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Title: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson Vol 5 (of 9) - Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, - Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and Private
Author: Jefferson, Thomas
Language: English
As this book started as an ASCII text book there are no pictures available.
*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The Writings of Thomas Jefferson Vol 5 (of 9) - Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, - Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and Private" ***
Transcriber's Note:
Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have
been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.
Inconsistent or incorrect accents and spelling in passages in French,
Latin and Italian have been left unchanged.
The following possible inconsistencies/printer errors/archaic
spellings/different names for different entities were pointed
out by the proofers, and left as printed:
Crownenshield, Crowningshield,
Pontchartrain, Ponchartrain,
Blennerhasset and Blannerhassett,
Miller and Millar,
ascendancy and ascendency.
Page 129: Turfot's works should possibly be Turgot's works.
Page 208: "Whom shall we appoint in the room of Kilgore." is possibly
missing a question mark.
Page 234: seafencibles should possibly be sea fencibles.
Page 277: "if we become dissatisfied" should possibly be "if we become satisfied".
Page 278: Uberville should possibly be Iberville.
Page 556: teazing should possibly be teasing.
Page 468: arbonverous is a possible typo.
Page 581: chetif is a possible typo.
Table of Contents:
Colonel Humphreys was misspelled as Umphreys, and therefore out of order.
Latrobe was mispelled and therefore out of order.
LEVETT HARRIS omitted.
THE
WRITINGS
OF
THOMAS JEFFERSON:
BEING HIS
AUTOBIOGRAPHY, CORRESPONDENCE, REPORTS, MESSAGES,
ADDRESSES, AND OTHER WRITINGS, OFFICIAL
AND PRIVATE.
PUBLISHED BY THE ORDER OF THE JOINT COMMITTEE OF CONGRESS ON THE LIBRARY,
FROM THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPTS,
DEPOSITED IN THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE.
WITH EXPLANATORY NOTES, TABLES OF CONTENTS, AND A COPIOUS INDEX
TO EACH VOLUME, AS WELL AS A GENERAL INDEX TO THE WHOLE,
BY THE EDITOR
H. A. WASHINGTON.
VOL. V.
NEW YORK:
H. W. DERBY, 625 BROADWAY.
1861.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by
TAYLOR & MAURY,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District of Columbia.
CONTENTS TO VOL. V.
BOOK II.
PART III.--CONTINUED.--LETTERS WRITTEN AFTER HIS RETURN TO THE UNITED
STATES DOWN TO THE TIME OF HIS DEATH.--(1790-1826,)--3.
Adams, citizens of county of, letter written to, 262.
Albemarle county, inhabitants of, letter written to, 439.
Armstrong, General, letters written to, 134, 280, 433.
Astor, John Jacob, letter written to, 269.
Attorney General, letter written to, 546.
Baldwin, M., letter written to, 494.
Barlow, Joel, letters written to, 402, 475, 587, 601.
Barnum, Hon. Joseph, letter written to, 388.
Barton, Dr., letters written to, 204, 469.
Beatty, Captain, letter written to, 125.
Bettay, Mr., letter written to, 246.
Bibb, Mr., letter written to, 326.
Bidwell, Mr., letters written to, 14, 125.
Blake, George, letters written to, 113, 371.
Bloodgood & Hammond, Messrs., letter written to, 472.
Botta, Mr., letter written to, 527.
Bowdoin, Mr., letters written to, 17, 63, 123, 298.
Boyd, Mr., letters written to, 414.
Brent, Robert, letters written to, 49, 196.
Brent, Colonel D. C., letter written to, 305.
Bringhurst, Joseph, letter written to, 208.
Brown, Jacob, letters written to, 239, 241.
Brown, Dr. James, letter written to, 378.
Burwell, W. A., letters written to, 20, 504.
Cabell, Governor, letters written to, 114, 118, 132, 138, 141,
143, 147, 150, 156, 158, 166, 170, 191, 194, 201, 205, 208,
258, 385.
Campbell, John W., letter written to, 465.
Campbell, Judge David, letter written to, 499.
Capede, M. de, letter written to, 309.
Chapman, Dr., letter written to, 487.
Chase, Thornwick, letter written to, 156.
Christian, Mr., letter written to, 33.
Claiborne, Governor, letters written to, 40, 306, 318, 345,
381, 518, 519.
Clarke, Daniel, letter written to, 32.
Clarke, General Wm., letters written to, 220, 467.
Clarke, General George Rogers, letter written to, 220.
Clay, Charles, letter written to, 27.
Clinton, Mr., letter written to, 80.
Colles, Christopher, letter written to, 302.
Colvin, J. B., letter written to, 499.
Cooper, Judge, letter written to, 530.
Cooper, Mr., letter written to, 182.
Cooper, Hon. Thomas, letters written to, 121, 376.
Coste, M. de la, letter written to, 79.
Coxe, Mr., letters written to, 57, 199.
Crawford, Mr., letter written to, 193.
Croix, M. de la, letter written to, 421.
Dashkoff, M., letter written to, 463.
Dearborne, General, letters written to, 44, 60, 118, 149, 278,
295, 283, 409, 454, 529, 607.
Dickinson, John, letter written to, 29.
Digges, Mr., letter written to, 14.
Diodati, M. de, letter written to, 61.
Dorsey, Mr., letter written to, 235.
Duane, Wm., letters written to, 139, 532, 538, 551, 574, 590, 602.
Eccleston, Daniel, letter written to, 213.
Eppes, Mr., letter written to, 490.
Eustis, Dr., letter written to, 410.
Evans, Oliver, letter written to, 74.
Fishback, James, letter written to, 470.
Foronda, Don Valentine, letter written to, 473.
Franklin, Mr., letter written to, 303.
Fulton, Mr., letters written to, 165, 216, 341, 516.
Gaines, Mr., letter written to, 140.
Gallatin, Albert, letters written to, 23, 26, 29, 36, 42, 49, 50,
59, 70, 86, 114, 115, 122, 202, 207, 209, 215, 221, 223, 227,
231, 243, 244, 245, 250, 251, 259, 263, 265, 267, 268, 269, 270,
271, 272, 273, 275, 286, 300, 336, 369, 370, 371, 372, 375, 382,
386, 396, 398, 399, 403, 405, 408, 477, 536, 548, 588.
Gamble, James, letter written to, 204.
General, Attorney, letter written to, 200.
Giles, Wm. B., letter written to, 65.
Gilliam, Shelton, letter written to, 301.
Governors of States, letter written to, 413.
Granger, Gideon, letters written to, 497.
Gregg & Leib, Messrs., letter written to, 431.
Gregoire, M., letter written to, 429.
Griffith, Elijah, letter written to, 450.
Grove, Captain, letter written to, 374.
Guest, Henry, letter written to, 407.
Hay, George, letters written to, 78, 81, 82, 84, 86, 94, 98, 102,
112, 174, 187, 190, 191, 198.
Hamilton, Hon. Paul, letter written to, 495.
Harris, Mr., letter written to, 5.
Hawkins, Samuel, letter written to, 392.
Henry, Mr., letter written to, 31.
Hewson, Thomas, letter written to, 494.
Hillard, Captain Isaac, letter written to, 551.
Holland, King of, letter written to, 47.
Hollins, John, letters written to, 427, 596.
Howell, David, letter written to, 554.
Humboldt, Baron de, letters written to, 434, 580.
Irving, George W., letter written to, 479.
James, Thomas C., letter written to, 411.
Jay, Governor James, letter written to, 440.
Jefferson, S. Garland, letter written to, 497.
Johnson, Richard M., letter written to, 256.
Jones, Skelton, letter written to, 459.
Jones, Dr., letter written to, 509.
Kentucky, Ohio, &c., Governors, letter written to, 51.
Kerr, &c., Messrs., letter written to, 332.
Kercheval, Samuel, letters written to, 489, 492.
Knox, Robert M., letter written to, 502.
Kosciusko, General, letters written to, 281, 506, 585.
La Fayette, Marquis, letter written to, 129.
Lambert, W., letter written to, 449.
Lambert, Mr., letter written to, 528.
Langdon, Governor, letter written to, 511.
Latrobe, Mr., letter written to, 578.
Lasteyrie, Mr., letter written to, 314.
Law, Mr., letters written to, 555.
Leib, Dr., letter written to, 304.
Leiper, Mr., letters written to, 295, 416.
Letue, Mr., letter written to, 384.
Lewis, Governor, letters written to, 153, 320, 349, 353.
Lincoln, Levi, letters written to, 264, 352.
Lincoln, Lieut. Governor, letter written to, 387.
Livingston, Robert R., letters written to, 54, 224, 369.
Logan, Dr., letter written to, 404.
Lyman, Wm., letter written to, 279.
Lynch, John, letter written to, 563.
Madison, James, letters written to, 37, 72, 76, 77, 169, 172,
195, 197, 257.
Maese, &c., Messrs., letter written to, 230.
Maese, Dr., letter written to, 412.
Main, James, letter written to, 373.
Mason, Captain Armistead, letter written to, 432.
Mason, General John, letter written to, 217.
Masters of Norfolk vessels, &c., letter written to, 118.
Masters of Charleston vessels, letter written to, 147.
Matthews, General, letter written to, 120.
Maury, Mr., letter written to, 214,
McAndless, Wm., letter written to, 438.
McIntosh, Wm., letter written to, 241.
McGregor, Captain, letter written to, 356.
Melish, John, letter written to, 573.
Miller, Robert, Mr., letter written to, 236.
Minor, Colonel, letter written to, 215.
Monroe, Colonel James, letters written to, 9, 52, 82, 247, 253,
419, 597.
Monroe, Thomas, letter written to, 395.
Moore, Thomas, letter written to, 73.
Morgan, Benjamin, letter written to, 137.
Morgan, G., letter written to, 56.
Navy, Secretary of, letters written to, 157, 171, 184, 186, 192,
196, 300, 316, 335, 337, 367, 582.
Nemours, Dupont de, letters written to, 127, 432, 456.
Nicholas, Wilson C., letters written to, 3, 4, 48, 260, 400, 452,
488.
Nicholas, John, letter written to, 168.
Niemcewicz, Mr., letter written to, 72.
Nicholson, Mr., letter written to, 45.
Norvell, John, letter written to, 90.
Ogilvie, Mr., letter written to, 604.
Onis, Chevalier de, letter written to, 478.
Orleans, New, Governor of, letter written to, 286.
Page, John, letter written to, 135.
Paganel, Mr., letter written to, 581.
Paine, Mr., letter written to, 200.
Paine, Thomas, letter written to, 189.
Patterson, Robert, letter written to, 61.
Pemberton, James, letters written to, 212, 302.
Pahlen, Count, letter written to, 526.
Philosophical Society, letter written to, 392.
Pinckney, Governor, letters written to, 34, 322, 383.
Pinckney, Charles, letter written to, 265.
Potocki, Count, letter written to, 599.
President, The, letters written to, 437, 442, 443, 458, 463, 468,
480, 481, 484, 522, 572, 600.
Price, Chandler, letter written to, 46.
Randolph, Thomas Mann, letters written to, 424, 430.
Randolph, E., letter written to, 406.
Randolph, T. Jefferson, letter written to, 388.
Representatives, Speaker of House of, letters written to, 222,
249.
Rodney, Cæsar A., letter written to, 501.
Rodney, Wm., letter written to, 275.
Ronaldson, James, letter written to, 533.
Ruelle, M., letter written to, 430.
Rush, Dr., letters written to, 225, 558.
Russia, Emperor of, letter written to, 358.
Salimankis, Abbe, letter written to, 515.
Salmon, Daniel, letter written to, 245.
Saunders, Captain J., letter written to, 119.
Sevier, Governor, letter written to, 421.
Seymour, Thomas, letter written to, 43.
Shee, General, letter written to, 33.
Short, Wm., letters written to, 93, 210, 362, 435.
Silvester, M., letter written to, 83.
Simms, Colonel Charles, letter written to, 418.
Smith, General, letters written to, 13, 146.
Smith, Mr., letters written to, 41, 228, 234, 244, 268, 282,
317, 372.
Smith, Hon. John, letter written to, 77.
Smith, General Benjamin, letter written to, 293.
Smith, Colonel Larkin, letter written to, 440.
Smith, Robert, letter written to, 589.
Smith, John, letter written to, 342.
Spafford, Mr., letter written to, 445.
Stael, Madame de, letter written to, 133.
State, Secretary of, letters written to, 69, 154, 164, 167, 173,
178, 181, 185, 186, 274, 278, 290, 294, 299, 329, 339, 360,
361, 367, 451, 545.
Stewart, Judge, letter written to, 606.
Stoddart, Mr., letter written to, 425.
Sullivan, Governor, letters written to, 100, 203, 252, 317, 340.
Sylvestre, Mr., letter written to, 312.
Tatham, Colonel, letter written to, 116, 145.
Taylor, John, letter written to, 226.
Taylor, Colonel John, letter written to, 148.
Theus, Simeon, letter written to, 364.
Thompson, Charles, letter written to, 403.
Tiffin, Governor H. D., letters written to, 37, 241.
Tompkins, Governor, letters written to, 238, 283, 343.
Tracy, Destutt, letter written to, 556.
Treasury, Secretary of, letters written to, 35, 172, 193, 271,
277, 289, 290, 291, 296, 307, 325, 327, 333, 335, 344, 346,
355, 360, 363, 368.
Turpin, Dr. Horatio, letter written to, 90.
Tyler, Governor, letters written to, 414, 425, 524.
Humphreys, Colonel, letter written to, 415.
Vater, John Severin, letter written to, 599.
Vavasseur, M. de, letter written to, 263.
Vice-President, letter written to, 115.
Voolif, G., &c., letter written to, 517.
War, Secretary of, letters written to, 110, 317, 122, 126, 135,
155, 157, 162, 167, 175, 179, 183, 188, 202, 206, 229, 288,
293, 321, 330, 332, 334, 338, 348, 355, 357, 361, 408.
Washington, Colonel, letter written to, 276.
Waterhouse, Dr., letter written to, 393.
Weaver, Mr., letter written to, 88.
Willis, Charles F., letter written to, 483.
White, Hugh L., &c., letter written to, 520.
Wilkinson, General, letters written to, 24, 38, 109, 198, 305,
359, 572.
Williams, J. & Peale C. W., letter written to, 28.
Williams, Governor, letter written to, 209.
Wirt William, letters written to, 233, 593, 596.
Wistar, Dr., letters written to, 46, 104, 218, 261.
Woodward, Judge, letter written to, 449.
Worthington, W. D. G., letter written to, 503.
Wyche, John, letter written to, 448.
Addressee lost, letters written to, 55, 285, 380, 406.
PART III.--CONTINUED.
LETTERS WRITTEN AFTER HIS RETURN TO THE U. S. DOWN TO THE TIME OF HIS
DEATH.
1790-1826.
TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS.--(_Confidential._)
WASHINGTON, March 24,1806.
DEAR SIR,--A last effort at friendly settlement with Spain is proposed
to be made at Paris, and under the auspices of France. For this purpose,
General Armstrong and Mr. Bowdoin (both now at Paris) have been appointed
joint commissioners; but such a cloud of dissatisfaction rests on General
Armstrong in the minds of many persons, on account of a late occurrence
stated in all the public papers, that we have in contemplation to add
a third commissioner, in order to give the necessary measure of public
confidence to the commission. Of these two gentlemen, one being of
Massachusetts and one of New York, it is thought the third should be
a southern man; and the rather, as the interests to be negotiated are
almost entirely southern and western. This addition is not yet ultimately
decided on; but I am inclined to believe it will be adopted. Under this
expectation, and my wish that you may be willing to undertake it, I give
you the earliest possible intimation of it, that you may be preparing
both your mind and your measures for the mission. The departure would be
required to be very prompt; though the absence I think will not be long,
Bonaparte not being in the practice of procrastination. This particular
consideration will, I hope, reconcile the voyage to your affairs and your
feelings. The allowance to an extra mission, is salary from the day of
leaving home, and expenses to the place of destination, or in lieu of the
latter, and to avoid settlements, a competent fixed sum may be given. For
the return, a continuance of the salary for three months after fulfilment
of the commission. Be so good as to make up your mind as quickly as
possible, and to answer me as early as possible. Consider the measure
as proposed provisionally only, and not to be communicated to any mortal
until we see it proper.
Affectionate salutations.
TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS.
WASHINGTON, April 13, 1806.
DEAR SIR,--The situation of your affairs certainly furnishes good cause
for your not acceding to my proposition of a special mission to Europe.
My only hope had been, that they could have gone on one summer without
you. An unjust hostility against General Armstrong will, I am afraid, show
itself whenever any treaty made by him shall be offered for ratification.
I wished, therefore, to provide against this, by joining a person who
would have united the confidence of the whole Senate. General Smith was
so prominent in the opposition to Armstrong, that it would be impossible
for them to act together. We conclude, therefore, to leave the matter
with Armstrong and Bowdoin. Indeed, my dear Sir, I wish sincerely you
were back in the Senate; and that you would take the necessary measures
to get yourself there. Perhaps, as a preliminary, you should go to our
Legislature. Giles' absence has been a most serious misfortune. A majority
of the Senate means well. But Tracy and Bayard are too dexterous for them,
and have very much influenced their proceedings. Tracy has been of nearly
every committee during the session, and for the most part the chairman,
and of course drawer of the reports. Seven federalists voting always
in phalanx, and joined by some discontented republicans, some oblique
ones, some capricious, have so often made a majority, as to produce very
serious embarrassment to the public operations; and very much do I dread
the submitting to them, at the next session, any treaty which can be
made with either England or Spain, when I consider that five joining the
federalists, can defeat a friendly settlement of our affairs. The House
of Representatives is as well disposed as I ever saw one. The defection
of so prominent a leader, threw them into dismay and confusion for a
moment; but they soon rallied to their own principles, and let them go
off with five or six followers only. One half of these are from Virginia.
His late declaration of perpetual opposition to this administration, drew
off a few others who at first had joined him, supposing his opposition
occasional only, and not systematic. The alarm the House has had from this
schism, has produced a rallying together and a harmony, which carelessness
and security had begun to endanger. On the whole, this little trial of
the firmness of our representatives in their principles, and that of
the people also, which is declaring itself in support of their public
functionaries, has added much to my confidence in the stability of our
government; and to my conviction, that, should things go wrong at any
time, the people will set them to rights by the peaceable exercise of
their elective rights. To explain to you the character of this schism,
its objects and combinations, can only be done in conversation; and must
be deferred till I see you at Monticello, where I shall probably be about
the 10th or 12th of May, to pass the rest of the month there. Congress has
agreed to rise on Monday, the 21st.
Accept my affectionate salutations.
TO MR. HARRIS.
WASHINGTON, April 18, 1806.
SIR,--It is now some time since I received from you, through the house
of Smith and Buchanan at Baltimore, a bust of the Emperor Alexander, for
which I have to return you my thanks. These are the more cordial, because
of the value the bust derives from the great estimation in which its
original is held by the world, and by none more than by myself. It will
constitute one of the most valued ornaments of the retreat I am preparing
for myself at my native home. Accept, at the same time, my acknowledgments
for the elegant work of Atkinson and Walker on the customs of the
Russians. I had laid it down as a law for my conduct while in office, and
hitherto scrupulously observed, to accept of no present beyond a book, a
pamphlet, or other curiosity of minor value; as well to avoid imputation
on my motives of action, as to shut out a practice susceptible of such
abuse. But my particular esteem for the character of the Emperor, places
his image in my mind above the scope of law. I receive it, therefore, and
shall cherish it with affection. It nourishes the contemplation of all the
good placed in his power, and of his disposition to do it.
A little before Dr. Priestley's death, he informed me that he had
received intimations, through a channel he confided in, that the Emperor
entertained a wish to know something of our Constitution. I have therefore
selected the two best works we have on that subject, for which I pray
you to ask a place in his library. They are too much in detail to occupy
his time; but they will furnish materials for an abstract, to be made by
others, on such a scale as may bring the matter within the compass of the
time which his higher callings can yield to such an object.
At a very early period of my life, contemplating the history of the
aboriginal inhabitants of America, I was led to believe that if there had
ever been a relation between them and the men of color in Asia, traces of
it would be found in their several languages. I have therefore availed
myself of every opportunity which has offered, to obtain vocabularies
of such tribes as have been within my reach, corresponding to a list
then formed of about two hundred and fifty words. In this I have made
such progress, that within a year or two more I think to give to the
public what I then shall have acquired. I have lately seen a report of
Mr. Volney's to the Celtic academy, on a work of Mr. Pallas, entitled
"Vocabulaires compares des langues de toute la terre;" with a list of one
hundred and thirty words, to which the vocabulary is limited. I find that
seventy-three of these words are common to that and to my vocabulary,
and therefore will enable us, by a comparison of language, to make the
inquiry so long desired, as to the probability of a common origin between
the people of color of the two continents. I have to ask the favor of you
to procure me a copy of the above work of Pallas, to inform me of the
cost, and permit me to pay it here to your use; for I presume you have
some mercantile correspondent here, to whom a payment can be made for
you. A want of knowledge what the book may cost, as well as of the means
of making so small a remittance, obliges me to make this proposition, and
to restrain it to the sole condition that I be permitted to reimburse it
here.
I enclose you a letter for the Emperor, which be pleased to deliver or
have delivered; it has some relation to a subject which the Secretary of
State will explain to you.
Accept my salutations, and assurances of esteem and consideration.
TO THE EMPEROR OF RUSSIA.
WASHINGTON, April 19, 1806.
I owe an acknowledgment to your Imperial Majesty for the great
satisfaction I have received from your letter of August the 20th, 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.
TO COLONEL MONROE.
WASHINGTON, May 4, 1806.
DEAR SIR,--I wrote you on the 16th of March by a common vessel, and
then expected to have had, on the rising of Congress, an opportunity of
peculiar confidence to you. Mr. Beckley then supposed he should take
a flying trip to London, on private business. But I believe he does
not find it convenient. He could have let you into the _arcana rerum_,
which you have interests in knowing. Mr. Pinckney's pursuits having been
confined to his peculiar line, he has only that general knowledge of what
has passed here which the public possess. He has a just view of things
so far as known to him. Our old friend, Mercer, broke off from us some
time ago; at first professing to disdain joining the federalists, yet,
from the habit of voting together, becoming soon identified with them.
Without carrying over with him one single person, he is now in a state
of as perfect obscurity as if his name had never been known. Mr. J.
Randolph is in the same track, and will end in the same way. His course
has excited considerable alarm. Timid men consider it as a proof of the
weakness of our government, and that it is to be rent into pieces by
demagogues, and to end in anarchy. I survey the scene with a different
eye, and draw a different augury from it. In a House of Representatives
of a great mass of good sense, Mr. Randolph's popular eloquence gave him
such advantages as to place him unrivalled as the leader of the House;
and, although not conciliatory to those whom he led, principles of duty
and patriotism induced many of them to swallow humiliations he subjected
them to, and to vote as was right, as long as he kept the path of right
himself. The sudden defection of such a man could not but produce a
momentary astonishment, and even dismay; but for a moment only. The
good sense of the House rallied around its principles, and without any
leader pursued steadily the business of the session, did it well, and
by a strength of vote which has never before been seen. Upon all trying
questions, exclusive of the federalists, the minority of republicans
voting with him has been from four to six or eight, against from ninety
to one hundred; and although he yet treats the federalists with ineffable
contempt, yet, having declared eternal opposition to this administration,
and consequently associated with them in his votes, he will, like Mercer,
end with them. The augury I draw from this is, that there is a steady,
good sense in the Legislature, and in the body of the nation, joined
with good intentions, which will lead them to discern and to pursue the
public good under all circumstances which can arise, and that no _ignis
fatuus_ will be able to lead them long astray. In the present case, the
public sentiment, as far as declarations of it have yet come in, is,
without a single exception, in firm adherence to the administration. One
popular paper is endeavoring to maintain equivocal ground; approving the
administration in all its proceedings, and Mr. Randolph in all those which
have heretofore merited approbation, carefully avoiding to mention his
late aberration. The ultimate view of this paper is friendly to you; and
the editor, with more judgment than him who assumes to be at the head of
your friends, sees that the ground of opposition to the administration
is not that on which it would be advantageous to you to be planted.
The great body of your friends are among the firmest adherents to the
administration; and in their support of you, will suffer Mr. Randolph to
have no communications with them. My former letter told you the line which
both duty and inclination would lead me sacredly to pursue. But it is
unfortunate for you to be embarrassed with such a _soi-disant_ friend. You
must not commit yourself to him. These views may assist you to understand
such details as Mr. Pinckney will give you. If you are here at any time
before the fall, it will be in time for any object you may have, and by
that time the public sentiment will be more decisively declared. I wish
you were here at present, to take your choice of the two governments
of Orleans and Louisiana, in either of which I could now place you;
and I verily believe it would be to your advantage to be just that much
withdrawn from the focus of the ensuing contest, until its event should
be known. The one has a salary of five thousand dollars, the other of two
thousand dollars; both with excellent hotels for the Governor. The latter
at St. Louis, where there is good society, both French and American; a
healthy climate, and the finest field in the United States for acquiring
property. The former not unhealthy, if you begin a residence there in the
month of November. The Mrs. Trists and their connections are established
there. As I think you can within four months inform me what you say to
this, I will keep things in their present state till the last day of
August, for your answer.
The late change in the ministry I consider as insuring us a just
settlement of our differences, and we ask no more. In Mr. Fox, personally,
I have more confidence than in any man in England, and it is founded
in what, through unquestionable channels, I have had opportunities of
knowing of his honesty and his good sense. While he shall be in the
administration, my reliance on that government will be solid. We had
committed ourselves in a line of proceedings adapted to meet Mr. Pitt's
policy and hostility, before we heard of his death, which self-respect did
not permit us to abandon afterwards; and the late unparalleled outrage on
us at New York excited such sentiments in the public at large, as did not
permit us to do less than has been done. It ought not to be viewed by the
ministry as looking towards them at all, but merely as the consequences
of the measures of their predecessors, which their nation has called on
them to correct. I hope, therefore, they will come to just arrangements.
No two countries upon earth have so many points of common interest and
friendship; and their rulers must be great bunglers indeed, if, with such
dispositions, they break them asunder. The only rivalry that can arise
is on the ocean. England may, by petty larceny thwartings, check us on
that element a little, but nothing she can do will retard us there one
year's growth. We shall be supported there by other nations, and thrown
into their scale to make a part of the great counterpoise to her navy.
If, on the other hand, she is just to us, conciliatory, and encourages
the sentiment of family feelings and conduct, it cannot fail to befriend
the security of both. We have the seamen and materials for fifty ships
of the line, and half that number of frigates; and were France to give
us the money, and England the dispositions to equip them, they would
give to England serious proofs of the stock from which they are sprung,
and the school in which they have been taught; and added to the efforts
of the immensity of sea coast lately united under one power, would leave
the state of the ocean no longer problematical. Were, on the other hand,
England to give the money, and France the dispositions to place us on the
sea in all our force, the whole world, out of the continent of Europe,
might be our joint monopoly. We wish for neither of these scenes. We
ask for peace and justice from all nations; and we will remain uprightly
neutral in fact, though leaning in belief to the opinion that an English
ascendancy on the ocean is safer for us than that of France. We begin to
broach the idea that we consider the whole Gulf Stream as of our waters,
in which hostilities and cruising are to be frowned on for the present,
and prohibited so soon as either consent or force will permit us. We shall
never permit another privateer to cruise within it, and shall forbid our
harbors to national cruisers. This is essential for our tranquillity and
commerce. Be so good as to have the enclosed letters delivered, to present
me to your family, and be assured yourself of my unalterable friendship.
For fear of accidents, I shall not make the unnecessary addition of my
name.
TO GENERAL SMITH.
WASHINGTON, May 4, 1806.
DEAR SIR,--I received your favor covering some papers from General
Wilkinson. I have repented but of one appointment there, that of Lucas,
whose temper I see overrules every good quality and every qualification
he has. Not a single fact has appeared, which occasions me to doubt that
I could have made a fitter appointment than General Wilkinson. One qualm
of principle I acknowledge I do feel, I mean the union of the civil and
military authority. You remember that when I came into office, while
we were lodging together at Conrad's, he was pressed on me to be made
Governor of the Mississippi territory; and that I refused it on that very
principle. When, therefore, the House of Representatives took that ground,
I was not insensible to its having some weight. But in the appointment
to Louisiana, I did not think myself departing from my own principle,
because I consider it not as a civil government, but merely a military
station. The Legislature had sanctioned that idea by the establishment
of the office of Commandant, in which were completely blended the civil
and military powers. It seemed, therefore, that the Governor should be in
suit with them. I observed, too, that the House of Representatives, on the
very day they passed the stricture on this union of authorities, passed
a bill making the Governor of Michigan commander of the regular troops
which should at any time be within his government. However, on the subject
of General Wilkinson nothing is in contemplation at this time. We shall
see what turn things take at home and abroad in the course of the summer.
Monroe has had a second conversation with Mr. Fox, which gives me hopes
that we shall have an amicable arrangement with that government. Accept my
friendly salutations, and assurances of great esteem and respect.
TO MR. DIGGES.
July 1, 1806.
Thomas Jefferson salutes Mr. Digges with friendship and respect, and sends
him the newspapers received last night. He is sorry that only the latter
part of the particular publication which Mr. Digges wished to see, is in
them. He will be happy to see Mr. Digges and his friends on the fourth
of July, and to join in congratulations on the return of the day which
divorced us from the follies and crimes of Europe, from a dollar in the
pound at least of six hundred millions sterling, and from all the ruin
of Mr. Pitt's administration. We, too, shall encounter follies; but if
great, they will be short, if long, they will be light; and the vigor
of our country will get the better of them. Mr. Pitt's follies have been
great, long, and inflicted on a body emaciated with age, and exhausted by
excesses beyond its power to bear.
TO MR. 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 everything 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 Bonaparte 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 everything 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 monopolize 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 anything 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 Bonaparte 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' councillors. 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.
* * * * * 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 of which 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.
TO MR. BOWDOIN.
WASHINGTON, July 10, 1806.
DEAR SIR,--I believe that when you left America the invention of the
polygraph had not yet reached Boston. It is for copying with one pen while
you write with the other, and without the least additional embarrassment
or exertion to the writer. I think it the finest invention of the present
age, and so much superior to the copying machine, that the latter will
never be continued a day by any one who tries the polygraph. It was
invented by a Mr. Hawkins, of Frankford, near Philadelphia, who is now in
England, turning it to good account. Knowing that you are in the habit of
writing much, I have flattered myself that I could add acceptably to your
daily convenience by presenting you with one of these delightful machines.
I have accordingly had one made, and to be certain of its perfection I
have used it myself some weeks, and have the satisfaction to find it the
best one I have ever tried; and in the course of two years' daily use of
them, I have had opportunities of trying several. As a secretary, which
copies for us what we write without the power of revealing it, I find it a
most precious possession to a man in public business. I enclose directions
for unpacking and using the machine when you receive it; but the machine
itself must await a special and sure conveyance under the care of some
person going to Paris. It is ready packed, and shall go by the first
proper conveyance.
As we heard two or three weeks ago of the safe arrival of the Hornet
at L'Orient, we were anxiously waiting to learn from you the first
impressions on her mission. If you can succeed in procuring us Florida,
and a good western boundary, it will fill the American mind with joy.
It will secure to our fellow citizens one of the most ardent wishes,
a long peace with Spain and France. For be assured, the object of war
with them and alliance with England, which, at the last session of
Congress, drew off from the republican band about half a dozen of its
members, is universally reprobated by our _native_ citizens from north to
south. I have never seen the nation stand more firm to its principles,
or rally so firmly to its constituted authorities, and in reprobation
of the opposition to them. With England, I think we shall cut off the
resource of impressing our seamen to fight her battles, and establish the
inviolability of our flag in its commerce with her enemies. We shall thus
become what we sincerely wish to be, honestly neutral, and truly useful to
both belligerents. To the one, by keeping open market for the consumption
of her manufactures, while they are excluded from all the other countries
under the power of her enemy; to the other, by securing for her a safe
carriage of all her productions, metropolitan or colonial, while her own
means are restrained by her enemy, and may, therefore, be employed in
other useful pursuits. We are certainly more useful friends to France and
Spain as neutrals, than as allies. I hope they will be sensible of it,
and by a wise removal of all grounds of future misunderstanding to another
age, enable you to present us such an arrangement, as will insure to our
fellow-citizens long and permanent peace and friendship with them. With
respect to our western boundary, your instructions will be your guide. I
will only add, as a comment to them, that we are attached to the retaining
of the Bay of St. Bernard, because it was the first establishment of the
unfortunate La Sale, was the cradle of Louisiana, and more incontestibly
covered and conveyed to us by France, under that name, than any other
spot in the country. This will be secured to us by taking for our western
boundary the Guadaloupe, and from its head around the sources of all
waters eastward of it, to the highlands embracing the waters running into
the Mississippi. However, all these things I presume will be settled
before you receive this; and I hope so settled as to give peace and
satisfaction to us all.
Our crops of wheat are greater than have ever been known, and are now
nearly secured. A caterpillar gave for awhile great alarm, but did little
injury. Of tobacco, not half a crop has been planted for want of rain; and
even this half, with cotton and Indian corn, has yet many chances to run.
This summer will place our harbors in a situation to maintain peace and
order with them. The next, or certainly the one following that, will
so provide them with gun-boats and common batteries, as to be _hors
d'insulte_. Although our prospect is peace, our policy and purpose is
to provide for defence by all those means to which our resources are
competent.
I salute you with friendship, and assure you of my high respect and
consideration.
TO W. A. BURWELL.
MONTICELLO, September 17, 1806.
DEAR SIR,--Yours of August the 7th, from Liberty, never got to my hands
till the 9th instant. About the same time I received the Enquirer,
in which Decius was so judiciously answered. The writer of that paper
observed, that the matter of Decius consisted, first of facts; secondly,
of inferences from these facts: that he was not well enough informed to
affirm or deny his facts, and he therefore examines his inferences, and in
a very masterly manner shows that even were his facts true, the reasonable
inferences from them are very different from those drawn by Decius. But
his facts are far from truth, and should be corrected. It happened that
Mr. Madison and General Dearborne were here when I received your letter.
I therefore, with them, took up Decius and read him deliberately; and
our memories aided one another in correcting his bold and unauthorized
assertions. I shall note the most material of them in the order of the
paper.
1. It is grossly false that our ministers, as is said in a note, had
proposed to surrender our claims to compensation for Spanish spoliations,
or even for French. Their instructions were to make no treaty in which
Spanish spoliations were not provided for; and although they were
permitted to be silent as to French spoliations carried into Spanish
ports, they were not expressly to abandon even them. 2. It is not true
that our ministers, in agreeing to establish the Colorado as our western
boundary, had been obliged to exceed the authority of their instructions.
Although we considered our title good as far as the Rio Bravo, yet in
proportion to what they could obtain east of the Mississippi, they were
to relinquish to the westward, and successive sacrifices were marked
out, of which even the Colorado was not the last. 3. It is not true that
the Louisiana treaty was antedated, lest Great Britain should consider
our supplying her enemies with money as a breach of neutrality. After
the very words of the treaty were finally agreed to, it took some time,
perhaps some days, to make out all the copies in the very splendid
manner of Bonaparte's treaties. Whether the 30th of April, 1803, the
date expressed, was the day of the actual compact, or that on which it
was signed, our memories do not enable us to say. If the former, then it
is strictly conformable to the day of the compact; if the latter, then
it was postdated, instead of being antedated. The motive assigned too,
is as incorrect as the fact. It was so far from being thought, by any
party, a breach of neutrality, that the British minister congratulated
Mr. King on the acquisition, and declared that the King had learned it
with great pleasure; and when Baring, the British banker, asked leave
of the minister to purchase the debt and furnish the money to France,
the minister declared to him, that so far from throwing obstacles in the
way, if there were any difficulty in the payment of the money, it was
the interest of Great Britain to aid it. 4. He speaks of a double set of
opinions and principles; the one ostensible, to go on the journals and
before the public, the other efficient, and the real motives to action.
But where are these double opinions and principles? The executive informed
the legislature of the wrongs of Spain, and that preparation should be
made to repel them, by force, if necessary. But as it might still be
possible to negotiate a settlement, they asked such means as might enable
them to meet the negotiation, whatever form it might take. The first
part of this system was communicated publicly, the second privately; but
both were equally official, equally involved the responsibility of the
executive, and were equally to go on the journals. 5. That the purchase
of the Floridas was in direct opposition to the views of the executive,
as expressed in the President's _official_ communication. It was not in
opposition even to the public part of the communication, which did not
recommend war, but only to be prepared for it. It perfectly harmonized
with the private part, which asked the means of negotiation in such terms
as covered the purchase of Florida as evidently as it was proper to speak
it out. He speaks of secret communications between the executive and
members, of backstairs' influence, &c. But he never spoke of this while
he and Mr. Nicholson enjoyed it most solely. But when he differed from the
executive in a leading measure, and the executive, not submitting to him,
expressed their sentiments to others, the very sentiments (to wit, the
purchase of Florida) which he acknowledges they expressed to him, then he
roars out upon backstairs' influence. 6. The committee, he says, forbore
to recommend offensive measures. Is this true? Did not they recommend
the raising ---- regiments? Besides, if it was proper for the committee
to forbear recommending offensive measures, was it not proper for the
executive and Legislature to exercise the same forbearance? 7. He says
Monroe's letter had a most important bearing on our Spanish relations.
Monroe's letter related, almost entirely, to our British relations. Of
those with Spain he knew nothing particular since he left that country.
Accordingly, in his letter he simply expressed an opinion on our affairs
with Spain, of which he knew we had better information than he could
possess. His opinion was no more than that of any other sensible man; and
his letter was proper to be communicated with the English papers, and with
them only. That the executive did not hold it up on account of any bearing
on Spanish affairs, is evident from the fact that it was communicated
when the Senate had not yet entered on the Spanish affairs, and had not
yet received the papers relating to them from the other House. The moment
the Representatives were ready to enter on the British affairs, Monroe's
letter, which peculiarly related to them, and was _official_ solely as
to them, was communicated to both Houses, the Senate being then about
entering on Spanish affairs.
* * * * *
These, my dear Sir, are the principal facts worth correction. Make any
use of them you think best, without letting your source of information be
known. Can you send me some cones or seeds of the cucumber tree? Accept
affectionate salutations, and assurances of great esteem and respect.
TO ALBERT GALLATIN.
WASHINGTON, October 12, 1806.
DEAR SIR,--You witnessed in the earlier part of the administration, the
malignant and long-continued efforts which the federalists exerted in
their newspapers, to produce misunderstanding between Mr. Madison and
myself. These failed completely. A like attempt was afterwards made,
through other channels, to effect a similar purpose between General
Dearborne and myself, but with no more success. The machinations of the
last session to put you at cross questions with us all, were so obvious
as to be seen at the first glance of every eye. In order to destroy one
member of the administration, the whole were to be set to loggerheads
to destroy one another. I observe in the papers lately, new attempts to
revive this stale artifice, and that they squint more directly towards
you and myself. I cannot, therefore, be satisfied, till I declare to you
explicitly, that my affections and confidence in you are nothing impaired,
and that they cannot be impaired by means so unworthy the notice of candid
and honorable minds. I make the declaration, that no doubts or jealousies,
which often beget the facts they fear, may find a moment's harbor in
either of our minds. I have so much reliance on the superior good sense
and candor of all those associated with me, as to be satisfied they will
not suffer either friend or foe to sow tares among us. Our administration
now drawing towards a close, I have a sublime pleasure in believing
it will be distinguished as much by having placed itself above all the
passions which could disturb its harmony, as by the great operations by
which it will have advanced the well-being of the nation.
Accept my affectionate salutations, and assurances of my constant and
unalterable respect and attachment.
TO GENERAL WILKINSON.
WASHINGTON, January 3, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--I had intended yesterday to recommend to General Dearborne
the writing to you weekly by post, to convey information of our western
affairs, so long as they are interesting, because it is possible, though
not probable, you might sometimes get the information quicker this way
than down the river, but the General received yesterday information of
the death of his son in the East Indies, and of course cannot now attend
to business. I therefore write you a hasty line for the present week, and
send it in duplicates by the Athens and the Nashville routes.
The information in the enclosed paper, as to proceedings in the State
of Ohio, is correct. Blennerhasset's flotilla of fifteen boats and two
hundred barrels of provisions, is seized, and there can be no doubt that
Tyler's flotilla is also taken, because, on the 17th of December, we
know there was a sufficient force assembled at Cincinnati to intercept it
there, and another party was in pursuit of it on the river above. We are
assured that these two flotillas composed the whole of the boats, provided
Blennerhasset and Tyler had fled down the river. I do not believe that
the number of persons engaged for Burr has ever amounted to five hundred,
though some have carried them to one thousand or fifteen hundred. A part
of these were engaged as settlers of Bastrop's land, but the greater
part of these were engaged under the express assurance that the projected
enterprise was against Mexico, and secretly authorized by this government.
Many were expressly enlisted in the name of the United States. The
proclamation which reached Pittsburg, December 2d, and the other parts of
the river successively, undeceived both these classes, and of course drew
them off, and I have never seen any proof of their having assembled more
than forty men in two boats from Beaver, fifty in Tyler's flotilla, and
the boatmen of Blennerhasset's. I believe therefore, that the enterprise
may be considered as crushed, but we are not to relax in our attentions
until we hear what has passed at Louisville. If everything from that place
upwards be successfully arrested, there is nothing from below that is to
be feared. Be assured that Tennessee, and particularly General Jackson,
are faithful. The orders lodged at Massac and the Chickasaw bluffs, will
probably secure the interception of such fugitives from justice as may
escape from Louisville, so that I think you will never see one of them.
Still I would not wish, till we hear from Louisville, that you should
relax your preparations in the least, except so far as to dispense with
the militia of Mississippi and Orleans leaving their homes under our order
of November 25th. Only let them consider themselves under requisition, and
be in a state of readiness should any force, too great for your regulars,
escape down the river. You will have been sensible that those orders were
given while we supposed you were on the Sabine, and the supposed crisis
did not admit the formality of their being passed through you. We had
considered Fort Adams as the place to make a stand, because it covered the
mouth of the Red river. You have preferred New Orleans on the apprehension
of a fleet from the West Indies. Be assured there is not any foundation
for such an expectation, but the lying exaggerations of those traitors to
impose on others and swell their pretended means. The very man whom they
represented to you as gone to Jamaica, and to bring the fleet, has never
been from home, and has regularly communicated to me everything which
had passed between Burr and him. No such proposition was ever hazarded to
him. France or Spain would not send a fleet to take Vera Cruz; and though
one of the expeditions now near arriving from England, is probably for
Vera Cruz, and perhaps already there, yet the state of things between us
renders it impossible they should countenance an enterprise unauthorized
by us. Still I repeat that these grounds of security must not stop our
proceedings or preparations until they are further confirmed. Go on,
therefore, with your works for the defence of New Orleans, because they
will always be useful, only looking to what should be permanent rather
than means merely temporary. You may expect further information as we
receive it, and though I expect it will be such as will place us at our
ease, yet we must not place ourselves so until it be certain, but act on
the possibility that the resources of our enemy may be greater and deeper
than we are yet informed.
Your two confidential messengers delivered their charges safely. One
arrived yesterday only with your letter of November 12th. The oral
communications he made me are truly important. I beseech you to take the
most special care of the two letters which he mentioned to me, the one in
cypher, the other from another of the conspirators of high standing, and
to send them to me by the first conveyance you can trust. It is necessary
that all important testimony should be brought to one centre, in order
that the guilty may be convicted, and the innocent left untroubled. Accept
my friendly salutations, and assurances of great esteem and respect.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
January 4, 1807.
There is a vessel fitting out at New York, formerly called the Emperor,
now the James, or the Brutus (accounts differ), to carry 22 guns and
150 men, and to be commanded by Blakely, who went out Lieutenant of
the Leander. She is confidently believed to be destined for Burr at
New Orleans. The collector should be put on his guard; he can get much
information from the Mayor of New York on the subject. If Blakely went out
really with Miranda as Lieutenant, he should be immediately arrested and
put on his trial. Will you be so good as to take the necessary measures on
this subject?
* * * * *
TO MR. GALLATIN.
January 6, 1807.
Mr. Clarke left with me the papers I now send you, presenting the claim of
the Corporation of New Orleans to all the lands between the city and the
Bayou St. Jean, as a common. What is to be done? The subject is broader
than these papers present. I presume this claim would be proper for an
investigation and report by the commissioners. I believe it to be a plot
against Lafayette. That there should be left a reasonable common for them
we had directed; but they might as well claim to the ocean as to the Bayou
St. Jean. I am certain there is in some of Claiborne's letters information
that they never had a right to a common, but under a kind of lease or
permission for a term of years expired long since.
But I think we should go further, and direct the governor to report to us
in detail all the lots and buildings owned by the public in New Orleans,
stating the use they were applied to under the former government, and that
for which they would be proper now; to be laid before Congress at their
next session, for their determination. Indeed I am not certain but that
Claiborne has made such a report to the Secretary at War. Affectionate
salutations.
TO MR. CHARLES CLAY.
WASHINGTON, January 11, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--Yours of December 19th has been duly received, and I thank
you for your friendly attention to the offer of lands adjoining me for
sale. It is true that I have always wished to purchase a part of what was
Murray's tract, which would straiten the lines of the Poplar Forest, but
I really am not able to make a purchase. I had hoped to keep the expenses
of my office within the limits of its salary, so as to apply my private
income entirely to the improvement and enlargement of my estate; but I
have not been able to do it.
Our affairs with Spain, after which you inquire, do not promise the
result we wish. Not that war will take place immediately, but they may
go off without a settlement, and leave us in constant bickering about
indemnification for spoliations, the navigation of the Mobile and the
limits of Louisiana. Burr's enterprise is the most extraordinary since
the days of Don Quixotte. It is so extravagant that those who know his
understanding, would not believe it if the proofs admitted doubt. He has
meant to place himself on the throne of Montezuma, and extend his empire
to the Alleghany, seizing on New Orleans as the instrument of compulsion
for our western States. I think his undertaking effectually crippled by
the activity of Ohio. Whether Kentucky will give him the _coup de grace_
is doubtful; but if he is able to descend the river with any means, we
are sufficiently prepared at New Orleans. I hope, however, Kentucky will
do its duty, and finish the matter for the honor of popular government,
and the discouragement of all arguments for standing armies. Accept my
friendly salutations, and assurances of great esteem and respect.
TO JONATHAN WILLIAMS AND C. W. PEALE, JUDGES OF ELECTION FOR THE A. P.
SOCIETY.
WASHINGTON, January 12, 1807.
GENTLEMEN,--I am again to return the tribute of my thanks for the
continued proofs of favor from the American Philosophical Society; and I
ever do it with sincere gratitude, sensible it is the effect of their good
will, and not of any services I have it in my power to render them. I pray
you to convey to them these expressions of my dutiful acknowledgments, and
to accept yourselves thanks for the favorable terms in which your letter
of the 2d instant announces the suffrage of the Society.
I am happy at the same time to greet them on the safe return of a valuable
member of our fraternity, from a journey of uncommon length and peril. He
will ere long be with them, and present them with the additions he brings
to our knowledge of the geography and natural history of our country, from
the Mississippi to the Pacific.
Tendering them my humble respects, permit me to add for yourselves my
friendly salutations, and assurances of high consideration.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
January 12, 1807.
I return you the letter of Mr. Gelston respecting the Brutus. From what I
learn, she cannot be destined for the Mississippi, because she draws too
much water to enter it. However, considering the difficulty Congress finds
in enlarging the limits of our preventive powers, I think we should be
cautious how we step across those limits ourselves. She is probably bound
to St. Domingo. Could not Congress, while continuing that law, amend it so
as to prevent the abuse actually practised. Affectionate salutations.
TO JOHN DICKINSON.
WASHINGTON, January 13, 1807.
MY DEAR AND ANCIENT FRIEND,--I have duly received your favor of the 1st
instant, 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,
and language, with all of which they are unacquainted, and are the more
abhorrent, because of the enormous expense, greatly exaggerated by the
corruption of bankrupt and greedy lawyers, who have gone there from the
United States and 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 and 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 whenever 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
and republicans. The former are as hostile there as they are everywhere,
and are the most numerous and 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 second cause,
above mentioned, which is deep-seated and 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 fifty 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, and have disseminated all the discontent
they could. I propose to the members of Congress in conversation, the
enlisting thirty thousand volunteers, Americans by birth, to be carried
at the public expense, and settled immediately on a bounty of one hundred
and sixty 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 seven 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, and 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 and 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.
TO MR. HENING.
WASHINGTON, January 14, 1807.
SIR,--Your letter of December 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 book
divides itself into two very distinct parts; to wit, the printed and
the unprinted laws. The former begin in 1682, (Pervis' 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, and 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 and paper worthy of the work. I am lead to this
caution by the scandalous volume of our laws printed by Pleasants in 1803,
and those by Davis in 1796 were little better; both unworthy the history
of Tom Thumb. You can have them better and cheaper printed anywhere north
of Richmond. Accept my salutations and assurances of respect.
TO DANIEL CLARKE, ESQ.
WASHINGTON, January 14, 1807.
SIR,--I have examined the papers you left with me on the claim to the
common of New Orleans, and finding the subject to be within the cognizance
of the Board of Commissioners for that territory, they will be immediately
instructed to make full inquiry into the foundation of the claim, and to
report it for the decision of Congress.
With respect to the lots and buildings in the city of New Orleans, held by
the public, the Governor will be immediately instructed to report an exact
list of them, stating the uses to which they were applied under the former
government, and those for which he thinks them proper at present, which
shall be laid before Congress at their next session, the Legislature alone
being competent to their final disposition.
I have lodged in the Treasury Office the papers you left with me; but
if you wish their return, they will there be delivered to you. Accept my
salutations and assurances of respect.
TO GENERAL SHEE.
WASHINGTON, January 14, 1807.
SIR,--Your letter of the 16th ult. was duly received, conveying a tender
of the Philadelphia republican militia legion, of their voluntary
services, against either foreign or domestic foes. The pressure of
business, usual at this season, has prevented its earlier acknowledgment,
and the return of my thanks, on the public behalf, for this example of
patriotic spirit. Always a friend to peace, and believing it to promote
eminently the happiness and prosperity of nations, I am ever unwilling
that it should be disturbed, until greater and more important interests
call for an appeal to force. Whenever that shall take place, I feel a
perfect confidence that the energy and enterprise displayed by my fellow
citizens in the pursuits of peace, will be equally eminent in those of
war. The Legislature have now under consideration, in what manner, and
to what extent, the executive may be permitted to accept the service of
volunteers, should the public peace be disturbed, either from without or
within. In whatever way they shall give that authority, the legion may be
assured that no unreasonable use shall be made of the proffer which their
laudable zeal has prompted them to make. With my just acknowledgments
to them, I pray you to accept personally the assurance of my high
consideration and respect.
TO CAPTAIN CHRISTIAN.
WASHINGTON, January 14, 1807.
SIR,--I have duly received your letter of December 24th, conveying a
tender, by the officers, non-commissioned officers, and privates of the
Saratoga Rangers, of their voluntary services to support the Constitution,
laws, and integrity of our country, when the constitutional authorities
shall declare it necessary, and I now, on the public behalf, return them
thanks for this example of patriotic spirit. Always a friend to peace,
and believing it to promote eminently the happiness and prosperity of
mankind, I am ever unwilling that it should be disturbed until greater and
more imperious interests call for an appeal to force. Whenever that shall
take place, I feel a perfect confidence that the energy and enterprise
displayed by my fellow citizens in the pursuits of peace, will be equally
eminent in those of war. The Legislature have now under consideration, in
what manner, and to what extent, the executive may be permitted to accept
the service of volunteers, should the public peace be disturbed either
from without or within. In whatever way they shall give that authority,
the Saratoga Rangers may be assured that no unreasonable use shall be made
of the proffer which their laudable zeal has prompted them to make. With
my acknowledgments to them, I pray you to accept personally the assurance
of my high consideration and respect.
TO GOVERNOR PINCKNEY.
WASHINGTON, January 20, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--I received two days ago a letter from General Wilkinson, dated
at New Orleans, December 14th, in which he enclosed me an affidavit, of
which I now transmit you a copy. You will perceive that it authenticates
the copy of a letter from Colonel Burr to the General, affirming that
Mr. Alston, his son-in-law, is engaged in the unlawful enterprises he is
carrying on, and is to be an actor in them. I am to add, also, that I have
received information from another source, that Mr. Alston, while returning
from Kentucky last autumn through the upper part of your State, proposed
to a Mr. Butler of that part of the country, to join in Colonel Burr's
enterprise, which he represented as of a nature to make his fortune, and
is understood to have been explained as against Mexico, as well as for
separating the Union of these States. That Butler communicated this to a
person, of the same part of the country, called Span, who communicated it
to a Mr. Horan, the clerk of a court in that quarter; that Butler and Span
agreed to join in the enterprise, but Horan refused.
Nobody is a better judge than yourself whether any and what measures can
be taken on this information. As to General Wilkinson's affidavit, it
will be laid before the Legislature in a few days, and, of course, will
be public; but as to the other part, if no use can be made of it, your
own discretion and candor would lead you to keep it secret. It is further
well known here that Mr. Alston is an endorser to a considerable amount,
of the bills which have enabled Colonel Burr to prepare his treasons. A
message which I shall send into the Legislature two days hence, will give
a development of them. I avail myself with pleasure of this opportunity of
recalling myself to your recollection, and of assuring you of my constant
esteem and high consideration.
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
January 24, 1807.
Several French vessels of war, disabled from keeping the sea, by the
storms which some time since took place on our coast, put into the
harbors of the United States to avoid the danger of shipwreck. The
Minister of their nation states that their crews are without resources
for subsistence, and other necessaries, for the reimbursement of which he
offers bills on his government, the faith of which he pledges for their
punctual payment.
The laws of humanity make it a duty for nations, as well as individuals,
to succor those whom accident and distress have thrown upon them. By
doing this in the present case, to the extent of mere _subsistence and
necessaries_, and so as to aid no military equipment, we shall keep within
the duties of rigorous neutrality, which never can be in opposition to
those of humanity. We furnished, on a former occasion, to a distressed
crew of the other belligerent party, similar accommodations, and we have
ourselves received, from both those powers, friendly and free supplies
to the necessities of our vessels of war in their Mediterranean ports.
In fact, the governments of civilized nations generally are in the
practice of exercising these offices of humanity towards each other. Our
government having as yet made no regular provision for the exchange of
these offices of courtesy and humanity between nations, the honor, the
interest, and the duty of our country requires that we should adopt any
other mode by which it may legally be done on the present occasion. It
is expected that we shall want a large sum of money in Europe, for the
purposes of the present negotiation with Spain, and besides this we want
annually large sums there, for the discharge of our instalments of debt.
Under these circumstances, supported by the unanimous opinion of the heads
of departments, given on the 15th of December, and again about the 10th
inst., and firmly trusting that the government of France will feel itself
peculiarly interested in the punctual discharge of the bills drawn by
their Minister, for the sole subsistence of their people, I approve of the
Secretary of the Treasury's taking the bills of the Minister of France,
to an amount not exceeding sixty thousand dollars, which according to his
own, as well as our estimate, will subsist his people until he will have
had time to be furnished with funds from his own government.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
January 31st, 1807.
Satisfied that New Orleans must fall a prey to any power which shall
attack it, in spite of any means we now possess, I see no security for it
but in planting on the spot the force which is to defend it. I therefore
suggest to some members of the Senate to add to the volunteer bill now
before them, as an amendment, some such section as that enclosed, which
is on the principles of what we agreed on last year, except the omission
of the two years' service. If, by giving one hundred miles square of that
country, we can secure the rest, and at the same time create an American
majority before Orleans becomes a State, it will be the best bargain ever
made. As you are intimate with the details of the Land Office, I will
thank you to make any amendments to the enclosed in that part, or in any
other which you may think needs it. Affectionate salutations.
TO MR. MADISON.
Sunday, February 1st, 1807.
The more I consider the letter of our minister in London, the more
seriously it impresses me. I believe the _sine quâ non_ we made is that of
the nation, and that they would rather go on without a treaty than with
one which does not settle this article. Under this dilemma, and at this
stage of the business, had we not better take the advice of the Senate? I
ask a meeting at eleven o'clock to-morrow, to consult on this question.
TO H. D. GOVERNOR TIFFIN.
WASHINGTON, February 2d, 1807.
SIR,--The pressure of business during a session of the Legislature has
rendered me more tardy in addressing you than it was my wish to have been.
That our fellow citizens of the West would need only to be informed of
criminal machinations against the public safety to crush them at once, I
never entertained a doubt. I have seen with the greatest satisfaction that
among those who have distinguished themselves by their fidelity to their
country, on the occasion of the enterprise of Mr. Burr, yourself and the
Legislature of Ohio have been the most eminent. The promptitude and energy
displayed by your State has been as honorable to itself as salutary to
its sister States; and in declaring that you have deserved well of your
country, I do but express the grateful sentiment of every faithful citizen
in it. The hand of the people has given the mortal blow to a conspiracy
which, in other countries, would have called for an appeal to armies, and
has proved that government to be the strongest of which every man feels
himself a part. It is a happy illustration, too, of the importance of
preserving to the State authorities all that vigor which the Constitution
foresaw would be necessary, not only for their own safety, but for that
of the whole. In making these acknowledgments of the merit of having
set this illustrious example of exertion for the common safety, I pray
that they may be considered as addressed to yourself and the Legislature
particularly, and generally to every citizen who has availed himself of
the opportunity given of proving his devotion to his country. Accept my
salutations and assurances of great consideration and esteem.
TO GENERAL WILKINSON.
WASHINGTON, February 3d, 1807.
SIR,--A returning express gives me an opportunity of acknowledging the
receipt of your letters of November 12th, December 9th, 10th, 14th, 18th,
25th, 26th, and January 2d. I wrote to you January 3d, and through Mr.
Briggs, January 10th. The former being written while the Secretary at War
was unable to attend to business, gave you the state of the information
we then possessed as to Burr's conspiracy. I now enclose you a message,
containing a complete history of it from the commencement down to the
eve of his departure from Nashville; and two subsequent messages showed
that he began his descent of the Mississippi January 1st, with ten boats,
from eighty to one hundred men of his party, navigated by sixty oarsmen
not at all of his party. This, I think, is fully the force with which he
will be able to meet your gun-boats; and as I think he was uninformed of
your proceedings, and could not get the information till he would reach
Natchez, I am in hopes that before this date he is in your possession.
Although we at no time believed he could carry any formidable force out
of the Ohio, yet we thought it safest that you should be prepared to
receive him with all the force which could be assembled, and with that
view our orders were given; and we were pleased to see that without
waiting for them, you adopted nearly the same plan yourself, and acted
on it with promptitude; the difference between yours and ours proceeding
from your expecting an attack by sea, which we knew was impossible, either
by England or by a fleet under Truxton, who was at home; or by our own
navy, which was under our own eye. Your belief that Burr would really
descend with six or seven thousand men, was no doubt founded on what you
knew of the numbers which could be raised in the Western country for an
expedition to Mexico, _under the authority of the government_; but you
probably did not calculate that the want of that authority would take
from him every honest man, and leave him only the desperadoes of his
party, which in no part of the United States can ever be a numerous body.
In approving, therefore, as we do approve, of the defensive operations
for New Orleans, we are obliged to estimate them, not according to our
own view of the danger, but to place ourselves in your situation, and
only with your information. Your sending here Swartwout and Bollman, and
adding to them Burr, Blannerhassett, and Tyler, should they fall into
your hands, will be supported by the public opinion. As to Alexander,
who is arrived, and Ogden, expected, the evidence yet received will not
be sufficient to commit them. I hope, however, you will not extend this
deportation to persons against whom there is only suspicion, or shades of
offence not strongly marked. In that case, I fear the public sentiment
would desert you; because, seeing no danger here, violations of law are
felt with strength. I have thought it just to give you these views of
the sentiments and sensations here, as they may enlighten your path. I
am thoroughly sensible of the painful difficulties of your situation,
expecting an attack from an overwhelming force, unversed in law,
surrounded by suspected persons, and in a nation tender as to everything
infringing liberty, and especially from the military. You have doubtless
seen a good deal of malicious insinuation in the papers against you.
This, of course, begot suspicion and distrust in those acquainted with
the line of your conduct. We, who knew it, have not failed to strengthen
the public confidence in you; and I can assure you that your conduct, as
now known, has placed you on ground extremely favorable with the public.
Burr and his emissaries found it convenient to sow a distrust in your
mind of our dispositions towards you; but be assured that you will be
cordially supported in the line of your duties. I pray you to send me D.'s
original letter, communicated through Briggs, by the first entirely safe
conveyance. Accept my friendly salutations, and assurances of esteem and
respect.
TO GOVERNOR 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 that than 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.
TO MR. SMITH.
February 6, 1807.
A resolution of the House of Representatives of yesterday, asks from me
information as to the efficacy of the gun-boat defence, what particular
ports we propose to place them in, and how many in each. I will enumerate
the particular ports, but instead of saying literally how many to each, on
which there would be a thousand opinions, I will throw them into groups as
below, and say how many to each group. Will you be so good as to state how
many you would think necessary for each of the ports below mentioned, to
give then such a degree of protection as you think would be sufficiently
effectual in time of war? Also to strike out any of the ports here named,
and insert others as you shall think best:
Mississippi river, }
Lake Ponchartrain, }
Savannah, }
Beaufort, }
Charleston, }
Cape Fear, }
Ocracock, }
Chesapeake Bay and water,
Delaware Bay,
New York, }
New London, }
Newport, }
Boston, }
Newburyport,}
Portsmouth, }
Portland, }
Kennebeck, }
Penobscot, }
Passamaquoddy.
Send me also, if you please, copies of the opinions of certain officers
on the effect of gun-boats, which I believe, were formerly laid before a
committee.
A similar note in substance was sent to General Dearborne.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
February 9, 1807.
I thank you for the case in the Siman Sea, which escaped my recollection.
It was indeed a very favorable one. I have adopted your other amendments,
except as to the not building _now_; my own opinion being very strongly
against this for these reasons: 1st. The 127 gun-boats cannot be built
in one, two, or even six months. Commodore Preble told me he could
build those he undertook, in two months. They were but four, and though
he was preparing during the winter, was engaged in April, and pressed
to expedite them, they were not ready for sea till November. 2d. After
war commences they cannot be built in New York, Boston, Norfolk, or any
seaport, because they would be destroyed by the enemy, on the stocks.
They could then be built only in interior places, inaccessible to ships
and defended by the body of the country, where the building would be
slow. 3d. The first operation of war by an enterprising enemy would be
to sweep all our seaports, of their vessels at least. 4th. The expense
of their preservation would be all but nothing, because I have had the
opinion of, I believe, every captain of the navy, that the largest of our
gun-boats can be drawn up, out of the water, and placed under a shed with
great ease, by preparing ways and capstans proper for it, and always ready
to let her down again. Such of them as are built in suitable places may
remain on the stocks unlaunched. 5th. Full the half of the whole number
would be small, and not costing more than three-fifths of the large ones.
Affectionate salutations.
TO THOMAS SEYMOUR, ESQ.
WASHINGTON, February 11, 1807.
SIR,--The mass of business which occurs during a session of the
Legislature, renders me necessarily unpunctual in acknowledging the
receipt of letters, and in answering those which will admit of delay.
This must be my apology for being so late in noticing the receipt of the
letter of December 20th, addressed to me by yourself, and several other
republican characters of your State of high respectability. I have seen
with deep concern the afflicting oppression under which the republican
citizens of Connecticut suffer from an unjust majority. The truths
expressed in your letter have been long exposed to the nation through the
channel of the public papers, and are the more readily believed because
most of the States during the momentary ascendancy of kindred majorities,
in them have seen the same spirit of opposition prevail.
With respect to the countervailing prosecutions now instituted in the
Court of the United States in Connecticut, I had heard but little, and
certainly, I believe, never expressed a sentiment on them. That a spirit
of indignation and retaliation should arise when an opportunity should
present itself, was too much within the human constitution to excite
either surprise or censure, and confined to an appeal to truth only, it
cannot lessen the useful freedom of the press.
As to myself, conscious that there was not a _truth_ on earth which I
feared should be known, I have lent myself willingly as the subject of a
great experiment, which was to prove that an administration, conducting
itself with integrity and common understanding, cannot be battered down,
even by the falsehoods of a licentious press, and consequently still
less by the press, as restrained within the legal and wholesome limits
of truth. This experiment was wanting for the world to demonstrate
the falsehood of the pretext that freedom of the press is incompatible
with orderly government. I have never therefore even contradicted the
thousands of calumnies so industriously propagated against myself. But
the fact being once established, that the press is impotent when it
abandons itself to falsehood, I leave to others to restore it to its
strength, by recalling it within the pale of truth. Within that it is a
noble institution, equally the friend of science and of civil liberty.
If this can once be effected in your State, I trust we shall soon see
its citizens rally to the republican principles of our Constitution,
which unite their sister-States into one family. It would seem impossible
that an intelligent people, with the faculty of reading and right of
thinking, should continue much longer to slumber under the pupilage of
an interested aristocracy of priests and lawyers, persuading them to
distrust themselves, and to let them think for them. I sincerely wish that
your efforts may awaken them from this voluntary degradation of mind,
restore them to a due estimate of themselves and their fellow-citizens,
and a just abhorrence of the falsehoods and artifices which have seduced
them. Experience of the use made by federalism of whatever comes from me,
obliges me to suggest the caution of considering my letter as private. I
pray you to present me respectfully to the other gentlemen who joined in
the letter to me, and to whom this is equally addressed, and to accept
yourself my salutations, and assurances of great esteem and consideration.
TO GENERAL DEARBORNE.
February 14, 1807.
Thomas Jefferson salutes General Dearborne with friendship, and
communicates the following information from Captain Lewis, which may be
useful to Colonel Freeman, and our future explorers; and indeed may enable
us understandingly to do acceptable things to our Louisiana neighbors when
we wish to gratify them.
He says the following are the articles in highest value with them:
1. _Blue_ beads. This is a coarse cheap bead imported from China, and
costing in England 13d. the pound, in strands. It is far more valued by
the Indians than the _white_ beads of the same manufacture, and answers
all the purposes of money, being counted by the fathom. He says that were
his journey to be performed again, one-half or two-thirds of his stores
_in value_ should be of these.
2. Common brass buttons, more valued than anything except beads.
3. Knives.
4. Battleaxes and tomahawks.
5. Sadlers' seat awls, which answer for moccasin awls.
6. Some glovers' needles.
7. Some iron combs.
8. Some nests of camp kettles; brass is much preferred to iron, though
both are very useful to the Indians.
Arrow-points should have been added.
TO MR. NICHOLSON.
WASHINGTON, February 20, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--I did not receive your letter of the 18th till this morning. I
am as yet in possession of no evidence against Adair, which could convict
him. General Wilkinson writes me that he would send the evidence against
him and Ogden by the officer bringing them, and that officer informed
General Dearborne (from Baltimore) that he was in possession of a large
packet from General Wilkinson to me, which he was ordered to deliver into
my hands only; and, on that, he was ordered to come on with his prisoners,
that they and the evidence against them might be delivered up to the court
here. If the evidence, however, be found conclusive, they can be arrested
again, if it shall be worth while. Their crimes are defeated, and whether
they shall be punished or not belongs to another department, and is not
the subject of even a wish on my part. Accept my friendly salutations, and
assurances of great respect and esteem.
TO DR. WISTAR.
WASHINGTON, February 25, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--I enclose you a letter from Dr. Goforth on the subject of the
bones of the mammoth. Immediately on the receipt of this, as I found it
was in my power to accomplish the wishes of the society for the completion
of this skeleton with more certainty than through the channel proposed
in the letter, I set the thing into motion, so that it will be effected
without any expense to the society, or other trouble than to indicate
the particular bones wanting. Being acquainted with Mr. Ross, proprietor
of the big bone lick, I wrote to him for permission to search for such
particular bones as the society might desire, and I expect to receive it
in a few days. Captain Clarke (companion of Captain Lewis) who is now
here, agrees, as he passes through that country, to stop at the Lick,
employ laborers, and superintend the search at my expense, not that of
the society, and to send me the specific bones wanted, without further
trespassing on the deposit, about which Mr. Ross would be tender, and
particularly where he apprehended that the person employed would wish to
collect for himself. If therefore you will be so good as to send me a list
of the bones wanting (the one you formerly sent me having been forwarded
to Dr. Brown), the business shall be effected without encroaching at all
on the funds of the society, and it will be particularly gratifying to me
to have the opportunity of being of some use to them. But send me the list
if you please without any delay, as Captain Clarke returns in a few days,
and we should lose the opportunity. I send you a paper from Dr. Thornton
for the society. Accept my friendly salutations, and assurances of great
esteem and respect.
TO MR. CHANDLER PRICE.
WASHINGTON, February 28, 1807.
SIR,--Your favor of the 24th was received this morning. The greatest favor
which can be done me is the communication of the opinions of judicious
men, of men who do not suffer their judgments to be biassed by either
interests or passions. Of this character, I know Mr. Morgan to be. I
return you the original of the letter of January 15th, having copied it
to a mark in the 4th page, which you will see. I retain, as I understand,
with your permission, the copies of those of January 22d and 27th, because
they are copies; and the original of December 31st, because it relates
wholly to public matters. They shall be sacredly reserved to myself,
and for my own information only. The fortification of New Orleans will
be taken up on a sufficient footing; but the other part of Mr. Morgan's
wish, an additional regular force, will not prevail. The spirit of
this country is totally adverse to a large military force. I have tried
for two sessions to prevail on the Legislature to let me plant thirty
thousand well chosen volunteers on donation lands on the west side of the
Mississippi, as a militia always at hand for the defence of New Orleans;
but I have not yet succeeded. The opinion grows, and will perhaps ripen
by the next session. A great security for that country is, that there is
a moral certainty that neither France nor England would meddle with that
country, while the present state of Europe continues, and Spain we fear
not. Accept my salutations, and assurances of esteem and respect.
TO THE KING OF HOLLAND.
February 28, 1807.
GREAT AND GOOD FRIEND,--Having received your letter of September last,
which notifies your accession to the throne of Holland, I tender you in
behalf of the United States my congratulations on this event. Connected
with that nation by the earliest ties of friendship, and maintaining
with them uninterrupted relations of peace and commerce, no event which
interests their welfare can be indifferent to us. It is therefore with
great pleasure I receive the assurances of your majesty that you will
continue to cherish these ancient relations; and we shall, on our part,
endeavor to strengthen your good will by a faithful observance of justice,
and by all the good offices which occasion shall permit. Distant as we
are from the powers of Europe, and devoted to pursuits which separate
us from their affairs, we still look with brotherly concern on whatever
affects those nations, and offer constant prayers for their welfare. With
a friendly solicitude for your Majesty's person, I pray God, that he may
always have you, great and good friend, in His holy keeping. Done, &c.
TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS.
WASHINGTON, February 28, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--Your letter of January the 20th was received in due time. But
such has been the constant pressure of business, that it has been out of
my power to answer it. Indeed, the subjects of it would be almost beyond
the extent of a letter, and as I hope to see you ere long at Monticello,
it can then be more effectually done verbally. Let me observe, however,
generally, that it is impossible for my friends ever to render me so
acceptable a favor, as by communicating to me, without reserve, facts
and opinions. I have none of that sort of self-love which winces at it;
indeed, both self-love and the desire to do what is best, strongly invite
unreserved communication. There is one subject which will not admit a
delay till I see you. Mr. T. M. Randolph is, I believe, determined to
retire from Congress, and it is strongly his wish, and that of all here,
that you should take his place. Never did the calls of patriotism more
loudly assail you than at this moment. After excepting the federalists,
who will be twenty-seven, and the little band of schismatics, who will be
three or four (all tongue), the residue of the House of Representatives
is as well disposed a body of men as I ever saw collected. But there is no
one whose talents and standing, taken together, have weight enough to give
him the lead. The consequence is, that there is no one who will undertake
to do the public business, and it remains undone. Were you here, the whole
would rally round you in an instant, and willingly co-operate in whatever
is for the public good. Nor would it require you to undertake drudgery
in the House. There are enough, able and willing to do that. A rallying
point is all that is wanting. Let me beseech you then to offer yourself.
You never will have it so much in your power again to render such eminent
service.
Accept my affectionate salutations and high esteem.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
March 7, 1807.
In the case of Mr. Bloodworth, our first duty is to save the public
from loss; the second, to aid the securities in saving themselves. They
have not asked a dismission, which would probably do them injury, but an
examination. I should think it equally safe for the public, and better for
the securities, to send them a dismission of the collector, to be used
or not at their discretion. With this in their hand, they could compel
him to convey his property as a security to them, and to receive deputies
of their appointment, who should apply all the future emoluments of the
collector, or a given part of them, towards making up the deficit. But
in such case, faithful reports should be made to you from time to time,
that you may see that this operation is honestly going on, and no new
danger arising to the public. These ideas are submitted merely for your
consideration, as I am ready to sign a dismission as above proposed, or
make a new appointment at once, whichever you think best. Affectionate
salutations.
TO ROBERT BRENT, ESQ.
WASHINGTON, March 10, 1807.
SIR,--I have received your letter of yesterday, asking the application of
a part of a late appropriation of Congress, to certain avenues and roads
in this place.
The only appropriation ever before made by Congress to an object of
this nature, was "to the public buildings and the highways _between_
them." This ground was deliberately taken, and I accordingly restrained
the application of the money to the avenue between the Capitol and the
Executive buildings, and the roads round the two squares.
The last appropriation was in terms much more lax, to wit, "for avenues
and roads in the District of Columbia." This, indeed, would take in a
large field, but besides that we cannot suppose Congress intended to
tax the people of the United States at large, for all the avenues in
Washington and roads in Columbia; we know the fact to have been that
the expression was strongly objected to, and was saved merely from a
want of time to discuss, (the last day of the session,) and the fear of
losing the whole bill. But the sum appropriated (three thousand dollars)
shows they did not mean it for so large a field; for by the time the
Pennsylvania avenue, between the two houses, is widened, newly gravelled,
planted, brick tunnels instead of wood, the roads round the squares put
in order, and that in the south front of the war office dug down to its
proper level, there will be no more of the three thousand dollars left
than will be wanting for constant repairs. With this view of the just and
probable intention of the Legislature, I shall not think myself authorized
to take advantage of a lax expression, forced on by circumstances, to
carry the execution of the law into a region of expense which would merit
great consideration before they should embark in it. Accept my friendly
salutations, and assurances of great esteem and respect.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
March 20, 1807.
I think with you it is better to leave the leasing the Salt Springs to
Governor Harrison, who will do it according to general rules; and I am
averse to giving contracts of any kind to members of the Legislature. On
the subject of Latimer's letter, I gave him a general answer, that all
indulgence permitted by the spirit of the law would be used. I am unable
to give any particular opinion, because the law not having been printed
yet, I cannot turn to it; but I am ready to approve any proposition you
think best. Indeed, I have but a little moment in the morning in which I
can either read, write, or think; being obliged to be shut up in a dark
room from early in the forenoon till night, with a periodical head-ache.
Affectionate salutations.
TO THE GOVERNOR OF KENTUCKY, TENNESSEE, OHIO, AND MISSISSIPPI.
WASHINGTON, March 21, 1807.
SIR,--Although the present state of things on the western side of the
Mississippi does not threaten any immediate collision with our neighbors
in that quarter, and it is our wish they should remain undisturbed until
an amicable adjustment may take place; yet as this does not depend on
ourselves alone, it has been thought prudent to be prepared to meet any
movements which may occur. The law of a former session of Congress, for
keeping a body of 100,000 militia in readiness for service at a moment's
warning, is still in force. But by an act of the last session, a copy of
which I now enclose, the Executive is authorized to accept the services of
such volunteers as shall offer themselves on the conditions of the act,
which may render a resort to the former act unnecessary. It is for the
execution of this act that I am now to solicit your zealous endeavors. The
persons who shall engage will not be called from their homes until some
aggression, committed or intended, shall render it necessary. When called
into action, it will not be for a lounging, but for an active, and perhaps
distant, service. I know the effect of this consideration in kindling that
ardor which prevails for this service, and I count on it for filling up
the numbers requisite without delay. To yourself, I am sure, it must be as
desirable as it is to me, to transfer this service from the great mass of
our militia to that portion of them, to whose habits and enterprise active
and distant service is most congenial. In using, therefore, your best
exertions towards accomplishing the object of this act, you will render to
your constituents, as well as to the nation, a most acceptable service.
With respect to the organizing and officering those who shall be
engaged within your State, the act itself will be your guide; and as it
is desirable that we should be kept informed of the progress in this
business, I must pray you to report the same from time to time to the
Secretary at War, who will correspond with you on all the details arising
out of it.
I salute you with great consideration and respect.
TO JAMES MONROE.
WASHINGTON, March 21, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--A copy of the treaty with Great Britain came to Mr. Erskine's
hands on the last day of the session of Congress, which he immediately
communicated to us; and since that Mr. Purviance has arrived with
an original. On the subject of it you will receive a letter from the
Secretary of State, of about this date, and one more in detail hereafter.
I should not have written, but that I perceive uncommon efforts, and
with uncommon wickedness, are making by the federal papers to produce
mischief between myself, personally, and our negotiators; and also to
irritate the British government, by putting a thousand speeches into my
mouth, not one word of which I ever uttered. I have, therefore, thought
it safe to guard you, by stating the view which we have given out on the
subject of the treaty, in conversation and otherwise; for ours, as you
know, is a government which will not tolerate the being kept entirely in
the dark, and especially on a subject so interesting as this treaty. We
immediately stated in conversation, to the members of the Legislature and
others, that having, by a letter received in January, perceived that our
ministers might sign a treaty not providing satisfactorily against the
impressment of our seamen, we had, on the 3d of February, informed you,
that should such an one have been forwarded, it could not be ratified,
and recommending, therefore that you should resume negotiations for
inserting an article to that effect; that we should hold the treaty in
suspense until we could learn from you the result of our instructions,
which probably would not be till summer, and then decide on the question
of calling the Senate. We observed, too, that a written declaration of
the British commissioners, given in at the time of signature, would of
itself, unless withdrawn, prevent the acceptance of any treaty, because
its effect was to leave us bound by the treaty, and themselves totally
unbound. This is the statement we have given out, and nothing more of the
contents of the treaty has ever been made known. But depend on it, my dear
Sir, that it will be considered as a hard treaty when it is known. The
British commissioners appear to have screwed every article as far as it
would bear, to have taken everything, and yielded nothing. Take out the
eleventh article, and the evil of all the others so much overweighs the
good, that we should be glad to expunge the whole. And even the eleventh
article admits only that we may enjoy our right to the indirect colonial
trade, _during the present hostilities_. If peace is made this year, and
war resumed the next, the benefit of this stipulation is gone, and yet
we are bound for ten years, to pass no non-importation or non-intercourse
laws, nor take any other measures to restrain the unjust pretensions and
practices of the British. But on this you will hear from the Secretary of
State. If the treaty can not be put into acceptable form, then the next
best thing is to back out of the negotiation as well as we can, letting
that die away insensibly; but, in the meantime, agreeing informally, that
both parties shall act on the principles of the treaty, so as to preserve
that friendly understanding which we sincerely desire, until the one or
the other may be deposed to yield the points which divide us. This will
leave you to follow your desire of coming home, as soon as you see that
the amendment of the treaty is desperate. The power of continuing the
negotiations will pass over to Mr. Pinckney, who, by procrastinations, can
let it die away, and give us time, the most precious of all things to us.
The government of New Orleans is still without such a head as I wish. The
salary of five thousand dollars is too small; but I am assured the Orleans
legislature would make it adequate, would you accept it. It is the second
office in the United States in importance, and I am still in hopes you
will accept it. It is impossible to let you stay at home while the public
has so much need of talents. I am writing under a severe indisposition of
periodical headache, without scarcely command enough of my mind to know
what I write. As a part of this letter concerns Mr. Pinckney as well as
yourself, be so good as to communicate so much of it to him; and with
my best respects to him, to Mrs. Monroe and your daughter, be assured
yourself, in all cases, of my constant and affectionate friendship and
attachment.
TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON, ESQ.
WASHINGTON, March 24th, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--The two receipts of Poncin's have come safely to hand. The
account had been settled without difficulty. The federal papers appear
desirous of making mischief between us and England, by putting speeches
into my mouth which I never uttered. Perceiving, by a letter received
in January, that our commissioners were making up their mind to sign a
treaty which contained no provision against impressment, we immediately
instructed them not to do so; and if done, to consider the treaty as not
accepted, and to resume their negociations to supply an article against
impressment. We therefore hold the treaty in suspense, until we hear what
is done in consequence of our last instructions. Probably we shall not
hear till midsummer, and we reserve till that time the question of calling
the Senate. In the meantime, to show the continuance of a friendly spirit,
we continue the suspension of the non-importation act by proclamation.
Another cause for not accepting the treaty was a written declaration by
the British commissioner, at the time of signing, reserving a right, if
we did not oppose the French decree to their satisfaction, to retaliate
in their own way, however it might affect the treaty; so that, in fact,
we were to be bound, and they left free. I think, upon the whole, the
emperor cannot be dissatisfied at the present state of things between us
and England, and that he must rather be satisfied at our unhesitating
rejection of a proposition to make common cause against him, for such
in amount it was. Burr has indeed made a most inglorious exhibition of
his much over-rated talents. He is now on his way to Richmond for trial.
Accept my friendly salutations, and assurances of constant esteem and
respect.
TO ----.
WASHINGTON, March 25th, 1807.
DEAR SIR,-- * * * * * Burr is on his way to Richmond for trial. No man's
history proves better the value of honesty. With that, what might he
not have been! I expect you are at a loss to understand the situation
of the British treaty, on which the newspapers make so many speeches for
me which I never made. It is exactly this. By a letter received from our
negotiators in January, we found they were making up their minds to sign
a treaty containing no provision against the impressment of our seamen.
We instantly (February 3d) instructed them not to do so; and that if such
a treaty had been forwarded, it could not be ratified; that therefore
they must immediately resume the negociations to supply that defect,
as a _sine quâ non_. Such a treaty having come to hand, we of course
suspend it, until we know the result of the instructions of February 3d,
which probably will not be till midsummer. We reserve ourselves till
then to decide the question of calling the Senate. In the meantime, I
have, by proclamation continued the suspension of the non-importation
law, as a proof of the continuance of friendly dispositions. There was
another circumstance which would have prevented the acceptance of the
treaty. The British commissioners, at the time of signing, gave in a
written declaration, that until they knew what we meant to do in the
subject of the French decree, the king reserved to himself the right of
not ratifying, and of taking any measures retaliating on France which
he should deem proper, notwithstanding the treaty. This made the treaty
binding on us; while he was loose to regard it or not, and clearly
squinted at the expectation that we should join in resistance to France,
or they would not regard the treaty. We rejected this idea unhesitatingly.
I expected to have paid a short visit to Monticello before this, but have
been detained by the illness of my son-in-law, Mr. Randolph, and now by
an attack of periodical headache on myself. This leaves me but an hour
and a half each morning capable of any business at all. A part of this I
have devoted to write you this letter, and to assure you of my constant
friendship and respect.
TO COLONEL G. MORGAN.
WASHINGTON, March 26th, 1807.
SIR,--Your favors of January 19th and 20th came to hand in due time, but
it was not in my power to acknowledge their receipt during the session
of Congress. General Gage's paper I have filed with that on Pensacola,
in the War Office, and Mr. Hutchins' map, in the Navy Office, where they
will be useful. I tender you my thanks for this contribution to the public
service. The bed of the Mississippi and the shoals on the coast change
so frequently, as to require frequent renewals of the surveys. Congress
have authorized a new survey of our whole coast, by an act of the last
session. Burr is on his way to Richmond for trial; and if the judges do
not discharge him before it is possible to collect the testimony from
Maine to New Orleans, there can be no doubt where his history will end.
To what degree punishments of his adherents shall be extended, will be
decided when we shall have collected all the evidence, and seen who were
cordially guilty. The federalists appear to make Burr's cause their own,
and to spare no efforts to screen his adherents. Their great mortification
is at the failure of his plans. Had a little success dawned on him, their
openly joining him might have produced some danger. As it is, I believe
the undertaking will not be without some good effects, as a wholesome
lesson to those who have more ardor than principle. I believe there is
reason to expect that Blennerhasset will also be sent by the judges of
Mississippi to Virginia. Yours was the very first intimation I had of this
plot, for which it is but justice to say you have deserved well of your
country. Accept my friendly salutations, and assurances of great esteem
and respect.
TO MR. COXE.
WASHINGTON, March 27, 1807.
SIR,--I received on the 24th of January a communication, which from an
endorsement in your hand, I knew to have come from you. Others had been
received at different periods before, which candor obliges me frankly
to say, had not been answered because some of the earliest of them had
been of a character with which I thought it my duty to be dissatisfied.
Observing, however, that you have continued to turn your attention
assiduously to the public interests, and to communicate to the government
your ideas, which have often been useful, I expunge from my mind the
umbrage which had been taken, and wish it no more to be recollected or
explained on either side.
Your idea of providing as many arms as we have fighting men, is
undoubtedly a sound one. Its execution, however, depends on the
Legislature. Composed, indeed, of gentlemen of the best intentions, but
like all others collected in mass, requiring considerable time to receive
impressions, however useful, if new. Time and reflection will not fail in
the end to bring them to whatever is right. The session before the last I
proposed to them the classification of the militia, so that those in the
prime of life only, and unburthened with families, should ever be called
into distant service; and that every man should receive a stand of arms
the first year he entered the militia. This would have required 40,000
stands a year, and in a few years would have armed the whole, besides
the stock in the public arsenals, which is a good one. Converts to the
measure are daily coming over, and it will prevail in time. The same thing
will happen as to the employing the surplus of our revenues to roads,
rivers, canals, education. The proposition for building lock-docks for
the preservation of our navy, has local rivalries to contend against. Till
these can be overruled or compromised, the measure can never be adopted.
Yet there ought never to be another ship built until we can provide some
method of preserving them through the long intervals of peace which I hope
are to be the lot of our country. I understand that, employing private as
well as the public manufactories, we can make about 40,000 stand of arms
a year. But they come so much dearer than the imported of equal quality,
that we shall import also. From the beginning of my administration, I have
discouraged the laying in stores of powder, but have recommended great
stores of sulphur and salt-petre. I confess, however, I do not apprehend
that the dislike which I know the European governments have to our form,
will combine them in any serious attempts against it. They have too
many jealousies of one another, to engage in distant wars for a matter
of opinion only. I verily believe that it will ever be in our power to
keep so even a stand between England and France, as to inspire a wish in
neither to throw us into the scale of his adversary. But if we can do this
for a dozen years only, we shall have little to fear from them. Accept my
salutations, and assurances of esteem and respect.
TO LEVETT HARRIS, ESQ.
WASHINGTON, March 28, 1807.
SIR,--Your letters of August 10th and September 18th have been duly
received, and I have to thank you for the safe transmission of the four
volumes of the "Vocabulaires Comparés de Pallas," for which I am indebted,
through you, to the Minister of Commerce, Count Romanzoff. I must pray
you, in a particular manner, to express to his Excellency my sensibility
for this mark of his obliging attention, rendered the more impressive
from a high esteem for his personal character, and from the hope that an
interchange of personal esteem may contribute to strengthen the friendship
of the two nations, bound together by many similar interests. To this
I must add by anticipation my thanks for his work on the Commerce of
Russia, as well as to Count Potoski, for the two works from him, which you
mention to have been sent by Mr. A. Smith, and which, I doubt not, will
come safely to hand. Accept for yourself my salutations and assurances of
esteem and respect.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
March 29, 1807.
A doubt is entertained whether the Acts of Congress respecting claims
to lands in Orleans and Louisiana, and authorizing the commissioners
"to decide according to the laws and established usages and customs of
the French and Spanish governments, _upon all claims to lands within
their respective districts_," &c., meant to give that power as to _all
claims_, or to restrict it to those claims only which had been previously
recognized by Congress.
Were it necessary for us to decide that question, I should be of opinion
that it meant _all claims_, because the words are general. "_All claims
to lands within their respective districts_," and there are no other words
restricting them to those claims only, previously recognized by Congress;
and because the intention of the Act was to quiet and satisfy all the
minor claimants, and reserve only the great and fraudulent speculations
for rigorous examination.
But the Board of Commissioners, being a judiciary tribunal, I should think
it proper to leave them to the law itself, as their instructions, on the
meaning of which they are competent to decide, and, being on the spot, are
better informed of the nature of those claims than we are. Affectionate
salutations.
TO GENERAL DEARBORNE.
March 29, 1807.
Many officers of the army being involved in the offence of intending a
military enterprise against a nation at peace with the United States,
to remove the whole without trial, by the paramount authority of the
executive, would be a proceeding of unusual severity. Some line must
therefore be drawn to separate the more from the less guilty. The only
sound one which occurs to me is between those who believed the enterprise
was with the approbation of the government, open or secret, and those who
meant to proceed in defiance of the government. Concealment would be no
line at all, because all concealed it. Applying the line of _defiance_
to the case of Lieutenant Meade, it does not appear by any testimony I
have seen, that he meant to proceed in defiance of the government, but,
on the contrary, that he was made to believe the government approved
of the expedition. If it be objected that he concealed a part of what
had taken place in his communications to the Secretary at War, yet if a
concealment of the whole would not furnish a proper line of distinction,
still less would the concealment of a part. This too would be a removal
for _prevarication_, not for _unauthorized enterprise_, and could not be
a proper ground for exercising the extraordinary power of removal by the
President. On the whole, I think Lieutenant Meade's is not a case for its
exercise. Affectionate salutations.
TO MR. ROBERT PATTERSON.
WASHINGTON, March 29, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--I have duly received your letter of the 25th, proposing the
appointment of an assistant-engraver to the Mint, at a salary of $600, and
that Mr. Reich should be the assistant. You are so exclusively competent
to decide on the want of such an officer, that I approve the proposition
in the faith of your opinion. With respect to the person to be appointed,
my knowledge of the superior talents of Mr. Reich concurs with your
recommendation in the propriety of appointing him.
I should approve of your employing the Mint on small silver coins, rather
than on dollars and gold coins, as far as the consent of those who employ
it can be obtained. It would be much more valuable to the public to be
supplied with abundance of dimes and half dimes, which would stay among
us, than with dollars and eagles which leave us immediately. Indeed I
wish the law authorized the making two cent and three cent pieces of
silver, and golden dollars, which would all be large enough to handle, and
would be a great convenience to our own citizens. Accept my affectionate
salutations.
TO M. LE COMTE DIODATI.
WASHINGTON, March 29, 1807.
MY DEAR AND ANCIENT FRIEND,--Your letter of August the 29th reached me
on the 18th of February. It enclosed a duplicate of that written from
Brunswick five years before, but which I never received, or had notice of,
but by this duplicate. Be assured, my friend, that I was incapable of such
negligence towards you, as a failure to answer it would have implied. It
would illy have accorded with those sentiments of friendship I entertained
for you at Paris, and which neither time nor distance has lessened. I
often pass in review the many happy hours I spent with Madame Diodati
and yourself on the banks of the Seine, as well as at Paris, and I count
them among the most pleasing I enjoyed in France. Those were indeed days
of tranquillity and happiness. They had begun to cloud a little before I
left you; but I had no apprehension that the tempest, of which I saw the
beginning, was to spread over such an extent of space and time. I have
often thought of you with anxiety, and wished to know how you weathered
the storm, and into what port you had retired. The letters now received
give me the first information, and I sincerely felicitate you on your safe
and quiet retreat. Were I in Europe, _pax et panis_ would certainly be my
motto. Wars and contentions, indeed, fill the pages of history with more
matter. But more blest is that nation whose silent course of happiness
furnishes nothing for history to say. This is what I ambition for my own
country, and what it has fortunately enjoyed for now upwards of twenty
years, while Europe has been in constant volcanic eruption, I again, my
friend, repeat my joy that you have escaped the overwhelming torrent of
its lava.
At the end of my present term, of which two years are yet to come, I
propose to retire from public life, and to close my days on my patrimony
of Monticello, in the bosom of my family. I have hitherto enjoyed uniform
health; but the weight of public business begins to be too heavy for me,
and I long for the enjoyments of rural life, among my books, my farms and
my family. Having performed my _quadragena stipendia_, I am entitled to
my discharge, and should be sorry, indeed, that others should be sooner
sensible than myself when I ought to ask it. I have, therefore, requested
my fellow citizens to think of a successor for me, to whom I shall deliver
the public concerns with greater joy than I received them. I have the
consolation too of having added nothing to my private fortune, during my
public service, and of retiring with hands as clean as they are empty.
Pardon me these egotisms, which, if ever excusable, are so when writing
to a friend to whom our concerns are not uninteresting. I shall always
be glad to hear of your health and happiness, and having been out of the
way of hearing of any of our cotemporaries of the _corps diplomatique_
at Paris, any details of their subsequent history which you will favor me
with, will be thankfully received. I pray you to make my friendly respects
acceptable to Madame la Comtesse Diodati, to assure M. Tronchin of my
continued esteem, and to accept yourself my affectionate salutations, and
assurances of constant attachment and respect.
TO MR. BOWDOIN.
WASHINGTON, April 2, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--I wrote you on the 10th of July last; but neither your letter
of October the 20th, nor that of November the 15th mentioning the receipt
of it, I fear it has miscarried. I therefore now enclose a duplicate. As
that was to go under cover of the Secretary of State's despatches by any
vessel going from our distant ports, I retained the polygraph therein
mentioned for a safer conveyance. None such has occurred till now, that
the United States armed brig the Wasp, on her way to the Mediterranean is
to touch at Falmouth, with despatches for our ministers at London and at
Brest, with others for yourself and General Armstrong.
You heard in due time from London of the signature of a treaty there
between Great Britain and the United States. By a letter we received
in January from our ministers at London, we found they were making up
their minds to sign a treaty, in which no provision was made against the
impressment of our seamen, contenting themselves with a note received
in the course of their correspondence, from the British negotiators,
assuring them of the discretion with which impressments should be
conducted, which could be construed into a covenant only by inferences,
against which its omission in the treaty was a strong inference; and in
its terms totally unsatisfactory. By a letter of February the 3d, they
were immediately informed that no treaty, not containing a satisfactory
article on that head, would be ratified, and desiring them to resume the
negotiations on that point. The treaty having come to us actually in the
inadmissible shape apprehended, we, of course, hold it up until we know
the result of the instructions of February the 3d. I have but little
expectation that the British government will retire from their habitual
wrongs in the impressment of our seamen, and am certain, that without
that, we will never tie up our hands by treaty, from the right of passing
a non-importation or non-intercourse act, to make it her interest to
become just. This may bring on a war of commercial restrictions. To show,
however, the sincerity of our desire for conciliation, I have suspended
the non-importation act. This state of things should be understood at
Paris, and every effort used on your part to accommodate our differences
with Spain, under the auspices of France, with whom it is all important
that we should stand in terms of the strictest cordiality. In fact, we
are to depend on her and Russia for the establishment of neutral rights
by the treaty of peace, among which should be that of taking no persons
by a belligerent out of a neutral ship, unless they be the _soldiers_ of
an enemy. Never did a nation act towards another with more perfidy and
injustice than Spain has constantly practised against us: and if we have
kept our hands off of her till now, it has been purely out of respect to
France, and from the value we set on the friendship of France. We expect,
therefore, from the friendship of the Emperor, that he will either compel
Spain to do us justice, or abandon her to us. We ask but one month to be
in possession of the city of Mexico.
No better proof of the good faith of the United States could have been
given, than the vigor with which we have acted, and the expense incurred,
in suppressing the enterprise meditated lately by Burr against Mexico.
Although at first, he proposed a separation of the western country, and
on that ground received encouragement and aid from Yrujo, according to the
usual spirit of his government towards us, yet he very early saw that the
fidelity of the western country was not to be shaken, and turned himself
wholly towards Mexico. And so popular is an enterprise on that country
in this, that we had only to lie still, and he would have had followers
enough to have been in the city of Mexico in six weeks. You have doubtless
seen my several messages to Congress, which give a faithful narrative of
that conspiracy. Burr himself, after being disarmed by our endeavors of
all his followers, escaped from the custody of the court of Mississippi,
but was taken near Fort Stoddart, making his way to Mobile, by some
country people, who brought him on as a prisoner to Richmond, where he
is now under a course for trial. Hitherto we have believed our law to
be, that suspicion on probable grounds was sufficient cause to commit a
person for trial, allowing time to collect witnesses till the trial. But
the judges here have decided, that conclusive evidence of guilt must be
ready in the moment of arrest, or they will discharge the malefactor. If
this is still insisted on, Burr will be discharged; because his crimes
having been sown from Maine, through the whole line of the western waters,
to New Orleans, we cannot bring the witnesses here under four months. The
fact is, that the federalists make Burr's cause their own, and exert their
whole influence to shield him from punishment, as they did the adherents
of Miranda. And it is unfortunate that federalism is still predominant
in our judiciary department, which is consequently in opposition to the
legislative and executive branches, and is able to baffle their measures
often.
Accept my friendly salutations, and assurances of great esteem and respect.
TO WILLIAM B. GILES.
MONTICELLO, April 20, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--Your favor of the 6th instant, on the subject of Burr's
offences, was received only four days ago. That there should be anxiety
and 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 two thousand 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, and 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; though 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 the case, 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, of Burr's guilt. 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 Blennerhasset's
island when they expected Governor Tiffin's men to be on them, _modo
guerrino arraiati_. 3. The rendezvous of Burr with his men at the mouth
of 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 and hostile
commanders.
But a moment's calculation will show that this evidence cannot be
collected under four months, probably five, from the moment of deciding
when and where the trial shall be. I desired Mr. Rodney expressly to
inform the Chief Justice of this, inofficially. But Mr. Marshall says,
"More than five 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, and return
in five weeks, to do which has never taken less than twelve. Again, "If,
in November or December 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 and examination. It was not known at _Washington_ till
the 26th of March that Burr would escape from the Western tribunals, be
retaken and brought to an Eastern one; and in five days after, (neither
five months nor five 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 overturn
this odious Republic. "I understand," says 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, and
the universal belief or rumor of his guilt, probable ground for presuming
the facts of enlistment, military guard, rendezvous, threat of civil war,
or capitulation, so as to put him on trial? Is there a candid man in the
United States 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 and 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 and 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 shot 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, and to treat him as if
he deserved it; and if his punishment can be commuted now for an 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.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
MONTICELLO, April 21st, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--Yours of the 13th came to hand only yesterday, and I now return
you the letters of Turreau and Woodward, and Mr. Gallatin's paper on
foreign seamen. I retain Monroe and Pinckney's letters, to give them a
more deliberate perusal than I can now before the departure of the post.
By the next they shall be returned. I should think it best to answer
Turreau at once, as he will ascribe delay to a supposed difficulty, and
will be sure to force an answer at last. I take the true principle to be,
that "for violations of jurisdiction, with the consent of the sovereign,
or his voluntary sufferance, indemnification is due; but that for others
he is bound only to use all _reasonable_ means to obtain indemnification
from the aggressor, which must be calculated on his circumstances,
and these endeavors _bonâ fide_ made; and failing, he is no further
responsible." It would be extraordinary indeed if we were to be answerable
for the conduct of belligerents through our whole coast, whether inhabited
or not.
Will you be so good as to send a passport to Julian Y. Niemcewicz, an
American citizen, of New Jersey, going to Europe on his private affairs?
I have known him intimately for twenty years, the last twelve of which
he has resided in the United States, of which he has a certificate of
citizenship. He was the companion of Kosciusko. Be so good as to direct
it to him at Elizabethtown, and without delay, as he is on his departure.
Mr. Gallatin's estimate of the number of foreign seamen in our employ
renders it prudent, I think, to suspend all propositions respecting our
non-employment of them. As, on a consultation when we were all together,
we had made up our minds on every article of the British treaty, and this
of not employing their seamen was only mentioned for further inquiry and
consideration, we had better let the negociations go on, on the ground
then agreed on, and take time to consider this supplementary proposition.
Such an addition as this to a treaty already so bad would fill up the
measure of public condemnation. It would indeed be making bad worse. I am
more and more convinced that our best course is, to let the negotiation
take a friendly nap, and endeavor in the meantime to practice on such
of its principles as are mutually acceptable. Perhaps we may hereafter
barter the stipulation not to employ their seamen for some equivalent to
our flag, by way of convention; or perhaps the general treaty of peace
may do better for us, if we shall not, in the meantime, have done worse
for ourselves. At any rate, it will not be the worse for lying three weeks
longer. I salute you with sincere affection.
P. S. Will you be so good as to have me furnished with a copy of Mr.
Gallatin's estimate of the number of foreign seamen? I think he overrates
the number of officers greatly.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
MONTICELLO, April 21, 1807.
Some very unusual delay has happened to the post, as I received
yesterday only my letter from Philadelphia, as far back as April 9th,
and Washington, April 11th. Of course yours of the 13th and 16th were
then only received, and being overwhelmed with such an accumulated
mail, I must be short, as the post goes out in a few hours. I return
you Huston's, Findlay's, and Governor Harrison's letters. J. Smith's is
retained because it is full of nominations. I had received, a week ago,
from a member of the Pennsylvania legislature, a copy of their act for the
Western road. I immediately wrote to Mr. Moore that we should consider
the question whether the road should pass through Uniontown, as now
decided affirmatively, and I referred to the commissioner to reconsider
the question whether it should also pass through Brownsville, and to
decide it according to their own judgment. I desired him to undertake the
superintendence of the execution, to begin the work in time to lay out the
whole appropriation this summer, and to employ it in making effectually
good the most difficult parts. I approve of Governor Harrison's lease
to Taylor, and of the conveying the salt water by pipes to the fuel and
navigation, rather than the fuel and navigation to the Saline. I think
it our indispensable duty to remove immediately all intruders from the
lands, the timber of which will be wanting for the Salines, and will sign
any order you will be so good as to prepare for that purpose. You are
hereby authorized to announce to the collector of Savannah, his removal,
if you judge it for the public good. I recollect nothing of Bullock,
the attorney, and not having my papers here, I am not able to refresh my
memory concerning him. I expect to leave this, on my return to Washington,
about three weeks hence. Your estimate of the number of foreign seamen
in our employ, renders it prudent, in my opinion, to drop the idea of
any proposition not to employ them. As we had made up our minds on every
article of the British treaty, when consulting together, and this idea
was only an after thought referred for enquiry and consideration, we had
better take more time for it. Time strengthens my belief that no equal
treaty will be obtained from such a higher as Lord Auckland, or from
the present ministry, Fox being no longer with them, and that we shall
be better without any treaty than an unequal one. Perhaps we may engage
them to act on certain articles, including their note on impressment, by
a mutual understanding, under the pretext of further time to arrange a
general treaty. Perhaps, too, the general peace will, in the meantime,
establish for us better principles than we can obtain ourselves.
I enclose a letter from Gideon Fitz. Affectionate salutes.
TO MR. NIEMCEWICZ.
MONTICELLO, April 22, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--I received on the 20th your favor of the 10th instant, and
yesterday I wrote to desire the Secretary of State to forward your
passport to Elizabethtown. In the visit you propose to make to your
native country, I sincerely wish you may find its situation, and your
own interests in it, satisfactory. On what it has been, is, or shall be,
however, I shall say nothing. I consider Europe, at present, as a world
apart from us, about which it is improper for us even to form opinions, or
to indulge any wishes but the general one, that whatever is to take place
in it, may be for its happiness. For yourself, however, personally, I may
express with safety as well as truth, my great esteem and the interest I
feel for your welfare. From the same principles of caution, I do not write
to my friend Kosciusko. I know he is always doing what he thinks is right,
and he knows my prayers for his success in whatever he does. Assure him,
if you please, of my constant affection, and accept yourself my wishes for
a safe and pleasant voyage, with my friendly salutations and assurances of
great esteem and respect.
TO MR. MADISON.
MONTICELLO, April 25, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--Yours of the 20th came to hand on the 23d, and I now return all
the papers it covered, to wit, Harris's, Maunce's, and General Smith's
letters, as also some papers respecting Burr's case, for circulation.
Under another cover is a letter from Governor Williams, confidential, and
for yourself alone, as yet. I expect we shall have to remove Meade. Under
still a different cover you will receive Monroe's and Pinckney's letters,
detained at the last post. I wrote you then on the subject of the British
treaty, which the more it is developed the worse it appears. Mr. Rodney
being supposed absent, I enclose you a letter from Mr. Reed, advising the
summoning Rufus Easton as a witness; but if he is at St. Louis, he cannot
be here by the 22d of May. You will observe that Governor Williams asks
immediate instructions what he shall do with Blennerhasset, Tyler, Floyd,
and Ralston. I do not know that we can do anything but direct General
Wilkinson to receive and send them to any place where the judge shall
decide they ought to be tried. I suppose Blennerhasset should come to
Richmond. On consulting with the other gentlemen, be so good as to write
to Williams immediately, as a letter will barely get there by the 4th
Monday of May. I enclose you a warrant for five thousand dollars for Mr.
Rodney, in the form advised by Mr. Gallatin.
We have had three great rains within the last thirteen days. It is just
now clearing off after thirty-six hours of rain, with little intermission.
Yet it is thought not too much. I salute you with sincere affection.
TO MR. THOMAS MOORE.
MONTICELLO, May 1,1807.
SIR,--On the 14th of April I wrote to you, on the presumption that a law
respecting the western road had passed the Legislature of Pennsylvania,
in the form enclosed by Mr. Dorsey, and which I enclosed to you. I have
now received from the Governor an authentic copy of the law, which agrees
with that I forwarded to you. You will therefore be pleased to consider
the contents of that letter as founded in the certainty of the fact that
the law did pass in that form, although not certainly known at that time,
and proceed on it accordingly. I shall be in Washington on the 16th and
17th inst., should you have occasion for further communication with me. I
salute you with esteem and respect.
TO MR. MADISON.
MONTICELLO, May 1, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--I return you Monroe's, Armstrong's, Harris's, and Anderson's
letters, and add a letter and act from Gov. McKean, to be filed in your
office. The proposition for separating the western country, mentioned
by Armstrong to have been made at Paris, is important. But what is the
declaration he speaks of? for none accompanies his letter, unless he means
Harry Grant's proposition. I wish our Ministers at Paris, London, and
Madrid, could find out Burr's propositions and agents there. I know few
of the characters of the new British administration. The few I know are
true Pittites, and anti-American. From them we have nothing to hope, but
that they will readily let us back out. Whether they can hold their places
will depend on the question whether the Irish propositions be popular
or unpopular in England. Dr. Sibley, in a letter to Gen. Dearborne,
corrects an error of fact in my message to Congress of December. He says
the Spaniards never had a single soldier at Bayou Pierre till after 1805.
Consequently it was not a keeping, but a taking of a military possession
of that post. I think Gen. Dearborne would do well to desire Sibley to
send us affidavits of that fact.
Our weather continues extremely seasonable, and favorable for vegetation.
I salute you with sincere affection.
P. S. The pamphlet and papers shall be returned by next post.
TO MR. OLIVER EVANS.
MONTICELLO, May 2, 1807.
SIR,--Your favor of the 18th came to hand two days ago. That the ingenuity
of an advocate, seeking for something to defend his client, should have
hazarded as an objection that it did not appear on the face of the patent
itself, that you had complied with the requisitions of the act authorizing
a patent for your invention, is not wonderful; but I do not expect that
such an objection can seriously embarrass the good sense of a judge. The
law requires, indeed, that certain acts shall be performed by the inventor
to authorize a monopoly of his invention, and, to secure their being done,
it has called in, and relied on, the agency of the Secretary of State,
the Attorney General, and President. When they are satisfied the acts
have been done, they are to execute a patent, granting to the inventor
the monopoly. But the law does not require that the patent itself should
bear the evidence that they should have been performed, any more than it
requires that in a judgment should be stated all the evidence on which it
is founded. The evidence of the acts on which the patent is founded, rests
with those whose duty it is to see that they are performed; in fact, it is
in the Secretary of State's office, where the interloper or inventor may
have recourse to it if wanting. If these high officers have really failed
to see that the acts were performed, or to preserve evidence of it, they
have broken their trust to the public, and are responsible to the public;
but their negligence cannot invalidate the inventor's right, who has been
guilty of no fault. On the contrary, the patent, which is a record, has
conveyed a right to him from the public, and that it was issued rightfully
ought to be believed on the signature of these high officers affixed
to the patent,--this being a solemn pledge on their part that the acts
had been performed. Would their assertion of the fact, in the patent
itself, pledge them more to the public? I do not think, then, that the
disinterested judgment of a court can find difficulty in this objection.
At any rate your right will be presumed valid, until they decide that
it is not. Their final decision alone can authorize your resort to any
remedial authority,--that is to say, to the Legislature, who alone can
provide a remedy. Certainly an inventor ought to be allowed a right to
the benefit of his invention for some certain time. It is equally certain
it ought not to be perpetual; for to embarrass society with monopolies
for every utensil existing, and in all the details of life, would be more
injurious to them than had the supposed inventors never existed; because
the natural understanding of its members would have suggested the same
things or others as good. How long the term should be is the difficult
question. Our Legislators have copied the English estimate of the term,
perhaps without sufficiently considering how much longer, in a country so
much more sparsely settled, it takes for an invention to become known,
and used to an extent profitable to the inventor. Nobody wishes more
than I do that ingenuity should receive a liberal encouragement: nobody
estimates higher the utility which society has derived from that displayed
by yourself; and I assure you with truth, that I shall always be ready
to manifest it by every service I can render you. To this assurance I add
that of my great respect and esteem, and my friendly salutations.
TO J. MADISON.
MONTICELLO, May 5, 1807.
I return you the pamphlet of the author of War in Disguise. Of its first
half, the topics and the treatment of them are very commonplace; but from
page 118 to 130 it is most interesting to all nations, and especially
to us. Convinced that a militia of all ages promiscuously are entirely
useless for distant service, and that we never shall be safe until we have
a selected corps for a year's distant service at least, the classification
of our militia is now the most essential thing the United States have to
do. Whether, on Bonaparte's plan of making a class for every year between
certain periods, or that recommended in my message, I do not know, but
I rather incline to his. The idea is not new, as, you may remember, we
adopted it once in Virginia during the revolution, but abandoned it too
soon. It is the real secret of Bonaparte's success. Could H. Smith put
better matter into his paper than the twelve pages above mentioned, and
will you suggest it to him? No effort should be spared to bring the public
mind to this great point. I salute you with sincere affection.
TO THE HONORABLE JOHN SMITH.
MONTICELLO, May 7, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--Your two letters of March 27th and April 6th have been
received. Writing from this place, where I have not my papers to turn
to, I cannot even say whether I have received such as you ask copies of.
But I am sorry to answer any request of yours by saying that a compliance
would be a breach of trust. It is essential for the public interest that
I should receive all the information possible respecting either matters
or persons connected with the public. To induce people to give this
information, they must feel assured that when deposited with me it is
secret and sacred. Honest men might justifiably withhold information,
if they expected the communication would be made public, and commit them
to war with their neighbors and friends. This imposes the duty on me of
considering such information as mere suggestions for inquiry, and to put
me on my guard; and to injure no man by forming any opinion until the
suggestion be verified. Long experience in this school has by no means
strengthened the disposition to believe too easily. On the contrary, it
has begotten an incredulity which leaves no one's character in danger
from any hasty conclusion. I hope these considerations will satisfy you,
both as they respect you and myself, and that you will be assured I shall
always be better pleased with those cases which admit that compliance with
your wishes which is always pleasing to me. Accept my salutations, and
assurances of great esteem and respect.
TO MR. MADISON.
MONTICELLO, May 8, 1807.
I return you Monroe's letter of March 5th. As the explosion in the
British ministry took place about the 15th, I hope we shall be spared
the additional embarrassment of his convention. I enclose you a letter
of Michael Jones for circulation, and to rest with the Attorney General.
It contains new instances of Burr's enlistments. I received this from Mr.
Gallatin, so you can hand it to General Dearborne direct.
I expect to leave this on the 13th, but there is a possible occurrence
which may prevent it till the 19th, which however is not probable. Accept
affectionate salutations.
TO MR. HAY.
WASHINGTON, May 20, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--Dr. Bollman, on his arrival here in custody in January,
voluntarily offered to make communications to me, which he accordingly
did, Mr. Madison also being present. I previously and subsequently assured
him, (without, however, his having requested it,) that they should never
be used _against himself_. Mr. Madison on the same evening committed to
writing, by memory, what he had said; and I moreover asked of Bollman
to do it himself, which he did, and I now enclose it to you. The object
is, as he is to be a witness, that you may know how to examine him, and
draw everything from him. I wish the paper to be seen and known only to
yourself and the gentlemen who aid you, and to be returned to me. If
he should prevaricate, I should be willing you should go so far as to
ask him whether he did not say so and so to Mr. Madison and myself. In
order to let him see that his prevarications will be marked, Mr. Madison
will forward you a pardon for him, which we mean should be delivered
previously. It is suspected by some he does not intend to appear. If he
does not, I hope you will take effectual measures to have him immediately
taken into custody. Some other blank pardons are sent on to be filled
up at your discretion, if you should find a defect of evidence, and
believe that this would supply it, by avoiding to give them to the gross
offenders, unless it be visible that the principal will otherwise escape.
I send you an affidavit of importance received last night. If General
Wilkinson gets on in time, I expect he will bring Dunbaugh on with him.
At any rate it may be a ground for an arrest and commitment for treason.
Accept my friendly salutations, and assurances of great esteem and
respect.
TO MR. DE LA COSTE.
WASHINGTON, May 24, 1807.
SIR,--I received, in due time, your favor of April 10th, enclosing a
scheme and subscription for the establishment of a museum of natural
history, at Williamsburgh, by private contributions. Nobody can desire
more ardently than myself, to concur in whatever may promote useful
science, and I view no science with more partiality than natural history.
But I have ever believed that in this, as in most other cases, abortive
attempts retard rather than promote this object. To be really useful
we must keep pace with the state of society, and not dishearten it by
attempts at what its population, means, or occupations will fail in
attempting. In the particular enterprises for museums, we have seen
the populous and wealthy cities of Boston and New York unable to found
or maintain such an institution. The feeble condition of that in each
of these places sufficiently proves this. In Philadelphia alone, has
this attempt succeeded to a good degree? It has been owing there to
a measure of zeal and perseverance in an individual rarely equalled;
to a population, crowded, wealthy, and more than usually addicted to
the pursuit of knowledge. And, with all this, the institution does not
maintain itself. The proprietor has been obliged to return to the practice
of his original profession to help it on. I know, indeed, that there
are many individuals in Williamsburg, and its vicinity, who have already
attained a high degree of science, and many zealously pursuing it. But
after viewing all circumstances there as favorably as the most sanguine
of us could wish, I cannot find in them a rational ground for expecting
success in an undertaking to which the other positions have been found
unequal. I sincerely wish I may be mistaken, and that the success which
your zeal I am sure will merit, may be equal to your wishes, as well
as ours. But, for the present, I would rather reserve myself till its
prospects can be more favorably estimated; because the aid we would be
disposed to give to a promising enterprise, would be very different to
one we might offer to a desperate one. Although less sanguine on this
particular subject, I do entire justice to the zeal for the promotion of
science, which has excited your effort, and shall see it with uncommon
pleasure surmounting the present difficulties, or engaged in other
pursuits which may reward it with better success. Be assured that no one
is more sincere in wishing it, and accept my salutations and assurances of
great respect and consideration.
TO MR. CLINTON.
WASHINGTON, May 24, 1807.
Th: Jefferson presents his compliments to Mr. Clinton, and his thanks for
the pamphlet sent him. He recollects the having read it at the time with
a due sense of his obligation to the author, whose name was surmised,
though not absolutely known, and a conviction that he had made the most
of his matter. The ground of defence might have been solidly aided by
the assurance (which is the absolute fact) that the whole story fathered
on Mazzei, was an unfounded falsehood. Dr. Linn, as aware of that, takes
care to quote it from a dead man, who is made to quote from one residing
in the remotest part of Europe. Equally false was Dr. Linn's other story
about Bishop Madison's lawn sleeves, as the Bishop can testify, for
certainly Th: J. never saw him in lawn sleeves. Had the Doctor ventured to
name time, place, and person, for his third lie, (the government without
religion) it is probable he might have been convicted on that also. But
these are slander and slanderers, whom Th: Jefferson has thought it best
to leave to the scourge of public opinion. He salutes Mr. Clinton with
esteem and respect.
TO GEORGE HAY, ESQ.
WASHINGTON, May 26, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--We are this moment informed by a person who left Richmond since
the 22d, that the prosecution of Burr had begun under very inauspicious
symptoms by the challenging and rejecting two members of the Grand Jury,
as far above all exception as any two persons in the United States. I
suppose our informant is inaccurate in his terms, and has mistaken an
objection by the criminal and voluntary retirement of the gentlemen with
the permission of the court, for a challenge and rejection, which, in the
case of a Grand Jury, is impossible. Be this as it may, and the result
before the formal tribunal, fair or false, it becomes our duty to provide
that full testimony shall be laid before the Legislature, and through
them the public. For this purpose, it is necessary that we be furnished
with the testimony of every person who shall be with you as a witness.
If the Grand Jury find a bill, the evidence given in court, taken as
verbatim as possible, will be what we desire. If there be no bill, and
consequently no examination before court, then I must beseech you to
have every man privately examined by way of affidavit, and to furnish me
with the whole testimony. In the former case, the person taking down the
testimony as orally delivered in court, should make oath that he believes
it to be substantially correct. In the latter case, the certificate of the
magistrate administering the oath, and signature of the party, will be
proper; and this should be done before they receive their compensation,
that they may not evade examination. Go into any expense necessary for
this purpose, and meet it from the funds provided by the Attorney General
for the other expenses. He is not here, or this request would have gone
from him directly. I salute you with friendship and respect.
TO MR. HAY.
WASHINGTON, May 28, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--I have this moment received your letter of the 25th, and hasten
to answer it. If the grand jury do not find a bill against Burr, as there
will be no examination before a petty jury, Bollman's pardon need not in
that case to be delivered; but if a bill be found, and a trial had, his
evidence is deemed entirely essential, and in that case his pardon is to
be produced before he goes to the book. In my letter of the day before
yesterday, I enclosed you Bollman's written communication to me, and
observed you might go so far, if he prevaricated, as to ask him whether
he did not say so and so to Mr. Madison and myself. On further reflection
I think you may go farther, if he prevaricates grossly, and show the
paper to him, and ask if it is not his handwriting, and confront him by
its contents. I enclose you some other letters of Bollman to me on former
occasions, to prove by similitude of hand that the paper I enclosed on the
26th was of his handwriting. I salute you with esteem and respect.
TO COLONEL MONROE.
WASHINGTON, May 29, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--I have not written to you by Mr. Purviance, because he can give
you _vivâ voce_ all the details of our affairs here, with a minuteness
beyond the bounds of a letter, and because, indeed, I am not certain this
letter will find you in England. The sole object in writing it, is to add
another little commission to the one I had formerly troubled you with. It
is to procure for me "a machine for ascertaining the resistance of ploughs
or carriages, invented and sold by Winlaw, in Margaret street, Cavendish
Square." It will cost, I believe, four or five guineas, which shall be
replaced here instanter on your arrival. I had intended to have written
you to counteract the wicked efforts which the federal papers are making
to sow tares between you and me, as if I were lending a hand to measures
unfriendly to any views which our country might entertain respecting you.
But I have not done it, because I have before assured you that a sense
of duty, as well as of delicacy, would prevent me from ever expressing a
sentiment on the subject, and that I think you know me well enough to be
assured I shall conscientiously observe the line of conduct I profess.
I shall receive you on your return with the warm affection I have ever
entertained for you, and be gratified if I can in any way avail the public
of your services. God bless you and yours.
TO M. SILVESTRE, SECRETAIRE DE LA SOCIETE D'AGRICULTURE DE PARIS.
WASHINGTON, May 29, 1807.
SIR,--I have received, through the care of Gen. Armstrong, the medal of
gold by which the society of agriculture at Paris have been pleased to
mark their approbation of the form of a mould-board which I had proposed;
also the four first volumes of their memoirs, and the information that
they had honored me with the title of foreign associate to their society.
I receive with great thankfulness these testimonies of their favor, and
should be happy to merit them by greater services. Attached to agriculture
by inclination, as well as by a conviction that it is the most useful of
the occupations of man, my course of life has not permitted me to add
to its theories the lessons of practice. I fear, therefore, I shall be
to them but an unprofitable member, and shall have little to offer of
myself worthy their acceptance. Should the labors of others, however,
on this side the water, produce anything which may advance the objects
of their institution, I shall with great pleasure become the instrument
of its communication, and shall moreover execute with zeal any orders of
the society in this portion of the globe. I pray you to express to them
my sensibility for the distinctions they have been pleased to confer on
me, and to accept yourself the assurances of my high consideration and
respect.
TO GEORGE HAY.
WASHINGTON, June 2, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--While Burr's case is depending before the court, I will
trouble you, from time to time, with what occurs to me. I observe that
the case of Marbury v. Madison has been cited, and I think it material
to stop at the threshold the citing that case as authority, and to have
it denied to be law. 1. Because the judges, in the outset, disclaimed
all cognizance of the case, although they then went on to say what would
have been their opinion, had they had cognizance of it. This, then, was
confessedly an extrajudicial opinion, and, as such, of no authority. 2.
Because, had it been judicially pronounced, it would have been against
law; for to a commission, a deed, a bond, _delivery_ is essential to
give validity. Until, therefore, the commission is delivered out of
the hands of the executive and his agents, it is not his deed. He may
withhold or cancel it at pleasure, as he might his private deed in the
same situation. The Constitution intended that the three great branches
of the government should be co-ordinate, and independent of each other.
As to acts, therefore, which are to be done by either, it has given no
control to another branch. A judge, I presume, cannot sit on a bench
without a commission, or a record of a commission; and the Constitution
having given to the judiciary branch no means of compelling the executive
either to _deliver_ a commission, or to make a record of it, shows it
did not intend to give the judiciary that control over the executive,
but that it should remain in the power of the latter to do it or not.
Where different branches have to act in their respective lines, finally
and without appeal, under any law, they may give to it different and
opposite constructions. Thus, in the case of William Smith, the House of
Representatives determined he was a citizen; and in the case of William
Duane, (precisely the same in every material circumstance,) the judges
determined he was no citizen. In the cases of Callendar and others, the
judges determined the sedition act was valid under the Constitution,
and exercised their regular powers of sentencing them to fine and
imprisonment. But the executive determined that the sedition act was
a nullity under the Constitution, and exercised his regular power of
prohibiting the execution of the sentence, or rather of executing the real
law, which protected the acts of the defendants. From these different
constructions of the same act by different branches, less mischief
arises than from giving to any one of them a control over the others. The
executive and Senate act on the construction, that until delivery from
the executive department, a commission is in their possession, and within
their rightful power; and in cases of commissions not revocable at will,
where, after the Senate's approbation and the President's signing and
sealing, new information of the unfitness of the person has come to hand
before the _delivery_ of the commission, new nominations have been made
and approved, and new commissions have issued.
On this construction I have hitherto acted; on this I shall ever act,
and maintain it with the powers of the government, against any control
which may be attempted by the judges, in subversion of the independence
of the executive and Senate within their peculiar department. I presume,
therefore, that in a case where our decision is by the Constitution
the supreme one, and that which can be carried into effect, it is the
constitutionally authoritative one, and that that by the judges was
_coram non judice_, and unauthoritative, because it cannot be carried
into effect. I have long wished for a proper occasion to have the
gratuitous opinion in Marbury _v._ Madison brought before the public, and
denounced as not law; and I think the present a fortunate one, because
it occupies such a place in the public attention. I should be glad,
therefore, if, in noticing that case, you could take occasion to express
the determination of the executive, that the doctrines of that case were
given extrajudicially and against law, and that their reverse will be the
rule of action with the executive. If this opinion should not be your
own, I would wish it to be expressed merely as that of the executive.
If it is your own also, you would of course give to the arguments such a
development as a case, incidental only, might render proper. I salute you
with friendship and respect.
TO ALBERT GALLATIN.
June 3, 1807.
I gave you, some time ago, a project of a more equal tariff on wines than
that which now exists. But in that I yielded considerably to the faulty
classification of them in our law. I have now formed one with attention,
and according to the best information I possess, classing them more
rigorously. I am persuaded that were the duty on cheap wines put on the
same ratio with the dear, it would wonderfully enlarge the field of those
who use wine, to the expulsion of whiskey. The introduction of a very
cheap wine (St. George) into my neighborhood, within two years past, has
quadrupled in that time the number of those who keep wine, and will ere
long increase them tenfold. This would be a great gain to the treasury,
and to the sobriety of our country. I will here add my tariff, (_see
opposite page_,) wherein you will be able to choose any rate of duty you
please, and to decide whether it will not, on a fit occasion, be proper
for legislative attention. Affectionate salutations.
------------------------------------------+-------+---------+--------+-------------
| Cost | | |25 per cent.,
| per | 15 | 20 | being the
|gallon.|pr. cent.|pr.cent.| average
| | | | of present
| | | | duties.
+-------+---------+--------+-------------
Tokay, Cape, Malmesey, Hock | 4 00 | 60 | 80 | 1 00
| | | |
| | | |
Champagne, Burgundy, Claret,[1] Hermitage}| 2 75 | 41¼ | 55 | 68¾
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
London particular Madeira | 2 20 | 33 | 44 | 55
All other Madeira | 1 80 | 27 | 36 | 45
Pacharetti, Sherry | 1 50 | 22½ | 30 | 37½
| | | |
[2]The wines of Medoc and Grave not} | | | |
before mentioned, those of Palus, } | 1 25 | 18¾ | 25 | 31¼
Coterotie, Condrieu, Moselle } | | | |
| | | |
St. Lucar and all of Portugal | 80 | 12 | 16 | 20
| | | |
Sicily, Teneriffe, Fayal, Malaga, St.} | 67 | 10 | 13 | 16¾
George, and other western islands} | | | |
All other wines | | | |
| | | |
------------------------------------------+-------+---------+--------+-------------
------------------------------------------+---------+---------
| |
| 30 | 35
|per cent.|per cent.
| |
| |
+---------+---------
Tokay, Cape, Malmesey, Hock | 1 20 | 1 40
| |
| |
Champagne, Burgundy, Claret,[1] Hermitage}| 82½ | 96¼
| |
| |
| |
London particular Madeira | 66 | 77
All other Madeira | 54 | 63
Pacharetti, Sherry | 45 | 52½
| |
[2]The wines of Medoc and Grave not} | |
before mentioned, those of Palus, } | 37½ | 43¾
Coterotie, Condrieu, Moselle } | |
| |
St. Lucar and all of Portugal | 24 | 28
| |
Sicily, Teneriffe, Fayal, Malaga, St.} | 20 | 23
George, and other western islands} | |
All other wines | |
| |
------------------------------------------+---------+---------
------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------
|
| present duty. per cent.
|
|
|
+-----------------------------------------
Tokay, Cape, Malmesey, Hock |{Tokay, 45 cents, which is 11¼
|{Malmesey, 58 " " 14½
|{Hock, 35 " " 25
Champagne, Burgundy, Claret,[1] Hermitage}|{Champagne,} 45 " " 16½
|{Burgundy, }
|{Claret, } 35 " " 12½
|{Hermitage,}
London particular Madeira | 58 " " 26½
All other Madeira | 50 " " 27½
Pacharetti, Sherry |{Pacharetti, 23 " " 15
|{Sherry, 40 " " 26½
[2]The wines of Medoc and Grave not} |
before mentioned, those of Palus, } | 35 " " 28
Coterotie, Condrieu, Moselle } |
|
St. Lucar and all of Portugal |{St. Lucar, 40 " " 50
|{Other Spanish, 23 " " 28¾
Sicily, Teneriffe, Fayal, Malaga, St.} |{Sicily, 23 " " 34
George, and other western islands} |{Teneriffe, &c.,28 " " 41
All other wines |{in bottles, 35} often 400 per ct.
|{{in casks, 23}
------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The term Claret should be abolished, because unknown in the country
where it is made, and because indefinite here. The four crops should
be enumerated here instead of Claret, and all other wines to which
that appellation has been applied, should fall into the ad valorem
class. The four crops are Lafitte, Latour and Margaux, in Medoc, and
Hautbrion, in Grave.
[2] Blanquefort, Oalon, Leoville, Cantenac, &c., are wines of Medoc.
Barsac, Sauterne, Beaume, Preignac, St. Bris, Carbonien, Langon,
Podensac, &c., are of Grave. All these are of the second order,
being next after the four crops.
TO GEORGE HAY.
WASHINGTON, June 5, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--Your favor of the 31st instant has been received, and I think
it will be fortunate if any circumstance should produce a discharge of
the present scanty grand jury, and a future summons of a fuller; though
the same views of protecting the offender may again reduce the number
to sixteen, in order to lessen the chance of getting twelve to concur.
It is understood, that wherever Burr met with subjects who did not
choose to embark in his projects, unless approved by their government,
he asserted that he had that approbation. Most of them took his word
for it, but it is said that with those who would not, the following
stratagem was practised. A forged letter, purporting to be from General
Dearborne, was made to express his approbation, and to say that I was
absent at Monticello, but that there was no doubt that, on my return, my
approbation of his enterprises would be given. This letter was spread open
on his table, so as to invite the eye of whoever entered his room, and he
contrived occasions of sending up into his room those whom he wished to
become witnesses of his acting under sanction. By this means he avoided
committing himself to any liability to prosecution for forgery, and gave
another proof of being a great man in little things, while he is really
small in great ones. I must add General Dearborne's declaration, that he
never wrote a letter to Burr in his life, except that when here, once in
a winter, he usually wrote him a billet of invitation to dine. The only
object of sending you the enclosed letters is to possess you of the fact,
that you may know how to pursue it, if any of your witnesses should know
anything of it. My intention in writing to you several times, has been
to convey facts or observations occurring in the absence of the Attorney
General, and not to make to the dreadful drudgery you are going through
the unnecessary addition of writing me letters in answer, which I beg
you to relieve yourself from, except when some necessity calls for it. I
salute you with friendship and respect.
TO MR. WEAVER.
WASHINGTON, June 7, 1807.
SIR,--Your favor of March 30th never reached my hands till May 16th.
The friendly views it expresses of my conduct in general give me great
satisfaction. For these testimonies of the approbation of my fellow
citizens, I know that I am indebted more to their indulgent dispositions
than to any peculiar claims of my own. For it can give no great claims
to any one to manage honestly and disinterestedly the concerns of others
trusted to him. Abundant examples of this are always under our eye. That I
should lay down my charge at a proper season, is as much a duty as to have
borne it faithfully. Being very sensible of bodily decays from advancing
years, I ought not to doubt their effect on the mental faculties. To do so
would evince either great self-love or little observation of what passes
under our eyes; and I shall be fortunate if I am the first to perceive and
to obey this admonition of nature. That there are in our country a great
number of characters entirely equal to the management of its affairs,
cannot be doubted. Many of them, indeed, have not had opportunities of
making themselves known to their fellow citizens; but many have had,
and the only difficulty will be to choose among them. These changes
are necessary, too, for the security of republican government. If some
period be not fixed, either by the Constitution or by practice, to the
services of the First Magistrate, his office, though nominally elective,
will, in fact, be for life; and that will soon degenerate into an
inheritance. Among the felicities which have attended my administration,
I am most thankful for having been able to procure coadjutors so able,
so disinterested, and so harmonious. Scarcely ever has a difference of
opinion appeared among us which has not, by candid consultation, been
amalgamated into something which all approved; and never one which in
the slightest degree affected our personal attachments. The proof we
have lately seen of the innate strength of our government, is one of
the most remarkable which history has recorded, and shows that we are a
people capable of self-government, and worthy of it. The moment that a
proclamation apprised our citizens that there were traitors among them,
and what was their object, they rose upon them wherever they lurked, and
crushed by their own strength what would have produced the march of armies
and civil war in any other country. The government which can wield the arm
of the people must be the strongest possible. I thank you for the interest
you are so kind as to express in my health and welfare, and return you the
same good wishes with my salutations, and assurance of respect.
TO DOCTOR HORATIO TURPIN.
WASHINGTON, June 10, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--Your favor of June the 1st has been received. To a mind like
yours, capable in any question of abstracting it from its relation to
yourself, I may safely hazard explanations, which I have generally avoided
to others on questions of appointment. Bringing into office no desires of
making it subservient to the advancement of my own private interests, it
has been no sacrifice, by postponing them, to strengthen the confidence
of my fellow citizens. But I have not felt equal indifference towards
excluding merit from office, merely because it was related to me. However,
I have thought it my duty so to do, that my constituents may be satisfied,
that, in selecting persons for the management of their affairs, I am
influenced by neither personal nor family interests, and especially, that
the field of public office will not be perverted by me into a family
property. On this subject, I had the benefit of useful lessons from my
predecessors, had I needed them, marking what was to be imitated and what
avoided. But in truth, the nature of our government is lesson enough.
Its energy depending mainly on the confidence of the people in the chief
magistrate, makes it his duty to spare nothing which can strengthen him
with that confidence.
* * * * *
Accept assurances of my constant friendship and respect.
TO JOHN NORVELL.
WASHINGTON, June 11, 1807.
SIR,--Your letter of May the 9th has been duly received. The subject it
proposes would require time and 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 and 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, and the Federalist. Adding, perhaps, Beccaria
on crimes and 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 and 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 subjects on the same principles, but in
a shorter compass and 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 knowledge 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 and discredit the good principles of the
government, and is so plausible and pleasing in its style and manner, as
to instil its errors and 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 quarto volume.
Adding to this Ludlow's Memoirs, Mrs. M'Cauley's and 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 and 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 completely deprive the nation of its benefits, than
is done by its 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 knowledge with the lies of the day. I really look with
commiseration over the great body of my fellow citizens, who, reading
newspapers, live and 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 and 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 four 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 second 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 third and fourth 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 demoralizing
practice of feeding the public mind habitually on slander, and 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 and indignation which should fill
a virtuous mind, betray a secret pleasure in the possibility that some may
believe them, though 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
its 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 its 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.
TO WILLIAM SHORT.
WASHINGTON, June 12, 1807.
DEAR SIR, * * * * *
The proposition in your letter of May the 16th, of adding an umpire to
our discordant negotiators at Paris, struck me favorably on reading it,
and reflection afterwards strengthened my first impressions. I made it
therefore a subject of consultation with my coadjutors, as is our usage.
For our government, although in theory subject to be directed by the
unadvised will of the President, is, and from its origin has been, a very
different thing in practice. The minor business in each department is done
by the Head of the department, on consultation with the President alone.
But all matters of importance or difficulty are submitted to all the
Heads of departments composing the cabinet; sometimes by the President's
consulting them separately and successively, as they happen to call on
him; but in the greatest cases, by calling them together, discussing the
subject maturely, and finally taking the vote, in which the President
counts himself but as one. So that in all important cases the executive
is, in fact, a directory, which certainly the President might control; but
of this there was never an example, either in the first or the present
administration. I have heard, indeed, that my predecessor sometimes
decided things against his council. * * * * * I adopted in the present
case the mode of separate consultation. The opinion of each member, taken
separately, was that the addition of a third negotiator was not at this
time advisable. For the present therefore, the question must rest. Mr.
Bowdoin, we know, is anxious to come home, and is detained only by the
delicacy of not deserting his post. In the existing temper between him and
his colleague, it would certainly be better that one of them should make
an opening for re-composing the commission more harmoniously.
I salute you with affection and respect.
TO GEORGE HAY.
WASHINGTON, June 12, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--Your letter of the 9th is this moment received. Reserving
the necessary right of the President of the United States to decide,
independently of all other authority, what papers, coming to him as
President, the public interests permit to be communicated, and to whom, I
assure you of my readiness under that restriction, voluntarily to furnish
on all occasions, whatever the purposes of justice may require. But
the letter of General Wilkinson, of October the 21st, requested for the
defence of Colonel Burr, with every other paper relating to the charges
against him, which were in my possession when the Attorney General went
on to Richmond in March, I then delivered to him; and I have always taken
for granted he left the whole with you. If he did, and the bundle retains
the order in which I had arranged it, you will readily find the letter
desired, under the date of its receipt, which was November the 25th; but
lest the Attorney General should not have left those papers with you, I
this day write to him to forward this one by post. An uncertainty whether
he is at Philadelphia, Wilmington, or New Castle, may produce delay in his
receiving my letter, of which it is proper you should be apprized. But, as
I do not recollect the whole contents of that letter, I must beg leave to
devolve on you the exercise of that discretion which it would be my right
and duty to exercise, by withholding the communication of any parts of the
letter, which are not directly material for the purposes of justice.
With this application, which is specific, a prompt compliance is
practicable. But when the request goes to "copies of the orders issued
in relation to Colonel Burr, to the officers at Orleans, Natchez, &c.
by the Secretaries of the War and Navy departments," it seems to cover
a correspondence of many months, with such a variety of officers, civil
and military, all over the United States, as would amount to the laying
open the whole executive books. I have desired the Secretary at War to
examine his official communications; and on a view of these, we may be
able to judge what can and ought to be done, towards a compliance with
the request. If the defendant alleges that there was any particular order,
which, as a cause, produced any particular act on his part, then he must
know what this order was, can specify it, and a prompt answer can be
given. If the _object_ had been specified, we might then have some guide
for our conjectures, as to what part of the executive records might be
useful to him; but, with a perfect willingness to do what is right, we are
without the indications which may enable us to do it. If the researches of
the Secretary at War should produce anything proper for communication, and
pertinent to any point we can conceive in the defence before the court, it
shall be forwarded to you.
I salute you with respect and esteem.
TO GEORGE HAY.
WASHINGTON, June 17, 1807.
SIR,--In answering your letter of the 9th, which desired a communication
of one to me from General Wilkinson, specified by its date, I informed
you in mine of the 12th that I had delivered it, with all other papers
respecting the charges against Aaron Burr, to the Attorney General,
when he went to Richmond; that I had supposed he had left them in your
possession, but would immediately write to him, if he had not, to forward
that particular letter without delay. I wrote to him accordingly on the
same day, but having no answer, I know not whether he has forwarded the
letter. I stated in the same letter, that I had desired the Secretary at
War to examine his office, in order to comply with your further request,
to furnish copies of the orders which had been given respecting Aaron
Burr and his property; and in a subsequent letter of the same day, I
forwarded to you copies of two letters from the Secretary at War, which
appeared to be within the description expressed in your letter. The
order from the Secretary of the Navy, you said, you were in possession
of. The receipt of these papers had, I presume, so far anticipated, and
others this day forwarded will have substantially fulfilled the object
of a subpœna from the District Court of Richmond, requiring that those
officers and myself should attend the Court in Richmond, with the letter
of General Wilkinson, the answer to that letter, and the orders of the
departments of War and the Navy, therein generally described. No answer
to General Wilkinson's letter, other than a mere acknowledgment of its
receipt, in a letter written for a different purpose, was ever written by
myself or any other. To these communications of papers, I will add, that
if the defendant supposes there are any facts within the knowledge of the
Heads of departments, or of myself, which can be useful for his defence,
from a desire of doing anything our situation will permit in furtherance
of justice, we shall be ready to give him the benefit of it, by way of
deposition, through any persons whom the Court shall authorize to take our
testimony at this place. I know, indeed, that this cannot be done but by
consent of parties; and I therefore authorize you to give consent on the
part of the United States. Mr. Burr's consent will be given of course, if
he supposes the testimony useful.
As to our personal attendance at Richmond, I am persuaded the Court
is sensible, that paramount duties to the nation at large control the
obligation of compliance with their summons in this case; as they would,
should we receive a similar one, to attend the trials of Blannerhassett
and others, in the Mississippi territory, those instituted at St. Louis
and other places on the western waters, or at any place, other than the
seat of government. To comply with such calls would leave the nation
without an executive branch, whose agency, nevertheless, is understood
to be so constantly necessary, that it is the sole branch which the
constitution requires to be always in function. It could not then mean
that it should be withdrawn from its station by any co-ordinate authority.
With respect to papers, there is certainly a public and a private side to
our offices. To the former belong grants of land, patents for inventions,
certain commissions, proclamations, and other papers patent in their
nature. To the other belong mere executive proceedings. All nations have
found it necessary, that for the advantageous conduct of their affairs,
some of these proceedings, at least, should remain known to their
executive functionary only. He, of course, from the nature of the case,
must be the sole judge of which of them the public interests will permit
publication. Hence, under our Constitution, in requests of papers from the
legislative to the executive branch, an exception is carefully expressed,
as to those which he may deem the public welfare may require not to be
disclosed; as you will see in the enclosed resolution of the House of
Representatives, which produced the message of January 22d, respecting
this case. The respect mutually due between the constituted authorities,
in their official intercourse, as well as sincere dispositions to do
for every one what is just, will always insure from the executive, in
exercising the duty of discrimination confided to him, the same candor
and integrity to which the nation has in like manner trusted in the
disposal of its judiciary authorities. Considering you as the organ for
communicating these sentiments to the Court, I address them to you for
that purpose, and salute you with esteem and respect.
TO GEORGE HAY.
WASHINGTON, June 19, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--Yours of the 17th was received last night. Three blank pardons
had been (as I expect) made up and forwarded by the mail of yesterday,
and I have desired three others to go by that of this evening. You ask
what is to be done if Bollman finally rejects his pardon, and the Judge
decides it to have no effect? Move to commit him immediately for treason
or misdemeanor, as you think the evidence will support; let the Court
decide where he shall be sent for trial; and on application, I will have
the marshall aided in his transportation, with the executive means. And
we think it proper, further, that when Burr shall have been convicted
of either treason or misdemeanor, you should immediately have committed
all those persons against whom you should find evidence sufficient,
whose agency has been so prominent as to mark them as proper objects of
punishment, and especially where their boldness has betrayed an inveteracy
of criminal disposition. As to obscure offenders and repenting ones, let
them lie for consideration.
I enclose you the copy of a letter received last night, and giving
singular information. I have inquired into the character of Graybell. He
was an old revolutionary captain, is now a flour merchant in Baltimore,
of the most respectable character, and whose word would be taken as
implicitly as any man's for whatever he affirms. The letter writer, also,
is a man of entire respectability. I am well informed, that for more than
a twelvemonth it has been believed in Baltimore, generally, that Burr was
engaged in some criminal enterprise, and that Luther Martin knew all about
it. We think you should immediately despatch a subpœna for Graybell; and
while that is on the road, you will have time to consider in what form
you will use his testimony; _e. g._ shall Luther Martin be summoned as a
witness against Burr, and Graybell held ready to confront him? It may be
doubted whether we could examine a witness to discredit our own witness.
Besides, the lawyers say that they are privileged from being forced to
breaches of confidence, and that no others are. Shall we move to commit
Luther Martin, as _particeps criminis_ with Burr? Graybell will fix upon
him misprison of treason at least. And at any rate, his evidence will
put down this unprincipled and impudent federal bull-dog, and add another
proof that the most clamorous defenders of Burr are all his accomplices.
It will explain why Luther Martin flew so hastily to the "aid of his
honorable friend," abandoning his clients and their property during a
session of a principal court in Maryland, now filled, as I am told, with
the clamors and ruin of his clients. I believe we shall send on Latrobe as
a witness. He will prove that Aaron Burr endeavored to get him to engage
several thousand men, chiefly Irish emigrants, whom he had been in the
habit of employing in the works he directs, under pretence of a canal
opposite Louisville, or of the Washita, in which, had he succeeded, he
could with that force alone have carried everything before him, and would
not have been where he now is. He knows, too, of certain meetings of Burr,
Bollman, Yrujo, and one other whom we have never named yet, but have him
not the less in our view.
I salute you with friendship and respect.
P. S. Will you send us half a dozen blank subpœnas?
Since writing the within I have had a conversation with Latrobe. He says
it was five hundred men he was desired to engage. The pretexts were, to
work on the Ohio canal, and be paid in Washita lands. Your witnesses will
some of them prove that Burr had no interest in the Ohio canal, and that
consequently this was a mere pretext to cover the real object from the men
themselves, and all others. Latrobe will set out in the stage of to-morrow
evening, and be with you Monday evening.
TO GOVERNOR SULLIVAN.
WASHINGTON, June 19, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--In acknowledging the receipt of your favor of the 3d instant,
I avail myself of the occasion it offers of tendering to yourself, to
Mr. Lincoln and to your State, my sincere congratulations on the late
happy event of the election of a republican executive to preside over
its councils. The harmony it has introduced between the legislative and
executive branches, between the people and both of them, and between
all and the General Government, are so many steps towards securing that
union of action and effort in all its parts, without which no nation can
be happy or safe. The just respect with which all the States have ever
looked to Massachusetts, could leave none of them without anxiety, while
she was in a state of alienation from her family and friends. Your opinion
of the propriety and advantage of a more intimate correspondence between
the executives of the several States, and that of the Union, as a central
point, is precisely that which I have ever entertained; and on coming into
office I felt the advantages which would result from that harmony. I had
it even in contemplation, after the annual recommendation to Congress of
those measures called for by the times, which the Constitution had placed
under their power, to make communications in like manner to the executives
of the States, as to any parts of them to which the legislatures might
be alone competent. For many are the exercises of power reserved to
the States, wherein an uniformity of proceeding would be advantageous
to all. Such are quarantines, health laws, regulations of the press,
banking institutions, training militia, &c., &c. But you know what was
the state of the several governments when I came into office. That a great
proportion of them were federal, and would have been delighted with such
opportunities of proclaiming their contempt, and of opposing republican
men and measures. Opportunities so furnished and used by some of the State
Governments, would have produced an ill effect, and would have insured
the failure of the object of uniform proceeding. If it could be ventured
even now (Connecticut and Delaware being still hostile) it must be on
some greater occasion than is likely to arise within my time. I look
to it, therefore, as a course which will probably be to be left to the
consideration of my successor.
I consider, with you, the federalists as completely vanquished, and never
more to take the field under their own banners. They will now reserve
themselves to profit by the schisms among republicans, and to earn favors
from minorities, whom they will enable to triumph over their more numerous
antagonists. So long as republican minorities barely accept their votes,
no great harm will be done; because it will only place in power one shade
of republicanism, instead of another. But when they purchase the votes
of the federalists, by giving them a participation of office, trust and
power, it is a proof that anti-monarchism is not their strongest passion.
I do not think that the republican minority in Pennsylvania has fallen
into this heresy, nor that there are in your State materials of which a
minority can be made who will fall into it.
With respect to the tour my friends to the north have proposed that I
should make in that quarter, I have not made up a final opinion. The
course of life which General Washington had run, civil and military,
the services he had rendered, and the space he therefore occupied in the
affections of his fellow citizens, take from his examples the weight of
precedents for others, because no others can arrogate to themselves the
claims which he had on the public homage. To myself, therefore, it comes
as a new question, to be viewed under all the phases it may present.
I confess that I am not reconciled to the idea of a chief magistrate
parading himself through the several States, as an object of public
gaze, and in quest of an applause which, to be valuable, should be purely
voluntary. I had rather acquire silent good will by a faithful discharge
of my duties, than owe expressions of it to my putting myself in the way
of receiving them. Were I to make such a tour to Portsmouth or Portland,
I must do it to Savannah, perhaps to Orleans and Frankfort. As I have
never yet seen the time when the public business would have permitted me
to be so long in a situation in which I could not carry it on, so I have
no reason to expect that such a time will come while I remain in office. A
journey to Boston or Portsmouth, after I shall be a private citizen, would
much better harmonize with my feelings, as well as duties; and, founded
in curiosity, would give no claims to an extension of it. I should see
my friends too more at our mutual ease, and be left more exclusively to
their society. However, I end as I began, by declaring I have made up no
opinion on the subject, and that I reserve it as a question for future
consideration and advice.
In the meantime, and at all times, I salute you with great respect and
esteem.
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 one hundred
and fifty 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 _subpœna
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 subpœnas, 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 six 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 and 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 subpœnas, 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, and to imprisonment for disobedience; if the
several courts could bandy him from pillar to post, keep him constantly
trudging from north to south and 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
one thousand or one thousand five hundred 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, and 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
and crowded taverns 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.
TO DOCTOR WISTAR.
WASHINGTON, June 21, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--I have a grandson, the son of Mr. Randolph, now about fifteen
years of age, in whose education I take a lively interest. * * * * * I am
not a friend to placing young men in populous cities, because they acquire
there habits and 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 United States 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, and 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, and which is
the object of this letter.
* * * * *
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 and feel, that the animal body is in its organs
and functions subject to derangement, inducing pain, and tending to its
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, and
happily, to those the most frequent. But the disorders of the animal
body, and 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 and so unknown as the human body, and a subject
so sacred as human life. Or, if the appearance of doing something be
necessary to keep alive the hope and 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, and powders of hickory ashes, than of all other medicines
put together. It was certainly a pious fraud. But the adventurous
physician goes on, and substitutes presumption for knowledge. 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 and 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, Stahl, Cullen, Brown, succeed one
another like the shifting figures of a magic lantern, and 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, and 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 and presumptuous band of
medical tyros let loose upon the world, destroys more of human life in
one year, than all the Robinhoods, Cartouches, and 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, and 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, and by all the aid they can derive from the excitement of good
spirits and 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 knowledge of the human body, and observation on the effects
of medicinal substances on that. The anatomical and 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, and the bewitching
delusions of their theories. You see that I estimate justly that portion
of instruction which our medical students derive from your labors; and,
associating with it one of the chairs which my old and 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 and 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
and 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, and 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; and the rather, as I had perhaps, at times, to him
as well as others, expressed my scepticism in medicine, without defining
its extent or foundation. At any rate, it has permitted me, for a moment,
to abstract myself from the dry and 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 and partialities.
I salute you at all times with affection and respect.
TO GENERAL WILKINSON.
WASHINGTON, June 21, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--I received last night yours of the 16th, and sincerely
congratulate you on your safe arrival at Richmond, against the impudent
surmises and hopes of the band of conspirators, who, because they are as
yet permitted to walk abroad, and even to be in the character of witnesses
until such a measure of evidence shall be collected as will place them
securely at the bar of justice, attempt to cover their crimes under noise
and insolence. You have indeed had a fiery trial at New Orleans, but it
was soon apparent that the clamorous were only the criminal, endeavoring
to turn the public attention from themselves and their leader upon any
other object.
Having delivered to the Attorney General all the papers I possessed,
respecting Burr and his accomplices, when he went to Richmond, I could
only write to him (without knowing whether he was at Philadelphia,
Wilmington, or Delaware) for your letter of October 21st, desired by the
court. If you have a copy of it, and choose to give it in, it will, I
think, have a good effect; for it was my intention, if I should receive
it from Mr. Rodney, not to communicate it without your consent, after I
learnt your arrival. Mr. Rodney will certainly either bring or send it
within the course of a day or two, and it will be instantly forwarded
to Mr. Hay. For the same reason, I cannot send the letter of J. P. D.,
as you propose, to Mr. Hay. I do not recollect what name these initials
indicate, but the paper, whatever it is, must be in the hands of Mr.
Rodney. Not so as to your letter to Dayton; for as that could be of no use
in the prosecution, and was reserved to be forwarded or not, according to
circumstances, I retained it in my own hands, and now return it to you.
If you think Dayton's son should be summoned, it can only be done from
Richmond. We have no subpœnas here. Within about a month we shall leave
this to place ourselves in healthier stations. Before that I trust you
will be liberated from your present attendance. It would have been of
great importance to have had you here with the Secretary at War, because I
am very anxious to begin such works as will render Plaquemine impregnable,
and an insuperable barrier to the passage of any force up or down the
river. But the Secretary at War sets out on Wednesday, to meet with some
other persons at New York, and determine on the works necessary to be
undertaken to put that place _hors d'insulte_, and thence he will have
to proceed northwardly, I believe. I must ask you, at your leisure, to
state to me in writing what you think will answer our views at Plaquemine,
within the limits of expense which we can contemplate, and of which you
can form a pretty good idea.
Your enemies have filled the public ear with slanders, and your mind with
trouble on that account. The establishment of their guilt will let the
world see what they ought to think of their clamors; it will dissipate the
doubts of those who doubted for want of knowledge, and will place you on
higher ground in the public estimate and public confidence. No one is more
sensible than myself of the injustice which has been aimed at you. Accept,
I pray you, my salutations, and assurances of respect and esteem.
TO THE SECRETARY OF WAR.
June 22, 1807.
I suggest to you the following, as some of the ideas which might be
expressed by General Wilkinson, in answering Governor Saludo's letter. The
introductory and concluding sentiments will best flow from the General's
own feelings of the personal standing between him and Governor Saludo:
"On the transfer of Louisiana by France to the United States, according
to its boundaries when possessed by France, the government of the United
States considered itself entitled as far west as the Rio Norte; but
understanding soon after that Spain, on the contrary, claimed eastwardly
to the river Sabine, it has carefully abstained from doing any act in
the intermediate country, which might disturb the existing state of
things, until these opposing claims should be explained and accommodated
amicably. But that the Red river and all its waters belonged to France,
that she made several settlements on that river, and held them as a part
of Louisiana until she delivered that country to Spain, and that Spain,
on the contrary, had never made a single settlement on the river, are
circumstances so well known, and so susceptible of proof, that it was
not supposed that Spain would seriously contest the facts, or the right
established by them. Hence our government took measures for exploring that
river, as it did that of the Missouri, by sending Mr. Freeman to proceed
from the mouth upwards, and Lieutenant Pike from the source downwards,
merely to acquire its geography, and so far enlarge the boundaries of
science. For the day must be very distant when it will be either the
interest or the wish of the United States to extend settlements into
the interior of that country. Lieutenant Pike's orders were accordingly
strictly confined to the waters of the Red river, and, from his known
observance of orders, I am persuaded that it must have been, as he himself
declares, by missing his way that he got on the waters of the Rio Norte,
instead of those of the Red river. That your Excellency should excuse
this involuntary error, and indeed misfortune, was expected from the
liberality of your character; and the kindnesses you have shown him are
an honorable example of those offices of good neighborhood on your part,
which it will be so agreeable to us to cultivate. Accept my thanks for
them, and be assured they shall on all occasions meet a like return. To
the same liberal sentiment Lieutenant Pike must appeal for the restoration
of his papers. You must have seen in them no trace of unfriendly views
towards your nation, no symptoms of any other design than of extending
geographical knowledge; and it is not in the nineteenth century, nor
through the agency of your Excellency, that science expects to encounter
obstacles. The field of knowledge is the common property of all mankind,
and any discoveries we can make in it will be for the benefit of yours and
of every other nation, as well as our own."
TO MR. HAY.
WASHINGTON, June 23, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--In mine of the 12th I informed you I would write to the
Attorney General to send on the letter of General Wilkinson of October
21st, referred to in my message of January 22d. He accordingly sent
me a letter of that date, but I immediately saw that it was not the
one desired, because it had no relation to the facts stated under that
reference. I immediately, by letter, apprized him of this circumstance,
and being since returned to this place, he yesterday called on me with
the whole of the papers remaining in his possession, and he assured me
he had examined carefully the whole of them, and that the one referred
to in the message was not among them, nor did he know where it would be
found. These papers have been recurred to so often, on so many occasions,
and some of them delivered out for particular purposes, that we find
several missing, without being able to recollect what has been done with
them. Some of them were delivered to the Attorney of this district, to be
used on the occasions which arose in the District Court, and a part of
them were filed, as is said, in their office. The Attorney General will
examine their office to day, and has written to the District Attorney to
know whether he retained any of them. No researches shall be spared to
recover this letter, and if recovered, it shall immediately be sent on
to you. Compiling the message from a great mass of papers, and pressed
in time, the date of a particular paper may have been mistaken, but
we all perfectly remember the one referred to in the message, and that
its substance is there correctly stated. General Wilkinson probably has
copies of all the letters he wrote me, and having expressed a willingness
to furnish the one desired by the Court, the defendant can still have
the benefit of it. Or should he not have the particular one on which
that passage in the message is founded, I trust that his memory would
enable him to affirm that it is substantially correct. I salute you with
friendship and respect.
TO GEORGE BLAKE, ESQ.
WASHINGTON, June 24, 1807.
SIR,--I enclose you a petition of John Partridge, which I perceive to have
been in your hands before, by a certificate endorsed on it. The petitioner
says the term of labor to which he was sentenced expired on the 14th
instant; that he is unable to pay the costs of prosecution, and therefore
prays to be discharged. But in such cases it is usual to substitute an
additional term of confinement equivalent to that portion of the sentence
which cannot be complied with. Pardons too for counterfeiting bank paper
are yielded with much less facility than others. However, in all cases
I have referred these petitions to the judges and prosecuting attorney,
who having heard all the circumstances of the case, are the best judges
whether any of them were of such a nature as ought to obtain for the
criminal a remission or abridgement of the punishment. I now enclose the
papers, and ask the favor of you to take the opinion of the judges on that
subject, and to favor me with your own, which will govern me in what I do,
and be my voucher for it. I salute you with esteem and respect.
TO GENERAL DEARBORNE.
WASHINGTON, June 25, 1807. 5.30 P. M.
DEAR SIR,--I am sincerely sorry that I am obliged to ask your attendance
here without a moment's avoidable delay. The capture of the Chesapeake
by a British ship of war renders it necessary to have all our Council
together. I do not suppose it will detain you long from rejoining Mrs.
Dearborne. The mail is closing. Affectionate salutations.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
WASHINGTON, June 25, 1807. 5.30 P. M.
DEAR SIR,--I am sorry to be obliged to hasten your return to this place,
and pray that it maybe without a moment's avoidable delay. The capture of
the Chesapeake by a British ship of war renders it necessary to have all
our Council together. The mail is closing. Affectionate salutations.
TO GOVERNOR CABELL.
WASHINGTON, June 29, 1807.
SIR,--Your favor by express was safely received on Saturday night, and I
am thankful to you for the attention of which it is a proof. Considering
the General and State governments as co-operators in the same holy
concerns, the interest and happiness of our country, the interchange
of mutual aid is among the most pleasing of the exercises of our duty.
Captain Gordon, the second in command of the Chesapeake, has arrived
here with the details of that affair. Yet as the precaution you took of
securing us against the accident of wanting information, was entirely
proper, and the expense of the express justly a national one, I have
directed him to be paid here, so that he is enabled to refund any money
you may have advanced him. Mr. Gallatin and General Dearborne happening
to be absent, I have asked their immediate attendance here, and I expect
them this day. We shall then determine on the course which the exigency
and our constitutional powers call for. Whether the outrage is a proper
cause of war, belonging exclusively to Congress, it is our duty not to
commit them by doing anything which would be to be retracted. We may,
however, exercise the powers entrusted to us for preventing future insults
within our harbors, and claim firmly satisfaction for the past. This will
leave Congress free to decide whether war is the most efficacious mode
of redress in our case, or whether, having taught so many other useful
lessons to Europe, we may not add that of showing them that there are
peaceable means of repressing injustice, by making it the interest of
the aggressor to do what is just, and abstain from future wrong. It is
probable you will hear from us in the course of the week. I salute you
with great esteem and respect.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
July 4, 1807.
If I understand the claim of the Creeks, it is that they shall have a
right of transit across our territories, but especially along our rivers
from the Spanish territories to their own, for goods _for their own use_,
without paying us a duty. I think they are in the right. This is exactly
what we are claiming of Spain, as to this very river, the Mobile. Our
doctrine is that different nations inhabiting the same river have all a
natural right to an innocent passage along it, just as individuals of the
same nation have of a river wholly within the territory of that nation. I
do not know whether our revenue law, justly construed, opposes this; but
if it does not, we ought to take the case into consideration, and do what
is right. It is here that the manner in which this right has been asserted
by Captain Isaac, is not agreeable. But can we blame it? and ought
not those who are in the wrong to put themselves in the right, without
listening to false pride?
Affectionate salutations.
TO THE VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
WASHINGTON, July 6, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--I congratulate you on your safe arrival with Miss Clinton
at New York, and especially on your escape from British violence. This
aggression is of a character so distinct from that on the Chesapeake, and
of so aggravated a nature, that I consider it as a very material one to
be presented with that to the British Government. I pray you, therefore,
to write me a letter, stating the transaction, and in such a form as that
it may go to that Government. At the same time, I must request you to
instruct Mr. Gelston, from me, to take the affidavits of the Captain of
the revenue cutter, and of such other persons as you shall direct, stating
the same affair, and to be forwarded, in like manner, to our Minister in
London.
You will have seen by the proclamation, the measures adopted. We act on
these principles, 1. That the usage of nations requires that we shall
give the offender an opportunity of making reparation and avoiding war.
2. That we should give time to our merchants to get in their property and
vessels and our seamen now afloat. And 3. That the power of declaring war
being with the Legislature, the executive should do nothing, necessarily
committing them to decide for war in preference of non-intercourse, which
will be preferred by a great many. They will be called in time to receive
the answer from Great Britain, unless new occurrences should render it
necessary to call them sooner.
I salute you with friendship and respect.
TO COLONEL TATHAM.
WASHINGTON, July 6, 1807.
SIR,--Your favor of the 1st instant has been received, and I thank you for
the communication. Considering the mass of false reports in circulation,
and the importance of being truly informed of the proceedings of the
British armed vessels in the Chesapeake and its vicinities, I should
be very glad, as you are on the spot, provided with a proper vessel and
men, if you could continue watching their motions constantly, and giving
me information of them. In that case it would be necessary you should
journalize everything respecting them which should fall within your
observation, and enclose daily to me a copy of the observations of the
day, forwarding them to the post-office of Norfolk, by every opportunity
occurring. Your allowance should be exactly on the same footing as when
you were surveying the coast, and for current expenses you may draw on
Mr. Bedinger, Navy Agent, at Norfolk, only accompanying each draught with
a letter explaining generally the purpose of it, which is a constant and
indispensable rule in all our departments. It will be necessary for me to
ask the continuance of this service from you only until I can ascertain
the course these officers mean to pursue.
I salute you with esteem and respect.
TO THE SECRETARY AT WAR.
WASHINGTON, July 7, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--I enclose you copies of two letters sent by express from
Captain Decatur. By these you will perceive that the British commanders
have their foot on the threshold of war. They have begun the blockade of
Norfolk; have sounded the passage to the town, which appears practicable
for three of their vessels, and menace an attack on the Chesapeake and
Cybele. These, with four gun-boats, form the present defence, and there
are four more gun-boats in Norfolk nearly ready. The four gun-boats at
Hampton are hauled up, and in danger, four in Mopjack bay are on the
stocks. Blows may be hourly possible. In this state of things I am sure
your own feelings will anticipate the public judgment, that your presence
here cannot be dispensed with. There is nobody here who can supply your
knowledge of the resources for land co-operation, and the means for
bringing them into activity. Still, I would wish you would stay long
enough at New York to settle with the V. P. and Colonel Williams, the plan
of defence for that place; and I am in hopes you will also see Fulton's
experiments tried, and see how far his means may enter into your plan. But
as soon as that is done, should matters remain in their present critical
state, I think the public interest and safety would suffer by your absence
from us. Indeed, if the present state of things continues, I begin to fear
we shall not be justifiable in separating this autumn, and that even an
earlier meeting of Congress than we had contemplated, may be requisite. I
salute you affectionately.
TO THE MASTERS AND OTHER OFFICERS SAILING TO AND FROM THE PORTS OF NORFOLK
AND PORTSMOUTH.
WASHINGTON, July 8, 1807.
The tender of your services for the erection and reparation of Fort
Norfolk and works on Craney Island, and for manning the gun-boats and
other vessels for the waters of Elizabeth and James rivers, are received
with great satisfaction. They are the more important, in proportion as
we have much to do in the least time possible. Knowing their peculiar
value for manning and managing the gun-boats and other vessels, it is in
that direction I am in hopes they will have been applied, and that the
necessary aid for erecting or repairing works on the land will have been
found in the zeal of other citizens, less qualified to be useful in the
employments on the water. I return, for your country, the thanks you so
justly deserve.
TO GOVERNOR CABELL.
WASHINGTON, July 8, 1807.
SIR,--You will have received from the Secretary at War a letter,
requesting that the quota of the State of Virginia of 100,000 militia
be immediately organized and put in readiness for service at the
shortest warning, but that they be not actually called out until further
requisition. The menacing attitudes which the British ships of war have
taken in Hampton Road, the actual blockade of Norfolk, and their having
sounded the entrance, as if with a view to pass up to the city, render it
necessary that we should be as well prepared there as circumstances will
permit. The Secretary at War being gone to New York to arrange a plan of
defence for that city, it devolves on me to request that, according to the
applications you may receive from the officers charged with the protection
of the place, and the information which you are more at hand to obtain
than we are here, you will order such portions of the militia as you shall
think necessary and most convenient to enter immediately on duty, for the
defence of the place and protection of the country, at the expense of the
United States. We have, moreover, four gun-boats hauled up at Hampton, and
four others on the stocks in Matthews county, under the care of Commodore
Samuel Barron, which we consider as in danger. I must request you also
to order such aids of militia, on the application of that officer, as you
shall think adequate to their safety. Any arms which it may be necessary
to furnish to the militia for the present objects, if not identically
restored to the State, shall be returned in kind or in value by the United
States. I have thought I could not more effectually provide for the safety
of the places menaced, than by committing it to your hands, as you are
nearer the scene of action, have the necessary powers over the militia,
can receive information, and give aid so much more promptly than can be
done from this place. I will ask communications from time to time of your
proceedings under this charge. I salute you with great esteem and respect.
TO CAPTAIN J. SAUNDERS, FORT NELSON.
WASHINGTON, July 8, 1807.
SIR,--The Secretary at War having proceeded to New York to make
arrangements for the defence of that place, your letter to him of July 4th
has been put into my hands. I see with satisfaction the promptitude with
which you have proceeded in mounting the guns of your fort, and I will
count on your continuing your utmost exertions for putting yourself in
the best condition of defence possible. With respect to the instructions
you ask for, you will consider the proclamation of July 2d as your general
instructions, but especially you are to contribute all the means in your
power towards the defence of the country, its citizens, and property,
against any aggressions which may be attempted by the British armed
vessels or any other armed force. I salute you with respect.
TO GENERAL MATTHEWS.
WASHINGTON, July 8, 1807.
SIR,--The Secretary at War having gone on to New York for the purpose of
having that place put into a state of defence, your letter of July 4th
to him has been put into my hands. I see with satisfaction that in an
emergency too sudden to have been provided for by orders from hence, you
have, under the guidance of your own judgment and patriotism, taken the
measures within your power towards supporting the rights of your country.
I will pray you to consider the proclamation of July 2d as laying down
the rule of action for all our citizens, in their several authorities and
stations; but that it is further desired of you to employ the means under
your command, for defence of the country, its citizens, and property,
against all aggressions attempted by the British armed vessels or other
force. The Governor of Virginia being in a situation to act with more
promptitude on any emergency which may arise, so far as respects the
militia of the State, I have authorized and requested him to order into
service such portions of the militia as he shall think necessary, on
application from any of the persons charged with the defence of Norfolk
or other places menaced. With him I recommend to you to communicate as
to the militia to be employed, approving most myself whatever shall be
most effectual for repelling aggression on our peace, and maintaining
the authority of the laws. Accept my salutations, and assurances of great
respect.
TO THE HONORABLE THOMAS COOPER.
WASHINGTON, July 9, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--Your favor of June 23d is received. I had not before learned
that a life of Dr. Priestley had been published, or I should certainly
have procured it; for no man living had a more affectionate respect
for him. In religion, in politics, in physics, no man has rendered more
service.
I had always expected that when the republicans should have put down
all things under their feet, they would schismatize among themselves. I
always expected, too, that whatever names the parties might bear, the real
division would be into moderate and ardent republicanism. In this division
there is no great evil,--not even if the minority obtain the ascendency
by the accession of federal votes to their candidate; because this gives
us one shade only, instead of another, of republicanism. It is to be
considered as apostasy only when they purchase the votes of federalists,
with a participation in honor and power. The gross insult lately received
from the English has forced the latter into a momentary coalition with the
mass of republicans; but the moment we begin to act in the very line they
have joined in approving, all will be wrong, and every act the reverse of
what it should have been. Still, it is better to admit their coalescence,
and leave to themselves their short-lived existence. Both reason and the
usage of nations required we should give Great Britain an opportunity
of disavowing and repairing the insult of their officers. It gives us at
the same time an opportunity of getting home our vessels, our property,
and our seamen,--the only means of carrying on the kind of war we should
attempt. The only difference, I believe, between your opinion and mine, as
to the protection of commerce, is the forcing the nation to take the best
road, and the letting them take the worse, if such is their will. I salute
you with great esteem and respect.
TO THE SECRETARY AT WAR.
WASHINGTON, July 9, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--Considering that gun-boats will enter very materially into the
system of defence for New York, I have thought that Commodore Rogers,
(who is proceeding to that place on other business,) from his peculiar
acquaintance with their operation and effect, might be useful as an
associate in your examinations of the place, and the determinations to
be formed. His opinions on that part of the subject will add weight
to whatever shall be concluded. I have therefore desired him to take
a part with yourself, the Vice-President, and Colonel Williams, in the
examinations and consultations.
I have just received a deputation from the Alexandrians, who are under
uneasiness for their own unprotected situation, and asking the loan of
a large number of muskets and cannon. I have convinced them that a very
small force at Digges' Point will defend them more effectually than a
very great one at their city, and that on your return we will have the
place examined, a battery established, and have small arms in readiness
to be given out to them in the moment they shall be wanted to support the
battery. Indeed I think a position to be taken there is indispensable
for the safety of the Navy Yard and its contents: say a battery and
block-house. Who can we get to examine the place, and give a proper
plan? This we must determine on your return. Nothing new from Norfolk.
Mr. Erskine has written pressingly to Commodore Douglass. Affectionate
salutations.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
July 10, 1807.
Something now occurs almost every day on which it is desirable to have the
opinions of the heads of departments, yet to have a formal meeting every
day would consume so much of their time as to seriously obstruct their
regular business. I have proposed to them, as most convenient for them,
and wasting less of their time, to call on me at any moment of the day
which suits their separate convenience, when, besides any other business
they may have to do, I can learn their opinions separately on any matter
which has occurred, also communicate the information received daily.
Perhaps you could find it more convenient, sometimes, to make your call
at the hour of dinner, instead of going so much further to dine alone.
You will always find a plate and a sincere welcome. In this way, that is,
successively, I have to-day consulted the other gentlemen on the question
whether letters of Marque were to be considered as written within our
interdict. We are unanimously of opinion they are not. We consider them
as essentially _merchant vessels_; that commerce is their main object, and
arms merely incidental and defensive. Affectionate salutations
TO MR. BOWDOIN.
WASHINGTON, July 10, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--I wrote you on the 10th of July, 1806, but supposing, from
your not acknowledging the receipt of the letter, that it had miscarried,
I sent a duplicate with my subsequent one of April the 2d. These having
gone by the Wasp, you will doubtless have received them. Since that, yours
of May the 1st has come to hand. You will see by the despatches from the
department of State, earned by the armed vessel the Revenge, into what
a critical state our peace with Great Britain is suddenly brought, by
their armed vessels in our waters. Four vessels of war (three of them two
deckers) closely blockade Norfolk at this instant. Of the authority under
which this aggression is committed, their minister here is unapprized.
You will see by the proclamation of July the 2d, that (while we are
not omitting such measures of force as are immediately necessary) we
propose to give Great Britain an opportunity of disavowal and reparation,
and to leave the question of war, non-intercourse, or other measures,
uncommitted, to the Legislature. This country has never been in such
a state of excitement since the battle of Lexington. In this state of
things, cordial friendship with France, and peace at least with Spain,
become more interesting. You know the circumstances respecting this last
power, which have rendered it ineligible that you should have proceeded
heretofore to your destination. But this obstacle is now removed by their
recall of Yrujo, and appointment of another minister, and in the meantime,
of a chargé des affaires, who has been received. The way now being open
for taking your station at Madrid, it is certainly our wish you should
do so, and that this may be more agreeable to you than your return home,
as is solicited in yours of May the 1st. It is with real unwillingness we
should relinquish the benefit of your services. Nevertheless, if your mind
is decidedly bent on that, we shall regret, but not oppose your return.
The choice, therefore, remains with yourself. In the meantime, your place
in the joint commission being vacated by either event, we shall take
the measures rendered necessary by that. We have seen, with real grief,
the misunderstanding which has taken place between yourself and General
Armstrong. We are neither qualified nor disposed to form an opinion
between you. We regret the pain which must have been felt by persons, both
of whom hold so high a place in our esteem, and we have not been without
fear that the public interest might suffer by it. It has seemed, however,
that the state of Europe has been such as to admit little to be done, in
matters so distant from them.
The present alarm has had the effect of suspending our foreign commerce.
No merchant ventures to send out a single vessel; and I think it probable
this will continue very much the case till we get an answer from England.
Our crops are uncommonly plentiful. That of small grain is now secured
south of this, and the harvest is advancing here.
Accept my salutations, and assurances of affectionate esteem and respect.
TO CAPTAIN BEATTY, FOR HIMSELF, THE OTHER OFFICERS AND PRIVATES OF THE
LIGHT INFANTRY COMPANY OF GEORGETOWN.
WASHINGTON, July 11, 1807.
SIR,--I have received your letter of yesterday, mentioning that you had,
on the 4th of July, made a tender of the services of the Light Infantry
Company of Georgetown. The circumstances of the day must apologize for its
having escaped my recollection. This tender of service in support of the
rights of our country merits and meets the highest praise; and whenever
the moment arrives in which these rights must appeal to the public arm for
support, the spirit from which your offer flows, that which animates our
nation, will be their sufficient safeguard.
To the Legislature will be rendered a faithful account of the events which
have so justly excited the sensibilities of our country, of the measures
taken to obtain reparation, and of their result; and to their wisdom will
belong the course to be ultimately pursued.
In the meantime it is our duty to pursue that prescribed by the existing
laws, towards which, should your services be requisite, this offer of them
will be remembered.
I tender for your country the thanks so justly due to yourself, the other
officers and privates of the company.
TO MR. BIDWELL.
WASHINGTON, July 11, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--Yours of June 27th has been duly received, and although
wishing your happiness always, I cannot be altogether unpleased with a
transfer of your services to a department more pleasing to yourself,
yet I cannot but lament your loss in Congress. You know that talents
cannot be more useful anywhere than there; and the times seem to portend
that we may have occasion there for all we possess. You have long ago
learnt the atrocious acts committed by the British armed vessels in the
Chesapeake and its neighborhood. They cannot be easily accommodated,
although it is believed that they cannot be justified by orders from their
government. We have acted on these principles; 1, to give that government
an opportunity to disavow and make reparation; 2, to give ourselves time
to get in the vessels, property and seamen, now spread over the ocean; 3,
to do no act which might compromit Congress in their choice between war,
non-intercourse, or any other measure. We shall probably call them some
time in October, having regard to the return of the healthy season, and to
the receipt of an answer from Great Britain, before which they could only
act in the dark. In the meantime we shall make all the preparations which
time will permit, so as to be ready for any alternative.
The officers of the British ships, in a conference with a gentleman
sent to them by the Mayor of Norfolk, have solemnly protested they
mean no further proceeding without further orders. But the question is
whether they will obey the proclamation? If they do not, acts of force
will probably ensue; still these may lead to nothing further, if their
government is just. I salute you with great affection.
TO THE SECRETARY AT WAR.
WASHINGTON, July 13, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--I wrote you on the 7th; since that we learn that the Bellone
and Leopard remaining in Hampton Road, the other two vessels have returned
to the Capes of Chesapeake, where they have been reinforced by another
frigate and a sloop of war, we know not from whence. This induces us to
suppose they do not mean an immediate attack on Norfolk, but to retain
their present position till further orders from their Admiral. I am
inclined to think that the body of militia now in the field in Virginia
would need to be regulated according to these views. They are in great
want of artillery, the State possessing none. Their subsistence also,
and other necessary expenses, require immediate attention from us, the
finances of the State not being at all in a condition to meet these cases.
We have some applications for the loan of field-pieces. The transportation
of heavy cannon to Norfolk and Hampton, is rendered difficult by the
blockade of those ports. These things are of necessity reserved for your
direction on your return, as nobody here is qualified to act in them.
It gives me sincere concern that events should thus have thwarted your
wishes. Should the Bellone and Leopard retire, and a disposition be shown
by the British commanders to restore things to a state of peace until they
hear from their government, we may go into summer quarters without injury
to the public safety, having previously made all necessary arrangements.
But if the present hostile conduct is pursued, I fear we shall be obliged
to keep together, or at least within consulting distance. I salute you
with sincere affection and respect.
TO M. DUPONT DE NEMOURS.
WASHINGTON, July 14, 1807.
MY DEAR SIR,--I received last night your letter of May 6th, and a vessel
being just now sailing from Baltimore, affords me an opportunity of
hastily acknowledging it. Your exhortation to make a provision of arms is
undoubtedly wise, and we have not been inattentive to it. Our internal
resources for cannon are great, and those for small arms considerable,
and in full employment. We shall not suffer from that want, should we
have war; and of the possibility of that you will judge by the enclosed
proclamation, and by what you know of the character of the English
government. Never since the battle of Lexington have I seen this country
in such a state of exasperation as at present, and even that did not
produce such unanimity. The federalists themselves coalesce with us as
to the object, though they will return to their trade of censuring every
measure taken to obtain it. "Reparation for the past, and security for
the future," is our motto; but whether they will yield it freely, or
will require resort to non-intercourse, or to war, is yet to be seen. We
prepare for the last. We have actually 2,000 men in the field, employed
chiefly in covering the exposed coast, and cutting off all supply to
the British vessels. We think our gun-boats at New York, (thirty-two,)
with heavy batteries along shore, and bombs, will put that city _hors de
insulte_. If you could procure, and send me a good description and drawing
of one of your Prames, you would do me a most acceptable service. I
suppose them to be in fact a floating battery, rendered very manageable by
oars.
Burr's conspiracy has been one of the most flagitious of which history
will ever furnish an example. He had combined the objects of separating
the western States from us, of adding Mexico to them, and of placing
himself at their head. But he who could expect to effect such objects
by the aid of American citizens, must be perfectly ripe for Bedlam. Yet
although there is not a man in the United States who is not satisfied of
the depth of his guilt, such are the jealous provisions of our laws in
favor of the accused, and against the accuser, that I question if he can
be convicted. Out of the forty-eight jurors who are to be summoned, he has
a right to choose the twelve who are to try him, and if any one of the
twelve refuses to concur in finding him guilty, he escapes. This affair
has been a great confirmation in my mind of the innate strength of the
form of our government. He had probably induced near a thousand men to
engage with him, by making them believe the government connived at it. A
proclamation alone, by undeceiving them, so completely disarmed him, that
he had not above thirty men left, ready to go all lengths with him. The
first enterprise was to have been the seizure of New Orleans, which he
supposed would powerfully bridle the country above, and place him at the
door of Mexico. It has given me infinite satisfaction that not a single
native Creole of Louisiana, and but one American, settled there before
the delivery of the country to us, were in his interest. His partisans
there were made up of fugitives from justice, or from their debts, who had
flocked there from other parts of the United States, after the delivery
of the country, and of adventurers and speculators of all descriptions.
I thank you for the volume of Memoirs you have sent me, and I will
immediately deliver that for the Phil. Society. I feel a great interest in
the publication of Turfot's works, but quite as much in your return here.
Your Eleutherian son is very valuable to us, and will daily become more
so. I hope there will be a reaction of good offices on him. We have heard
of a great improvement in France of the furnace for heating cannon-balls,
but we can get no description of it.
I salute you with sincere affection, and add assurances of the highest
respect.
TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE.
WASHINGTON, July 14, 1807.
MY DEAR FRIEND,--I received last night your letters of February the
20th and April 29th, and a vessel just sailing from Baltimore enables me
hastily to acknowledge them; to assure you of the welcome with which I
receive whatever comes from you, and the continuance of my affectionate
esteem for yourself and family. I learn with much concern, indeed, the
state of Madame de La Fayette's health. I hope I have the pleasure yet to
come of learning its entire re-establishment. She is too young not to give
great confidence to that hope.
Measuring happiness by the American scale, and sincerely wishing that
of yourself and family, we had been anxious to see them established this
side of the great water. But I am not certain that any equivalent can be
found for the loss of that species of society, to which our habits have
been formed from infancy. Certainly, had you been, as I wished, at the
head of the government of Orleans, Burr would never have given me one
moment's uneasiness. His conspiracy has been one of the most flagitious
of which history will ever furnish an example. He meant to separate the
western States from us, to add Mexico to them, place himself at their
head, establish what he would deem an energetic government, and thus
provide an example and an instrument for the subversion of our freedom.
The man who could expect to effect this, with American materials, must be
a fit subject for Bedlam. The seriousness of the crime, however, demands
more serious punishment. Yet, although there is not a man in the United
States who doubts his guilt, such are the jealous provisions of our laws
in favor of the accused against the accuser, that I question if he is
convicted. Out of forty-eight jurors to be summoned, he is to select the
twelve who are to try him, and if there be any one who will not concur
in finding him guilty, he is discharged of course. I am sorry to tell
you that Bollman was Burr's right hand man in all his guilty schemes. On
being brought to prison here, he communicated to Mr. Madison and myself
the whole of the plans, always, however, apologetically for Burr, as far
as they would bear. But his subsequent tergiversations have proved him
conspicuously base. I gave him a pardon, however, which covers him from
everything but infamy. I was the more astonished at his engaging in this
business, from the peculiar motives he should have felt for fidelity. When
I came into the government, I sought him out on account of the services
he had rendered you, cherished him, offered him two different appointments
of value, which, after keeping them long under consideration, he declined
for commercial views, and would have given him anything for which he
was fit. Be assured he is unworthy of ever occupying again the care of
any honest man. Nothing has ever so strongly proved the innate force of
our form of government, as this conspiracy. Burr had probably engaged
one thousand men to follow his fortunes, without letting them know his
projects, otherwise than by assuring them the government approved of them.
The moment a proclamation was issued, undeceiving them, he found himself
left with about thirty desperadoes only. The people rose in mass wherever
he was, or was suspected to be, and by their own energy the thing was
crushed in one instant, without its having been necessary to employ a man
of the military but to take care of their respective stations. His first
enterprise was to have been to seize New Orleans, which he supposed would
powerfully bridle the upper country, and place him at the door of Mexico.
It is with pleasure I inform you that not a single native Creole, and but
one American of those settled there before we received the place, took
any part with him. His partisans were the new emigrants from the United
States and elsewhere, fugitives from justice or debt, and adventurers and
speculators of all descriptions.
I enclose you a proclamation, which will show you the critical footing
on which we stand at present with England. Never, since the battle of
Lexington, have I seen this country in such a state of exasperation as at
present. And even that did not produce such unanimity. The federalists
themselves coalesce with us as to the object, although they will return
to their old trade of condemning every step we take towards obtaining
it. "Reparation for the past, and security for the future," is our
motto. Whether these will be yielded freely, or will require resort to
non-intercourse, or to war, is yet to be seen. We have actually near two
thousand men in the field, covering the exposed parts of the coast, and
cutting off supplies from the British vessels.
I am afraid I have been very unsuccessful in my endeavors to serve Madame
de Tessé in her taste for planting. A box of seeds, &c., which I sent
her in the close of 1805, was carried with the vessel into England, and
discharged so late that I fear she lost their benefit for that season.
Another box, which I prepared in the autumn of 1806, has, I fear, been
equally delayed from other accidents. However, I will persevere in my
endeavors.
Present me respectfully to her, M. de Tessé, Madam de La Fayette and your
family, and accept my affectionate salutations, and assurances of constant
esteem and respect.
TO GOVERNOR CABELL.
WASHINGTON, July 16, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--Your letter of the 10th has been received, and I note what
is said on the provision which ought to be made by us, for the militia
in the field. An arrangement by the Secretary at War to meet certain
other persons at New York, to concert a plan of defence for that city,
has occasioned necessarily his temporary absence from this place, and
there is no person sufficiently informed to take the necessary measures
until his return, which will be on Tuesday or Wednesday next. I hope
no great inconvenience may be experienced if it lies till then. It has
been suggested to me that if the British vessels should be disposed to
leave our waters, they might not be able to do it without some supplies,
especially of water; and it is asked whether supplies to carry them away
may be admitted? It has been answered that, on their giving assurance of
immediate departure from our waters, they may have the supplies necessary
to carry them to Halifax or the West Indies. I must pray you to instruct
Gen. Matthews to permit it, if he be applied to. But it is best that
nothing be said on this subject until an application is actually made by
them. Their retirement would prevent the necessity of a resort to force,
and give us time to get in our ships, our property, and our seamen, now
under the grasp of our adversary; probably not less than 20,000 of the
latter are now exposed on the ocean, whose loss would cripple us in the
outset more than the loss of several battles. However pleasing the ardor
of our countrymen, as a pledge of their support, if war is to ensue, as is
very possible, we, to whom they trust for conducting their affairs to the
best advantage, should take care that it be not precipitated, while every
day is restoring to us our best means for carrying it on. I salute you
with friendship and respect.
TO MADAME DE STAEL DE HOLSTEIN.
WASHINGTON, July 16, 1807.
I have received, madam, the letter which you have done me the favor to
write from Paris on the 24th of April, and M. le Ray de Chaumont informs
me that the book you were so kind as to confide to him, not having reached
Nantes when he sailed, will come by the first vessel from that port to
this country. I shall read with great pleasure whatever comes from your
pen, having known its powers when I was in a situation to judge, nearer at
hand, the talents which directed it.
Since then, madam, wonderful are the scenes which have passed! Whether
for the happiness of posterity, must be left to their judgment. Even of
their effect on those now living, we, at this distance, undertake not to
decide. Unmeddling with the affairs of other nations, we presume not to
prescribe or censure their course. Happy, could we be permitted to pursue
our own in peace, and to employ all our means in improving the condition
of our citizens. Whether this will be permitted, is more doubtful now than
at any preceding time. We have borne patiently a great deal of wrong, on
the consideration that if nations go to war for every degree of injury,
there would never be peace on earth. But when patience has begotten false
estimates of its motives, when wrongs are pressed because it is believed
they will be borne, resistance becomes morality.
The grandson of Mr. Neckar cannot fail of a hearty welcome in a country
which so much respected him. To myself, who loved the virtues and honored
the great talents of the grandfather, the attentions I received in his
natal house, and particular esteem for yourself, are additional titles
to whatever service I can render him. In our cities he will find distant
imitations of the cities of Europe. But if he wishes to know the nation,
its occupations, manners, and principles, they reside not in the cities;
he must travel through the country, accept the hospitalities of the
country gentlemen, and visit with them the school of the people. One year
after the present will complete for me the _quadragena stipendia_, and
will place me among those to whose hospitality I recommend the attentions
of your son. He will find a sincere welcome at Monticello, where I shall
then be in the bosom of my family, occupied with my books and my farms,
and enjoying, under the government of a successor, the freedom and
tranquillity I have endeavored to secure for others.
Accept the homage of my respectful salutations, and assurances of great
esteem and consideration.
TO GENERAL ARMSTRONG.
WASHINGTON, July 17, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--I take the liberty of enclosing to your care some letters to
friends who, whether they are in Paris or not I do not know. If they are
not, I will pray you to procure them a safe delivery.
You will receive, through the department of State, information of the
critical situation in which we are with England. An outrage not to be
borne has obliged us to fly to arms, and has produced such a state of
exasperation, and that so unanimous, as never has been seen in this
country since the battle of Lexington. We have between two and three
thousand men on the shores of the Chesapeake, patrolling them for the
protection of the country, and for preventing supplies of any kind being
furnished to the British; and the moment our gun-boats are ready we shall
endeavor by force to expel them from our waters. We now send a vessel
to call upon the British government for reparation for the past outrage,
and security for the future, nor will anything be deemed security but a
renunciation of the practice of taking persons out of our vessels, under
the pretence of their being English. Congress will be called some time in
October, by which time we may have an answer from England. In the meantime
we are preparing for a state of things which will take that course,
which either the pride or the justice of England shall give it. This will
occasion a modification of your instructions, as you will learn from the
Secretary of State. England will immediately seize on the Floridas as a
point d'appui to annoy us. What are we to do in that case? I think she
will find that there is no nation on the globe which can gall her so much
as we can. I salute you with great affection and respect.
TO THE SECRETARY AT WAR.
WASHINGTON, July 17, 1807.
MY DEAR SIR,--I have this moment received certain information that the
British vessels have retired from Hampton Road. Whether they will only
join their companions in the bay, and remain there or go off, is yet to
be seen. It gives me real pain to believe that circumstances still require
your presence here. I have had a consultation this day with our colleagues
on that subject, and we have all but one opinion on that point. Indeed,
if I regarded yourself alone, I should deem it necessary to satisfy
public opinion, that you should not be out of place at such a moment.
The arrangements for the militia, now much called for, can be properly
made only by yourself. Several other details are also at a stand. I shall
therefore hope to see you in a very few days. An important question will
be to be decided on the arrival of Decatur here, about this day se'nnight,
whether, as the retirement of the British ships from Hampton Road enables
us to get our sixteen gun-boats together, we shall authorize them to use
actual force against the British vessels. Present to Mrs. Dearborne, and
accept yourself, my affectionate and respectful salutations.
TO JOHN PAGE.
WASHINGTON, July 17, 1807.
MY DEAR FRIEND,--Yours of the 11th is received. In appointments to public
offices of mere profit, I have ever considered faithful service in either
our first or second revolution as giving preference of claim, and that
appointments on that principle would gratify the public, and strengthen
that confidence so necessary to enable the executive to direct the
whole public force to the best advantage of the nation. Of Mr. Bolling
Robertson's talents and integrity I have long been apprized, and would
gladly use them where talents and integrity are wanting. I had thought
of him for the vacant place of secretary of the Orleans territory, but
supposing the salary of two thousand dollars not more than he makes by
his profession, and while remaining with his friends, I have, in despair,
not proposed it to him. If he would accept it, I should name him instantly
with the greatest satisfaction. Perhaps you could inform me on this point.
With respect to Major Gibbons, I do indeed recollect, that in some casual
conversation, it was said, that the most conspicuous accomplices of Burr
were at home at his house; but it made so little impression on me, that
neither the occasion nor the person is now recollected. On this subject,
I have often expressed the principles on which I act, with a wish they
might be understood by the federalists in office. I have never removed
a man merely because he was a federalist: I have never wished them to
give a vote at an election, but according to their own wishes. But as
no government could discharge its duties to the best advantage of its
citizens, if its agents were in a regular course of thwarting instead of
executing all its measures, and were employing the patronage and influence
of their offices against the government and its measures, I have only
requested they would be quiet, and they should be safe; that if their
conscience urges them to take an active and zealous part in opposition,
it ought also to urge them to retire from a post which they could not
conscientiously conduct with fidelity to the trust reposed in them; and
on failure to retire, I have removed them; that is to say, those who
maintained an active and zealous opposition to the government. Nothing
which I have yet heard of Major Gibbons places him in danger from these
principles.
I am much pleased with the ardor displayed by our countrymen on the late
British outrage. It gives us the more confidence of support in the demand
of _reparation_ for the past, and _security_ for the future, that is to
say, an end of impressments. If motives of either justice or interest
should produce this from Great Britain, it will save a war; but if they
are refused, we shall have gained time for getting in our ships and
property, and at least twenty thousand seamen now afloat on the ocean,
and who may man two hundred and fifty privateers. The loss of these to us
would be worth to Great Britain many victories of the Nile and Trafalgar.
The meantime may also be importantly employed in preparations to enable us
to give quick and deep blows.
Present to Mrs. Page, and receive yourself my affectionate and respectful
salutations.
TO BENJAMIN MORGAN, ESQ.
WASHINGTON, July 18, 1807.
SIR,--We learn through the channel of the newspapers that Governor
Claiborne having engaged in a duel, has been dangerously wounded, and the
Secretary having resigned his office, the territory will in that event
be left without any executive head. It is not in my power immediately to
make provision for this unfortunate and extraordinary state to which the
territory may thus have been reduced, otherwise than by beseeching you to
undertake the office of Secretary for a short time, until I can fill up
the appointment. I well know that immersed in other business, as you are,
this will greatly embarrass you; but I will not desire you to do anything
more than absolute necessity shall require, and even from that you shall
be shortly relieved by the appointment of a successor. This request is
made in the event of Governor Claiborne's wound having proved mortal. If
he is alive, the commission need not be used. I shall be anxious to hear
from you. In the meantime accept my friendly and respectful salutations.
TO GOVERNOR CABELL.
WASHINGTON, July 19, 1807.
SIR,--Your letter of the 15th was received yesterday, and the opinion you
have given to General Matthews against allowing any intercourse between
the British Consul and the ships of his nation remaining in our waters,
in defiance of our authority, is entirely approved. Certainly while they
are conducting themselves as enemies _de facto_, intercourse should be
permitted only as between enemies, by flags under the permission of the
commanding officers, and with their passports. My letter of the 16th
mentioned a case in which a communication from the British officers should
be received if offered. A day or two ago, we permitted a parent to go on
board the Bellone with letters from the British minister, to demand a son
impressed; and others equally necessary will occur, but they should be
under the permission of some officer having command in the vicinity.
With respect to the disbanding some portion of the troops, although I
consider Norfolk as rendered safe by the batteries, the two frigates,
the eight gun-boats present, and nine others and a bomb-vessel which will
be there immediately, and consequently that a considerable proportion of
the militia may be spared, yet I will pray you to let that question lie a
few days, as in the course of this week we shall be better able to decide
it. I am anxious for their discharge the first moment it can be done with
safety, because I know the dangers to which their health will be exposed
in that quarter in the season now commencing. By a letter of the 14th
from Col. Tatham, stationed at the vicinities of Lynhaven Bay to give us
daily information of what passes, I learn that the British officers and
men often go ashore there, that on the day preceding, 100 had been at the
pleasure-house in quest of fresh provisions and water, that negroes had
begun to go off to them. As long as they remain there, we shall find it
necessary to keep patroles of militia in the neighborhood sufficiently
strong to prevent them from taking or receiving supplies. I presume it
would be thought best to assign the tour for the three months to come, to
those particular corps who being habituated to the climate of that part
of the country, will be least likely to suffer in their health; at the end
of which time others from other parts of the country may relieve them, if
still necessary. In the meantime our gun-boats may all be in readiness,
and some preparations may be made on the shore, which may render their
remaining with us not eligible to themselves. These things are suggested
merely for consideration for the present, as by the close of the week
I shall be able to advise you of the measures ultimately decided on. I
salute you with friendship and respect.
TO WILLIAM DUANE.
WASHINGTON, July 20, 1807.
SIR,--Although I cannot always acknowledge the receipt of communications,
yet I merit their continuance by making all the use of them of which
they are susceptible. Some of your suggestions had occurred, and others
will be considered. The time is coming when our friends must enable us
to hear everything, and expect us to say nothing; when we shall need all
their confidence that everything is doing which can be done, and when
our greatest praise shall be, that we _appear_ to be doing nothing. The
law for detaching one hundred thousand militia, and the appropriation
for it, and that for fortifications, enable us to do everything for
land service, as well as if Congress were here; and as to naval matters,
their opinion is known. The course we have pursued, has gained for our
merchants a precious interval to call in their property and our seamen,
and the postponing the summons of Congress will aid in avoiding to give
too quick an alarm to the adversary. They will be called, however, in good
time. Although we demand of England what is merely of right, reparation
for the past, security for the future, yet as their pride will possibly,
nay probably, prevent their yielding them to the extent we shall require,
my opinion is, that the public mind, which I believe is made up for war,
should maintain itself at that point. They have often enough, God knows,
given us cause of war before; but it has been on points which would not
have united the nation. But now they have touched a chord which vibrates
in every heart. Now then is the time to settle the old and the new.
I have often wished for an occasion of saying a word to you on the subject
of the Emperor of Russia, of whose character and value to us, I suspect
you are not apprized correctly. A more virtuous man, I believe, does
not exist, nor one who is more enthusiastically devoted to better the
condition of mankind. He will probably, one day, fall a victim to it,
as a monarch of that principle does not suit a Russian noblesse. He is
not of the very first order of understanding, but he is of a high one.
He has taken a peculiar affection to this country and its government,
of which he has given me public as well as personal proofs. Our nation
being, like his, habitually neutral, our interests as to neutral rights,
and our sentiments agree. And whenever conferences for peace shall take
place, we are assured of a friend in him. In fact, although in questions
of restitution he will be with England, in those of neutral rights he will
be with Bonaparte and with every other power in the world, except England;
and I do presume that England will never have peace until she subscribes
to a just code of marine law. I have gone into this subject, because I
am confident that Russia (while her present monarch lives) is the most
cordially friendly to us of any power on earth, will go furthest to serve
us, and is most worthy of conciliation. And although the source of this
information must be a matter of confidence with you, yet it is desirable
that the sentiments should become those of the nation. I salute you with
esteem and respect.
TO MR. GAINES.
WASHINGTON, July 23, 1807.
Thomas Jefferson has re-examined the complaints in the memorial from
Tombigbee, and Mr. Gaines' explanation. The complaints are:
1. That Mr. Gaines stopped a vessel having a legal permit.
2. That he arrested Col. Burr militarily.
3. That Mr. Small gave evidence against Col. Burr.
4. That he, Mr. Small, refused a passport to a Mr. Feu.
5. That he levies duties on Indian goods.
6. That the people of that settlement have not the free use of the Mobile.
2. That the arrest of Col. Burr was military has been disproved; but had
it been so, every honest man and good citizen is bound, by any means in
his power, to arrest the author of projects so daring and dangerous.
3. This complaint, as well as the preceding one, would imply a partiality
for Col. Burr, of which he hopes the petitioners were not guilty.
5. The levy of duty on Indian goods is required by the laws of Congress.
6. There has been a constant hope of obtaining the navigation by
negotiation, and no endeavors has been spared. Congress has not thought it
expedient as yet to plunge the nation into a war against Spain and France,
or to obtain an exemption from the duty levied on the use of that river.
1. On the subject of the first complaint, Mr. Gaines was giving a verbal
explanation, which Thomas Jefferson asks the favor of him to repeat.
4. On this subject, also, he asks any information Mr. Gaines can give;
for though it is a matter of discretion, it should be exercised without
partiality or passion. He salutes Mr. Gaines with esteem and respect.
TO GOVERNOR CABELL.
WASHINGTON, July 24, 1807.
SIR,--Yours of the 20th has been duly received. The relation in which
we stand with the British naval force within our waters is so new, that
differences of opinion are not to be wondered at respecting the captives,
who are the subject of your letter. Are they insurgents against the
authority of the laws? Are they public enemies, acting under the orders of
their sovereign? or will it be more correct to take their character from
the act of Congress for the preservation of peace in our harbors, which
authorizes a qualified war against persons of their demeanor, defining its
objects, and limiting its extent? Considering this act as constituting
the state of things between us and them, the captives may certainly be
held as prisoners of war. If we restore them it will be an act of favor,
and not of any right they can urge. Whether Great Britain will give us
that reparation for the past and security for the future, which we have
categorically demanded, cannot as yet be foreseen; but we have believed
we should afford an opportunity of doing it, as well from justice and the
usage of nations, as a respect to the opinion of an impartial world, whose
approbation and esteem are always of value. This measure was requisite,
also, to produce unanimity among ourselves; for however those nearest
the scenes of aggression and irritation may have been kindled into a
desire for war at short hand, the more distant parts of the Union have
generally rallied to the point of previous demand of satisfaction and
war, if denied. It was necessary, too, for our own interests afloat on
the ocean, and under the grasp of our adversary; and, added to all this,
Great Britain was ready armed and on our lines, while we were taken by
surprise, in all the confidence of a state of peace, and needing time to
get our means into activity. These considerations render it still useful
that we should avoid every act which may precipitate immediate and general
war, or in any way shorten the interval so necessary for our own purposes;
and they render it advisable that the captives, in the present instance,
should be permitted to return, with their boat, arms, &c., to their ships.
Whether we shall do this a second, a third, or a fourth time, must still
depend on circumstances. But it is by no means intended to retire from
the ground taken in the proclamation. That is to be strictly adhered to.
And we wish the military to understand that while, for special reasons,
we restore the captives in this first instance, we applaud the vigilance
and activity which, by taking them, have frustrated the object of their
enterprise, and urge a continuance of them, to intercept all intercourse
with the vessels, their officers and crews, and to prevent them from
taking or receiving supplies of any kind; and for this purpose, should the
use of force be necessary, they are unequivocally to understand that force
is to be employed without reserve or hesitation. I salute you with great
esteem and respect.
TO GOVERNOR CABELL.
WASHINGTON, July 27, 1807.
SIR,--The Secretary at War having returned from New York, we have
immediately taken up the question respecting the discharge of the militia,
which was the subject of your two last letters, and which I had wished
might remain undecided a few days. From what we have learnt of the conduct
of the British squadron in the Chesapeake, since they have retired from
Hampton Roads, we suppose that, until orders from England, they do not
contemplate any further acts of hostility, other than those they are
daily exercising, by remaining in our waters in defiance of the national
authority, and bringing to vessels within our jurisdiction. Were they even
disposed to make an attempt on Norfolk, it is believed to be sufficiently
secured by the two frigates Cybele and Chesapeake, by the twelve gun-boats
now there, and four more from Matthews county expected,--by the works
of Fort Nelson; to all of which we would wish a company of artillery, of
the militia of the place, to be retained and trained, putting into their
hands the guns used at Fort Norfolk and Cape Henry, to cut off from these
vessels all supplies, according to the injunctions of the proclamation,
and to give immediate notice to Norfolk should any symptoms of danger
appear,--to oppose which the militia of the borough and the neighboring
counties should be warned to be in constant readiness to march at a
moment's warning. Considering these provisions as quite sufficient for the
safety of Norfolk, we are of opinion that it will be better immediately
to discharge the body of militia now in service, both on that and the
other side of James river. This is rendered expedient, not only that we
may husband from the beginning those resources which will probably be
put to a long trial, but from a regard to the health of those in service,
which cannot fail to be greatly endangered during the sickly season now
commencing, and the discouragement, which would thence arise, to that
ardor of public spirit now prevailing. As to the details necessary on
winding up this service, the Secretary at War will write fully, as he
will, also, relative to the force retained in service, and whatever may
hereafter concern them or their operations, which he possesses so much
more familiarly than I do, and have been gone into by myself immediately,
only on account of his absence on another service.
The diseases of the season incident to most situations on the tide-waters,
now beginning to show themselves here, and to threaten some of our
members, together with the probability of a uniform course of things in
the Chesapeake, induce us to prepare for leaving this place during the
two sickly months, as well for the purposes of health as to bestow some
little attention to our private affairs, which is necessary at some time
of every year. Our respective stations will be fixed and known, so that
everything will find us at them, with the same certainty as if we were
here; and such measures of intercourse will be established as that the
public business will be carried on at them, with all the regularity and
dispatch necessary. The present arrangements of the post office admit an
interchange of letters between Richmond and Monticello twice a week, if
necessary, and I propose that a third shall be established during the two
ensuing months, of which you shall be informed. My present expectation
is to leave this place for Monticello, about the close of this or the
beginning of the next week. The Secretary at War will continue in this
neighborhood until we shall further see that the course of things in the
Chesapeake will admit of his taking some respite. I salute you with great
esteem and respect.
TO COLONEL TATHAM.
WASHINGTON, July 28, 1807.
SIR,--Your several letters from the 10th to the 23d, inclusive, have been
duly received, and have served to regulate our belief of the state of
things in Lynhaven, amidst the variety of uncertain reports which were
afloat. In mine of the 6th, I mentioned that it would be necessary for
me to ask the continuance of this service from you only until I could
ascertain the course the squadron of Commodore Douglass meant to pursue.
We are now tolerably satisfied as to that course. From everything we
have seen, we conclude that it is not their intention to go into a state
of general war, or to commit further hostilities than remaining in our
waters in defiance, and bring-to vessels within them, until they get
their orders from England. We have therefore determined to keep up only a
troop of cavalry for patrolling the coast opposite them, and preventing
their getting supplies, and the naval and artillery force, now in
Norfolk, for its defence. In this state of things, and in consideration
of the unhealthy season now approaching at this as other places on the
tide-waters, and which we have always retired from about this time, the
members of the administration, as well as myself, shall leave this place
in three or four days, not to return till the sickly term is over, unless
something extraordinary should re-assemble us. It is therefore unnecessary
for me to ask any longer the continuance of your labors. You will be so
good as to make the proper disposition of whatever articles you may have
found it necessary to procure on public account, to make up the accounts
for your services according to the principles stated in my letter of the
6th, and to send them either to myself for the Navy department, or to
the head of that department directly. They would find me at Monticello.
With my thanks for the diligence with which you have executed this trust,
accept my salutations and assurances of esteem and respect.
TO GENERAL SMITH.
WASHINGTON, July 30, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--I kept up your letter of the 23d till the return of General
Dearborne enabled us to give to the question of lending arms, a serious
consideration. We find that both law and expediency draw a line for
our guide. In general, our magazines are open for troops, militia, or
others, when they take the field for actual service. Besides this, a law
has expressly permitted loans for training volunteers who have engaged
themselves for immediate service. The inference is, that we are not to
lend to any others. And indeed, were we to lend for training the militia,
our whole stock would not suffice, and not an arm would be left for real
service. You are sensible, I am sure, that however desirous we might be of
gratifying the particular request you have made, yet as what we do for one
we must do for another, we could not afterwords stop.
Of the measures suggested in your preceding letter, one only did not
exactly meet our ideas. We thought it better not to convene Congress
till the 26th of October. Within a fortnight after that we may expect our
vessel with the answer of England. Until that arrives there would be no
ground sufficiently certain for Congress to act on. In the meanwhile we
are making every preparation which could be made were they in session.
The detachment act and its appropriation authorizes this. Congress
could not declare war without a demand of satisfaction, nor should they
lay an embargo while we have so much under the grasp of our adversary.
They might, indeed, authorize the building more gun-boats; but having
so lately negatived that proposition, it would not be respectful in me
even to suggest it again, much less to make it the ground of convening
them. If they should change their minds, and authorize the building more,
(and indeed I think two hundred more, at least, are necessary, in aid of
other works, to secure our harbors,) the winter will suffice for building
them, and the winter will also enable us to do much towards batteries and
fortifications, if the appropriation be made early. We find that we cannot
man our gun-boats now at Norfolk. I think it will be necessary to erect
our sea-faring men into a naval militia, and subject them to tours of duty
in whatever port they may be.
We have been for some time under dread from the bilious season,
now commencing. Mr. Madison and Mr. Gallatin have had symptoms of
indisposition. We have nearly everything so arranged as that we can carry
on the public affairs at our separate stations. I shall therefore leave
this on the 1st of August, for that and the ensuing month. We shall avoid,
as far as we honorably can, every act which would precipitate general
hostilities, and shorten the interval so necessary for our merchants
to get in their property and our seamen. Accept my salutations, and
assurances of great esteem and respect.
TO THE MASTERS OF VESSELS IN THE PORT OF CHARLESTON, S. C.
WASHINGTON, July 30, 1807.
The offer of your professional services in any way most useful to your
country, merits and meets the highest praise. Should the outrages lately
committed by the agents of a foreign power, in the Chesapeake and its
neighborhood, extend themselves to your port, your services will be
valuable towards its security; and if a general appeal is to be made to
the public arm for the support of our rights, the spirit from which your
offer flows, that which animates our nation, will, I trust, be their
sufficient safeguard.
I tender for your country the thanks you so justly deserve.
TO GOVERNOR CABELL.
WASHINGTON, July 31, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--I shall to-morrow set out for Monticello. Considering the
critical state of things, it has been thought better, during my stay
there, to establish a _daily_ conveyance of a mail from Fredericksburg to
Monticello. This enables me to hear both from the north and south every
day. Should you have occasion then to communicate with me, your letters
can come to me daily by being put into the Fredericksburg mail, every day
except that on which the mail stage leaves Richmond for Milton, by which
letters of that day will come to me directly.
The course which things are likely to hold for some time has induced me to
discontinue the establishment at Lynhaven for obtaining daily information
of the movements of the squadron in that neighborhood. But still as it
is expected that a troop of cavalry will patrole that coast constantly,
I think it would be advisable if your Excellency would be so good as to
instruct the commanding officer of the troop to inform you daily of the
occurrences of the day, sending off his letter in time to get to Norfolk
before the post hour. This letter, after perusal for your own information,
I would ask the favor of you to forward by the post of the day, under
cover to me. I think a post comes one day from Norfolk by the way of
Petersburg, and the next by the way of Hampton. If so, the letters may
come every day. I salute you with great and sincere esteem and respect.
TO COLONEL JOHN TAYLOR.
WASHINGTON, August 1, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--I received two days ago your letter recommendatory of Mr.
Woodford. I knew his father well, and can readily believe that his merits
are descended on the son, and especially after what you say of him. If we
could always have as good grounds to go upon, it would greatly relieve the
terrible business of nominations. But lest you should not have attended to
it, I have taken up my pen in the moment of setting out for Monticello,
to remind you that whether we receive the militia or volunteers from the
States, the appointment of officers will be with them. There therefore
should be Mr. Woodford's application. Should we have war with England,
regular troops will be necessary; and though in the first moments of the
outrage on the Chesapeake I did not suppose it was by authority from their
government, I now more and more suspect it, and of course, that they will
not give the reparation for the past and security for the future, which
alone may prevent war. The new depredations committing on us, with this
attack on the Chesapeake, and their calling on Portugal to declare on
the one side or the other, if true, prove they have coolly calculated it
will be to their benefit to have everything on the ocean fair prize, and
to support their navy by plundering all mankind. This is the doctrine of
"war in disguise," and I expect they are going to adopt it. It is really
mortifying that we should be forced to wish success to Bonaparte, and
to look to his victories as our salvation. We expect the return of the
Revenge the second week in November, with their answer, or no answer,
which will enable Congress to take their course. In the meantime, we will
have everything as ready as possible for any course they may prefer. I
salute you with friendship and respect.
TO GENERAL DEARBORNE.
MONTICELLO, August 7, 1807.
I dare say that Purcell's map must be of value, and it would be well if
his representatives would publish it, but whether worth your purchase, and
at what price, General Wilkinson might perhaps satisfy you. I shall write
to Marentille that if you think it worth while to give him fifty thousand
dollars for his project, you will inform him. In the contrary case, it
may be put away in your pigeon hole of projects. Governor Cabell, after
informing me of the orders for the discharge of the militia, except a
company of artillery, and one of cavalry, as we directed, adds: "I have,
however, in pursuance of the advice of council, done what your letter
did not expressly authorize. But when I state to you the reasons which
influenced the measure, I hope you will approve it. You relied entirely on
the troop of horse for cutting off the supplies. But we have received the
most satisfactory information of the insufficiency of cavalry to perform
that service, in consequence of the particular nature of the country in
which they have to act. It is covered with sandbanks and hills, which,
in many places (where supplies are most easily procured), render cavalry
incapable of action. So severe has this service been, that it has already
almost knocked up as fine a battalion of cavalry as any in the United
States, perhaps as any in the world. Influenced by these considerations,
which we believe had not presented themselves to your mind, because you
had not received the necessary information as to facts, the executive have
called into service a company of infantry from the county of Princess
Anne, to co-operate with the cavalry in cutting off the supplies. Since
giving these orders, I understand that General Mathews has anticipated
us by calling into actual service the very force we contemplated." Our
object was certainly to prevent supplies, and if the means we thought of
are not adequate, we should, had we known all circumstances, have provided
what would have been effectual; for I think the point of honor requires
we should enforce the proclamation in those points in which we have
force sufficient. I shall await your opinion, however, before I answer
the Governor's letter. Information as late as August 3d, shows that the
squadron was quiet in and near the Bay, and General Thomas Hardy, to whom
Tazewell delivered the five men, declared to him that his objection to
intercourse by flag, was that the two nations were not in a state of war,
which alone required it. He said he expected Barclay, or General Robert
Lowrie, in a week to take the command. I salute you with sincere affection
and respect.
TO HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR CABELL.
MONTICELLO, August 7, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--Your letters of July 31st and August 5th were received
yesterday. The ground taken in conformity with the Act of Congress, of
considering as public enemies British armed vessels in or entering our
waters, gives us the benefit of a system of rules, sanctioned by the
practice of nations in a state of war, and consequently enabling us
with certainty and satisfaction to solve the different cases which may
occur in the present state of things. With these rules most officers are
acquainted, and especially those old enough to have borne a part in the
revolutionary war.
1. As to the enemy within our waters, intercourse, according to the
usages of war, can only be by flag; and the ceremonies respecting that are
usually a matter of arrangement between the adverse officers commanding in
the neighborhood of each other. If no arrangement is agreed on, still the
right of sending a flag is inherent in each party, whose discretion will
direct him to address it to the proper adverse authority; as otherwise
it would be subject to delay or rejection. Letters addressed by flag
to persons in authority with the adverse power, may be sent sealed, and
should be delivered. But, if to others, or to their own friends happening
to be within the limits of the adversary, they must be open. If innocent
in the judgment of the receiving officer, courtesy requires their
delivery; if otherwise, they may be destroyed or returned by him; but in
a case of only suspended amity, as ours, they should be returned. Letters
sent from the interdicted vessels to their consul in Norfolk must be open;
and the propriety of delivering them judged of by our officer, tempering
his judgment however with liberality and urbanity. Those to their minister
plenipotentiary here, sealed or unsealed, should be sent to the Secretary
of State without any delay. As to the demand of fugitive slaves, it was
the custom during the late war, for the owner to apply to our commander
for a flag, and to go himself with that, to exhibit his claim and receive
the fugitive. And with respect to Americans detained on board their ships,
the application should be still, as heretofore, made through the Secretary
of State, to whose proper documents are to be furnished. But without
waiting for his application, the British officer, knowing them to be
Americans and freemen, cannot but feel it a duty to restore them to their
liberty on their own demand.
2. As to the residue of the British nation, with whom we are as yet in
peace, their persons and vessels, unarmed, are free to come into our
country without question or molestation. And even armed vessels, in
distress, or charged, under due authority, with despatches addressed to
the government of the United States, or its authorized agents, are, by
a proviso in the proclamation, to be received. This exception was meant
to cover the British packets coming to New York, which are generally
armed, as well as to keep open, through other channels, the communication
between the governments. Such a vessel as the Columbine needs no flag,
because she is not included in the interdict. Her repairs and supplies
are to be regulated by the collector of the port, who may permit them
liberally (if no abuse be justly suspected) so far as wanted to carry her
back to the port from whence she came. The articles of intercourse, stay
and departure, are to be specially superintended by such person as the
government shall authorize and instruct.
I have thus far, in compliance with your request, stated the practice
of nations so generally as to meet the cases which may arise in the
neighborhood of Norfolk. In doing this, I may, in some cases, have
mistaken the practice. Where I have done so, I mean that my opinion shall
be subject to correction from that practice. On determining that the
militia should be disbanded, except so small a portion as would require
only a major to command, we concluded that so long as Captain Decatur
should remain in his present station, he should be the officer to receive,
authorize and regulate intercourse by flag, with the British squadron in
the Chesapeake. He has accordingly, I expect, received instructions to
that effect, from the Secretary of the Navy, and I shall communicate to
him a copy of this letter to assist him in that duty.
The Secretary at War, I presume, has written to you on the appointment of
a Major to command the militia retained. In your selection of the officer,
I have no doubt you will be sensible of the importance of naming one of
intelligence and activity, as on him we are to rely for daily information
from that interesting quarter.
I salute you with friendship and respect.
TO HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR LEWIS.
MONTICELLO, August 8, 1807.
SIR,--I have just now received from the Secretary at War, a letter to
him from the Secretary of the territory of Louisiana, requesting him
to tender to the President of the United States the services of the
members of the Military School of the Mine à Burton, as a volunteer
corps, under the late act of Congress authorizing the acceptance of
the services of volunteer corps. As you are now proceeding to take upon
you the government of that territory, I pray you to be the bearer of my
thanks to them for this offer, and to add the pleasure it gives me to
receive further their assurances that they will cordially co-operate in
the restoration of that harmony in the territory, so essential to its
happiness, and so much desired by me. They, as well as all the other
inhabitants of the territory, may rest satisfied that all the authorities
of the general government entertain towards them the most liberal and
paternal dispositions, and wish nothing more ardently than to do for their
happiness whatever these dispositions may dictate. Want of information, or
misinformation, may defeat their first efforts towards this object, but as
they advance in obtaining more correct knowledge of their situation, they
will be able to establish for them in the end such regulations as will
secure their religious, political and civil rights.
As the direction of the militia will be in your hands, I must request you
to exercise for me the powers given by the act above mentioned, respecting
volunteers, and to arrange them to the best advantage for the prompt
and effectual defence of the territory. I salute you with friendship and
respect.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
MONTICELLO, August 9, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--Yours of yesterday was received in the course of the day. Our
post-rider has not yet got to be punctual, arriving here from two to four
hours later than he should do, that is to say from 3 to 5 o'clock instead
of 1. I mean to propose to him that being rigorously punctual in his
arrival, I will always discharge him the moment he arrives, instead of
keeping him till 7 o'clock as the postmaster proposes, taking for myself
the forenoon of the succeeding day to answer every mail. I do not exactly
recollect who of the heads of departments were present, (but I think every
one except Mr. Gallatin,) when, conversing on the bungling conduct of our
officers with respect to Erskine's letters, and the more bungling conduct
to be expected when the command should devolve on a militia major, Mr.
Smith proposed that the whole regulation of flags should be confided to
Decatur, which appeared to obtain the immediate assent of all. However,
the remedy is easy, and perhaps more proper on the whole. That is, to
let the commanding officer by land, as well as the one by water, have
equal authority to send and receive flags. I will write accordingly to
Governor Cabell. This is the safer, as I believe T. Newton (of Congress)
is the Major. General Dearborne has sent me a plan of a war establishment
for fifteen thousand regulars for garrisons, and instead of fifteen
thousand others, as a disposable force, to substitute thirty-two thousand
twelve-month volunteers, to be exercised and paid three months in the
year, and consequently the costing no more than eight thousand permanent,
giving us the benefit of thirty-two thousand for any expedition, who would
be themselves nearly equal to regulars, but could on occasion be put into
the garrisons and the regulars employed in the expedition _primâ facie_. I
like it well. I salute you affectionately.
P. S. The record of the blank commission for Marshal of North Carolina,
sent to Governor Alexander, must be filled up with the name of John S.
West, the former Marshal, who has agreed to continue.
TO THE SECRETARY AT WAR.
MONTICELLO, August 9, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--I received yesterday yours of the 7th, with the proposition
for substituting thirty-two thousand twelve-month volunteers instead of
fifteen thousand regulars as a disposable force, and I like the idea much.
It will of course be a subject of consideration when we all meet again,
but I repeat that I like it greatly.
On some occasion, a little before I left Washington, when we were together
(all, I think, except Mr. Gallatin, but I am not quite so sure as to
yourself as the others), conversing on the bungling business which had
been made by the officers commanding at Norfolk, with Erskine's letters,
and the more bungling conduct to be expected when the command should
devolve on a militia major, Mr. Smith proposed that the whole business of
flags should be committed to Decatur. This appeared to obtain at once the
general approbation. Thinking it so settled, on lately receiving a letter
from Governor Cabell, asking full and explicit instructions as to the mode
of intercourse, I endeavored to lay down the general rules of intercourse
by flag, as well digested as I could to meet all cases, but concluded
by informing him that that whole business was committed to Decatur. Mr.
Madison now informs me that either not recollecting or not understanding
this to have been the arrangement, instructions have been given to the
officer commanding by land, relative to intercourse, which may produce
collision. The remedy I think is easy, and will on the whole place the
matter on more proper ground. That is, to give to the commanding officers
by land as well as sea, equal authority to send and receive flags. This
is the safer, as I see by the papers that Mr. Newton (of Congress) is the
Major. I shall accordingly write to Governor Cabell to-day to correct the
error, and to inform him that the two commanders stand on an equal footing
in the direction of flags.
I wrote you yesterday as to the additional company of infantry employed,
and shall await your opinion before I say anything on it to the Governor.
I salute you affectionately.
TO HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR CABELL.
MONTICELLO, August 9, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--In my letter of the 7th I informed you that on consultation
at Washington, it had been concluded best to commit the whole business
of flags to Captain Decatur. I now find that I had not recollected our
conclusion correctly, and that it had been understood that the commanding
officers by land and water, should have equal authority to license the
sending and receiving flags; which is not only proper, but the more
satisfactory, as I learn by the papers that Mr. Newton, of Congress, is
the commanding Major. Will you be so good as to have him furnished with a
copy of my letter, (with a correction of the error,) that he and Captain
Decatur may govern themselves by the same rules. I salute you with great
esteem and respect.
TO MR. THORNWICK CHASE.
MONTICELLO, August 9, 1807.
SIR,--On receiving tenders of service from various military corps,
I have usually addressed the answer to the officer commanding them.
Observing in the address of the Master Mariners of Baltimore of July
16th, that being probably unorganized, no commanding officer was named,
I considered the first person on the list of subscribers as a kind of
foreman, and therefore addressed my answer to him. I now, with pleasure,
correct, on reflection, that error, by enclosing a duplicate of the
answer to yourself, as the chairman whom they had chosen as the channel
of communication, having nothing more at heart than to prove my respect
for yourself and the Master Mariners of Baltimore. Accept for yourself and
them the assurances of my high consideration.
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY.
MONTICELLO, August 9, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--Soon after my arrival here I received a letter from Governor
Cabell, requesting me to give such instructions for regulating the
intercourse with the British squadron as might enable the officers to act
correctly. I accordingly undertook to digest the rules of practice, as
to flags, as well as I could, and so as to meet all cases, in a letter to
the Governor, a copy of which I now enclose you. Soon after sending it, I
learnt from Mr. Madison that the arrangement at Washington had not been
known or understood to exclude the officer commanding on shore from the
right of communicating by flag, and that some particular orders from the
War office, respecting Mr. Erskine's letter, might produce a collision. I
have therefore written to Governor Cabell, making the correction stated
at the foot of the enclosed letter, which is the safer. As Mr. Newton
(of Congress) is the Major Commandant ashore, you will see by the letter
that I meant to send a copy of it to Captain Decatur, but have thought it
more proper to send it you, with a request to forward it, or a copy, to
him. Mr. Newton receiving also a copy, they will be enabled to act by one
uniform rule. I salute you with affection and respect.
TO THE SECRETARY AT WAR.
MONTICELLO, August 11, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--In mine of the day before yesterday, I informed you that to
comply with a request of Governor Cabell, I had undertaken to lay down
rules of intercourse with the British vessels, at first intended for
Captain Decatur only, but afterwards extended with equal power to the
officer commanding by land, so that each should have equal power to send
and receive flags. I now send you a copy of that letter. Since that I have
received from the Governor a letter, pointing out difficulties occurring
in the execution of the Volunteer act, from the restriction of issuing
commissions until the companies be actually raised, the brigades, &c.,
organized. Another difficulty, not mentioned in the letter, embarrassed
him, with respect to accepting more than the quota of each district. I
learnt, through a direct channel, that he was so seriously impressed with
these legal obstacles, that no commissions were likely to be issued, and
then, certainly, that few volunteers would be raised. In answering his
letter, therefore, I have dwelt more on these points than might otherwise
have seemed necessary. I enclose the letter for your consideration, that
if you find no error in it material enough to require a return of it for
correction, you will be so good as to seal and forward it to him without
delay. But if you think anything material in it should be corrected before
it is sent, I will pray you to suggest the alteration, and return me the
letter. I salute you affectionately.
P. S. Be pleased to return the Governor's letter to me.
TO HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR CABELL.
MONTICELLO, August 11, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--Your favor of the 7th is received. It asks my opinion on
several points of law arising out of the act of Congress for accepting
thirty thousand volunteers. Although your own opinion, and those of some
of your counsellors, more recent in the habit of legal investigation,
would be a safer guide for you than mine, unassisted by my ordinary and
able associates, yet I shall frankly venture my individual thoughts on the
subject, and participate with you in any risks of disapprobation to which
an honest desire of furthering the public good may expose us.
In the construction of a law, even in judiciary cases of _meum et tuum_,
where the opposite parties have a right and counter-right in the very
words of the law, the Judge considers the intention of the law-giver as
his true guide, and gives to all the parts and expressions of the law,
that meaning which will effect, instead of defeating, its intention.
But in laws merely executive, where no private right stands in the way,
and the public object is the interest of all, a much freer scope of
construction, in favor of the intention of the law, ought to be taken, and
ingenuity ever should be exercised in devising constructions, which may
save to the public the benefit of the law. Its intention is the important
thing: the means of attaining it quite subordinate. It often happens
that, the Legislature prescribing details of execution, some circumstance
arises, unforeseen or unattended to by them, which would totally frustrate
their intention, were their details scrupulously adhered to, and deemed
exclusive of all others. But constructions must not be favored which go
to defeat instead of furthering the principal object of their law, and
to sacrifice the end to the means. It being as evidently their intention
that the end shall be attained as that it should be effected by any given
means, if both cannot be observed, we are equally free to deviate from the
one as the other, and more rational in postponing the means to the end.
In the present case, the object of the act of Congress was to relieve the
militia at large from the necessity of leaving their farms and families,
to encounter a service very repugnant to their habits, and to permit
that service to be assumed by others ardently desiring it. Both parties,
therefore, (and they comprehend the whole nation,) would willingly waive
any verbal difficulties, or circumstances of detail, which might thwart
their mutual desires, and would approve all those views of the subject
which facilitate the attainment of their wishes.
It is further to be considered that the Constitution gives the executive
a general power to carry the laws into execution. If the present law
had enacted that the service of thirty thousand volunteers should be
accepted, without saying anything of the means, those means would, by
the Constitution, have resulted to the discretion of the executive.
So if means specified by an act are impracticable, the constitutional
power remains, and supplies them. Often the means provided specially
are affirmative merely, and, with the constitutional powers, stand well
together; so that either may be used, or the one supplementary to the
other. This aptitude of means to the end of a law is essentially necessary
for those which are executive; otherwise the objection that our government
is an impracticable one, would really be verified.
With this general view of our duty as executive officers, I proceed to the
questions proposed by you.
1st. Does not the act of Congress contemplate the association of companies
to be formed before commissions can be issued to the Captains, &c.?
2d. Can battalion or field-officers be appointed by either the State or
Congressional laws, but to battalions or regiments actually existing?
3d. The organization of the companies into battalions and regiments
belonging to the President, can the Governor of the State issue
commissions to these officers before that organization is made and
announced to him?
4th. Ought not the volunteers tendering their services, under the act
of February 24th, 1807, to be accepted by the President before the
commissions can issue?
Had we no other executive powers but those given in this act, the first,
second, and third questions would present considerable difficulties,
inasmuch as the act of Congress does appear, as you understand it, to
contemplate that the companies are to be associated, and the battalions,
squadrons, regiments, brigades, and divisions organized, before
commissions are to issue. And were we to stop here the law might stop
also; because I verily believe that it will be the zeal and activity
alone of those destined for commands, which will give form and body to
the floating ardor of our countrymen to enter into this service, and bring
their wills to a point of union and effect. We know from experience that
individuals having the same desires are rarely brought into an association
of them, unless urged by some one assuming an agency, and that in military
associations the person of the officer is a material inducement. Whether
our constitutional powers to carry the laws into execution, would not
authorize the issuing a previous commission (as they would, had nothing
been said about commissions in the law), is a question not necessary
now to be decided; because they certainly allow us to do what will be
equally effectual. We may issue instructions or warrants to the persons
destined to be captains, &c., authorizing them to superintend the
association of the companies, and to perform the functions of a captain
&c., until commissions may be regularly issued, when such a commission
will be given to the bearer, or a warrant authorizing the bearer to
superintend the organization of the companies associated in a particular
district, into battalions, squadrons, &c., and otherwise to perform the
functions of a colonel &c., until a commission may regularly issue, when
such a commission will be given to the bearer. This is certainly within
the constitutional powers of the executive, and with such a warrant, I
believe, the person bearing it would act with the same effect as if he had
the commission.
As to the fourth question, the execution of this law having been
transferred to the State executives, I did consider all the powers
necessary for its execution as delegated from the President to them.
Of this I have been so much persuaded that, to companies offering their
services under this law, I have answered that the power of acceptance was
in the Governor, and have desired them to renew their offer to him. If
the delegation of this power should be expressly made, it is hereby fully
delegated.
To the preceding I will add one other observation. As we might still
be disappointed in obtaining the whole number of 11,563, were they
apportioned among the several districts, and each restrained to its
precise apportionment (which some might fail to raise), I think it would
better secure the complete object of the law to accept all proper offers,
that the excess of some districts may supply the deficiencies of others.
When the acceptances are all brought together, the surplus, if any, will
be known, and, if not wanted by the United States, may be rejected; and
in doing this, such principles of selection may be adopted as, without
any imputation of partiality, may secure to us the best offers. For
example, first, we may give a preference to all those who will agree to
become regulars, if desired. This is so obviously for the public advantage
that no one could object to it. Second, we may give a preference to
twelve-month volunteers over those for six months; and other circumstances
of selection will of course arise from the face of the offers, such as
distribution, geographical position, proportion of cavalry, riflemen, &c.
I have thus, without reserve, expressed my ideas on the several doubts
stated in your letters, and I submit them to your consideration. They
will need it the more, as the season and other circumstances occasioning
the members of the administration to be in a state of separation at this
moment, they go without the stamp of their aid and approbation. It is our
consolation and encouragement that we are serving a just public, who will
be indulgent to any error committed honestly, and relating merely to the
means of carrying into effect what they have manifestly willed to be a
law.
I salute you with great esteem and respect.
TO THE SECRETARY AT WAR.
MONTICELLO, August 12, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--I return you all the papers received in yours of the 9th,
except Morrison's letter on the subject of Alston, which, although
expressed to be confidential, I send to Mr. Hay under that injunction,
merely for his information, should there be other bearings on the same
point. In my conscience, I have no doubt as to his participation. To
your papers I add some others, particularly respecting the defence of
St. Mary's and Beaufort, that you may take them into consideration as a
part of the general subject of defence. I sincerely wish this business
of levying duty on Creek goods could be stopped. We have no right to make
them contribute to the support of our government. The conduct of Captain
Isaac is nettling. But what can we do while we are in the wrong? I wonder
we hear nothing from Hawkins on the subject. I wish Governor Harrison
may be able to have the murder of the Kaskaskian by the Kickapoo settled
in the Indian way. I think it would not be amiss for him to bring over
Decoigne secretly by a douceur, by which he is easily influenced. I think,
too, that if the apprehension of the murderer, Rea, could be effected by
our making up Harrison's reward of three hundred dollars to one thousand,
it would be well laid out. Both the Indians and our own people want some
example of punishment for the murder of an Indian. With respect to the
prophet, if those who are in danger from him would settle it in their
own way, it would be their affair. But we should do nothing towards it.
That kind of policy is not in the character of our government, and still
less of the paternal spirit we wish to show towards that people. But
could not Harrison gain over the prophet, who no doubt is a scoundrel,
and only needs his price? The best conduct we can pursue to countervail
these movements among the Indians, is to confirm our friends by redoubled
acts of justice and favor, and to endeavor to draw over the individuals
indisposed towards us. The operations we contemplate, should there be
occasion for them, would have an imposing effect on their minds, and, if
successful, will indeed put them entirely in our power; if no occasion
arises for carrying these operations into effect, then we shall have
time enough to get the Indian mind to rights. I think it an unlucky time
for Governor Hull to press the purchase of their lands, and hope he will
not press it. That is the only point on which the Indians feel very sore
towards us. If we have war, those lands cannot now be settled; if peace,
any future movement will be more favorable.
I really believe that matters in the Chesapeake will remain quiet until
further orders from England, and that so soon as you have set all works
of preparation into motion, your visit to your family and affairs may be
safely made. Be so good as to inform me how I am to address letters which
I wish to go to yourself personally during your absence.
Wishing you a happy meeting with your friends, I salute you with affection
and respect.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
MONTICELLO, August 16, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--I received yesterday your two letters without date, on the
subjects now to be answered. I do not see any objection to the appointment
of Mr. Cocke, as agent at Martinique. That of a consul at Mogadore is
on more difficult ground. A consul in Barbary is a diplomatic character;
although the title does not imply that. He receives a salary fixed by the
Legislature; being independent of Simpson, we should have two ministers to
the same sovereign. I should therefore think it better to leave the port
of Mogadore to an agent of Simpson's appointment, and under his control.
If anything Thrasonic and foolish from Spain could add to my contempt
of that government, it would be the demand of satisfaction now made by
Foronda. However, respect to ourselves requires that the answer should be
decent, and I think it fortunate that this opportunity is given to make a
strong declaration of facts, to wit, how far our knowledge of Miranda's
objects went, what measures we took to prevent anything further, the
negligence of the Spanish agents to give us earlier notice, the measures
we took for punishing those guilty, and our quiet abandonment of those
taken by the Spaniards. But I would not say a word in recrimination as
to the western intrigues of Spain. I think that is the snare intended
by this protest, to make it a set-off for the other. As soon as we have
all the proofs of the western intrigues, let us make a remonstrance and
demand of satisfaction, and, if Congress approves, we may in the same
instant make reprisals on the Floridas, until satisfaction for that
and for spoliations, and until a settlement of boundary. I had rather
have war against Spain than not, if we go to war against England. Our
southern defensive force can take the Floridas, volunteers for a Mexican
army will flock to our standard, and rich pabulum will be offered to our
privateers in the plunder of their commerce and coasts. Probably Cuba
would add itself to our confederation. The paper in answer to Florida
should, I think, be drawn with a view to its being laid before Congress,
and published to the world as our justification against the imputation of
participation in Miranda's projects.
TO COLONEL FULTON.
MONTICELLO, August 16, 1807.
SIR,--Your letter of July 28th, came to hand just as I was about leaving
Washington, and it has not been sooner in my power to acknowledge it. I
consider your torpedoes as very valuable means of the defence of harbors,
and 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
its affairs, could be justifiable, however sanguine its expectations,
in trusting solely to an engine not yet sufficiently tried, under all
the circumstances which may occur, and 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, and though 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 hand, but being
nautical, I suppose we must have a corps of naval engineers, to practise
and 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. General
Dearborne has informed you of the urgency of our want of you at New
Orleans for the locks there.
I salute you with great respect and esteem.
TO GOVERNOR CABELL.
MONTICELLO, August 17, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--Your favors of the 11th, 12th, and 14th were received
yesterday, being the first day for some days past that the obstruction of
the water-courses has permitted the post to come through. I now return you
the letters of General Matthews and Captain Hardy; I enclose you also two
offers of volunteers from Montgomery and Fauquier counties, because they
are expressly made under the late act of Congress. I have received a great
number of tenders of service at a moment's warning, which, appearing to me
to have relation merely to the repelling invasion in the quarter lately
violated, and not to intend an absolute engagement for twelve months,
I have only accepted generally and vaguely, without relation to the
Volunteer Act.
Your letter mentioning the calling into service near the Capes, a company
of Infantry, I enclosed to the Secretary at War for his information and
opinion, and received his answer yesterday. Your observations satisfy
him that Infantry alone can be effectual in that station, and induce him
to think that the company of Infantry should be a substitute for that of
Cavalry, and that the latter should be discharged. To the weight of his
opinion and advice, as the head of the department, is added the apparent
fact that the British squadron means to be quiet till orders from England,
an intention much strengthened by the complexion of Captain Hardy's
letter now returned. The duty therefore of husbanding our resources for
the moment of real want, requires that I should approve his opinion, and
recommend the discharge of the troop of Cavalry. The company of Infantry
will be as vigilant as they can to cut off supplies from the squadron,
according to the proclamation; and it is proper that a daily express
from the station of the company to the Norfolk Post Office should be
established under your Excellency's direction. I salute you with great
esteem and respect.
TO THE SECRETARY AT WAR.
MONTICELLO, August 18, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--Yours of the 14th and 15th were received yesterday. The
former is now returned. I shall, in answer to Mr. Nicholas, say that we
cannot lend arms but to volunteers training for immediate service, and
that as to a deposit in his neighborhood, we shall in due time take up
that subject generally, when just attention will be paid to that section
of our country. Our separation at this time having been agreed on, I
supposed it equally settled as to yourself that you also would take a
recess as soon as the affairs of your office would permit; and that no
further approbation on my part could be wanting. However, if it were, I
hope you considered my letter of the 12th as expressing it fully, so as
not to permit yourself to be detained for anything further. Wishing you
a pleasant journey and happy meeting with your family, I salute you with
affection.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
MONTICELLO, August 18, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--I return you the papers received yesterday. Mr. Erskine
complains of a want of communication between the British armed vessels
_in the_ Chesapeake, or _off_ the coast. If, by _off_ the coast, he means
those which, being generally in our waters, go occasionally out of them
to cruize or to acquire a title to communicate with their consul, it is
too poor an evasion for him to expect us to be the dupes of. If vessels
_off_ the coast, and having never violated the proclamation, wish to
communicate with their consul, they may send in by any vessel, without a
flag. He gives a proof of their readiness to restore deserters, from an
instance of the Chichester lying along-side a wharf at Norfolk. It would
have been as applicable if Captain Stopfield and his men had been in a
tavern at Norfolk. All this, too, a British sergeant _is ready_ to swear
to; and further, that he saw British deserters enlisted in their British
uniform, by our officer. As this fact is probably false, and can easily
be inquired into, names being given, and as the story of the Chichester
can be ascertained by Captain Saunders, suppose you send a copy of the
paper to the Secretary of the Navy, and recommend to him having an inquiry
made. We ought gladly to procure evidence to hang the privates, if no
objection or difficulty occur from the place of trial. If the Driver
is the scene of trial, where is she? if in our waters, we can have no
communication with her, if out of them, it may be inconvenient to send the
witnesses. Although there is neither candor nor dignity in soliciting the
victualling the Columbine for four months for a voyage of ten days, yet I
think you had better give the permission. It is not by these huckstering
manœuvres that the great national question is to be settled. I salute you
affectionately.
TO JOHN NICHOLAS.
MONTICELLO, August 18, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--Your favor of the 2d did not reach me till yesterday. That
from General Hall, communicating the patriotic resolutions of the
county of Ontario, was received the day before. Considering war as one
of the alternatives which Congress may adopt on the failure of proper
satisfaction for the outrages committed on us by Great Britain, I have
thought it my duty to put into train every preparation for that which the
executive powers, and the interval left for their exercise, will admit of.
Whenever militia take the field of actual service, the deficiencies of
their arms are of course supplied from the public magazines, and the law
also permits us to lend arms to _volunteers_ engaged, and training for
immediate service. In no case is the loan of arms to militia, remaining at
home, permitted or practiced.
The establishment of deposits of arms, to be resorted to when occasion
presses, is within the executive direction. A distribution of these
deposits, wherever there may be occasion, and in proportion to the
probable occasion, either defensive or offensive is one of the branches
of preparation which circumstances call on us to make. It will be done in
due time; and although nothing specific can now be said, yet I may safely
assure you, that whenever we proceed to settle the general arrangement,
the section of country which is the subject of your letter, shall receive
a just portion of our attention and provisions.
I learn with particular satisfaction that volunteers will be readily
engaged on that part of our frontier. It is a quarter in which they will
be particularly useful. I presume that, in consequence of the call on the
several States, the Governor will have put the engagement of volunteers
into such a course as will avail us of the favorable disposition which
prevails towards that service. I salute you with great esteem and respect.
TO MR. MADISON.
August 19, 1807.
I suppose Mr. Gamble should be told that his opinion in favor of the
appointment of a Consul General for the Danish islands being founded on
the supposition of a war with England, the executive cannot at present act
on that ground. It would seem indeed, that in the event of war, our agent
or agents in those islands would be very important persons, and should
therefore be chosen with care. I presume it would become the best office
in the gift of the United States.
It will be very difficult to answer Mr. Erskine's demand respecting the
water casks in the tone proper for such a demand. I have heard of one
who, having broke his cane over the head of another, demanded payment
for his cane. This demand might well enough have made part of an offer
to pay the damages done to the Chesapeake, and to deliver up the authors
of the murders committed on board her. I return you the papers received
yesterday. The Governor has enclosed me a letter from General Mathews of
August 13th, mentioning the recent arrival of a ship in the Chesapeake,
bearing the flag of a Vice-Admiral; from whence he concludes that Barclay
is arrived. I salute you affectionately.
TO HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR CABELL.
MONTICELLO, August 19, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--I return you the papers received in your letter of the 16th.
The Secretary of State communicated to me yesterday a letter from Mr.
Erskine, containing assurances from Governor Thomas Hardy, that he should
carefully abstain from acts of violence unless he received orders from his
superiors. Although Barclay's character does not give the same confidence,
yet I see no reason to doubt that matters will continue, in the
Chesapeake, in their present train until they receive orders from their
government.
I salute you with esteem and respect.
TO GOVERNOR CABELL.
MONTICELLO, August 19, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--Your letters of August 11th, 12th, 13th, had been before
acknowledged, and in mine of this morning I acknowledged yours of the
16th, and returned the papers enclosed in it. Since writing that, I have
received another letter of yours of August 11th, which, by an error of the
Post Office, had been sent to a wrong office. I now enclose the papers
received in that. They call but for one observation, which is, that the
mode of communication by flag, as before directed, must be adhered to.
Although credit and indulgence is due to the liberality of Governor T.
Hardy, yet armed vessels remaining within our jurisdiction in defiance
of the authority of the laws, must be viewed either as rebels, or public
enemies. The latter character, it is most expedient to ascribe to them;
the laws of intercourse with persons of that description are fixed and
known. If we relinquish them we shall have a new code to settle with those
individual offenders, with whom self respect forbids any intercourse but
merely for purposes of humanity. A letter which I wrote to the Secretary
of State on the 17th, expressed my opinion that we should not higgle with
the Columbine as to the quantity of supplies, but let her have what she
wants.
These small distresses contribute nothing to the bringing an enemy to
reason. It should not be till an abuse of this liberality has taken place,
that we should be rigorous in the quantum of supplies. I salute you with
great esteem and respect.
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY.
MONTICELLO, August 20, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--Mr. Appleton, the writer of the enclosed letter, was well known
to me at Paris, but not as a man of business. He was young, handsome, and
devoted to pleasant pursuits. He is now probably forty-five, and has since
been in business, but with what qualifications or success I know not. He
was our consul at Calais, his brother is our consul at Leghorn, and his
father is (if living) a respectable merchant at Boston. All this leaves
still room for inquiry whether he is fit for your agent. While on the
subject, if you should be on the look-out, it may be worth your while to
inquire after a Colonel Dowse, (of the same town with Fisher Ames.) He is
a scientific navigator, has made voyages to the East Indies, is a sensible
and most upright man, a little too much wrapt up in religious reveries. He
has been most firm in his republicanism through all the storms and trials
which those sentiments have been exposed to in that State. I write all
this from my own knowledge of him; but I do not know he would accept the
place and quit the retirement in which he has now been several years.
I enclose you the copy of a letter I wrote Mr. Fulton. I wait his answer
as to the submarine boat, before I make you the proposition in form.
The very name of a corps of submarine engineers would be a defence. Mr.
Nicholas and his family left this neighborhood in health the day I arrived
in it. We do not give up the hope of seeing Mrs. Smith and yourself here.
I salute you with affection and respect.
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
MONTICELLO, August 20, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--On the death of Imlay, loan officer of Connecticut, Jonathan
Bull (Judge Bull) is well recommended as his successor by a number of
republicans, and by Mr. Wolcott, in a special letter. A Ralph Pomeroy, of
Hartford, solicits it for himself, but sends no recommendations. Those of
Bull would leave me with little doubt of the propriety of his nomination;
but as you can so conveniently make inquiry respecting him, I will pray
you to do it, and to communicate the result to me with as little delay as
convenient, in order to preclude other solicitations.
All my information from the Capes of Chesapeake, confirms the opinion that
the present quiet train of things there is to be continued till further
orders. The interdicted officers are extremely averse to our mode of
communication by flag. But being considered as enemies rather than rebels,
while here in defiance, no other communication will be allowed. Burr's
trial goes on to the astonishment of all, as to the manner of conducting
it. I salute you with affection and respect.
TO J. MADISON.
MONTICELLO, August 20, 1807.
Your letter to Dayton I think perfectly right, unless, perhaps, the
expression of personal sympathy in the first page might be misconstrued,
and, coupled with the circumstance that we had not yet instituted a
prosecution against him, although possessed of evidence. Poor Yznardi
seems to have been worked up into distraction by the persecutions of
Meade. I enclose you a letter I have received from him. Also one from
Warden, attested by Armstrong, by which you will see that the feuds there
are not subsiding.
By yesterday's, or this day's mails, you will have received the
information that Bonaparte has annihilated the allied armies. The result
will doubtless be peace on the continent, an army despatched through
Persia to India, and the main army brought back to their former position
on the channel. This will oblige England to withdraw everything home, and
leave us an open field. An account, apparently worthy of credit, in the
Albany paper, is, that the British are withdrawing all their cannon and
magazines from Upper Canada to Quebec, considering the former not tenable,
and the latter their only fast-hold.
I salute you with sincere affection.
P. S. I had forgotten to express my opinion that deserters ought never
to be enlisted; but I think you may go further and say to Erskine, that
if ever such a practise has prevailed, it has been without the knowledge
of the Government, and would have been forbidden, if known, and if any
examples of it have existed, (which is doubted,) they must have been few,
or they would have become known. The case presented from the Chichester,
if true, does not prove the contrary, as the persons there said to have
been enlisted are believed to have been American citizens, who, whether
impressed or enlisted into the British service, were equally right in
returning to the duties they owed to their own country.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
MONTICELLO, August 20, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--Colonel Newton's inquiries are easily solved, I think, by
application of the principles we have assumed. 1. The _interdicted_
ships are _enemies_. Should they be forced, by stress of weather, to run
up into safer harbors, we are to act towards them as we would towards
enemies in regular war, in like case. Permit no intercourse, no supplies;
and if they land, kill or capture them as enemies. If they lie still,
Decatur has orders not to attack them without stating the case to me,
and awaiting instructions. But if they attempt to enter Elizabeth river,
he is to attack them without waiting for instructions. 2. Other armed
vessels, putting in from sea in distress, are _friends_. They must report
themselves to the collector, he assigns them their station, and regulates
their repairs, supplies, intercourse and stay. Not needing flags, they
are under the direction of the collector alone, who should be reasonably
liberal as to their repairs and supplies, furnishing them for a voyage to
any of their American ports; but I think with him their crews should be
kept on board, and that they should not enter Elizabeth river.
I remember Mr. Gallatin expressed an opinion that our negotiations with
England should not be laid before Congress at their meeting, but reserved
to be communicated all together with the answer they should send us,
whenever received. I am not of this opinion. I think, on the meeting of
Congress, we should lay before them everything that has passed to that
day, and place them on the same ground of information we are on ourselves.
They will then have time to bring their minds to the same state of things
with ours, and when the answer arrives, we shall all view it from the
same position. I think, therefore, you should order the whole of the
negotiation to be prepared in two copies. I salute you affectionately.
TO GEORGE HAY.
MONTICELLO, August 20, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--I received yesterday your favor of the 11th. An error of the
post office had occasioned the delay. Before an impartial jury, Burr's
conduct would convict himself, were not one word of testimony to be
offered against him. But to what a state will our law be reduced by party
feelings in those who administer it? Why do not Blannerhassett, Dayton,
&c., demand private and comfortable lodgings? In a country where an equal
application of law to every condition of man is fundamental, how could
it be denied to them? How can it ever be denied to the most degraded
malefactor? The enclosed letter of James Morrison, covering a copy of
one from Alston to Blannerhassett, came to hand yesterday. I enclose
them, because it is proper all these papers should be in one deposit,
and because you should know the case and all its bearings, that you may
understand whatever turns up in the cause. Whether the opinion of the
letter writer is sound, may be doubted. For, however these, and other
circumstances which have come to us, may induce us to believe that the
bouncing letter he published, and the insolent one he wrote to me, were
intended as blinds, yet they are not sufficient for legal conviction.
Blannerhassett and his wife could possibly tell us enough. I commiserate
the suffering you have to go through in such a season, and salute you with
great esteem and respect.
TO THE SECRETARY AT WAR.
MONTICELLO, August 28, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--I had had the letter of Mr. Jouett of July 6th from
Chicago, and that from Governor Hull, of July 14th, from Detroit, under
consideration some days, when the day before yesterday I received that of
the Governor of July 25th.
While it appeared that the workings among the Indians of that neighborhood
proceeded from their prophet chiefly, and that his endeavors were directed
to the restoring them to their ancient mode of life, to the feeding
and clothing themselves with the produce of the chase, and refusing all
those articles of meat, drink, and clothing, which they can only obtain
from the whites, and are now rendered necessary by habit, I thought it a
transient enthusiasm, which, if let alone, would evaporate innocently of
itself; although visibly tinctured with a partiality against the United
States. But the letters and documents now enclosed give to the state of
things there a more serious aspect; and the visit of the Governor of Upper
Canada, and assembling of the Indians by him, indicate the object to which
these movements are to point. I think, therefore, we can no longer leave
them to their own course, but that we should immediately prepare for war
in that quarter, and at the same time redouble our efforts for peace.
I propose, therefore, that the Governors of Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana,
be instructed immediately to have designated, according to law, such
proportions of their militia as you shall think advisable, to be ready for
service at a moment's warning, recommending to them to prefer volunteers
as far as they can be obtained, and of that description fitted for Indian
service.
That sufficient stores of arms, ammunition and provision, be deposited
in convenient places for any expedition which it may be necessary
to undertake in that quarter, and for the defence of the posts and
settlements there; and that the object of these preparations be openly
declared, as well to let the Indians understand the danger they are
bringing on themselves, as to lull the suspicion of any other object.
That at the same time, and while these preparations for war are openly
going on, Governors Hull and Harrison be instructed to have interviews by
themselves or well-chosen agents, with the chiefs of the several tribes in
that quarter, to recall to their minds the paternal policy pursued towards
them by the United States, and still meant to be pursued. That we never
wished to do them an injury, but on the contrary, to give them all the
assistance in our power towards improving their condition, and enabling
them to support themselves and their families; that a misunderstanding
having arisen between the United States and the English, war may possibly
ensue. That in this war it is our wish the Indians should be quiet
spectators, not wasting their blood in quarrels which do not concern them;
that we are strong enough to fight our own battles, and therefore ask
no help; and if the English should ask theirs, it should convince them
that it proceeds from a sense of their own weakness which would not augur
success in the end; that at the same time, as we have learnt that some
tribes are already expressing intentions hostile to the United States, we
think it proper to apprize them of the ground on which they now stand; for
which purpose we make to them this solemn declaration of our unalterable
determination, that we wish them to live in peace with all nations as
well as with us, and we have no intention ever to strike them or to do
them an injury of any sort, unless first attacked or threatened; but that
learning that some of them meditate war on us, we too are preparing for
war against those, and those only who shall seek it; and that if ever we
are constrained to lift the hatchet against any tribe, we will never lay
it down till that tribe is exterminated, or driven beyond the Mississippi.
Adjuring them, therefore, if they wish to remain on the land which covers
the bones of their fathers, to keep the peace with a people who ask their
friendship without needing it, who wish to avoid war without fearing it.
In war, they will kill some of us; we shall destroy all of them. Let them
then continue quiet at home, take care of their women and children, and
remove from among them the agents of any nation persuading them to war,
and let them declare to us explicitly and categorically that they will do
this: in which case, they will have nothing to fear from the preparations
we are now unwillingly making to secure our own safety?
These ideas may form the substance of speeches to be made to them, only
varying therein according to the particular circumstances and dispositions
of particular tribes; softening them to some, and strengthening them as
to others. I presume, too, that such presents as would show a friendly
liberality should at the same time be made to those who unequivocally
manifest intentions to remain friends; and as to those who indicate
contrary intentions, the preparations made should immediately look towards
them; and it will be a subject for consideration whether, on satisfactory
evidence that any tribe means to strike us, we shall not anticipate by
giving them the first blow, before matters between us and England are
so far advanced as that their troops or subjects should dare to join the
Indians against us. It will make a powerful impression on the Indians, if
those who spur them on to war, see them destroyed without yielding them
any aid. To decide on this, the Governors of Michigan and Indiana should
give us weekly information, and the Postmaster General should immediately
put the line of posts to Detroit into the most rapid motion. Attention,
too, is requisite to the safety of the post at Michillimacinac.
I send this letter open to the Secretary of State, with a desire that,
with the documents, it may be forwarded to the Secretary of the Navy,
at Baltimore, the Attorney General, at Wilmington, the Secretary of the
Treasury, at New York, and finally to yourself; that it may be considered
only as the origination of a proposition to which I wish each of them to
propose such amendments as their judgment shall approve, to be addressed
to yourself; and that from all our opinions you will make up a general
one, and act on it without waiting to refer it back to me.
I salute you with great affection and respect.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
MONTICELLO, August 30, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--There can be no doubt that Fronda's claim for the money
advanced to Lieutenant Pike should be repaid, and while his application
to yourself is the proper one, we must attend to the moneys being drawn
from the proper fund, which is that of the war department. I presume,
therefore, it will be necessary for you to apply to General Dearborne to
furnish the money. Will it not be proper to rebut Fronda's charge of this
government sending a spy to Santa Fé, by saying that this government has
never employed a spy in any case, and that Pike's mission was to ascend
the Arkansas and descend the Red river for the purpose of ascertaining
their geography; that, as far as we are yet informed, he entered the
waters of the North river, believing them to be those of the Red river;
and that, however certain we are of a right extending to the North river,
and participating of its navigation with Spain, yet Pike's voyage was
not intended as an exercise of that right, which we notice here, merely
because he had chosen to deny it; a question to be settled in another way.
From the present state of the tranquillity in the Chesapeake, and the
probability of its continuance, I begin to think the daily mail may soon
be discontinued, and an extra mail once a week substituted, to leave
Fredericksburg Sunday morning, and Milton Wednesday morning. This will
give us two mails a week. I should propose this change for September 9th,
which is the day I set out for Bedford, and will exactly close one month
of daily mail. What do you think of it? Affectionate salutations.
TO THE SECRETARY AT WAR.
MONTICELLO, August 31, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--Mr. Madison will have written to you on the subject of a demand
of $1,000 furnished to Lieut Pike, to be repaid to Fronda, which of course
must come out of the military fund.
I enclose you an application from Mr. Graham for a commission in the army
for a Mr. Lithgow, relation of Mr. Henderson, who solicits it, and who, I
think, has a just claim for the gratification.
I enclose you also a letter from Captain Brent to Mr. Coles on the subject
of their commissions. They presented to me a list of names engaged,
and of the officers they had chosen. I do not remember the words of my
answer; but the idea meant to be expressed was only that the officers
should be commissioned. I had no idea of fixing a date for them before
they should have raised what could be accepted as a troop. They seem to
have understood the date of my acceptance as the proper date of their
commissions. I told Mr. Coles I would consult you; and that my own idea
was to inquire what was the smallest number ever admitted as a troop or
company, and let their commissions have the date of the day on which they
had engaged that number. This may be the subject of conversation when we
meet.
I send you a paper on the defence of the mouth of the Chesapeake. We never
expect from the writer a detailed, well-digested and practicable plan;
but good ideas and susceptible of improvement sometimes escape from him.
The first question is, whether works on the shore of Lynhaven may not be
constructed for dislodging an enemy from that bay by throwing bombs? and
whether they can lie there in safety out of the reach of bombs? There
is no other place where they can lie in safety so near the Capes, not
to be in danger of being intercepted by gun-boats, and attacked with the
advantage of weather. 2d. May not artificial harbors be made on the middle
grounds and Horseshoe for the reception of gun boats, with cavaliers for
the discharge of bombs? and will not these two points and Lynhaven thus
command all the mouth of the bay? To answer these questions will require
an accurate survey of the whole field, which, if we have not, we should
direct to be made. It is an important fact that the middle grounds have
been seen bare; and that both these and the Horseshoe are always shoal.
Cannot cassoons filled with stone, and of the shape of truncated wedges,
be sunk there in close order so as to enclose a harbor for gun-boats, of
such a height as that the sea shall not go over it in the highest tides,
and of base proportioned to the height and sufficient to resist the force
of the water? The nearest stone is up James river above the Hundred, and
up York river above West Point, from whence however it can be brought
in ships of size. At New York, they calculate on depositing their stone
for from 4 to 5 cents the cubic foot. If it costs the double here, the
amount would not be disproportioned to the object, if we consider what a
vast extent of coast on the Chesapeake and its waters will otherwise be
depredated or secured by works and troops in detail. I throw out these
thoughts now that they may be under your consideration, while making up
the general statement of defensive works for the sea coast. Present my
respects to Mrs. Dearborne, and accept my affectionate salutations.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
MONTICELLO, September 1, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--I think with you we had better send to Algiers some of the
losing articles in order to secure peace there while it is uncertain
elsewhere. While war with England is probable, everything leading to
it with every other nation should be avoided, except with Spain. As to
her, I think it the precise moment when we should declare to the French
government that we will instantly seize on the Floridas as reprisal for
the spoliations denied us, and, that if by a given day they are paid to
us, we will restore all east of the Perdido, and hold the rest subject to
amicable discussion. Otherwise, we will hold them forever as compensation
for the spoliations. This to be a subject of consideration when we
assemble.
One reason for suggesting the discontinuance of the daily post was, that
it is not kept up by contract, but at the expense of the United States.
But the principal reason was to avoid giving ground for clamor. The
general idea is, that those who receive annual compensations should be
constantly at their posts. Our constituents might not in the first moment
consider 1st, that we all have property to take care of, which we cannot
abandon for temporary salaries; 2d, that we have health to take care of,
which at this season cannot be preserved at Washington; 3d, that while
at our separate homes our public duties are fully executed, and at much
greater personal labor than while we are together when a short conference
saves a long letter. I am aware that in the present crisis some incident
might turn up where a day's delay might infinitely overweigh a month's
expense of the daily post. Affectionate salutations.
TO MR. COOPER.
MONTICELLO, September 1, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--Your favor of the 9th is received, and with it the copy of
Dr. Priestley's Memoirs, for which I return you many thanks. I shall read
them with great pleasure, as I revered the character of no man living more
than his. With another part of your letter I am sensibly affected. I have
not here my correspondence with Governor McKean to turn to, but I have
no reason to doubt that the particular letter referred to may have been
silent on the subject of your appointment as stated. The facts are these:
The opinion I have ever entertained, and still entertain as strongly as
ever, of your abilities and integrity, was such as made it my wish, from
the moment I came to the administration, that you should be employed in
some public way. On a review, however, of all circumstances, it appeared
to me that the State of Pennsylvania had occasions for your service,
which would be more acceptable than any others to yourself because they
would leave you in the enjoyment of the society of Dr. Priestley, to which
your attachment was known. I therefore expressed my solicitude respecting
you to Governor McKean, whose desires to serve yourself and the public
by employing you I knew to be great, and of course that you were an
object of mutual concern, and I received his information of having found
employment for your talents with the sincerest pleasure. But pressed as
I am perpetually by an overflow of business, and adopting from necessity
the rule of never answering any letter, or part of a letter, which can
do without answer, in replying to his which related to other subjects, I
probably said nothing on that, because my former letter had sufficiently
manifested how pleasing the circumstance must be to me, and my time and
practice did not permit me to be repeating things already said. This is a
candid statement of that incident, and I hope you will see in it a silence
accounted for on grounds far different from that of a continuance of my
estimation and good wishes, which have experienced no change. With respect
to the schism among the republicans in your State, I have ever declared
to both parties that I consider the general government as bound to take
no part in it, and I have carefully kept both my judgment, my affections,
and my conduct, clear of all bias to either. It is true, as you have
heard, that a distance has taken place between Mr. Clay and myself. The
cause I never could learn nor imagine. I had always known him to be an
able man, and I believed him an honest one. I had looked to his coming
into Congress with an entire belief that he would be cordial with the
administration, and even before that I had always had him in my mind for
a high and important vacancy which had been from time to time expected,
but is only now about to take place. I feel his loss therefore with
real concern, but it is irremediable from the necessity of harmony and
cordiality between those who are to manage together the public concerns.
Not only his withdrawing from the usual civilities of intercourse with me,
(which even the federalists with two or three exceptions keep up,) but
his open hostility in Congress to the administration, leave no doubt of
the state of his mind as a fact, although the cause be unknown. Be so good
as to communicate my respects to Mr. Priestley, and to accept yourself my
friendly salutations, and assurances of unaltered esteem.
TO THE SECRETARY AT WAR.
MONTICELLO, September 2, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--My letter of August 28th, on the dispositions of the Indians,
was to go the rounds of all our brethren, and to be finally sent to you
with their separate opinions. I think it probable, therefore, that the
enclosed extract of a letter from a priest at Detroit to Bishop Carroll,
may reach you as soon, or sooner, than that. I therefore forward it,
because it throws rather a different light on the dispositions of the
Indians from that given by Hull and Dunham. I do not think, however,
that it ought to slacken our operations, because those proposed are all
precautionary. But it ought absolutely to stop our negotiations for land
otherwise the Indians will think that these preparations are meant to
intimidate them into a sale of their lands, an idea which would be most
pernicious, and would poison all our professions of friendship to them.
The immediate acquisition of the land is of less consequence to us than
their friendship and a thorough confidence in our justice. We had better
let the purchase lie till they are in better temper. I salute you with
affection and respect.
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY.
MONTICELLO, September 3.
DEAR SIR,--Your letters of August 23d, 27th, 29th, and 30th, have all been
received; the two last came yesterday. I observe that the merchants of New
York and Philadelphia think that notice of our present crisis with England
should be sent to the Straits of Sunda by a public ship, but that such a
vessel going to Calcutta, or into the Bay of Bengal, would give injurious
alarm; while those of Baltimore think such a vessel going to the Straits
of Sunda would have the same effect. Your proposition, very happily in
my opinion, avoids the objections of all parties; will do what some think
useful and none think injurious. I therefore approve of it. To wit, that
by some of the private vessels now going, instruction from the department
of State be sent to our Consul at the Isle of France, to take proper
measures to advise all our returning vessels, as far as he can, to be on
their guard against the English, and that we now appoint and send a Consul
to Batavia, to give the same notice to our vessels returning through the
Straits of Sunda. For this purpose I sign a blank sheet of paper, over
which signature the Secretary of State will have a consular commission
written, leaving a blank for the name to be filled up by yourself with the
name of such discreet and proper person as shall be willing to go. If he
does not mean to reside there as Consul, we must bear his expenses out and
in, and compensate his time. I presume you will receive this commission,
and the papers you sent me through the Secretary of State, on the 8th.
I approve of the orders you gave for intercepting the pirates, and that
they were given as the occasion required, without waiting to consult
me, which would have defeated the object. I am very glad indeed that
the piratical vessel and some of the crew have been taken, and hope the
whole will be taken; and that this has been done by the militia. It will
contribute to show the expediency of an organized naval militia.
I send you the extract of a letter I lately wrote to General Dearborne
on the defence of the Chesapeake. Your situation will better enable you
to make inquiries into the practicability of the plan than he can. If
practicable, it is all-important.
I do not see the probability of receiving from Great Britain reparation
for the wrong committed on the Chesapeake, and future security for our
seamen, in the same favorable light with Mr. Gallatin and yourself.
If indeed the consequence of the battle of Friedland can be to exclude
her from the Baltic, she may temporize with us. But if peace among the
_continental_ powers of Europe should leave her free in her intercourse
with the powers who will then be _neutral_, the present ministry, perhaps
no ministry which can now be formed, will not in my opinion give us the
necessary assurance respecting our flag. In that case, it must bring on a
war soon, and if so, it can never be in a better time for us. I look to
this, therefore, as most probably now to take place, although I do most
sincerely wish that a just and sufficient security may be given us, and
such an interruption of our property avoided. I salute you with affection
and respect.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
MONTICELLO, September 3, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--Mr. Smith's letter of August 29th and the papers it enclosed,
and which are now re-enclosed, will explain to you the necessity of my
confirming his proposition as to the means of apprizing our East India
commerce of their danger, without waiting for further opinions on the
subject. You will see that it throws on you the immediate burden of
giving the necessary instructions with as little delay as possible, lest
the occasion by the vessels now sailing should be lost. Be so good as to
return me his two letters, and to seal and forward on to him mine, and the
other papers. Affectionate salutations.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
MONTICELLO, September 3, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--After writing to Mr. Smith my letter of yesterday, by the post
of that day, I received one from him now enclosed, and covering a letter
from Mr. Crownenshield on the subject of notifying our East India trade.
To this I have written the answer herein, which I have left open for
your perusal, with Crownenshield's letter, praying that you will seal and
forward them immediately, with any considerations of your own, addressed
to Mr. Smith, which may aid him in the decision I refer to him. I do not
give to the newspaper and parliamentary scraps the same importance you do.
I think they all refer to the convention of limits sent us in the form of
a project, brought forward only as a sop of the moment for Parliament and
the public. Nothing but an exclusion of Great Britain from the Baltic will
dispose her to peace with us, and to defer her policy of subsisting her
navy by the general plunder of nations.
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY.
WASHINGTON, September 4, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--I had written to you yesterday on the subject of notifying
our East India trade, in answer to yours of the 29th of August, and
approving your proposition of giving the notice to our trade beyond the
Straits of Sunda, by a consul specially sent to Batavia, and to that on
this side by our consul at the Isle of France. Since writing that letter,
I have received yours of the 31st, covering Mr. Crownenshield's. This
letter shows a great and intimate knowledge of the subject, and points
out so many various circumstances which may require a variation in the
course to be pursued, that it confirms me in the opinion that it must be
confided to the discretion of a well-chosen agent, governing himself by
circumstances as they may occur. I think it possible, however, from Mr.
Crownenshield's letter, that we may not have done the best in our power
for notifying Madras, and the other ports in the bay of Bengal. I refer
it to yourself, therefore, to decide on the advice you can so readily
get at Baltimore, whether we should not despatch a third person, with
instructions to procure himself a passage in any private vessel which
may be going from this country to any port in the bay of Bengal, or to
any other port from which he can probably get a passage to some port in
the bay of Bengal, and from whence he can notify the other ports in the
same bay, either by personally visiting them or by writing. Such a person
should carry with him your commission as an agent of the navy, to obtain
credence by secretly exhibiting that to those he should notify. I return
you Mr. Crownenshield's and Mr. Gallatin's letters. I shall be absent
from this place from the 9th to the 16th inst. Mr. Madison will be with
me to-morrow, on a visit of some days. I salute you with affection and
respect.
TO GEORGE HAY.
MONTICELLO, September 4, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--Yours of the 1st came to hand yesterday. The event has been
* * * * * that is to say, not only to clear Burr, but to prevent the
evidence from ever going before the world. But this latter case must not
take place. It is now, therefore, more than ever indispensable, that not
a single witness be paid or permitted to depart until his testimony has
been committed to writing, either as delivered in court, or as taken by
yourself in the presence of any of Burr's counsel, who may choose to
attend to cross-examine. These whole proceedings will be laid before
Congress, that they may decide, whether the defect has been in the
evidence of guilt, or in the law, or in the application of the law, and
that they may provide the proper remedy for the past and the future.
I must pray you also to have an authentic copy of the record made out
(without saying for what) and to send it to me; if the Judge's opinions
make out a part of it, then I must ask a copy of them, either under his
hand, if he delivers one signed, or duly proved by affidavit.
The criminal is preserved to become the rallying point of all the
disaffected and the worthless of the United States, and to be the pivot
on which all the intrigues and the conspiracies which foreign governments
may wish to disturb us with, are to turn. If he is convicted of the
misdemeanor, the Judge must in decency give us respite by some short
confinement of him; but we must expect it to be very short. Be assured
yourself, and communicate the same assurance to your colleagues, that
your and their zeal and abilities have been displayed in this affair to my
entire satisfaction and your own honor.
I salute you with great esteem and respect.
TO THE SECRETARY AT WAR.
MONTICELLO, September 6, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--I enclose you the letters of Mr. Granger and Mr. J. Nicholas,
by the latter of which you will see that an Indian rupture in the
neighborhood of Detroit becomes more probable, if it has not already taken
place. I see in it no cause for changing the opinion given in mine of
August 28, but on the contrary, strong reason for hastening the measures
therein recommended. We must make ever memorable examples of the tribe or
tribes which shall have taken up the hatchet.
I salute you with affection and respect.
TO THOMAS PAINE.
MONTICELLO, September 6, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--I received last night your favor of August 29, and with
it a model of a contrivance for making one gun-boat do nearly double
execution. It has all the ingenuity and simplicity which generally mark
your inventions. I am not nautical enough to judge whether two guns may
be too heavy for the bow of a gun-boat, or whether any other objection
will countervail the advantage it offers, and which I see visibly enough.
I send it this day to the Secretary of the Navy, within whose department
it lies to try and to judge it. Believing, myself, that gun-boats are the
only _water_ defence which can be useful to us, and protect us from the
ruinous folly of a navy, I am pleased with everything which promises to
improve them.
The battle of Friedland, armistice with Russia, conquest of Prussia, will
be working on the British stomach when they will receive information of
the outrage they have committed on us. Yet, having entered on the policy
proposed by their champion "war in disguise," of making the property of
all nations lawful plunder to support a navy which their own resources
cannot support, I doubt if they will readily relinquish it. That war
with us had been predetermined may be fairly inferred from the diction
of Berkley's order, the Jesuitism of which proves it ministerial from
its being so timed as to find us in the midst of Burr's rebellion as they
expected, from the contemporaneousness of the Indian excitements, and of
the wide and sudden spread of their maritime spoliations. I salute you
with great esteem and respect.
TO GEORGE HAY, ESQ., ATTORNEY FOR THE U. S., BEFORE THE DISTRICT OF
VIRGINIA.
MONTICELLO, September 7, 1807.
SIR,--Understanding that it is thought important that a letter of November
12, 1806, from General Wilkinson to myself, should be produced in evidence
on the charges against Burr, depending in the District Court now sitting
in Richmond, I send you a copy of it, omitting only certain passages, the
nature of which is explained in the certificate subjoined to the letter.
As the Attorney for the United States, be pleased to submit the copy and
certificate to the uses of the Court. I salute you with great esteem and
respect.
P. S. On re-examination of a letter of November 12, 1806, from General
Wilkinson to myself, (which having been for a considerable time out of my
possession, and now returned to me,) I find in it some passages entirely
confidential, given for my information in the discharge of my executive
functions, and which my duties and the public interest forbid me to make
public. I have therefore given above a correct copy of all those parts
which I ought to permit to be made public. Those not communicated are in
nowise material for the purposes of justice on the charges of treason or
misdemeanor depending against Aaron Burr; they are on subjects irrelevant
to any issues which can arise out of those charges, and could contribute
nothing towards his acquittal or conviction. The papers mentioned in
the 1st and 3d paragraphs, as enclosed in the letters, being separated
therefrom, and not in my possession, I am unable, from memory, to say what
they were. I presume they are in the hands of the attorney for the United
States. Given under my hand this 7th day of September, 1807.
TO GOVERNOR CABELL.
MONTICELLO, September 7, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--I now return you Major Newton's letters. The intention of the
squadron in the bay is so manifestly pacific, that your instructions to
him are perfectly proper, not to molest their boats merely for approaching
the shore. While they are giving up slaves and citizen seamen, and
attempting nothing ashore, it would not be well to stop this by any
new restriction. If they come ashore indeed, they must be captured, or
destroyed if they cannot be captured, because we mean to enforce the
proclamation rigorously in preventing supplies. So the instructions
already given as to intercourse by flag, as to sealed and unsealed
letters, must be strictly adhered to. It is so material that the seaport
towns should have artillery militia duly trained, that I think you have
done well to permit Captain Nestell's company to have powder and ball to
exercise. With respect to gun-carriages, furnaces and clothes, I am so
little familiar with the details of the War department that I must beg
those subjects to lie till the return of the Secretary at War, which will
be in three weeks. Proposing to be absent from this place from the 9th to
the 16th instant, our daily post will be suspended during that interval. I
salute you with great esteem and respect.
TO GEORGE HAY.
MONTICELLO, September 7, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--I received, late last night, your favor of the day before,
and now re-enclose you the subpœna. As I do not believe that the district
courts have a power of _commanding_ the executive government to abandon
superior duties and attend on them, at whatever distance, I am unwilling,
by any notice of the subpœna, to set a precedent which might sanction a
proceeding so preposterous. I enclose you, therefore, a letter, public and
for the court, covering substantially all they ought to desire. If the
papers which were enclosed in Wilkinson's letter may, in your judgment,
be communicated without injury, you will be pleased to communicate them. I
return you the original letter.
I am happy in having the benefit of Mr. Madison's counsel on this
occasion, he happening to be now with me. We are both strongly of opinion,
that the prosecution against Burr for misdemeanor should proceed at
Richmond. If defeated, it will heap coals of fire on the head of the
Judge; if successful, it will give time to see whether a prosecution for
treason against him can be instituted in any, and what other court. But we
incline to think, it may be best to send Blennerhasset and Smith (Israel)
to Kentucky, to be tried both for the treason and misdemeanor. The trial
of Dayton for misdemeanor may as well go on at Richmond.
I salute you with great esteem and respect.
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY.
MONTICELLO, September 8, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--Mr. Madison, who is with me, suggests the expediency of
immediately taking up the case of Captain Porter, against whom you know
Mr. Erskine lodged a very serious complaint, for an act of violence
committed on a British seaman in the Mediterranean. While Mr. Erskine
was reminded of the mass of complaints we had against his government
for similar violences, he was assured that contending against such
irregularities ourselves, and requiring satisfaction for them, we did
not mean to follow the example, and that on Captain Porter's return, it
should be properly inquired into. The sooner this is done the better;
because if Great Britain settles with us satisfactorily all our subsisting
differences, and should require in return, (to have an appearance of
reciprocity of wrong as well as redress,) a marked condemnation of
Captain Porter, it would be embarrassing were that the only obstacle
to a peaceable settlement, and the more so as we cannot but disavow his
act. On the contrary, if we immediately look into it, we shall be more at
liberty to be moderate in the censure of it, on the very ground of British
example; and the case being once passed upon, we can more easily avoid
the passing on it a second time, as against a settled principle. It is
therefore to put it in our power to let Captain Porter off as easily as
possible, as a valuable officer whom we all wish to favor, that I suggest
to you the earliest attention to the inquiry, and the promptest settlement
of it. I set out to-morrow on a journey of 100 miles, and shall be absent
eight or nine days. I salute you affectionately.
TO MR. CRAWFORD.
MONTICELLO, September 8, 1807.
Thomas Jefferson presents his compliments to Mr. Crawford, and his
thanks for his Observations on Quarantines, which he has read with great
pleasure. Not himself a friend to quarantines, nor having confidence
in their efficacy, even if they are necessary, he sees with pleasure
every effort to lessen their credit. But the theory which derives all
infection, and ascribes to unseen animals the effects hitherto believed to
be produced by it, is as yet too new and unreceived to justify the public
servants in resting thereon the public health, until time and further
investigation shall have sanctioned it by a more general confidence. He
salutes Mr. Crawford with great respect.
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
MONTICELLO, September 8, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--Yours of the 2d is received, and I have this day directed
commissions for Bull, Hubbell, and for Benajah Nicholls of North Carolina,
as Surveyor of the port of Windsor, v. Simeon Turner, resigned. This last
is on the recommendation of Alston.
You know that the merchants of New York and Philadelphia were of opinion
that a public vessel sent into the Bay of Bengal to notify our trade
there, would in fact increase the danger of our vessels. The most
intelligent merchants of Baltimore, consulted by Mr. Smith, were of
the same opinion as to the Straits of Sunda. It was therefore concluded
between Mr. Smith, Mr. Madison, and myself, (time not admitting further
consultation,) that it would be best to make a Consul for Batavia,
(there being none,) and send him to his post by a private vessel, with
instructions to take the best measures he could for notifying all our
trade beyond the Straits, to instruct our Consul at the Isle of France to
do the same to all on this side, and moreover to send a special agent by
any private conveyance to be obtained, to go from port to port in the Bay
of Bengal, to give private notice to the vessels there. As several vessels
were on their departure for those seas from Philadelphia and Baltimore,
it is trusted that this arrangement will effect all the good proposed,
and avoid all the evil apprehended at the different places which were
consulted.
I set out to-morrow to Bedford, and shall be absent eight days. I shall
leave this on the 30th, and be in Washington the 3d of October, ready for
our meeting on the 5th. I salute you affectionately.
TO GOVERNOR CABELL.
MONTICELLO, September 18, 1807.
SIR,--On my return to this place yesterday I found your favor of the 15th,
and now return the papers it covered. I am glad to see the temperate
complexion of Lowrie's correspondence. I presume the intelligence
from England since the arrival there of the information respecting the
Chesapeake, will produce a moderate deportment in their officers. Your
instructions to Major Newton on the opening of letters, are perfectly
consonant with the rules laid down. With respect to the mode of furnishing
the troops with provisions through any other channel than that of
the public contractor, I am unable to say anything, being not at all
acquainted with the arrangements of the war department on that subject.
I enclose you a letter I have received from a Mr. Belcher, of Gloster,
giving reason to believe there have been some contraventions of the
Proclamation there which ought to be punished if they can be detected. I
salute you with great esteem and respect.
TO MR. MADISON.
MONTICELLO, September 18, 1807.
I returned here yesterday afternoon and found, as I might expect, an
immense mass of business. With the papers received from you, I enclose you
some others which will need no explanation. I am desired by the Secretary
of the Navy to say what must be the conduct of Commodore Rodgers, at
New York, on the late or any similar entry of that harbor by the British
armed vessels. I refer him to the orders to Decatur as to what he was to
do if the vessels in the Chesapeake. 1. Remain quiet in the Bay. 2. Come
to Hampton road. 3. Enter Elizabeth river, and recommend an application
of the same rules to New York, accommodated to the localities of the
place. Should the British government give us reparation of the past,
and security for the future, yet the continuance of their vessels in our
harbors in defiance constitutes a new injury, which will not be included
in any settlement with our ministers, and will furnish good ground
for declaring their future exclusion from our waters, in addition with
the other reasonable ground before existing. Our Indian affairs in the
northwest on the Missouri, and at the Natchitoches, wear a very unpleasant
aspect. As to the first all I think is done which is necessary. But for
this and other causes, I am anxious to be again assembled. I have a letter
from Connecticut. The prosecution there will be dismissed this term on
the ground that the case is not cognisable by the courts of the United
States. Perhaps you can intimate this where it will give tranquillity.
Affectionate salutations.
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY.
MONTICELLO, September 18, 1807
DEAR SIR,--On my return yesterday I found yours of the 10th, and now
re-enclose you Commodore Rodgers' letter. You remember that the orders to
Decatur were to leave the British ships unmolested so long as they laid
quiet in the Bay; but if they should attempt to enter Elizabeth river
to attack them with all his force. The spirit of these orders should, I
think, be applied to New York. So long as the British vessels merely enter
the Hook, or remain quiet there, I would not precipitate hostilities. I do
not sufficiently know the geography of the harbor to draw the line which
they should not pass. Perhaps the narrows, perhaps some other place which
yourself or Commodore Rogers can fix with the aid of the advice he can get
in New York. But a line should be drawn which if they attempt to pass, he
should attack them with all his force. Perhaps he would do well to have
his boats ordinarily a little without the line to let them see they are
not to approach it; but whether he can lay there in safety, _ordinarily_,
he must judge. But if the British vessels continue at the Hook, great
attention should be paid to prevent their receiving supplies or their
landing, or having any intercourse with the shore or other vessels. I
left Mr. Nicholas's yesterday morning: he is indisposed with his annual
influenza. Mrs. Nicholas is well. I shall be at Washington on the 3d
proximo. Affectionate salutations.
TO ROBERT BRENT, ESQ.
MONTICELLO, September 19, 1807.
SIR,--I have just received your favor of the 8th, informing me that the
Board of Trustees for the public school in Washington had unanimously
re-appointed me their President. I pray you to present to them my thanks
for the mark of their confidence, with assurances that I shall at all
times be ready to render to the Institution any services which shall be in
my power. Accept yourself my salutations, and assurances of great respect
and esteem.
TO J. MADISON.
September 20, 1807.
I return all the papers received in yours of the 18th and 19th, except
one soliciting office, Judge Woodward's letters, to be communicated to
the Secretary of War. Should not Claiborne be instructed to say at once to
Governor Folch, that as we never did prohibit any articles (except slaves)
from being carried up the Mississippi to Baton Rouge, so we do not mean to
prohibit them, and that we only ask a perfect and equal reciprocity to be
observed on the rivers which pass through the territories of both nations.
Must we not denounce to Congress the Spanish decree as well as the British
regulation pretending to be the countervail of the French? One of our
first consultations, on meeting, must be on the question whether we shall
not order all the militia and volunteers destined for the Canadas to be
embodied on the 26th of October, and to march immediately to such points
on the way to their destination as shall be pointed out, there to await
the decision of Congress? I approve of the letter to Erskine. In answering
his last, should he not be reminded how strange it is he should consider
as a hostility our refusing to receive but under a flag, persons from
vessels remaining and acting in our waters in defiance of the authority
of the country? The post-rider of the day before yesterday has behaved
much amiss in not calling on you. When I found your mail in the valise and
that they had not called on you, I replaced the mail in it and expressly
directed him to return by you. Affectionate salutations.
TO MR. HAY.
MONTICELLO, September 20, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--General Wilkinson has asked permission to make use, in the
statement of Burr's affair which he is about to publish, of the documents
placed in your hands by Mr. Rodney. To this, consent is freely given with
one reservation. Some of these papers are expressed to be confidential.
Others containing censures on particular individuals, are such as I always
deem confidential, and therefore cannot communicate, but for regularly
official purposes, without a breach of trust. I must therefore ask the
exercise of your discretion in selecting all of this character, and of
giving to the General the free use of the others. It will be necessary
that the whole be returned to the Attorney General by the first week in
the next month, as a selection will be made from them to make part of the
whole evidence in the case, which I shall have printed and communicated to
Congress. I salute you with great esteem and respect.
TO GENERAL WILKINSON.
MONTICELLO, September 20, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--I received your favors of the 13th and 15th on my return to
this place on the 17th, and such was the mass of business accumulated in
my absence, that I have not till now been able to take up your letters.
You are certainly free to make use of any of the papers we put into
Mr. Hay's hands, with a single reservation: to wit, some of them are
expressed to be confidential, and others are of that kind which I always
consider as confidential, conveying censure on particular individuals, and
therefore never communicate them beyond the immediate executive circle. I
accordingly write to this effect to Mr. Hay. The scenes which have been
acted at Richmond are such as have never before been exhibited in any
country where all regard to public character has not yet been thrown off.
They are equivalent to a proclamation of impunity to every traitorous
combination which may be formed to destroy the Union; and they preserve a
head for all such combinations as may be formed within, and a centre for
all the intrigues and machinations which foreign governments may nourish
to disturb us. However, they will produce an amendment to the Constitution
which, keeping the judges independent of the Executive, will not leave
them so, of the nation.
I shall leave this place on the 30th for Washington. It is with pleasure
that I perceive from all the expressions of public sentiment, that the
virulence of those whose treasons you have defeated only place you on
higher ground in the opinion of the nation. I salute you with great esteem
and respect.
TO MR. COXE.
MONTICELLO, September 21, 1807.
SIR,--I have read with great satisfaction your observations on the
principles for equalizing the power of the different nations on the
sea, and think them perfectly sound. Certainly it will be better to
produce a balance on that element, by reducing the means of its great
monopolizer, than by endeavoring to raise our own to an equality with
theirs. I have ever wished that all nations would adopt a navigation law
against those who have one, which perhaps would be better than against all
indiscriminately, and while in France I proposed it there. Probably that
country is now ripe for it. I see no reason why your paper should not be
published, as it would have effect towards bringing the public mind to
proper principles. I do not know whether you kept a copy; if you did not,
I will return it. Otherwise I retain it for the perusal of my coadjutors,
and perhaps to suggest the measure abroad. I salute you with great esteem
and respect.
TO THE ATTORNEY GENERAL.
WASHINGTON, October 8, 1807.
DEAR SIR,-- * * * * * The approaching convention of Congress would render
your assistance here desirable. Besides the varieties of general matter
we have to lay before them, on which we should be glad of your aid and
counsel, there are two subjects of magnitude in which your agency will be
peculiarly necessary. 1st. The selection and digestion of the documents
respecting Burr's treason, which must be laid before Congress in two
copies, (or perhaps printed, which would take ten days.) 2d. A statement
of the conduct of Great Britain towards this country, so far as respects
the violations of the Maritime Law of nations. Here it would be necessary
to state each distinct principle violated, and to quote the cases of
violation, and to conclude with a view of her vice-admiralty courts, their
venality and rascality, in order to show that however for conveniences,
(and not of right) the court of the captor is admitted to exercise the
jurisdiction, yet that in so palpable an abuse of that trust, some remedy
must be applied. Everything we see and hear leads in my opinion to war;
we have therefore much to consult and determine on, preparatory to that
event. I salute you with affectionate respect.
TO MR. PAINE.
WASHINGTON, October 9, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--Your second letter on the subject of gun-boats, came to hand
just before my departure from Monticello. In the meantime, the inquiry
into the proposition had been referred, agreeably to our usage, or to
reason, to the practical persons of the department to which it belonged,
deemed most skilful. On my arrival here, I found the answers of the
persons to whom it was referred, the substance of which I now enclose
you. I am not a judge of their solidity, but I presume they are founded,
and the rather as they are from officers entirely favorable to the use of
gun-boats.
We have as yet no knowledge of the arrival of the Revenge in England,
but we may daily expect to hear of it; and as we expected she would be
detained there and in France about a month, it will be a month hence
before we can expect her back here. In the meantime, all the little
circumstances coming to our knowledge are unfavorable to our wishes for
peace. If they would but settle the question of impressment from our
bottoms, I should be well contented to drop all attempts at a treaty. The
other rights of neutral powers will be taken care of by Bonaparte and
Alexander; and for commercial arrangements we can sufficiently provide
by legislative regulations. But as the practice of impressment has taken
place only against us, we shall be left to settle that for ourselves;
and to do this we shall never again have so favorable a conjuncture of
circumstances. Accept my friendly salutations and assurances of great
esteem and respect.
TO HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR CABELL.
WASHINGTON, October 12, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--I now return you several of Major Newton's letters, some of
which have been kept awhile for consideration. It is determined that
there shall be no relaxation in the conditions of the proclamations, or
any change in the rules of intercourse by flag. If the British officers
set the example of refusing to receive a flag, let ours then follow it
by never sending or receiving another. The interval cannot now be long in
which matters will remain at their present point. I salute you with great
friendship and respect.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
WASHINGTON, October 14, 1807
I think the proper instructions for Mr. Christie's revenue cutter may
be drawn from those given to Captain Decatur. The authority of the
proclamation is to be maintained, no supplies to be permitted to be
carried to the British vessels, nor their vessels permitted to land. For
these purposes force, and to any extent, is to be applied, if necessary,
but not unless necessary, nor, considering how short a time the present
state of things has to continue, would I recommend any extraordinary
vigilance or great industry in seeking even just occasions for collision.
It will suffice to do what is right when the occasion comes into their
way. I cannot doubt the expediency of getting the instruments recommended
by Mr. Patterson, and of the best kind, _if they can be got in England_,
because I almost know they cannot be made _in any other country_ equally
good, and I should be quite averse to getting those which should not be
perfect.
May we not at once appoint the republican candidate for the collectorship
of Snow-hill? Affectionate salutations.
TO THE SECRETARY AT WAR.
WASHINGTON, October 17, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--I forwarded to Mr. Smith, Secretary of the Navy, an extract
of so much of my letter to you of August 31st, as suggested the idea of
artificial harbors for gun-boats, on the horse-shoe and middle grounds,
with a view to his having their formation examined, to know if they
would support works, and their distance ascertained, to know what would
be their effect. The objects were, 1, to provide an asylum on the shoals
for gun-boats against weather and ships of war, and 2, to prevent ships
lying within the capes. I enclose you the opinion of Captain Porter,
according to which, without thinking of attempting works so difficult and
doubtful, both ends will be answered by a work at Lynhaven river, where
the shoals are extensive enough to keep off ships of war, and the river
sufficiently capacious to receive all the gun-boats. He thinks a work at
Point Comfort might also be useful. I send you his draught, which, being
merely an enlargement from More's map on a very minute scale, is not to
be much depended on; and considering the extent of country that point is
to defend, I recommend it to your consideration, as one of our important
objects. Affectionate salutations.
TO GOVERNOR SULLIVAN.
WASHINGTON, October 18, 1807.
SIR,--I have duly received your favor of the 8th inst., covering, at
the request of the general court of Massachusetts, a memorial to the
Senate and House of Representatives of the United States, on behalf of
Benjamin Hichborn and others, with a desire that I would communicate and
recommend the same to both Houses of Congress. I should avail myself with
particular pleasure of every occasion of doing what would be acceptable
to the legislative and executive authorities of Massachusetts, and
which should be within the limits of my functions. The Executive of the
Union is, indeed, by the Constitution, made the channel of communication
between _foreign_ powers and the United States. But citizens, whether
individually, or in bodies corporate, or associated, have a right to
apply directly to any department of their government, whether legislative,
executive, or judiciary, the exercise of whose powers they have a right
to claim; and neither of these can regularly offer its intervention in a
case belonging to the other. The communication and recommendation by me
to Congress of the memorial you have been pleased to enclose me, would
be an innovation, not authorized by the practice of our government, and
therefore the less likely to add to its weight or effect. Thus restrained
from serving you in the exact way desired, I have thought I could not
better do it than by a prompt return of the papers, that no time might
be lost in transmitting them through the accustomary channels of your
Senators and Representatives in Congress; and I avail myself of the
occasion of assuring you of my very high respect and consideration.
TO DOCTOR BARTON.
WASHINGTON, October 18, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--I received last night a diploma from the Linnæan Society of
Philadelphia, doing me the honor of associating me to their body. I pray
you to do me the favor of assuring the society of my sensibility for
this mark of their notice, and of my thanks. Sincerely associated with
the friends of science, in spirit and inclination, I regret the constant
occupations of a different kind, which put out of my power the proper
co-operations with them, had I otherwise the talents for them. I shall
gladly embrace any occasion which can be offered of being useful to the
society, as a mark of my acknowledgments for their favors, with my thanks
for the copy of your discourse, enclosed at the same time. I pray you
to receive my friendly salutations, and assurances of great respect and
esteem.
TO JAMES GAMBLE, ESQ.
WASHINGTON, October 21, 1807.
SIR,--Your favor of the 17th has been duly received. I have long seen,
and with very great regret, the schisms which have taken place among the
republicans, and principally those of Pennsylvania and New York. As far as
I have been able to judge, they have not been produced by any difference
of political principle,--at least, any important difference, but by a
difference of opinion as to persons. I determined from the first moment
to take no part in them, and that the government should know nothing of
any such differences. Accordingly, it has never been attended to in any
appointment, or refusal of appointment. General Shee's personal merit,
universally acknowledged, was the cause of his appointment as Indian
Superintendent, and a subsequent discovery that his removal to this
place (the indispensable residence of that officer), would be peculiarly
unpleasant to him suggested his translation to another office, to solve
the double difficulty. Rarely reading the controversial pieces between
the different sections of republicans, I have not seen the piece in the
Aurora, to which you allude; but I may with truth assure you, that no
fact has come to my knowledge which has ever induced any doubt of your
continued attachment to the true principles of republican government. I
am thankful for the favorable sentiments you are so kind as to express
towards me personally, and trust that an uniform pursuit of the principles
and conduct which have procured, will continue to me an approbation, which
I highly value.
I salute you with great esteem and respect.
TO GOVERNOR CABELL.
WASHINGTON, October 25, 1807.
SIR,--Your letters of the 21st and 22d are received, and I now return
Captain Read's of the 18th. We conclude it unnecessary to call for another
corps of militia, to relieve that now in service at Lynhaven. General
Dearborn will write, and give the necessary directions for discharging,
paying, &c. I suspect the departure of the British armed vessels from our
waters, is in consequence of orders from their government to respect the
proclamation. If Congress should approve our ideas of defensive works for
the several harbors of the United States, there will be a regular fort at
the mouth of Lynhaven river, to protect such a number of gun-boats to be
stationed there as will, in case of war, render it too dangerous to any
armed vessel to enter the bay; and thus to protect the bay and all its
waters at its mouth. I salute you with great esteem and respect.
TO THE SECRETARY AT WAR.
WASHINGTON, October 27, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--I have reflected on the case of the embodying of the militia
in Ohio, and think the respect we owe to the State may overweigh the
disapprobation so justly due to the conduct of their Governor pro tem.
They certainly had great merit, and have acquired a very general favor
through the Union, for the early and vigorous blows by which they crushed
the insurrection of Burr. We have now again to appeal to their patriotism
and public spirit in the same case; and should there be war, they are
our bulwark in the most prominent point of assault from the Indians.
Their good will and affection, therefore, should be conciliated by
all justifiable means. If we suffer the question of paying the militia
embodied to be thrown on their Legislature, it will excite acrimonious
debate in that body, and they will spread the same dissatisfaction among
their constituents, and finally it will be forced back on us through
Congress. Would it not, therefore, be better to say to Mr. Kirker, that
the general government is fully aware that emergencies which appertain to
them will sometimes arise so suddenly as not to give time for consulting
them, before the State must get into action; that the expenses in
such cases, incurred on reasonable grounds, will be met by the general
government; and that in the present case, although it appears there was
no real ground for embodying the militia, and that more certain measures
for ascertaining the truth should have been taken before embodying them,
yet an unwillingness to damp the public spirit of your countrymen, and
the justice due to the individuals who came forward in defence of their
country, and who could not know the grounds on which they were called,
have determined us to consider the call as justifiable, and to defray
the expenses. This is submitted to you for consideration. Affectionate
salutations.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
October 28, 1807.
I think there is nothing in the former regulations of the Salines which
hindered merchants or others of the country round about, far or near,
from purchasing salt at the Salines, at the stated price, and carrying
and vending it elsewhere at their own price; and it was naturally to be
expected that competition would in this way reduce it to a proper price
wherever sold. If this had taken place, it would have been desirable
that the lessees should not have engaged in it, because as the price at a
distance must add some profit to the transportation and first cost, this
profit might have induced the lessees to sell reluctantly on the spot. As
the merchants, however, have not entered into this business, I think it
would be well to let the lessees begin it, leaving them open to the effect
of future competition; subjecting them to a maximum as they themselves
propose, and to have the permission revoked if they obstruct sales at the
Salines, or otherwise abuse the permission. I return you their letter.
I return you, also, the papers respecting the lead mines, and think with
you that one-fifth for the three last years is not unreasonable.
I propose to inform Mr. Moore (if you know of no objection,) that I
approve his proposition for cutting the whole road from Cumberland to
Brownsville. We shall by this means secure, at any rate, the benefit of
their location, which will of itself have occasioned considerable expense.
Affectionate salutations.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
October 31, 1807.
The rent we proposed for the Indiana lead mine was two-tenths of
three years' produce=six-tenths of one year's produce for five years'
occupation: and one-tenth of five year's produce=five-tenths of one year's
produce for five years' occupation, is the option you propose. There can
be but one objection to it, that is, the effect which a rent of one-tenth
annually might have in lowering the future rents permanently. From the
Louisiana standing rent of one-tenth, and the offer of one-tenth for the
Indiana mine, I suspect that one-fifth may be too much for a permanent
rent. What would you think of continuing the offer of two years free of
rent, and one-eighth of the _metal_ afterwards? I think the most important
object for the public is to find what rent the tenant can pay and still
have an encouraging profit for himself, and to obtain that rent. However,
I suggest this merely for your consideration.
I have written to Mr. Moore on the subject of the road. Whom shall we
appoint in the room of Kilgore. I have conversed with Morrar, but have had
no opportunity of speaking with Governor Tiffin. Affectionate salutations.
TO GOVERNOR CABELL.
WASHINGTON, November 1, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--Your late letters have been regularly referred to the Secretary
at War, who has already answered their several enquiries, or will do it
immediately. I am inclined to believe that the departure of the British
vessels from our waters must be in consequence of orders from England to
respect the authorities of the country. Within about a fortnight we think
we may expect answers from England which will decide whether this cloud is
to issue in a storm or calm. Here we are pacifically inclined, if anything
comes which will permit us to follow our inclinations. But whether we have
peace or war, I think the present Legislature will authorize a complete
system of defensive works, on such a scale as they think they ought to
adopt. The state of our finances now permits this. To defensive works by
land they will probably add a considerable enlargement of the force in
gun-boats. A combination of these, will, I think, enable us to defend the
Chesapeake at its mouth, and save the vast line of preparation which the
defence of all its interior waters would otherwise require. I salute you
with great esteem and respect.
TO GOVERNOR WILLIAMS.
WASHINGTON, November 1, 1807.
SIR,--I have duly received your letter of August 25th, in which you
express a wish that the letters received from you may be acknowledged,
in order to ascertain their safe transmission. Those received the present
year have been of March 14, May 11, and 30, June 8, July 3, August 12, and
25. They have not been before acknowledged in conformity with a practice
which the constant pressure of business has forced me to follow, of not
answering letters which do not necessarily require it. I have seen with
regret, the violence of the dissensions in your quarter. We have the same
in the territories of Louisiana and Michigan. It seems that the smaller
the society the bitterer the dissensions into which it breaks. Perhaps
this observation answers all the objections drawn by Mr. Adams from the
small republics of Italy. I believe ours is to owe its permanence to its
great extent, and the smaller portion comparatively, which can ever be
convulsed at one time by local passions. We expect shortly now to hear
from England, and to know how the present cloud is to terminate. We
are all pacifically inclined here, if anything comes from thence which
will permit us to follow our inclinations. I salute you with esteem and
respect.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
November 8, 1807.
I will sign a proclamation for the sale of the lands northwest of Ohio,
whenever you think proper. I believe the form is in your office, and in
the course of this week we will agree on the officers.
I am afraid we know too little as yet of the lead mines to establish a
permanent system. I verily believe that of leasing will be far the best
for the United States. But it will take time to find out what rent may be
reserved, so as to enable the lessee to compete with those who work mines
in their own right, and yet have an encouraging profit for themselves.
Having on the spot two such men as Lewis and Bates, in whose integrity
and prudence unlimited confidence may be placed, would it not be best
to confide to them the whole business of leasing and regulating the
management of our interests, recommending to them short leases, at first,
till themselves shall become thoroughly acquainted with the subject, and
shall be able to reduce the management to a system, which the government
may then approve and adhere to. I think one article of it should be that
the rent shall be paid in metal, not in mineral, so that we may have
nothing to do with works which will always be mismanaged, and reduce
our concern to a simple rent. We shall lose more by ill-managed smelting
works than the digging the ore is worth. Then it would be better that our
ore remained in the earth than in a storehouse, and consequently we give
nine-tenths of the ore for nothing. These thoughts are merely for your
consideration. Affectionate salutations.
TO MR. SHORT.
WASHINGTON, November 15, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--Yours of the 6th has been duly received. On the subject
of your location for the winter, it is impossible in my view of it,
to doubt on the preference which should be given to this place. Under
any circumstances it could not but be satisfactory to you to acquire
an intimate knowledge of our political machine, not merely of its
organization, but the individuals and characters composing it, their
general mode of thinking, and of acting openly and secretly. Of all this
you can learn no more at Philadelphia than of a diet of the empire. None
but an eye-witness can really understand it, and it is quite as important
to be known to them, and to obtain a certain degree of their confidence in
your own right. In a government like ours, the standing of a man well with
this portion of the public must weigh against a considerable difference
of other qualifications. Your quarters here may not perhaps be quite as
comfortable as at Philadelphia. There is a good house half-way between
this and the Treasury, where General Dearborne, Mr. and Mrs. Cutts, board
together. I do not know if there is a vacancy in it, but there are houses
all along the avenue, convenient to the Capitol, and to this house also,
to come and take your soup with us every day, when not otherwise engaged.
Our affairs with Spain laid dormant during the absence of Bonaparte from
Paris, because we know Spain would do nothing towards settling them, but
by compulsion. Immediately on his return, our terms were stated to him,
and his interposition obtained. If it was with good faith, its effect
will be instantaneous; if not with good faith, we shall discover it by
affected delays, and must decide accordingly. I think a few weeks will
clear up this matter. With England, all is uncertain. The late stuff by
Captain Doane, is merely a counterbalance for the stuff we had a week
before of a contrary aspect. Those dialogues they put into the mouths
of the ministers were not likely to be communicated to the newswriters,
and they are founded on a falsehood within my knowledge, not that I have
confidence with an amicable arrangement with England; but I have not the
less on account of this information. One circumstance only in it, I view
as very possible, that she may by proclamation forbid all commerce with
her enemies, which is equivalent to forbidding it with any nation but
herself. As her commerce could not be accepted on such terms, this will be
as much of a war as she could wage if she were to declare war, for she can
wage only a maritime war with us. In such a case we could not let the war
be all on one side but must certainly endeavor at as much indemnification
as we could take. If we have war with her, we shall need no loan the
first year, a domestic loan only the second year, but after that, foreign
loans. The moment the war is decided, we shall think it necessary to take
measures to insure these by the time they are wanted, and your management
of this kind of business, formerly, is known to have been so advantageous,
that we should certainly wish to avail ourselves of your services, if they
can be obtained conformably to our joint views. But nothing specific can
be said until the denouement of our present situation. No inference can
be drawn from Monroe's return, (which I dare say will be by the Revenge,)
because his return this autumn had been earnestly solicited by him, and
agreed to by us. The classification of our militia will be again proposed,
on a better plan, and with more probable success. With respect to General
Moreau, no one entertains a more cordial esteem for his character than I
do, and although our relations with France have rendered it a duty in me
not to seek any public manifestation of it, yet were accident to bring us
together, I could not be so much wanting to my own sentiments and those of
my constituents individually, as to omit a cordial manifestation of it.
* * * * *
TO MR. JAMES PEMBERTON.
WASHINGTON, November 16, 1807.
SIR,--Your favor of October 31st has been duly received, and I thank
you for the communication of the report of the Committee of Friends.
It gives me great satisfaction to see that we are likely to render our
Indian neighbors happier in themselves and well affected to us; that
the measures we are pursuing are prescribed equally by our duty to
them, and by the good of our own country. It is a proof the more of the
indissoluble alliance between our duties and interest, which if ever
they appear to lead in opposite directions, we may be assured it is
from our own defective views. It is evident that your society has begun
at the right end for civilizing these people. Habits of industry, easy
subsistence, attachment to property, are necessary to prepare their
minds for the first elements of science, and afterwards for moral and
religious instruction. To begin with the last has ever ended either in
effecting nothing, or ingrafting bigotry on ignorance, and setting them to
tomahawking and burning old women and others as witches, of which we have
seen a commencement among them. There are two circumstances which have
enabled us to advance the southern tribes faster than the northern; 1,
they are larger, and the agents and instructors therefore can extend their
instruction and influence over a much larger surface; 2, the southern
tribes can raise cotton, and immediately enter on the process of spinning
and weaving, so as to clothe themselves without resorting to the chase.
The northern tribes cannot cultivate cotton, nor can they supply its want
by raising sheep, because of the number of wolves. I see not how they are
to clothe themselves till they shall have destroyed these animals, which
will be a work of time. They should make this one of the principal objects
of their hunts. I salute you with great esteem and respect.
TO DANIEL ECCLESTON, ESQUIRE.
WASHINGTON, November 21, 1807.
SIR,--I received on the 22d ult. your favor of May 20th, with the medals
accompanying it, through the channel of my friend and ancient class-mate,
Mr. Manning, of Liverpool. That our own nation should entertain sentiments
of gratitude and reverence for the great character who is the subject
of your medallion, is a matter of duty. His disinterested and valuable
services to them have rendered it so; but such a monument to his memory by
the member of another community, proves a zeal for virtue in the abstract,
honorable to him who inscribes it, as to him whom it commemorates. In
returning you my individual thanks for the one destined for myself, I
should perform but a part of my duty were I not to add an assurance that
this testimonial in favor of the first worthy of our country will be
grateful to the feelings of our citizens generally.
I immediately forwarded the two other medals and the letter to Judge
Washington, with a request that he would hand one of them to Chief Justice
Marshall. I salute you with great respect.
TO MR. MAURY.
WASHINGTON, November 21, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--Your favor of July 21st came to hand October 22d, with the
letters and medals of General Washington, from Mr. Eccleston, and I now
take the liberty of enclosing through you my acknowledgments to him. This
tribute of respect to the first worthy of our country, is honorable to him
who renders as to him who is the subject of it.
The world, as you justly observe, is truly in an awful state. Two nations
of overgrown power are endeavoring to establish, the one an universal
dominion by sea, the other by land. We naturally fear that which comes
into immediate contact with us, leaving remoter dangers to the chapter of
accidents. We are now in hourly expectation of hearing from our ministers
in London, by the return of the Revenge. Whether she will bring us war or
peace, or the middle state of non-intercourse, seems suspended in equal
balance. With every wish for peace, permitted by the circumstances forced
upon us, we look to war as equally probable. The crops of the present year
have been great beyond example. The wheat sown for the ensuing year is in
a great measure destroyed by the drought and the fly. A favorable winter
and spring sometimes do wonders towards recovering unpromising grain; but
nothing can make the next crop of wheat a good one.
The present aspect of our foreign relations has encouraged here a
general spirit of encouragement to domestic manufacture. The Merino
breed of sheep is well established with us, and fine samples of cloth
are sent on from the north. Considerable manufactures of cotton are also
commencing. Philadelphia, particularly, is becoming more manufacturing
than commercial. I have heard nothing lately from your friends in
Albemarle; but if all had not been well with them, I should have heard of
it. I tender you my affectionate salutations, and assurances of constant
friendship and respect.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
November 22, 1807.
The defence of Orleans against a land army can never be provided for,
according to the principles of the Constitution, till we can get a
sufficient militia here. I think therefore to get the enclosed bill
brought forward again. Will you be so good as to make any alterations in
it which the present state of the surveys may have rendered necessary, and
any others you shall think for the better?
TO COLONEL MINOR.
WASHINGTON, November 25, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--Your favor of the 23d came to hand last night, and I thank
you for your attention to the letter to Mrs. Dangerfield, whose answer I
have received. Perceiving that you are rendered unquiet by the impudent
falsehoods with which the newspapers have tormented the public feelings
lately, in a moment of extraordinary anxiety, I must assure you that these
articles are all demonstrably false, that is to say, the information of
about three or four weeks ago that the ministers on both sides had given
out that all things were amicably arranged. That which followed a week
after assuring us all negotiation was at an end, and war inevitable,
that is to say, Capt. Doane's news, and what followed a few days ago
of Bonaparte's pretended answer to queries, extending his decree to
us, coming via Antwerp and Bordeaux. It is believed that the last was
fabricated in Boston, to counteract the war-news from England there
afloat. I have no doubt Monroe is coming home, and that he, as well as
the Revenge, may be expected about the last of the month; and I think it
possible he may be the bearer of propositions for a middle ground between
us, modifying what we have deemed indispensable; consequently that there
will be time still employed in these things crossing and re-crossing the
Atlantic, during which peace may take place in Europe, which of course
removes all ground of dispute between us till another war. As to the
Chesapeake, there is no doubt they will make satisfaction of some sort.
This is my present idea of the present state of things with that country,
but founded as you will perceive on possibilities only and conjectures,
which one week may ascertain. I salute you with great friendship and
respect.
TO MR. FULTON.
December 10, 1807.
Thomas Jefferson presents Mr. Fulton his thanks for the communication of
his Memoir, which he has read with great satisfaction, and now returns.
There is nothing in it but what will contribute to the promotion of its
great object; and some of the calculations will have a very powerful
effect. He salutes him with esteem and respect.
TO MR. BARLOW.
WASHINGTON, December 10, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--I return you Mr. Law's letter, with thanks for the
communication. I wish he may be a true prophet as to peace in six
months. It is impossible that any other man should wish it as much as
I do; although duty may control that wish. The desire of peace is very
much strengthened in me by that which I feel in favor of the great
subjects of yours and Mr. Fulton's letters. I had fondly hoped to set
those enterprizes into motion with the last legislature I shall meet.
But the chance of war is an unfortunate check. I do not however despair
that the proposition of amendment may be sent down this session to the
legislatures. But it is not certain. There is a snail-paced gate for the
advance of new ideas on the general mind, under which we must acquiesce.
A forty years' experience of popular assemblies has taught me, that you
must give them time for every step you take. If too hard pushed, they
baulk, and the machine retrogrades. I doubt whether precedence will be
given to your part of the plan before Mr. Fulton's. People generally have
more feeling for canals and roads than education. However, I hope we can
advance them with equal pace. If the amendment is sent out this session,
returned to the next, and no war takes place, we may offer the plan to the
next session in the form of a bill, the preparation of which should be the
work of the ensuing summer. I salute you affectionately.
TO GENERAL JOHN MASON.
Although the decree of the French government of November 21st
comprehended, in its literal terms, the commerce of the United States,
yet the prompt explanation by one of the ministers of that government
that it was not so understood, and that our treaty would be respected,
the practice which took place in the French ports conformably with that
explanation, and the recent interference of that government to procure
in Spain a similar construction of a similar decree there, had given
well-founded expectation that it would not be extended to us; and this was
much strengthened by the consideration of their obvious interests. But the
information from our minister at Paris now communicated to Congress is,
that it is determined to extend the effect of that decree to us; and it
is probable that Spain and the other Atlantic and Mediterranean States of
Europe will co-operate in the same measure. The British regulations had
before reduced us to a direct voyage to a single port of their enemies,
and it is now believed they will interdict all commerce whatever with
them. A proclamation too of that government (not officially, indeed,
communicated to us, yet so given out to the public as to become a rule of
action with them,) seems to have shut the door on all negotiation with us,
except as to the single aggression on the Chesapeake.
The sum of these mutual enterprises on our national rights is that France,
and her allies, reserving for further consideration the prohibiting our
carrying anything to the British territories, have virtually done it,
by restraining our bringing a return cargo from them; and Great Britain,
after prohibiting a great proposition of our commerce with France and her
allies, is now believed to have prohibited the whole. The whole world is
thus laid under interdict by these two nations, and our vessels, their
cargoes and crews, are to be taken by the one or the other, for whatever
place they may be destined, out of our own limits. If, therefore, on
leaving our harbors we are certainly to lose them, is it not better, as to
vessels, cargoes, and seamen, to keep them at home? This is submitted to
the wisdom of Congress, who alone are competent to provide a remedy.
TO DOCTOR WISTAR.
WASHINGTON, December 19, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--I have never known to what family you ascribed the Wild Sheep,
or Fleecy Goat, as Governor Lewis called it, or the _Potio-trajos_, if
its name must be Greek. He gave me a skin, but I know he carried a more
perfect one, with the horns on, to Mr. Peale; and if I recollect well
those horns, they, with the fleece, would induce one to suspect it to be
the Lama, or at least a _Lamæ affinis_. I will thank you to inform me what
you determine it to be.
I have lately received a letter from General Clarke. He has employed
ten laborers several weeks, at the Big-bone Lick, and has shipped the
result, in three large boxes, down the Ohio, via New Orleans, for this
place, where they are daily expected. He has sent, 1st, of the Mammoth,
as he calls it, frontals, jaw-bones, tusks, teeth, ribs, a thigh, and
a leg, and some bones of the paw; 2d, of what he calls the Elephant, a
jaw-bone, tusks, teeth, ribs; 3d, of something of the Buffalo species, a
head and some other bones unknown. My intention, in having this research
thoroughly made, was to procure for the society as complete a supplement
to what is already possessed as that lick can furnish at this day, and
to serve them first with whatever they wish to possess of it. There is a
tusk and a femur which General Clarke procured particularly at my request,
for a special kind of Cabinet I have at Monticello. But the great mass of
the collection are mere duplicates of what you possess at Philadelphia,
of which I would wish to make a donation to the National Institute of
France, which I believe has scarcely any specimens of the remains of these
animals. But how to make the selection without the danger of sending away
something which might be useful to our own society? Indeed, my friend,
you must give a week to this object. You cannot but have some wish to
see Washington for its site, and some of its edifices, which will give
you pleasure. You will see one room especially, to which Europe can show
nothing superior. Baltimore, too, is an object. Take your lodgings at the
tavern close by us. Mess with me every day, and in the intervals of your
perlustrations of the city, Navy Yard, Capitol, &c., examine these bones,
and set apart what you would wish for the society. I will give you notice
when they arrive here, and then you will select a time when you can best
absent yourself for a week from Philadelphia. I hope you will not deny us
this great service, and I salute you with friendship and respect.
TO GEN. WILLIAM CLARKE.
WASHINGTON, December 19, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--I have duly received your two favors of September 20th, and
November 10th, and am greatly obliged, indeed, by the trouble you have
been so good as to take in procuring for me as thorough a supplement to
the bones of the Mammoth as can now be had. I expect daily to receive your
bill for all the expenses, which shall be honored with thanks.
The collection you have made is so considerable that it has suggested an
idea I had not before. I see that after taking out for the Philosophical
Society everything they shall desire, there will remain such a collection
of duplicates as will be a grateful offering from me to the National
Institute of France, for whom I am bound to do something. But in order to
make it more considerable, I find myself obliged to ask the addition of
those which you say you have deposited with your brother at Clarkesville,
such as ribs, backbones, leg bones, thigh, ham hips, shoulder-blades,
parts of the upper and under jaw, teeth of the Mammoth and Elephant, and
parts of the Mammoth tusks, to be forwarded hereafter, if necessary.
I avail myself of these last words to ask that they may packed and
forwarded to me by the way of New Orleans, as the others have been. I do
this with the less hesitation, knowing these things can be of little value
to yourself or brother, so much in the way of furnishing yourselves, if
desired, and because I know they will be so acceptable to an institution
to which, as a member, I wish to be of some use. I salute you with great
friendship and respect.
TO GENERAL GEORGE ROGERS CLARKE.
WASHINGTON, December 19, 1807.
DEAR GENERAL,--As I think it probable your brother will have left you
before the enclosed comes to hand, I have left it open, and request you to
read it, and do for me what it asks of him, and what he will do should he
still be with you, that is to say to have the bones packed and forwarded
for me to William Brown, collector at New Orleans, who will send them on
to me.
I avail myself of this occasion of recalling myself to your memory, and
of assuring you that time has not lessened my friendship for you. We are
both now grown old. You have been enjoying in retirement the recollections
of the services you have rendered your country, and I am about to retire
without an equal consciousness that I have not occupied places in which
others would have done more good. But in all places and times I shall wish
you every happiness, and salute you with great friendship and esteem.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
December 24, 1807.
I think there should certainly be an inquiry into the conduct of Taylor
of Ceracock, the charges being specified, of the most serious nature, and
offered to be proved.
We might take a conveyance of the lands at Tarpaulin cove, of an estate,
to continue _so long as a light-house should be kept upon it, and used
as a light-house_. It would not be a fee simple, but what the lawyers
call a _base fee_. But it would be a bad example, and we should have all
proprietors hereafter insisting on the same thing. It is better they
should trust to the liberality of the United States, in giving them a
pre-emption if the light-house be discontinued. It will be better to add
to the absolute conveyance, such restriction of right as we consent to,
to wit, that there shall be no tavern, &c., than attempt to enumerate the
rights we may exercise,--_e. g._, that we may keep cows, cultivate, &c.
I approve entirely the idea of conveying to the city of New Orleans the
rights of the United States in the Batture, lately claimed by that city,
and to all other Riparian possessors on the Mississippi all alluvions,
and all atterisements, or shoals, left uncovered at low water, saving
to navigators the right of landing, unloading, &c. But providing that
the claim to the Batture given to the city, should be decided by special
commissioners to whom the evidence and arguments in writing shall be sent,
without any necessity of their going there.
Should not a bill be immediately proposed for amending the embargo law? In
the meantime the revenue cutters and armed vessels must use force.
Cockle's bonds are certainly good set-offs against his Louisiana bills,
and ought so to be used to save his sureties.
I am glad to find we have 4,000,000 acres west of Chafalaya. How much
better to have every 160 acres settled by an able-bodied militia man, than
by purchasers with their hordes of negroes, to add weakness instead of
strength. Affectionate salutations.
TO THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
WASHINGTON, December 26, 1807.
DEAR SIR,--I return you the letters you were so kind as to communicate
to me, on the appointment of Dr. Waterhouse to the care of the marine
hospital. When he was decided on (November 26th), no other candidate had
been named to me as desiring the place.
The respectable recommendations I had received, and his station as
professor of medicine in a college of high reputation, sufficiently
warranted his abilities as a physician, and to these was added a fact
well known, that, to his zeal, the United States were indebted for the
introduction of a great blessing,--vaccination, which has extirpated one
of the most loathsome and mortal diseases which has afflicted humanity
some years, probably, sooner than would otherwise have taken place. It was
a pleasure, therefore, as well as a duty, in dispensing the public favors,
to make this small return for the great service rendered our country by
Dr. Waterhouse.
That he is not a professional _surgeon_ is not an objection. The marine
hospitals are medical institutions, for the relief of common seamen,
and the ordinary diseases to which they are liable. To them, therefore,
professional _physicians_ have always been appointed.
A surgeon is named to the navy hospital. The surgeon will have medical
cases under him, and the physician some surgical cases; but not in
sufficient proportion to change the characters of the institutions, or of
the persons to whom they are committed.
On a review of the subject, therefore, I have no reason to doubt that
the person appointed will perform the services of the marine hospital
with ability and faithfulness; and I feel a satisfaction in having
done something towards discharging a moral obligation of the nation, to
one who has saved so many of its victims from a mortal disease. Nor is
it unimportant to the State in which that institution is, that it has
extended his means of usefulness to the medical students of its college.
I am thankful now, as at all times, for information on the subject of
appointments, even when it comes too late to be used. I know none but
public motives in making them. It is more difficult and more painful than
all the other duties of my office, and one in which I am sufficiently
conscious that involuntary error must often be committed; and I am
particularly thankful to yourself for this opportunity of explaining
the grounds of the appointment in question; and I tender you sincere
assurances of my affectionate esteem and respect.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
WASHINGTON, December 29, 1807.
It is impossible to detest more than I do the fraudulent and injurious
practice of covering foreign vessels and cargoes under the American flag;
and I sincerely wish a systematic and severe course of punishment could be
established. It is only as a punishment of this fraud, that we could deny
to the Portuguese vessel the liberty of departing. But I do not know that
a solitary and accidental instance of punishment would have any effect.
The vessel is _bonâ fide_ Portuguese, the crew Portuguese, loaded with
provisions for Portugal, an unoffending and friendly country, to whom we
wish no ill. I have not sufficiently considered the embargo act, to say
how far the executive is at liberty to decide on these cases. But if we
are free to do it, I should be much disposed to take back her American
papers, and let her go, especially on giving bond and security to land the
cargo in Portugal, dangers of the sea and superior force excepted. Perhaps
it would be proper to require the captain to give up also his certificate
of citizenship, which is also merely fraudulent, has been the ground of
fraudulent conversion, and may be used on the voyage as a fraudulent cover
to the cargo. Affectionate salutations.
TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON, ESQ.
WASHINGTON, January 3, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--Your favor of December 20th has been received. The copy of
the late volume of Agricultural Proceedings is not yet at hand, but will
probably come safe. I had formerly received the preceding volumes from
your kindness, as you supposed. Writings on this subject are peculiarly
pleasing to me, for, as they tell us, we are sprung from the earth, so
to that we naturally return. It is now among my most fervent longings
to be on my farm, which, with a garden and fruitery, will constitute my
principal occupation in retirement. I have lately received the proceedings
of the Agricultural Society of Paris. They are proceeding with enthusiasm
and understanding. I have been surprised to find that the rotation of
crops and substitution of some profitable growth preparatory for grain,
instead of the useless and expensive fallow, is yet only dawning among
them. The society has lately re-published Oliver de Serres' Theatre
d'Agriculture, in 2 vols. 4to, although written in the reign of * * * * *
It is the finest body of agriculture extant, and especially as improved
by voluminous notes, which bring its process to the present day. I lately
received from Colonel Few in New York, a bottle of the oil of Beni,
believed to be a sesamum. I did not believe there existed so perfect a
substitute for olive oil. Like that of Florence, it has no taste, and is
perhaps rather more limpid. A bushel of seed yields three gallons of oil;
and Governor Milledge, of Georgia, says the plant will grow wherever the
Palmi Christi will. It is worth your attention, and you can probably get
seed from Colonel Few. We are in hourly expectation of Mr. Rose here, in
the hope of seeing what turn our differences with that nation are to take.
As yet all is doubtful. Accept my friendly salutations, and assurances of
great esteem and respect.
TO DOCTOR RUSH.
WASHINGTON, January 3, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--Dr. Waterhouse has been appointed to the Marine Hospital of
Boston, as you wished. It was a just though small return for his merit,
in introducing the vaccination earlier than we should have had it. His
appointment there makes some noise there and here, being unacceptable to
some; but I believe that schismatic divisions in the medical fraternity
are at the bottom of it. My usage is to make the best appointment my
information and judgment enable me to do, and then fold myself up in the
mantle of conscience, and abide unmoved the peltings of the storm. And oh!
for the day when I shall be withdrawn from it; when I shall have leisure
to enjoy my family, my friends, my farm and books!
In the ensuing autumn, I shall be sending on to Philadelphia a grandson of
about fifteen years of age, to whom I shall ask your friendly attentions.
Without that bright fancy which captivates, I am in hopes he possesses
sound judgment and much observation; and, what I value more than all
things, good humor. For thus I estimate the qualities of the mind; 1, good
humor, 2, integrity; 3, industry; 4, science. The preference of the first
to the second quality may not at first be acquiesced in; but certainly we
had all rather associate with a good-humored, light-principled man, than
with an ill tempered rigorist in morality.
We are here in hourly expectation of seeing Mr. Rose, and of knowing
what turn his mission is to give to our present differences. The embargo
is salutary. It postpones war, gives time and the benefits of events
which that may produce; particularly that of peace in Europe, which will
postpone the causes of difference to the next war. I salute you with great
affection and respect.
TO JOHN TAYLOR, ESQ.
WASHINGTON, January 6, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--Your ingenious friend, Mr. Martin, formerly made for me a drill
of very fine construction. I am now very desirous of sending one of them
to the Agricultural Society of Paris, with whom I am in correspondence,
and who are sending me a plough supposed to be of the best construction
ever known. On trial with their best ploughs, by a dynamometer, it is
drawn by from one-half to two-thirds of the force requisite to their best
former ploughs. Will you be so good as to get Mr. Martin to make me one
of his best drills, sparing no pains to make the workmanship worthy of the
object, to pack it in a box, and contrive it for me to Fredericksburg. The
cost shall be remitted him as soon as known. I see by the agricultural
transactions of the Paris Society, they are cultivating the Jerusalem
artichoke for feeding their animals. They make 10,000 lb. to the acre,
which they say is three times as much as they generally make of the
potatoe. The African Negroes brought over to Georgia a seed which they
called benn, and the botanists sesamum. I lately received a bottle of the
oil, which was eaten with sallad by various companies. All agree it is
equal to the olive oil. A bushel of seed yields three gallons of oil. I
propose to cultivate it for my own use at least. The embargo keeping at
home our vessels, cargoes and seamen, saves us the necessity of making
their capture the cause of immediate war; for, if going to England, France
had determined to take them, if to any other place, England was to take
them. Till they return to some sense of moral duty, therefore, we keep
within ourselves. This gives time. Time may produce peace in Europe; peace
in Europe removes all causes of difference, till another European war; and
by that time our debt may be paid, our revenues clear, and our strength
increased.
I salute you with great friendship and respect.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
January 7, 1808.
I think with you that the establishment of posts of delivery at Green Bay
and Chicago, would only furnish pretexts for not entering at Mackinac;
and that a new post at the falls of St. Mary's, requiring a military post
to be established there, would not quit cost, nor is this a time to be
multiplying small establishments.
The collector should have his eye on the schooner Friends on her return,
and though proof may be difficult, harass them with a prosecution.
I see nothing in the case of the Swedish captain which can produce doubt.
The law is plain that a foreign vessel may go with the load she had on
board and no more. The exception as to vessels under the President's
direction, can only be meant to embrace governmental cases, such as advice
vessels, such as permitting foreign seamen to be shipped to their own
country.
With respect to the Four Brothers, I know not what can be done, unless the
amendatory law would authorize the collector to detain on circumstances
of strong suspicion, until he can refer the case here, and give a power to
detain finally on such grounds.
Have you thought of the Indian drawback? The Indians can be kept in order
only by commerce or war. The former is the cheapest. Unless we can induce
individuals to employ their capital in that trade, it will require an
enormous sum of capital from the public treasury, and it will be badly
managed. A drawback for four or five years is the cheapest way of getting
that business off our hands. Affectionate salutations.
TO MR. SMITH.
January 7, 1808.
Proceeding as we are to an extensive construction of gun-boats, there are
many circumstances to be considered and agreed on, viz.:
1. How many shall we build? for the debate lately published proves clearly
it was not expected we should build the whole number proposed.
2. Of what size, and how many of each size?
3. What weight of metal shall each size carry? shall carronades be added?
4. Is it not best, as they will not be seasoned, to leave them unsealed
awhile?
5. Where shall they be built, and when required to be in readiness?
6. As a small proportion only will be kept afloat, in time of peace, the
_safe_ and _convenient_ depositories for those laid up should be inquired
into and agreed on, and sheds erected under which they may be covered from
the sun and rain.
7. To economize the navy funds of the ensuing year, we should determine
how many of the boats now in service ought to be kept in each, and for how
many we will depend on the seaport in case of attack.
The first of these subjects may require a general consultation, and
perhaps the 7th also. The others are matters of detail which may be
determined on between you and myself. I shall be ready to consult with you
on them at your convenience. Affectionate salutations.
TO THE SECRETARY AT WAR.
WASHINGTON, January 8, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--Your letter of December 29th brings to my mind a subject which
never has presented itself but with great pain, that of your withdrawing
from the administration, before I withdraw myself. It would have been
to me the greatest of consolations to have gone through my term with the
same coadjutors, and to have shared with them the merit, or demerit, of
whatever good or evil we may have done. The integrity, attention, skill,
and economy with which you have conducted your department, have given
me the most complete and unqualified satisfaction, and this testimony I
bear to it with all the sincerity of truth and friendship; and should a
war come on, there is no person in the United States to whose management
and care I could commit it with equal confidence. That you as well
as myself, and all our brethren, have maligners, who from ill-temper,
or disappointment, seek opportunities of venting their angry passions
against us, is well known, and too well understood by our constituents
to be regarded. No man who can succeed you will have fewer, nor will any
one enjoy a more extensive confidence through the nation. Finding that
I could not retain you to the end of my term, I had wished to protract
your stay, till I could with propriety devolve on another the naming of
your successor. But this probably could not be done till about the time
of our separation in July. Your continuance however, till after the end
of the session, will relieve me from the necessity of any nomination
during the session, and will leave me only a chasm of two or three months
over which I must hobble as well as I can. My greatest difficulty will
arise from the carrying on the system of defensive works we propose to
erect. That these should have been fairly under way, and in a course
of execution, under your direction, would have peculiarly relieved
me; because we concur so exactly in the scale on which they are to be
executed. Unacquainted with the details myself, I fear that when you are
gone, aided only by your chief clerk, I shall be assailed with schemes
of improvement and alterations which I shall be embarrassed to pronounce
on, or withstand, and incur augmentations of expense, which I shall not
know how to control. I speak of the interval between the close of this
session, when you propose to retire, and the commencement of our usual
recess in July. Because during that recess, we are in the habit of leaving
things to the chief clerks; and, by the end of it, my successor may be
pretty well known, and prevailed on to name yours. However, I am so much
relieved by your ekeing out your continuance to the end of the session,
that I feel myself bound to consult your inclinations then, and to take
on myself the difficulties of the short period then ensuing. In public or
in private, and in all situations, I shall retain for you the most cordial
esteem, and satisfactory recollections of the harmony and friendship with
which we have run our race together; and I pray you now to accept sincere
assurances of it, and of my great respect and attachment.
TO MESSRS. MAESE, LEYBERT AND DICKERSON, OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL
SOCIETY.
WASHINGTON, January 9, 1808.
GENTLEMEN,--I duly received your favor of the 1st instant, informing me
that at an election of officers of the American Philosophical Society,
held at their hall on that day, they were pleased unanimously to elect me
as their President for the ensuing year. I repeat, with great sensibility,
my thanks to the Society for these continued proofs of their good will,
and my constant regret that distance and other duties deny me the pleasure
of performing at their meetings the functions assigned to me, and of
enjoying an intercourse with them which of all others would be the most
gratifying to me. Thus circumstanced I can only renew assurances of my
devotion to the objects of the Institution, and that I shall avail myself
with peculiar pleasure of every occasion which may occur of promoting
them, and of being useful to the Society.
I beg leave through you, Gentlemen, to present them the homage of my
dutiful respects, and that you will accept yourselves, the assurances of
my high consideration and esteem.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
January 10, 1808.
I find Bastrop's case less difficult than I had expected. My view of it is
this: The Governor of Louisiana being desirous of introducing the culture
of wheat into that province, engages Bastrop as an agent for carrying
that object into effect. He agrees to lay off twelve leagues square on
the Washita and Bayou liard, as a settlement for the culture of wheat, to
which Bastrop is to bring five hundred families, each of which families is
to have four hundred arpens of the land; the residue of the twelve leagues
square, we may understand, was to be Bastrop's premium. The government was
to bear the expenses of bringing these emigrants from New Madrid, and was
to allow them rations for six months,--Bastrop undertaking to provide the
rations, and the government paying a real and a half for each.
Bastrop binds himself to settle the five hundred families in three years,
and the Governor especially declares that if within that time the major
part of the establishment shall not have been made good, the _twelve
leagues square_, destined for Bastrop's settlers, shall be occupied by
the families first presenting themselves for that purpose. Bastrop brings
on some settlers,--how many does not appear, and the Intendant, from a
want of funds, suspends further proceeding in the settlement until the
King's decision. [His decision of what? Doubtless whether the settlement
shall proceed on these terms, and the funds be furnished by the king?
or shall be abandoned?] He promises Bastrop, at the same time, that the
former limitation of three years shall be extended to two years, after the
course of the contract shall have again commenced to be executed, and the
determination of the King shall be made known to Bastrop. Here, then, is
a complete suspension of the undertaking until the King's decision, and
his silence from that time till, and when, he ceded the province, must be
considered as an abandonment of the project.
There are several circumstances in this case offering ground for question,
whether Bastrop is entitled to any surplus of the lands. But this will
be an investigation for the Attorney General. But the uttermost he can
claim is a surplus proportioned to the number of families he settled,
that is to say, a quota of land bearing such a proportion to the number
of families he settled, (deducting four hundred arpens for each of them,)
as one hundred and forty-four square leagues bear to the whole number of
five hundred families. The important fact therefore to be settled, is the
number of families he established there before the suspension.
The Marquis du Maison Rouge (under whom Mr. Clarke claims) was to have
thirty square leagues on the Washita, for settling thirty families, none
of them to be Americans. The lands were located and appropriated under the
terms and conditions stipulated and contracted for by the said Marquis.
What these were we are not told. The grantee must prove his grant by
producing it. That will prove what the conditions were, and then he must
prove these conditions performed.
Livingston's argument does not establish the fact that the lands between
the staked line and the river, (if they belonged to the Jesuits,) were
conveyed to Gravier.
It is impossible to consider the indulgence to the Apelousas as anything
more than a _voluntary_ permission from the government to use the timber
on the ungranted lands, until they should be granted to others. It could
never be intended to keep that country forever unsettled, as appears by
expressly reserving the right of soil. But I think we should continue the
permission until we sell the lands.
These opinions are, of course, not to be considered as decisions, (for
that is not my province,) but as general ideas of the rights of the United
States, to be kept in view on the settlement.
The appropriation of the lots in New Orleans must certainly be suspended,
until we get the supplementary information promised. Affectionate
salutations.
TO WILLIAM WIRT, ESQ.
WASHINGTON, January 10, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--I pray you that this letter may be sacredly secret, because it
meddles in a line wherein I should myself think it wrong to intermeddle,
were it not that it looks to a period when I shall be out of office,
but others might think it wrong notwithstanding that circumstance. I
suspected, from your desire to go into the army, that you disliked your
profession, notwithstanding that your prospects in it were inferior to
none in the State. Still I know that no profession is open to stronger
antipathies than that of the law. The object of this letter, then, is
to propose to you to come into Congress. That is the great commanding
theatre of this nation, and the threshold to whatever department of office
a man is qualified to enter. With your reputation, talents, and correct
views, used with the necessary prudence, you will at once be placed at
the head of the republican body in the House of Representatives; and
after obtaining the standing which a little time will ensure you, you may
look, at your own will, into the military, the judiciary, diplomatic, or
other civil departments, with a certainty of being in either whatever you
please. And in the present state of what may be called the eminent talents
of our country, you may be assured of being engaged through life in the
most honorable employments. If you come in at the next election, you will
begin your course with a new administration. That administration will
be opposed by a faction, small in numbers, but governed by no principle
but the most envenomed malignity. They will endeavor to batter down
the executive before it will have time, by its purity and correctness,
to build up a confidence with the people, founded on experiment. By
supporting them you will lay for yourself a broad foundation in the public
confidence, and indeed you will become the Colossus of the republican
government of your country. I will not say that public life is the line
for making a fortune. But it furnishes a decent and honorable support, and
places one's children on good grounds for public favor. The family of a
beloved father will stand with the public on the most favorable ground of
competition. Had General Washington left children, what would have been
denied to them?
Perhaps I ought to apologize for the frankness of this communication. It
proceeds from an ardent zeal to see this government (the idol of my soul)
continue in good hands, and from a sincere desire to see you whatever you
wish to be. To this apology I shall only add my friendly salutations, and
assurances of sincere esteem and respect.
TO MR. SMITH.
January 14, 1808.
I return you Chauncey's letter. I am sorry to see the seamen working for
rations only, and that we cannot allow even them. And further, indeed,
that we shall be under the necessity of discharging a number of those we
have. This is so serious a question that I propose to call a consultation
on it a day or two hence. Our sixty-four gun-boats and ketches may
certainly be reduced to ten seamen each, at least I have at various times
had the opinions of nearly all our naval captains, that from eight to ten
men are sufficient to keep a gun-boat clean and in order, to navigate her
in harbor, and to look out of it. This would give us a reduction of about
four hundred men. But even this will not bring it within the estimate.
However, what is to be done, is the question on which I shall propose
a consultation. I send you a letter of a Mr. Walton, of Baltimore, for
perusal, merely as it suggests ideas worth looking at. I confess, I think
our _naval militia_ plan, both as to name and structure, better for us
than the English plan of seafencibles.
I ought to be in possession of a former letter from the same person, but
not finding it among my papers, am induced to ask whether I sent it to
you? Affectionate salutations.
TO MR. SMITH.
January 15, 1808.
To the letter from Mr. Davy, of the committee of the chamber of commerce,
of Philadelphia, (which I now return you,) I think you may say in answer,
that you had communicated it to the President, and were authorized to
say that the Government of the United States have no present views of
forming new harbors for the reception of their vessels of war: that under
the authority, and with the means, lately given by the Legislature to
the executive, it is intended to furnish means of defence, by land and
water, to the several harbors of the United States, in proportion to their
importance and local circumstances: that all the points to be defended are
not yet definitively decided on; but that in reviewing them, the harbor
proposed by the chamber of commerce, to be formed near Lewistown, will
be considered, and will have a just participation in the provisions for
protection, in the first place according to its present circumstances, and
hereafter according to any new importance which shall have been given it
by being made a place of greater resort for merchant vessels. Affectionate
salutations.
TO MR. J. DORSEY.
WASHINGTON, January 21, 1808.
SIR,--I have to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of December 20th,
and am much pleased to find our progress in manufactures to be so great.
That of cotton is peculiarly interesting, because we raise the raw
material in such abundance, and because it may, to a great degree, supply
our deficiencies both in wool and linen. A former application on behalf
of Messrs. Binney & Robertson, was delivered to the Secretary of State,
who will engage General Armstrong to aid such measures as they may take in
Paris for obtaining permission to draw supplies of Antimony from thence.
It will give me real pleasure to see some good system of measures and
weights introduced and combined with the decimal arithmetic. It is a great
and difficult question whether to venture only on a half reformation,
which by presenting fewer innovations, may be more easily adopted, or,
as the French have tried with success, make a radical reform. Your plan
presents as few innovations as any I have seen; but I think your _foot_
should refer to the pendulum, by saying, for instance, that the _foot_
shall be a measure which shall be to the second pendulum as 1 to 3,267;
or rather as 1 to the length of a pendulum vibrating seconds in latitude
45°. This offers a standard in every place, because it can everywhere be
found. The rod you propose is only to be found in Philadelphia. You say
in your letter that "if the decimal mode obtain in the division of the
pound, the Troy and it, as regards the Troy grain, would be the same."
I do not understand this; because the Avoirdupois pound containing 7,000
Troy grains, I do not see how any decimal subdivision of the pound could
coincide with the Troy grain. However, I shall be very glad to see adopted
whatever measure is most promising. I salute you with esteem and respect.
TO THE REV. MR. MILLAR.
WASHINGTON, January 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 United States as interdicted by the Constitution
from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines,
discipline, or exercises. This results not only from the provision that
no law shall 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 United States. 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 and
prayer. That is, that I should _indirectly_ assume to the United States 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 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 its exercises, its
discipline, or its 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 and 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,
and 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,
and mine tells me that civil powers alone have been given to the President
of the United States, 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 and
respect.
TO MR. BARLOW.
January 24, 1808.
Thomas Jefferson returns thanks to Mr. Barlow for the copy of the
Columbiad he has been so kind as to send him; the eye discovers at
once the excellence of the mechanical execution of the work, and he is
persuaded that the mental part will be found to have merited it. He will
not do it the injustice of giving it such a reading as his situation here
would admit, of a few minutes at a time, and at intervals of many days.
He will reserve it for that retirement after which he is panting, and not
now very distant, where he may enjoy it in full concert with its kindred
scenes, amidst those rural delights which join in chorus with the poet,
and give to his song all its magic effect. He salutes Mr. Barlow with
friendship and respect.
TO HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR TOMKINS.
WASHINGTON, January 26, 1808.
SIR,--I take the liberty of enclosing to you the copy of an application
which I have received from a portion of the citizens of the State of New
York, residing on the river St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario, setting forth
their very defenceless situation for the want of arms, and praying to be
furnished from the magazines of the United States. Similar applications
from other parts of our frontier in every direction have sufficiently
shown that did the laws permit such a disposition of the arms of the
United States, their magazines would be completely exhausted, and nothing
would remain for actual war. But it is only when troops take the field,
that the arms of the United States can be delivered to them. For the
ordinary safety of the citizens of the several States, whether against
dangers within or without, their reliance must be on the means to be
provided by their respective States. Under these circumstances I have
thought it my duty to transmit to you the representation received, not
doubting that you will have done for the safety of our fellow citizens,
on a part of our frontier so interesting and so much exposed, what their
situation requires, and the means under your control may permit.
Should our present differences be amicably settled, it will be a question
for consideration whether we should not establish a strong post on the St.
Lawrence, as near our northern boundary as a good position can be found.
To do this at present would only produce a greater accumulation of hostile
force in that quarter. I pray you to accept the assurances of my high
respect and esteem.
TO JACOB J. BROWN, ESQ.
WASHINGTON, January 27, 1808.
SIR,--The representation of the county of Jefferson, in New York, of
which you are chairman, stating their want of arms, and asking a supply,
has been duly received and considered. I learn with great concern that
a portion of our frontier so interesting, so important, and so exposed,
should be so entirely unprovided with common fire-arms. I did not suppose
any part of the United States so destitute of what is considered as among
the first necessaries of a farm-house. This circumstance gives me the
more concern as the laws of the United States do not permit their arms to
be delivered from the magazines but to troops actually taking the field;
and, indeed, were the inhabitants on the whole of our frontier, of so
many thousands of miles, to be furnished from our magazines, little would
be left in them for actual war. For the ordinary safety of the citizens
of the several States, whether against dangers from within or without,
reliance has been placed either on the domestic means of the individuals,
or on those provided by the respective States. What those means are in
the State of New York, I am not informed; but I have transmitted your
representation to Governor Tomkins, with an earnest recommendation of it
to his attention; and I have no doubt that his solicitude for the welfare
and safety of a portion so eminently exposed of those under his immediate
care, will ensure to you whatever his authority and his means will permit.
That an attack should be made on you by your neighbors, while the state
of peace continues, cannot be supposed; nor is it certain that that
condition of things will be interrupted. Should, however, war take place,
if first declared by us, your safety will of course have been previously
provided for: if by the other party, it cannot be before the measures
now in preparation will be in readiness to secure you. Should our present
differences be amicably settled, a new post on the St. Lawrence, as near
our northern boundary as a good position can be found, will be worthy of
consideration. At present it would only produce a greater accumulation of
hostile force in your neighborhood, and if we should have war, it would
soon become unimportant.
On the whole, while I am in hopes that your State will provide by the
loan of arms, for your immediate safety and confidence, you may be assured
that such measures shall be in readiness, and in reach, on the part of the
General Government, as aided by your own efforts, will effectually secure
you from the dangers you apprehend.
I cannot conclude without expressing to you the satisfaction with which I
have received the patriotic assurance of your best services, should they
be needed in your country's cause. They are worthy of the citizens of a
free country, who know and properly estimate the value of self-government,
and are the more acceptable as from a quarter where they will be most
important.
I beg leave to assure yourself, and through you the committee, of my great
consideration and respect.
TO MR. JACOB BROWN.
WASHINGTON, January 27, 1808.
SIR,--The substance of the enclosed letter, so far as is necessary for the
satisfaction of our fellow citizens, should be communicated to them. But
the letter itself should not be published, nor be permitted to be copied.
Because the source from which it comes will occasion every word of it to
be weighed by your neighbors on the opposite shore, and every inference to
be drawn of which it is susceptible. To aid their information as to our
views, would give them an advantage to our own prejudice. I salute you
with respect.
TO MR. TIFFIN.
January 30, 1808.
Thomas Jefferson returns the enclosed to Mr. Tiffin with his thanks for
the communication. He cannot foresee what shape Burr's machinations will
take next. If we have war with Spain, he will become a Spanish General.
If with England, he will go to Canada and be employed there. Internal
convulsion may be attempted if no game more hopeful offers. But it will be
a difficult one, and the more so as having once failed.
TO WILLIAM M'INTOSH.
WASHINGTON, January 30, 1808.
SIR,--I received some days ago your letter of December 15th, covering
a copy of the resolutions of the French inhabitants of Vincennes of
September 18th, in answer to the address of Governor Harrison, who had,
in the month of October, forwarded me a copy of the same. In his letter
enclosing it he assured me that his address to them on the subject of
our differences with England was merely monitory, putting them on their
guard against insinuations from any agents of that country, who might
find their way among them, and containing no expression, which if truly
explained to them, should have conveyed the least doubt of his confidence
in their fidelity to the United States. I had hoped therefore that the
uneasiness expressed in their resolutions had been done away by subsequent
explanations, as I have no reason to believe any such distrust existed
in the Governor's mind. I can assure them that he never expressed such
a sentiment in any of his communications to me, but that whenever he has
had occasion to speak of them, it has been in terms of entire approbation
and attachment. In my own mind certainly no doubts of their fidelity have
ever been excited or existed. Having been the Governor of Virginia when
Vincennes and the other French settlements of that quarter surrendered to
the arms of that State, twenty-eight years ago, I have had a particular
knowledge of their character as long perhaps as any person in the United
States, and in the various relations in which I have been placed with
them by the several offices I have since held, that knowledge has been
kept up. And to their great honor I can say that I have ever considered
them as sober, honest, and orderly citizens, submissive to the laws,
and faithful to the nation of which they are a part. And should occasion
arise of proving their fidelity in the cause of their country, I count
on their aid with as perfect assurance as on that of any other part of
the United States. In return for this confidence, and as an additional
proof on their part that it is not misplaced, I ask of them a return to
a perfect good understanding with their Governor, and to that respect for
those in authority over them, which has hitherto so honorably marked their
character. As to myself they may be assured that my confidence in them is
undiminished, and that nothing will be wanting on the part of the general
government to secure them in the full participation of all the rights
civil and religious which are enjoyed by their fellow citizens in the
Union at large.
I beg leave through you to salute them, as well as yourself, with
affection and respect.
TO GOVERNOR HARRISON.
WASHINGTON, January 31, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--I duly received your letter of October 10th, covering the
resolutions of the French inhabitants of Vincennes, and had hoped that
their uneasiness under your supposed want of confidence in them had
subsided. But a letter lately received from their chairman, covering
another copy of the same resolutions, induces me to answer them, in order
to quiet all further uneasiness. I enclose you my answer, open for your
perusal, and will thank you to seal and deliver it. I have expressed to
them the opinion I have long entertained of the ancient Canadian French,
on a long course of information, and as it is favorable to them, I trust
it will be soothing, and restore those good dispositions which will ease
the execution of your duties, and tend to produce that union which the
present crisis calls for.
Russia and Portugal have cut off all intercourse with England; their
ambassadors re-called, and war follows of course. Our difficulties with
her are great, nor can it yet be seen how they will terminate.
Accept my salutations, and assurances of great respect and esteem.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
February 8, 1808.
In questions like the present, important neither in principle nor amount,
I think the collectors should decide for themselves, and especially as
they, and they only, are the legally competent judges; for I believe the
law makes them the judges of the security. If the indulgence proposed
be within the intentions of the law, they can grant it; if it be not, we
cannot. But it is the practice in all cases for the officer who is charged
with the taking security, to be indulgent in a hard case, as where the
person is a stranger, could he not take hypothecations of their vessels?
although the law may not specially authorize this, yet the collector
can take it as counter security for himself, and he can assign it to the
government. Affectionate salutations.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
February 10, 1808.
It would certainly be very desirable that our citizens should be able
to draw home their property from beyond sea, and it is possible that
Mr. Parish's proposition might be instrumental to that. But it would be
too bold an extension of the views of the Legislature in the portion
of discretion they have given us. They could not mean to give us so
extensive a power of dispensation as would result from the duty of giving
special licenses to merchants, and such a power, guided by no Legislative
regulations, would be liable to great abuse, and greater complaints of it.
I see therefore, neither justification nor safety in leaving the ground we
have taken, of confining the discretionary power given us to the public
correspondence and public interests. If the drawing this mass of specie
here could be any way connected with any direct public operation, the
danger of the precedent would be guarded against; but as it is presented
to us, I think it inadmissible. Affectionate salutations.
TO MR. SMITH.
February 14, 1808.
I believe we must employ some of our gun-boats to aid in the execution
of the embargo law. Some British ships in the Delaware, one of them
loaded with fifteen hundred barrels of flour for Jamaica, another armed
as a letter of marque, openly mean to go out by force. The last is too
strong for the revenue cutters. Mr. Brice also, of Baltimore, asks armed
assistance. I see nothing at present to prevent our sparing a couple of
gun-boats from New York to go into the Delaware, and a couple from Norfolk
to come up to the head of the Bay. Will this interfere with more important
duties? Affectionate salutations.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
February 14, 1808.
I have written to Mr. Smith, proposing to order a couple of gun-boats from
New York into the Delaware, and two from Norfolk to the head of the bay. I
hope the passage of naval stores into Canada will be prevented. I enclose
for your information the account of a silver mine to fill your treasury.
Affectionate salutations.
TO MR. DANIEL SALMON.
WASHINGTON, February 15, 1808.
SIR,--I have duly received your letter of the 8th instant, on the subject
of the stone in your possession, supposed meteoric. Its descent from the
atmosphere presents so much difficulty as to require careful examination.
But I do not know that the most effectual examination could be made by
the members of the National Legislature, to whom you have thought of
exhibiting it. Some fragments of these stones have been already handed
about among them. But those most highly qualified for acting in _their_
stations, are not necessarily supposed most familiar with subjects of
natural history; and such of them as have that familiarity, are not in
situations here to make the investigation. I should think that an inquiry
by some one of our scientific societies, as the Philosophical Society
of Philadelphia for example, would be most likely to be directed with
such caution and knowledge of the subject, as would inspire a general
confidence. We certainly are not to deny whatever we cannot account for.
A thousand phenomena present themselves daily which we cannot explain,
but where facts are suggested, bearing no analogy with the laws of
nature as yet known to us, their verity needs proofs proportioned to
their difficulty. A cautious mind will weigh well the opposition of the
phenomenon to everything hitherto observed, the strength of the testimony
by which it is supported, and the errors and misconceptions to which even
our senses are liable. It may be very difficult to explain how the stone
you possess came into the position in which it was found. But is it easier
to explain how it got into the clouds from whence it is supposed to have
fallen? The actual fact however is the thing to be established, and this I
hope will be done by those whose situations and qualifications enable them
to do it. I salute you with respect.
TO MR. ANTHONY G. BETTAY.
WASHINGTON, February 18, 1808.
SIR,--I have duly received your letter of January 27th. With respect to
the silver mine on the river Platte, 1,700 miles from St. Louis, I will
observe that in the present state of things between us and Spain, we could
not propose to make an establishment at that distance from all support.
It is interesting however that the knowledge of its position should be
preserved, which can be done either by confiding it to the government,
who will certainly never make use of it without an honorable compensation
for the discovery to yourself or your representatives, or by placing it
wherever you think it safest.
I should be glad of a copy of any sketch or account you may have made of
the river Platte, of the passage from its head across the mountains, and
of the river Cashecatungo, which you suppose to run into the Pacific. This
would probably be among the first exploring journeys we undertake after
a settlement with Spain, as we wish to become acquainted with all the
advantageous water connections across our continent.
I shall be very glad to receive some seed of the silk nettle which you
describe, with a view to have it raised, and its uses tried. I have not
been able to find that any of your delegates here has received it. If you
would be so good as to send me a small packet of it by post, it will come
safely, and I will immediately commit it to a person who will try it with
the utmost care. I salute you with respect.
TO COLONEL MONROE.
WASHINGTON, February 18, 1808.
MY DEAR SIR,--You informed me that the instruments you had been so kind as
to bring for me from England, would arrive at Richmond with your baggage,
and you wished to know what was to be done with them there. I will ask the
favor of you to deliver them to Mr. Jefferson, who will forward them to
Monticello in the way I shall advise him. And I must entreat you to send
me either a note of their amount, or the bills, that I may be enabled to
reimburse you. There can be no pecuniary matter between us, against which
this can be any set-off. But if, contrary to my recollection or knowledge,
there were anything, I pray that that may be left to be settled by itself.
If I could have known the amount beforehand, I should have remitted it,
and asked the advance only under the idea that it should be the same as
ready money to you on your arrival. I must again, therefore, beseech you
to let me know its amount.
I see with infinite grief a contest arising between yourself and another,
who have been very dear to each other, and equally so to me. I sincerely
pray that these dispositions may not be affected between you; with me I
confidently trust they will not. For independently of the dictates of
public duty, which prescribes neutrality to me, my sincere friendship
for you both will ensure its sacred observance. I suffer no one to
converse with me on the subject. I already perceive my old friend Clinton,
estranging himself from me. No doubt lies are carried to him, as they
will be to the other two candidates, under forms which, however false,
he can scarcely question. Yet I have been equally careful as to him
also, never to say a word on his subject. The object of the contest is
a fair and honorable one, equally open to you all; and I have no doubt
the personal conduct of all will be so chaste, as to offer no ground of
dissatisfaction with each other. But your friends will not be as delicate.
I know too well from experience the progress of political controversy,
and the exacerbation of spirit into which it degenerates, not to fear
for the continuance of your mutual esteem. One piquing thing said draws
on another, that a third, and always with increasing acrimony, until all
restraint is thrown off, and it becomes difficult for yourselves to keep
clear of the toils in which your friends will endeavor to interlace you,
and to avoid the participation in their passions which they will endeavor
to produce. A candid recollection of what you know of each other will be
the true corrective. With respect to myself, I hope they will spare me.
My longings for retirement are so strong, that I with difficulty encounter
the daily drudgeries of my duty. But my wish for retirement itself is not
stronger than that of carrying into it the affections of all my friends.
I have ever viewed Mr. Madison and yourself as two principal pillars of
my happiness. Were either to be withdrawn, I should consider it as among
the greatest calamities which could assail my future peace of mind. I
have great confidence that the candor and high understanding of both will
guard me against this misfortune, the bare possibility of which has so far
weighed on my mind, that I could not be easy without unburthening it.
Accept my respectful salutations for yourself and Mrs. Monroe, and be
assured of my constant and sincere friendship.
TO JOSEPH BRINGHURST.
WASHINGTON, February 24, 1808.
SIR,--I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 16th. It
gave me the first information of the death of our distinguished fellow
citizen, John Dickinson. A more estimable man, or truer patriot, could
not have left us. Among the first of the advocates for the rights of
his country when assailed by Great Britain, he continued to the last the
orthodox advocate of the true principles of our new government, and his
name will be consecrated in history as one of the great worthies of the
revolution. We ought to be grateful for having been permitted to retain
the benefit of his counsel to so good an old age; still, the moment of
losing it, whenever it arrives, must be a moment of deep-felt regret. For
himself, perhaps, a longer period of life was less important, alloyed
as the feeble enjoyments of that age are with so much pain. But to his
country every addition to his moments was interesting. A junior companion
of his labors in the early part of our revolution, it has been a great
comfort to me to have retained his friendship to the last moment of his
life.
Sincerely condoling with his friends on this affecting loss, I beg leave
to tender my salutations to yourself, and assurances of my friendly
respects.
TO THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
WASHINGTON, February 27, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--I enclose you a copy of Armstrong's letter, covering the papers
sent to Congress. The date was blank, as in the copy; the letter was so
immaterial that I had really forgotten it altogether when I spoke with you
last night. I feel myself much indebted to you for having given me this
private opportunity of showing that I have kept back nothing material.
That the federalists and a few others should by their vote make such a
charge on me, is never unexpected. But how can any join in it who call
themselves friends? The President sends papers to the House, which he
thinks the public interest requires they should see. They immediately pass
a vote, implying irresistibly their belief that he is capable of having
kept back other papers which the same interest requires they should see.
They pretend to no direct proof of this. It must, then, be founded in
presumption; and on what act of my life or of my administration is such a
presumption founded? What interest can I have in leading the Legislature
to act on false grounds? My wish is certainly to take that course with
the public affairs which the body of the Legislature would prefer. It is
said, indeed, that such a vote is to satisfy the federalists and their
partisans. But were I to send twenty letters, they would say, "You have
kept back the twenty-first; send us that." If I sent one hundred, they
would say, "There were one hundred and one;" and how could I prove the
negative? Their malice can be cured by no conduct; it ought, therefore, to
be disregarded, instead of countenancing their imputations by the sanction
of a vote. Indeed I should consider such a vote as a charge, in the face
of the nation, calling for a serious and public defence of myself. I send
you a copy, that you may retain it, and make such use of it among our
friends as your prudence and friendship will deem best.
I salute you with great affection and respect.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
February 28, 1808.
There is no source from whence our fair commerce derives so much vexation,
or our country so much danger of war, as from forged papers and fraudulent
voyages. Nothing should, in my opinion, be spared, either of trouble or
expense on our part, to aid all nations in detecting and punishing them.
I would therefore certainly direct Mr. Gelston to furnish Heinecher with
every proof in his power, and to assure him that it shall be done on all
occasions. Would it not be well to give this assurance to all the foreign
consuls? It would at least show the world that this government does not
countenance those frauds; and should not instructions be given to all
the collectors to furnish all proofs in their power on demand? The three
Englishmen will, I presume, be punished by the laws of Holland, either
as spies, or prisoners of war. If their laws will not take hold of our
scoundrel, Gardner, of the Jane, perhaps that government would put him on
board a vessel, under the order of our consul, to be brought and punished
here for the forgery of papers. Would it not be well to put a summary
statement of this case, and of our orders on the occasion, into Smith's
paper? Would it be amiss even to send it to Congress by message, with a
recommendation to provide punishments against this practice? Affectionate
salutations.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
March 2, 1808.
On considering the papers which James Brown sent us, containing a
statement of the parcels of property in and adjacent to New Orleans, to
which the United States claims, we thought it safest to await the report
of the commissioners, with their list of the property. The papers received
yesterday by express from New Orleans, and now enclosed to you, give us a
list of the property, and grounds of claim from the common council of the
city. Having thus the statement, as it were, from both parties, I suppose
we may consider the list as complete. It would therefore be only losing
a year to wait for the report of the commissioners, and especially as the
property is suffering. What shall we do? There are two questions,--first,
which of these parcels do really belong to the United States? Second, how
shall they be disposed of? On the first question, I presume Congress will
not decide themselves, but either leave it to the present commissioners,
or appoint others of higher standing and abilities, at least for the
future, which is of too much value, and too much involved in prejudices
_there_, to be safely trusted to the present commissioners. On the second
question, perhaps Congress might now desire the Executive, so soon as
the titles are decided, to state to them the parcels which should be kept
for the government use, and then give to the city such as they need, and
dispose of the rest as they see best.
Will you favor me with your ideas what is best to be done? Affectionate
salutations.
TO HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR SULLIVAN.
WASHINGTON, March 3, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--Your favor of February 8th, covering the resolutions of
the Legislature of Massachusetts, was received in due time. It is
a circumstance of great satisfaction that the proceedings of the
government are approved by the respectable Legislature of Massachusetts,
and especially the late important measure of the embargo. The hearty
concurrence of the States in that measure, will have a great effect in
Europe. I derive great personal consolation from the assurances in your
friendly letter, that the electors of Massachusetts would still have
viewed me with favor as a candidate for a third presidential term. But
the duty of retirement is so strongly impressed on my mind, that it is
impossible for me to think of that. If I can carry into retirement the
good will of my fellow citizens, nothing else will be wanting to my
happiness.
Your letter of February 7th, with a recommendation for Salem, and that of
the 8th recalling it, were both received. I dare say you have found that
the solicitations for office are the most painful incidents to which an
executive magistrate is exposed. The ordinary affairs of a nation offer
little difficulty to a person of any experience; but the gift of office is
the dreadful burthen which oppresses him. A person who wishes to make it
an engine of self-elevation, may do wonders with it; but to one who wishes
to use it conscientiously for the public good, without regard to the ties
of blood or friendship, it creates enmities without numbers, many open,
but more secret, and saps the happiness and peace of his life.
I pray you to accept my friendly salutations, and assurances of great
esteem and respect.
TO COLONEL MONROE.
WASHINGTON, March 10, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--
* * * * *
From your letter of the 27th ultimo, I perceive that painful impressions
have been made on your mind during your late mission, of which I had never
entertained a suspicion. I must, therefore, examine the grounds, because
explanations between reasonable men can never but do good. 1. You consider
the mission of Mr. Pinckney as an associate, to have been in some way
injurious to you. Were I to take that measure on myself, I might say in
its justification, that it has been the regular and habitual practice of
the United States to do this, under every form in which their government
has existed. I need not recapitulate the multiplied instances, because you
will readily recollect them. I went as an adjunct to Dr. Franklin and Mr.
Adams, yourself as an adjunct first to Mr. Livingston, and then to Mr.
Pinckney, and I really believe there has scarcely been a great occasion
which has not produced an extraordinary mission. Still, however, it is
well known that I was strongly opposed to it in the case of which you
complain. A committee of the Senate called on me with two resolutions of
that body, on the subject of impressment and spoliations by Great Britain,
and requesting that I would demand satisfaction. After delivering the
resolutions, the committee entered into free conversation, and observed,
that although the Senate could not, in form, recommend any extraordinary
mission, yet that as individuals, there was but one sentiment among them
on the measure, and they pressed it. I was so much averse to it, and gave
them so hard an answer, that they felt it, and spoke of it. But it did not
end here. The members of the other House took up the subject, and set upon
me individually, and these the best friends to you, as well as myself, and
represented the responsibility which a failure to obtain redress would
throw on us both, pursuing a conduct in opposition to the opinion of
nearly every member of the Legislature. I found it necessary, at length,
to yield my own opinion to the general use of the national council, and
it really seemed to produce a jubilee among them; not from any want of
confidence in you, but from a belief in the effect which an extraordinary
mission would have on the British mind, by demonstrating the degree of
importance which this country attached to the rights which we considered
as infracted.
2. You complain of the manner in which the treaty was received. But what
was that manner? I cannot suppose you to have given a moment's credit to
the stuff which was crowded in all sorts of forms into the public papers,
or to the thousand speeches they put into my mouth, not a word of which
I had ever uttered. I was not insensible at the time of the views to
mischief, with which these lies were fabricated. But my confidence was
firm, that neither yourself nor the British government, equally outraged
by them, would believe me capable of making the editors of newspapers the
confidants of my speeches or opinions. The fact was this. The treaty was
communicated to us by Mr. Erskine on the day Congress was to rise. Two of
the Senators inquired of me in the evening, whether it was my purpose to
detain them on account of the treaty. My answer was, "that it was not:
that the treaty containing no provision against the impressment of our
seamen, and being accompanied by a kind of protestation of the British
ministers, which would leave that government free to consider it as a
treaty or no treaty, according to their own convenience, I should not
give them the trouble of deliberating on it." This was substantially,
and almost verbally, what I said whenever spoken to about it, and I
never failed when the occasion would admit of it, to justify yourself
and Mr. Pinckney, by expressing my conviction, that it was all that
could be obtained from the British government; that you had told their
commissioners that your government could not be pledged to ratify, because
it was contrary to their instructions; of course, that it should be
considered but as a project; and in this light I stated it publicly in my
message to Congress on the opening of the session. Not a single article of
the treaty was ever made known beyond the members of the administration,
nor would an article of it be known at this day, but for its publication
in the newspapers, as communicated by somebody from beyond the water, as
we have always understood. But as to myself, I can solemnly protest, as
the most sacred of truths, that I never, one instant, lost sight of your
reputation and favorable standing with your country, and never omitted
to justify your failure to attain our wish, as one which was probably
unattainable. Reviewing therefore, this whole subject, I cannot doubt
you will become sensible, that your impressions have been without just
ground. I cannot, indeed, judge what falsehoods may have been written or
told you; and that, under such forms as to command belief. But you will
soon find, my dear Sir, that so inveterate is the rancor of party spirit
among us, that nothing ought to be credited but what we hear with our
own ears. If you are less on your guard than we are here, at this moment,
the designs of the mischief-makers will not fail to be accomplished, and
brethren and friends will be made strangers and enemies to each other,
without ever having said or thought a thing amiss of each other. I presume
that the most insidious falsehoods are daily carried to you, as they are
brought to me, to engage us in the passions of our informers, and stated
so positively and plausibly as to make even _doubt_ a rudeness to the
narrator; who, imposed on himself, has no other than the friendly view
of putting us on our guard. My answer is, invariably, that my knowledge
of your character is better testimony to me of a negative, than any
affirmative which my informant did not hear _from yourself_ with his own
ears. In fact, when you shall have been a little longer among us, you
will find that little is to be believed which interests the prevailing
passions, and happens beyond the limits of our own senses. Let us not
then, my dear friend, embark our happiness and our affections on the ocean
of slander, of falsehood and of malice, on which our credulous friends
are floating. If you have been made to believe that I ever did, said, or
thought a thing unfriendly to your fame and feelings, you do me injury as
causeless as it is afflicting to me. In the present contest in which you
are concerned, I feel no passion, I take no part, I express no sentiment.
Whichever of my friends is called to the supreme cares of the nation, I
know that they will be wisely and faithfully administered, and as far as
my individual conduct can influence, they shall be cordially supported.
For myself I have nothing further to ask of the world, than to preserve
in retirement so much of their esteem as I may have fairly earned, and
to be permitted to pass in tranquillity, in the bosom of my family and
friends, the days which yet remain for me. Having reached the harbor
myself, I shall view with anxiety (but certainly not with a wish to be in
their place) those who are still buffetting the storm, uncertain of their
fate. Your voyage has so far been favorable, and that it may continue with
entire prosperity, is the sincere prayer of that friendship which I have
ever borne you, and of which I now assure you, with the tender of my high
respect and affectionate salutations.
TO RICHARD M. JOHNSON.
WASHINGTON, March 10, 1808.
SIR,--I am sure you can too justly estimate my occupations; to need
an apology for this tardy acknowledgment of your favor of February the
27th. I cannot but be deeply sensible of the good opinion you are pleased
to express of my conduct in the administration of our government. This
approbation of my fellow citizens is the richest reward I can receive. I
am conscious of having always intended to do what was best for them; and
never, for a single moment, to have listened to any personal interest of
my own. It has been a source of great pain to me, to have met with so many
among our opponents, who had not the liberality to distinguish between
political and social opposition; who transferred at once to the person,
the hatred they bore to his political opinions. I suppose, indeed, that in
public life, a man whose political principles have any decided character,
and who has energy enough to give them effect, must always expect to
encounter political hostility from those of adverse principles. But I
came to the government under circumstances calculated to generate peculiar
acrimony. I found all its offices in the possession of a political sect,
who wished to transform it ultimately into the shape of their darling
model, the English government; and in the meantime, to familiarize the
public mind to the change, by administering it on English principles, and
in English forms. The elective interposition of the people had blown all
their designs, and they found themselves and their fortresses of power and
profit put in a moment into the hands of other trustees. Lamentations and
invective were all that remained to them. This last was naturally directed
against the agent selected to execute the multiplied reformations, which
their heresies had rendered necessary. I became of course the butt of
everything which reason, ridicule, malice and falsehood could supply. They
have concentrated all their hatred on me, till they have really persuaded
themselves, that I am the sole source of all their imaginary evils. I
hope, therefore, that my retirement will abate some of their disaffection
to the government of their country, and that my successor will enter on a
calmer sea than I did. He will at least find the vessel of state in the
hands of his friends, and not of his foes. Federalism is dead, without
even the hope of a day of resurrection. The quondam leaders, indeed,
retain their rancor and principles; but their followers are amalgamated
with us in sentiment, if not in name. If our fellow citizens, now solidly
republican, will sacrifice favoritism towards men for the preservation of
principle, we may hope that no divisions will again endanger a degeneracy
in our government.
* * * * *
I pray you to accept my salutations, and assurances of great esteem and
respect.
TO MR. MADISON.
March 11, 1808.
I suppose we must despatch another packet by the 1st of April at farthest.
I take it to be an universal opinion that war will become preferable to
a continuance of the embargo after a certain time. Should we not then
avail ourselves of the intervening period to procure a retraction of the
obnoxious decrees peaceably, if possible? An opening is given us by both
parties, sufficient to form a basis for such a proposition.
I wish you to consider, therefore, the following course of proceeding, to
wit:
To instruct our ministers at Paris and London, by the next packet, to
propose immediately to both those powers a declaration on both sides that
these decrees and orders shall no longer be extended to vessels of the
United States, in which case we shall remain faithfully neutral; but,
without assuming the air of menace, to let them both perceive that if they
do not withdraw these orders and decrees, there will arrive a time when
our interests will render war preferable to a continuance of the embargo;
that when that time arrives, if one has withdrawn and the other not, we
must declare war against that other; if neither shall have withdrawn, we
must take our choice of enemies between them. This it will certainly be
our duty to have ascertained by the time Congress shall meet in the fall
or beginning of winter; so that taking off the embargo, they may decide
whether war must be declared, and against whom. Affectionate salutations.
TO GOVERNOR CABELL.
WASHINGTON, March 13, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--I received last night your favor of the 10th. There can
certainly be no present objection to the forwarding the letters therein
mentioned, according to their address.
We have nothing new of importance, except that at the last reading of
an amendatory bill a few days ago, the House of Representatives were
surprised into the insertion of an insidious clause permitting any
merchant having _property_ abroad, on proving it to the executive, to send
a ship for it. We are already overwhelmed with applications, and there is
real danger that the great object of the embargo in keeping our ships and
seamen out of harm's way, will be defeated; and every vessel and seaman
sent out under this pretext, and placed in the prize of the belligerent
tyrants. I salute you with friendship and respect.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
March 17, 1808.
I think it will be impossible to form general rules for carrying into
execution the seventh section of the law of March 12th, without a fuller
view of the number and nature of the cases which are to come under it.
I have waited in expectation the applications would multiply so as to
give one a general view, but I have received but about half a dozen. But,
indeed, nothing short of a knowledge of all the cases can enable us to
provide for them. I have been wishing, therefore, to converse with you on
this proposition; to wit, to direct the collectors to advertize in their
respective ports, that all persons desiring the benefit of that law, must
_immediately_ deliver to him a statement of the _place_ where they have
property, its _amount_, whether _cash_ or _goods_, and what _kind_ of
goods, and in whose _hands_, on oath, but without exhibiting other proofs
till further called on. These particulars may be stated in a tabular view;
for _cash_ we might authorize vessels to go immediately, but for goods
rules must be framed on a view of all circumstances.
With respect to the constitution of the act, there are cases in the books
where the word "may" has been adjudged equivalent to "shall," but the term
"is authorized," unless followed by "and required," was, I think, never so
considered. On the contrary, I believe it is the very term which Congress
always use toward the executive when they mean to give a power to him, and
leave the use of it to his discretion.
It is the very phrase on which there is now a difference in the House
of Representatives, on the bill for raising 6,000 regulars, which says
"there shall be raised," and some desire it to say "the President is
authorized to raise," leaving him the power with a discretion to use it
or not. It is to be observed also that the one construction puts it in
the power of individuals to defeat the embargo in a great measure, while
the other leaves a power to combine a due regard to the object of the law
with the interests of individuals. I like your idea of proportioning the
tonnage of the vessel to the value (in some degree) of the property, but
its bulk must also be taken into consideration. On the whole, I should
be for giving prompt permission to bring home money, because one vessel
will bring for all those who have cash at the same port; but the bringing
property in other forms, will require a fuller view and digest of rules.
Affectionate salutations.
TO W. C. NICHOLAS, ESQ.
WASHINGTON, March 20, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--Your favor of the 18th is duly received. Be assured that I
value no act of friendship so highly as the communicating facts to me,
which I am not in the way of knowing otherwise, and could not therefore
otherwise guard against. I have had too many proofs of your friendship not
to be sensible of the kindness of these communications, and to receive
them with peculiar obligation. The receipt of Mr. Rose's answer has
furnished the happiest occasion for me to present to Congress a complete
view of the ground on which we stand with the two principal belligerents,
and, with respect to France, to lay before them, _for the public_, every
communication received from that government since the last session,
including those heretofore sent, in order that they also may be published,
and let our constituents see whether these papers gave just ground for the
falsehoods which have been so impudently advanced. We shall hope to see
you to-day. Affectionate salutations.
TO DOCTOR WISTAR.
WASHINGTON, March 20, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--Yours of the 12th is received. Congress, I think, will rise in
about three weeks,--say about the 11th of April, and I shall leave this
five or six days after, on a visit of some length to Monticello. This
illy accords with your journey to the westward in May; but can you not
separate your excursion to this place from the western journey? Between
Philadelphia and this place is but two days, and the roads are already
fine. I would propose, therefore, that you should come a few days before
Congress rises, so as to satisfy that article of your curiosity. The
bones are spread in a large room, where you can work at your leisure,
undisturbed by any mortal, from morning till night, taking your breakfast
and dinner with us. It is a precious collection, consisting of upwards
of three hundred bones, few of them of the large kinds which are already
possessed. There are four pieces of the head, one very clear, and
distinctly presenting the whole face of the animal. The height of his
forehead is most remarkable. In this figure, the indenture at the eye
gives a prominence of six inches to the forehead. There are four jaw-bones
tolerably entire, with several teeth in them, and some fragments; three
tusks like elephants; one ditto totally different, the largest probably
ever seen, being now from nine to ten feet long, though broken off at both
ends; some ribs; an abundance of teeth studded, and also of those of the
striated or ribbed kind; a fore-leg complete; and then about two hundred
small bones, chiefly of the foot. This is probably the most valuable part
of the collection, for General Clarke, aware that we had specimens of the
larger bones, has gathered up everything of the small kind. There is one
horn of a colossal animal. The bones which came do not correspond exactly
with General Clarke's description; probably there were some omissions of
his packers. Having sent my books to Monticello, I have nothing here to
assist you but the Encyclopedie Methodique. I hope you will make this a
separate excursion; and come before Congress rises, whenever it best suits
you. I salute you with friendship and respect.
TO THE DEMOCRATIC CITIZENS OF THE COUNTY OF ADAMS, PENNSYLVANIA.
March 20, 1808.
I see with pleasure, fellow citizens, in your address of February 15th,
a sound recurrence to the first principles on which our government is
founded; an examination by that test of the rights we possess, and the
wrongs we have suffered; a just line drawn between a wholesome attention
to the conduct of rulers, and a too ready censure of that conduct on
every unfounded rumor; between the love of peace, and the determination
to meet war, when its evils shall be less intolerable than the wrongs it
is meant to correct. With so just a view of principles and circumstances,
your approbation of my conduct, under the difficulties which have beset us
on every side, is doubly valued by me, and offers high encouragement to
a perseverance in my best endeavors for the preservation of your peace,
so long as it shall be consistent with the preservation of your rights.
When this ceases to be practicable, I feel entire confidence in the
arduous exertions which you pledge in support of the measures which may be
called for by the exigencies of the times, and in the known energies and
enterprize of our countrymen in whatsoever direction they are pointed. If
these energies are embodied by an union of will, and by a confidence in
those who direct it, our nation, so favored in its situation, has nothing
to fear from any quarter. To that union of effort may our citizens ever
rally, minorities falling cordially, on the decision of a question, into
the ranks of the majority, and bearing always in mind that a nation ceases
to be republican only when the will of the majority ceases to be the law.
I thank you, fellow citizens, for the solicitude you kindly express for
my future welfare. A retirement from the exercise of my present charge is
equally for your good and my own happiness. Gratitude for past favors, and
affectionate concern for the liberty and prosperity of my fellow citizens,
will cease but with life to animate my breast.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
March 23, 1808.
It is a maxim of our municipal law, and, I believe, of universal law, that
he who permits the _end_, permits of course the _means_, without which
the end cannot be effected. The law permitting rum, molasses, and sugar,
to be imported from countries which have not packages for them, would be
construed in the most rigorous courts to permit them to be carried. They
would consider the restriction to ballast and provisions as a restriction
to necessaries, and merely equivalent to a declaration that they shall
carry out nothing for sale.
This is certainly one object of the law, and the second is to import the
property; and to these objects all constructions of it should be directed.
I have no doubt, therefore, that Messrs. Low and Wallace, and others,
should be allowed to carry out the necessary and sufficient packages. But
a right to take care that the law is not evaded, allows us to prescribe
that kind of package which can be best guarded against fraud. Boxes
ready-made could not, perhaps, be so easily probed, to discover if they
contained nothing for exportation. Casks filled with water can be easily
sounded from the bunghole. If you think, therefore, that one kind of
package is safer than another, it may be prescribed; for that nothing for
sale shall be exported is as much the object of the law, as that their
property shall be imported. Reasonable attention is due to each object.
Affectionate salutations.
TO M. LE VAVASSEUR.
WASHINGTON, March 23, 1807.
SIR,--I am sensible of the extraordinary ingenuity and merit of the work
which you offer to the acquisition of our government. It would certainly
be an ornament to any country. But with such an immense extent of country
before us, wanting common improvement to render it productive, the United
States have not thought the moment as yet arrived when it would be wise
in them to divert their funds to objects less pressing; no law has yet
authorized acquisitions of this character. The idea of rendering the Greek
and Latin languages living, has certainly some captivating points. The
experiment has, I believe, been tried in Europe as to the Latin language,
but with what degree of success I am not precisely informed. I suppose it
very possible to reform the language of the modern Greeks to the ancient
standard, and that this may one day take place. But in our infant country
objects more urgent force themselves on our attention, and call for the
aid of all our means. These peculiarities of our situation deprive us of
the advantage of availing our country of propositions which, in a more
advanced stage of improvement, might be entitled to consideration.
Permit me to tender my salutations, and assurances of respect.
TO LEVI LINCOLN.
WASHINGTON, March 23, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--Your letter on the subject of Mr. Lee came safely to hand.
You know our principles render federalists in office safe, if they do not
employ their influence in opposing the government, but only give their own
vote according to their conscience. And this principle we act on as well
with those put in office by others, as by ourselves.
We have received from your presses a very malevolent and incendiary
denunciation of the administration, bottomed on absolute falsehood from
beginning to end. The author would merit exemplary punishment for so
flagitious a libel, were not the torment of his own abominable temper
punishment sufficient for even as base a crime as this. The termination
of Mr. Rose's mission, _re infecta_, put it in my power to communicate
to Congress yesterday, everything respecting our relations with England
and France, which will effectually put down Mr. Pickering, and his worthy
coadjutor Mr. Quincy. Their tempers are so much alike, and really their
persons, as to induce a supposition that they are related. The embargo
appears to be approved, even by the federalists of every quarter except
yours. The alternative was between that and war, and in fact, it is
the last card we have to play, short of war. But if peace does not take
place in Europe, and if France and England will not consent to withdraw
the operation of their decrees and orders from us, when Congress shall
meet in December, they will have to consider at what point of time the
embargo, continued, becomes a greater evil than war. I am inclined to
believe, we shall have this summer and autumn to prepare for the defence
of our seaport towns, and hope that in that time, the works of defence
will be completed which have been provided for by the Legislature. I think
Congress will rise within three weeks.
I salute you with great affection and respect.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
March 26, 1808.
Mr. Madison happening to call on me just now, I consulted him on the
subject of Hoffman's letter. We both think that it would be neither just
nor expedient that the supplies necessary to the existence of the Indians
should be cut off from them; and that if no construction of the embargo
law will permit the passage of their commerce, and if that law could,
and did intend to control the treaty, (the last of which is hardly to be
believed,) then an amendment should be asked of Congress. I have no copy
of the law by me, and indeed am too unwell for very close exercise of the
mind. Affectionate salutations.
TO CHARLES PINCKNEY.
WASHINGTON, March 30, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--Your letter of the 8th was received on the 25th, and I
proceed to state to you my views of the present state and prospect of
foreign affairs, under the confidence that you will use them for your own
government and opinions only, and by no means let them get out as from
me. With France we are in no _immediate_ danger of war. Her future views
it is impossible to estimate. The immediate danger we are in of a rupture
with England, is postponed for this year. This is effected by the embargo,
as the question was simply between that and war. That may go on a certain
time, perhaps through the year, without the loss of their property to
our citizens, but only its remaining unemployed on their hands. A time
would come, however, when war would be preferable to a continuance of the
embargo. Of this Congress may have to decide at their next meeting. In the
meantime, we have good information, that a negotiation for peace between
France and England is commencing through the medium of Austria. The way
for it has been smoothed by a determination expressed by France (through
the Moniteur, which is their government paper) that herself and her allies
will demand from Great Britain no renunciation of her maritime principles;
nor will they renounce theirs. Nothing shall be said about them in the
treaty, and both sides will be left in the next war to act on their own.
No doubt the meaning of this is, that all the _Continental_ powers of
Europe will form themselves into an armed neutrality, to enforce their own
principles. Should peace be made, we shall have safely rode out the storm
in peace and prosperity. If we have anything to fear, it will be after
that. Nothing should be spared from this moment in putting our militia in
the best condition possible, and procuring arms. I hope, that this summer,
we shall get our whole seaports put into that state of defence, which
Congress has thought proportioned to our circumstances and situation;
that is to say, put _hors d'insulte_ from a maritime attack, by a moderate
squadron. If armies are combined with their fleets, then no resource can
be provided, but to meet them in the field. We propose to raise seven
regiments only for the present year, depending always on our militia for
the operations of the first year of war. On any other plan, we should
be obliged always to keep a large standing army. Congress will adjourn
in about three weeks. I hope Captain McComb is getting on well with your
defensive works. We shall be able by mid-summer, to give you a sufficient
number of gun-boats to protect Charleston from any vessel which can cross
the bar; but the militia of the place must be depended on to fill up the
complement of men necessary for action in the moment of an attack, as we
shall man them, in ordinary, but with their navigating crew of eight or
ten good seamen.
I salute you with great esteem and respect.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
March 31, 1808.
If, on considering the doubts I shall suggest, you shall still think your
draught of a supplementary embargo law sufficient, in its present form,
I shall be satisfied it is so, for I have but one hour in the morning in
which I am capable of thinking, and that is too much crowded with business
to give me time to think.
1. Is not the first paragraph against the Constitution, which says no
preference shall be given to the ports of one State over those of another?
You might put down those ports as ports of entry, if that could be made to
do.
2. Could not your second paragraph be made to answer by making it say that
no clearance shall be furnished to any vessel laden with _provisions_
or _lumber_, to go from one port to another of the United States,
without special permission, &c. In that case we might lay down rules for
the necessary removal of provisions and lumber, inland, which should
give no trouble to the citizens, but refuse licenses for all coasting
transportation of those articles but on such applications from a Governor
as may ensure us against any exportation but for the consumption of his
State. Portsmouth, Boston, Charleston, and Savannah, are the only ports
which cannot be supplied inland. I should like to prohibit _collections_,
also, made evidently for clandestine importation.
3. I would rather strike out the words "in conformity with treaty" in
order to avoid any express recognition at this day of that article of the
British treaty. It has been so flagrantly abused as to excite the Indians
to war against us, that I should have no hesitation in declaring it null,
as soon as we see means of supplying the Indians ourselves.
I should have no objections to extend the exception to the Indian furs
purchased by our traders and sent into Canada. Affectionate salutes.
TO MR. SMITH.
April 1, 1808.
I approve of your letter to Commodore Murray entirely, and in order to
settle what shall be our course for the summer (now that we are tolerably
clear, that no rupture with England is likely to take place during the
summer), I propose, the first day that I can be well enough, for a couple
of hours to ask a meeting of our colleagues to determine these questions.
Shall the proclamation be renewed or suffered to expire?
Shall the harbors of ordinary British resort (say New York, Lynhaven, and
Charleston) be furnished with their full quota of gun-boats, with their
_navigating_ crews?
Shall the residue of the 170 gun-boats be distributed among the other
ports, with their navigating crews, or be laid up or left on their stocks?
Shall the frigates and Wasp be unmanned?
Affectionate salutations.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
April 2, 1808.
SIR,--On the amendments to the embargo law, I am perfectly satisfied with
whatever you have concluded on after consideration of the subject. My view
was only to suggest for your consideration, not having at all made myself
acquainted with the details of that law. I therefore return you your bill,
and wish it to be proposed. I will this day nominate Elmer. The delegates
of North Carolina expect daily to receive information on the subject of
a Marshal. Is the Register's office at New Orleans vacant? Claiborne says
it is, and strongly recommends Robertson the Secretary. He will be found
one of the most valuable men we have brought into the public service for
integrity, talents and amiability. Affectionate salutations.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
April 8, 1808.
I suppose that Favre can carry his necessary provisions from New Orleans
across the lake in a periagua or some other vessel, which may come under
the exception of vessels under the immediate direction of the President,
and that being an agent of the United States for the transmission of
public intelligence, such a license is perfectly legitimate. If this were
a matter of doubt, its solution would be to be sought in the intention of
the Legislature, which was to keep our seamen and property from capture,
and to starve the offending nations. But Favre is our own agent, and we
may as well remit provisions to him as money to our other foreign agents.
It appears to me to be so clearly out of the scope of the prohibitions of
the embargo law, and within its exceptions, that I should be for allowing
him to take out his provisions for his family, under the superintendence
of the Collector. Affectionate salutations.
TO MR. JOHN JACOB ASTOR.
WASHINGTON, April 13, 1808.
SIR,--I have regretted the delay of this answer to your letter of February
27th, but it has proceeded from circumstances which did not depend on
me. I learn with great satisfaction the disposition of our merchants
to form into companies for undertaking the Indian trade within our own
territories. I have been taught to believe it an advantageous one for
the individual adventurers, and I consider it as highly desirable to have
that trade centred in the hands of our own citizens. The field is immense,
and would occupy a vast extent of capital by different companies engaging
in different districts. All beyond the Mississippi is ours exclusively,
and it will be in our power to give our own traders great advantages
over their foreign competitors on this side the Mississippi. You may be
assured that in order to get the whole of this business passed into the
hands of our own citizens, and to oust foreign traders, who so much abuse
their privilege by endeavoring to excite the Indians to war on us, every
reasonable patronage and facility in the power of the Executive will be
afforded. I salute you with respect.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
April 14, 1808.
I should think Mr. Woodside's application to send provisions for the
family of our consul at Madeira, admissible on the same ground as that
lately to Favre, were the necessity as evident, but I suppose it can
hardly be doubted that England will procure provisions for that island,
and there is danger of one precedent in our relaxations begetting another
till we may get out of the limits of the law and its object.
The application for the establishment of a packet on Lake Champlain cannot
be admitted. Such an establishment is by no means within the description
of those which we have proposed to license; it would give too great a
facility to evade the law, and the builder is in no worse situation than
the many others who began their vessels before the embargo law, and who
will not be permitted to use them till that is repealed. Affectionate
salutations.
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
April 19, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--Sincerely sympathizing in your distress, which much experience
in the same school has taught me to estimate, I could not have been
induced to intrude on it by anything short of the urgency of the case
stated by Penniman on Lake Champlain. Messrs. Robinson and Witherall tell
me the whole of the business will be over early in May, when the fall of
the water renders the rapids impassable for rafts. They think vessels
of any kind desired, can be had on the Lake at a moment's warning, and
guns of 6 lbs. ball, there also, mounted on them by procurement of the
collector, and that the governor would order any assistance of militia
on being written to. Believing it important to crush every example of
forcible opposition to the law, I propose to ask the other gentlemen to a
consultation immediately, and for their and my guide have to request any
ideas on the subject which you can hastily give me on paper, for which I
would not have troubled you, but from a confidence that your knowledge of
the character and means possessed by the collector there, and of the local
circumstances to be attended to, may enable us to decide on what will be
most proper and effectual. I salute you with affection.
P. S. Return me Penniman's letter if you please, to lay before the
gentlemen.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
April 19, 1808.
We have concluded as follows:
1st. That a letter from your department to the collector on Lake
Champlain, shall instruct him to equip and arm what vessels he can and
may think necessary, and luggage as many persons on board them as may
be necessary, and can be engaged _voluntarily_ by force of arms, or
otherwise, to enforce the law.
2d. The Secretary of State writes to the Marshall, if the opposition to
the law is too powerful for the collector, to raise his posse, (which, as
a peace officer, he is fully authorized to do on any forcible breach of
the peace,) and to aid in suppressing the insurrection or combination.
3d. The Secretary at War desires the Governor, if the posse is inadequate,
to publish a proclamation with which he is furnished, and to call on
the militia. He is further, by a private letter, requested to repair to
the place, and lend the aid of his counsel and authority according to
exigencies.
We have further determined to build two gun-boats at Skanesborough.
Affectionate salutations.
P. S. General Dearborne has Penniman's letter to copy for the Governor.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
April 22, 1808.
Did I lend you the Pennsylvania act permitting our Western road to pass
through that State? If I did, or if you have a copy of it, I shall be
very glad to see it. Mr. Hodge gave me notice yesterday that there would
be legal opposition to that road's passing in any other direction than
through Washington, their construction being, that if in fact a _good_
road can be got by Washington, the law obliges me to direct it through
that; and they have got a survey made on which they affirm the fact to
be that a _good_ road may be had. I know my determination was not to
yield to the example of a State's prescribing the direction of the road;
and I understood the law as leaving the route ultimately to me. If I
have misconstrued the law, I shall be sorry for the money spent on a
misconstruction, but that loss will be a lesser evil to the United States
than a single example of yielding to a State the direction of a road made
at the national expense and for national purposes. If you have not the
law, I must write by this day's post to Mr. Moore, to suspend all further
proceedings till we can see whether we are really at liberty to pursue the
route we have proposed, or must adopt another which shall not enter the
State of Pennsylvania.
Affectionate salutations.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
April 23, 1808.
My ideas on the questions relative to the active letter of Marque stated
in your letter of yesterday, are as follows:
1st. Letters of Marque have been considered, ever since the decisions
of 1703, to be of a mixed character, but that the commercial character
predominates; and as a commercial vessel of private property we have in
some cases since the proclamation of July, considered them as not included
in its restrictions.
2d. The law of 1794, June 5th, certainly exempts the enlistment of
foreigners in this country on board the vessels of their sovereign, from
the penalties of that law, and leaves the subject merely under the law of
nations. By that law the right of enlistment in a neutral country, given
to both belligerents if they can devise equal advantage from it, is no
breach of neutrality, but otherwise becomes questionable. We may, justly,
I think, permit a vessel of either nation to supply its desertions by new
engagements; but we should be cautious as to permitting them to increase
their number, to carry away more than they brought in.
3d. It is difficult to draw a line between the two cases where the
collector should consult the government, and where the district attorney.
Where a case is political, rather than legal, or where it arises even on
a _law_ whose object is rather political than municipal, the government
should be consulted; and where the district attorney is the proper resort,
still it should be on consultation by the collector, and not by the party
interested. Affectionate salutations.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
April 23, 1808.
Notes on the British claims in the Mississippi territory.
1803, March 3d, act of Congress gave to March 31, 1804, to exhibit their
claims on grants.
1804, March 27, act of Congress gave to November 30, 1804, and allowed
transcripts instead of originals, &c.
1805, March 2d, act of Congress gave to December 1, 1805, to file their
grants. And in fact to Jan 1, 1807, time when the sale might begin.
1807, December 15, the British claimants memorialize again.
On no one of the acts did the British claimant take any step towards
specifying his claim or its location, but remained inactive till the time
was expired, and then remonstrated to his government that we had not given
them time sufficient. And on the last of 1805, instead of having come
forward with his claims, ready to avail himself of the third term which
was then to be asked, and which was granted nominally to December 1, 1805,
but in effect to January 1, 1807, he stays at home inactive, and on the
15th of December, 1807, again gives in a memorial that we have not given
time enough, but still takes no step to inform us what and where his claim
is.
Although these titles may have been confirmed by treaty, yet they
could not thereby be intended to be withdrawn from the jurisdiction or
conditions on which lands are held even by citizens. It is evident that
these claimants are speculators, whose object is to make what profit they
can out of the patronage of the government, but to make no sacrifice of
themselves either of money or trouble. They are entitled, therefore, to
no further notice from either government. However, Mr. Erskine may be
informed _verbally_, that as the day of commencing sales of lands there
is now put off to January 1, 1809, if any of these claimants will, before
that day, file their claim, with its _precise location_, the executive
is authorized to suspend the sale of any particular parcels, and will as
to that, till the proper authority can decide on the title, but that the
settlement of that country in general, is too pressing to be delayed one
day by claims under the circumstances of these.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
April 23, 1808.
The leading object of the enclosed application from the owners of the
Topaz, is to send witnesses and documents to save the property of the
ship and cargo seized. But as the Topaz would be insufficient to bring
home the whole property if cleared, the permission of sending a vessel
may be on the ordinary ground of bringing home the property. But do the
restrictions of the embargo laws (for I have them not) inhibit the passing
from port to port as proposed in the enclosed? And do they admit, (in case
the Topaz and her cargo are condemned,) that the vessel sent out should
bring home other property to cover the expenses of the ineffectual voyage?
On these questions I must ask your opinion, as General Smith will call
on me to-morrow. The questions had been brought to me originally by Mr.
Taylor, because he happened to come at a moment when you were confined.
Affectionate salutes.
TO WM. RODNEY.
April 24, 1808.
Thomas Jefferson returns the enclosed to Mr. Rodney, with thanks for
the communication. It is very evident that our embargo, added to the
exclusions from the Continent, will be most heavily felt in England and
Ireland. Liverpool is remonstrating, and endeavoring to get the other
posts into motion. Yet the bill confirming the orders of council is
ordered to a third reading, which shows it will pass. Congress has just
passed an additional embargo law, on which if we act as boldly as I am
disposed to do, we can make it effectual. I think the material parts of
the enclosed should be published. It will show our people that while the
embargo gives us double rations, it is starving our enemies. This six
months' session has worn me down to a state of almost total incapacity for
business. Congress will certainly rise to-morrow night, and I shall leave
this for Monticello on the 5th of May, to be here again on the 8th of
June. I salute you with constant affection and respect.
TO COLONEL WASHINGTON.
WASHINGTON, April 24, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--So uncertain has been the situation of our affairs with
England, and yet so much bearing would they have on those with the
Indians, that I have delayed answering your favor of October 5th until I
could see a little way before me. At present I think a continuance of our
peace till the next meeting of Congress (November) probable. I have now
addressed a message to the Indians in the north-west, in which I inform
them of our differences with England, and of the uncertainty how they will
issue. Assure them of the continuance of our friendship, and advise them
in any event to remain quiet at home, taking no part in our quarrel, and
declaring unequivocally that if any nation takes up the hatchet against
us, we will drive them from the land of their fathers, and never more
permit their return. With respect to the prophet, I really believe the
opinion you formed of his views is correct. But we have heard so many
different stories since, that we are awaiting some information which
we expect to receive before we make up a definitive opinion. This much,
however, we determine; and he might know that if we become dissatisfied
that his views are friendly, we shall extend to him all the patronage
and good offices in our power, and shall establish a store in his new
settlement; and particularly if we find him endeavoring to reform the
morality of the Indians, and encourage them in industry and peace, we
shall do what we can to render his influence as extensive as possible.
I had been in hopes that a change in the British ministry would have
produced a revocation of the orders of council, which called for our
embargo, and an European peace, so as to have removed all danger of our
being dragged into the war. But our advices to the 14th of March show
they still retained a good majority in Parliament. Should they continue
in office, our peace will continue uncertain. Accept my salutations, and
assurances of great esteem and respect.
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
April 30, 1808.
_Case of the Fleusburg._
Our laws permit a foreigner to hold any property in our country, except
lands. A foreigner may contract for a ship to be built for him, so that
she will be his from the time of laying the keel; or he may contract so
as that she shall be his only when launched, or when rigged, &c. The act
of delivery to him or his agents fixes, in that case, the moment when she
becomes his property. If the Fleusburg was delivered to the agent of the
Danish merchant, by such an act of delivery as by our laws will transfer
personal property, before the 22d of December, she was then Danish
property. The statement says that a bill of building and sale, dated
December 10th, proved her to be then Danish property. If the collector
shall find that she was actually Danish property before December 22d, I
should think her entitled as a foreign vessel. I suppose she did not take
out an American register. This would be corroborative proof that, though
built in America, she was not meant to be, nor ever became, an American
bottom; for I presume the register is what completes the American bottom.
The matter of fact should be proved to the collector.
_Rhode Island Packets._
The pretension that the navigation from Newport to New York is entirely a
navigation of rivers, bays, and sounds, would take from language all kind
of certainty. There is not one point of the coast of Rhode Island, from
which a perpendicular line does not lead into the main ocean. A very small
proportion of these would lead across Block Island. But to say that Block
Island covers the whole coast from Martha's Vineyard to Long Island, so
as to make it a Sound, is too gross for any one who casts his eyes on the
maps. The difference of regulation, too, between bay-craft and coasting
vessels, since the act of April 25th, is very inconsiderable.
TO GENERAL DEARBORNE.
April 29, 1808.
Thomas Jefferson will thank General Dearborne to consider the enclosed.
The writer appears to have that sincere enthusiasm for his undertaking
which will ensure success. The education of the common people around
Detroit is a most desirable object, and the proposition of extending
their views to the teaching the Indian boys and girls to read and write,
agriculture and mechanic trades to the former, spinning and weaving to the
latter, may perhaps be acceded to by us advantageously for the Indians,
and the bounties paid for them be an aid to the other objects of the
institution. Affectionate salutations.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
April 30, 1808.
Notes on such parts of Fronda's letter of April 26th, 1808, as are worth
answering:--
I. I know of no recent orders to Governor Claiborne as to the navigation
of the Mississippi, Uberville, and Pontchartrain; he should specify them,
but he may be told that no order has ever been given contrary to the
rights of Spain. These rights are, 1st, a treaty right that "the ships
of Spain coming directly from Spain or her colonies, loaded only _with
the produce_ or manufactures of Spain or her colonies, shall be admitted
during the space of twelve years in the ports of New Orleans, and in all
other legal ports of entry within the ceded territory, in the same manner
as the ships of the United States, &c." 2d. A right of innocent passage
from the mouth of the Mississippi to 31° of latitude, exactly commensurate
with our right of innocent passage up the rivers of Florida to 31° of
latitude.
II. In answer to his question whether we consider Mobile among the ports
of the United States, he may be told that so long as we consider the
question whether the Perdido is not the eastern boundary of Louisiana, as
continuing in a train of amicable proceedings for adjustment, so long that
part only of the river Mobile, which is above 31° of latitude, will be
considered among the ports of the United States, withholding the exercise
of jurisdiction on our part within the disputed territory, on the general
principle of letting things remain in _statu quo pendente lite_.
There is nothing else in this letter worth answering.
TO WILLIAM LYMAN, ESQ.
WASHINGTON, April 30, 1803.
SIR,--Your favor of the 11th of July came to hand a little before
the meeting of Congress, and soon after I received the apparatus for
stylographic writing, which you were so kind as to send me, for which I
pray you to receive my particular thanks.
The invention is certainly very ingenious, and while it compares
advantageously with all others in other circumstances, it has an
unrivalled preference as being so much more profitable. I had never
heard of the invention till your letter announced it, for these novelties
reach us very late, which renders your attentions on the occasion more
acceptable, and more entitled to the acknowledgments which I now tender.
The decrees and orders of the belligerent nations having amounted nearly
to declarations that they would take our vessels wherever found. Congress
thought it best in the first instance to break off all intercourse with
them. They adjourned on Monday last, having passed an act authorizing
me to suspend the embargo whenever the belligerents should revoke their
decrees or orders as to us. The embargo must continue, therefore, till
they meet again in November, unless the measures of the belligerents
should change. When they meet again, if these decrees and orders still
continue, the question which they will have to decide will be, whether
a continuance of the embargo or war will be preferable. In the meantime
great advances are making in the establishment of manufactures. Those of
cotton will, I think, be so far proceeded on, that we shall never again
have to recur to the importation of cotton goods for our own use. I tender
you my salutations, and the assurances of my great respect.
TO GENERAL ARMSTRONG.
WASHINGTON, May 2, 1808.
DEAR GENERAL,--A safe conveyance offering by a special messenger to Paris,
I avail myself of it to bring up my arrears to my foreign correspondents.
I give them the protection of your cover, but to save the trouble of your
attention to their distribution, I give them an inner cover to Mr. Harden,
whose attentions heretofore have encouraged me to ask this favor of him.
But should he not be with you, I must pray you to open my packages to him,
and have them distributed, as it is of importance that some of them should
be delivered without delay. I shall say nothing to you on the subject
of our foreign relations, because you will get what is official on that
subject from Mr. Madison.
During the present paroxysm of the insanity of Europe, we have thought it
wisest to break off all intercourse with her. We shall, in the course of
this year, have all our seaports, of any note, put into a state of defence
against naval attacks. Against great land armies we cannot attempt it
but by equal armies. For these we must depend on a classified militia,
which will give us the service of the class from twenty to twenty-six,
in the nature of conscripts, composing a body of about 250,000, to be
specially trained. This measure, attempted at a former session, was passed
at the last, and might, I think, have been carried by a small majority.
But considering that great innovations should not be forced on a slender
majority, and seeing that the general opinion is sensibly rallying to
it, it was thought better to let it lie over to the next session, when,
I trust, it will be passed. Another measure has now twice failed, which I
have warmly urged, the immediate settlement by donation of lands, of such
a body of militia in the territories of Orleans and Mississippi, as will
be adequate to the defence of New Orleans. We are raising some regulars in
addition to our present force, for garrisoning our seaports, and forming
a nucleus for the militia to gather to. There will be no question who is
to be my successor. Of this be assured, whatever may be said by newspapers
and private correspondences. Local considerations have been silenced by
those dictated by the continued difficulties of the times. One word of
friendly request: be more frequent and full in your communications with
us. I salute you with great friendship and respect.
TO GENERAL KOSCIUSKO.
WASHINGTON, May 2, 1808.
MY VERY DEAR GENERAL,--A safe conveyance offering by a special messenger
to Paris, Mr. Barnes has requested me to avail you of it, by sending a
remittance of a thousand dollars, for which a draught is under cover. I
shall not write to you on the subject of our foreign relations, because of
the dangers by sea and the dangers by land. During the present paroxysm
of the insanity of Europe, we have thought it wisest to break off all
intercourse with her. We shall, in the course of this year, have all our
seaports of any note put into a state of defence against naval attacks.
Against great land armies we cannot attempt it but by equal armies.
For these we must depend on a classified militia, which will give us
the service of the class from twenty to twenty-six, in the nature of
conscripts, composing a body of about 250,000, to be specially trained.
This measure, attempted at a former session, was passed at the last, and
might, I think, have been carried by a small majority; but considering
that great innovations should not be forced on slender majorities, and
seeing that the public opinion is sensibly rallying to it, it was thought
better to let it lie over to the next session, when I trust it will be
passed. Another measure has now twice failed, which I have warmly urged,
the immediate settlement by donation of lands of such a body of militia
in the territories of Orleans and Mississippi, as will be adequate to the
defence of New Orleans. We are raising some regulars in addition to our
present force, for garrisoning our seaports, and forming a nucleus for the
militia to gather to. There will be no question who is to be my successor.
Of this be assured, whatever may be said by newspapers and private
correspondences; local considerations have been silenced by those dictated
by the continued difficulties of the times. I salute you with sincere and
constant friendship and great respect.
TO MR. SMITH.
May 3, 1808.
I enclose you a petition from a woman (Mary Barnett) who complains that
her son of thirteen years of age, is detained against her will in the
naval military service. Having never before received an application of the
kind in that department, I know not what are the rules there. But in the
land service we have had many cases of enlistments of infants, and there
the law is considered to be, and our practice in conformity, as follows:
An infant is considered as incapable of binding himself by enlistment,
and may at any time be reclaimed by a parent, guardian, next friend, or
may quit of his own accord, on complaint from a parent, &c. We direct
the officer to inquire into the fact of infancy, and if he believes him
under age he discharges him. If he believes him of full age, we advise the
parent, &c., that he may take out a Habeas Corpus, and have the fact tried
before an impartial judge: if enlisted with the consent of the parent,
&c., it must be by indentures as prescribed by law for an apprentice or
servant, this being the only mode of obligation in which the law will
compel _specific_ execution. In case of a verbal or a common written
subscription of engagement, even with consent of the parent, _damages_
only can be recovered for withdrawing from it. I presume the rules in the
Navy Department must be the same, as we must conform ourselves to the law
in all departments. I directed the woman to call on me again to-morrow.
Will you be so good as to enable me to give her an answer? Affectionate
salutations.
TO GOVERNOR TOMPKINS.
WASHINGTON, May 4, 1808.
SIR,--I duly received your favor of April 18th, covering an Act of the
legislature of New York, appropriating $100,000 to aid and expedite the
defence of the city and port of New York, and $20,000 to aid in and
contribute to the defence of the northern and western frontiers, and
expressing a desire to receive an opinion on the application of those
sums.
In carrying into execution the provisions of Congress, at their last
session, for fortifying on a just view of the relative importance of the
places, combined with their degree of exposure, and capability of defence,
and in such way as to require a moderate permanent force of regulars,
relying much, in case of sudden attack on the aid of the militia. Among
the objects of our care, New York stands foremost in the points of
importance and exposure; and, if permitted, we shall provide such defences
for it as, in our opinion, will render it secure against attacks by sea.
The particulars of what is proposed to be done can be made known to you by
Colonel Williams, as it is probable these may not comprehend everything
which the anxieties of the citizens might think of service in their
defence. I suggest for your consideration, the idea of applying the fund
appropriated to this object, by your legislature, to such supplementary
provisions as in your judgment might be necessary to render ours adequate
to fulfil the views and confidence of your citizens. Of this however, you
are the best judge. But I cannot omit to urge that no time should be lost
in deciding on so much of the plan proposed by the Secretary at War, as
depends on a cession from the State authorities.
It appears to me that it would be well to have a post on the Saint
Lawrence, as near our line as a commanding position could be found, that
it might afford some cover for our most advanced inhabitants. But if a
rupture takes place now, such a post would too soon lose all its value,
to be worth building at this time. It is only in the event of a solid
accommodation with Great Britain, and their retaining their present
possessions, that it might become worthy of attention. I do not know
that the $20,000 appropriated by the State of New York, "to aid in, and
contribute to, the defence of the northern and western frontiers," could
be better applied than as supplementary to our provisions in this quarter
also. We cannot, for instance, deliver out our arms to the militia, until
called into the field. Yet it would be a great security had every militia
man on these frontiers a good musket in his hands. However, here again
your Excellency is the best judge, and I have hazarded these ideas as to
the application of the appropriations, only on the wish you expressed that
I would do it, and on my own desire to interchange ideas with frankness,
and without reserve with those charged, in common with myself with the
public interests. I beg leave to tender you the assurances of my high
esteem and respect.
TO ----.
May 5, 1808.
GREAT AND GOOD FRIEND,--Having learnt the safe arrival of your Royal
Highness at the city of Rio Janeiro, I perform with pleasure the duty of
offering you my sincere congratulations by Mr. Hill, a respected citizen
of the United States, who is specially charged with the delivery of this
letter.
I trust that this event will be as propitious to the prosperity of
your faithful subjects as to the happiness of your Royal Highness, in
which the United States of America have ever taken a lively interest.
Inhabitants now of the same land, of that great continent which the genius
of Columbus has given to the world, the United States feel sensibly
that they stand in new and closer relations with your Royal Highness,
and that the motives which heretofore nourished the friendly relations
which have so happily prevailed, have acquired increased strength on the
transfer of your residence to their own shores. They see in prospect, a
system of intercourse between the different regions of this hemisphere of
which the peace and happiness of mankind may be the essential principle.
To this principle your long-tried adherence, for the benefit of those
you governed, in the midst of warring powers, is a pledge to the new
world that its peace, its free and friendly intercourse, will be your
chief concern. On the part of the United States I assure you, that these
which have hitherto been their ruling objects, will be most particularly
cultivated with your Royal Highness and your subjects at Brazil, and they
hope that that country so favored by the gifts of nature, now advanced to
a station under your immediate auspices, will find, in the interchange of
mutual wants and supplies, the true aliment of an unchanging friendship
with the United States of America.
I pray to God, great and good friend, that in your new abode you may enjoy
health, happiness, and the affections of your people, and that He will
always have you in His safe and holy keeping.
Done at Washington, &c.
TO THE GOVERNORS OF NEW ORLEANS, GEORGIA, SOUTH CAROLINA, MASSACHUSETTS
AND NEW HAMPSHIRE.
WASHINGTON, May 6, 1808.
SIR,--The evasions of the preceding embargo laws went so far towards
defeating their objects, and chiefly by vessels clearing out coast-wise,
that Congress, by their act of April 25th, authorized the absolute
detention of all vessels bound coast-wise with cargoes exciting suspicions
of an intention to evade those laws. There being few towns on our
sea-coast which cannot be supplied with flour from their interior country,
shipments of flour become generally suspicious and proper subjects of
detention. Charleston is one of the few places on our seaboard which need
supplies of flour by sea for its own consumption. That it may not suffer
by the cautions we are obliged to use, I request of your excellency,
whenever you deem it necessary that your present or any future stock
should be enlarged, to take the trouble of giving your certificate
in favor of any merchant in whom you have confidence, directed to the
collector of any port, usually exporting flour, from which he may choose
to bring it, for any quantity which you may deem necessary for consumption
beyond your interior supplies, enclosing to the Secretary of the Treasury
at the same time a duplicate of the certificate as a check on the
falsification of your signature. In this way we may secure a supply of the
real wants of our citizens, and at the same time prevent those wants from
being made a cover for the crimes against their country which unprincipled
adventurers are in the habit of committing. I trust, too, that your
excellency will find an apology for the trouble I propose to give you, in
that desire which you must feel in common with all our worthy citizens,
that inconveniences encountered cheerfully by them for the interests of
their country, shall not be turned merely to the unlawful profits of the
most worthless part of society. I salute your excellency with assurances
of my high respect and consideration.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
May 6, 1808.
In the outset of the business of detentions, I think it impossible to
form precise rules. After a number of cases shall have arisen they may
probably be thrown into groups and subjected to rules. The great leading
object of the Legislature was, and ours in execution of it ought to be, to
give complete effect to the embargo laws. They have bidden agriculture,
commerce, navigation, to bow before that object, to be nothing when in
competition with that. Finding all their endeavors at general rules to be
evaded, they finally gave us the power of detention as the panacea, and I
am clear we ought to use it freely that we may, by a fair experiment, know
the power of this great weapon, the embargo. Therefore, to propositions
to carry flour into the Chesapeake, the Delaware, the Hudson, and other
_exporting_ places, we should say boldly it is not wanted there for
consumption, and the carrying it there is too suspicious to be permitted.
In consequence of the letters to the Governors of the flour-importing
States, we may also say boldly that there being no application from the
Governor is a proof it is not wanting in those States, and therefore must
not be carried. As to shuffling of cotton, tobacco, flax seed, &c., from
one port to another, it may be some trifling advantage to individuals to
change their property out of one form into another, but it is not of a
farthing's benefit to the nation at large, and risks their great object
in the embargo. The want of these at a particular place should be very
notorious to the collector and others, to take off suspicion of illicit
intentions. Dry goods of Europe, coal, bricks, &c., are articles entirely
without suspicion. I hazard these things for your consideration, and I
send you a copy of the letter to the Governors, which may be communicated
in form to the collectors to strengthen the ground of suspicion. You will
be so good as to decide these cases yourself, without forwarding them to
me. Whenever you are clear either way, so decide; where you are doubtful,
consider me as voting for detention, being satisfied that individuals
ought to yield their private interests to this great public object.
TO THE SECRETARY AT WAR.
MONTICELLO, May 12, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--My journey and two days' detention on the road by high waters,
gave me time to reflect on our canal at New Orleans, on which I will
therefore hazard some thoughts.
I think it has been said that the Mississippi, at low water, is many
feet lower opposite New Orleans than Lake Pontchartrain. But the fact
is impossible, being in contradiction to the laws of nature; two beds
of dead water connected with the same ocean, in vicinity to one another,
must each be in the level of that ocean, and consequently of one another.
Although Pontchartrain receives the Amite and some other small streams,
they probably do little more than supply its evaporation. No doubt,
however, that the lake must receive the small ebb and flow of the sea.
The Mississippi, on the contrary, even at its lowest tide, always flows
downwards to and beyond its mouth; it must, then, at New Orleans, be
one, two, or three feet higher than the sea, and consequently than
Pontchartrain.
If a simple canal were cut from that of Carondelet to the Mississippi
without lock or gate, there would be two risks. 1. That in high water of
the Mississippi the current would be too strong for a gun-boat to ascend
or descend. This might perhaps be remedied by the draught of horses. 2.
The force of such a current, (unless the whole canal were lined with brick
or masonry,) might convert the canal into a bay, one of an unknown size,
and involve New Orleans in it.
On the whole, I suspect our plan is pretty obvious: suppose we want
six feet water; make a canal of that depth below the lowest ebb of
Pontchartrain from the lake to where the lock is to be placed,--then bring
a canal from the river to the lock, the depth of which shall be six feet
below the lowest water of the Mississippi ever known; at the back there
will be a descent, suppose of one, two or three feet, or any other number.
The lock remedies that. If the lock were near the lake it would lessen
the work by giving nearly the whole length to the shallowest canal, and
it would probably be in a more tranquil and safe situation. But it might
be inconvenient, perhaps unsafe, to the sides of the Mississippi canal,
to permit such a depth of water as would be in it, through its whole
length, at the time of the high water of that river. Of the best position,
therefore, of the lock, the superintendent must judge on the spot, as he
must indeed of the correctness of all the preceding conjectures, formed
without a knowledge of the localities. They are hazarded merely to give us
some fixed notions of the nature of the enterprize, and are submitted to
your consideration. I salute you with affectionate respect.
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
MONTICELLO, May 15, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--I received yesterday the enclosed letter from a Mr. Wood, of
New York. I should suppose the fruits of Europe stood nearly on the ground
of the dry goods of Europe, not tempting evasion by exorbitant prices,
nor defeating the object of the embargo in any important degree, even
if a deviation should take place. I send it to yourself for decision and
answer, in order that there may be an uniformity in the decisions. I am
really glad to find the collector so cautious, and hope others will be
equally so, and I place immense value in the experiment being fully made,
how far an embargo may be an effectual weapon in future as well as on this
occasion. I salute you with affection and respect.
P. S. Will you send me sixteen copies of my letters to the Governors of
Orleans, Georgia, &c., which I think you proposed to have printed? I will
enclose it to the other governors with explanations.
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
MONTICELLO, May 17, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--Yours of the 16th came to hand last night. As the lead mines do
not press in point of time, I would rather they should be the subject of a
conversation on my return. It is not merely a question about the terms we
have to consider, but the expediency of working them. As to the Savannah
revenue cutter, I approve of the proposition in your letter, or whatever
else you may think proper to be done. The regular traders to New Orleans
may be admitted to go as usual, the characters of the owners being known
to be safe, and provisions and lumber being excepted. Cotton perhaps may
be permitted to be brought back on the consideration that its price in
Europe is not likely to be such as that the adventurers may afford to pay
all the forfeitures. I presume Mr. Price's application, which I enclose
you, will fall under this general permission. Will you be so good as to
have the proper answer given him. If we change our rule of tonnage for
Mr. Murray's purpose, the next application will be for such a rate of
tonnage as will allow them to bring back their property in the form of
hay. General Dearborne has occasion to send a vessel to Passamaquoddy with
cannon for the batteries, and perhaps provision for the troops, and has
asked me to send him a blank license. But as these licenses are not signed
by me, I refer him to you for the necessary arrangements.
I shall sincerely lament Cuba's falling into any hands but those of its
present owners. Spanish America is at present in the best hands for us,
and "Chi sta bene, non si muove" should be our motto. I salute you with
affection.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
MONTICELLO, May 19, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--I now return you the papers reserved from the last post. Our
regular answer to Mr. Livingston may well be, that the Attorney General
having given an official opinion that the right to the batture is in the
United States, and the matter being now referred to Congress, it is our
duty to keep the grounds clear of any adversary possession, until the
Legislature shall decide on it. I have carefully read Mr. Livingston's
printed memoir. He has shaken my opinion as to the line within the road
having been intended as a line of _boundary_ instead of its being a line
of _admeasurement_ only. But he establishes another fact by the testimony
of Fendeau, very fatal to his claim; to wit, that the high-water mark,
"batture, ou viennent _battre_ les eaux lorsqu elles sont dans leurs plus
grandes croissances," is the universal boundary of private grants on the
river.
Your observations on his allegations that Gravier's grant must be under
the Spanish law, because after the cession of the province by France to
Spain, though before delivery of possession, are conclusive. To which may
be added, that Louis XIV. having established the Constumes de Paris as
the law of Louisiana, this was not changed by the mere act of transfer;
on the contrary, the laws of France continued and continue to be the law
of the land, except where specially altered by some subsequent edict of
Spain or act of Congress. He has not in the least shaken the doctrine
that the bed of the river, and all the atterrissements or banks which
arise on it by the depositions of the river, are the property of the King
by a peculiarity in the law of France; so that nothing quoted from those
of Spain or the Roman law is of authority on that point. Affectionate
salutations.
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
MONTICELLO, May 20, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--I return you the papers of Fanning, Lesdernier, and Sacket.
With respect to Fanning's case, the true key for the construction of
everything doubtful in a law, is the intention of the law-makers. This is
most safely gathered from the words, but may be sought also in extraneous
circumstances, provided they do not contradict the express words of the
law. We certainly know that the Legislature meant that vessels might
go out to bring home property, but not to commence a new career of
commerce. The bringing home the property being the main object, if it
be in an impracticable form, it expects the intention of the law to let
it be commuted into a practicable form; and so from an inconvenient to a
convenient form. To prevent any abuse of this accommodation, by entering
into a new operation of commerce with it, the discretionary permission
is left to the President. I think the conversion of the sandal wood into
a more portable form in this case, is fulfilling the object of the law,
and that it is immaterial whether that be done in the Friendly Islands,
where the wood now is, or wherever by the way it can be better done.
Consequently, that permission may be granted. I hope you will spare no
pains or expense to bring the rascals of Passamaquoddy to justice, and if
more force be necessary, agree on the subject with General Dearborne or
Mr. Smith, as to any aid they can spare, and let it go without waiting
to consult me. Let the successor to Sacket also be commissioned without
waiting for my opinion, which will be yours. Should a pardon be granted
to Russell, I generally but not invariably require a recommendation from
the judges. I shall be ready to consider any propositions you may make for
mitigating the embargo law of April 25th, but so only as not to defeat
the object of the law. I shall be ready to make a distinction between
provisions, timber, naval stores, and such things, as by the exaggerated
prices they have got to in foreign markets, would enable infactors to pay
all forfeitures and still make great profit, and cotton and such other
articles as have not got to such prices. I am for going substantially to
the object of the law, and no further; perhaps a little more earnestly
because it is the first expedient, and it is of great importance to know
its full effect.
I salute you with constant affection and respect.
TO THE SECRETARY AT WAR.
MONTICELLO, May 20, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--Yours of the 14th came to hand yesterday. I do not see that we
can avoid agreeing to estimates made by worthy men of our own choice for
the sites of fortifications, or that we could leave an important place
undefended because too much is asked for the site. And therefore we must
pay what the sites at Boston have been valued at. At the same time I do
not know on what principles of reasoning it is that good men think the
public ought to pay more for a thing than they would themselves if they
wanted it. I salute you with affection and respect.
TO GENERAL BENJAMIN SMITH.
MONTICELLO, May 20, 1808.
SIR,--I return you my thanks for the communication by your letter of
April 19th, of the resolutions of the Grand Jury of Brunswick, approving
of the embargo. Could the alternative of war or the embargo have been
presented to the whole nation, as it occurred to their representatives,
there could have been but the one opinion that it was better to take the
chance of one year by the embargo, within which the orders and decrees
producing it may be repealed, or peace take place in Europe, which
may secure peace to us. How long the continuance of the embargo may be
preferable to war, is a question we shall have to meet, if the decrees
and orders and war continue. I am sorry that in some places, chiefly on
our northern frontier, a disposition even to oppose the law by force has
been manifested. In no country on earth is this so impracticable as in
one where every man feels a vital interest in maintaining the authority
of the laws, and instantly engages in it as in his own personal cause.
Accordingly, we have experienced this spontaneous aid of our good citizens
in the neighborhoods where there has been occasion, as I am persuaded we
ever shall on such occasions. Through the body of our country generally
our citizens appear heartily to approve and support the embargo. I am also
to thank you for the communication of the Wilmington proceedings, and I
add my salutations and assurances of great respect.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
MONTICELLO, May 24, 1807.
DEAR SIR;-- * * * * * What has been already said on the subject of Casa
Calvo, Yrujo, Miranda, is sufficient, and that these should be seriously
brought up again argues extreme weakness in Cavallos, or a plan to keep
things unsettled with us. But I think it would not be amiss to take him
down from his high airs as to the right of the sovereign to hinder the
upper inhabitants from the use of the Mobile, by observing, 1st, that
we claim to be the sovereign, although we give time for discussion. But
2d, that the upper inhabitants of a navigable water have always a right
of innocent passage along it. I think Cavallos will not probably be
the minister when the letter arrives at Madrid, and that an eye to that
circumstance may perhaps have some proper influence on the style of the
letter, in which, if meant for himself, his hyperbolic airs might merit
less respect. I think too that the truth as to Pike's mission might
be so simply stated as to need no argument to show that (even during
the suspension of our claims to the eastern border of the Rio Norte)
his getting on it was mere error, which ought to have called for the
setting him right, instead of forcing him through the interior country.
[Sullivan's letter.] His view of things for some time past has been
entirely distempered.
Cathcart's, Ridgeley's, Navour's, Degen's, Appleton's, Lee's, and Baker's
letters, are all returned. I salute you with great affection and respect.
TO GENERAL DEARBORNE.
MONTICELLO, May 25, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--There is a subject on which I wished to speak with you before
I left Washington; but an apt occasion did not occur. It is that of your
continuance in office. Perhaps it is as well to submit my thoughts to you
by letter. The present summer is too important in point of preparation, to
leave your department unfilled, for any time, as I once thought might be
done; and it would be with extreme reluctance that, so near the time of
my own retirement, I should proceed to name any high officer, especially
one who must be of the intimate councils of my successor, and who ought
of course to be in his unreserved confidence. I think too it would make
an honorable close of your term as well as mine, to leave our country in
a state of substantial defence, which we found quite unprepared for it.
Indeed, it would for me be a joyful annunciation to the next meeting of
Congress, that the operations of defence are all complete. I know that
New York must be an exception; but perhaps even that may be closed before
the 4th of March, when you and I might both make our bow with approbation
and satisfaction. Nor should I suppose that under present circumstances,
anything interesting in your future office could make it important for
you to repair to its immediate occupation. In February my successor will
be declared, and may then, without reserve, say whom he would wish me
to nominate to the Senate in your place. I submit these circumstances to
your consideration, and wishing in all things to consult your interests,
your fame and feelings, it will give me sincere joy to learn that you will
"watch with me to the end." I salute you with great affection and respect.
TO MR. LIEPER.
MONTICELLO, May 25, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--I received your favor of April 22d a little before I was to
leave Washington, much engaged with despatching the business rendered
necessary by the acts of Congress just risen, and preparatory to a short
visit to this place. Here again I have been engrossed with some attentions
to my own affairs, after a long absence, added to the public business
which presses on me here as at Washington. I mention these things to
apologize for the long delay of an answer to the address of the Democratic
republicans of Philadelphia, enclosed in your letter, and which has
remained longer unanswered than I wished. I have been happy in my journey
through the country to this place, to find the people unanimous in their
preference of the embargo to war, and the great sacrifice they make,
rendered a cheerful one from a sense of its necessity.
Whether the pressure on the throne from the suffering people of England,
and of their Islands, the conviction of the dishonorable as well as
dishonest character of their orders of council, the strength of their
parliamentary opposition, and remarkable weakness of the defence of their
ministry, will produce a repeal of these orders and cessation of our
embargo, is yet to be seen. To nobody will a repeal be so welcome as to
myself. Give us peace till our revenues are liberated from debt, and then,
if war be necessary, it can be carried on without a new tax or loan, and
during peace we may chequer our whole country with canals, roads, &c. This
is the object to which all our endeavors should be directed. I salute you
with great friendship and respect.
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
MONTICELLO, May 27, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--I received yesterday yours of the 23d, and now return you
Woolsey's and Astor's letters. I send you one also which I have received
from a Mr. Thorne, on the evasions of the embargo on Lake Champlain. The
conduct of some of our officers there, and of some excellent citizens,
has been very meritorious, and I will thank you to express any degree
of approbation you think proper, in my name, for Captain Mayo. Woolsey
appears also to deserve assurances of approbation. If you think Thorne's
suggestion of some militia at Point au Fer necessary and proper, be so
good as to consult General Dearborne, who will give any order you and he
approve. With respect to the coasting trade, my wish is only to carry into
full effect the intentions of the embargo laws. I do not wish a single
citizen in any of the States to be deprived of a meal of bread, but I
set down the exercise of commerce, merely for profit, as nothing when
it carries with it the danger of defeating the objects of the embargo.
I have more faith, too, in the Governors. I cannot think that any one of
them would wink at abuses of that law. Still, I like your circular of the
20th, and the idea there brought forward of confining the shipment to so
small a proportion of the bond as may correspond with the exaggeration of
price and foreign markets, and thus restrain the adventurer from gaining
more than he would lose by dishonesty. Flour, by the latest accounts, I
have observed, sold at about eight times its cost here, while the legal
penalties are but about three prices--by restraining them to an eighth
they will be balanced. But as prices rise must not our rules be varied?
Had the practicability of this mode of restraint occurred before the
recurrence to the Governors, I should have preferred it, because it is
free from the objection of favoritism to which the Governors will be
exposed, and if you find it work well in practice, we may find means to
have the other course discontinued. Our course should be to sacrifice
everything to secure the effect of the law, and nothing beyond that.
I enclose you an application of Neilson & Son, to which you will please to
have given whatever answer is conformable to general rules. The petition
of Gardner and others, masters of the Rhode Island packet ships, which
I enclose you, does not specify the particular act required from us for
their relief. If it be to declare that the open sea in front of their
coast is a bay or a river, the matter of fact, as well as the law, renders
that impossible. I really think it desirable to relieve their case, in
any way which is lawful, because it is one, which though embraced by the
words of the law, is not within its object. You mention that a principal
method of evading the embargo is by loading secretly and going off without
clearance. The naval department must aid us against this. As I shall
leave this for Washington in about ten or twelve days, I now desire the
post-office there to send no letters to this place after receiving this
notice. All further matters relative to the embargo will therefore be
answered verbally as soon as they could by letter. I salute you with great
affection and respect.
TO MR. BOWDOIN.
MONTICELLO, May 29, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--I received the favor of your letter, written soon after your
arrival, a little before I left Washington, and during a press of business
preparatory to my departure on a short visit to this place; this has
prevented my earlier congratulations to you on your safe return to your
own country. There, judging from my own experience, you will enjoy much
more of the tranquil happiness of life, than is to be found in the noisy
scenes of the great cities of Europe. I am also aware that you had at
Paris additional causes of disquietude; these seem inseparable from public
life, and, indeed, are the greatest discouragements to entering into or
continuing in it. Perhaps, however, they sweeten the hour of retirement,
and secure us from all dangers of regret. On the subject of that
disquietude, it is proper for me only to say that, however unfortunate the
incident, I found in it no cause of dissatisfaction with yourself, nor of
lessening the esteem I entertain for your virtues and talents; and, had
it not been disagreeable to yourself, I should have been well pleased that
you could have proceeded on your original destination.
While I thank you for the several letters received from you during your
absence, I have to regret the miscarriage of some of those I wrote you.
Not having my papers here, I cannot cite their dates by memory; but they
shall be the subject of another letter on my return to Washington.
You find us on your return in a crisis of great difficulty. An embargo
had, by the course of events, become the only peaceable card we had to
play. Should neither peace, nor a revocation of the decrees and orders in
Europe take place, the day cannot be distant when that will cease to be
preferable to open hostility. Nothing just or temperate has been omitted
on our part, to retard or to avoid this unprofitable alternative. Our
situation will be the more singular, as we may have to choose between two
enemies, who have both furnished cause of war. With one of them we could
never come into contact; with the other great injuries may be mutually
inflicted and received. Let us still hope to avoid, while we prepare to
meet them.
Hoping you will find our cloudless skies and benign climate more favorable
to your health than those of Europe, I pray you to accept my friendly
salutations, and assurances of great esteem and consideration.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
MONTICELLO, May 31, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--I return you all the papers received from you by yesterday's
mail, except Mr. Burnley's, which I shall send by the Secretary at
War. Although all the appointments below field-officers are made, it is
possible some may decline, and open a way for new competition. I have
observed that Turreau's letters have for some time past changed their
style unfavorably. I believe this is the first occasion he has had to
complain of French deserters being enlisted by us, and if so, the tone
of his application is improper. The answer to him, however, is obvious as
to our laws and instructions, and the _discharge_, not _delivery_, of the
men, for which purpose I presume you will write a line to the Secretary at
War. Woodward's scruples are perplexing. And they are unfounded, because,
on his own principle, if a law requires an oath to be administered, and
does not say by whom, he admits it may be any judge; if, therefore, it
names a person no longer in existence, it is as if it named nobody.
On this construction all the territories have practised, and all the
authorities of the national government,--even the Legislature. It was
wrong on a second ground; no judge ever refusing to administer an oath in
any useful case, although he may not consider it as strictly judicial.
If it may be valid or useful, he administers "_ut valeat quantum valer
potest_." But what is to be done? Would it not be well for you to send
the case to the Attorney General, and get him to enclose his opinion to
Governor Hull, who will use it with Judge Witherall, or some territorial
judge or justice?
With the quarrel of Judge Vandeberg and his bar we cannot intermeddle.
Mercer's querulous letter is an unreasonable one. How could his offer of
service be acted on, but by putting it in the hands of those who were to
act on all others?
I shall to-day direct the post-rider not to continue his route to this
place after to-day, and to take your orders as to the time you would wish
him to continue coming to you. I salute you with affectionate esteem and
respect.
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY.
WASHINGTON, June 15, 1808.
SIR,--I have considered the letter of the director of the mint, stating
the ease with which the errors of Commodore Truxton's medal may be
corrected on the medal itself, and the unpracticability of doing it on
the die. In my former letter to you on this subject, I observed that to
make a new die would be a serious thing, requiring consideration. In fact,
the first die having been made by authority of the Legislature, the medal
struck, accepted, and acquiesced in for so many years, the powers given by
that law are executed and at an end, and a second law would be requisite
to make a second die or medal. But I presume it will be quite as agreeable
to Commodore Truxton to have his medal corrected in one way as another,
if done equally well, and it certainly may be as well or better done by
the graver, and with more delicate traits. I remember it was the opinion
of Doctor Franklin that where only one or a few medals were to be made, it
was better to have them engraved.
The medal being corrected, the die becomes immaterial. That has never been
delivered to the party, the medal itself being the only thing voted to
him. I say this on certain grounds, because I think this and Preble's are
the only medals given by the United States which have not been made under
my immediate direction. The dies of all those given by the old Congress,
and made at Paris, remain to this day deposited with our bankers at Paris.
That of General Lee, made in Philadelphia, was retained in the mint. I
mention this not as of consequence whether the die be given or retained,
but to show that there can be no claim of the party to it, or consequently
to its correction. I think, therefore, the medal itself should be
corrected by Mr. Reich; that this is as far as we can stretch our
authority, and I hope it will be satisfactory to the Commodore. I salute
you with constant affection and respect.
TO SHELTON GILLIAM, ESQ.
WASHINGTON, June 19, 1808.
SIR,--Your favor of the 4th was received on my return to this place, and
the proposition of your correspondent on the subject of fortification
was referred to the Secretary at War, where office and qualifications
make him the proper judge of it. I enclose you his answer. The same
prudence which in private life would forbid our paying our own money
for unexplained projects, forbids it in the dispensation of the public
moneys. It is not enough that an individual and an unknown one says and
even thinks he has made a discovery of the magnitude announced on this
occasion. Not only explanation, but the actual experiment must be required
before we can cease to doubt whether the inventor is not deceived by some
false or imperfect view of his subject. Still your patriotic attention
to bring such a proposition under our notice, that it might be applied to
the public good, if susceptible of it, is praiseworthy, and I return you
thanks for it with the assurances of my esteem and respect.
TO CHRISTOPHER COLLES.
WASHINGTON, June 19, 1808.
SIR,--I thank you for the pamphlet containing your ideas on the subject of
canals constructed of wood; but it is not in my power to give any definite
opinion of its national importance. If there exists a cement which used as
a lining for cisterns and aqueducts, renders them impermeable to water,
(and it is affirmed that in France they are in the possession and use of
such an one,) then it becomes the common question whether constructions of
wood, brick, or rough stone are cheapest in the end? A question on which
every man possesses materials for forming his judgment. I suspect it is
the supposed necessity of using hewn stone in works of this kind which has
had the greatest effect in discouraging their being undertaken. I tender
you my salutations and respects.
TO JAMES PEMBERTON.
WASHINGTON, June 21, 1808.
SIR,--Your favor of May 30th was delivered me on my return to this
place, and I now enclose the prospectus of Clarkson's history with my
subscription to it. I have perused with great satisfaction the Report
of the Committee for the African institution. The sentiments it breathes
are worthy of the eminent characters who compose the institution, as are
also the generous cares they propose to undertake. I wish they may begin
their work at the right end. Our experience with the Indians has proved
that letters are not the first, but the last step in the progression
from barbarism to civilization. Our Indian neighbors will occupy all the
attentions we may spare, towards the improvement of their condition. The
four great Southern tribes are advancing hopefully. The foremost are
the Cherokees, the upper settlements of whom have made to me a formal
application to be received into the Union as citizens of the United
States, and to be governed by our laws. If we can form for them a simple
and acceptable plan of advancing by degrees to a maturity for receiving
our laws, the example will have a powerful effect towards stimulating
the other tribes in the same progression, and will cheer the gloomy views
which have overspread their minds as to their own future history. I salute
you with friendship and great respect.
TO MR. FRANKLIN.
WASHINGTON, June 22d, 1808.
Thomas Jefferson returns his thanks to Mr. Franklin for the address to the
Society of Friends which he was so kind as to send him. The appeal both to
facts and principles is strong, and their consistency will require an able
advocate. Conscious that the present administration has been essentially
pacific, and that in all questions of importance it has been governed by
the identical principles professed by that Society, it has been quite at
a loss to conjecture the unknown cause of the opposition of the greater
part, and bare neutrality of the rest. The hope however that prejudices
would at length give way to facts, has never been entirely extinguished,
and still may be realized in favor of another administration.
TO DOCTOR 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 knowledge that
I carry with me the good will and 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 and 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 and forms.
I have generally considered them rather as subjects for a mad-house. But
they are now playing a game of the most mischievous tendency, without
perhaps being themselves aware of it. They are endeavoring to convince
England that we suffer more by the embargo than they do, and 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, and let our vessels go out and 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
manœuvres. I think that in two or three months we shall know what will be
the issue.
I salute you with esteem and respect.
TO GENERAL WILKINSON.
June 24, 1808.
Thomas Jefferson presents his compliments to General Wilkinson, and in
answer to his letters of yesterday observes that during the course of the
Burr conspiracy, the voluminous communications he received were generally
read but once and then committed to the Attorney General, and were never
returned to him. It is not in his power, therefore, to say that General
Wilkinson did or did not denounce eminent persons to him, and still less
who they were. It was unavoidable that he should from time to time mention
persons known or supposed to be accomplices of Burr, and it is recollected
that some of these suspicions were corrected afterwards on better
information. Whether the undefined term _denunciation_ goes to cases of
this kind or not Thomas Jefferson does not know, nor could he now name
from recollection the persons suspected at different times. He salutes
General Wilkinson respectfully.
TO COLONEL D. C. BRENT.
June 24, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--The information given to me by Mrs. Paradise of letters to
me from her grandsons, is without foundation. I have not for many years
heard a tittle respecting the family at Venice. Should any information
respecting them come to me I will certainly communicate it to Mrs.
Paradise.
That the embargo is approved by the body of republicans through the Union,
cannot be doubted. It is equally known that a great proportion of the
federalists approve of it; but as they think it an engine which may be
used advantageously against the republican system, they countenance the
clamors against it. I salute you with great friendship and respect.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
July 4, 1808.
General Turreau's application for two vessels to carry French subjects to
France, must, I think, be granted, because under present circumstances we
ought not on slight grounds to dissatisfy either belligerent. The vessels
may be back before winter, and their only danger will be of stoppage
by the English, who, however, have no right but to take out the French
subjects.
At the same time, I think it would be well to say to General Turreau
that we reluctantly let our seamen be exposed to capture, or perhaps
to a voluntary engagement with one of the belligerents: that we rely,
therefore, on his so proportioning the vessels to the number of passengers
as merely to give them a reasonable accommodation. It would be well, too,
that he should inform us after their departure, of the number of persons
sent in them.
Affectionate salutes.
TO HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR CLAIBORNE.
WASHINGTON, July 9, 1808.
SIR,--I have lately seen a printed report of the committee of the Canal
company of New Orleans, stating the progress and prospects of their
enterprize. In this the United States feel a strong interest, inasmuch
as it will so much facilitate the passage of our armed vessels out of
the one water into the other. For this purpose, however, there must be at
least five and a half feet water through the whole line of communication
from the lake to the river. In some conversations with Mr. Clark on this
subject the winter before last, there was a mutual understanding that
the company would complete the canal, and the United States would make
the locks. This we are still disposed to do; and so anxious are we to get
this means of defence completed, that to hasten it we would contribute any
other encouragement within the limits of our authority which might produce
this effect. If, for instance, the completion of it within one year could
be insured by our contributing such a sum as one or two thousand dollars a
month to the amount of twenty thousand dollars, in the whole, we might do
it, requiring as a consideration for our justification that the vessels of
the United States should always pass toll-free. The object of this letter
is to sound the principal members, without letting them know you do it
by instruction from us, and to find out what moderate and reasonable aid
on our part would be necessary to get a speedy conclusion of the work,
and in what form that aid would be most useful, and to be so good as to
communicate it to me as soon as the knowledge is obtained by yourself.
I should be glad to learn, at the same time, what is the perpendicular
height of the top of the levee above the surface of the water in the
Mississippi in its lowest state. Five and a half feet below this would
be indispensable for our purposes. I salute you with great esteem and
respect.
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
July 12, 1808.
1. (Peyton Skipwith's letter.) I approve of the proposition to authorize
the collector of St. Mary's or Savannah to permit vessels to bring to
St. Mary's such supplies as in his opinion are really wanted for the
individuals applying, and where he has entire confidence no fraud will be
committed. But the vessels should be reasonably proportioned to the cargo.
Should this be extended to Passamaquoddy?
2. (The cases of detention by Gelston and Turner.) The Legislature
finding that no general rules could be formed which would not be evaded by
avarice and roguery, finally authorized the collector, if there were still
circumstances of suspicion, to detain the vessel. Wherever, therefore, the
collector is impressed with suspicion, from a view of all circumstances,
which are often indescribable, I think it proper to confirm his detention.
It would be only where, from his own showing, or other good information,
prejudice or false views biassed his judgment, that I should be disposed
to countermand his detention.
3. The declaration of the bakers of New York, that their citizens will
be dissatisfied, under the present circumstances of their country, to eat
bread of the flour of their own State, is equally a libel on the produce
and citizens of the State. The citizens have certainly a right to speak
for themselves on such occasions, and when they do we shall be able to
judge whether their numbers or characters are such as to be entitled to a
sacrifice of the embargo law. If this prevails, the next application will
be for vessels to go to New York for the pippins of that State, because
they are higher flavored than the same species of apples growing in other
States.
4. We should by all means appoint a new collector at Sackett's Harbor. If
the Governor knows nobody there who can be depended on, can he not find
some faithful man in the city or country who would consider the emoluments
acceptable, such as they are?
5. The seizure by Mr. Illsley not being under the embargo law, will take
its course. With respect to the aid of gun-boats, desired by him and
Mr. Holmes of Sunbury, or any military aid, that can always be settled
directly between Mr. Gallatin and the Secretaries of the Navy or War.
Both those gentlemen know our extreme anxiety to give a full effect to
the important experiment of the embargo, at any expense within the bounds
of reason, and will, on the application of Mr. Gallatin, yield the aid of
their departments without waiting the delay of consulting me.
I have gone a little into the grounds of these opinions, in order that
there being a mutual understanding on these subjects, Mr. Gallatin during
the time of our separation may decide on the cases occurring, without
the delay of consulting me at such a distance. My principle is that the
conveniences of our citizens shall yield reasonably, and their taste
greatly to the importance of giving the present experiment so fair a trial
that on future occasions our legislators may know with certainty how far
they may count on it as an engine for national purposes.
TO M. DE LA CAPEDE.
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 of the National Institute. An aviso being to leave this
place for some port of France on public service, I deliver the packages
to Captain Haley, to be deposited with the Consul of the United States,
at whatever port he may land. They are addressed to Mr. Warden of our
legation at Paris, for the National Institute, and he will have the honor
of delivering them. To these I have added the horns of an animal called
by the natives the Mountain Ram, resembling the sheep by his head, but
more nearly the deer in his other parts; as also the skin of another
animal, resembling the sheep by his fleece but the goat in his other
parts. This is called by the natives the Fleecy Goat, or in the style of
the natural historian, the Pokotragos. I suspect it to be nearly related
to the Pacos, and were we to group the fleecy animals together, it would
stand perhaps with the Vigogne, Pacos, and Sheep. The Mountain Ram was
found in abundance by Messrs. Lewis and Clarke on their western tour,
and was frequently an article of food for their party, and esteemed more
delicate than the deer. The Fleecy Goat they did not see, but procured
two skins from the Indians, of which this is one. Their description will
be given in the work of Governor Lewis, the journal and geographical part
of which may be soon expected from the press; but the parts relating
to the plants and animals observed in his tour, will be delayed by the
engravings. In the meantime, the plants of which he brought seeds, have
been very successfully raised in the botanical garden of Mr. Hamilton
of the Woodlands, and by Mr. McMahon, a gardener of Philadelphia; and
on the whole, it is with pleasure I can assure you that the addition to
our knowledge in every department, resulting from this tour of Messrs.
Lewis and Clarke, has entirely fulfilled my expectations in setting it on
foot, and that the world will find that those travellers have well earned
its favor. I will take care that the Institute as well as yourself shall
receive Governor Lewis's work as it appears.
It is with pleasure I embrace this occasion of returning you my thanks for
the favor of your very valuable works, _sur les poissons et les cetacées_,
which you were so kind as to send me through Mr. Livingston and General
Turreau, and which I find entirely worthy of your high reputation in
the literary world. That I have not sooner made this acknowledgment has
not proceeded from any want of respect and attachment to yourself, or a
just value of your estimable present, but from the strong and incessant
calls of duty to other objects. The candor of your character gives me
confidence of your indulgence on this head, and I assure you with truth
that no circumstances are more welcome to me than those which give me the
occasion of recalling myself to your recollection, and of renewing to you
the assurances of sincere personal attachment, and of great respect and
consideration.
_Contents of the large square Box._
A Fibia.
A Radius.
Two ribs belonging to the upper part of the thorax.
Two ribs from a lower part of the thorax.
One entire vertebra.
Two spinous processes of the vertebra broken from the bodies.
Dentes molares, which appear to have belonged to the full-grown animal.
A portion of the under-jaw of a young animal with two molar teeth in it.
These teeth appear to have belonged to a first set, as they are small, and
the posterior has but three grinding ridges, instead of five, the common
number in adult teeth of the lower jaw.
Another portion of the under-jaw, including the symphisis, or chin. In
this portion the teeth of one side are every way complete; to wit, the
posterior has five transverse ridges, and the anterior three.
A fragment of the upper-jaw with one molar tooth much worn.
Molar teeth which we suppose to be like those of the mammoth or elephant
of Siberia. They are essentially different from those of the mammoth
or elephant of this country, and although similar in some respects to
the teeth of the Asiatic elephant, they agree more completely with the
description of the teeth found in Siberia in the arrangement and size of
the transverse lamina of enamel. This idea, however, is not derived from
actual comparison of the different teeth with each other, for we have no
specimens of Siberian teeth in this country; but from inferences deduced
from the various accounts and drawings of these teeth to be found in
books. A few of these teeth have been found in several places where the
bones of the American animal have existed.
An Astragalus.
An Oscalcis.
Os naviculare.
In the large box in which the preceding bones are, is a small one
containing a promiscuous mass of small bones, chiefly of the feet.
In the large irregular-shaped box, a tusk of large size. The spiral twist
in all the specimens of these tusks which we have seen, was remarked
so long ago as the time of Breyneus, in his description of the tusks of
the Siberian mammoth in the Philosophical Transactions, if that paper is
rightly recollected, for the book is not here to be turned to at present.
Many fragments of tusks have been sent from the Ohio, generally resembling
portions of such tusks as are brought to us in the course of commerce.
But of these spiral tusks, in a tolerable complete state, we have had only
four. One was found near the head of the north branch of the Susquehanna.
A second possessed by Mr. Peale, was found with the skeleton, near the
Hudson. A third is at Monticello, found with the bones of this collection
at the Big-bone lick of Ohio, and the fourth is that now sent for the
Institute, found at the same place and larger than that at Monticello.
The smallest box contains the horns of the mountain ram, and skin of the
fleecy goat.
TO MR. SYLVESTRE.
WASHINGTON, July 15, 1808.
SIR,--I had received from you on a former occasion the four first volumes
of the Memoirs of the Agricultural Society of the Seine, and since that,
your letter of September 19th, with the 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th volumes,
being for the years 1804 '5 '6 with some separate memoirs. These I have
read with great avidity and satisfaction, and now return you my thanks for
them. But I owe particular acknowledgments for the valuable present of the
Theatre de De Serres, which I consider as a prodigy for the age in which
it was composed, and shows an advancement in the science of agriculture
which I had never suspected to have belonged to that time. Brought down
to the present day by the very valuable notes added, it is really such a
treasure of agricultural knowledge, as has not before been offered to the
world in a single work.
It is not merely for myself, but for my country, that I must do homage
to the philanthropy of the Society, which has dictated their destination
for me of their newly-improved plough. I shall certainly so use it as to
answer their liberal views, by making the opportunities of profiting by it
as general as possible.
I have just received information that a plough addressed to me has
arrived at New York, _from England_, but unaccompanied by any letter or
other explanation. As I have had no intimation of such an article to be
forwarded to me from that country, I presume it is the one sent by the
Society of the Seine, that it has been carried into England under their
orders of council, and permitted to come on from thence. This I shall
know within a short time. I shall with great pleasure attend to the
construction and transmission to the Society of a plough with my mould
board. This is the only part of that useful instrument to which I have
paid any particular attention. But knowing how much the perfection of the
plough must depend, 1st, on the line of traction; 2d, on the direction
of the share; 3d, on the angle of the wing; 4th, on the form of the
mould-board; and persuaded that I shall find the three first advantages
eminently exemplified in that which the Society sends me, I am anxious
to see combined with these a mould-board of my form, in the hope it will
still advance the perfection of that machine. But for this I must ask
time till I am relieved from the cares which have now a right to all my
time, that is to say, till the next Spring. Then giving, in the leisure
of retirement, all the time and attention this construction merits and
requires, I will certainly render to the Society the result in a plough
of the best form I shall be able to have executed. In the meantime, accept
for them and yourself the assurances of my high respect and consideration.
TO MR. LASTEYRIE.
WASHINGTON, July 15, 1808.
SIR,--I have duly received your favor of March 28th, and with it your
treatises on the culture of the sugar cane and cotton plant in France.
The introduction of new cultures, and especially of objects of leading
importance to our comfort, is certainly worthy the attention of every
government, and nothing short of the actual experiment should discourage
an essay of which any hope can be entertained. Till that is made, the
result is open to conjecture; and I should certainly conjecture that the
sugar cane could never become an article of profitable culture in France.
We have within the ancient limits of the United States, a great extent of
country which brings the orange to advantage, but not a foot in which the
sugar cane can be matured. France, within its former limits, has but two
small spots, (Olivreles and Hieres) which brings the orange in open air,
and _à fortiori_, therefore, none proper for the cane. I should think the
sugar-maple more worthy of experiment. There is no part of France of which
the climate would not admit this tree. I have never seen a reason why
every farmer should not have a sugar orchard, as well as an apple orchard.
The supply of sugar for his family would require as little ground, and the
process of making it as easy as that of cider. Mr. Micheaux, your botanist
here, could send you plants as well as seeds, in any quantity from the
United States. I have no doubt the cotton plant will succeed in some of
the southern parts of France. Whether its culture will be as advantageous
as those they are now engaged in, remains to be tried. We could, in the
United States, make as great a variety of wines as are made in Europe,
not exactly of the same kinds, but doubtless as good. Yet I have ever
observed to my countrymen, who think its introduction important, that a
laborer cultivating wheat, rice, tobacco, or cotton here, will be able
with the proceeds, to purchase double the quantity of the wine he could
make. Possibly the same quantity of land and labor in France employed on
the rich produce of your Southern counties, would purchase double the
quantity of the cotton they would yield there. This however may prove
otherwise on trial, and therefore it is worthy the trial. In general, it
is a truth that if every nation will employ itself in what it is fittest
to produce, a greater quantity will be raised of the things contributing
to human happiness, than if every nation attempts to raise everything it
wants within itself. The limits within which the cotton plant is worth
cultivating in the United States, are the Rappahanock river to the north,
and the first mountains to the west. And even from the Rappahanock to the
Roanoke, we only cultivate for family use, as it cannot there be afforded
at market in competition with that of the more Southern region. The
Mississippi country, also within the same latitudes, admits the culture of
cotton.
The superficial view I have yet had time to take of your treatise
on the cotton plant, induces a belief that it is rich and correct in
its matter, and contains a great fund of learning on that plant. When
retired to rural occupations, as I shall be ere long, I shall profit
of its contents practically, in the culture of that plant merely for
household manufacture. In that situation, too, I shall devote myself to
occupations much more congenial with my inclinations, than those to which
I have been called by the character of the times into which my lot was
cast. About to be relieved from this _corvée_ by age and the fulfilment
of the _quadragena stipendia_, what remains to me of physical activity
will chiefly be employed in the amusements of agriculture. Having little
practical skill, I count more on the pleasures than the profits of
that occupation. They will give me, too, the leisure which my present
situation nearly denies, of rendering such services as may be within
my means, to the Institute, the Agricultural Society of the Seine, to
yourself, and such other worthy individuals as may find any convenience
in a correspondence here. I shall then be able particularly to fulfil the
wishes expressed, of my sending to the Society of Agriculture a plough
with my mould-board. Perhaps I may be able to add some other implements,
peculiar to us, to the collection which I perceive that the Society is
making. I salute you, Sir, with assurances of great esteem and respect.
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY.
WASHINGTON, July 16, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--Complaints multiply upon us of evasions of the embargo laws, by
fraud and force. These come from Newport, Portland, Machias, Nantucket,
Martha's Vineyard, &c., &c. As I do consider the severe enforcement of
the embargo to be of an importance, not to be measured by money, for our
future government as well as present objects, I think it will be advisable
that during this summer all the gun-boats, actually manned and in
commission, should be distributed through as many ports and bays as may be
necessary to assist the embargo. On this subject I will pray you to confer
with Mr. Gallatin, who will call on you on his passage through Baltimore,
and to communicate with him hereafter, _directly_, without the delay of
consulting me, and generally to aid this object with such means of your
department as are consistent with its situation.
I think I shall be able to leave this place by Wednesday. I will mention
for your information, that the post for Milton leaves this place on
Tuesdays and Fridays, and arrives at it on Sundays and, I believe,
Thursdays.
I salute you with affection and respect.
TO MR. SMITH, OF THE WAR OFFICE.
WASHINGTON, July 16, 1808.
SIR,--The correspondence which you sent me the other day, between the
British commanders and our officers in Moose Island, is now in the hands
of Mr. Madison, and will be delivered to you on application. On consulting
him and Mr. Gallatin, I find the facts to be that Moose Island has ever
been in our possession, as well before as ever since the treaty of peace
with Great Britain; that in the convention formed between Mr. King and
the British government, about four years ago, wherein our limits in that
quarter were mutually recognized, Moose Island was expressly acknowledged
to belong to us; and, through an account of an article respecting
Louisiana, the convention has not yet been ratified, yet both parties have
acted on the article of these limits as if it had been ratified,--each
party considering the parts then assigned to them as no longer questioned
by the other.
I think you had better communicate the papers, with a copy of that article
of the convention, to Gen. Dearborne, with these observations, from whom
the answer to our officer will go with more propriety. If you will speak
on this subject with Mr. Madison, he will, perhaps, be able to state to
you what passed between us on this subject more fully than I have done.
Accept my salutations.
TO HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR SULLIVAN.
WASHINGTON, July 16, 1808.
SIR,--In my letter of May 6th I asked the favor of your Excellency, as
I did of the Governors of other States not furnishing in their interior
country flour sufficient for the consumption of the State, to take the
trouble of giving certificates, in favor of any merchants meriting
confidence, for the quantities necessary for consumption beyond the
interior supplies. Having desired from the Treasury Department a statement
of the quantities called for under these certificates, I find that those
of your Excellency, received at the Treasury, amount to 51,000 barrels of
flour, 108,400 bushels of Indian corn, 560 tierces of rice, 2,000 bushels
of rye, and, in addition thereto, that there had been given certificates
for either 12,450 barrels of flour, or 40,000 bushels of corn. As these
supplies, although called for within the space of two months, will
undoubtedly furnish the consumption of your State for a much longer time,
I have thought it advisable to ask the favor of your Excellency, after
the receipt of this letter, to discontinue issuing any other certificates,
that we may not unnecessarily administer facilities to the evasion of the
embargo laws; for I repeat what I observed in my former letter, that these
evasions are effected chiefly by vessels clearing coastwise. But while
I am desirous of preventing the frauds which go to defeat the salutary
objects of these laws, I am equally so that the fair consumption of our
citizens may in nowise be abridged. It would, therefore, be deemed a great
favor if your Excellency could have me furnished with an estimate, on the
best data possessed, of the quantities of flour, corn, and rice, which, in
addition to your internal supplies, may be necessary for the consumption,
in any given time, of those parts of your State which habitually depend
on importation for these articles. I ask this the more freely, because I
presume you must have had such an estimate formed for the government, of
your discretion in issuing the preceding certificates, and because it may
be so necessary for our future government. I salute you with assurance of
great respect and esteem.
TO HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR CLAIBORNE.
WASHINGTON, July 17, 1808.
SIR,--After writing my letter of the 9th, I received one from Mr. Pitot in
the name of the New Orleans Canal Company, which ought to have come with
the printed report, stating more fully their views, and more explicitly
the way in which we can aid them. They ask specifically that we should
lend them $50,000, or take the remaining fourth of their shares now on
hand. This last measure is too much out of our policy of not embarking
the public in enterprises better managed by individuals, and which might
occupy as much of our time as those political duties for which the public
functionaries are particularly instituted. Some money could be lent them,
but only on an assurance that it would be employed so as to secure the
public objects. The first interests of the company will be to bring a
practicable navigation from the Lake Pontchartrain through the Bayou St.
Jean and Canal de Carondelet to the city, because that entitles them to
a toll on the profitable part of the enterprise. But this would answer no
object of the government unless it was carried through to the Mississippi,
so that our armed vessels drawing five feet water might pass through.
Instead therefore of the ground I suggested in my last letter, I would
propose to lend them a sum of money on the condition of their applying it
entirely to that part of the canal which, beginning at the Mississippi,
goes round the city to a junction with the canal of Carondelet; and we
may moreover at our own expense erect the locks. The Secretary at War
not being here, I cannot propose these or any other terms precisely,
but you may more openly than I proposed in my last letter, give these
as the general shape of the aid which we contemplate, collect the ideas
of individual members, and communicate them to me, so that when I shall
have an opportunity of consulting the Secretary at War we may put our
proposition in the form most acceptable to them. On this subject I shall
wish to hear from you soon.
Mr. Livingston was here lately, and finding that we considered the Batture
as now resting with Congress, and that it was our duty to keep it clear
of all adversary possession till their decision is obtained, wrote a
letter to the Secretary of State, which, if we understand it, amounts
to a declaration that he will on his return bring the authority of the
court into array against that of the executive, and endeavor to obtain
a forcible possession. But I presume that the court knows too well that
the title of the United States to land is subject to the jurisdiction of
no court, it having never been deemed safe to submit the major interests
of the nation to an ordinary tribunal, or to any one but such as the
Legislature establishes for the special occasion; and the Marshal will
find his duty too plainly marked out in the act of March 3, 1807, to be at
a loss to determine what authority he is to obey. It will be well however
that you should have due attention paid to this subject, and particularly
to apprize Mr. Grymes to be prepared to take care that the public rights
receive no detriment.
I salute you with great respect and esteem.
TO GOVERNOR LEWIS.
WASHINGTON, July 17, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--Since I parted with you in Albemarle in September last, I
have never had a line from you, nor I believe has the Secretary at War
with whom you have much connection through the Indian department. The
misfortune which attended the effort to send the Mandan chief home, became
known to us before you had reached St. Louis. We took no step on the
occasion, counting on receiving your advice so soon as you should be in
place, and knowing that your knowledge of the whole subject and presence
on the spot would enable you to judge better than we could what ought to
be done. The constant persuasion that something from you must be on its
way to us, has as constantly prevented our writing to you on the subject.
The present letter, however, is written to put an end at length to this
mutual silence, and to ask from you a communication of what you think
best to be done to get the chief and his family back. We consider the good
faith, and the reputation of the nation, as pledged to accomplish this. We
would wish indeed not to be obliged to undertake any considerable military
expedition in the present uncertain state of our foreign concerns, and
especially not till the new body of troops shall be raised. But if it
can be effected in any other way and at any reasonable expense, we are
disposed to meet it.
A powerful company is at length forming for taking up the Indian commerce
on a large scale. They will employ a capital the first year of 300,000,
and raise it afterwards to a million. The English Mackinac company will
probably withdraw from the competition. It will be under the direction of
a most excellent man, a Mr. Astor, merchant of New York, long engaged in
the business, and perfectly master of it. He has some hope of seeing you
at St. Louis, in which case I recommend him to your particular attention.
Nothing but the exclusive possession of the Indian commerce can secure us
their peace.
Our foreign affairs do not seem to clear up at all. Should they continue
as at present, the moment will come when it will be a question for the
Legislature whether war will not be preferable to a longer continuance of
the embargo.
The Presidential question is clearing up daily, and the opposition
subsiding. It is very possible that the suffrage of the nation may be
undivided. But with this question it is my duty not to intermeddle. I
have not lately heard of your friends in Albemarle. They were well when
I left that in June, and not hearing otherwise affords presumptions they
are well. But I presume you hear that from themselves. We have no tidings
yet of the forwardness of your printer. I hope the first part will not
be delayed much longer. Wishing you every blessing of life and health, I
salute you with constant affection and respect.
TO THE SECRETARY AT WAR.
WASHINGTON, July 18, 1808.
DEAR GENERAL,--I had written to Governor Claiborne according to what had
been agreed between you and myself, after which I received a letter from
Pitot on behalf of the Canal company of New Orleans, which should have
accompanied the printed report I communicated to you. The letter agrees
with the report, and asks specifically that we should either lend them
fifty thousand dollars, or buy the remaining fourth part of their shares
now on hand. On consultation with Mr. Madison, Gallatin, and Rodney, we
concluded it best to say we would lend them a sum of money if they would
agree to lay out the whole of it in making the canal from the Mississippi
round the town to its junction with the canal of Carondelet; and I wrote
to Claiborne to sound the members of the company, and to find out if there
were any modifications which would render the proposition more acceptable,
to communicate them to me, and that when I should have an opportunity of
consulting you, we would make the proposition in form.
I send you a letter of General Wilkinson's, the papers it covered, and
my answer, which will sufficiently explain themselves. That in cases of
military operations some occasions for secret service money must arise,
is certain. But I think that they should be more fully explained to the
government than the General has done, seems also proper.
Mr. Smith will send you some British complaints on our fortifying Moose
Islands, and the kind of answer recommended on consultation with the heads
of departments.
We have such complaints of the breach of embargo by fraud and force on our
northern water line, that I must pray your co-operation with the Secretary
of the Treasury by rendezvousing as many new recruits as you can in that
quarter. The Osage brought us nothing in the least interesting. I salute
you with affection and respect.
TO HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR PINCKNEY.
WASHINGTON, July 18, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--Your favor of May 28 has been duly received, and in it the
proceeding of the Court on the mandamus to the collector of Charleston. I
saw them with great concern because of the quarter from whence they came,
and where they could not be ascribed to any political waywardness.
The Legislature having found, after repeated trials, that no general
rules could be formed which fraud and avarice would not elude, concluded
to leave, in those who were to execute the power, a discretionary power
paramount to all their general rules. This discretion was of necessity
lodged with the collector in the first instance, but referred, finally, to
the President, lest there should be as many measures of law or discretion
for our citizens as there were collectors of districts. In order that the
first decisions by the collectors might also be as uniform as possible,
and that the inconveniences of temporary detention might be imposed by
general and equal rules throughout the States, we thought it advisable to
draw some outlines for the government of the discretion of the collectors,
and to bring them all to one tally.
With this view they were advised to consider all shipments of flour _primâ
facie_, as suspicious. Because, if pretended to be for a State which made
enough within itself, it could not, in these times, but be suspicious,
and, if for a State which needed importations, we had provided, by the aid
of the Governors of those States, a criterion for that case.
But your collector seems to have decided for himself that, instead of
a general rule applicable equally to all, the personal character of the
shipper was a better criterion, and his own individual opinion too, of
that character.
You will see at once to what this would have led in the hands of
an hundred collectors, of all sorts of characters, connections, and
principles, and what grounds would have been given for the malevolent
charges of favoritism with which the federal papers have reproached even
the trust we reposed in the first and highest magistrates of particular
States. It has been usual in another department, after the decision of
any point by the superior tribunal is known, for the interior one to
conform to that decision. The declaration of Mr. Theus, that _he_ did not
consider the case as suspicious, founded on his individual opinion of the
shipper, broke down that barrier which we had endeavored to erect against
favoritism, and furnished the grounds for the subsequent proceedings. The
attorney for the United States seems to have considered the acquiescence
of the collector as dispensing with any particular attentions to the case,
and the judge to have taken it as a case agreed between plaintiff and
defendant, and brought to him only formally to be placed on his records.
But this question has too many important bearings on the constitutional
organization of our government, to let it go off so carelessly. I send you
the Attorney General's opinion on it, formed on great consideration and
consultation. It is communicated to the collectors and marshals for their
future government. I hope, however, the business will stop here, and that
no similar case will occur. A like attempt has been made in another State,
which I believe failed in the outset.
I have seen, with great satisfaction, the circumspection and moderation
with which you have been so good as to act under my letter of May 6th.
I owe the same approbation to some other of the Governors, but not to
every one. Our good citizens having submitted to such sacrifices under
the present experiment, I am determined to exert every power the law has
vested in me for its rigorous fulfilment; that we may know the full value
and effect of this measure on any future occasion on which a resort to it
might be contemplated.
The Osage did not bring us a tittle of anything interesting. The absence
of the Emperor from Paris makes that a scene of no business; and I do not
think we are to consider the course of the British government as finally
decided, until the nation, as well as the ministry, are possessed of the
communications to Congress of March 22, and our act hanging the duration
of the embargo laws on that of the orders of council. The newspapers
say Mr. Rose is coming over again. Mr. Pinckney did not know this at
the departure of the Osage. Yet it may be so. It is well calculated to
throw dust in the eyes of the nation, and to silence all attempts of
the opposition to force a change of their measures. In this view it is a
masterly stroke. The truth is that their debt is become such as the nation
can no longer pay its interest. Their omnipotence at sea has bloated their
imaginations so as to persuade them they can oblige all nations to carry
all their produce to their island as an entrepot, to pay them a tax on it,
and receive their license to carry it to its ultimate market. It is indeed
a desperate throw, in the language of Canning, and who knows, says he,
what the dice may turn up?
I answer, we know.
Since writing so far, I received your favor of June 30th, covering
resolutions of your Legislature. They are truly worthy of them, and never
could declarations be better timed for dissipating the delusions in which
the British government are nourished by the federal papers, and prevented
from that return to justice which alone can continue our peace.
Wishing you every blessing of health and life, I salute you with
assurances of great esteem and respect. Salutations.
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
MONTICELLO, July 25,1808.
DEAR SIR,--I enclose you the petition of Somes, to do in it whatever is
agreeable to general rule.
Punqua Winchung, the Chinese Mandarin, has, I believe, his head quarters
at New York, and therefore his case is probably known to you. He came
to Washington just as I had left it, and therefore wrote to me, praying
permission to depart for his own country with his property, in a vessel to
be engaged by himself. I enclose you Mr. Madison's letter, which contains
everything I know on the subject. I consider it as a case of national
comity, and coming within the views of the first section of the first
embargo act. The departure of this individual with good dispositions, may
be the means of making our nation known advantageously at the source of
power in China, to which it is otherwise difficult to convey information.
It may be of sensible advantage to our merchants in that country. I cannot
therefore but consider that a chance of obtaining a permanent national
good should overweigh the effect of a single case taken out of the great
field of the embargo. The case, too, is so singular, that it can lead to
no embarrassment as a precedent.
I think, therefore, he should be permitted to engage a vessel to carry
himself and his property, under such cautions and recommendations to him
as you shall think best.
I leave it therefore to yourself to direct all the necessary details
without further application to me, and for this purpose send you a blank
passport for the vessel, &c., and Mr. Graham will obtain and forward you
passports from the foreign ministers here. I salute you with affection and
respect.
TO MR. BIBB.
MONTICELLO, July 28, 1808.
SIR,--I received duly your favor of July 1st, covering an offer of Mr.
McDonald of an iron mine to the public, and I thank you for taking the
trouble of making the communication, as it might have its utility. But
having always observed that public works are much less advantageously
managed than the same are by private hands, I have thought it better for
the public to go to market for whatever it wants which is to be found
there; for there competition brings it down to the minimum of value. I
have no doubt we can buy brass cannon at market cheaper than we could make
iron ones. I think it material too, not to abstract the high executive
officers from those functions which nobody else is charged to carry on,
and to employ them in superintending works which are going on abundantly
in private hands. Our predecessors went on different principles; they
bought iron mines, and sought for copper ones. We own a mine at Harper's
Ferry of the finest iron ever put into a cannon, which we are afraid to
attempt to work. We have rented it heretofore, but it is now without a
tenant.
We send a vessel to France and England every six weeks, for the purposes
of public as well as mercantile correspondence. These the public papers
are in the habit of magnifying into special missionaries for great and
special purposes. It is true that they carry our public despatches,
whether the subject of the day happens to be great or small. The Osage
was one of these; but she was charged with nothing more than repetitions
of instructions to our ministers not to cease in their endeavors to have
the obnoxious orders and decrees repealed. She brought not a tittle of the
least interest. The St. Michael was another of these vessels, and may now
be expected in a few days. The schooner Hope was a third, and sailed a few
days ago. She may be expected a fortnight before Congress meets, and our
ministers are apprized that whatsoever the belligerent powers mean to do,
must be done before that time, as on the state of things then existing
and known to us, Congress will have to act. I return the letter of Mr.
McDonald, as it may be useful for other purposes, and salute you with
esteem and respect.
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
MONTICELLO, July 29, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--I enclose you a letter of information of what is passing on the
Canada line. To prevent it is, I suppose, beyond our means, but we must
try to harass the unprincipled agents, and punish as many as we can.
I transmit, also, the petition of Tyson and James, millers of Baltimore,
for permission to send a load of flour to New Orleans, to direct in
it what is regular, for I do not see any circumstance in the case
sufficiently peculiar to take it out of the rule. If their views are
honest, as I suppose them to be, it would be a great relief to them to
be permitted, by giving bond for an increased valuation, to send their
flour to its destination, and equal relief to us from these tormenting
applications. Yet, as the other gentlemen seemed not satisfied that
it would be legal, I would not have it done on my own opinion alone,
however firmly I am persuaded of its legality. Could you not in the way
of conversation with some of the sound lawyers of New York, find what
would be then _primâ facie_ opinion, and if encouraged by that, we may
take the opinion of the Attorney General, and others. The questions to be
solved are,--first: To what place should the valuation refer? and second:
Would too high a valuation render the bond null in law? On the first, I
observe that the law says that bond shall be given in double the value,
&c., without saying whether its value _here_, or at the _place of sale_,
is meant; that, generally speaking, its value _here_ would be understood;
but that whenever the words of a law will bear two meanings, one of which
will give effect to the law, and the other will defeat it, the former
must be supposed to have been intended by the Legislature, because they
could not intend that meaning, which would defeat their intention, in
passing that law; and in a statute, as in a will, the intention of the
party is to be sought after. On the second point we would ask, who is to
value the cargo on which the bond is to be taken? Certainly the collector,
either by himself or his agents. When the bond is put in suit it must be
recovered. Neither judge nor jury can go into the question of the value
of the cargo. If anybody could, it would be the chancellor; but his maxim
is never to lend his power in support of fraud or wrong. The common law
could only give a remedy on an action for damages, as, for instance, if a
collector, by requiring too large security, prevents a party from clearing
out, damages might be recovered. But in the case in question, the consent
of the party would take away the error, and besides, as the voyage takes
place, no damages for preventing it can be recovered. These are general
considerations to be brought into view in such a conversation, which,
indeed would occur to every lawyer who turned his mind to the subject
at all. It would be a most important construction for the relief of the
honest merchant, to whom the amount of bond is important, and to us, also,
in the execution of the law; and I think its legality far more defensible
than that of limiting the provisions to one-eighth of the cargo. My
situation in the country gives me no opportunity to consult lawyers of the
first order. Should such occur, however, I will avail myself of them.
I salute you affectionately.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
MONTICELLO, July 29, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--The passport for the Leonidas goes by this post, to the
collector of Norfolk. I return you Jarvis', Hackley's, and Montgomery's
letters, and send you Hull's, Hunt's, Clarke's, and Mr. Short's, for
perusal, and to be returned. On this last, the following questions arise:
When exactly shall the next vessel go? Whence? Is not the secrecy of
the mission essential? Is it not the very ground of sending it while the
Senate is not sitting, in order that it may be kept secret? I doubt the
expediency of sending one of our regular armed vessels. If we do, she
should go to Petersburg direct. And yet may there not be advantage in
conferences between S. and A.? I have signed the commission and letter of
credence, and now enclose them. Yet I must say I think the latter is very
questionable indeed, in point of property. It says that the Minister is to
_reside_ near his person; but whether we should establish it at once into
a permanent legation is much to be doubted, and especially in a recess
of the Senate. I should think it better to express purposes something
like the following: "to bear to your Imperial Majesty the assurances
of the sincere friendship of the United States, and of their desire to
maintain with your Majesty and your subjects the strictest relations of
intercourse and commerce; to explain to your Majesty the position of the
United States, and the considerations flowing from that which should keep
them aloof from the contests of Europe; to assure your Majesty of their
desire to observe a faithful and impartial neutrality, if not forced from
that line by the wrongs of the belligerents; and to express their reliance
that they will be befriended in these endeavors by your Majesty's powerful
influence and friendship towards these States." This is hasty,--it is too
long, and neither the expressions nor thoughts sufficiently accurate; but
something of this kind, more concise and correct, may be formed, leaving
the permanency of the mission still in our power.
There is no doubt but that the transaction at New Orleans, between Ortega
and the British officer with the prize sloop Guadaloupe, has been a mere
fraud, to evade our regulation against the sale of prizes in our harbors;
and his insolent letter intended merely to cover the fraud. His ready
abandonment of the vessel, and Ortega's resumption of her, are clear
proofs. Should not, or could not, process be ordered against Ortega and
the vessel? I think a copy of Reeve's letter to Governor Claiborne, and of
the proceedings of the court, might be sent to Mr. Erskine, with proper
observations on this double outrage, and an intimation that the habitual
insolence of their officers may force us to refuse them an asylum, even
when seeking it in real distress, if the boon is to be abused as it has
been by this insolent and dishonest officer. And as it is very possible
the rascal may push his impostures to the making complaint to his
government, this step with Mr. Erskine may anticipate it.
I salute you with sincere and constant affection.
TO THE SECRETARY AT WAR.
MONTICELLO, August 5, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--I enclose you a letter from the Path-killer and others of the
Cherokees, the object of which I do not precisely see. I suppose they are
of Van's party. The sentiments are unquestionably those of a white man.
Sibley's letters present a disagreeable view. It will be troublesome
if we are once compelled to use acts of force against those people. It
is the more difficult as we should have to pursue them into the country
beyond the Sabine, on which an understanding with the Spaniards would be
necessary. But what is the meaning of our not pursuing deserters over the
Rio Hondo? I thought we had so far settled that matter, as that it was
understood by the Spaniards that until a final settlement of boundary, the
Sabine was to be that to which each was to exercise jurisdiction. On the
same principles ought we not immediately to suppress this new appointment
of a Spanish Alcalde at Bayou Pierre? I ask this for information, because
I do not precisely recollect what we finally intended as to Bayou Pierre,
and I have not the papers here. I suppose the trial and punishment of the
guilty Alibamas, and Sibley's reclamations with the tribe for reparation,
will give us time till we meet to consider what is to be done. Has any and
what step been taken for the recovery of Pike's men?
Governor Lewis' letter offers something more serious. The only information
I have on the subject, is his letter to Governor Harrison in a newspaper,
which I cut out and enclose you. The retirement of White Hairs to St.
Louis is strong proof that the case is serious. As they are at war with
all nations, and in order to protect them we have been endangering our
peace and friendship with the other nation, would not our best course
be to inform all those nations that, however desirous we have been of
promoting peace among them, and however earnest our endeavors have been
to restore friendship between them and the Osages particularly, we have
found it impossible to bring that nation to a just and peaceable conduct
towards others? That therefore we withdraw ourselves from before them, and
leave them to be freely attacked and destroyed by all those who have cause
of war against them? Would such a written message from me to the nations
at war with them, be advisable? particularly to the Cherokees, Creeks,
Chickasaws, and Choctaws, and such _northern_ tribes as are at war with
them. I do not recollect those of the latter description. Would it not be
advisable to aid their war parties with provisions, and ammunition, and
the repairs of their arms at our posts? Will it be necessary to authorize
expeditions of militia, or only permit volunteers to join the Indian
parties? or shall we leave what respects Militia to Governor Lewis? We
shall certainly receive further information soon, but in the meantime I
have thought we should turn it in our minds, and interchange ideas on the
subject. I shall therefore be glad to hear from you on it. I salute you
with constant affection and respect.
TO THE SECRETARY AT WAR.
MONTICELLO, August 6, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--A complaint has come to me indirectly on the part of the
Cadets at West Point, that the promotions in their corps are made on
other principles than those of seniority or merit. They do not charge
Colonel Williams with an unjust selection by himself, but with leaving
the selection to his lieutenant, whose declaration that it was so left to
him, they say can be proved. It is stated particularly that a young man
from the country, uneducated, and who had been with the corps but three
months, and had acquired little there, was lately made an ensign to the
prejudice of much superior qualifications. His name was mentioned to me
but I have forgotten it. Justice to the officers forbids us to give credit
to such imputations till proved; but justice to the corps requires us
so far to attend to them as to make them the subject of inquiry; and I
presume this was the object of the communication to me. I now mention it
to you, because in returning through New York you may have an opportunity
of inquiring into it. I am much more inclined to impute to the vanity of
the lieutenant the declaration he is said to have made, than to suppose
Colonel Williams has really delegated so important a trust to him. I
salute you with constant affection.
TO MESSRS. KERR, MOORE, AND WILLIAMS, COMMISSIONERS OF THE WESTERN ROAD.
MONTICELLO, August 6, 1808.
GENTLEMEN,--It has been represented to me on behalf of the inhabitants
of the town of Washington in Pennsylvania, that by a survey made at their
expense, it is found that the western road, if carried through their town,
to Wheeling, would be but a mile longer, would pass through better ground,
and be made at less expense; and if carried to Short Creek, instead of
Wheeling, the difference of distance would still be less. The principal
object of this road is a communication directly westwardly. If, however,
inconsiderable deflections from this course will benefit particular
places, and better accommodate travellers, these are circumstances to be
taken into consideration. I have therefore to desire that, having a regard
to the funds which remain, you make as good an examination as they will
admit, of the best route through Washington to Wheeling, and also to Short
Creek or any other point on the river, offering a more advantageous route
towards Chillicothe and Cincinatti, and that you report to me the material
facts, with your opinions for consideration. I salute you with respect.
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
MONTICELLO, August 6, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--On the subject of the western road, our first error was
the admitting a deviation to Brownsville, and thus suffering a first
encroachment on its principle. This is made a point d'appui to force a
second, and I am told a third holds itself in reserve, so that a few towns
in that quarter seem to consider all this expense as undertaken merely
for their benefit. I should have listened to these solicitations with more
patience, had it not been for the unworthy motives presented to influence
me by some of those interested. Sometimes an opposition by force was
held up, sometimes electioneering effects, as if I were to barter away,
on such motives, a public trust committed to me for a different object.
It seems, however, that our first error having made Brownsville, and no
longer Cumberland, the point of departure, we must now go no further back
in examining the claim of Washington. I have therefore written to the
commissioners, the letter of which I enclose you a copy. The time saved
by sending it to them direct, may be important, as they may be near their
return. I am doubtful whether they have money enough left for a thorough
examination. If they have, their report will enable us to decide on this
second deflection. But what will Wheeling say if we take the road from
it, to give it to Washington? I do not know its size or importance, nor
whether some obstacles to navigation may not oppose our crossing at a
higher place. I salute you with constant affection.
TO THE SECRETARY AT WAR.
MONTICELLO, August 9, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--Yours of July 27th is received. It confirms the accounts we
receive from others that the infractions of the embargo in Maine and
Massachusetts are open. I have removed Pope, of New Bedford, for worse
than negligence. The collector of Sullivan is on the totter. The tories
of Boston openly threaten insurrection if their importation of flour
is stopped. The next post will stop it. I fear your Governor is not up
to the tone of these parricides, and I hope, on the first symptom of an
open opposition of the law by force, you will fly to the scene and aid in
suppressing any commotion.
I enclose you the letter of Captain Dillard, recommending Walter Bourke
for appointment. I know nothing of the writers of any of the letters
except Thore, Jones, and Thweat, who are good men. I like Meigs' scheme
with the Cherokees, and would wish it success. But will Congress give such
a sum of money. The message of the Creek Chief is so far satisfactory,
that I think we should give them time. Could we engage them to assist
us in destroying the guilty banditti? The letter enclosed from Cuthbert
to Mr. Madison, on the means of taking Quebec, is worthy notice, and
I wish you could, before your return, have an interview with him. Your
office, and receipt of the letter from me, will give confidence to his
communications. We have letters from Mr. Pinckney to May 30, but not one
word interesting. Present me respectfully to Mrs. Dearborne, and accept my
affectionate salutations.
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
MONTICELLO, August 9, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--I enclose you, for your information, letters from General
Dearborne, P. D. Sargent, and Elisha Tracey, on the infractions of the
embargo, and their ideas on the means of remedy.
I pass them through the hands of the Secretary of the Navy, with a request
that he will, in concert with you, give all the aid for the enforcement
of the law which his department can afford. I think the conduct of Jordan,
at Sullivan, should be inquired into, with a view to his removal if found
either undisposed or negligent. Indeed, the distance of his residence, if
it be fact, renders it impossible he should even sufficiently superintend
the due execution of the duties of his office.
We have letters from Mr. Pinckney of the 30th of May, but containing not
one interesting word. If England should be disposed to continue peace
with us, and Spain gives to Bonaparte the occupation she promises, will
not the interval be favorable for our reprisals on the Floridas for the
indemnifications withheld. Before the meeting of Congress we shall see
further. I salute you with affection and respect.
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY.
MONTICELLO, August 9, 1808.
Dear Sir,-- * * * * * I have some apprehension the tories of Boston,
&c., with so poor a head of a Governor, may attempt to give us trouble. I
have requested General Dearborne to be on the alert, and fly to the spot
where any open and forcible opposition shall be commenced, and to crush
it in embryo. I am not afraid but that there is sound matter enough in
Massachusetts to prevent an opposition of the laws by force. I am glad to
see that Spain is likely to give Bonaparte employment. _Tant mieux pour
nous._ Accept affectionate salutations.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
MONTICELLO, August 11, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--Your letters of July 29th and August 5th, came to hand
yesterday, and I now return you those of Wynne, Wolsey, Quincy,
Otis, Lincoln, and Dearborne. This embargo law is certainly the most
embarrassing one we have ever had to execute. I did not expect a crop of
so sudden and rank growth of fraud and open opposition by force could have
grown up in the United States. I am satisfied with you that if orders and
decrees are not repealed, and a continuance of the embargo is preferred
to war, (which sentiment is universal here), Congress must legalize
all _means_ which may be necessary to obtain its _end_. Mr. Smith, in
enclosing to me General Dearborne's and Lincoln's letters, informs me
that immediately on receiving them he gave the necessary orders to the
Chesapeake, the Wasp and Argus. Still I shall pass this letter and those
it encloses, through his hands for information. I am clearly of opinion
this law ought to be enforced at any expense, _which may not exceed our
appropriation_. I approve of the instructions to General Lincoln, for
selling the revenue cutter there and buying another, and also of what you
propose at New London and Portsmouth, and generally I wish you to do as
to the revenue cutters what you shall think best, without delaying it to
hear from me. You possess the details so much better than I do, and are so
much nearer the principal scenes, that my approbation can be but matter
of form. As to ordering out militia, you know the difficulty without
another proclamation. I advise Mr. Madison to inform General Turreau that
the vessels we allow to the foreign ministers are only in the character
of transports, and that they cannot be allowed but where the number of
persons bears the proportion to the vessel which is usual with transports.
You will see by my last that on learning the situation of affairs in
Spain, it had occurred to me that it might produce a favorable occasion
of doing ourselves justice in the south. We must certainly so dispose of
our southern recruits and armed vessels as to be ready for the occasion.
A letter of June 5th from Mr. Pinckney says nothing more than that in a
few days he was to have a full conference on our affairs with Mr. Canning.
That will doubtless produce us immediately an interesting letter from him.
I salute you affectionately.
P. S. I this day direct a commission for General Steele, vice General
Shee, deceased.
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY.
MONTICELLO, August 12, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--Yours of July 30th came to hand yesterday. It has consequently
loitered somewhere two posts. I am glad to learn the prompt aid you
have afforded the Treasury department. To let you further understand
the importance of giving all the aid we can, I pass through your hands
my letter of this day to Mr. Gallatin, with those it encloses, which I
will pray you, after perusal, to seal and put into the post-office. In
the support of the embargo laws, our only limit should be that of the
appropriations of the department. A letter of June 5th from Mr. Pinckney
informs us he was to have a free conference with Canning, in a few days.
Should England get to rights with us, while Bonaparte is at war with
Spain, the moment may be favorable to take possession of our own territory
held by Spain, and so much more as may make a proper reprisal for her
spoliations. We ought therefore to direct the rendezvous of our southern
recruits and gun-boats so as to be in proper position for striking the
stroke in an instant, when Congress shall will it. I have recommended
this to General Dearborne, as I now do to yourself. Mr. Fulton writes to
me under a great desire to prepare a decisive experiment of his torpedo
at Washington, for the meeting of Congress. This means of harbor-defence
has acquired such respectability, from its apparent merit, from the
attention shown it by other nations, and from our own experiments at
New York, as to entitle it to a full experiment from us. He asks only
two workmen for one month from us, which he estimates at $130 only. But
should it cost considerably more I should really be for granting it,
and would accordingly recommend it to you. This sum is a mere trifle as
an encroachment on our appropriation. I salute you with affection and
respect.
TO THE SECRETARY AT WAR.
MONTICELLO, August 12, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--Yours of July 27th has been received. I now enclose you
the letters of Hawkins, Harrison, Wells, Hull, and Claiborne, received
from the war office, and as I conjecture, not yet seen by you. Indian
appearances, both in the northwest and south, are well. Beyond the
Mississippi they are not so favorable. I fear Governor Lewis has been too
prompt in committing us with the Osages so far as to oblige us to go on.
But it is astonishing we get not one word from him. I enclose you letters
of Mr. Griff and Maclure, which will explain themselves. A letter of June
5th from Mr. Pinckney, informs us he was to have a free conference with
Canning in a few days. Should England make up with us, while Bonaparte
continues at war with Spain, a moment may occur when we may without danger
of commitment with either France or England seize to our own limits of
Louisiana as of right, and the residue of the Floridas as reprisal for
spoliations. It is our duty to have an eye to this in rendezvousing and
stationing our new recruits and our armed vessels, so as to be ready, if
Congress authorizes it, to strike in a moment. I wish you to consider this
matter in the orders to the southern recruits, as I have also recommended
to the Secretary of the Navy, as to the armed vessels in the South.
Indeed, I would ask your opinion as to the positions we had better take
with a view to this with our armed vessels as well as troops. The force
in the neighborhood of Baton Rouge is enough for that. Mobile, Pensacola
and St. Augustine, are those we should be preparing for. The enforcing the
embargo would furnish a pretext for taking the nearest healthy position
to St. Mary's, and on the waters of Tombigbee. I salute you with affection
and respect.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
MONTICELLO, August 12, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--Yours of the 10th came to hand yesterday, and I return you
Fronda's, Tuft's, Loderstrom's, and Turreau's letters. I think it is
become necessary to let Turreau understand explicitly that the vessels
we permit foreign ministers to send away are merely transports, for the
conveyance of such of their subjects as were here at the time of the
embargo; that the numbers must be proportioned to the vessels, as is usual
with transports; and that all who meant to go away must be presumed to
have gone before now,--at any rate, that none will be accommodated after
the present vessel. We never can allow one belligerent to buy and fit out
vessels here, to be manned with his own people, and probably act against
the other. You did not return my answer to Sullivan. But fortunately I
have received another letter, which will enable me to give the matter an
easier turn, and let it down more softly. Should the conference announced
in Mr. Pinckney's letter of June 5th, settle friendship between England
and us, and Bonaparte continue at war with Spain, a moment may occur
favorable, without compromitting us with either France or England, for
seizing our own from the Rio Bravo to Perdido, as of right, and the
residue of Florida, as a reprisal for spoliations. I have thought it
proper to suggest this possibility to General Dearborne and Mr. Smith, and
to recommend an eye to it in their rendezvousing and stationing the new
southern recruits and gun-boats, so that we may strike in a moment when
Congress says so. I have appointed General Steele successor to Shee. Mr.
and Mrs. Barlow, and Mrs. Blayden, will be here about the 25th. May we
hope to see Mrs. Madison and yourself then, or when? I shall go to Bedford
about the 10th of September. I salute you with constant affection and
respect.
TO HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR SULLIVAN.
MONTICELLO, August 12, 1808.
SIR,--Your letter of July 21st has been received some days; that of July
23d not till yesterday. Some accident had probably detained it on the
road considerably beyond its regular passage. In the former you mention
that you had thought it advisable to continue issuing certificates for
the importation of flour, until you could hear further from me; and in the
latter, that you will be called from the Capital in the fall months, after
which it is your desire that the power of issuing certificates may be
given to some other, if it is to be continued.
In mine of July 16th I had stated that, during the two months preceding
that, your certificates, received at the Treasury, amounted, if I rightly
recollect, to about 60,000 barrels of flour, and a proportionable
quantity of corn. If this whole quantity had been _bonâ fide_ landed
and retained in Massachusetts, I deemed it certain there could not be
a real want for a considerable time, and, therefore, desired the issues
of certificates might be discontinued. If, on the other hand, a part has
been carried to foreign markets, it proves the necessity of restricting
reasonably this avenue to abuse. This is my sole object, and not that a
real want of a single individual should be one day unsupplied. In this
I am certain we shall have the concurrence of all the good citizens of
Massachusetts, who are too patriotic and too just to desire, by calling
for what is superfluous, to open a door for the frauds of unprincipled
individuals who, trampling on the laws, and forcing a commerce shut to
all others, are enriching themselves on the sacrifices of their honester
fellow citizens;--sacrifices to which these are generally and willingly
submitting as equally necessary whether to avoid or prepare for war.
Still further, however, to secure the State against all danger of want,
I will request you to continue issuing certificates, in the moderate
way proposed in your letter, until your departure from the Capital, as
before stated, when I will consider it as discontinued, or make another
appointment if necessary. There is less risk of inconvenience in this,
as, by a letter from the Secretary of the Treasury, of May 20th, the
collectors were advised not to detain any vessel, the articles of whose
lading were so proportioned as to give no cause of suspicion that they
were destined for a foreign market. This mode of supply alone seems to
have been sufficient for the other importing States, if we may judge from
the little use they have made of the permission to issue certificates.
Should these reasonable precautions be followed, as is surmised in
your letter of July 21st, by an artificial scarcity, with a view to
promote turbulence of any sort or on any pretext, I trust for an ample
security against this danger to the character of my fellow citizens of
Massachusetts, which has, I think, been emphatically marked by obedience
to law, and a love of order. And I have no doubt that whilst we do
our duty, they will support us in it. The laws enacted by the general
government, will have made it our duty to have the embargo strictly
observed, for the general good; and we are sworn to execute the laws. If
clamor ensue, it will be from the few only, who will clamor whatever we
do. I shall be happy to receive the estimate promised by your Excellency,
as it may assist to guide us in the cautions we may find necessary.
And here I will beg leave to recall your attention to a mere error of
arithmetic in your letter of July 23d. The quantity of flour requisite
on the data there given, would be between thirteen and fourteen thousand
barrels per month. I beg you to accept my salutations, and assurances of
high respect and consideration.
TO MR. FULTON.
MONTICELLO, August 15, 1808.
SIR,--Immediately on the receipt of your letter of the 5th, I wrote to
the Secretary of the Navy, recommending a compliance with your request
of the workmen. Although no public servant could justify the risking the
safety of an important seaport, solely on untried means of defence, yet
I have great confidence in those proposed by you as additional to the
ordinary means. Their small cost, too, in comparison with the object,
ought to overrule those rigorous attentions to keep within the limits
of our appropriations, which have probably weighed with the Secretary
in declining the proposition. You are sensible, too, that harassed as
the offices are daily by the visions of unsound heads, even those solid
inventions destined to better our condition, feel the effects of being
grouped with them. Wishing every success to your experiment, I salute you
with esteem and respect.
TO MR. I. SMITH.
MONTICELLO, August 15, 1808.
SIR,--I this moment receive your favor of the 12th, with Captain Saunders'
letter on the acquisition of a site for a battery at Norfolk. I think
that, instead of acceding to the proposition to take the whole three
acres at $1,500, it will be better to accept the other alternative of Mr.
Thompson, to have the ground valued by proper persons. In this case too it
should be attempted to restrain the purchase to the half acre, as desired
by the Secretary at War, but if the owner insists on selling the whole or
none, the whole should be taken rather than let the works of defence be
delayed. You will be pleased to give instructions accordingly.
The despatches hitherto received at the War Office, and forwarded to
me, I have from time to time sent directly to General Dearborne, on the
presumption they had not yet been seen by him. If this is wrong, be so
good as to notify me of it. I return you Captain Saunders' letter, and
tender you my salutations.
TO HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR TOMPKINS.
MONTICELLO, August 15, 1808.
SIR,--I have this day received your Excellency's favor of the 9th instant,
and I now return you the papers it enclosed. The case of opposition
to the embargo laws on the Canada line, I take to be that of distinct
combinations of a number of individuals to oppose by force and arms the
execution of those laws, for which purpose they go armed, fire upon the
public guards, in one instance at least have wounded one dangerously, and
rescue property held under these laws. This may not be an insurrection
in the popular sense of the word, but being arrayed in warlike-manner,
actually committing acts of war, and persevering systematically in
defiance of the public authority, brings it so fully within the legal
definition of an insurrection, that I should not hesitate to issue a
proclamation, were I not restrained by motives of which your Excellency
seems to be apprized. But as by the laws of New York an insurrection
can be acted on without a previous proclamation, I should conceive it
perfectly correct to act on it as such, and I cannot doubt it would be
approved by every good citizen. Should you think proper to do so, I will
undertake that the necessary detachments of militia called out in support
of the laws, shall be considered as in the service of the United States,
and at their expense. And as it has been intimated to me that you would
probably take the trouble of going to the spot yourself, I will refer to
your discretion the measures to be taken, and the numbers to be called out
at different places, only saying, as duty requires me to fix some limit,
that the whole must not exceed five hundred men without further consulting
me. Should you be willing to take the trouble of going to the place,
you will render a great public service, as I am persuaded your presence
there will be such a manifestation of the public determination to support
the authority of the laws, as will probably deter the insurgents from
pursuing their course. I think it so important in example to crush these
audacious proceedings, and to make the offenders feel the consequences
of individuals daring to oppose a law by force, that no effort should be
spared to compass this object. As promptitude is requisite, and the delay
of consulting me on details at this distance might defeat our views, I
would rather, where you entertain doubts, that you would satisfy yourself
by conference with the Secretary of the Treasury, who is with you, and
to whom our general views are familiar. I salute you with esteem and high
respect.
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
MONTICELLO, August 15, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--Yours of the 6th and 9th, are just now received, as well as
a letter from Governor Tompkins on the subject of aiding the revenue
officers on the Canada line with militia. I refer you on this subject to
my answer to him, and pray you to encourage strongly his going to the
spot himself, and acting according to the urgencies which will present
themselves there. Should you have satisfactory evidence of either _mala
fides_ or negligence in Pease, he shall be removed without ceremony. I do
not know the residence of Greene of Massachusetts. The opinion you have
given in the case stated by Ellery is certainly correct. No civil officer
of the States can take cognizance of a federal case. Considering our
determination to let no more vessels go so far as the Cape of Good Hope,
I see nothing in the case of the brig Resolution, Craycroft, to justify a
change of the rule, and therefore cannot consent to a vessel's being sent
there. The case of the Chinese Mandarin is so entirely distinct, that it
can give no ground for this claim. The opportunity hoped from that, of
making known through one of its own characters of note, our nation, our
circumstances and character, and of letting that government understand at
length the difference between us and the English, and separate us in its
policy, rendered that measure a diplomatic one in my view, and likely to
bring lasting advantage to our merchants and commerce with that country.
I enclose you the rough draught of a letter I have written to Governor
Sullivan, in answer to two of his. It was done on consultation with Mr.
Madison.
I informed you in mine of the 11th that I had directed a commission for
General Steele as successor to Shee. This was certainly according to what
had been agreed upon at Washington, the event of Shee's death being then
foreseen and made the subject of consultation with yourself, Mr. Rodney,
and, I believe, Mr. Madison. The call for the militia from all the States
having been agreed on in April, I have taken for granted it was going on.
I will look to it, as also to the fortifications of New York. I salute you
with affection and respect.
TO GOVERNOR CLAIBORNE.
MONTICELLO, August 16, 1808.
SIR,--General Dearborne being on a visit to the province of Maine,
your letter to him (the date not recollected) was sent to me from his
office, and, after perusal, was forwarded to him. As the case of the
five Alabamas, under prosecution for the murder of a white man, may not
admit delay, if a conviction takes place, I have thought it necessary
to recommend to you in that case to select the leader, or most guilty,
for execution, and to reprieve the others till a copy of the judgment
can be forwarded, and a pardon sent you; in the meantime letting them
return to their friends, with whom you will of course take just merit for
this clemency, our wish being merely to make them sensible by the just
punishment of one, that our citizens are not to be murdered or robbed with
impunity.
I have learnt with real mortification that the engineers successively
appointed, have withdrawn from their undertaking to carry on the defensive
works of New Orleans. It is more regretted as capable persons in that line
are more difficult to be got, and it takes so long for the information to
come here, and the place to be supplied. Two other persons applied to here
have declined going. Whether General Dearborne has at length been able to
engage one I am not informed. I fear that these disappointments will lose
us the season in a work which more than any other it was my desire to have
had completed this year. Certainly these losses of time shall be shortened
by us as far as is in our power. I salute you with esteem and respect.
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
MONTICELLO, August 19, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--Yours of August 3d, which ought to have been here on the 8th,
was not received till yesterday. It has loitered somewhere, therefore,
ten days, during which three mails have been received. I proceed to its
contents.
_Somes's case._ The rule agreed to at our meeting of June 30th was
general, that no permissions should be granted for Europe, Asia, or
Africa, and there is nothing in Somes's case to entitle it to exemption
from the rule, more than will be found in every case that shall occur;
as a precedent then, it would be a repeal of the rule, and in fact of
the embargo law. He might have sent his proofs to Malta through England,
either by the British packets or by our avisos. If he has not done it,
and cannot now do it, it is his fault; the permission therefore must be
refused.
_Coquerel's case._ 1. The question whether he had a right to expect a
permit is against him. None in writing was given; no note or memorandum on
any paper is found warranting the fact, nor is there even any trace of it
in the memory of the collector. On what evidence then does it rest? Merely
on the words of the owner and captain that the language of the collector
conveyed an impression on them that they were to have a permit: but we
well know where this sort of evidence would land us.
2d. But suppose we had had a positive or written permission, why was it
not used? Could it be believed to be good for this year, next year, or
ten years hence? The reason of the thing must have shown to every one
that it was good _under existing circumstances_ only, and might become
null if not used till these were changed. But the written notification of
August 1st, giving a final day, annuls all permits after that day; and not
a single circumstance is stated which entitles them to a prolongation of
the time, which would not entitle every other, and consequently repeal the
limitation of time and the law. I see no ground, therefore, for relieving
him from the operation of the rule.
* * * * *
I enclose you a letter from a Mr. Ithomel to the Secretary of the Navy.
I know not who he is, perhaps an officer of the navy. This is the second
letter he has written, expressing his belief that there is ground to
apprehend insurgency in Massachusetts. Neither do I know his politics,
which might also be a key to his apprehensions. That the federalists
may attempt insurrection is possible, and also that the governor would
sink before it. But the republican part of the State, and that portion
of the federalists who approve the embargo in their judgments, and at
any rate would not court mob-law, would crush it in embryo. I have some
time ago written to General Dearborne to be on the alert on such an
occasion, and to take direction of the public authority on the spot. Such
an incident will rally the whole body of republicans of every shade to a
single point,--that of supporting the public authority. Be so good as to
return the letter to Mr. Smith. He informs me he has left to yourself and
Commander Rogers to order whatever gun-boats you think can be spared from
New York to aid the embargo law. If enough be left there or near there, to
preserve order in the harbor, or to drive out a single ship of force, it
would be sufficient in the present tranquil state of things.
The principle of our indulgence of vessels to foreign ministers was, that
it was fair to let them send away all their subjects caught here by the
embargo, and who had no other means of getting away.
General Turreau says there are fifteen hundred French sailors,--deserters,
here, many of whom wish to go home. I have desired Mr. Madison to inform
him that the tonnage permitted must be proportioned to the numbers,
according to the rules in transport service. On this ground, I do not know
that we can do wrong. We have nothing yet from Pinckney or Armstrong. But
the first letter from the former must be so. I salute you with affection
and respect.
TO THE SECRETARY AT WAR.
MONTICELLO, August 20, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--I enclose you a letter of July 1st, from Governor Lewis,
received from the War Office by the last post. It presents a full, and
not a pleasant, view of our Indian affairs west of the Mississippi.
As the punishment of the Osages has been thought necessary, the means
employed appear judicious. First, to draw off the friendly part of the
nation, and then, withdrawing the protection of the United States, leave
the other tribes free to take their own satisfaction of them for their
own wrongs. I think we may go further, without actually joining in the
attack. The greatest obstacle to the Indians acting in large bodies,
being the difficulty of getting provisions, we might supply them, and
ammunition also, if necessary. I hope the Governor will be able to settle
with the Sacs and Foxes without war, to which, however, he seems too much
committed. If we had gone to war for every hunter or trader killed, and
murderer refused, we should have had general and constant war. The process
to be followed, in my opinion, when a murder has been committed, is first
to demand the murderer, and not regarding a first refusal to deliver,
give time and press it. If perseveringly refused, recall all traders,
and interdict commerce with them, until he be delivered. I believe this
would rarely fail in producing the effect desired; and we have seen
that, by steadily following this line, the tribes become satisfied of our
moderation, justice, and friendship to them, and become firmly attached
to us. The want of time to produce these dispositions in the Indians west
of the Mississippi, has been the cause of the Kanzas, the Republican,
the Great and the Wolf Panis, the Matas, and Poncaras, adhering to
the Spanish interest against us. But if we use forbearance, and open
commerce for them, they will come to, and give us time to attach them
to us. In the meantime, to secure our frontiers against their hostility,
I would allow Governor Lewis the three companies of spies, and military
stores he desires. We are so distant, and he so well acquainted with the
business, that it is safest for our citizens there and for ourselves,
after enjoining him to pursue our principles, to permit him to select the
means. The factories proposed on the Missouri and Mississippi, as soon
as they can be in activity, will have more effect than as many armies.
It is on their interests we must rely for their friendship, and not on
their fears. With the establishment of these factories, we must prohibit
the British from appearing westward of the Mississippi, and southward
of logarithm degree; we must break up all their factories on this side
the Mississippi, west of Lake Michigan; not permit them to send out
individual traders to the Indian towns, but require all their commerce to
be carried on at their factories,--putting our own commerce under the same
regulations, which will take away all ground of complaint. In like manner,
I think well of Governor Lewis' proposition to carry on all our commerce
west of the Mississippi, at fixed points; licensing none but stationary
traders residing at these points; and obliging the Indians to come to the
commerce, instead of sending it to them. Having taken this general view
of the subject, which I know is nearly conformable to your own, I leave
to yourself the detailed answer to Governor Lewis, and salute you with
constant affection and respect.
TO GOVERNOR LEWIS.
MONTICELLO, August 21, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--Your letter to General Dearborne, of July 1st, was not received
at the War Office till a few days ago, was forwarded to me, and after
perusal sent on to General Dearborne, at present in Maine. As his official
answer will be late in getting to you, I have thought it best, in the
meantime, to communicate to yourself, directly, ideas in conformity with
those I have expressed to him, and with the principles on which we have
conducted Indian affairs. I regret that it has been found necessary to
come to open rupture with the Osages, but, being so, I approve of the
course you have pursued,--that of drawing off the friendly part of the
nation,--withdrawing from the rest the protection of the United States,
and permitting the other nations to take their own satisfaction for the
wrongs they complain of. I have stated to General Dearborne that I think
we may go further, and as the principal obstacle to the Indians acting in
large bodies, is the want of provisions, we might supply that want, and
ammunition also, if they need it. With the Sacs and Foxes I hope you will
be able to settle amicably, as nothing ought more to be avoided than the
embarking ourselves in a system of military coercion on the Indians. If
we do this, we shall have general and perpetual war. When a murder has
been committed on one of our stragglers, the murderer should be demanded.
If not delivered, give time, and still press the demand. We find it
difficult, with our regular government, to take and punish a murderer
of an Indian. Indeed, I believe we have never been able to do it in a
single instance. They have their difficulties also, and require time. In
fact, it is a case where indulgence on both sides is just and necessary,
to prevent the two nations from being perpetually committed in war, by
the acts of the most vagabond and ungovernable of their members. When
the refusal to deliver the murderer is permanent, and proceeds from the
want of will, and not of ability, we should then interdict all trade and
intercourse with them till they give us complete satisfaction. Commerce is
the great engine by which we are to coerce them, and not war. I know this
will be less effectual on this side the Mississippi, where they can have
recourse to the British; but this will not be a long-lived evil. By this
forbearing conduct towards the Mississippian Indians for seven years past,
they are become satisfied of our justice and moderation towards them, that
we have no desire of injuring them, but, on the contrary, of doing them
all the good offices we can, and they are become sincerely attached to
us; and this disposition, beginning with the nearest, has spread and is
spreading itself to the more remote, as fast as they have opportunities
of understanding our conduct. The Sacs and Foxes, being distant, have
not yet come over to us. But they are on the balance. Those on this side
the Mississippi, will soon be entirely with us, if we pursue our course
steadily. The Osages, Kanzas, the Republican, Great and Wolf Panis, Matas,
Poncaras, &c., who are inclined to the Spaniards, have not yet had time
to know our dispositions. But if we use forbearance, and open commerce
with them, they will come to, and give us time to attach them to us. In
the meantime, to secure our frontiers, I have expressed myself to General
Dearborne in favor of the three companies of spies, and the military
supplies you ask for. So, also, in the having established factories, at
which all the traders shall be stationary, allowing none to be itinerant,
further than indispensable circumstances shall require. As soon as our
factories on the Missouri and Mississippi can be in activity, they will
have more powerful effects than so many armies. With respect to the
British, we shall take effectual steps to put an immediate stop to their
crossing the Mississippi, by the severest measures. And I have proposed
to General Dearborne to break up all their factories within our limits on
this side the Mississippi, to let them have them only at fixed points, and
suppress all itinerant traders of theirs, as well as our own. They have,
by treaty, only an equal right of commerce with ourselves, the regulations
of which on our side of the line belongs to us, as that on their side
belongs to them. All that can be required is that these regulations be
equal. These are the general views which, on the occasion of your letter,
I have expressed to General Dearborne. I reserve myself for consultation
with him, and shall be very glad to receive your sentiments also on the
several parts of them, after which we may decide on the modifications
which may be approved. In the meantime you will probably receive from him
an answer to your letter, till which this communication of my sentiments
may be of some aid in determining your own course of proceeding.
Your friends here are all well, except Colonel Lewis, who has declined
very rapidly the last few months. He scarcely walks about now, and
never beyond his yard. We can never lose a better man. I salute you with
affection and respect.
TO THE HONORABLE LEVI LINCOLN.
MONTICELLO, August 22, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--You are not unapprized that in order to check the evasions of
the embargo laws effected under color of the coasting trade, we found
it necessary to prevent the transportation of flour coast-wise, except
to the States not making enough for their own consumption, and that to
place the supplies of these States under some check, a discretionary
power was given to the Governors to give licenses to the amount of what
they deemed the necessary importation. By a subsequent regulation, the
collectors were advised not to detain suspicious vessels, the articles
of whose cargoes were so proportioned as not to excite suspicion of
fraudulent intentions; and particularly where not more than one-eight in
value was provisions. This last regulation has operated so well that in
the other importing States (Massachusetts excepted) little or no use has
been made of the power of giving special licenses. But the licenses of
Massachusetts, in the first two months, having amounted to 60,000 barrels
of flour, the quantity was so much beyond their consumption, that it was
suspected the licenses were fraudulently perverted to cover exportation.
I therefore requested Governor Sullivan to discontinue issuing them, as,
if the whole quantity was landed and retained in the State, it could not
want for some time, and if exported, it showed we ought to guard that
avenue to fraud. He apprized me, however, by letter, of circumstances
which induced him to continue a moderated issue of licenses till he
could hear from me, and I approved of his doing so till he should leave
the capital, which he informed me he should do in the fall, when, if the
power were to be continued, he wished it to be put into other hands, as
his absence would prevent his exercising it. On this ground the matter
now rests. He supposes that about ninety thousand persons in the State
subsist on imported flour, which, at a pound a day, would require between
thirteen and fourteen thousand barrels a month. Certainly it is not my
wish that the want of a single individual should be unsupplied a single
day; and I presume the well-affected citizens of Massachusetts would not
wish, by importing a superfluous stock, to open a door for defeating a
law judged by the national authorities necessary for the public good, and
cheerfully submitted to elsewhere in the union. The question is, whether,
after so great importations, the permission to all coasting vessels to
take one-eight in provisions will not supply the State? On this subject
I ask your friendly information. If it will not, then I must request
your undertaking to issue licenses, on the departure of the Governor,
to such characters as you may not suspect would make a fraudulent use of
them. The power will, with propriety, devolve on you, on the Governor's
declining it. You stand next in the confidence of the State, and certainly
second to no one in my confidence. I will therefore ask from you a full
communication of facts, and your opinions on this subject, with an entire
disposition on my part to do whatever, consistently with my duty, I can
do to obviate difficulties. I pray you to be assured of my constant esteem
and attachment.
TO GOVERNOR LEWIS.
MONTICELLO, August 24, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--My letter of August 21st being gone to the post-office, I write
this as a supplement, which will be in time to go by the same post. Isham
Lewis arrived here last night and tells me he was with you at St. Louis
about the second week in July, and consequently, after your letter of the
1st of that month, that four Iowas had been delivered up to you as guilty
of the murder which had been charged to the Sacs and Foxes, and that
you supposed three of them would be hung. It is this latter matter which
induces me to write again.
As there was but one white murdered by them, I should be averse to the
execution of more than one of them, selecting the most guilty and worst
character. Nothing but extreme criminality should induce the execution of
a second, and nothing beyond that. Besides their idea that justice allows
only man for man that all beyond that is new aggression, which must be
expiated by a new sacrifice of an equivalent number of our people, it
is our great object to impress them with a firm persuasion that all our
dispositions towards them are fatherly; that if we take man for man, it
is not from a thirst for blood or revenge, but as the smallest measure
necessary to correct the evil, and that though all concerned are guilty,
and have forfeited their lives by our usages, we do not wish to spill
their blood as long as there can be a hope of their future good conduct.
We may make a merit of restoring the others to their friends and their
nation, and furnish a motive for obtaining a sincere attachment. There
is the more reason for this moderation, as we know we cannot punish any
murder which shall be committed by us on them. Even if the murderer can
be taken, our juries have never yet convicted the murderer of an Indian.
Should these Indians be convicted, I would wish you to deliver up to their
friends at once, those whom you select for pardon, and not to detain them
in confinement until a pardon can be actually sent you. That shall be
forwarded to you as soon as you shall send me a copy of the judgment on
which it shall be founded.
I am uneasy hearing nothing from you about the Mandan chief, nor the
measures for restoring him to his country. That is an object which presses
on our justice and our honor, and further than that I suppose a severe
punishment of the Ricaras indispensable, taking for it our own time
and convenience. My letter from Washington asked your opinions on this
subject. I repeat my salutations of affection and respect.
TO THE SECRETARY AT WAR.
MONTICELLO, August 25, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--In my letter of the 15th I informed you that I had authorized
Governor Tompkins to order out such aids of militia on Lake Ontario and
the Canada line, as he should find necessary to enforce the embargo, not
exceeding five hundred, he proposing to repair thither himself to select
trusty persons. I am now to request that you will have measures taken for
their pay, subsistence, and whatever else is requisite.
I enclose you applications for military command in favor of John B.
Livingston and John Murphy, a letter from Governor Hull, and one from
Howell Hern, who seems to have just cause of complaint against Captain
Armistead; and I salute you with affection and respect.
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
MONTICELLO, August 26, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--Yours of the 17th was received only yesterday. It ought to have
come by the preceding post. I mention the delay of your letters, as you
may perhaps know how it happens.
_Smissaert's Case._
The exportation of these doits was refused before, and I see no reason for
a change of opinion. They are understood to be private property. If they
were public, we might on a principle of comity permit their exportation
in their own or any other foreign vessel. But comity does not require
us to send our ships and seamen into the mouths of captors. I am not
sufficiently informed of the conduct of the Batavian government towards
our vessels at present, to derive any motive from that to affect the
present case.
Kettridge's letter, with yours to him and Blake, and Burt's letter, are
now returned. I am in hopes the successes of our armed vessels will check
the evasions of the embargo. I have received no letter from Governor
Tompkins since that of the 9th, my answer to which, of the 15th, contained
assurances which would fully meet any case of militia ordered out by
him under five hundred, as to our answering the expense. I will write
immediately to General Dearborne to provide pay and subsistence, and
will send it open to his chief clerk at Washington, with instructions to
him to take order in it immediately, to prevent the delay from General
Dearborne's absence. I will also write to General Wilkinson to forward
the recruits of New York to the positions you have named. Your circular
for the North Carolina navigation, and the papers concerning the Mandarin,
are not yet received. Astor's publication in the Aurora has sufficiently
quieted me on that head. * * * * *
P. S. No letter yet from Mr. Pinckney.
TO CAPTAIN M'GREGOR.
MONTICELLO, August 26, 1808.
SIR,--In answer to the petition which you delivered me from the officers
of merchant vessels belonging to Philadelphia, I must premise my sincere
regret at the sacrifices which our fellow citizens generally, and the
petitioners in particular, have been obliged to meet by the circumstances
of the times. We live in an age of affliction, to which the history of
nations presents no parallel. We have for years been looking on Europe
covered with blood and violence, and seen rapine spreading itself over
the ocean. On this element it has reached us, and at length in so serious
a degree, that the Legislature of the nation has thought it necessary to
withdraw our citizens and property from it, either to avoid, or to prepare
for engaging in the general contest. But for this timely precaution,
the petitioners and their property might now have been in the hands of
spoilers, who have laid aside all regard to moral right. Withdrawing
from the greater evil, a lesser one has been necessarily encountered. And
certainly, could the Legislature have made provision against this also, I
should have had great pleasure as the instrument of its execution, but it
was impracticable, by any general and just rules, to prescribe in every
case the best resource against the inconveniences of this new situation.
The difficulties of the crisis will certainly fall with greater pressure
on some descriptions of citizens than on others; and on none perhaps with
greater than our seafaring brethren. Should any means of alleviation
occur within the range of my duties, I shall with certainty advert to
the situation of the petitioners, and, in availing the nation of their
services, aid them with a substitute for their former occupations. I
salute them and yourself with sentiments of sincere regard.
TO THE SECRETARY AT WAR.
MONTICELLO, August 27, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--In my letter of yesterday I omitted to enclose that of Hern,
which I now do. I add to it a newspaper from St. Louis, in which is an
account of the surrender of some Indian murderers. This paper says there
were three or four whites murdered. But I think Governor Lewis' letter
says but one. On that ground I wrote to him to recommend, if they should
be convicted, to suffer only one to be executed, unless there was strong
reason for doing more, and to deliver up the rest to their friends, as a
proof of our friendship and desire not to injure them. Mr. Woolsey, our
Collector on Champlain, has lately been to Montreal. He took much pains to
find out the British strength in that quarter, and the following is what
he says, we may rely on:
At Montreal 450
Chambly 80
St. John's 40
Odle Town 14
Isle Aux Noix 10
----
594
He adds, that 10,000 men will take the whole country to within a league of
Quebec. I salute you with affection and respect.
TO THE EMPEROR OF RUSSIA.
UNITED STATES, August 29, 1808.
GREAT AND GOOD FRIEND AND EMPEROR,--Desirous of promoting useful
intercourse and good understanding between your majesty's subjects and the
citizens of the United States, and especially to cultivate the friendship
of your majesty, I have appointed William Short, one of our distinguished
citizens, to be in quality of Minister Plenipotentiary of the United
States, the bearer to you of assurances of their sincere friendship,
and of their desire to maintain with your majesty and your subjects the
strictest relations of amity and commerce: he will explain to your majesty
the peculiar position of these States, separated by a wide ocean from the
powers of Europe, with interests and pursuits distinct from theirs, and
consequently without the motives or the appetites for taking part in the
associations or oppositions which a different system of interests produces
among them; he is charged to assure your majesty more particularly of our
purpose to observe a faithful neutrality towards the contending powers, in
the war to which your majesty is a party, rendering to all the services
and courtesies of friendship, and praying for the re-establishment of
peace and right among them; and we entertain an entire confidence that
this just and faithful conduct on the part of the United States will
strengthen the friendly dispositions you have manifested towards them, and
be a fresh motive with so just and magnanimous a sovereign to enforce, by
the high influence of your example, the respect due to the character and
the rights of a peaceable nation. I beseech you, great and good friend
and emperor, to give entire credence to whatever he shall say to you on
the part of these States, and most of all when he shall assure you of
their cordial esteem and respect for your majesty's person and character,
praying God always to have you in his safe and holy keeping.
TO GENERAL WILKINSON.
MONTICELLO, August 30, 1808.
DEAR GENERAL,--The absence of General Dearborne and his great distance
render it necessary to recommend a measure which should regularly go from
him, but will not admit of that delay. The armed resistance to the embargo
laws on the Canada line induced us at an early period to determine that
the new recruits of the northern States should be rendezvoused there,
and I presume you received such instructions from General Dearborne. In
the meantime we have been obliged to make several detachments of militia
to points on that line. This is irksome to them, expensive, troublesome,
and less efficacious. Understanding that there are three companies of new
recruits filled, or nearly filled, at New York, I must pray you to order
these, and indeed all the recruits of the State of New York, to Sackett's
Harbor, Oswegatchie, and Plattsburgh, in equal proportions to each, in
order to support the collectors in the execution of their duties, and this
without any avoidable delay, giving notice to Governor Tompkins of their
march and time of probable arrival at their destination, that he may give
corresponding orders respecting the relief of the militia. I salute you
with esteem and respect.
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
MONTICELLO, August 30, 1808.
DEAR SIR,-- * * * * * Mr. Madison and myself on repeated consultations,
(and some of the other members of the executive expressed the same
opinion before they left Washington,) have concluded that the mission to
Petersburgh should not be delayed. Being special, and not permanent, the
waiting the meeting of the Senate is less important, and, if we waited,
that it could not go till spring, and we know not what this summer and
the ensuing winter may produce. We think secrecy also important, and
that the mission should be as little known as possible, till it is in
Petersburgh, which could not be, if known to the Senate. Mr. Short goes
therefore in the aviso from Philadelphia, to be engaged for September
15th. He is peculiarly distressed by sickness at sea, and of course more
so the smaller the vessel. I think, therefore, the occasion justifies the
enlargement of our vessel somewhat beyond what might be necessary for
a mere aviso. The season, too, by the time of her return, might render
it desirable for safety, which circumstance may be mentioned in your
instructions to the collector, to prevent his suspicions of the real
ground. I salute you with affection and respect.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
MONTICELLO, September 5, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--The last post brought me the counter addresses now enclosed.
That from Ipswich is signed by about forty persons; the town meeting
which voted the petition consisted of thirty. There are 500 voters in the
place. The counter address of Boston has 700 signatures. The town meeting
voting the petition is said to have consisted of 500. In the draught of an
answer enclosed, I have taken the occasion of making some supplementary
observations which could not with propriety have been inserted in the
answers to the petitions. The object is that the two together may present
to our own people the strongest points in favor of the embargo in a short
and clear view. An eye is also kept on foreign nations, in some of the
observations. Be so good as to make it what it should be, and return it by
the first post. * * * * *
I salute you with constant and sincere affection.
TO THE SECRETARY AT WAR.
MONTICELLO, September 5, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--Yours of August 18th is this moment received, and I forward you
a letter of July 16th, from Governor Lewis, from which you will perceive
that the cloud between us, the Iowas, Foxes, and Sacs, is cleared up.
He says nothing of the Osages; but I presume their enemies have taken
advantage of the withdrawing our protection from them. Should you not have
issued orders for the 100,000 men, I believe it may rest till we meet in
Washington, under present appearances, that they may not be wanting. Mr.
Pinckney, in a letter of June 29th, says, "I had a long interview this
morning with Mr. Canning, which has given me hopes that the [3]object
mentioned in your letter of April 30th may be accomplished, if I should
authorize the expectation which the same [4]letter suggests." He adds that
he waits for the St. Michael, when he will give the result and details.
He thinks they will also make acceptable satisfaction for the Chesapeake.
Proposing to leave this on the 28th, I presume I had better reserve future
communications for our meeting at Washington.
I salute you with constant affection and respect.
FOOTNOTES
[3] Repeal of the orders of council.
[4] Repeal of the embargo.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
MONTICELLO, September 6, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--I return you Pinckney's letter, the complexion of which I like.
If they repeal their orders, we must repeal our embargo. If they make
satisfaction for the Chesapeake, we must revoke our proclamation, and
generalize its operation by a law. If they keep up impressments, we must
adhere to non-intercourse, manufacturers' and a navigation act. I enclose
for your perusal a letter of Mr. Short's. I inform him that any one of
the persons he names would be approved, the government never recognizing a
difference between the two parties of republicans in Pennsylvania.
* * * * *
I salute you with constant affection.
TO MR. SHORT.
MONTICELLO, September 6, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--I avail myself of the last moment allowed by the departure
of the post to acknowledge the receipt of your letters of the 27th and
31st ult., and to say in answer to the last, that any one of the three
persons you there propose would be approved as to their politics, for
in appointments to office the government refuses to know any difference
between descriptions of republicans, all of whom are in principle, and
co-operate, with the government. Biddle we know, and have formed an
excellent opinion of him. His travelling and exercise in business must
have given him advantages. I am much pleased with the account you give
of the sentiments of the federalists of Philadelphia as to the embargo,
and that they are not in sentiment with the insurgents of the north. The
papers have lately advanced in boldness and flagitiousness beyond even
themselves. Such daring and atrocious lies as fill the third and fourth
columns of the third page of the United States Gazette of August 31st,
were never before, I believe, published with impunity in any country.
However, I have from the beginning determined to submit myself as the
subject on whom may be proved the impotency of a free press in a country
like ours, against those who conduct themselves honestly and enter into no
intrigue. I admit at the same time that restraining the press _to truth_,
as the present laws do, is the only way of making it useful. But I have
thought necessary first to prove it can never be dangerous. Not knowing
whether I shall have another occasion to address you here, be assured that
my sincere affections and wishes for your success and happiness accompany
you everywhere.
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
MONTICELLO, September 9, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--Your two letters of the 2d instant were read yesterday
afternoon, and I now return you Penniman's and Gray's papers, and the
New Orleans petition. Penniman's conduct deserves marked approbation, and
there should be no hesitation about the expenses reasonably incurred. If
all these people are convicted, there will be too many to be punished with
death. My hope is that they will send me full statements of every man's
case, that the most guilty may be marked as examples, and the less so
suffer long imprisonment under reprieves from time to time.
_Packet between Vermont and Canada._
I do not think this is a time for opening new channels of intercourse with
Canada, and multiplying the means of smuggling, and am therefore against
this proposition.
_Mr. Gray's case._
His late rational and patriotic conduct would merit any indulgence
consistent with our duty; but the reason and the rule against permitting
long voyages at present, are insurmountable obstacles. It is to be hoped
some circuitous means of sending his proofs can be found. A vessel may go
from England as well as from here.
_New Orleans Petition._
You know I have been averse to letting Atlantic flour go to New Orleans
merely that they may have the _whitest_ bread possible. Without honoring
the motives of the petition, it gives us the fact that there is western
flour enough for the New Orleans market. I would therefore discourage
Atlantic cargoes to that place.
I send you the petition of Thomas Beatty for Samuel Glen, of Londonderry,
for permission to load a vessel for Ireland. Mr. Beatty met me in the road
in one of my daily rides. I gave his paper a hasty perusal, and, asking
time for consideration, I told him I would enclose it to you, who would
give the answer. On a more deliberate reading of it, I see nothing to
exempt it from the general rules, according to which you will be so good
as to dispose of it.
The cases from Charleston require consideration, and our regular post
gives me, in fact, but one forenoon to answer letters. I will forward them
to Mr. Theus by our extra post of the 13th.
I salute you with friendship and respect.
TO SIMEON THEUS, ESQ.
MONTICELLO, September 10, 1808.
SIR,--According to the request of Mr. Gallatin's letter, herewith
enclosed, I have considered the petitions of Grove, Himely, Everingham,
and Ogier & Turner, referred to me by him, and forward you the decisions
for your government. They are addressed to yourself directly, to avoid
unnecessary delay to the parties, by passing them through him, as
regularly they should have been.
_Grove's Case._
Although the circular of the 1st of July limited no precise day for the
departure of vessels under permits, yet in all such cases, a reasonable
time only is to be understood, such as using due diligence, will suffice
for the object. Such regulations can never be deemed but as temporary,
and especially in times when the political circumstances governing them
are liable to daily change. The time between the receipt at Charleston,
of the circulars of July 1st and August 1st, was from the 19th or 20th
of July to the 16th of August,--twenty-seven days; and within this time
Mr. Grove states explicitly that he had prepared and cleared out the ship
Pierce Manning, for the Havanna, and that she would have sailed before
the 16th of August but for adverse winds. Considering, therefore, that the
limitation of departure to the 15th of August was not known at Charleston
till the 16th, so that not a moment's warning was given of it there, I
think that, satisfactory proof being exhibited to the collector, that she
was ready for sailing, or even very nearly ready on the 16th of August.
She may now be permitted to depart, on condition that she does depart
within such time as the state of her preparation, somewhat of course
relaxed during the suspension, may in the judgment of the collector render
necessary.
The reasons for originally limiting a day, increased by time require the
exaction of this condition.
_Himeley's Case._
This petition has no date; but it imports to have been written on the
day of the receipt of the circular of August 1st at Charleston, and
consequently on the 16th of August. It affirms that the brig Three
Brothers, for Matanzas, then had on board the crew and necessary
provisions, and assigns a probable reason why she could not have been
ready sooner. For the reasons, and on the conditions stated in Grove's
case, (that is to say, on proof of the facts to the collector, and her
prompt departure,) she ought to have a permit.
_Everingham's Case._
I put entirely out of sight, as having no bearing on this case, everything
which passed prior to the receipt of the circular of July 1st, and
consider the case as beginning _de novo_ then, and under that circular.
The petitioner declares expressly that on the publication of that
circular, (July 20th,) he used every exertion to prepare the ship Diana
for a voyage to the Havanna, and had _just prepared her_ therefor when
the circular of August 1st was received. The expression _just prepared_,
is not absolutely definite. It may respect time or degree. It implies,
however, that she was _very nearly_, if not quite, prepared. And if the
collector receives satisfactory proof that he was _nearly prepared_,
although she might not be in absolute readiness at the first moment of
receiving the warning, and on the conditions stated in Grove's case.
The case of the schooner James is very different. The petitioner only
states that he had _applied_ to the collector, and obtained leave prior
to August 1st,--had _begun_ to use exertions, &c., and had _ordered_ her
to be careened and graved, &c., when the circular of August 1st arrived,
to wit, August 16th, twenty-seven days had therefore intervened, and
nothing more than an _order_ given to careen. In the other cases we
have seen that the twenty-seven days were sufficient to be in a state of
actual readiness, even where a part of the loading was to be sent for from
another State. No permit, therefore, can be granted in this case.
_Ogier & Turner's Case._
The petitioners state that Ogier had time, after the receipt of the
circular of July 1st, to _prepare and despatch_ one vessel; but that they
were only _preparing_ other vessels when the second circular was received,
to wit, August 16th, whereupon the collector refused to let them despatch
the vessels which they had been _preparing_ as aforesaid. A due diligence
then having enabled them to despatch one vessel in the twenty-seven days,
a like diligence, had it been used, might have despatched others. But from
the tenor of their petition, the preparations of the others seem to have
been merely incipient, and not near completion. They have consequently
lost the claims on that equity which extends relief against rigorous
rules, where due exertions have been used to fulfil them, and have been
defeated only by accidental and unavoidable want of notice. They are not
entitled to permits in this case.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
MONTICELLO, September 13, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--I send you a letter of Short's for perusal, and one of Edgar
Patterson, asking what is already I presume provided for, and one of
General Armstrong, which I do not well understand, because I do not
recollect the particular letter which came by Haley. I presume the counsel
he refers to is to take possession of the Floridas. This letter of June
15th is written after the cession by Carlos to Bonaparte of all his
dominions, when he supposed England would at once pounce on the Floridas
as a prey, or Bonaparte occupy it as a neighbor. His next will be written
after the people of Spain will have annihilated the cession, England
become the protector of Florida, and Bonaparte without title or means to
plant himself there as our neighbor.
Ought I to answer such a petition as that of Rowley? The people have
a right to petition, but not to use that right to cover calumniating
insinuations.
Turreau writes like Armstrong so much in the buskin, that he cannot give a
naked fact in an intelligible form. I do not know what it is he asks for.
If a transport or transports to convey sailors, there has been no refusal;
and if any delay of answer, I presume it can be explained. If he wishes to
buy vessels here, man them with French seamen, and send them elsewhere,
the breach of neutrality would be in permitting, not in refusing it.
But have we permitted this to England? His remedy is easy in every case.
Repeal the decrees. I presume our Fredericksburg rider need not come after
his next trip. I salute you affectionately.
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY.
MONTICELLO, September 16, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--You will perceive by the enclosed papers that an aggression has
been committed on the Spanish territory by (if I understand the case,)
both our land and sea officers. I enclose the papers to you that the
necessary orders may be given in your department, and the papers handed
on to the War department that the same may be done there. I suppose it
will suffice for the present to order the men to be immediately given
up, and the officers given to understand that the conduct of those who
committed it will become a subject of consideration for the Cabinet on its
re-assembling at Washington, and that we will not permit aggressions to be
committed on our part, against which we remonstrated to Spain on her part.
I expect to be in Washington on the last day of September, or 1st of
October. I salute you with affection and respect.
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
MONTICELLO, September 20, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--Yours of September 10th and 14th were received yesterday, and
my time being brief, my answer must be so.
_Brig Betsey, and the Aurora._
The first having put back by stress of weather, and inevitable necessity,
ought, I think, to be permitted to sail again; but not to the Aurora,
which put back merely because the Captain was a fool. They have lost
their chance by their own folly, and have no claim to be excepted out of
the general rule. If you concur in these opinions be so good as to act on
them; but if you think differently, let them lie till we meet, which will
probably be within two or three days after you receive this.
_Mr. Soderstrom._
His application is peremptorily refused, and his lawyer's opinions are
sent to Mr. Madison, that he may be properly reprimanded. For a foreign
agent, addressed to the Executive, to embody himself with the lawyers of
a faction whose sole object is to embarrass and defeat all the measures
of the country, and by their opinions, known to be always in opposition,
to endeavor to influence our proceedings is a conduct not to be permitted.
The government will certainly decide for itself on whose counsel they will
settle the construction of the laws they are to execute. We are to look
at the intention of the Legislature, and to carry it into execution while
the lawyers are nibbling at the words of the law. It is well known that on
every question the lawyers are about equally divided, as is seen in the
present case, and were we to act but in cases where no contrary opinion
of a lawyer can be had, we should never act. I send White's petition for
better information, to be acted on when we meet. Affectionate salutations.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
October 14, 1808.
As we know that Sullivan's licenses have overstocked the wants of
the eastern States with flour, the proposal to carry more there is of
itself suspicious, and therefore even regular traders ought not to be
allowed. The regular trade was to supply flour for exportation as well as
consumption. If the rule of the sixth (or eighth, I believe,) is extended
to them, the supply will be kept up sufficiently for consumption. The rule
of the sixth is a good one, because if the vessel goes off, the gain will
not be more than the loss by forfeiture, which in that case becomes an
efficient penalty. If they wish to take more, it furnishes good grounds of
suspicion that they mean to pay the forfeitures out of the gains, and to
profit by the surplus. I should think it ought to be adhered to, and that
the collectors should consider it as a rule to regulate their discretion,
and to give equal measure in all our posts to all our citizens.
* * * * *
TO ROBERT L. LIVINGSTON.
WASHINGTON, October 15, 1808.
SIR,--Your letter of September the 22d waited here for my return, and it
is not till now that I have been able to acknowledge it. The explanation
of his principles given you by the French Emperor, in conversation, is
correct as far as it goes. He does not wish us to go to war with England,
knowing we have no ships to carry on that war. To submit to pay to England
the tribute on our commerce which she demands by her orders of council,
would be to aid her in the war against him, and would give him just
ground to declare war with us. He concludes, therefore, as every rational
man must, that the embargo, the only remaining alternative, was a wise
measure. These are acknowledged principles, and should circumstances
arise which may offer advantage to our country in making them public,
we shall avail ourselves of them. But as it is not usual nor agreeable
to governments to bring their conversations before the public, I think
it would be well to consider this on your part as confidential, leaving
to the government to retain or make it public, as the general good may
require. Had the Emperor gone further, and said that he condemned our
vessels going voluntarily into his ports in breach of his municipal laws,
we might have admitted it rigorously legal, though not friendly. But his
condemnation of vessels taken on the high seas, by his privateers, and
carried involuntarily into his ports, is justifiable by no law, is piracy,
and this is the wrong we complain of against him.
Supposing that you may be still at Clermont, from whence your letter is
dated, I avail myself of this circumstance to request your presenting my
friendly respects to Chancellor Livingston. I salute you with esteem and
respect.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
WASHINGTON, October 16, 1808.
* * * * *
_Massey's Commission._--A half-sighted lawyer might, perhaps, say that a
commission signed with a blank for the name,--afterwards filled up, was
a nullity, because, in legal instruments, any change in a material part
of a bond, deed, &c., after sealing and delivery, nullifies it. But I am
not certain whether there are not cases, even in ordinary transactions
at law, where it is otherwise,--_e. g._, a power of attorney sent to a
distance, with a blank for the name, a blank commission, a blank subpœna,
&c. But in matters of government, there can be no question but that the
commission sealed and signed, with a blank for the name, date, place, &c.,
is good; because government can in no country be carried on without it.
The most vital proceedings of our own government would become null were
such a construction to prevail, and the _argumentum ab inconvenienti_,
which is one of the great foundations of the law, will undoubtedly sustain
the practice, and sanction it by the maxim "_qui facit per alterum, facit
per se_." I would not therefore give the countenance of the government to
so impracticable a construction by issuing a new commission. Affectionate
salutations.
TO GEORGE BLAKE, ESQ.
WASHINGTON, October 17, 1808.
SIR,--However favorably the enclosed papers represent the case of
Alexander Frost, yet it would be against every rule of prudence for me
to undertake to revise the verdict of a jury on _ex parte_ affidavits and
recommendations. If the judges and yourself who were present at the trial
think the defendant a proper object of pardon, I shall be ready, on such
a recommendation, to issue it. I ask the favor of your information on this
subject, and salute you with esteem and respect.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
October 18, 1808.
I think that none of the circumstances, preceding the passage of the
embargo law, stated by Mr. Lorent, make any part of his case. The
misfortunes entering into the preceding history of that property, not
flowing from any act of this government, authorizes no claims on it. The
embargo law excepted from its own operation articles then laden on board
a foreign ship, without distinguishing between articles of foreign or
national property. It subjected to its operation all articles, whether
foreign or national property, not then laden on board any foreign ship.
Mr. Lorent's property was not then laden on board of any foreign ship,
is therefore within the words of the law, and as certainly within its
purview. It is not one of those cases which, though within the _words_
of the law, were notoriously not within its intention, and are therefore
relievable by an equitable exercise of discretionary power. Affectionate
salutations.
TO MR. SMITH.
October 19, 1808.
I enclose you a petition of the widow Bennet for the liberation of her
son at Boston, a minor, or for a moiety of three months' pay, to enable
her to go to another son. I think when her case was formerly before us,
she was said to be a woman of ill fame, and that her son did not wish to
return to her. Still, however, the mother, if there be no father, is the
natural guardian, and is legally entitled to the custody and the earnings
of her son. If she were to make her demand legally for both or either,
she would prevail. May it not be for the benefit of the son and of the
service, to compromise by paying the sixteen dollars, and taking a regular
relinquishment or transfer of her rights to the body of her son, and his
earnings in future, so that we may have no more to do with her. This is
referred to Mr. Smith's consideration. Affectionate salutations.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
October 19, 1808.
Is the case proposed by Mr. Wolcott left by the law at the discretion
of anybody? The law makes it the duty of the Collector to detain if he
_suspects_ an intention to export to a foreign market, _à fortiori_ if
that intention be _avowed_. It is true that the first step proposed is
only to go to another district, but declared to be preparatory to an
exportation to the West Indies. It is true also that they say they do not
mean to export until the law is repealed. But ought we under that cover
to facilitate those illegal views which our experience has proved to be
so general? Still, if there be any sound ground on which the permission
can be given, I would rather make it the subject of consultation with you,
than to have the present understood to be a final decision. Affectionate
salutations.
TO MR. JAMES MAIN.
WASHINGTON, October 19, 1808.
SIR,--Your favor of the 10th has been duly received. Certainly I would
with great pleasure contribute anything in my power to render the
history you propose to write a faithful account of the period it will
comprehend. Nothing is so desirable to me, as that after mankind shall
have been abused by such gross falsehoods as to events while passing,
their minds should at length be set to rights by genuine truth. And I
can conscientiously declare that as to myself, I wish that not only no
act but no thought of mine should be unknown. But, Sir, my other and more
imperious duties put it out of my power. So totally is my time engrossed
by the public concerns, that for mere want of time, many of them which I
ought to attend to myself, if my time sufficed, I am obliged, for want
of it, to refer to others. To withdraw myself from still more of them
for any voluntary object would be a failure in duty. If you shall think
proper, as you say, to commit to me the perusal of the manuscript before
it goes to the press, I shall then probably be in a private station, and
master of my own time, and I will carefully examine, and faithfully offer
any corrections or supplements which I may think will render it a true
representation of events. I salute you with esteem and respect.
TO CAPTAIN GROVE.
WASHINGTON, October 19, 1808.
SIR,--Your two letters of the 11th inst. have been received, and I am
obliged to observe that so wholly do the indispensable duties of my
office engross my whole time, that I could not give a deliberate reading
to two letters so voluminous as these, and not relating to my particular
functions, without withdrawing time from objects having stricter claims
on me. I have run over them hastily, and perceive that you are still
engaged in the pursuit of the method of finding the longitude at sea
by an observation of Jupiter and his satellites, brought to the horizon
by a double reflection, as in Hadley's quadrant. That you have written
a play to raise funds for prosecuting this, and wish me to circulate a
subscription for it and print your letters. I will willingly subscribe
myself for a number of copies to help you, but I have never permitted
myself to be the circulator of any subscription, or to have agency in
printing anything, conceiving it improper in my present office. And
however wishful of your success in raising funds, I confess I should think
them better applied to the comfort of your family. After so many better
opinions it may be superfluous to offer mine. Yet justified by my friendly
motives in doing so, I will observe, that to get the longitude at sea
by observation of the eclipses of Jupiter's satellites, two desiderata
are wanting: 1st, a practicable way of keeping the planet and satellite
in the field of a glass magnifying sufficiently to show the satellites;
2d, a time-piece which will give the instant of time with sufficient
accuracy to be useful. The bringing the planet and satellite to the
horizon does not sensibly facilitate the observation, because the planet
in his ascending and descending course is at such heights as admit the
direct observation with entire convenience. On the other hand, so much
light is lost by the double reflection as to dim the objects and lessen
the precision with which the moment of ingress and egress may be marked.
This double reflection also introduces a new source of error from the
inaccuracy of the instrument; 2d, the desideratum of a time-piece which,
notwithstanding the motion of the ship, shall keep time during a whole
voyage with sufficient accuracy for these observations, has not yet been
supplied. Fine time-keepers have been invented, but not equal to what is
requisite, all of them deriving their motion from a spring, and not from
a pendulum. Indeed these pursuits have lost much of their consequence
since the improvement of the lunar tables has given the motion of the moon
so accurately, as to make that a foundation for estimating the longitude
by her relative position at a given moment with the sun or fixed stars.
Every captain of a ship now understands the method of taking these lunar
observations, and of calculating his longitude by them.
I have gone into these details with the most friendly view of dissuading
you from wasting time, which you represent as so much needed for your
family, in a pursuit which has baffled every human endeavor as yet, and
has lost so much of its importance. I return you your letters, because
you wish to have them published, and conclude with my best wishes for
the success of your endeavors to raise the funds you desire, and for the
application of them which shall be best for yourself and your family.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
October 21, 1808.
_The case of the Martinique Petitioners._
I think it wrong to detain foreigners caught here by the embargo; but in
permitting them to take our vessels to return in, we do what is a matter
of favor, not of right. Of course we can restrict them to a tonnage
proportioned to their numbers. In the transport service I believe the
allowance is two tons to every person. We may allow a little more room;
but there ought to be an end to this, and I think it high time to put an
end to it. What would you think of advertising that after a certain day,
no American vessel will be permitted to go out for the purpose of carrying
persons. Perhaps this should be communicated by the Secretary of State to
the foreign ministers.
* * * * *
Fronda states that a proprietor of Amelia Island, in Florida, shipped his
crop for a foreign port on board an American vessel. The vessel was taken
by the Argus, carried into Savannah, and condemned for a breach of the
embargo laws; the cargo pronounced clear. Probably the vessel had left our
harbors without a clearance, though that is not stated, nor the cause of
her condemnation specified. Permission is asked to send away the cargo. If
the Spanish proprietor had no agency in drawing the vessel away contrary
to the embargo laws, his employment of her was innocent, and he ought to
be permitted to send his cargo out; because for us to take his property
and bring it in by force, and against his will, and then to detain it
under pretext of an embargo, would be equivalent to piracy or war. A
vessel driven involuntarily into a port by weather, or an enemy, with
prohibited goods, is always allowed to depart, and even to sell as much
of the goods as will make the vessel sea-worthy, if disabled. I do not
know, however, that in the present case we are bound to do any more than
let one of our vessels be engaged to replace the cargo in Amelia Island,
and certainly we ought not to let it go to any distant port; but if the
proprietor enticed or engaged the vessel to break the embargo law, he was
_particeps criminis_, and must submit to the loss which he has brought
on himself. I send you Fronda's note, which should be returned to Mr.
Madison, with information of the order you shall give for inquiring into
the facts, and permission or refusal as they shall turn out. Affectionate
salutations.
TO THOMAS COOPER, ESQ.
WASHINGTON, October 27, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--When I received your letter of the 16th, I thought I had not
a copy of my report on measures, weights, and coins, except one bound up
in a volume with other reports; but on carefully searching a bundle of
duplicates, I found the one I now enclose you, being the only detached
one I possess. It is defective in one article. The report was composed
under a severe attack of periodical headache, which came on every day at
sunrise, and never left me till sunset. What had been ruminated in the day
under a paroxysm of the most excruciating pain, was committed to paper by
candlelight, and then the calculations were made. After delivering in the
report, it was discovered that in calculating the money unit § 5 page 49,
there was a small error in the third or fourth column of decimals, the
correction of which however brought the proposed unit still nearer to the
established one. I reported the correction in a single leaf to Congress.
The copy I send you has not that leaf.
The first question to be decided is between those who are for units of
measures, weights, and coins, having, a known relation to something in
nature of fixed dimension, and those who are for an arbitrary standard.
On this "dice vexata quaestio" it is useless to say a word, every one
having made up his mind on a view of all that can be said. Mr. Dorsey
was so kind as to send me his pamphlet, by which I found he was for the
arbitrary standard of one-third of the standard yard of H. G. of England,
supposed to be in the Exchequer of that nation, a fac simile of which was
to be procured and lodged in Philadelphia. I confess myself to be of the
other sect, and to prefer an unit bearing a given relation to some fixed
subject of nature, and of preference to the pendulum, because it may be
in the possession of every man, so that he may verify his measures for
himself. You will observe that I proposed alternative plans to Congress,
that they might take the one or the other, according to the degree of
courage they felt. The first is from page 18 to 38; the second from page
39 to 44. Were I now to decide, it would be in favor of the first, with
this single addition, that each of the denominations there adopted, should
be divisible decimally at the will of every individual. The iron-founder
deals in tons; let him take the ton for his unit, and divide it into
10ths, 100ths, and 1000ths. The dry-goods merchant deals in pounds and
yards; let him divide them decimally. The land-measurer deals in miles and
poles; divide them decimally, only noting over his figures what the unit
is, thus:
Tons. Lbs. Yds. Miles.
18.943, 18.943, 1.8943, 189.43, &c.
I have lately had a proof how familiar this division into dimes, cents,
and mills, is to the people when transferred from their money to anything
else. I have an odometer fixed to my carriage, which gives the distances
in miles, dimes, and cents. The people on the road inquire with curiosity
what exact distance I have found from such a place to such a place; I
answer, so many miles, so many cents. I find they universally and at once
form a perfect idea of the relation of the cent to the mile as an unit.
They would do the same as to yards of cloth, pounds of shot, ounces of
silver, or of medicine. I believe, therefore, they are susceptible of this
degree of approximation to a standard rigorously philosophical; beyond
this I might doubt. However, on this too every one has an opinion, and
I am open to compromise, as I am also to other plans of reformation, of
which multitudes have been published. I can conclude, therefore, candidly
with the "si quid novisti rectius," &c., and sincerely with assurances of
my constant esteem and respect.
TO DOCTOR JAMES BROWN.
WASHINGTON, October 27, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--You will wonder that your letter of June the 3d should not be
acknowledged till this date. I never received it till September the 12th,
and coming soon after to this place, the accumulation of business I found
here has prevented my taking it up till now. That you ever participated
in any plan for a division of the Union, I never for one moment believed.
I knew your Americanism too well. But as the enterprise against Mexico
was of a very different character, I had supposed what I heard on that
subject to be possible. You disavow it; that is enough for me, and I
forever dismiss the idea. I wish it were possible to extend my belief of
innocence to a very different description of men in New Orleans; but I
think there is sufficient evidence of there being there a set of foreign
adventurers, and native malcontents, who would concur in any enterprise
to separate that country from this. I did wish to see these people get
what they deserved; and under the maxim of the law itself, that _inter
arma silent leges_, that in an encampment expecting daily attack from a
powerful enemy, self-preservation is paramount to all law, I expected
that instead of invoking the forms of the law to cover traitors, all
good citizens would have concurred in securing them. Should we have ever
gained our Revolution, if we had bound our hands by manacles of the law,
not only in the beginning, but in any part of the revolutionary conflict?
There are extreme cases where the laws become inadequate even to their own
preservation, and where the universal resource is a dictator, or martial
law. Was New Orleans in that situation? Although we knew here that the
force destined against it was suppressed on the Ohio, yet we supposed this
unknown at New Orleans at the time that Burr's accomplices were calling in
the aid of the law to enable them to perpetrate its suppression, and that
it was reasonable, according to the state of information there, to act on
the expectation of a daily attack. Of this you are the best judge.
Burr is in London, and is giving out to his friends that that government
offers him two millions of dollars the moment he can raise an ensign of
rebellion as big as a handkerchief. Some of his partisans will believe
this, because they wish it. But those who know him best will not believe
it the more because he says it. For myself, even in his most flattering
periods of the conspiracy, I never entertained one moment's fear. My long
and intimate knowledge of my countrymen, satisfied and satisfies me, that
let there ever be occasion to display the banners of the law, and the
world will see how few and pitiful are those who shall array themselves in
opposition. I as little fear foreign invasion. I have indeed thought it a
duty to be prepared to meet even the most powerful, that of a Bonaparte,
for instance, by the only means competent, that of a classification of the
militia, and placing the junior classes at the public disposal; but the
lesson he receives in Spain extirpates all apprehensions from my mind. If
in a peninsula, the neck of which is adjacent to him and at his command,
where he can march any army without the possibility of interception
or obstruction from any foreign power, he finds it necessary to begin
with an army of three hundred thousand men, to subdue a nation of five
millions, brutalized by ignorance, and enervated by long peace, and should
find constant reinforcements of thousands after thousands, necessary to
effect at last a conquest as doubtful as deprecated, what numbers would
be necessary against eight millions of free Americans, spread over such
an extent of country as would wear him down by mere marching, by want
of food, autumnal diseases, &c.? How would they be brought, and how
reinforced across an ocean of three thousand miles, in possession of a
bitter enemy, whose peace, like the repose of a dog, is never more than
momentary? And for what? For nothing but hard blows. If the Orleanese
Creoles would but contemplate these truths, they would cling to the
American Union, soul and body, as their first affection, and we should
be as safe there as we are everywhere else. I have no doubt of their
attachment to us in preference of the English.
I salute you with sincere affection and respect.
TO ----.
WASHINGTON, October 28, 1808.
SIR,--I thank you for the copy of General Kosciusko's treatise on
the flying artillery. It is a branch of the military art which I wish
extremely to see understood here, to the height of the European level.
Your letter of September 20th was received in due time. I never received
the letter said to have been written to me by Mr. Malesherbe, in favor
of Mr. Masson. The fact of such a letter having been written by Mr.
Malesherbe, is sufficient ground for my desiring to be useful to Mr.
Masson on any occasion which may arise. No man's recommendation merits
more reliance than that of M. de Malesherbe. The state and interest of
the military academy shall not be forgotten. I salute you with esteem and
respect.
TO GOVERNOR CLAIBORNE.
WASHINGTON, October 29, 1808.
SIR,--I send the enclosed letter under the benefit of your cover, and
open, because I wish you to know its contents. I thought the person to
whom it is addressed a very good man when here,--he is certainly a very
learned and able one. I thought him peculiarly qualified to be useful
with you. But in the present state of my information, I can say no more
than I have to him. When you shall have read the letter, be so good as
to stick a wafer in it, and not let it be delivered till it is dry, that
he may not know that any one but himself sees it. The Spanish paper you
enclosed me is an atrocious one. I see it has been republished in the
Havanna. The truth is that the patriots of Spain have no warmer friends
than the administration of the United States, but it is our duty to say
nothing and to do nothing for or against either. If they succeed, we
shall be well satisfied to see Cuba and Mexico remain in their present
dependence; but very unwilling to see them in that of either France or
England, politically or commercially. We consider their interests and ours
as the same, and that the object of both must be to exclude all European
influence from this hemisphere. We wish to avoid the necessity of going to
war, till our revenue shall be entirely liberated from debt. Then it will
suffice for war, without creating new debt or taxes. These are sentiments
which I would wish you to express to any proper characters of either of
these two countries, and particularly that we have nothing more at heart
than their friendship. I salute you with great esteem and respect.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
November 3, 1808.
A press of business here prevented my sooner taking up the three bundles
of papers now returned; and even now I judge of them from the brief you
have been so good as to make so fully. This is an immense relief to me.
_The Warbash Saline._
I think the applications from Nashville, &c., for a share of the salt
had better not be complied with. I suspect we did wrong in yielding a
similar privilege to Kentucky. There would be no end to the details of
the partitionary plan, and it will only shift the gains into other hands,
adding the unavoidable inequalities of distribution. Better leave the
distribution to its former and ordinary course, and the benefits will
taper off from the centre till lost by distance.
_Indiana Lead Mines._
I think it would be well to authorize Governor Harrison to lease them to
the present applicants,--the former ones declining.
_Intrusions on Public Lands._
I suspect you have partly forgotten what was agreed on the other day.
1. Notice was agreed to be given by a register to be appointed to all
intruders on the Tennessee purchase, to disclaim or remove; and _in the
spring_ troops are to be sent to remove all non-compliers. Those on the
Indian lands (except Double-heads) to be absolutely removed without the
privilege of disclaimer. 2. As to the intruders on Red River, we agreed to
leave them and get Congress to extend the land law to them.
I think it will be better you should write to Governor Williams about the
appointment of officers. Things casually incidental to a main business
belonging to another department, had better be made the subject of a
single instruction. I am sure the Secretary of State will thank you to
take the trouble. Affectionate salutations.
TO GENERAL DEARBORNE.
November 5, 1808.
I enclose you a charge by Mr. Hanson against Captain Smith and Lieutenants
Davis and Dobbins of the militia, as having become members of an organized
company, calling themselves the Tar Company, avowing their object to
be the tarring and feathering citizens of some description. Although
in some cases the animadversions of the law may be properly relied on
to prevent what is unlawful, yet with those clothed with authority from
the executive, and being a part of the executive, other preventives are
expedient. These officers should be warned that the executive cannot
tamely look on and see its officers threaten to become the violators
instead of the protectors of the rights of our citizens. I presume,
however, that all that is necessary will be that their commanding
officer, (General Mason,) finding the fact true, should give them a
_private_ admonition, either written or verbal, as he pleases, to withdraw
themselves from the illegal association; at the same time I would rather
it should be stated to General Mason only "that information has been
received," &c., without naming Mr. Hanson as the informer. My reason is
that some disagreeable feuds have arisen at the Navy Yard which I would
rather allay than foment. No proof will be necessary to be called for;
because if the officers disavow the fact, it will be a proof they have
that sense of propriety to which only an admonition would be intended to
bring them. I salute you with constant affection.
TO HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR PINCKNEY.
WASHINGTON, November 8, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--I have to acknowledge the receipt of your two letters September
10th and of blank date, probably about the middle of October, and to
thank you for the communications therein made. They were handed to the
two persons therein named. I seize the first moment it is in my power to
answer your question as to our foreign relations, which I do by enclosing
you a copy of my message this moment delivered to the two houses of
Congress, in which they are fully stated. It is evident we have before us
three only alternatives; 1, embargo; 2, war; 3, submission and tribute.
This last will at once be put out of question by every American, and the
two first only considered. By the little conversation I have had with
the members, I perceive there will be some division on this among the
republicans; but what will be its extent cannot be known till they shall
have heard the message and documents, and had some days to confer and make
up their opinions. Being now all in the hurry and bustle of visits and
business, incident to the first days of the meeting, I must here close
with my salutations of friendship and respect.
TO MR. LETUE.
WASHINGTON, November 8, 1808.
SIR,--I have to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of October 14th,
and to thank you for the information it contained. While the opposition to
the late laws of embargo has in one quarter amounted almost to rebellion
and treason, it is pleasing to know that all the rest of the nation has
approved of the proceedings of the constituted authorities. The steady
union which you mention of our fellow citizens of South Carolina, is
entirely in their character. They have never failed in fidelity to their
country and the republican spirit of its constitution. Never before was
that union more needed or more salutary than under our present crisis. I
enclose you my message to both houses of Congress, this moment delivered.
You will see that we have to choose between the alternatives of embargo
and war; there is indeed one and only one other, that is submission
and tribute. For all the federal propositions for trading to the places
permitted by the edicts of the belligerents, result in fact in submission,
although they do not choose to pronounce the naked word. I do not believe,
however, that our fellow citizens of that sect with you will concur
with those to the east in this paricide purpose, any more than in the
disorganizing conduct which has disgraced the latter. I conclude this from
their conduct in your legislature in its vote on that question. Accept my
salutations and assurances of respect.
TO HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR CABELL.
WASHINGTON, November 13, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--Between three and four years ago, I received the enclosed
petitions praying for the pardon or the enlargement of Thomas
Logwood, then and still confined in the penitentiary of Richmond, for
counterfeiting the bank notes of the United States. I consulted Governor
Page on the subject, who, after conferring with his council, informed me
that though he was for a pardon himself, he found a division of opinion
on the question, and therefore could not advise it. Between three and four
years have since been added to his confinement, and if his conduct during
that time has been such as to lessen his claims to a mitigation of his
sentence, they must certainly stand now on higher ground, and the more
so as two of his accomplices confined here, have by a very general wish
been pardoned more than a year ago. Will you be so good as to give me your
opinion on the subject, as you are in a situation to know what his conduct
has been? His wife is represented as a very meritorious character, and her
connections respectable; probably they may be known to you. His neighbors,
you will observe, ask his restoration to them. Whether would it be best
to pardon him absolutely, or on condition of giving security for his good
behavior? or shall we open the prison door and let him go out, notifying
him that if he will continue on his own farm or those next adjoining,
and keep himself from all suspicious intercourse and correspondence, he
will not be molested; otherwise, that he will be retaken and replaced in
his present situation? Your advice on this subject will much oblige me. I
salute you with great esteem and respect.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
November 13, 1808.
1st. The ship Aurora, Captain Rand. Provisions, lumber and naval stores
being the articles on which we rely most for effect during our embargo.
Rand's landing, as to the great mass of its articles, seems not to render
his case suspicious. Keeping therefore the articles of provisions, lumber
and naval stores, within their regular limits, I see no objection to a
permit in the character of his cargo; and the objection drawn from his
dislike and disapprobation of the embargo, has never been considered as an
obstacle where the person has not actually been guilty of its infraction.
I think a permit should be granted under the regular limitations as to the
proportion of provisions, &c.
2d. The schooner Concord, property of John Bell of Petersburg. Wherever a
person has once been guilty of breaking the embargo laws, we can no longer
have confidence in him, and every shipment made by him becomes suspicious.
No permit should be granted him; the fact of a prior breach being
sufficient without the formality of its being found by jury.
3d. The schooner Caroline, belonging to Brown and Pilsbury of Buckstown.
Where every attempt, the Collector says, has been made and still
continues to be made to evade the embargo laws, the nature of the cargo is
sufficient to refuse the permit, being wholly of provisions and lumber.
This is the first time the character of the place has been brought under
consideration as an objection. Yet a general disobedience to the laws in
any place must have weight towards refusing to give them any facilities
to evade. In such a case we may fairly require positive proof that the
individual of a town tainted with a general spirit of disobedience, has
never said or done anything himself to countenance that spirit. But the
first cause of refusal being sufficient, an inquiry into character and
conduct is unnecessary.
TO LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR LINCOLN.
WASHINGTON, November 13, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--I enclose you a petition from Nantucket, and refer it for
your decision. Our opinion here is, that that place has been so deeply
concerned in smuggling, that if it wants, it is because it has illegally
sent away what it ought to have retained for its own consumption. Be
so good as to bear in mind that I have asked the favor of you to see
that your State encounters no real want, while, at the same time, where
applications are made merely to cover fraud, no facilities towards that be
furnished. I presume there can be no want in Massachusetts as yet, as I am
informed that Governor Sullivan's permits are openly bought and sold here
and in Alexandria, and at other markets. The congressional campaign is
just opening: three alternatives alone are to be chosen from. 1. Embargo.
2. War. 3. Submission and tribute. And, wonderful to tell, the last will
not want advocates. The real question, however, will lie between the two
first, on which there is considerable division. As yet the first seems
most to prevail; but opinions are by no means yet settled down. Perhaps
the advocates of the second may, to a formal declaration of war, prefer
_general_ letters of mark and reprisal, because, on a repeal of their
edicts by the belligerent, a revocation of the letters of mark restores
peace without the delay, difficulties, and ceremonies of a treaty. On this
occasion, I think it is fair to leave to those who are to act on them,
the decisions they prefer, being to be myself but a spectator. I should
not feel justified in directing measures which those who are to execute
them would disapprove. Our situation is truly difficult. We have been
pressed by the belligerents to the very wall, and all further retreat is
impracticable.
I salute you with sincere friendship.
TO THE HON. JOSEPH VARNUM.
WASHINGTON, November 18, 1808.
SIR,--You will perceive in the enclosed petitions, a request that I
will lay them before Congress. This I cannot do consistently with my
own opinion of propriety, because where the petitioners have a right
to petition their immediate representatives in Congress directly, I
have deemed it neither necessary nor proper for them to pass their
petition through the intermediate channel of the Executive. But as the
petitioners may be ignorant of this, and, confiding in it, may omit the
proper measure, I have usually put such petitions into the hands of the
Representatives of the State, informally to be used or not as they see
best, and considering me as entirely disclaiming any agency in the case.
With this view, I take the liberty of placing these papers in your hands,
not as Speaker of the House, but as one of the Representatives from
the State from which they came. Whether they should be handed on to the
Representatives of the particular districts, (which are unknown to me,)
yourself will be the best judge. I salute you with affection, esteem, and
respect.
TO THOMAS JEFFERSON RANDOLPH.
WASHINGTON, November 24, 1808.
MY DEAR JEFFERSON, * * * * *
Your situation, thrown at such a distance from us, and alone, cannot but
give us all great anxieties for you. As much has been secured for you,
by your particular position and the acquaintance to which you have been
recommended, as could be done towards shielding you from the dangers
which surround you. But thrown on a wide world, among entire strangers,
without a friend or guardian to advise, so young too, and with so little
experience of mankind, your dangers are great, and still your safety must
rest on yourself. A determination never to do what is wrong, prudence
and good humor, will go far towards securing to you the estimation of the
world. When I recollect that at fourteen years of age, the whole care and
direction of myself was thrown on myself entirely, without a relation or
friend qualified to advise or guide me, and recollect the various sorts
of bad company with which I associated from time to time, I am astonished
I did not turn off with some of them, and become as worthless to society
as they were. I had the good fortune to become acquainted very early with
some characters of very high standing, and to feel the incessant wish that
I could ever become what they were. Under temptations and difficulties,
I would ask myself what would Dr. Small, Mr. Wythe, Peyton Randolph do
in this situation? What course in it will insure me their approbation?
I am certain that this mode of deciding on my conduct, tended more to
correctness than any reasoning powers I possessed. Knowing the even and
dignified line they pursued, I could never doubt for a moment which of two
courses would be in character for them. Whereas, seeking the same object
through a process of moral reasoning, and with the jaundiced eye of youth,
I should often have erred. From the circumstances of my position, I was
often thrown into the society of horse racers, card players, fox hunters,
scientific and professional men, and of dignified men; and many a time
have I asked myself, in the enthusiastic moment of the death of a fox, the
victory of a favorite horse, the issue of a question eloquently argued at
the bar, or in the great council of the nation, well, which of these kinds
of reputation should I prefer? That of a horse jockey? a fox hunter? an
orator? or the honest advocate of my country's rights? Be assured, my dear
Jefferson, that these little returns into ourselves, this self-catechising
habit, is not trifling nor useless, but leads to the prudent selection and
steady pursuit of what is right.
I have mentioned good humor as one of the preservatives of our peace and
tranquillity. It is among the most effectual, and its effect is so well
imitated and aided, artificially, by politeness, that this also becomes
an acquisition of first rate value. In truth, politeness is artificial
good humor, it covers the natural want of it, and ends by rendering
habitual a substitute nearly equivalent to the real virtue. It is the
practice of sacrificing to those whom we meet in society, all the little
conveniences and preferences which will gratify them, and deprive us of
nothing worth a moment's consideration; it is the giving a pleasing and
flattering turn to our expressions, which will conciliate others, and
make them pleased with us as well as themselves. How cheap a price for
the good will of another! When this is in return for a rude thing said by
another, it brings him to his senses, it mortifies and corrects him in the
most salutary way, and places him at the feet of your good nature, in the
eyes of the company. But in stating prudential rules for our government
in society, I must not omit the important one of never entering into
dispute or argument with another. I never saw an instance of one of two
disputants convincing the other by argument. I have seen many, on their
getting warm, becoming rude, and shooting one another. Conviction is the
effect of our own dispassionate reasoning, either in solitude, or weighing
within ourselves, dispassionately, what we hear from others, standing
uncommitted in argument ourselves. It was one of the rules which, above
all others, made Doctor Franklin the most amiable of men in society,
"never to contradict anybody." If he was urged to announce an opinion, he
did it rather by asking questions, as if for information, or by suggesting
doubts. When I hear another express an opinion which is not mine, I say to
myself, he has a right to his opinion, as I to mine; why should I question
it? His error does me no injury, and shall I become a Don Quixotte, to
bring all men by force of argument to one opinion? If a fact be misstated,
it is probable he is gratified by a belief of it, and I have no right to
deprive him of the gratification. If he wants information, he will ask
it, and then I will give it in measured terms; but if he still believes
his own story, and shows a desire to dispute the fact with me, I hear him
and say nothing. It is his affair, not mine, if he prefers error. There
are two classes of disputants most frequently to be met with among us.
The first is of young students, just entered the threshold of science,
with a first view of its outlines, not yet filled up with the details and
modifications which a further progress would bring to their knowledge. The
other consists of the ill-tempered and rude men in society, who have taken
up a passion for politics. (Good humor and politeness never introduce into
mixed society, a question on which they foresee there will be a difference
of opinion.) From both of those classes of disputants, my dear Jefferson,
keep aloof, as you would from the infected subjects of yellow fever or
pestilence. Consider yourself, when with them, as among the patients of
Bedlam, needing medical more than moral counsel. Be a listener only, keep
within yourself, and endeavor to establish with yourself the habit of
silence, especially on politics. In the fevered state of our country, no
good can ever result from any attempt to set one of these fiery zealots to
rights, either in fact or principle. They are determined as to the facts
they will believe, and the opinions on which they will act. Get by them,
therefore, as you would by an angry bull; it is not for a man of sense
to dispute the road with such an animal. You will be more exposed than
others to have these animals shaking their horns at you, because of the
relation in which you stand with me. Full of political venom, and willing
to see me and to hate me as a chief in the antagonist party, your presence
will be to them what the vomit grass is to the sick dog, a nostrum for
producing ejaculation. Look upon them exactly with that eye, and pity them
as objects to whom you can administer only occasional ease. My character
is not within their power. It is in the hands of my fellow citizens at
large, and will be consigned to honor or infamy by the verdict of the
republican mass of our country, according to what themselves will have
seen, not what their enemies and mine shall have said. Never, therefore,
consider these puppies in politics as requiring any notice from you, and
always show that you are not afraid to leave my character to the umpirage
of public opinion. Look steadily to the pursuits which have carried you to
Philadelphia, be very select in the society you attach yourself to, avoid
taverns, drinkers, smokers, idlers, and dissipated persons generally; for
it is with such that broils and contentions arise; and you will find your
path more easy and tranquil. The limits of my paper warn me that it is
time for me to close with my affectionate adieu.
P. S. Present me affectionately to Mr. Ogilvie, and, in doing the same to
Mr. Peale, tell him I am writing with his polygraph, and shall send him
mine the first moment I have leisure enough to pack it.
TO THE VICE-PRESIDENTS OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.
WASHINGTON, November 30, 1808.
GENTLEMEN,--Being to remove within a few months from my present residence
to one still more distant from the seat of the meetings of the American
Philosophical Society, I feel it a duty no longer to obstruct its
service by keeping from the chair members whose position as well as
qualifications, may enable them to discharge its duties with so much more
effect. Begging leave, therefore, to withdraw from the Presidency of the
Society at the close of the present term, I avail myself of the occasion
gratefully to return my thanks to the Society for the repeated proofs
they have been pleased to give of their favor and confidence in me, and
to assure them, in retiring from the honorable station in which they
have been pleased so long to continue me, that I carry with me all the
sentiments of an affectionate member and faithful servant of the Society.
Asking the favor of you to make this communication to the Society, I
beg leave to tender to each of you personally the assurances of my great
esteem and respect.
TO MR. SAMUEL HAWKINS, KINGSTON.
WASHINGTON, November 30, 1808.
SIR,--Business and indisposition have prevented my sooner acknowledging
the receipt of your letter of the 3d instant, which came to hand on the
10th. Mr. Granger, before that, had sent here the very elegant ivory staff
of which you wished my acceptance. The motives of your wish are honorable
to me, and gratifying, as they evidence the approbation of my public
conduct by a stranger who has not viewed it through the partialities of
personal acquaintance. Be assured, Sir, that I am as grateful for the
testimony, as if I could have accepted the token of it which you have
so kindly offered. On coming into public office, I laid it down as a
law of my conduct, while I should continue in it, to accept no present
of any sensible pecuniary value. A pamphlet, a new book, or an article
of new curiosity, have produced no hesitation, because below suspicion.
But things of sensible value, however innocently offered in the first
examples, may grow at length into abuse, for which I wish not to furnish
a precedent. The kindness of the motives which led to this manifestation
of your esteem, sufficiently assures me that you will approve of my
desire, by a perseverance in the rule, to retain that consciousness of a
disinterested administration of the public trusts, which is essential to
perfect tranquillity of mind. Replacing, therefore, the subject of this
letter in the hands of Mr. Granger, under your orders, and repeating that
the offer meets the same thankfulness as if accepted, I tender you my
salutations and assurances of respect.
TO DOCTOR WATERHOUSE.
WASHINGTON, December 1, 1808.
SIR,---In answer to the inquiries of the benevolent Dr. De Carro on the
subject of the upland or mountain rice, Oryza Mutica, I will state to
you what I know of it. I first became informed of the existence of a rice
which would grow in uplands without any more water than the common rains,
by reading a book of Mr. De Porpre, who had been Governor of the Isle of
France, who mentions it as growing there and all along the coast of Africa
successfully, and as having been introduced from Cochin-China. I was at
that time (1784-89) in France, and there happening to be there a Prince
of Cochin-China, on his travels, and then returning home, I obtained his
promise to send me some. I never received it however, and mention it only
as it may have been sent, and furnished the ground for the inquiries of
Dr. De Carro, respecting my receiving it from China. When at Havre on my
return from France, I found there Captain Nathaniel Cutting, who was the
ensuing spring to go on a voyage along the coast of Africa. I engaged him
to inquire for this; he was there just after the harvest, procured and
sent me a thirty-gallon cask of it. It arrived in time the ensuing spring
to be sown. I divided it between the Agricultural Society of Charleston
and some private gentlemen of Georgia, recommending it to their care,
in the hope which had induced me to endeavor to obtain it, that if it
answered as well as the swamp rice, it might rid them of that source of
their summer diseases. Nothing came of the trials in South Carolina, but
being carried into the upper hilly parts of Georgia, it succeeded there
perfectly, has spread over the country, and is now commonly cultivated;
still, however, for family use chiefly, as they cannot make it for sale in
competition with the rice of the swamps. The former part of these details
is written from memory, the papers being at Monticello which would enable
me to particularize exactly the dates of times and places. The latter
part is from the late Mr. Baldwin, one of those whom I engaged in the
distribution of the seed in Georgia, and who in his annual attendance on
Congress, gave me from time to time the history of its progress. It has
got from Georgia into Kentucky, where it is cultivated by many individuals
for family use. I cultivated it two or three years at Monticello, and
had good crops, as did my neighbors, but not having conveniences for
husking it, we declined it. I tried some of it in a pot, while I lived in
Philadelphia, and gave seed to Mr. Bartram. It produced luxuriant plants
with us both, but no seed; nor do I believe it will ripen in the United
States as far north as Philadelphia. Business and an indisposition of some
days must apologize for this delay in answering your letter of October
24th, which I did not receive till the 6th of November. And permit me here
to add my salutations and assurances of esteem and respect.
TO THOMAS MONROE.
December 4, 1808.
The case of the sale of city lots under a decree of the Chancellor of
Maryland.
The deed of the original owners of the site of the city of Washington to
certain trustees, after making provisions for streets, public squares,
&c., declares that the residue of the ground, laid off in building lots,
shall one moiety belong to the original proprietors, and the other moiety
shall be sold on such terms and conditions as the President of the United
States shall direct, the proceeds, after certain specified payments, to
be paid to the President as a grant of money, and to be applied for the
purposes, and according to the Act of Congress; which Act of Congress
(1790, c. 28) had authorized the President to accept grants of money,
to purchase or to accept land for the use of the United States, to
provide suitable buildings, &c. Of these residuary building lots, one
thousand were sold by the Commissioner to Greenleaf for $80,000, who
transferred them to Morris and Nicholson, with an express lien on them
for the purchase money due to the city. Under this lien the Chancellor
of Maryland has decreed that they shall be sold immediately for whatever
they will bring; that the proceeds shall be applied first to the costs
of suit and sale, and the balance towards paying the original purchase
money. The sale has now proceeded, for some days, at very low prices,
and must proceed till the costs of suit and sale are raised. It is well
understood that under no circumstances of sale, however favorable, can
they pay five in the pound of the original debt; and that if the whole
are now forced into sale, at what they will bring, they will not pay
one in the pound; and being the only fund from which a single dollar of
the debt can ever be recovered, (on account of the bankruptcy of all the
purchasers,) of $25,000 which the lots may bring if offered for sale from
time to time _pari passu_ with the growing demand, $20,000 will be lost
by a forced sale. To save this sum is desirable. And the interest in it
being ultimately that of the United States, I have consulted with the
Secretary of the Treasury and Comptroller, and after due consideration,
I am of opinion it is for the public interest, and within the powers of
the President, under the deed of trust and laws, to repurchase under the
decree, at the lowest prices obtainable, such of these lots as no other
purchaser shall offer to take at what the Superintendent shall deem
their real value, that is to say, what they will in his judgment sell
for hereafter, if only offered from time to time as purchasers shall
want them. The sums so to be allowed for them by the Superintendent
to be passed to the credit of Greenleaf, and retaining a right to the
unsatisfied balance as damages due for non-compliance with his contract;
a matter of form only, as not a cent of it is expected ever to be
obtained. I consider the reconveyance of these lots at the price which
the Superintendent shall nominally allow for them, as replacing them in
our hands, in _statu quo_ prices, as if the title had never been passed
out of us; and that thereafter they will be in the condition of all other
lots, sold, but neither conveyed nor paid for; that is to say, liable to
be resold for the benefit of the city; as has been invariably practised in
all other cases. The Superintendent is instructed to proceed accordingly.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
December 7, 1808.
1. D. W. Coxe and the ship Comet. The application to send another vessel
to the Havanna, to bring home the proceeds of the cargo of the Comet,
charged with a breach of embargo, must be rejected for three reasons,
each insuperable. 1st. The property was not shipped from the United States
prior to December 22d, 1807, and therefore is not within the description
of cases in which a permission by the executive is authorized by law.
2d. The limitation of time for permissions has been long expired. 3d.
Although in an action on the bond of the Comet, the fabricated testimony
of distress may embarrass judges and juries, tramelled by legal rules
of evidence, yet it ought to have no weight with us to whom the law
has referred to decide according to our discretion, well knowing that
it was impossible to build up fraud by general rules. We know that the
fabrication of proofs of leaky ships, stress of weather, cargoes sold
under duress, are a regular part of the system of infractions of the
embargo, with the manufacture of which every foreign port is provided, and
that their oaths and forgeries are a regular merchandise in every port.
We must therefore consider them as nothing, and that the act of entering a
foreign port and selling the cargo is decisive evidence of an intentional
breach of embargo, not to be countervailed by the letters of all the
Charles Dixeys in the world; for every vessel is provided with a Charles
Dixey.
My opinion is therefore that no permission ought ever to be granted for
any vessel to leave our ports (while the embargo continues) in which any
person is concerned either in interest or in navigating her, who has ever
been concerned in interest, or in the navigation of a vessel which has
at any time before entered a foreign port contrary to the views of the
embargo laws, and under any pretended distress or duress whatever. This
rule will not lead us wrong once in a hundred times.
2. I send you the case of Mr. Mitchell and the ship Neutrality, merely
as a matter of form; for I presume it must be rejected on the ground of
limitation. These petitioners are getting into the habit of calling on me
personally in the first instance. These personal solicitations being very
embarrassing, I am obliged to tell them I will refer the case to you, and
they will receive a written answer. But I hope, in your amendments to the
law, you will propose a repeal of the power to give permissions to go for
property.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
December 8, 1808.
The idea of regulating the coasting trade (to New Orleans for instance)
by the quantity of tonnage sufficient for each port, is new to me, and
presents difficulties through which I cannot see my way. To determine how
much tonnage will suffice for the coasting trade of Boston, New York,
Philadelphia, and the other ports great and small, and to divide this
tonnage impartially among the competitors of each place, would embarrass
us infinitely, and lead to unavoidable errors and irregularities. Is it
not better to let it regulate itself as to all innocent articles, and to
continue our attentions and regulations to the articles of provisions and
lumber? If the rule of the _one-eighth_ carries too much to New Orleans,
and I am sure it does, why not confine it to the ports between St. Mary's
and Passamaquoddy, (excluding these two,) and trust for New Orleans to
the western supplies and Governor Claiborne's permits? I suppose them
sufficient, because Governor Claiborne has assured us that the Western
supplies are sufficient for the consumption of New Orleans, and we see
that New Orleans has exported flour the last six months, and that too
to the West Indies, whither will go also whatever flour the rule of the
_one-eighth_ carries there, or its equivalent in Western flour. These
ideas on the subject are of the first impression; and I keep the decision
open for any further light which can be thrown on it.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
December 8, 1808.
Mr. Harrison will continue in office till the 3d of March. I send you tit
for tat, one lady application for another. However our feelings are to
be perpetually harrowed by these solicitations, our course is plain, and
inflexible to right or left. But for God's sake get us relieved from this
dreadful drudgery of refusal. Affectionate salutations.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
December 20, 1808.
_The case of the schooner Concord, sold by J. Bell of Petersburg, to M. W.
Hancock of Richmond._
I think it may be concluded from the letters of Hancock and the collector,
that the purchase of the schooner has been a _bonâ fide_ one; but it is
not even alleged that he has purchased the cargo, but it appears on the
contrary that Bell has the same concern in that as before. As, where
a person has once evaded the embargo laws, we consider all subsequent
shipments and proposed voyages by him to be with the fraudulent intention;
the present shipment of the cargo of tobacco, before refused, being still
the concern of Bell, must of course be still suspicious, and refused a
permit. But the request of the purchaser of the schooner, that, after
taking out the cargo, he may have a clearance for her to go in ballast to
the district of Richmond, may be granted.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
December 22, 1808.
The answer to the petition of Percival and others, praying that they may
be permitted to send a vessel or vessels to take up their men from the
desolate islands of the Indian Ocean, and thence to proceed on a trading
voyage to Canton, &c., cannot but be a thing of course, that days having
been publicly announced after which no permissions to send vessels to
bring home property would be granted, which days are past long since,
and the rule rigorously adhered to, it cannot now be broken through.
If Congress continue the power, it will show that they mean it shall be
exercised, and we may then consider on what new grounds permissions may be
granted. Affectionate salutations.
TO MR. NICHOLAS.
WASHINGTON, December 22, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--I always consider it as the most friendly office which can be
rendered me, to be informed of anything which is going amiss, and which I
can remedy. I had known that there had been a very blamable failure in the
clothing department, which had not become known so as to be remedied till
the beginning of October; but I had believed that the remedy had then been
applied with as much diligence as the case admitted. After the suggestions
from General Smith and Mr. Giles the other day, I made inquiry into the
fact, and have received the enclosed return, which will show exactly what
has been done. Can I get the favor of you to show it to General Smith
and Mr. Giles, to whom I am sure it will give as much satisfaction as to
myself, and to re-enclose it to me? I salute you and them with sincere
friendship and respect.
TO GOVERNOR HARRISON.
WASHINGTON, December 22, 1808.
SIR,--By the treaty of 1803, we obtained from the Kaskaskias the country
as far as the ridge dividing the waters of the Kaskaskias from those
of the Illinois River; by the treaty of 1804, with the Sacs and Foxes,
they ceded to us from the Illinois to the Ouisconsin. Between these two
cessions is a gore of country, to wit, between the Illinois River and
Kaskaskias line, which I understand to have belonged to the Piorias, and
that that tribe is now extinct; if both these facts be true, we succeed
to their title by our being proprietors paramount of the whole country.
In this case it is interesting to settle our boundary with our next
neighbors the Kickapoos. Where their western boundary is, I know not;
but they cannot come lower down the Illinois River than the Illinois
Lake, on which stood the old Pioria fort, and perhaps not so low. The
Kickapoos are bounded to the south-east, I presume, by the ridge between
the waters of the Illinois and Wabash, to which the Miamis claim, and
north-east by the Pottewatamies. Of course it is with the Kickapoos
alone we have to settle a boundary. I would therefore recommend to you to
take measures for doing this. You will of course first endeavor with all
possible caution to furnish yourself with the best evidence to be had, of
the real location of the south-west boundary of the Kickapoos, and then
endeavor to bring them to an acknowledgment of it formally, by a treaty
of limits. If it be nothing more, the ordinary presents are all that will
be necessary, but if they cede a part of their own country, then a price
proportioned will be proper. In a letter to you of February 27th, 1803,
I mentioned that I had heard there was still one Pioria man living, and
that a compensation making him easy for life should be given him, and his
conveyance of the country by a regular deed be obtained. If there be such
a man living, I think this should still be done. The ascertaining the
line between the Kickapoos and us is now of importance, because it will
close our possessions on the hither bank of the Mississippi from the Ohio
to the Ouisconsin, and give us a broad margin to prevent the British from
approaching that river, on which, under color of their treaty, they would
be glad to hover, that they might smuggle themselves and their merchandise
into Louisiana. Their treaty can only operate on the country so long as
it is Indian; and in proportion as it becomes ours exclusively, their
ground is narrowed. It makes it easier too for us to adopt on this side
of the Mississippi a policy we are beginning on the other side, that of
permitting no traders, either ours or theirs, to go to the Indian towns,
but oblige them all to settle and be stationary at our factories, where
we can have their conduct under our observation and control. However, our
first object must be to blockade them from the Mississippi, and to this I
ask the favor of your attention; and salute you with great friendship and
respect.
TO MR. BARLOW.
WASHINGTON, December 25, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--I return you Doctor Maese's letter, which a pressure of
business has occasioned me to keep too long. I think an account of
the manufactures of Philadelphia would be really useful, and that the
manufactures of other places should be added from time to time, as
information of them should be received. To give a perfect view of the
whole, would require a report from every county or township of the
United States. Perhaps the present moment would be premature, as they
are, in truth, but just now in preparation. The government could not
aid the publication by the subscription suggested by Doctor Maese,
without a special law for it. All the purposes for which they can pay
a single dollar, are specified by law. The advantage of the veterinary
institution proposed, may perhaps be doubted. If it be problematical
whether physicians prevent death where the disease, unaided, would have
terminated fatally,--oftener than they produce it, where order would have
been restored to the system by the process, if uninterrupted, provided
by nature, and in the case of a man who can describe the seat of his
disease, its character, progress, and often its cause, what might we
expect in the case of the horse,--mute, &c., yielding no sensible and
certain indications of his disease? They have long had these institutions
in Europe; has the world received as yet one iota of valuable information
from them? If it has, it is unknown to me. At any rate, it may be doubted
whether, where so many institutions of obvious utility are yet wanting, we
should select this one to take the lead. I return you Gibbon, with thanks.
I send you, also, for your shelf of pamphlets, one which gives really a
good historical view of our funding system, and of federal transactions
generally, from an early day to the present time. I salute you with
friendship and respect.
TO CHARLES THOMSON, ESQ.
WASHINGTON, December 25, 1808.
I thank you, my dear and ancient friend, for the two volumes of your
translation, which you have been so kind as to send me. I have dipped into
it at the few moments of leisure which my vocations permit, and I perceive
that I shall use it with great satisfaction on my return home. I propose
there, among my first employments, to give to the Septuagint an attentive
perusal, and shall feel the aid you have now given me. I am full of plans
of employment when I get there,--they chiefly respect the active functions
of the body. To the mind I shall administer amusement chiefly. An only
daughter and numerous family of grandchildren, will furnish me great
resources of happiness. I learn with sincere pleasure that you have health
and activity enough to have performed the journey to and from Lancaster
without inconvenience. It has added another proof that you are not wearied
with well-doing. Although I have enjoyed as uniform health through life
as reason could desire, I have no expectation that, even if spared to
your age, I shall at that period be able to take such a journey. I am
already sensible of decay in the power of walking, and find my memory not
so faithful as it used to be. This may be partly owing to the incessant
current of new matter flowing constantly through it; but I ascribe to
years their share in it also. That you may be continued among us to the
period of your own wishes, and that it may be filled with continued health
and happiness, is the sincere prayer of your affectionate friend.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
December 27, 1808.
The enclosed petition, from Deville, was handed me by Gen. Turreau. I told
him at once it was inadmissible; that days had been long ago announced,
after which no vessel would be permitted to depart; that in favor of
emigrants we had continued indulgences till very lately; but as there
must be an end to it, that time had come, and we had determined to give
no more permissions. They had had a complete year to depart, and had not
availed themselves of it. He appeared satisfied, and perhaps will himself
give the answer. However, an answer of the above purport may be given from
your office. I have referred the case of the British boats to the Attorney
General for his opinion. Affectionate salutations.
TO DOCTOR LOGAN.
WASHINGTON, December 27, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--Your favor of the 8th, by Mr. Cunow, was duly received, and I
now return you the letter it covered. Mr. Cunow's object was so perfectly
within our own views, that it was readily obtained, and I am in hopes
he has left us with a more correct opinion of the dispositions of the
administration than his fraternity has generally manifested. I have
within a few days had visits from the Pottowatamies, Miamis, Chippewas,
Delawares, and Cherokees, and there arrived some yesterday, of, I believe,
the Ottoways, Wiandots, and others of that neighborhood. Our endeavors are
to impress on them all profoundly, temperance, peace, and agriculture; and
I am persuaded they begin to feel profoundly the soundness of the advice.
Congress seems as yet to have been able to make up no opinion. Some are
for taking off the embargo before they separate; others not till their
meeting next autumn; but both with a view to substitute war, if no change
takes place with the powers of Europe. A middle opinion is to have an
extra session in May, to come then to a final decision. I have thought
it right to take no part myself in proposing measures, the execution of
which will devolve on my successor. I am therefore chiefly an unmeddling
listener to what others say. On the same ground, I shall make no new
appointments which can be deferred till the 4th of March, thinking it fair
to leave to my successor to select the agents for his own administration.
As the moment of my retirement approaches, I become more anxious for its
arrival, and to begin at length to pass what yet remains to me of life
and health in the bosom of my family and neighbors, and in communication
with my friends, undisturbed by political concerns or passions. Permit me
to avail myself of this occasion to assure Mrs. Logan and yourself of my
continued friendship and attachment, and that I shall ever be pleased to
hear of your happiness and prosperity, saluting you both with affection
and respect.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
December 28, 1808.
I enclose you the petition of Jacob Smith of Newport, in the case
of the ship Triumph, which is a new case to me. Perhaps the practice
as to foreign ships arriving since the embargo laws, with which I am
unacquainted, may facilitate the solution. What should be done?
_The Atalanta._
Is not the collector the person who is to search into the fact charged? I
do not know who it is that does this in case of seizure. However, I will
send the case to Mr. Smith.
The petition of Manuel Valder for a vessel to carry off Spanish subjects,
is rejected.
The cases from St. Mary are really embarrassing. I sent the papers to
Mr. Madison to ask his opinion. He had read only one when he called on
me this morning. He seemed strongly of opinion that it would be most
advisable to send some person to the Governor of East Florida, to enter
into some friendly arrangements with him. He has the papers still under
consideration; in the meantime we may consider as further means, how it
might do to destroy all boats and canoes on our side the river, paying
for them? To arrest impression, and bring to regular trial every negro
taken in the act of violating the laws? This for mere consideration.
Affectionate salutations.
TO E. RANDOLPH, ESQ.
WASHINGTON, December 28, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--I received yesterday your favor of the 22d. It was the first
information I had had of the sentence against Moss, the district attorney
not having written to me as you supposed. I referred the case to the Post
Master General, who in his answer says, "His is not a single crime, but
a series of crimes, for months if not years. There were found upon him
between $1,300 and $1,500, which he had robbed in small sums."
You are sensible that the Legislature having made stripes a regular part
of the punishment, that the pardoning them cannot be a thing of course,
as that would be to repeal the law, but that extraordinary and singular
considerations are necessary to entitle the criminal to that remission.
The information of the Post Master General marks such an habitual
depravity of mind, as leaves little room to suppose that any facts can
countervail it; and the robbery of the mail has now become so frequent
and great an evil, that the moment is unfavorable to propositions of
relaxation. Still I shall be ready to receive and consider any testimony
in his favor, which his friends may bring forward, and will do it on
whatever I may believe to have been the intention of the Legislature in
confiding the power of pardon to the executive. The opinion of the judges
who sat in the cause, I have ever required as indispensable to ground
a pardon. A copy of the judgment is also necessary. I have taken the
liberty of troubling you with these observations, because I have received
no application but your letter, and lest, on the contrary supposition,
his case might suffer for want of information. Accept my salutations and
assurances of friendly esteem and respect.
TO ----.
WASHINGTON, December 31, 1808.
SIR,--The General Government of the United States has considered it their
duty and interest to extend their care and patronage over the Indian
tribes within their limits, and to endeavor to render them friends, and
in time perhaps useful members of the nation. Perceiving the injurious
effects produced by their inordinate use of spirituous liquors, they
passed laws authorizing measures against the vending or distributing
such liquors among them. Their introduction by traders was accordingly
prohibited, and for some time was attended with the best effects. I am
informed, however, that latterly the Indians have got into the practice
of purchasing such liquors themselves in the neighboring settlements of
whites, and of carrying them into their towns, and that in this way our
regulations so salutary to them, are now defeated. I must, therefore,
request your Excellency to submit this matter to the consideration of your
legislature. I persuade myself that in addition to the moral inducements
which will readily occur, they will find it not indifferent to their
own interests to give us their aid in removing, for their neighbors,
this great obstacle to their acquiring industrious habits, and attaching
themselves to the regular and useful pursuits of life; for this purpose
it is much desired that they should pass effectual laws to restrain their
citizens from vending and distributing spirituous liquors to the Indians.
I pray your Excellency to accept the assurances of my great esteem and
respect.
TO MR. HENRY GUEST.
WASHINGTON, January 4, 1809.
SIR,--A constant pressure of business must be my apology for being so late
in acknowledging the receipt of your favor of November 25th. I am sensible
of the kindness of your rebuke on my determination to retire from office
at a time when our country is laboring under difficulties truly great.
But if the principle of rotation be a sound one, as I conscientiously
believe it to be with respect to this office, no pretext should ever be
permitted to dispense with it, because there never will be a time when
real difficulties will not exist, and furnish a plausible pretext for
dispensation. You suppose I am "in the prime of life for rule." I am
sensible I am not; and before I am so far declined as to become insensible
of it, I think it right to put it out of my own power. I have the comfort
too of knowing that the person whom the public choice has designated to
receive the charge from me, is eminently qualified as a safe depository by
the endowments of integrity, understanding, and experience. On a review
therefore of the reasons for my retirement, I think you cannot fail to
approve them.
Your proposition for preventing the effect of splinters in a naval action,
will certainly merit consideration and trial whenever our vessels shall
be called into serious service; till then the perishable nature of the
covering, would render it an unnecessary expense. I tender you my best
wishes for the continuance of your life and health, and salute you with
great esteem and respect.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
January 9, 1809.
I do not recollect the instructions to Governor Lewis respecting
squatters. But if he had any they were unquestionably to prohibit them
rigorously. I have no doubt, if he had not written instructions, that he
was verbally so instructed. Carr's story has very much the air of an idle
rumor, willingly listened to. It shows some germ of discontent existing.
* * * * *
TO THE SECRETARY AT WAR.
WASHINGTON, January 12, 1809.
SIR,--I have read with pleasure the letter of Captain Davidson, by which,
according to unanimous resolves of the company of light infantry of the
first legion of the militia of Columbia commanded by him, he tenders their
services as volunteers under the Act of Congress of February 24th, 1807.
I accept the offer, and render to Captain Davidson and the other officers
and privates of the company, that praise to which their patriotism so
justly entitles them. So long urged by the aggressions of the belligerent
powers, and every measure of forbearance at length exhausted, our country
must see with sincere satisfaction the alacrity with which persons will
flock to her standard whenever her constituted authorities shall declare
that we take into our own hands the redress of our wrongs. Be so good as
to communicate in behalf of the public my thanks to Captain Davidson, the
other officers and privates of his company, and be assured yourself of my
affectionate respect.
TO GENERAL DEARBORNE.
January 12, 1809.
I suppose that in answering Governor Drayton we should compliment his
ardor, and smooth over our noncompliance with his request; that he might
be told that the President sees, in his present application, a proof
of his vigilance and zeal in whatever concerns the public safety, and
will count with the more confidence on his future attentions and energy
whenever circumstances shall call for them. That he considers that the
power entrusted to him for calling out the 100,000 militia, was meant to
be exercised only in the case of some great and general emergency, and by
no means to be employed merely as garrisons or guards in ordinary cases:
that there is no apprehension that England means either to declare or to
commence war on us at the present moment, and that if the declaration
shall be intended to originate with us, he may be assured of receiving
timely notice, with the powers and the means of placing everything in
safety before a state of actual danger commences; that nevertheless it is
of great urgency that the quota of his state be prepared with all possible
diligence, to be ready to march at a moment's warning, because by that
time it is very possible, and scarcely improbable, that their services may
have become actually requisite. Affectionate salutations.
TO DOCTOR EUSTIS.
WASHINGTON, January 14, 1809.
SIR,--I have the pleasure to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of
December the 24th, and of the resolutions of the republican citizens
of Boston, of the 19th of that month. These are worthy of the ancient
character of the sons of Massachusetts, and of the spirit of concord
with her sister States, which, and which alone, carried us successfully
through the revolutionary war, and finally placed us under that national
government, which constitutes the safety of every part, by uniting for
its protection the powers of the whole. The moment for exerting these
united powers, to repel the injuries of the belligerents of Europe,
seems likely to be pressed upon us. They have interdicted our commerce
with nearly the whole world. They have declared it shall be carried on
with such places, in such articles, and in such measure only, as they
shall dictate; thus prostrating all the principles of right which have
hitherto protected it. After exhausting the cup of forbearance and
conciliation to its dregs, we found it necessary, on behalf of that
commerce, to take time to call it home into a state of safety, to put
the towns and harbors which carry it on into a condition of defence, and
to make further preparation for enforcing the redress of its wrongs, and
restoring it to its rightful freedom. This required a certain measure of
time, which, although not admitting specific limitation, must, from its
avowed objects, have been obvious to all; and the progress actually made
towards the accomplishment of these objects, proves it now to be near its
term. While thus endeavoring to secure, and preparing to vindicate that
commerce, the absurd opinion has been propagated, that this temporary and
necessary arrangement was to be a permanent system, and was intended for
its destruction. The sentiments expressed in the paper you were so kind as
to enclose to me, show that those who have concurred in them have judged
with more candor the intentions of their government, and are sufficiently
aware of the tendency of the excitements and misrepresentations which
have been practised on this occasion. And such, I am persuaded, will be
the disposition of the citizens of Massachusetts at large, whenever truth
can reach them. Associated with her sister States in a common government,
the fundamental principle of which is, that the will of the majority is
to prevail, sensible that, in the present difficulty, that will has been
governed by no local interests or jealousies, that, to save permanent
rights, temporary sacrifices were necessary, that these have fallen as
impartially on all, as in a situation so peculiar they could be made to
do, she will see in the existing measures a legitimate and honest exercise
of the will and wisdom of the whole. And her citizens, faithful to
themselves and their associates, will not, to avoid a transient pressure,
yield to the seductions of enemies to their independence, foreign or
domestic, and take a course equally subversive of their well-being, as of
that of their brethren.
The approbation expressed by the republican citizens of the town of
Boston, of the course pursued by the national government, is truly
consoling to its members; and, encouraged by the declaration of the
continuance of their confidence, and by the assurance of their support,
they will continue to pursue the line of their high duties according to
the best of their understandings, and with undeviating regard to the good
of the whole. Permit me to avail myself of this occasion of tendering you
personally the assurances of my great esteem and respect.
TO MR. THOMAS C. JAMES, SECRETARY OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.
WASHINGTON, January 14, 1809.
SIR,-I have received your favor of the 6th inst., informing me that the
American Philosophical Society had been pleased, at their late election,
unanimously to re-elect me president of the society. In desiring, in my
letter to the vice-presidents, that I might be permitted to withdraw
from that honor, I acted from a conscientious persuasion that I was
keeping from that important station members whose position, as well as
qualifications, would enable them to render more effectual services to
the institution. But the society having thought proper again to name me,
I shall obey it with dutifulness, and be ever anxious to avail myself of
every occasion of being useful to them. I pray you to be so good as to
communicate my thanks to them, with assurances of my devotion to their
service, and to accept those of great esteem and respect for yourself
personally.
TO DOCTOR MAESE.
WASHINGTON, January 15, 1809.
SIR,-The constant pressure of such business as will admit no delay, has
prevented my sooner acknowledging the receipt of your letter of the 2d,
and even now will confine me to the single question, for the answer to
which you wait, before you take any step towards bringing forward the
institution you propose for the advancement of the arts. That question is
whether Congress would grant a charter of incorporation, and a sum for
premiums annually? It has always been denied by the republican party in
this country, that the Constitution had given the power of incorporation
to Congress. On the establishment of the Bank of the United States,
this was the great ground on which that establishment was combatted;
and the party prevailing supported it only on the argument of its being
an incident to the power given them for raising money. On this ground
it has been acquiesced in, and will probably be again acquiesced in, as
subsequently confirmed by public opinion. But in no other instance have
they ever exercised this power of incorporation out of this district, of
which they are the ordinary legislature.
It is still more settled that among the purposes to which the Constitution
permits them to apply money, the granting premiums or bounties is not
enumerated, and there has never been a single instance of their doing it,
although there has been a multiplicity of applications. The Constitution
has left these encouragements to the separate States. I have in two or
three messages recommended to Congress an amendment to the Constitution,
which should extend their power to these objects. But nothing is yet
done in it. I fear, therefore, that the institution you propose must rest
on the patronage of the State in which it is to be. I wish I could have
answered you more to my own mind; as well as yours; but truth is the first
object. I salute you with esteem and respect.
CIRCULAR LETTER FROM THE SECRETARY OF WAR, TO THE GOVERNORS,--PREPARED BY
THOMAS JEFFERSON.
January 17, 1809.
SIR,--The pressure of the embargo, although sensibly felt by every
description of our fellow citizens, has yet been cheerfully borne by
most of them, under the conviction that it was a temporary evil, and
a necessary one to save us from greater and more permanent evils,--the
loss of property and surrender of rights. But it would have been more
cheerfully borne, but for the knowledge that, while honest men were
religiously observing it, the unprincipled along our sea-coast and
frontiers were fraudulently evading it; and that in some parts they had
even dared to break through it openly, by an armed force too powerful to
be opposed by the collector and his assistants. To put an end to this
scandalous insubordination to the laws, the Legislature has authorized
the President to empower proper persons to employ militia, for preventing
or suppressing armed or riotous assemblages of persons resisting the
custom-house officers in the exercise of their duties, or opposing or
violating the embargo laws. He sincerely hopes that, during the short time
which these restrictions are expected to continue, no other instances
will take place of a crime of so deep a die. But it is made his duty to
take the measures necessary to meet it. He therefore requests you, as
commanding officer of the militia of your State, to appoint some officer
of the militia, of known respect for the laws, in or near to each port of
entry within your State, with orders, when applied to by the collector of
the district, to assemble immediately a sufficient force of his militia,
and to employ them efficaciously to maintain the authority of the laws
respecting the embargo, and that you notify to each collector the officer
to whom, by your appointment, he is so to apply for aid when necessary. He
has referred this appointment to your Excellency, because your knowledge
of characters, or means of obtaining it, will enable you to select one
who can be most confided in to exercise so serious a power, with all the
discretion, the forbearance, the kindness even, which the enforcement
of the law will possibly admit,--ever to bear in mind that the life of a
citizen is never to be endangered, but as the last melancholy effort for
the maintenance of order and obedience to the laws.
TO MR. BOYD.
WASHINGTON, January 20, 1809.
Thomas Jefferson presents his compliments to Mr. Boyd, and observes that
the enclosed petition of Nicholas Kosieg, has been addressed to Judge
Cranch, and yet is not recommended by him or the other judges who sat
on the trial. They are so particularly qualified by having heard the
evidence, to decide on the merits of the petition, that Thomas Jefferson
has generally made the recommendation of judges the foundation of pardon,
and sees no reason in the present case to depart from that rule. He
assures Mr. Boyd of his esteem and respect.
TO HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR TYLER.
WASHINGTON, January 20, 1809.
SIR,--The Secretary at War has put into my hand your Excellency's letter
of January 9th, covering one of December 15th from Captain Henry St.
John Dixon, of the volunteer riflemen of the 105th regiment, offering the
service of his company for one year. The term for which the offer is made
shows it intended to be under the Act of Congress of February 24th, 1807,
and not under that of March 30th, 1805, which is only for a service of six
months under the law of 1807. The Governors were authorized and requested,
on behalf of the President, to accept the offers made under that act,
and to organize the corps when ready for it, officering it according to
the laws of their State. This authority was given to your predecessor,
and was considered as devolving on yourself. The authority and request
are now renewed to you, and the letter of Captain Dixon returned for that
purpose. To this I will add another request, that you will be so good as
to endeavor to have a return made to the War Office of all the corps of
twelve-month volunteers which have been accepted in Virginia. They began
immediately after the attack on the Chesapeake. I salute you with esteem
and respect.
TO COLONEL HUMPHREYS.
WASHINGTON, January 20, 1809.
SIR,--I have to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of December 12th,
and to return you my thanks for the cloth furnished me. It came in good
time, and does honor to your manufactory, being as good as any one would
wish to wear in any country. Amidst the pressure of evils with which the
belligerent edicts have afflicted us, some permanent good will arise; the
spring given to manufactures will have durable effects. Knowing most of my
own State, I can affirm with confidence that were free intercourse opened
again to-morrow, she would never again import one-half of the coarse goods
which she has done down to the date of the edicts. These will be made in
our families. For finer goods we must resort to the larger manufactories
established in the towns. Some jealousy of this spirit of manufacture
seems excited among commercial men. It would have been as just when we
first began to make our own ploughs and hoes. They have certainly lost
the profit of bringing these from a foreign country. My idea is that we
should encourage home manufactures to the extent of our own consumption
of everything of which we raise the raw material. I do not think it fair
in the ship-owners to say we ought not to make our own axes, nails, &c.,
here, that they may have the benefit of carrying the iron to Europe,
and bringing back the axes, nails, &c. Our agriculture will still afford
surplus produce enough to employ a due proportion of navigation. Wishing
every possible success to your undertaking, as well for your personal
as the public benefit. I salute you with assurances of great esteem and
respect.
TO MR. LEIPER.
WASHINGTON, January 21, 1809.
DEAR SIR,--Your letter of the 15th was duly received, and before that,
Towers' book, which you had been so kind as to send me, had come to hand,
for which I pray you to receive my thanks. You judge rightly that _here_
I have no time to read. A cursory view of the book shows me that the
author is a man of much learning in his line. I have heard of some other
late writer, (the name I forget,) who has undertaken to prove contrary
events from the same sources; and particularly that England is not to
be put down; and that this is the favorite author in that country. As to
myself, my religious reading has long been confined to the moral branch
of religion, which is the same in all religions; while in that branch
which consists of dogmas, all differ, all have a different set. The former
instructs us how to live well and worthily in society; the latter are made
to interest our minds in the support of the teachers who inculcate them.
Hence, for one sermon on a moral subject, you hear ten on the dogmas of
the sect. However, religion is not the subject for you and me; neither of
us know the religious opinions of the other; that is a matter between our
Maker and ourselves. We understand each other better in politics, to which
therefore I will proceed. The House of Representatives passed last night
a bill for the meeting of Congress on the 22d of May. This substantially
decides the course they mean to pursue; that is, to let the embargo
continue till then, when it will cease, and letters of marque and reprisal
be issued against such nations as shall not then have repealed their
obnoxious edicts. The great majority seem to have made up their minds
on this, while there is considerable diversity of opinion on the details
of preparation; to wit: naval force, volunteers, army, non-intercourse,
&c. I write freely to you, because I know that in stating facts, you
will not quote names. You know that every syllable uttered in my name
becomes a text for the federalists to torment the public mind on by their
paraphrases and perversions. I have lately inculcated the encouragement
of manufactures to the extent of our own consumption at least, in all
articles of which we raise the raw material. On this the federal papers
and meetings have sounded the alarm of Chinese policy, destruction of
commerce, &c.; that is to say, the iron which we make must not be wrought
here into ploughs, axes, hoes, &c., in order that the ship-owner may
have the profit of carrying it to Europe, and bringing it back in a
manufactured form, as if after manufacturing our own raw materials for
own use, there would not be a surplus produce sufficient to employ a due
proportion of navigation in carrying it to market and exchanging it for
those articles of which we have not the raw material. Yet this absurd hue
and cry has contributed much to federalize New England, their doctrine
goes to the sacrificing agriculture and manufactures to commerce; to the
calling all our people from the interior country to the sea-shore to turn
merchants, and to convert this great agricultural country into a city
of Amsterdam. But I trust the good sense of our country will see that
its greatest prosperity depends on a due balance between agriculture,
manufactures and commerce, and not in this protuberant navigation which
has kept us in hot water from the commencement of our government, and
is now engaging us in war. That this may be avoided, if it can be done
without a surrender of rights, is my sincere prayer. Accept the assurances
of my constant esteem and respect.
TO COLONEL CHARLES SIMMS, COLLECTOR.
WASHINGTON, January 22, 1809.
SIR,--I received last night your letter of yesterday, and this being a
day in which all the offices are shut, and the case admitting no delay, I
enclose you a special order, directly from myself, to apply for aid of the
militia adjacent to the vessel, to enable you to do your duty as to the
sloop loading with flour. But I must desire that, so far as the agency of
the militia be employed, it may be with the utmost discretion, and with no
act of force beyond what shall be necessary to maintain obedience to the
laws, using neither deeds nor words unnecessarily offensive. I salute you
with respect.
[_The Order enclosed._]
THOMAS JEFFERSON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
January, 1809.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA TO WIT,--Information being received that a sloop,
said to be of one of the eastern States, of about 1,500 barrels burthen,
is taking in flour in the Bay of Occoquan in Virginia, with intention
to violate the several embargo laws, and the urgency of the case not
admitting the delay of the ordinary course of proceeding through the
orders of the Governors of the States, I have therefore thought proper
to issue these my special orders to the militia officers of the counties
of Fairfax, Prince William, or of any other county of Virginia, or of
Maryland, adjacent to the river Potomak or any of its waters, wherein the
said vessel may be found, and to such particular officer especially to
whom these my orders shall be presented by any collector of the customs,
for any district on the said river or its waters, or by any person acting
under their authority, forthwith on receiving notice, to call out such
portion of the militia under his or their command as shall be sufficient,
and to proceed with the same, in aid of the said collector, to take
possession of the said sloop and her cargo, wheresoever found in the said
waters, and to detain the same until she shall be liberated according to
law, for which this shall be his and their warrant.
Given under my hand at Washington, this 22d day of January, 1809.
TO COLONEL MONROE.
WASHINGTON, January 28, 1809.
DEAR SIR,--Your favor of the 18th was received in due time, and the answer
has been delayed as well by a pressure of business, as by the expectation
of your absence from Richmond.
The idea of sending a special mission to France or England is not
entertained at all here. After so little attention to us from the former,
and so insulting an answer from Canning, such a mark of respect as an
extraordinary mission, would be a degradation against which all minds
revolt here. The idea was hazarded in the House of Representatives a
few days ago, by a member, and an approbation expressed by another, but
rejected indignantly by every other person who spoke, and very generally
in conversation by all others; and I am satisfied such a proposition
would get no vote in the Senate. The course the Legislature means to
pursue, may be inferred from the act now passed for a meeting in May, and
a proposition before them for repealing the embargo in June, and then
resuming and maintaining by force our right of navigation. There will
be considerable opposition to this last proposition, not only from the
federalists, old and new, who oppose everything, but from sound members
of the majority. Yet it is believed it will obtain a good majority, and
that it is the only proposition which can be devised that could obtain
a majority of any kind. Final propositions will, therefore, be soon
despatched to both the belligerents through the resident ministers, so
that their answers will be received before the meeting in May, and will
decide what is to be done. This last trial for peace is not thought
desperate. If, as is expected, Bonaparte should be successful in Spain,
however every virtuous and liberal sentiment revolts at it, it may induce
both powers to be more accommodating with us. England will see here the
only asylum for her commerce and manufactures, worth more to her than her
orders of council. And Bonaparte, having Spain at his feet, will look
immediately to the Spanish colonies, and think our neutrality cheaply
purchased by a repeal of the illegal parts of his decrees, with perhaps
the Floridas thrown into the bargain. Should a change in the aspect of
affairs in Europe produce this disposition in both powers, our peace and
prosperity may be revived and long continue. Otherwise, we must again take
the tented field, as we did in 1776 under more inauspicious circumstances.
There never has been a situation of the world before, in which such
endeavors as we have made would not have secured our peace. It is probable
there never will be such another. If we go to war now, I fear we may
renounce forever the hope of seeing an end of our national debt. If we can
keep at peace eight years longer, our income, liberated from death, will
be adequate to any war, without new taxes or loans, and our position and
increasing strength put us _hors d'insulte_ from any nation. I am now so
near the moment of retiring, that I take no part in affairs beyond the
expression of an opinion. I think it fair that my successor should now
originate those measures of which he will be charged with the execution
and responsibility, and that it is my duty to clothe them with the forms
of authority. Five weeks more will relieve me from a drudgery to which I
am no longer equal, and restore me to a scene of tranquillity, amidst my
family and friends, more congenial to my age and natural inclinations.
In that situation, it will always be a pleasure to me to see you, and to
repeat to you the assurances of my constant friendship and respect.
TO HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR SEVIER.
WASHINGTON, January 31, 1809.
SIR,--The extraordinary and critical situation of our foreign relations
rendering it necessary, in the opinion of the National Legislature, that
their next recess should be short, they have passed an act for meeting on
the fourth Monday of May, of which I enclose you a copy. As the election
of representatives for the State of Tennessee would not, in the ordinary
course, be in time for this meeting, I have thought it my duty to make
you a special communication of this law. That every State should be
represented in the great council of the nation, is not only the interest
of each, but of the whole united, who have a right to be aided by the
collective wisdom and information of the whole, in questions which are to
decide on their future well-being. I trust that your Excellency will deem
it incumbent on you to call an immediate meeting of your legislature, in
order to put it in their power to fulfil this high duty, by making special
and timely provision for the representation of their State at the ensuing
meeting of Congress; to which measures I am bound earnestly to exhort
yourself and them. I am not insensible of the personal inconvenience of
this special call to the members composing the legislature of so extensive
a State; but neither will I do them the injustice to doubt their being
ready to make much greater sacrifices for the common safety, should
the course of events still lead to a call for them. I tender to your
Excellency the assurances of my high respect and consideration.
TO M. AMELOT DE LA CROIX, BOSTON.
WASHINGTON, February 3, 1809.
SIR,--I received in due time your favor of December 28th, covering
the tragedy of the unfortunate Louis XVI., and I am sure you are too
reasonable not to have ascribed the delay of answer which has intervened,
to its true cause, the never-ceasing pressure of business which cannot
be deferred. I have read the piece with great satisfaction. I recognize
in Louis that purity of virtue and sincere patriotism which I knew made a
part of his real character. The sound good sense and exalted sentiments he
is made to utter, were proper to his character, whether actually a part of
it or not. I say nothing of style, not doubting its merit, and conscious
I am no judge of it in a foreign language. I believe it impossible, in
any but our native tongue, to be so thoroughly sensible of the delicacy of
style, which constitutes an essential merit in poetical composition, as to
criticise them with correctness.
I wish that, in the prefatory piece, the character which is the subject
of it, did not fall still further short of its representation than that of
the principal personage in the main piece. I have never claimed any other
merit than of good intentions, sensible that in the choice of measures,
error of judgment has too often had its influence; and with whatever
indulgence my countrymen as well as yourself, have been so kind as to
view my course, yet they would certainly not know me in the picture here
drawn, and would, I fear, say in the words of the poet, "Praise undeserved
is satire in disguise." Were, therefore, the piece to be prepared for the
press, I should certainly entreat you to revise that part with a severe
eye.
I believe I mentioned to you, on a former occasion, that the late act of
Congress for raising additional troops required that the officers should
all be citizens of the United States. Should there be war, however, I am
persuaded this policy must be abandoned, and that we must avail ourselves
of the experience of other nations, in certain lines of service at least.
In that expectation I shall leave with my successor the papers in my
possession, from which he may be sensible of the benefits he may receive
from your aid.
I pray you to accept my salutations and assurances of respect.
TO CAPTAIN ARMISTEAD T. MASON.
WASHINGTON, February 3d, 1809.
SIR,--Your letter of January 7th came to my hand on the 23d only of that
month, since which the pressure of business which could not be delayed,
has prevented my sooner acknowledging its receipt. The offer of service
therein made by the subscribing members of the troop of cavalry, attached
to the 57th regiment of Virginia militia under your command, is worthy of
that ardent love of our country which, I am persuaded, will distinguish
its citizens, whenever its wrongs shall call them to the field. I tender,
therefore, to the subscribing officers and members of the troop that
acknowledgment of their merit which is so justly due. At the same time,
I must observe that, considering their offer of service as made under the
law of 1808, the power of accepting it is thereby given to the governor of
the State, to whom their address for acceptance is of course to be made.
A bill for raising a body of volunteers is now on its progress through
Congress. Should that be passed, which will soon be known, it may perhaps
be more eligible for the subscribing members to place themselves under the
conditions of that law. I pray you to accept, for them and yourself, the
assurances of my esteem and respect.
TO CAPTAIN ARMISTEAD T. MASON.
WASHINGTON, February 3d, 1809.
SIR,--I enclose you a letter in answer to that in which you offer the
services of the subscribing members of your troop of cavalry. I make this
separate and private answer to the very friendly letter addressed to me in
your own name only, and which accompanied the former. The relation which
you bear to my most valued and worthy friend Stevens T. Mason, gives you
a just title to communicate your wishes to me, and will insure to you any
services I can render you. The time of my continuance in office is now
so short, that it will scarcely fall to my lot to be useful to you, but
I shall leave your letter in the hands of my successor, than whom nobody
cherishes more the memory of your father. If the bill mentioned in my
other letter passes, there will be little difficulty in your obtaining
appointment. The engagements that proposes are to be for one year from the
time the volunteers are called on, which will not be till war is declared,
or inevitable, and from that corps a transfer will be easy into the
regular troops, which in that case will be to be raised.
I am happy in every testimony from my fellow citizens, that my conduct in
the discharge of my duties to them, has given them satisfaction. Accept my
thanks for the very kind terms in which you have been pleased to express
your dispositions towards myself, and with a request that you will be
so good as to present my high respects to Mrs. Mason, with whom I have
had the happiness of some acquaintance, I salute you with friendship and
esteem.
TO THOMAS MANN RANDOLPH.
WASHINGTON, February 7, 1809.
DEAR SIR,--I thought Congress had taken their ground firmly for continuing
their embargo till June, and then war. But a sudden and unaccountable
revolution of opinion took place the last week, chiefly among the New
England and New York members, and in a kind of panic they voted the 4th
of March for removing the embargo, and by such a majority as gave all
reason to believe they would not agree either to war or non-intercourse.
This, too, was after we had become satisfied that the Essex Junto had
found their expectation desperate, of inducing the people there to
either separation or forcible opposition. The majority of Congress,
however, has now rallied to the removing the embargo on the 4th of March,
non-intercourse with _France_ and _Great Britain_, trade everywhere else,
and continuing war preparations. The further details are not yet settled,
but I believe it is perfectly certain that the embargo will be taken off
the 4th of March. Present my warmest affections to my dearest Martha, and
the young ones, and accept the assurances of them to yourself.
TO HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR TYLER.
WASHINGTON, February 16, 1809.
SIR,--I have duly received your favor of the 11th, covering resolutions of
the General Assembly of Virginia on our foreign relations, and an address
to myself, on my approaching retirement; and I ask leave, through the same
channel, to return the enclosed answer. Nothing can give me more sincere
satisfaction than this kind and honorable testimony from the General
Assembly of my native State,--a State in which I have drawn my first and
shall draw my latest breath, and to which I retire with inexpressible
pleasure. I am equally sensible of your goodness, in the approving terms
in which you have made this communication. The concurrence of a veteran
patriot, who from the first dawn of the revolution to this day has pursued
unchangeably the same honest course, cannot but be flattering to his
fellow laborers. I pray you to accept the assurances of my sincere esteem
and respect.
TO MR. STODDART.
WASHINGTON, February 18, 1809.
SIR,--Your favor of January 25th had been duly received, and I was waiting
in the hope I might find a moment of less pressure in which I might answer
it somewhat in detail, when that of the 14th inst. came to hand. Finding
that, instead of any relaxation of business, it crowds more on me as I
approach my departure, I can only indulge myself in a very brief reply. As
to the rights of the United States as a neutral power, our opinions are
very different, mine being that when two nations go to war, it does not
abridge the rights of neutral nations but in the two articles of blockade
and contraband of war. But on this subject we have both probably read and
thought so much as to have made up our minds, and it is not likely that
either can make a convert of the other. With respect to the interests of
the United States in this exuberant commerce which is now bringing war on
us, we concur perfectly. It brings us into collision with other powers in
every sea, and will force us into every war of the European powers. The
converting this great agricultural country into a city of Amsterdam,--a
mere head-quarters for carrying on the commerce of all nations with
one another, is too absurd. Yet this is the real object of the drawback
system,--it enriches a few individuals, but lessens the stock of native
productions, by withdrawing from them all the hands thus employed; it is
essentially interesting to us to have shipping and seamen enough to carry
our surplus produce to market; but beyond that, I do not think we are
bound to give it encouragement by drawbacks or other premiums. I wish you
may be right in supposing that the trading States would now be willing
to give up the drawbacks, and to denationalize all ships taking foreign
articles on board for any other destination than the United States, on
being secured by discriminating duties, or otherwise in the exclusive
carryage of the produce of the United States. I should doubt it. Were such
a proposition to come _from them_, I presume it would meet with little
difficulty. Otherwise, I suppose it must wait till peace, when the right
of drawback will be less valued than the exclusive carryage of our own
produce.
No apology was necessary for the letters you were so kind as to write me
on this subject. I have always received with thankfulness the ideas of
judicious persons on subjects interesting to the public. In the present
case, I thought I should better fulfil your objects by communicating your
letters to my successor, to whose views I have thought it my duty to give
the lead, ever since his designation, as to all matters which he would
have to execute. Nothing will probably be done on this subject in the
few days between this and my retirement; and in that situation I shall
certainly divorce myself from all part in political affairs. To get rid
of them is the principal object of my retirement, and the first thing
necessary to the happiness which, you justly observe, it is in vain to
look for in any other situation. I pray you to accept my salutations, and
assurances of respect.
TO JOHN HOLLINS.
WASHINGTON, February 19, 1809.
DEAR SIR,--A little transaction of mine, as innocent a one as I ever
entered into, and where an improper construction was never less expected,
is making some noise, I observe, in your city. I beg leave to explain
it to you, because I mean to ask your agency in it. The last year, the
Agricultural Society of Paris, of which I am a member, having had a plough
presented to them, which, on trial with a graduated instrument, did equal
work with half the force of their best ploughs, they thought it would
be a benefit to mankind to communicate it. They accordingly sent one to
me, with a view to its being made known here, and they sent one to the
Duke of Bedford also, who is one of their members, to be made use of for
England, although the two nations were then at war. By the Mentor, now
going to France, I have given permission to two individuals in Delaware
and New York, to import two parcels of Merino sheep from France, which
they have procured there, and to some gentlemen in Boston, to import a
very valuable machine which spins cotton, wool, and flax equally. The last
spring, the Society informed me they were cultivating the cotton of the
Levant and other parts of the Mediterranean, and wished to try also that
of our southern States. I immediately got a friend to have two tierces
of seed forwarded to me. They were consigned to Messrs. Falls and Brown
of Baltimore, and notice of it being given me, I immediately wrote to
them to re-ship them to New York, to be sent by the Mentor. Their first
object was to make a show of my letter, as something very criminal, and
to carry the subject into the newspapers. I had, on a like request, some
time ago, (but before the embargo,) from the President of the Board of
Agriculture of London, of which I am also a member, to send them some of
the genuine May wheat of Virginia, forwarded to them two or three barrels
of it. General Washington, in his time, received from the same Society
the seed of the perennial succory, which Arthur Young had carried over
from France to England, and I have since received from a member of it the
seed of the famous turnip of Sweden, now so well known here. I mention
these things, to show the nature of the correspondence which is carried on
between societies instituted for the benevolent purpose of communicating
to all parts of the world whatever useful is discovered in any one of
them. These societies are always in peace, however their nations may be at
war. Like the republic of letters, they form a great fraternity spreading
over the whole earth, and their correspondence is never interrupted by
any civilized nation. Vaccination has been a late and remarkable instance
of the liberal diffusion of a blessing newly discovered. It is really
painful, it is mortifying, to be obliged to note these things, which are
known to every one who knows anything, and felt with approbation by every
one who has any feeling. But we have a faction, to whose hostile passions
the torture even of right into wrong is a delicious gratification. Their
malice I have long learned to disregard, their censure to deem praise.
But I observe that some republicans are not satisfied (even while we are
receiving liberally from others) that this small return should be made.
They will think more justly at another day; but, in the meantime, I wish
to avoid offence. My prayer to you, therefore, is, that you will be so
good, under the enclosed order, as to receive these two tierces of seed
from Falls and Brown, and pay them their disbursements for freight, &c.,
which I will immediately remit you on knowing the amount. Of the seed,
when received, be so good as to make manure for your garden. When rotted
with a due mixture of stable manure or earth, it is the best in the world.
I rely on your friendship to excuse this trouble, it being necessary I
should not commit myself again to persons of whose honor, or the want of
it, I know nothing.
Accept the assurances of my constant esteem and respect.
TO M. GREGOIRE, EVEQUE ET SENATEUR A PARIS.
WASHINGTON, February 25, 1809.
SIR,--I have received the favor of your letter of August 17th, and with it
the volume you were so kind as to send me on the "Literature of Negroes."
Be assured that no person living wishes more sincerely than I do, to
see a complete refutation of the doubts I have myself entertained and
expressed on the grade of understanding allotted to them by nature, and
to find that in this respect they are on a par with ourselves. My doubts
were the result of personal observation on the limited sphere of my own
State, where the opportunities for the development of their genius were
not favorable, and those of exercising it still less so. I expressed them
therefore with great hesitation; but whatever be their degree of talent
it is no measure of their rights. Because Sir Isaac Newton was superior
to others in understanding, he was not therefore lord of the person or
property of others. On this subject they are gaining daily in the opinions
of nations, and hopeful advances are making towards their re-establishment
on an equal footing with the other colors of the human family. I pray you
therefore to accept my thanks for the many instances you have enabled me
to observe of respectable intelligence in that race of men, which cannot
fail to have effect in hastening the day of their relief; and to be
assured of the sentiments of high and just esteem and consideration which
I tender to yourself with all sincerity.
TO M. RUELLE, ANCIEN AGENT DIPLOMATIQUE, RUE D'ARGENTINE, NO. 38, A PARIS.
WASHINGTON, February 25, 1809.
SIR,--I have duly received your favors of May 29th and July 11th, and
with this last a copy of your Constitution with the new augmentations. Our
usages not permitting me to present it formally to the Legislature of the
nation, I have deposited it in their library, where all its members will
have an opportunity of profiting of its truths, and it will be, as you
desire, in a depôt beyond the reach of violence. No interests are dearer
to men than those which ought to be secured to them by their form of
government, and none deserve better of them than those who contribute to
the amelioration of that form. The consciousness of having deserved well
of mankind for your endeavors to be useful to them in this line, will be
itself a high reward, to which will be added the homage of those who shall
have reaped the benefits of them. I ask permission on my part to tender
you the assurances of my esteem and great respect.
TO THOMAS MANN RANDOLPH.
WASHINGTON, February 28, 1809.
MY DEAR SIR,--By yesterday's mail I learn that it would be the desire
of many of the good citizens of our country to meet me on the road on
my return home, as a manifestation of their good will. But it is quite
impossible for me to ascertain the day on which I shall leave this. The
accumulated business at the close of a session will prevent my making any
preparation for my departure till after the 4th of March. After that, the
arrangement of papers and business to be delivered over to my successor,
the winding up my own affairs, and clearing out from this place, will
employ me for several days, (I cannot conjecture even how many,) so as to
render the commencement, and consequently the termination of my journey,
altogether uncertain. But it is a sufficient happiness to me to know
that my fellow-citizens of the country generally entertain for me the
kind sentiments which have prompted this proposition, without giving to
so many the trouble of leaving their homes to meet a single individual.
I shall have opportunities of taking them individually by the hand at
our court-house and other public places, and of exchanging assurances of
mutual esteem. Certainly it is the greatest consolation to me to know,
that in returning to the bosom of my native country, I shall be again
in the midst of their kind affections: and I can say with truth that my
return to them will make me happier than I have been since I left them.
Nothing will be wanting on my part to merit the continuance of their
good will. The House of Representatives passed yesterday, by a vote
of 81 to 40, the bill from the Senate repealing the embargo the 4th of
March, except against Great Britain and France and their dependencies,
establishing a non-intercourse with them, and having struck out the
clause for letters of marque and reprisal, which it is thought the Senate
will still endeavor to reinstate. I send you a paper containing the last
Spanish news. Yours affectionately.
TO MESSRS. GREGG AND LEIB, SENATORS OF PENNSYLVANIA.--MR. SMILIE.
WASHINGTON, March 2, 1809.
GENTLEMEN,--I have just received the enclosed with a request that I would
lay it before both Houses of Congress. But I have never presumed to place
myself between the Legislative Houses and those who have a constitutional
right to address them directly. I take the liberty therefore of enclosing
the paper to you, that you may do therein what in your judgment shall best
comport with expediency and propriety.
I pray you to be assured of my high consideration.
TO M. DUPONT DE NEMOURS.
WASHINGTON, March 2, 1809.
DEAR SIR,--My last to you was of May 2d; since which I have received yours
of May the 25th, June the 1st, July the 23d, 24th, and September the 5th,
and distributed the two pamphlets according to your desire. They are read
with the delight which everything from your pen gives.
After using every effort which could prevent or delay our being entangled
in the war of Europe, that seems now our only resource. The edicts of
the two belligerents, forbidding us to be seen on the ocean, we met by an
embargo. This gave us time to call home our seamen, ships and property,
to levy men and put our seaports into a certain state of defence. We have
now taken off the embargo, except as to France and England and their
territories, because fifty millions of exports, annually sacrificed,
are the treble of what war would cost us; besides, that by war we
should take something, and lose less than at present. But to give you
a true description of the state of things here, I must refer you to Mr.
Coles, the bearer of this, my secretary, a most worthy, intelligent and
well-informed young man, whom I recommend to your notice, and conversation
on our affairs. His discretion and fidelity may be relied on. I expect
he will find you with Spain at your feet, but England still afloat, and a
barrier to the Spanish colonies. But all these concerns I am now leaving
to be settled by my friend Mr. Madison. Within a few days I retire to my
family, my books and farms; and having gained the harbor myself, I shall
look on my friends still buffeting the storm with anxiety indeed, but
not with envy. Never did a prisoner, released from his chains, feel such
relief as I shall on shaking off the shackles of power. Nature intended
me for the tranquil pursuits of science, by rendering them my supreme
delight. But the enormities of the times in which I have lived, have
forced me to take a part in resisting them, and to commit myself on the
boisterous ocean of political passions. I thank God for the opportunity
of retiring from them without censure, and carrying with me the most
consoling proofs of public approbation. I leave everything in the hands
of men so able to take care of them, that if we are destined to meet
misfortunes, it will be because no human wisdom could avert them. Should
you return to the United States, perhaps your curiosity may lead you to
visit the hermit of Monticello. He will receive you with affection and
delight; hailing you in the meantime with his affectionate salutations and
assurances of constant esteem and respect.
P. S. If you return to us, bring a couple of pair of true-bred shepherd's
dogs. You will add a valuable possession to a country now beginning to pay
great attention to the raising sheep.
TO GENERAL ARMSTRONG.
WASHINGTON, March 5, 1809.
DEAR SIR,--This will be handed you by Mr. Coles, the bearer of public
despatches, by an _aviso_. He has lived with me as Secretary, is my
wealthy neighbor at Monticello, and worthy of all confidence. His intimate
knowledge of our situation has induced us to send him, because he will
be a full supplement as to all those things which cannot be detailed in
writing. He can possess you of our present situation much more intimately
than you can understand it from letters. The belligerent edicts rendered
our embargo necessary to call home our ships, our seamen, and property.
We expected some effect too from the coercion of interest. Some it has
had; but much less on account of evasions, and domestic opposition to it.
After fifteen months' continuance it is now discontinued, because, losing
$50,000,000 of exports annually by it, it costs more than war, which might
be carried on for a third of that, besides what might be got by reprisal.
War therefore must follow if the edicts are not repealed before the
meeting of Congress in May. You have thought it advisable sooner to take
possession of adjacent territories. But we know that they are ours the
first moment that any war is forced upon us for other causes, that we are
at hand to anticipate their possession, if attempted by any other power,
and, in the meantime, we are lengthening the term of our prosperity,
liberating our revenues, and increasing our power. I suppose Napoleon will
get possession of Spain; but her colonies will deliver themselves to any
member of the Bourbon family. Perhaps Mexico will choose its sovereign
within itself. He will find them much more difficult to subdue than
Austria or Prussia; because an enemy (even in peace an enemy) possesses
the element over which he is to pass to get at them; and a more powerful
enemy (climate) will soon mow down his armies after arrival. This will
be, without any doubt, the most difficult enterprise the emperor has ever
undertaken. He may subdue the small colonies; he never can the old and
strong; and the former will break off from him the first war he has again
with a naval power.
I thank you for having procured for me the Dynamometer which I have safely
received, as well as the plough. Mr. Coles will reimburse what you were
so kind as to advance for me on that account. The letters which will be
written you by the new Secretary of State (Mr. Smith) will say to you what
is meant to be official. For although I too have written on politics,
it is merely as a private individual, which I am now happily become.
Within two or three days I retire from scenes of difficulty, anxiety, and
of contending passions, to the elysium of domestic affections, and the
irresponsible direction of my own affairs. Safe in port myself, I shall
look anxiously at my friends still buffeting the storm, and wish you all
safe in port also. With my prayers for your happiness and prosperity,
accept the assurances of my sincere friendship and great respect.
TO M. LE BARON HUMBOLDT.
WASHINGTON, March 6, 1809.
DEAR SIR,--I received safely your letter of May 30th, and with it your
astronomical work and Political essay on the kingdom of New Spain, for
which I return you my sincere thanks. I had before heard that this work
had begun to appear, and the specimen I have received proves that it will
not disappoint the expectations of the learned. Besides making known to
us one of the most singular and interesting countries on the globe, one
almost locked up from the knowledge of man hitherto, precious additions
will be made to our stock of physical science, in many of its parts. We
shall bear to you therefore the honorable testimony that you have deserved
well of the republic of letters.
You mention that you had before written other letters to me. Be assured
I have never received a single one, or I should not have failed to make
my acknowledgments of it. Indeed I have not waited for that, but for the
certain information, which I had not, of the place where you might be.
Your letter of May 30th first gave me that information. You have wisely
located yourself in the focus of the science of Europe. I am held by the
cords of love to my family and country, or I should certainly join you.
Within a few days I shall now bury myself in the groves of Monticello,
and become a mere spectator of the passing events. On politics I will
say nothing, because I would not implicate you by addressing to you the
republican ideas of America, deemed horrible heresies by the royalism
of Europe. You will know before this reaches you, that Mr. Madison is my
successor. This ensures to us a wise and honest administration. I salute
you with sincere friendship and respect.
TO MR. SHORT.
WASHINGTON, March 8, 1809.
DEAR SIR,--It is with much concern I inform you that the Senate has
negatived your appointment. We thought it best to keep back the nomination
to the close of the session, that the mission might remain secret as long
as possible, which you know was our purpose from the beginning. It was
then sent in with an explanation of its object and motives. We took for
granted, if any hesitation should arise, that the Senate would take time,
and that our friends in that body would make inquiries of us, and give us
the opportunity of explaining and removing objections. But to our great
surprise, and with an unexampled precipitancy, they rejected it at once.
This reception of the last of my official communications to them, could
not be unfelt, nor were the causes of it spoken out by them. Under this
uncertainty, Mr. Madison, on his entering into office, proposed another
person, (John Q. Adams.) He also was negatived, and they adjourned _sine
die_. Our subsequent information was that, on your nomination, your
long absence from this country, and their idea that you do not intend to
return to it, had very sensible weight; but that all other motives were
superseded by an unwillingness to extend our diplomatic connections, and
a desire even to recall the foreign ministers we already have. All were
sensible of the great virtues, the high character, the powerful influence,
and valuable friendship of the emperor. But riveted to the system of
unentanglement with Europe, they declined the proposition. On this subject
you will receive the official explanations from Mr. Smith, the Secretary
of State. I pray you to place me _rectus in curiâ_ in this business
with the emperor, and to assure him that I carry into my retirement the
highest veneration for his virtues, and fondly cherish the belief that his
dispositions and power are destined by heaven to better, in some degree at
least, the condition of oppressed man.
I have nothing new to inform you as to your private friends or
acquaintances. Our embargo has worked hard. It has in fact federalized
three of the New England States. Connecticut you know was so before. We
have substituted for it a non-intercourse with France and England and
their dependencies, and a trade to all other places. It is probable the
belligerents will take our vessels under their edicts, in which case we
shall probably declare war against them.
I write this in the midst of packing and preparing for my departure,
of visits of leave, and interruptions of every kind. I must therefore
conclude with my affectionate adieu to you, and assurances of my constant
attachment and respect.
TO THE PRESIDENT.
MONTICELLO, March 17, 1809.
DEAR SIR,--On opening my letters from France, in the moment of my
departure from Washington, I found from their signatures that they were
from literary characters, except one from Mr. Short, which mentioned in
the outset that it was private, and that his public communications were in
the letter to the Secretary of State, which I sent you. I find, however,
on reading his letter to me (which I did not do till I got home) a
passage of some length proper to be communicated to you, and which I have
therefore extracted.
I had a very fatiguing journey, having found the roads excessively bad,
although I have seen them worse. The last three days I found it better
to be on horseback, and travelled eight hours through as disagreeable a
snow storm as I was ever in. Feeling no inconvenience from the expedition
but fatigue, I have more confidence in my _vis vitæ_, than I had before
entertained. The spring is remarkably backward. No oats sown, not
much tobacco seed, and little done in the gardens. Wheat has suffered
considerably. No vegetation visible yet but the red maple, weeping willow
and lilac. Flour is said to be at eight dollars at Richmond, and all
produce is hurrying down.
I feel great anxiety for the occurrences of the ensuing four or five
months. If peace can be preserved, I hope and trust you will have a smooth
administration. I know no government which would be so embarrassing in
war as ours. This would proceed very much from the lying and licentious
character of our papers; but much, also, from the wonderful credulity of
the members of Congress in the floating lies of the day. And in this no
experience seems to correct them. I have never seen a Congress during
the last eight years, a great majority of which I would not implicitly
have relied on in any question, could their minds have been purged of all
errors of fact. The evil, too, increases greatly with the protraction of
the session, and I apprehend, in case of war, their session would have a
tendency to become permanent. It is much, therefore, to be desired that
war may be avoided, if circumstances will admit. Nor in the present maniac
state of Europe, should I estimate the point of honor by the ordinary
scale. I believe we shall, on the contrary, have credit with the world,
for having made the avoidance of being engaged in the present unexampled
war, our first object. War, however, may become a less losing business
than unresisted depredation. With every wish that events may be propitious
to your administration, I salute you with sincere affection and every
sympathy of the heart.
TO WILLIAM M'ANDLESS, ESQ., PITTSBURG.
MONTICELLO, March 29, 1809.
SIR,--I received on the evening of the 1st of March the resolutions
enclosed in your letter of February 20th, for the purpose of being laid
before both Houses of Congress. Usage, and perhaps sound principle, not
permitting the President to place himself between the representatives
and their constituents, who have a right to address their Legislature
directly, I delivered the next day a copy of your resolutions to a member
of Pennsylvania in each House of Congress. But as that body was to rise
on the day ensuing that, the mass of indispensable business crowding on
the last moments of the Session scarcely admitted the opportunity of a
compliance with your wishes.
I avail myself of this occasion of returning sincere thanks for the
kind dispositions towards myself expressed in your letter, and for
the sentiments which it conveys, of approbation of my conduct in the
administration of the public affairs. If that conduct has met the general
approbation of my country, it is the highest reward I can receive; and I
shall ever feel towards them that gratitude which the confidence they have
favored me with so eminently calls for. Accept for yourself the assurances
of my high respect.
TO THE INHABITANTS OF ALBEMARLE COUNTY, IN VIRGINIA.
April 3, 1809.
Returning to the scenes of my birth and early life, to the society
of those with whom I was raised, and who have been ever dear to me, I
receive, fellow citizens and neighbors, with inexpressible pleasure, the
cordial welcome you are so good as to give me. Long absent on duties which
the history of a wonderful era made incumbent on those called to them,
the pomp, the turmoil, the bustle and splendor of office, have drawn but
deeper sighs for the tranquil and irresponsible occupations of private
life, for the enjoyment of an affectionate intercourse with you, my
neighbors and friends, and the endearments of family love, which nature
has given us all, as the sweetener of every hour. For these I gladly lay
down the distressing burthen of power, and seek, with my fellow citizens,
repose and safety under the watchful cares, the labors and perplexities
of younger and abler minds. The anxieties you express to administer to my
happiness, do, of themselves, confer that happiness; and the measure will
be complete, if my endeavors to fulfil my duties in the several public
stations to which I have been called, have obtained for me the approbation
of my country. The part which I have acted on the theatre of public life,
has been before them; and to their sentence I submit it; but the testimony
of my native county, of the individuals who have known me in private life,
to my conduct in its various duties and relations, is the more grateful,
as proceeding from eye witnesses and observers, from triers of the
vicinage. Of you, then, my neighbors, I may ask, in the face of the world,
"whose ox have I taken, or whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed,
or of whose hand have I received a bribe to blind mine eyes therewith?" On
your verdict I rest with conscious security. Your wishes for my happiness
are received with just sensibility, and I offer sincere prayers for your
own welfare and prosperity.
TO GOVERNOR JAMES JAY.
MONTICELLO, April 7, 1809.
DEAR SIR,--Your favor of February 27th came to hand on the 3d of March.
The occupations of the moment and of those which have followed must be my
apology for this late acknowledgment. The plan of civilizing the Indians
is undoubtedly a great improvement on the ancient and totally ineffectual
one of beginning with religious missionaries. Our experience has shown
that this must be the last step of the process. The following is what
has been successful: 1st, to raise cattle, &c., and thereby acquire a
knowledge of the value of property; 2d, arithmetic, to calculate that
value; 3d, writing, to keep accounts, and here they begin to enclose
farms, and the men to labor, the women to spin and weave; 4th, to read
"Æsop's Fables" and "Robinson Crusoe" are their first delight. The Creeks
and Cherokees are advanced thus far, and the Cherokees are now instituting
a regular government.
An equilibrium of agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, is certainly
become essential to our independence. Manufactures, sufficient for our own
consumption, of what we raise the raw material, (and no more.) Commerce
sufficient to carry the surplus produce of agriculture, beyond our own
consumption, to a market for exchanging it for articles we cannot raise,
(and no more.) These are the true limits of manufactures and commerce. To
go beyond them is to increase our dependence on foreign nations, and our
liability to war.
These three important branches of human industry will then grow together,
and be really handmaids to each other. I salute you with great respect and
esteem.
TO COLONEL LARKIN SMITH.
MONTICELLO, April 15, 1809.
DEAR SIR,--I have duly received your very friendly letter of March 28th,
and am extremely sensible to the kind spirit it breathes. To be praised
by those who themselves deserve all praise, is a gratification of high
order. Their approbation who, having been high in office themselves, have
information and talents to guide their judgment, is a consolation deeply
felt. A conscientious devotion to republican government, like charity in
religion, has obtained for me much indulgence from my fellow citizens,
and the aid of able counsellors has guided me through many difficulties
which have occurred. The troubles in the East have been produced by
English agitators, operating on the selfish spirit of commerce, which
knows no country, and feels no passion or principle but that of gain.
The inordinate extent given it among us by our becoming the factors
of the whole world, has enabled it to control the agricultural and
manufacturing interests. When a change of circumstances shall reduce it
to an equilibrium with these, to the carrying _our_ produce only, to be
exchanged for _our_ wants, it will return to a wholesome condition for the
body politic, and that beyond which it should never more be encouraged to
go. The repeal of the drawback system will either effect this, or bring
sufficient sums into the treasury to meet the wars we shall bring on by
our covering every sea with our vessels. But this must be the work of
peace. The correction will be after my day, as the error originated before
it. I thank you sincerely for your kind good wishes, and offer my prayers
for your health and welfare, with every assurance of my great esteem and
respect.
P. S. I thank you for the information of your letter of the 4th, this
moment received. I sincerely wish the British orders may be repealed.
If they are, it will be because the nation will not otherwise let the
ministers keep their places. Their object has unquestionably been fixed
to establish the Algerine system, and to maintain their possession of the
ocean by a system of piracy against all nations.
TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
MONTICELLO, April 19, 1809.
DEAR SIR,--I have to acknowledge your favor of the 9th, and to thank you
for the political information it contained. Reading the newspapers but
little and that little but as the romance of the day, a word of truth
now and then comes like the drop of water on the tongue of Dives. If
the British ministry are changing their policy towards us, it is because
their nation, or rather the city of London, which is the nation to them,
is shaken as usual, by the late reverses in Spain. I have for some time
been persuaded that the government of England was systematically decided
to claim a dominion of the sea, and to levy contributions on all nations,
by their licenses to navigate, in order to maintain that dominion to
which their own resources are inadequate. The mobs of their cities are
unprincipled enough to support this policy in prosperous times, but change
with the tide of fortune, and the ministers, to keep their places, change
with them. I wish Mr. Oakley may not embarrass you with his conditions of
revoking the orders of council. Enough of the non-importation law should
be reserved, 1st, to pinch them into a relinquishment of impressments, and
2d, to support those manufacturing establishments which their orders, and
our interests, forced us to make.
I suppose the conquest of Spain will soon force a delicate question on you
as to the Floridas and Cuba, which will offer themselves to you. Napoleon
will certainly give his consent without difficulty to our receiving the
Floridas, and with some difficulty possibly Cuba. And though he will
disregard the obligation whenever he thinks he can break it with success,
yet it has a great effect on the opinion of our people and the world to
have the moral right on our side, of his agreement as well as that of the
people of those countries.
Mr. Hackley's affair is really unfortunate. He has been driven into
this arrangement by his distresses, which are great. He is a perfectly
honest man, as is well known here where he was born, but unaccustomed to
political subjects, he has not seen it in that view. But a respect for the
innocence of his views cannot authorize the sanction of government to such
an example.
* * * * *
TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
MONTICELLO, April 27, 1809.
DEAR SIR,--Yours of the 24th came to hand last night. The correspondence
between Mr. Smith and Mr. Erskine had been received three days before. I
sincerely congratulate you on the change it has produced in our situation.
It is the source of very general joy here, and could it have arrived one
month sooner would have had important effects, not only on the elections
of other States, but of this also, from which it would seem that wherever
there was any considerable portion of federalism it has been so much
reinforced by those of whose politics the price of wheat is the sole
principle, that federalists will be returned from many districts of this
State. The British ministry has been driven from its Algerine system, not
by any remaining morality in the people, but by their unsteadiness under
severe trial. But whencesoever it comes, I rejoice in it as the triumph of
our forbearing and yet persevering system. It will lighten your anxieties,
take from Cabal its most fertile ground of war, will give us peace during
your time, and by the complete extinguishment of our public debt, open
upon us the noblest application of revenue that has ever been exhibited
by any nation. I am sorry they are sending a minister to attempt a treaty.
They never made an equal commercial treaty with any nation, and we have no
right to expect to be the first. It will place you between the injunctions
of true patriotism and the clamors of a faction devoted to a foreign
interest, in preference to that of their own country. It will confirm
the English too in their practice of whipping us into a treaty. They did
it in Jay's case, were near it in Monroe's, and on failure of that, have
applied the scourge with tenfold vigor, and now come on to try its effect.
But it is the moment when we should prove our consistence, by recurring to
the principles we dictated to Monroe, the departure from which occasioned
our rejection of his treaty, and by protesting against Jay's treaty being
ever quoted, or looked at, or even mentioned. That form will forever be a
millstone round our necks unless we now rid ourselves of it once for all.
The occasion is highly favorable, as we never can have them more in our
power.
As to Bonaparte, I should not doubt the revocation of his edicts, were
he governed by reason. But his policy is so crooked that it eludes
conjecture. I fear his first object now is to dry up the sources of
British prosperity by excluding her manufactures from the continent. He
may fear that opening the ports of Europe to our vessels will open them
to an inundation of British wares. He ought to be satisfied with having
forced her to revoke the orders on which he pretended to retaliate, and
to be particularly satisfied with us, by whose unyielding adherence to
principle she has been forced into the revocation. He ought the more
to conciliate our good will, as we can be such an obstacle to the new
career opening on him in the Spanish colonies. That he would give us the
Floridas to withhold intercourse with the residue of those colonies,
cannot be doubted. But that is no price; because they are ours in the
first moment of the first war; and until a war they are of no particular
necessity to us. But, although with difficulty, he will consent to our
receiving Cuba into our Union, to prevent our aid to Mexico and the other
provinces. That would be a price, and I would immediately erect a column
on the southernmost limit of Cuba, and inscribe on it a _ne plus ultra_
as to us in that direction. We should then have only to include the north
in our Confederacy, which would be of course in the first war, and we
should have such an empire for liberty as she has never surveyed since
the creation; and I am persuaded no constitution was ever before so well
calculated as ours for extensive empire and self-government. As the Mentor
went away before this change, and will leave France probably while it is
still a secret in that hemisphere, I presume the expediency of pursuing
her by a swift sailing despatch was considered. It will be objected
to our receiving Cuba, that no limit can then be drawn to our future
acquisitions. Cuba can be defended by us without a navy, and this develops
the principle which ought to limit our views. Nothing should ever be
accepted which would require a navy to defend it.
Our Spring continues cold and backward, rarely one growing day without two
or three cold ones following. Wheat is of very various complexions from
very good to very bad. Fruit has not suffered as much as was expected,
except in peculiar situations. Gardens are nearly a month behind their
usual state. I thank you for the squashes from Maine; they shall be
planted to-day. I salute you with sincere and constant affection.
TO MR. SPAFFORD.
MONTICELLO, May 14, 1809.
SIR,--I have duly received your favor of April 3d, with the copy of
your "General Geography," for which I pray you to accept my thanks. My
occupations here have not permitted me to read it through, which alone
could justify any judgment expressed on the work. Indeed, as it appears to
be an abridgment of several branches of science, the scale of abridgment
must enter into that judgment. Different readers require different scales
according to the time they can spare, and their views in reading, and
no doubt that the view of the sciences which you have brought into the
compass of a 12mo volume will be accommodated to the time and object of
many who may wish for but a very general view of them.
In passing my eye rapidly over parts of the book, I was struck with two
passages, on which I will make observations, not doubting your wish, in
any future edition, to render the work as correct as you can. In page 186
you say the potatoe is a native of the United States. I presume you speak
of the Irish potatoe. I have inquired much into the question, and think I
can assure you that plant is not a native of North America. Zimmerman, in
his "Geographical Zoology," says it is a native of Guiana; and Clavigero,
that the Mexicans got it from South America, _its native country_. The
most probable account I have been able to collect is, that a vessel of Sir
Walter Raleigh's, returning from Guiana, put into the west of Ireland in
distress, having on board some potatoes which they called earth-apples.
That the season of the year, and circumstance of their being already
sprouted, induced them to give them all out there, and they were no more
heard or thought of, till they had been spread considerably into that
island, whence they were carried over into England, and therefore called
the Irish potatoe. From England they came to the United States, bringing
their name with them.
The other passage respects the description of the passage of the Potomac
through the Blue Ridge, in the Notes on Virginia. You quote from Volney's
account of the United States what his words do not justify. His words
are, "on coming from Fredericktown, one does not see the rich perspective
mentioned in the Notes of Mr. Jefferson. On observing this to him a few
days after, he informed me he had his information from a French engineer
who, during the war of Independence, ascended the height of the hills, and
I conceive that at that elevation the perspective must be as imposing as a
wild country, whose horizon has no obstacles, may present." That the scene
described in the "Notes" is not visible from any part of the road from
Fredericktown to Harper's ferry is most certain. That road passes along
the valley, nor can it be seen from the tavern after crossing the ferry;
and we may fairly infer that Mr. Volney did not ascend the height back
of the tavern from which alone it can be seen, but that he pursued his
journey from the tavern along the high road. Yet he admits, that at the
elevation of that height the perspective may be as rich as a wild country
can present. But you make him "surprised to find, _by a view of the spot_,
that the description was _amazingly exaggerated_." But it is evident that
Mr. Volney did not ascend the hill to _get a view of the spot_, and that
he supposed that that height may present as imposing a view as such a
country admits. But Mr. Volney was mistaken in saying I told him I had
received the description from a French engineer. By an error of memory
he has misapplied to this scene what I mentioned to him as to the Natural
Bridge. I told him I received a _drawing_ of that from a French engineer
sent there by the Marquis de Chastellux, and who has published that
drawing in his travels. I could not tell him I had the description of the
passage of the Potomac from a French engineer, because I never heard any
Frenchman say a word about it, much less did I ever receive a description
of it from any mortal whatever. I visited the place myself in October
1783, wrote the description some time after, and printed the work in Paris
in 1784-5. I wrote the description from my own view of the spot, stated no
fact but what I saw, and can now affirm that no fact is exaggerated. It is
true that the same scene may excite very different sensations in different
spectators, according to their different sensibilities. The sensations
of some may be much stronger than those of others. And with respect to
the Natural Bridge, it was not a description, but a drawing only, which
I received from the French engineer. The description was written before I
ever saw him. It is not from any merit which I suppose in either of these
descriptions, that I have gone into these observations, but to correct
the imputation of having given to the world as my own, ideas, and false
ones too, which I had received from another. Nor do I mention the subject
to you with a desire that it should be any otherwise noticed before the
public than by a more correct statement in any future edition of your
work.
You mention having enclosed to me some printed letters announcing a
design in which you ask my aid. But no such letters came to me. Any facts
which I possess, and which may be useful to your views, shall be freely
communicated, and I shall be happy to see you at Monticello, should you
come this way as you propose. You will find me engaged entirely in rural
occupations, looking into the field of science but occasionally and at
vacant moments.
I sowed some of the Benni seed the last year, and distributed some among
my neighbors; but the whole was killed by the September frost. I got a
little again the last winter, but it was sowed before I received your
letter. Colonel Fen of New York receives quantities of it from Georgia,
from whom you may probably get some through the Mayor of New York. But
I little expect it can succeed with you. It is about as hardy as the
cotton plant, from which you may judge of the probability of raising it at
Hudson.
I salute you with great respect.
TO MR. JOHN WYCHE.
MONTICELLO, May 19, 1809.
SIR,--Your favor of March 19th came to hand but a few days ago, and
informs me of the establishment of the Westward Mill Library Society,
of its general views and progress. I always hear with pleasure of
institutions for the promotion of knowledge among my countrymen. The
people of every country are the only safe guardians of their own rights,
and are the only instruments which can be used for their destruction. And
certainly they would never consent to be so used were they not deceived.
To avoid this, they should be instructed to a certain degree. I have
often thought that nothing would do more extensive good at small expense
than the establishment of a small circulating library in every county,
to consist of a few well-chosen books, to be lent to the people of the
county, under such regulations as would secure their safe return in due
time. These should be such as would give them a general view of other
history, and particular view of that of their own country, a tolerable
knowledge of Geography, the elements of Natural Philosophy, of Agriculture
and Mechanics. Should your example lead to this, it will do great good.
Having had more favorable opportunities than fall to every man's lot
of becoming acquainted with the best books on such subjects as might be
selected, I do not know that I can be otherwise useful to your society
than by offering them any information respecting these which they might
wish. My services in this way are freely at their command, and I beg leave
to tender to yourself my salutations and assurances of respect.
TO THE HONORABLE JUDGE WOODWARD.
MONTICELLO, May 27, 1809.
SIR,--I have received, very thankfully, the two copies of your pamphlet
on the constitution of the U. S., and shall certainly read them with
pleasure. I had formerly looked with great interest to the experiment
which was going on in France of an executive Directory, while that of
a single elective executive was under trial here. I thought the issue
of them might fairly decide the question between the two modes. But the
untimely fate of that establishment cut short the experiment.
I have not, however, been satisfied whether the dissensions of that
Directory (and which I fear are incident to a plurality) were not the most
effective cause of the successful usurpations which overthrew them. It
is certainly one of the most interesting questions to a republican, and
worthy of great consideration. I thank you for the friendly expressions of
your letter towards myself personally, and the sincere happiness I enjoy
here, satisfies me that nothing personal or self-interested entered into
my motives for continuing in the public service. The actual experiment
proves to me that these were all in favor of returning to my present
situation. I salute you with great esteem and respect.
TO MR. W. LAMBERT.
MONTICELLO, May 28, 1809.
SIR,--Your favor of March 14th was received in due time. The apology
for so late an acknowledgment of it must be the multiplied occupations
of my new situation after so long an absence from it. Truth requires me
to add, also, that after being so long chained to the writing table,
I go to it with reluctance, and listen with partiality to every call
from any other quarter. I have not, however, been the less sensible of
the kind sentiments expressed in your letter, nor the less thankful for
them. Indeed I owe infinite acknowledgments to the republican portion
of my fellow citizens for the indulgence with which they have viewed my
proceedings generally. In the transaction of their affairs I never felt
an interested motive. The large share I have enjoyed, and still enjoy
of anti-republican hatred and calumny, gives me the satisfaction of
supposing that I have been some obstacle to anti-republican designs; and
if truth should find its way into history, the object of these falsehoods
and calumnies will render them honorable to me. With sincere wishes for
your welfare and happiness, I tender you the assurances of my esteem and
respect.
TO DOCTOR ELIJAH GRIFFITH, PHILA.
MONTICELLO, May 28, 1809.
DEAR SIR,--Your favor of Nov. 14th came to me in due time, but much
oppressed with business then and to the end of my political term, I put
it by as I did the civilities of my other friends, till the leisure I
expected here should permit me to acknowledge them without the neglect
of any public duty. I am very sensible of the kindness of the sentiments
expressed in your letter, and of the general indulgence with which my
republican friends generally, and those of Pennsylvania particularly,
have received my public proceedings. I hope I may be allowed to say
that they were always directed by a single view to the best interests of
our country. In the electoral election, Pennsylvania really spoke in a
voice of thunder to the monarchists of our country, and while that State
continues so firm, with the solid mass of republicanism to the South and
West, such efforts as we have lately seen in the anti-republican portion
of our country cannot ultimately affect our security. Our enemies may try
their cajoleries with my successor. They will find him as immovable in his
republican principles as him whom they have honored with their peculiar
enmity. The late pacification with England gives us a hope of eight years
of peaceable and wise administration, within which time our revenue will
be liberated from debt, and be free to commence that splendid course of
public improvement and wise application of the public contributions, of
which it remains for us to set the first example. I salute you with real
esteem and respect.
TO THE HON. ROBERT SMITH, SECRETARY OF STATE.
MONTICELLO, June 10, 1809.
DEAR SIR,--I enclose you a letter from Mr. Smith of Erie, one of the
members of Pennsylvania, which you will readily perceive ought to have
been addressed to you by himself; as it is official and not personal
opinion which can answer his views. I am however gratified by his mistake
in sending it to me, inasmuch as it gives me an opportunity of abstracting
myself from my rural occupations, and of saluting one with whom I have
been connected in service and in society so many years, and to whose aid
and relief on an important portion of the public cares, I have been so
much indebted. I do it with sincere affection and gratitude, and look back
with peculiar satisfaction on the harmony and cordial good will which, to
ourselves and to our brethren of the cabinet, so much sweetened our toils.
From the characters now associated in the administration, I have no doubt
of the continuance of the same cordiality so interesting to themselves and
to the public; and great as are the difficulties and dangers environing
our camp, I sleep with perfect composure, knowing who are watching for
us. I pray you to present me respectfully to Mrs. Smith, and to accept
my prayers that you may long continue in the enjoyment of health and the
public esteem in return for your useful services past and to come.
TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS.
MONTICELLO, June 13, 1809.
DEAR SIR,--I did not know till Mr. Patterson called on us, a few days
ago, that you had passed on to Washington. I had recently observed
in the debates of Congress, a matter introduced, on which I wished to
give explanations more fully in conversation, which I will now do by
abridgement in writing. Mr. Randolph has proposed an inquiry into certain
prosecutions at common law in Connecticut, for libels on the government,
and not only himself but others have stated them with such affected
caution, and such hints at the same time, as to leave on every mind
the impression that they had been instituted either by my direction, or
with my acquiescence, at least. This has not been denied by my friends,
because probably the fact is unknown to them. I shall state it for their
satisfaction, and leave it to be disposed of as they think best.
I had observed in a newspaper, (some years ago, I do not recollect the
time exactly,) some dark hints of a prosecution in Connecticut, but so
obscurely hinted that I paid little attention to it. Some considerable
time after, it was again mentioned, so that I understood that some
prosecution was going on in the federal court there, for calumnies uttered
from the pulpit against me by a clergyman. I immediately wrote to Mr.
Granger, who, I think, was in Connecticut at the time, stating that I
had laid it down as a law to myself, to take no notice of the thousand
calumnies issued against me, but to trust my character to my own conduct,
and the good sense and candor of my fellow citizens; that I had found
no reason to be dissatisfied with that course, and I was unwilling it
should be broke through by others as to any matter concerning me; and I
therefore requested him to desire the district attorney to dismiss the
prosecution. Some time after this, I heard of subpœnas being served on
General Lee, David M. Randolph, and others, as witnesses to attend the
trial. I then for the first time conjectured the subject of the libel.
I immediately wrote to Mr. Granger, to require an immediate dismission
of the prosecution. The answer of Mr. Huntington, the district attorney,
was, that these subpœnas had been issued by the defendant without his
knowledge, that it had been his intention to dismiss all the prosecutions
at the first meeting of the court, and to accompany it with an avowal
of his opinion, that they could not be maintained, because the federal
court had no jurisdiction over libels. This was accordingly done. I did
not till then know that there were other prosecutions of the same nature,
nor do I now know what were their subjects. But all went off together;
and I afterwards saw in the hands of Mr. Granger, a letter written by
the clergyman, disavowing any personal ill will towards me, and solemnly
declaring he had never uttered the words charged. I think Mr. Granger
either showed me, or said there were affidavits of at least half a
dozen respectable men, who were present at the sermon and swore no such
expressions were uttered, and as many equally respectable who swore the
contrary. But the clergyman expressed his gratification at the dismission
of the prosecution. I write all this from memory, and after too long an
interval of time to be certain of the exactness of all the details; but I
am sure there is no variation material, and Mr. Granger, correcting small
lapses of memory, can confirm every thing substantial. Certain it is, that
the prosecution had been instituted, and had made considerable progress,
without my knowledge, that they were disapproved by me as soon as known,
and directed to be discontinued. The attorney did it on the same ground
on which I had acted myself in the cases of Duane, Callendar, and others;
to wit, that the sedition law was unconstitutional and null, and that my
obligation to execute what was law, involved that of not suffering rights
secured by valid laws, to be prostrated by what was no law. I always
understood that these prosecutions had been invited, if not instituted,
by Judge Edwards, and the marshal being republican, had summoned a grand
jury partly or wholly republican; but that Mr. Huntington declared from
the beginning against the jurisdiction of the court, and had determined to
enter _nolle prosequis_ before he received my directions.
I trouble you with another subject. The law making my letters post free,
goes to those _to me_ only, not those _from_ me. The bill had got to
its passage before this was observed (and first I believe by Mr. Dana),
and the House under too much pressure of business near the close of
the session to bring in another bill. As the privilege of freedom was
given to the letters _from_ as well as _to_ both my predecessors, I
suppose no reason exists for making a distinction. And in so extensive
a correspondence as I am subject to, and still considerably on public
matters, it would be a sensible convenience to myself, as well as those
who have occasion to receive letters from me. It happens too, as I was
told at the time, (for I have never looked into it myself,) that it was
done by two distinct acts on both the former occasions. Mr. Eppes, I
think, mentioned this to me. I know from the Post Master General, that
Mr. Adams franks all his letters. I state this matter to you as being
my representative, which must apologize for the trouble of it. We have
been seasonable since you left us. Yesterday evening and this morning we
have had refreshing showers, which will close and confirm the business of
planting. Affectionately yours.
TO GENERAL DEARBORNE.
MONTICELLO, June 14, 1809.
DEAR GENERAL,--So entirely are my habits changed from constant labor at
my writing table, to constant active occupation without door, that it is
with difficulty I can resolve to take up my pen. I must do it, however,
as a matter of duty to thank you for the dumb-fish you have been so kind
as to have forwarded, and which are received safely and are found to be
excellent. I do it with pleasure also, as it gives me an opportunity
of renewing to you the assurances of my esteem, and of the friendship
I shall ever bear you as a faithful fellow-laborer in the duties of
the Cabinet, the value of whose aid there has been always justly felt
and highly estimated by me. I sincerely congratulate you on the late
pacification with England, which while it gives facility and remuneration
to your labors in your new functions, restores calm in a great degree to
the troubles of our country. Our successors have deserved well of their
country in meeting so readily the first friendly advance ever made to
us by England. I hope it is the harbinger of a return to the exercise
of common sense and common good humor, with a country with which mutual
interests would urge a mutual and affectionate intercourse. But her
conduct hitherto has been towards us so insulting, so tyrannical and so
malicious, as to indicate a contempt for our opinions or dispositions
respecting her. I hope she is now coming over to a wiser conduct, and
becoming sensible how much better it is to cultivate the good will of
the government itself, than of a faction hostile to it; to obtain its
friendship gratis than to purchase its enmity by nourishing at great
expense a faction to embarrass it, to receive the reward of an honest
policy rather than of a corrupt and vexatious one. I trust she has at
length opened her eyes to federal falsehood and misinformation, and
learnt, in the issue of the presidential election, the folly of believing
them. Such a reconciliation to the government, if real and permanent, will
secure the tranquillity of our country, and render the management of our
affairs easy and delightful to our successors, for whom I feel as much
interest as if I were still in their place. Certainly all the troubles and
difficulties in the government during our time proceeded from England; at
least all others were trifling in comparison with them.
Some time before I retired from office, I proposed to Mr. Smith of the
War Office, to place your son in the list of some nominations for the new
army. He called on me and stated that Pickering had prepared materials for
an opposition to his appointment, which he was satisfied would be easily
met with proper information, but without it, might embarrass and endanger
the appointment. We concluded therefore that it was best to put it off to
the ensuing session of Congress, and in the meantime give you notice of
it. He promised to write and explain the delay to you, and I stated the
matter to Mr. Madison, who would attend to the nomination at the proper
time. Perhaps late events may supersede all further proceeding as to that
army.
Be so good as to present my affectionate respects to Mrs. Dearborne. I
hope that her health, as well as your own, may be improved by a return
to native climate; and that you may both enjoy as many years as you
desire of health and prosperity, is the prayer of yours sincerely and
affectionately.
TO M. DUPONT DE NEMOURS.
MONTICELLO, June 28, 1809.
DEAR SIR,--The interruption of our commerce with England, produced by
our embargo and non-intercourse law, and the general indignation excited
by her barefaced attempts to make us accessories and tributaries to her
usurpations on the high seas, have generated in this country an universal
spirit for manufacturing for ourselves, and of reducing to a minimum the
number of articles for which we are dependent on her. The advantages,
too, of lessening the occasions of risking our peace on the ocean, and
of planting the consumer in our own soil by the side of the grower of
produce, are so palpable, that no temporary suspension of injuries on her
part, or agreements founded on that, will now prevent our continuing in
what we have begun. The spirit of manufacture has taken deep root among
us, and its foundations are laid in too great expense to be abandoned. The
bearer of this, Mr. Ronaldson, will be able to inform you of the extent
and perfection of the works produced here by the late state of things; and
to his information, which is greatest as to what is doing in the cities, I
can add my own as to the country, where the principal articles wanted in
every family are now fabricated within itself. This mass of _household_
manufacture, unseen by the public eye, and so much greater than what is
seen, is such at present, that let our intercourse with England be opened
when it may, not one half the amount of what we have heretofore taken
from her will ever again be demanded. The great call from the country has
hitherto been of coarse goods. These are now made in our families, and
the advantage is too sensible ever to be relinquished. It is one of those
obvious improvements in our condition which needed only to be once forced
on our attention, never again to be abandoned.
Among the arts which have made great progress among us is that
of printing. Heretofore we imported our books, and with them much
political principle from England. We now print a great deal, and shall
soon supply ourselves with most of the books of considerable demand.
But the foundation of printing, you know, is the type-foundry, and a
material essential to that is antimony. Unfortunately that mineral is
not among those as yet found in the United States, and the difficulty
and dearness of getting it from England, will force us to discontinue
our type-founderies, and resort to her again for our books, unless some
new source of supply can be found. The bearer, Mr. Ronaldson, is of the
concern of Binney & Ronaldson, type-founders of Philadelphia. He goes
to France for the purpose of opening some new source of supply, where
we learn that this article is abundant; the enhancement of the price
in England has taught us the fact, that its exportation thither from
France must be interrupted, either by the war or express prohibition.
Our relations, however, with France, are too unlike hers with England,
to place us under the same interdiction. Regulations for preventing the
transportation of the article to England, under the cover of supplies
to America, may be thought requisite. The bearer, I am persuaded, will
readily give any assurances which may be required for this object, and
the wants of his own type-foundry here are a sufficient pledge that what
he gets is _bonâ fide_ to supply them. I do not know that there will be
any obstacle to his bringing from France any quantity of antimony he may
have occasion for; but lest there should be, I have taken the liberty of
recommending him to your patronage. I know your enlightened and liberal
views on subjects of this kind, and the friendly interest you take in
whatever concerns our welfare. I place Mr. Ronaldson, therefore, in your
hands, and pray you to advise him, and patronize the object which carries
him to Europe, and is so interesting to him and to our country. His
knowledge of what is passing among us will be a rich source of information
for you, and especially as to the state and progress of our manufactures.
Your kindness to him will confer an obligation on me, and will be an
additional title to the high and affectionate esteem and respect of an
ancient and sincere friend.
TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
MONTICELLO, July 12, 1809.
DEAR SIR,--Your two letters of the 4th and 7th, were received by the last
mail. I now enclose you the rough draught of the letter to the Emperor of
Russia. I think there must be an exact _fac simile_ of it in the office,
from which Mr. Short's must have been copied; because, that the one now
enclosed has never been out of my hands, appears by there being no fold
in the paper till now, and it is evidently a polygraphical copy. I send,
for your perusal, letters of W. Short, and of Warden; because, though
private, they contain some things and views perhaps not in the public
letters. Bonaparte's successes have been what we expected, although
Warden appears to have supposed the contrary possible. It is fortunate for
Bonaparte, that he has not caught his brother Emperor; that he has left
an ostensible head to the government, who may sell it to him to secure a
mess of pottage for himself. Had the government devolved on the people,
as it did in Spain, they would resist his conquest as those of Spain do.
I expect, within a week or ten days, to visit Bedford. My absence will be
of about a fortnight. I know too well the pressure of business which will
be on you at Montpelier, to count with certainty on the pleasure of seeing
Mrs. Madison and yourself here; yet my wishes do not permit me to omit the
expression of them. In any event, I shall certainly intrude a flying visit
on you during your stay in Orange. With my respectful devoirs to Mrs.
Madison, I salute you with constant friendship and respect.
TO SKELTON JONES.
MONTICELLO, July 28, 1809.
DEAR SIR,--Your favor of June 19th, did not come to hand till the 29th,
and I have not been able to take it up till now. I lent to Mr. Burke,
my collection of newspapers from 1741 to 1760, and the further matter
which I suggested I might be able to furnish him after my return to
Monticello, was the collection of MS. laws of Virginia, which I expected
would furnish some proper and authentic materials for history, not extant
anywhere else. These I lent the last year to Mr. Hening, who is now
in possession of them and is printing them. But though this was within
Mr. Burke's period, it is entirely anterior to yours. The collection of
newspapers which I lent to Mr. Burke, I have never been able to recover,
nor to learn where they are. They were all well bound, and of course have
not probably been destroyed. If you can aid me in the recovery, you will
oblige me. I consider their preservation as a duty, because I believe
certainly there does not exist another collection of the same period. I
have examined the sequel of my collection of newspapers, and find that it
has but one paper of 1778. That is one of Piordie's of the month of May.
But my not having them is no evidence they were not printed; because I
was so continually itinerant during the revolution, that I was rarely in
a situation to preserve the papers I received. And although there were
probably occasional suspensions for want of paper, yet I do not believe
there was a total one at any time. I think, however, you might procure a
file for that or any other year, in Philadelphia or Boston. These would
furnish all the material occurrences of Virginia. You ask, what has the
historian to do with the latter part of 1776, the whole of 1777 and 1778,
and a part of 1779? This is precisely the period which was occupied in
the reformation of the laws to the new organization and principles of our
government. The committee was appointed in the latter part of 1776, and
reported in the spring or summer of 1779. At the first and only meeting of
the whole committee, (of five persons,) the question was discussed whether
we would attempt to reduce the whole body of the law into a code, the
text of which should become the law of the land? We decided against that,
because every word and phrase in that text would become a new subject
of criticism and litigation, until its sense should have been settled
by numerous decisions, and that, in the meantime, the rights of property
would be in the air. We concluded not to meddle with the common law, _i.
e._, the law preceding the existence of the statutes, further than to
accommodate it to our new principles and circumstances; but to take up
the whole body of statutes and Virginia laws, to leave out everything
obsolete or improper, insert what was wanting, and reduce the whole
within as moderate a compass as it would bear, and to the plain language
of common sense, divested of the verbiage, the barbarous tautologies and
redundancies which render the British statutes unintelligible. From this,
however, were excepted the ancient statutes, particularly those commented
on by Lord Coke, the language of which is simple, and the meaning of every
word so well settled by decisions, as so make it safest not to change
words where the sense was to be retained. After setting our plan, Col.
Mason declined undertaking the execution of any part of it, as not being
sufficiently read in the law. Mr. Lee very soon afterwards died, and the
work was distributed between Mr. Wythe, Mr. Pendleton and myself. To me
was assigned the common law, (so far as we thought of altering it,) and
the statutes down to the Reformation, or end of the reign of Elizabeth; to
Mr. Wythe, the subsequent body of the statutes, and to Mr. Pendleton the
Virginia laws. This distribution threw into my part the laws concerning
crimes and punishments, the law of descents, and the laws concerning
religion. After completing our work separately, we met, (Mr. W., Mr.
P. and myself,) in Williamsburg, and held a long session, in which we
went over the first and second parts in the order of time, weighing and
correcting every word, and reducing them to the form in which they were
afterwards reported. When we proceeded to the third part, we found that
Mr. Pendleton had not exactly seized the intentions of the committee,
which were to reform the language of the Virginia laws, and reduce the
matter to a simple style and form. He had copied the acts _verbatim_,
only omitting what was disapproved; and some family occurrence calling
him indispensably home, he desired Mr. Wythe and myself to make it what
we thought it ought to be, and authorized us to report him as concurring
in the work. We accordingly divided the work, and re-executed it entirely,
so as to assimilate its plan and execution to the other parts, as well as
the shortness of the time would admit, and we brought the whole body of
British statutes and laws of Virginia into 127 acts, most of them short.
This is the history of that work as to its execution. Its matter and the
nature of the changes made, will be a proper subject for the consideration
of the historian. Experience has convinced me that the change in the style
of the laws was for the better, and it has sensibly reformed the style of
our laws from that time downwards, insomuch that they have obtained, in
that respect, the approbation of men of consideration on both sides of the
Atlantic. Whether the change in the style and form of the criminal law,
as introduced by Mr. Taylor, was for the better, is not for me to judge.
The digest of that act employed me longer than I believe all the rest
of the work, for it rendered it necessary for me to go with great care
over Bracton, Britton, the Saxon statutes, and the works of authority on
criminal law; and it gave me great satisfaction to find that in general
I had only to reduce the law to its ancient Saxon condition, stripping it
of all the innovations and rigorisms of subsequent times, to make it what
it should be. The substitution of the penitentiary, instead of labor on
the high road and of some other punishments truly objectionable, is a just
merit to be ascribed to Mr. Taylor's law. When our report was made, the
idea of a penitentiary had never been suggested, the happy experiment of
Pennsylvania we had not then the benefit of.
To assist in filling up those years of exemption from military invasion,
an inquiry into the exertions of Virginia in the common cause during
that period, would be proper for the patriotic historian, because her
character has been very unjustly impeached by the writers of other States,
as having used no equal exertions at that time. I know it to be false;
because having all that time been a member of the legislature, I know that
our whole occupation was in straining the resources of the State to the
utmost, to furnish men, money, provisions and other necessaries to the
common cause. The proofs of this will be found in the journals and acts of
the legislature, in executive proceedings and papers, and in the auditor's
accounts. Not that Virginia furnished her quota of _requisitions_ of
either men or money; but that she was always above par, in what was
_actually_ furnished by the other States. A letter of mine written in 1779
or '80, if still among the executive papers, will furnish full evidence
of these facts. It was addressed to our delegates in answer to a formal
complaint on the subject, and was founded in unquestionable vouchers.
The inquiries in your printed letter of August, 1808, would lead to the
writing the history of my whole life, than which nothing could be more
repugnant to my feelings. I have been connected, as many fellow laborers
were, with the great events which happened to mark the epoch of our lives.
But these belong to no one in particular, all of us did our parts, and no
one can claim the transactions to himself. The most I could do would be to
revise, correct or supply any statements which should be made respecting
public transactions in which I had a part, or which may have otherwise
come within my knowledge.
I have to apologize for the delay of this answer. The active hours of the
day are all devoted to employments without doors, so that I have rarely
an interval, and more rarely the inclination, to set down to my writing
table, the divorce from which is among the greatest reliefs in my late
change of life. Still, I will always answer with pleasure any particular
inquiries you may wish to address to me, sincerely desiring for the public
good as well as your own personal concern, to contribute to the perfection
of a work from which I hope much to both; and I beg leave to tender you
the assurances of my great esteem and respect.
TO M. DASHKOFF.
MONTICELLO, August 12, 1809.
SIR,--Your favor of July 5th has been duly received, and, in it, that
of my friend Mr. Short. I congratulate you on your safe arrival in the
American hemisphere, after a voyage which must have been lengthy in time,
as it was in space. I hope you may experience no unfavorable change
in your health on so great a change of climate, and that our fervid
sun may be found as innocent as our cloudless skies must be agreeable.
I hail you with particular pleasure, as the first harbinger of those
friendly relations with your country, so desirable to ours. Both nations
being in character and practice essentially pacific, a common interest
in the rights of peaceable nations, gives us a common cause in their
maintenance; and however your excellent Emperor may have been led from
the ordinary policy of his government, I trust that the establishment of
just principles will be the result, as I am sure it is the object, of his
efforts.
When you shall have had time to accommodate yourself somewhat to our
climate, our manners and mode of living, you will probably have a
curiosity to see something of the country you have visited, something
beyond the confines of our cities. These exhibit specimens of London only,
our country is a different nation. Should your journeyings lead you into
this quarter of it, I shall be happy to receive you at Monticello, and to
renew to you in person the assurances I now tender of my great respect and
consideration.
TO THE PRESIDENT.
MONTICELLO, August 17, 1809.
DEAR SIR,
* * * * *
I never doubted the chicanery of the Anglomen on whatsoever measures
you should take in consequence of the disavowal of Erskine; yet I am
satisfied that both the proclamations have been sound. The first has been
sanctioned by universal approbation; and although it was not literally
the case foreseen by the legislature, yet it was a proper extension of
their provision to a case similar, though not the same. It proved to
the whole world our desire of accommodation, and must have satisfied
every candid federalist on that head. It was not only proper on the
well-grounded confidence that the arrangement would be honestly executed,
but ought to have taken place even had the perfidy of England been
foreseen. Their dirty gain is richly remunerated to us by our placing
them so shamefully in the wrong, and by the union it must produce among
ourselves. The last proclamation admits of quibbles, of which advantage
will doubtless be endeavored to be taken, by those for whom gain is their
god, and their country nothing. But it is soundly defensible. The British
minister assured us, that the orders of council would be revoked before
the 10th of June. The executive, trusting in that assurance, declared
by proclamation that the revocation was to take place, and that on that
event the law was to be suspended. But the event did not take place, and
the consequence, of course, could not follow. This view is derived from
the former non-intercourse law only, having never read the latter one.
I had doubted whether Congress must not be called; but that arose from
another doubt, whether their second law had not changed the ground, so
as to require their agency to give operation to the law. Should Bonaparte
have the wisdom to correct his injustice towards us, I consider war with
England as inevitable. Our ships will go to France and its dependencies,
and they will take them. This will be war on their part, and leave no
alternative but reprisal. I have no doubt you will think it safe to act
on this hypothesis, and with energy. The moment that open war shall be
apprehended from them, we should take possession of Baton Rouge. If we
do not, they will, and New Orleans becomes irrecoverable, and the western
country blockaded during the war. It would be justifiable towards Spain on
this ground, and equally so on that of title to West Florida, and reprisal
extended to East Florida. Whatever turn our present difficulty may take,
I look upon all cordial conciliation with England as desperate during the
life of the present king. I hope and doubt not that Erskine will justify
himself. My confidence is founded in a belief of his integrity, and in
the * * * * * of Canning. I consider the present as the most shameless
ministry which ever disgraced England. Copenhagen will immortalize their
infamy. In general, their administrations are so changeable, and they
are obliged to descend to such tricks to keep themselves in place, that
nothing like honor or morality can ever be counted on in transactions with
them. I salute you with all possible affection.
TO MR. JOHN W. CAMPBELL.
MONTICELLO, September 3, 1809.
SIR,--Your letter of July 29th came to hand some time since, but I have
not sooner been able to acknowledge it. In answer to your proposition for
publishing a complete edition of my different writings, I must observe
that no writings of mine, other than those merely official, have been
published, except the Notes on Virginia and a small pamphlet under the
title of a Summary View of the rights of British America. The Notes on
Virginia, I have always intended to revise and enlarge, and have, from
time to time, laid by materials for that purpose. It will be long yet
before other occupations will permit me to digest them, and observations
and inquiries are still to be made, which will be more correct in
proportion to the length of time they are continued. It is not unlikely
that this may be through my life. I could not, therefore, at present,
offer anything new for that work.
The Summary View was not written for publication. It was a draught I
had prepared for a petition to the king, which I meant to propose in my
place as a member of the convention of 1774. Being stopped on the road by
sickness, I sent it on to the Speaker, who laid it on the table for the
perusal of the members. It was thought too strong for the times, and to
become the act of the convention, but was printed by subscription of the
members, with a short preface written by one of them. If it had any merit,
it was that of first taking our true ground, and that which was afterwards
assumed and maintained.
I do not mention the Parliamentary Manual, published for the use of the
Senate of the United States, because it was a mere compilation, into which
nothing entered of my own but the arrangement, and a few observations
necessary to explain that and some of the cases.
I do not know whether your view extends to official papers of mine
which have been published. Many of these would be like old newspapers,
materials for future historians, but no longer interesting to the readers
of the day. They would consist of reports, correspondences, messages,
answers to addresses; a few of my reports while Secretary of State,
might perhaps be read by some as essays on abstract subjects. Such as the
report on measures, weights and coins, on the mint, on the fisheries, on
commerce, on the use of distilled sea-water, &c. The correspondences with
the British and French ministers, Hammond and Genet, were published by
Congress. The messages to Congress, which might have been interesting at
the moment, would scarcely be read a second time, and answers to addresses
are hardly read a first time.
So that on a review of these various materials, I see nothing encouraging
a printer to a re-publication of them. They would probably be bought by
those only who are in the habit of preserving State papers, and who are
not many.
I say nothing of numerous draughts of reports, resolutions, declarations,
&c., drawn as a Member of Congress or of the Legislature of Virginia, such
as the Declaration of Independence, Report on the Money Mint of the United
States, the act of religious freedom, &c., &c.; these having become the
acts of public bodies, there can be no personal claim to them, and they
would no more find readers now, than the journals and statute books in
which they are deposited.
I have presented this general view of the subjects which might have been
within the scope of your contemplation, that they might be correctly
estimated before any final decision. They belong mostly to a class
of papers not calculated for popular reading, and not likely to offer
profit, or even indemnification to the re-publisher. Submitting it to your
consideration, I tender you my salutations and respects.
TO GEN. WM. CLARKE.
MONTICELLO, September 10, 1809.
DEAR GENERAL,--Your favor of June 2d came duly to hand in July, and
brought me a repetition of the proofs of your kindness to me. Mr. Fitzhugh
delivered the skin of the sheep of the Rocky Mountains to the President,
from whom I expect to receive it in a few days at his own house. For
this, as well as the blanket of Indian manufacture of the same material,
which you are so kind as to offer me, accept my friendly thanks. Your
donations, and Governor Lewis', have given to my collection of Indian
curiosities an importance much beyond what I had ever counted on. The
three boxes of bones which you had been so kind as to send to New Orleans
for me, as mentioned in your letter of June 2d arrived there safely, and
were carefully shipped by the collector, and the bill of lading sent to
me. But the vessel put into the Havana, under embargo distress, was there
condemned as unseaworthy, and her enrollment surrendered at St. Mary's.
What was done with my three boxes I have not learned, but have written
to Mr. Brown, the collector, to have inquiry made after them. The bones
of this animal are now in such a state of evanescence as to render it
important to save what we can of them. Of those you had formerly sent me,
I reserved a very few for myself; I got Dr. Wistar to select from the rest
every piece which could be interesting to the Philosophical Society, and
sent the residue to the National Institute of France. These have enabled
them to decide that the animal was neither a mammoth nor an elephant, but
of a distinct kind, to which they have given the name of Mastodont, from
the protuberance of its teeth. These, from their forms, and the immense
mass of their jaws, satisfy me this animal must have been arbonverous.
Nature seems not to have provided other food sufficient for him, and the
limb of a tree would be no more to him than a bough of a cotton tree to
a horse. You mention in your letter that you are proceeding with _your
family_ to Fort Massac. This informs me that you have a family, and I
sincerely congratulate you on it, while some may think it will render you
less active in the service of the world, those who take a sincere interest
in your personal happiness, and who know that, by a law of our nature,
we cannot be happy without the endearing connections of a family, will
rejoice for your sake as I do. The world has, of right, no further claims
on yourself and General Lewis, but such as you may voluntarily render
according to your convenience, or as they may make it your interest. I
wrote lately to the Governor, but be so good as to repeat my affectionate
attachments to him, and to be assured of the same to yourself, with every
sentiment of esteem and respect.
TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
MONTICELLO, September 12, 1809.
DEAR SIR,-- * * * * *
Canning's equivocations degrade his government as well as himself. I
despair of accommodation with them, because I believe they are weak enough
to intend seriously to claim the ocean as their conquest, and think to
amuse us with embassies and negotiations, until the claim shall have been
strengthened by time and exercise, and the moment arrive when they may
boldly avow what hitherto they have only squinted at. Always yours, with
sincere affection.
TO DOCTOR BARTON.
MONTICELLO, September 21, 1809.
DEAR SIR,--I received last night your favor of the 14th, and would with
all possible pleasure have communicated to you any part or the whole
of the Indian vocabularies which I had collected, but an irreparable
misfortune has deprived me of them. I have now been thirty years availing
myself of every possible opportunity of procuring Indian vocabularies to
the same set of words; my opportunities were probably better than will
ever occur again to any person having the same desire. I had collected
about fifty, and had digested most of them in collateral columns, and
meant to have printed them the last of my stay in Washington. But not
having yet digested Captain Lewis' collection, nor having leisure then to
do it, I put it off till I should return home. The whole, as well digest
as originals, were packed in a trunk of stationery, and sent round by
water with about thirty other packages of my effects from Washington, and
while ascending James river, this package on account of its weight and
presumed precious contents, was singled out and stolen. The thief being
disappointed on opening it, threw into the river all its contents, of
which he thought he could make no use. Among them were the whole of the
vocabularies. Some leaves floated ashore and were found in the mud; but
these were very few, and so defaced by the mud and water that no general
use can be made of them. On the receipt of your letter I turned to them,
and was very happy to find, that the only morsel of an original vocabulary
among them, was Captain Lewis' of the Pani language, of which you say
you have not one word. I therefore enclose it to you as it is, and a
little fragment of some other, which I see is in his hand writing, but no
indication remains on it of what language it is. It is a specimen of the
condition of the little which was recovered. I am the more concerned at
this accident, as of the two hundred and fifty words of my vocabularies,
and the one hundred and thirty words of the great Russian vocabularies
of the languages of the other quarters of the globe, seventy-three were
common to both, and would have furnished materials for a comparison from
which something might have resulted. Although I believe no general use
can ever be made of the wrecks of my loss, yet I will ask the return of
the Pani vocabulary when you are done with it. Perhaps I may make another
attempt to collect, although I am too old to expect to make much progress
in it.
I learn with pleasure your acquisition of the pamphlet on the astronomy
of the ancient Mexicans. If it be ancient and genuine, or modern and
rational, it will be of real value. It is one of the most interesting
countries of our hemisphere, and merits every attention.
I am thankful for your kind offer of sending the original Spanish for my
perusal. But I think it a pity to trust it to the accidents of the post,
and whenever you publish the translation, I shall be satisfied to read
that which shall be given by your translator, who is, I am sure, a greater
adept in the language than I am.
Accept the assurances of my great esteem and respect.
TO JAMES FISHBACK.
MONTICELLO, September 27, 1809.
SIR,--Your favor of June 5th came to hand in due time, and I have to
acknowledge my gratification at the friendly sentiments it breathes
towards myself. We have been thrown into times of a peculiar character,
and to work our way through them has required services and sacrifices
from our countrymen generally, and to their great honor, these have
been generally exhibited, by every one in his sphere, and according
to the opportunities afforded. With them I have been a fellow laborer,
endeavoring to do faithfully the part alloted to me, as they did theirs;
and it is a subject of mutual congratulation that, in a state of things
such as the world had never before seen, we have gotten on so far well;
and my confidence in our present high functionaries, as well as in my
countrymen generally, leaves me without much fear for the future.
I thank you for the pamphlet you was so kind as to send me. At an earlier
period of life I pursued inquiries of that kind with industry and care.
Reading, reflection and time have convinced me that the interests of
society require the observation of those moral precepts only in which all
religions agree, (for all forbid us to murder, steal, plunder, or bear
false witness,) and that we should not intermeddle with the particular
dogmas in which all religions differ, and which are totally unconnected
with morality. In all of them we see good men, and as many in one as
another. The varieties in the structure and action of the human mind as in
those of the body, are the work of our Creator, against which it cannot
be a religious duty to erect the standard of uniformity. The practice of
morality being necessary for the well-being of society, he has taken care
to impress its precepts so indelibly on our hearts that they shall not be
effaced by the subtleties of our brain. We all agree in the obligation of
the moral precepts of Jesus, and nowhere will they be found delivered in
greater purity than in his discourses. It is, then, a matter of principle
with me to avoid disturbing the tranquillity of others by the expression
of any opinion on the innocent questions on which we schismatize. On the
subject of your pamphlet, and the mode of treating it, I permit myself
only to observe the candor, moderation and ingenuity with which you appear
to have sought truth. This is of good example, and worthy of commendation.
If all the writers and preachers on religious questions had been of
the same temper, the history of the world would have been of much more
pleasing aspect.
I thank you for the kindness towards myself which breathes through your
letter. The first of all our consolations is that of having faithfully
fulfilled our duties; the next, the approbation and good will of those
who have witnessed it; and I pray you to accept my best wishes for your
happiness and the assurances of my respect.
TO MESSRS. BLOODGOOD AND HAMMOND.
MONTICELLO, September 30, 1809.
GENTLEMEN,--The very friendly sentiments which my republican fellow
citizens of the city and county of New York have been pleased to express
through yourselves as their organ, are highly grateful to me, and command
my sincere thanks; and their approbation of the measures pursued, while
I was entrusted with the administration of their affairs, strengthens my
hope that they were favorable to the public prosperity. For any errors
which may have been committed, the indulgent will find some apology in
the difficulties resulting from the extraordinary state of human affairs,
and the astonishing spectacles these have presented. A world in arms and
trampling on all those moral principles which have heretofore been deemed
sacred in the intercourse between nations, could not suffer us to remain
insensible of all agitation. During such a course of lawless violence,
it was certainly wise to withdraw ourselves from all intercourse with
the belligerent nations, to avoid the desolating calamities inseparable
from war, its pernicious effects on manners and morals, and the dangers
it threatens to free governments; and to cultivate our own resources
until our natural and progressive growth should leave us nothing to fear
from foreign enterprise. That the benefits derived from these measures
were lessened by an opposition of the most ominous character, and that
a continuance of injury was encouraged by the appearance of domestic
weakness which that presented, will doubtless be a subject of deep and
durable regret to such of our well-intentioned citizens as participated
in it, under mistaken confidence in men who had other views than the good
of their own country. Should foreign nations, however, deceived by this
appearance of division and weakness, render it necessary to vindicate by
arms the injuries to our country, I believe, with you, that the spirit
of the revolution is unextinguished, and that the cultivators of peace
will again, as on that occasion, be transformed at once into a nation of
warriors, who will leave us nothing to fear for the natural and national
rights of our country.
Your approbation of the reasons which induced me to retire from the
honorable station in which my fellow citizens had placed me, is a proof
of your devotion to the true principles of our constitution. These are
wisely opposed to all perpetuations of power, and to every practice which
may lead to hereditary establishments; and certain I am that any services
which I could have rendered will be more than supplied by the wisdom and
virtues of my successor.
I am very thankful for the kind wishes you express for my personal
happiness. It will always be intimately connected with the prosperity of
our country, of which I sincerely pray that my fellow citizens of the city
and county of New York may have their full participation.
TO DON VALENTINE DE FORONDA.
MONTICELLO, October 4, 1809.
DEAR SIR,--Your favor of August the 26th came to hand in the succeeding
month, and I have now to thank you for the pamphlet it contained. I
have read it with pleasure, and find the constitution proposed would
probably be as free as is consistent with hereditary institutions. It has
one feature which I like much; that which provides that when the three
co-ordinate branches differ in their construction of the constitution, the
opinion of two branches shall overrule the third. Our constitution has not
sufficiently solved this difficulty.
Among the multitude of characters with which public office leads us to
official intercourse, we cannot fail to observe many, whose personal
worth marks them as objects of particular esteem, whom we would wish
to select for our society in private life. I avail myself gladly of the
present occasion of assuring you that I was peculiarly impressed with your
merit and talents, and that I have ever entertained for them a particular
respect. To those whose views are single and direct, it is a great comfort
to have to do business with frank and honorable minds. And here give me
leave to make an avowal, for which, in my present retirement, there can be
no motive but a regard for truth. Your predecessor, soured on a question
of etiquette against the administration of this country, wished to impute
wrong to them in all their actions, even where he did not believe it
himself. In this spirit, he wished it to be believed that we were in
unjustifiable co-operation in Miranda's expedition. I solemnly, and on my
personal truth and honor, declare to you, that this was entirely without
foundation, and that there was neither co-operation, nor connivance on our
part. He informed us he was about to attempt the liberation of his native
country from bondage, and intimated a hope of our aid, or connivance
at least. He was at once informed, that although we had great cause of
complaint against Spain, and even of war, yet whenever we should think
proper to act as her enemy, it should be openly and above board, and that
our hostility should never be exercised by such petty means. We had no
suspicion that he expected to engage men here, but merely to purchase
military stores. Against this there was no law, nor consequently any
authority for us to interpose obstacles. On the other hand, we deemed it
improper to betray his voluntary communication to the agents of Spain.
Although his measures were many days in preparation at New York, we
never had the least intimation or suspicion of his engaging men in his
enterprise, until he was gone; and I presume the secrecy of his proceeding
kept them equally unknown to the Marquis Yrujo at Philadelphia, and the
Spanish consul at New York, since neither of them gave us any information
of the enlistment of men, until it was too late for any measures taken
at Washington to prevent their departure. The officer in the Customs, who
participated in this transaction with Miranda, we immediately removed, and
should have had him and others further punished, had it not been for the
protection given them by private citizens at New York, in opposition to
the government, who, by their impudent falsehoods and calumnies, were able
to overbear the minds of the jurors. Be assured, Sir, that no motive could
induce me, at this time, to make this declaration so gratuitously, were it
not founded in sacred truth; and I will add further, that I never did, or
countenanced, in public life, a single act inconsistent with the strictest
good faith; having never believed there was one code of morality for a
public, and another for a private man.
I receive, with great pleasure, the testimonies of personal esteem which
breathes through your letter; and I pray you to accept those equally
sincere with which I now salute you.
TO MR. BARLOW.
MONTICELLO, October 8, 1809.
DEAR SIR,--It is long since I ought to have acknowledged the receipt of
your most excellent oration on the 4th of July. I was doubting what you
could say, equal to your own reputation, on so hackneyed a subject; but
you have really risen out of it with lustre, and pointed to others a field
of great expansion. A day or two after I received your letter to Bishop
Gregoire, a copy of his diatribe to you came to hand from France. I had
not before heard of it. He must have been eagle-eyed in quest of offence,
to have discovered ground for it among the rubbish massed together in
the print he animadverts on. You have done right in giving him a sugary
answer. But he did not deserve it. For, notwithstanding a compliment to
you now and then, he constantly returns to the identification of your
sentiments with the extravagances of the Revolutionary zealots. I believe
him a very good man, with imagination enough to declaim eloquently,
but without judgment to decide. He wrote to me also on the doubts I had
expressed five or six and twenty years ago, in the Notes of Virginia, as
to the grade of understanding of the negroes, and he sent me his book on
the literature of the negroes. His credulity has made him gather up every
story he could find of men of color, (without distinguishing whether
black, or of what degree of mixture,) however slight the mention, or
light the authority on which they are quoted. The whole do no amount,
in point of evidence, to what we know ourselves of Banneker. We know he
had spherical trigonometry enough to make almanacs, but not without the
suspicion of aid from Ellicot, who was his neighbor and friend, and never
missed an opportunity of puffing him. I have a long letter from Banneker,
which shows him to have had a mind of very common stature indeed. As to
Bishop Gregoire, I wrote him, as you have done, a very soft answer. It was
impossible for doubt to have been more tenderly or hesitatingly expressed
than that was in the Notes of Virginia, and nothing was or is farther from
my intentions, than to enlist myself as the champion of a fixed opinion,
where I have only expressed a doubt. St. Domingo will, in time, throw
light on the question.
I intended, ere this, to have sent you the papers I had promised you. But
I have taken up Marshall's fifth volume, and mean to read it carefully,
to correct what is wrong in it, and commit to writing such facts and
annotations as the reading of that work will bring into my recollection,
and which has not yet been put on paper; in this I shall be much aided
by my memorandums and letters, and will send you both the old and the
new. But I go on very slowly. In truth, during the pleasant season, I am
always out of doors, employed, not passing more time at my writing table
than will despatch my current business. But when the weather becomes
cold, I shall go out but little. I hope, therefore, to get through this
volume during the ensuing winter; but should you want the papers sooner,
they shall be sent at a moment's warning. The ride from Washington to
Monticello in the stage, or in a gig, is so easy that I had hoped you
would have taken a flight here during the season of good roads. Whenever
Mrs. Barlow is well enough to join you in such a visit, it must be
taken more at ease. It will give us real pleasure whenever it may take
place. I pray you to present me to her respectfully, and I salute you
affectionately.
TO ALBERT GALLATIN.
MONTICELLO, October 11, 1809.
DEAR SIR,--I do not know whether the request of Monsieur Moussier,
explained in the enclosed letter, is grantable or not. But my partialities
in favor of whatever may promote either the useful or liberal arts, induce
me to place it under your consideration, to do in it whatever is right,
neither more nor less. I would then ask you to favor me with three lines,
in such form as I may forward him by way of answer.
I have reflected much and painfully on the change of dispositions
which has taken place among the members of the cabinet, since the new
arrangement, as you stated to me in the moment of our separation. It
would be, indeed, a great public calamity were it to fix you in the
purpose which you seemed to think possible. I consider the fortunes of
our republic as depending, in an eminent degree, on the extinguishment
of the public debt before we engage in any war: because, that done, we
shall have revenue enough to improve our country in peace and defend it
in war, without recurring either to new taxes or loans. But if the debt
should once more be swelled to a formidable size, its entire discharge
will be despaired of, and we shall be committed to the English career of
debt, corruption and rottenness, closing with revolution. The discharge
of the debt, therefore, is vital to the destinies of our government,
and it hangs on Mr. Madison and yourself alone. We shall never see
another President and Secretary of the Treasury making all other objects
subordinate to this. Were either of you to be lost to the public, that
great hope is lost. I had always cherished the idea that you would fix
on that object the measure of your fame, and of the gratitude which our
country will owe you. Nor can I yield up this prospect to the secondary
considerations which assail your tranquillity. For sure I am, they never
can produce any other serious effect. Your value is too justly estimated
by our fellow citizens at large, as well as their functionaries, to
admit any remissness in their support of you. My opinion always was,
that none of us ever occupied stronger ground in the esteem of Congress
than yourself, and I am satisfied there is no one who does not feel
your aid to be still as important for the future as it has been for the
past. You have nothing, therefore, to apprehend in the dispositions of
Congress, and still less of the President, who, above all men, is the
most interested and affectionately disposed to support you. I hope, then,
you will abandon entirely the idea you expressed to me, and that you will
consider the eight years to come as essential to your political career.
I should certainly consider any earlier day of your retirement, as the
most inauspicious day our new government has ever seen. In addition to
the common interest in this question, I feel particularly for myself the
considerations of gratitude which I personally owe you for your valuable
aid during my administration of public affairs, a just sense of the large
portion of the public approbation which was earned by your labors and
belongs to you, and the sincere friendship and attachment which grew out
of our joint exertions to promote the common good; and of which I pray you
now to accept the most cordial and respectful assurances.
TO THE CHEVALIER DE ONIS.
MONTICELLO, November 4, 1809.
Thomas Jefferson presents his respectful compliments to his Excellency the
Chevalier de Onis, and congratulates him on his safe arrival in the United
States, and at a season so propitious for the preservation of health
against the effects of a sensible and sudden change of climate. He hopes
that his residence here will be made agreeable to him, and that it will be
useful in cementing the friendship and intercourse of the two nations, so
advantageous to both. He would have been happy to have paid his respects
to the Chevalier de Onis in person, and to have had the honor of forming
his acquaintance; but the distance and bad roads deny him that pleasure.
He learns with great satisfaction that his venerable and worthy friend,
Mr. Yznardi, continues in life and health, and takes this occasion of
bearing testimony to his loyal and honorable conduct while in the United
States. He salutes the Chevalier de Onis with assurances of his high
respect and consideration.
TO GEORGE W. IRVING, ESQ.
MONTICELLO, November 23, 1809.
SIR,--An American vessel, the property of a respectable merchant of
Georgetown, on a voyage to some part of Europe for general purposes
of commerce, proposes to touch at some part of Spain with the view of
obtaining Merino sheep to be brought to our country. The necessity we are
under, and the determination we have formed of emancipating ourselves
from a dependence on foreign countries for manufactures which may be
advantageously established among ourselves, has produced a very general
desire to improve the quality of our wool by the introduction of the
Merino race of sheep. Your sense of the duties you owe to your station
will not permit me to ask, nor yourself to do any act which might
compromit you with the government with which you reside, or forfeit
that confidence on their part which can alone enable you to be useful
to your country. But as far as that will permit you to give aid to the
procuring and bringing away some of the valuable race, I take the liberty
of soliciting you to do so--it will be an important service rendered to
your country: to which you will be further encouraged by the assurance
that the enterprise is solely on the behalf of agricultural gentlemen of
distinguished character in Washington and its neighborhood, with a view
of disseminating the benefits of their success as widely as they can.
Without any interest in it myself, other than the general one, I cannot
help wishing a favorable result, and therefore add my solicitations to the
assurances of my constant esteem and respect.
TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
MONTICELLO, November 26, 1809.
DEAR SIR,--Your letter of the 6th was received from our post office on
the 24th, after my return from Bedford. I now re-enclose the letters of
Mr. Short and Romanzoff, and with them a letter from Armstrong, for your
perusal, as there may be some matters in it not otherwise communicated.
The infatuation of the British government and nation is beyond every
thing imaginable. A thousand circumstances announce that they are
on the point of being blown up, and they still proceed with the same
madness and increased wickedness. With respect to Jackson I hear but one
sentiment, except that some think he should have been sent off. The more
moderate step was certainly more advisable. There seems to be a perfect
acquiescence in the opinion of the Government respecting Onis. The public
interest certainly made his rejection expedient, and as that is a motive
which it is not pleasant always to avow, I think it fortunate that the
contending claims of Charles and Ferdinand furnished such plausible
embarrassment to the question of right; for, on our principles, I presume,
the right of the Junta to send a Minister could not be denied. La Fayette,
in a letter to me expresses great anxiety to receive his formal titles to
the lands in Louisiana. Indeed, I know not why the proper officers have
not sooner sent on the papers on which the grants might issue. It will
be in your power to forward the grants or copies of them by some safe
conveyance, as La Fayette says that no negotiation can be effected without
them.
I enclose you a letter from Major Neely, Chickasaw agent, stating that
he is in possession of two trunks of the unfortunate Governor Lewis,
containing public vouchers, the manuscripts of his western journey, and
probably some private papers. As he desired they should be sent _to the
President_, as the public vouchers render it interesting to the public
that they should be safely received, and they would probably come most
safely if addressed to you, would it not be advisable that Major Neely
should receive an order on your part to forward them to Washington
addressed to you, by the Stage, and if possible under the care of some
person coming on? When at Washington I presume the papers may be opened
and distributed; that is to say, the vouchers to the proper offices where
they are cognizable; the manuscript voyage, &c., to General Clarke, who
is interested in it, and is believed to be now on his way to Washington;
and his private papers, if any, to his administrator--who is John Marks,
his half brother. It is impossible you should have time to examine and
distribute them; but if Mr. Coles could find time to do it, the family
would have entire confidence in his distribution. The other two trunks,
which are in the care of Capt. Russel at the Chickasaw bluffs, and which
Pernier (Gov. Lewis' servant) says contain his private property, I write
to Capt. Russel, at the request of Mr. Marks, to forward to Mr. Brown
at New Orleans, to be sent on to Richmond under my address. Pernier says
that Gov. Lewis owes him $240 for his wages. He has received money from
Neely to bring him on here, and I furnish him to Washington, where he
will arrive penniless, and will ask for some money to be placed to the
Governor's account. He rides a horse of the Governor's, which, with the
approbation of the administration, I tell him to dispose of and give
credit for the amount in his account against the Governor. He is the
bearer of this letter, and of my assurances of constant and affectionate
esteem.
TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
MONTICELLO, November 30, 1809.
DEAR SIR,--I received last night yours of the 27th, and rode this morning
to Col. Monroe's. I found him preparing to set out to-morrow morning for
London, from whence he will not return till Christmas. I had an hour or
two's frank conversation with him. The catastrophe of poor Lewis served
to lead us to the point intended. I reminded him that in the letter I
wrote to him while in Europe, proposing the Government of Orleans, I also
suggested that of Louisiana, if fears for health should be opposed to the
other. I said something on the importance of the post, its advantages,
&c.--expressed my regret at the curtain which seemed to be drawn between
him and his best friends, and my wish to see his talents and integrity
engaged in the service of his country again, and that his going into
any post would be a signal of reconciliation, on which the body of
republicans, who lamented his absence from the public service, would again
rally to him. These are the general heads of what I said to him in the
course of our conversation. The sum of his answers was, that to accept
of that office was incompatible with the respect he owed himself; that
he never would act in any office where he should be subordinate to any
body but the President himself, or which did not place his responsibility
substantially with the President and the nation; that at your accession
to the chair, he would have accepted a place in the cabinet, and would
have exerted his endeavors most faithfully in support of your fame and
measures; that he is not unready to serve the public, and especially in
the case of any difficult crisis in our affairs; that he is satisfied that
such is the deadly hatred of both France and England, and such their self
reproach and dread at the spectacle of such a government as ours, that
they will spare nothing to destroy it; that nothing but a firm union among
the whole body of republicans can save it, and therefore that no schism
should be indulged on any ground; that in his present situation, he is
sincere in his anxieties for the success of the administration, and in
his support of it as far as the limited sphere of his action or influence
extends; that his influence to this end had been used with those with
whom the world had ascribed to him an interest he did not possess, until,
whatever it was, it was lost, (he particularly named J. Randolph, who, he
said, had plans of his own, on which he took no advice;) and that he was
now pursuing what he believed his properest occupation, devoting his whole
time and faculties to the liberation of his pecuniary embarrassments,
which, three years of close attention, he hoped, would effect. In order
to know more exactly what were the kinds of employ he would accept, I
adverted to the information of the papers, which came yesterday, that
Gen. Hampton was dead, but observed that the military life in our present
state, offered nothing which could operate on the principle of patriotism;
he said he would sooner be shot than take a command under Wilkinson.
In this sketch, I have given truly the substance of his ideas, but not
always his own words. On the whole, I conclude he would accept a place in
the cabinet, or a military command dependent on the Executive alone, and
I rather suppose a diplomatic mission, because it would fall within the
scope of his views, and not because he said so, for no allusion was made
to anything of that kind in our conversation. Everything from him breathed
the purest patriotism, involving, however, a close attention to his own
honor and grade. He expressed himself with the utmost devotion to the
interests of our own country, and I am satisfied he will pursue them with
honor and zeal in any character in which he shall be willing to act.
I have thus gone far beyond the single view of your letter, that you may,
under any circumstances, form a just estimate of what he would be disposed
to do. God bless you, and carry you safely through all your difficulties.
TO MR. CHARLES F. WELLES.
MONTICELLO, December 3, 1809.
SIR,--I received, within a few days past, your favor of February 29th,
(for September, I presume,) in either case it has been long on the way.
It covered the two pieces of poetry it referred to. Of all the charges
brought against me by my political adversaries, that of possessing
some science has probably done them the least credit. Our countrymen
are too enlightened themselves, to believe that ignorance is the best
qualification for their service. If Mr. M. solicits a seat in Congress,
I am sure he will be more just to himself, and more respectful to his
electors, than to claim it on this ground.
Without pretending to all the merits so kindly ascribed by the more
friendly and poetical answer, I feel the right of claiming that of
integrity of motives. Whether the principles of the majority of our fellow
citizens, or of the little minority still opposing them, be most friendly
to the rights of man, posterity will judge; and to that arbiter I submit
my own conduct with cheerfulness. It has been a great happiness to me, to
have received the approbation of so great a portion of my fellow citizens,
and particularly of those who have opportunities of inquiring, reading
and deciding for themselves. It is on this view that I owe you especial
acknowledgments, which I pray you to accept with the assurances of my
respect.
TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
MONTICELLO, December 7, 1809.
DEAR SIR,--The enclosed letter is from Father Richard, the Director of
a school at Detroit, being on a subject in which the departments both
of the Treasury and War are concerned, I take the liberty of enclosing
it to yourself as the centre which may unite these two agencies. The
transactions which it alludes to took place in the months of December and
January preceding my retirement from office, and as I think it possible
they may not have been fully placed on the records of the War office,
because they were conducted verbally for the most part, I will give a
general statement of them as well as my recollection will enable me. In
the neighborhood of Detroit (two or three miles from the town) is a farm,
formerly the property of one Earnest, a bankrupt Collector. It is now in
the possession of the Treasury department, as a pledge for a sum in which
he is in default to the government, much beyond the value of the farm.
As it is a good one, has proper buildings, and in a proper position for
the purpose contemplated, General Dearborne proposed to purchase it for
the War department at its real value. Mr. Gallatin thought he should ask
the sum for which it was hypothecated. I do not remember the last idea
in which we all concurred; but I believe it was that, as the Treasury
must, in the end, sell it for what it could get, the War department would
become a bidder as far as its real value, and in the meantime would rent
it. On this farm we proposed to assemble the following establishments:
1st. Father Richards' school. He teaches the children of the inhabitants
of Detroit--but the part of the school within our view was that of the
young Indian girls instructed by two French females, natives of the
place, who devote their whole time and their own property, which was not
inconsiderable, to the care and instruction of Indian girls in carding,
spinning, weaving, sewing, and the other household arts suited to the
condition of the poor, and as practiced by the white women of that
condition. Reading and writing were an incidental part of their education.
We proposed that the War department should furnish the farm and the houses
for the use of the school gratis, and add $400 a year to the funds, and
that the benefits of the Institution should be extended to the boys also
of the neighboring tribes, who were to be lodged, fed, and instructed
there.
2d. To establish there the farmer at present employed by the United
States, to instruct those Indians in the use of the plough and other
implements and practices of agriculture, and in the general management
of the farm. This man was to labor the farm himself, and to have the aid
of the boys through a principal portion of the day, by which they would
contract habits of industry, learn the business of farming, and provide
subsistence for the whole Institution. Reading and writing were to be a
secondary object.
3d. To remove thither the carpenter and smith at present employed by the
United States among the same Indians; with whom such of the boys as had a
turn for it should work and learn their trades.
This establishment was recommended by the further circumstance that
whenever the Indians come to Detroit on trade or other business, they
encamp on or about this farm. This would give them opportunities of seeing
their sons and daughters, and their advancement in the useful arts--of
seeing and learning from example all the operations and process of a farm,
and of always carrying home themselves some additional knowledge of these
things. It was thought more important to extend the civilized arts, and to
introduce a separation of property among the Indians of the country around
Detroit than elsewhere, because learning to set a high value on their
property, and losing by degrees all other dependence for subsistence,
they would deprecate war with us as bringing certain destruction on their
property, and would become a barrier for that distant and isolated post
against the Indians beyond them. There are beyond them some strong tribes,
as the Sacs, Foxes, &c., with whom we have as yet had little connection,
and slender opportunities of extending to them our benefits and influence.
They are therefore ready instruments to be brought into operation on us
by a powerful neighbor, which still cultivates its influence over them by
nourishing the savage habits which waste them, rather than by encouraging
the civilized arts which would soften, conciliate and preserve them. The
whole additional expense to the United States was to be the price of the
farm, and an increase of $400 in the annual expenditures for these tribes.
This is the sum of my recollections. I cannot answer for their
exactitude in all details, but General Dearborne could supply and
correct the particulars of my statement. Mr. Gallatin, too was so often
in consultation on the subject, that he must have been informed of the
whole plan; and his memory is so much better than mine, that he will be
able to make my statement what it should be. Add to this that I think I
generally informed yourself of our policy and proceedings in the case, as
we went along; and, if I am not mistaken, it was one of the articles of a
memorandum I left with you of things still in fieri, and which would merit
your attention. I have thought it necessary to put you in possession of
these facts, that you might understand the grounds of Father Richards'
application, and be enabled to judge for yourself of the expediency of
pursuing the plan, or of the means of withdrawing from it with justice
to the individuals employed in its execution. How far we are committed
with the Indians themselves in this business will be seen in a speech
of mine to them, of January 31st, filed in the War office, and perhaps
something more may have passed to them from the Secretary of War. Always
affectionately yours.
TO DR. CHAPMAN.
MONTICELLO, December 11, 1809.
SIR,--Your favor of November 10th did not come to hand till the 29th
of that month. The subject you have chosen for the next anniversary
discourse of the Linnean Society, is certainly a very interesting and also
a difficult one. The change which has taken place in our climate, is one
of those facts which all men of years are sensible of, and yet none can
prove by regular evidence, they can only appeal to each other's general
observation for the fact. I remember that when I was a small boy, (say 60
years ago,) snows were frequent and deep in every winter--to my knee very
often, to my waist sometimes--and that they covered the earth long. And I
remember while yet young, to have heard from very old men, that in their
youth, the winters had been still colder, with deeper and longer snows. In
the year 1772, (37 years ago,) we had a snow two feet deep in the champain
parts of this State, and three feet in the counties next below the
mountains. That year is still marked in conversation by the designation
of "the year of the deep snow." But I know of no regular diaries of the
weather very far back. In latter times, they might perhaps be found. While
I lived at Washington, I kept a diary, and by recurring to that, I observe
that from the winter of 1802-3, to that of 1808-9, inclusive, the average
fall of snow of the seven winters was only fourteen and a half inches,
and that the ground was covered but sixteen days in each winter on an
average of the whole. The maximum in any one winter, during that period,
was twenty-one inches fall, and thirty-four days on the ground. The change
in our climate is very shortly noticed in the Notes on Virginia, because I
had few facts to state but from my own recollections, then only of thirty
or thirty-five years. Since that my whole time has been so completely
occupied in public vocations, that I have been able to pay but little
attention to this subject, and if I have heard any facts respecting it,
I made no note of them, and they have escaped my memory. Thus, sir, with
every disposition to furnish you with any information in my possession, I
can only express my regrets at the entire want of them. Nor do I know of
any source in this State, now existing, from which anything on the subject
can be derived. Williams, in his History of Vermont, has an essay on the
change of climate in Europe, Asia and Africa, and has very ingeniously
laid history under contribution for materials. Doctor Williamson has
written on the change of our climate, in one of the early volumes of our
philosophical transactions. Both of these are doubtless known to you.
Wishing it had been in my power to have been more useful to you, I pray
you to accept the assurances of my esteem and respect.
TO W. C. NICHOLAS, ESQ.
MONTICELLO, December 16, 1809.
DEAR SIR,--I now enclose you the agricultural catalogue. I do not know
whether I have made it more or less comprehensive than you wished;
but in either case, you can make it what it should be by reduction
or addition--there are probably other good books with which I am
unacquainted. I do not possess the Geoponica, nor Rozier's Dictionary. All
the others I have, and set them down on my own knowledge, except Young's
Experimental Agriculture, which I have not, but had the benefit of reading
your copy. I am sorry to address this catalogue to Warren, instead of
Washington. Never was there a moment when it was so necessary to unite all
the wisdom of the nation in its councils. Our affairs are certainly now at
their ultimate point of crisis. I understand the Eastern Republicans will
agree to nothing which shall render not-intercourse effectual, and that
in any question of that kind, the Federalists will have a majority. There
remains, then, only war or submission, and if we adopt the former, they
will desert us. Under these difficulties you ought not to have left us.
A temporary malady was not a just ground for permanent withdrawing, and
you are too young to be entitled as yet to decline public duties. I think
there never was a time when your presence in Congress was more desirable.
However, the die is cast, and we have only to regret what we cannot
repair. You must indulge me a little in scolding on this subject, and the
rather as it is the effect of my great esteem and respect.
TO MR. SAMUEL KERCHEVAL.
MONTICELLO, January 15, 1810.
SIR,--Your favor of December 12th has been duly received, as was also
that of September 28th. With the blank subscription paper for the academy
of Frederic county, enclosed in your letter of September, nothing has
been done. I go rarely from home, and therefore have little opportunity
of soliciting subscriptions. Nor could I do it in the present case in
conformity with my own judgment of what is best for institutions of this
kind. We are all doubtless bound to contribute a certain portion of our
income to the support of charitable and other useful public institutions.
But it is a part of our duty also to apply our contributions in the
most effectual way we can to secure their object. The question then is
whether this will not be better done by each of us appropriating our
whole contributions to the institutions within our own reach, under our
own eye; and over which we can exercise some useful control? Or would
it be better that each should divide the sum he can spare among all
the institutions of his State, or of the United States? Reason, and the
interest of these institutions themselves, certainly decide in favor of
the former practice. This question has been forced on me heretofore by the
multitude of applications which have come to me from every quarter of the
Union on behalf of academies, churches, missions, hospitals, charitable
establishments, &c. Had I parcelled among them all the contributions which
I could spare, it would have been for each too feeble a sum to be worthy
of being either given or received. If each portion of the State, on the
contrary, will apply its aids and its attentions exclusively to those
nearest around them, all will be better taken care of. Their support,
their conduct, and the best administration of their funds, will be under
the inspection and control of those most convenient to take cognizance
of them, and most interested in their prosperity. With these impressions
myself, I could not propose to others what my own judgment disapproved, as
to their duty as well as my own. These considerations appear so conclusive
to myself, that I trust they will be a sufficient apology for my not
having fulfilled your wishes with respect to the paper enclosed. They
are therefore submitted to your candor, with assurances of my best wishes
for the success of the institution you patronize, and of my respect and
consideration for yourself.
TO MR. EPPES.
MONTICELLO, January 17, 1810.
DEAR SIR,--Yours of the 10th came safely to hand, and I now enclose you
a letter from Francis; he continues in excellent health, and employs his
time well. He has written to his mamma and grandmamma. I observe that the
H. of R. are sensible of the ill effects of the long speeches in their
house on their proceedings. But they have a worse effect in the disgust
they excite among the people, and the disposition they are producing to
transfer their confidence from the legislature to the executive branch,
which would soon sap our constitution. These speeches, therefore, are
less and less read, and if continued will cease to be read at all.
The models for that oratory which is to produce the greatest effect by
securing the attention of hearers and readers, are to be found in Livy,
Tacitus, Sallust, and most assuredly not in Cicero. I doubt if there is
a man in the world who can now read one of his orations through but as
a piece of task-work. I observe the house is endeavoring to remedy the
eternal protraction of debate by setting up all night, or by the use
of the Previous Question. Both will subject them to the most serious
inconvenience. The latter may be turned upon themselves by a trick of
their adversaries. I have thought that such a rule as the following would
be more effectual and less inconvenient. "Resolved that at [viii.] o'clock
in the evening (whenever the house shall be in session at that hour) it
shall be the duty of the Speaker to declare that hour arrived, whereupon
all debate shall cease. If there be then before the house a main question
for the reading or passing of a bill, resolution or order, such main
question shall immediately be put by the Speaker, and decided by yeas and
nays.
"If the question before the house be secondary, as for amendment,
commitment, postponement, adjournment of the debate or question, laying
on the table, reading papers, or a previous question, such secondary, [or
any other which may delay the main question,] shall stand _ipso facto_
discharged, and the main question shall then be before the house, and
shall be immediately put and decided by yeas and nays. But a motion for
adjournment of the house, may once and once only, take place of the main
question, and if decided in the negative, the main question shall then
be put as before. Should any question of order arise, it shall be decided
by the Speaker instanter, and without debate or appeal; and questions of
privilege arising, shall be postponed till the main question be decided.
Messages from the President or Senate may be received but not acted on
till after the decision of the main question. But this rule shall be
suspended during the [three] last days of the session of Congress."
No doubt this, on investigation, will be found to need amendment; but I
think the principle of it better adapted to meet the evil than any other
which has occurred to me. You can consider and decide upon it, however,
and make what use of it you please, only keeping the source of it to
yourself. Ever affectionately yours.
TO MR. SAMUEL KERCHEVAL.
MONTICELLO, January 19, 1810.
SIR,--Yours of the 7th inst. has been duly received, with the pamphlet
enclosed, for which I return you my thanks. Nothing can be more exactly
and seriously true than what is there stated: that but a short time
elapsed after the death of the great reformer of the Jewish religion,
before his principles were departed from by those who professed to be his
special servants, and perverted into an engine for enslaving mankind,
and aggrandizing their oppressors in Church and State: that the purest
system of morals ever before preached to man has been adulterated and
sophisticated by artificial constructions, into a mere contrivance to
filch wealth and power to themselves: that rational men, not being able to
swallow their impious heresies, in order to force them down their throats,
they raise the hue and cry of infidelity, while themselves are the
greatest obstacles to the advancement of the real doctrines of Jesus, and
do, in fact, constitute the real Anti-Christ.
You expect that your book will have some effect on the prejudices
which the society of Friends entertain against the present and late
administrations. In this I think you will be disappointed. The Friends
are men formed with the same passions, and swayed by the same natural
principles and prejudices as others. In cases where the passions are
neutral, men will display their respect for the religious _professions_
of their sect. But where their passions are enlisted, these _professions_
are no obstacle. You observe very truly, that both the late and present
administration conducted the government on principles _professed_ by the
Friends. Our efforts to preserve peace, our measures as to the Indians,
as to slavery, as to religious freedom, were all in consonance with their
_profession_. Yet I never expected we should get a vote from them, and in
this I was neither deceived nor disappointed. There is no riddle in this
to those who do not suffer themselves to be duped by the _professions_ of
religions sectaries. The theory of American Quakerism is a very obvious
one. The mother society is in England. Its members are English by birth
and residence, devoted to their own country as good citizens ought to be.
The Quakers of these States are colonies or filiations from the mother
society, to whom that society sends its yearly lessons. On these, the
filiated societies model their opinions, their conduct, their passions
and attachments. A Quaker is essentially an Englishman, in whatever
part of the earth he is born or lives. The outrages of Great Britain on
our navigation and commerce, have kept us in perpetual bickerings with
her. The Quakers here have taken side against their own government, not
on their _profession_ of peace, for they saw that peace was our object
also; but from devotion to the views of the mother society. In 1797-8,
when an administration sought war with France, the Quakers were the
most clamorous for war. Their principle of peace, as a secondary one,
yielded to the primary one of adherence to the Friends in England, and
what was patriotism in the original, became treason in the copy. On that
occasion, they obliged their good old leader, Mr. Pemberton, to erase his
name from a petition to Congress against war, which had been delivered
to a Representative of Pennsylvania, a member of the late and present
administration; he accordingly permitted the old gentleman to erase his
name. You must not therefore expect that your book will have any more
effect on the Society of Friends here, than on the English merchants
settled among us. I apply this to the Friends in general, not universally.
I know individuals among them as good patriots as we have.
I thank you for the kind wishes and sentiments towards myself, expressed
in your letter, and sincerely wish to yourself the blessings of heaven and
happiness.
TO MR. BALDWIN.
MONTICELLO, January 19, 1810.
Thomas Jefferson returns to Mr. Baldwin his thanks for the copy of the
letters of Cerus and Amicus just received from him. He sincerely wishes
its circulation among the Society of Friends may have the effect Mr.
Baldwin expects, of abating their prejudices against the government of
their country. But he apprehends their disease is too deeply seated; that
identifying themselves with the mother society in England, and taking
from them implicitly their politics, their principles and passions, it
will be long before they will cease to be Englishmen in everything but the
place of their birth, and to consider that, and not America, as their real
country. He is particularly thankful to Mr. Baldwin for the kind wishes
and sentiments expressed in his letter, and sincerely wishes to him the
blessings of health and happiness.
TO MR. THOMAS T. HEWSON.
MONTICELLO, January 21, 1810.
SIR,--I have duly received your favor of the 8th inst., informing me that
the American Philosophical Society had been pleased again unanimously to
re-elect me their President. For these continued testimonials of their
favor, I can but renew the expressions of my continued gratitude, and
the assurances of my entire devotion to their service. If, in my present
situation, I can in any wise forward their laudable pursuits for the
information and benefit of mankind, all other duties shall give place to
that.
I pray you to be the channel of communicating these sentiments, with
the expressions of my dutiful respects to the Society, and to accept,
yourself, the assurance of my great esteem and respect.
TO THE HONORABLE PAUL HAMILTON.
MONTICELLO, January 23, 1810.
SIR,--The enclosed letter would have been more properly addressed to
yourself, or perhaps to the Secretary of War. I have no knowledge at all
of the writer; but suppose the best use I can make of his letter, as to
himself or the public, is to enclose it to you for such notice only as
the public utility may entitle it to; perhaps I should ask the favor of
you to communicate it, with the samples, and with my friendly respects,
to the Secretary of War, who may know something of the writer. I recollect
that his predecessor made some trial of cotton tenting, and found it good
against the water. Its combustibility, however, must be an objection to
it for that purpose, and perhaps even on shipboard. I avail myself of
the occasion which this circumstance presents of expressing my sincere
anxieties for the prosperity of the administration in all its parts, which
indeed involves the prosperity of us all, and of tendering to yourself in
particular the assurances of my high respect and consideration.
TO MR. BARLOW.
MONTICELLO, January 24, 1810.
DEAR SIR,--Yours of the 15th is received, and I am disconsolate on
learning my mistake as to your having a dynamometer. My object being to
bring a plough to be made here to the same standard of comparison by which
Guillaume's has been proved, nothing less would be satisfactory than an
instrument made by the same standard. I must import one, therefore, but
how, in the present state of non-intercourse, is the difficulty. I do
not know * * * personally, but by character well. He is the most red-hot
federalist, famous, or rather infamous for the lying and slandering
which he vomited from the pulpit in the political harangues with which
he polluted the place. I was honored with much of it. He is a man who
can prove everything if you will take his word for proof. Such evidence
of Hamilton's being a republican he may bring; but Mr. Adams, Edmund
Randolph, and myself, could repeat an explicit declaration of Hamilton's
against which * * proofs would weigh nothing.
I am sorry to learn that your rural occupations impede so much the
progress of your much to be desired work. You owe to republicanism,
and indeed to the future hopes of man, a faithful record of the _march_
of this government, which may encourage the oppressed to go and do so
likewise. Your talents, your principles, and your means of access to
public and private sources of information, with the leisure which is at
your command, point you out as the person who is to do this act of justice
to those who believe in the improvability of the condition of man, and
who have acted on that behalf, in opposition to those who consider man
as a beast of burthen made to be rode by him who has genius enough to
get a bridle into his mouth. The dissensions between two members of the
Cabinet are to be lamented. But why should these force Mr. Gallatin to
withdraw? They cannot be greater than between Hamilton and myself, and
yet we served together four years in that way. We had indeed no personal
dissensions. Each of us, perhaps, thought well of the other as a man,
but as politicians it was impossible for two men to be of more opposite
principles. The method of separate consultation, practised sometimes in
the Cabinet, prevents disagreeable collisions.
You ask my opinion of Maine. I think him a most excellent man. Sober,
industrious, intelligent and conscientious. But, in the difficulty
of changing a nursery establishment, I suspect you will find an
insurmountable obstacle to his removal. Present me respectfully to Mrs.
Barlow, and be assured of my constant and affectionate esteem.
P. S. The day before yesterday the mercury was at 5½° with us, a very
uncommon degree of cold here. It gave us the first ice for the ice house.
TO GIDEON GRANGER, ESQ.
MONTICELLO, January 24, 1810.
DEAR SIR,--I was sorry, by a letter from Mr. Barlow the other day, to
learn the ill state of your health, and I sincerely wish that this may
find you better. Young, temperate and prudent as you are, great confidence
may be reposed in the provision nature has made for the restoration of
order in your system when it has become deranged; she effects her object
by strengthening the whole system, towards which medicine is generally
mischevous. Nor are the sedentary habits of office friendly to it. But
of all this your own good understanding, instructed by your experience,
is the best judge. * * * * * I cannot pass over this occasion of writing
to you, the first presented me since retiring from office, without
expressing to you my sense of the important aid I received from you in
the able and faithful direction of the office committed to your charge.
With such auxiliaries, the business and burthen of government becomes all
but insensible, and its painful anxieties are relieved by the certainty
that all is going right. In no department did I feel this sensation more
strongly than in yours, and though at this time of little significance
to yourself, it is a relief to my mind to discharge the duty of bearing
this testimony to your valuable services. I must add my acknowledgments
for your friendly interference in setting the public judgment to rights
with respect to the Connecticut prosecutions, so falsely and maliciously
charged on me. I refer to a statement of the facts in the National
Intelligencer of many months past, which I was sensible came from your
hand. I pray you to be assured of my great and constant attachment, esteem
and respect.
TO MR. J. GARLAND JEFFERSON.
MONTICELLO, January 25, 1810.
DEAR SIR,--Your favor of December 12th was long coming to hand. I am much
concerned to learn that any disagreeable impression was made on your mind,
by the circumstances which are the subject of your letter. Permit me first
to explain the principles which I had laid down for my own observance.
In a government like ours, it is the duty of the Chief Magistrate, in
order to enable himself to do all the good which his station requires,
to endeavor, by all honorable means, to unite in himself the confidence
of the whole people. This alone, in any case where the energy of the
nation is required, can produce a union of the powers of the whole, and
point them in a single direction, as if all constituted but one body
and one mind, and this alone can render a weaker nation unconquerable
by a stronger one. Towards acquiring the confidence of the people, the
very first measure is to satisfy them of his disinterestedness, and that
he is directing their affairs with a single eye to their good, and not
to build up fortunes for himself and family, and especially, that the
officers appointed to transact their business, are appointed because
they are the fittest men, not because they are his relations. So prone
are they to suspicion, that where a President appoints a relation of his
own, however worthy, they will believe that favor and not merit, was the
motive. I therefore laid it down as a law of conduct for myself, never to
give an appointment to a relation. Had I felt any hesitation in adopting
this rule, examples were not wanting to admonish me what to do and what
to avoid. Still, the expression of your willingness to act in any office
for which you were qualified, could not be imputed to you as blame. It
would not readily occur that a person qualified for office ought to be
rejected merely because he was related to the President, and the then more
recent examples favored the other opinion. In this light I considered the
case as presenting itself to your mind, and that the application might
be perfectly justifiable on your part, while, for reasons occurring to
none perhaps, but the person in my situation, the public interest might
render it unadvisable. Of this, however, be assured that I considered the
proposition as innocent on your part, and that it never lessened my esteem
for you, or the interest I felt in your welfare.
My stay in Amelia was too short, (only twenty-four hours,) to expect the
pleasure of seeing you there. It would be a happiness to me any where,
but especially here, from whence I am rarely absent. I am leading a
life of considerable activity as a farmer, reading little and writing
less. Something pursued with ardor is necessary to guard us from the
_tedium-vitæ_, and the active pursuits lessen most our sense of the
infirmities of age. That to the health of youth you may add an old age of
vigor, is the sincere prayer of
Yours, affectionately.
TO JUDGE DAVID CAMPBELL.
MONTICELLO, January 28, 1810.
DEAR SIR,--Your letter of November 5th, was two months on its passage to
me. I am very thankful for all the kind expressions of friendship in it,
and I consider it a great felicity, through a long and trying course of
life, to have retained the esteem of my early friends unaltered. I find in
old age that the impressions of youth are the deepest and most indelible.
Some friends, indeed, have left me by the way, seeking, by a different
political path, the same object, their country's good, which I pursued
with the crowd along the common highway. It is a satisfaction to me that
I was not the first to leave them. I have never thought that a difference
in political, any more than in religious opinions, should disturb the
friendly intercourse of society. There are so many other topics on which
friends may converse and be happy, that it is wonderful they would select,
of preference, the only one on which they cannot agree. I am sensible
of the mark of esteem manifested by the name you have given to your son.
Tell him from me, that he must consider as essentially belonging to it,
to love his friends and wish no ill to his enemies. I shall be happy to
see him here whenever any circumstance shall lead his footsteps this way.
You doubt, between law and physic, which profession he shall adopt. His
peculiar turn of mind, and your own knowledge of things will best decide
this question. Law is quite overdone. It is fallen to the ground, and
a man must have great powers to raise himself in it to either honor or
profit. The mob of the profession get as little money and less respect,
than they would by digging the earth. The followers of Esculapius are
also numerous. Yet I have remarked that wherever one sets himself down
in a good neighborhood, not pre-occupied, he secures to himself its
practice, and if prudent, is not long in acquiring whereon to retire and
live in comfort. The physician is happy in the attachment of the families
in which he practices. All think he has saved some one of them, and he
finds himself everywhere a welcome guest, a home in every house. If, to
the consciousness of having saved some lives, he can add that of having
at no time, from want of caution, destroyed the boon he was called on to
save, he will enjoy, in age, the happy reflection of not having lived in
vain; while the lawyer has only to recollect how many, by his dexterity,
have been cheated of their right and reduced to beggary. After all, I end
where I began, with the observation that your son's disposition and your
prudence, are the best arbiters of this question, and with the assurances
of my great esteem and respect.
TO CÆSAR A. RODNEY.
MONTICELLO, February 10, 1810.
MY DEAR SIR,--I have to thank you for your favor of the 31st ultimo,
which is just now received. It has been peculiarly unfortunate for
us, personally, that the portion in the history of mankind, at which
we were called to take a share in the direction of their affairs, was
such an one as history has never before presented. At any other period,
the even-handed justice we have observed towards all nations, the
efforts we have made to merit their esteem by every act which candor or
liberality could exercise, would have preserved our peace, and secured
the unqualified confidence of all other nations in our faith and probity.
But the hurricane which is now blasting the world, physical and moral,
has prostrated all the mounds of reason as well as right. All those
calculations which, at any other period, would have been deemed honorable,
of the existence of a moral sense in man, individually or associated,
of the connection which the laws of nature have established between his
duties and his interests, of a regard for honest fame and the esteem of
our fellow men, have been a matter of reproach on us, as evidences of
imbecility. As if it could be a folly for an honest man to suppose that
others could be honest also, when it is their interest to be so. And when
is this state of things to end? The death of Bonaparte would, to be sure,
remove the first and chiefest apostle of the desolation of men and morals,
and might withdraw the scourge of the land. But what is to restore order
and safety on the ocean? The death of George III? Not at all. He is only
stupid; and his ministers, however weak and profligate in morals, are
ephemeral. But his nation is permanent, and it is that which is the tyrant
of the ocean. The principle that force is right, is become the principle
of the nation itself. They would not permit an honest minister, were
accident to bring such an one into power, to relax their system of lawless
piracy. These were the difficulties when I was with you. I know they are
not lessened, and I pity you.
It is a blessing, however, that our people are reasonable; that they
are kept so well informed of the state of things as to judge for
themselves, to see the true sources of their difficulties, and to maintain
their confidence undiminished in the wisdom and integrity of their
functionaries. _Macte virtute_ therefore. Continue to go straight forward,
pursuing always that which is right, as the only clue which can lead us
out of the labyrinth. Let nothing be spared of either reason or passion,
to preserve the public confidence entire, as the only rock of our safety.
In times of peace the people look most to their representatives; but in
war, to the executive solely. It is visible that their confidence is even
now veering in that direction; that they are looking to the executive
to give the proper direction to their affairs, with a confidence as
auspicious as it is well founded.
I avail myself of this, the first occasion of writing to you, to express
all the depth of my affection for you; the sense I entertain of your
faithful co-operation in my late labors, and the debt I owe for the
valuable aid I received from you. Though separated from my fellow laborers
in place and pursuit, my affections are with you all, and I offer daily
prayers that ye love one another, as I love you. God bless you.
TO REV. MR. KNOX.
MONTICELLO, February 12, 1810.
SIR,--Your favor of January 22d loitered on the way somewhere, so as not
to come to my hand until the 5th inst. The title of the tract of Buchanan
which you propose to translate, was familiar to me, and I possessed the
tract; but no circumstance had ever led me to look into it. Yet I think
nothing more likely than that, in the free spirit of that age and state
of society, principles should be avowed, which were felt and followed,
although unwritten in the Scottish constitution. Undefined powers had
been entrusted to the crown, undefined rights retained by the people, and
these depended for their maintenance on the spirit of the people, which,
in that day was dependence sufficient. I shall certainly, after what you
say of it, give it a serious reading. His latinity is so pure as to claim
a place in school reading, and the sentiments which have recommended the
work to your notice, are such as ought to be instilled into the minds of
our youth on their first opening. The boys of the rising generation are
to be the men of the next, and the sole guardians of the principles we
deliver over to them. That I have acted through life on those of sincere
republicanism I feel in every fibre of my constitution. And when men who
feel like myself, bear witness in my favor, my satisfaction is complete.
The testimony of approbation implied in the desire you express of coupling
my name with Buchanan's work, and your translation of it, cannot but be
acceptable and flattering; and the more so as coming from one of whom
a small acquaintance had inspired me with a great esteem. This I am now
happy in finding an occasion to express. The times which brought us within
mutual observation were awfully trying. But truth and reason are eternal.
They have prevailed. And they will eternally prevail, however, in times
and places they may be overborne for a while by violence, military, civil,
or ecclesiastical. The preservation of the holy fire is confided to us by
the world, and the sparks which will emanate from it will ever serve to
rekindle it in other quarters of the globe, _numinibus secundis_.
Amidst the immense mass of detraction which was published against me,
when my fellow citizens proposed to entrust me with their concerns, and
the efforts of more candid minds to expose their falsehood, I retain a
remembrance of the pamphlet you mention. But I never before learned who
was its author; nor was it known to me that Mr. Pechin had ever published
a copy of the Notes on Virginia. But had all this been known, I should
have seen myself with pride by your side. Wherever you lead, we may all
safely follow, assured that it is in the path of truth and liberty. Mr.
Pechin knew well that your introduction would plead for his author, and
only erred in not asking your leave. Wishing every good effect which may
follow your undertaking, I tender you the assurances of my high esteem and
respect.
TO W. D. G. WORTHINGTON, ESQ.
MONTICELLO, February 24, 1810.
SIR,--I have to thank you for the pamphlet you have been so kind as
to send me, and especially for its contents so far as they respect
myself personally. I had before read your speech in the newspapers,
with great satisfaction, and the more, as, besides the able defence of
the government, I saw that an absent and retired servant would still
find, in the justice of the public counsellors, friendly advocates who
would not suffer his name to be maligned without answer or reproof.
If, brooding over past calamities, the attentions of federalism can, by
abusing me, be diverted from disturbing the course of government, they
will make me useful longer than I had expected to be so. Having served
them faithfully for a term of twelve or fourteen years, in the terrific
station of Rawhead and Bloodybones, it was supposed that, retired from
power, I should have been _functus officio_, of course, for them also.
If, nevertheless, they wish my continuance in that awful office, I yield,
and the rather as it may be exercised at home, without interfering with
the tranquil enjoyment of my farm, my family, my friends and books. In
truth, having never felt a pain from their abuse, I bear them no malice.
Contented with our government, elective as it is in three of its principal
branches, I wish not, on Hamilton's plan, to see two of them for life;
and still less, hereditary, as others desire. I believe that the yeomanry
of the Federalists think on this subject with me. They are substantially
republican. But some of their leaders, who get into the public councils,
would prefer Hamilton's government, and still more the hereditary one.
_Hinc illæ lachrymæ_, I wish them no harm, but that they may never get
into power, not _for their harm_, but for the good of our country. I hope
the friends of republican government will keep strict watch over them, and
not let them want, when they need it, the wholesome discipline of which
you have sent me a specimen. I commit them with entire confidence to your
care, and salute you with esteem and respect.
TO MR. BURWELL.
MONTICELLO, February 25, 1810.
DEAR SIR,--Yours of the 16th, has given me real uneasiness. I was
certainly very unfortunate in the choice of my expression, when I hit
upon one which could excite any doubt of my unceasing affections for
you. In observing that you might use the information as you should find
proper, I meant merely that you might communicate it to the President, the
Secretaries of State or War, or to young Mr. Lee, as should be judged by
yourself most proper. I meant particularly, to permit its communication
to Mr. Lee, to enlighten his enquiries, for I do not know that his
father received the medal. I could only conduct the information to the
completion of the dye and striking off a proof. With such assurances as
I have of your affection, be assured that nothing but the most direct and
unequivocal proofs can ever make me suspect its abatement, and conscious
of as warm feelings towards yourself, I hope you will ever be as unready
to doubt them. Let us put this, then, under our feet.
I like your convoy bill, because although it does not assume the
maintenance of all our maritime rights, it assumes as much as it is our
interest to maintain. Our coasting trade is the first and most important
branch, never to be yielded but with our existence. Next to that is the
carriage of our own productions in our own vessels, and bringing back the
returns for our own consumption; so far I would protect it, and force
every part of the Union to join in the protection at the point of the
bayonet. But though we have a right to the remaining branch of carrying
for other nations, its advantages do not compensate its risks. Your bill
first rallies us to the ground the constitution ought to have taken,
and to which we ought to return without delay; the moment is the most
favorable possible, because the Eastern States, by declaring they will not
protect that cabotage by war, and forcing us to abandon it, have released
us from every future claim for its protection on that part. Your bill is
excellent in another view: it presents still one other ground to which we
can retire before we resort to war; it says to the belligerents, rather
than go to war, we will retire from the brokerage of other nations, and
confine ourselves to the carriage and exchange of our own productions; but
we will vindicate that in all its rights--if you touch it, it is war.
The present delightful weather has drawn us all into our farms and
gardens; we have had the most devastating rain which has ever fallen
within my knowledge. Three inches of water fell in the space of about
an hour. Every hollow of every hill presented a torrent which swept
everything before it. I have never seen the fields so much injured. Mr.
Randolph's farm is the only one which has not suffered; his horizontal
furrows arrested the water at every step till it was absorbed, or at least
had deposited the soil it had taken up. Everybody in this neighborhood is
adopting his method of ploughing, except tenants who have no interest in
the preservation of the soil.
Present me respectfully to Mrs. Burwell, and be assured of my constant
affection.
TO GENERAL KOSCIUSKO.
MONTICELLO, February 26, 1810.
MY DEAR GENERAL AND FRIEND,--I have rarely written to you; never but by
safe conveyances; and avoiding everything political, lest coming from
one in the station I then held, it might be imputed injuriously to our
country, or perhaps even excite jealousy of you. Hence my letters were
necessarily dry. Retired now from public concerns, totally unconnected
with them, and avoiding all curiosity about what is done or intended,
what I say is from myself only, the workings of my own mind, imputable to
nobody else.
The anxieties which I know you have felt, on seeing exposed to the
justlings of a warring world, a country to which, in early life, you
devoted your sword and services when oppressed by foreign dominion, were
worthy of your philanthropy and disinterested attachment to the freedom
and happiness of man. Although we have not made all the provisions
which might be necessary for a war in the field of Europe, yet we
have not been inattentive to such as would be necessary here. From the
moment that the affair of the Chesapeake rendered the prospect of war
imminent, every faculty was exerted to be prepared for it, and I think
I may venture to solace you with the assurance, that we are, in a good
degree, prepared. Military stores for many campaigns are on hand, all
the necessary articles (sulphur excepted), and the art of preparing them
among ourselves, abundantly; arms in our magazines for more men than will
ever be required in the field, and forty thousand new stand yearly added,
of our own fabrication, superior to any we have ever seen from Europe;
heavy artillery much beyond our need; an increasing stock of field pieces,
several foundries casting one every other day each; a military school of
about fifty students, which has been in operation a dozen years; and the
manufacture of men constantly going on, and adding forty thousand young
soldiers to our force every year that the war is deferred; at all our
seaport towns of the least consequence we have erected works of defence,
and assigned them gunboats, carrying one or two heavy pieces, either
eighteen, twenty-four, or thirty-two pounders, sufficient in the smaller
harbors to repel the predatory attacks of privateers or single armed
ships, and proportioned in the larger harbors to such more serious attacks
as they may probably be exposed to. All these were nearly completed, and
their gunboats in readiness, when I retired from the government. The works
of New York and New Orleans alone, being on a much larger scale, are not
yet completed. The former will be finished this summer, mounting four
hundred and thirty-eight guns, and, with the aid of from fifty to one
hundred gunboats, will be adequate to the resistance of any fleet which
will ever be trusted across the Atlantic. The works for New Orleans are
less advanced. These are our preparations. They are very different from
what you will be told by newspapers, and travellers, even Americans. But
it is not to them the government communicates the public condition. Ask
one of them if he knows the exact state of any particular harbor, and you
will find probably that he does not know even that of the one he comes
from. You will ask, perhaps, where are the proof of these preparations
for one who cannot go and see them. I answer, in the acts of Congress,
authorizing such preparations, and in your knowledge of me, that, if
authorized, they would be executed.
Two measures have not been adopted, which I pressed on Congress repeatedly
at their meetings. The one, to settle the whole ungranted territory of
Orleans, by donations of land to able-bodied young men, to be engaged
and carried there at the public expense, who would constitute a force
always ready on the spot to defend New Orleans. The other was, to class
the militia according to the years of their birth, and make all those
from twenty to twenty-five liable to be trained and called into service
at a moment's warning. This would have given us a force of three hundred
thousand young men, prepared by proper training, for service in any part
of the United States; while those who had passed through that period would
remain at home, liable to be used in their own or adjacent States. These
two measures would have completed what I deemed necessary for the entire
security of our country. They would have given me, on my retirement from
the government of the nation, the consolatory reflection, that having
found, when I was called to it, not a single seaport town in a condition
to repel a levy of contribution by a single privateer or pirate, I
had left every harbor so prepared by works and gunboats, as to be in a
reasonable state of security against any probable attack; the territory
of Orleans acquired, and planted with an internal force sufficient for its
protection; and the whole territory of the United States organized by such
a classification of its male force, as would give it the benefit of all
its young population for active service, and that of a middle and advanced
age for stationary defence. But these measures will, I hope, be completed
by my successor, who, to the purest principles of republican patriotism,
adds a wisdom and foresight second to no man on earth.
So much as to my country. Now a word as to myself. I am retired to
Monticello, where, in the bosom of my family, and surrounded by my books,
I enjoy a repose to which I have been long a stranger. My mornings are
devoted to correspondence. From breakfast to dinner, I am in my shops,
my garden, or on horseback among my farms; from dinner to dark, I give
to society and recreation with my neighbors and friends; and from candle
light to early bed-time, I read. My health is perfect; and my strength
considerably reinforced by the activity of the course I pursue; perhaps
it is as great as usually falls to the lot of near sixty-seven years of
age. I talk of ploughs and harrows, of seeding and harvesting, with my
neighbors, and of politics too, if they choose, with as little reserve as
the rest of my fellow citizens, and feel, at length, the blessing of being
free to say and do what I please, without being responsible for it to
any mortal. A part of my occupation, and by no means the least pleasing,
is the direction of the studies of such young men as ask it. They place
themselves in the neighboring village, and have the use of my library and
counsel, and make a part of my society. In advising the course of their
reading, I endeavor to keep their attention fixed on the main objects of
all science, the freedom and happiness of man. So that coming to bear a
share in the councils and government of their country, they will keep ever
in view the sole objects of all legitimate government.
* * * * *
Instead of the unalloyed happiness of retiring unembarrassed and
independent, to the enjoyment of my estate, which is ample for my limited
views, I have to pass such a length of time in a thraldom of mind never
before known to me. Except for this, my happiness would have been perfect.
That yours may never know disturbance, and that you may enjoy as many
years of life, as health and ease to yourself shall wish, is the sincere
prayer of your constant and affectionate friend.
TO DOCTOR JONES.
MONTICELLO, March 5, 1810.
DEAR SIR,--I received duly you favor of the 19th ultimo, and I salute
you with all ancient and recent recollections of friendship. I have
learned, with real sorrow, that circumstances have arisen among our
executive counsellors, which have rendered foes those who once were
friends. To themselves it will be a source of infinite pain and vexation,
and therefore chiefly I lament it, for I have a sincere esteem for both
parties. To the President it will be really inconvenient; but to the
nation I do not know that it can do serious injury, unless we were to
believe the newspapers, which pretend that Mr. Gallatin will go out.
That indeed would be a day of mourning for the United States; but I hope
that the position of both gentlemen may be made so easy as to give no
cause for either to withdraw. The ordinary business of every day is done
by consultation between the President and the Head of the department
alone to which it belongs. For measures of importance or difficulty, a
consultation is held with the Heads of departments, either assembled,
or by taking their opinions separately in conversation or in writing.
The latter is most strictly in the spirit of the constitution. Because
the President, on weighing the advice of all, is left free to make up an
opinion for himself. In this way they are not brought together, and it
is not necessarily known to any what opinion the others have given. This
was General Washington's practice for the first two or three years of
his administration, till the affairs of France and England threatened to
embroil us, and rendered consideration and discussion desirable. In these
discussions, Hamilton and myself were daily pitted in the cabinet like two
cocks. We were then but four in number, and, according to the majority,
which of course was three to one, the President decided. The pain was
for Hamilton and myself, but the public experienced no inconvenience.
I practised this last method, because the harmony was so cordial among
us all, that we never failed, by a contribution of mutual views on the
subject, to form an opinion acceptable to the whole. I think there never
was one instance to the contrary, in any case of consequence. Yet this
does, in fact, transform the executive into a directory, and I hold the
other method to be more constitutional. It is better calculated too to
prevent collision and irritation, and to cure it, or at least suppress its
effects when it has already taken place. It is the obvious and sufficient
remedy in the present ease, and will doubtless be resorted to.
Our difficulties are indeed great, if we consider ourselves alone.
But when viewed in comparison to those of Europe, they are the joys of
Paradise. In the eternal revolution of ages, the destinies have placed
our portion of existence amidst such scenes of tumult and outrage, as no
other period, within our knowledge, had presented. Every government but
one on the continent of Europe, demolished, a conqueror roaming over the
earth with havoc and destruction, a pirate spreading misery and ruin over
the face of the ocean. Indeed, my friend, ours is a bed of roses. And the
system of government which shall keep us afloat amidst the wreck of the
world, will be immortalized in history. We have, to be sure, our petty
squabbles and heart burnings, and we have something of the blue devils
at times, as to these raw heads and bloody bones who are eating up other
nations. But happily for us, the Mammoth cannot swim, nor the Leviathan
move on dry land; and if we will keep out of their way, they cannot get
at us. If, indeed, we choose to place ourselves within the scope of their
tether, a gripe of the paw, or flounce of the tail, may be our fortune.
Our business certainly was to be still. But a part of our nation chose
to declare against this, in such a way as to control the wisdom of the
government. I yielded with others, to avoid a greater evil. But from that
moment, I have seen no system which could keep us entirely aloof from
these agents of destruction. If there be any, I am certain that you, my
friends, now charged with the care of us all, will see and pursue it. I
give myself, therefore, no trouble with thinking or puzzling about it.
Being confident in my watchmen I sleep soundly. God bless you all, and
send you a safe deliverance.
TO GOVERNOR LANGDON.
MONTICELLO, March 5, 1810.
Your letter, my dear friend, of the 18th ultimo, comes like the refreshing
dews of the evening on a thirsty soil. It recalls ancient as well as
recent recollections, very dear to my heart. For five and thirty years
we have walked together through a land of tribulations. Yet these have
passed away, and so, I trust, will those of the present day. The toryism
with which we struggled in '77, differed but in name from the federalism
of '99, with which we struggled also; and the Anglicism of 1808, against
which we are now struggling, is but the same thing still in another form.
It is a longing for a King, and an English King rather than any other.
This is the true source of their sorrows and wailings.
The fear that Bonaparte will come over to us and conquer us also, is
too chimerical to be genuine. Supposing him to have finished Spain and
Portugal, he has yet England and Russia to subdue. The maxim of war was
never sounder than in this case, not to leave an enemy in the rear; and
especially where an insurrectionary flame is known to be under the embers,
merely smothered, and ready to burst at every point. These two subdued,
(and surely the Anglomen will not think the conquest of England alone a
short work,) ancient Greece and Macedonia, the cradle of Alexander, his
prototype, and Constantinople, the seat of empire for the world, would
glitter more in his eye than our bleak mountains and rugged forests.
Egypt, too, and the golden apples of Mauritania, have for more than half
a century fixed the longing eyes of France; and with Syria, you know, he
has an old affront to wipe out. Then come "Pontus and Galatia, Cappadocia,
Asia and Bithynia," the fine countries, on the Euphrates and Tigris, the
Oxus and Indus, and all beyond the Hyphasis, which bounded the glories of
his Macedonian rival; with the invitations of his new British subjects
on the banks of the Ganges, whom, after receiving under his protection
the mother country, he cannot refuse to visit. When all this done and
settled, and nothing of the old world remains unsubdued, he may turn to
the new one. But will he attack us first, from whom he will get but hard
knocks and no money? Or will he first lay hold of the gold and silver of
Mexico and Peru, and the diamonds of Brazil? A _republican_ Emperor, from
his affection to republics, independent of motives of expediency, must
grant to ours the Cyclop's boon of being the last devoured. While all this
is doing, we are to suppose the chapter of accidents read out, and that
nothing can happen to cut short or to disturb his enterprises.
But the Anglomen, it seems, have found out a much safer dependence than
all these chances of death or disappointment. That is, that we should
first let England plunder us, as she has been doing for years, for fear
Bonaparte should do it; and then ally ourselves with her, and enter into
the war. A conqueror, whose career England could not arrest when aided
by Russia, Austria, Prussia, Sweden, Spain and Portugal, she is now to
destroy, with all these on his side, by the aid of the United States
alone. This, indeed, is making us a mighty people. And what is to be
our security, that when embarked for her in the war, she will not make a
separate peace, and leave us in the lurch? Her good faith! The faith of a
nation of merchants! The _Punica fides_ of modern Carthage! Of the friend
and protectress of Copenhagen! Of the nation who never admitted a chapter
of morality into her political code! And is now boldly avowing that
whatever power can make hers, is hers of right. Money, and not morality,
is the principle of commerce and commercial nations. But, in addition to
this, the nature of the English Government forbids, of itself, reliance
on her engagements; and it is well known she has been the least faithful
to her alliances of any nation of Europe, since the period of her history
wherein she has been distinguished for her commerce and corruption, that
is to say, under the houses of Stuart and Brunswick. To Portugal alone
she has steadily adhered, because, by her Methuen treaty, she had made
it a colony, and one of the most valuable to her. It may be asked, what,
in the nature of her government, unfits England for the observation of
moral duties? In the first place, her King is a cypher; his only function
being to name the oligarchy which is to govern her. The parliament is,
by corruption, the mere instrument of the will of the administration. The
real power and property in the government is in the great aristocratical
families of the nation. The nest of office being too small for all of them
to cuddle into at once, the contest is eternal, which shall crowd the
other out. For this purpose, they are divided into two parties, the Ins
and the Outs, so equal in weight that a small matter turns the balance. To
keep themselves in, when they are in, every stratagem must be practised,
every artifice used which may flatter the pride, the passions or power of
the nation. Justice, honor, faith must yield to the necessity of keeping
themselves in place. The question whether a measure is moral, is never
asked; but whether it will nourish the avarice of their merchants, or
the piratical spirit of their navy, or produce any other effect which
may strengthen them in their places. As to engagements, however positive,
entered into by the predecessors of the Ins, why, they were their enemies;
they did everything which was wrong; and to reverse everything which they
did, must, therefore, be right. This is the true character of the English
government in practice, however different its theory; and it presents the
singular phenomenon of a nation, the individuals of which are as faithful
to their private engagements and duties, as honorable, as worthy, as those
of any nation on earth, and whose government is yet the most unprincipled
at this day known. In an absolute government there can be no such
equiponderant parties. The despot is the government. His power suppressing
all opposition, maintains his ministers firm in their places. What he has
contracted, therefore, through them, he has the power to observe with good
faith; and he identifies his own honor and faith with that of his nation.
When I observed, however, that the King of England was a cypher, I did
not mean to confine the observation to the mere individual now on that
throne. The practice of Kings marrying only in the families of Kings, has
been that of Europe for some centuries. Now, take any race of animals,
confine them in idleness and inaction, whether in a stye, a stable
or a state-room, pamper them with high diet, gratify all their sexual
appetites, immerse them in sensualities, nourish their passions, let
everything bend before them, and banish whatever might lead them to think,
and in a few generations they become all body and no mind; and this, too,
by a law of nature, by that very law by which we are in the constant
practice of changing the characters and propensities of the animals we
raise for our own purposes. Such is the regimen in raising Kings, and in
this way they have gone on for centuries. While in Europe, I often amused
myself with contemplating the characters of the then reigning sovereigns
of Europe. Louis the XVI. was a fool, of my own knowledge, and in despite
of the answers made for him at his trial. The King of Spain was a fool,
and of Naples the same. They passed their lives in hunting, and despatched
two couriers a week, one thousand miles, to let each other know what game
they had killed the preceding days. The King of Sardinia was a fool. All
these were Bourbons. The Queen of Portugal, a Braganza, was an idiot by
nature. And so was the King of Denmark. Their sons, as regents, exercised
the powers of government. The King of Prussia, successor to the great
Frederick, was a mere hog in body as well as in mind. Gustavus of Sweden,
and Joseph of Austria, were really crazy, and George of England, you know,
was in a straight waistcoat. There remained, then, none but old Catharine,
who had been too lately picked up to have lost her common sense. In
this state Bonaparte found Europe; and it was this state of its rulers
which lost it with scarce a struggle. These animals had become without
mind and powerless; and so will every hereditary monarch be after a few
generations. Alexander, the grandson of Catharine, is as yet an exception.
He is able to hold his own. But he is only of the third generation. His
race is not yet worn out. And so endeth the book of Kings, from all of
whom the Lord deliver us, and have you, my friend, and all such good men
and true, in his holy keeping.
TO ABBE SALIMANKIS.
MONTICELLO, March 14, 1810.
SIR,--I have duly received your favor of February 27th and am very
thankful for the friendly sentiments therein expressed towards myself, as
well as for the pamphlet enclosed. That it contains many serious truths
and sound admonitions every reader will be sensible. At the same time it
is a comfort that the medal has two sides. I do not myself contemplate
human nature in quite so sombre a view. That there is much vice and
misery in the world, I know; but more virtue and happiness I believe,
at least in our part of it; the latter being the lot of those employed
in agriculture in a greater degree than of other callings. That we are
overdone with banking institutions, which have banished the precious
metals, and substituted a more fluctuating and unsafe medium, that these
have withdrawn capital from useful improvements and employments to nourish
idleness, that the wars of the world have swollen our commerce beyond the
wholesome limits of exchanging our own productions for our own wants, and
that, for the emolument of a small proportion of our society, who prefer
these demoralizing pursuits to labors useful to the whole, the peace
of the whole is endangered, and all our present difficulties produced,
are evils more easily to be deplored than remedied. They should lead
us to direct our prayers, if our philanthropy fails to do it, for the
re-establishment of peace in Europe, when our commerce must of course
return to its proper objects, and the idle to habits of industry. To these
prayers, in which you will not fail to join, let me add my best wishes and
respects for yourself.
TO MR. FULTON.
MONTICELLO, March 17, 1810.
DEAR SIR,--I have duly received your favor of February 24th covering
one of your pamphlets on the Torpedo. I have read it with pleasure.
This was not necessary to give them favor in my eye. I am not afraid
of new inventions or improvements, nor bigoted to the practices of our
forefathers. It is that bigotry which keeps the Indians in a state of
barbarism in the midst of the arts, would have kept us in the same state
even now, and still keeps Connecticut where their ancestors were when they
landed on these shores. I am much pleased that Congress is taking up the
business. Where a new invention is supported by well-known principles,
and promises to be useful, it ought to be tried. Your torpedoes will be
to cities what vaccination has been to mankind. It extinguishes their
greatest danger. But there will still be navies. Not for the destruction
of cities, but for the plunder of commerce on the high seas. That the
tories should be against you is in character, because it will curtail the
power of their idol, England.
I am thankful to you for the trouble you have taken in thinking of the
felier hydraulique. To be put into motion by the same power which was to
continue the motion was certainly wanting to that machine, as a better
name still is. I would not give you the trouble of having a model made, as
I have workmen who can execute from the drawing. I pray you to accept the
assurances of my great esteem and respect.
TO G. VOOLIF, PERPETUAL SECRETARY OF THE FIRST CLASS OF THE ROYAL
INSTITUTE OF SCIENCES, OF LITERATURE AND OF FINE ARTS, AT AMSTERDAM.
MONTICELLO, May 2d, 1810.
SIR,--Your letter of the 10th of May of the last year came but lately
to my hands. I am duly sensible of the honor done me by the first class
of the Royal Institute of sciences, of literature, and of fine arts, in
associating me to their class, and by the approbation which his majesty
the king of Holland has condescended to give to their choice. His
patronage of institutions for extending among mankind the boundaries of
information, proves his just sense of the cares devolved on him by his
high station, and commands the approving voice of all the sons of men. If
mine can be heard from this distance among them, it will be through the
benefit of the special communication which your position may procure it,
and which I am to request. I pray you to present also my thanks to the
first class for this mark of their distinction, which I receive with due
sensibility and gratitude. Sincerely a friend to science, and feeling the
fraternal relation it establishes among the whole family of its votaries,
wheresoever dispersed through nations friendly or hostile, I shall be
happy at all times in fulfilling any particular views which the society
may extend to this region of the globe, and in being made useful to them
in any special services they will be pleased to give me an opportunity
of rendering. To yourself, Sir, I tender the assurances of my particular
respect and high consideration.
TO HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR CLAIBORNE.
MONTICELLO, May 3d, 1810.
SIR, Your favor of February 1st lately came to my hands. It brings me new
proofs, in the resolutions it enclosed, of the indulgence with which the
legislature of Orleans has been pleased to view my conduct in the various
duties assigned to me by our common country. The times in which we have
lived have called for all the services which any of its citizens could
render, and if mine have met approbation they are fully rewarded.
The interposition noticed by the Legislature of Orleans was an act of
duty of the office I then occupied. Charged with the care of the general
interest of the nation, and among these with the preservation of their
lands from intrusion, I exercised, on their behalf, a right given by
nature to all men, individual or associated, that of rescuing their
own property wrongfully taken. In cases of forcible entry on individual
possessions, special provisions, both of the common and civil law, have
restrained the right of rescue by private force, and substituted the aid
of the civil power. But no law has restrained the right of the nation
itself from removing by its own arm, intruders on its possessions. On
the contrary, a statute recently passed, had required that such removals
should be diligently made. The Batture of New Orleans, being a part of the
bed contained between the two banks of the river, a naked shoal indeed
at low water, but covered through the whole season of its regular full
tides, and then forming the ground of the port and harbor for the upper
navigation, over which vessels ride of necessity when moored to the bank,
I deemed it public property, in which all had a common use. The removal,
too, of the force which had possessed itself of it, was the more urgent
from the interruption it might give to the commerce, and other lawful
uses, of the inhabitants of the city and of the Western waters generally.
If this aid from the public authority was particularly interesting
to the territory of Orleans, it certainly adds new satisfaction to my
consciousness of having done what was right.
I ask the favor of you to convey to the Legislature of Orleans, my
gratitude for the interest they are so kind as to express in my future
happiness; and I pray to the Governor of the Universe, that He may always
have them and our country in his holy keeping.
TO HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR CLAIBORNE.
MONTICELLO, May 3, 1810.
DEAR SIR,--Your letters of January 12th and February 1st, came to hand
only a fortnight ago. The enclosed contains my answer to the latter, for
communication to the Legislature. So many false views on the subject of
the batture have been presented in and out of Congress, that duty to
myself, as well as justice to the citizens of New Orleans and of the
western country generally, required that I should avail myself of the
occasion these resolutions presented, of stating, in the fewest words
possible, the true ground of my conduct, and, as I think, of the rights
of the western country. But the occasion also restricted me to the limits
of a short text only, every word of which would be matter for copious
commentary, in a dilated discussion of the subject. Has Moreau de l'Isle's
opinion ever been printed? I wish it were possible to get a copy of it.
Perhaps I might be able to make good use of it.
Before the receipt of your letter of Jan. 12th, I had heard of your great
loss, and been impressed with the depth of it. Long tried in the same
school of affliction, no loss which can rend the human heart is unknown to
mine; and a like one particularly, at about the same period of life, had
taught me to feel the sympathies of yours. The same experience has proved
that time, silence and occupation are its only medicines. Of occupation,
you have enough and of the highest order; that of continuing to make a
worthy people happy by a just and parental government, and of protecting
them from the wolves prowling around to devour them. Your own example
will be the best lesson for the son which has been left to comfort you,
to whose course in life I hope it will give a shape which shall make him
truly a comfort and support to your latter days, protracted to your own
wishes.
I really wish effect to the hints in my letter to you for so laying off
the additions to the city of New Orleans, as to shield it from yellow
fever. My confidence in the idea is founded in the acknowledged experience
that we have never seen the _genuine_ yellow fever extend itself into the
country, nor even to the outskirts or open parts of a close-built city. In
the plan I propose, every square would be surrounded, on every side, by
open and pure air, and would, in fact, be a separate town with fields or
open suburbs around it.
TO MESSRS. HUGH L. WHITE, THOMAS M'CORRY, JAMES CAMPBELL, ROBERT
CRAIGHEAD, JOHN N. GAMBLE, TRUSTEES FOR THE LOTTERY OF EAST TENNESSEE
COLLEGE.
MONTICELLO, May 6, 1810.
GENTLEMEN,--I received, some time ago, your letter of February 28th,
covering a printed scheme of a lottery for the benefit of the East
Tennessee College, and proposing to send tickets to me to be disposed
of. It would be impossible for them to come to a more inefficient hand.
I rarely go from home, and consequently see but a few neighbors and
friends, who occasionally call on me. And having myself made it a rule
never to engage in a lottery or any other adventure of mere chance, I
can, with the less candor or effect, urge it on others, however laudable
or desirable its object may be. No one more sincerely wishes the spread
of information among mankind than I do, and none has greater confidence
in its effect towards supporting free and good government. I am sincerely
rejoiced, therefore, to find that so excellent a fund has been provided
for this noble purpose in Tennessee. Fifty-thousand dollars placed in a
safe bank, will give four thousand dollars a year, and even without other
aid, must soon accomplish buildings sufficient for the object in its
early stage. I consider the common plan followed in this country, but not
in others, of making one large and expensive building, as unfortunately
erroneous. It is infinitely better to erect a small and separate lodge
for each separate professorship, with only a hall below for his class,
and two chambers above for himself; joining these lodges by barracks for
a certain portion of the students, opening into a covered way to give a
dry communication between all the schools. The whole of these arranged
around an open square of grass and trees, would make it, what it should
be in fact, an academical village, instead of a large and common den of
noise, of filth and of fetid air. It would afford that quiet retirement so
friendly to study, and lessen the dangers of fire, infection and tumult.
Every professor would be the police officer of the students adjacent to
his own lodge, which should include those of his own class of preference,
and might be at the head of their table, if, as I suppose, it can be
reconciled with the necessary economy to dine them in smaller and separate
parties, rather than in a large and common mess. These separate buildings,
too, might be erected successively and occasionally, as the number of
professorships and students should be increased, or the funds become
competent.
I pray you to pardon me if I have stepped aside into the province of
counsel; but much observation and reflection on these institutions have
long convinced me that the large and crowded buildings in which youths are
pent up, are equally unfriendly to health, to study, to manners, morals
and order; and, believing the plan I suggest to be more promotive of
these, and peculiarly adapted to the slender beginnings and progressive
growth of our institutions, I hoped you would pardon the presumption,
in consideration of the motive which was suggested by the difficulty
expressed in your letter, of procuring funds for erecting the building.
But, on whatever plan you proceed, I wish it every possible success, and
to yourselves the reward of esteem, respect and gratitude due to those who
devote their time and efforts to render the youths of every successive age
fit governors for the next. To these accept, in addition, the assurances
of mine.
TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
MONTICELLO, May 13, 1810.
DEAR SIR,--I thank you for your promised attention to my portion of the
Merinos, and if there be any expenses of transportation, &c., and you
will be so good as to advance my portion of them with yours and notify the
amount, it shall be promptly remitted. What shall we do with them? I have
been so disgusted with the scandalous extortions lately practised in the
sale of these animals, and with the description of patriotism and praise
to the sellers, as if the thousands of dollars apiece they have not been
ashamed to receive were not reward enough, that I am disposed to consider
as right, whatever is the reverse of what they have done. Since fortune
has put the occasion upon us, is it not incumbent upon us so to dispense
this benefit to the farmers of our country, as to put to shame those who,
forgetting their own wealth and the honest simplicity of the farmers, have
thought them fit objects of the shaving art, and to excite, by a better
example, the condemnation due to theirs? No sentiment is more acknowledged
in the family of Agriculturists than that the few who can afford it should
incur the risk and expense of all new improvements, and give the benefit
freely to the many of more restricted circumstances. The question then
recurs, What are we to do with them? I shall be willing to concur with
you in any plan you shall approve, and in order that we may have some
proposition to begin upon, I will throw out a first idea, to be modified
or postponed to whatever you shall think better.
Give all the full-blooded males we can raise to the different counties
of our State, one to each, as fast as we can furnish them. And as there
must be some rule of priority for the distribution, let us begin with our
own counties, which are contiguous and nearly central to the State, and
proceed, circle after circle, till we have given a ram to every county.
This will take about seven years, if we add to the full descendants those
which will have past to the fourth generation from common ewes, to make
the benefit of a single male as general as practicable to the county,
we may ask some known character in each county to have a small society
formed which shall receive the animal and prescribe rules for his care
and government. We should retain ourselves all the full-blooded ewes, that
they may enable us the sooner to furnish a male to every county. When all
shall have been provided with rams, we may, in a year or two more, be in a
condition to give an ewe also to every county, if it be thought necessary.
But I suppose it will not, as four generations from their full-blooded ram
will give them the pure race from common ewes.
In the meantime we shall not be without a profit indemnifying our trouble
and expense. For if of our present stock of common ewes, we place with
the ram as many as he may be competent to, suppose fifty, we may sell the
male lambs of every year for such reasonable price as, in addition to the
wool, will pay for the maintenance of the flock. The first year they will
be half bloods, the second three-quarters, the third seven-eights, and
the fourth full-blooded, if we take care in selling annually half the ewes
also, to keep those of highest blood, this will be a fund for kindnesses
to our friends, as well as for indemnification to ourselves; and our
whole State may thus, from this small stock, so dispersed, be filled in
a very few years with this valuable race, and more satisfaction result
to ourselves than money ever administered to the bosom of a shaver. There
will be danger that what is here proposed, though but an act of ordinary
duty, may be perverted into one of ostentation, but malice will always
find bad motives for good actions. Shall we therefore never do good? It
may also be used to commit us with those on whose example it will truly
be a reproof. We may guard against this perhaps by a proper reserve,
developing our purpose only by its execution.
Vive, vale, et siquid novisti rectius istis
Candidus imperti sinon, his ulere mecum.
TO GOVERNOR TYLER.
MONTICELLO, May 26, 1810.
DEAR SIR,--Your friendly letter of the 12th has been duly received.
Although I have laid it down as a law to myself, never to embarrass the
President with my solicitations, and have not till now broken through
it, yet I have made a part of your letter the subject of one to him, and
have done it with all my heart, and in the full belief that I serve him
and the public in urging that appointment. We have long enough suffered
under the base prostitution of law to party passions in one judge, and the
imbecility of another. In the hands of one the law is nothing more than an
ambiguous text, to be explained by his sophistry into any meaning which
may subserve his personal malice. Nor can any milk-and-water associate
maintain his own dependence, and by a firm pursuance of what the law
really is, extend its protection to the citizens or the public. I believe
you will do it, and where you cannot induce your colleague to do what is
right, you will be firm enough to hinder him from doing what is wrong, and
by opposing sense to sophistry, leave the juries free to follow their own
judgment.
I have long lamented with you the depreciation of law science. The
opinion seems to be that Blackstone is to us what the Alcoran is to
the Mahometans, that everything which is necessary is in him, and what
is not in him is not necessary. I still lend my counsel and books to
such young students as will fix themselves in the neighborhood. Coke's
institutes and reports are their first, and Blackstone their last book,
after an intermediate course of two or three years. It is nothing more
than an elegant digest of what they will then have acquired from the
real fountains of the law. Now men are born scholars, lawyers, doctors;
in our day this was confined to poets. You wish to see me again in the
legislature, but this is impossible; my mind is now so dissolved in
tranquillity, that it can never again encounter a contentious assembly;
the habits of thinking and speaking off-hand, after a disuse of five and
twenty years, have given place to the slower process of the pen. I have
indeed two great measures at heart, without which no republic can maintain
itself in strength. 1. That of general education, to enable every man to
judge for himself what will secure or endanger his freedom. 2. To divide
every county into hundreds, of such size that all the children of each
will be within reach of a central school in it. But this division looks
to many other fundamental provisions. Every hundred, besides a school,
should have a justice of the peace, a constable and a captain of militia.
These officers, or some others within the hundred, should be a corporation
to manage all its concerns, to take care of its roads, its poor, and its
police by patroles, &c., (as the select men of the Eastern townships.)
Every hundred should elect one or two jurors to serve where requisite,
and all other elections should be made in the hundreds separately, and
the votes of all the hundreds be brought together. Our present Captaincies
might be declared hundreds for the present, with a power to the courts to
alter them occasionally. These little republics would be the main strength
of the great one. We owe to them the vigor given to our revolution in
its commencement in the Eastern States, and by them the Eastern States
were enabled to repeal the embargo in opposition to the Middle, Southern
and Western States, and their large and lubberly division into counties
which can never be assembled. General orders are given out from a centre
to the foreman of every hundred, as to the sergeants of an army, and the
whole nation is thrown into energetic action, in the same direction in
one instant and as one man, and becomes absolutely irresistible. Could
I once see this I should consider it as the dawn of the salvation of
the republic, and say with old Simeon, "nune dimittas Domine." But our
children will be as wise as we are, and will establish in the fulness
of time those things not yet ripe for establishment. So be it, and to
yourself health, happiness and long life.
TO HIS EXCELLENCY, COUNT PAHLEN, ENVOY EXTRAORDINARY AND MINISTER
PLENIPOTENTIARY OF RUSSIA.
MONTICELLO, July 13, 1810.
SIR,--I have been honored with your letter of the 25th ult., and have to
return you my thanks for those of Madame de Tessé and General Lafayette,
and for the print of Baron Humboldt, all of which are come safely to
hand, and present to me the proofs and recollections of their much-valued
friendships. To these acknowledgments, permit me to add my congratulations
on your safe arrival in the United States, after journeys and voyages
which, from their length, cannot have been pleasant. If, after this, it
shall be found that a change of twenty degrees of latitude shall have
no unfavorable influence on your health, it will furnish double cause of
felicitation.
I am much flattered by the kind notice of the Emperor, which you have
been so obliging as to communicate to me. The approbation of the good is
always consoling; but that of a sovereign whose station and endowments are
so pre-eminent, is received with the sensibility which the veneration for
his character inspires. Among other motives of commiseration which the
calamities of Europe cannot fail to excite in every virtuous mind, the
interruption which these have given to the benevolent views of the Emperor
is prominent. The accession of a sovereign, with the dispositions and
qualifications to improve the condition of a great nation, and to place
its happiness on a permanent basis, is a phenomenon so rare in the annals
of mankind, that, when the blessing occurs, it is lamentable that any
portion of it should be usurped by occurrences of the character of those
we have seen. If, separated from these scenes by an ocean of a thousand
leagues breadth, they have required all our cares to keep aloof from their
desolating effects, I can readily conceive how much more they must occupy
those to whose territories they are contiguous.
That the Emperor may be able, whenever a pacification takes place, to show
himself the father and friend of the human race, to restore to nations the
moral laws which have governed their intercourse, and to prevent, forever,
a repetition of those ravages by sea and land, which will distinguish the
present as an age of Vandalism, I sincerely pray.
I consider as a happy augury, the choice which the Emperor has made of a
person to reside near our government, so distinguished by his dispositions
and qualifications to cherish the friendship and the interests of both
nations. With my best wishes that your residence among us may be rendered
entirely agreeable, and be accompanied with the blessing of health, accept
the assurances of my great respect and consideration.
TO MR. BOTTA.
MONTICELLO, July 15, 1810.
SIR,--I am honored with your letter of the 12th of January, and although
the work you therein mention is not yet come to hand, I avail myself of
an occasion, now rendered rare and precarious between our two countries,
of anticipating the obligation I shall owe for the pleasure I shall have
in perusing it, and of travelling over with you the important scenes,
_quorum pars minima fui_, scenes which have given an impulsion to the
world, which, as to ourselves, has been a great blessing, but whether to
Europe or not, can only be estimated by him who sees the future as well
as the present and past. We are certainly indebted to those who think our
revolution worthy of their pen, and who will do justice to our actions and
motives; and to yourself I have no doubt we shall owe this obligation, and
I now make you my acknowledgments with confidence and pleasure. It will
be a worthy preface to the history of this age of revolutions, to be ended
we know not when nor how. I pray you to accept the assurances of my great
respect and consideration.
TO MR. LAMBERT.
MONTICELLO, July 16, 1810.
SIR,--An indispensable piece of business which has occupied me for a
month past, obliged me to suspend all correspondence during that time.
This must apologize for my late acknowledgment of your favor of May 19th,
and for the tardy expression of my thanks for so much of the papers you
enclosed as respected myself. The approbation of my political conduct by
my republican countrymen generally, is a pillow of sweet repose to me,
undisturbed by the noise of the enemies to our form of government. The
political sentiments expressed by your society are in the pure spirit of
the principles of our revolution; so long as these prevail, we are safe
from everything which can assail us from without or within.
Your several communications on the first meridian, have been regularly
handed to the Philosophical Society; not corresponding regularly with
any of the members, I have received no information respecting them. I
have formerly observed to you that while I entertain no doubt of their
accuracy, my own familiarity with the subject had been too long suspended,
to enable me to render a critical opinion on them. My occupations here are
almost exclusively given to my farm and affairs. They furnish me exercise,
health and amusement, and with the recreations of family and neighborly
society, fill up most of my time, and give a tranquillity necessary to
my time of life. With my best wishes for your prosperity, accept the
assurances of my esteem and respect.
TO GENERAL DEARBORNE.
MONTICELLO, July 16, 1810.
DEAR GENERAL AND FRIEND,--Your favor of May the 31st was duly received,
and I join in congratulations with you on the resurrection of republican
principles in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and the hope that the
professors of these principles will not again easily be driven off
their ground. The federalists, during their short-lived ascendency, have
nevertheless, by forcing us from the embargo, inflicted a wound on our
interests which can never be cured, and on our affections which will
require time to cicatrize. I ascribe all this to one pseudo-republican,
Story. He came on (in place of Crowningshield, I believe) and staid only
a few days; long enough, however, to get complete hold of Bacon, who,
giving in to his representations, became panic-struck, and communicated
his panic to his colleagues, and they to a majority of the sound members
of Congress. They believed in the alternative of repeal or civil war,
and produced the fatal measure of repeal. This is the immediate parent of
all our present evils, and has reduced us to a low standing in the eyes
of the world. I should think that even the federalists themselves must
now be made, by their feelings, sensible of their error. The wealth which
the embargo brought home safely, has now been thrown back into the laps
of our enemies, and our navigation completely crushed, and by the unwise
and unpatriotic conduct of those engaged in it. Should the orders prove
genuine, which are said to have been given against our fisheries, they too
are gone; and if not true as yet, they will be true on the first breeze
of success which England shall feel, for it has now been some years that
I am perfectly satisfied her intentions have been to claim the ocean as
her conquest, and prohibit any vessel from navigating it, but on such a
tribute as may enable her to keep up such a standing navy as will maintain
her dominion over it. She has hauled in, or let herself out, been bold
or hesitating, according to occurrences, but has in no situation done
anything which might amount to a relinquishment of her intentions. I
have ever been anxious to avoid a war with England, unless forced by a
situation more losing than war itself. But I did believe we could coerce
her to justice by peaceable means, and the embargo, evaded as it was,
proved it would have coerced her had it been honestly executed. The proof
she exhibited on that occasion, that she can exercise such an influence in
this country as to control the will of its government and three-fourths
of its people, and oblige the three-fourths to submit to one-fourth,
is to me the most mortifying circumstance which has occurred since the
establishment of our government. The only prospect I see of lessening
that influence, is in her own conduct, and not from anything in our power.
Radically hostile to our navigation and commerce, and fearing its rivalry,
she will completely crush it, and force us to resort to agriculture, not
aware that we shall resort to manufactures also, and render her conquests
over our navigation and commerce useless, at least, if not injurious to
herself in the end, and perhaps salutary to us, as removing out of our way
the chief causes and provocations to war.
But these are views which concern the present and future generation,
among neither of which I count myself. You may live to see the change in
our pursuits, and chiefly in those of your own State, which England will
effect. I am not certain that the change on Massachusetts, by driving her
to agriculture, manufactures and emigration, will lessen her happiness.
But once more to be done with politics. How does Mrs. Dearborne do? How do
you both like your situation? Do you amuse yourself with a garden, a farm,
or what? That your pursuits, whatever they be, may make you both easy,
healthy and happy, is the prayer of your sincere friend.
TO JUDGE COOPER.
MONTICELLO, August 6, 1810.
DEAR SIR,--The tardiness of acknowledging the receipt of your favor of May
10th will I fear induce a presumption that I have been negligent of its
contents, but I assure you I lost not a moment in endeavoring to fulfil
your wishes in procuring a good geological correspondent in this State.
I could not offer myself, because of all the branches of science it was
the one I had the least cultivated. Our researches into the texture of
our globe could be but so superficial, compared with its vast interior
construction, that I saw no safety of conclusion from the one, as to the
other; and therefore have pointed my own attentions to other objects in
preference, as far as a heavy load of business would permit me to attend
to anything else. Looking about, therefore, among my countrymen for some
one who might answer your views, I fixed on Mr. Joseph C. Cabell, not
long since returned from France, where he had attended particularly to
chemistry, and had also attended Mr. Maclure in some of his geological
expeditions, as best qualified. I wrote to him; unfortunately he was
from home, and did not return till the latter end of July. I received his
answer since our last post only. A diffidence in his qualifications to be
useful to you, has induced him to decline the undertaking, having, as he
assures me, paid no particular attention to that branch of science. I have
in vain looked over our State for some other person who might contribute
to your views. As yet I can think of nobody; and whatever may be the
result of further inquiry, I have thought I ought not longer to delay
informing you of my unsuccessful efforts so far. Should I be able to find
a subject worthy of your correspondence, I shall not fail to engage him in
it, and to give you notice. I thank you for the case of Dempsy _v._ the
Insurers, which I have read with great pleasure, and entire conviction.
Indeed it is high time to withdraw all respect from courts acting under
the arbitrary orders of governments who avow a total disregard to those
moral rules which have hitherto been acknowledged by nations, and have
served to regulate and govern their intercourse. I should respect just
as much the rules of conduct which governed Cartouche or Blackbeard, as
those now acted on by France or England. If your argument is defective
in anything, it is in having paid to the antecedent decisions of the
British courts of Admiralty, the respect of examining them on grounds of
reason; and the not having rested the decision at once on the profligacy
of those tribunals, and openly declared against permitting their sentences
to be ever more quoted or listened to until those nations return to the
practice of justice, to an acknowledgment that there is a moral law which
ought to govern mankind, and by sufficient evidences of contrition for
their present flagitiousness, make it safe to receive them again into the
society of civilized nations. I hope this will still be done on a proper
occasion. Yet knowing that religion does not furnish grosser bigots than
law, I expect little from old judges. Those now at the bar may be bold
enough to follow reason rather than precedent and may bring that principle
on the bench when promoted to it; but I fear this effort is not for my
day. It has been said that when Harvey discovered the circulation of the
blood, there was not a physician of Europe of forty years of age, who
ever assented to it. I fear you will experience Harvey's fate. But it
will become law when the present judges are dead. Wishing you health and
happiness at all times, accept the assurances of my constant and great
esteem and respect.
TO MR. DUANE.
MONTICELLO, August 12, 1810.
SIR,--Your letter of July 16th has been duly received, with the paper
it enclosed, for which accept my thanks, and especially for the kind
sentiments expressed towards myself. These testimonies of approbation,
and friendly remembrance, are the highest gratifications I can receive
from any, and especially from those in whose principles and zeal for
the public good I have confidence. Of that confidence in yourself the
military appointment to which you allude was sufficient proof, as it was
made, not on the recommendations of others, but on our own knowledge
of your principles and qualifications. While I cherish with feeling
the recollections of my friends, I banish from my mind all political
animosities which might disturb its tranquillity, or the happiness
I derive from my present pursuits. I have thought it among the most
fortunate circumstances of my late administration that, during its
eight years continuance, it was conducted with a cordiality and harmony
among all the members, which never were ruffled on any, the greatest
or smallest occasion. I left my brethren with sentiments of sincere
affection and friendship, so rooted in the uniform tenor of a long and
intimate intercourse, that the evidence of my own senses alone ought to be
permitted to shake them. Anxious, in my retirement, to enjoy undisturbed
repose, my knowledge of my successor and late coadjutors, and my entire
confidence in their wisdom and integrity, were assurances to me that I
might sleep in security with such watchmen at the helm, and that whatever
difficulties and dangers should assail our course, they would do what
could be done to avoid or surmount them. In this confidence I envelope
myself, and hope to slumber on to my last sleep. And should difficulties
occur which they cannot avert, if we follow them in phalanx, we shall
surmount them without danger.
I have been long intending to write to you as one of the associated
company for printing useful works.
Our laws, language, religion, politics and manners are so deeply laid in
English foundations, that we shall never cease to consider their history
as a part of ours, and to study ours in that as its origin. Every one
knows that judicious matter and charms of style have rendered Hume's
history the manual of every student. I remember well the enthusiasm with
which I devoured it when young, and the length of time, the research and
reflection which were necessary to eradicate the poison it had instilled
into my mind. It was unfortunate that he first took up the history of
the Stuarts, became their apologist, and advocated all their enormities.
To support his work, when done, he went back to the Tudors, and so
selected and arranged the materials of their history as to present their
arbitrary acts only, as the genuine samples of the constitutional power
of the crown, and, still writing backwards, he then reverted to the early
history, and wrote the Saxon and Norman periods with the same perverted
view. Although all this is known, he still continues to be put into the
hands of all our young people, and to infect them with the poison of his
own principles of government. It is this book which has undermined the
free principles of the English government, has persuaded readers of all
classes that these were usurpations on the legitimate and salutary rights
of the crown, and has spread universal toryism over the land. And the
book will still continue to be read here as well as there. Baxter, one
of Horne Tooke's associates in persecution, has hit on the only remedy
the evil admits. He has taken Hume's work, corrected in the text his
misrepresentations, supplied the truths which he suppressed, and yet has
given the mass of the work in Hume's own words. And it is wonderful how
little interpolation has been necessary to make it a sound history, and
to justify what should have been its title, to wit, "Hume's history of
England abridged and rendered faithful to fact and principle." I cannot
say that his amendments are either in matter or manner in the fine style
of Hume. Yet they are often unperceived, and occupy so little of the whole
work as not to depreciate it. Unfortunately he has _abridged_ Hume, by
leaving out all the less important details. It is thus reduced to about
one half its original size. He has also continued the history, but very
summarily, to 1801. The whole work is of 834 quarto pages, printed close,
of which the continuation occupies 283. I have read but little of this
part. As far as I can judge from that little, it is a mere chronicle,
offering nothing profound. This work is so unpopular, so distasteful to
the present Tory palates and principles of England, that I believe it
has never reached a second edition. I have often inquired for it in our
book shops, but never could find a copy in them, and I think it possible
the one I imported may be the only one in America. Can we not have it
re-printed here? It would be about four volumes 8vo.
I have another enterprise to propose for some good printer. I have in my
possession a MS. work in French, confided to me by a friend, whose name
alone would give it celebrity were it permitted to be mentioned. But
considerations insuperable forbid that. It is a Commentary and Review of
Montesquieu's Spirit of Laws. The history of that work is well known.
He had been a great reader, and had commonplaced everything he read.
At length he wished to undertake some work into which he could bring
his whole commonplace book in a digested form. He fixed on the subject
of his Spirit of Laws, and wrote the book. He consulted his friend
Helvetius about publishing it, who strongly dissuaded it. He published it,
however, and the world did not confirm Helvetius' opinion. Still, every
man who reflects as he reads, has considered it as a book of paradoxes;
having, indeed, much of truth and sound principle, but abounding also
with inconsistencies, apochryphal facts and false inferences. It is a
correction of these which has been executed in the work I mention, by way
of commentary and review; not by criticising words or sentences, but by
taking a book at a time, considering its general scope, and proceeding
to confirm or confute it. And much of confutation there is, and of
substitution of true for false principle, and the true principle is ever
that of republicanism. I will not venture to say that every sentiment in
the book will be approved, because, being in manuscript, and the French
characters, I have not read the whole, but so much only as might enable
me to estimate the soundness of the author's way of viewing his subject;
and, judging from that which I have read, I infer with confidence that
we shall find the work generally worthy of our high approbation, and that
it everywhere maintains the preëminence of representative government, by
showing that its foundations are laid in reason, in right, and in general
good. I had expected this from my knowledge of the other writings of the
author, which have always a precision rarely to be met with. But to give
you an idea of the manner of its execution, I translate and enclose his
commentary on Montesquieu's eleventh book, which contains the division
of the work. I wish I could have added his review at the close of the
twelve first books, as this would give a more complete idea of the
extraordinary merit of the work. But it is too long to be copied. I add
from it, however, a few extracts of his reviews of some of the books, as
specimens of his plan and principles. If printed in French, it would be
of about 180 pages 8vo, or 23 sheets. If any one will undertake to have
it translated and printed on their own account, I will send on the MS.
by post, and they can take the copyright as of an original work, which it
ought to be understood to be. I am anxious it should be ably translated by
some one who possesses style as well as capacity to do justice to abstruse
conceptions. I would even undertake to revise the translation if required.
The original sheets must be returned to me, and I should wish the work to
be executed with as little delay as possible.
I close this long letter with assurances of my great esteem and respect.
TO ALBERT GALLATIN, ESQ.
MONTICELLO, August 16, 1810.
DEAR SIR,--Yours of July 14th, with the welcome paper it covered, has
been most thankfully received. I had before received from your office
and that of State, all the printed publications on the subject of the
batture, that is to say, the opinion of the Philadelphia lawyers and of G.
Livingston himself, the publications of Derbigny, Thierry, Poydras, and
the _pièces probantes_. I had been very anxious to get Moreau's memoire,
which is only in manuscript, having heard it was the best of all. After
waiting long and in vain for it, I was informed by my counsel that they
were ruled to plead, and must be furnished with the grounds of defence. I
was obliged, therefore, to take up the subject--had got through it and put
it into the hands of Mr. Hay, when the observations you were so kind as
to furnish, came to hand. Although it was too late to give to everything
its shape which these, at an earlier stage, might have suggested, I
was still enabled to avail myself of them usefully. The question of the
chancery jurisdiction of the Orleans judges had particularly escaped me,
and entirely. When Mr. Hay returned the paper therefore, I was enabled, by
re-copying a sheet or two at the close, to introduce this question in its
proper place. I had also, till then, been uninformed of the circumstances
under which Bertrand Gravier left France, and therefore had not been aware
of the reasons for which John Gravier had chosen to come in by purchase.
This information enabled me to extend and strengthen much of what I had
before said on that subject; and by interleaving and recopying a part, to
get that also into its proper place. On the whole, you will see, with the
benefit of these amendments, what I had conceived to be a true statement
of the fact and law of the case. But the paper is very voluminous, and I
could not shorten it. It is now in the hands of the President, who will
enclose it to you by the same post which carries this; when you shall have
perused it, be so good as to re-enclose it to me, as I wish to submit
it to our other fellow-laborers, after such amendments as Mr. Madison
and yourself will be so good as to suggest. I wish the ground I take to
meet all your approbations. The uninformed state in which the debates of
the last session proved Congress to be, as to this case, makes me fear
they may, at the next, under the intrigues and urgency of Livingston,
be induced to take some step which might have an injurious effect on
the opinion of a jury. I think, therefore, to ask a member or two of
each house to read this statement, merely to make themselves masters
of the subject, and be enabled to prevent any unfavorable interference
of Congress. Perhaps, if they see the case in the light I do, they may
think of doing more--of having the Attorney General desired to attend to
the case as of public concern: for really it is so. I have no concern
at all in maintaining the title to the batture. It would be totally
unnecessary for me to employ counsel to go into the question at all for
my own defence. That is solidly built on the simple fact, that if I were
in error, it was honest, and not imputable to that gross and palpable
corruption or injustice which makes a public magistrate responsible to a
private party. I know that even a federal jury could not find a verdict
against me on this head. But I go fully into the question of title,
because our characters are concerned in it, and because it involves a most
important right of the citizens, and one which, if decided against them,
would be a precedent of incalculable evil. The detention, too, has been
so long the act of Congress itself, that for this reason I have supposed
they might think it entitled to their attention, and direct the Attorney
General to take care of the public interest in it, as has lately been done
by the House of Commons, in the action of Sir Francis Burdett against
their Speaker. But on this subject I wish to be advised by yourself and
my other friends, rather than trust to my own judgment, too likely to be
under bias. If I send the case to be perused by two or three members, it
will be under a strong injunction not to let its contents get into other
hands, my counsel having strongly advised against apprizing them of the
topics of defence, as well from apprehensions of subornation of witnesses
as to material facts, as from other considerations. Pray advise me on this
head. My counsel are Hay, Wist and Janewell.
I have seen with infinite grief the set which is made at you in the public
papers, and with the more as my name has been so much used in it. I hope
we both know one another too well to receive impression from circumstances
of this kind. A twelve years' intimate and friendly intercourse must be
better evidence to each of the dispositions of the other than the letters
of foreign ministers to their courts, or tortured influences from facts
true or false. I have too thorough a conviction of your cordial good will
towards me, and too strong a sense of the faithful and able assistance
I received from you, to relinquish them on any evidence but of my own
senses. With entire faith in your assurance of these truths, I shall add
those only of my constant affection and high respect.
TO COLONEL WM. DUANE.
MONTICELLO, September 16, 1810.
DEAR SIR,--Your favor of August 17th arrived the day after I had left
this place on a visit to one I have near Lynchburg, from whence I am
but lately returned. The history of England you describe is precisely
Baxter's, of which I wrote you; and if you compare him with Hume, you
will find the text preserved verbatim, with particular exceptions only.
The French work will accompany this letter. Since writing to you I have
gone over the whole, and can assure you it is the most valuable political
work of the present age. In some details we all may differ from him or
from one another, but the great mass of the work is highly sound. Its
title would be "A Commentary on Montesquieu's Spirit of Laws;" perhaps
the words "and Review" might be inserted at the----. Helvetius' letter
on the same work should be annexed, if it can possibly be procured. It
was contained in a late edition of the works of Helvetius published by
the Abbé de la Roche. Probably that edition might be found. I never
before heard of Williams' lectures on Montesquieu, but I am glad to
hear of everything which reduces that author to his just level, as his
predilection for monarchy, and the English monarchy in particular, has
done mischief everywhere, and here also, to a certain degree. With respect
to the Notes on Virginia, I do contemplate some day the making additions
and corrections to them; but I am inclined to take the benefit of my whole
life to make collections and observations, and let the editing them be
posthumous. The anecdote respecting the paper put into my hands by Dr.
Franklin has not been handed to you with entire correctness. I returned
from France in December 1789, and in March following I went on to New
York to take the post assigned me in the new government. On my way through
Philadelphia I called on Dr. Franklin, who was then confined to his bed.
As the revolution had then begun, indeed was supposed to be closed by
the completion of a constitution, and he was anxious to know the part
all his acquaintances had taken, he plied me with questions for an hour
or two with a vivacity and earnestness which astonished me. When I had
satisfied his inquiries, I observed to him that I had heard, and with
great pleasure, that he had began the history of his own life, and had
brought it down to the revolution, (for so I had heard while in Europe.)
"Not exactly so," said he, "but I will let you see the manner in which
I do these things." He then desired one of his small grand-children who
happened to be in the room, to bring him such a paper from the table. It
was brought, and he put it into my hands and said, "there, put that into
your pocket and you will see the manner of my writing." I thanked him and
said "I should read it with great pleasure, and return it to him safely."
"No," said he, "keep it." I took it with me to New York. It was, as well
as I recollect, about a quire of paper, in which he had given, with great
minuteness, all the details of his negotiations (informal) in England,
to prevent their pushing us to extremities. These were chiefly through
Lord Howe and a lady, I think the sister of Lord Howe, but of this I am
not certain; but I remember noting the particulars of her conversation
as marking her as a woman of very superior understanding. He gave all the
conversations with her and Lord Howe, and all the propositions he passed
through them to their minister, the answers and conversations with the
minister reported through them, his endeavors used with other characters,
whether with the ministers directly I do not recollect; but I remember
well that it appeared distinctly from what was brought to him from the
ministers, that the real obstacle to their meeting the various overtures
he made was the prospect of great confiscations to provide for their
friends, and that this was the real cause of the various shiftings and
shufflings they used to evade his propositions. Learning, on his death,
which happened soon after, that he had bequeathed all his unpublished
writings to his grandson, W. T. Franklin, with a view to the emolument he
might derive from their publication, I thought this writing was fairly
his property, and notified to him my possession of it, and that I would
deliver it to his order. He soon afterwards called on me at New York,
and I delivered it to him. He accepted it, and, while putting it into his
pocket, observed that his grandfather had retained another copy which he
had found among his papers. I did not reflect on this till suspicions
were circulated that W. T. F. had sold these writings to the British
Minister. I then formed the belief that Dr. Franklin had meant to deposit
this spare copy with me in confidence that it would be properly taken
care of, and sincerely repented the having given it up; and I have little
doubt that this identical paper was the principal object of the purchase
by the British government, and the unfortunate cause of the suppression
of all the rest. I do not think I have any interesting papers or facts
from Dr. Franklin. Should any occur at any time, I will communicate them
freely, nobody wishing more ardently that the public could be possessed
of everything that was his or respected him, believing that a greater
or better character has rarely existed. I am happy to learn that his
blood shows itself in the veins of the two of his great grandchildren
whom you mention. But I should think medicine the best profession for
a genius resembling his, as that of the elder is supposed to do. I have
received information of Pestalozzi's mode of education from some European
publications, and from Mr. Keefe's book which shows that the latter
possesses both the talents and the zeal for carrying it into effect. I
sincerely wish it success, convinced that the information of the people at
large can alone make them the safe, as they are the sole depository of our
political and religious freedom. The idea of antimony in this neighborhood
is, I believe, without foundation. Some twenty or thirty years ago a
mineral was found about ten miles from this place, which one of those idle
impostors, who call themselves mine-hunters, persuaded the proprietor was
gold ore. The poor man lost a crop in digging after it. After fruitless
assays of the mineral, some other person, knowing as little of the matter,
fancied it must be antimony. A third idea was that it was black lead. It
was abandoned, and the mine hole filled up, nor can we at this day hear of
any piece of the mineral in possession of any one.
You say in your letter that you will send me the _proofs_ of the
commentary on Montesquieu for revisal. It is only the _translation_
I should wish to revise. I feel myself answerable to the author for a
correct publication of his ideas. The translated sheets may come by post
as they are finished off; they shall be promptly returned, the originals
coming with them. Accept the assurances of my esteem and respect.
TO J. B. COLVIN.
MONTICELLO, September 20, 1810.
SIR,--Your favor of the 14th has been duly received, and I have to thank
you for the many obliging things respecting myself which are said in
it. If I have left in the breasts of my fellow citizens a sentiment of
satisfaction with my conduct in the transaction of their business, it will
soften the pillow of my repose through the residue of life.
The question you propose, whether circumstances do not sometimes occur,
which make it a duty in officers of high trust, to assume authorities
beyond the law, is easy of solution in principle, but sometimes
embarrassing in practice. A strict observance of the written laws is
doubtless _one_ of the high duties of a good citizen, but it is not _the
highest_. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our
country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by
a scrupulous adherence to written law, would be to lose the law itself,
with life, liberty, property and all those who are enjoying them with us;
thus absurdly sacrificing the end to the means. When, in the battle of
Germantown, General Washington's army was annoyed from Chew's house, he
did not hesitate to plant his cannon against it, although the property of
a citizen. When he besieged Yorktown, he leveled the suburbs, feeling that
the laws of property must be postponed to the safety of the nation. While
the army was before York, the Governor of Virginia took horses, carriages,
provisions and even men by force, to enable that army to stay together
till it could master the public enemy; and he was justified. A ship at sea
in distress for provisions, meets another having abundance, yet refusing
a supply; the law of self-preservation authorizes the distressed to take
a supply by force. In all these cases, the unwritten laws of necessity,
of self-preservation, and of the public safety, control the written laws
of _meum_ and _tuum_. Further to exemplify the principle, I will state
an hypothetical case. Suppose it had been made known to the Executive of
the Union in the autumn of 1805, that we might have the Floridas for a
reasonable sum, that that sum had not indeed been so appropriated by law,
but that Congress were to meet within three weeks, and might appropriate
it on the first or second day of their session. Ought he, for so great an
advantage to his country, to have risked himself by transcending the law
and making the purchase? The public advantage offered, in this supposed
case, was indeed immense; but a reverence for law, and the probability
that the advantage might still be _legally_ accomplished by a delay of
only three weeks, were powerful reasons against hazarding the act. But
suppose it foreseen that a John Randolph would find means to protract the
proceeding on it by Congress, until the ensuing spring, by which time
new circumstances would change the mind of the other party. Ought the
Executive, in that case, and with that foreknowledge, to have secured
the good to his country, and to have trusted to their justice for the
transgression of the law? I think he ought, and that the act would have
been approved. After the affair of the Chesapeake, we thought war a very
possible result. Our magazines were illy provided with some necessary
articles, nor had any appropriations been made for their purchase. We
ventured, however, to provide them, and to place our country in safety;
and stating the case to Congress, they sanctioned the act.
To proceed to the conspiracy of Burr, and particularly to General
Wilkinson's situation in New Orleans. In judging this case, we are bound
to consider the state of the information, correct and incorrect, which he
then possessed. He expected Burr and his band from above, a British fleet
from below, and he knew there was a formidable conspiracy within the city.
Under these circumstances, was he justifiable, 1st, in seizing notorious
conspirators? On this there can be but two opinions; one, of the guilty
and their accomplices; the other, that of all honest men. 2d. In sending
them to the seat of government, when the written law gave them a right to
trial in the territory? The danger of their rescue, of their continuing
their machinations, the tardiness and weakness of the law, apathy of
the judges, active patronage of the whole tribe of lawyers, unknown
disposition of the juries, an hourly expectation of the enemy, salvation
of the city, and of the Union itself, which would have been convulsed to
its centre, had that conspiracy succeeded; all these constituted a law of
necessity and self-preservation, and rendered the _salus populi_ supreme
over the written law. The officer who is called to act on this superior
ground, does indeed risk himself on the justice of the controlling powers
of the constitution, and his station makes it his duty to incur that risk.
But those controlling powers, and his fellow citizens generally, are bound
to judge according to the circumstances under which he acted. They are not
to transfer the information of this place or moment to the time and place
of his action; but to put themselves into his situation. We knew here that
there never was danger of a British fleet from below, and that Burr's band
was crushed before it reached the Mississippi. But General Wilkinson's
information was very different, and he could act on no other.
From these examples and principles you may see what I think on the
question proposed. They do not go to the case of persons charged with
petty duties, where consequences are trifling, and time allowed for a
legal course, nor to authorize them to take such cases out of the written
law. In these, the example of overleaping the law is of greater evil than
a strict adherence to its imperfect provisions. It is incumbent on those
only who accept of great charges, to risk themselves on great occasions,
when the safety of the nation, or some of its very high interests are at
stake. An officer is bound to obey orders; yet he would be a bad one who
should do it in cases for which they were not intended, and which involved
the most important consequences. The line of discrimination between cases
may be difficult; but the good officer is bound to draw it at his own
peril, and throw himself on the justice of his country and the rectitude
of his motives.
I have indulged freer views on this question, on your assurances that
they are for your own eye only, and that they will not get into the
hands of newswriters. I met their scurrilities without concern, while in
pursuit of the great interests with which I was charged. But in my present
retirement, no duty forbids my wish for quiet.
Accept the assurances of my esteem and respect.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
MONTICELLO, September 22, 1810.
DEAR SIR,--I have wanted the occasion of the present enclosure to perform
the duty of my thanks for the kind communication of papers from your
office in the question between Livingston and myself. These have mainly
enabled me to give a correct statement of facts. I deferred proceeding
to a particular consideration of the case in hopes of the aid of Moreau's
Memoire, which I have understood to be the ablest which has been written.
But I was at length forced to proceed without it, my counsel informing me
they were ruled to plead, and must therefore know the grounds of defence.
You will see what I have made of it by the enclosed, which I forward in
the hope you will consider and correct it. I have done this the rather
because I presume all my fellow laborers feel an interest in what all
approved, and because I think I should urge nothing which they disapprove.
Will you then do me the favor to put on paper such corrections as you
would advise, and forward them to me, handing on the enclosed paper at
the same time to Mr. Rodney? I wrote him by this post that he may expect
it from you, and I ask the same favor of correction from him, and above
all to delay as little as possible, because time presses to give to this
paper its ultimate form. My counsel press me earnestly not to let the
topics of defence get out, so as to be known to the adversary. Although I
know Congress will be strongly urged, yet I hope they will take no measure
which may impress a jury unfavorably, by inferences not intended. And were
the case to be thought to belong to the public, still I believe it better
they should let it come on, on the footing of a private action. I pray you
to be assured of my constant affection and respect.
September 26th. Sent a P. S. verbatim, the same as that to Mr. Rodney.
TO THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES.
MONTICELLO, September 25, 1810.
DEAR SIR,--I have to thank you for your kind letter of June 8th, and the
suggestions it furnished on the question whether Livingston could maintain
an action in Richmond for a trespass committed in Orleans. This being
a question of common law, I leave it to my counsel so much more recent
than I am in that branch of law. I have undertaken to furnish them with
the grounds of my defence under the _lex loci_. I wished for the aid
of Moreau's Memoire because it is understood to be the ablest of any.
However, my counsel being ruled to plead, and pressing me for the grounds
of defence, I proceeded to consider the case, meaning at first only an
outline, but I got insensibly into the full discussion, which became very
voluminous, and the more so as it was necessary not only to enter all
the authorities at large in the text, because few possess them, but also
translations of them, because all do not understand all the languages in
which they are. Believing my late associates in the executive would feel
an interest in the justification of a conduct in which all concurred,
and also in the issue of it, I have thought it a duty to consult them as
to the grounds to be taken, and to take none against their advice. My
statement has therefore been submitted to the President, Mr. Smith and
Mr. Gallatin, and will be forwarded to you by Mr. Smith as soon as he
shall have read it. I have to request your consideration and corrections
of it, and that you will be so good as to furnish them on a separate
paper. I am obliged also to ask an immediate attention to them, because
time presses to give to this paper its ultimate shape, to plead, and
collect the evidence. Its early return to me therefore is urging. I do
not know whether my counsel (Hay, Wist and Tazewell) have pleaded to the
jurisdiction. * * * * * The death of Cushing is opportune, as it gives
an opening for at length getting a republican majority on the supreme
bench. Ten years has the anti-civism of that body been bidding defiance
to the spirit of the whole nation, after they had manifested their will by
reforming every other branch of the government. I trust the occasion will
not be lost; Bidwell's disgrace withdraws the ablest man of the section in
which Cushing's successor must be named. The pure integrity, unimpeachable
conduct, talents and republican firmness of Lincoln, leave him now, I
think, without a rival. He is thought not an able common lawyer. But there
is not and never was an able one in the New England States. Their system
is _sui generis_, in which the _common_ law is little attended to. Lincoln
is one of the ablest in their system, and it is among them he is to
execute the great portion of his duties. Nothing is more material than to
complete the reformation of the government by this appointment, which may
truly be said to be putting the keystone into the arch. In my statement of
the law of Livingston's case, I do not pretend to consider every argument
as perfectly sound. I have, as is usual, availed myself of some views,
which may have a weight with others which they have not with me. I have no
right to assume infallibility, and I present them, therefore, _ut valcant
ubi possint_. Accept the assurances of my constant and affectionate
esteem.
P. S., September 26. In my letter of yesterday, I have omitted to observe,
with respect to the arrangement of materials in the paper it speaks
of, that it is not such as counsel would employ in pleading a cause. It
was determined by other considerations. I thought it very possible the
case might be dismissed out of court by a plea to the jurisdiction. I
determined, on this event, to lay it before the public, either directly or
through Congress. Respect for my associates, for myself, for our nation,
would not permit me to come forward, as a criminal under accusation, to
plead and argue a cause. This was not my situation. This would naturally
be by way of narrative or statement of the facts in their order of
time, establishing these facts as they occur, and bringing forward the
law arising on them, and pointing to the Executive the course he was
to pursue. I supposed it more dignified to present it as a history and
explanation of what had taken place. It does not, indeed, in that form,
display the subject in one great whole, but it brings forward successively
a number of questions, solving themselves as they arise, and leaving no
one unexamined. And the mind, after travelling over the whole case, and
finding as it goes along that all has been considered and all is right,
rests in that state of satisfaction which it is our object to produce.
In truth, I have never known a case which presented so many distinct
questions, having no dependence on one another, nor belonging even to the
same branches of jurisprudence.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
MONTICELLO, September 27, 1810.
DEAR SIR,--Yours of the 10th came safely to hand, and laid me under new
obligations for the valuable observations it contained. The error of
twelve feet instead of seven, for the rise of the batture, really _sautoit
aux yeux_, and how I could have committed it at first, or passed it over
afterwards without discovery, and having copied Pelletier's plan myself,
is unaccountable. I have adopted also most of your other corrections.
You observe that the arguments proving the batture public, yet prove it
of such a character that it could not be within the scope of the law of
March 4th, against squatters. I should so adjudge myself; yet I observe
many opinions otherwise, and in defence against a spadassin, it is lawful
to use all weapons. Besides, I have no pretensions to be exclusively the
judge of what arguments are sound and what not. I give them, therefore,
that they may weigh with those who think they have weight and have a right
to decide for themselves. That act of Congress, moreover, was evidently
respected, particularly in the order under which the removal was made.
With respect to the arrangement of materials in my statement, I know it
is not such as counsel would employ in pleading such a cause; it is not
such as I would have made myself in that character; it was determined by
other considerations. I thought it possible the case might be dismissed
out of court by a plea to the jurisdiction. I determined, on this event,
to lay it before the public, either directly or through Congress. Respect
for my associates, for myself, for our nation, would not permit me to
come forward, as a criminal under accusation, to plead and argue a cause.
This was not my situation. I had only to state to my constituents a common
transaction. This would naturally be by way of narrative or statement of
the facts, in their order of time, establishing these facts as they occur,
and bringing forward the law arising on them and pointing to the Executive
the course he was to pursue. I suppose it more self-respectful to present
it as a history and explanation of what had taken place. It does not,
indeed, in that form, display the subject in one great whole, but it
brings forward successively a number of questions, solving themselves as
they arise, and leaving no one unexamined. And the mind, after travelling
over the whole case, and finding as it goes along that all has been
considered, and all is right, rests in that state of satisfaction which
it is our object to produce. In truth, I have never known a case which
presented so many distinct questions, having no dependence on one another,
nor belonging even to the same branches of jurisprudence. After all, I
offer this as explanation, not justification of the order adopted.
* * * * *
At length, then, we have a chance of getting a republican majority in the
Supreme Judiciary. For ten years has that branch braved the spirit and
will of the nation, after the nation had manifested its will by a complete
reform in every branch depending on them. The event is a fortunate one,
and so timed as to be a God-send to me. I am sure its importance to the
nation will be felt, and the occasion employed to complete the great
operation they have so long been executing, by the appointment of a
decided republican, with nothing equivocal about him. But who will it
be? The misfortune of Bidwell removes an able man from the competition.
Can any other bring equal qualifications to those of Lincoln? I know he
was not deemed a profound common lawyer; but was there ever a profound
common lawyer known in any of the Eastern States? There never was, nor
never can be one from those States. The basis of their law is neither
common nor civil; it is an original, if any compound can so be called.
Its foundation seems to have been laid in the spirit and principles of
Jewish law, incorporated with some words and phrases of common law, and an
abundance of notions of their own. This makes an _amalgam sui generis_,
and it is well known that a man, first and thoroughly initiated into the
principles of one system of law, can never become pure and sound in any
other. Lord Mansfield was a splendid proof of this. Therefore, I say,
there never was, nor can be a profound common lawyer from those States.
Sullivan had the reputation of preëminence there as a common lawyer.
But we have his history of land titles, which gives us his measure. Mr.
Lincoln is, I believe, considered as learned in their laws as any one
they have. Federalists say that Parsons is better. But the criticalness
of the present nomination puts him out of question. As the great mass of
the functions of the new judge are to be performed in his own district,
Lincoln will be most unexceptionable and acceptable there; and on the
supreme bench equal to any one who can be brought from thence; add to
this his integrity, political firmness and unimpeachable character, and
I believe no one can be found to whom there will not be more serious
objections.
You seem to think it would be best to ascertain the probable result
before making a proposition to Congress to defend Livingston's suit. On
mature consideration I think it better that no such proposition should
be made. The debates there would fix the case as a party one, and we are
the minority in the judiciary department, and especially in the federal
branch of it here. Till Congress can be thoroughly put in possession of
all the points in the case, it is best they should let it lie. Livingston,
by removing it into the Judiciary, has fairly relinquished all claims
on their interference. I am confident that Congress will act soundly,
whenever we can give them a knowledge of the whole case. But I tire you
with this business, and end therefore with repeating assurances of my
constant attachment and respect.
TO CAPTAIN ISAAC HILLARD.
MONTICELLO, October 9, 1810.
SIR,--I duly received your letter of September 10th, and return you
thanks for that and the pamphlet you were so kind as to enclose me.
The health you enjoy at so good an old age, and the strength of mind
evidenced in your pamphlet, are subjects of congratulation to yourself
and of thankfulness to him who gives them. I am sorry that a professor of
religion should have given occasion for such a censure. It proves he has
much to conquer in his own uncharitableness, and that it is not from him
his flock are to learn not to bear false witness against their neighbor.
But as to so much of his pulpit philippic as concerns myself I freely
forgive him; for I feel no falsehood and fear no truth. That you may
long continue to enjoy health, happiness and a sound mind, is my sincere
prayer.
TO COLONEL DUANE.
MONTICELLO, November 13, 1810.
DEAR SIR,--Your third packet is received before the second had been
returned. It is now enclosed, and the other shall go by the next post.
I find, as before, nothing to correct but those errors of the copyist
which you would have corrected yourself before committed to the press. If
it were practicable to send me the original sheets with the translated,
perhaps my equal familiarity with both languages might enable me sometimes
to be of some advantage; but I presume that might be difficult, and of
little use, scarcely perhaps of any. I thank you for the copy of Williams.
I have barely dipped into it a little. Enough, however, to see he is far
short of the luminous work you are printing. Indeed I think that the most
valuable work of the present age. I received from Williams, some years
ago, his book on the claims of authors. I found him to be a man of sound
and true principles, but not knowing how to go at them, and not able to
trace or develop them for others. I believe with you that the crisis of
England is come. What will be its issue it is vain to prophesy; so many
thousand contingencies may turn up to affect its direction. Were I to
hazard a guess, it would be that they will become a military despotism.
Their recollections of the portion of liberty they have enjoyed will
render force necessary to retain them under pure monarchy. Their pressure
upon us has been so severe and so unprincipled, that we cannot deprecate
their fate, though we might wish to see their naval power kept up to
the level of that of the other principal powers separately taken. But
may it not take a very different turn? Her paper credit annihilated, the
precious metals must become her circulating medium. The taxes which can
be levied on her people in these will be trifling in comparison with what
they could pay in paper money; her navy then will be unpaid, unclothed,
unfed. Will such a body of men suffer themselves to be dismissed and to
starve? Will they not mutiny, revolt, embody themselves under a popular
Admiral, take possession of Western and Bermuda islands, and act on the
Algerine system? If they should not be able to act on this broad scale,
they will become individual pirates; and the modern Carthage will end as
the old one has done. I am sorry for her people, who are individually as
respectable as those of other nations--it is her government which is so
corrupt, and which has destroyed the nation--it was certainly the most
corrupt and unprincipled government on earth. I should be glad to see
their farmers and mechanics come here, but I hope their nobles, priests,
and merchants will be kept at home to be moralized by the discipline of
the new government. The young stripling whom you describe is, probably, as
George Nicholas used to say, "in the plenitude of puppyism." Such coxcombs
do not serve even as straws to show which way the wind blows. Alexander
is unquestionably a man of an excellent heart, and of very respectable
strength of mind; and he is the only sovereign who cordially loves us.
Bonaparte hates our government because it is a living libel on his. The
English hate us because they think our prosperity filched from theirs.
Of Alexander's sense of the merits of our form of government, of its
wholesome operation on the condition of the people, and of the interest he
takes in the success of our experiment, we possess the most unquestionable
proofs; and to him we shall be indebted if the rights of neutrals, to
be settled whenever peace is made, shall be extended beyond the present
belligerents; that is to say, European neutrals, as George and Napoleon,
of mutual consent and common hatred against us, would concur in excluding
us. I thought it a salutary measure to engage the powerful patronage of
Alexander at conferences for peace, at a time when Bonaparte was courting
him; and although circumstances have lessened its weight, yet it is
prudent for us to cherish his good dispositions, as those alone which
will be exerted in our favor when that occasion shall occur. He, like
ourselves, sees and feels the atrociousness of both the belligerents. I
salute you with great esteem and respect.
TO MR. JAMES RONALDSON.
MONTICELLO, December 3, 1810.
SIR,--I now return you the paper you were so kind as to enclose to me. The
hint to the two belligerents of disarming each other of their auxiliaries,
by opening asylums to them and giving them passages to this country,
is certainly a good one. Bonaparte has mind enough to adopt it, but not
the means. England, again, has the means but not mind enough; she would
prefer losing an advantage over her enemy to giving one to us. It is an
unhappy state of mind for her, but I am afraid it is the true one. She
presents a singular phenomenon of an honest people whose constitution,
from its nature, must render their government forever dishonest; and
accordingly, from the time that Sir Robert Walpole gave the constitution
that direction which its defects permitted, morality has been expunged
from their political code. I think the paper might do good if published,
and could do no harm. It cannot lessen our means of availing ourselves of
the same resource in case of our being at war with either belligerent. The
only difficulty in these cases (and in the revolutionary war we found it
a great one) is the conveying the invitation to the adverse troops. Accept
my salutations and assurances of respect.
TO DAVID HOWELL, ESQ.
MONTICELLO, December 15, 1810.
DEAR SIR,--Our last post brought me your friendly letter of November
27th. I learn with pleasure that republican principles are predominant in
your State, because I conscientiously believe that governments founded
in these are more friendly to the happiness of the people at large, and
especially of a people so capable of self-government as ours. I have been
ever opposed to the party so falsely called federalists, because I believe
them desirous of introducing into our government authorities hereditary
or otherwise independent of the national will. These always consume the
public contributions, and oppress the people with labor and poverty.
No one was more sensible than myself, while Governor Fenner was in the
Senate, of the soundness of his political principles, and rectitude of his
conduct. Among those of my fellow laborers of whom I had a distinguished
opinion, he was one, and I have no doubt those among whom he lives, and
who have already given him so many proofs of their unequivocal confidence
in him, will continue so to do. It would be impertinent in me, a stranger
to them, to tell them what they all see daily. My object too, at present,
is peace and tranquillity, neither doing nor saying anything to be quoted,
or to make me the subject of newspaper disquisitions. I read one or two
newspapers a week, but with reluctance give even that time from Tacitus
and Horace, and so much other more agreeable reading; indeed, I give more
time to exercise of the body than of the mind, believing it wholesome to
both. I enjoy, in recollection, my ancient friendships, and suffer no
new circumstances to mix alloy with them. I do not take the trouble of
forming opinions on what is passing among them, because I have such entire
confidence in their integrity and wisdom as to be satisfied all is going
right, and that every one is doing his best in the station confided to
him. Under these impressions, accept sincere assurances of my continued
esteem and respect for yourself personally, and my best wishes for your
health and happiness.
TO MR. LAW.
MONTICELLO, January 15, 1811.
DEAR SIR,--An absence from home of some length has prevented my sooner
acknowledging the receipt of your letter, covering the printed pamphlet,
which the same absence has as yet prevented me from taking up, but which I
know I shall read with great pleasure. Your favor of December the 22d, is
also received.
Mr. Wagner's malignity, like that of the rest of his tribe of brother
printers, who deal out calumnies for federal readers, gives me no pain.
When a printer cooks up a falsehood, it is as easy to put it into the
mouth of a Mr. Fox, as of a smaller man, and safer into that of a dead
than a living one. Your sincere attachment to this country, as well as
to your native one, was never doubted by me; and in that persuasion, I
felt myself free to express to you my genuine sentiments with respect
to England. No man was more sensible than myself of the just value of
the friendship of that country. There are between us so many of those
circumstances which naturally produce and cement kind dispositions,
that if they could have forgiven our resistance to their usurpations,
our connections might have been durable, and have insured duration to
both our governments. I wished, therefore, a cordial friendship with
them, and I spared no occasion of manifesting this in our correspondence
and intercourse with them; not disguising, however, my desire of
friendship with their enemy also. During the administration of Mr.
Addington, I thought I discovered some friendly symptoms on the part of
that government; at least, we received some marks of respect from the
administration, and some of regret at the wrongs we were suffering from
their country. So, also, during the short interval of Mr. Fox's power.
But every other administration since our Revolution has been equally
wanton in their injuries and insults, and have manifested equal hatred
and aversion. Instead, too, of cultivating the government itself, whose
principles are those of the great mass of the nation, they have adopted
the miserable policy of teazing and embarrassing it, by allying themselves
with a faction here, not a tenth of the people, noisy and unprincipled,
and which never can come into power while republicanism is the spirit of
the nation, and that must continue to be so, until such a condensation of
population shall have taken place as will require centuries. Whereas, the
good will of the government itself would give them, and immediately, every
benefit which reason or justice would permit it to give. With respect to
myself, I saw great reason to believe their ministers were weak enough
to credit the newspaper trash about a supposed personal enmity in myself
towards England. This wretched party imputation was beneath the notice of
wise men. England never did me a personal injury, other than in open war;
and for numerous individuals there, I have great esteem and friendship.
And I must have had a mind far below the duties of my station, to have
felt either national partialities or antipathies in conducting the affairs
confided to me. My affections were first for my own country, and then,
generally, for all mankind; and nothing but minds placing themselves
above the passions, in the functionaries of this country, could have
preserved us from the war to which their provocations have been constantly
urging us. The war interests in England include a numerous and wealthy
part of their population; and their influence is deemed worth courting
by ministers wishing to keep their places. Continually endangered by a
powerful opposition, they find it convenient to humor the popular passions
at the expense of the public good. The shipping interest, commercial
interest, and their janizaries of the navy, all fattening on war, will
not be neglected by ministers of ordinary minds. Their tenure of office
is so infirm that they dare not follow the dictates of wisdom, justice,
and the well-calculated interests of their country. This vice in the
English constitution, renders a dependence on that government very unsafe.
The feelings of their King, too, fundamentally adverse to us, have added
another motive for unfriendliness in his ministers. This obstacle to
friendship, however, seems likely to be soon removed; and I verily believe
the successor will come in with fairer and wiser dispositions towards us;
perhaps on that event their conduct may be changed. But what England is to
become on the crush of her internal structure, now seeming to be begun, I
cannot foresee. Her monied interest, created by her paper system, and now
constituting a baseless mass of wealth equal to that of the owners of the
soil, must disappear with that system, and the medium for paying great
taxes thus failing, her navy must be without support. That it shall be
supported by permitting her to claim dominion of the ocean, and to levy
tribute on every flag traversing that, as lately attempted and not yet
relinquished, every nation must contest, even _ad internecionem_. And yet,
that retiring from this enormity, she should continue able to take a fair
share in the necessary equilibrium of power on that element, would be the
desire of every nation.
I feel happy in withdrawing my mind from these anxieties, and resigning
myself, for the remnant of life, to the care and guardianship of others.
Good wishes are all an old man has to offer to his country or friends.
Mine attend yourself, with sincere assurances of esteem and respect,
which, however, I should be better pleased to tender you in person, should
your rambles ever lead you into the vicinage of Monticello.
TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN RUSH.
MONTICELLO, January 16, 1811.
DEAR SIR,--I had been considering for some days, whether it was not time
by a letter, to bring myself to your recollection, when I received your
welcome favor of the 2d instant. I had before heard of the heart-rending
calamity you mention, and had sincerely sympathized with your afflictions.
But I had not made it the subject of a letter, because I knew that
condolences were but renewals of grief. Yet I thought, and still think,
this is one of the cases wherein we should "not sorrow, even as others who
have no hope."
* * * * *
You ask if I have read Hartley? I have not. My present course of life
admits less reading than I wish. From breakfast, or noon at latest, to
dinner, I am mostly on horseback, attending to my farm or other concerns,
which I find healthful to my body, mind and affairs; and the few hours I
can pass in my cabinet, are devoured by correspondences; not those with my
intimate friends, with whom I delight to interchange sentiments, but with
others, who, writing to me on concerns of their own in which I have had an
agency, or from motives of mere respect and approbation, are entitled to
be answered with respect and a return of good will. My hope is that this
obstacle to the delights of retirement, will wear away with the oblivion
which follows that, and that I may at length be indulged in those studious
pursuits, from which nothing but revolutionary duties would ever have
called me.
I shall receive your proposed publication and read it with the pleasure
which everything gives me from your pen. Although much of a sceptic in the
practice of medicine, I read with pleasure its ingenious theories.
I receive with sensibility your observations on the discontinuance of
friendly correspondence between Mr. Adams and myself, and the concern you
take in its restoration. This discontinuance has not proceeded from me,
nor from the want of sincere desire and of effort on my part, to renew our
intercourse. You know the perfect coincidence of principle and of action,
in the early part of the Revolution, which produced a high degree of
mutual respect and esteem between Mr. Adams and myself. Certainly no man
was ever truer than he was, in that day, to those principles of rational
republicanism which, after the necessity of throwing off our monarchy,
dictated all our efforts in the establishment of a new government. And
although he swerved, afterwards, towards the principles of the English
constitution, our friendship did not abate on that account. While he
was Vice President, and I Secretary of State, I received a letter from
President Washington, then at Mount Vernon, desiring me to call together
the Heads of departments, and to invite Mr. Adams to join us (which,
by-the-bye, was the only instance of that being done) in order to
determine on some measure which required despatch; and he desired me to
act on it, as decided, without again recurring to him. I invited them to
dine with me, and after dinner, sitting at our wine, having settled our
question, other conversation came on, in which a collision of opinion
arose between Mr. Adams and Colonel Hamilton, on the merits of the
British constitution, Mr. Adams giving it as his opinion, that, if some
of its defects and abuses were corrected, it would be the most perfect
constitution of government ever devised by man. Hamilton, on the contrary,
asserted, that with its existing vices, it was the most perfect model
of government that could be formed; and that the correction of its vices
would render it an impracticable government. And this you may be assured
was the real line of difference between the political principles of these
two gentlemen. Another incident took place on the same occasion, which
will further delineate Mr. Hamilton's political principles. The room being
hung around with a collection of the portraits of remarkable men, among
them were those of Bacon, Newton and Locke, Hamilton asked me who they
were. I told him they were my trinity of the three greatest men the world
had ever produced, naming them. He paused for some time: "the greatest
man," said he, "that ever lived, was Julius Cæsar." Mr. Adams was honest
as a politician, as well as a man; Hamilton honest as a man, but, as a
politician, believing in the necessity of either force or corruption to
govern men.
You remember the machinery which the federalists played off, about that
time, to beat down the friends to the real principles of our constitution,
to silence by terror every expression in their favor, to bring us into
war with France and alliance with England, and finally to homologize our
constitution with that of England. Mr. Adams, you know, was overwhelmed
with feverish addresses, dictated by the fear, and often by the pen, of
the _bloody buoy_, and was seduced by them into some open indications of
his new principles of government, and in fact, was so elated as to mix
with his kindness a little superciliousness towards me. Even Mrs. Adams,
with all her good sense and prudence, was sensibly flushed. And you
recollect the short suspension of our intercourse, and the circumstance
which gave rise to it, which you were so good as to bring to an early
explanation, and have set to rights, to the cordial satisfaction of us
all. The nation at length passed condemnation on the political principles
of the federalists, by refusing to continue Mr. Adams in the Presidency.
On the day on which we learned in Philadelphia the vote of the city of
New York, which it was well known would decide the vote of the State, and
that, again, the vote of the Union, I called on Mr. Adams on some official
business. He was very sensibly affected, and accosted me with these words:
"Well, I understand that you are to beat me in this contest, and I will
only say that I will be as faithful a subject as any you will have."
"Mr. Adams," said I, "this is no personal contest between you and me.
Two systems of principles on the subject of government divide our fellow
citizens into two parties. With one of these you concur, and I with the
other. As we have been longer on the public stage than most of those now
living, our names happen to be more generally known. One of these parties,
therefore, has put your name at its head, the other mine. Were we both
to die to-day, to-morrow two other names would be in the place of ours,
without any change in the motion of the machinery. Its motion is from its
principle, not from you or myself." "I believe you are right," said he,
"that we are but passive instruments, and should not suffer this matter to
affect our personal dispositions." But he did not long retain this just
view of the subject. I have always believed that the thousand calumnies
which the federalists, in bitterness of heart, and mortification at their
ejection, daily invented against me, were carried to him by their busy
intriguers, and made some impression. When the election between Burr and
myself was kept in suspense by the federalists, and they were meditating
to place the President of the Senate at the head of the government, I
called on Mr. Adams with a view to have this desperate measure prevented
by his negative. He grew warm in an instant, and said with a vehemence he
had not used towards me before, "Sir, the event of the election is within
your own power. You have only to say you will do justice to the public
creditors, maintain the navy, and not disturb those holding offices, and
the government will instantly be put into your hands. We know it is the
wish of the people it should be so." "Mr. Adams," said I, "I know not what
part of my conduct, in either public or private life, can have authorized
a doubt of my fidelity to the public engagements. I say, however, I will
not come into the government by capitulation. I will not enter on it,
but in perfect freedom to follow the dictates of my own judgment." I
had before given the same answer to the same intimation from Gouverneur
Morris. "Then," said he, "things must take their course." I turned the
conversation to something else, and soon took my leave. It was the first
time in our lives we had ever parted with anything like dissatisfaction.
And then followed those scenes of midnight appointment, which have been
condemned by all men. The last day of his political power, the last hours,
and even beyond the midnight, were employed in filling all offices, and
especially permanent ones, with the bitterest federalists, and providing
for me the alternative, either to execute the government by my enemies,
whose study it would be to thwart and defeat all my measures, or to
incur the odium of such numerous removals from office, as might bear me
down. A little time and reflection effaced in my mind this temporary
dissatisfaction with Mr. Adams, and restored me to that just estimate
of his virtues and passions, which a long acquaintance had enabled me to
fix. And my first wish became that of making his retirement easy by any
means in my power; for it was understood he was not rich. I suggested
to some republican members of the delegation from his State, the giving
him, either directly or indirectly, an office, the most lucrative in
that State, and then offered to be resigned, if they thought he would
not deem it affrontive. They were of opinion he would take great offence
at the offer; and moreover, that the body of republicans would consider
such a step in the outset as arguing very ill of the course I meant to
pursue. I dropped the idea, therefore, but did not cease to wish for some
opportunity of renewing our friendly understanding.
Two or three years after, having had the misfortune to lose a daughter,
between whom and Mrs. Adams there had been a considerable attachment, she
made it the occasion of writing me a letter, in which, with the tenderest
expressions of concern at this event, she carefully avoided a single one
of friendship towards myself, and even concluded it with the wishes "of
her who _once_ took pleasure in subscribing herself your friend, Abigail
Adams." Unpromising as was the complexion of this letter, I determined
to make an effort towards removing the cloud from between us. This
brought on a correspondence which I now enclose for your perusal, after
which be so good as to return it to me, as I have never communicated it
to any mortal breathing, before. I send it to you, to convince you I
have not been wanting either in the desire, or the endeavor to remove
this misunderstanding. Indeed, I thought it highly disgraceful to us
both, as indicating minds not sufficiently elevated to prevent a public
competition from affecting our personal friendship. I soon found from
the correspondence that conciliation was desperate, and yielding to an
intimation in her last letter, I ceased from further explanation. I have
the same good opinion of Mr. Adams which I ever had. I know him to be an
honest man, an able one with his pen, and he was a powerful advocate on
the floor of Congress. He has been alienated from me, by belief in the
lying suggestions contrived for electioneering purposes, that I perhaps
mixed in the activity and intrigues of the occasion. My most intimate
friends can testify that I was perfectly passive. They would sometimes,
indeed, tell me what was going on; but no man ever heard me take part in
such conversations; and none ever misrepresented Mr. Adams in my presence,
without my asserting his just character. With very confidential persons
I have doubtless disapproved of the principles and practices of his
administration. This was unavoidable. But never with those with whom it
could do him any injury. Decency would have required this conduct from me,
if disposition had not; and I am satisfied Mr. Adams' conduct was equally
honorable towards me. But I think it part of his character to suspect
foul play in those of whom he is jealous, and not easily to relinquish his
suspicions.
I have gone, my dear friend, into these details, that you might know
everything which had passed between us, might be fully possessed of the
state of facts and dispositions, and judge for yourself whether they
admit a revival of that friendly intercourse for which you are so kindly
solicitous. I shall certainly not be wanting in anything on my part which
may second your efforts, which will be the easier with me, inasmuch as I
do not entertain a sentiment of Mr. Adams, the expression of which could
give him reasonable offence. And I submit the whole to yourself, with
the assurance, that whatever be the issue, my friendship and respect for
yourself will remain unaltered and unalterable.
TO MR. JOHN LYNCH.
MONTICELLO, January 21, 1811.
SIR,--You have asked my opinion on the proposition of Mrs. Mifflin, to
take measures for procuring, on the coast of Africa, an establishment to
which the people of color of these States might, from time to time, be
colonized, under the auspices of different governments. Having long ago
made up my mind on this subject, I have no hesitation in saying that I
have ever thought it the most desirable measure which could be adopted,
for gradually drawing off this part of our population, most advantageously
for themselves as well as for us. Going from a country possessing all
the useful arts, they might be the means of transplanting them among the
inhabitants of Africa, and would thus carry back to the country of their
origin, the seeds of civilization which might render their sojournment and
sufferings here a blessing in the end to that country.
I received, in the first year of my coming into the administration of
the General Government, a letter from the Governor of Virginia, (Colonel
Monroe,) consulting me, at the request of the Legislature of the State, on
the means of procuring some such asylum, to which these people might be
occasionally sent. I proposed to him the establishment of Sierra Leone,
to which a private company in England had already colonized a number
of negroes, and particularly the fugitives from these States during the
Revolutionary War; and at the same time suggested, if this could not be
obtained, some of the Portuguese possessions in South America, as next
most desirable. The subsequent Legislature approving these ideas, I wrote,
the ensuing year, 1802, to Mr. King, our Minister in London, to endeavor
to negotiate with the Sierra Leone company a reception of such of these
people as might be colonized thither. He opened a correspondence with Mr.
Wedderburne and Mr. Thornton, secretaries of the company, on the subject,
and in 1803 I received through Mr. King the result, which was that the
colony was going on, but in a languishing condition; that the funds of the
company were likely to fail, as they received no returns of profit to keep
them up; that they were therefore in treaty with their government to take
the establishment off their hands; but that in no event should they be
willing to receive more of these people from the United States, as it was
exactly that portion of their settlers which had gone from hence, which,
by their idleness and turbulence, had kept the settlement in constant
danger of dissolution, which could not have been prevented but for the aid
of the Maroon negroes from the West Indies, who were more industrious and
orderly than the others, and supported the authority of the government
and its laws. I think I learned afterwards that the British Government
had taken the colony into its own hands, and I believe it still exists.
The effort which I made with Portugal, to obtain an establishment for them
within their claims in South America, proved also abortive.
You inquire further, whether I would use my endeavors to procure for
such an establishment security against violence from other powers, and
particularly from France? Certainly, I shall be willing to do anything I
can to give it effect and safety. But I am but a private individual, and
could only use endeavors with private individuals; whereas, the National
Government can address themselves at once to those of Europe to obtain
the desired security, and will unquestionably be ready to exert its
influence with those nations for an object so benevolent in itself, and
so important to a great portion of its constituents. Indeed, nothing is
more to be wished than that the United States would themselves undertake
to make such an establishment on the coast of Africa. Exclusive of motives
of humanity, the commercial advantages to be derived from it might repay
all its expenses. But for this, the national mind is not yet prepared.
It may perhaps be doubted whether many of these people would voluntarily
consent to such an exchange of situation, and very certain that few of
those advanced to a certain age in habits of slavery, would be capable
of self-government. This should not, however, discourage the experiment,
nor the early trial of it; and the proposition should be made with all
the prudent cautions and attentions requisite to reconcile it to the
interests, the safety and the prejudices of all parties.
Accept the assurances of my respect and esteem.
TO M. DESTUTT TRACY.
MONTICELLO, January 26, 1811.
SIR,--The length of time your favor of June the 12th, 1809 was on its
way to me, and my absence from home the greater part of the autumn,
delayed very much the pleasure which awaited me of reading the packet
which accompanied it. I cannot express to you the satisfaction which I
received from its perusal. I had, with the world, deemed Montesquieu's
work of much merit; but saw in it, with every thinking man, so much of
paradox, of false principle and misapplied fact, as to render its value
equivocal on the whole. Williams and others had nibbled only at its
errors. A radical correction of them, therefore, was a great desideratum.
This want is now supplied, and with a depth of thought, precision of
idea, of language and of logic, which will force conviction into every
mind. I declare to you, Sir, in the spirit of truth and sincerity, that
I consider it the most precious gift the present age has received. But
what would it have been, had the author, or would the author, take up the
whole scheme of Montesquieu's work, and following the correct analysis he
has here developed, fill up all its parts according to his sound views
of them? Montesquieu's celebrity would be but a small portion of that
which would immortalize the author. And with whom? With the rational and
high-minded spirits of the present and all future ages. With those whose
approbation is both incitement and reward to virtue and ambition. Is then
the hope desperate? To what object can the occupation of his future life
be devoted so usefully to the world, so splendidly to himself? But I must
leave to others who have higher claims on his attention, to press these
considerations.
My situation, far in the interior of the country, was not favorable to
the object of getting this work translated and printed. Philadelphia is
the least distant of the great towns of our States, where there exists
any enterprise in this way; and it was not till the spring following
the receipt of your letter, that I obtained an arrangement for its
execution. The translation is just now completed. The sheets came to me
by post, from time to time, for revisal; but not being accompanied by the
original, I could not judge of verbal accuracies. I think, however, it
is substantially correct, without being an adequate representation of the
excellences of the original; as indeed no translation can be. I found it
impossible to give it the appearance of an original composition in our
language. I therefore think it best to divert inquiries after the author
towards a quarter where he will not be found; and with this view, propose
to prefix the prefatory epistle now enclosed. As soon as a copy of the
work can be had, I will send it to you by duplicate. The secret of the
author will be faithfully preserved during his and my joint lives; and
those into whose hands my papers will fall at my death, will be equally
worthy of confidence. When the death of the author, or his living consent
shall permit the world to know their benefactor, both his and my papers
will furnish the evidence. In the meantime, the many important truths the
work so solidly establishes, will, I hope, make it the political rudiment
of the young, and manual of our older citizens.
One of its doctrines, indeed, the preference of a plural over a singular
executive, will probably not be assented to here. When our present
government was first established, we had many doubts on this question,
and many leanings towards a supreme executive counsel. It happened that
at that time the experiment of such an one was commenced in France,
while the single executive was under trial here. We watched the motions
and effects of these two rival plans, with an interest and anxiety
proportioned to the importance of a choice between them. The experiment
in France failed after a short course, and not from any circumstance
peculiar to the times or nation, but from those internal jealousies and
dissensions in the Directory, which will ever arise among men equal in
power, without a principal to decide and control their differences. We
had tried a similar experiment in 1784, by establishing a committee of
the States, composed of a member from every State, then thirteen, to
exercise the executive functions during the recess of Congress. They
fell immediately into schisms and dissensions, which became at length
so inveterate as to render all co-operation among them impracticable,
they dissolved themselves, abandoning the helm of government, and it
continued without a head, until Congress met the ensuing winter. This
was then imputed to the temper of two or three individuals; but the wise
ascribed it to the nature of man. The failure of the French Directory,
and from the same cause, seems to have authorized a belief that the form
of a plurality, however promising in theory, is impracticable with men
constituted with the ordinary passions. While the tranquil and steady
tenor of our single executive, during a course of twenty-two years of the
most tempestuous times the history of the world has ever presented, gives
a rational hope that this important problem is at length solved. Aided by
the counsels of a cabinet of heads of departments, originally four, but
now five, with whom the President consults, either singly or altogether,
he has the benefit of their wisdom and information, brings their views
to one centre, and produces an unity of action and direction in all the
branches of the government. The excellence of this construction of the
executive power has already manifested itself here under very opposite
circumstances. During the administration of our first President, his
cabinet of four members was equally divided by as marked an opposition of
principle as monarchism and republicanism could bring into conflict. Had
that cabinet been a directory, like positive and negative quantities in
algebra, the opposing wills would have balanced each other and produced
a state of absolute inaction. But the President heard with calmness the
opinions and reasons of each, decided the course to be pursued, and kept
the government steadily in it, unaffected by the agitation. The public
knew well the dissensions of the cabinet, but never had an uneasy thought
on their account, because they knew also they had provided a regulating
power which would keep the machine in steady movement. I speak with
an intimate knowledge of these scenes, _quorum pars fui_; as I may of
others of a character entirely opposite. The third administration, which
was of eight years, presented an example of harmony in a cabinet of six
persons, to which perhaps history has furnished no parallel. There never
arose, during the whole time, an instance of an unpleasant thought or
word between the members. We sometimes met under differences of opinion,
but scarcely ever failed, by conversing and reasoning, so to modify each
other's ideas, as to produce an unanimous result. Yet, able and amicable
as these members were, I am not certain this would have been the case,
had each possessed equal and independent powers. Ill-defined limits of
their respective departments, jealousies, trifling at first, but nourished
and strengthened by repetition of occasions, intrigues without doors of
designing persons to build an importance to themselves on the divisions
of others, might, from small beginnings, have produced persevering
oppositions. But the power of decision in the President left no object for
internal dissension, and external intrigue was stifled in embryo by the
knowledge which incendiaries possessed, that no division they could foment
would change the course of the executive power. I am not conscious that
my participations in executive authority have produced any bias in favor
of the single executive; because the parts I have acted have been in the
subordinate, as well as superior stations, and because, if I know myself,
what I have felt, and what I have wished, I know that I have never been so
well pleased, as when I could shift power from my own, on the shoulders of
others; nor have I ever been able to conceive how any rational being could
propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power over others.
I am still, however, sensible of the solidity of your principle, that,
to insure the safety of the public liberty, its depository should be
subject to be changed with the greatest ease possible, and without
suspending or disturbing for a moment the movements of the machine of
government. You apprehend that a single executive, with eminence of
talent, and destitution of principle, equal to the object, might, by
usurpation, render his powers hereditary. Yet I think history furnishes
as many examples of a single usurper arising out of a government by a
plurality, as of temporary trusts of power in a single hand rendered
permanent by usurpation. I do not believe, therefore, that this danger
is lessened in the hands of a plural executive. Perhaps it is greatly
increased, by the state of inefficiency to which they are liable from
feuds and divisions among themselves. The conservative body you propose
might be so constituted, as, while it would be an admirable sedative in a
variety of smaller cases, might also be a valuable sentinel and check on
the liberticide views of an ambitious individual. I am friendly to this
idea. But the true barriers of our liberty in this country are our State
governments; and the wisest conservative power ever contrived by man, is
that of which our Revolution and present government found us possessed.
Seventeen distinct States, amalgamated into one as to their foreign
concerns, but single and independent as to their internal administration,
regularly organized with a legislature and governor resting on the choice
of the people, and enlightened by a free press, can never be so fascinated
by the arts of one man, as to submit voluntarily to his usurpation. Nor
can they be constrained to it by any force he can possess. While that may
paralyze the single State in which it happens to be encamped, sixteen
others, spread over a country of two thousand miles diameter, rise up
on every side, ready organized for deliberation by a constitutional
legislature, and for action by their governor, constitutionally the
commander of the militia of the State, that is to say, of every man in it
able to bear arms; and that militia, too, regularly formed into regiments
and battalions, into infantry, cavalry and artillery, trained under
officers general and subordinate, legally appointed, always in readiness,
and to whom they are already in habits of obedience. The republican
government of France was lost without a struggle, because the party of
"_un et indivisible_" had prevailed; no provincial organizations existed
to which the people might rally under authority of the laws, the seats
of the directory were virtually vacant, and a small force sufficed to
turn the legislature out of their chamber, and to salute its leader chief
of the nation. But with us, sixteen out of seventeen States rising in
mass, under regular organization, and legal commanders, united in object
and action by their Congress, or, if that be in _duresse_, by a special
convention, present such obstacles to an usurper as forever to stifle
ambition in the first conception of that object.
Dangers of another kind might more reasonably be apprehended from this
perfect and distinct organization, civil and military, of the States;
to wit, that certain States from local and occasional discontents, might
attempt to secede from the Union. This is certainly possible; and would
be befriended by this regular organization. But it is not probable that
local discontents can spread to such an extent, as to be able to face
the sound parts of so extensive an Union; and if ever they should reach
the majority, they would then become the regular government, acquire the
ascendency in Congress, and be able to redress their own grievances by
laws peaceably and constitutionally passed. And even the States in which
local discontents might engender a commencement of fermentation, would be
paralyzed and self-checked by that very division into parties into which
we have fallen, into which all States must fall wherein men are at liberty
to think, speak, and act freely, according to the diversities of their
individual conformations, and which are, perhaps, essential to preserve
the purity of the government, by the censorship which these parties
habitually exercise over each other.
You will read, I am sure, with indulgence, the explanations of the grounds
on which I have ventured to form an opinion differing from yours. They
prove my respect for your judgment, and diffidence in my own, which have
forbidden me to retain, without examination, an opinion questioned by
you. Permit me now to render my portion of the general debt of gratitude,
by acknowledgments in advance for the singular benefaction which is the
subject of this letter, to tender my wishes for the continuance of a life
so usefully employed, and to add the assurances of my perfect esteem and
respect.
TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
MONTICELLO, March 8, 1811.
DEAR SIR,--On my return from a journey of five weeks to Bedford I found
here the two letters now enclosed, which though directed to me, belong, in
their matter, to you. I never before heard of either writer, and therefore
leave them to stand on their own grounds.
I congratulate you on the close of your campaign. Although it has not
conquered your difficulties, it leaves you more at leisure to consider
and provide against them. Our only chance as to England is the accession
of the Prince of Wales to the throne. If only to the regency, himself and
his ministers may be less bold and strong to make a thorough change of
system. It will leave them, too, a pretext for doing less than right, if
so disposed. He has much more understanding and good humor than principle
or application. But it seems difficult to understand what Bonaparte means
towards us. I have been in hopes the consultations with closed doors were
for taking possession of East Florida. It would give no more offence
anywhere than taking the Western province, and I am much afraid the
Percival ministry may have given orders for taking possession of it before
they were put out of power.
We have had a wretched winter for the farmer. Great consumption of food by
the cattle, and little weather for preparing the ensuing crop. During my
stay in Bedford we had seven snows, that of February 22, which was of 15
inches about Richmond, was of 6 inches here, and only 3½ in Bedford. Ever
affectionately yours.
TO GENERAL WILKINSON.
MONTICELLO, March 10, 1811.
DEAR SIR,--Your favor of January 21st has been received, and with it the
2d volume of your Memoirs, with the appendices to the 1st, 2d and 4th
volumes, for which accept my thanks. I shall read them with pleasure.
The expression respecting myself, stated in your letter to have been
imputed to you by your calumniators, had either never been heard by me,
or, if heard, had been unheeded and forgotten. I have been too much the
butt of such falsehoods myself to do others the injustice of permitting
them to make the least impression on me. My consciousness that no man
on earth has me under his thumb is evidence enough that you never used
the expression. Daniel Clarke's book I have never seen, nor should I put
Tacitus or Thucydides out of my hand to take that up. I am even leaving
off the newspapers, desirous to disengage myself from the contentions of
the world, and consign to entire tranquillity and to the kinder passions
what remains to me of life. I look back with commiseration on those still
buffeting the storm, and sincerely wish your argosy may ride out, unhurt,
that in which it is engaged. My belief is that it will, and I found that
belief on my own knowledge of Burr's transactions, on my view of your
conduct in encountering them, and on the candor of your judges. I salute
you with my best wishes and entire respect.
TO MR. JOHN MELISH.
MONTICELLO, March 10, 1811.
SIR,--I thank you for your letter of February 16th, and the communication
of that you had forwarded to the President. In his hands it may be
turned to public account; in mine it is only evidence of your zeal for
the general good. My occupations are now in quite a different line, more
suited to my age, my interests and inclinations. Having served my tour of
duty, I leave public cares to younger and more vigorous minds, and repose
my personal well-being under their guardianship, in perfect confidence
of its safety. Our ship is sound, the crew alert at their posts, and our
ablest steersman at its helm. That she will make a safe port I have no
doubt; and that she may, I offer to heaven my daily prayers, the proper
function of age, and add to yourself the assurance of my respect.
TO COLONEL WILLIAM DUANE.
MONTICELLO, March 28, 1811.
DEAR SIR,--I learn with sincere concern, from yours of the 15th received
by our last mail, the difficulties into which you are brought by the
retirement of particular friends from the accommodations they had been
in the habit of yielding you. That one of those you name should have
separated from the censor of John Randolph, is consonant with the change
of disposition which took place in him at Washington. That the other,
far above that bias, should have done so, was not expected. I have ever
looked to Mr. Lieper as one of the truest republicans of our country,
whose mind, unaffected by personal incidents, pursues its course with a
steadiness of which we have rare examples. Looking about for a motive, I
have supposed it was to be found in the late arraignments of Mr. Gallatin
in your papers. However he might differ from you on that subject, as I do
myself, the indulgences in difference of opinion which we all owe to one
another, and every one needs for himself, would, I thought, in a mind like
his, have prevented such a manifestation of it. I believe Mr. Gallatin
to be of a pure integrity, and as zealously devoted to the liberties and
interests of our country as its most affectionate native citizen. Of this
his courage in Congress in the days of terror, gave proofs which nothing
can obliterate from the recollection of those who were witnesses of it.
These are probably the opinions of Mr. Lieper, as I believe they are of
every man intimately acquainted with Mr. Gallatin. An intercourse, almost
daily, of eight years with him, has given me opportunities of knowing
his character more thoroughly than perhaps any other man living; and I
have ascribed the erroneous estimate you have formed of it to the want of
that intimate knowledge of him which I possessed. Every one, certainly,
must form his judgment on the evidence accessible to himself; and I
have no more doubt of the integrity of your convictions than I have of
my own. They are drawn from different materials and different sources
of information, more or less perfect, according to our opportunities.
The zeal, the disinterestedness, and the abilities with which you have
supported the great principles of our revolution, the persecutions you
have suffered, and the firmness and independence with which you have
suffered them, constitute too strong a claim on the good wishes of
every friend of elective government, to be effaced by a solitary ease of
difference in opinion. Thus I think, and thus I believed my much-esteemed
friend Lieper would have thought; and I am the more concerned he does not,
as it is so much more in his power to be useful to you than in mine. His
residence, and his standing at the great seat of the monied institutions,
command a credit with them, which no inhabitant of the country, and
of agricultural pursuits only, can have. The two or three banks in our
uncommercial State are too distant to have any relations with the farmers
of Albemarle. We are persuaded you have not overrated the dispositions
of this State to support yourself and your paper. They have felt its
services too often to be indifferent in the hour of trial. They are well
aware that the days of danger are not yet over. And I am sensible that if
there were any means of bringing into concert the good will of the friends
of the "Aurora" scattered over this State, they would not deceive your
expectations. One month sooner might have found such an opportunity in
the assemblage of our legislature in Richmond. But that is now dispersed
not to meet again under a twelvemonth. We, here, are but one of a hundred
counties, and on consultation with friends of the neighborhood, it is
their opinion that if we can find an endorser resident in Richmond,
(for that is indispensable,) ten or twelve persons of this county would
readily engage, as you suggest, for their $100 each, and some of them
for more. It is believed that the republicans in that city can and will
do a great deal more; and perhaps their central position may enable them
to communicate with other counties. We have written to a distinguished
friend to the cause of liberty there to take the lead in the business, as
far as concerns that place; and for our own, we are taking measures for
obtaining the aid of the bank of the same place. In all this I am nearly
a cypher. Forty years of almost constant absence from the State have made
me a stranger in it, have left me a solitary tree, from around which the
axe of time has felled all the companions of its youth and growth. I have,
however, engaged some active and zealous friends to do what I could not.
Their personal acquaintance and influence with those now in active life
can give effect to their efforts. But our support can be but partial, and
far short, both in time and measure, of your difficulties. They will be
little more than evidences of our friendship. The truth is that farmers,
as we all are, have no command of money. Our necessaries are all supplied,
either from our farms, or a neighboring store. Our produce, at the end
of the year, is delivered to the merchant, and thus the business of the
year is done by barter, without the intervention of scarcely a dollar;
and thus also we live with a plenty of everything except money. To raise
that negociations and time are requisite. I sincerely wish that greater
and prompter effects could have flowed from our good will. On my part, no
endeavors or sacrifices shall be withheld. But we are bound down by the
laws of our situation.
I do not know whether I am able at present to form a just idea of the
situation of our country. If I am, it is such as, during the _bellum
omnium in omnia_ of Europe, will require the union of all its friends to
resist its enemies within and without. If we schismatize on either men
or measures, if we do not act in phalanx, as when we rescued it from the
satellites of monarchism, I will not say our _party_, the term is false
and degrading, but our _nation_ will be undone. For the republicans are
the _nation_. Their opponents are but a faction, weak in numbers, but
powerful and profuse in the command of money, and backed by a nation,
powerful also and profuse in the use of the same means; and the more
profuse, in both cases, as the money they thus employ is not their own but
their creditors, to be paid off by a bankruptcy, which whether it pays a
dollar or a shilling in the pound is of little concern with them. The last
hope of human liberty in this world rests on us. We ought, for so dear a
state, to sacrifice every attachment and every enmity. Leave the President
free to chose his own coadjutors, to pursue his own measures, and support
him and them, even if we think we are wiser than they, honester than they
are, or possessing more enlarged information of the state of things. If
we move in mass, be it ever so circuitously, we shall attain our object;
but if we break into squads, every one pursuing the path he thinks most
direct, we become an easy conquest to those who can now barely hold us in
check. I repeat again, that we ought not to schismatize on either men or
measures. Principles alone can justify that. If we find our government
in all its branches rushing headlong, like our predecessors, into the
arms of monarchy, if we find them violating our dearest rights, the
trial by jury, the freedom of the press, the freedom of opinion, civil or
religious, or opening on our peace of mind or personal safety the sluices
of terrorism, if we see them raising standing armies, when the absence of
all other danger points to these as the sole objects on which they are to
be employed, then indeed let us withdraw and call the nation to its tents.
But while our functionaries are wise, and honest, and vigilant, let us
move compactly under their guidance, and we have nothing to fear. Things
may here and there go a little wrong. It is not in their power to prevent
it. But all will be right in the end, though not perhaps by the shortest
means.
You know, my dear Sir, that this union of republicans has been the
constant theme of my exhortations, that I have ever refused to know any
subdivisions among them, to take part in any personal differences; and
therefore you will not give to the present observations any other than
general application. I may sometimes differ in opinion from some of my
friends, from those whose views are as pure and sound as my own. I censure
none, but do homage to every one's right of opinion. If I have indulged
my pen, therefore, a little further than the occasion called for, you will
ascribe it to a sermonizing habit, to the anxieties of age, perhaps to its
garrulity, or to any other motive rather than the want of the esteem and
confidence of which I pray you to accept sincere assurances.
P. S. Absorbed in a subject more nearly interesting, I had forgotten
our book on the heresies of Montesquieu. I sincerely hope the removal of
all embarrassment will enable you to go on with it, or so to dispose of
it as that our country may have the benefit of the corrections it will
administer to public opinion.
TO MR. LATROBE.
MONTICELLO, April 14, 1811.
DEAR SIR,--I feel much concern that suggestions stated in your letter
of the 5th instant, should at this distance of time be the subject of
uneasiness to you, and I regret it the more as they make appeals to
memory, a faculty never strong in me, and now too sensibly impaired
to be relied on. It retains no trace of the particular conversations
alluded to, nor enables me to say that they are or are not correct. The
only safe appeal for me is to the general impressions received at the
time, and still retained with sufficient distinctness. These were that
you discharged the duties of your appointment with ability, diligence
and zeal, but that in the article of expense you were not sufficiently
guarded. You must remember my frequent cautions to you on this head, the
measures I took, by calling for frequent accounts of expenditures and
contracts, to mark to you, as well as to myself, when they were getting
beyond the limits of the appropriations, and the afflicting embarrassments
of a particular occasion where these limits had been unguardedly and
greatly transcended. These sentiments I communicated to you freely at the
time, as it was my duty to do. Another principle of conduct with me was
to admit no innovations on the established plans, but on the strongest
grounds. When, therefore, I thought first of placing the floor of the
Representative chamber on the level of the basement of the building, and
of throwing into its height the cavity of the dome, in the manner of the
Halle aux Bleds at Paris, I deemed it due to Dr. Thornton, author of the
plan of the Capitol, to consult him on the change. He not only consented,
but appeared heartily to approve of the alteration. For the same reason,
as well as on motives of economy, I was anxious, in converting the Senate
chamber into a Judiciary room, to preserve its original form, and to leave
the same arches and columns standing. On your representation, however,
that the columns were decayed and incompetent to support the incumbent
weight, I acquiesced in the change you proposed, only striking out the
addition which would have made part of the middle building, and would
involve a radical change in that which had not been sanctioned. I have
no reason to doubt but that in the execution of the Senate and Court
rooms, you have adhered to the plan communicated to me and approved;
but never having seen them since their completion, I am not able to say
so expressly. On the whole, I do not believe any one has ever done more
justice to your professional abilities than myself. Besides constant
commendations of your taste in architecture, and science in execution,
I declared on many and all occasions that I considered you as the only
person in the United States who could have executed the Representative
chamber, or who could execute the middle buildings on any of the plans
proposed. There have been too many witnesses of these declarations to
leave any doubt as to my opinion on this subject. Of the value I set on
your society, our intercourse before as well as during my office, can have
left no doubt with you; and I should be happy in giving further proofs
to you personally at Monticello, of which you have sometimes flattered me
with the hope of an opportunity.
I have thus, Sir, stated general truths without going into the detail of
particular facts or expressions, to which my memory does not enable me
to say yea or nay. But a consciousness of my consistency in private as
well as public, supports me in affirming that nothing ever passed from me
contradictory to these general truths, and that I have been misapprehended
if it has ever been so supposed. I return you the plans received with
your letter, and pray you to accept assurances of my continued esteem and
respect.
TO BARON HUMBOLDT.
MONTICELLO, April 14, 1811.
MY DEAR BARON,--The interruption of our intercourse with France for some
time past, has prevented my writing to you. A conveyance now occurs,
by Mr. Barlow or Mr. Warden, both of them going in a public capacity.
It is the first safe opportunity offered of acknowledging your favor of
September 23d, and the receipt at different times of the IIId part of your
valuable work, 2d, 3d, 4th and 5th livraisons, and the IVth part, 2d, 3d,
and 4th livraisons, with the _Tableaux de la nature_, and an interesting
map of New Spain. For these magnificent and much esteemed favors, accept
my sincere thanks. They give us a knowledge of that country more accurate
than I believe we possess of Europe, the seat of the science of a thousand
years. It comes out, too, at a moment when those countries are beginning
to be interesting to the whole world. They are now becoming the scenes
of political revolution, to take their stations as integral members of
the great family of nations. All are now in insurrection. In several, the
Independents are already triumphant, and they will undoubtedly be so in
all. What kind of government will they establish? How much liberty can
they bear without intoxication? Are their chiefs sufficiently enlightened
to form a well-guarded government, and their people to watch their
chiefs? Have they mind enough to place their domesticated Indians on a
footing with the whites? All these questions you can answer better than
any other. I imagine they will copy our outlines of confederation and
elective government, abolish distinction of ranks, bow the neck to their
priests, and persevere in intolerantism. Their greatest difficulty will be
in the construction of their executive. I suspect that, regardless of the
experiment of France, and of that of the United States in 1784, they will
begin with a directory, and when the unavoidable schisms in that kind of
executive shall drive them to something else, their great question will
come on whether to substitute an executive elective for years, for life,
or an hereditary one. But unless instruction can be spread among them more
rapidly than experience promises, despotism may come upon them before they
are qualified to save the ground they will have gained. Could Napoleon
obtain, at the close of the present war, the independence of all the West
India islands, and their establishment in a separate confederacy, our
quarter of the globe would exhibit an enrapturing prospect into futurity.
You will live to see much of this. I shall follow, however, cheerfully
my fellow laborers, contented with having borne a part in beginning this
beatific reformation.
I fear, from some expressions in your letter, that your personal interests
have not been duly protected, while you were devoting your time, talents
and labor for the information of mankind. I should sincerely regret it for
the honor of the governing powers, as well as from affectionate attachment
to yourself and the sincerest wishes for your felicity, fortunes and fame.
In sending you a copy of my Notes on Virginia, I do but obey the desire
you have expressed. They must appear chetif enough to the author of the
great work on South America. But from the widow her mite was welcome, and
you will add to this indulgence the acceptance of my sincere assurances of
constant friendship and respect.
TO M. PAGANEL.
MONTICELLO, April 15, 1811.
SIR,--I received, through Mr. Warden, the copy of your valuable work on
the French revolution, for which I pray you to accept my thanks. That
its sale should have been suppressed is no matter of wonder with me. The
friend of liberty is too feelingly manifested, not to give umbrage to its
enemies. We read in it, and weep over, the fatal errors which have lost to
nations the present hope of liberty, and to reason the fairest prospect of
its final triumph over all imposture, civil and religious. The testimony
of one who himself was an actor in the scenes he notes, and who knew the
true mean between rational liberty and the frenzies of demagogy, are a
tribute to truth of inestimable value. The perusal of this work has given
me new views of the causes of failure in a revolution of which I was a
witness in its early part, and then augured well of it. I had no means,
afterwards, of observing its progress but the public papers, and their
information came through channels too hostile to claim confidence. An
acquaintance with many of the principal characters, and with their fate,
furnished me grounds for conjectures, some of which you have confirmed,
and some corrected. Shall we ever see as free and faithful a tableau
of subsequent acts of this deplorable tragedy? Is reason to be forever
amused with the _hochets_ of physical sciences, in which she is indulged
merely to divert her from solid speculations on the rights of man, and
wrongs of his oppressors? it is impossible. The day of deliverance will
come, although I shall not live to see it. The art of printing secures us
against the retrogradation of reason and information, the examples of its
safe and wholesome guidance in government, which will be exhibited through
the wide-spread regions of the American continent, will obliterate, in
time, the impressions left by the abortive experiment of France. With my
prayers for the hastening of that auspicious day, and for the due effect
of the lessons of your work to those who ought to profit by them, accept
the assurances of my great esteem and respect.
TO M. DUPONT DE NEMOURS.
MONTICELLO, April 15, 1811.
DEAR SIR,--I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letters of January
20 and September 14, 1810, and, with the latter, your observations on the
subject of taxes. They bear the stamps of logic and eloquence which mark
everything coming from you, and place the doctrines of the Economists
in their strongest points of view. My present retirement and unmeddling
disposition make of this _une question viseuse pour moi_. But after
reading the observations with great pleasure, I forwarded them to the
President and Mr. Gallatin, in whose hands they may be useful. Yet I do
not believe the change of our system of taxation will be forced on us so
early as you expect, if war be avoided. It is true we are going greatly
into manufactures; but the mass of them are household manufactures of
the coarse articles worn by the laborers and farmers of the family.
These I verily believe we shall succeed in making to the whole extent
of our necessities. But the attempts at fine goods will probably be
abortive. They are undertaken by company establishments, and chiefly in
the towns; will have little success and short continuance in a country
where the charms of agriculture attract every being who can engage in it.
Our revenue will be less than it would be were we to continue to import
instead of manufacturing our coarse goods. But the increase of population
and production will keep pace with that of manufactures, and maintain the
quantum of exports at the present level at least; and the imports need be
equivalent to them, and consequently the revenue on them be undiminished.
I keep up my hopes that if war be avoided, Mr. Madison will be able to
complete the payment of the national debt within his term, after which
one-third of the present revenue would support the government. Your
information that a commencement of excise had been again made, is entirely
unfounded. I hope the death blow to that most vexatious and unproductive
of all taxes was given at the commencement of my administration, and
believe its revival would give the death blow to any administration
whatever. In most of the middle and southern States some land tax is now
paid into the State treasury, and for this purpose the lands have been
classed and valued, and the tax assessed according to that valuation.
In these an excise is most odious. In the eastern States land taxes are
odious, excises less unpopular. We are all the more reconciled to the
tax on importations, because it falls exclusively on the rich, and with
the equal partition of intestate's estates, constitute the best agrarian
law. In fact, the poor man in this country who uses nothing but what is
made within his own farm or family, or within the United States, pays not
a farthing of tax to the general government, but on his salt; and should
we go into that manufacture as we ought to do, we will pay not one cent.
Our revenues once liberated by the discharge of the public debt, and
its surplus applied to canals, roads, schools, &c., and the farmer will
see his government supported, his children educated, and the face of his
country made a paradise by the contributions of the rich alone, without
his being called on to spare a cent from his earnings. The path we are now
pursuing leads directly to this end, which we cannot fail to attain unless
our administration should fall into unwise hands.
Another great field of political experiment is opening in our
neighborhood, in Spanish America. I fear the degrading ignorance into
which their priests and kings have sunk them, has disqualified them from
the maintenance or even knowledge of their rights, and that much blood may
be shed for little improvement in their condition. Should their new rulers
honestly lay their shoulders to remove the great obstacles of ignorance,
and press the remedies of education and information, they will still be
in jeopardy until another generation comes into place, and what may happen
in the interval cannot be predicted, nor shall you or I live to see it. In
these cases I console myself with the reflection that those who will come
after us will be as wise as we are, and as able to take care of themselves
as we have been. I hope you continue to preserve your health, and that
you may long continue to do so in happiness, is the prayer of yours
affectionately.
TO GENERAL KOSCIUSKO.
MONTICELLO, April 13, 1811.
MY DEAR GENERAL AND FRIEND,--My last letter to you was of the 26th of
February of the last year. Knowing of no particular conveyance, I confided
it to the department of State, to be put under the cover of their public
despatches to General Armstrong or Mr. Warden. Not having been able to
learn whether it ever got to hand, I now enclose a duplicate.
Knowing your affections to this country, and the interest you take in
whatever concerns it, I therein gave you a tableau of its state when
I retired from the administration. The difficulties and embarrassments
still continued in our way by the two great belligerent powers, you are
acquainted with. In other times, when there was some profession of regard
for right, some respect to reason, when a gross violation of these marked
a deliberate design of pointed injury, these would have been causes of
war. But when we see two antagonists contending _ad internecionem_, so
eager for mutual destruction as to disregard all means, to deal their
blows in every direction regardless on whom they may fall, prudent
bystanders, whom some of them may wound, instead of thinking it cause to
join in the maniac contest, get out of the way as well as they can, and
leave the cannibals to mutual ravin. It would have been perfect Quixotism
in us to have encountered these Bedlamites, to have undertaken the redress
of all wrongs against a world avowedly rejecting all regard to right.
We have, therefore, remained in peace, suffering frequent injuries, but,
on the whole, multiplying, improving, prospering beyond all example. It
is evident to all, that in spite of great losses much greater gains have
ensued. When these gladiators shall have worried each other into ruin or
reason, instead of lying among the dead on the bloody arena, we shall have
acquired a growth and strength which will place us _hors d'insulte_. Peace
then has been our principle, peace is our interest, and peace has saved to
the world this only plant of free and rational government now existing in
it. If it can still be preserved, we shall soon see the final extinction
of our national debt, and liberation of our revenues for the defence and
improvement of our country. These revenues will be levied entirely on
the rich, the business of household manufacture being now so established
that the farmer and laborer clothes himself entirely. The rich alone
use imported articles, and on these alone the whole taxes of the general
government are levied. The poor man who uses nothing but what is made in
his own farm or family, or within his own country, pays not a farthing
of tax to the general government, but on his salt; and should we go into
that manufacture also, as is probable, he will pay nothing. Our revenues
liberated by the discharge of the public debt, and its surplus applied to
canals, roads, schools, &c., the farmer will see his government supported,
his children educated, and the face of his country made a paradise by the
contributions of the rich alone, without his being called on to spend a
cent from his earnings. However, therefore, we may have been reproached
for pursuing our Quaker system, time will affix the stamp of wisdom on it,
and the happiness and prosperity of our citizens will attest its merit.
And this, I believe, is the only legitimate object of government, and the
first duty of governors, and not the slaughter of men and devastation
of the countries placed under their care, in pursuit of a fantastic
honor, unallied to virtue or happiness; or in gratification of the angry
passions, or the pride of administrators, excited by personal incidents,
in which their citizens have no concern. Some merit will be ascribed
to the converting such times of destruction into times of growth and
strength for us. And behold! another example of man rising in his might
and bursting the chains of his oppressor, and in the same hemisphere.
Spanish America is all in revolt. The insurgents are triumphant in many of
the States, and will be so in all. But there the danger is that the cruel
arts of their oppressors have enchained their minds, have kept them in the
ignorance of children, and as incapable of self-government as children. If
the obstacles of bigotry and priest-craft can be surmounted, we may hope
that common-sense will suffice to do everything else. God send them a safe
deliverance. As to the private matter explained in my letter of February
26, the time I shall have occasion for your indulgence will not be longer
than there stated, and may be shortened if either your convenience or will
should require it. God bless you, and give you many years of health and
happiness, and that you may live to see more of the liberty you love than
present appearances promise.
P. S. Mr. Barnes is now looking out for bills for your usual annual
remittance.
TO MR. BARLOW.
MONTICELLO, April 16, 1811.
DEAR SIR,--I felicitate you sincerely on your destination to Paris,
because I believe it will contribute both to your happiness and the public
good. Yet it is not unmixed with regret. What is to become of our past
revolutionary history? Of the antidotes of truth to the misrepresentations
of Marshall? This example proves the wisdom of the maxim, never to put off
to to-morrow what can be done to-day. But, putting aside vain regrets,
I shall be happy to hear from you in your new situation. I cannot offer
you in exchange the minutiæ of the Cabinet, the workings in Congress,
or under-workings of those around them. General views are all which we
at a distance can have, but general views are sometimes better taken at
a distance than nearer. The working of the whole machine is sometimes
better seen elsewhere than at its centre. In return you can give me the
true state of things in Europe, what is its real public mind at present,
its disposition towards the existing authority, its secret purposes and
future prospects, seasoned with the literary news. I do not propose this
as an equal barter, because it is really asking you to give a dollar for
a shilling. I must leave the difference to be made up from other motives.
I have been long waiting for a safe opportunity to write to some friends
and correspondents in France. I troubled Mr. Warden with some letters,
and he kindly offered to take all I could get ready before his departure.
But his departure seems not yet definitely settled, and should he no go
with you, what is in your hands will be less liable to violation than in
his. I therefore take the liberty of asking your care of the letters now
enclosed, and their delivery through confidential hands. Most of them are
of a complexion not proper for the eye of the police, and might do injury
to those to whom they are addressed. Wishing to yourself and Mrs. Barlow a
happy voyage, and that the execution of the duties of your mission may be
attended with all agreeable circumstances, I salute you with assurance of
my perfect esteem and respect.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
MONTICELLO, April 24, 1811.
DEAR SIR,--A book confided to me by a friend for translation and
publication has for a twelvemonth past kept me in correspondence with
Colonel Duane. We undertook to have it translated and published. The
last sheets had been revised, and in a late letter to him, I pressed
the printing. I soon afterwards received one from him informing me that
it would be much retarded by embarrassments recently brought on him by
his friends withdrawing their aid who had been in the habit of lending
their names for his accommodation in the banks. He painted his situation
as truly distressing, and intimated the way in which relief would be
acceptable. The course I pursued on the occasion will be explained to you
in a letter which I have written to the President, and asked the favor of
him to communicate to you.
A difference of quite another character gives me more uneasiness. No
one feels more painfully than I do, the separation of friends, and
especially when their sensibilities are to be daily harrowed up by
cannibal newspapers. In these cases, however, I claim from all parties the
privilege of neutrality, and to be permitted to esteem all as I ever did.
The harmony which made me happy while at Washington, is as dear to me now
as then, and I should be equally afflicted, were it, by any circumstance,
to be impaired as to myself. I have so much confidence in the candor and
good sense of both parties, as to trust that the misunderstanding will
lead to no sinister effects, and my constant prayer will be for blessings
on you all.
TO ROBERT SMITH, ESQ.
MONTICELLO, April 30, 1811.
DEAR SIR,--I have learnt, with sincere concern, the circumstances
which have taken place at Washington. Some intimations had been quoted
from federal papers, which I had supposed false, as usual. Their first
confirmation to me was from the National Intelligencer. Still my hopes and
confidence were that your retirement was purely a matter of choice on your
part. A letter I have received from Mr. Hollins makes me suppose there was
a more serious misunderstanding than I had apprehended. The newspapers
indeed had said so, but I yield little faith to them. No one feels
more painfully than I do the separation of friends, and especially when
their sensibilities are to be daily harrowed up by cannibal newspapers.
Suffering myself under whatever inflicts sufferance on them, I condole
with them mutually, and ask the mutual permission to esteem all, as I
ever did; not to know their differences nor ask the causes of them. The
harmony which made me happy at Washington, is as dear to me now as it
was then, and I should be equally afflicted were it by any circumstance
to be impaired as to myself. I have so much confidence in the candor and
liberality of both parties, as to trust that the misunderstanding will not
be permitted to lead to any sinister effects, and my constant prayer will
be for blessings on you all.
TO COLONEL WILLIAM DUANE.
MONTICELLO, April 30, 1811.
DEAR SIR,--When I wrote you my letter of March 28, I had great confidence
that as much at least could have been done for you as I therein supposed.
The friend to whom I confided the business here, and who was and is
zealous, had found such readiness in those to whom he spoke, as left no
other difficulty than to find the bank responsible. But the Auroras which
came on while this was in transaction, changed the prospect altogether,
and produced a general revulsion of sentiment. The President's popularity
is high through this State, and nowhere higher than here. They considered
these papers as a denunciation of war against him, and instantly withdrew
their offers. I cannot give you a better account of the effect of the
same papers in Richmond than by quoting the letter of a friend who there
undertook the same office, and with great cordiality. In a letter to me of
April 17, he says, "yours of the 15th, in reply to mine of the 10th inst.,
has been brought to me from the office this instant. On showing it to ----
the effect of it was to dispose him to lend $500, and I wrote my letter
of the 10th to you in a persuasion produced by that incident, as well as
by its effect on my own feelings, that something important might be done
for D. in spite of the adverse spirit, or at least distrust, which the
equivocal character of his paper has lately excited, equivocal in relation
to Mr. Madison. But D.'s three or four last papers contain such paragraphs
in relation to Mr. Madison, that even your letter cannot now serve him.
The paper is now regarded as an opposition one, and the republicans
here have no sympathy with any one who carries opposition colors. Every
gentleman who mentions this subject in my hearing, speaks with the warmest
resentment against D. Believe me, Sir, it is impossible to do anything
for him here now; and any further attempts would only disable me from
rendering any service to the cause hereafter. I am persuaded that you
will see this subject in its true light, and be assured that it is the
impracticability of serving him, produced by himself, as well as the
violation which I feel it would be of my sentiments for Mr. Madison, that
prevents me from proceeding." The firm, yet modest character of the writer
of this letter gives great weight to what he says, and I have thought it
best to state it in his own terms, because it will be better evidence to
you than any general description I could give of the impression made by
your late papers. Indeed I could give none, for going little from home,
I cannot personally estimate the public sentiment. The few I see are very
unanimous in support of their Executive and legislative functionaries. I
have thought it well, too, that you should know exactly the feelings here,
because if you get similar information from other respectable portions of
the union, it will naturally beget some suspicion in your own mind that
finding such a mass of opinion variant from your own, you may be under
erroneous impressions, meriting re-examination and consideration. I think
an Editor should be independent, that is, of personal influence, and not
be moved from his opinions on the mere authority of any individual. But,
with respect to the general opinion of the political section with which he
habitually accords, his duty seems very like that of a member of Congress.
Some of these indeed think that independence requires them to follow
always their own opinion, without respect for that of others. This has
never been my opinion, nor my practice, when I have been of that or any
other body. Differing, on a particular question, from those whom I knew to
be of the same political principles with myself, and with whom I generally
thought and acted, a consciousness of the fallibility of the human mind,
and of my own in particular, with a respect for the accumulated judgment
of my friends, has induced me to suspect erroneous impressions in myself,
to suppose my own opinion wrong, and to act with them on theirs. The want
of this spirit of compromise, or of self-distrust, proudly, but falsely
called independence, is what gives the federalists victories which they
could never obtain, if these brethren could learn to respect the opinions
of their friends more than of their enemies, and prevents many able and
honest men from doing all the good they otherwise might do. I state these
considerations because they have often quieted my own conscience in voting
and acting on the judgment of others against my own; and because they
may suggest doubts to yourself in the present case. Our Executive and
legislative authorities are the choice of the nation, and possess the
nation's confidence. They are chosen because they possess it, and the
recent elections prove it has not been abated by the attacks which have
for some time been kept up against them. If the measures which have been
pursued are approved by the majority, it is the duty of the minority to
acquiesce and conform. It is true indeed that dissentients have a right
to go over to the minority, and to act with them. But I do not believe
your mind has contemplated that course, that it has deliberately viewed
the strange company into which it may be led, step by step, unintended
and unperceived by itself. The example of John Randolph is a caution to
all honest and prudent men, to sacrifice a little of self-confidence,
and to go with their friends, although they may sometimes think they are
going wrong. After so long a course of steady adherence to the general
sentiments of the republicans, it would afflict me sincerely to see you
separate from the body, become auxiliary to the enemies of our government,
who have to you been the bitterest enemies, who are now chuckling at the
prospect of division among us, and, as I am told, are subscribing for your
paper. The best indication of error which my experience has tested, is
the approbation of the federalists. Their conclusions necessarily follow
the false bias of their principles. I claim, however, no right of guiding
the conduct of others; but have indulged myself in these observations from
the sincere feelings of my heart. Retired from all political interferences
I have been induced into this one by a desire, first of being useful to
you personally, and next of maintaining the republican ascendency. Be its
effect what it may, I am done with it, and shall look on as an inactive,
though not an unfeeling, spectator of what is to ensue. As far as my good
will may go, for I can no longer act, I shall adhere to my government
executive and legislative, and, as long as they are republican, I shall go
with their measures, whether I think them right or wrong; because I know
they are honest, and are wiser and better informed than I am. In doing
this, however, I shall not give up the friendship of those who differ from
me, and who have equal right with myself to shape their own course. In
this disposition be assured of my continued esteem and respect.
P. S. Be so good as to consider the extract from my friend's letter as
confidential, because I have not his permission to make this use of it.
TO MR. WIRT.
MONTICELLO, May 3, 1811.
DEAR SIR,--The interest you were so kind as to take, at my request, in
the case of Duane, and the communication to you of my first letter to
him, entitles you to a communication of the 2d, which will probably be
the last. I have ventured to quote your letter in it, without giving
your name, and even softening some of its expressions respecting him.
It is possible Duane may be reclaimed as to Mr. Madison. But as to Mr.
Gallatin, I despair of it. That enmity took its rise from a suspicion
that Mr. Gallatin interested himself in the election of their governor
against the views of Duane and his friends. I do not believe Mr. Gallatin
meddled in it. I was in conversation with him nearly every day during
the contest, and never heard him express any bias in the case. The
ostensible grounds of the attack on Mr. Gallatin are all either false or
futile. 1st. They urge his conversations with John Randolph. But who has
revealed these conversations? What evidence have we of them? merely some
oracular sentences from J. R., uttered in the heat of declamation, and
never stated with all their circumstances. For instance, that a cabinet
member informed him there was no cabinet. But Duane himself has always
denied there could be a legal one. Besides, the fact was true at that
moment, to-wit: early in the session of Congress. I had been absent from
Washington from the middle of July to within three weeks of their meeting.
During the separation of the members there could be no consultation, and
between our return to Washington and the meeting of Congress, there really
had arisen nothing requiring general consultation, nothing which could
not be done in the ordinary way by consultation between the President
and the head of the department to which the matter belonged, which is the
way everything is transacted which is not difficult as well as important.
Mr. Gallatin might therefore have said this as innocently as truly, and
a malignant perversion of it was perfectly within the character of John
Randolph. But the story of the two millions. Mr. Gallatin satisfied us
that this affirmation of J. R. was as unauthorized as the fact itself
was false. It resolves itself, therefore, into his inexplicit letter to a
committee of Congress. As to this, my own surmise was that Mr. Gallatin
might have used some hypothetical expression in conversing on that
subject, which J. R. made a positive one, and he being a duellist, and
Mr. Gallatin with a wife and children depending on him for their daily
subsistence, the latter might wish to avoid collision and insult from such
a man. But they say he was hostile to me. This is false. I was indebted
to nobody for more cordial aid than to Mr. Gallatin, nor could any man
more solicitously interest himself in behalf of another than he did of
myself. His conversations with Erskine are objected as meddling out of
his department. Why, then, do they not object Mr. Smith's with Rose? the
whole, nearly, of that negotiation, as far as it was transacted verbally,
was by Mr. Smith. The business was in this way explained informally,
and on understandings thus obtained, Mr. Madison and myself shaped our
formal proceedings. In fact, the harmony among us was so perfect, that
whatever instrument appeared most likely to effect the object, was always
used without jealousy. Mr. Smith happened to catch Mr. Rose's favor
and confidence at once. We perceived that Rose would open himself more
frankly to him than to Mr. Madison, and we therefore made him the medium
of obtaining an understanding of Mr. Rose. Mr. Gallatin's support of the
bank has, I believe, been disapproved by many. He was not in Congress
when that was established, and therefore had never committed himself,
publicly, on the constitutionality of that institution, nor do I recollect
ever to have heard him declare himself on it. I know he derived immense
convenience from it, because they gave the effect of ubiquity to his money
wherever deposited. Money in New Orleans or Maine was at his command,
and by their agency transformed in an instant into money in London, in
Paris, Amsterdam or Canton. He was, therefore, cordial to the bank. I
often pressed him to divide the public deposits among all the respectable
banks, being indignant myself at the open hostility of that institution to
a government on whose treasuries they were fattening. But his repugnance
to it prevented my persisting. And if he was in favor of the bank, what is
the amount of that crime or error in which he had a majority save one in
each House of Congress as participators? yet on these facts, endeavors are
made to drive from the administration the ablest man except the President,
who ever was in it, and to beat down the President himself, because he is
unwilling to part with so able a counseller. I believe Duane to be a very
honest man and sincerely republican; but his passions are stronger than
his prudence, and his personal as well as general antipathies render him
very intolerant. These traits lead him astray, and require his readers,
even those who value him for his steady support of the republican cause,
to be on their guard against his occasional aberrations. He is eager for
war against England, hence his abuse of the two last Congresses. But the
people wish for peace. The re-elections of the same men prove it. And
indeed, war against bedlam would be just as rational as against Europe in
its present condition of total demoralization. When peace becomes more
losing than war, we may prefer the latter on principles of pecuniary
calculation. But for us to attempt, by war, to reform all Europe, and
bring them back to principles of morality and a respect for the equal
rights of nations, would show us to be only maniacs of another character.
We should, indeed, have the merit of the good intentions as well as of
the folly of the hero of La Mancha. But I am getting beyond the object of
my letter, and will therefore here close it with assurances of my great
esteem and respect.
TO MR. WIRT.
I have rejoiced to see Ritchie declare himself in favor of the President
on the late attack against him, and wish he may do the same as to Mr.
Gallatin. I am sure he would if his information was full. I have not an
intimacy with him which might justify my writing to him directly, but the
enclosed letter to you is put into such a form as might be shown to him,
if you think proper to do so. Perhaps the facts stated in it, probably
unknown to him, may have some effect. But do in this as you think best.
Be so good as to return the letter to Duane, being my only copy, and to be
assured of my affectionate esteem and respect.
MONTICELLO, May 3, 1811.
TO JOHN HOLLINS, ESQ.
MONTICELLO, May 5, 1811.
DEAR SIR,--Your favor of April 17th came duly to hand. Nobody has
regretted more sincerely than myself, the incidents which have happened
at Washington. The early intimations which I saw quoted from federal
papers were disregarded by me, because falsehood is their element. The
first confirmation was from the National Intelligencer, soon followed
by the exultations of other papers whose havoc is on the feelings of the
virtuous. Sincerely the friend of all the parties, I ask of none why they
have fallen out by the way, and would gladly infuse the oil and wine of
the Samaritan into all their wounds. I hope that time, the assuager of
all evils, will heal these also; and I pray from them all a continuance of
their affection, and to be permitted to bear to all the same unqualified
esteem. Of one thing I am certain, that they will not suffer personal
dissatisfactions to endanger the republican cause. Their principles, I
know, are far above all private considerations. And when we reflect that
the eyes of the virtuous all over the earth are turned with anxiety on
us, as the only depositories of the sacred fire of liberty, and that our
falling into anarchy would decide forever the destinies of mankind, and
seal the political heresy that man is incapable of self-government, the
only contest between divided friends should be who will dare farthest into
the ranks of the common enemy. With respect to Mr. Foster's mission, it
cannot issue but as Rose's and Jackson's did. It can no longer be doubted
that Great Britain means to claim the ocean as her conquest, and to suffer
not even a cock-boat, as they express it, to traverse it but on paying
them a transit duty to support the very fleet which is to keep the nations
under tribute, and to rivet the yoke around their necks. Although their
government has never openly avowed this, yet their orders of council, in
their original form, were founded on this principle, and I have observed
for years past, that however ill success may at times have induced them
to amuse by negotiation, they have never on any occasion dropped a word
disclaiming this pretension, nor one which they would have to retract when
they shall judge the times ripe for openly asserting it. Protraction is
therefore the sole object of Foster's mission. They do not wish war with
us, but will meet it rather than relinquish their purpose.
With earnest prayers to all my friends to cherish mutual good will, to
promote harmony and conciliation, and above all things to let the love of
our country soar above all minor passions, I tender you the assurance of
my affectionate esteem and respect.
TO COLONEL MONROE.
MONTICELLO, May 5, 1811.
DEAR SIR,--Your favor on your departure from Richmond, came to hand in due
time. Although I may not have been among the first, I am certainly with
the sincerest, who congratulate you on your entrance into the national
councils. Your value there has never been unduly estimated by those
whom personal feelings did not misguide. The late misunderstandings at
Washington have been a subject of real concern to me. I know that the
dissolutions of personal friendship are among the most painful occurrences
in human life. I have sincere esteem for all who have been affected by
them, having passed with them eight years of great harmony and affection.
These incidents are rendered more distressing in our country than
elsewhere, because our printers ravin on the agonies of their victims,
as wolves do on the blood of the lamb. But the printers and the public
are very different personages. The former may lead the latter a little
out of their track, while the deviation is insensible; but the moment
they usurp their direction and that of their government, they will be
reduced to their true places. The two last Congresses have been the theme
of the most licentious reprobation for printers thirsting after war, some
against France and some against England. But the people wish for peace
with both. They feel no incumbency on them to become the reformers of
the other hemisphere, and to inculcate, with fire and sword, a return
to moral order. When, indeed, peace shall become more losing than war,
they may owe to their interests what these Quixotes are clamoring for on
false estimates of honor. The public are unmoved by these clamors, as
the re-election of their legislators shows, and they are firm to their
executive on the subject of the more recent clamors.
We are suffering here, both in the gathered and the growing crop. The
lowness of the river, and great quantity of produce brought to Milton this
year, render it almost impossible to get our crops to market. This is the
case of mine as well yours, and the Hessian fly appears alarmingly in our
growing crops. Everything is in distress for the want of rain.
Present me respectfully to Mrs. Monroe, and accept yourself assurances of
my constant and affectionate esteem.
TO M. JOHN SEVERIN VATER, PROFESSOR AT KONIGSBERG.
MONTICELLO, May 11, 1811.
SIR,--Your favor of November 4, 1809, did not get to my hands till
a twelvemonth after its date. Be pleased to accept my thanks for the
publication your were pleased to send me. That for Dr. Barton I forwarded
to him. His researches into the Indian languages of our continent being
continued, I hope it will be in his power to make to you communications
useful to the object you are pursuing. This will lessen to me the regret
that my retirement into an interior part of the country, as well as
my age and little intercourse with the world, will scarcely afford me
opportunities of contributing to your information. It is extremely to be
desired that your researches should receive every aid and encouragement.
I have long considered the filiation of languages as the best proof
we can ever obtain of the filiation of nations. With my best wishes
for the success of your undertaking, accept the assurances of my high
consideration and respect.
TO COUNT POTOCKI.
MONTICELLO, May 12, 1811.
SIR,--I have received your letter of August 19th, and with it the volume
of chronology you were so kind as to send me, for which be pleased
to accept my thanks. It presents a happy combination of sparse and
unconnected facts, which, brought together and fitted to each other,
forms a whole of symmetry as well as of system. It is as a gleam of
light flashed over the dark abyss of times past. Nothing would be more
flattering to me than to give aid to your inquiries as to this continent,
and to weave its ancient history into the web of the old world; and with
this view, to accept the invitation to a correspondence with you on the
subject. But time tells me I am nearly done with the history of the world;
that I am now far advanced in the last chapter of my own, and that its
last verse will be read out ere a few letters could pass between St.
Petersburg and Monticello. I shall serve you therefore more permanently,
by bequeathing to you another correspondent, more able, more industrious,
and more likely to continue in life than myself. Dr. Benjamin S. Barton,
one of the Professors of the college of Philadelphia, is learned in the
antiquities of this country, has employed much time and attention on
researches into them, is active and punctual, and will, I think, better
fulfil your wishes than any other person in the United States. If you will
have the goodness to address a letter to him on the subject, with the
inquiries you wish to make, he will, I am sure, set a just value on the
correspondence proposed, for which I shall take care to prepare him, and
in committing to better hands an honor which in earlier life I should have
taken a pleasure in endeavoring to merit, I make a sacrifice of my own
self-love, which is the strongest proof I can give you of the high respect
and consideration of which I now tender you the assurance.
TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
MONTICELLO, July 3d, 1811.
DEAR SIR,--I have seen with very great concern the late address of Mr.
Smith to the public. He has been very ill-advised, both personally and
publicly. As far as I can judge from what I hear, the impression made is
entirely unfavorable to him. Every man's own understanding readily answers
all the facts and insinuations, one only excepted, and for that they
look for explanations without any doubt that they will be satisfactory.
What is Irving's case? I have answered the inquiries of several on this
head, telling them at the same time what was really the truth, that
the failure of my memory enabled me to give them rather conjectures
than recollections. For in truth, I have but indistinct recollections
of the case. I know that what was done was on a joint consultation
between us, and I have no fear that what we did will not have been
correct and cautious. What I retain of the case, on being reminded of
some particulars, will reinstate the whole firmly in my remembrance, and
enable me to state them to inquirers with correctness, which is the more
important from the part I bore in them. I must therefore ask the favor
of you to give me a short outline of the facts, which may correct as well
as supply my own recollections. But who is to give an explanation to the
public? not yourself, certainly. The Chief Magistrate cannot enter the
arena of the newspapers. At least the occasion should be of a much higher
order. I imagine there is some pen at Washington competent to it. Perhaps
the best form would be that of some one personating the friend of Irving,
some one apparently from the North. Nothing labored is requisite. A short
and simple statement of the case will, I am sure, satisfy the public. We
are in the midst of a so-so harvest, probably one-third short of the last.
We had a very fine rain on Saturday last. Ever affectionately yours.
TO MR. BARLOW.
MONTICELLO, July 22, 1811.
DEAR SIR,--I had not supposed a letter would still find you at Washington.
Yours by late post tells me otherwise. Those of May 2d and 15th had been
received in due time. With respect to my books, lodged at the President's
house, if you should see Mr. Coles, the President's Secretary, and be
so good as to mention it, he will be so kind as to have them put on
board some vessel bound to Richmond, addressed to the care of Gibson
& Jefferson there, whom he knows. Your doubts whether any good can
be effected with the emperor of France are too well grounded. He has
understanding enough, but it is confined to particular lines. Of the
principles and advantages of commerce he appears to be ignorant, and
his domineering temper deafens him moreover to the dictates of interest,
of honor and of morality. A nation like ours, recognizing no arrogance
of language or conduct, can never enjoy the favor of such a character.
The impression, too, which our public has been made to receive from the
different styles of correspondence used by two of our foreign agents, has
increased the difficulties of steering between the bristling pride of the
two parties. It seems to point out the Quaker style of plain reason, void
of offence:--the suppression of all passion, and chaste language of good
sense. Heaven prosper your endeavors for our good, and preserve you in
health and happiness.
TO COLONEL DUANE.
MONTICELLO, July 25, 1811.
DEAR SIR,--Your letter of the 5th, with the volume of Montesquieu
accompanying it, came to hand in due time; the latter indeed in lucky
time, as, enclosing it by the return of post, I was enabled to get it into
Mr. Warden's hands before his departure, for a friend abroad to whom it
will be a most acceptable offering. Of the residue of the copies I asked,
I would wish to receive one well bound for my own library, the others in
boards as that before sent. One of these in boards may come to me by post,
for use until the others are received, which I would prefer having sent
by water, as vessels depart almost daily from Philadelphia for Richmond.
Messrs. Gibson & Jefferson of that place will receive and forward the
packet to me. Add to it, if you please, a copy of Franklin's works, bound,
and send me by post a note of the amount of the whole, and of my newspaper
account, which has been suffered to run in arrear by the difficulty of
remitting small and fractional sums to a distance, from a canton having
only its local money, and little commercial intercourse beyond its own
limits.
I learnt with sincere regret that my former letters had given you pain.
Nothing could be further from their intention. What I had said and done
was from the most friendly dispositions towards yourself, and from a
zeal for maintaining the republican ascendency. Federalism, stripped
as it now nearly is, of its landed and laboring support, is monarchism
and Anglicism, and whenever our own dissensions shall let these in upon
us, the last ray of free government closes on the horizon of the world.
I have been lately reading Komarzewski's coup d'œil on the history of
Poland. Though without any charms of style or composition, it gives a
lesson which all our countrymen should study; the example of a country
erased from the map of the world by the dissensions of its own citizens.
The papers of every day read them the counter lesson of the impossibility
of subduing a people acting with an undivided will. Spain, under all her
disadvantages, physical and mental, is an encouraging example of this. She
proves too, another truth not less valuable, that a people having no king
to sell them for a mess of pottage for himself, no shackles to restrain
their powers of self-defence, find resources within themselves equal to
every trial. This we did during the revolutionary war, and this we can do
again, let who will attack us, if we act heartily with one another. This
is my creed. To the principles of union I sacrifice all minor differences
of opinion. These, like differences of face, are a law of our nature,
and should be viewed with the same tolerance. The clouds which have
appeared for some time to be gathering around us, have given me anxiety
lest an enemy, always on the watch, always prompt and firm, and acting in
well-disciplined phalanx, should find an opening to dissipate hopes, with
the loss of which I would wish that of life itself. To myself personally
the sufferings would be short. The powers of life have declined with me
more in the last six months than in as many preceding years. A rheumatic
indisposition, under which your letter found me, has caused this delay
in acknowledging its receipt, and in the expressions of regret that I
had inadvertently said or done anything which had given you uneasiness.
I pray you to be assured that no unkind motive directed me, and that my
sentiments of friendship and respect continue the same.
TO MR. OGILVIE.
MONTICELLO, August 4, 1811.
DEAR SIR,--Your favor of May 24th was very long on its passage to me.
It gave us all pleasure to learn from yourself the progress of your
peregrination, and your prospect of approaching rest for awhile, among
our Western brethren--of "rest for the body some, none for the mind."
So that action is said to be all its joy; and we have no more remarkable
proof of it than in yourself. The newspapers have kept us informed of the
splendid course you have run, and of the flattering impressions made on
the public mind, and which must have been so grateful to yourself. The new
intellectual feast you are preparing for them in your Western retirement,
will excite new appetites, and will be hailed like the returning sun,
when he re-appears in the East. Your peripatetic enterprise, when first
made known to us, alarmed our apprehensions for you, lest the taste of
the times, and of our country, should not be up to the revival of this
classical experiment. Much to their credit, however, unshackled by the
prejudices which chain down the minds of the common mass of Europe,
the experiment has proved that, where thought is free in its range, we
need never fear to hazard what is good in itself. This sample of the
American mind is an additional item for the flattering picture your letter
presents of our situation, and our prospects. I firmly believe in them
all; and that human nature has never looked forward, under circumstances
so auspicious, either for the sum of happiness, or the spread of surface
provided to receive it. Very contrary opinions are inculcated in Europe,
and in England especially, where I much doubt if you would be tolerated in
presenting the views you propose. The English have been a wise, a virtuous
and truly estimable people. But commerce and a corrupt government have
rotted them to the core. Every generous, nay, every just sentiment, is
absorbed in the thirst for gold. I speak of their cities, which we may
certainly pronounce to be ripe for despotism, and fitted for no other
government. Whether the leaven of the agricultural body is sufficient to
regenerate the residuary mass, and maintain it in a sound state, under any
reformation of government, may well be doubted. Nations, like individuals,
wish to enjoy a fair reputation. It is therefore desirable for us that the
slanders on our country, disseminated by hired or prejudiced travellers,
should be corrected; but politics, like religion, hold up the torches of
martyrdom to the reformers of error. Nor is it in the theatre of Ephesus
alone that tumults have been excited when the crafts were in danger. You
must be cautious, therefore, in telling unacceptable truths beyond the
water. You wish me to suggest any subject which occurs to myself as fit
for the rostrum. But your own selection has proved you would have been
aided by no counsel, and that you can best judge of the topics which open
to your own mind a field for development, and promise to your hearers
instruction better adapted to the useful purposes of society, than the
weekly disquisitions of their hired instructors. All the efforts of these
people are directed to the maintenance of the artificial structure of
their craft, viewing but as a subordinate concern the inculcation of
morality. If we will be but Christians, according to their schemes of
Christianity, they will compound good-naturedly with our immoralities.
Cannot your circuit be so shaped as to lead you through our neighborhood
on your return? It would give us all great pleasure to see you, if it be
only _en passant_, for after such a survey of varied country, we cannot
flatter ourselves that ours would be the selected residence. But whether
you can visit us or not, I shall always be happy to hear from you, and
to know that you succeed in whatever you undertake. With these assurances
accept those of great esteem and respect from myself and all the members
of my family.
P. S. Since writing the above, an interesting subject occurs. What would
you think of a discourse on the benefit of the union and miseries which
would follow a separation of the States, to be exemplified in the eternal
and wasting wars of Europe, in the pillage and profligacy to which these
lead, and the abject oppression and degradation to which they reduce
its inhabitants? Painted by your vivid pencil, what could make deeper
impressions, and what impressions could come more home to our concerns, or
kindle a livelier sense of our present blessings?
TO JUDGE STEWART.
MONTICELLO, August 8, 1811.
DEAR SIR,--I ask the favor of you to purchase for me as much fresh timothy
seed as the enclosed bill will pay for, pack and forward, and that you
will have the goodness to direct it to be lodged at Mr. Leitch's store
in Charlottesville by the waggoner who brings it. You see how bold your
indulgencies make me in intruding on your kindness.
I do not know that the government means to make known what has passed
between them and Foster before the meeting of Congress; but in the
meantime individuals, who are in the way, think they have a right to fish
it out, and in this way the sum of it has become known. Great Britain
has certainly come forward and declared to our government by an official
paper, that the conduct of France towards her during this war has obliged
her to take possession of the ocean, and to determine that no commerce
shall be carried on with the nations connected with France; that, however,
she is disposed to relax in this determination so far as to permit the
commerce which may be carried on through the British ports. I have, for
three or four years, been confident that, knowing that her own resources
were not adequate to the maintenance of her present navy, she meant with
it to claim the conquest of the ocean, and to permit no nation to navigate
it, but on payment of a tribute for the maintenance of the fleet necessary
to secure that dominion. A thousand circumstances brought together left
me without a doubt that that policy directed all her conduct, although
not avowed. This is the first time she has thrown off the mask. The answer
and conduct of the government have been what they ought to have been, and
Congress is called a little earlier, to be ready to act on the receipt of
the reply, for which time has been given.
God bless you. From yours affectionately.
TO GENERAL DEARBORNE.
POPLAR FOREST, August 14, 1811.
DEAR GENERAL AND FRIEND,-- * * * * *
I am happy to learn that your own health is good, and I hope it will
long continue so. The friends we left behind us have fallen out by the
way. I sincerely lament it, because I sincerely esteem them all, and
because it multiplies schisms where harmony is safety. As far as I have
been able to judge, however, it has made no sensible impression against
the government. Those who were murmuring before are a little louder now;
but the mass of our citizens is firm and unshaken. It furnishes, as an
incident, another proof that they are perfectly equal to the purposes of
self-government, and that we have nothing to fear for its stability. The
spirit, indeed, which manifests itself among the tories of your quarter,
although I believe there is a majority there sufficient to keep it down
in peaceable times, leaves me not without some disquietude. Should the
determination of England, now formally expressed, to take possession of
the ocean, and to suffer no commerce on it but through her ports, force a
war upon us, I foresee a possibility of a separate treaty between her and
your Essex men, on the principles of neutrality and commerce. Pickering
here, and his nephew Williams there, can easily negotiate this. Such a
lure to the quietists in our ranks with you, might recruit theirs to a
majority. Yet, excluded as they would be from intercourse with the rest
of the Union and of Europe, I scarcely see the gain they would propose to
themselves, even for the moment. The defection would certainly disconcert
the other States, but it could not ultimately endanger their safety. They
are adequate, in all points, to a defensive war. However, I hope your
majority, with the aid it is entitled to, will save us from this trial,
to which I think it possible we are advancing. The death of George may
come to our relief; but I fear the dominion of the sea is the insanity of
the nation itself also. Perhaps, if some stroke of fortune were to rid us
at the same time from the Mammoth of the land as well as the Leviathan
of the ocean, the people of England might lose their fears, and recover
their sober senses again. Tell my old friend, Governor Gerry, that I gave
him glory for the rasping with which he rubbed down his herd of traitors.
Let them have justice and protection against personal violence, but no
favor. Powers and preëminences conferred on them are daggers put into the
hands of assassins, to be plunged into our own bosoms in the moment the
thrust can go home to the heart. Moderation can never reclaim them. They
deem it timidity, and despise without fearing the tameness from which
it flows. Backed by England, they never lose the hope that their day is
to come, when the terrorism of their earlier power is to be merged in
the more gratifying system of deportation and the guillotine. Being now
_hors de combat_ myself, I resign to others these cares. A long attack
of rheumatism has greatly enfeebled me, and warns me that they will not
very long be within my ken. But you may have to meet the trial, and in
the focus of its fury. God send you a safe deliverance, a happy issue out
of all afflictions, personal and public, with long life, long health, and
friends as sincerely attached as yours affectionately.
INDEX TO VOL. V.
ADAMS, JOHN--His relations with Jefferson, 559, 560.
Difference between his political opinions and Hamilton's, 559.
AGRICULTURE--The science of, 224.
Implement of, 226.
Products of, adapted to U. S., 314.
ALEXANDER, EMPEROR--Bust of, presented to Jefferson, 6.
His character, 7, 526.
His intervention in favor of neutral rights, 8.
ARMS--When loaned by Government, 168, 238, 240.
ASTRONOMY--Its application to navigation, 374.
BANKS--Excess of, 516.
BANK OF UNITED STATES--Question of its constitutionality, 412.
BARLOW, JOEL--His Columbiad, 238.
His History of U. S., 496.
His departure for Paris, 587.
BASTROP'S CASE--231.
BLOODWORTH--His bankruptcy, 49.
BONAPARTE--His great victories, 173.
His plans of conquest, 512.
His character, 601.
BOTTA, M.--His history of revolution, 527.
BRAZIL, EMPEROR OF--285.
BURR, AARON--His conspiracy, 24, 26, 28, 38, 40.
His accomplices, 34, 45, 60, 99, 305.
Efforts in Ohio to suppress conspiracy, 37.
His arrest and trial, 55, 57, 65, 66, 81, 84, 86, 95, 96, 98, 174.
His views and objects, 64, 128, 129, 130.
Federalists come to his rescue, 64, 65, 66, 67.
Proofs and witnesses against, 72, 78, 81, 95, 96, 109, 112, 190.
His forgeries, 86.
His acquittal, 187, 199.
CABINET, EXECUTIVE--Mode of transacting business in, 94.
Of Washington and Jefferson, 568, 569.
CHESAPEAKE, THE--Capture of, 113, 114.
Executive action relative to, 116, 118, 120, 122, 123, 126, 131.
Preparations for war, 120, 122, 123, 126, 127, 132, 146.
CHESAPEAKE BAY--Defence of mouth of, 180.
CHINA--Chinese mandarin relieved from Embargo, 325.
CLAIBORNE, GOV.--Wounded in duel, 137.
CLAY, HENRY--His opposition to Jefferson, 183.
CLIMATE--Changes of, in U. S., 487.
COLLEGES--How should be arranged, 521.
COLONIZATION--Of negroes, 564.
COMMERCE--Impulse to, by Embargo, 441.
Coasting and carrying trade, 505.
CONTRACTS--Should not be given to members of legislature, 50.
CUBA--Acquisition of, 444.
DEARBORNE, GEN.--Urged by Mr. Jefferson to continue in office, 295.
DEBT--Evils of National debt, 477.
DECIUS--His false statements, 20.
DELAWARE RIVER--Defense of, against English, 244.
DESERTERS--Should not be enlisted, 173.
DICKINSON, JOHN--His death, 249.
DRAWBACKS--426.
DUANE, WILLIAM--His opposition to Madison's administration, 590.
His embarrassments, 574, 590.
EDITORS--Their duties, 591.
EDUCATION--225.
Plan of popular education, 525.
EMBARGO, THE--227, 252, 299.
War preferable to continuance of, 258.
Our citizens allowed to withdraw property from foreign countries, 259.
Draft of law by Gallatin, 267.
Measures to enforce, 271, 272, 297, 336, 341, 343, 352, 359.
Its operation, 275.
Cases arising under, 277.
When to be suspended, 279.
Evasions of, 286, 287, 290, 297, 317, 334, 335, 336, 340, 413.
Construction of, 287, 290, 292, 307, 317, 324, 327, 344, 346, 355, 398.
Resistance to, in Massachusetts, 341, 343, 347, 384, 424.
Cases arising under, 292, 307, 317, 324, 327, 344, 346, 355, 363, 368,
369, 370, 375, 382, 386, 387, 396, 399, 405, 418.
Its unpopularity in the east, 293, 384.
Its popularity elsewhere, 296, 384.
Bonaparte's position relative to, 370.
War the only alternative, 384, 387.
Views in Congress relative to, 404.
A temporary measure, 410.
Action of Congress relative to, 419, 421, 424.
Repeal of, 433, 529.
ENGLAND--Treaty with, objectionable, 52.
Its ratification suspended, 54.
Hostilities commenced by, 113, 117, 118, 123, 131, 134, 139.
Hull retires from Hampton Roads, 135.
Probability of war with, 134, 135, 139, 189, 197, 211, 215, 266.
Relative to certain captives, 142.
The conduct of the English in our waters, 143, 145, 195, 196.
Relations with, during this quasi state of war, 151, 155, 167, 170, 174,
191, 202.
Notice to our merchant vessels of danger of war, 184, 185, 186, 194.
Her violations of maritime law, 200, 468, 501, 511, 551.
Her orders in council, 442.
Repeal of, 443.
Relations of peace restored, 455.
Domination on the Ocean, 530.
Condition of, 552, 557.
Relations with, 556.
War with, inevitable, 464.
Character of Kings of, 514.
ENLISTMENTS--When binding on infants, 282, 372.
EUROPE--Not to be permitted to interfere in American affairs, 381.
Condition of, 511.
Insignificancy of Kings of, 514.
EXECUTIVE--Question between a single and plural executive, 449, 567, 581.
Executives should be removable, 569.
FEDERALISTS--Their disorganization as a party, 101.
Their conduct in reference to Embargo, 304.
Their bitterness of feeling, 608.
FLORIDAS, THE--Necessity of their acquisition, 18.
FRANCE--Views of her revolution, 133, 582.
Our relations with, 266.
War with England, 214.
Berlin and Milan decrees, 444.
FRANKLIN, BENJAMIN--His last autobiography, 540.
GALLATIN, ALBERT--His character, 574.
Jefferson dissuades him from leaving Madison's cabinet, 477.
False imputations against, 593, 594.
His views on U. S. Bank, 595.
GOVERNMENT--Best works on, 91.
GUN-BOATS--As means of defence, 41, 42, 202, 228, 234, 316.
Improvements in, 189.
HAMILTON, ALEXANDER--Difference between his political principles and J.
Adams', 559.
HARPER'S FERRY--The scenery there, 446.
HISTORY, NATURAL--Fossil remains, 46, 219, 220, 261, 310, 467.
HOLLAND, KING OF--Congratulations on his accession to the throne, 47.
HUMBOLDT, BARON DE--His work on Spain, 435.
HUNDREDS--Division of counties into, 525.
IMPRESSMENT--Efforts to suppress by treaty, 55, 63.
Refusal to sign treaty not providing for suppression of, 56, 63.
INCORPORATION--The power of, not granted by constitution, 412.
INDIANS--Improvement of, 212, 278, 302.
Their languages, 6, 469, 599.
Best articles of trade with, 44.
Relations with, 162, 184, 330, 348, 350.
Danger of war with, 175.
Policy towards, in a war with England, 176, 276, 348.
Trade with, 269.
General policy towards, 348, 350.
How to proceed in case of murders by, 354.
Settlement of boundaries with Kickapoos, 400.
Efforts to prevent the use of spirituous liquors by, 407.
Best mode of civilizing, 440.
Efforts to civilize, 484.
IRVING'S CASE--600.
JEFFERSON, THOMAS--Efforts to alienate his cabinet from him, 23.
His retirement at end of second term, 62, 88.
Calumnies against, 80, 264, 503, 504.
Resigns Presidency of American Philosophical Society, 392.
Is re-elected, 40, 494.
Refuses all presents while President, 392.
Resolution to retire at end of second term, 407.
Reception of, by people, on his retirement, 431.
His pleasure at retiring, 432.
Letter to people of Albemarle at end of Presidential term, 439.
All prosecutions for libels against him dismissed, 452.
Franking privilege allowed him, 453.
His writings, 465.
Relations with Hamilton, 496.
His habits, 508, 558.
Made member of Royal Institute of Amsterdam, 517.
Relations with Adams, 559, 560.
JUDICIARY--Always federal, 549.
LATROBE, MR.--Relations with Jefferson, 578.
LANDS, PUBLIC--Intrusions on, 382.
LAWS--Rules for construing, by executive, 158.
Degeneracy of law, 524.
Some cases above law, 542.
Law of New England not common law, 550.
LAWYERS--Of New England not good common law lawyers, 547.
LEWIS, GOV.--His papers, 480.
LIBRARIES, PUBLIC--Benefit of, 448.
LOGWOOD, THOMAS--Pardon of, 385.
LOUIS XVI.--His character, 423.
LOUISIANA--Boundaries of, 110, 178.
MADISON, JAMES--Divisions in his cabinet, 509, 589, 596, 598, 600, 607.
MAIL--Robberies of, 406.
MANUFACTURES--Impulse to from embargo, 415, 456.
How far should be protected, 415, 417, 440.
Condition of, in U. S., 583.
MARSHALL, JOHN--His life of Washington, 476.
Notes on, by Jefferson, 476.
MARQUE, LETTERS OF--Their character, 273.
MEDICINE--Views of science of, 105.
METEORIC STONES--245.
MILITIA--Organization of, 16, 76.
Called out to defend Norfolk and Hampton, 118, 138.
Disbanded, 143.
Militia of Ohio, 206.
When to be called out, 409.
MINES--Rent of Indiana lead mines, 207, 210.
Silver mines of La Platte, 246.
MINTS--Appointment of assistant engraver to, 61.
MIRANDA'S EXPEDITION--Not countenanced by our government, 476.
MISSISSIPPI TERRITORY--British claims in, 274.
MONROE, JAMES--His relations to Madison's administration, 247, 482.
Offered government of Orleans or Louisiana, 11.
Explanations in relation to English treaty, 254.
MONTESQUIEU'S SPIRIT OF LAWS--Commentary on, 525, 539, 566.
MOOSE ISLAND--Within jurisdiction of U. States, 317.
MUSEUM--Foundation of one at Williamsburg, 79.
NEGROES--Their capacity relative to white races, 429, 475.
NEUTRALITY--No breach of, to assist vessels in distress, 35.
Invasions of, by France and England, 217.
Frauds on our flag, 223, 250.
We determine to side with the party which shall respect our neutrality, 258.
What the rights of neutral vessels, 425, 426.
Wisdom of our neutral policy, 585.
NICHOLAS, WILSON C.--Sent on special mission to France, 3.
Declines it, 5.
Mr. Jefferson wishes him to take leadership of House of Representatives, 48.
OFFICES--Should not be given to relations, 90, 498.
Principles on which conferred, 136.
ORLEANS, NEW--Claim to public common, 26.
Scheme for defence of, 36, 46.
Public property there, 251.
Canal at, 288, 306, 318, 321.
Title to Batture, 291, 319, 518, 519, 536, 545, 546, 548.
Conspiracies against U. States, 378.
ORLEANS, TERRITORY OF--Discontents in, 29, 32.
PATENTS--Interpretation of patent law, 75.
What should be duration of, 75, 76.
PLOUGHS--Improved model of, 313.
POLAND--Partition of, 603.
POLYGRAPH, THE--Its value, 17.
PRESIDENT--Presidential tour objectionable, 102.
Not bound to obey subpœna duces tecum, 103, 191.
Cannot present memorial to Congress from State legislature, 203.
Candidates for Presidency in 1808, 247, 321.
PRINTING--Extension of, in U. States, 475.
PRESS--Liberty of, 43.
Its falsehoods, 92.
Its license, 362.
QUAKERS--Their English affinities, 492, 494.
QUARANTINE--Views on, 193.
RANDOLPH, JOHN--Turns against Jefferson's administration, 9.
RANDOLPH, T. J.--Letter of advice to, 388.
RELIGION--President no right to prescribe day for prayer and fasting, 237.
Views on, 416, 471, 492.
REPUBLICAN PARTY--Split in, 9, 121, 204.
Massachusetts Republicanised, 14.
Increase of, 450.
Importance of union in, 577.
RICE--Upland, 393.
RITCHIE, THOMAS--Relations to Madison's administration, 596.
RIVERS--Rights of all nations inhabiting its banks to free navigation, 115.
RUSSIA--Emperor of, his character, and policy, 140.
Mission to, 329, 358, 360.
Negatived by Senate, 435.
SEAMEN--Employment of foreigners in Navy, 69, 70.
SECESSION--Not to be apprehended, 571.
SHEEP--Introduction of Merino breed, 479, 522.
SOUTH AMERICAN STATES--Revolt of, against Spain, 530, 584, 586.
SPAIN--Our relations with, 27, 164, 181, 211, 337, 367.
Questions of navigation and boundary with, 278, 294.
Plan to seize our territory in possession of, 337, 339.
Conquest of, by Spain, 442.
Defense against French, 603.
STATES--Sovereignty of, a high conservative feature in our government, 560.
TARIFF--On wines, 76.
TAXES--Of United States how imposed, 586.
TOMBIGBEE--Memorial from, 140.
TORPEDOES--Invented by Fulton, 165, 516.
TRUXTON, COMMODORE--Medal for, 300.
UNITED STATES--Condition of parties in Senate and House of Representatives, 5.
Relations with England, 12.
Political revolution of 1800, 256.
Conduct of, in relations with European powers, 472.
Prosperity of, 604.
VETERINARY COLLEGE--Policy of, 402.
VINCENNES--Loyalty of French inhabitants of, 240, 243.
VIRGINIA--Collection of laws of, 31.
Defence of seaboard and against English in 1807, 113, 117, 123, 131, 134,
139, 150, 166.
Her exertions in Revolutionary war, 461.
Revision of her Code, 459.
VOLUNTEERS--33, 51, 153, 158, 179, 423.
Construction of law relative to, 159.
Offers of, 408, 414, 423.
WAR--Prospect of, 214, 215, 437.
Preparations for, 58, 280, 283, 506.
Feeling of eastern States relative to, 488, 607.
Jefferson opposed to, 598.
(See France and England.)
WASHINGTON, GEN.--Mode of doing business in his cabinet, 510.
WASHINGTON CITY--Improvement of, 50.
Sale of certain city lots, 395.
WATERHOUSE, DR.--His appointment to Marine Hospital, 222.
WEIGHTS AND MEASURES--Improvements proposed, 235, 377.
WEST POINT--Complaint of Cadets of, 332.
WESTERN ROAD--The route of, 332, 333.
WIRT, WILLIAM--Urged by Mr. Jefferson to accept seat in Congress, 233.
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