April, with the one for Monroe, has never been received. The first, of
March the 27th, did not reach me till April the 21st, when I was within
a few days of setting out for this place, and I put off acknowledging
it till I should come here. I entirely commend your dispositions towards
Mr. Adams; knowing his worth as intimately and esteeming it as much as
any one, and acknowledging the preference of his claims, if any I could
have had, to the high office conferred on him. But in truth, I had
neither claims nor wishes on the subject, though I know it will be
difficult to obtain belief of this. When I retired from this place and
the office of Secretary of State, it was in the firmest contemplation
of never more returning here. There had indeed been suggestions in
the public papers, that I was looking towards a succession to the
President’s chair, but feeling a consciousness of their falsehood, and
observing that the suggestions came from hostile quarters, I considered
them as intended merely to excite public odium against me. I never in
my life exchanged a word with any person on the subject, till I found my
name brought forward generally, in competition with that of Mr. Adams.
Those with whom I then communicated, could say, if it were necessary,
whether I met the call with desire, or even with a ready acquiescence,
and whether from the moment of my first acquiescence, I did not devoutly
pray that the very thing might happen which has happened. The second
office of this government is honorable and easy, the first is but a
splendid misery.
You express apprehensions that stratagems will be used, to produce a
misunderstanding between the President and myself. Though not a word
having this tendency has ever been hazarded to me by any one, yet I
consider as a certainty that nothing will be left untried to alienate
him from me. These machinations will proceed from the Hamiltonians by
whom he is surrounded, and who are only a little less hostile to him
than to me. It cannot but damp the pleasure of cordiality, when we
suspect that it is suspected. I cannot help thinking, that it is
impossible for Mr. Adams to believe that the state of my mind is what it
really is; that he may think I view him as an obstacle in my way. I have
no supernatural power to impress truth on the mind of another, nor he
any to discover that the estimate which he may form, on a just view
of the human mind as generally constituted, may not be just in its
application to a special constitution. This may be a source of private
uneasiness to us; I honestly confess that it is so to me at this time.
But neither of us is capable of letting it have effect on our public
duties. Those who may endeavor to separate us, are probably excited by
the fear that I might have influence on the executive councils: but when
they shall know that I consider my office as constitutionally confined
to legislative functions, and that I could not take any part whatever in
executive consultations, even were it proposed, their fears may perhaps
subside, and their object be found not worth a machination.
I do sincerely wish with you, that we could take our stand on a ground
perfectly neutral and independent towards all nations. It has been my
constant object through my public life: and with respect to the English
and French, particularly, I have too often expressed to the former
my wishes, and made to them propositions verbally and in writing,
officially and privately, to official and private characters, for them
to doubt of my views, if they would be content with equality. Of this
they are in possession of several written and formal proofs, in my own
hand-writing. But they have wished a monopoly of commerce and influence
with us; and they have in fact obtained it. When we take notice that
theirs is the workshop to which we go for all we want; that with them
centre either immediately or ultimately all the labors of our hands and
lands; that to them belongs either openly or secretly the great mass of
our navigation; that even the factorage of their affairs here, is kept
to themselves by factitious citizenships; that these foreign and false
citizens now constitute the great body of what are called our merchants,
fill our sea-ports, are planted in every little town and district of
the interior country, sway every thing in the former places by their
own votes, and those of their dependents, in the latter, by their
insinuations and the influence of their ledgers; that they are advancing
fast to a monopoly of our banks and public funds, and thereby placing
our public finances under their control; that they have in their
alliance the most influential characters in and out of office; when they
have shown that by all these bearings on the different branches of the
government, they can force it to proceed in whatever direction they
dictate, and bend the interests of this country entirely to the will of
another; when all this, I say, is attended to, it is impossible for us
to say we stand on independent ground, impossible for a free mind not
to see and to groan under the bondage in which it is bound. If anything
after this could excite surprise, it would be that they have been able
so far to throw dust in the eyes of our own citizens, as to fix on those
who wish merely to recover self-government the charge of subserving one
foreign influence because they resist submission to another. But they
possess our printing presses, a powerful engine in their government of
us. At this very moment, they would have drawn us into a war on the side
of England, had it not been for the failure of her bank. Such was their
open and loud cry, and that of their gazettes, till this event. After
plunging us in all the broils of the European nations, there would
remain but one act to close our tragedy, that is, to break up our union;
and even this they have ventured seriously and solemnly to propose
and maintain by arguments in a Connecticut paper. I have been happy,
however, in believing, from the stifling of this effort, that that dose
was found too strong, and excited as much repugnance there as it did
horror in other parts of our country, and that whatever follies we may
be led into as to foreign nations, we shall never give up our Union,
the last anchor of our hope, and that alone which is to prevent this
heavenly country from becoming an arena of gladiators. Much as I abhor
war, and view it as the greatest scourge of mankind, and anxiously as
I wish to keep out of the broils of Europe, I would yet go with my
brethren into these, rather than separate from them. But I hope we may
still keep clear of them, notwithstanding our present thraldom, and
that time may be given us to reflect on the awful crisis we have passed
through, and to find some means of shielding ourselves in future from
foreign influence, political, commercial, or in whatever other form it
may be attempted. I can scarcely withhold myself from joining in the
wish of Silas Deane, that there were an ocean of fire between us and the
old world.
A perfect confidence that you are as much attached to peace and union
as myself, that you equally prize independence of all nations and the
blessings of self-government, has induced me freely to unbosom myself
to you, and let you see the light in which I have viewed what has been
passing among us from the beginning of the war. And I shall be happy,
at all times, in an intercommunication of sentiments with you, believing
that the dispositions of the different parts of our country have been
considerably misrepresented and misunderstood in each part, as to
the other, and that nothing but good can result from an exchange of
information and opinions between those whose circumstances and morals
admit no doubt of the integrity of their views.
I remain, with constant and sincere esteem, Dear Sir, your affectionate
friend and servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER CCXI.--TO GENERAL GATES, May 30,1797
TO GENERAL GATES.
Philadelphia, May 30,1797.
Dear General,
I thank you for the pamphlet of Erskine enclosed in your favor of the
9th instant, and still more for the evidence which your letter affords
me of the health of your mind, and I hope of your body also. Erskine has
been reprinted here, and has done good. It has refreshed the memory
of those who had been willing to forget how the war between France
and England had been produced; and who, aping St. James’s, called it a
defensive war on the part of England. I wish any events could induce
us to cease to copy such a model, and to assume the dignity of being
original. They had their paper system, stockjobbing, speculations,
public debt, monied interest, &c, and all this was contrived for us.
They raised their cry against jacobinism and revolutionists, we against
democratic societies and anti-federalists; their alarmists sounded
insurrection, ours marched an army to look for one, but they could
not find it. I wish the parallel may stop here, and that we may avoid,
instead of imitating, a general bankruptcy and disastrous war.
Congress, or rather the Representatives, have been a fortnight debating
between a more or less irritating answer to the President’s speech.
The latter was lost yesterday, by forty-eight against fifty-one or
fifty-two. It is believed, however, that when they come to propose
measures leading directly to war, they will lose some of their numbers.
Those who have no wish but for the peace of their country, and its
independence of all foreign influence, have a hard struggle indeed,
overwhelmed by a cry as loud and imposing as if it were true, of being
under French influence, and thus raised by a faction composed of
English subjects residing among us, or such as are English in all their
relations and sentiments. However, patience will bring all to rights,
and we shall both live to see the mask taken from their faces, and
our citizens sensible on which side true liberty and independence are
sought. Should any circumstance draw me further from home, I shall with
great cordiality pay my respects to you at Rose-Hill, and am not without
hope of meeting you here some time.
Here, there, and every where else, I am, with great and sincere
attachment and respect, your friend and servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER CCXII.--TO JAMES MADISON, June 1, 1797
TO JAMES MADISON.
Philadelphia, June 1, 1797.
Dear Sir, I wrote you on the 18th of May. The address of the Senate was
soon after that. The first draught was responsive to the speech, and
higher toned. Mr. Henry arrived the day it was reported; the addressers
had not yet their strength around them. They listened therefore to
his objections, recommitted the papers, added him and Tazewell to the
committee, and it was reported with considerable alterations; but
one great attack was made on it, which was to strike out the clause
approving every thing heretofore done by the executive. This clause
was retained by a majority of four. They received a new accession
of members, held a caucus, took up all the points recommended in the
speech, except the raising money, agreed the list of every committee,
and on Monday passed the resolutions and appointed the committees, by an
uniform vote of seventeen to eleven. (Mr. Henry was accidentally absent;
Ross not then come.) Yesterday they took up the nomination of John
Quincy Adams to Berlin, which had been objected to as extending our
diplomatic establishment. It was approved by eighteen to fourteen. (Mr.
Tatnall accidentally absent.) From the proceedings we are able to see,
that eighteen on the one side and ten on the other, with two wavering
votes, will decide every question. Schuyler is too ill to come this
session, and Gunn has not yet come. Pinckney (the General), John
Marshall, and Dana are nominated Envoys Extraordinary to France. Charles
Lee consulted a member from Virginia, to know whether Marshall would be
agreeable. He named you, as more likely to give satisfaction. The answer
was,’ Nobody of Mr. Madison’s way of thinking will be appointed.’
The representatives have not yet got through their addresses. An
amendment of Mr. Nicholas’s, which you will have seen in the papers, was
lost by a division of forty-six to fifty-two. A clause by Mr. Dayton,
expressing a wish that France might be put on an equal footing with
other nations, was inserted by fifty-two against forty-seven. This vote
is most worthy of notice, because the moderation and justice of the
proposition being unquestionable, it shows that there are forty-seven
decided to go to all lengths to
*****
They have received a new orator from the district of Mr. Ames. He is the
son of the Secretary of the Senate. They have an accession from South
Carolina also, that State being exactly divided. In the House of
Representatives I learned the following facts, which give me real
concern. When the British treaty arrived at Charleston, a meeting, as
you know, was called, and a committee of seventeen appointed, of whom
General Pinckney was one. He did not attend. They waited for him, sent
for him: he treated the mission with great hauteur, and disapproved of
their meddling. In the course of subsequent altercations, he declared
that his brother T. Pinckney, approved of every article of the treaty,
under the existing circumstances, and since that time the politics of
[* A few lines ave here unintelligible.]
Charleston have been assuming a different hue. Young Rutledge joining
Smith and Harper, is an ominous fact as to that whole interest.
Tobacco is at nine dollars, and flour very dull of sale. A great
stagnation in commerce generally. During the present bankruptcy in
England, the merchants seem disposed to lie on their oars. It is
impossible to conjecture the rising of Congress, as it will depend on
the system they decide on; whether of preparation for war, or inaction.
In the vote of forty-six to fifty-two, Morgan, Machir, and Evans were of
the majority, and Clay kept his seat, refusing to vote with either.
In that of forty-seven to fifty-two, Evans was the only one of our
delegation who voted against putting France on an equal footing with
other nations.
P. M. So far I had written in the morning. I now take up my pen to add,
that the addresses having been reported to the House, it was moved to
disagree to so much of the amendment as went to the putting France on an
equal footing with other nations, and Morgan and Machir turning tail (in
consequence, as is said, of having been closeted last night by Charles
Lee), the vote was forty-nine to fifty. So the principle was saved by a
single vote. They then proposed that compensations for spoliations shall
be a _sine qua non_, and this will be decided on to-morrow,
Yours affectionately,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER CCXIII.--TO COLONEL BURR, June 17,1797
TO COLONEL BURR.
Philadelphia, June 17,1797.
Dear Sir,
The newspapers give, so minutely what is passing in Congress, that
nothing of detail can be wanting for your information. Perhaps, however,
some general view of our situation and prospects, since you left us,
may not be unacceptable. At any rate, it will give me an opportunity of
recalling myself to your memory, and of evidencing my esteem for you.
You well know how strong a character of division had been impressed
on the Senate by the British treaty. Common error, common censure, and
common efforts of defence had formed the treaty majority into a common
band, which feared to separate even on other subjects. Towards the close
of the last Congress, however, it had been hoped that their ties began
to loosen, and their phalanx to separate a little.
This hope was blasted at the very opening of the present session, by
the nature of the appeal which the President made to the nation; the
occasion for which had confessedly sprung from the fatal British treaty.
This circumstance rallied them again to their standard, and hitherto we
have had pretty regular treaty votes on all questions of principle. And
indeed I fear, that as long as the same individuals remain, so long we
shall see traces of the same division. In the House of Representatives
the republican body has also lost strength. The non-attendance of five
or six of that description has left the majority very equivocal indeed.
A few individuals of no fixed system at all, governed by the panic
or the prowess of the moment, flap as the breeze blows against the
republican or the aristocratic bodies, and give to the one or the other
a preponderance entirely accidental. Hence the dissimilar aspect of the
address, and of the proceedings subsequent to that. The inflammatory
composition of the speech excited sensations of resentment which had
slept under British injuries, threw the wavering into the war scale, and
produced the war address. Bonaparte’s victories and those on the Rhine,
the Austrian peace, British bankruptcy, mutiny of the seamen, and Mr.
King’s exhortations to pacific measures, have cooled them down again,
and the scale of peace preponderates. The threatening propositions
therefore, founded in the address, are abandoned one by one, and the cry
begins now to be, that we have been called together to do nothing. The
truth is, there is nothing to do, the idea of war being scouted by the
events of Europe: but this only proves that war was the object for which
we were called. It proves that the executive temper was for war; and
that the convocation of the Representatives was an experiment of the
temper of the nation, to see if it was in unison. Efforts at negotiation
indeed were promised; but such a promise was as difficult to withhold,
as easy to render nugatory. If negotiation alone had been meant, that
might have been pursued without so much delay, and without calling the
Representatives; and if strong and earnest negotiation had been meant,
the additional nomination would have been of persons strongly and
earnestly attached to the alliance of 1778. War then was intended.
Whether abandoned or not, we must judge from future indications and
events: for the same secrecy and mystery are affected to be observed by
the present, which marked the former administration. I had always hoped,
that the popularity of the late President being once withdrawn from
active effect, the natural feelings of the people towards liberty
would restore the equilibrium between the executive and legislative
departments, which had been destroyed by the superior weight and effect
of that popularity; and that their natural feelings of moral obligation
would discountenance the ungrateful predilection of the executive in
favor of Great Britain. But unfortunately, the preceding measures had
already alienated the nation who were the object of them, had excited
reaction from them, and this reaction has on the minds of our citizens
an effect which supplies that of the Washington popularity. This effect
was sensible on some of the late congressional elections, and this it is
which has lessened the republican majority in Congress. When it will be
reinforced, must depend on events, and these are so incalculable, that I
consider the future character of our republic as in the air; indeed its
future fortune will be in the air, if war is made on us by France, and
if Louisiana becomes a Gallo-American colony.
I have been much pleased to see a dawn of change in the spirit of
your State. The late elections have indicated something, which, at a
distance, we do not understand. However, what with the English influence
in the lower, and the Patroon influence in the upper parts of your
State, I presume little is to be hoped. If a prospect could be once
opened upon us of the penetration of truth into the Eastern States: if
the people there, who are unquestionably republicans, could discover
that they have been duped into the support of measures calculated to
sap the very foundations of republicanism, we might still hope for
salvation, and that it would come, as of old, from the East. But will
that region ever awake to the true state of things? Can the middle,
southern, and western States hold on till they awake? These are painful
and doubtful questions: and if, in assuring me of your health, you can
give me a comfortable solution of them, it will relieve a mind devoted
to the preservation of our republican government in the true form
and spirit in which it was established, but almost oppressed with
apprehensions that fraud will at length effect what force could not, and
that what with currents and counter-currents, we shall in the end, be
driven back to the land from which we launched twenty years ago. Indeed,
my dear Sir, we have been but a sturdy fish on the hook of a dexterous
angler who letting us flounce till we have spent Our force, brings us up
at last.
I am tired of the scene, and this day se’nnight shall change it for
one, where, to tranquillity of mind, may be added pursuits of private
utility, since none public are admitted by the state of things. I am
with great and sincere esteem, Dear Sir, your friend and servant,
Th: Jefferson,
P. S. Since writing the above, we have received a report that the French
Directory has proposed a declaration of war against the United States to
the Council of Ancients, who have rejected it. Thus we see two nations
who love one another affectionately, brought by the ill temper of their
executive administrations, to the very brink of a necessity to imbrue
their hands in the blood of each other. T. J.
LETTER CCXIV.--TO ELBRIDGE GERRY, June 21, 1797
TO ELBRIDGE GERRY.
Philadelphia, June 21, 1797.
My Dear Friend,
It was with infinite joy to me, that you were yesterday announced to the
Senate, as Envoy Extraordinary, jointly with General Pinckney and Mr.
Marshall, to the French republic. It gave me certain assurances that
there would be a preponderance in the mission, sincerely disposed to be
at peace with the French government and nation. Peace is undoubtedly
at present the first object of our nation. Interest and honor are also
national considerations. But interest, duly weighed, is in favor of
peace even at the expense of spoliations past and future; and honor
cannot now be an object. The insults and injuries committed on, us by
both the belligerent parties, from, the beginning of 1793 to this day,
and still continuing, cannot now be wiped off by engaging in war
with one of them. As there is great reason to expect this is the last
campaign in Europe, it would certainly be better for us to rub through
this year, as we have done through the four preceding ones, and hope
that, on the restoration of peace, we may be able to establish some plan
for our foreign connections more likely to secure our peace, interest,
and honor, in future. Our countrymen have divided themselves by such
strong affections, to the French and the English, that nothing will
secure us internally but a divorce from both nations; and this must be
the object of every real American, and its attainment is practicable
without much self-denial. But, for this, peace is necessary. Be assured
of this, my dear Sir, that if we engage in a war during our present
passions, and our present weakness in some quarters, our Union runs the
greatest risk of not coming out of that war in the shape in which it
enters it. My reliance for our preservation is in your acceptance
of this mission. I know the tender circumstances which will oppose
themselves to it. But its duration will be short, and its reward long.
You have it in your power, by accepting and determining the character
of the mission, to secure the present peace and eternal union of your
country. If you decline, on motives of private pain, a substitute may be
named who has enlisted his passions in the present contest, and by the
preponderance of his vote in the mission may entail on us calamities,
your share in which, and your feelings, will outweigh whatever pain a
temporary absence from your family could give you. The sacrifice will
be short, the remorse would be never-ending. Let me then, my dear
Sir, conjure your acceptance, and that you will, by this act, seal the
mission with the confidence of all parties. Your nomination has given a
spring to hope, which was dead before.