The Writings of



Thomas Jefferson



Definitive Edition



Containing His



Autobiography, notes on Virginia, Parliamentary Manual, Official Papers,

Messages and Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and Private, Now Collected

and







Published in Their entirety For The First Time







INCLUDING



ALL OF THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPTS, DEPOSITED IN THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE AND

PUBLISHED IN 1853 BY ORDER OF THE JOINT COMMITTEE OF CONGRESS



WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS



AND



A COMPREHENSIVE ANALYTICAL INDEX







Albert Ellery Bergh



Editor







VOL. IX







ISSUED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF



The Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association



of the United States



Washington, D. C.



1907











JEFFERSON AND THE CONSTITUTION.















Whatever share any particular statesman had in framing the Constitution of the

United States, it is an interesting fact of history that the Convention of 1787

which framed it was not called for that specific purpose. At the beginning of

the Revolution the thirteen British Colonies in North America were each

independent political communities. With reference to foreign and domestic

commerce they were independent of each other and, in a large degree, of Great

Britain also. After the achievement of independence the lack of any general

authority over foreign and intercolonial commerce continued, and as the

Colonies remained independent of each other jealousies and conflicts ensued,

followed by restrictive and vexatious taxation by some of the Colonies upon the

commerce of others. Relief from such conditions was sought in the adoption of

the Articles of Confederation which, however, provided no remedy, because the

States under the Confederation were left free to do exactly what the Colonies

had previously done. Widespread dissatisfaction continued, and tribute levied

by separate States upon the products of their 













    Jefferson and the Constitution







neighbors brought forth earnest and emphatic protests, as well as conflicting

and retaliatory measures. The evils of the times were such that Washington

declared : " I think often of our situation and view it with concern. From the

high ground we stood upon, from the plain path which invited our footsteps, to

be so fallen, so lost, is really mortifying; but virtue has in a great degree

taken its departure from our land, and the want of a disposition to do justice

is the source of the national embarrassment. ''







It was natural and logical that under such conditions a change in the

government of the Confederacy was early considered. The demand was not for a

new government or a new constitution, but simply to devise a plan for the

regulation of trade under some general authority, through a revision of the

Articles of Confederation then in force. Jefferson so understood it, and, in a

letter to the Count Del Vermi, in August, 1787, said : " The States have

appointed deputies, who are now sitting at Philadelphia, to consider what are

the defects, and to propose new articles to be added to the instrument of

Confederation for amending them. '' In the Constitutional Convention, George

Mason, of Virginia, declared " this Constitution has been formed without the

knowledge or idea of the people." Although the question had previously been

mooted, the Commonwealth of Virginia, on January 21, 1786, inaugurated the

movement which resulted in the 













      Jefferson and the Constitution iii







adoption of the Constitution by appointing Madison, Tucker; Randolph, Mason and

others as commissioners to meet such as might be appointed by other States " to

take into consideration the trade of the United States; to examine the relative

situations and trade of said States; to consider how far an uniform system in

their commercial regulations may be necessary to their common interest and

their permanent harmony; and to report to the several States such an act

relative to this great object, as, when unanimously ratified by them, will

enable the United States in Congress assembled effectually to provide for the

same. '' In pursuance of this call commissioners from five States met at

Annapolis, September 11, 1786, but, in view of the partial representation of

the States, no action was taken except to make a general report. When this

report was presented to Congress that body resolved that a convention of

delegates be held at Philadelphia "for the sole and express purpose of revising

the Articles of Confederation. ''







The Constitutional Convention thus called to revise the Articles of

Confederation met in Philadelphia, May 14, 1787, but as Jefferson was not a

delegate, being then absent from the United States as Minister to France, he

took no direct part in framing the Constitution. His views, however, both as to

the defects in the Articles of Confederation and the changes which should be

made were well known, and doubtless exerted an influence, particu













      Jefferson and the Constitution







larly upon delegates holding like political opinions. Yet, it is plain that he

did not attempt by direct methods to impress his convictions upon the

Convention. He delivered no address respecting the matter, and, with the

exception of a letter to Madison in December, 1786, and letters to Washington

and Wythe in August and September, 1787, the last two of which could not have

been received in time to have affected the result, and in all of which his

opinion was expressed in very general terms, he does not appear to have

communicated with any delegate to the Convention upon the subject either before

or during the sitting. In the letter to Wythe, in reply to a request for his

views, he said: " It is now too late to answer the question, and it would

always have been presumption in me to have done it. Your own ideas, and those

of the great characters who were to be concerned with you in these discussions,

will give the law; as they ought to do, to us all. ''







Notwithstanding this suggestion of acquiescence in the will of the Convention,

Jefferson, while admitting " the great mass of good in it, " did not hesitate

to denounce certain features of the Constitution. As early as November; 1787,

in .a letter to John Adams, he asked, "How do you like our new Constitution? I

confess there are things in it which stagger all my dispositions to subscribe

to what such an assembly has proposed. The House of Federal Representatives

will not be adequate to the manage













      Jefferson and the Constitution







ment of affairs, either foreign or federal. Their President seems a bad edition

of a Polish king. He may be elected from four years to four years, for life."

Subsequently, in letters to Madison and others, he enlarged upon these

objections and included in his denunciation, among the more important, the

provision for direct taxation by the Federal Government, .which he once

commended, and particularly complained of' the " omission of a bill of rights,

providing clearly and without the aid of sophism, for freedom of religion,

freedom of the press, protection against standing armies, restriction of

monopolies, the eternal and unremitting force of the habeas corpus laws, and

trial by jury in all matters of fact triable by the laws of the land, and not

by the laws of nations. '' After further and more mature reflection he yielded

all objections except as to the re-eligibility of the President and the

omission of a bill of rights, but as to these he was immovable.







  With reference especially to a bill of rights, which should guard against

encroachment of Government upon individual liberty, his course was both typical

and inevitable. Of all the statesmen of the Revolution he was most democratic,

believed most thoroughly in the virtue and rule of the people, and looked with

most apprehension upon a strong or unfettered government. To use his own

language he believed that ` ` the natural progress of things is for liberty to

yield and government to gain ground. ' '. 













vi Jefferson and the Constitution







In a notable letter to Madison in December, 1787, respecting the Constitution,

he said: " I own, I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is

always oppressive." Even the disturbances in Massachusetts about this time were

not unwelcome to him, for, writing to Colonel Smith, he said, " What country

can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that

this people preserve the spirit of resistance ? '' While he urged his final

objections to the Constitution with vigor and persistence, at no period of the

controversy was he opposed to its ratification by the States. At one time, in

truth, he believed that in order to effectuate his contention nine States

should adopt it and the others should, " by holding off, produce the necessary

amendments, " but this was soon abandoned. Writing to the Count De Moustier, in

May, 1788, which he substantially repeated to others, he said : " Your

situation will doubtless be improved by the adoption of the new Constitution,

which I hope will have taken place before you receive this. I see in this

instrument a great deal of good. The consolidation of our Government, a just

representation, an administration of some permanence, and other features of

great value, will be gained by it. There are, indeed, some faults, which

revolted me a good deal in the first moment; but we must be contented to travel

on towards perfection, step by step. We must be contented with the ground which

this Constitution will gain for us and hope that a favorable moment 













      Jefferson and the Constitution vii







will come for correcting what is amiss in it. '' The wisdom of this course was

established by succeeding events, for his second objection to the Constitution

was promptly cured by amendments incorporating a bill of rights, and his first

objection was practically obviated by the patriotic example of Washington, to

which Jefferson contributed his own in turn.







The character of this paper necessarily precludes more than a general

consideration of the principles of Constitutional interpretation which,

probably second only to the Declaration of Independence, typifies the

statesmanship of Jefferson. Besides the inherent objection to a strong

government, Jefferson conceived that in a country like the United States, with

a population scattered over a large territory, a consolidated government would

in time become corrupt and irresponsive to public opinion. Instead of

consolidating he would, therefore, decentralize the government. Following his

view of the text of the Constitution and the spirit of the times which inspired

and gave it birth, he insisted that the Government of the United States was one

of limited and enumerated powers, and that such powers as were not delegated to

it by the Constitution nor prohibited by it to the States were, as declared by

the Tenth Amendment, reserved to the States respectively or to the people. As a

consequence he assailed the great mass of implied powers in the Federal

Government contended for by Hamilton and his followers, and attacked, often 













viii      Jefferson and the Constitution







with much bitterness, many of the opinions of Chief Justice Marshall on

Constitutional law, comlaining that they were judicial usurpations intended to

warp the General Government into the consolidated form advocated by the

Federalists in the Convention. Nevertheless, within what he believed to be just

limits he was devoted to the Constitution and declared that one of the

essential principles which should guide him was "the preservation of the

General Government in its whole Constitutional vigor, as the sheet anchor of

our peace at home and safety abroad. ''







Equally essential, in his opinion, was " the support of the State governments

in all their rights, as the most competent administrations for our domestic

concerns and the surest bulwarks against antirepublican tendencies." In line

with his unbelief in implied powers, among. the more important questions

arising, he denied the authority of the Federal Government to create national

banks 'and other corporations or to appropriate public moneys for works of

internal improvements, though as 'to the latter he favored a constitutional

amendment giving such authority, the proportionate parts of the moneys to be

expended in each State. The most remarkable instance of his adherence to his

principles of Constitutional construction was in his purchase of Louisiana,

which he avowed was in violation of the Constitution, but which was of such

vital and transcendent importance to the unity and welfare 













      Jefferson and the Constitution ix







of the country as to justify his course, which he thought should be ratified by

an amendment. He believed that the Constitution was a compact between

independent States; that, as in all cases of compact among independent powers,

each party had the right to judge for itself of infractions and measures of

redress ; and in this belief he wrote the celebrated Kentucky resolutions which

declared the Alien arid Sedition Acts of Congress null and void. Later; in

June, 1823, writing to Johnson he said : " The ultimate arbiter is the people

of the Union, assembled by their deputies in convention







at the call of Congress, or of two-thirds of the States. '' Although he

denounced the Hartford Secession Convention, posterity will probably continue

to speculate upon his course had he lived in 1861. In June, 1798, reasoning by

a process of successive schisms, he reduced the Union to Virginia and North

Carolina, which finally dissolved into their simple units ; and in December,

1825, he exclaimed : " Are we then to stand to our arms with the hot-headed

Georgian? No, that must be the last resource, not to be thought of until much

longer and greater sufferings. If every infraction of a compact of so many

parties is to be resisted at once, as a dissolution of it, none can be formed

which would last one year. We must have patience and longer endurance then with

our brethren while under delusion; give them time for reflection and experience

of consequences; keep ourselves in a 













x    Jefferson and the Constitution







situation to profit by the chapter of accidents ; and separate from our

companions only when the sole alternatives left are the dissolution of our

union with them, or submission to a government without limitation of powers. ''







After all that may be said on the subject the political philosophy of Jefferson

lies deeper than the interpretation of the mere words of a written

constitution. It is grounded in distrust of rulers, in the idea that free

government is founded in jealousy and not in confidence, in the theory that the

government is best which governs least, in individualism and not paternalism,

in hatred of caste, in dispersion not concentration of power, and in the

education and uplifting of the people, with a supreme faith in their capacity

for self-government.



















CONTENTS







Jefferson and the Constitution.  By U.S. Senator 



Charles A.

Culberson......................................................................

.......          i



Letters Written After His Return to the United



States

(1789-1826)....................................................................

....... 1-446



To John Rutherford, Dec. 25,

1792.......................................................     1



To Thomas Pinckney, Dec. 30,

1792.....................................................    6



To William Short, Jan. 3,

1793...............................................................   9



To Thomas Mann Randolph, Jan. 7,

1793.............................................. 13



To Albert Gallatin, Jan. 25,

1793........................................................... 14



To Mrs. Randolph (Martha Jefferson), Jan. 26, 1793.............................

15



To Dr. David Stewart, and the other Commissioners,



Jan. 31,

1793...........................................................................

............. 17



To Daniel Carroll, Feb. 1,

1793............................................................. 18



Circular to the Ministers of France, the United



Netherlands, Great Britian, etc., Feb. 13,

1793...................................... 19



To George Hammond, Feb. 16,

1793.................................................... 27



To Jean Baptiste de Ternant, Feb. 17,

1793..........................................  29



To the Speaker of the House of Representatives



(F.A. Muhlenberg), Feb. 20,

1793.......................................................   31



To Monsieur Jean Baptiste de Ternant, Feb. 23, 1793..........................  

32



To James Madison, March,

1793........................................................    33



To Major-General Horatio Gates, March 12, 1793.............................    

35



To Gouverneur Morris, March 12,

1793............................................      36



To Gouverneur Morris, March 15,

1793............................................      40



To Thomas Pinckney, March 16,

1793..............................................      41



Letters Written After His Return to the United



States (1789-1826) - continued



To___________  ____________, March 18, 1793............................    44



To Colonel David Humphreys, March 21, 1793.................................    

 46



To Samuel Shaw, Consul at Canton, China, March



21,

1793...........................................................................

..................    49



To Colonel David Humphreys, March 22, 1793..................................   

 50



To Colonel David Humphreys, March 22, 1793...................................  

 53



To William Carmichael and William Short, March



23,

1793...........................................................................

..................    55



To C.W.F. Dumas, March 24,

1793.................................................      56



To Colonel Alexander Hamilton, March 27, 1793............................      

 57



To James Madison, April 7,

1793....................................................       60



To George Hammond, April 18, 1793............................................. 

      60



To the Secretary of State (Thomas Jefferson),



April 12,

1793...........................................................................

......       62



To Thomas Pinckney, April 20,

1793...............................................       66



To F.P. Van Berckel, April 23,

1793...............................................       68



Circular to Messrs. Morris, Pinckney and Short,



April 26,

1793...........................................................................

.....        69



To Jean Baptiste de Ternant, April 27, 1793................................... 

      70



To the Secretary of the Treasury, (Alexander



Hamilton), May 1,

1793..................................................................       72



To Jean Baptiste de Ternant, May 3, 1793...................................... 

     74



To Colonel James Monroe, May 5, 1793........................................   

   75



To Thomas Pinckney, May 7, 1793................................................

      78



To Edmund Randolph, May 8, 1793..............................................  

     81



To the Secretary of the Treasury (Alexander



Hamilton), May 8,

1793.................................................................        85



To James Madison, May 13, 1793.................................................

       87



To George Hammond, May 15, 1793............................................    

   89



To Jean Baptiste de Ternant, May 15, 1793..................................    

    93



To James Madison, May 19, 1793................................................ 

       96



To the Governor of Virginia (Henry Lee), May 21, 1793..............          98



Letters Written After His Return to the United



States (1789-1826) - Continued



To F.P. Van Berckel, May 29, 1793............................................. 

        100



To William Carmichael and William Short, May



31,

1793...........................................................................

........             101



To James Madison, June 2, 1793...............................................  

          105



To Edmund Randolph, June 2, 1793.............................................. 

       107



To Edmond C. Genet, June 5, 1793...............................................

       109



To George Hammond, June 5, 1793..............................................  

      111



To the President of the United States (George



Washington), June 6,

1793.............................................................        114



To James Madison, June 9,

1793..................................................         117



To Gouverneur Morris, June 13, 1793..........................................  

      122



To Thomas Pinckney, June 14, 1793............................................  

       126



To Edmond C. Genet, June 17, 1793............................................  

      129



To Edmond C. Genet, June 17, 1793...........................................   

      131



To George Hammond, June 19, 1793...........................................    

    137



To James Madison, June 23, 1793................................................

        138



To the President of the United States (George



Washington), June 28,

1793..........................................................         139



To Dr. George Gilmer, June 28, 1793..........................................  

       143



To Colonel James Monroe, June 28, 1793....................................     

   144



To James Madison, June 19, 1793................................................

        147



To William Carmichael and William Short, June



30,

1793...........................................................................

............        148



To Colonel James Monroe, July 14, 1793.....................................    

    161



To Messrs. Jose Ignacio de Viar and Jose de



Jaudenes, July 14,

1793...............................................................         165



To the Chief Justice and Judges of the Supreme



Court of the United States, July 18, 1793..................................... 

       167



To James Madison, July 21, 1793................................................

        168



To Edmond C. Genet, July 24, 1793...........................................   

      169



To the President of the United States (George



Washington), July 31,

1793..........................................................         173



To Edmond C. Genet, August 7, 1793.........................................    

    174



Letters Written After His Return to the United



States (1789-1826) - continued



To the President of the United States (George



Washington), August 11,

1793....................................................         176



To James Madison, August 11, 1793..........................................    

    177



To Gouverneur Morris, August 16, 1793.....................................     

   180



To Duke and Co., August 21, 1793.............................................  

      210



To James Madison, August 25, 1793...........................................   

     211



To James Madison, Sept. 1, 1793................................................

        211



To Christopher Gore, Sept. 2, 1793.............................................

       215



To George Hammond, the British Minister, Sept.5,

1793...........................................................................

................         217



To Thomas Pinckney, Sept. 7, 1793............................................  

      220



To James Madison, Sept. 8, 1793................................................

       227



To George Hammond, Sept. 9, 1793...........................................    

   229



To Edmond C. Genet, Sept. 9, 1793...........................................   

     233



To Tench Coxe, Sept. 10, 1793..................................................

        236



To Gouverneur Morris, Sept. 11, 1793.......................................    

    236



To Edmond C. Genet, Sept. 15, 1793.........................................    

    237



To Edmond C. Genet, Oct. 3, 1793............................................   

     239



To James Madison, Nov. 2, 1793...............................................  

      240



To Edmond C. Genet, Nov. 8, 1793...........................................    

    242



To George Hammond, the British Minister, Nov.



10,

1793...........................................................................

.........         244



To George Hammond, Nov. 14, 1793........................................       

 246



To Mr. Ciracchi, at Munich, Nov. 14, 1793................................      

 252



To James Madison, Nov. 17, 1793.............................................   

    253



To Richard Soderstrom, Consul of Sweden, Nov.



20,

1793...........................................................................

..........       255



To Edmond C. Genet, Nov. 22, 1793..........................................    

  256



To Thomas Pinckney, Nov. 27, 1793..........................................    

  257



To Edmond C. Genet, Nov. 30, 1793.........................................     

  259



To the President of the United States (George



Washington), Dec. 2,

1793.........................................................        261



To Edmond C. Genet, Dec. 9, 1793...........................................    

   264



Letters Written After His Return to the United



States (1789-1826) - continued



To the President of the United States (George



Washington), Dec. 11,

1793.......................................................       267



To Edward Church, Dec. 11, 1793............................................    

   269



To George Hammond, Dec. 15, 1793........................................       

270



To Edmund Randolph, Dec 18, 1793.........................................      

 274



To the Governor of South Carolina (Arnoldus



Vanderhorst), Dec. 23,

1793.....................................................       275



To Dr. Enoch Edwards, Dec. 30, 1793......................................      

276



To Edmond C. Genet, Dec. 31, 1793.........................................     

 277



To the President of the United States (George



Washington), Dec. 31,

1793......................................................       278



To Edmund Randolph, Feb. 3, 1794..........................................     

 279



To James Madison, April 3, 1794..............................................  

    281



To the President of the United States (George



Washington), April 25,

1794......................................................      283



To Tench Coxe, May 1, 1794.................................................... 

    284



To the President of the United States (George



Washington), May 14,

1794.......................................................      286



To James Madison, May 15, 1794.............................................    

 288



To the Secretary of State (Edmund Randolph),



Sept. 7,

1794...........................................................................

...     290



To Wilson Nicholas, Esq., Nove. 22, 1794.................................     

291



To James Madison, Dec. 28, 1794.............................................   

  293



To Monsieur d'Ivernois, Feb. 6, 1795........................................   

   297



To James Madison, April 27, 1795............................................   

  301



To William B. Giles, April 27, 1795..........................................  

    305



To Mann Page, August 30, 1795..............................................    

  306



To Henry Tazewell, Sept. 13, 1795..........................................    

  308



To James Madison, Sept. 21, 1795...........................................    

 309



To Monsieur Odit, Oct. 14, 1795.............................................   

   311



To Edward Rutledge, Nov. 30, 1795.......................................      

313



To William B. Giles, Dec. 31, 1795.........................................    

   314



To George Wythe, Jan. 16, 1796............................................     

  319



Letters Written After His Return to the United



States (1789-1826) - continued



To James Madison, March 6, 1796.........................................       

323



To William B. Giles, March 19, 1796.....................................       

 326



To Colonel James Monroe, March 21, 1796...........................        328



To James Madison, March 27, 1796.......................................       

330



To James Madison, April 19, 1796.........................................      

 331



To Philip Mazzei, April 24, 1796...........................................    

    335



To Colonel James Monroe, June 12, 1796...............................       337



To the President of the United States (George



Washington), June 19, 1796.................................................... 

     339



To the Marquis de La Fayette, June 19, 1796.........................        343



To Colonel Hite, June 19, 1796..............................................   

    345



To Jonathan Williams, July 3, 1796........................................     

   346



To Colonel James Monroe, July 10, 1796...............................       348



To Colonel John Stuart, Nove. 10, 1796................................       

349



To James Madison, Dec. 17, 1796.........................................       

351



To Edward Rutledge, Dec. 27, 1796.....................................        

352



To John Adams, Dec. 28, 1796.............................................      

 355



To James Madison, Jan. 1, 1797...........................................      

  357



To C.F.C. de Volney, Jan. 8, 1797........................................      

 360



To Henry Tazewell, Jan. 16, 1797........................................       

  365



To James Madison, Jan. 22, 1797..........................................      

 367



To George Wythe, Jan. 22, 1797..........................................       

 370



To John Langdon, Jan. 22, 1797...........................................      

  370



To Dr. John Edwards, Jan. 22, 1797......................................       

372



To Dr. Benjamin Rush, Jan. 22, 1797....................................        

373



To James Madison, Jan. 30, 1797..........................................      

 375



To James Sullivan, Feb. 9, 1797............................................    

   376



To Peregrine Fitzhugh, April 9, 1797....................................       

  379



To Elbridge Gerry, May 13, 1797.........................................       

380



To Colonel Bell, May 18, 1797............................................      

  386



To Mr. Giroud, May 22, 1797..............................................      

 387



To Thomas Pinckney, May 29, 1797....................................        388



To General Horatio Gates, May 30, 1797............................         391



Letters Written After His Return to the United



States (1789-1826) - continued



To James Madison, June 1, 1797.............................................    

  393



To French Strother, June 8, 1797............................................   

    396



To James Madison, June 15, 1797..........................................      

 397



To Colonel Aaron Burr, June 17, 1797...................................       

400



To Elbridge Gerry, June 21, 1797..........................................     

   405



To James Madison, June 22, 1797..........................................      

 407



To Edward Rutledge, June 24, 1797......................................        

408



To Edmund Randolph, June 27, 1797....................................        

411



To James Madison, August 3, 1797.......................................        

413



To Colonel John Stuart, August 15, 1797...............................       

416



To St. George Tucker, August 28, 1797.................................       

417



To Colonel Arthur Campbell, Sept. 1, 1797............................       

419



To John F. Mercer, Sept. 5, 1797..........................................     

   421



To Colonel James Monroe, Sept. 7, 1797...............................       

422



To Alexander White, Sept. 10, 1797.......................................      

 424



To Mann Page,Jan. 2, 1798...................................................   

     428



To James Madison, Jan. 3, 1798............................................     

   430



To James Madison, Jan. 25, 1798..........................................      

  434



To James Madison, Feb. 8, 1798............................................     

  437



To James Madison, Feb. 15, 1798..........................................      

 439



To General Horatio Gates, Feb. 21, 1798...............................       

441



To James Madison, Feb. 22, 1798..........................................      

 444



















CORRESPONDENCE







LETTERS WRITTEN AFTER HIS RETURN TO THE UNITED STATES 1789-1826. (Continued) 















   JEFFERSON'S WORKS.















           TO JOHN RUTHERFORD.







          PHILADELPHIA, December 25, 1792,







SIR,-I have considered, with all the attention which the shortness of. the time

would permit, ' the two motions which you were pleased to put into my hands

yesterday afternoon, on the subject of weights and measures, now under

reference to a committee of the Senate, and will take the liberty of making a

few observations thereon.







The first, I presume, is intended as a basis for the adoption of that

alternative of the report on measures and weights, which proposed retaining the

present system, and fixing its several parts by a reference to a rod vibrating

seconds, under the circumstances therein explained ; and to fulfil its object,

I think the resolutions there proposed should be followed by this: " that the

standard by which the said







VOL. IX-I 













            Jefferson's Works







measures of length, surface, and capacity shall be fixed, shall be an uniform

cylindrical rod of iron, of such length as in latitude forty-five degrees, in

the level of the ocean, and in a cellar or other place of uniform natural

temperature, shall perform its vibrations in small and equal arcs, in one

second of mean time ; and that rain water be the substance, to some definite

mass of which, the said weights shall be referred." Without this, the committee

employed to prepare a bill on those resolutions, would be uninstructed as to

the principles by which the Senate mean to fix their measures of length, and

the substance by which they will fix their weights.







  The second motion is a middle proposition between the first and the last

alternatives in the report. It agrees with the first in some of the present

measures and weights, and with the last, in compounding and dividing them

decimally. If this should be thought best, I take the liberty of proposing the

following alterations of these resolutions:







ad. For " metal " substitute " iron." The object is to have one determinate

standard. But the different metals having different degrees of expansibility,

there would be as many different standards as there are metals, were that

generic term to be used. A specific one seems preferable, and " iron " the

best, because the least variable by expansion.







  3d. I should think it better to omit the chain of 66 feet, because it

introduces a series which is not decimal viz.; I. 66. So. and because it is

absolutely 













            Correspondence            3







useless. As a measure of length, it is unknown to the mass of our citizens; and

if retained for the purpose of superficial measure, the foot will supply its

place, and fix the acre as in the fourth resolution.







  4th. For the same reason, I propose to omit the words " or shall be ten

chains in length and one in breadth. ''







5th. This resolution would stand better, if it omitted the words "shall be one

foot square, and one foot and twenty cents of a foot deep, and," because the

second description is perfect, and too plain to need explanation. Or if the

first expression be preferred, the second may be omitted, as perfectly

tautologous.







  6th. I propose to leave out the words "shall be equal to the pound

avoirdupois now in use, and," for the reasons suggested in the second

resolution, to wit, that our object is, to have one determinate standard. The

pound avoirdupois now in use is an indefinite thing. The committee of

parliament reported variations among the standard weights ' of the exchequer.

Different persons weighing the cubic foot of water, have made it, some more,

and some less than one thousand ounces avoirdupois; according as their weights

had been tested by the lighter or heavier standard weights of the exchequer. If

the pound now in use be declared a standard, as well as the weight of sixteen

thousand cubic cents of a foot in water, it may hereafter perhaps be 













            Jefferson's Works







insisted that these two definitions are different, and that, being of equal

authority, either may be used, and so the standard pound be rendered as

uncertain as at present.







  7th. For the same reason, I propose to omit the words " equal to seven grains

troy." The true ratio between the avoirdupois and troy weights, is a very

contested one. The equation of seven thousand grains troy to the pound

avoirdupois, is only one of several opinions, and is indebted perhaps to its

integral form for its prevalence. The introduction either of the troy or

avoirdupois weight into the definition of our unit, will throw that unit under

the uncertainties now enveloping the troy and avoirdupois weights.







  When the House of Representatives were pleased to refer to me the subject of

weights and measures, I was uninformed as to the hypothesis on which I was to

take it up ; to wit, whether on that, that our citizens would not approve of

any material change in the present system, or on the other, that they were ripe

for a complete reformation. I therefore proposed plans for each alternative. In

contemplating these, I had occasion to examine well all the middle ground

between the two, and among others which presented themselves to my mind, was

the plan of establishing one of the known weights and measures as the unit in

each class ; to wit, in the measures of lines, of surfaces, and of solids, and

in weights, and to compound and divide them decimally. In the measure of

weights, I had thought of the ounce as 













            Correspondence            







the best unit, because, calling it the thousandth part of a cubic foot of

water, it fell into the decimal series, formed a happy link of connection with

the system of measures on the one side, and of coins on the other, by admitting

an equality with the dollar, without changing the value of that or its alloy

materially. But on the whole, I abandoned this middle proposition, on the

supposition that if our fellow citizens were ripe for advancing so great a

length towards reformation, as to retain only four known points of the very

numerous series to which they were habituated, to wit, the foot, the acre, the

bushel, and the ounce, abandoning all the multiples and subdivisions of them,

or recurring for their value to the tables which would be formed, they would

probably be ripe for taking the whole step, giving up these four points also,

and making the reformation complete ; and the rather, as in the present series

and the one to be proposed, there would be so many points of very near

approximation, as aided in the same manner by tables, would not increase their

difficulties perhaps, indeed, would lessen them by the greater simplicity of

the links by which the several members of the system are connected together.

Perhaps, however, I was wrong in this supposition The representatives of the

people in Congress are alone competent to judge of the general disposition of

the people, and to what precise point of reformation they are ready to go. On

this, therefore, I do not presume to give an opinion, nor to pronounce between 













          Jefferson's Works







the comparative expediency of the three propositions ; but shall be ready to

give whatever aid I can to any of them which shall be adopted by the

Legislature.







  I have the honor to be, with perfect respect, your most obedient, and most

humble servant.















           TO THOMAS PINCKNEY.







          PHILADELPHIA, December 30, 1792.







  DEAR SIR,-My last letters to you have been of the 13th and 20th of November,

since which I have received yours of September 19. We are anxious to hear that

the person substituted in the place of the one deceased is gone on that

business. You do not mention your prospect of finding for the mint the officers

we were desirous of procuring. On this subject, I will add to what was before

mentioned to you, that if you can get artists really eminent, and on the

salaries fixed by the law, we shall be glad of them; but that experience of the

persons we have found here, would induce us to be contented with them rather

than to take those who are not eminent, or who would expect more than the legal

salaries. A greater difficulty has been experienced in procuring copper for the

mint than we expected. Mr. Rittenhouse, the Director, having been advised that

it might be had on advantageous terms from Sweden, has written me a letter on

that subject, a copy of which I enclose you, with the bill of exchange it

covered. I should not have troubled you with them, 













            Correspondence







had our resident in Holland been in place. But on account of his absence, I am

obliged to ask the favor of you to take such measures as your situation will

admit, for procuring such a quantity of copper, to be brought us from Sweden,

as this bill will enable you. It is presumed that the commercial relations of

London with every part of Europe will furnish ready means of executing this

commission. We as yet get no answer from Mr. Hammond on the general subject of

the execution of the treaty. He says he is waiting for instructions. It would

be well to urge, in your conversations with the minister, the necessity of

giving Mr. Hammond such instructions and latitude as will enable him to proceed

of himself. If on every move we are to await new instructions from the other

side the Atlantic, it will be a long business indeed. You express a wish in

your letter to be generally advised as to the tenor of your conduct, in

consequence of the late revolution in France, the questions relative to which,

you observe, incidentally present themselves to you. It is impossible to

foresee the particular circumstances which may require you to decide and act on

that question. But, principles being understood, their application will be less

embarrassing. We certainly cannot deny to other nations that principle whereon

our government is founded, that every nation has a right to govern itself

internally under what forms it pleases, and to change these forms at its own

will; and externally to transact business with other nations through 













            Jefferson's Works







whatever organ it chooses, whether that be a King, Convention, Assembly,

Committee, President, or whatever it be: The only thing essential is, the will

of the nation. Taking this as your polar star, you can hardly err. I shall send

you by the first vessel which sails (the packet excepted on account of postage)

two dozen plans of the city of Washington in the Federal Government, which you

are desired to display, not for sale, but for public inspection, wherever they

may be most seen by those descriptions of people worthy and likely to be

attracted to it, dividing the plans among the cities of London and Edinburgh

chiefly, but sending some also to Glasgow, Bristol, Dublin, etc. Mr. Taylor

tells me he sends you the public papers by every vessel going from hence to

London. They will keep you informed of the proceedings of Congress, and other

occurrences worthy your knowledge. I have the honor to be, with great and

sincere esteem, dear Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.







 P. S. Though I have mentioned Sweden as the most likely place to get copper

from, on the best terms, yet if you can be satisfied it may be got on better

terms elsewhere, it is left to your discretion to get it elsewhere. 













             Correspondence           9















       TO WILLIAM SHORT.







             PHILADELPHIA, January 3, 1793







DEAR SIR,-My last private letter to you was of October 16, since which I have

received your Nos. 103, 107, 108, 109, 110, 112, 113 and 114 and yesterday your

private one of September 15, came to hand. The tone of your letters had for

some time given me pain, on account of the extreme warmth with which they

censured the proceedings of the Jacobins of France. I considered that sect as

the same with the Republican patriots, and the Feuillants as the Monarchical

patriots, well known in the early part of the Revolution, and but little

distant in their views, both having in object the establishment of a free

constitution, differing only on the question whether their chief Executive

should be hereditary or not. The Jacobins (as since called) yielded to the

Feuillants, and tried the experiment of retaining their hereditary Executive.

The experiment failed completely, and would have brought on the

re-establishment of despotism had it been pursued. The Jacobins knew this, and

that the expunging that office was of absolute necessity. And the nation was

with them in opinion, for however they might have been formerly for the

constitution framed by the first assembly, they were come over from their hope

in it, and were now generally Jacobins. In the struggle which was necessary,

many guilty persons fell without the forms of trial, and with them some

innocent. These 













           Jefferson's Works







I deplore as much as any body, and shall deplore some of them to the day of my

death. But I deplore them as I should have done had they fallen in battle. It

was necessary to use the arm of the people, a machine not quite so blind as

balls and bombs, but blind to a certain degree. A few of their cordial friends

met at their hands the fate of enemies. But time and truth will rescue and

embalm their memories, while their posterity will be enjoying that very liberty

for which they would never have hesitated to offer up their lives. The liberty

of the whole earth was depending on the issue of the contest, and was ever such

a prize won with so little innocent blood ? My own affections have been deeply

wounded by some of the martyrs to this cause, but rather than it should have

failed I would have seen half the earth desolated ; were there but an Adam and

an Eve left in every country, and left free, it would be better than as it now

is. I have expressed to you my sentiments, because they are really those of

ninety-nine in an hundred of our citizens. The universal feasts, and rejoicings

which have lately been, had on account of the successes of the French, showed

the genuine effusions of their hearts. You have been wounded by the sufferings

of your friends, and have by this circumstance been hurried into a temper of

mind which would be extremely disrelished if known to your countrymen. The

rescue of 224.68.1460.916.83. had never permitted me to discover the light in

which he viewed it, and as I was more anxious that you 













              Correspondence          11







should satisfy him than me; I had still avoided explanations with you on the

subject. But your 113. induced him to break silence, and to notice the extreme

acrimony of your expressions. He added that he had been informed the sentiments

you expressed in your conversations were equally offensive to our allies, and

that you should consider yourself as the representative of your country, and

that what you say might be imputed to your constituents, He desired me

therefore to write to you on this subject. He added that he considered

729.633.224.939.1243.







1210.741.1653.1460.216.1407.890.1416.1212.674.125. 633.1450.1559.182. there are

in the United States some characters of opposite principles ; some of them are

high in office, others possessing great wealth, and all of them hostile to

France, and fondly looking to England as the staff of their hope. These I named

to you on a former occasion. Their prospects have certainly not brightened.

Excepting them, this country is entirely republican, friends to the

Constitution, anxious to preserve it, and to have it administered according to

its own republican principles. The little party above mentioned have espoused

it only as a stepping-stone to monarchy, and have endeavored to approximate it

to that in its administration in order to render its final transition more

easy. The successes of republicanism in France have given the coup de grace to

their prospects, and I hope to their projects. I have developed to you

faithfully the sentiments of your country; that you may govern 













12          Jefferson's Works







yourself accordingly. I know your republicanism to be pure, and that it is no

decay of that which has embittered you against its votaries in France, but too

great a sensibility at the partial evil which its object has been accomplished

there. I have written to you in the style to which I have been always

accustomed with you, and which perhaps it is time I should lay aside. But while

old men are sensible enough of their own advance in years, they do not

sufficiently recollect it in those whom they have seen young. In writing, too,

the last private letter which will probably be written under present

circumstances, in contemplating that your correspondence will shortly be turned

over to I know not whom, but certainly to some one not in the habit of

considering your interests with the same fostering anxieties I do, I have

presented things without reserve, satisfied you will ascribe what I have said

to its true motive, use it for your own best interest, and in that fulfil

completely what I had in view. With respect to the subject of your letter of

September I 5, you will be sensible that many considerations would prevent my

undertaking the reformation of a system with which I am so soon to take leave.

It is but common decency to leave to my successor the moulding of his own

business. Not knowing how otherwise to convey this letter to you with

certainty, I shall appeal to the friendship and honor of the Spanish

commissioners here, to give it the protection of their cover, as a letter of

private nature altogether. We have no remarkable event 













            Correspondence           13







here lately but the death of Dr. Lee, nor have I anything new to communicate to

you of your friends or affairs. I am, with unalterable affection and wishes for

your prosperity, my dear Sir, your sincere friend and servant.















        TO THOMAS MANN RANDOLPH.







            PHILADELPHIA, January 7, 1793







DEAR SIR,-Our news from France continues to be good, and to promise a

continuance ; the event of the revolution there is now little doubted of, even

by its enemies, the sensations it has produced here, and the indications of

them in the public papers, have shown that the form our own government was to

take depended much more on the events of France than anybody had before

imagined. The tide which after our former relaxed government, took a violent

course towards the opposite extreme, and seemed ready to hang everything round

with the tassels and baubles of monarchy, is now getting track as we hope to a

just mean, a government of laws addressed to the reason of the people and not

to their weaknesses. The daily papers show it more than those you receive. An

attempt in the House of Representatives to stop the recruiting service has been

rejected. Indeed, the conferences for peace, agreed to by the Indians, do not

promise much, as we have reason to believe they will insist on taking back

lands purchased at former treaties. Maria is well; we hope all are so 













 at Monticello: My best love to my dear Martha, and am, must affectionately.

dear Sir, yours. etc.















             TO  ALBERT GALLATIN.







            PHILADELPHIA, January 25, 1793.







  SIR,-Mr, Segaux called on me this morning to ask a statement of the

experiment which was made in Virginia. by a Mr. Mazzie, for the raising vines

and making wines, and desired I would address it to you. Mr. Mazzie was an

Italian, and brought over with him about a dozen laborers of his own. country,

bound to serve him four or five years. We made up a subscription for him of

2,000 sterling, and he began his experiment on a piece of land adjoining to

mine. His intention was, 'before the time of his people should expire to import

more from Italy. He planted a considerable vineyard, and attended to it with

great diligence for three years. The war then came on, the time of his people

soon expired, some of them enlisted, others chose te settle on other lands and

labor fur themselves ; some were taken away by the gentlemen of the country for

gardeners, so that there did not remain a single one with him, and the

interruption of navigation prevented his importing others. In this state of

things he was himself employed by the State of Virginia. to go to Europe as

their agent to do some particular business. He rented his place to General

Riedesel. whose horses in one week destroyed the whole labor of three or four

,years-







             Correspondence          15







and thus ended an experiment which, from every appearance, would in a year or

two more have established the practicability of that branch of culture in

America. This is the sum of the experiment as exactly as I am able to state it

from memory, after such an interval of time, and I consign it to you in whose

hands I know it will be applied with candor, if it contains anything applicable

to the case for which it has been asked.







  I have the honor to be, with great esteem and respect, Sir, your most

obedient, and most humble servant.















             TO MRS. RANDOLPH.







            PHILADELPHIA, January 26, 1793







MY DEAR MARTHA -   *    *   *   *   *







           , I have for some time past been under an agitation of mind which I

scarcely ever experienced before, produced by a check on my purpose of

returning home at the close of this session of Congress. My operations at

Monticello had been all made to bear upon that point of time, my mind was fixed

on it with a fondness which was extreme, the purpose firmly declared to the

President, when I became assailed from all quarters with a variety of

objections. Among these it was urged that my return just when I had been

attacked in the public papers, would injure me in the eyes of the public, who

would suppose I either withdrew from investigation, or because I had not 













16         Jefferson's Works







tone of mind sufficient to meet slander. The only reward I ever wished on my

retirement was to carry with me nothing like a disapprobation of the public.

These representations have, for some weeks past, shaken a determination which I

had thought the whole world could not have shaken. I have not yet finally made

up my mind on the subject, nor changed my declaration to the President. But

having perfect reliance in the disinterested friendship of some of those who

have counseled and urged it strongly; believing that they can see and judge

better a question between the public and myself than I can, I feel a

possibility that I may be detained here into the summer. A few days will

decide. In the meantime I have permitted my house to be rented after the middle

of March, have sold such of my furniture as would not suit Monticello, and am

packing up the rest and storing it ready to be shipped off to Richmond as soon

as the season of good sea weather comes on. A circumstance which weighs on me

next to the weightiest, is the trouble which, I foresee, I shall be constrained

to ask Mr. Randolph to undertake. Having taken from other pursuits a number of

hands to execute several purposes which I had in view this year, I cannot

abandon those purposes and lose their labor altogether. I must, therefore,

select the most important and least troublesome of them, the execution of my

canal, and (without embarrassing him with any details which Clarkson and George

are equal to) get him to tell them always what is to 













           Correspondence           17







be done and how, and to attend to the levelling the bottom; but on this I shall

write him particularly if I defer my departure. I have not received the letter

which Mr. Carr wrote to me from Richmond, nor any other from him since I left

Monticello. My best affections to him, Mr. Randolph and your fireside, and am,

with sincere love, my dear Martha, yours.















TO DR. STEWART, OR TO ALL THE GENTLEMEN.







                       January 31,  1793







I have had under consideration Mr. Hallet's plans for the capitol, which

undoubtedly have a great deal of merit. Doctor Thornton has also given me a

view of his. These last came forward under some very advantageous

circumstances. The grandeur, simplicity and beauty of the exterior, the

propriety with which the apartments are distributed, and economy in the mass of

the whole structure, will, I doubt not, give it a preference in your eyes, as

it has done in mine and those of several others whom I have consulted. I have,

therefore, thought it better to give the Doctor time to finish his plan, and

for this purpose to delay until your next meeting a final decision. Some

difficulty arises with respect to Mr. Hallet, who you know was in some degree

led into his plan by ideas we all expressed to him. This ought not to induce us

to prefer it to a better ; but while he is liberally rewarded for the time and

labor he has ex-







VOL. IX-2 













18         Jefferson's Works







pended on it, his feelings should be saved and soothed as much as possible. I

leave it to yourselves how best to prepare him for the possibility that the

Doctor's plan may be preferred to his. Some ground for this will be furnished

you by the occasion you will have for recourse to him, as to the interior of

the apartments, and the taking of him into service at a fixed allowance; and I

understand that his necessities render it material that he should know what his

allowance is to be.















            TO DANIEL CARROLL.







            PHILADELPHIA, February 1, 1793.







  DEAR SIR,-Doctor Thornton's plan of a capitol has been produced, and has so

captivated the eyes and judgment of all as to leave no doubt you will prefer it

when it shall be exhibited to you; as no doubt exists here of its preference

over all which have been produced, and among its admirers no one is more

decided than him whose decision is most important. It is simple, noble,

beautiful, excellently distributed, and moderate in size. The purpose of this

letter is to apprise you of this sentiment. A just respect for the right of

approbation in the commissioners will prevent any formal decision in the

President till the plan shall be laid before you and be approved by you. The

Doctor will go with it to your meeting in the beginning of March. In the

meantime, the interval of apparent doubt may be 













            Correspondence







improved for settling the mind of poor Hallet, whose merit and distresses

interest every one for his tranquillity and pecuniary relief. I have taken the

liberty of making these private estimates, thinking you would wish to know the

true state of the sentiments here on this subject, and am, with sincere respect

and esteem for your colleagues and yourself, dear Sir, your most obedient

humble servant







 Circular to the ministers of France, the United Nether-







      lands, Great Britain, etc.







           PHILADELPHIA, February 13, 1793







SIR,-The House of Representatives having referred to me, to report to them the

nature and extent of the privileges and restrictions on the commerce of the

United States with foreign nations, I have accordingly prepared a report on

that subject. Being particularly anxious that it may be exact in matters of

fact, I take the liberty of putting into your hands, privately and informally,

an extract of such as relate to our commerce with your nation, in hopes that if

you can either enlarge or correct them, you will do me that favor. It is safer

to suppress an error in its first conception, than to trust to any

after-correction; and a confidence in your sincere desire to .communicate or to

re-establish any truths which may contribute to a perfect understanding between

our two nations, has induced me to make the present request. I wish it had been

in my power to have 













           Jefferson's Works







done this sooner, and thereby have obtained the benefit of your having more

time to contemplate it; but circumstances have retarded the entire completion

of the report till the Congress is approaching its end, which will oblige me to

give it in within three or four days.







  I am, with great and sincere esteem, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble

servant.







  P. S. The report having been prepared before the late diminution of the

duties on our tobacco, that circumstance will be noted in the letter which will

cover that report.







 France receives favorably our bread stuff, rice, wood, pot and pearl ashes.







A duty of five sous the quintal, or nearly four and a half cents, is paid on

our tar, pitch and turpentine. Our whale oils pay six livres the quintal, and

are the only whale oils admitted. Our indigo pays five livres the quintal,

their own two and a half; but a difference of quality, still more than a

difference of duty, prevents its seeking that market.







Salted beef is received freely for re-exportation; but if for home consumption,

it pays five livres the quintal. Other salted provisions pay that duty in all

cases, and salted fish is made lately to pay the prohibitory one, of twenty

livres the quintal.







Our ships are free to carry thither all foreign goods which may be carried in

their own or any other ves













             Correspondence          21







sels, except tobaccos not of our own growth; and they participate with theirs,

the exclusive carriage of our whale oils.







During their former government, our tobacco was under a monopoly, but paid no

duties ; and our ships were freely sold in their ports and converted into

national bottoms. The first National Assembly took from our ships this

privilege. They emancipated tobacco from its monopoly, but subjected it to

duties of eighteen livres fifteen sous the quintal, carried in their own

vessels, and twenty-five livres, carried in ours; a difference more than equal

to the freight of the article.







They and their colonies consume what they receive from us.







  France, by a standing law, permits her West India possessions to receive

directly our vegetables, live provisions, horses, wood, tar, pitch, and

turpentine, rice and maize, and prohibits our other bread stuff; but a

suspension of this prohibition having been left to the colonial legislature, in

times of scarcity, it was formerly suspended occasionally, but latterly without

interruption.







  Our fish and salted provisions (except pork) are received in their islands,

under a duty of three colonial livres the quintal, and our vessels are as free

as their own to carry our commodities thither, and to bring away rum and

molasses.







 The United Netherlands prohibit our pickled beef 













            Jefferson's Works







and pork, meals, and bread of all sorts, and lay a prohibitory duty on spirits

distilled from grain.







  All other of our productions are received on varied duties, which may be

reckoned, on a medium, at about three per cent.







They consume but a small proportion of what they receive. The residue is partly

forwarded for consumption in the inland parts of Europe, and partly re-shipped

to other maritime countries. On the latter portion, they intercept between us

and the consumer, so much of the real value as is absorbed by the charges

attending an intermediate deposit.







  Foreign goods, except some East India articles, are received in the vessels

of any nation.







  Our ships may be sold and naturalized there, with exceptions of one or two

privileges, which scarcely lessen their value.







  In the American possessions of the United Netherlands, and Sweden, our

vessels and produce are received, subject to duties, not so heavy as to have

been complained of.







  Great Britain receives our pot and pearl ashes free, while those of other

nations pay a duty of two shillings and three pence the quintal. There is an

equal distinction in favor of our bar iron, of which article, however, we do

not produce enough for our own use. Woods are free from us, whilst they pay

some small duty from other countries. Indigo and flaxseed are free from all

countries. Our tar and pitch pay eleven 













            Correspondence          23







pence sterling the barrel. From other alien countries they pay about a penny

and a third more.







Our tobacco, for their own consumption, pays one shilling three pence sterling

the pound, custom and excise, besides heavy expenses of collection ; and rice,

in the same case, pays seven shillings four pence sterling the hundred weight,

which rendering it too dear as an article of common food, it is consequently

used in very small quantity.







Our salted fish, and other salted provisions, except bacon, are prohibited.

Bacon and whale oils are under prohibitory duties: so are our grains, meals and

bread, as to internal consumption, unless in times of such scarcity as may

raise the price of wheat to fifty shillings sterling the quarter, and other

grains and meals in proportion.







  Our ships, though purchased and navigated by their own subjects, are not

permitted to be used, even in their trade with us.







While the vessels of other nations are secured by standing laws, which cannot

be altered but by the concurrent will of the three branches of the British

Legislature, in carrying thither any produce or manufacture of the country to

which they belong, which may be lawfully carried in any vessels, ours, with the

same prohibition of what is foreign, are further prohibited by a standing law

(12. Car. 2. c. 18, s. 3, ) from carrying thither all and any of our domestic

productions and manufactures. A subsequent act, indeed, has authorized their

executive 













            Jefferson's Works







to permit the carriage of our own productions in our own bottoms, at its sole

discretion; and the permission has been given from year to year, by

proclamation; but subject every moment to be withdrawn on that single will, in

which event, our vessels having anything on board, stand interdicted from the

entry of all British ports. The 'disadvantage of a tenure which may be so

suddenly discontinued, was experienced by our merchants on a late occasion,

when an official notification that this law would be strictly enforced, gave

them just apprehensions for the fate of their vessels and cargoes despatched or

destined to the ports of Great Britain. It was privately believed, indeed, that

the order of that court went further than their intention, and so we were,

afterwards, officially informed; but the embarrassments of the moment were real

and great, and the possibility of their renewal lays our commerce to that

country under the same species of discouragement, as to other countries where

it is regulated by a single legislator; and the distinction is too remarkable

not to be noticed, that our navigation is excluded from the security of fixed

laws, while that security is given to the navigation of others.







  Our vessels pay in their ports one shilling nine pence sterling per ton,

light and trinity dues, more than is paid by British ships, except in the port

of London, where they pay the same as British.







  The greater part of what they receive from us, is re-exported to other

countries, under the useless 













            Correspondence           25







charges of an intermediate deposit and double voyage.







  From tables published in England, and composed, as is said, from the books of

their Custom Houses, it appears, that of the indigo imported there in the years

1773-4-5, one-third was re-exported ; and from a document of authority, we

learn that of the rice and tobacco imported there before the war, fourfifths

were re-exported. We are assured, indeed, that the quantities sent thither for

re-exportation since the war, are considerably diminished; yet less so than

reason and national interest would dictate. The whole of our grain is

re-exported, when wheat is below fifty shillings the quarter, and other grains

in proportion.







  Great Britain admits in her islands our vegetables, live provisions, horses,

wood, tar, pitch and turpentine, rice and bread stuff, by a proclamation of her

executive, limited always to the term of a year, but hitherto renewed from year

to year. She prohibits our salted fish and other salted provisions. She does

not permit our vessels to carry thither our own produce. Her vessels alone may

take it from us, and bring in exchange, rum, molasses, sugar, coffee,

cocoanuts, ginger and pimento. There are, indeed, some freedoms in the island

of Dominica, but under such circumstances as to be little used by us. . In the

British continental colonies, and in Newfoundland, all our productions are

prohibited, and our vessels forbidden to enter their ports. Their governors, 













26           Jefferson's Works







                            .







however, in times of distress, have power to permit a temporary importation of

certain articles in their own bottoms, but not in ours.







  Our citizens cannot reside as merchants or factors within any of the British

plantations, this being expressly prohibited by the same statute of 12 Car. 2,

c. 18, commonly called their navigation act.







 Of our commercial objects, Spain receives favorably our bread stuff, salted

fish, wood, ships, tar, pitch, and turpentine. On our meals, however







                                  , when re-exported to their colonies, they

have lately imposed duties of from half a dollar to two dollars the barrel, the

duties being so proportioned to the current price of their own flour, as that

both together are to make the constant sum of nine dollars per barrel.







  They do not discourage our rice, pot and pearl ash, salted provisions, or

whale oil; but these articles being in small demand at their markets, are

carried thither but in a small degree. Their demand for rice, however, is

increasing. Neither tobacco nor indigo are received there.







Themselves and their colonies are the actual consumers of what they receive

from us.







  Our navigation is free with the kingdom of Spain, foreign goods being

received there in our ships on the same conditions as if carried in their own,

or in the vessels of the country of which such goods are the manufacture or

produce. 













             Correspondence







  .







 Spain and. Portugal refuse to those parts of America which they govern, all

direct intercourse with any people but themselves. The commodities in mutual

demand between them and their neighbors, must be carried to be exchanged in

some part of the dominant country, and the transportation between that and the

subject State, must be in a domestic bottom.















           TO GEORGE HAMMOND.







           PHILADELPHIA, February 10, 1793







SIR,-I have duly received your letter of yesterday, with the statement of the

duties payable on articles imported into Great Britain. The object of the

report, from which I had communicated some extracts to you, not requiring a

minute detail of the several duties on every article, in every country, I had

presented both articles and duties in groups, and in general terms, conveying

information sufficiently accurate for the object. And I have the satisfaction

to find, on re-examining the expression in the report, that they correspond

with your statement as nearly as generals can with particulars. The differences

which any nation makes between our commodities and those of other countries,

whether favorable or unfavorable to us, were proper to be noted. But they. were

subordinate to the more important questions, what countries consume most of our

produce, exact the lightest duties, and leave to us the most favorable balance?















28 Jefferson's Works







.







  You seem to think that in the mention made of your official communication of

April the 11th, 1792, that the clause in the navigation act (prohibiting our

own produce to be carried in our own vessels into the British European

dominions) would be strictly enforced in future, and the private belief

expressed at the same time, that the intention of that court did not go so far,

that the latter terms are not sufficiently accurate. About the fact it is

impossible we should differ, because it is a written one. The only difference

then, must be a merely verbal one. For thus stands the fact : In your letter of

April the 11th, you say, you have received, by a circular despatch from your

court, directions to inform this government that it had been determined in

future strictly to enforce this clause of the navigation act. This I considered

as an official notification. In your answer of April the 12th to my request of

explanation, you say, " In answer to your letter of this day, I have the honor

of observing, that I have no other instructions upon the subject of my

communication, than such as are contained in the circular despatch, of which I

stated the purport in my letter dated .yesterday. I have, however, no

difficulty in assuring you, that the result of any personal conviction is, that

the determination of his Majesty's government to enforce the clause of the act,

etc., is not intended to militate against the proclamation," etc. This personal

conviction is expressed in the report as a private belief, in contradistinction

to the official declaration. In







             Correspondence           29







your letter of yesterday, you choose to call it "a formal assurance of your

conviction. '' As I am not scrupulous about words when they are once explained,

I feel no difficulty in substituting in your report your own words, "personal

conviction," for those of ` ` private belief, '' which I had thought

equivalent. I cannot indeed insert that it was a formal assurance, lest some

readers might confound this with an official one, without reflecting that you

could not mean to give official assurance that the clause would be enforced,

and official assurance, at the same time, of your personal conviction that it

would not be enforced.







  I had the honor to acknowledge verbally the receipt of your letter of the 3d

of August, when you did me that of making the inquiry verbally about six weeks

ago; and I beg leave to assure you, that I am, with due respect, Sir, your most

obedient, and most humble servant.















          TO MONSIEUR DE TERNANT.







           PHILADELPHIA, February 17, 1793.







  SIR,--I have duly received your letter of yesterday, and am sensible of your

favor in furnishing me with your observations on the statement of the commerce

between our two nations, of which I shall avail myself for the good of both.

The omission of our participation with your vessels, in the exclusive

transportation of our tobacco, was merely that of 













            Jefferson's Works the copy, as it was expressed in the original

draught where the same circumstance respecting our whale oil was noted; and I

am happy that your notice of it has enabled me to reinstate it before the

report goes out of my hand.







  I must candidly acknowledge to you, that I do not foresee the same effect in

favor of our navigation, from the late reduction of duties on our tobaccos in

France, which you seem to expect. The difference in favor of French vessels is

still so great, as, in my opinion, to make it their interest to quit all other

branches of the carrying business, to take up this; and as your stock of

shipping is not adequate to the carriage of all your exports, the branches

which you abandon will be taken up by other nations ; so that this difference

thrusts us out of the tobacco carriage, to let other nations in to the carriage

of other branches of your commerce. I must therefore avail myself of this

occasion to express my hope, that your nation will again revise this subject,

and place it on more equal grounds. I am happy in concurring with you more

perfectly in another sentiment. that as the principles of our governments

become more con-. genial, the links of affection are multiplied between us. It

is impossible they should multiply beyond our wishes. Of the sincere interest

we take in the happiness and prosperity of your nation, you have had the most

unequivocal proofs.







  I pray you to accept assurances of sincere attachment to you personally. and

of the sentiments of 













            Correspondence          31







respect and esteem with which I am, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble

servant.















TO THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.







          PHILADELPHIA, February 20, 1793







SIR,-The House of Representatives, about the close of the session before the

last, referred to me the report of a committee on a message from the President

of the United States, of the 14th of February, 1791, with directions to report

to Congress the nature and extent of the privileges and restrictions of the

commercial intercourse of the United States with foreign nations, and measures

for its improvement. The report was accordingly prepared during the ensuing

recess, ready to be delivered at the next session, that is to say, at the last.

It was thought possible at that time, however, that some changes might take

place in the existing state of things, which might call for corresponding

changes in measures. I took the liberty of mentioning this in a letter to the

Speaker of the House of Representatives, to express an opinion that a

suspension of proceedings thereon, for a time, might be expedient, and to

propose retaining the report till the present session, unless the House should

be pleased to signify their pleasure to the contrary. The changes then

contemplated have not taken place, nor, after waiting as long as the term of

the session will admit, in order to learn something further on the subject, can















32         Jefferson's Works







anything definite thereon be now said. If, therefore, the House wishes to

proceed on the subject, the report shall be delivered at a moment's warning.

Should they not choose to take it up till their next session, it will be an

advantage to be permitted to keep it by me till then, as some further

particulars may perhaps be procured relative to certain parts of our commerce,

of which precise information is difficult to obtain. I make this suggestion,

however, with the most perfect deference to their will, the first intimation of

which shall be obeyed on my part, so as to occasion them no delay.







  I have the honor to be, with sentiments of the most perfect esteem and

respect, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.















          TO MONSIEUR DE TERNANT.







           PHILADELPHIA, February 23, I 793







SIR,-I have laid before the President of the United States your notification of

the 17th instant, in the name of the Provisory Executive Council, charged with

the administration of your Government, that the French nation has constituted

itself into a Republic. The President receives, with great satisfaction, this

attention of the Executive Council and the desire they have manifested of

making known to us the resolution entered into by the National Convention, even

before a definitive regulation of their new establishment could take place. 













             Correspondence







Be assured, Sir, that the Government and the citizens of the United States view

with the most sincere pleasure every advance of your nation towards its

happiness, an object essentially connected with its liberty, and they consider

the union of principles and pursuits between our two countries as a link which

binds still closer their interests and affections. [The genuine and general

effusions of joy which you saw overspread our country on their seeing the

liberties of yours rise superior to foreign invasion and domestic trouble, have

proved to you that our sympathies are great and sincere, and] we earnestly wish

on our part that these, our mutual dispositions, may be improved to mutual

good, by establishing our commercial intercourse on principles as friendly to

natural right and freedom as are those of our Government. I am, with sincere

esteem and respect, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.















             TO JAMES MADISON.







                            March, 1793







The idea seems to gain credit that the naval powers combining against France,

will prohibit supplies, even of provisions, to that country. Should this be

formally notified, I should suppose Congress would be called, because it is a

justifiable cause of war, and as the Executive cannot decide the question of

war on the affirmative side, neither ought it to do so on the negative side, by

preventing the competent







VOL. IX-3 













            Jefferson's Works







body from deliberating on the question. But I should hope that war would not be

their choice. I think it will furnish us a happy opportunity of setting another

precious example to the world, by showing that nations may be brought to do

justice by appeals to their interests as well as by appeals to arms: I should

hope that Congress, instead of a denunciation of war, would instantly exclude

from our ports all the manufactures, produce, vessels and subjects of the

nations committing this aggression, during the continuance of the aggression,

and till full satisfaction made for it. This would work well in many ways,

safely in all, and introduce between. nations another umpire than arms. It

would relieve us, too, from the risks and the horrors of cutting throats. . The

death of the King of France has not produced as open condemnations from the

monocrats as I expected. I dined the other day in a company where the subject

was discussed. I will name the company in the order in which they manifested

their partialities ; beginning with the warmest Jacobinism, and proceeding by

shades, to the most heartfelt aristocracy. Smith, (N. Y.,) Coxe, Stewart, T.

Shippen, Bingham, Peters, Breck, Meredith, Wolcott. It is certain that the

ladies of this city, of the first circle, are open-mouthed against the

murderers of a sovereign, and they generally speak those sentiments which the

more cautious husband smothers. Ternant has at length openly hoisted the flag

of monarchy by going into deep mourning for his 













             Correspondence          35







prince. I suspect he thinks a cessation of his visits to me a necessary

accompaniment to this pious duty. A connection between him and Hamilton seems

to be springing up. On observing that Duer was Secretary to the old Board of

Treasury, I suspect him to have been the person who suggested to Hamilton the

letter of mine to that board, which he so tortured in his Catullus. Dunlop has

refused to print the piece which we had heard of before your departure, and it

has been several days in Bache's hands, without any notice of it. The President

will leave this about the 27th instant, and return about the 20th of April.

Adieu















         TO MAJOR-GENERAL GATES.







             PHILADELPHIA, March 12, 1793







DEAR GENERAL,-During the invasion of Virginia in 1780 and 178-, nearly the

whole of the public records of that State were destroyed by the British. The

least valuable part of these happens to be the most interesting to me, I mean

the letters I had occasion to write to the characters with whom my office in

the Executive brought me into correspondence. I am endeavoring to recover

copies of my letters from the hands to whom they were addressed, and have been

happy to find this more practicable than I had apprehended. While you commanded

in the south, I had occasion to write to you sometimes on the subject of our

pro













36         Jefferson's Works







ceedings. If you happen to have preserved these letters, you will particularly

oblige me by trusting me with them till I can have them copied, when the

originals shall be returned. If you could repose the same confidence in me as

to the letters you addressed. to me, it would increase the obligation. The

whole shall be sacredly returned. I have been the more disposed to trouble you

on this occasion as it furnishes me a pretext of recalling myself to your

recollection, and an opportunity of expressing to you assurances of the sincere

esteem and respect with which I have the honor to be, dear General, your

sincere friend and servant.















          TO GOUVERNEUR MORRIS.







             PHILADELPHIA, March 12, 1793.







  DEAR SIR,-Your Nos. 8 to 13, inclusive, have been duly received. I am

sensible that your situation must have been difficult during the transition

from the late form of government to the re-establishment of some other

legitimate authority, and that you may have been at a loss to determine with

whom business might be done. Nevertheless, when principles are well understood,

their application is less embarrassing. We surely cannot deny to any nation

that right whereon our own government is founded; that every one may govern

itself according to whatever form it pleases, and change these forms at its own

will ; and that it may transact its business with 













             Correspondence







foreign nations through whatever organ it thinks proper, whether King,

Convention, Assembly, Committee, President, or anything else it may choose. The

will of the nation is the only thing essential to be regarded. On the

dissolution of the late constitution in France, by removing so integral a part

of it as the King, the National Assembly, to whom a part only of the public

authority had been delegated, appear to have considered themselves as

incompetent to transact the affairs of the nation legitimately. They invited

their fellow-citizens, therefore, to appoint a National Convention. In

conformity with this their idea of the defective state of the national

authority, you were desired from hence to suspend further payments of our debt

to France till new orders, with an assurance, however, to the acting power,

that the suspension should not be continued a moment longer than should be

necessary for us to see the re-establishment of some person or body of persons

authorized to receive payment and give us a good acquittal ; (if you should

find it necessary to give any assurance or explanation at all). In the

meantime, we went on paying up the four millions of livres which had been

destined by the last constituted authorities to the relief of St. Domingo.

Before this was completed, we received information that a National Assembly had

met, with full powers to transact the affairs of the nation, and soon

afterwards, the minister of France here presented an application for three

millions of livres, to be laid out 













38           Jefferson's Works







in provisions to be sent to France. Urged by the strongest attachment to that

country, and thinking it even providential that moneys lent to us in distress

could be repaid under like circumstances, we had no hesitation to comply with

the application, and arrangements are accordingly taken, for furnishing this

sum at epochs accommodated to the demand and our means of paying it. We suppose

this will rather overpay the instalments and interest due on the loans of

eighteen, six, and ten millions, to the end of 1792 ; and we shall certainly

use our utmost endeavors to make punctual payments of the instalments and

interest hereafter becoming exigible, and to omit no opportunity of convincing

that nation how cordially we wish to serve them. Mutual good offices, mutual

affection, and similar principles of government, seem to destine the two

nations for the most intimate communion; and I cannot too much press it on you,

to improve every opportunity which may occur in the changeable scenes which are

passing, and to seize them as they occur, for placing our commerce with that

nation and its dependencies, on the freest and most encouraging footing

possible.







  Besides what we have furnished publicly for the relief of St. Domingo,

individual merchants of the United States have carried considerable supplies

thither, which have been sometimes purchased, sometimes taken by force, and

bills given by the administration of the colony on the minister here,which have

been protested for want of funds. We 













            Correspondence           39







have no doubt that justice will be done to these our citizens, and that without

a delay which would be ruinous to them. We wish authority to be given to the

minister of France here to pay the just demands of our citizens, out of the

moneys he may receive from us.







During the fluctuating state of the assignats of France, I must ask the favor

of you to inform me, in every letter, of the rate of exchange between them and

coin, this being necessary for the regulation of our Custom Houses.







Congress closed its session on the 2d instant. You will see their acts in the

newspapers forwarded to you, and the body of them shall be sent as soon as the

octavo edition is printed. We are to hold a treaty with the western Indians in

the ensuing month of May, but not under very hopeful auspices.







You will perceive by the newspapers, a remarkable fall in the price of our

public paper. This is owing chiefly to the extraordinary demand for the produce

of our country, and a temporary scarcity of cash to purchase it. The merchants

holding public paper are obliged to part with it at any price, to raise money.







I sent you, by the way of London, a dozen plans of the city of Washington in

the federal territory, hoping you would have them displayed to public view

where they would be most seen by those descriptions of men worthy and likely to

be attracted to it. Paris, Lyons, Rouen, and the sea-port towns of 













           Jefferson's Works







Havre, Nantes, Bordeaux and Marseilles, would be proper places to send some of

them. I trust to Mr. Taylor to forward you the newspapers by every direct

occasion to France. These are rare at all times, and especially in the winter;

and to 'send them through England would cost too much in postage. To these

circumstances, as well, probably, as to some miscarriages, you must ascribe the

length of intervals sometimes experienced in the receipt of your papers.







  I have the honor to be, with great esteem and respect, dear Sir, your most

obedient, and most humble servant.















          TO GOUVERNEUR MORRIS.







             PHILADELPHIA, March 15, 1793







DEAR SIR,-The President has seen with satisfaction, that the ministers of the

United States in Europe, while they have avoided an useless commitment of their

nation on the subject of the Marquis de La Fayette, have nevertheless shown

themselves attentive to his situation. The interest which the President

himself, and our citizens in general, take in the welfare of this gentleman, is

great and sincere, and will entirely justify all prudent efforts to serve him.

I am therefore to desire, that you will avail yourself of every opportunity of

sounding the way towards his liberation, of finding out whether those in whose

power he is are very tenacious of him, of 













            Correspondence           41







insinuating through such channels as you shall think suitable, the attentions

of the government and people of the United States to this object, and the

interest they take in it, and of procuring his liberation by informal

solicitations, if possible. But if formal ones be necessary, and the moment

should arrive when you shall find that they will be effectual, you are

authorized to signify, through such channel as you shall find suitable, that

our government and nation, faithful in their attachments to this gentleman for

the services he has rendered them, feel a lively interest in his welfare, and

will view his liberation as a mark of consideration and friendship for the

United States, and as a new motive for esteem and a reciprocation of kind

offices towards the power to whom they shall be indebted for this act.







A like letter being written to Mr. Pinckney, you will of course take care, that

however you may act through different channels, there be still a sufficient

degree of concert in your proceedings.







  I am, with great and sincere esteem, dear Sir, your most obedient, and most

humble servant.















           TO THOMAS PINCKNEY.







             PHILADELPHIA, March 16, 1793







DEAR SIR,-I wrote you on the 30th of December, and again a short letter on the

1st of January, since which I have received yours of October the 2d and 5th,

November 6th and 9th, and December the 13th, 













42         Jefferson's Works







14th, 15th. I now enclose you the Treasurer's second of exchange for

twenty-four thousand seven hundred and fifty guilders, to be employed in the

purchase' of copper for the mint, from Sweden, or wherever else it can be got

on the best terms; the first of exchange having been enclosed in my letter of

December the 30th.







  I am in hopes you will have been able to enter into proper arrangements with

the British minister for the protection of our seamen from impressment, before

the preparations for war shall have produced inconvenience to them. While he

regards so minutely the inconveniences to themselves .which may result from a

due regulation of this practice, it is just he should regard our inconveniences

also, from the want of it. His observations in your letter imply merely, that

if they should abstain from injuring us, it might be attended with

inconvenience to themselves.







You ask, what should be your conduct, in case you should at any time discover

negotiations to be going on, which might eventually be interesting to us? The

nature of the particular case will point out what measures, on your part, would

be the most for our interest, and to your discretion we must refer the taking

such measures, without waiting for instructions, where circumstances would not

admit of such a delay. A like necessity to act may arise on other occasions. In

the changeable scenes, for instance, which are passing in Europe, were a moment

to offer







             Correspondence         43







when you could obtain any advantage for our commerce, and especially in the

American colonies, you are desired to avail us of it to the best advantage, and

not to let the occasion slip by for want of€ previous € instruction.







  You ask, what encouragements are given to emigrants by the several States? No

other than a permission to become citizens, and to participate of the rights of

citizens, except as to eligibility to certain offices in the government. The

rules, as to these, are not uniform in the States. I have found it absolutely

impracticable to obtain, even for my office, a regular transmission of the laws

of the several States : consequently, it would be more so to furnish them to

our ministers abroad. You will receive by this or the first proper conveyance,

those of Congress, passed at their last session.







  It is impossible for me to give any authority for the advance of moneys to

Mr. Wilson. Were we to do it in his case, we should, on the same principles, be

obliged to do it in several others wherein foreign nations decline or delay

doing justice to our citizens. No law of the United States would cover such an

act of the executive; and all we can do legally, is, to give him all the aid

which our patronage of his claims with the British court, can effect.







  With respect to the payment of your allowances, as the laws authorize the

payment of a given number of dollars to you, and as your duties place you in

London, I suppose we are to pay you the dollars there, or 













            Jefferson's Works







other money of equal value, estimated by the par of the metals. Such has,

accordingly, been the practice ever since the close of the war. Your powers to

draw on our bankers in Holland, will leave you the master of fixing your drafts

by this standard.







The transactions of Europe are now so interesting, that I should be obliged to

you, every week, to put the Leyden gazettes of the week under cover to me; and

put them into such ship's bags as shall be first coming to any port north of

North Carolina.







  Mr. Barclay's death is just made known to us, and measures are taking in

consequence of it.







  You will perceive by the newspapers, a remarkable fall in the price of our

public paper. This is owing chiefly to the extraordinary demand for the produce

of our country, and a temporary scarcity of cash to purchase it. The merchants

holding public paper are obliged to part with it at any price, to raise money.







  I am, with much respect, dear Sir, your most obedient, and most humble

servant.















               TO-







             PHILADELPHIA, March 18, 1793







DEAR SIR,-I received your kind favor of the 26th ult.; and thank you for its

contents as sincerely as if I could engage in what they propose. When I first

entered on the stage of public life (now twentyfour. years ago), I came to a

resolution never to







1 No address. 













            Correspondence          45







engage while in public office in any kind of enterprise for the improvement of

my fortune, nor to wear any other character than that of a farmer. I have never

departed from it in a single instance; and I have in multiplied instances found

myself happy in being able to decide and to act as a public servant, clear of

all interest, in the multiform questions that have arisen, wherein I have seen

others embarrassed and biased by having got themselves into a more interested

situation. Thus I have thought myself richer in contentment than I should have

been with any increase of fortune. Certainly I should have been much wealthier

had I remained in that private condition which renders it lawful and even

laudable to use proper efforts to better it. However, my public career is now

closing, and I will go through on the principle on which I have hitherto acted.

But I feel myself under obligations to repeat my thanks for this mark of your

attention and friendship.







We have just received here the news of the decapitation of the King of France.

Should the present foment in Europe not produce republics everywhere, it will

at least soften the monarchical governments by rendering monarchs amenable to

punishment like other criminals, and doing away that rages of insolence and

oppression, the inviolability of the King's person. We I hope shall adhere to

our republican government, and keep it to its original principles by narrowly

watching it. I am, with 













46         Jefferson's Works







great and sincere affection, dear Sir, your friend and servant.















        TO COLONEL DAVID HUMPHREYS:







             PHILADELPHIA, March 21, 1793







SIR,-The death of Admiral Paul Jones first, and afterwards of Mr. Barclay, to

whom the mission to Algiers, explained in the enclosed papers, was successively

confided, have led the President to desire you to undertake the execution of it

in person. These papers, being copies of what had been delivered to them, will

serve as your guide. But Mr. Barclay having been also charged with a mission to

Morocco, it will be necessary to give you some trouble with respect to that

also.







  Mr. Nathaniel Cutting, the bearer hereof, is despatched specially, first to

receive from Mr. Pinckney in London any papers or information, which his agency

in the Algerine business may have enabled him to communicate to you: he will

then proceed to deliver the whole to you, and accompany







and aid you in the character of secretary.







  It is thought necessary that you should, in the first instance, settle Mr.

Barclay's accounts respecting the Morocco mission, which will probably render

it necessary that you should go to Gibraltar. The communications you have had

with Mr. Barclay in this mission, will assist you in your endeavors at a

settlement. You know the sum received by Mr. 













             Correspondence







 Barclay on that account, and we wish as exact a statement as can be made of

the manner in which it has been laid out, and what part of its proceeds is now

on hand. You will be pleased to make an inventory of these proceeds now

existing. If they or any part of them can be used for the Algerine mission, we

would have you by all means apply them to that use, debiting the Algerine fund

and crediting that of Morocco with the amount of such application. If they

cannot be so used, then dispose of the perishable articles to the best

advantage, and if you can sell those not perishable for what they cost, do so,

and what you cannot so sell, deposit in any safe place under your own power. In

his last stage of the business, return us an exact account, 1. Of the specific

articles remaining on hand for that mission, and their value. 2. Of its cash on

hand. 3. Of any money which may be dueto or from Mr. Barclay or any other

person on account of this mission; and take measures for replacing the clear

balance of cash in the hands of Messrs. W. and J. Willincks, and Nicholas and

Jacob Van Staphorsts and Hubard.  This matter being settled, you will be

pleased to proceed on the mission to Algiers. This you will do by the way of

Madrid, if you think any informtion you can get from Mr. Carmichael or any

other, may be an equivalent for the trouble, expense and delay of the journey.

If not, proceed in whatever other way you please to Algiers. 













48           Jefferson's Works







   Proper powers and credentials for you, addressed to that government, are

herewith enclosed. The instructions first given to Admiral Paul Jones are so

full that no others need be added, except a qualification in one single

article, to wit: should that government finally reject peace on the terms in

money, to which you are authorized to go, you may offer to make the first

payments for peace and that for ransom in naval stores, reserving the right to

make the subsequent annual payments in money.







  You are to be allowed your travelling expenses, your salary as minister

resident in Portugal going on. Those expenses must be debited to the Algerine

mission, and not carried into your ordinary account as resident. Mr. Cutting is

allowed one hundred dollars a month, and his expenses, which, as soon as he

joins you, will of course be consolidated with yours. We have made choice of

him as particularly qualified to aid, under your direction, in the matters of

account, with which he is well acquainted. He receives here an advance of one

thousand dollars, by a draft on our bankers in Holland, in whose hands the fund

is deposited. This, and all other sums furnished him, to be debited to the

Algerine fund. I enclose you a letter to our bankers giving you complete

authority over these funds, which you had better send with your first draft,

though I send a copy of it from hence by another opportunity.







This business being done, you will be pleased to return to Lisbon, and to keep

yourself and us, there













             Correspondence          49







after, well informed of the transactions in Morocco; and as soon as you shall

find that the succession to that government is settled and staple, so that we

may know to whom a commissioner may be addressed, be so good as to give us the

information, that we may take measures in consequence.







  I have the honor to be, with much respect, Sir, your most obedient, and most

humble servant.















  TO SAMUEL SHAW, CONSUL AT CANTON, IN CHINA.







             PHILADELPHIA, March 21, 1793







SIR,-Present appearances in Europe rendering a general war there probable, I am

to desire your particular attention to all the ,indications of it, and on the

first imminent symptoms of rupture among the maritime powers, to put our

vessels on their guard. In the same event the patronage of our Consuls will be

particularly requisite to secure to our vessels the right of neutrality, and

protect them against all invasions of it. You will be pleased, also, in the

same case, to give no countenance to the usurpation of our flag by foreign

vessels, but rather, indeed, to aid in detecting' it, as without bringing to us

any advantage, the usurpation will tend to commit us with the belligerent

powers, and to subject those vessels which are truly ours to harassing

scrutinies in order to distinguish them from the counterfeits.







  The law requiring the Consuls of the United States







VOL. ix-4 













            Jefferson's Works







to give bond with two or more good sureties for the faithful performance of

their duties, I enclose you a blank bond for that purpose. According to a

standing regulation which places our Consuls in Europe in relation with the

Minister of the United States in the same country with them, if there be one,

and if none, then with their minister in Paris, and our Consuls in America in

immediate relation with the Secretary of State, you will be pleased to have

your sureties approved by the person to whom you stand thus referred, and to

send the bond when executed, by a safe conveyance, to the Secretary of State,

to be disposed of according to law; and this with all the expedition the case

will admit, provided this should not have been done before. A set of the laws

of the United States is likewise herewith enclosed, together with a copy of a

former circular letter, intended as a standing instruction to our Consuls.







  I am, with esteem, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.















        TO COLONEL DAVID HUMPHREYS.







             PHILADELPHIA, March 22, 1793.







  DEAR SIR,-I thank you sincerely for your friendly letter of January 8.

Particular circumstances have forced me to protract awhile my departure from

office, which, however, will take place in the course of the year. Continue,

therefore, if you 













           Correspondence            51







please, the general address of your letters, to " The Secretary of State,"

etc., as recommended. Be assured that I shall carry into retirement and retain

the most affectionate sentiments towards you. I am, in truth, worn down with

drudgery, and while every circumstance relative to my private affairs calls

imperiously for my return to them, not a single one exists which could render

tolerable a continuation in public life. I do not wonder that Captain O'Bryan

has lost patience under his long-continued captivity, and that he may suppose

some of the public servants have neglected him and his brethren. He may

possibly have imputed neglect to me, because a forbearance to correspond with

him would have that appearance, though it was dictated by the single

apprehension, that if he received letters from me as Minister Plenipotentiary

of the United States at Paris, or as Secretary of State, it would increase the

expectations of the captors, and raise the ransom beyond what his countrymen

would be disposed to give, and so end in their perpetual captivity. But, in

truth, I have labored for them constantly and zealously in every situation in

which I have been placed. In the first moment of their captivity; I first

proposed to Mr. Adams to take upon ourselves their ransom, though unauthorized

by Congress. I proposed to Congress and obtained their permission to employ the

Order of Mercy in France for their ransom, but never could obtain orders for

the money till just as I was leaving France, 













52         Jefferson's Works







and was obliged to turn the matter over to Mr. Short. As soon as I came here I

laid the matter before the President and Congress in two long reports, but

Congress could not decide till the beginning of 1792, and then clogged their

ransom by a previous requisition of peace. The unfortunate death of two

successive commissioners has still retarded their relief, and even should they

be now relieved, will probably deprive me of the gratification of seeing my

endeavors for them crowned at length with success by their arrival when I am

here. It would, indeed, be grating to me if. after all, I should be supposed by

them to have been indifferent to their situation. I will ask of your friendship

to do me justice in their eyes, that to the pain I have already felt for them,

may not be added that of their dissatisfaction. I explained my proceedings on

their behalf to a Dr. Warner, whom I saw at Paris, on his way to Algiers, and

particularly the reason why I did not answer O'Bryan's letter. I desired him to

communicate it to Captain O'Bryan. But I did not know whether he did it. I

think it more probable that Mr. Carmichael will impute to me also an event

which must take place this year. In truth, it is so extraordinary a

circumstance, that a public agent placed in a foreign court for the purpose of

correspondence, should, in three years, have found means to get but one letter

to us, that he must himself be sensible that if he could have sent us letters,

he ought to be recalled as negligent, and 













             Correspondence         53







if he could not, he ought to be recalled as useless. I have, nevertheless,

procured his continuance, in order to give him an opportunity which occurred of

his rendering a sensible service to his country, and thereby drawing some

degree of favor on his return.







  Wishing you every circumstance of success and happiness, I am, with great

esteem, dear Sir, your sincere friend and servant.















        TO COLONEL DAVID HUMPHREYS.







             PHILADELPHIA, March 22, 1793







  DEAR SIR,-I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letters from No. 60 to

67, inclusive. You cannot be too vigilant against any such treaty as that

mentioned in No. 60, which, by giving the exclusive supply of wheat to Naples,

would altogether debar the United States from it. This would bear so hard on

us, that not only an exclusion of their wines from the United States ought to

be expected on their part, but every other measure which might open to us a

market in any other part of the world, however Portugal might be affected by

it. And I must forever repeat it, that, instead of excluding our wheat, we must

continue to hope that they will open their ports to our flour, and that you

will continue to use your efforts, on every good occasion, to obtain this

without waiting for a treaty.







As there appears at present a probability of a 













             Correspondence          55







at Lisbon, I believe it will be safer that I direct letters for you, during

your absence, to Messrs. Bulkeley and Son, with whom you will leave what

directions on the subject you shall think proper.







  I am, with great and sincere esteem and respect, dear Sir, your most

obedient, and most humble servant.















TO MESSRS. CARMICHAEL AND SHORT. (1)







             PHILADELPHIA, March 23, 1793







GENTLEMEN,-It is intimated to us in such a way as to attract our attention,

that France means to send a strong force early this spring to offer

independence to the Spanish-American colonies, beginning with those on the

Mississippi ; and that she will not object to the receiving those on the east

side into our confederation. Interesting considerations require, that we should

keep ourselves free to act in this case according to circumstances, and

consequently, that you should not, by any clause of treaty, bind us to

guarantee any of the Spanish colonies against their own independence, nor

indeed against any other nation. For when we thought we might guarantee

Louisiana, on their ceding the Floridas to us, we apprehended it would be

seized by Great Britain, who would thus completely encircle us with her

colonies and fleets. This danger is now removed by the concert between Great







  1 This letter was in cypher, but a literal copy of it preserved. 













            Jefferson's Works







Britain and Spain; and the times will soon enough give independence, and

consequently free commerce to our neighbors, without our risking 'the involving

ourselves in a war for them.







  I am, with great respect and esteem, your most obedient humble servant.







(1) The above meets the approbation of







              GEORGE WASHINGTON.















            TO C, W. F. DUMAS.







             PHILADELPHIA, March 24, 1793







DEAR SIR,-I have to acknowledge the receipt of your favors of September 20,

March 23, and Jan. 9. I shall hope your continuance to send us the Leyden

Gazette as usual, but all the other gazettes which you have hitherto usually

sent, may be discontinued. The scene in Europe is becoming very interesting.

Amidst the confusion of a general war which seems to be threatening that

quarter of the globe, we hope to be permitted to preserve the line of

neutrality. We wish not to meddle with the internal affairs of any country, nor

with the general affairs of Europe. Peace with all nations, and the right which

that gives us with respect to all nations, are our object. It will be necessary

for all our public agents to exert themselves with vigilance for securing to

our vessels all the rights of neutrality, and from preventing the vessels of

other nations







1 This is in the handwriting of General Washington.







            Correspondence           57







from usurping our flag. This usurpation tends to commit us with the belligerent

power, to draw on those vessels truly ours, vigorous visitations to distinguish

them from the counterfeits, and to take business from us. I recommend these

objects to you. I have done the same to Mr. Greenleaf, lately appointed our

Consul at Amsterdam. Be so good as to remember to send your account immediately

after the 30th of June. I forward for you to Mr. Pinckney a copy of the laws of

the late session of Congress; and am, with sincere esteem, dear Sir, your most

obedient humble servant.















      TO COLONEL ALEXANDER HAMILTON.







             PHILADELPHIA, March 27, 1793







SIR,-In compliance with the desire you expressed, I shall endeavor to give you

the view I had of the destination of the loan of three millions of florins,

obtained by our bankers in Amsterdam, previous to the acts of the 4th and 12th

of August, 1790, when it was proposed to adopt it under those acts. I am

encouraged to do this by the degree of certainty with which I can do it,

happening to possess an official paper wherein I had committed to writing some

thoughts on the subject, at the time, that is to say, on the 26th of August,

1790. The general plan presented to view, according to my comprehension of it,

in your report and draught of instructions, was, I, to borrow, on proper terms,

such a 













59          Jefferson's Works







sum of money as might answer all demands for principal and interest of the

foreign debt due to the end of 1791 ; 2, to consider two of the three millions

of florins already borrowed as if borrowed under the act of August 4, and so

far an execution of the operation before mentioned ; 3, to consider the third

million of florins so borrowed as if borrowed under the act of the 12th of

August, and so far an execution of the powers given to the President to borrow

two millions of dollars for the purchase of the public debt. I remember that

the million of dollars surplus of the domestic revenues, appropriated to the

purchase of the public debt, appeared to me sufficient for that purpose here,

for probably a considerable time. I thought, therefore, if any part of the

three millions of florins were to be placed under the act of the 12th of

August, that it should rather be employed in purchasing our foreign paper at

the market of Amsterdam. I had myself observed the different degrees of

estimation in which the paper of different countries was held at that market,

and wishing that our credit there might always be of the first order, I thought

a moderate sum kept in readiness there to buy up any of our foreign paper,

whenever it should be offered below par, would keep it constantly to that mark,

and thereby establish for us a sound credit, where, of all places in the world,

it would be most important to have it.







  The subject, however, not being with my department, and therefore having no

occasion afterwards 













            Correspondence           59







to pay attention to it, it went out of my mind altogether, till the late

inquiries brought it forward again. On reading the President's instructions of

August 28, 1790 (two days later than the paper before mentioned), as printed in

your report of February 13, 1793, in the form in which they were ultimately

given to you, I observed that he had therein neither confirmed your sentiment

of employing a part of the money here, nor mine of doing it there, in purchases

of the public debt; but had directed the application of the whole to the

foreign debt; and I inferred that he had done this on full and just

deliberation, well knowing he would have time enough to weigh the merits of the

two opinions, before the million of dollars would be examined here, or the

loans for the foreign debt would overrun their legal measure there. In this

inference, however, I might be mistaken; but I cannot be in the fact that these

instructions gave a sanction to neither opinion.







  I have thus, Sir, stated to you the view I had of this subject in 1790, and I

have done it because you desired it. . I did not take it up then as a

volunteer, nor should now have taken the trouble of recurring to it, but at

your request, as it is one in which I am not particularly concerned, which I

never had either the time or inclination to investigate, and on which my

opinion is of no importance.







I have the honor to be, with respect, Sir, your most obedient humble servant. 













60          Jefferson's Works















       TO JAMES MADISON.







               PHILADELPHIA, April 7, 1793







We may now, I believe, give full credit to the accounts that war is declared

between France and England. The latter having ordered Chauvelen to retire

within eight days, the former seemed to consider it as too unquestionable an

evidence of an intention to go to war, to let the advantage slip of her own

readiness and the unreadiness of England. Hence, I presume, the first

declaration from France. A British packet is arrived; but as yet we have

nothing more than that she confirms the accounts of war being declared. Genett

not yet arrived. An impeachment is ordered here against Nicholson, their

Comptroller General, by a vote almost unanimous of the House of

Representatives. There is little doubt, I am told, that much mala fides will

appear; but E. R. thinks he has barricaded himself within the fences of the

law. * * * *







         Yours affectionately.















           TO GEORGE HAMMOND.







              PHILADELPHIA, April 18, 1793







SIR,-I have now the honor to enclose you the answer of the Attorney General to

my letter covering yours of March the 12th, on the case of Hooper. and Pagan,

wherein he has stated the proceedings of Pagan for obtaining a writ of error

from the 













            Correspondence







Supreme Court of the United States, for revisal of the judgment of the inferior

court pronounced against him; and also, his opinion on the merits of the

question, had the writ of error been procured, and the merits thereby been

brought into question. From this statement you will be able to judge whether

Pagan has, bona fide, complied with the rule which requires that a foreigner,

before he applies for extraordinary interposition, should use his best

endeavors to obtain the justice he claims from the ordinary tribunals of the

country. You will perceive also, that had the writ been pressed for and

obtained, and the substantial justice of Pagan's claim thereby brought into

discussion, substantial justice would have been against him, according to the

opinion of the Attorney General, according to the uniform decisions of the

courts of the United States, even in the cases of their own citizens, and

according to the decision of this very case in the British provincial court,

where the evidence was taken and the trial first had. This does not appear then

to be one of those cases of gross and palpable wrong, ascribable only to

wickedness of the heart, and not to error of the head, in the judges who have

decided on it, and founding a claim of national satisfaction. At least, that it

is so, remains yet to be demonstrated. .







  The readiness with which the government of the United States has entered into

inquiries concerning the case of Mr. Pagan, even before that case was 













 62        Jefferson's Works







 ripe for their interposition, according to ordinary rules, will, I hope,

satisfy you that they would, with equal readiness, have done for the redress of

his case whatever the laws and Constitution would have , permitted them to do,

had it appeared in the result that their courts had been guilty of partiality

or other gross wrong against Mr. Pagan. On the contrary, it is hoped, that the

marked attentions which have been shown to him by the government of

Massachusetts, as well as by that of the United States, have evinced the most

scrupulous dispositions to patronize and effectuate his right, had right been

on his side. I have the honor to be, with due respect, Sir, your most humble

servant.







 (The letter of the Attorney General, referred to in the preceding.)















   TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.







              PHILADELPHIA, April 12, 1793.







  SIR,-You will perceive from the two letters marked A. and B. of which I

enclose copies, that



the subject of Mr. Pagan has been for some time in my view. The former of those

letters being intended for you, and containing a summary of facts, I determined

to show it to Mr. Tilghman, who was Pagan's counsel, before it was sent to you,

in order that he might correct any misstatement. This produced the latter

letter from him to me ; and I have though



it more advisable to forward both of them to you, 













            Correspondence







                                6







even in the unfinished state of my own, than to reduce the case into a form

which might be supposed to be less accurate.







As I do not discover an essential difference between Mr. Tilghman and myself, I

shall not discuss any seeming variance, but proceed upon his ideas.







  It is too obvious to require a diffusive exposition, that the application for

a writ of error was not only prudent, but a duty in Pagan. To this Mr. Tilghman

explicitly assents., when he says that he was perfectly " satisfied of the

prudence of applying for the writ of error, as Pagan could not complain of a

defect of justice, until he had tried the writ of error and found that mode

ineffectual. '' This remark becomes the more important, as it manifests that

the process was not suggested as an expedient for shifting any burthen from the

government. Indeed I may with truth add, that the proceedings, taken

collectively, appeared to me to present a sufficient intimation of the main

question, to serve as a ground of decision.







  However, take th