at Georgetown, from the year 1800, and in the mean time to remove to
Philadelphia. It is to that place, therefore, that your future letters
had better be addressed. They have still before them the bill for
funding the public debts. That has been hitherto delayed by a question,
whether the debts contracted by the particular Slates for general
purposes should, at once, be assumed by the General Government. A
developement of circumstances, and more mature consideration, seem to
have produced some change of opinion on the subject. When it was first
proposed, a majority was against it. There is reason to believe, by
the complexion of some later votes, that the majority will now be for
assuming these debts to a fixed amount. Twenty-one millions of dollars
are proposed. As soon as this point is settled, the funding bill will
pass, and Congress will adjourn. That adjournment will probably be
between the 6th and 13th of August. They expect it sooner. I shall then
be enabled to inform you, ultimately, on the subject of the French
debt, the negotiations for the payment of which will be referred to the
executive, and will not be retarded by them an unnecessary moment. A
bill has passed, authorizing the President to raise the salary of a
_Chargé des Affaires_ to four thousand five hundred dollars, from the
first day of July last. I am authorized by him to inform you, that
yours will accordingly be at that rate, and that you will be allowed for
gazettes, translating or printing papers, where that shall be necessary,
postage, couriers, and necessary aids to poor American sailors, in
addition to the salary, and no charge of any other description, except
where you may be directed to incur it expressly. I have thought it would
be most agreeable to you to give you precise information, that you may
be in no doubt in what manner to state your accounts. Be pleased to
settle your account down to the 1st of July last, and state the balance
then due, which will be to be paid out of the former fund. From that
day downwards, a new account must be opened, because a new fund is
appropriated to it, from that time. The expenses for the medals,
directed in my letter of April the 30th, must enter into the new
account. As I presume the die will be finished by the time you receive
this, I have to desire you will have a medal of gold struck for the
Marquis de la Luzerne, and have put to it a chain of three hundred and
sixty-five links, each link containing gold to the value of two dollars
and a half, or thirteen livres and ten sous. The links to be of plain
wire, so that their workmanship may cost as it were nothing. The whole
will make a present of little more than one thousand dollars, including
the medal and chain. As soon as done, be pleased to forward them by a
safe hand to the Marquis de la Luzerne, in the name of the President
of the United States, informing him that it is the one spoken of in my
letter to him of April the 30th, 1790. Say nothing to any body of the
value of the present, because that will not always be the same, in all
cases. Be so good as to have a second medal of gold struck in the same
die, and to send this second, together with the dies, to Philadelphia,
by the first safe person who shall be passing; no chain to be sent with
this.
We are impatient to learn the progress and prospect of the Algerine
business. Do not let it languish a moment, nor leave us a moment
uninformed of any thing relative to it. It is in truth a tender
business, and more felt as such in this, than in any other country. The
suppression of the Farms of tobacco, and the free importation of our
salted provisions, will merit all your attention. They are both of them
objects of first rate importance.
The following appointments of Consuls have taken place.
*****
Their jurisdictions, in general, extend to all places within the same
allegiance, which are nearer to them than to the residence of any other
Consul or Vice-Consul. As yet, only their commissions have been made
out. General instructions await the passage of a bill now depending.
Mr. La Forest, at this place, remarked our appointment of Consuls in
the French islands. In the first project of a convention proposed on
the part of France, the expressions reached expressly to the kingdom of
France only. I objected to this in writing, as being narrower than the
twenty-ninth article of the treaty of amity, which was the basis of the
consular convention, and which had granted the appointment of Consuls
and Vice-Consuls, in their respective ‘States and ports,’ generally, and
without restriction. On this, the word ‘France’ was struck out, and the
‘dominions of the M. C. K.’ inserted every where. See the fifth, ninth,
twelfth, thirteenth, and fifteenth articles particularly, of the copy of
the draughts of 1784 and 1788, as I had them printed side by side. The
object of this alteration was, the appointment of Consuls in the free
ports allowed us in the French West Indies, where our commerce has
greater need of protection than any where. I mention these things, that
you may be prepared, should any thing be said to you on the subject.
I am persuaded the appointment will contribute eminently to the
preservation of harmony between us. These Consuls will be able to
prevent the misunderstandings which arise frequently now between the
officers there and our traders, and which are doubtless much exaggerated
and misrepresented to us by the latter.
I duly received the copy you were so kind as to send me of the Bishop of
Autun’s proposition, on the subject of weights and measures. It happened
to arrive in the moment I was about giving in to Congress a report on
the same subject, which they had referred to me. In consequence of
the Bishop of Autun’s proposition, I made an alteration in my report,
substituting forty-five degrees instead of thirty-eight degrees, which
I had at first proposed as a standard latitude. I send you a copy of my
report for the Bishop, and another for M. Condorcet, Secretary of the
Academy of Sciences. By taking the second pendulum or rod of the same
latitude for the basis of our measures, it will at least furnish a
common measure to which both our systems will refer, provided our
experiments on the pendulum or rod of forty-five degrees should yield
exactly the same result with theirs.
The newspapers, as usual, will accompany the present, which is to go by
Mr. Barrett.
I have the honor to be, with great esteem and attachment, Dear Sir, your
most obedient and most humble servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER XXXIII.--TO WILLIAM CARMICHAEL, August 2, 1790
TO WILLIAM CARMICHAEL.
New York, August 2, 1790.
Dear Sir,
This letter will be delivered to you by Colonel Humphreys, whose
character is so well known to you as to need no recommendations from
me. The present appearances of war between our two neighbors Spain, and
England, cannot but excite all our attention. The part we are to act
is uncertain, and will be difficult. The unsettled state of our dispute
with Spain may give a turn to it, very different from what we would
wish. As it is important that you should be fully apprized of our way
of thinking on this subject, I have sketched, in the enclosed paper,
general heads of consideration arising from present circumstances. These
will be readily developed by your own reflections and in conversations
with Colonel Humphreys; who, possessing the sentiments of the executive
on this subject, being well acquainted with the circumstances of the
western country in particular, and of the state of our affairs in
general, comes to Madrid expressly for the purpose of giving you a
thorough communication of them. He will, therefore, remain there as
many days or weeks, as may be necessary for this purpose. With this
information, written and oral, you will be enabled to meet the minister
in conversations on the subject of the navigation of the Mississippi,
to which we wish you to lead his attention immediately. Impress him
thoroughly with the necessity of an early, and even an immediate
settlement of this matter, and of a return to the field of negotiation
for this purpose: and though it must be done delicately, yet he must be
made to understand unequivocally, that a resumption of the negotiation
is not desired on our part, unless he can determine, in the first
opening of it, to yield the immediate and full enjoyment of that
navigation. (I say nothing of the claims of Spain to our territory north
of the thirty-first degree, and east of the Mississippi. They never
merited the respect of an answer; and you know it has been admitted at
Madrid, that they were not to be maintained.) It may be asked, what need
of negotiation, if the navigation is to be ceded at all events? You know
that the navigation cannot be practised without a port, where the sea
and river vessels may meet and exchange loads, and where those employed
about them may be safe and unmolested. The right to use a thing,
comprehends a right to the means necessary to its use, and without which
it would be useless. The fixing on a proper port, and the degree of
freedom it is to enjoy in its operations, will require negotiation, and
be governed by events. There is danger indeed, that even the unavoidable
delay of sending a negotiator here, may render the mission too late
for the preservation of peace. It is impossible to answer for the
forbearance of our western citizens. We endeavor to quiet them with the
expectation of an attainment of their rights by peaceable means. But
should they, in a moment of impatience, hazard others, there is no
saying how far we may be led: for neither themselves nor their rights
will ever be abandoned by us.
You will be pleased to observe, that we press these matters warmly and
firmly, under this idea, that the war between Spain and Great Britain
will be begun before you receive this; and such a moment must not be
lost. But should an accommodation take place, we retain, indeed, the
same object and the same resolutions unalterably; but your discretion
will suggest, that in that event, they must be pressed more softly, and
that patience and persuasion must temper your conferences, till either
these may prevail, or some other circumstance turn up, which may enable
us to use other means for the attainment of an object, which we are
determined, in the end, to obtain at every risk.
I have the honor to be, with great esteem, Dear Sir, your most obedient
and most humble servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER XXXIV.--TO M. DE PINTO, August 7, 1790
TO M. DE PINTO.
New York, August 7, 1790.
Sir, Under cover of the acquaintance I had the honor of contracting with
you, during the negotiations we transacted together in London, I
take the liberty of addressing you the present letter. The friendly
dispositions you were then pleased to express towards this country,
which were sincerely and reciprocally felt on my part towards yours,
flatter me with the hope you will assist in maturing a subject for their
common good. As yet, we have not the information necessary to present
it to you formally, as the minister of her Most Faithful Majesty. I beg,
therefore, that this letter may be considered as between two individual
friends of their respective countries, preliminary to a formal
proposition, and meant to give an acceptable shape to that.
It is unnecessary, with your Excellency, to go through the history of
our first experiment in government, the result of which was, a want of
such tone in the governing powers, as might effect the good of those
committed to their care. The nation, become sensible of this, have
changed its organization, made a better distribution of its powers, and
given to them more energy and independence. The new government has now,
for some time, been under way; and, so far, gives a confidence that it
will answer its purposes. Abuses under the old forms have led us to lay
the basis of the new in a rigorous economy of the public contributions.
This principle will show itself in our diplomatic establishments; and
the rather, as at such a distance from Europe, and with such an ocean
between us, we hope to meddle little in its quarrels or combinations.
Its peace and its commerce are what we shall court, and to cultivate
these, we propose to place at the courts of Europe most interesting
to us, diplomatic characters of economical grade, and shall be glad to
receive like ones in exchange. The important commerce carried on between
your country and ours, and the proofs of friendly disposition towards us
which her Majesty has manifested, induce us to wish for such an exchange
with her, to express our sensibility at the intimations heretofore
received of her readiness to meet our wish in this point, and our regret
at the delay which has proceeded from the circumstances before touched
on. The grade to be exchanged is the present question, and that on which
I ask a friendly and informal consultation with you. That of _Chargé des
Affaires_ is the one we would prefer. It is that we employ at the court
of Madrid. But it has been said, that by the etiquette of your court,
that grade cannot be received there under a favorable countenance.
Something like this existed at the court of Madrid. But his most
Catholic Majesty, in consideration of our peculiar circumstances,
dispensed with a general rule in our favor and in our particular case;
and our _Chargé des Affaires_ there enjoys at court the privileges, the
respect, and favor due to a friendly nation, to a nation whom distance
and difference of circumstances liberate in some degree, from an
etiquette, to which it is a stranger at home as well as abroad.
The representative of her Majesty here, under whatever name mutual
convenience may designate him, shall be received in the plenitude of
friendship and favor. May we not ask a reciprocal treatment of ours
with you? The nations of Europe have already seen the necessity of
distinguishing America from Europe, even in their treaties; and a
difference of commerce, of government, of condition and character, must
every day evince more and more the impracticability of involving them
under common regulations. Nor ought a difference of arrangement with
respect to us to excite claims from others, whose circumstances bear no
similitude to ours.
I beg leave to submit these considerations to your Excellency’s wisdom
and goodness. You will see them to be such as could not be offered
formally. They must shield themselves under the protection of those
sentiments of veneration and esteem, with which your character
heretofore inspired me, and which I flattered myself were not merely
indifferent to you. Be so good as to honor with a conference hereon, the
bearer, Colonel Humphreys (who was known to you in London), a gentleman
who has long been of the President’s family, and whose worth has
acquired so much of our confidence, that whatever shall be arranged
with him, on this subject, may be considered as settled. Presuming on a
continuance of her Majesty’s dispositions, accept this private assurance
that a proper person shall be appointed in due form to reside with you,
as soon as we shall know the result of your deliberations with Colonel
Humphreys, whom I beg leave to present to your notice; adding the homage
of those sentiments of respect and attachment, with which I have the
honor to be, your Excellency’s most obedient and most humble servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER XXXV.--TO JOSHUA JOHNSON, August 7,1790
TO JOSHUA JOHNSON.
New York, August 7,1790.
Sir,
The President of the United States, desirous of availing his country of
the talents of its best citizens in their respective lines, has thought
proper to nominate you consul for the United States, at the port of
London. The extent of our commercial and political connections with that
country, marks the importance of the trust he confides to you, and the
more, as we have no diplomatic character at that court. I shall say more
to you in a future letter on the extent of the consular functions, which
are, in general, to be confined to the superintendence and patronage of
commerce and navigation: but in your position, we must desire somewhat
more. Political intelligence from that country is interesting to us in a
high degree. We must, therefore, ask you to furnish us with this as
far as you shall be able; to send us moreover the gazette of the court,
Woodfall’s parliamentary paper, Debrett’s parliamentary register; and to
serve sometimes as a centre for our correspondences with other parts
of Europe, by receiving and forwarding letters sent to your care. It
is desirable that we be annually informed of the extent to which the
British fisheries are carried on within each year, stating the number
and tonnage of the vessels, and the number of men employed in the
respective fisheries, to wit, the northern and southern whale-fisheries,
and the cod-fishery. I have as yet no statement of them for the year
1789, with which, therefore, I will thank you to begin. While the press
of seamen continues, our seamen in ports nearer to you than to Liverpool
(where Mr. Maury is consul), will need your protection. The liberation
of those impressed should be desired of the proper authority, with due
firmness, yet always in temperate and respectful terms, in which way,
indeed, all applications to government should be made.
The public papers herein desired may come regularly, once a month, by
the British packet, and intermediately, by any vessels bound directly
either to Philadelphia or New York. All expenses incurred for papers and
postages shall be paid at such intervals as you choose, either here,
on your order, or by bill on London, whenever you transmit to me an
account.
There was a bill brought into the legislature for the establishment of
some regulations in the consular offices: but it is postponed to the
next session. That bill proposed some particular fees for particular
services. They were, however, so small, as to be no object. As there
will be little or no legal emolument annexed to the office of consul, it
is, of course, not expected that it shall render any expense incumbent
on him.
I have the honor to be, with great esteem, Sir, your most obedient and
most humble servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER XXXVI.--TO WILLIAM SHORT, August 10,1790
TO WILLIAM SHORT.
New York, August 10,1790.
Dear Sir,
This letter, with the very confidential papers it encloses, will be
delivered to you by Mr. Barrett with his own hands. If there be no war
between Spain and England, they need be known to yourself alone. But
if that war be began, or whenever it shall begin, we wish you to
communicate them to the Marquis de la Fayette, on whose assistance we
know we can count in matters which interest both our countries. He
and you will consider how far the contents of these papers may be
communicated to the Count de Montmorin, and his influence be asked with
the court of Madrid. France will be called into the war, as an ally, and
not on any pretence of the quarrel being in any degree her own. She may
reasonably require, then, that Spain should do every thing which depends
on her, to lessen the number of her enemies. She cannot doubt that we
shall be of that number, if she does not yield our right to the common
use of the Mississippi, and the means of using and securing it. You will
observe, we state in general the necessity, not only of our having a
port near the mouth of the river (without which we could make no use
of the navigation at all), but of its being so well separated from the
territories of Spain and her jurisdiction, as not to engender daily
disputes and broils between us. It is certain, that if Spain were to
retain any jurisdiction over our entrepot, her officers would abuse that
jurisdiction, and our people would abuse their privileges in it. Both
parties must foresee this, and that it will end in war. Hence the
necessity of a well defined separation. Nature has decided what shall be
the geography of that in the end, whatever it might be in the beginning,
by cutting off from the adjacent countries of Florida and Louisiana, and
enclosing between two of its channels, a long and narrow slip of land,
called the Island of New Orleans. The idea of ceding this could not be
hazarded to Spain, in the first step: it would be too disagreeable at
first view; because this island, with its town, constitutes, at present,
their principal settlement in that part of their dominions, containing
about ten thousand white inhabitants of every age and sex. Reason and
events, however, may, by little and little, familiarize them to it. That
we have a right to some spot as an entrepot for our commerce, may be at
once affirmed. The expediency, too, may be expressed, of so locating it
as to cut off the source of future quarrels and wars. A disinterested
eye looking on a map, will remark how conveniently this tongue of land
is formed for the purpose; the Iberville and Amite channel offering a
good boundary and convenient outlet, on the one side, for Florida, and
the main channel an equally good boundary and outlet, on the other side,
for Louisiana; while the slip of land between is almost entirely morass
or sandbank; the whole of it lower than the water of the river, in
its highest floods, and only its western margin (which is the highest
ground) secured by banks and inhabited. I suppose this idea too much
even for the Count de Montmorin at first, and that, therefore, you will
find it prudent to urge, and get him to recommend to the Spanish court,
only in general terms, ‘a port near the mouth of the river, with a
circumjacent territory sufficient for its support, well defined, and
extra-territorial to Spain,’ leaving the idea to future growth.
I enclose you the copy of a paper distributed by the Spanish commandant
on the west side of the Mississippi, which may justify us to M. de
Montmorin, for pushing this matter to an immediate conclusion. It cannot
be expected we shall give Spain time, to be used by her for dismembering
us.
It is proper to apprize you of a circumstance, which may show the
expediency of being in some degree on your guard, even in your
communications to the court of France. It is believed here, that the
Count de Moustier, during his residence with us, conceived a project
of again engaging France in a colony upon our continent, and that
he directed his views to some of the country on the Mississippi, and
obtained and communicated a good deal of matter on the subject to his
court. He saw the immediate advantage of selling some yards of French
cloths and silks to the inhabitants of New Orleans. But he did not take
into account what it would cost France to nurse and protect a colony
there, till it should be able to join its neighbors, or to stand by
itself; and then what it would cost her to get rid of it. I hardly
suspect that the court of France could be seduced by so partial a view
of the subject as was presented to them, and I suspect it the less,
since the National Assembly has constitutionally excluded conquest from
the objects of their government. It may be added too, that the place
being ours, their yards of cloth and silk would be as freely sold as if
it were theirs.
You will perceive by this letter, and the papers it encloses, what part
of the ideas of the Count d’Estain coincide with our views. The answer
to him must be a compound of civility and reserve, expressing our
thankfulness for his attentions; that we consider them as proofs of the
continuance of his friendly dispositions, and that though it might be
out of our system to implicate ourselves in trans-Atlantic guarantees,
yet other parts of his plans are capable of being improved to the common
benefit of the parties. Be so good as to say to him something of this
kind, verbally, and so that the matter may be ended as between him and
us.
On the whole, in the event of war, it is left to the judgment of the
Marquis de la Fayette and yourself, how far you will develope the ideas
now communicated, to the Count de Montmorin, and how far you will suffer
them to be developed to the Spanish court.
I enclose you a pamphlet by Hutchins for your further information on the
subject of the Mississippi; and am, with sentiments of perfect esteem
and attachment, Dear Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER XXXVII.--TO COLONEL DAVID HUMPHREYS, August 11, 1790
TO COLONEL DAVID HUMPHREYS.
New York, August 11, 1790.
Sir,
The President having thought proper to confide several special matters
in Europe to your care, it will be expedient that you take your passage
in the first convenient vessel bound to the port of London.
When there, you will be pleased to deliver to Mr. G. Morris and to Mr.
Johnson, the letters and papers you will have in charge for them, to
communicate to us from thence any interesting public intelligence you
may be able to obtain, and then to take as early a passage as possible
to Lisbon.
At Lisbon you will deliver the letter with which you are charged for
the Chevalier Pinto, putting on it the address proper to his present
situation. You know the contents of this letter, and will make it the
subject of such conferences with him as may be necessary to obtain our
point of establishing there the diplomatic grade, which alone coincides
with our system, and of insuring its reception and treatment with the
requisite respect. Communicate to us the result of your conferences, and
then proceed to Madrid.
There you will deliver the letters and papers which you have in charge
for Mr. Carmichael, the contents of all which are known to you. Be so
good as to multiply, as much as possible, your conferences with him, in
order to possess him fully of the special matters sketched out in those
papers, and of the state of our affairs in general.