with the ‘extract of a letter from a gentleman of Philadelphia, dated
July the 10th,’ cut from a newspaper, stating some facts which respect
me. I shall notice these facts. The writer says, that ‘the day after the
last despatches were communicated to Congress, Bache, Leib, &c, and a
Dr. Reynolds, were closeted with me.’ If the receipt of visits in my
public room, the door continuing free to every one who should call
at the same time, may be called closeting, then it is true that I was
closeted with every person who visited me; in no other sense is it true
as to any person. I sometimes received visits from Mr. Bache and Dr.
Leib. I received them always with pleasure, because they are men of
abilities, and of principles the most friendly to liberty and our
present form of government. Mr. Bache has another claim on my respect,
as being the grandson of Dr. Franklin, the greatest man and ornament
of the age and country in which he lived. Whether I was visited by Mr.
Bache or Dr. Leib the day after the communication referred to, I do not
remember. I know that all my motions at Philadelphia, here, and every
where, are watched and recorded. Some of these spies, therefore, may
remember, better than I do, the dates of these visits. If they say these
two gentlemen visited me the day after the communication, as their trade
proves their accuracy, I shall not contradict them, though I affirm
that I do not recollect it. However, as to Dr. Reynolds, I can be
more particular, because I never saw him but once, which was on an
introductory visit he was so kind as to pay me. This, I well remember,
was before the communication alluded to, and that during the short
conversation I had with him, not one word was said on the subject of any
of the communications. Not that I should not have spoken freely on
their subject to Dr. Reynolds, as I should also have done to the
letter-writer, or to any other person who should have introduced the
subject. I know my own principles to be pure, and therefore am not
ashamed of them. On the contrary, I wish them known, and therefore
willingly express them to every one. They are the same I have acted on
from the year 1775 to this day, and are the same, I am sure, with
those of the great body of the American people. I only wish the real
principles of those who censure mine were also known. But warring
against those of the people, the delusion of the people is necessary
to the dominant party. I see the extent to which that delusion has been
already carried, and I see there is no length to which it may not
be pushed by a party in possession of the revenues and the legal
authorities of the United States, for a short time indeed, but yet long
enough to admit much particular mischief. There is no event, therefore,
however atrocious, which may not be expected. I have contemplated every
event which the Maratists of the day can perpetrate, and am prepared to
meet every one in such a way, as shall not be derogatory either to the
public liberty or my own personal honor. This letter-writer says, I am
‘for peace; but it is only with France.’ He has told half the truth. He
would have told the whole, if he had added England. I am for peace
with both countries. I know that both of them have given, and are
daily giving, sufficient cause of war; that in defiance of the laws
of nations, they are every day trampling on the rights of the neutral
powers, whenever they can thereby do the least injury, either to the
other. But, as I view a peace between France and England the ensuing
winter to be certain, I have thought it would have been better for us to
have continued to bear from France through the present summer, what we
have been bearing both from her and England these four years, and still
continue to bear from England, and to have required indemnification in
the hour of peace, when I verily believe it would have been yielded
by both. This seems to be the plan of the other neutral nations; and
whether this, or the commencing war on one of them, as we have done,
would have been wisest, time and events must decide. But I am quite at
a loss on what ground the letter-writer can question the opinion, that
France had no intention of making war on us, and was willing to treat
with Mr. Gerry, when we have this from Talleyrand’s letter, and from the
written and verbal information of our Envoys. It is true then, that,
as with England, we might of right have chosen either war or peace, and
have chosen peace, and prudently in my opinion, so with France, we might
also of right have chosen either peace or war, and we have chosen war.
Whether the choice may be a popular one in the other States, I know not.
Here it certainly is not; and I have no doubt the whole American people
will rally ere long to the same sentiment, and re-judge those, who, at
present, think they have all judgment in their own hands.
These observations will show you how far the imputations in the
paragraph sent me approach the truth. Yet they are not intended for a
newspaper. At a very early period of my life, I determined never to
put a sentence into any newspaper. I have religiously adhered to the
resolution through my life, and have great reason to be contented with
it. Were I to undertake to answer the calumnies of the newspapers, it
would be more than all my own time and that of twenty aids could effect.
For while I should be answering one, twenty new ones would be invented.
I have thought it better to trust to the justice of my countrymen, that
they would judge me by what they see of my conduct on the stage where
they have placed me, and what they knew of me before the epoch, since
which a particular party has supposed it might answer some view of
theirs to vilify me in the public eye. Some, I know, will not reflect
how apocryphal is the testimony of enemies so palpably betraying the
views with which they give it. But this is an injury to which duty
requires every one to submit whom the public think proper to call into
its councils. I thank you, my dear Sir, for the interest you have for me
on this occasion. Though I have made up my mind not to suffer calumny
to disturb my tranquillity, yet I retain all my sensibilities for the
approbation of the good and just. That is, indeed, the chief consolation
for the hatred of so many, who, without the least personal knowledge,
and on the sacred evidence of Porcupine and Fenno alone, cover me with
their implacable hatred. The only return I will ever make them, will be
to do them all the good I can, in spite of their teeth.
I have the pleasure to inform you that all your friends in this quarter
are well, and to assure you of the sentiments of sincere esteem and
respect with which I am, Dear Sir, your friend and servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER CCXL.--TO A. H. ROWAN, September 26, 1798
TO A. H. ROWAN.
Monticello, September 26, 1798.
Sir,
To avoid the suspicions and curiosity of the post-office, which would
have been excited by seeing your name and mine on the back of a letter,
I have delayed acknowledging the receipt of your favor of July last,
till an occasion to write to an inhabitant of Wilmington gives me an
opportunity of putting my letter under cover to him. The system of alarm
and jealousy which has been so powerfully played off in England, has
been mimicked here, not entirely without success. The most long-sighted
politician could not, seven years ago, have imagined that the people of
this wide extended country could have been enveloped in such delusion,
and made so much afraid of themselves and their own power, as to
surrender it spontaneously to those who are manoeuvring them into a
form of government, the principal branches of which may be beyond their
control. The commerce of England, however, has spread its roots over
the whole face of our country. This is the real source of all the
obliquities of the public mind: and I should have had doubts of the
ultimate term they might attain; but happily, the game, to be worth
the playing of those engaged in it, must flush them with money. The
authorized expenses of this year are beyond those of any year in the
late war for independence, and they are of a nature to beget great
and constant expenses. The purse of the people is the real seat of
sensibility. It is to be drawn upon largely, and they will then listen
to truths which could not excite them through any other organ. In this
State, however, the delusion has not prevailed. They are sufficiently on
their guard to have justified the assurance, that should you choose it
for your asylum, the laws of the land, administered by upright judges,
would protect you from any exercise of power unauthorized by the
constitution of the United States. The _habeas corpus_ secures every man
here, alien or citizen, against every thing which is not law, whatever
shape it may assume. Should this, or any other circumstance, draw your
footsteps this way, I shall be happy to be among those who may have
an opportunity of testifying, by every attention in our power, the
sentiments of esteem and respect which the circumstances of your history
have inspired, and which are peculiarly felt by, Sir, your most obedient
and most humble servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER CCXLI.--TO STEPHENS THOMPSON MASON, October 11, 1798
TO STEPHENS THOMPSON MASON.
Monticello, October 11, 1798.
Dear Sir,
I have to thank you for your favor of July the 6th, from Philadelphia.
I did not immediately acknowledge it, because I knew you would have come
away. The X. Y. Z. fever has considerably abated through the country, as
I am informed, and the alien and sedition laws are working hard. I fancy
that some of the State legislatures will take strong ground on this
occasion. For my own part, I consider those laws as merely an experiment
on the American mind, to see how far it will bear an avowed violation of
the constitution. If this goes down, we shall immediately see attempted
another act of Congress, declaring that the President shall continue in
office during life, reserving to another occasion the transfer of the
succession to his heirs, and the establishment of the Senate for life.
At least, this may be the aim of the Oliverians, while Monk and the
Cavaliers (who are perhaps the strongest) may be playing their game
for the restoration of his Most Gracious Majesty George the Third.
That these things are in contemplation, I have no doubt; nor can I be
confident of their failure, after the dupery of which our countrymen
have shown themselves susceptible.
You promised to endeavor to send me some tenants. I am waiting for them,
having broken up two excellent farms with twelve fields in them of forty
acres each, some of which I have sowed with small grain. Tenants of
any size may be accommodated with the number of fields suited to their
force. Only send me good people, and write me what they are. Adieu.
Yours affectionately,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER CCXLII.--TO JOHN TAYLOR, November 26, 1798
TO JOHN TAYLOR.
Monticello, November 26, 1798,
Dear Sir,
We formerly had a debtor and creditor account of letters on farming: but
the high price of tobacco, which is likely to continue for some short
time, has tempted me to go entirely into that culture, and in the mean
time, my farming schemes are in abeyance, and my farming fields at nurse
against the time of my resuming them. But I owe you a political letter.
Yet the infidelities of the post-office and the circumstances of
the times are against my writing fully and freely, whilst my own
dispositions are as much against mysteries, innuendoes, and half
confidences. I know not which mortifies me most, that I should fear
to write what I think, or my country bear such a state of things. Yet
Lyon’s judges, and a jury of all nations, are objects of national
fear. We agree in all the essential ideas of your letter. We agree
particularly in the necessity of some reform, and of some better
security for civil liberty. But perhaps we do not see the existing
circumstances in the same point of view. There are many considerations
_dehors_ of the State, which will occur to you without enumeration. I
should not apprehend them, if all was sound within. But there is a most
respectable part of our State who have been enveloped in the X. Y. Z.
delusion, and who destroy our unanimity for the present moment. This
disease of the imagination will pass over, because the patients are
essentially republicans. Indeed, the Doctor is now on his way to cure
it, in the guise of a tax-gatherer. But give time for the medicine
to work, and for the repetition of stronger doses, which must be
administered. The principle of the present majority is excessive
expense, money enough to fill all their maws, or it will not be worth
the risk of their supporting. They cannot borrow a dollar in Europe, or
above two or three millions in America. This is not the fourth of the
expenses of this year, unprovided for. Paper money would be perilous
even to the paper men. Nothing then but excessive taxation can get us
along: and this will carry reason and reflection to every man’s door,
and particularly in the hour of election.
I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our
constitution. I would be willing to depend on that alone for the
reduction of the administration of our government to the genuine
principles of its constitution; I mean an additional article, taking
from the federal government the power of borrowing. I now deny their
power of making paper money or any thing else a legal tender. I know
that to pay all proper expenses within the year, would, in case of war,
be hard on us. But not so hard as ten wars instead of one. For wars
would be reduced in that proportion; besides that the State governments
would be free to lend their credit in borrowing quotas. For the present,
I should be for resolving the alien and sedition laws to be against the
constitution and merely void, and for addressing the other States to
obtain similar declarations; and I would not do any thing at this moment
which should commit us further, but reserve ourselves to shape our
future measures or no measures, by the events which may happen. It is a
singular phenomenon, that while our State governments are the very best
in the world, without exception or comparison, our General Government
has, in the rapid course of nine or ten years, become more arbitrary,
and has swallowed more of the public liberty, than even that of England.
I enclose you a column, cut out of a London paper, to show you that the
English, though charmed with our making their enemies our enemies, yet
blush and weep over our sedition-law. But I enclose you something
more important. It is a petition for a reformation in the manner of
appointing our juries, and a remedy against the jury of all nations,
which is handing about here for signature, and will be presented to your
House. I know it will require but little ingenuity to make objections
to the details of its execution; but do not be discouraged by small
difficulties; make it as perfect as you can at a first essay, and depend
on amending its defects as they develope themselves in practice. I hope
it will meet with your approbation and patronage. It is the only thing
which can yield us a little present protection against the dominion of
a faction, while circumstances are maturing for bringing and keeping the
government in real unison with the spirit of their constituents. I
am aware that the act of Congress has directed that juries shall be
appointed by lot or otherwise, as the laws now (at the date of the act)
in force in the several States provide. The New England States have
always had them elected by their selectmen, who are elected by the
people. Several or most of the other States have a large number
appointed (I do not know how) to attend, out of whom twelve for each
cause are taken by lot. This provision of Congress will render it
necessary for our Senators or Delegates to apply for an amendatory law,
accommodated to that prayed for in the petition. In the mean time, I
would pass the law as if the amendatory one existed, in reliance, that
our select jurors attending, the federal judge will under a sense of
right direct the juries to be taken from among them. If he does not,
or if Congress refuses to pass the amendatory law, it will serve as
eye-water for their constituents. Health, happiness, safety, and esteem
to yourself and my ever honored and ancient friend Mr. Pendleton. Adieu.
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER CCXLIII.--TO JAMES MADISON, January 3, 1799
TO JAMES MADISON.
Philadelphia, January 3, 1799.
Dear Sir,
I have suffered the post hour to come so nearly on me, that I must
huddle over what I have more than appears in the public papers. I
arrived here on Christmas day, not a single bill or other article of
business having yet been brought into Senate. The President’s speech, so
unlike himself in point of moderation, is supposed to have been written
by the military conclave, and particularly Hamilton. When the Senate
gratuitously hint Logan to him, you see him in his reply come out in his
genuine colors. The debates on that subject and Logan’s declaration you
will see in the papers. The republican spirit is supposed to be gaining
ground in this State and Massachusetts. The tax-gatherer has already
excited discontent. Gerry’s correspondence with Talleyrand, promised by
the President at the opening of the session, is still kept back. It is
known to show France in a very conciliatory attitude, and to contradict
some executive assertions. Therefore, it is supposed they will get
their war measures well taken before they will produce this damper.
Vans Murray writes them, that the French government is sincere in their
overtures for reconciliation, and have agreed, if these fail, to admit
the mediation offered by the Dutch government.
*****
General Knox has become bankrupt for four hundred thousand dollars, and
has resigned his military commission. He took in General Lincoln for one
hundred and fifty thousand dollars, which breaks him. Colonel Jackson
also sunk with him. It seems generally admitted, that several cases of
the yellow fever still exist in the city, and the apprehension is, that
it will re-appear early in the spring. You promised me a copy of McGee’s
bill of prices. Be so good as to send it on to me here. Tell Mrs.
Madison her friend Madame d’Yrujo is as well as one can be so near to
a formidable crisis. Present my friendly respects to her, and accept
yourself my sincere and affectionate salutations. Adieu.
Th: Jefferson.
P.S. I omitted to mention that a petition has been presented to the
President, signed by several thousand persons in Vermont, praying a
remitment of Lyon’s fine. He asked the bearer of the petition if Lyon
himself had petitioned, and being answered in the negative, said,
‘Penitence must precede pardon.’ T.J.
LETTER CCXLIV.--TO JAMES MADISON, January 16, 1799
TO JAMES MADISON.
Philadelphia, January 16, 1799.
Dear Sir,
The forgery lately attempted to be played off by Mr. H. on the House
of Representatives, of a pretended memorial presented by Logan to the
French government, has been so palpably exposed, as to have thrown
ridicule on the whole of the clamors they endeavored to raise as to that
transaction. Still, however, their majority will pass the bill. The
real views in the importance they have given to Logan’s enterprise
are mistaken by nobody. Mr. Gerry’s communications relative to his
transactions after the departure of his colleagues, though he has now
been returned five months, and they have been promised to the House six
or seven weeks, are still kept back. In the mean time, the paper of this
morning promises them from the Paris papers. It is said, they leave
not a possibility to doubt the sincerity and the anxiety of the French
government to avoid the spectacle of a war with us. Notwithstanding
this is well understood, the army and a great addition to our navy are
steadily intended. A loan of five millions is opened at eight per cent.
interest!
*****
In a society of members, between whom and yourself are great mutual
esteem and respect, a most anxious desire is expressed that you would
publish your debates of the convention. That these measures of the army,
navy, and direct-tax, will bring about a revolution of public sentiment
is thought certain and that the constitution will then receive
a different explanation. Could those debates be ready to appear
critically, their effect would be decisive. I beg of you to turn this
subject in your mind. The arguments against it will be personal; those
in favor of it moral; and something is required from you as a set-off
against the sin of your retirement. Your favor of December the 29th came
to hand January the 5th; seal sound. I pray you always to examine the
seals of mine to you, and the strength of the impression. The suspicions
against the government on this subject are strong. I wrote you
January the 5th. Accept for yourself and Mrs. Madison my affectionate
salutations. Adieu.
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER CCXLV.--TO ELBRIDGE GERRY
TO ELBRIDGE GERRY.
Philadelphia, January 26, 1799.
Mr Dear Sir,
Your favor of November the 12th was safely delivered to me by Mr.
Binney; but not till December the 28th, as I arrived here only three
days before that date. It was received with great satisfaction. Our
very long intimacy as fellow-laborers in the same cause, the recent
expressions of mutual confidence which had preceded your mission, the
interesting course which that had taken, and particularly and personally
as it regarded yourself, made me anxious to hear from you on your
return. I was the more so too, as I had myself during the whole of your
absence, as well as since your return, been a constant butt for every
shaft of calumny which malice and falsehood could form, and the presses,
public speakers, or private letters disseminate. One of these, too,
was of a nature to touch yourself; as if, wanting confidence in your
efforts, I had been capable of usurping powers committed to you, and
authorizing negotiations private and collateral to yours. The real truth
is, that though Doctor Logan, the pretended missionary, about four or
five days before he sailed for Hamburg, told me he was going there, and
thence to Paris, and asked and received from me a certificate of
his citizenship, character, and circumstances of life, merely as
a protection, should he be molested on his journey in the present
turbulent and suspicious state of Europe, yet I had been led to consider
his object as relative to his private affairs; and though, from an
intimacy of some standing, he knew well my wishes for peace and my
political sentiments in general, he nevertheless received then no
particular declaration of them, no authority to communicate them to any
mortal, nor to speak to any one in my name, or in any body’s name, on
that, or any other subject whatever; nor did I write by him a scrip of
a pen to any person whatever. This he has himself honestly and publicly
declared since his return; and from his well known character and every
other circumstance, every candid man must perceive that his
enterprise was dictated by his own enthusiasm, without consultation or
communication with any one; that he acted in Paris on his own ground,
and made his own way. Yet to give some color to his proceedings, which
might implicate the republicans in general, and myself particularly,
they have not been ashamed to bring forward a supposititious paper,
drawn by one of their own party in the name of Logan, and falsely
pretended to have been presented by him to the government of France;
counting that the bare mention of my name therein, would connect that in
the eye of the public with this transaction. In confutation of these
and all future calumnies, by way of anticipation, I shall make to you a
profession of my political faith; in confidence that you will consider
every future imputation on me of a contrary complexion, as bearing on
its front the mark of falsehood and calumny.
I do then, with sincere zeal, wish an inviolable preservation of our
present federal constitution, according to the true sense in which
it was adopted by the States, that in which it was advocated by its
friends, and not that which its enemies apprehended, who, therefore,
became its enemies: and I am opposed to the monarchizing its features
by the forms of its administration, with a view to conciliate a first
transition to a President and Senate for life, and from that to an
hereditary tenure of these offices, and thus to worm out the elective
principle. I am for preserving to the States the powers not yielded
by them to the Union, and to the legislature of the Union its
constitutional share, in the division of powers; and I am not for
transferring all the powers of the States to the General Government,
and all those of that government to the executive branch. I am for
a government rigorously frugal and simple, applying all the possible
savings of the public revenue to the discharge of the national debt:
and not for a multiplication of officers and salaries merely to make
partisans, and for increasing, by every device, the public debt, on the
principle of its being a public blessing. I am for relying, for internal
defence, on our militia solely, till actual invasion, and for such
a naval force only as may protect our coasts and harbors from such
depredations as we have experienced: and not for a standing army in time
of peace, which may overawe the public sentiment; nor for a navy, which,
by its own expenses and the eternal wars in which it will implicate us,
will grind us with public burthens, and sink us under them. I am for
free commerce with all nations; political connection with none;
and little or no diplomatic establishment. And I am not for linking
ourselves by new treaties with the quarrels of Europe; entering
that field of slaughter to preserve their balance, or joining in the
confederacy of kings to war against the principles of liberty. I am for
freedom of religion, and against all manoeuvres to bring about a legal
ascendency of one sect over another: for freedom of the press and
against all violations of the constitution to silence by force and not
by reason the complaints or criticisms, just or unjust, of our citizens
against the conduct of their agents. And I am for encouraging the
progress of science in all its branches: and not for raising a hue and
cry against the sacred name of philosophy; for awing the human mind by
stories of raw-head and bloody-bones to a distrust of its own vision,
and to repose implicitly on that of others; to go backwards instead of
forwards to look for improvement; to believe that government, religion,
morality, and every other science were in the highest perfection in
ages of the darkest ignorance, and that nothing can ever be devised more
perfect than what was established by our forefathers. To these I will
add, that I was a sincere well-wisher to the success of the French
revolution, and still wish it may end in the establishment of a free
and well-ordered republic: but I have not been insensible under the
atrocious depredations they have committed on our commerce. The first
object of my heart is my own country. In that is embarked my family, my
fortune, and my own existence. I have not one farthing of interest, nor
one fibre of attachment out of it, nor a single motive of preference
of anyone nation to another, but in proportion as they are more or less
friendly to us. But though deeply feeling the injuries of France, I did
not think war the surest means of redressing them. I did believe, that
a mission, sincerely disposed to preserve peace, would obtain for us a
peaceable and honorable settlement and retribution; and I appeal to you
to say, whether this might not have been obtained, if either of your
colleagues had been of the same sentiment with yourself.
These, my friend, are my principles; they are unquestionably the
principles of the great body of our fellow-citizens, and I know there is
not one of them which is not yours also. In truth, we never differed but
on one ground, the funding system; and as, from the moment of its being
adopted by the constituted authorities, I became religiously principled
in the sacred discharge of it to the uttermost farthing, we are united
now even on that single ground of difference.