Томас Джефферсон
The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 5 (of 9)
TO MR. WIRT
I have rejoiced to see Ritchie declare himself in favor of the President on the late attack against him, and wish he may do the same as to Mr. Gallatin. I am sure he would if his information was full. I have not an intimacy with him which might justify my writing to him directly, but the enclosed letter to you is put into such a form as might be shown to him, if you think proper to do so. Perhaps the facts stated in it, probably unknown to him, may have some effect. But do in this as you think best. Be so good as to return the letter to Duane, being my only copy, and to be assured of my affectionate esteem and respect.
Monticello, May 3, 1811.
TO JOHN HOLLINS, ESQ
Monticello, May 5, 1811.
Dear Sir,—Your favor of April 17th came duly to hand. Nobody has regretted more sincerely than myself, the incidents which have happened at Washington. The early intimations which I saw quoted from federal papers were disregarded by me, because falsehood is their element. The first confirmation was from the National Intelligencer, soon followed by the exultations of other papers whose havoc is on the feelings of the virtuous. Sincerely the friend of all the parties, I ask of none why they have fallen out by the way, and would gladly infuse the oil and wine of the Samaritan into all their wounds. I hope that time, the assuager of all evils, will heal these also; and I pray from them all a continuance of their affection, and to be permitted to bear to all the same unqualified esteem. Of one thing I am certain, that they will not suffer personal dissatisfactions to endanger the republican cause. Their principles, I know, are far above all private considerations. And when we reflect that the eyes of the virtuous all over the earth are turned with anxiety on us, as the only depositories of the sacred fire of liberty, and that our falling into anarchy would decide forever the destinies of mankind, and seal the political heresy that man is incapable of self-government, the only contest between divided friends should be who will dare farthest into the ranks of the common enemy. With respect to Mr. Foster's mission, it cannot issue but as Rose's and Jackson's did. It can no longer be doubted that Great Britain means to claim the ocean as her conquest, and to suffer not even a cock-boat, as they express it, to traverse it but on paying them a transit duty to support the very fleet which is to keep the nations under tribute, and to rivet the yoke around their necks. Although their government has never openly avowed this, yet their orders of council, in their original form, were founded on this principle, and I have observed for years past, that however ill success may at times have induced them to amuse by negotiation, they have never on any occasion dropped a word disclaiming this pretension, nor one which they would have to retract when they shall judge the times ripe for openly asserting it. Protraction is therefore the sole object of Foster's mission. They do not wish war with us, but will meet it rather than relinquish their purpose.
With earnest prayers to all my friends to cherish mutual good will, to promote harmony and conciliation, and above all things to let the love of our country soar above all minor passions, I tender you the assurance of my affectionate esteem and respect.
TO COLONEL MONROE
Monticello, May 5, 1811.
Dear Sir,—Your favor on your departure from Richmond, came to hand in due time. Although I may not have been among the first, I am certainly with the sincerest, who congratulate you on your entrance into the national councils. Your value there has never been unduly estimated by those whom personal feelings did not misguide. The late misunderstandings at Washington have been a subject of real concern to me. I know that the dissolutions of personal friendship are among the most painful occurrences in human life. I have sincere esteem for all who have been affected by them, having passed with them eight years of great harmony and affection. These incidents are rendered more distressing in our country than elsewhere, because our printers ravin on the agonies of their victims, as wolves do on the blood of the lamb. But the printers and the public are very different personages. The former may lead the latter a little out of their track, while the deviation is insensible; but the moment they usurp their direction and that of their government, they will be reduced to their true places. The two last Congresses have been the theme of the most licentious reprobation for printers thirsting after war, some against France and some against England. But the people wish for peace with both. They feel no incumbency on them to become the reformers of the other hemisphere, and to inculcate, with fire and sword, a return to moral order. When, indeed, peace shall become more losing than war, they may owe to their interests what these Quixotes are clamoring for on false estimates of honor. The public are unmoved by these clamors, as the re-election of their legislators shows, and they are firm to their executive on the subject of the more recent clamors.
We are suffering here, both in the gathered and the growing crop. The lowness of the river, and great quantity of produce brought to Milton this year, render it almost impossible to get our crops to market. This is the case of mine as well yours, and the Hessian fly appears alarmingly in our growing crops. Everything is in distress for the want of rain.
Present me respectfully to Mrs. Monroe, and accept yourself assurances of my constant and affectionate esteem.
TO M. JOHN SEVERIN VATER, PROFESSOR AT KONIGSBERG
Monticello, May 11, 1811.
Sir,—Your favor of November 4, 1809, did not get to my hands till a twelvemonth after its date. Be pleased to accept my thanks for the publication your were pleased to send me. That for Dr. Barton I forwarded to him. His researches into the Indian languages of our continent being continued, I hope it will be in his power to make to you communications useful to the object you are pursuing. This will lessen to me the regret that my retirement into an interior part of the country, as well as my age and little intercourse with the world, will scarcely afford me opportunities of contributing to your information. It is extremely to be desired that your researches should receive every aid and encouragement. I have long considered the filiation of languages as the best proof we can ever obtain of the filiation of nations. With my best wishes for the success of your undertaking, accept the assurances of my high consideration and respect.
TO COUNT POTOCKI
Monticello, May 12, 1811.
Sir,—I have received your letter of August 19th, and with it the volume of chronology you were so kind as to send me, for which be pleased to accept my thanks. It presents a happy combination of sparse and unconnected facts, which, brought together and fitted to each other, forms a whole of symmetry as well as of system. It is as a gleam of light flashed over the dark abyss of times past. Nothing would be more flattering to me than to give aid to your inquiries as to this continent, and to weave its ancient history into the web of the old world; and with this view, to accept the invitation to a correspondence with you on the subject. But time tells me I am nearly done with the history of the world; that I am now far advanced in the last chapter of my own, and that its last verse will be read out ere a few letters could pass between St. Petersburg and Monticello. I shall serve you therefore more permanently, by bequeathing to you another correspondent, more able, more industrious, and more likely to continue in life than myself. Dr. Benjamin S. Barton, one of the Professors of the college of Philadelphia, is learned in the antiquities of this country, has employed much time and attention on researches into them, is active and punctual, and will, I think, better fulfil your wishes than any other person in the United States. If you will have the goodness to address a letter to him on the subject, with the inquiries you wish to make, he will, I am sure, set a just value on the correspondence proposed, for which I shall take care to prepare him, and in committing to better hands an honor which in earlier life I should have taken a pleasure in endeavoring to merit, I make a sacrifice of my own self-love, which is the strongest proof I can give you of the high respect and consideration of which I now tender you the assurance.
TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
Monticello, July 3d, 1811.
Dear Sir,—I have seen with very great concern the late address of Mr. Smith to the public. He has been very ill-advised, both personally and publicly. As far as I can judge from what I hear, the impression made is entirely unfavorable to him. Every man's own understanding readily answers all the facts and insinuations, one only excepted, and for that they look for explanations without any doubt that they will be satisfactory. What is Irving's case? I have answered the inquiries of several on this head, telling them at the same time what was really the truth, that the failure of my memory enabled me to give them rather conjectures than recollections. For in truth, I have but indistinct recollections of the case. I know that what was done was on a joint consultation between us, and I have no fear that what we did will not have been correct and cautious. What I retain of the case, on being reminded of some particulars, will reinstate the whole firmly in my remembrance, and enable me to state them to inquirers with correctness, which is the more important from the part I bore in them. I must therefore ask the favor of you to give me a short outline of the facts, which may correct as well as supply my own recollections. But who is to give an explanation to the public? not yourself, certainly. The Chief Magistrate cannot enter the arena of the newspapers. At least the occasion should be of a much higher order. I imagine there is some pen at Washington competent to it. Perhaps the best form would be that of some one personating the friend of Irving, some one apparently from the North. Nothing labored is requisite. A short and simple statement of the case will, I am sure, satisfy the public. We are in the midst of a so-so harvest, probably one-third short of the last. We had a very fine rain on Saturday last. Ever affectionately yours.
TO MR. BARLOW
Monticello, July 22, 1811.
Dear Sir,—I had not supposed a letter would still find you at Washington. Yours by late post tells me otherwise. Those of May 2d and 15th had been received in due time. With respect to my books, lodged at the President's house, if you should see Mr. Coles, the President's Secretary, and be so good as to mention it, he will be so kind as to have them put on board some vessel bound to Richmond, addressed to the care of Gibson & Jefferson there, whom he knows. Your doubts whether any good can be effected with the emperor of France are too well grounded. He has understanding enough, but it is confined to particular lines. Of the principles and advantages of commerce he appears to be ignorant, and his domineering temper deafens him moreover to the dictates of interest, of honor and of morality. A nation like ours, recognizing no arrogance of language or conduct, can never enjoy the favor of such a character. The impression, too, which our public has been made to receive from the different styles of correspondence used by two of our foreign agents, has increased the difficulties of steering between the bristling pride of the two parties. It seems to point out the Quaker style of plain reason, void of offence:—the suppression of all passion, and chaste language of good sense. Heaven prosper your endeavors for our good, and preserve you in health and happiness.
TO COLONEL DUANE
Monticello, July 25, 1811.
Dear Sir,—Your letter of the 5th, with the volume of Montesquieu accompanying it, came to hand in due time; the latter indeed in lucky time, as, enclosing it by the return of post, I was enabled to get it into Mr. Warden's hands before his departure, for a friend abroad to whom it will be a most acceptable offering. Of the residue of the copies I asked, I would wish to receive one well bound for my own library, the others in boards as that before sent. One of these in boards may come to me by post, for use until the others are received, which I would prefer having sent by water, as vessels depart almost daily from Philadelphia for Richmond. Messrs. Gibson & Jefferson of that place will receive and forward the packet to me. Add to it, if you please, a copy of Franklin's works, bound, and send me by post a note of the amount of the whole, and of my newspaper account, which has been suffered to run in arrear by the difficulty of remitting small and fractional sums to a distance, from a canton having only its local money, and little commercial intercourse beyond its own limits.
I learnt with sincere regret that my former letters had given you pain. Nothing could be further from their intention. What I had said and done was from the most friendly dispositions towards yourself, and from a zeal for maintaining the republican ascendency. Federalism, stripped as it now nearly is, of its landed and laboring support, is monarchism and Anglicism, and whenever our own dissensions shall let these in upon us, the last ray of free government closes on the horizon of the world. I have been lately reading Komarzewski's coup d'œil on the history of Poland. Though without any charms of style or composition, it gives a lesson which all our countrymen should study; the example of a country erased from the map of the world by the dissensions of its own citizens. The papers of every day read them the counter lesson of the impossibility of subduing a people acting with an undivided will. Spain, under all her disadvantages, physical and mental, is an encouraging example of this. She proves too, another truth not less valuable, that a people having no king to sell them for a mess of pottage for himself, no shackles to restrain their powers of self-defence, find resources within themselves equal to every trial. This we did during the revolutionary war, and this we can do again, let who will attack us, if we act heartily with one another. This is my creed. To the principles of union I sacrifice all minor differences of opinion. These, like differences of face, are a law of our nature, and should be viewed with the same tolerance. The clouds which have appeared for some time to be gathering around us, have given me anxiety lest an enemy, always on the watch, always prompt and firm, and acting in well-disciplined phalanx, should find an opening to dissipate hopes, with the loss of which I would wish that of life itself. To myself personally the sufferings would be short. The powers of life have declined with me more in the last six months than in as many preceding years. A rheumatic indisposition, under which your letter found me, has caused this delay in acknowledging its receipt, and in the expressions of regret that I had inadvertently said or done anything which had given you uneasiness. I pray you to be assured that no unkind motive directed me, and that my sentiments of friendship and respect continue the same.
TO MR. OGILVIE
Monticello, August 4, 1811.
Dear Sir,—Your favor of May 24th was very long on its passage to me. It gave us all pleasure to learn from yourself the progress of your peregrination, and your prospect of approaching rest for awhile, among our Western brethren—of "rest for the body some, none for the mind." So that action is said to be all its joy; and we have no more remarkable proof of it than in yourself. The newspapers have kept us informed of the splendid course you have run, and of the flattering impressions made on the public mind, and which must have been so grateful to yourself. The new intellectual feast you are preparing for them in your Western retirement, will excite new appetites, and will be hailed like the returning sun, when he re-appears in the East. Your peripatetic enterprise, when first made known to us, alarmed our apprehensions for you, lest the taste of the times, and of our country, should not be up to the revival of this classical experiment. Much to their credit, however, unshackled by the prejudices which chain down the minds of the common mass of Europe, the experiment has proved that, where thought is free in its range, we need never fear to hazard what is good in itself. This sample of the American mind is an additional item for the flattering picture your letter presents of our situation, and our prospects. I firmly believe in them all; and that human nature has never looked forward, under circumstances so auspicious, either for the sum of happiness, or the spread of surface provided to receive it. Very contrary opinions are inculcated in Europe, and in England especially, where I much doubt if you would be tolerated in presenting the views you propose. The English have been a wise, a virtuous and truly estimable people. But commerce and a corrupt government have rotted them to the core. Every generous, nay, every just sentiment, is absorbed in the thirst for gold. I speak of their cities, which we may certainly pronounce to be ripe for despotism, and fitted for no other government. Whether the leaven of the agricultural body is sufficient to regenerate the residuary mass, and maintain it in a sound state, under any reformation of government, may well be doubted. Nations, like individuals, wish to enjoy a fair reputation. It is therefore desirable for us that the slanders on our country, disseminated by hired or prejudiced travellers, should be corrected; but politics, like religion, hold up the torches of martyrdom to the reformers of error. Nor is it in the theatre of Ephesus alone that tumults have been excited when the crafts were in danger. You must be cautious, therefore, in telling unacceptable truths beyond the water. You wish me to suggest any subject which occurs to myself as fit for the rostrum. But your own selection has proved you would have been aided by no counsel, and that you can best judge of the topics which open to your own mind a field for development, and promise to your hearers instruction better adapted to the useful purposes of society, than the weekly disquisitions of their hired instructors. All the efforts of these people are directed to the maintenance of the artificial structure of their craft, viewing but as a subordinate concern the inculcation of morality. If we will be but Christians, according to their schemes of Christianity, they will compound good-naturedly with our immoralities.
Cannot your circuit be so shaped as to lead you through our neighborhood on your return? It would give us all great pleasure to see you, if it be only en passant, for after such a survey of varied country, we cannot flatter ourselves that ours would be the selected residence. But whether you can visit us or not, I shall always be happy to hear from you, and to know that you succeed in whatever you undertake. With these assurances accept those of great esteem and respect from myself and all the members of my family.
P. S. Since writing the above, an interesting subject occurs. What would you think of a discourse on the benefit of the union and miseries which would follow a separation of the States, to be exemplified in the eternal and wasting wars of Europe, in the pillage and profligacy to which these lead, and the abject oppression and degradation to which they reduce its inhabitants? Painted by your vivid pencil, what could make deeper impressions, and what impressions could come more home to our concerns, or kindle a livelier sense of our present blessings?
TO JUDGE STEWART
Monticello, August 8, 1811.
Dear Sir,—I ask the favor of you to purchase for me as much fresh timothy seed as the enclosed bill will pay for, pack and forward, and that you will have the goodness to direct it to be lodged at Mr. Leitch's store in Charlottesville by the waggoner who brings it. You see how bold your indulgencies make me in intruding on your kindness.
I do not know that the government means to make known what has passed between them and Foster before the meeting of Congress; but in the meantime individuals, who are in the way, think they have a right to fish it out, and in this way the sum of it has become known. Great Britain has certainly come forward and declared to our government by an official paper, that the conduct of France towards her during this war has obliged her to take possession of the ocean, and to determine that no commerce shall be carried on with the nations connected with France; that, however, she is disposed to relax in this determination so far as to permit the commerce which may be carried on through the British ports. I have, for three or four years, been confident that, knowing that her own resources were not adequate to the maintenance of her present navy, she meant with it to claim the conquest of the ocean, and to permit no nation to navigate it, but on payment of a tribute for the maintenance of the fleet necessary to secure that dominion. A thousand circumstances brought together left me without a doubt that that policy directed all her conduct, although not avowed. This is the first time she has thrown off the mask. The answer and conduct of the government have been what they ought to have been, and Congress is called a little earlier, to be ready to act on the receipt of the reply, for which time has been given.
God bless you. From yours affectionately.
