you, that the commission of Consul to M. Dannery, ought to have been
addressed to the President of the United States. He being the only
channel of communication between this country and foreign nations, it is
from him alone that foreign nations, or their agents, are to learn what
is or has been the will of the nation, and whatever he communicates as
such, they have a right and are bound to consider as the expression
of the nation, and no foreign agent can be allowed to question it, to
interpose between him and any other branch of government, under the
pretext of either’s transgressing their functions, nor to make himself
the umpire and final judge between them. I am, therefore, Sir, not
authorized to enter into any discussions with you on the meaning of our
constitution in any part of it, or to prove to you that it has ascribed
to him alone the admission or interdiction of foreign agents. I inform
you of the fact by authority from the President. I had observed to you,
that we were persuaded, in the case of the Consul Dannery, the error in
the address had proceeded from no intention in the Executive Council
of France to question the functions of the President, and therefore no
difficulty was made in issuing the commissions. We are still under the
same persuasion. But in your letter of the 14th instant, you personally
question the authority of the President, and in consequence of that,
have not addressed to him the commission of Messrs. Pennevert and
Chervi. Making a point of this formality on your part, it becomes
necessary to make a point of it on ours also; and I am therefore charged
to return you those commissions, and to inform you, that bound to
enforce respect to the order of things established by our constitution,
the President will issue no Exequatur to any Consul or Vice-Consul, not
directed to him in the usual form, after the party from whom it comes
has been apprized that such should be the address.
I have the honor to be, with respect, Sir, your most obedient and most
humble servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER CLXXIV.--TO MR. GENET, December 9, 1793
TO MR. GENET.
Philadelphia, December 9, 1793.
Sir,
I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 3rd instant,
which has been duly laid before the President.
We are very far from admitting your principle, that the government
on either side has no other right, on the presentation of a consular
commission, than to certify, that having examined it, they find it
according to rule. The governments of both nations have a right, and
that of yours has exercised it as to us, of considering the character
of the person appointed, the place for which he is appointed, and other
material circumstances; and of taking precautions as to his conduct,
if necessary: and this does not defeat the general object of the
convention, which, in stipulating that consuls shall be permitted
on both sides, could not mean to supersede reasonable objections to
particular persons, who might at the moment be obnoxious to the nation
to which they were sent, or whose conduct might render them so at any
time after. In fact, every foreign agent depends on the double will of
the two governments, of that which sends him, and of that which is to
permit the exercise of his functions within their territory; and when
either of these wills is refused or withdrawn, his authority to
act within that territory becomes incomplete. By what member of the
government the right of giving or withdrawing permission is to be
exercised here, is a question on which no foreign agent can be permitted
to make himself the umpire. It is sufficient for him, under our
government, that he is informed of it by the executive.
On an examination of the commissions from your nation, among our
records, I find that before the late change in the form of our
government, foreign agents were addressed, sometimes to the United
States, and sometimes to the Congress of the United States, that body
being then executive as well as legislative. Thus the commissions
of Messrs. L’Etombe, Holker, Dauneraanis, Marbois, Crevecoeur and
Chateaufort, have all this clause, ‘_Prions et requerons nos tres chers
et grands amis et allies, les Etat-Unis de l’Amerique Septentrionale,
leurs gouverneurs, et autres officiers, &c. de laisser jouir, &c. le dit
sieur, &c. de la charge de notre Consul,_’ &c. On the change in the form
of our government, foreign nations, not undertaking to decide to what
member of the new government their agents should be addressed, ceased to
do it to Congress, and adopted the general address to the United States,
before cited. This was done by the government of your own nation, as
appears by the commissions of Messrs. Mangourit and La Forest, which
have in them the clause before cited. So your own commission was, not as
M. Gerond’s and Luzerne’s had been, ‘_a nos tres chers, &c. le President
et membres du Congres general des Etats-Unis_,’ &c. but ‘_a nos tres
chers, &c. les Etats-Unis de l’Amerique_,’ &c. Under this general
address, the proper member of the government was included, and could
take it up. When, therefore, it was seen in the commissions of Messrs.
Dupont and Hauterive, that your executive had returned to the ancient
address to Congress, it was conceived to be an inattention, insomuch,
that I do not recollect (and I do not think it material enough to
inquire) whether I noticed it to you either verbally or by letter. When
that of M. Dannery was presented with the like address, being obliged
to notice to you an inaccuracy of another kind, I then mentioned that
of the address, not calling it an innovation, but expressing my
satisfaction, which is still entire, that it was not from any design in
your Executive Council. The Exequatur was therefore sent. That they will
not consider our notice of it as an innovation, we are perfectly
secure. No government can disregard formalities more than ours. But
when formalities are attacked with a view to change principles, and to
introduce an entire independence of foreign agents on the nation with
whom they reside, it becomes material to defend formalities. They would
be no longer trifles, if they could, in defiance of the national will,
continue a foreign agent among us, whatever might be his course of
action. Continuing, therefore, the refusal to receive any commission
from yourself, addressed to an improper member of the government, you
are left free to use either the general one to the United States, as in
the commissions of Messrs. Mangourit and La Forest before cited, or the
special one, to the President of the United States.
I have the honor to be, with respect, Sir, your most obedient and most
humble servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER CLXXV.--TO THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE U.S., December 18, 1793
TO THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES.
Philadelphia, December 18, 1793.
Sir,
The Minister Plenipotentiary of France has enclosed to me a copy of a
letter of the 16th instant, which he addressed to you, stating that
some libellous publications had been made against him by Mr. Jay, Chief
Justice of the United States, and Mr. King, one of the Senators for
the State of New York, and desiring that they might be prosecuted. This
letter has been laid before the President, according to the request of
the Minister; and the President, never doubting your readiness on
all occasions to perform the functions of your office, yet thinks it
incumbent on him to recommend it specially on the present occasion, as
it concerns a public character peculiarly entitled to the protection of
the laws. On the other hand, as our citizens ought not to be vexed with
groundless prosecutions, duty to them requires it to be added, that if
you judge the prosecution in question to be of that nature, you consider
this recommendation as not extending to it; its only object being to
engage you to proceed in this case according to the duties of your
office, the laws of the land, and the privileges of the parties
concerned.
I have the honor to be, with great respect and esteem, Sir, your most
obedient and most humble servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER CLXXVI.--TO E. RANDOLPH, February 3, 1794
TO E. RANDOLPH.
Monticello, February 3, 1794.
Dear Sir,
I have to thank you for the transmission of the letters from General
Gates, La Motte, and Hauterive. I perceive by the latter, that the
partisans of the one or the other principle (perhaps of both) have
thought my name a convenient cover for declarations of their own
sentiments. What those are to which Hauterive alludes, I know not,
having never seen a newspaper since I left Philadelphia (except those
of Richmond), and no circumstances authorize him to expect that I should
inquire into them, or answer him. I think it is Montaigne who has said,
that ignorance is the softest pillow on which a man can rest his head.
I am sure it is true as to every thing political, and shall endeavor to
estrange myself to every thing of that character. I indulge myself on
one political topic only, that is, in declaring to my countrymen the
shameless corruption of a portion of the Representatives in the first
and second Congresses, and their implicit devotion to the treasury. I
think I do good in this, because it may produce exertions to reform the
evil, on the success of which the form of the government is to depend.
I am sorry La Motte has put me to the expense of one hundred and forty
livres for a French translation of an English poem, as I make it a rule
never to read translations where I can read the original. However,
the question now is, how to get the book brought here, as well as the
communications with Mr. Hammond which you were so kind as to promise me.
This is the first letter I have written to Philadelphia since my arrival
at home, and yours the only ones I have received.
Accept assurances of my sincere esteem and respect. Yours
affectionately,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER CLXXVII.--TO JAMES MADISON, April 3, 1794
TO JAMES MADISON.
Monticello, April 3, 1794.
Dear Sir,
Our post having ceased to ride ever since the inoculation began in
Richmond, till now, I received three days ago, and all together, your
friendly favors of March the 2nd, 9th, 12th, 14th, and Colonel Monroe’s
of March the 3rd and 16th. I have been particularly gratified by the
receipt of the papers containing yours and Smith’s discussion of your
regulating propositions. These debates had not been seen here but in a
very short and mutilated form. I am at no loss to ascribe Smith’s
speech to its true father. Every tittle of it is Hamilton’s except the
introduction. There is scarcely any thing there which I have not heard
from him in our various private, though official discussions. The very
turn of the arguments is the same, and others will see as well as myself
that the style is Hamilton’s. The sophistry is too fine, too ingenious,
even to have been comprehended by Smith, much less devised by him.
His reply shows he did not understand his first speech; as its general
inferiority proves its legitimacy, as evidently as it does the bastardy
of the original. You know we had understood that Hamilton had prepared a
counter report, and that some of his humble servants in the Senate were
to move a reference to him in order to produce it. But I suppose they
thought it would have a better effect, if fired off in the House of
Representatives. I find the report, however, so fully justified, that
the anxieties with which I left it are perfectly quieted. In this
quarter, all espouse your propositions with ardor, and without a
dissenting voice.
The rumor of a declaration of war has given an opportunity of seeing,
that the people here, though attentive to the loss of value of their
produce in such an event, yet find in it a gratification of some other
passions, and particularly of their ancient hatred to Great Britain.
Still I hope it will not come to that; but that the proposition will
be carried, and justice be done ourselves in a peaceable way. As to the
guarantee of the French islands, whatever doubts may be entertained of
the moment at which we ought to interpose, yet I have no doubt but that
we ought to interpose at a proper time, and declare both to England and
France, that these islands are to rest with France, and that we will
make a common cause with the latter for that object. As to the naval
armament, the land armament, and the marine fortifications which are in
question with you, I have no doubt they will all be carried. Not that
the monocrats and papermen in Congress want war; but they want armies
and debts; and though we may hope that the sound part of Congress is
now so augmented as to insure a majority in cases of general interest
merely, yet I have always observed that in questions of expense, where
members may hope either for offices or jobs for themselves or their
friends, some few will be debauched, and that is sufficient to turn the
decision where a majority is, at most, but small. I have never seen a
Philadelphia paper since I left it, till those you enclosed me; and
I feel myself so thoroughly weaned from the interest I took in the
proceedings there, while there, that I have never had a wish to see one,
and believe that I never shall take another newspaper of any sort. I
find my mind totally absorbed in my rural occupations.
Accept sincere assurances of affection.
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER CLXXVIII.--TO TENCH COXE, May 1,1794
TO TENCH COXE.
Monticello, May 1,1794.
Dear Sir,
Your several favors of February the 22nd, 27th, and March the 16th,
which had been accumulating in Richmond during the prevalence of the
small pox in that place, were lately brought to me, on the permission
given the post to resume his communication. I am particularly to
thank you for your favor in forwarding the Bee. Your letters give a
comfortable view of French affairs, and later events seem to confirm it.
Over the foreign powers I am convinced they will triumph completely, and
I cannot but hope that that triumph, and the consequent disgrace of the
invading tyrants, is destined, in the order of events, to kindle the
wrath of the people of Europe against those who have dared to embroil
them in such wickedness, and to bring at length, kings, nobles, and
priests to the scaffolds which they have been so long deluging with
human blood. I am still warm whenever I think of these scoundrels,
though I do it as seldom as I can, preferring infinitely to contemplate
the tranquil growth of my lucerne and potatoes. I have so completely
withdrawn myself from these spectacles of usurpation and misrule, that I
do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month: and I feel myself
infinitely the happier for it.
We are alarmed here with the apprehensions of war; and sincerely anxious
that it may be avoided; but not at the expense either of our faith or
honor. It seems much the general opinion here, the latter has been too
much wounded not to require reparation, and to seek it even in war, if
that be necessary. As to myself, I love peace, and I am anxious that we
should give the world still another useful lesson, by showing to them
other modes of punishing injuries than by war, which is as much a
punishment to the punisher as to the sufferer. I love therefore, Mr.
Clarke’s proposition of cutting off all communication with the nation
which has conducted itself so atrociously. This you will say may bring
on war. If it does, we will meet it like men; but it may not bring on
war, and then the experiment will have been a happy one. I believe this
war would be vastly more unanimously approved than any one we ever were
engaged in; because the aggressions have been so wanton and bare-faced,
and so unquestionably against our desire. I am sorry Mr. Cooper and
Priestley did not take a more general survey of our country before they
fixed themselves. I think they might have promoted their own advantage
by it, and have aided the introduction of improvement where it is more
wanting. The prospect of wheat for the ensuing year is a bad one. This
is all the sort of news you can expect from me. From you I shall be glad
to hear all sorts of news, and particularly any improvements in the arts
applicable to husbandry or household manufacture.
I am, with very sincere affection, Dear Sir, your friend and servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER CLXXIX.--TO THE PRESIDENT, May 14, 1794
TO THE PRESIDENT.
Monticello, May 14, 1794.
Dear Sir,
I am honored with your favor of April the 24th, and received at the
same time Mr. Bertrand’s agricultural prospectus. Though he mentions my
having seen him at a particular place, yet I remember nothing of it,
and observing that he intimates an application for lands in America, I
conceive his letter meant for me as Secretary of State, and therefore
I now send it to the Secretary of State. He has given only the heads of
his demonstrations, so that nothing can be conjectured of their details.
Lord Kaims once proposed an essence of dung, one pint of which should
manure an acre. If he or Mr. Bertrand could have rendered it so
portable, I should have been one of those who would have been greatly
obliged to them. I find on a more minute examination of my lands that
the short visits heretofore made to them, permitted, that a ten years’
abandonment of them to the ravages of overseers, has brought on them a
degree of degradation far beyond what I had expected. As this obliges me
to adopt a milder course of cropping, so I find that they have enabled
me to do it, by having opened a great deal of lands during my absence. I
have therefore determined on a division of my farms into six fields, to
be put under this rotation: first year, wheat; second, corn, potatoes,
peas; third, rye, or wheat, according to circumstances; fourth and
fifth, clover where the fields will bring it, and buckwheat dressings
where they will not; sixth, folding, and buckwheat dressings. But it
will take me from three to six years to get this plan under way. I am
not yet satisfied that my acquisition of overseers from the head of
Elk has been a happy one, or that much will be done this year towards
rescuing my plantations from their wretched condition. Time, patience,
and perseverance must be the remedy: and the maxim of your letter, ‘slow
and sure,’ is not less a good one in agriculture than in politics. I
sincerely wish it may extricate us from the event of a war, if this
can be done saving our faith and our rights. My opinion of the British
government is, that nothing will force them to do justice but the
loud voice of their people, and that this can never be excited but by
distressing their commerce. But I cherish tranquillity too much, to
suffer political things to enter my mind at all. I do not forget that
I owe you a letter for Mr. Young; but I am waiting to get full
information. With every wish for your health and happiness, and my most
friendly respects for Mrs. Washington, I have the honor to be, Dear Sir,
your most obedient and most humble servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER CLXXX.--TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE, September 7, 1794
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
Monticello, September 7, 1794.
Dear Sir,
Your favor of August the 28th finds me in bed under a paroxysm of the
rheumatism which has now kept me for ten days in constant torment, and
presents no hope of abatement. But the express and the nature of the
case requiring immediate answer, I write to you in this situation. No
circumstances, my Dear Sir, will ever more tempt me to engage in any
thing public. I thought myself perfectly fixed in this determination
when I left Philadelphia, but every day and hour since has added to its
inflexibility. It is a great pleasure to me to retain the esteem and
approbation of the President, and this forms the only ground of any
reluctance at being unable to comply with every wish of his. Pray convey
these sentiments and a thousand more to him, which my situation does
not permit me to go into. But however suffering by the addition of every
single word to this letter, I must add a solemn declaration that neither
Mr. J. nor Mr. ------- ever mentioned to me one word of any want of
decorum in Mr. Carmichael, nor any thing stronger or more special than
stated in my notes of the conversation. Excuse my brevity, my dear Sir,
and accept assurances of the sincere esteem and respect, with which I
have the honor to be your affectionate friend and servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER CLXXXI.--TO JAMES MADISON, December 28, 1794
TO JAMES MADISON.
Monticello, December 28, 1794.
Dear Sir,
I have kept Mr. Jay’s letter a post or two, with an intention of
considering attentively the observations it contains: but I have really
now so little stomach for any thing of that kind, that I have not
resolution enough even to endeavor to understand the observations. I
therefore return the letter, not to delay your answer to it, and beg
you in answering for yourself, to assure him of my respects and thankful
acceptance of Chalmers’ Treaties, which I do not possess, and if you
possess yourself of the scope of his reasoning, make any answer to it
you please for me. If it had been on the rotation of my crops, I would
have answered myself, lengthily perhaps, but certainly _con gusto_.