of them. But you also ask for such political information as may be
possessed by me, and interesting to yourself in regard to your embassy.
As a proof of my entire confidence in you, I shall give it fully and
candidly. When Pinckney, Marshall, and Dana were nominated to settle
our differences with France, it was suspected by many, from what was
understood of their dispositions, that their mission would not result in
a settlement of differences; but would produce circumstances tending to
widen the breach, and to provoke our citizens to consent to a war
with that nation, and union with England. Dana’s resignation and your
appointment gave the first gleam of hope of a peaceable issue to
the mission. For it was believed that you were sincerely disposed to
accommodation: and it was not long after your arrival there, before
symptoms were observed of that difference of views which had been
suspected to exist. In the mean time, however, the aspect of our
government towards the French republic had become so ardent, that the
people of America generally took the alarm. To the southward, their
apprehensions were early excited. In the Eastern States also, they at
length began to break out. Meetings were held in many of your towns, and
addresses to the government agreed on in opposition to war. The example
was spreading like a wild-fire. Other meetings were called in other
places, and a general concurrence of sentiment against the apparent
inclinations of the government was imminent; when, most critically for
the government, the despatches of October the 22nd, prepared by your
colleague Marshall, with a view to their being made public, dropped into
their laps. It was truly a God-send to them, and they made the most of
it. Many thousands of copies were printed and dispersed gratis, at the
public expense; and the zealots for war co-operated so heartily, that
there were instances of single individuals who printed and dispersed ten
or twelve thousand copies at their own expense. The odiousness of
the corruption supposed in those papers excited a general and high
indignation among the people. Unexperienced in such manoeuvres, they
did not permit themselves even to suspect that the turpitude of private
swindlers might mingle itself unobserved, and give its own hue to the
communications of the French government, of whose participation there
was neither proof nor probability. It served, however, for a time,
the purpose intended. The people, in many places, gave a loose to the
expressions of their warm indignation, and of their honest preference of
war to dishonor. The fever was long and successfully kept up, and in the
mean time, war measures as ardently crowded. Still, however, as it
was known that your colleagues were coming away, and yourself to stay,
though disclaiming a separate power to conclude a treaty, it was
hoped by the lovers of peace, that a project of treaty would have been
prepared, ad referendum, on principles which would have satisfied our
citizens, and overawed any bias of the government towards a different
policy. But the expedition of the Sophia, and, as was supposed, the
suggestions of the person charged with your despatches, and his probable
misrepresentations of the real wishes of the American people, prevented
these hopes. They had then only to look forward to your return for such
information, either through the executive, or from yourself, as might
present to our view the other side of the medal. The despatches of
October 22nd, 1797, had presented one face. That information, to a
certain degree, is now received, and the public will see from your
correspondence with Talleyrand, that France, as you testify, ‘was
sincere and anxious to obtain a reconciliation, not wishing us to break
the British treaty, but only to give her equivalent stipulations; and in
general, was disposed to a liberal treaty.’ And they will judge whether
Mr. Pickering’s report shows an inflexible determination to believe no
declarations the French government can make, nor any opinion which you,
judging on the spot and from actual view, can give of their sincerity,
and to meet their designs of peace with operations of war. The alien and
sedition acts have already operated in the south as powerful sedatives
of the X. Y. Z. inflammation. In your quarter, where violations of
principle are either less regarded or more concealed, the direct tax is
likely to have the same effect, and to excite inquiries into the
object of the enormous expenses and taxes we are bringing on. And your
information supervening, that we might have a liberal accommodation if
we would, there can be little doubt of the reproduction of that general
movement which had been changed, for a moment, by the despatches of
October the 22nd. And though small checks and stops, like Logan’s
pretended embassy, may be thrown in the way, from time to time, and
may a little retard its motion, yet the tide is already turned and will
sweep before it all the feeble obstacles of art. The unquestionable
republicanism of the American mind will break through the mist under
which it has been clouded, and will oblige its agents to reform the
principles and practices of their administration.
You suppose, that you have been abused by both parties. As far as has
come to my knowledge, you are misinformed. I have never seen or heard a
sentence of blame uttered against you by the republicans; unless we were
so to construe their wishes that you had more boldly co-operated in a
project of a treaty, and would more explicitly state, whether there was
in your colleagues that flexibility, which persons earnest after peace
would have practised. Whether, on the contrary, their demeanor was not
cold, reserved, and distant, at least, if not backward; and whether, if
they had yielded to those informal conferences which Talleyrand seems to
have courted, the liberal accommodation you suppose, might not have been
effected, even with their agency. Your fellow-citizens think they have a
right to full information, in a case of such great concernment to them.
It is their sweat which is to earn all the expenses of the war, and
their blood which is to flow in expiation of the causes of it. It may
be in your power to save them from these miseries by full communications
and unrestrained details, postponing motives of delicacy to those of
duty. It rests with you to come forward independently; to make your
stand on the high ground of your own character; to disregard
calumny, and to be borne above it on the shoulders of your grateful
fellow-citizens; or to sink into the humble oblivion to which the
federalists (self-called) have secretly condemned you; and even to be
happy if they will indulge you with oblivion, while they have beamed
on your colleagues meridian splendor. Pardon me, my dear Sir, if my
expressions are strong. My feelings are so much more so, that it is
with difficulty I reduce them even to the tone I use. If you doubt the
dispositions towards you, look into the papers, on both sides, for the
toasts which were given throughout the States on the fourth of July.
You will there see whose hearts were with you, and whose were ulcerated
against you. Indeed, as soon as it was known that you had consented to
stay in Paris, there was no measure observed in the execrations of
the war-party. They openly wished you might be guillotined, or sent to
Cayenne, or any thing else. And these expressions were finally stifled
from a principle of policy only, and to prevent you from being urged
to a justification of yourself. From this principle alone proceed the
silence and cold respect they observe towards you. Still, they cannot
prevent at times the flames bursting from under the embers, as Mr.
Pickering’s letters, report, and conversations testify, as well as the
indecent expressions respecting you, indulged by some of them in the
debate on these despatches. These sufficiently show that you are never
more to be honored or trusted by them, and that they wait to crush you
for ever, only till they can do it without danger to themselves.
When I sat down to answer your letter, but two courses presented
themselves, either to say nothing or every thing; for half confidences
are not in my character. I could not hesitate which was due to you. I
have unbosomed myself fully; and it will certainly be highly gratifying
if I receive like confidence from you. For even if we differ in
principle more than I believe we do, you and I know too well the texture
of the human mind, and the slipperiness of human reason, to consider
differences of opinion otherwise than differences of form or feature.
Integrity of views, more than their soundness, is the basis of esteem. I
shall follow your direction in conveying this by a private hand; though
I know not as yet when one worthy of confidence will occur. And my
trust in you leaves me without a fear that this letter, meant as a
confidential communication of my impressions, may ever go out of your
own hand, or be suffered in any wise to commit my name. Indeed, besides
the accidents which might happen to it even under your care, considering
the accident of death to which you are liable, I think it safest to pray
you, after reading it as often as you please, to destroy at least the
second and third leaves. The first contains principles only, which I
fear not to avow; but the second and third contain facts stated for your
information, and which, though sacredly conformable to my firm belief,
yet would be galling to some, and expose me to illiberal attacks. I
therefore repeat my prayer to burn the second and third leaves. And did
we ever expect to see the day, when, breathing nothing but sentiments
of love to our country and its freedom and happiness, our correspondence
must be as secret as if we were hatching its destruction? Adieu, my
friend, and accept my sincere and affectionate salutations. I need not
add my signature.
LETTER CCXLVI.--TO EDMUND PENDLETON, January 29, 1799
TO EDMUND PENDLETON.
Philadelphia, January 29, 1799.
Dear Sir,
Your patriarchal address to your country is running through all the
republican papers, and has a very great effect on the people. It is
short, simple, and presents things in a view they readily comprehend.
The character and circumstances too of the writer leave them without
doubts of his motives. If, like the patriarch of old, you had but one
blessing to give us, I should have wished it directed to a particular
object. But I hope you have one for this also. You know what a wicked
use has been made of the French negotiation; and particularly, the X. Y.
Z. dish, cooked up by ------ , where the swindlers are made to appear as
the French government. Art and industry combined, have certainly wrought
out of this business a wonderful effect on the people. Yet they have
been astonished more than they have understood it, and now that Gerry’s
correspondence comes out, clearing the French government of that
turpitude, and showing them ‘sincere in their dispositions for peace,
not wishing us to break the British treaty, and willing to arrange a
liberal one with us,’ the people will be disposed to suspect they have
been duped. But these communications are too voluminous for them, and
beyond their reach. A recapitulation is now wanting of the whole story,
stating every thing according to what we may now suppose to have been
the truth, short, simple, and levelled to every capacity. Nobody in
America can do it so well as yourself, in the same character of the
father of your country, or any form you like better, and so concise, as,
omitting nothing material, may yet be printed in handbills, of which
we could print and disperse ten or twelve thousand copies under letter
covers, through all the United States, by the members of Congress when
they return home. If the understanding of the people could be rallied
to the truth on this subject, by exposing the dupery practised on them,
there are so many other things about to bear on them favorably for
the resurrection of their republican spirit, that a reduction of the
administration to constitutional principles cannot fail to be the
effect. These are the alien and sedition laws, the vexations of the
stamp-act, the disgusting particularities of the direct tax, the
additional army without an enemy, and recruiting officers lounging at
every Court-House to decoy the laborer from his plough, a navy of fifty
ships, five millions to be raised to build it, on the usurious interest
of eight per cent., the perseverance in war on our part, when the French
government shows such an anxious desire to keep at peace with us, taxes
often millions now paid by four millions of people, and yet a necessity,
in a year or two, of raising five millions more for annual expenses.
These things will immediately be bearing on the public mind, and if it
remain not still blinded by a supposed necessity, for the purposes of
maintaining our independence and defending our country, they will set
things to rights. I hope you will undertake this statement. If any body
else had possessed your happy talent for this kind of recapitulation,
I would have been the last to disturb you with the application; but it
will really be rendering our country a service greater than it is in
the power of any other individual to render. To save you the trouble of
hunting the several documents from which this statement is to be taken,
I have collected them here completely, and enclose them to you.
Logan’s bill has passed. On this subject it is hardly necessary for me
to declare to you, on every thing sacred, that the part they ascribed to
me was entirely a calumny. Logan called on me, four or five days before
his departure, and asked and received a certificate (in my private
capacity) of his citizenship and circumstances of life, merely as a
protection, should he be molested in the present turbulent state of
Europe. I have given such to an hundred others, and they have been much
more frequently asked and obtained by tories than whigs.
*****
Accept my sincere prayers for long and happy years to you still, and my
affectionate salutations and adieu.
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER CCXLVII.--TO JAMES MADISON, February 5, 1799
TO JAMES MADISON.
Philadelphia, February 5, 1799.
Dear Sir,
I wrote you last on the 30th of January; since which yours of the 25th
has been received.
*********
The bill for continuing the suspension of intercourse with France and
her dependencies, is still before the Senate, but will pass by a very
great vote. An attack is made on what is called the Toussaint’s clause,
the object of which, as is charged by the one party and admitted by the
other, is to facilitate the separation of the island from France.
The clause will pass, however, by about nineteen to eight, or perhaps
eighteen to nine. Rigaud, at the head of the people of color, maintains
his allegiance. But they are only twenty-five thousand souls, against
five hundred thousand, the number of the blacks. The treaty made with
them by Maitland is (if they are to be separated from France) the best
thing for us. They must get their provisions from us. It will indeed be
in English bottoms, so that we shall lose the carriage. But the English
will probably forbid them the ocean, confine them to their island, and
thus prevent their becoming an American Algiers. It must be admitted,
too, that they may play them off on us when they please. Against this
there is no remedy but timely measures on our part, to clear ourselves,
by degrees, of the matter on which that lever can work.
*****
A piece published in Bache’s paper on foreign influence, has had the
greatest currency and effect. To an extraordinary first impression, they
have been obliged to make a second, and of an extraordinary number. It
is such things as these the public want. They say so from all quarters,
and that they wish to hear reason instead of disgusting blackguardism.
The public sentiment being now on the creen, and many heavy
circumstances about to fall into the republican scale, we are sensible
that this summer is the season for systematic energies and sacrifices.
The engine is the press. Every man must lay his purse and his pen under
contribution. As to the former, it is possible I may be obliged to
assume something for you. As to the latter, let me pray and beseech you
to set apart a certain portion of every post-day to write what may be
proper for the public. Send it to me while here, and when I go away
I will let you know to whom you may send, so that your name shall be
sacredly secret. You can render such incalculable services in this way,
as to lessen the effect of our loss of your presence here. I shall see
you on the 5th or 6th of March.
Affectionate salutations to Mrs. Madison and yourself. Adieu.
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER CCXLVIII.--TO EDMUND PENDLETON, February 14, 1799
TO EDMUND PENDLETON.
Philadelphia, February 14, 1799.
Dear Sir,
I wrote you a petition on the 29th of January. I know the extent of this
trespass on your tranquillity, and how indiscreet it would have been
under any other circumstances. But the fate of this country, whether it
shall be irretrievably plunged into a form of government rejected by the
makers of the constitution, or shall get back to the true principles
of that instrument, depends on the turn which things may take within a
short period of time ensuing the present moment. The violations of
the constitution, propensities to war, to expense, and to a particular
foreign connection, which we have lately seen, are becoming evident
to the people, and are dispelling that mist which X. Y. Z. had spread
before their eyes. This State is coming forward with a boldness not yet
seen. Even the German counties of York and Lancaster, hitherto the most
devoted, have come about, and by petitions with four thousand signers
remonstrate against the alien and sedition laws, standing armies, and
discretionary powers in the President. New York and Jersey are
also getting into great agitation. In this State, we fear that the
ill-designing may produce insurrection. Nothing could be so fatal. Any
thing like force would check the progress of the public opinion and
rally them round the government. This is not the kind of opposition the
American people will permit. But keep away all show of force, and
they will bear down the evil propensities of the government, by the
constitutional means of election and petition. If we can keep quiet,
therefore, the tide now turning will take a steady and proper direction.
Even in New Hampshire there are strong symptoms of a rising inquietude.
In this state of things, my dear Sir, it is more in your power than
any other man’s in the United States, to give the coup de grace to
the ruinous principles and practices we have seen. In hopes you have
consented to it, I shall furnish to you some additional matter which has
arisen since my last.
I enclose you a part of a speech of Mr. Gallatin on the naval bill. The
views he takes of our finances, and of the policy of our undertaking to
establish a great navy, may furnish some hints. I am told, something on
the same subject from Mr. J. Nicholas will appear in the Richmond and
Fredericksburg papers. I mention the real author, that you may respect
it duly, for I presume it will be anonymous. The residue of Gallatin’s
speech shall follow when published. A recent fact proving the anxiety of
France for a reconciliation with us, is the following. You know that one
of the armed vessels which we took from her was refitted by us, sent to
cruise against her, re-captured, and carried into Guadaloupe under the
name of the Retaliation. ‘On the arrival there of Desfourneaux, the
new commissioner, he sent Victor Hughes home in irons; called up our
captain; told him that he found he had a regular commission as an
officer of the United States; that his vessel was then lying in the
harbor; that he should inquire into no fact preceding his own arrival
(by this he avoided noticing that the vessel was really French
property), and that, therefore, himself and crew were free to depart
with their vessel; that as to the differences between France and the
United States, commissioners were coming out to settle them, and, in the
mean time, no injury should be done on their part. The captain insisted
on being a prisoner; the other disclaimed; and so he arrived here with
vessel and crew the day before yesterday. Within an hour after this
was known to the Senate, they passed the retaliation bill, of which
I enclose you a copy. This was the more remarkable, as the bill was
founded expressly on the _Arrêt_ of October the 29th, which had been
communicated by the President as soon as received, and he remarked,
‘that it could not be too soon communicated to the two Houses and the
public’. Yet he almost in the same instant received, through the same
channel, Mr. King’s information that that _Arrêt_ was suspended, and
though he knew we were making it the foundation of a retaliation
bill, he has never yet communicated it. But the Senate knew the fact
informally from the Secretary of State, and knowing it, passed the bill.
The President has appointed, and the Senate approved, Rufus King,
to enter into a treaty of commerce with the Russians, at London,
and William Smith (Phocion), Envoy Extraordinary and Minister
Plenipotentiary, to go to Constantinople to make one with the Turks. So
that as soon as there is a coalition of Turks, Russians, and English,
against France, we seize that moment to countenance it as openly as we
dare, by treaties, which we never had with them before. All this helps
to fill up the measure of provocation towards France, and to get from
them a declaration of war, which we are afraid to be the first in
making. It is certain the French have behaved atrociously towards
neutral nations, and us particularly; and though we might be disposed
not to charge them with all the enormities committed in their name in
the West Indies, yet they are to be blamed for not doing more to prevent
them. A just and rational censure ought to be expressed on them, while
we disapprove the constant billingsgate poured on them officially. It
is at the same time true, that their enemies set the first example of
violating neutral rights, and continue it to this day: insomuch, that it
is declared on all hands, and particularly by the insurance companies,
and denied by none, that the British spoliations have considerably
exceeded the French during the last six months. Yet not a word of these
things is said officially to the legislature.
Still further, to give the devil his due (the French), it should be
observed that it has been said without contradiction, and the people
made to believe, that their refusal to receive our Envoys was contrary
to the law of nations, and a sufficient cause of war: whereas every
one who ever read a book on the law of nations knows, that it is an
unquestionable right in every power, to refuse to receive any minister
who is personally disagreeable. Martens, the latest and a very respected
writer, has laid it down so clearly and shortly in his ‘Summary of
the Law of Nations,’ B. 7. ch. 2. sect. 9. that I will transcribe the
passage verbatim. ‘Section 9. Of choice in the person of the minister.
The choice of the person to be sent as minister depends of right on the
sovereign who sends him, leaving the right, however, of him to whom he
is sent, of refusing to acknowledge any one, to whom he has a personal
dislike, or who is inadmissible by the laws and usages of the country.’
And he adds notes proving by instances, &c. This is the whole section.