications which may
guide me in the duties which I wish to perform as well as I am able.
It is but too true that great discontents exist in the territory of
Orleans. Those of the French inhabitants have for their sources, 1,
the prohibition of importing slaves. This may be partly removed by
Congress permitting them to receive slaves from the other States,
which, by dividing that evil, would lessen its danger; 2, the
administration of justice in our forms, principles, & language, with
all of which they are unacquainted, & are the more abhorrent, because
of the enormous expense, greatly exaggerated by the corruption of
bankrupt & greedy lawyers, who have gone there from the Ud S. &
engrossed the practice; 3, the call on them by the land commissioners
to produce the titles of their lands. The object of this is really
to record & secure their rights. But as many of them hold on rights
so ancient that the title papers are lost, they expect the land is to
be taken from them wherever they cannot produce a regular deduction
of title in writing. In this they will be undeceived by the final
result, which will evince to them a liberal disposition of the
government towards them. Among the American inhabitants it is the
old division of federalists & republicans. The former are as hostile
there as they are everywhere, & are the most numerous & wealthy.
They have been long endeavoring to batter down the Governor, who has
always been a firm republican. There were characters superior to him
whom I wished to appoint, but they refused the office: I know no
better man who would accept of it, and it would not be right to turn
him out for one not better. But it is the 2d. cause, above
mentioned, which is deep-seated & permanent. The French members of
the Legislature, being the majority in both Houses, lately passed an
act declaring that the civil, or French laws, should be the laws of
their land, and enumerated about 50 folio volumes, in Latin, as the
depositories of these laws. The Governor negatived the act. One of
the houses thereupon passed a vote for self-dissolution of the
Legislature as a useless body, which failed in the other House by a
single vote only. They separated, however, & have disseminated all
the discontent they could. I propose to the members of Congress in
conversation, the enlisting 30,000 volunteers, Americans by birth, to
be carried at the public expense, & settled immediately on a bounty
of 160 acres of land each, on the west side of the Mississippi, on
the condition of giving two years of military service, if that
country should be attacked within 7 years. The defence of the
country would thus be placed on the spot, and the additional number
would entitle the territory to become a State, would make the
majority American, & make it an American instead of a French State.
This would not sweeten the pill to the French; but in making that
acquisition we had some view to our own good as well as theirs, and I
believe the greatest good of both will be promoted by whatever will
amalgamate us together.
I have tired you, my friend, with a long letter. But your
tedium will end in a few lines more. Mine has yet two years to
endure. I am tired of an office where I can do no more good than
many others, who would be glad to be employed in it. To myself,
personally, it brings nothing but unceasing drudgery & daily loss of
friends. Every office becoming vacant, every appointment made, me
donne un ingrat, et cent ennemis. My only consolation is in the
belief that my fellow citizens at large give me credit for good
intentions. I will certainly endeavor to merit the continuance of
that good-will which follows well-intended actions, and their
approbation will be the dearest reward I can carry into retirement.
God bless you, my excellent friend, and give you yet many
healthy and happy years.
LAWS OF VIRGINIA
_To William Waller Hening_
_Washington, January 14, 1807_
SIR, -- Your letter of Dec. 26th, was received in due time.
The only object I had in making my collection of the laws of
Virginia, was to save all those for the Public which were not then
already lost, in the hope that at some future day they might be
republished. Whether this be by public or private enterprise, my end
will be equally answered. The work divides itself into two very
distinct parts; to wit, the printed and the unprinted laws. The
former begin in 1682, (Purvis' collection.) My collection of these is
in strong volumes, well bound, and therefore may safely be
transported anywhere. Any of these volumes which you do not possess,
are at your service for the purpose of republication, but the
unprinted laws are dispersed through many MS. volumes, several of
them so decayed that the leaf can never be opened but once without
falling into powder. These can never bear removal further than from
their shelf to a table. They are, as well as I recollect, from 1622
downwards. I formerly made such a digest of their order, and the
volumes where they are to be found, that, under my own
superintendence, they could be copied with once handling. More they
would not bear. Hence the impracticability of their being copied but
at Monticello. But independent of them, the printed laws, beginning
in 1682, with all our former printed collections, will be a most
valuable publication, & sufficiently distinct. I shall have no doubt
of the exactness of your part of the work, but I hope you will take
measures for having the typography & paper worthy of the work. I am
lead to this caution by the scandalous volume of our laws printed by
Pleasants in 1803, & those by Davis, in 1796 were little better; both
unworthy the history of Tom Thumb. You can have them better &
cheaper printed anywhere north of Richmond. Accept my salutations &
assurances of respect.
LESSONS OF THE BURR CONSPIRACY
_To Governor William C. C. Claiborne_
_Washington, February 3, 1807_
DEAR SIR, -- I pray you to read the enclosed letter, to seal
and deliver it. It explains itself so fully, that I need say
nothing. I am sincerely concerned for Mr. Reibelt, who is a man of
excellent understanding and extensive science. If you had any
academical berth, he would be much better fitted for thatthan for the
bustling business of life. I enclose to General Wilkinson my message
of January 22d. I presume, however, you will have seen it in the
papers. It gives the history of Burr's conspiracy, all but the last
chapter, which will, I hope, be that of his capture before this time,
at Natchez. Your situations have been difficult, and we judge of the
merit of our agents there by the magnitude of the danger as it
appeared to them, not as it was known to us. On great occasions
every good officer must be ready to risk himself in going beyond the
strict line of law, when the public preservation requires it; his
motives will be a justification as far as there is any discretion in
his ultra-legal proceedings, and no indulgence of private feelings.
On the whole, this squall, by showing with what ease our government
suppresses movements which in other countries requires armies, has
greatly increased its strength by increasing the public confidence in
it. It has been a wholesome lesson too to our citizens, of the
necessary obedience to their government. The Feds, and the little
band of Quids, in opposition, will try to make something of the
infringement of liberty by the military arrest and deportation of
citizens, but if it does not go beyond such offenders as Swartwout,
Bollman, Burr, Blennerhasset, Tyler, &c., they will be supported by
the public approbation. Accept my friendly salutations, and
assurances of esteem and respect.
THE BURR TRIAL
_To William Branch Giles_
_Monticello, April 20, 1807_
DEAR SIR, -- Your favor of the 6th, on the subject of Burr's
offences, was received only 4 days ago. That there should be anxiety
& doubt in the public mind, in the present defective state of the
proof, is not wonderful; and this has been sedulously encouraged by
the tricks of the judges to force trials before it is possible to
collect the evidence, dispersed through a line of 2000 miles from
Maine to Orleans. The federalists, too, give all their aid, making
Burr's cause their own, mortified only that he did not separate the
Union or overturn the government, & proving, that had he had a little
dawn of success, they would have joined him to introduce his object,
their favorite monarchy, as they would any other enemy, foreign or
domestic, who could rid them of this hateful republic for any other
government in exchange.
The first ground of complaint was the supine inattention of the
administration to a treason stalking through the land in open day.
The present one, that they have crushed it before it was ripe for
execution, so that no overt acts can be produced. This last may be
true; tho' I believe it is not. Our information having been chiefly
by way of letter, we do not know of a certainty yet what will be
proved. We have set on foot an inquiry through the whole of the
country which has been the scene of these transactions, to be able to
prove to the courts, if they will give time, or to the public by way
of communication to Congress, what the real facts have been. For
obtaining this, we are obliged to appeal to the patriotism of
particular persons in different places, of whom we have requested to
make the inquiry in their neighborhood, and on such information as
shall be voluntarily offered. Aided by no process or facilities from
the _federal_ courts, but frowned on by their new born zeal for the
liberty of those whom we would not permit to overthrow the liberties
of their country, we can expect no revealments from the accomplices
of the chief offender. Of treasonable intentions, the judges have
been obliged to confess there is probable appearance. What loophole
they will find in it, when it comes to trial, we cannot foresee.
Eaton, Stoddart, Wilkinson, and two others whom I must not name, will
satisfy the world, if not the judges, on that head. And I do suppose
the following overt acts will be proved. 1. The enlistment of men in
a regular way. 2. The regular mounting of guard round
Blennerhassett's island when they expected Governor Tiffin's men to
be on them, _modo guerrino arraiali_. 3. The rendezvous of Burr with
his men at the mouth of the Cumberland. 4. His letter to the acting
Governor of Mississippi, holding up the prospect of civil war. 5.
His capitulation regularly signed with the aids of the Governor, as
between two independent & hostile commanders.
But a moment's calculation will shew that this evidence cannot
be collected under 4 months, probably 5. from the moment of deciding
when & where the trial shall be. I desired Mr. Rodney expressly to
inform the Chief Justice of this, inofficially. But Mr. Marshall
says, "more than 5 weeks have elapsed since the opinion of the
Supreme court has declared the necessity of proving the overt acts,
if they exist. Why are they not proved?" In what terms of decency
can we speak of this? As if an express could go to Natchez, or the
mouth of Cumberland, & return in 5 weeks, to do which has never taken
less than twelve. Again, "If, in Nov. or Dec. last, a body of troops
had been assembled on the Ohio, it is impossible to suppose the
affidavits establishing the fact could not have been obtained by the
last of March." But I ask the judge where they should have been
lodged? At Frankfort? at Cincinnati? at Nashville? St. Louis?
Natchez? New Orleans? These were the probable places of apprehension
& examination. It was not known at _Washington_ till the 26th of
March that Burr would escape from the Western tribunals, be retaken &
brought to an Eastern one; and in 5 days after, (neither 5. months
nor 5. weeks, as the judge calculated,) he says, it is "impossible to
suppose the affidavits could not have been obtained." Where? At
Richmond he certainly meant, or meant only to throw dust in the eyes
of his audience. But all the principles of law are to be perverted
which would bear on the favorite offenders who endeavor to overrun
this odious Republic. "I understand," sais the judge, "_probable_
cause of guilt to be a case made out by _proof_ furnishing good
reason to believe," &c. Speaking as a lawyer, he must mean legal
proof, i. e., proof on oath, at least. But this is confounding
_probability_ and _proof_. We had always before understood that
where there was reasonable ground to believe guilt, the offender must
be put on his trial. That guilty intentions were probable, the judge
believed. And as to the overt acts, were not the bundle of letters
of information in Mr. Rodney's hands, the letters and facts published
in the local newspapers, Burr's flight, & the universal belief or
rumor of his guilt, probable ground for presuming the facts of
enlistment, military guard, rendezvous, threats of civil war, or
capitulation, so as to put him on trial? Is there a candid man in
the U S who does not believe some one, if not all, of these overt
acts to have taken place?
If there ever had been an instance in this or the preceding
administrations, of federal judges so applying principles of law as
to condemn a federal or acquit a republican offender, I should have
judged them in the present case with more charity. All this,
however, will work well. The nation will judge both the offender &
judges for themselves. If a member of the Executive or Legislature
does wrong, the day is never far distant when the people will remove
him. They will see then & amend the error in our Constitution, which
makes any branch independent of the nation. They will see that one
of the great co-ordinate branches of the government, setting itself
in opposition to the other two, and to the common sense of the
nation, proclaims impunity to that class of offenders which endeavors
to overturn the Constitution, and are themselves protected in it by
the Constitution itself; for impeachment is a farce which will not be
tried again. If their protection of Burr produces this amendment, it
will do more good than his condemnation would have done. Against
Burr, personally, I never had one hostile sentiment. I never indeed
thought him an honest, frank-dealing man, but considered him as a
crooked gun, or other perverted machine, whose aim or stroke you
could never be sure of. Still, while he possessed the confidence of
the nation, I thought it my duty to respect in him their confidence,
& to treat him as if he deserved it; and if this punishment can be
commuted now for any useful amendment of the Constitution, I shall
rejoice in it. My sheet being full, I perceive it is high time to
offer you my friendly salutations, and assure you of my constant and
affectionate esteem and respect.
HISTORY, HUME, AND THE PRESS
_To John Norvell_
_Washington, June 14, 1807_
SIR, -- Your letter of May 9 has been duly received. The
subject it proposes would require time & space for even moderate
development. My occupations limit me to a very short notice of them.
I think there does not exist a good elementary work on the
organization of society into civil government: I mean a work which
presents in one full & comprehensive view the system of principles on
which such an organization should be founded, according to the rights
of nature. For want of a single work of that character, I should
recommend Locke on Government, Sidney, Priestley's Essay on the first
Principles of Government, Chipman's Principles of Government, & the
Federalist. Adding, perhaps, Beccaria on crimes & punishments,
because of the demonstrative manner in which he has treated that
branch of the subject. If your views of political inquiry go
further, to the subjects of money & commerce, Smith's Wealth of
Nations is the best book to be read, unless Say's Political Economy
can be had, which treats the same subject on the same principles, but
in a shorter compass & more lucid manner. But I believe this work
has not been translated into our language.
History, in general, only informs us what bad government is.
But as we have employed some of the best materials of the British
constitution in the construction of our own government, a knolege of
British history becomes useful to the American politician. There is,
however, no general history of that country which can be recommended.
The elegant one of Hume seems intended to disguise & discredit the
good principles of the government, and is so plausible & pleasing in
it's style & manner, as to instil it's errors & heresies insensibly
into the minds of unwary readers. Baxter has performed a good
operation on it. He has taken the text of Hume as his ground work,
abridging it by the omission of some details of little interest, and
wherever he has found him endeavoring to mislead, by either the
suppression of a truth or by giving it a false coloring, he has
changed the text to what it should be, so that we may properly call
it Hume's history republicanised. He has moreover continued the
history (but indifferently) from where Hume left it, to the year
1800. The work is not popular in England, because it is republican;
and but a few copies have ever reached America. It is a single 4to.
volume. Adding to this Ludlow's Memoirs, Mrs. M'Cauley's & Belknap's
histories, a sufficient view will be presented of the free principles
of the English constitution.
To your request of my opinion of the manner in which a
newspaper should be conducted, so as to be most useful, I should
answer, `by restraining it to true facts & sound principles only.'
Yet I fear such a paper would find few subscribers. It is a
melancholy truth, that a suppression of the press could not more
compleatly deprive the nation of it's benefits, than is done by it's
abandoned prostitution to falsehood. Nothing can now be believed
which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by
being put into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this state
of misinformation is known only to those who are in situations to
confront facts within their knolege with the lies of the day. I
really look with commiseration over the great body of my fellow
citizens, who, reading newspapers, live & die in the belief, that
they have known something of what has been passing in the world in
their time; whereas the accounts they have read in newspapers are
just as true a history of any other period of the world as of the
present, except that the real names of the day are affixed to their
fables. General facts may indeed be collected from them, such as
that Europe is now at war, that Bonaparte has been a successful
warrior, that he has subjected a great portion of Europe to his will,
&c., &c.; but no details can be relied on. I will add, that the man
who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads
them; inasmuch as he who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he
whose mind is filled with falsehoods & errors. He who reads nothing
will still learn the great facts, and the details are all false.
Perhaps an editor might begin a reformation in some such way as
this. Divide his paper into 4 chapters, heading the 1st, Truths.
2d, Probabilities. 3d, Possibilities. 4th, Lies. The first chapter
would be very short, as it would contain little more than authentic
papers, and information from such sources, as the editor would be
willing to risk his own reputation for their truth. The 2d would
contain what, from a mature consideration of all circumstances, his
judgment should conclude to be probably true. This, however, should
rather contain too little than too much. The 3d & 4th should be
professedly for those readers who would rather have lies for their
money than the blank paper they would occupy.
Such an editor too, would have to set his face against the
demoralising practice of feeding the public mind habitually on
slander, & the depravity of taste which this nauseous aliment
induces. Defamation is becoming a necessary of life; insomuch, that
a dish of tea in the morning or evening cannot be digested without
this stimulant. Even those who do not believe these abominations,
still read them with complaisance to their auditors, and instead of
the abhorrence & indignation which should fill a virtuous mind,
betray a secret pleasure in the possibility that some may believe
them, tho they do not themselves. It seems to escape them, that it
is not he who prints, but he who pays for printing a slander, who is
it's real author.
These thoughts on the subjects of your letter are hazarded at
your request. Repeated instances of the publication of what has not
been intended for the public eye, and the malignity with which
political enemies torture every sentence from me into meanings
imagined by their own wickedness only, justify my expressing a
solicitude, that this hasty communication may in nowise be permitted
to find it's way into the public papers. Not fearing these political
bull-dogs, I yet avoid putting myself in the way of being baited by
them, and do not wish to volunteer away that portion of tranquillity,
which a firm execution of my duties will permit me to enjoy.
I tender you my salutations, and best wishes for your success.
A SUBPOENA FOR THE PRESIDENT
_To George Hay_
_Washington, June 20, 1807_
DEAR SIR, -- Mr. Latrobe now comes on as a witness against
Burr. His presence here is with great inconvenience dispensed with,
as 150 workmen require his constant directions on various public
works of pressing importance. I hope you will permit him to come
away as soon as possible. How far his testimony will be important as
to the prisoner, I know not; but I am desirous that those meetings of
Yrujo with Burr and his principal accomplices, should come fully out,
and judicially, as they will establish the just complaints we have
against his nation.
I did not see till last night the opinion of the Judge on the
_subpoena duces tecum_ against the President. Considering the
question there as _coram non judice_, I did not read his argument
with much attention. Yet I saw readily enough, that, as is usual
where an opinion is to be supported, right or wrong, he dwells much
on smaller objections, and passes over those which are solid. Laying
down the position generally, that all persons owe obedience to
subpoenas, he admits no exception unless it can be produced in his
law books. But if the Constitution enjoins on a particular officer
to be always engaged in a particular set of duties imposed on him,
does not this supersede the general law, subjecting him to minor
duties inconsistent with these? The Constitution enjoins his
constant agency in the concerns of 6. millions of people. Is the law
paramount to this, which calls on him on behalf of a single one? Let
us apply the Judge's own doctrine to the case of himself & his
brethren. The sheriff of Henrico summons him from the bench, to
quell a riot somewhere in his county. The federal judge is, by the
general law, a part of the _posse_ of the State sheriff. Would the
Judge abandon major duties to perform lesser ones? Again; the court
of Orleans or Maine commands, by subpoenas, the attendance of all the
judges of the Supreme Court. Would they abandon their posts as
judges, and the interests of millions committed to them, to serve the
purposes of a single individual? The leading principle of our
Constitution is the independence of the Legislature, executive and
judiciary of each other, and none are more jealous of this than the
judiciary. But would the executive be independent of the judiciary,
if he were subject to the _commands_ of the latter, & to imprisonment
for disobedience; if the several courts could bandy him from pillar
to post, keep him constantly trudging from north to south & east to
west, and withdraw him entirely from his constitutional duties? The
intention of the Constitution, that each branch should be independent
of the others, is further manifested by the means it has furnished to
each, to protect itself from enterprises of force attempted on them
by the others, and to none has it given more effectual or diversified
means than to the executive. Again; because ministers can go into a
court in London as witnesses, without interruption to their executive
duties, it is inferred that they would go to a court 1000. or 1500.
miles off, and that ours are to be dragged from Maine to Orleans by
every criminal who will swear that their testimony `may be of use to
him.' The Judge says, `_it is apparent_ that the President's duties
as chief magistrate do not demand his whole time, & are not
unremitting.' If he alludes to our annual retirement from the seat of
government, during the sickly season, he should be told that such
arrangements are made for carrying on the public business, at and
between the several stations we take, that it goes on as
unremittingly there, as if we were at the seat of government. I pass
more hours in public business at Monticello than I do here, every
day; and it is much more laborious, because all must be done in
writing. Our stations being known, all communications come to them
regularly, as to fixed points. It would be very different were we
always on the road, or placed in the noisy & crowdedtaverns where
courts are held. Mr. Rodney is expected here every hour, having been
kept away by a sick child.
I salute you with friendship and respect.
"UNLEARNED VIEWS OF MEDICINE"
_To Dr. Caspar Wistar_
_Washington, June 21, 1807_
DEAR SIR, -- I have a grandson, the son of Mr. Randolph, now
about 15 years of age, in whose education I take a lively interest.
His time has not hitherto been employed to the greatest advantage, a
frequent change of tutors having prevented the steady pursuit of any
one plan. Whether he possesses that lively imagination, usually
called genius, I have not had opportunities of knowing. But I think
he has an observing mind & sound judgment. He is assiduous, orderly,
& of the most amiable temper & dispositions. As he will be at ease
in point of property, his education is not directed to any particular
possession, but will embrace those sciences which give to retired
life usefulness, ornament or amusement. I am not a friend to placing
growing men in populous cities, because they acquire there habits &
partialities which do not contribute to the happiness of their after
life. But there are particular branches of science, which are not so
advantageously taught anywhere else in the U.S. as in Philadelphia.
The garden at the Woodlands for Botany, Mr. Peale's Museum for
Natural History, your Medical school for Anatomy, and the able
professors in all of them, give advantages not to be found elsewhere.
We propose, therefore, to send him to Philadelphia to attend the
schools of Botany, Natural History, Anatomy, & perhaps Surgery; but
not of Medicine. And why not of Medicine, you will ask? Being led
to the subject, I will avail myself of the occasion to express my
opinions on that science, and the extent of my medical creed. But,
to finish first with respect to my grandson, I will state the favor I
ask of you, which is the object of this letter.
Having been born & brought up in a mountainous & healthy
country, we should be unwilling he should go to Philadelphia until
the autumnal diseases cease. It is important therefore for us to
know, at what period after that, the courses of lectures in Natural
history, Botany, Chemistry, Anatomy & Surgery begin and end, and what
days or hours they occupy? The object of this is that we may be able
so to marshal his pursuits as to bring their accomplishment within
the shortest space practicable. I shall write to Doctor Barton for
information as to the courses of natural history & botany but not
having a sufficient acquaintance with professors of chemistry &
surgery, if you can add the information respecting their school to
that of your own, I shall be much obliged to you. What too are the
usual terms of boarding? What the compensations to professors? And
can you give me a conjectural estimate of other necessary expenses?
In these we do not propose to indulge him beyond what is necessary,
decent, & usual, because all beyond that leads to dissipation &
idleness, to which, at present, he has no propensities. I think Mr.
Peale has not been in the habit of receiving a boarder. His house &
family would, of themselves, be a school of virtue & instruction; &
hours of leisure there would be as improving as busy ones elsewhere.
But I say this only on the possibility of so desirable a location for
him, and not with the wish that the thought should become known to
Mr. Peale, unless some former precedent should justify it's
suggestion to him. I am laying a heavy tax on your busy time, but I
think your goodness will pardon it in consideration of it's bearing
on my happiness.
This subject dismissed, I may now take up that which it led to,
and further tax your patience with unlearned views of medicine;
which, as in most cases, are, perhaps, the more confident in
proportion as they are less enlightened.
We know, from what we see & feel, that the animal body in it's
organs and functions is subject to derangement, inducing pain, &
tending to it's destruction. In this disordered state, we observe
nature providing for the re-establishment of order, by exciting some
salutary evacuation of the morbific matter, or by some other
operation which escapes our imperfect senses and researches. She
brings on a crisis, by stools, vomiting, sweat, urine, expectoration,
bleeding, &c., which, for the most part, ends in the restoration of
healthy action. Experience has taught us, also, that there are
certain substances, by which, applied to the living body, internally
or externally, we can at will produce these same evacuations, and
thus do, in a short time, what nature would do but slowly, and do
effectually, what perhaps she would not have strength to accomplish.
Where, then, we have seen a disease, characterized by specific signs
or phenomena, and relieved by a certain natural evacuation or
process, whenever that disease recurs under the same appearances, we
may reasonably count on producing a solution of it, by the use of
such substances as we have found produce the same evacuation or
movement. Thus, fulness of the stomach we can relieve by emetics;
diseases of the bowels, by purgatives; inflammatory cases, by
bleeding; intermittents, by the Peruvian bark; syphilis, by mercury:
watchfulness, by opium; &c. So far, I bow to the utility of
medicine. It goes to the well-defined forms of disease, & happily,
to those the most frequent. But the disorders of the animal body, &
the symptoms indicating them, are as various as the elements of which
the body is composed. The combinations, too, of these symptoms are
so infinitely diversified, that many associations of them appear too
rarely to establish a definite disease; and to an unknown disease,
there cannot be a known remedy. Here then, the judicious, the moral,
the humane physician should stop. Having been so often a witness to
the salutary efforts which nature makes to re-establish the
disordered functions, he should rather trust to their action, than
hazard the interruption of that, and a greater derangement of the
system, by conjectural experiments on a machine so complicated & so
unknown as the human body, & a subject so sacred as human life. Or,
ifthe appearance of doing something be necessary to keep alive the
hope & spirits of the patient, it should be of the most innocent
character. One of the most successful physicians I have ever known,
has assured me, that he used more bread pills, drops of colored
water, & powders of hickory ashes, than of all other medicines put
together. It was certainly a pious fraud. But the adventurous
physician goes on, & substitutes presumption for knolege. From the
scanty field of what is known, he launches into the boundless region
of what is unknown. He establishes for his guide some fanciful
theory of corpuscular attraction, of chemical agency, of mechanical
powers, of stimuli, of irritability accumulated or exhausted, of
depletion by the lancet & repletion by mercury, or some other
ingenious dream, which lets him into all nature's secrets at short
hand. On the principle which he thus assumes, he forms his table of
nosology, arrays his diseases into families, and extends his curative
treatment, by analogy, to all the cases he has thus arbitrarily
marshalled together. I have lived myself to see the disciples of
Hoffman, Boerhaave, Stalh, Cullen, Brown, succeed one another like
the shifting figures of a magic lantern, & their fancies, like the
dresses of the annual doll-babies from Paris, becoming, from their
novelty, the vogue of the day, and yielding to the next novelty their
ephemeral favor. The patient, treated on the fashionable theory,
sometimes gets well in spite of the medicine. The medicine therefore
restored him, & the young doctor receives new courage to proceed in
his bold experiments on the lives of his fellow creatures. I believe
we may safely affirm, that the inexperienced & presumptuous band of
medical tyros let loose upon the world, destroys more of human life
in one year, than all the Robinhoods, Cartouches, & Macheaths do in a
century. It is in this part of medicine that I wish to see a reform,
an abandonment of hypothesis for sober facts, the first degree of
value set on clinical observation, and the lowest on visionary
theories. I would wish the young practitioner, especially, to have
deeply impressed on his mind, the real limits of his art, & that when
the state of his patient gets beyond these, his office is to be a
watchful, but quiet spectator of the operations of nature, giving
them fair play by a well-regulated regimen, & by all the aid they can
derive from the excitement of good spirits & hope in the patient. I
have no doubt, that some diseases not yet understood may in time be
transferred to the table of those known. But, were I a physician, I
would rather leave the transfer to the slow hand of accident, than
hasten it by guilty experiments on those who put their lives into my
hands. The only sure foundations of medicine are, an intimate
knolege of the human body, and observation on the effects of
medicinal substances on that. The anatomical & clinical schools,
therefore, are those in which the young physician should be formed.
If he enters with innocence that of the theory of medicine, it is
scarcely possible he should come out untainted with error. His mind
must be strong indeed, if, rising above juvenile credulity, it can
maintain a wise infidelity against the authority of his instructors,
& the bewitching delusions of their theories. You see that I
estimate justly that portion of instruction which our medical
students derive from your labors; &, associating with it one of the
chairs which my old & able friend, Doctor Rush, so honorably fills, I
consider them as the two fundamental pillars of the edifice. Indeed,
I have such an opinion of the talents of the professors in the other
branches which constitute the school of medicine with you, as to hope
& believe, that it is from this side of the Atlantic, that Europe,
which has taught us so many other things, will at length be led into
sound principles in this branch of science, the most important of all
others, being that to which we commit the care of health & life.
I dare say, that by this time, you are sufficiently sensible
that old heads as well as young, may sometimes be charged with
ignorance and presumption. The natural course of the human mind is
certainly from credulity to scepticism; and this is perhaps the most
favorable apology I can make for venturing so far out of my depth, &
to one too, to whom the strong as well as the weak points of this
science are so familiar. But having stumbled on the subject in my
way, I wished to give a confession of my faith to a friend; & the
rather, as I had perhaps, at time, to him as well as others,
expressed my scepticism in medicine, without defining it's extent or
foundation. At any rate, it has permitted me, for a moment, to
abstract myself from the dry & dreary waste of politics, into which I
have been impressed by the times on which I happened, and to indulge
in the rich fields of nature, where alone I should have served as a
volunteer, if left to my natural inclinations & partialities.
I salute you at all times with affection & respect.
TORPEDOES AND SUBMARINES
_To Robert Fulton_
_Monticello, August 16, 1807_
SIR, -- Your letter of July 28, came to hand just as I was
about leaving Washington, & it has not been sooner in my power to
acknolege it. I consider your torpedoes as very valuable means of
defence of harbors, & have no doubt that we should adopt them to a
considerable degree. Not that I go the whole length (as I believe
you do) of considering them as solely to be relied on. Neither a
nation nor those entrusted with it's affairs, could be justifiable,
however sanguine their expectations, in trusting solely to an engine
not yet sufficiently tried, under all the circumstances which may
occur, & against which we know not as yet what means of parrying may
be devised. If, indeed, the mode of attaching them to the cable of a
ship be the only one proposed, modes of prevention cannot be
difficult. But I have ever looked to the submarine boat as most to
be depended on for attaching them, & tho' I see no mention of it in
your letter, or your publications, I am in hopes it is not abandoned
as impracticable. I should wish to see a corps of young men trained
to this service. It would belong to the engineers if at land, but
being nautical, I suppose we must have a corps of naval engineers, to
practise & use them. I do not know whether we have authority to put
any part of our existing naval establishment in a course of training,
but it shall be the subject of a consultation with the Secretary of
the Navy. Genl Dearborne has informed you of the urgency of our want
of you at N Orleans for the locks there.
I salute you with great respect & esteem.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
_To Rev. Samuel Miller_
_Washington, Jan. 23, 1808_
SIR, -- I have duly received your favor of the 18th and am
thankful to you for having written it, because it is more agreeable
to prevent than to refuse what I do not think myself authorized to
comply with. I consider the government of the U S. as interdicted by
the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions,
their doctrines, discipline, or exercises. This results not only
from the provision that no lawshall be made respecting the
establishment, or free exercise, of religion, but from that also
which reserves to the states the powers not delegated to the U.S.
Certainly no power to prescribe any religious exercise, or to assume
authority in religious discipline, has been delegated to the general
government. It must then rest with the states, as far as it can be
in any human authority. But it is only proposed that I should
_recommend_, not prescribe a day of fasting & prayer. That is, that
I should _indirectly_ assume to the U.S. an authority over religious
exercises which the Constitution has directly precluded them from.
It must be meant too that this recommendation is to carry some
authority, and to be sanctioned by some penalty on those who
disregard it; not indeed of fine and imprisonment, but of some degree
of proscription perhaps in public opinion. And does the change in
the nature of the penalty make the recommendation the less _a law_ of
conduct for those to whom it is directed? I do not believe it is for
the interest of religion to invite the civil magistrate to direct
it's exercises, it's discipline, or it's doctrines; nor of the
religious societies that the general government should be invested
with the power of effecting any uniformity of time or matter among
them. Fasting & prayer are religious exercises. The enjoining them
an act of discipline. Every religious society has a right to
determine for itself the times for these exercises, & the objects
proper for them, according to their own particular tenets; and this
right can never be safer than in their own hands, where the
constitution has deposited it.
I am aware that the practice of my predecessors may be quoted.
But I have ever believed that the example of state executives led to
the assumption of that authority by the general government, without
due examination, which would have discovered that what might be a
right in a state government, was a violation of that right when
assumed by another. Be this as it may, every one must act according
to the dictates of his own reason, & mine tells me that civil powers
alone have been given to the President of the U S. and no authority
to direct the religious exercises of his constituents.
I again express my satisfaction that you have been so good as
to give me an opportunity of explaining myself in a private letter,
in which I could give my reasons more in detail than might have been
done in a public answer: and I pray you to accept the assurances of
my high esteem & respect.
"SUBJECTS FOR A MAD-HOUSE"
_To Dr. Thomas Leib_
_Washington, June 23, 1808_
SIR, -- I have duly received your favor covering a copy of the
talk to the Tammany society, for which I thank you, and particularly
for the favorable sentiments expressed towards myself. Certainly,
nothing will so much sweeten the tranquillity and comfort of
retirement, as the knoledge that I carry with me the good will &
approbation of my republican fellow citizens, and especially of the
individuals in unison with whom I have so long acted. With respect
to the federalists, I believe we think alike; for when speaking of
them, we never mean to include a worthy portion of our fellow
citizens, who consider themselves as in duty bound to support the
constituted authorities of every branch, and to reserve their
opposition to the period of election. These having acquired the
appellation of federalists, while a federal administration was in
place, have not cared about throwing off their name, but adhering to
their principle, are the supporters of the present order of things.
The other branch of the federalists, those who are so in principle as
well as in name, disapprove of the republican principles & features
of our Constitution, and would, I believe, welcome any public
calamity (war with England excepted) which might lessen the
confidence of our country in those principles & forms. I have
generally considered them rather as subjects for a mad-house. But
they are now playing a game of the most mischevious tendency, without
perhaps being themselves aware of it. They are endeavoring to
convince England that we suffer more by the embargo than they do, &
that if they will but hold out awhile, we must abandon it. It is
true, the time will come when we must abandon it. But if this is
before the repeal of the orders of council, we must abandon it only
for a state of war. The day is not distant, when that will be
preferable to a longer continuance of the embargo. But we can never
remove that, & let our vessels go out & be taken under these orders,
without making reprisal. Yet this is the very state of things which
these federal monarchists are endeavoring to bring about; and in this
it is but too possible they may succeed. But the fact is, that if we
have war with England, it will be solely produced by their
manoeuvres. I think that in two or three months we shall know what
will be the issue.
I salute you with esteem & respect.
BONES FOR THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE
_To Lacepede, with a Catalogue_
_Washington, July 14, 1808_
SIR, -- If my recollection does not deceive me, the collection
of the remains of the animal incognitum of the Ohio (sometimes called
mammoth), possessed by the Cabinet of Natural History at Paris, is
not very copious. Under this impression, and presuming that this
Cabinet is allied to the National Institute, to which I am desirous
of rendering some service, I have lately availed myself of an
opportunity of collecting some of those remains. General Clarke (the
companion of Governor Lewis in his expedition to the Pacific Ocean)
being,on a late journey, to pass by the Big-bone Lick of the Ohio,
was kind enough to undertake to employ for me a number of laborers,
and to direct their operations in digging for these bones at this
important deposit of them. The result of these researches will
appear in the enclosed catalogue of specimens which I am now able to
place at the disposal o