Томас Джефферсон
The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 3 (of 9)
TO JOSHUA JOHNSON
Philadelphia, December 23, 1790.
Dear Sir,—The vexations of our seamen and their sufferings under the press-gangs of England, have become so serious, as to oblige our government to take serious notice of it. The particular case has been selected where the insult to the United States has been the most barefaced, the most deliberately intentional, and the proof the most complete. The enclosed letter to you is on that subject, and has been written on the supposition that you would show the original to the Duke of Leeds, and give him a copy of it, but as of your own movement, and not as if officially instructed so to do. You will be pleased to follow up this matter as closely as decency will permit, pressing it in firm but respectful terms, on all occasions. We think it essential that Captain Young's case may be an example to others. The enclosed letters are important. Be so good as to have them conveyed by the surest means possible.
I am, with great esteem, dear Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.
TO A. HAMILTON
December 29, 1790.
Thomas Jefferson presents his respectful compliments to the Secretary of the Treasury, and his condolences on the accident of the other evening, which he hopes has produced no serious loss.
He encloses to the Secretary of the Treasury a report of a committee of the National Assembly of France, on the subject of Billon, containing more particular information as to that species of coin than he had before met with. If the metal be so mixed as to make it of 1-5 of the intrinsic value of the standard silver coin of the United States, the cent of billon will be a little smaller than the present 16ths of dollars, and consequently be more convenient than a copper cent. This he submits to the better judgment of the Secretary of the Treasury, and hopes he will consider the liberty taken as an advance towards unreserved communications for reciprocal benefit.
TO MR. SHORT
Philadelphia, January 23, 1791.
Sir,—The 3d and subsequent amendments to the constitution have been agreed to by New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, and South Carolina. The first by New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, North and South Carolina, and the second by only New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and the two Carolinas. The other States, viz. Massachusetts, Connecticut, Virginia and Georgia, have not decided on them. Vermont has acceded to the new Constitution of the United States, and is coming forward to ask admission into Congress. Kentucky has asked the same, and a bill for the purpose has passed the Senate, and is now before the Representatives, where it will meet with no difficulty. But they have only asked admission for the year 1792.
The census had made considerable progress, but will not be completed till midsummer. It is judged at present that our numbers will be between four and five millions. Virginia it is supposed will be between 7 and 800,000.
You will perceive by the papers that the object of our Indian expedition has been so imperfectly obtained, as to call for another the ensuing year. By the present conveyance you will probably receive a proclamation, locating the federal territory so as to comprehend Georgetown. It will appear within a day or two. We must still pursue the redemption of our captives through the same channel, till some better means can be devised. The money, however, which is in Mr. Grand's hands, will be the subject of a letter to you from the Secretary of the Treasury, as soon as he can have an act of Congress authorizing the application of it to the debt of the foreign officers.
The most important matters now before Congress are propositions to establish a bank, to establish a land office and excise. The latter measure, though severely modified, is very unpopular in the middle and southern States.
Fenno's and Davies' papers will accompany this. These contain all the laws of the last session, and therefore it is thought better to defer sending them to you in a body, till a third edition appears, which is proposed to be printed, as this will be more conveniently conveyed as well as handled.
I am, with great and sincere esteem, dear Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.
TO COLONEL MASON
Philadelphia, February 4, 1791.
Dear Sir,—I am to make you my acknowledgments for your favor of January 10th, and the information from France which it contained. It confirmed what I had heard more loosely before, and accounts still more recent are to the same effect. I look with great anxiety for the firm establishment of the new government in France, being perfectly convinced that if it takes place there, it will spread sooner or later all over Europe. On the contrary, a check there would retard the revival of liberty in other countries. I consider the establishment and success of their government as necessary to stay up our own, and to prevent it from falling back to that kind of a half-way house, the English constitution. It cannot be denied that we have among us a sect who believe that to contain whatever is perfect in human institutions; that the members of this sect have, many of them, names and offices which stand high in the estimation of our countrymen. I still rely that the great mass of our community is untainted with these heresies, as is its head. On this I build my hope that we have not labored in vain, and that our experiment will still prove that men can be governed by reason. You have excited my curiosity in saying "there is a particular circumstance, little attended to, which is continually sapping the republicanism of the United States." What is it? What is said in our country of the fiscal arrangements now going on? I really fear their effect when I consider the present temper of the southern States. Whether these measures be right or wrong abstractedly, more attention should be paid to the general opinion. However, all will pass—the excise will pass—the bank will pass. The only corrective of what is corrupt in our present form of government will be the augmentation of the numbers in the lower House, so as to get a more agricultural representation, which may put that interest above that of the stock-jobbers.
I had no occasion to sound Mr. Madison on your fears expressed in your letter. I knew before, as possessing his sentiments fully on that subject, that his value for you was undiminished. I have always heard him say that though you and he appeared to differ in your systems, yet you were in truth nearer together than most persons who were classed under the same appellation. You may quiet yourself in the assurance of possessing his complete esteem. I have been endeavoring to obtain some little distinction for our useful customers, the French. But there is a particular interest opposed to it, which I fear will prove too strong. We shall soon see. I will send you a copy of a report I have given in, as soon as it is printed. I know there is one part of it contrary to your sentiments; yet I am not sure you will not become sensible that a change should be slowly preparing. Certainly, whenever I pass your road, I shall do myself the pleasure of turning into it. Our last year's experiment, however, is much in favor of that by Newgate.
I am, with great respect and esteem, dear Sir, your friend and servant.
TO CHARLES HELLSTEDT, SWEDISH CONSUL
Philadelphia, February 14, 1791.
Sir,—I now return you the papers you were pleased to put into my hands, when you expressed to me your dissatisfaction that our court of admiralty had taken cognizance of a complaint of some Swedish sailors against their captain for cruelty. If there was error in this proceeding, the law allows an appeal from that to the Supreme Court; but the appeal must be made in the forms of the law, which have nothing difficult in them. You were certainly free to conduct the appeal yourself, without employing an advocate, but then you must do it in the usual form. Courts of justice, all over the world, are held by the laws to proceed according to certain forms, which the good of the suitors themselves requires they should not be permitted to depart from.
I have further to observe to you, Sir, that this question lies altogether with the courts of justice; that the constitution of the United States having divided the powers of government into three branches, legislative, executive, and judiciary, and deposited each with a separate body of magistracy, forbidding either to interfere in the department of the other, the executive are not at liberty to intermeddle in the present question. It must be ultimately decided by the Supreme Court. If you think proper to carry it into that, you may be secure of the strictest justice from them. Partialities they are not at liberty to show. But, for whatever may come before the executive, relative to your nation, I can assure you of every favor which may depend on their dispositions to cultivate harmony and a good understanding with it.
I have the honor to be, with great esteem, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.
TO MR. HAZARD
Philadelphia, February 18, 1791.
Sir,—I return you the two volumes of records, with thanks for the opportunity of looking into them. They are curious monuments of the infancy of our country. I learn with great satisfaction that you are about committing to the press the valuable historical and State papers you have been so long collecting. Time and accident are committing daily havoc on the originals deposited in our public offices. The late war has done the work of centuries in this business. The last cannot be recovered, but let us save what remains; not by vaults and locks which fence them from the public eye and use in consigning them to the waste of time, but by such a multiplication of copies, as shall place them beyond the reach of accident. This being the tendency of your undertaking, be assured there is no one who wishes it more success than, Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant.
TO –. 3
Philadelphia, February 19, 1791.
Dear Sir,—I feel both the wish and the duty to communicate, in compliance with your request, whatever, within my knowledge, might render justice to the memory of our great countrymen, Dr. Franklin, in which Philosophy has to deplore one of its principal luminaries extinguished. But my opportunities of knowing the interesting facts of his life, have not been equal to my desire of making them known. I could indeed relate a number of those bon mots, with which he used to charm every society, as having heard many of them. But these are not your object. Particulars of greater dignity happened not to occur during his stay of nine months, after my arrival in France.
A little before that, Argand had invented his celebrated lamp, in which the flame is spread into a hollow cylinder, and thus brought into contact with the air within as well as without. Doctor Franklin had been on the point of the same discovery. The idea had occurred to him; but he had tried a bull-rush as a wick, which did not succeed. His occupations did not permit him to repeat and extend his trials to the introduction of a larger column of air than could pass through the stem of a bull-rush.
The animal magnetism too of the maniac Mesmer, had just received its death wound from his hand in conjunction with his brethren of the learned committee appointed to unveil that compound of fraud and folly. But after this, nothing very interesting was before the public, either in philosophy or politics, during his stay; and he was principally occupied in winding up his affairs there.
I can only therefore testify in general, that there appeared to me more respect and veneration attached to the character of Doctor Franklin in France, than to that of any other person in the same country, foreign or native. I had opportunities of knowing particularly how far these sentiments were felt by the foreign ambassadors and ministers at the court of Versailles. The fable of his capture by the Algerines, propagated by the English newspapers, excited no uneasiness; as it was seen at once to be a dish cooked up to the palate of their readers. But nothing could exceed the anxiety of his diplomatic brethren, on a subsequent report of his death, which, though premature, bore some marks of authenticity.
I found the ministers of France equally impressed with the talents and integrity of Dr. Franklin. The Count de Vergennes particularly gave me repeated and unequivocal demonstrations of his entire confidence in him.
When he left Passy, it seemed as if the village had lost its patriarch. On taking leave of the court, which he did by letter, the King ordered him to be handsomely complimented, and furnished him with a litter and mules of his own, the only kind of conveyance the state of his health could bear.
No greater proof of his estimation in France can be given than the late letters of condolence on his death, from the National Assembly of that country, and the community of Paris, to the President of the United States and to Congress, and their public mourning on that event. It is, I believe, the first instance of that homage having been paid by a public body of one nation to a private citizen of another.
His death was an affliction which was to happen to us at some time or other. We have reason to be thankful he was so long spared; that the most useful life should be the longest also; that it was protracted so far beyond the ordinary span allotted to man, as to avail us of his wisdom in the establishment of our own freedom, and to bless him with a view of its dawn in the east, where they seemed, till now, to have learned everything, but how to be free.
The succession to Dr. Franklin, at the court of France, was an excellent school of humility. On being presented to any one as the minister of America, the commonplace question used in such cases was "c'est vous, Monsieur, qui remplace le Docteur Franklin?" "it is you, Sir, who replace Doctor Franklin?" I generally answered, "no one can replace him, Sir: I am only his successor."
These small offerings to the memory of our great and dear friend, whom time will be making greater while it is spunging us from its records, must be accepted by you, Sir, in that spirit of love and veneration for him, in which they are made; and not according to their insignificance in the eyes of a world, who did not want this mite to fill up the measure of his worth.
I pray you to accept, in addition, assurances of the sincere esteem and respect with which I have the honor to be, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.
TO HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR HANCOCK
Philadelphia, February 20, 1791.
Sir,—With many thanks for the papers and information you were pleased to have procured for me on the important subject of the fisheries, I do myself the honor of now enclosing you a copy of my report to the House of Representatives. From the disposition I see prevailing in the principal mass of the Southern members to take measures which may secure to us the principal markets for the produce of the fisheries, and for rescuing our carrying trade from a nation not disposed to make just returns for it, I am in hopes something effectual will be done this session, if these principles are solidly supported by the members from your part of the Union, of which I trust there is no cause to doubt. Should nothing be done, I cannot say what consequences will follow, nor calculate their extent. May I take the liberty of presenting through you, Sir, another copy of the report to the committee who were pleased to lend their assistance in the collection of materials; to show them that I have not failed to present their testimony in that view which might tend to procure a proper interference in this interesting branch of business.
I have the honor to be, with sentiments of the most perfect respect and attachment, your Excellency's most obedient, and most humble servant.
TO M. DE PINTO
Philadelphia, February 21, 1791.
Sir,—I have duly received the letter of November the 30th, which your Excellency did me the honor to write, informing me that her most faithful Majesty had appointed Mr. Freire her minister resident with us, and stating the difficulty of meeting us in the exchange of a chargé des affaires, the grade proposed on our part. It is foreseen, that a departure from our system in this instance, will materially affect our arrangements with other nations; but the President of the United States has resolved to give her Majesty this proof of his desire to concur in whatever may best tend to promote that harmony and perfect friendship so interesting to both countries. He has, therefore, appointed Colonel Humphreys to be minister resident for the United States, at the court of her Majesty. This gentleman has long been of the President's own family, and enjoys his particular confidence. I make no doubt he will so conduct himself as to give perfect satisfaction to her Majesty and yourself, and I therefore recommend him to your friendly attention and respect. Mr. Freire will have every title to the same from us, and will assuredly receive it. It is always with pleasure, that I repeat the homage of those sentiments of respect and esteem with which I have the honor to be, your Excellency's most obedient, and most humble servant.
TO MR. PHILIP FRENEAU
Philadelphia, February 28, 1791.
Sir,—The clerkship for foreign languages in my office is vacant. The salary, indeed, is very low, being but two hundred and fifty dollars a year; but also, it gives so little to do, as not to interfere with any other calling the person may choose, which would not absent him from the seat of government. I was told a few days ago, that it might perhaps be convenient to you to accept it. If so, it is at your service. It requires no other qualification than a moderate knowledge of the French. Should anything better turn up within my department that might suit you, I should be very happy to be able to bestow it so well. Should you conclude to accept the present, you may consider it as engaged to you, only be so good as to drop me a line informing me of your resolution. I am, with great esteem, Sir, your very humble servant.
TO THE COUNT DE MOUSTIER
Philadelphia, March 2, 1791.
Sir,—I have received your favor of November 6th, wherein you inform me that the King has thought proper, by a new mission to the court of Berlin, to put an end to your functions as his minister plenipotentiary with the United States. The President, in a letter to the King, has expressed his sense of your merit, and his entire approbation of your conduct while here, and has charged me to convey to yourself the same sentiments on his part.
Had you returned to your station with us, you would have received new and continued marks of the esteem inspired by the general worth of your character, as well by the particular dispositions you manifested towards this country.
Amidst the regrets excited by so early a loss of you, it will be a consolation, if your new situation shall contribute to advance your own happiness.
As a testimony of these sentiments, we ask your acceptance of a medal and chain of gold, with which Mr. Short is instructed to present you on the part of the United States.
To this general tribute, permit me to add my own, with sincere wishes for your constant happiness, and assurances of the respect and esteem with which I have the honor to be, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.
TO MR. INNES
Philadelphia, March 7, 1791.
Dear Sir,—Your favor of July 8, came to my hands November 30. The infrequency of conveyances, is an apology for this late answer. I receive with pleasure this recognition and renewal of your former acquaintance, and shall be happy to continue it by an exchange of epistolary communications. Yours to me will be always welcome. Your first gives me information in the line of Natural History, and the second (not yet received) promises political news. The first is my passion, the last my duty, and therefore both desirable. I believe entirely with you, that the remains of fortifications found in the Western country, have been the works of the natives. Nothing I have ever yet heard of, proved the existence of a nation here who knew the use of iron. I have never heard even of burnt bricks, though they might be made without iron. The statue you have been so kind as to send me, and for which I beg you to accept my thanks, would, because of the hardness of the stone, be a better proof of the use of iron, than I ever yet saw; but as it is a solitary fact, and possible to have been made with implements of stone, and great patience, for which the Indians are remarkable, I consider it to have been so made. It is certainly the best piece of workmanship I ever saw from their hands. If the artist did not intend it, he has very happily hit on the representation of a woman in the first moments of parturition.
Mr. Brown, the bearer of this, will give you the Congressional news, some good, some so so, like everything else in this world. Our endeavors the last year to punish your enemies have had an unfortunate issue. The federal council has yet to learn by experience, which experience has long ago taught us in Virginia, that rank and file fighting will not do against Indians. I hope this year's experiment will be made in a more auspicious form. Will it not be possible for you to bring General Clark forward? I know the greatness of his mind, and am the more mortified at the cause which obscures it. Had not this unhappily taken place, there was nothing he might not have hoped: could it be surmounted, his lost ground might yet be recovered. No man alive rated him higher than I did, and would again, were he to become again what I knew him. We are made to hope he is engaged in writing the account of his expeditions north of Ohio. They will be valuable morsels of history, and will justify to the world those who have told them how great he was.
Mr. Brown will tell you also that we are not inattentive to the interests of your navigation. Nothing short of actual rupture is omitted. What its effect will be, we cannot yet foretell; but we should not stop even here, were a favorable conjuncture to arise. The move we have now made must bring the matter to issue. I can assure you of the most determined zeal of our chief magistrate in this business, and I trust mine will not be doubted so far as it can be of any avail. The nail will be driven as far as it will go peaceably, and farther the moment that circumstances become favorable. I am, with great esteem, dear Sir, your friend and servant.
