receive this as well as my letter of May the 13th, from him. Since the
date of that, I have received your No. 15, March the 31st, No. 16, April
the 8th, No. 17, April the 30th, No. 18, May the 3rd, and No. 20, May
the 21st.
You are not unacquainted with the situation of our captives at Algiers.
Measures were taken, and were long depending, for their redemption.
During the time of their dependence, we thought it would forward our
success to take no notice of the captives. They were maintained by the
Spanish Consul, from whom applications for reimbursement, through
Mr. Carmichael, often came: no answer of any kind was ever given. A
certainty now, that our measures for their redemption will not succeed,
renders it unnecessary for us to be so reserved on the subject, and
to continue to wear the appearance of neglecting them. Though the
government might have agreed to ransom at the lowest price admitted with
any nation (as, for instance, that of the French order of Merci), they
will not give any thing like the price which has been lately declared to
be the lowest by the captors. It remains, then, for us to see what other
means are practicable for their recovery. In the mean time, it is our
desire that the disbursements hitherto made for their subsistence,
by the Spanish Consul or others, be paid off, and that their future
comfortable subsistence be provided for. As to past disbursements,
I must beg the favor of you to write to Mr. Carmichael, that you are
authorized to pay them off, pray him to let you know their amount,
and to whom payments are due. With respect to future provision for the
captives, I must put it into your hands. The impossibility of getting
letters to or from Mr. Carmichael, renders it improper for us to use
that channel. As to the footing on which they are to be subsisted, the
ration and clothing of a soldier would have been a good measure, were
it possible to apply it to articles of food and clothing so extremely
different as those used at Algiers. The allowance heretofore made them
by the Spanish Consul might perhaps furnish a better rule, as we have it
from themselves, that they were then comfortably subsisted. Should you
be led to correspond with them at all, it had better be with Captain
O’Bryan, who is a sensible man, and whose conduct since he has been
there, has been particularly meritorious. It will be better for you to
avoid saying any thing which may either increase or lessen their hopes
of ransom. I write to our bankers, to answer your drafts for these
purposes, and enclose you a duplicate to be forwarded with your first
draft. The prisoners are fourteen in number: their names and qualities
as follows; Richard O’Bryan and Isaac Stephens, captains; Andrew
Montgomery and Alexander Forsyth, mates; Jacob Tessanier, a French
passenger; William Patterson, Philip Sloan, Peleg Lorin, John Robertson,
James Hall, James Cathcart, George Smith, John Gregory, James Hermel,
seamen. They have been twenty-one or twenty-two.
We are in hourly expectation of hearing the event of General Scott’s
irruption into the Indian country, at the head of between seven and
eight hundred mounted infantry. Perhaps it may yet be known in time
to communicate to you by this opportunity. Our bank was filled with
subscriptions the moment it was opened. Eight millions of dollars
were the whole permitted to be subscribed, of which two millions were
deposited in cash, the residue to be public paper. Every other symptom
is equally favorable to our credit.
The President has returned from his southern tour in good health. You
will receive herewith the newspapers up to the present date.
I have the honor to be, with great esteem Dear Sir, your most obedient
and most humble servant,
Th; Jefferson.
LETTER LXVII.--TO M. VAN BERKEL, July 14,1791
TO M. VAN BERKEL.
Philadelphia, July 14,1791.
Sir,
I take the liberty of troubling you with the perusal of the enclosed
papers from Mr. Shaw, Consul for the United States in the East Indies;
wherein you will observe, he complains of a prohibition from the
government of Batavia, to American ships, by name, to have any trade
in that port, while such trade was permitted to other nations. I do not
hesitate to presume, that something has been misunderstood in this case.
My presumption is founded on those sentiments of general amity which
subsist between our government and that of the United Netherlands, and
also on the whole tenor of our treaty, which secures to us always the
treatment of the most favored nation. Nevertheless, the refusal by the
government of Batavia has been so formal, so deliberate and pointed, as
to render it necessary to ask for some explanation. If you will allow me
the honor of a moment’s conference on this subject, the first time you
come to town, I shall be obliged to you: and in the mean time, have that
of assuring you of those sentiments of esteem and respect, with which I
am, Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER LXVIII.--TO GOUVERNEUR MORRIS, July 26,1791
TO GOUVERNEUR MORRIS.
Philadelphia, July 26,1791.
Dear Sir,
Your favors of February the 26th and March the 16th have been duly
received. The conferences which you held last with the British minister
needed no apology. At the time of writing my letter desiring that
communications with them might cease, it was supposed possible that some
might take place before it would be received. They proved to be such as
not to vary the opinion formed, and, indeed, the result of the whole is
what was to have been expected from known circumstances. Yet the essay
was perhaps necessary to justify, as well as induce, the measures proper
for the protection of our commerce. The first remittance of a thousand
dollars to you, was made without the aid of any facts, which could
enable the government to judge what sum might be an indemnification
for the interference of the business referred to you, with your private
pursuits. Your letter of February the 26th furnishing grounds for
correcting the first judgment, I now enclose you a bill on our bankers
in Holland for another sum of a thousand dollars. In the original
remittance, as in this supplement to it, there has been no view but to
do what is right between the public and those who serve them.
Though no authentic account is yet received, we learn through private
channels that General Scott has returned from a successful expedition
against the Indians; having killed about thirty warriors, taken fifty
odd women and children prisoners, and destroyed two or three villages,
without the loss of a man, except three, drowned by accident. A similar
expedition was to follow immediately after the first, while preparations
are making for measures of more permanent effect: so that we hope this
summer to bring the Indians to accept of a just and general peace, on
which nothing will be asked of them but their peace.
The crops of wheat in the United States are rather abundant, and the
quality good. Those of tobacco are not promising as yet. I have heard
nothing of the rice crops.
I am, with very great esteem, Dear Sir, your most obedient and most
humble servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER LXIX.--TO WILLIAM SHORT, July 28,1791
TO WILLIAM SHORT.
Philadelphia, July 28,1791.
Dear Sir,
Since my last I have received letters from you as follows:
*****
Mine to you unacknowledged, were of March the 8th, 12th, 15th, 19th,
April the 25th, and May the 10th. Your two last letters mention the
length of time you have been without intelligence, having then received
mine of January the 23rd only. You will perceive by the above, that six
letters of a later date were on their way to you. The receipt of
these, with the newspapers, journals, laws, and other printed papers
accompanying them, will have relieved your anxiety, by answering
several articles of your former letters, and opening to you some new
and important matters. I scarcely ever miss the opportunity of a private
vessel going from hence or New York to any port of France, without
writing to you and sending you the newspapers, &c. In the winter,
occasions are very rare, this port particularly being blocked up with
ice. The reason of so long an interval between the last and present
letter, has been the journey of a month, which that informed you I
was about to take. This is the first vessel which has offered since my
return: she is bound to Havre, and will carry the newspapers as usual.
The difference of sixty-two livres ten sols the hogshead, established by
the National Assembly on tobacco brought in their and our ships, is
such an act of hostility against our navigation, as was not to have been
expected from the friendship of that nation. It is as new in its nature
as extravagant in its degree; since it is unexampled, that any nation
has endeavored to wrest from another the carriage of its own produce,
except in the case of their colonies. The British navigation act, so
much and so justly complained of, leaves to all nations the carriage of
their own commodities free. This measure, too, is calculated expressly
to take our own carriage from us and give the equivalent to other
nations: for it is well known, that the shipping of France is not
equal to the carriage of their whole commerce; but the freight in other
branches of navigation being on an equal footing with only forty livres
the hogshead, in ours, and this new arrangement giving them sixty-two
livres ten sols the hogshead, in addition to their freight, that is to
say, one hundred and two livres ten sols, instead of forty livres, their
vessels will leave every other branch of business to fill up this. They
will consequently leave a void in those other branches, which will be
occupied by English, Dutch, and Swedes, on the spot. They complain of
our tonnage duty, but it is because it is not understood. In the ports
of France, we pay fees for anchorage, buoys, and beacons, fees
to measurers, weighers, and guagers, and in some countries, for
light-houses. We have thought it better that the public here should pay
all these, and reimburse itself by a consolidation of them into one fee,
proportioned to the tonnage of the vessel, and therefore called by
that name. They complain that the foreign tonnage is higher than the
domestic. If this complaint had come from the English, it would not have
been wonderful, because the foreign tonnage operates really as a tax on
their commerce, which, under this name, is found to pay sixteen dollars
and fifty cents for every dollar paid by France. It was not conceived,
that the latter would have complained of a measure calculated to operate
so unequally on her rival, and I still suppose she would not complain,
if the thing were well understood. The refusing to our vessels the
faculty of becoming national bottoms, on sale to their citizens, was
never before done by any nation but England. I cannot help hoping that
these were wanderings of a moment, founded in misinformation, which
reflection will have corrected before you receive this.
Whenever jealousies are expressed as to any supposed views of ours, on
the dominion of the West Indies, you cannot go farther than the truth,
in asserting we have none. If there be one principle more deeply rooted
than any other in the mind of every American, it is, that we should
have nothing to do with conquest. As to commerce, indeed, we have strong
sensations. In casting our eyes over the earth, we see no instance of a
nation forbidden, as we are, by foreign powers, to deal with neighbors,
and obliged, with them, to carry into another hemisphere, the mutual
supplies necessary to relieve mutual wants. This is not merely a
question between the foreign power and our neighbor. We are interested
in it equally with the latter, and nothing but moderation, at least with
respect to us, can render us indifferent to its continuance. An exchange
of surpluses and wants between neighbor nations is both a right and a
duty under the moral law, and measures against right should be mollified
in their exercise, if it be wished to lengthen them to the greatest
term possible. Circumstances sometimes require, that rights the most
unquestionable should be advanced with delicacy. It would seem that the
one now spoken of would need only a mention, to be assented to by any
unprejudiced mind: but with respect to America, Europeans in general
have been too long in the habit of confounding force with right.
The Marquis de la Fayette stands in such a relation between the two
countries, that I should think him perfectly capable of seeing what
is just as to both. Perhaps on some occasion of free conversation, you
might find an opportunity of impressing these truths on his mind,
and that from him they might be let out at a proper moment as matters
meriting consideration and weight, when they shall be engaged in the
work of forming a constitution for our neighbors. In policy, if not in
justice, they should be disposed to avoid oppression, which, falling on
us as well as on their colonies, might tempt us to act together.*
[* This paragraph was in cipher, but an explication of it
preserved with the copy.]
The element of measure adopted by the National Assembly excludes, _ipso
facto_, every nation on earth from a communion of measure with them; for
they acknowledge themselves, that a due portion for admeasurement of a
meridian crossing the forty-fifth degree of latitude, and terminating
at both ends in the same level, can be found in no country on earth but
theirs. It would follow then, that other nations must trust to their
admeasurement, or send persons into their country to make it themselves,
not only in the first instance, but whenever afterwards they may wish to
verify their measures. Instead of concurring, then, in a measure which,
like the pendulum, may be found in every point of the forty-fifth
degree, and through both hemispheres, and consequently in all the
countries of the earth lying under that parallel, either northern or
southern, they adopt one which can be found but in a single point of
the northern parallel, and consequently only in one country, and that
country is theirs.
I left with you a statement of the case of Schweighaeuser and Dobree,
with the original vouchers on which it depends. From these you will have
known, that being authorized by Congress to settle this matter, I began
by offering to them an arbitration before honest and judicious men of
a neutral nation. They declined this, and had the modesty to propose
an arbitration before merchants of their own town. I gave them warning
then, that as the offer on the part of a sovereign nation to submit to
a private arbitration was an unusual condescendence, if they did not
accept it then, it would not be repeated, and that the United States
would judge the case for themselves hereafter. They continued to decline
it, and the case now stands thus. The territorial judge of France
has undertaken to call the United States to his jurisdiction, and has
arrested their property, in order to enforce appearance, and possess
himself of a matter whereon to found a decree; but no court can have
jurisdiction over a sovereign nation. This position was agreed to;
but it was urged, that some act of Mr. Barclay’s had admitted the
jurisdiction. It was denied that there had been any such act by Mr.
Barclay, and disavowed, if there was one, as without authority from the
United States, the property on which the arrest was made having been
purchased by Dr. Franklin, and remaining in his possession till taken
out of it by the arrest. On this disavowal, it was agreed that there
could be no further contest, and I received assurance that the property
should be withdrawn from the possession of the court by an evocation
of the cause before the King’s Council, on which, without other
proceedings, it should be delivered to the United States. Applications
were repeated as often as dignity, or even decency, would permit; but
it was never done. Thus the matter rests, and thus it is meant it should
rest. No answer of any kind is to be given to Schweighaeuser and Dobree.
If they think proper to apply to their sovereign, I presume there will
be a communication either through you or their representative here, and
we shall have no difficulty to show the character of the treatment we
have experienced.
I will observe for your information, that the sustenance of our captives
at Algiers is committed to Colonel Humphreys.
You will be so kind as to remember, that your public account from the
1st day of July, 1790, to the last of June, 1791, inclusive, is desired
before the meeting of congress, that I may be able to lay before them
the general account of the foreign fund for that year.
General Scott has returned from a successful expedition against the
northern Indians, having killed thirty-two warriors, taken fifty-eight
women and children prisoners, and destroyed three towns and villages,
with a great deal of corn in grain and growth. A similar expedition was
to follow immediately, while preparation is making for measures of more
permanent effect; so that we may reasonably hope the Indians will be
induced to accept of peace, which is all we desire.
Our funds have risen nearly to par. The eight millions for the bank was
subscribed as fast as it could be written, and that stock is now above
par. Our crops of wheat have been rather abundant, and of excellent
quality. Those of tobacco are not very promising as yet. The census
is not yet completed, but, from what we hear, we may expect our whole
numbers will be nearer four than three millions. I enclose a sketch of
the numbers as far as we yet know them.
I am, with great and sincere esteem, Dear Sir, your sincere friend and
servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER LXX.--TO THE PRESIDENT, July 30,1791
TO THE PRESIDENT.
Philadelphia, July 30,1791.
Sir, I have the honor to enclose, for your perusal, a letter which I
have prepared for Mr. Short.
The ill humor into which the French colonies are getting, and the little
dependence on the troops sent thither, may produce a hesitation in
the National Assembly as to the conditions they will impose in their
constitution. In a moment of hesitation, small matters may influence
their decision. They may see the impolicy of insisting on particular
conditions, which, operating as grievances on us as well as on their
colonists, might produce a concert of action. I have thought it would
not be amiss to trust to Mr. Short the sentiments in the ciphered part
of the letter, leaving him to govern himself by circumstances, whether
to let them leak out at all or not, and whether so as that it may be
known or remain unknown that they come from us. A perfect knowledge of
his judgment and discretion leaves me entirely satisfied, that they will
be not used, or so used as events shall render proper. But if you think
that the possibility that harm may be done, overweighs the chance of
good, I would expunge them, as, in cases of doubt, it is better to say
too little than too much.
I have the honor to be, with the most perfect respect and attachment,
Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER LXXI.--TO GENERAL KNOX, August 10, 1791
TO GENERAL KNOX.
Philadelphia, August 10, 1791.
Dear Sir,
I have now the honor to return you the petition of Mr. Moultrie on
behalf of the South Carolina Yazoo company. Without noticing that some
of the highest functions of sovereignty are assumed in the very papers
which he annexes as his justification, I am of opinion that government
should firmly maintain this ground; that the Indians have a right to
the occupation of their lands, independent of the States within whose
chartered lines they happen to be; that until they cede them by treaty
or other transaction equivalent to a treaty, no act of a State can give
a right to such lands; that neither under the present constitution, nor
the ancient confederation, had any State or person a right to treat with
the Indians, without the consent of the General Government; that that
consent has never been given to any treaty for the cession of the lands
in question; that the government is determined to exert all its energy
for the patronage and protection of the rights of the Indians, and the
preservation of peace between the United States and them and that if any
settlements are made on lands not ceded by them, without the previous
consent of the United States, the government will think itself bound,
not only to declare to the Indians that such settlements are without the
authority or protection of the United States, but to remove them also by
the public force.
It is in compliance with your request, my dear Sir, that I submit these
ideas to you, to whom it belongs to give place to them, or such others
as your better judgment shall prefer, in answer to Mr. Moultrie.
I have the honor to be, with sentiments of the most sincere and
respectful esteem, Dear Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER LXXII.--TO THE MINISTER OF FRANCE, August 12, 1791
The Secretary of State has the honor to inform the Minister of France,
that the President will receive his letters of credence today, at half
after two; that this will be done in a room of private audience, without
any ceremony whatever, or other person present than the Secretary of
State, this being the usage which will be observed.
As the Secretary of State will be with the President before that hour on
business, the Minister will find him there.
August 12,1791.
LETTER LXXIII.--TO SYLVANUS BOURNE, August 14,1791
TO SYLVANUS BOURNE.
Philadelphia, August 14,1791.
Sir,
My letter of May the 13th acknowledged the receipt of yours of November
the 30th. Since writing that, I have received yours of April the 29th
and June the 30th, addressed to myself, and of July the 14th, to Mr.
Remsen. As none of these acknowledge mine of May the 13th, I now enclose
you a duplicate of it, fearing the first has miscarried. In this,
you will find the sentiments of our government on the subject of your
recognition. Subsequent circumstances have rendered it an object still
less proper to be pressed. In the present divisions of that country, we
wish to avoid every measure which may excite the jealousy of any party,
being sincerely the friends and well-wishers of all. As to my writing to
the Governor, as pressed in your letter of April the 29th, it would be
contrary to the usage established among nations, and therefore cannot be
done. We have received Consuls from France, England, Portugal, Sweden,
with no other credential but their open commissions; we have sent
Consuls to most of the countries of Europe with nothing more. There has
never been an instance of a special letter demanded.
Though we have not received an authenticated copy of the decree of the
National Assembly of France, extending the repeal of the law of _Droit
d’Aubaine_, by name, to their colonies, yet we know it has been so
extended, and doubt not that a notification thereof has been sent to the
colonies, so as to relieve us from that oppression.
As Congress have not, as yet, allowed any emoluments to the Consuls of
the United States, and perhaps may not mean to do it, we do not expect
that any of those gentlemen will think themselves confined to their
residence a moment beyond their own convenience. These appointments
are given to gentlemen who are satisfied to perform their duties, in
consideration of the respect and accidental advantages they may
derive from them. When the consideration ceases to be sufficient, the
government cannot insist on a continuation of services, because this
would found claims which it does not mean to authorize. On these
principles, Mr. Skipwith has lately returned from Martinique; on the
same, it is my duty to say, that however satisfied we should be with a
continuance of your services at St. Domingo, we cannot and do not ask
them longer than convenient to yourself.
I have the honor to be, with great regard, Sir, your most obedient,
humble servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER LXXIV.--TO WILLIAM SHORT, August 29, 1791
TO WILLIAM SHORT.
Philadelphia, August 29, 1791.
Dear Sir,