Томас Джефферсон
The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 5 (of 9)
TO DOCTOR JAMES BROWN
Washington, October 27, 1808.
Dear Sir,—You will wonder that your letter of June the 3d should not be acknowledged till this date. I never received it till September the 12th, and coming soon after to this place, the accumulation of business I found here has prevented my taking it up till now. That you ever participated in any plan for a division of the Union, I never for one moment believed. I knew your Americanism too well. But as the enterprise against Mexico was of a very different character, I had supposed what I heard on that subject to be possible. You disavow it; that is enough for me, and I forever dismiss the idea. I wish it were possible to extend my belief of innocence to a very different description of men in New Orleans; but I think there is sufficient evidence of there being there a set of foreign adventurers, and native malcontents, who would concur in any enterprise to separate that country from this. I did wish to see these people get what they deserved; and under the maxim of the law itself, that inter arma silent leges, that in an encampment expecting daily attack from a powerful enemy, self-preservation is paramount to all law, I expected that instead of invoking the forms of the law to cover traitors, all good citizens would have concurred in securing them. Should we have ever gained our Revolution, if we had bound our hands by manacles of the law, not only in the beginning, but in any part of the revolutionary conflict? There are extreme cases where the laws become inadequate even to their own preservation, and where the universal resource is a dictator, or martial law. Was New Orleans in that situation? Although we knew here that the force destined against it was suppressed on the Ohio, yet we supposed this unknown at New Orleans at the time that Burr's accomplices were calling in the aid of the law to enable them to perpetrate its suppression, and that it was reasonable, according to the state of information there, to act on the expectation of a daily attack. Of this you are the best judge.
Burr is in London, and is giving out to his friends that that government offers him two millions of dollars the moment he can raise an ensign of rebellion as big as a handkerchief. Some of his partisans will believe this, because they wish it. But those who know him best will not believe it the more because he says it. For myself, even in his most flattering periods of the conspiracy, I never entertained one moment's fear. My long and intimate knowledge of my countrymen, satisfied and satisfies me, that let there ever be occasion to display the banners of the law, and the world will see how few and pitiful are those who shall array themselves in opposition. I as little fear foreign invasion. I have indeed thought it a duty to be prepared to meet even the most powerful, that of a Bonaparte, for instance, by the only means competent, that of a classification of the militia, and placing the junior classes at the public disposal; but the lesson he receives in Spain extirpates all apprehensions from my mind. If in a peninsula, the neck of which is adjacent to him and at his command, where he can march any army without the possibility of interception or obstruction from any foreign power, he finds it necessary to begin with an army of three hundred thousand men, to subdue a nation of five millions, brutalized by ignorance, and enervated by long peace, and should find constant reinforcements of thousands after thousands, necessary to effect at last a conquest as doubtful as deprecated, what numbers would be necessary against eight millions of free Americans, spread over such an extent of country as would wear him down by mere marching, by want of food, autumnal diseases, &c.? How would they be brought, and how reinforced across an ocean of three thousand miles, in possession of a bitter enemy, whose peace, like the repose of a dog, is never more than momentary? And for what? For nothing but hard blows. If the Orleanese Creoles would but contemplate these truths, they would cling to the American Union, soul and body, as their first affection, and we should be as safe there as we are everywhere else. I have no doubt of their attachment to us in preference of the English.
I salute you with sincere affection and respect.
TO –
Washington, October 28, 1808.
Sir,—I thank you for the copy of General Kosciusko's treatise on the flying artillery. It is a branch of the military art which I wish extremely to see understood here, to the height of the European level. Your letter of September 20th was received in due time. I never received the letter said to have been written to me by Mr. Malesherbe, in favor of Mr. Masson. The fact of such a letter having been written by Mr. Malesherbe, is sufficient ground for my desiring to be useful to Mr. Masson on any occasion which may arise. No man's recommendation merits more reliance than that of M. de Malesherbe. The state and interest of the military academy shall not be forgotten. I salute you with esteem and respect.
TO GOVERNOR CLAIBORNE
Washington, October 29, 1808.
Sir,—I send the enclosed letter under the benefit of your cover, and open, because I wish you to know its contents. I thought the person to whom it is addressed a very good man when here,—he is certainly a very learned and able one. I thought him peculiarly qualified to be useful with you. But in the present state of my information, I can say no more than I have to him. When you shall have read the letter, be so good as to stick a wafer in it, and not let it be delivered till it is dry, that he may not know that any one but himself sees it. The Spanish paper you enclosed me is an atrocious one. I see it has been republished in the Havanna. The truth is that the patriots of Spain have no warmer friends than the administration of the United States, but it is our duty to say nothing and to do nothing for or against either. If they succeed, we shall be well satisfied to see Cuba and Mexico remain in their present dependence; but very unwilling to see them in that of either France or England, politically or commercially. We consider their interests and ours as the same, and that the object of both must be to exclude all European influence from this hemisphere. We wish to avoid the necessity of going to war, till our revenue shall be entirely liberated from debt. Then it will suffice for war, without creating new debt or taxes. These are sentiments which I would wish you to express to any proper characters of either of these two countries, and particularly that we have nothing more at heart than their friendship. I salute you with great esteem and respect.
TO MR. GALLATIN
November 3, 1808.
A press of business here prevented my sooner taking up the three bundles of papers now returned; and even now I judge of them from the brief you have been so good as to make so fully. This is an immense relief to me.
The Warbash Saline
I think the applications from Nashville, &c., for a share of the salt had better not be complied with. I suspect we did wrong in yielding a similar privilege to Kentucky. There would be no end to the details of the partitionary plan, and it will only shift the gains into other hands, adding the unavoidable inequalities of distribution. Better leave the distribution to its former and ordinary course, and the benefits will taper off from the centre till lost by distance.
Indiana Lead Mines
I think it would be well to authorize Governor Harrison to lease them to the present applicants,—the former ones declining.
Intrusions on Public Lands
I suspect you have partly forgotten what was agreed on the other day. 1. Notice was agreed to be given by a register to be appointed to all intruders on the Tennessee purchase, to disclaim or remove; and in the spring troops are to be sent to remove all non-compliers. Those on the Indian lands (except Double-heads) to be absolutely removed without the privilege of disclaimer. 2. As to the intruders on Red River, we agreed to leave them and get Congress to extend the land law to them.
I think it will be better you should write to Governor Williams about the appointment of officers. Things casually incidental to a main business belonging to another department, had better be made the subject of a single instruction. I am sure the Secretary of State will thank you to take the trouble. Affectionate salutations.
TO GENERAL DEARBORNE
November 5, 1808.
I enclose you a charge by Mr. Hanson against Captain Smith and Lieutenants Davis and Dobbins of the militia, as having become members of an organized company, calling themselves the Tar Company, avowing their object to be the tarring and feathering citizens of some description. Although in some cases the animadversions of the law may be properly relied on to prevent what is unlawful, yet with those clothed with authority from the executive, and being a part of the executive, other preventives are expedient. These officers should be warned that the executive cannot tamely look on and see its officers threaten to become the violators instead of the protectors of the rights of our citizens. I presume, however, that all that is necessary will be that their commanding officer, (General Mason,) finding the fact true, should give them a private admonition, either written or verbal, as he pleases, to withdraw themselves from the illegal association; at the same time I would rather it should be stated to General Mason only "that information has been received," &c., without naming Mr. Hanson as the informer. My reason is that some disagreeable feuds have arisen at the Navy Yard which I would rather allay than foment. No proof will be necessary to be called for; because if the officers disavow the fact, it will be a proof they have that sense of propriety to which only an admonition would be intended to bring them. I salute you with constant affection.
TO HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR PINCKNEY
Washington, November 8, 1808.
Dear Sir,—I have to acknowledge the receipt of your two letters September 10th and of blank date, probably about the middle of October, and to thank you for the communications therein made. They were handed to the two persons therein named. I seize the first moment it is in my power to answer your question as to our foreign relations, which I do by enclosing you a copy of my message this moment delivered to the two houses of Congress, in which they are fully stated. It is evident we have before us three only alternatives; 1, embargo; 2, war; 3, submission and tribute. This last will at once be put out of question by every American, and the two first only considered. By the little conversation I have had with the members, I perceive there will be some division on this among the republicans; but what will be its extent cannot be known till they shall have heard the message and documents, and had some days to confer and make up their opinions. Being now all in the hurry and bustle of visits and business, incident to the first days of the meeting, I must here close with my salutations of friendship and respect.
TO MR. LETUE
Washington, November 8, 1808.
Sir,—I have to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of October 14th, and to thank you for the information it contained. While the opposition to the late laws of embargo has in one quarter amounted almost to rebellion and treason, it is pleasing to know that all the rest of the nation has approved of the proceedings of the constituted authorities. The steady union which you mention of our fellow citizens of South Carolina, is entirely in their character. They have never failed in fidelity to their country and the republican spirit of its constitution. Never before was that union more needed or more salutary than under our present crisis. I enclose you my message to both houses of Congress, this moment delivered. You will see that we have to choose between the alternatives of embargo and war; there is indeed one and only one other, that is submission and tribute. For all the federal propositions for trading to the places permitted by the edicts of the belligerents, result in fact in submission, although they do not choose to pronounce the naked word. I do not believe, however, that our fellow citizens of that sect with you will concur with those to the east in this paricide purpose, any more than in the disorganizing conduct which has disgraced the latter. I conclude this from their conduct in your legislature in its vote on that question. Accept my salutations and assurances of respect.
TO HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR CABELL
Washington, November 13, 1808.
Dear Sir,—Between three and four years ago, I received the enclosed petitions praying for the pardon or the enlargement of Thomas Logwood, then and still confined in the penitentiary of Richmond, for counterfeiting the bank notes of the United States. I consulted Governor Page on the subject, who, after conferring with his council, informed me that though he was for a pardon himself, he found a division of opinion on the question, and therefore could not advise it. Between three and four years have since been added to his confinement, and if his conduct during that time has been such as to lessen his claims to a mitigation of his sentence, they must certainly stand now on higher ground, and the more so as two of his accomplices confined here, have by a very general wish been pardoned more than a year ago. Will you be so good as to give me your opinion on the subject, as you are in a situation to know what his conduct has been? His wife is represented as a very meritorious character, and her connections respectable; probably they may be known to you. His neighbors, you will observe, ask his restoration to them. Whether would it be best to pardon him absolutely, or on condition of giving security for his good behavior? or shall we open the prison door and let him go out, notifying him that if he will continue on his own farm or those next adjoining, and keep himself from all suspicious intercourse and correspondence, he will not be molested; otherwise, that he will be retaken and replaced in his present situation? Your advice on this subject will much oblige me. I salute you with great esteem and respect.
TO MR. GALLATIN
November 13, 1808.
1st. The ship Aurora, Captain Rand. Provisions, lumber and naval stores being the articles on which we rely most for effect during our embargo. Rand's landing, as to the great mass of its articles, seems not to render his case suspicious. Keeping therefore the articles of provisions, lumber and naval stores, within their regular limits, I see no objection to a permit in the character of his cargo; and the objection drawn from his dislike and disapprobation of the embargo, has never been considered as an obstacle where the person has not actually been guilty of its infraction. I think a permit should be granted under the regular limitations as to the proportion of provisions, &c.
2d. The schooner Concord, property of John Bell of Petersburg. Wherever a person has once been guilty of breaking the embargo laws, we can no longer have confidence in him, and every shipment made by him becomes suspicious. No permit should be granted him; the fact of a prior breach being sufficient without the formality of its being found by jury.
3d. The schooner Caroline, belonging to Brown and Pilsbury of Buckstown. Where every attempt, the Collector says, has been made and still continues to be made to evade the embargo laws, the nature of the cargo is sufficient to refuse the permit, being wholly of provisions and lumber. This is the first time the character of the place has been brought under consideration as an objection. Yet a general disobedience to the laws in any place must have weight towards refusing to give them any facilities to evade. In such a case we may fairly require positive proof that the individual of a town tainted with a general spirit of disobedience, has never said or done anything himself to countenance that spirit. But the first cause of refusal being sufficient, an inquiry into character and conduct is unnecessary.
TO LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR LINCOLN
Washington, November 13, 1808.
Dear Sir,—I enclose you a petition from Nantucket, and refer it for your decision. Our opinion here is, that that place has been so deeply concerned in smuggling, that if it wants, it is because it has illegally sent away what it ought to have retained for its own consumption. Be so good as to bear in mind that I have asked the favor of you to see that your State encounters no real want, while, at the same time, where applications are made merely to cover fraud, no facilities towards that be furnished. I presume there can be no want in Massachusetts as yet, as I am informed that Governor Sullivan's permits are openly bought and sold here and in Alexandria, and at other markets. The congressional campaign is just opening: three alternatives alone are to be chosen from. 1. Embargo. 2. War. 3. Submission and tribute. And, wonderful to tell, the last will not want advocates. The real question, however, will lie between the two first, on which there is considerable division. As yet the first seems most to prevail; but opinions are by no means yet settled down. Perhaps the advocates of the second may, to a formal declaration of war, prefer general letters of mark and reprisal, because, on a repeal of their edicts by the belligerent, a revocation of the letters of mark restores peace without the delay, difficulties, and ceremonies of a treaty. On this occasion, I think it is fair to leave to those who are to act on them, the decisions they prefer, being to be myself but a spectator. I should not feel justified in directing measures which those who are to execute them would disapprove. Our situation is truly difficult. We have been pressed by the belligerents to the very wall, and all further retreat is impracticable.
I salute you with sincere friendship.
TO THE HON. JOSEPH VARNUM
Washington, November 18, 1808.
Sir,—You will perceive in the enclosed petitions, a request that I will lay them before Congress. This I cannot do consistently with my own opinion of propriety, because where the petitioners have a right to petition their immediate representatives in Congress directly, I have deemed it neither necessary nor proper for them to pass their petition through the intermediate channel of the Executive. But as the petitioners may be ignorant of this, and, confiding in it, may omit the proper measure, I have usually put such petitions into the hands of the Representatives of the State, informally to be used or not as they see best, and considering me as entirely disclaiming any agency in the case. With this view, I take the liberty of placing these papers in your hands, not as Speaker of the House, but as one of the Representatives from the State from which they came. Whether they should be handed on to the Representatives of the particular districts, (which are unknown to me,) yourself will be the best judge. I salute you with affection, esteem, and respect.
TO THOMAS JEFFERSON RANDOLPH
Washington, November 24, 1808.
My Dear Jefferson, * * * * *
Your situation, thrown at such a distance from us, and alone, cannot but give us all great anxieties for you. As much has been secured for you, by your particular position and the acquaintance to which you have been recommended, as could be done towards shielding you from the dangers which surround you. But thrown on a wide world, among entire strangers, without a friend or guardian to advise, so young too, and with so little experience of mankind, your dangers are great, and still your safety must rest on yourself. A determination never to do what is wrong, prudence and good humor, will go far towards securing to you the estimation of the world. When I recollect that at fourteen years of age, the whole care and direction of myself was thrown on myself entirely, without a relation or friend qualified to advise or guide me, and recollect the various sorts of bad company with which I associated from time to time, I am astonished I did not turn off with some of them, and become as worthless to society as they were. I had the good fortune to become acquainted very early with some characters of very high standing, and to feel the incessant wish that I could ever become what they were. Under temptations and difficulties, I would ask myself what would Dr. Small, Mr. Wythe, Peyton Randolph do in this situation? What course in it will insure me their approbation? I am certain that this mode of deciding on my conduct, tended more to correctness than any reasoning powers I possessed. Knowing the even and dignified line they pursued, I could never doubt for a moment which of two courses would be in character for them. Whereas, seeking the same object through a process of moral reasoning, and with the jaundiced eye of youth, I should often have erred. From the circumstances of my position, I was often thrown into the society of horse racers, card players, fox hunters, scientific and professional men, and of dignified men; and many a time have I asked myself, in the enthusiastic moment of the death of a fox, the victory of a favorite horse, the issue of a question eloquently argued at the bar, or in the great council of the nation, well, which of these kinds of reputation should I prefer? That of a horse jockey? a fox hunter? an orator? or the honest advocate of my country's rights? Be assured, my dear Jefferson, that these little returns into ourselves, this self-catechising habit, is not trifling nor useless, but leads to the prudent selection and steady pursuit of what is right.
I have mentioned good humor as one of the preservatives of our peace and tranquillity. It is among the most effectual, and its effect is so well imitated and aided, artificially, by politeness, that this also becomes an acquisition of first rate value. In truth, politeness is artificial good humor, it covers the natural want of it, and ends by rendering habitual a substitute nearly equivalent to the real virtue. It is the practice of sacrificing to those whom we meet in society, all the little conveniences and preferences which will gratify them, and deprive us of nothing worth a moment's consideration; it is the giving a pleasing and flattering turn to our expressions, which will conciliate others, and make them pleased with us as well as themselves. How cheap a price for the good will of another! When this is in return for a rude thing said by another, it brings him to his senses, it mortifies and corrects him in the most salutary way, and places him at the feet of your good nature, in the eyes of the company. But in stating prudential rules for our government in society, I must not omit the important one of never entering into dispute or argument with another. I never saw an instance of one of two disputants convincing the other by argument. I have seen many, on their getting warm, becoming rude, and shooting one another. Conviction is the effect of our own dispassionate reasoning, either in solitude, or weighing within ourselves, dispassionately, what we hear from others, standing uncommitted in argument ourselves. It was one of the rules which, above all others, made Doctor Franklin the most amiable of men in society, "never to contradict anybody." If he was urged to announce an opinion, he did it rather by asking questions, as if for information, or by suggesting doubts. When I hear another express an opinion which is not mine, I say to myself, he has a right to his opinion, as I to mine; why should I question it? His error does me no injury, and shall I become a Don Quixotte, to bring all men by force of argument to one opinion? If a fact be misstated, it is probable he is gratified by a belief of it, and I have no right to deprive him of the gratification. If he wants information, he will ask it, and then I will give it in measured terms; but if he still believes his own story, and shows a desire to dispute the fact with me, I hear him and say nothing. It is his affair, not mine, if he prefers error. There are two classes of disputants most frequently to be met with among us. The first is of young students, just entered the threshold of science, with a first view of its outlines, not yet filled up with the details and modifications which a further progress would bring to their knowledge. The other consists of the ill-tempered and rude men in society, who have taken up a passion for politics. (Good humor and politeness never introduce into mixed society, a question on which they foresee there will be a difference of opinion.) From both of those classes of disputants, my dear Jefferson, keep aloof, as you would from the infected subjects of yellow fever or pestilence. Consider yourself, when with them, as among the patients of Bedlam, needing medical more than moral counsel. Be a listener only, keep within yourself, and endeavor to establish with yourself the habit of silence, especially on politics. In the fevered state of our country, no good can ever result from any attempt to set one of these fiery zealots to rights, either in fact or principle. They are determined as to the facts they will believe, and the opinions on which they will act. Get by them, therefore, as you would by an angry bull; it is not for a man of sense to dispute the road with such an animal. You will be more exposed than others to have these animals shaking their horns at you, because of the relation in which you stand with me. Full of political venom, and willing to see me and to hate me as a chief in the antagonist party, your presence will be to them what the vomit grass is to the sick dog, a nostrum for producing ejaculation. Look upon them exactly with that eye, and pity them as objects to whom you can administer only occasional ease. My character is not within their power. It is in the hands of my fellow citizens at large, and will be consigned to honor or infamy by the verdict of the republican mass of our country, according to what themselves will have seen, not what their enemies and mine shall have said. Never, therefore, consider these puppies in politics as requiring any notice from you, and always show that you are not afraid to leave my character to the umpirage of public opinion. Look steadily to the pursuits which have carried you to Philadelphia, be very select in the society you attach yourself to, avoid taverns, drinkers, smokers, idlers, and dissipated persons generally; for it is with such that broils and contentions arise; and you will find your path more easy and tranquil. The limits of my paper warn me that it is time for me to close with my affectionate adieu.
P. S. Present me affectionately to Mr. Ogilvie, and, in doing the same to Mr. Peale, tell him I am writing with his polygraph, and shall send him mine the first moment I have leisure enough to pack it.
