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Jefferson at Sixty-two
THE WRITINGS OF
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Library Edition
CONTAINING HIS
AUTOBIOGRAPHY, NOTES ON VIRGINIA, PARLIAMENTARY
MANUAL, OFFICIAL PAPERS,
MESSAGES AND ADDRESSES, AND OTHER
WRITINGS, OFFICIAL AND PRIVATE,
NOW COLLECTED AND
PUBLISHED IN THEIR ENTIRETY FOR THE FIRST TIME
INCLUDING
ALL OF THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPTS, DEPOSITED IN THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE AND PUBLISHED IN 1853 BY ORDER OF THE JOINT COMMITTEE OF CONGRESS
WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS
AND
A COMPREHENSIVE ANALYTICAL INDEX
ANDREW A. LIPSCOMB, Chairman Board of Governors EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
ALBERT ELLERY BERGH
MANAGING EDITOR
VOL. VI.
ISSUED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF
THE THOMAS JEFFERSON MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION
OF THE UNITED STATES
WASHINGTON, D. C.
1903
Copyright, 1903,
by
The Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association
Transcriber's Note: Omitted text or text that was in cypher is denoted by asterisks.
JEFFERSON AS A TACTICIAN
The word "tactician" is usually applied to military movements, but it has a broader meaning than this; it embodies the idea of a peculiar skill or faculty--a nice perception or discernment which is characterized by adroit planning or management, artfully directed in politics or diplomacy in government.
"Of all creatures the sense of tact is most exquisite in man"--Ross: Microcosmia.
"To see in such a clime,
Where science is new, men so exact
In tactic art"--Davenant Madagascar.
True statesmanship is the masterful art. Poetry, music, painting, sculpture and architecture please, thrill and inspire, but the great statesman and diplomatist and leader in thought and action convinces, controls and compels the admiration of all classes and creeds. Logical thought, power of appeal and tactfulness never fail to command attention and respect. It has always been thus, and it will unquestionably so remain. Many really able and brilliant men, however, lack balance and the faculty of calculation. They are too often swayed by emotions, and their intellectual powers, which otherwise might exert a controlling influence, are thus weakened, and often result in failure. True greatness in a man is gauged by what he accomplished in life, and the impress he left upon his fellow-men. It does not consist of one act, or even of many, but rather their effect upon the times in which he lived, and how long they endure after the actor is gone from the throng of the living.
At the bar, in the pulpit, in the medical profession, and especially in political life, tact is the sine qua non to the highest degree of individual success. However gifted one may be, he cannot win conspicuous laurels in any calling or avocation, if he be deficient in tactfulness. The man who best understands human nature, knows how to approach people, and possesses the art of leading them, is the one who will invariably have the largest following and will possess the greatest amount of influence over his fellows. The fact cannot be disputed that men of great brilliancy of intellect, without tact, have been distanced by others far less talented, who possessed the knack of getting near to the masses with the object in view to lead and control them. A military commander who knows how to muster and marshal his men so as to make them most effective when a battle is pending, will be unquestionably successful in manoeuvres and successful also in battle; and it is equally true in statecraft, and in the learned professions as well. The skillful tactician is master of every situation and is the victor in every important contest. But more than in any other calling is this true in politics. The successful leader in legislative bodies,--he whose name is recorded on the legislative journal as the author of the most important measures which are enacted into laws--is, without exception, that member who is tactful, thoughtful, industrious and sincere. It makes no difference how great his natural endowments may be, if he be wanting in these elements his success will be restricted to a narrow sphere; and the greatest of these is tactfulness.
The world's great tacticians are few. In America I can mention but three who are deserving of first rank,--Thomas Jefferson, Henry Clay and James G. Blaine. Neither represented the same generation, and neither was the exact counterpart of the others, but all of them were renowned in their ability to control their fellow-men. Each possessed that peculiar magnetic power to draw men around them and to win their confidence and support. Each had but to say the word, and his wishes were carried out. Each needed only to give the command to follow, and, like drilled soldiers, the multitudes fell into line and were obedient to every order. They were evidently cast in a peculiar mould, and that particular mould is limited seemingly to a single man in every generation. Why it is thus we know not, and yet we know that it is so. As the precentor in a choir leads the masses with his baton, and under correct leadership they rarely miss a note, so does the great tactician issue his commands, and his wishes are supreme. I here write Jefferson, Clay and Blaine as America's intrepid leaders and commanders in civil life; these three, and the greatest of these was Jefferson, as he seemed to have learned in early life, more than any of his compeers, that a little management will often avoid resistance, which a vast force will strive in vain to overcome; and that it is wisdom to grant graciously what he could not refuse safely, and thus conciliate those whom he was otherwise unable to control.
In referring to a man who possesses a high grade of capacity in a particular calling, we usually say he is able--an able man. The term able, therefore, signifies more than capable, more than well-informed, whether applied to an artist, a general, a man of learning, or a judge. A man may have read all that has been written on war, and may have seen it, without being able to conduct a war. He may be capable of commanding, but to acquire the name of an able general he must command more than once with success. A judge may know all the laws, without being able to apply the principles of law properly. A learned man may not be able either to speak, or to write, or to teach in a commanding manner. An able man, then, is he who makes a valuable use of what he knows. A capable man can do a thing; an able one does it. The term able cannot, therefore, be properly applied to genius. It is not correct, according to my way of thinking, to say an "able poet," an "able painter," an "able musician," an "able orator," an "able sculptor," because it is talent or genius, or both, that gives one rank in these callings in life, or in these particular undertakings. The word "able," as I understand it, is applicable to those arts only which involve the exercise of the mind as a controlling factor. One may be a great orator, according to the usual acceptation of the term "great," and yet be only a declaimer and a rhetorician. That is to say, he may be able to captivate audiences by his superior action, as Demosthenes defines oratory to be, and at the same time his elocution and rhetoric may be unexceptionable, yet he maybe in fact totally lacking in every element which goes to make up real greatness.
It may be correctly claimed that one may win distinction and renown by energy and tact, and yet be deficient in both wit and learning. But usually men are measured by the success they make in life, just as a carpenter is measured by his "chips"; and accepting this measure, it is exceedingly rare to find one who reaches above the rank of a ward politician, unless he possesses those real elements of greatness which I choose to class as honesty, sobriety, manliness, sympathy, energy, education, knowledge and fairness. I agree that a great tactician may not per se be a great man, but I do say that one who possesses this element, usually embodies those other elements which are accepted ordinarily as the true ingredients of greatness.
Jefferson did not rank in oratory with the Adamses, the Randolphs, James Otis and Patrick Henry, who were contemporaneous with him. He was, therefore, not by nature great in the sphere of oratory, and in his public utterances he does not always show the habit of radical thought which gave the great Democratic party, which lived and ruled our country throughout the larger part of the nineteenth century, that tremendous moral force peculiar to that marvelous organization which he founded and fostered throughout his long, useful and eventful life. Yet his speeches, if they may be classed as such, were clear, logical, forceful, convincing. In politics, in literature, in everything that concerned the world's forward movement in his day, his intellectual sympathies were universal, or as nearly so as it was possible for any man's to be. Men less learned and with lesser power of reason and thoughtfulness than he, have moved audiences to frenzy and have carried them at will; but Jefferson, without this peculiar gift, certainly possessed a sufficiency of this power, which the broad culture of the scholar and the steadfast tension of the thinker can give to any man. His addresses and writings are pregnant with profound aphorisms, and through his great genius transient questions were often transformed into eternal truths. His arguments were condensed with such admirable force of clearness that his utterances always found lodgment in the minds of both auditors and readers. Sensitive in his physical organization, easily moved to tenderness, and incapable of malice, he had that ready responsiveness to his own emotions as well as to those of others, which always characterizes genius.
While it may be said that oratory was not an art with Jefferson, yet his ideas on all governmental questions were always so clear and strong and well matured that he never failed to express them forcefully and effectively. His wonderful intellect, upon all important occasions, never failed to take hold on principle, justice, liberty and moral development, without which, as a part of its essence, the greatest mind can never express itself adequately. His State papers and his addresses and writings reveal the highest order of intellect, and are marked with a degree of originality peculiarly Jeffersonian. The doctrines he proclaimed and the principles he promulgated were so logical and sound that they are cherished yet, and it is believed by millions of our countrymen that they are as imperishable as the stars. Jefferson's philosophical ideas of democratic government are as much alive to-day as they were when he was at the zenith of his glory in life, and this cannot be said of any other illustrious American who was contemporaneous with him. It may be truthfully claimed that the lamp of liberty, which he, perhaps more than any other one American of his times helped to light, will never go out; and it may also be stated, with an equal degree of truthfulness, that the brilliant star of his own personal and political greatness will never set.
Some American writers have, from their standpoints of review, animadverted upon certain alleged weaknesses of Jefferson as a great national character. Although I do not indorse his position as favoring "States' Rights" and a Federal Government of restricted powers, as over against the broader doctrine promulgated by Washington, Adams, Jay and Hamilton, of a centralized government or Union which, when national questions are involved, should be, at all times, the supreme power of the country, yet I concede to him wonderful foresight in advocating a Constitution that would grant to the States the greatest possible latitude. Other critics have also barked along the trail of this distinguished man of destiny, charging him with being a demagogue, a jingoist, an infidel and the like, but their barking has made him all the greater, and has added new laurels to his marvelous career. Faults he may have had, but who has not? Weaknesses he may have had, but who is universally wise and strong? Burke, in his incomparable speech in the English Parliament on the East India bill, spoke for many great men in history when he thus alluded to the younger Fox: "He has faults; but they are faults, that though they may, in a small degree, tarnish the lustre, and sometimes impede the march of his abilities, have nothing in them to extinguish the fire of great virtues. In those faults there is no mixture of deceit, of hypocrisy, of pride, of ferocity, of complexional despotism, or want of feeling for the distress of mankind."
Like Charles James Fox, to whom Edmund Burke referred, Thomas Jefferson was the foremost Commoner of his day, and he allowed no opportunity to pass unimproved, to lift the common people to higher conceptions of life and duty. Such men are rare, and I am glad to be able conscientiously to place the name of Thomas Jefferson, in many important respects, and particularly as the champion of the rights of the common people, pre-eminently above all the other distinguished Americans of his generation; and I wish it understood that I make this statement upon a fair comprehensive knowledge of the acts and works of the leading men of that period of our country's history.
Jefferson in early life accepted the idea or theory that the first and most general truth in history is that men ought to be free. He evidently felt that if happiness is the end of the human race, then freedom is the condition, and that this freedom should not be a kind of a half escape from thralldom and tyranny, but it should be ample and absolute. This theory is most admirably expressed in the opening of the Declaration of Independence, of which he was the sole author, and which was adopted almost literally as he wrote it: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundations, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness." Democratic principles cannot be more clearly expressed than in the language above quoted, nor can any creed be more clearly defined. It is but just to state, therefore, that no individual American represents more distinctively the constructive power of the principles of popular government than Thomas Jefferson, who was then as now the greatest of all Virginians save one--Washington. In all of his public acts he was upheld by his confidence in the people, and he was so tactful at all times that he never allowed himself to wander at any great distance from the masses of his fellows. His faith in the reserve power of the people was imposing, and by this trustfulness he stamped himself as the matchless leader of his times, and among the greatest leaders of all times. Excepting, perhaps, Washington and Lincoln, the name of Jefferson is the most conspicuous of all Americans, and will endure longest in the annals of the history of the Great Republic, because it must be conceded that his theories of government have had more influence upon the public life of America than those of any other American citizen, living or dead.
There was a sympathy between his heart and the great popular heart, which time and conditions have never shaken. Expressions from his writings have become axioms, creeds and rallying cries to great multitudes of his countrymen. Three quarters of a century have elapsed since his death, and yet his ideas, doctrines and teachings are still quoted and accepted without any apparent diminution of their influence. Cicero had in mind an exact prototype of Jefferson when he said, "Homines ad deos nulla re propius accedunt quam salutem hominibus dando."[1]
[1] There is no way by which man can approach nearer to the gods than by contributing to the welfare of their fellow creatures.
Authentic history shows a persistent tendency of the Anglo-Saxon race in the unswerving direction of personal liberty. The inhabitants of the American Colonies revealed a tenacity and self-assertiveness in this direction to a greater extent than had ever been shown in England. The Jeffersonian idea has ever been that there shall be no king; that the sovereign ruler should be placed on the same level and be judged by the same principles as the humblest citizen; that the lords of the manors are entitled to no more privileges than the poorest peasant; that these rights are inalienable, and that any government which disregards them must of necessity be tyrannical.
In his introduction to De Tocqueville's able "Democracy in America," Mr. John T. Morgan thus describes the formative period of the American Republic, a period in which the name of Thomas Jefferson must, if justice be meted out to him, appear in every chapter, and in every important achievement that was then made:
"In the eleven years that separated the Declaration of the Independence of the United States from the completion of that act in the ordination of our written Constitution, the great minds of America were bent upon the study of the principles of government that were essential to the preservation of the liberties which had been won at great cost and with heroic labors and sacrifices. Their studies were conducted in view of the imperfections that experience had developed in the government of the Confederation, and they were, therefore, practical and thorough. When the Constitution was thus perfected and established, a new form of government was created, but it was neither speculative nor experimental as to the principles on which it was based. If they were true principles, as they were, the government founded upon them was destined to a life and an influence that would continue while the liberties it was intended to preserve should be valued by the human family. Those liberties had been wrung from reluctant monarchs in many contests, in many countries, and were grouped into creeds and established in ordinances sealed with blood, in many great struggles of the people. They were not new to the people. They were consecrated theories, but no government had been previously established for the great purpose of their preservation and enforcement. That which was experimental in our plan of government was the question whether democratic rule could be so organized and conducted that it would not degenerate into license and result in the tyranny of absolutism, without saving to the people the power so often found necessary of representing or destroying their enemy, when he was found in the person of a single despot."
In this excerpt the true democratic principles upon which the American Republic was founded, and which principles were largely conceived and put in shape by Thomas Jefferson, are clearly and concisely set forth. De Tocqueville, born and reared amid monarchial surroundings, though brilliant and learned as he was, could not measure the depths to which Jefferson had dug into the labyrinths of free thought and free institutions, and the consequence was that all of his conjectures as to the life and perpetuity of a government based upon the will and wishes of its subjects could not endure, went for naught, and subjected him to a just criticism not only by the advocates of such a government, but by the government itself. Daniel Webster in the Senate of the United States, while defending the doctrines of universal liberty, for which the State of Massachusetts had always stood, in his great speech in reply to Senator Hayne, of South Carolina, exclaimed in stentorian voice, "I shall enter on no encomium upon Massachusetts; she needs none. There she is. Behold her and judge for yourself. There is her history; the inhabitants know it by heart." So we can say to De Tocqueville, who had said of the Government of the United States, that it is all sail and no ballast, and that it possessed no power to resist internal strife, and, therefore, could not endure: there she is; she needs no encomium by us; there she stands, and she has stood firmly in the face of all sorts of opposition for more than a hundred years, and we believe she will endure forever!
In close relationship to that reign of democratic government which Jefferson so earnestly sought to establish, lies, in open view, the necessity for the education of the people, and to its accomplishment he dedicated, in early life, his talents and his energies. He saw then, and we, at this later period of our national growth and development, realize it all the more, that the strength and perpetuity of all free governments rest mainly upon the education of their subjects. Without it such governments fall easy victims to ignorant military captains and civil demagogues of low repute. Free government is better than monarchy in proportion to the intelligence of the governed. Where every citizen has by systematic training been rooted and grounded in the fruitful soil of knowledge, the principles and practices of self-restraint, and the generous ways of freedom, his loyalty to country cannot easily be shaken, nor can he easily be drawn into hostile schemes against the government that protects him. Jefferson saw clearly the necessity of a general system of education, and was among the very first to move in the direction of its establishment. He was so earnest an advocate of the necessity for and the advantages of education, that he never relaxed his efforts, although vigorously opposed by many of his able associates, until he established the University of Virginia to be finally supported by the State, as an open forum for the education of the young men of the Commonwealth; and his biographers inform us that he regarded this the most important achievement of his great career. In fact, he esteemed this victory so highly that he directed the words to be placed upon his tombstone at Monticello--"Founder of the University of Virginia." No act of his revealed more fully than this the tactician and the statesman, and no single act of his, although his entire career was strewn with great deeds, did so much to usher in a golden era of humanity and an universal monarchy of man, which, under God, is coming by and by.
Jefferson began public life early. Shortly after his graduation from William and Mary's College, the oldest educational institution in Virginia, he took up the study of law, and within a very few years he had gathered about him a profitable clientage. In this, the foremost of the learned professions, his genius as a tactician was early displayed. On account of his comparative youthfulness and the limited time that he had been at the bar, he could not, in the nature of things, have been an erudite lawyer, and yet the registry of the courts before which he practised showed that in the fourth year, after he became a barrister, he was employed in four hundred and thirty important cases. No one but a tactful man, however great his learning, in so short a period of time, could make a record of that exalted grade. He was, therefore, at the beginning of his career as a public man, frank, earnest, cordial, sympathetic in his manner, full of confidence in men, and sanguine in his views of life, which gave him a grip upon those about him, as a leader equipped by nature for achievements of the highest and most important possibilities.
As a delegate to the Second Continental Congress Mr. Jefferson had a leading share in its deliberations, although that body embraced many of the most distinguished men of that period. The most important act of that assembly was the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, which, as I have already stated, he himself drafted. It is said, however, that he was most valuable in committee work, because of the aptness of his sensible and methodical mind, and the ingenuity he possessed in putting his ideas upon paper, and doing it in such a way as to create but little, if any, antagonisms. In all of the official stations in which he was placed by his fellow citizens, by means of his talents for constructive statesmanship, and his persuasive and conciliatory spirit, he invariably displayed a remarkable talent for tact in parliamentary leadership.
Military chieftains often win immortal renown as the result of a single important battle, and often flash like rush-light stars across the sky of history. But this is not true of men like Jefferson and others of his class. They grow into great characters, and they build monuments to their memories which the tooth of time cannot destroy. There is nothing ephemeral or evanescent in the makeup of their records. They build not for a day nor a year, but for the centuries. Indeed, it may be said that they build for eternity, and thus many of them have builded wiser than they knew. The following is a summary of Jefferson's achievements:
1. Jefferson, although eight years at the bar, became a lawyer of renown, and an acknowledged leader in the profession.
2. For many years he was a member of the House of Burgesses of Virginia, and possessed therein an influence almost supreme.
3. He was a member of different conventions, selected by the people of Virginia, to consider the state of the colony, to provide against taxation without representation, and to secure greater liberties for the people, and was a leader in them all.
4. He was chairman of the three committees appointed in 1774 by the Virginia Convention, (1) to provide for the better education of the people; (2), for the arming of the militia of the colony; and (3), to draw up a statement of the causes which had impelled the colonies to take up arms against the mother country.
5. He was a member of the Continental Congress which adopted the Declaration of American Independence, and was the writer of that immortal document, which of itself entitles him to enduring fame. For more than a century and a quarter it has been read every year in all parts of the Republic to assembled multitudes on the anniversary of its ratification, and it has been used as a model by all peoples since its adoption, who have sought to secure for themselves freedom and self-government.
6. He was Governor of Virginia during the latter part of the Revolution, and at the end of his term of office, the House of Burgesses publicly thanked him for the able and patriotic services rendered by him during his administration of that exalted station.
7. He, while a member of the American Congress after the adoption of our present Constitution, was the author of the system of coinage which, with some amendments, is still in vogue in the United States.
8. He was, in the early years of the Republic, twice commissioned by Congress as Minister Plenipotentiary to negotiate treaties of commerce with European States, and in this, as in all other public undertakings, he exhibited the highest character of tact and diplomacy.
9. He was five years Minister to France, was exceedingly popular, and secured several important modifications of the French tariff in the interests of American commerce.
10. As the first Secretary of State under Washington, he handled, with consummate skill, the perplexing international questions which grew out of the war declared by France in 1793, against Holland and Great Britain.
11. In 1796 he became Vice-President, and was elevated to the Presidency in 1800, and was reelected in 1804. In this great office he regarded himself purely as a trustee of the public, and the simplicity of his customs and his manly demeanor in office brought to him the confidence of the people of the country at large.
12. The crowning glory of his administration was the purchase of the territory of Louisiana from France. This single act made his administration historic, and the people are even now only beginning to fully appreciate it as they should.
13. In the manner in which he controlled politics during his two terms as President, which resulted almost in the total absorption or annihilation of the Federalist party, he exhibited the qualities of a tactician rarely, if ever, equaled.
14. After forty years of public life, the illustrious Commoner retired to private life upon his farm at Monticello, and gave his remaining years to the establishment and building up of the University of Virginia, which became a noted centre of learning before his death, and has been, for over three quarters of a century, the leading university of the South.
Thomas Jefferson was a great man, a great diplomatist, a great tactician and an illustrious citizen and patriot. His name and his deeds will be cherished and admired as long as the English language is read or spoken, and as long as human lips lisp the name of liberty.
Handwritten signature of G. W. Atkinson
The First Prayer in Congress
CONTENTS.
PAGE
JEFFERSON AS A TACTICIAN. By Hon. George W. Atkinson, ex-Governor of West Virginia i
LETTERS WRITTEN WHILE IN EUROPE, 1784-1790 1-460
To General Washington, Nov. 14, 1786 1 To Monsieur Chas, Dec. 7, 1786 5 To Monsieur Duler, Dec. 8, 1786 6 To Messrs. Wilt, Delmestre and Co., Dec. 11, 1786 7 To James Madison, Dec. 16, 1786 8 To Charles Thompson, Dec. 17, 1786 11 To Colonel James Monroe, Dec. 18, 1786 15 To John Adams, Dec. 20, 1786 18 To Francis Hopkinson, Dec. 23, 1786 20 To Benjamin Franklin, Dec. 23, 1786 23 To Ezra Stiles, Dec. 24, 1786 25 To C. W. F. Dumas, Dec. 25, 1786 26 To William Carmichael, Dec. 26, 1786 29 To Benjamin Vaughan, Dec. 29, 1786 32 To John Jay, Dec. 31, 1786 35 To Samuel Osgood, Jan. 5, 1787 38 To M. de Calonnes (Controlleur Generale), Jan. 7, 1787 40 To John Jay, Jan. 9, 1787 41 To John Adams, Jan. 11, 1787 47 To Colonel David S. Franks, Jan. 11, 1787 49 To Monsieur L. W. Otto, Jan. 14, 1787 50 To Monsieur le Duc D'Harcourt, Governeur du Dauphin, Jan. 14, 1787 52 To Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, Jan. 15, 1787 53 To Colonel Edward Carrington, Jan. 16, 1787 55 To M. Du Rival, Jan. 17, 1787 59 To Messrs. S. and J. H. Delap, Jan. 17, 1787 60 To Monsieur Soules, Jan. 19, 1787 61 To Monsieur Hilliard d'Auberteuil, Jan. 27, 1787 62 To Chevalier de Segond, Jan. 27, 1787 62 To James Madison, Jan. 30, 1787 63 To John Jay, Feb. 1, 1787 73 To Monsieur Soules, Feb. 2, 1787 78 To John Adams, Feb. 6, 1787 79 To Mrs. William Bingham, Feb. 7, 1787 81 To Governor Edmund Randolph, Feb. 7, 1787 84 To John Jay, Feb. 8, 1787 85 To C. W. F. Dumas, Feb. 9, 1787 86 To Messrs. Borgnis Desbordes Freres, Feb. 12, 1787 88 To John Adams, Feb. 14, 1787 89 To John Jay, Feb. 14, 1787 89 To M. le Prevot des Marchands et Echevins de Paris, Feb. 18, 1787 90 To William Carmichael, Feb. 18, 1787 91 To Thomas Barclay, Feb. 18, 1787 93 To John Adams, Feb. 20, 1787 95 To John Adams, Feb. 23, 1787 96 To John Jay, Feb. 23, 1787 98 To Richard Peters, Feb. 26, 1787 100 To the Marquis de La Fayette, Feb. 28, 1787 101 To Madame la Comtesse de Tesse, March 20, 1787 102 To the Marquis de La Fayette, April 11, 1787 106 To William Short, April 12, 1787 110 To John Jay, May 4, 1787 111 To Pierre Guide, May 6, 1787 123 To William Carmichael, June 14, 1787 125 To C. W. F. Dumas, June 14, 1787 128 To John Bannister, Junior, June 19, 1787 129 To James Madison, June 20, 1787 131 To John Jay, June 21, 1787 138 To Madame de Corny, June 30, 1787 145 To John Adams, July 1, 1787 146 To David Hartley, July 2, 1787 150 To Benjamin Vaughan, July 2, 1787 152 To Dr. William Gordon, July 2, 1787 154 To T. B. Hollis, Esq., July 2, 1787 155 To John Bondfield, July 2, 1787 156 To James Manny, July 2, 1787 157 To Monsieur l'Abbe Morellet, July 2, 1787 158 To T. M. Randolph, Junior, July 6, 1787 165 To Edward Rutledge, Esq., July 14, 1787 169 To John Adams, July 17, 1787 173 To Joseph Fenwick, July 21, 1787 174 To Stephen Cathalan, Junior, July 21, 1787 175 To the Delegates of Rhode Island, July 22, 1787 178 To the Count de Montmorin, July 23, 1787 180 To Fulwar Skipwith, July 28, 1787 187 To J. W. Eppes, July 28, 1787 189 To Alexander Donald, July 28, 1787 191 To William Drayton, July 30, 1787 193 To Francis Hopkinson, Esq., Aug. 1, 1787 205 To R. Izard, Esq., Aug. 1, 1787 209 To James Madison, Aug. 2, 1787 212 To Thomas Barclay, Aug. 3, 1787 216 To Thomas Barclay, Aug. 3, 1787 218 To Edward Randolph, Aug. 3, 1787 218 To the Governor of Virginia (Edmund Randolph), Aug. 3, 1787 220 To William Hay, Aug. 4, 1787 223 To Dr. David Ramsay, Aug. 4, 1787 225 To Edward Carrington, Aug. 4, 1787 227 To Dr. James Currie, Aug. 4, 1787 229 To Benjamin Hawkins, Aug. 4, 1787 231 To Colonel James Monroe, Aug. 5, 1787 233 To the Honorable Commissioners of the Treasury, Aug. 5, 1787 235 To John Jay, Aug. 6, 1787 239 To Governor Edward Rutledge, Aug. 6, 1787 250 To Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, Aug. 6, 1787 252 To Colonel Richard Claiborne, Aug. 8, 1787 253 To John Churchman, Aug. 8, 1787 254 To Monsieur de L'Hommande, Aug. 9, 1787 255 To Peter Carr, Aug. 10, 1787 256 To Dr. George Gilmer, Aug. 11, 1787 263 To Colonel T. M. Randolph, Aug. 11, 1787 266 To the Reverend James Madison, Aug. 13, 1787 269 To the Honorable J. Blair, Aug. 13, 1787 272 To Joseph Jones, Aug. 14, 1787 273 To General George Washington, Aug. 14, 1787 274 To Colonel David Humphreys, Aug. 14, 1787 278 To John Jay, Aug. 15, 1787 280 To James Madison, Aug. 15, 1787 281 To the Count del Vermi, Aug. 15, 1787 282 To John Adams, Aug. 30, 1787 285 To Monsieur le Comte de Montmorin, Sept. 8, 1787 289 To Andrew Limozin, Sept. 9, 1787 291 To T. Blake, Sept. 9, 1787 293 To John Bondfield, Sept. 9, 1787 293 To C. W. F. Dumas, Sept. 10, 1787 294 To Don Francisco Chiappi, Sept. 15, 1787 295 To George Wythe, Sept. 16, 1787 296 To David Rittenhouse, Sept. 18, 1787 301 To the Honorable Commissioners of the Treasury, Sept. 18, 1787 303 To John Jay, Sept. 19, 1787 304 To Charles Thompson, Sept. 20, 1787 311 To John Jay, Sept. 22, 1787 314 To John Jay, Sept. 22, 1787 315 To Burrill Carnes, Sept. 22, 1787 318 To Andrew Limozin, Sept. 22, 1787 319 To John Jay, Sept. 24, 1787 320 To John Adams, Sept. 28, 1787 321 To Colonel William S. Smith, Sept. 28, 1787 323 To Monsieur le Comte de Buffon, Oct. 3, 1787 325 To C. W. F. Dumas, Oct. 4, 1787 327 To General John Sullivan, Oct. 5, 1787 328 To John Jay, Oct. 8, 1787 330 To James Madison, Oct. 8, 17S7 335 To John Jay, Oct. 8, 1787 336 To Monsieur le Comte de Moustier, Oct. 9, 1787 339 To Madame de Brehan, Oct. 9, 1787 340 To Andrew Limozin, Oct. 9, 1787 340 To C. W. F. Dumas, Oct. 14, 1787 341 To Madame de Corny, Oct. 18, 1787 342 To the Count de Montmorin, Oct. 23, 1787 344 To Monsieur l'Abbe de Morellet, Oct. 24, 1787 347 To John Jay, Oct. 27, 1787 348 To John Jay, Nov. 3, 1787 349 To John Jay, Nov. 3, 1787 359 To the Count de Montmorin, Nov. 6, 1787 363 To John Jay, Nov. 7, 1787 367 To John Adams, Nov. 13, 1787 368 To Colonel William S. Smith, Nov. 13, 1787 371 To James Maury, Nov. 13, 1787 374 To C. W. F. Dumas, Dec. 9, 1787 376 To William Carmichael, Dec. 11, 1787 378 To John Adams, Dec. 12, 1787 383 To James Madison, Dec. 20, 1787 385 To Edward Carrington, Dec. 21, 1787 393 To John Jay, Dec. 21, 1787 397 To Andrew Limozin, Dec. 22, 1787 400 To the Board of Treasury, Dec. 30, 1787 402 To John Jay, Dec. 31, 1787 404 To Monsieur Lambert (Controller-General), Jan. 3, 1788 411 To the Chevalier de Quesnay de Beaurepaire, Jan. 6, 1788 412 To William Drayton, Jan. 13, 1788 413 To le Comte de Bernstorff, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Copenhagen, Jan. 21, 1788 414 To William Rutledge, Feb. 2, 1788 417 To John Adams, Feb. 6, 1788 419 To the Commissioners of the Treasury, Feb. 7, 1788 421 To Doctor Price, Feb. 7, 1788 424 To Alexander Donald, Feb. 7, 1788 425 To Brissot de Warville, Feb. 12, 1788 428 To C. W. F. Dumas, Feb. 12, 1788 429 To Monsieur de Bertrous, Feb. 21, 1788 431 To Monsieur Trouchin, Feb. 26, 1788 432 To John Adams, March 2, 1788 434 To John Jay, March 13, 1788 435 To John Jay, March 16, 1788 436 To C. W. F. Dumas, March 29, 1788 441 To the Commissioners of the Treasury, March 29, 1788 443 To William Short, March 29, 1788 445 To General George Washington, May 2, 1788 447 To James Madison, May 3, 1788 455
David Humphreys Photogravure from the Original Painting by Herring
ILLUSTRATIONS.
JEFFERSON AT SIXTY-TWO Frontispiece Photogravure from the Original Crayon Drawing by St. Memin
FACING PAGE
THE FIRST PRAYER IN CONGRESS xx Photogravure from the Original Painting by T. H. Matteson
DAVID HUMPHREYS xxvi Photogravure from the Original Painting by Herring
JOHN JAY 366 Photogravure from the Original Painting by Stuart and Trumbull
CORRESPONDENCE.
LETTERS WRITTEN WHILE IN EUROPE.
1784-1789.
JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
LETTERS WRITTEN WHILE IN EUROPE.
1784-1789.
TO GENERAL WASHINGTON.
PARIS, November 14, 1786.
SIR,--The house of Le Coulteux, which for some centuries has been the wealthiest of this place, has it in contemplation to establish a great company for the fur trade. They propose that partners interested one half in the establishment, should be American citizens, born and residing in the United States. Yet if I understood them rightly, they expect that that half of the company which resides here, should make the greatest part, or perhaps the whole of the advances, while those on our side of the water should superintend the details. They had, at first, thought of Baltimore as the centre of their American transactions. I have pointed out to them the advantages of Alexandria for this purpose. They have concluded to take information as to Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York, for a principal deposit, and having no correspondent at Alexandria, have asked me to procure a state of the advantages of that place, as also to get a recommendation of the best merchant there, to be adopted as partner and head of the business there. Skill, punctuality and integrity are the requisites in such a character. They will decide on their whole information, as to the place for their principal factory. Being unwilling that Alexandria should lose its pretensions, I have undertaken to procure them information as to that place. If they undertake this trade at all, it will be on so great a scale as to decide the current of the Indian trade to the place they adopt. I have no acquaintance at Alexandria or in its neighborhood; but, believing you would feel an interest in the matter, from the same motives which I do, I venture to ask the favor of you to recommend to me a proper merchant for their purpose, and to engage some well-informed person to send me a representation of the advantages of Alexandria, as the principal deposit of the fur trade.
The author of the political part of the "Encyclopedie Methodique" desired me to examine his article, "Etats Unis." I did so. I found it a tissue of errors; for, in truth, they know nothing about us here. Particularly, however, the article "Cincinnati" was a mere philippic against that institution; in which it appeared that there was an utter ignorance of facts and motives. I gave him notes on it. He reformed it, as he supposed, and sent it again to me to revise. In this reformed state, Colonel Humphreys saw it. I found it necessary to write that article for him. Before I gave it to him, I showed it to the Marquis de La Fayette, who made a correction or two. I then sent it to the author. He used the materials, mixing a great deal of his own with them. In a work, which is sure of going down to the latest posterity, I thought it material to set facts to rights as much as possible. The author was well disposed; but could not entirely get the better of his original bias. I send you the article as ultimately published. If you find any material errors in it, and will be so good as to inform me of them, I shall probably have opportunities of setting this author to rights. What has heretofore passed between us on this institution, makes it my duty to mention to you, that I have never heard a person in Europe, learned or unlearned, express his thoughts on this institution, who did not consider it as dishonorable and destructive to our governments; and that every writing which has come out since my arrival here, in which it is mentioned, considers it, even as now reformed, as the germ whose development is one day to destroy the fabric we have reared. I did not apprehend this, while I had American ideas only. But I confess that what I have seen in Europe has brought me over to that opinion; and that though the day may be at some distance, beyond the reach of our lives perhaps, yet it will certainly come, when a single fibre left of this institution will produce an hereditary aristocracy, which will change the form of our governments from the best to the worst in the world. To know the mass of evil which flows from this fatal source, a person must be in France; he must see the finest soil, the finest climate, the most compact State, the most benevolent character of people, and every earthly advantage combined, insufficient to prevent this scourge from rendering existence a curse to twenty-four out of twenty-five parts of the inhabitants of this country. With us, the branches of this institution cover all the States. The southern ones, at this time, are aristocratical in their dispositions; and, that that spirit should grow and extend itself, is within the natural order of things. I do not flatter myself with the immortality of our governments; but I shall think little also of their longevity, unless this germ of destruction be taken out. When the society themselves shall weigh the possibility of evil, against the impossibility of any good to proceed from this institution, I cannot help hoping they will eradicate it. I know they wish the permanence of our governments, as much as any individuals composing them.
An interruption here, and the departure of the gentleman by whom I send this, oblige me to conclude it, with assurances of the sincere respect and esteem with which I have the honor to be, dear Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.
TO MONSIEUR CHAS.
PARIS, December 7, 1786.
SIR,--I should with great pleasure have perused your manuscript of the history of the American Revolution, but that it comes to me in the moment of my setting out on a journey into the south of France, where I am to pass the winter. In the few moments of leisure which my preparations for that journey admitted, I have read some detached parts, and find that it would have been very interesting to me. In one of these (page 60), I have taken the liberty of noting a circumstance which is not true, and to which I believe M. d'Aubertueil first gave a place in history. In page 75, I observe it says that Congress removed to Hartford, but this is a misinformation. They never sat there. In general, I would observe to you, that where there is no other authority for a fact than the history of d'Aubertueil, it will not be safe to hazard it. These authors have been led into an infinitude of errors, probably by trusting to the English papers, or to the European ones, copied from them. It is impossible to resort to a more impure source. I am much pleased to find, that you concur in the justice of the principles which produced our revolution, and have only to wish that I could have been able to go through the whole work. I have the honor to be, with much respect, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.
TO M. DULER.
PARIS, December 8, 1786.
SIR,--The circumstance escaped me of my having had the honor of being made known to you by Mr. Walker at Charlottesville. However, I should not have been the less ready, had it been in my power, to have aided you in procuring employment in some bureau here. But a stranger as I am, unconnected and unacquainted, my solicitations on your behalf would be as ineffectual as improper. I should have been happy to have been able to render you this service, as I am sincerely concerned at the circumstance which has placed you in need of it.
As to the paper money in your hands, the States have not yet been able to take final arrangements for its redemption. But, as soon as they shall get their finances into some order, they will surely pay for it what it was worth in silver at the time you received it, with interest. The interest on loan-office certificates is, I think, paid annually in all the States; and, in some of them, they have begun to make payments of the principal. These matters are managed for foreigners by the consul of their nation in America, where they have not a private friend to attend for them. I have the honor to be, Sir, with much respect, your most obedient humble servant.
TO MESSRS. WILT, DELMESTRE AND CO.
PARIS, December 11, 1786.
GENTLEMEN,--Your favor of the 6th instant is duly come to hand, as had done that also of the 8th of November. I was much obliged to you for your observations and information on the late regulations. I have received and am still receiving from other quarters, other hints for its improvement. I cannot propose these to the minister as they arrive, because, besides the perpetual fatigue to him, the business would not be so well done in the end. As soon as all the defects of the new arrangement shall be discovered by a little experience, as well as by their being submitted to the gentlemen concerned in the commerce, I shall be able, by bringing all the amendments necessary into a single proposition, to submit them at once to the consideration of the minister. It will probably be yet some months before this can be done. In the meantime, we must be contented to submit a little longer to those remnants of burthen which still rest on our commerce. In this view, I will still thank you for any new hints of amendment which may occur to you in experience, assuring you they shall be put to good use, when the occasion shall serve. I have the honor to be, with much respect, Gentlemen, your most obedient, and most humble servant.
TO JAMES MADISON.
PARIS, December 16, 1786.
DEAR SIR,--After a very long silence, I am at length able to write to you. An unlucky dislocation of my right wrist, has disabled me from using that hand, three months. I now begin to use it a little, but with great pain; so that this letter must be taken up at such intervals as the state of my hand will permit, and will probably be the work of some days. Though the joint seems to be well set, the swelling does not abate, nor the use of it return. I am now, therefore, on the point of setting out to the south of France, to try the use of some mineral waters there, by immersion. This journey will be of two or three months.
I enclose you herein a copy of the letter from the Minister of Finance to me, making several advantageous regulations for our commerce. The obtaining this has occupied us a twelve month. I say us, because I find the Marquis de La Fayette so useful an auxiliary, that acknowledgments for his co-operation are always due. There remains still something to do for the articles of rice, turpentine, and ship duties. What can be done for tobacco, when the late regulation expires, is very uncertain. The commerce between the United States and this country being put on a good footing, we may afterwards proceed to try if anything can be done, to favor our intercourse with her colonies. Admission into them for our fish and flour, is very desirable; but, unfortunately, both those articles would raise a competition against their own.
I find by the public papers, that your commercial convention failed in point of representation. If it should produce a full meeting in May, and a broader reformation, it will still be well. To make us one nation as to foreign concerns, and keep us distinct in domestic ones, gives the outline of the proper division of powers between the general and particular governments. But, to enable the federal head to exercise the powers given it to best advantage, it should be organized as the particular ones are, into legislative, executive, and judiciary. The first and last are already separated. The second should be. When last with Congress, I often proposed to members to do this, by making of the committee of the States, an executive committee during the recess of Congress, and, during its sessions, to appoint a committee to receive and despatch all executive business, so that Congress itself should meddle only with what should be legislative. But I question if any Congress (much less all successively) can have self-denial enough to go through with this distribution. The distribution, then, should be imposed on them. I find Congress have reversed their division of the western States, and proposed to make them fewer and larger. This is reversing the natural order of things. A tractable people may be governed in large bodies; but, in proportion as they depart from this character, the extent of their government must be less. We see into what small divisions the Indians are obliged to reduce their societies. This measure, with the disposition to shut up the Mississippi, gives me serious apprehensions of the severance of the eastern and western parts of our confederacy. It might have been made the interest of the western States to remain united with us, by managing their interests honestly, and for their own good. But, the moment we sacrifice their interests to our own, they will see it better to govern themselves. The moment they resolve to do this, the point is settled. A forced connection is neither our interest, nor within our power.
The Virginia act for religious freedom has been received with infinite approbation in Europe, and propagated with enthusiasm. I do not mean by the governments, but by the individuals who compose them. It has been translated into French and Italian, has been sent to most of the courts of Europe, and has been the best evidence of the falsehood of those reports which stated us to be in anarchy. It is inserted in the new "Encyclopedie," and is appearing in most of the publications respecting America. In fact, it is comfortable to see the standard of reason at length erected, after so many ages, during which the human mind has been held in vassalage by kings, priests, and nobles; and it is honorable for us, to have produced the first legislature who had the courage to declare, that the reason of man may be trusted with the formation of his own opinions.
* * * * * * * *
I thank you for your communications in Natural History. The several instances of trees, &c., found far below the surface of the earth, as in the case of Mr. Hay's well, seem to set the reason of man at defiance.
I am, dear Sir, with sincere esteem, your friend and servant.
TO CHARLES THOMPSON.
PARIS, December 17, 1786.
DEAR SIR,--A dislocation of my right wrist has for three months past, disabled me from writing except with my left hand, which was too slow and awkward to be employed often. I begin to have so much use of my wrist, as to be able to write, but it is slowly, and in pain. I take the first moment I can, however, to acknowledge the receipt of your letters of April the 6th, July the 8th and 30th. In one of these, you say, you have not been able to learn, whether, in the new mills in London, steam is the immediate mover of the machinery, or raises water to move it? It is the immediate mover. The power of this agent, though long known, is but now beginning to be applied to the various purposes of which it is susceptible. You observe that Whitehurst supposes it to have been the agent, which bursting the earth, threw it up into mountains and valleys. You ask me what I think of his book? I find in it many interesting facts brought together, and many ingenious commentaries on them. But there are great chasms in his facts, and consequently in his reasoning. These he fills up by suppositions, which may be as reasonably denied as granted. A sceptical reader therefore, like myself, is left in the lurch. I acknowledge, however, he makes more use of fact, than any other writer on a theory of the earth. But I give one answer to all these theorists. That is as follows. They all suppose the earth a created existence. They must suppose a creator then; and that he possessed power and wisdom to a great degree. As he intended the earth for the habitation of animals and vegetables, is it reasonable to suppose, he made two jobs of his creation, that he first made a chaotic lump and set it into rotatory motion, and then waited the millions of ages necessary to form itself? That when it had done this, he stepped in a second time, to create the animals and plants which were to inhabit it? As the hand of a creator is to be called in, it may as well be called in at one stage of the process as another. We may as well suppose he created the earth at once, nearly in the state in which we see it, fit for the preservation of the beings he placed on it. But it is said, we have a proof that he did not create it in its present solid form, but in a state of fluidity; because its present shape of an oblate spheroid is precisely that which a fluid mass revolving on its axis would assume.