Томас Джефферсон
The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 5 (of 9)
TO THE VICE-PRESIDENTS OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY
Washington, November 30, 1808.
Gentlemen,—Being to remove within a few months from my present residence to one still more distant from the seat of the meetings of the American Philosophical Society, I feel it a duty no longer to obstruct its service by keeping from the chair members whose position as well as qualifications, may enable them to discharge its duties with so much more effect. Begging leave, therefore, to withdraw from the Presidency of the Society at the close of the present term, I avail myself of the occasion gratefully to return my thanks to the Society for the repeated proofs they have been pleased to give of their favor and confidence in me, and to assure them, in retiring from the honorable station in which they have been pleased so long to continue me, that I carry with me all the sentiments of an affectionate member and faithful servant of the Society.
Asking the favor of you to make this communication to the Society, I beg leave to tender to each of you personally the assurances of my great esteem and respect.
TO MR. SAMUEL HAWKINS, KINGSTON
Washington, November 30, 1808.
Sir,—Business and indisposition have prevented my sooner acknowledging the receipt of your letter of the 3d instant, which came to hand on the 10th. Mr. Granger, before that, had sent here the very elegant ivory staff of which you wished my acceptance. The motives of your wish are honorable to me, and gratifying, as they evidence the approbation of my public conduct by a stranger who has not viewed it through the partialities of personal acquaintance. Be assured, Sir, that I am as grateful for the testimony, as if I could have accepted the token of it which you have so kindly offered. On coming into public office, I laid it down as a law of my conduct, while I should continue in it, to accept no present of any sensible pecuniary value. A pamphlet, a new book, or an article of new curiosity, have produced no hesitation, because below suspicion. But things of sensible value, however innocently offered in the first examples, may grow at length into abuse, for which I wish not to furnish a precedent. The kindness of the motives which led to this manifestation of your esteem, sufficiently assures me that you will approve of my desire, by a perseverance in the rule, to retain that consciousness of a disinterested administration of the public trusts, which is essential to perfect tranquillity of mind. Replacing, therefore, the subject of this letter in the hands of Mr. Granger, under your orders, and repeating that the offer meets the same thankfulness as if accepted, I tender you my salutations and assurances of respect.
TO DOCTOR WATERHOUSE
Washington, December 1, 1808.
Sir,–In answer to the inquiries of the benevolent Dr. De Carro on the subject of the upland or mountain rice, Oryza Mutica, I will state to you what I know of it. I first became informed of the existence of a rice which would grow in uplands without any more water than the common rains, by reading a book of Mr. De Porpre, who had been Governor of the Isle of France, who mentions it as growing there and all along the coast of Africa successfully, and as having been introduced from Cochin-China. I was at that time (1784-89) in France, and there happening to be there a Prince of Cochin-China, on his travels, and then returning home, I obtained his promise to send me some. I never received it however, and mention it only as it may have been sent, and furnished the ground for the inquiries of Dr. De Carro, respecting my receiving it from China. When at Havre on my return from France, I found there Captain Nathaniel Cutting, who was the ensuing spring to go on a voyage along the coast of Africa. I engaged him to inquire for this; he was there just after the harvest, procured and sent me a thirty-gallon cask of it. It arrived in time the ensuing spring to be sown. I divided it between the Agricultural Society of Charleston and some private gentlemen of Georgia, recommending it to their care, in the hope which had induced me to endeavor to obtain it, that if it answered as well as the swamp rice, it might rid them of that source of their summer diseases. Nothing came of the trials in South Carolina, but being carried into the upper hilly parts of Georgia, it succeeded there perfectly, has spread over the country, and is now commonly cultivated; still, however, for family use chiefly, as they cannot make it for sale in competition with the rice of the swamps. The former part of these details is written from memory, the papers being at Monticello which would enable me to particularize exactly the dates of times and places. The latter part is from the late Mr. Baldwin, one of those whom I engaged in the distribution of the seed in Georgia, and who in his annual attendance on Congress, gave me from time to time the history of its progress. It has got from Georgia into Kentucky, where it is cultivated by many individuals for family use. I cultivated it two or three years at Monticello, and had good crops, as did my neighbors, but not having conveniences for husking it, we declined it. I tried some of it in a pot, while I lived in Philadelphia, and gave seed to Mr. Bartram. It produced luxuriant plants with us both, but no seed; nor do I believe it will ripen in the United States as far north as Philadelphia. Business and an indisposition of some days must apologize for this delay in answering your letter of October 24th, which I did not receive till the 6th of November. And permit me here to add my salutations and assurances of esteem and respect.
TO THOMAS MONROE
December 4, 1808.
The case of the sale of city lots under a decree of the Chancellor of Maryland.
The deed of the original owners of the site of the city of Washington to certain trustees, after making provisions for streets, public squares, &c., declares that the residue of the ground, laid off in building lots, shall one moiety belong to the original proprietors, and the other moiety shall be sold on such terms and conditions as the President of the United States shall direct, the proceeds, after certain specified payments, to be paid to the President as a grant of money, and to be applied for the purposes, and according to the Act of Congress; which Act of Congress (1790, c. 28) had authorized the President to accept grants of money, to purchase or to accept land for the use of the United States, to provide suitable buildings, &c. Of these residuary building lots, one thousand were sold by the Commissioner to Greenleaf for $80,000, who transferred them to Morris and Nicholson, with an express lien on them for the purchase money due to the city. Under this lien the Chancellor of Maryland has decreed that they shall be sold immediately for whatever they will bring; that the proceeds shall be applied first to the costs of suit and sale, and the balance towards paying the original purchase money. The sale has now proceeded, for some days, at very low prices, and must proceed till the costs of suit and sale are raised. It is well understood that under no circumstances of sale, however favorable, can they pay five in the pound of the original debt; and that if the whole are now forced into sale, at what they will bring, they will not pay one in the pound; and being the only fund from which a single dollar of the debt can ever be recovered, (on account of the bankruptcy of all the purchasers,) of $25,000 which the lots may bring if offered for sale from time to time pari passu with the growing demand, $20,000 will be lost by a forced sale. To save this sum is desirable. And the interest in it being ultimately that of the United States, I have consulted with the Secretary of the Treasury and Comptroller, and after due consideration, I am of opinion it is for the public interest, and within the powers of the President, under the deed of trust and laws, to repurchase under the decree, at the lowest prices obtainable, such of these lots as no other purchaser shall offer to take at what the Superintendent shall deem their real value, that is to say, what they will in his judgment sell for hereafter, if only offered from time to time as purchasers shall want them. The sums so to be allowed for them by the Superintendent to be passed to the credit of Greenleaf, and retaining a right to the unsatisfied balance as damages due for non-compliance with his contract; a matter of form only, as not a cent of it is expected ever to be obtained. I consider the reconveyance of these lots at the price which the Superintendent shall nominally allow for them, as replacing them in our hands, in statu quo prices, as if the title had never been passed out of us; and that thereafter they will be in the condition of all other lots, sold, but neither conveyed nor paid for; that is to say, liable to be resold for the benefit of the city; as has been invariably practised in all other cases. The Superintendent is instructed to proceed accordingly.
TO MR. GALLATIN
December 7, 1808.
1. D. W. Coxe and the ship Comet. The application to send another vessel to the Havanna, to bring home the proceeds of the cargo of the Comet, charged with a breach of embargo, must be rejected for three reasons, each insuperable. 1st. The property was not shipped from the United States prior to December 22d, 1807, and therefore is not within the description of cases in which a permission by the executive is authorized by law. 2d. The limitation of time for permissions has been long expired. 3d. Although in an action on the bond of the Comet, the fabricated testimony of distress may embarrass judges and juries, tramelled by legal rules of evidence, yet it ought to have no weight with us to whom the law has referred to decide according to our discretion, well knowing that it was impossible to build up fraud by general rules. We know that the fabrication of proofs of leaky ships, stress of weather, cargoes sold under duress, are a regular part of the system of infractions of the embargo, with the manufacture of which every foreign port is provided, and that their oaths and forgeries are a regular merchandise in every port. We must therefore consider them as nothing, and that the act of entering a foreign port and selling the cargo is decisive evidence of an intentional breach of embargo, not to be countervailed by the letters of all the Charles Dixeys in the world; for every vessel is provided with a Charles Dixey.
My opinion is therefore that no permission ought ever to be granted for any vessel to leave our ports (while the embargo continues) in which any person is concerned either in interest or in navigating her, who has ever been concerned in interest, or in the navigation of a vessel which has at any time before entered a foreign port contrary to the views of the embargo laws, and under any pretended distress or duress whatever. This rule will not lead us wrong once in a hundred times.
2. I send you the case of Mr. Mitchell and the ship Neutrality, merely as a matter of form; for I presume it must be rejected on the ground of limitation. These petitioners are getting into the habit of calling on me personally in the first instance. These personal solicitations being very embarrassing, I am obliged to tell them I will refer the case to you, and they will receive a written answer. But I hope, in your amendments to the law, you will propose a repeal of the power to give permissions to go for property.
TO MR. GALLATIN
December 8, 1808.
The idea of regulating the coasting trade (to New Orleans for instance) by the quantity of tonnage sufficient for each port, is new to me, and presents difficulties through which I cannot see my way. To determine how much tonnage will suffice for the coasting trade of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and the other ports great and small, and to divide this tonnage impartially among the competitors of each place, would embarrass us infinitely, and lead to unavoidable errors and irregularities. Is it not better to let it regulate itself as to all innocent articles, and to continue our attentions and regulations to the articles of provisions and lumber? If the rule of the one-eighth carries too much to New Orleans, and I am sure it does, why not confine it to the ports between St. Mary's and Passamaquoddy, (excluding these two,) and trust for New Orleans to the western supplies and Governor Claiborne's permits? I suppose them sufficient, because Governor Claiborne has assured us that the Western supplies are sufficient for the consumption of New Orleans, and we see that New Orleans has exported flour the last six months, and that too to the West Indies, whither will go also whatever flour the rule of the one-eighth carries there, or its equivalent in Western flour. These ideas on the subject are of the first impression; and I keep the decision open for any further light which can be thrown on it.
TO MR. GALLATIN
December 8, 1808.
Mr. Harrison will continue in office till the 3d of March. I send you tit for tat, one lady application for another. However our feelings are to be perpetually harrowed by these solicitations, our course is plain, and inflexible to right or left. But for God's sake get us relieved from this dreadful drudgery of refusal. Affectionate salutations.
TO MR. GALLATIN
December 20, 1808.
The case of the schooner Concord, sold by J. Bell of Petersburg, to M. W. Hancock of Richmond.
I think it may be concluded from the letters of Hancock and the collector, that the purchase of the schooner has been a bonâ fide one; but it is not even alleged that he has purchased the cargo, but it appears on the contrary that Bell has the same concern in that as before. As, where a person has once evaded the embargo laws, we consider all subsequent shipments and proposed voyages by him to be with the fraudulent intention; the present shipment of the cargo of tobacco, before refused, being still the concern of Bell, must of course be still suspicious, and refused a permit. But the request of the purchaser of the schooner, that, after taking out the cargo, he may have a clearance for her to go in ballast to the district of Richmond, may be granted.
TO MR. GALLATIN
December 22, 1808.
The answer to the petition of Percival and others, praying that they may be permitted to send a vessel or vessels to take up their men from the desolate islands of the Indian Ocean, and thence to proceed on a trading voyage to Canton, &c., cannot but be a thing of course, that days having been publicly announced after which no permissions to send vessels to bring home property would be granted, which days are past long since, and the rule rigorously adhered to, it cannot now be broken through. If Congress continue the power, it will show that they mean it shall be exercised, and we may then consider on what new grounds permissions may be granted. Affectionate salutations.
TO MR. NICHOLAS
Washington, December 22, 1808.
Dear Sir,—I always consider it as the most friendly office which can be rendered me, to be informed of anything which is going amiss, and which I can remedy. I had known that there had been a very blamable failure in the clothing department, which had not become known so as to be remedied till the beginning of October; but I had believed that the remedy had then been applied with as much diligence as the case admitted. After the suggestions from General Smith and Mr. Giles the other day, I made inquiry into the fact, and have received the enclosed return, which will show exactly what has been done. Can I get the favor of you to show it to General Smith and Mr. Giles, to whom I am sure it will give as much satisfaction as to myself, and to re-enclose it to me? I salute you and them with sincere friendship and respect.
TO GOVERNOR HARRISON
Washington, December 22, 1808.
Sir,—By the treaty of 1803, we obtained from the Kaskaskias the country as far as the ridge dividing the waters of the Kaskaskias from those of the Illinois River; by the treaty of 1804, with the Sacs and Foxes, they ceded to us from the Illinois to the Ouisconsin. Between these two cessions is a gore of country, to wit, between the Illinois River and Kaskaskias line, which I understand to have belonged to the Piorias, and that that tribe is now extinct; if both these facts be true, we succeed to their title by our being proprietors paramount of the whole country. In this case it is interesting to settle our boundary with our next neighbors the Kickapoos. Where their western boundary is, I know not; but they cannot come lower down the Illinois River than the Illinois Lake, on which stood the old Pioria fort, and perhaps not so low. The Kickapoos are bounded to the south-east, I presume, by the ridge between the waters of the Illinois and Wabash, to which the Miamis claim, and north-east by the Pottewatamies. Of course it is with the Kickapoos alone we have to settle a boundary. I would therefore recommend to you to take measures for doing this. You will of course first endeavor with all possible caution to furnish yourself with the best evidence to be had, of the real location of the south-west boundary of the Kickapoos, and then endeavor to bring them to an acknowledgment of it formally, by a treaty of limits. If it be nothing more, the ordinary presents are all that will be necessary, but if they cede a part of their own country, then a price proportioned will be proper. In a letter to you of February 27th, 1803, I mentioned that I had heard there was still one Pioria man living, and that a compensation making him easy for life should be given him, and his conveyance of the country by a regular deed be obtained. If there be such a man living, I think this should still be done. The ascertaining the line between the Kickapoos and us is now of importance, because it will close our possessions on the hither bank of the Mississippi from the Ohio to the Ouisconsin, and give us a broad margin to prevent the British from approaching that river, on which, under color of their treaty, they would be glad to hover, that they might smuggle themselves and their merchandise into Louisiana. Their treaty can only operate on the country so long as it is Indian; and in proportion as it becomes ours exclusively, their ground is narrowed. It makes it easier too for us to adopt on this side of the Mississippi a policy we are beginning on the other side, that of permitting no traders, either ours or theirs, to go to the Indian towns, but oblige them all to settle and be stationary at our factories, where we can have their conduct under our observation and control. However, our first object must be to blockade them from the Mississippi, and to this I ask the favor of your attention; and salute you with great friendship and respect.
TO MR. BARLOW
Washington, December 25, 1808.
Dear Sir,—I return you Doctor Maese's letter, which a pressure of business has occasioned me to keep too long. I think an account of the manufactures of Philadelphia would be really useful, and that the manufactures of other places should be added from time to time, as information of them should be received. To give a perfect view of the whole, would require a report from every county or township of the United States. Perhaps the present moment would be premature, as they are, in truth, but just now in preparation. The government could not aid the publication by the subscription suggested by Doctor Maese, without a special law for it. All the purposes for which they can pay a single dollar, are specified by law. The advantage of the veterinary institution proposed, may perhaps be doubted. If it be problematical whether physicians prevent death where the disease, unaided, would have terminated fatally,—oftener than they produce it, where order would have been restored to the system by the process, if uninterrupted, provided by nature, and in the case of a man who can describe the seat of his disease, its character, progress, and often its cause, what might we expect in the case of the horse,—mute, &c., yielding no sensible and certain indications of his disease? They have long had these institutions in Europe; has the world received as yet one iota of valuable information from them? If it has, it is unknown to me. At any rate, it may be doubted whether, where so many institutions of obvious utility are yet wanting, we should select this one to take the lead. I return you Gibbon, with thanks. I send you, also, for your shelf of pamphlets, one which gives really a good historical view of our funding system, and of federal transactions generally, from an early day to the present time. I salute you with friendship and respect.
