tribute of respect due to a person, who, unurged by motives of personal
friendship or acquaintance, and unaided by particular information, will
so far exercise his justice as to advert to the proofs of approbation
given a public character by his own State and by the United States,
and weigh them in the scale against the fatherless calumnies he hears
uttered against him. These public acts are known even to those who know
nothing of my private life, and surely are better evidence to a mind
disposed to truth, than slanders which no man will affirm on his own
knowledge, or ever saw one who would. From the moment that a portion of
my fellow-citizens looked towards me with a view to one of their highest
offices, the floodgates of calumny have been opened upon me; not where I
am personally known, where their slanders would be instantly judged and
suppressed, from a general sense of their falsehood; but in the remote
parts of the Union, where the means of detection are not at hand, and
the trouble of an inquiry is greater than would suit the hearers to
undertake. I know that I might have filled the courts of the United
States with actions for these slanders, and have ruined perhaps many
persons who are not innocent. But this would be no equivalent to the
loss of character. I leave them, therefore, to the reproof of their own
consciences. If these do not condemn them, there will yet come a day
when the false witness will meet a judge who has not slept over his
slanders. If the reverend Cotton Mather Smith of Shena believed this as
firmly as I do, he would surely never have affirmed that ‘I had obtained
my property by fraud and robbery; that in one instance I had defrauded
and robbed a widow and fatherless children of an estate to which I was
executor of ten thousand pounds sterling, by keeping the property and
paying them in money at the nominal rate, when it was worth no more than
forty for one: and that all this could be proved.’ Every tittle of it
is fable; there not having existed a single circumstance of my life
to which any part of it can hang. I never was executor but in two
instances, both of which having taken place about the beginning of the
revolution, which withdrew me immediately from all private pursuits,
I never meddled in either executorship. In one of the cases only, were
there a widow and children. She was my sister. She retained and managed
the estate in her own hands, and no part of it was ever in mine. In the
other, I was a coparcener, and only received on a division the equal
portion allotted me. To neither of these executorships, therefore, could
Mr. Smith refer. Again, my property is all patrimonial except about
seven or eight hundred pounds’ worth of lands, purchased by myself and
paid for, not to widows and orphans, but to the very gentleman from whom
I purchased. If Mr. Smith therefore, thinks the precepts of the Gospel
intended for those who preach them as well as for others, he will
doubtless some day feel the duties of repentance, and of acknowledgment
in such forms as to correct the wrong he has done. Perhaps he will have
to wait till the passions of the moment have passed away. All this is
left to his own conscience.
These, Sir, are facts, well known to every person in this quarter, which
I have committed to paper for your own satisfaction, and that of those
to whom you may choose to mention them. I only pray that my letter may
not go out of your own hands, lest it should get into the newspapers,
a bear-garden scene into which I have made it a point to enter on no
provocation.
I am, Sir, your most obedient, humble servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER CCLXII.--TO DOCTOR RUSH, September 23, 1800
TO DOCTOR RUSH.
Monticello, September 23, 1800.
Dear Sir,
I have to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of August the 22nd, and
to congratulate you on the healthiness of your city. Still Baltimore,
Norfolk, and Providence admonish us that we are not clear of our new
scourge. When great evils happen, I am in the habit of looking out for
what good may arise from them as consolations to us, and Providence has
in fact so established the order of things, as that most evils are
the means of producing some good. The yellow fever will discourage
the growth of great cities in our nation, and I view great cities as
pestilential to the morals, the health, and the liberties of man. True,
they nourish some of the elegant arts, but the useful ones can thrive
elsewhere, and less perfection in the others, with more health, virtue,
and freedom, would be my choice.
I agree with you entirely, in condemning the mania of giving names to
objects of any kind after persons still living. Death alone can seal
the title of any man to this honor, by putting it out of his power to
forfeit it. There is one other mode of recording merit, which I have
often thought might be introduced, so as to gratify the living by
praising the dead. In giving, for instance, a commission of Chief
Justice to Bushrod Washington, it should be in consideration of his
integrity, and science in the laws, and of the services rendered to our
country by his illustrious relation, &c. A commission to a descendant
of Dr. Franklin, besides being in consideration of the proper
qualifications of the person, should add, that of the great services
rendered by his illustrious ancestor, Benjamin Franklin, by the
advancement of science, by inventions useful to man, &c. I am not sure
that we ought to change all our names. And, during the regal government,
sometimes indeed they were given through adulation; but often also as
the reward of the merit of the times, sometimes for services rendered
the colony. Perhaps, too, a name when given, should be deemed a sacred
property.
I promised you a letter on Christianity, which I have not forgotten.
On the contrary, it is because I have reflected on it, that I find much
more time necessary for it than I can at present dispose of. I have
a view of the subject which ought to displease neither the rational
Christian nor Deist, and would reconcile many to a character they have
too hastily rejected. I do not know that it would reconcile the _genus
irritabile vatum_, who are all in arms against me. Their hostility is on
too interesting ground to be softened. The delusion into which the X. Y.
Z. plot showed it possible to push the people; the successful experiment
made under the prevalence of that delusion on the clause of the
constitution, which, while it secured the freedom of the press, covered
also the freedom of religion, had given to the clergy a very favorite
hope of obtaining an establishment of a particular form of Christianity
through the United States; and as every sect believes its own form
the true one, every one perhaps hoped for his own, but especially the
Episcopalians and Congregationalists. The returning good sense of our
country threatens abortion to their hopes, and they believe that any
portion of power confided to me, will be exerted in opposition to their
schemes. And they believe rightly: for I have sworn, upon the altar of
God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of
man. But this is all they have to fear from me: and enough too in their
opinion. And this is the cause of their printing lying pamphlets against
me, forging conversations for me with Mazzei, Bishop Madison, &c. which
are absolute falsehoods without a circumstance of truth to rest on;
falsehoods, too, of which I acquit Mazzei and Bishop Madison, for they
are men of truth.
But enough of this: it is more than I have before committed to paper on
the subject of all the lies which have been preached and printed against
me. I have not seen the work of Sonnini which you mention, but I have
seen another work on Africa, Park’s, which I fear will throw cold-water
on the hopes of the friends of freedom. You will hear an account of an
attempt at insurrection in this state. I am looking with anxiety to see
what will be its effect on our State. We are truly to be pitied. I fear
we have little chance to see you at the federal city or in Virginia,
and as little at Philadelphia. It would be a great treat to receive you
here. But nothing but sickness could effect that; so I do not wish it.
For I wish you health and happiness, and think of you with affection.
Adieu.
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER, CCLXIII.--TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON, December 14, 1800
TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON.
Washington, December 14, 1800.
Dear Sir,
Your former communications on the subject of the steam-engine, I took
the liberty of laying before the American Philosophical Society, by whom
they will be printed in their volume of the present year. I have heard
of the discovery of some large bones, supposed to be of the mammoth,
at about thirty or forty miles distance from you: and among the bones
found, are said to be some which we have never yet been able to procure.
The first interesting question is, whether they are the bones of the
mammoth? The second, What are the particular bones, and could I possibly
procure them? The bones I am most anxious to obtain, are those of the
head and feet, which are said to be among those found in your State,
as also the _ossa innominata_, and _scapula_. Others would also be
interesting, though similar ones may be possessed, because they would
show by their similarity that the set belong to the mammoth. Could I so
far venture to trouble you on this subject, as to engage some of your
friends, near the place, to procure for me the bones above mentioned?
If they are to be bought, I will gladly pay for them whatever you
shall agree to as reasonable; and will place the money in New York as
instantaneously after it is made known to me, as the post can carry it,
as I will all expenses of package, transportation, &c. to New York and
Philadelphia, where they may be addressed to John Barnes, whose agent
(he not being on the spot) will take care of them for me.
But I have still a more important subject whereon to address you. Though
our information of the votes of the several States be not official, yet
they are stated on such evidence as to satisfy both parties that the
republican vote has been successful. We may, therefore, venture to
hazard propositions on that hypothesis, without being justly subjected
to raillery or ridicule. The constitution, to which we are all attached,
was meant to be republican, and we believe to be republican according
to every candid interpretation. Yet we have seen it so interpreted and
administered, as to be truly what the French have called it, a monarchic
masque. Yet so long has the vessel run on this way and been trimmed to
it, that to put her on her republican tack will require all the skill,
the firmness, and the zeal of her ablest and best friends. It is a
crisis which calls on them to sacrifice all other objects, and repair
to her aid in this momentous operation. Not only their skill is wanting,
but their names also. It is essential to assemble in the outset
persons to compose our administration, whose talents, integrity, and
revolutionary name and principles may inspire the nation, at once, with
unbounded confidence, and impose an awful silence on all the maligners
of republicanism; as may suppress in embryo the purpose avowed by one
of their most daring and effective chiefs, of beating down the
administration. These names do not abound at this day. So few are they,
that yours, my friend, cannot be spared among them without leaving a
blank which cannot be filled. If I can obtain for the public the aid of
those I have contemplated, I fear nothing. If this cannot be done, then
are we unfortunate indeed! We shall be unable to realize the prospects
which have been held out to the people, and we must fall back into
monarchism, for want of heads, not hands, to help us out of it. This is
a common cause, my dear Sir, common to all republicans. Though I have
been too honorably placed in front of those who are to enter the breach
so happily made, yet the energies of every individual are necessary, and
in the very place where his energies can most serve the enterprise. I
can assure you that your colleagues will be most acceptable to you;
one of them, whom you cannot mistake, peculiarly so. The part which
circumstances constrain us to propose to you, is the secretaryship
of the navy. These circumstances cannot be explained by letter.
Republicanism is so rare in those parts which possess nautical skill,
that I cannot find it allied there to the other qualifications.
Though you are not nautical by profession, yet your residence and your
mechanical science qualify you as well as a gentleman can possibly
be, and sufficiently to enable you to choose under-agents perfectly
qualified, and to superintend their conduct. Come forward then, my
dear Sir, and give us the aid of your talents and the weight of your
character towards the new establishment of republicanism; I say, for its
new establishment; for hitherto, we have seen only its _travestie_. I
have urged thus far, on the belief that your present office would not be
an obstacle to this proposition. I was informed, and I think it was
by your brother, that you wished to retire from it, and were only
restrained by the fear that a successor of different principles might
be appointed. The late change in your council of appointment will remove
this fear. It will not be improper to say a word on the subject
of expense. The gentlemen who composed General Washington’s first
administration took up, too universally, a practice of general
entertainment, which was unnecessary, obstructive of business, and
so oppressive to themselves, that it was among the motives for their
retirement. Their successors profited from the experiment, and lived
altogether as private individuals, and so have ever continued to do.
Here, indeed, it cannot be otherwise our situation being so rural, that
during the vacations of the legislature we shall have no society but of
the officers of government, and in time of sessions the legislature
is become and becoming so numerous, that for the last half dozen years
nobody but the President has pretended to entertain them. I have been
led to make the application before official knowledge of the result
of our election, because the return of Mr. Van Benthuysen, one of your
electors and neighbors, offers me a safe conveyance, at a moment when
the post-offices will be peculiarly suspicious and prying. Your answer
may come by post without danger, if directed in some other hand-writing
than your own: and I will pray you to give me an answer as soon as you
can make up your mind.
Accept assurances of cordial esteem and respect, and my friendly
salutations.
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER CCLXIV.--TO COLONEL BURR, December 15,1800
TO COLONEL BURR.
Washington, December 15,1800.
Dear Sir,
Although we have not official information of the votes for President and
Vice-President, and cannot have until the first week in February, yet
the state of the votes is given on such evidence, as satisfies both
parties that the two republican candidates stand highest. From South
Carolina we have not even heard of the actual vote; but we have learned
who were appointed electors, and with sufficient certainty how they
would vote. It is said they would withdraw from yourself one vote. It
has also been said that a General Smith, of Tennessee, had declared he
would give his second vote to Mr. Gallatin, not from any indisposition
towards you, but extreme reverence to the character of Mr. Gallatin. It
is also surmised that the vote of Georgia will not be entire. Yet nobody
pretends to know these things of a certainty, and we know enough to be
certain that what it is surmised will be withheld, will still leave
you four or five votes at least above Mr. Adams. However, it was badly
managed not to have arranged with certainty what seems to have been left
to hazard. It was the more material, because I understand several of the
highflying federalists have expressed their hope that the two republican
tickets may be equal, and their determination in that case to prevent a
choice by the House of Representatives (which they are strong enough to
do) and let the government devolve on a President of the Senate. Decency
required that I should be so entirely passive during the late contest,
that I never once asked whether arrangements had been made to prevent
so many from dropping votes intentionally, as might frustrate half the
republican wish; nor did I doubt, till lately, that such had been made.
While I must congratulate you, my dear Sir, on the issue of this
contest, because it is more honorable, and doubtless more grateful to
you than any station within the competence of the chief magistrate, yet
for myself, and for the substantial service of the public, I feel most
sensibly the loss we sustain of your aid in our new administration. It
leaves a chasm in my arrangements, which cannot be adequately filled up.
I had endeavored to compose an administration, whose talents, integrity,
names, and dispositions, should at once inspire unbounded confidence
in the public mind, and insure a perfect harmony in the conduct of the
public business. I lose you from the list, and am not sure of all the
others. Should the gentlemen who possess the public confidence decline
taking a part in their affairs, and force us to take persons unknown to
the people, the evil genius of this country may realize his avowal
that ‘he will beat down the administration.’ The return of Mr.
Van Benthuysen, one of your electors, furnishes me a confidential
opportunity of writing this much to you, which I should not have
ventured through the post-office at this prying season. We shall of
course see you before the fourth of March. Accept my respectful and
affectionate salutations.
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER CCLXV.--TO JUDGE BRECKENRIDGE, December 18,1800
TO JUDGE BRECKENRIDGE.
Washington, December 18,1800.
Dear Sir,
I received, while at home, the letter you were so kind as to write me.
The employments of the country have such irresistible attractions for
me, that while I am at home I am not very punctual in acknowledging
the letters of my friends. Having no refuge here from my room and
writing-table, it is my regular season for fetching up the lee-way of my
correspondence.
Before you receive this, you will have understood that the State of
South Carolina (the only one about which there was uncertainty) has
given a republican vote, and saved us from the consequences of the
annihilation of Pennsylvania. But we are brought into dilemma by the
probable equality of the two republican candidates, The federalists
in Congress mean to take advantage of this, and either to prevent an
election altogether, or reverse what has been understood to have been
the wishes of the people as to the President and Vice-President; wishes
which the constitution! did not permit them specially to designate.
The latter alternative still gives us a republican administration; the
former, a suspension of the federal government, for want of a head.
This opens to us an abyss at which every sincere patriot must shudder.
General Davie has arrived here with the treaty formed (under the name of
a convention) with France. It is now before the Senate for ratification,
and will encounter objections. He believes firmly that a continental
peace in Europe will take place, and that England also may be
comprehended.
Accept assurances of the great respect of, Dear Sir, your most obedient
servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER CCLXVI.--TO JAMES MADISON, December 19,1800
TO JAMES MADISON.
Washington, December 19,1800.
Dear Sir,
Mrs. Brown’s departure for Virginia enables me to write confidentially
what I could not have ventured by the post at this prying season.
The election in South Carolina has in some measure decided the great
contest. Though as yet we do not know the actual votes of Tennessee,
Kentucky, and Vermont, yet we believe the votes to be on the whole, J.
seventy-three, B. seventy-three, A. sixty-five, P. sixty-four. Rhode
Island withdrew one from P. There is a possibility that Tennessee may
withdraw one from B., and Burr writes that there may be one vote in
Vermont for J. But I hold the latter impossible, and the former not
probable; and that there will be an absolute parity between the two
republican candidates. This has produced great dismay and gloom on the
republican gentlemen here, and exultation in the federalists, who openly
declare they will prevent an election, and will name a President of
the Senate, _pro tem_, by what they say would only be a stretch of the
constitution. The prospect of preventing this, is as follows. Georgia,
North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Vermont, Pennsylvania, and New
York, can be counted on for their vote in the, House of Representatives,
and it is thought by some, that Baer of Maryland, and Linn of New Jersey
will come over. Some even count on Morris of Vermont. But you must know
the uncertainty of such a dependence under the operation of caucuses and
other federal engines. The month of February, therefore, will present us
storms of a new character. Should they have a particular issue, I hope
you will be here a day or two, at least, before the 4th of March. I
know that your appearance on the scene before the departure of Congress,
would assuage the minority, and inspire in the majority confidence and
joy unbounded, which they would spread far and wide on their journey
home. Let me beseech you then to come with a view of staying perhaps
a couple of weeks, within which time things might be put into such a
train, as would permit us both to go home for a short time, for removal.
I wrote to R. R. L. by a confidential hand three days ago. The person
proposed for the Treasury has not come yet.
Davie is here with the convention, as it is called; but it is a real
treaty, and without limitation of time. It has some disagreeable
features, and will endanger the compromitting us with Great Britain. I
am not at liberty to mention its contents, but I believe it will meet
with opposition from both sides of the House. It has been a bungling
negotiation. Ellsworth remains in France for his health. He has resigned
his office of Chief Justice. Putting these two things together, we
cannot misconstrue his views. He must have had great confidence in
Mr. Adams’s continuance to risk such a certainty as he held. Jay was
yesterday nominated Chief Justice. We were afraid of something worse. A
scheme of government for the territory is cooking by a committee of each
House, under separate authorities, but probably a voluntary harmony.
They let out no hints. It is believed that the judiciary system will not
be pushed, as the appointments, if made by the present administration,
could not fall on those who create them. But I very much fear the road
system will be urged. The mines of Peru would not supply the monies
which would be wasted on this object, nor the patience of any people
stand the abuses which would be incontrollably committed under it. I
propose, as soon as the state of the election is perfectly ascertained,
to aim at a candid understanding with Mr. Adams. I do not expect that
either his feelings or his views of interest will oppose it. I hope
to induce in him dispositions liberal and accommodating. Accept my
affectionate salutations.
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER CCLXVII.--TO JAMES MADISON, December 26, 1800
TO JAMES MADISON.
Washington, December 26, 1800.
Dear Sir,
All the votes have now come in, except of Vermont and Kentucky, and
there is no doubt that the result is a perfect parity between the two
republican characters. The federalists appear determined to prevent an
election, and to pass a bill giving the government to Mr. Jay, appointed
Chief Justice, or to Marshall as Secretary of State. Yet I am rather
of opinion that Maryland and Jersey will give the seven republican
majorities. The French treaty will be violently opposed by the
federalists; the giving up the vessels is the article they cannot
swallow. They have got their judiciary bill forwarded to commitment. I
dread this above all the measures meditated, because appointments in the
nature of free-hold render it difficult to undo what is done. We expect
a report for a territorial government which is to pay little respect to
the rights of man.
****
Cordial and affectionate salutations. Adieu.
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER CCLXVIII.--TO COLONEL BURR, February 1, 1801
TO COLONEL BURR.
Washington, February 1, 1801.
Dear Sir,
It was to be expected that the enemy would endeavor to sow tares between
us, that they might divide us and our friends. Every consideration
satisfies me you will be on your guard against this, as I assure you I
am strongly. I hear of one stratagem so imposing and so base, that it is
proper I should notice it to you. Mr. Munford, who is here, says he
saw at New York before he left it, an original letter of mine to Judge
Breckenridge, in which are sentiments highly injurious to you. He knows
my hand-writing, and did not doubt that to be genuine. I enclose you a
copy taken from the press copy of the only letter I ever wrote to Judge
Breckenridge in my life: the press copy itself has been shown to several
of our mutual friends here. Of consequence the letter seen by Mr.
Munford must be a forgery, and if it contains a sentiment unfriendly or
disrespectful to you, I affirm it solemnly to be a forgery; as also if
it varies, from the copy enclosed. With the common trash of slander I
should not think of troubling you; but the forgery of one’s hand-writing
is too imposing to be neglected. A mutual knowledge of each other
furnishes us with the best test of the contrivances which will be
practised by the enemies of both.
Accept assurances of my high respect and esteem.
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER CCLXIX.--TO GOVERNOR M’KEAN, February 2, 1801
TO GOVERNOR M’KEAN.
Washington, February 2, 1801.
Dear Sir,