SIR,--The letters and papers accompanying this will inform your

Excellency of the arrival of a British flag vessel with clothing,

refreshments, money, &c., for their prisoners, under the Convention

of Saratoga. The gentlemen conducting them, have, on supposition

that the prisoners, or a part of them, still remained in this State,

applied to me by letters, copies of which I transmit your Excellency,

for leave to allow water transportation as far as possible, and then,

for themselves to attend them to the post where they are to be issued.

These indulgences were usually granted them here, but the prisoners

being removed, it becomes necessary to transmit the application to

Congress for their direction. In the meantime, the flag will wait in

James river.

Our intelligence from General Greene's camp as late as the 24th, is,

that Lord Cornwallis's march of the day before had decided his route to

Cross creek.

The amount of the reinforcements to the enemy, arrived at Portsmouth,

is not yet known with certainty. Accounts differ from fifteen hundred

to much larger numbers. We are informed they have a considerable number

of horse. The affliction of the people for want of arms is great; that

of ammunition is not yet known to them. An apprehension is added, that

the enterprise on Portsmouth being laid aside, the troops under the

Marquis Fayette will not come on. An enemy three thousand strong, not a

regular in the State, nor arms to put in the hands of the militia, are,

indeed, discouraging circumstances.

I have the honor to be, with sentiments of the highest respect, your

Excellency's most obedient and most humble servant.

TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.

RICHMOND, April 7, 1781.

SIR,--Hearing that our arms from Rhode Island have arrived at

Philadelphia, I have begged the favor of our Delegates to send them on

in wagons immediately, and, for the conveyance of my letter, have taken

the liberty of setting the Continental line of expresses in motion,

which I hope our distress for arms will justify, though the errand be

not purely Continental.

I have nothing from General Greene later than the 27th of March; our

accounts from Portsmouth vary the reinforcements, which came under

General Phillips, from twenty-five hundred to three thousand. Arnold's

strength before, was, I think, reduced to eleven hundred. They have

made no movement as yet. Their preparation of boats is considerable;

whether they mean to go southwardly or up the river, no leading

circumstance has yet decided.

I have the honor to be, with the highest respect, your Excellency's

most obedient and most humble servant.

TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.

In Council, April 18, 1781.

SIR,--I was honored, yesterday with your Excellency's favor enclosing

the resolutions of Congress of the 8th instant, for removing stores and

provisions from the counties of Accomack and Northampton. We have there

no military stores, except a few muskets in the hands of the militia.

There are some collections of forage and provisions belonging to the

Continent, and some to the State, and the country there, generally,

furnishes an abundance of forage. But such is the present condition of

Chesapeake Bay that we cannot even get an advice boat across it with

any certainty, much less adventure on transportation. Should, however,

any interval happen, in which these articles may be withdrawn, we shall

certainly avail ourselves of it, and bring thence whatever we can.

If I have been rightly informed, the horses there are by no means such,

as that the enemy could apply them to the purposes of cavalry. Some

large enough for the draught may, perhaps, be found, but of these not

many.

I have the honor to be, with the greatest respect, your Excellency's

most obedient and most humble servant.

TO HIS EXCELLENCY GENERAL WASHINGTON.

RICHMOND, April 23, 1781.

SIR,--On the 18th instant, the enemy came from Portsmouth up

James river, in considerable force, though their numbers are

not yet precisely known to us. They landed at Burwell's ferry,

below Williamsburg, and also a short distance above the mouth of

Chickahomony. This latter circumstance obliged Colonel Innis, who

commanded a body of militia, stationed on that side the river to cover

the country from depredation, to retire upwards, lest he should be

placed between their two bodies. One of these entered Williamsburg

on the 20th, and the other proceeded to a ship-yard we had on

Chickahomony. What injury they did there, I am not yet informed. I

take for granted, they have burned an unfinished twenty-gun ship we had

there. Such of the stores, belonging to the yard as were movable, had

been carried some miles higher up the river. Two small gallies also

retired up the river. Whether by this, either the stores or gallies

were saved, is yet unknown. I am just informed, from a private hand,

that they left Williamsburg early yesterday morning. If this sudden

departure was not in consequence of some circumstance of alarm unknown

to us, their expedition to Williamsburg has been unaccountable. There

were no public stores at that place, but those which were necessary

for the daily subsistence of the men there. Where they mean to descend

next, the event alone can determine. Besides harassing our militia with

this kind of war, the taking them from their farms at the interesting

season of planting their corn, will have an unfortunate effect on the

crop of the ensuing year.

I have heard nothing certain of General Greene since the 6th instant,

except that his head-quarters were on Little river on the 11th.

I have the honor to be, with the highest respect and esteem, your

Excellency's most obedient and most humble servant,

TO HIS EXCELLENCY GENERAL WASHINGTON.

RICHMOND, May 9, 1781.

SIR,--Since the last letter which I had the honor of addressing to your

Excellency, the military movements in this State, except a very late

one, have scarcely merited communication.

The enemy, after leaving Williamsburg, came directly up James river and

landed at City Point, being the point of land on the southern point

of the confluence of Appomattox and James rivers. They marched up to

Petersburg, where they were received by Baron Steuben, with a body of

militia somewhat under one thousand, who, though the enemy were two

thousand and three hundred strong, disputed the ground very handsomely

two hours, during which time the enemy gained only one mile, and

that by inches. Our troops were then ordered to retire over a bridge,

which they did in perfectly good order. Our loss was between sixty and

seventy, killed, wounded, and taken. The enemy's is unknown, but it

must be equal to ours; for their own honor they must confess this, as

they broke twice and run like sheep, till supported by fresh troops.

An inferiority in number obliged our force to withdraw about twelve

miles upwards, till more militia should be assembled. The enemy burned

all the tobacco in the warehouses at Petersburg and its neighborhood.

They afterwards proceeded to Osborne's, where they did the same, and

also destroyed the residue of the public armed vessels, and several

of private property, and then came to Manchester, which is on the hill

opposite this place.

By this time, Major General Marquis Fayette having been advised of

our danger, had, by forced marches, got here with his detachment of

Continental troops; and reinforcements of militia having also come in,

the enemy, finding we were able to meet them on equal footing, thought

proper to burn the warehouses and tobacco at Manchester, and retire

to Warwick, where they did the same. Ill armed and untried militia,

who never before saw the face of an enemy, have, at times, during the

course of this war, given occasions of exultation to our enemies, but

they afforded us, while at Warwick, a little satisfaction in the same

way. Six or eight hundred of their picked men of light infantry, with

General Arnold at their head, having crossed the river from Warwick,

fled from a patrole of sixteen horse, every man into his boat as he

could, some pushing North, some South, as their fears drove them. Their

whole force then proceeded to the Hundred, being the point of land

within the confluence of the two rivers, embarked, and fell down the

river. Their foremost vessels had got below Burwell's ferry on the 6th

instant, when, on the arrival of a boat from Portsmouth, and a signal

given, the whole crowded sail up the river again with a fair wind and

tide, and came to anchor at Brandon; there six days' provision was

dealt out to every man; they landed, and had orders to march an hour

before day the next morning. We have not yet heard which way they went,

or whether they have gone, but having, about the same time, received

authentic information that Lord Cornwallis had, on the 1st instant,

advanced from Wilmington half way to Halifax, we have no doubt,

putting all circumstances together, that these two armies are forming

a junction.

We are strengthening our hands with militia, as far as arms, either

public or private, can be collected, but cannot arm a force which

may face the combined armies of the enemy. It will, therefore, be of

very great importance that General Wayne's forces be pressed on with

the utmost despatch. Arms and a naval force, however, are what must

ultimately save us. This movement of our enemies we consider as most

perilous in its consequences.

Our latest advices from General Greene were of the 26th ult., when

he was lying before Camden, the works and garrison of which were much

stronger than he had expected to find them.

I have the honor to be, with great respect, your Excellency's most

obedient humble servant.

TO THE VIRGINIA DELEGATES IN CONGRESS.

IN COUNCIL, May 10, 1781.

GENTLEMEN,--A small affair has taken place between the British

commanding officer in this State, General Phillips, and the Executive,

of which, as he may endeavor to get rid of it through the medium of

Congress, I think it necessary previously to apprise you.

General Scott obtained permission from the Commandant at Charleston,

for vessels with necessary supplies to go from hence to them, but

instead of sending the original, sent only a copy of the permission

taken by his brigade major. I applied to General Phillips to supply

this omission by furnishing a passport for the vessel. Having just

before taken great offence at a threat of retaliation in the treatment

of prisoners, he enclosed his answer to my letter under this address,

"To Thomas Jefferson, Esq., American Governor of Virginia." I paused

on receiving the letter, and for some time would not open it; however,

when the miserable condition of our brethren in Charleston occurred

to me, I could not determine that they should be left without the

necessaries of life, while a punctilio should be discussing between

the British General and myself; and, knowing that I had an opportunity

of returning the compliment to Mr. Phillips in a case perfectly

corresponding, I opened the letter.

Very shortly after, I received, as I expected, the permission of the

board of war, for the British flag vessel then in Hampton Roads with

clothing and refreshments, to proceed to Alexandria. I enclosed and

addressed it, "To William Phillips, Esq., commanding the British forces

in the Commonwealth of Virginia." Personally knowing Phillips to be the

proudest man of the proudest nation on earth, I well know he will not

open this letter; but having occasion, at the same time, to write to

Captain Gerlach, the flag-master, I informed him that the Convention

troops in this State should perish for want of necessaries, before any

should be carried to them through this State, till General Phillips

either swallowed this pill of retaliation, or made an apology for his

rudeness. And in this, should the matter come ultimately to Congress,

we hope for their support.

He has the less right to insist on the expedition of his flag, because

his letter, instead of enclosing a passport to expedite ours, contained

only an evasion of the application, by saying he had referred it to Sir

Henry Clinton, and in the meantime, he has come up the river, and taken

the vessel with her loading, which we had chartered and prepared to

send to Charleston, and which wanted nothing but the passport to enable

her to depart.

I would further observe to you, that this gentleman's letters to

the Baron Steuben first, and afterwards to the Marquis Fayette, have

been in a style so intolerably insolent and haughty, that both these

gentlemen have been obliged to inform him, that if he thinks proper

to address them again in the same spirit, all intercourse shall be

discontinued.

I am, with great respect and esteem, Gentlemen,

Your most obedient servant.

TO HIS EXCELLENCY GENERAL WASHINGTON.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, May 28,1781.

SIR,--I make no doubt you will have heard, before this shall have

the honor of being presented to your Excellency, of the junction of

Lord Cornwallis with the force at Petersburg under Arnold, who had

succeeded to the command on the death of Major-general Phillips. I am

now advised that they have evacuated Petersburg, joined at Westover a

reinforcement of two thousand men just arrived from New York, crossed

James river, and on the 26th instant, were three miles advanced on

their way towards Richmond; at which place, Major-General the Marquis

Fayette lay with three thousand men, regulars and militia: these being

the whole number we could arm, until the arrival of the eleven hundred

arms from Rhode Island, which are, about this time, at the place where

our public stores are deposited. The whole force of the enemy within

this State, from the best intelligence I have been able to get, is,

I think, about seven thousand men, infantry and cavalry, including,

also, the small garrison left at Portsmouth. A number of privateers,

which are constantly ravaging the shores of our rivers, prevent us

from receiving any aid from the counties lying on navigable waters; and

powerful operations meditated against our western frontier, by a joint

force of British and Indian savages, have, as your Excellency before

knew, obliged us to embody between two and three thousand men in that

quarter. Your Excellency will judge from this state of things, and from

what you know of our country, what it may probably suffer during the

present campaign. Should the enemy be able to produce no opportunity

of annihilating the Marquis's army, a small proportion of their force

may yet restrain his movements effectually while the greater part are

employed, in detachment, to waste an unarmed country, and lead the

minds of the people to acquiesce under those events which they see no

human power prepared to ward off. We are too far removed from the other

scenes of war to say, whether the main force of the enemy be within

this State. But I suppose they cannot anywhere spare so great an army

for the operations of the field. Were it possible for this circumstance

to justify in your Excellency a determination to lend us your personal

aid, it is evident, from the universal voice, that the presence of

their beloved countryman, whose talents have so long been successfully

employed in establishing the freedom of kindred States, to whose person

they have still flattered themselves they retained some right, and have

ever looked up, as their dernier resort in distress, would restore

full confidence of salvation to our citizens, and would render them

equal to whatever is not impossible. I cannot undertake to foresee and

obviate the difficulties which lie in the way of such a resolution.

The whole subject is before you, of which I see only detached parts;

and your judgment will be formed on a view of the whole. Should the

danger of this State and its consequence to the Union, be such, as to

render it best for the whole that you should repair to its assistance,

the difficulty would then be, how to keep men out of the field. I have

undertaken to hint this matter to your Excellency, not only on my own

sense of its importance to us, but at the solicitations of many members

of weight in our legislature, which has not yet assembled to speak

their own desires.

A few days will bring to me that relief which the constitution has

prepared for those oppressed with the labors of my office, and a long

declared resolution of relinquishing it to abler hands, has prepared

my way for retirement to a private station: still, as an individual,

I should feel the comfortable effects of your presence, and have

(what I thought could not have been) an additional motive for that

gratitude, esteem, and respect, with which I have the honor to be, your

Excellency's most obedient humble servant.

TO THE MARQUIS LA FAYETTE.

MONTICELLO, August 4, 1781.

SIR,--I am much obliged by the trouble you took in forwarding to me

the letter of his Excellency, the President of Congress. It found me

in Bedford, an hundred miles southward of this, where I was confined

till within these few days, by an unfortunate fall from my horse. This

has occasioned the delay of the answer which I now take the liberty of

enclosing to you, as the confidential channel of conveyance, pointed

out by the President.

I thank you also for your kind sentiments and friendly offer on

the occasion, which, that I cannot avail myself of, has given me

more mortification than almost any occurrence of my life. I lose an

opportunity, the only one I ever had, and perhaps ever shall have,

of combining public service with private gratification. Of seeing

countries whose improvements in science, in arts, and in civilization,

it has been my fortune to admire at a distance, but never to see, and

at the same time of lending some aid to a cause, which has been handed

on from its first organization to its present stage, by every effort

of which my poor faculties were capable. These, however, have not

been such as to give satisfaction to some of my countrymen, and it has

become necessary for me to remain in the State till a later period in

the present year, than is consistent with an acceptance of what has

been offered me.[102] Declining higher objects, therefore, my only one

must be to show that suggestion and fact are different things, and that

public misfortune may be produced as well by public poverty and private

disobedience to the laws, as by the misconduct of public servants.[103]

The independence of private life under the protection of republican

laws will, I hope, yield me the happiness from which no slave is so

remote as the minister of a commonwealth. From motives of private

esteem as well as public gratitude, I shall pray it to be your lot in

every line of life, as no one can with more truth subscribe himself

with the highest regard and respect, Sir, your most obedient, and most

humble servant.

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH, ESQ.

MONTICELLO, September 16, 1781.

DEAR SIR,--I have received your letter of the 7th instant. That,

mentioned to have been sent by the preceding post, has not come to

hand, nor two others, which Mrs. Randolph informs me you wrote before

you left Virginia, nor indeed any others, should you have been so kind

as to have written any others. When I received the first letter from

the President of Congress, enclosing their resolution, and mentioning

the necessity of an expeditious departure, my determination to attend

at the next session of the Assembly offered a ready and insuperable

obstacle to my accepting of that appointment, and left me under no

necessity of deliberating with myself whether, that objection being

removed, any other considerations might prevent my undertaking it. I

find there are many, and must, therefore, decline it altogether. Were

it possible for me to determine again to enter into public business,

there is no appointment whatever which would have been so agreeable

to me. But I have taken my final leave of everything of that nature.

I have retired to my farm, my family and books, from which I think

nothing will evermore separate me. A desire to leave public office,

with a reputation not more blotted than it has deserved, will oblige me

to emerge at the next session of our Assembly, and perhaps to accept of

a seat in it. But as I go with a single object, I shall withdraw when

that shall be accomplished. I should have thought that North Carolina,

rescued from the hands of Britain, Georgia and almost the whole of

South Carolina recovered, would have been sufficiently humiliating to

induce them to treat with us. If this will not do, I hope the stroke

is now hanging over them which will satisfy them that their views of

Southern conquests are likely to be as visionary as those of Northern.

I think it impossible Lord Cornwallis should escape. Mrs. Randolph will

be able to give you all the news on this subject, as soon as you shall

be able to release her from others. I am, with much esteem, dear Sir,

your friend and servant.

TO GENERAL WASHINGTON.

MONTICELLO, October 28th, 1781.

SIR,--I hope it will not be unacceptable to your Excellency to receive

the congratulations of a private individual on your return to your

native country, and, above all things, on the important success which

has attended it.[104] Great as this has been, however, it can scarcely

add to the affection with which we have looked up to you. And if,

in the minds of any, the motives of gratitude to our good allies

were not sufficiently apparent, the part they have borne in this

action must amply evince them. Notwithstanding the state of perpetual

decrepitude to which I am unfortunately reduced, I should certainly

have done myself the honor of paying my respects to you personally;

but I apprehend these visits, which are meant by us as marks of our

attachment to you, must interfere with the regulations of a camp, and

be particularly inconvenient to one whose time is too precious to be

wasted in ceremony.

I beg you to believe me among the sincerest of those who subscribe

themselves, your Excellency's most obedient, and most humble servant.

TO GENERAL GATES

RICHMOND, December 14th, 1781.

DEAR SIR,--I have received your friendly letters of August 2d and

November 15th, and some of the gentlemen to whom you wished them to

be communicated not being here, I have taken the liberty of handing

them to some others, so as to answer the spirit of your wish. It seems

likely to end, as I ever expected it would, in a final acknowledgment

that good dispositions and arrangements will not do without a certain

degree of bravery and discipline in those who are to carry them into

execution. This, the men whom you commanded, or the greater part of

them at least, unfortunately wanted on that particular occasion.

I have not a doubt but that, on a fair enquiry, the returning justice

of your countrymen will remind them of Saratoga, and induce them to

recognize your merits. My future plan of life scarcely admits a hope

of my having the pleasure of seeing you at your seat; yet I assuredly

shall do it should it ever lie within my power, and am assured that

Mrs. Jefferson will join me in sincere thanks for your kind sentiments

and invitation, and in expressions of equal esteem for Mrs. Gates and

yourself, and in a certain hope that, should any circumstance lead you

within our reach, you will make us happy by your company at Monticello.

We have no news to communicate. That the Assembly does little, does not

come under that description.

I am, with very sincere esteem, dear sir, your friend and servant.

TO JAMES MADISON.

MONTICELLO, March 24th, 1782.

DEAR SIR,--I have received from you two several favors, on the subject

of the designs against the territorial rights of Virginia.[105] I

never before could comprehend on what principle our rights to the

western country could be denied, which would not, at the same time,

subvert the right of all the States to the whole of their territory.

What objections may be founded on the charter of New York, I cannot

say, having never seen that charter, nor been able to get a copy of

it in this country. I had thought to have seized the first leisure

on my return from the last Assembly, to have considered and stated

our rights, and to have communicated to our delegates, or perhaps to

the public, so much as I could trace, and expected to have derived

some assistance from ancient MSS., which I have been able to collect.

These, with my other papers and books, however, had been removed to

Augusta to be out of danger from the enemy, and have not yet been

brought back. The ground on which I now find the question to be

bottomed is so unknown to me that it is out of my power to say anything

on the subject. Should it be practicable for me to procure a copy

of the charter of New York, I shall probably think on it, and would

cheerfully communicate to you whatever could occur to me worth your

notice. But this will probably be much too late to be of any service

before Congress, who doubtless will decide, ere long, on the subject.

I sincerely wish their decision may tend to the preservation of peace.

If I am not totally deceived in the determination of this country,

the decision of Congress, if unfavorable, will not close the question.

I suppose some people on the western waters, who are ambitious to be

Governors, &c., will urge a separation by authority of Congress. But

the bulk of the people westward are already thrown into great ferment

by the report of what is proposed, to which I think they will not

submit. This separation is unacceptable to us in form only, and not

in substance. On the contrary, I may safely say it is desired by the

eastern part of our country whenever their western brethren shall think

themselves able to stand alone. In the meantime, on the petition of

the western counties, a plan is digesting for rendering their access to

government more easy. I trouble you with the enclosed to Mons. Marbois.

I had the pleasure of hearing that your father and family were all

well yesterday, by your brother, who is about to study the law in my

neighborhood. I shall always be glad to hear from you, and, if it be

possible for me, retired from public business, to find anything worth

your notice, I shall communicate it with great pleasure.

I am with sincere esteem, dear Sir, your friend and servant.

JAMES MONROE TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

RICHMOND, 11th of May, 1782.

DEAR SIR,--As I so lately wrote you by Mr. Short, and have since

daily expected to see you here, I did not propose writing to you till

after I should have that pleasure; but as I begin to fear you will not

abate that firmness and decision which you have frequently shown in

the service of your country, even upon this occasion, and as I have

had an opportunity since I last wrote of being better informed of the

sentiments of those whom I know you put the greatest value on, I think

it my duty to make you acquainted therewith. It is publicly said here,

that the people of your country informed you that they had frequently

elected you in times of less difficulty and danger than the present to

please you; but that now they had called you forth into public office

to serve themselves. This is a language which has been often used in

my presence; and you will readily conceive that, as it furnishes those

who argue on the fundamental maxims of a Republican government with

ample field for declamation, the conclusion has always been, that

you should not decline the service of your country. The present is

generally conceived to be an important era, which, of course, makes

your attendance particularly necessary. And as I have taken the liberty

to give you the public opinion and desire upon this occasion, and as

I am warmly interested in whatever concerns the public interest or

has relation to you, it will be necessary to add, it is earnestly the

desire of, dear Sir,

Your sincere friend and obedient servant.

TO COLONEL JAMES MONROE.

MONTICELLO, May 20th, 1782.

DEAR SIR,--I have been gratified with your two favors of the 6th and

11th inst. It gives me pleasure that your county has been wise enough

to enlist your talent into their service. I am much obliged by the

kind wishes you express of seeing me also in Richmond, and am always

mortified when anything is expected from me which I cannot fulfill, and

more especially if it relate to the public service. Before I ventured

to declare to my countrymen my determination to retire from public

employment, I examined well my heart to know whether it were thoroughly

cured of every principle of political ambition, whether no lurking

particle remained which might leave me uneasy, when reduced within

the limits of mere private life. I became satisfied that every fibre

of that passion was thoroughly eradicated. I examined also, in other

views, my right to withdraw. I considered that I had been thirteen

years engaged in public service--that, during that time, I had so

totally abandoned all attention to my private affairs as to permit them

to run into great disorder and ruin--that I had now a family advanced

to years which require my attention and instruction--that, to these,

was added the hopeful offspring of a deceased friend, whose memory

must be forever dear to me, and who have no other reliance for being

rendered useful to themselves or their country--that by a constant

sacrifice of time, labor, parental and friendly duties, I had, so far

from gaining the affection of my countrymen, which was the only reward

I ever asked or could have felt, even lost the small estimation I had

before possessed.

That, however I might have comforted myself under the disapprobation

of the well-meaning but uninformed people, yet, that of their

representatives was a shock on which I had not calculated. That this,

indeed, had been followed by an exculpatory declaration. But, in the

meantime, I had been suspected in the eyes of the world, without the

least hint then or afterwards being made public, which might restrain

them from supposing that I stood arraigned for treason of the heart,

and not merely weakness of the mind; and I felt that these injuries,

for such they have been since acknowledged, had inflicted a wound on my

spirit which will only be cured by the all-healing grave. If reason and

inclination unite in justifying my retirement, the laws of my country

are equally in favor of it. Whether the State may command the political

services of all its members to an indefinite extent, or, if these be

among the rights never wholly ceded to the public power, is a question

which I do not find expressly decided in England. Obiter dictums on

the subject I have indeed met with, but the complexion of the times

in which these have dropped would generally answer them. Besides that,

this species of authority is not acknowledged in our possession.

In this country, however, since the present government has been

established, the point has been settled by uniform, pointed and

multiplied precedents. Offices of every kind, and given by every power,

have been daily and hourly declined and resigned from the Declaration

of Independence to this moment. The General Assembly has accepted

these without discrimination of office, and without ever questioning

them in point of right. If the difference between the office of a

delegate and any other could ever have been supposed, yet in the case

of Mr. Thompson Mason, who declined the office of delegate, and was

permitted so to do by the House, that supposition has been proved

to be groundless. But, indeed, no such distinction of offices can be

admitted. Reason, and the opinions of the lawyers, putting all on a

footing as to this question, and so giving to the delegate the aid

of all the precedents of the refusal of other offices. The law then

does not warrant the assumption of such a power by the State over its

members. For if it does, where is that law? nor yet does reason. For

though I will admit that this does subject every individual, if called

on, to an equal tour of political duty, yet it can never go so far as

to submit to it his whole existence. If we are made in some degree

for others, yet, in a greater, are we made for ourselves. It were

contrary to feeling, and indeed ridiculous to suppose that a man had

less rights in himself than one of his neighbors, or indeed all of them

put together. This would be slavery, and not that liberty which the

bill of rights has made inviolable, and for the preservation of which

our government has been charged. Nothing could so completely divest us

of that liberty as the establishment of the opinion, that the State

has a perpetual right to the services of all its members. This, to

men of certain ways of thinking, would be to annihilate the blessings

of existence, and to contradict the Giver of life, who gave it for

happiness and not for wretchedness. And certainly, to such it were

better that they had never been born. However, with these, I may think

public service and private misery inseparably linked together, I have

not the vanity to count myself among those whom the State would think

worth oppressing with perpetual service. I have received a sufficient

memento to the contrary. I am persuaded that, having hitherto dedicated

to them the whole of the active and useful part of my life, I shall be

permitted to pass the rest in mental quiet. I hope, too, that I did

not mistake modes any more than the matter of right when I preferred

a simple act of renunciation, to the taking sanctuary under those

disqualifications (provided by the law for other purposes indeed but)

affording asylum also for rest to the wearied. I dare say you did not

expect by the few words you dropped on the right of renunciation to

expose yourself to the fatigue of so long a letter, but I wished you

to see that, if I had done wrong, I had been betrayed by a semblance

of right at least. I take the liberty of enclosing to you a letter

for General Chattellux, for which you will readily find means of

conveyance. But I mean to give you more trouble with the one to Pelham,

who lives in the neighborhood of Manchester, and to ask the favor of

you to send it by your servant--express--which I am in hopes may be

done without absenting him from your person, but during those hours in

which you will be engaged in the house. I am anxious that it should be

received immediately. * * * * * * It will give me great pleasure to see

you here whenever you can favor us with your company. You will find me

still busy, but in lighter occupations. But in these and all others you

will find me to retain a due sense of your friendship, and to be, with

sincere esteem, dear Sir,

Your most obedient and most humble servant.

TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON.

CHESTERFIELD, November 26, 1782.

SIR,--I received yesterday the letter with which you have been pleased

to honor me, enclosing the resolution of Congress of the 12th instant,

renewing my appointment as one of their ministers plenipotentiary for

negotiating a peace--and beg leave, through you, to return my sincere

thanks to that august body, for the confidence they are pleased to

repose in me, and to tender the same to yourself for the obliging

manner in which you have notified it.[106] I will employ in this

arduous charge, with diligence and integrity, the best of my poor

talents, which I am conscious are far short of what it requires. This,

I hope, will ensure to me from Congress a kind construction of all my

transactions. And it gives me no small pleasure, that my communications

will pass through the hands of a gentleman with whom I have acted in

the earlier stages of this contest, and whose candor and discernment

I had the good fortune then to approve and esteem. Your letter finds

me at a distance from home, attending my family under inoculation.

This will add to the delay which the arrangements of my particular

affairs would necessarily occasion. I shall lose no moment, however,

in preparing for my departure, and shall hope to pay my respects to

Congress and yourself at sometime between the 20th and the last of

December.

I have the honor to be, with very great esteem and respect, dear Sir,

your most obedient and most humble servant.

TO THE CHEVALIER DE CHATTELLUX.

AMPHILL, November 26, 1782.

DEAR SIR,--I received your friendly letters of ---- and June 30th, but

the latter not till the 17th of October. It found me a little emerging

from the stupor of mind which had rendered me as dead to the world

as was she whose loss occasioned it.[107] Your letter recalled to my

memory that there were persons still living of much value to me. If

you should have thought me remiss in not testifying to you sooner, how

deeply I had been impressed with your worth in the little time I had

the happiness of being with you, you will, I am sure, ascribe it to its

true cause, the state of dreadful suspense in which I have been kept

all the summer, and the catastrophe which closed it.

Before that event, my scheme of life had been determined. I had folded

myself in the arms of retirement, and rested all prospects of future

happiness on domestic and literary objects. A single event wiped

away all my plans, and left me a blank which I had not the spirits

to fill up. In this state of mind an appointment from Congress found

me, requiring me to cross the Atlantic. And that temptation might be

added to duty, I was informed, at the same time, from his Excellency

the Chevalier de Luzerne, that a vessel of force would be sailing

about the middle of December in which you would be passing to France.

I accepted the appointment, and my only object now is, to so hasten

over those obstacles which would retard my departure, as to be ready to

join you in your voyage--fondly measuring your affection by my own, and

presuming your consent. It is not certain that I can, by any exertion,

be in Philadelphia by the middle of December--the contrary is most

probable. But hoping it will not be much later, and counting on those

procrastinations which usually attend the departure of vessels of size,

I have hopes of being with you in time. This will give me full leisure

to learn the result of your observations on the natural bridge, to

communicate to you my answers to the enquiries of Monsieur de Marbois,

to receive edification from you on these and other subjects of science;

considering chess, too, as a matter of science. Should I be able to get

out in tolerable time, and any extraordinary delays attend the sailing

of the vessel, I shall certainly do myself the honor of waiting on his

Excellency the Count de Rochambeau, at his head-quarters, and assuring

him in person of my high respect and esteem for him--an object of which

I have never lost sight. To yourself, I am unable to express the warmth

of those sentiments of friendship and attachment with which I have the

honour to be, dear Sir,

Your most obedient and most humble servant.

TO MR. STEPTOE.

November 26, 1782.

DEAR SIR,--I received in August your favor, wherein you give me hopes

of being able to procure for me some of the big bones. I should be

unfaithful to my own feeling, were I not to express to you how much

I am obliged by your attention to the requests I made you on that

subject. A specimen of each of the several species of bones now to

be found, is to me the most desirable objects in natural history.

And there is no expense of package or of safe transportation which

I will not gladly reimburse, to procure them safely. Elk horns of

very extraordinary size, or anything else uncommon, would be very

acceptable. You will hear of my going to Europe, but my trip there

will be short. I mention this, lest you should hesitate forwarding

any curiosities to me. New London in Bedford, Staunton in Augusta,

or Frederick County, are places from whence I can surely get them.

Any observations of your own on the subject of the big bones or

their history, or on anything else in the western country, will come

acceptably to me, because I know you see the works of nature in the

great and not merely in detail. Descriptions of animals, vegetables,

minerals, or other curious things; notes as to the Indians' information

of the country between the Mississippi and waters of the South Sea,

&c., &c., will strike your mind as worthy being communicated. I wish

you had more time to pay attention to them. I perceive by your letter,

you are not unapprized that your services to your country have not

made due impression on every mind. That you have enemies, you must

not doubt, when you reflect that you have made yourself eminent. If

you meant to escape malice, you should have confined yourself within

the sleepy line of regular duty. When you transgressed this, and

enterprised deeds which will hand down your name with honor to future

times, you made yourself a mark for envy and malice to shoot at. Of

these there is enough, you know, both in and out of office. I was not

a little surprised, however, to find one person hostile to you, as far

as he has personal courage to show hostility to any man. Who he is, you

will probably have heard, or may know him by this description--as being

all tongue without either head or heart. In the variety of his crooked

schemes, however, his interest may probably veer about, so as to put it

in your power to be useful to him. In which case, he certainly will be

your friend again, if you want him. That you may long continue a fit

object for his enmity, and for that of every person of his complexion

in the State, which I know can only be by your continuing to do good to

your country and to acquire honor to yourself, is the earnest prayer of

one who subscribes himself, with great truth and sincerity, dear Sir,

Your friend and servant.

TO JAMES MADISON.

AMPHILL, IN CHESTERFIELD, November 26th, 1782.

DEAR SIR,--Your favor by Colonel Basset is not yet come to hand. The

intimation through the attorney, I received the day before Colonel

Bland's arrival, by whom I am honored with yours of the 14th inst.

It finds me at this place attending my family under inoculation. This

will of course retard those arrangements of my domestic affairs, which

will of themselves take time and cannot be made but at home. I shall

lose no time, however, in preparing for my departure. And from the

calculation I am at present enabled to make, I suppose I cannot be in

Philadelphia before the 20th of December, and that possibly it may be

the last of that month. Some days I must certainly pass there, as I

could not propose to jump into the midst of a negotiation without a

single article of previous information. From these data, you will be

enabled to judge of the chance of availing myself of his Excellency,

the Chevalier de Luzerne's, kind offers, to whom I beg you to present

my thanks for his friendly attention, and let him know I shall use

my best endeavors to be in time for the departure of his frigate.

No circumstances of a private nature could induce me to hasten over

the several obstacles to my departure more unremitting than the hope

of having the Chevalier de Chattellux as a companion in my voyage.

A previous acquaintance with his worth and abilities, had impressed

me with an affection for him which, under the then prospect of never

seeing him again, was perhaps imprudent.

I am with very sincere esteem, dear Sir, your very affectionate friend,

and humble servant.

TO GEORGE WASHINGTON.

PHILADELPHIA, January 22d, 1783.

SIR,--Having lately received a call from Congress to pass the Atlantic

in the character of their minister for negotiating peace, I cannot

leave the continent without separating myself for a moment from the

general gratitude of my country, to offer my individual tribute to your

Excellency for all you have suffered and all you have effected for us.

Were I to indulge myself in those warm effusions which this subject

forever prompts, they would wear an appearance of adulation very

foreign to my nature; for such is become the prostitution of language

that sincerity has no longer distinct terms in which to express her

own truths. Should you give me occasion, during the short mission on

which I go, to render you any service beyond the water, I shall, for

a proof of my gratitude, appeal from language to the zeal with which

I shall embrace it. The negotiations to which I am joined may perhaps

be protracted beyond our present expectations, in which case, though I

know you must receive much better intelligence from the gentlemen whose

residence there has brought them into a more intimate acquaintance with

the characters and views of the European courts, yet I shall certainly

presume to add my mite, should it only serve to convince you of the

warmth of those sentiments of respect and esteem with which I have the

honor to be, your Excellency's most obedient, and most humble servant.

TO THE CHEVALIER DE LA LUZERNE, MINISTER OF FRANCE.

BALTIMORE, February 7th, 1783.

SIR,--The Chevalier de Ville Brun was so kind as to communicate to me

yesterday your Excellency's letter to him of January, together with the

intelligence therein referred to. I feel myself bound to return you my

thanks, for your orders to the Guadeloupe frigate to receive me, if I

should think a passage should be hazarded under present circumstances.

According to this information (which is the most worthy of credit of

any we have received here), it would seem that our capture would be

unavoidable were we to go out now. This, therefore, is a risk to which

I cannot think of exposing his Majesty's vessel and subjects; however

I might be disposed to encounter personal hazards, from my anxiety

to execute, with all the promptitude in my power, a service which has

been assigned to me. I shall therefore wait with patience the arrival

of the moment when the Chevalier de Ville Brun shall be of opinion

that the one or the other of the vessels may venture out without any

greater risk than he shall think proportioned to her proper object,

independently of mine. It has been suggested to me this evening, that

perhaps their safe departure might be greatly forwarded by their

falling down to York, or Hampton, there to be ready at a moment's

warning, to avail themselves of those favorable circumstances which the

present season sometimes offers.

But of this, yourself will be the proper judge. I cannot close my

letter without expressing to you my obligations to the Chevalier

de Ville Brun for the particular attention he has shown to my

accommodation on board his ship. The apartments he has had constructed

for me are ample and commodious, and his politeness and deportment as

an officer are an agreeable presage of everything that shall depend on

him. I have delivered to him the two large packets you were pleased

to put into my hands, and he will dispose of them according to your

orders.

I have the honor to be, with the highest sentiments of esteem, your

Excellency's most obedient, and most humble servant.

TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON, SECRETARY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS.

BALTIMORE, February 7, 1783.

SIR,--I arrived here on the 30th of the last month, and had a short

interview the same evening with the Chevalier de Ville Brun, commander

of the Ramilies. There appeared at that time little apprehension but

that we might sail in a few days, but we were not very particular in

our conference, as we expected to see each other again. The severity of

the cold, however, which commenced that night, obliged the Chevalier

de Ville Brun to fall twelve miles below this place, and excluded

all correspondence with him till yesterday, when I found means to

get through the ice on board his ship. He then communicated to me,

by direction of his Excellency, the minister of France, intelligence

as to the number and force of the cruisers now actually watching the

capes of the Chesapeake. I must acknowledge that the appearances are

such as to render a capture certain were we to hazard it. The minister

was pleased at the same time to submit the Guadeloupe to my wishes, if

I chose to adventure. I take the liberty of troubling you with a copy

of my letter to him on that subject. I should certainly be disposed

to run very considerable risks myself to effect my passage; but should

think it an unfortunate introduction to an ally, who has already done

so much for us, were I to add to his losses and disbursements that of

a valuable ship and crew. I wish that the present delay offered some

period less distant than the lassitude of an avaricious enemy to watch

for prey. Perhaps you may be able to put me on some more expeditious

mode of passage than the one under which I am acquiescing at present. I

shall be much pleased to adopt any such which may come recommended from

you, without regard to personal risk or trouble. In the meantime, any

intelligence which you can collect and will be pleased to give me as to

the state of our coast, will be of utility in determining whether and

when we shall depart hence.

I have the honor to be with very great esteem and respect, Sir, your

most obedient and most humble servant.

* * * * *

P. S. Your letter of the 31st ultimo came safely to hand with the

packet to Mr. Adams accompanying it.

GEORGE WASHINGTON TO THE HONORABLE THOMAS JEFFERSON.

NEWBURGH, 10th February, 1783.

DEAR SIR,--I have been honored with your favor of 22d of January from

Philadelphia. I feel myself much flattered by your kind remembrance

of me in the hour of your departure from this continent, for the

favorable sentiments you are pleased to entertain of my services for

this our common country. To merit the approbation of good and virtuous

men is the height of my ambition, and will be a full compensation

for all my toils and sufferings in the long and painful contest in

which we have been engaged. It gave me great pleasure to hear that the

call upon you from Congress to pass the Atlantic in the character of

one of their ministers for negotiating peace had been repeated; but

I hope you will have found the business already done. The speech of

his Britannic Majesty is strongly indicative of the olive branch; and

yet, as he observes, unforseen events may place it out of reach. At

present, the prospect of peace absorbs, or seems to do so, every other

consideration among us; and would, it is to be feared, leave us in a

very unprepared state to continue the war, if the negotiations at Paris

should terminate otherwise than in a general pacification. But I will

hope that it is the dearth of other news that fills the mouths of every

person with peace, while their minds are employed in contemplating on

the means of prosecuting the war, if necessity should drive us to it.

You will please to accept my grateful thanks for your obliging offer

of services during your stay in France. To hear from you frequently

will be an honor and very great satisfaction to, dear Sir, your most

obedient, and most humble servant.

ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

PHILADELPHIA, 14th February, 1783.

SIR,--I have delayed in answering your favor of the 7th instant until

I could obtain the sense of Congress on the matter it contains.

I conceive it hardly possible, while the British cruisers retain

their present station, for you to elude their vigilance in either

of the ships offered to your choice. This, concurring with the late

advices from England, has induced Congress to pass the enclosed

resolution.[108] We have reason to conjecture that peace is already

concluded; whether it is or not, a few days will determine. I transmit

the speech of his Britannic Majesty, which, with what you already know

of the state of our negotiations, will enable you to form your opinion

on the same ground that we do. I have the honor to be, Sir, with great

respect and esteem, your most obedient, and most humble servant.

TO R. R. LIVINGSTON.

BALTIMORE, February 14, 1783.

SIR,--I apprised you in my former letter of the causes which had

so long delayed my departure. These still continue. I have this

moment received a printed copy of his British Majesty's speech to

his Parliament, by which we learn that the preliminaries between

Great Britain and America, among which is one for the acknowledgment

of our independence, have been provisionally agreed to on his part.

That the negotiations with the other powers at war were considerably

advanced, and that he hoped, in a very short time, they would end

in terms of pacification. As considerable progress has been made in

the negotiations for peace since the appointment with which Congress

were pleased to honor me, it may have become doubtful whether any

communications I could make or any assistance I could yield to the very

able gentlemen in whose hands the business already is, would compensate

the expense of prosecuting my voyage to Europe. I therefore beg leave

through you, Sir, to assure Congress that I desire this question to be

as open to them now as it was on the day of my appointment, and that I

have not a wish either to go or to stay. They will be pleased to weigh

the economy of the one measure against the chance which the other may

offer of my arriving in such time as that any communications which have

been confided to me may produce effect on definitive articles. I shall

continue here for the prosecution of my voyage, under the orders before

received, or for its discontinuance, should that be more eligible to

Congress, and be signified at any moment before my departure. I have

the honor to be, &c.

ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

PHILADELPHIA, February 18, 1783.

SIR,--I was yesterday honored with your favor of the 14th, which

I shall lay before Congress this morning. As you have by this time

received their resolution which I had the honor to send you by the last

post, and again enclosed, you will be relieved in some measure from

your embarrassments, though not entirely of your suspense with respect

to their final determination. But that cannot be long doubtful, since

the negotiations have certainly arrived at such a crisis as either to

terminate soon in a peace or a total rupture. In the latter case, you

will necessarily be obliged to proceed on your voyage, as Congress

seems anxious to avail themselves of your abilities and information

in the negotiations, unless they are fully assured that a speedy peace

will preclude them from that advantage.

I enclose a paper which contains all that we have yet received on that

interesting subject. It may, perhaps, be difficult to account for our

ministers having signed before those of France. But if this letter is

genuine, it serves, when compared with their instructions, to prove

that the terms of peace are acceptable to us and not disagreeable to

France. I have the honor to be, Sir, with great respect and esteem,

your most obedient, and most humble servant.

TO THE HON. R. R. LIVINGSTON.

PHILADELPHIA, March 13, 1783.

SIR,--Supposing the despatches received by the Washington, may have

enabled Congress to decide on the expediency of continuing, or of

countermanding my mission to Europe, I take the liberty of expressing

to you the satisfaction it will give me to receive their ultimate

will, so soon as other business will permit them to revert to this

subject.[109] I have the honor, &c.

TO JOHN JAY.

_Philadelphia_, April 11, 1783.

DEAR SIR,--In a letter which I did myself the honor of writing to you

by the Chevalier de Chattellux, I informed you of my being at this

place, with the intention of joining you in Paris. But the uncommon

vigilance of the enemy's cruisers, immediately after the departure of

the French fleet, deterred every vessel from attempting to go out. The

arrival of the preliminaries soon after showed the impropriety of my

proceeding, and I am just now setting out on my return to Virginia. I

cannot, however, take my departure, without paying to yourself and your

worthy colleague my homage for the good work you have completed for

us, and congratulating you on the singular happiness of having borne

so distinguished a part both in the earliest and latest transactions

of this revolution. The terms obtained for us are indeed great, and

are so deemed by your country--a few ill-designing debtors excepted.

I am in hopes you will continue at some one of the European courts

most agreeable to yourself, that we may still have the benefit of your

talents. I took the liberty in my letter of suggesting a wish that you

would be so kind as to engage lodgings for me. Should you have given

yourself this trouble, I beg leave to return you my thanks, and to ask

the favor of you to communicate the amount of their hire to Mr. Robert

Morris, of this city, who will immediately remit it to you, as I lodge

money in his hands for this purpose. Accept my warmest wishes for your

happiness, and be assured of the sincerity with which I have the honor

to be, dear Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.

* * * * *

P. S. I beg to be affectionately remembered to Dr. F. and Mr. A., if

they be still with you.

TO HIS EXCELLENCY GENERAL WASHINGTON.

ANNAPOLIS, April 16, 1784.

DEAR SIR,--I received your favor of April 8th, by Colonel Harrison. The

subject of it is interesting, and, so far as you have stood connected

with it, has been matter of anxiety to me; because, whatever may be

the ultimate fate of the institution of the Cincinnati, in its course,

it draws to it some degree of disapprobation. I have wished to see

you standing on ground separated from it, and that the character which

will be handed to future ages at the head of our Revolution, may, in

no instance, be compromitted in subordinate altercations. The subject

has been at the point of my pen in every letter I have written to

you, but has been still restrained by the reflection that you had

among your friends more able counsellors, and, in yourself, one abler

than them all. Your letter has now rendered a duty what was before a

desire, and I cannot better merit your confidence than by a full and

free communication of facts and sentiments, as far as they have come

within my observation. When the army was about to be disbanded, and

the officers to take final leave, perhaps never again to meet, it

was natural for men who had accompanied each other through so many

scenes of hardship, of difficulty, and danger, who, in a variety of

instances, must have been rendered mutually dear by those aids and

good offices, to which their situations had given occasion; it was

natural, I say, for these to seize with fondness any proposition

which promised to bring them together again, at certain and regular

periods. And this, I take for granted, was the origin and object of

this institution; and I have no suspicion that they foresaw, much less

intended, those mischiefs which exist, perhaps in the forebodings of

politicians only. I doubt, however, whether, in its execution, it would

be found to answer the wishes of those who framed it, and to foster

those friendships it was intended to preserve. The members would be

brought together at their annual assemblies, no longer to encounter a

common enemy, but to encounter one another in debate and sentiment.

For something, I suppose, is to be done at these meetings, and,

however unimportant, it will suffice to produce difference of opinion,

contradiction and irritation. The way to make friends quarrel is to put

them in disputation under the public eye. An experience of near twenty

years has taught me, that few friendships stand this test, and that

public assemblies, where every one is free to act and speak, are the

most powerful looseners of the bands of private friendship. I think,

therefore, that this institution would fail in its principal object,

the perpetuation of the personal friendships contracted through the

war.

The objections of those who are opposed to the institution shall

be briefly sketched. You will readily fill them up. They urge that

it is against the Confederation--against the letter of some of our

constitutions--against the spirit of all of them;--that the foundation

on which all these are built, is the natural equality of man, the

denial of every pre-eminence but that annexed to legal office, and,

particularly, the denial of a pre-eminence by birth; that, however,

in their present dispositions, citizens might decline accepting

honorary instalments into the order, a time may come, when a change

of dispositions would render these flattering, when a well-directed

distribution of them might draw into the order all the men of talents,

of office and wealth, and in this case, would probably procure an

ingraftment into the government; that in this, they will be supported

by their foreign members, and the wishes and influence of foreign

courts; that experience has shown that the hereditary branches of

modern governments are the patrons of privilege and prerogative,

and not of the natural rights of the people, whose oppressors they

generally are; that, besides these evils, which are remote, others may

take place more immediately; that a distinction is kept up between

the civil and military, which it is for the happiness of both to

obliterate; that when the members assemble they will be proposing

to do something, and what that something may be, will depend on

actual circumstances; that being an organized body, under habits of

subordination, the first obstruction to enterprize will be already

surmounted; that the moderation and virtue of a single character

have probably prevented this Revolution from being closed, as most

others have been, by a subversion of that liberty it was intended to

establish; that he is not immortal, and his successor, or some of his

successors, may be led by false calculation into a less certain road to

glory.

What are the sentiments of Congress on this subject, and what line they

will pursue, can only be stated conjecturally. Congress, as a body, if

left to themselves, will, in my opinion, say nothing on the subject.

They may, however, be forced into a declaration by instructions from

some of the States, or by other incidents. Their sentiments, if forced

from them, will be unfriendly to the institution. If permitted to

pursue their own path, they will check it by side-blows whenever it

comes in their way, and in competitions for office, on equal or nearly

equal ground, will give silent preferences to those who are not of

the fraternity. My reasons for thinking this are, 1. The grounds on

which they lately declined the foreign order proposed to be conferred

on some of our citizens. 2. The fourth of the fundamental articles

of constitution for the new States. I enclose you the report; it has

been considered by Congress, recommitted and reformed by a committee,

according to sentiments expressed on other parts of it, but the

principle referred to, having not been controverted at all, stands in

this as in the original report; it is not yet confirmed by Congress.

3. Private conversations on this subject with the members. Since the

receipt of your letter, I have taken occasion to extend these; not,

indeed, to the military members, because, being of the order delicacy

forbade it, but to the others pretty generally; and among these, I

have as yet found but one who is not opposed to the institution, and

that with an anguish of mind, though covered under a guarded silence,

which I have not seen produced by any circumstance before. I arrived

at Philadelphia before the separation of the last Congress, and saw

there and at Princeton some of its members, not now in delegation.

Burke's piece happened to come out at that time, which occasioned

this institution to be the subject of conversation. I found the same

impressions made on them which their successors have received. I

hear from other quarters that it is disagreeable, generally, to such

citizens as have attended to it, and, therefore, will probably be so to

all, when any circumstance shall present it to the notice of all.

This, Sir, is as faithful an account of sentiments and facts as I am

able to give you. You know the extent of the circle within which my

observations are at present circumscribed, and can estimate how far, as

forming a part of the general opinion, it may merit notice, or ought to

influence your particular conduct.

It remains now to pay obedience to that part of your letter, which

requests sentiments on the most eligible measures to be pursued by the

society, at their next meeting. I must be far from pretending to be a

judge of what would, in fact, be the most eligible measures for the

society. I can only give you the opinions of those with whom I have

conversed, and who, as I have before observed, are unfriendly to it.

They lead to these conclusions: 1. If the society proceed according to

its institution, it will be better to make no applications to Congress

on that subject, or any other, in their associated character. 2. If

they should propose to modify it, so as to render it unobjectionable,

I think this would not be effected without such a modification as

would amount almost to annihilation; for such would it be to part with

its inheritability, its organization, and its assemblies. 3. If they

shall be disposed to discontinue the whole, it would remain with them

to determine whether they would choose it to be done by their own

act only, or by a reference of the matter to Congress, which would

infallibly produce a recommendation of total discontinuance.

You will be sensible, Sir, that these communications are without

reserve. I supposed such to be your wish, and mean them but as

materials, with such others as you may collect, for your better

judgment to work on. I consider the whole matter as between ourselves

alone, having determined to take no active part in this or anything

else, which may lead to altercation, or disturb that quiet and

tranquillity of mind, to which I consign the remaining portion of my

life. I have been thrown back by events, on a stage where I had never

more thought to appear.[110] It is but for a time, however, and as a

day laborer, free to withdraw, or be withdrawn at will. While I remain,

I shall pursue in silence the path of right, but in every situation,

public or private, I shall be gratified by all occasions of rendering

you service, and of convincing you there is no one to whom your

reputation and happiness are dearer than to, Sir,

Your most obedient, and most humble servant.

FOOTNOTES:

[78] From this designation of the ancient metropolis, it

would seem even then to have been no favorite with him.

[79] The lady here alluded to is manifestly the Miss Rebecca

Burwell mentioned in his first letter; but what suggested the

quaint designations of her is not so obvious. In the first of

them, Belinda, translated into dog Latin, which was there, as

elsewhere, among the _facetiæ_ of young collegians, became

_campana in die_, that is _bell in day_. In the second, the

name is reversed, and becomes _adnileb_, which, for further

security, is written in Greek characters, and the lady spoken

of in the masculine gender.

[80] Probably Mr. William Fontaine, of Hanover county.

[81] By this term, he no doubt designated Mr. Dabney Carr,

his brother-in-law.

[82] [This letter has no address.]

[83] [The troops under Burgoyne, captured at Saratoga.]

[84] TO THE GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA.

KASKASKIAS, ILLINOIS, April 29, 1779.

DEAR SIR,--A few days ago, I received certain intelligence

of William Morris, my express to you, being killed near

the falls of Ohio; news truly disagreeable to me, as I fear

many of my letters will fall into the hands of the enemy, at

Detroit, although some of them, as I learn, were found in the

woods torn in pieces. I do not doubt but before the receipt

of his, you will have heard of my late success against

Governor Hamilton, at post St. Vincennes. That gentleman,

with a body of men, possessed himself of that post on the

15th of December last, repaired the fortifications for a

repository, and in the spring, meant to attack this place,

which he made no doubt of carrying; where he was to be joined

by two hundred Indians from Michilimackinac, and five hundred

Cherokees, Chickasaws, and other nations. With this body, he

was to penetrate up the Ohio to Fort Pitt, sweeping Kentucky

on his way, having light brass cannon for the purpose, joined

on his march by all the Indians that could be got to him.

He made no doubt, that he could force all West Augusta. This

expedition was ordered by the commander-in-chief of Canada.

Destruction seemed to hover over us from every quarter;

detached parties of the enemy were in the neighborhood every

day, but afraid to attack. I ordered Major Bowman to evacuate

the fort at the Cohas, and join me immediately, which he

did. Having not received a scrape of a pen from you, for near

twelve months, I could see but little probability of keeping

possession of the country, as my number of men was too small

to stand a siege, and my situation too remote to call for

assistance. I made all the preparations I possibly could

for the attack, and was necessitated to set fire to some of

the houses in town, to clear them out of the way. But in the

height of the hurry, a Spanish merchant, who had been at St.

Vincennes, arrived, and gave the following intelligence: that

Mr. Hamilton had weakened himself, by sending his Indians

against the frontiers, and to block up the Ohio; that he had

not more than eighty men in garrison, three pieces of cannon,

and some swivels mounted; and that he intended to attack

this place, as soon as the winter opened, and made no doubt

of clearing the western waters by the fall. My situation

and circumstances induced me to fall on the resolution of

attacking him, before he could collect his Indians again. I

was sensible the resolution was as desperate as my situation,

but I saw no other probability of securing the country. I

immediately despatched a small galley, which I had fitted up,

mounting two four pounders and four swivels, with a company

of men and necessary stores on board, with orders to force

her way, if possible, and station herself a few miles below

the enemy, suffer nothing to pass her, and wait for further

orders. In the meantime, I marched across the country with

one hundred and thirty men, being all I could raise, after

leaving this place garrisoned by the militia. The inhabitants

of the country behaved exceedingly well, numbers of young men

turned out on the expedition, and every other one embodied

to guard the different towns. I marched the 7th of February.

Although so small a body, it took me sixteen days on the

route. The inclemency of the season, high waters, &c., seemed

to threaten the loss of the expedition. When within three

leagues of the enemy, in a direct line, it took us five days

to cross the drowned lands of the Wabash river, having to

wade often, upwards of two leagues, to our breast in water.

Had not the weather been warm, we must have perished. But

on the evening of the 23d, we got on dry land, in sight of

the enemy; and at seven o'clock, made the attack, before

they knew anything of us. The town immediately surrendered

with joy, and assisted in the siege. There was a continual

fire on both sides, for eighteen hours. I had no expectation

of gaining the fort until the arrival of my artillery. The

moon setting about one o'clock, I had an entrenchment thrown

up within rifle shot of their strongest battery, and poured

such showers of well-directed balls into their ports, that

we silenced two pieces of cannon in fifteen minutes, without

getting a man hurt.

Governor Hamilton and myself had, on the following day,

several conferences, but did not agree until the evening,

when he agreed to surrender the garrison (seventy-nine in

number) prisoners of war, with considerable stores. I got

only one man wounded; not being able to lose many, I made

them secure themselves well. Seven were badly wounded in the

fort, through the ports. In the height of this action, an

Indian party that had been to war, and taken two prisoners,

came in, not knowing of us. Hearing of them, I despatched a

party to give them battle in the commons, and got nine of

them, with the two prisoners, who proved to be Frenchmen.

Hearing of a convoy of goods from Detroit, I sent a party

of sixty men, in armed boats well mounted with swivels, to

meet them, before they could receive any intelligence. They

met the convoy forty leagues up the river, and made a prize

of the whole, taking forty prisoners and about ten thousand

pounds worth of goods and provisions; also, the mail from

Canada to Governor Hamilton, containing, however, no news

of importance. But what crowned the general joy, was the

arrival of William Morris, my express to you, with your

letters, which gave general satisfaction. The soldiery,

being made sensible of the gratitude of their country for

their services, were so much elated, that they would have

attempted the reduction of Detroit, had I ordered them.

Having more prisoners than I knew what to do with, I was

obliged to discharge a greater part of them, on parole. Mr.

Hamilton, his principal officers and a few soldiers, I have

sent to Kentucky, under a convoy of Captain Williams, in

order to be conducted to you. After despatching Morris with

letters to you, treating with the neighboring Indians, &c., I

returned to this place, leaving a sufficient garrison at St.

Vincennes.

During my absence, Captain Robert George, who now commands

the company formerly commanded by Captain Willing, had

returned from New Orleans, which greatly added to our

strength. It gave great satisfaction to the inhabitants,

when acquainted with the protection which was given them,

the alliance with France, &c. I am impatient for the arrival

of Colonel Montgomery, but have heard nothing of him lately.

By your instructions to me, I find you put no confidence in

General M'Intosh's taking Detroit, as you encourage me to

attempt it, if possible. It had been twice in my power. Had I

been able to raise only five hundred men when I first arrived

in the country, or when I was at St. Vincennes, could I have

secured my prisoners, and only have had three hundred good

men, I should have attempted it, and since learn there could

have been no doubt of success, as by some gentlemen lately

from that post, we are informed that the town and country

kept three days in feasting and diversions, on hearing of

my success against Mr. Hamilton, and were so certain of my

embracing the fair opportunity of possessing myself of that

post, that the merchants and others provided many necessaries

for us on our arrival; the garrison, consisting of only

eighty men, not daring to stop their diversions. They are now

completing a new fort, and I fear too strong for any force I

shall ever be able to raise in this country. We are proud to

hear Congress intends putting their forces on the frontiers,

under your direction. A small army from Pittsburg, conducted

with spirit, may easily take Detroit, and put an end to the

Indian war. Those Indians who are active against us, are

the six nations, part of the Shawnese, the Meamonies, and

about half the Chesaweys, Ottawas, Jowaas, and Pottawatimas

nations, bordering on the lakes. Those nations who have

treated with me, have behaved since very well; to wit, the

Peankishaws, Kiccapoos, Oreaottenans of the Wabash river,

the Kaskias, Perrians, Mechigamies, Foxes, Socks, Opays,

Illinois and Poues, nations of the Mississippi and Illinois

rivers. Part of the Chessaweys have also treated, and are

peaceable. I continually keep agents among them, to watch

their motions and keep them peaceably inclined. Many of the

Cherokees, Chickasaws, and their confederates, are, I fear,

ill disposed. It would be well if Colonel Montgomery should

give them a dressing, as he comes down the Tennessee. There

can be no peace expected from many nations, while the English

are at Detroit. I strongly suspect they will turn their arms

against the Illinois, as they will be encouraged. I shall

always be on my guard, watching every opportunity to take the

advantage of the enemy, and, if I am ever able to muster six

or seven hundred men, I shall give them a shorter distance to

come and fight me, than at this place.

There is one circumstance very distressing, that of our

moneys being discredited, to all intents and purposes, by

the great number of traders who come here in my absence, each

outbidding the other, giving prices unknown in this country

by five hundred per cent., by which the people conceived it

to be of no value, and both French and Spaniards refused to

take a farthing of it. Provision is three times the price it

was two months past, and to be got by no other means than

my own bonds, goods, or force. Several merchants are now

advancing considerable sums of their own property, rather

than the service should suffer, by which I am sensible they

must lose greatly, unless some method is taken to raise the

credit of our coin, or a fund be sent to Orleans, for the

payment of the expenses of this place, which would at once

reduce the price of every species of provision; money being

of little service to them, unless it would pass at the ports

they trade at. I mentioned to you, my drawing some bills

on Mr. Pollock in New Orleans, as I had no money with me.

He would accept the bills, but had not money to pay them

off, though the sums were trifling; so that we have little

credit to expect from that quarter. I shall take every

step I possibly can, for laying up a sufficient quantity of

provisions, and hope you will immediately send me an express

with your instructions. Public expenses in this country,

have hitherto been very low, and may still continue so,

if a correspondence is fixed at New Orleans for payment of

expenses in this country, or gold and silver sent. I am glad

to hear of Colonel Todd's appointment. I think government

has taken the only step they could have done, to make

this country flourish, and be of service to them. No other

regulation would have suited the people. The last account I

had of Colonel Rogers, was his being in New Orleans, with six

of his men. The rest he left at the Spanish Ozack, above the

Natches. I shall immediately send him some provisions, as I

learn he is in great want. I doubt, he will not be able to

get his goods up the river except in Spanish bottoms. One

regiment would be able to clear the Mississippi, and do great

damage to the British interests in Florida, and, by properly

conducting themselves, might perhaps gain the affection

of the people, so as to raise a sufficient force to give a

shock to Pensacola. Our alliance with France has entirely

devoted this people to our interest. I have sent several

copies of the articles to Detroit, and do not doubt but they

will produce the desired effect. Your instructions I shall

pay implicit regard to, and hope to conduct myself in such a

manner as to do honor to my country.

I am, with the greatest respect, your humble servant,

G. R. CLARKE.

P. S. I understand there is a considerable quantity of cannon

ball at Pittsburg. We are much in want of four and six pound

ball. I hope you will immediately order some down.

IN COUNCIL, June 18, 1779.

The board proceeded to the consideration of the letters

of Colonel Clarke, and other papers relating to Henry

Hamilton, Esq., who has acted for some years past as

Lieutenant Governor of the settlement at and about Detroit,

and commandant of the British garrison there, under Sir

Guy Carleton, as Governor-in-chief; Philip Dejean justice

of the peace for Detroit, and William Lamothe, captain

of volunteers, prisoners of war, taken in the county of

Illinois.

They find, that Governor Hamilton has executed the task of

inciting the Indians to perpetrate their accustomed cruelties

on the citizens of the United States, without distinction of

age, sex, or condition, with an eagerness and avidity which

evince, that the general nature of his charge harmonized with

his particular disposition. They should have been satisfied,

from the other testimony adduced, that these enormities

were committed by savages acting under his commission; but

the number of proclamations which, at different times, were

left in houses, the inhabitants of which were killed or

carried away by the Indians, one of which proclamations is in

possession of the board, under the hand and seal of Governor

Hamilton, puts this fact beyond a doubt. At the time of his

captivity, it appears, he had sent considerable bodies of

Indians against the frontier settlements of these States, and

had actually appointed a great council of Indians, to meet

him at Tennessee, to concert the operations of this present

campaign. They find that his treatment of our citizens and

soldiers, taken and carried within the limits of his command,

has been cruel and inhuman; that in the case of John Dodge, a

citizen of these States, which has been particularly stated

to this board, he loaded him with irons, threw him into a

dungeon, without bedding, without straw, without fire, in

the dead of winter and severe climate of Detroit; that, in

that state, he wasted him with incessant expectations of

death: that when the rigors of his situation had brought him

so low, that death seemed likely to withdraw him from their

power, he was taken out and somewhat attended to, until a

little mended, and before he had recovered ability to walk,

was again returned to his dungeon, in which a hole was cut,

seven inches square only, for the admission of air, and

the same load of irons again put on him: that appearing, a

second time, in imminent danger of being lost to them, he

was again taken from his dungeon, in which he had lain from

January till June, with the intermission of a few weeks

only, before mentioned. That Governor Hamilton gave standing

rewards for scalps, but offered none for prisoners, which

induced the Indians, after making their captives carry their

baggage into the neighborhood of the fort, there to put them

to death, and carry in their scalps to the Governor, who

welcomed their return and success by a discharge of cannon.

That when a prisoner, brought alive, and destined to death

by the Indians, the fire already kindled, and himself bound

to the stake, was dexterously withdrawn, and secreted from

them by the humanity of a fellow prisoner, a large reward was

offered for the discovery of the victim, which having tempted

a servant to betray his concealment, the present prisoner

Dejean, being sent with a party of soldiers, surrounded the

house, took and threw into jail the unhappy victim and his

deliverer, where the former soon expired under the perpetual

assurances of Dejean, that he was to be again restored into

the hands of the savages; and the latter, when enlarged, was

bitterly reprimanded by Governor Hamilton.

It appears to them, that the prisoner Dejean was on all

occasions the willing and cordial instrument of Governor

Hamilton, acting both as judge and keeper of the jails, and

instigating and urging him, by malicious insinuations and

untruths, to increase, rather than relax his severities,

heightening the cruelty of his orders by his manner of

executing them; offering at one time a reward to one man to

be hangman for another, threatening his life on refusal,

and taking from his prisoners the little property their

opportunities enabled them to acquire.

It appears that the prisoner Lamothe was a captain of the

volunteer scalping parties of Indians and whites, who went,

from time to time, under general orders to spare neither

men, women, nor children. From this detail of circumstances,

which arose in a few cases only, coming accidentally to the

knowledge of the board, they think themselves authorized by

fair deduction, to presume what would be the horrid history

of the sufferings of the many who have expired under their

miseries, (which, therefore, will remain forever untold,)

or, who have escaped from them, and are yet too remote and

too much dispersed, to bring together their well-founded

accusations against the prisoners.

They have seen that the conduct of the British officers,

civil and military, has in the whole course of this war been

savage, and unprecedented among civilized nations; that our

officers taken by them, have been confined in crowded jails,

loathsome dungeons and prison ships, loaded with irons,

supplied often with no food, generally with too little for

the sustenance of nature, and that little sometimes unsound

and unwholesome, whereby such numbers have perished, that

captivity and death have with them been almost synonymous;

that they have been transported beyond seas, where their

fate is out of the reach of our inquiry, have been compelled

to take arms against their country, and by a refinement in

cruelty, to become murderers of their own brethren.

Their prisoners with us have, on the other hand, been treated

with humanity and moderation; they have been fed, on all

occasions, with wholesome and plentiful food, suffered to go

at large within extensive tracts of country, treated with

liberal hospitality, permitted to live in the families of

our citizens, to labor for themselves, to acquire and enjoy

profits, and finally to participate of the principal benefits

of society, privileged from all burdens.

Reviewing this contrast, which cannot be denied by our

enemies themselves, in a single point, and which has now been

kept up during four years of unremitting war, a term long

enough to produce well-founded despair that our moderation

may ever lead them to the practice of humanity; called on by

that justice we owe to those who are fighting the battles

of our country, to deal out, at length, miseries to their

enemies, measure for measure, and to distress the feelings

of mankind by exhibiting to them spectacles of severe

retaliation, where we had long and vainly endeavored to

introduce an emulation in kindness; happily possessed, by

the fortune of war, of some of those very individuals who,

having distinguished themselves personally in this line of

cruel conduct, are fit subjects to begin on, with the work of

retaliation; this board has resolved to advise the Governor,

that the said Henry Hamilton, Philip Dejean and William

Lamothe, prisoners of war, be put in irons, confined in the

dungeons of the public jail, debarred the use of pen, ink and

paper, and excluded all converse, except with their keeper.

And the Governor orders accordingly.

ARCH: BLAIR, C. C.

[85] IN COUNCIL, September 29th, 1779.

The board having been, at no time, unmindful of the

circumstances attending the confinement of Lieutenant

Governor Hamilton, Captain Lamothe and Philip Dejean, which

the personal cruelties of those men, as well as the general

conduct of the enemy, had constrained them to advise:

wishing, and willing to expect, that their sufferings may

lead them to the practice of humanity, should any future

turn of fortune, in their favor, submit to their discretion

the fate of their fellow-creatures; that it may prove an

admonition to others, meditating like cruelties, not to rely

for impunity in any circumstances of distance or present

security; and that it may induce the enemy to reflect, what

must be the painful consequences, should a continuation of

the same conduct on their part, impel us again to severities,

while such multiplied subjects of retaliation are within our

power: sensible that no impression can be made on the event

of the war, by wreaking vengeance on miserable captives; that

the great cause which has animated the two nations against

each other, is not to be decided by unmanly cruelties on

wretches, who have bowed their necks to the power of the

victor, but by the exercise of honorable valor in the field:

earnestly hoping that the enemy, viewing the subject in the

same light, will be content to abide the event of that mode

of decision, and spare us the pain of a second departure

from kindness to our captives: confident that commiseration

to our prisoners is the only possible motive to which can

be candidly ascribed, in the present actual circumstances of

the war, the advice we are now about to give; the board does

advise the Governor to send Lieutenant Governor Hamilton,

Captain Lamothe and Philip Dejean, to Hanover courthouse,

there to remain at large, within certain reasonable limits,

taking the parole in the usual manner. The Governor orders

accordingly.

ARCH: BLAIR, C. C.

Ordered, that Major John Hay be sent, also, under parole, to

the same place.

ARCH: BLAIR, C. C.

[86] IN COUNCIL, October 8th, 1779.

The Governor is advised to take proper and effectual measures

for knowing, from time to time, the situation and treatment

of our prisoners by the enemy, and to extend to theirs,

with us, a like treatment, in every circumstance; and,

also, to order to a proper station, the prison ship fitted

up on recommendation from Congress, for the reception and

confinement of such prisoners of war as shall be sent to it.

ARCH: BLAIR, C. C.

[87] [General de Riedesel, who commanded the Hessian troops,

was among the prisoners removed to Albemarle, in 1779, after

the surrender of Burgoyne at Saratoga. Mr. Jefferson did

everything in his power to render the situation of these

prisoners comfortable, and the educated and refined officers

were often his guests. Among the number was General de

Riedesel, who seems to have entertained a grateful sense of

the kindness extended to him. The example of Mr. Jefferson

was followed by most of the wealthy gentlemen of the

surrounding country; the officers, both English and German,

have borne testimony to the polite and hospitable attentions

which they received in Virginia.]--ED.

[88] [The following memorandum is inserted in the MS. at the

close of this letter.

FEMALE CONTRIBUTIONS, IN AID OF THE WAR, PROBABLY IN 1780.

Mrs. Sarah Cary, of Scotchtown, a watch-chain, cost £7 sterling.

Mrs. ---- Ambler, five gold rings.

Mrs. Rebecca Ambler, three gold rings.

Mrs. ---- Nicholas, a diamond drop.

Mrs. Griffin, of Dover, ten half joes.

Mrs. Gilmer, five guineas.

Mrs. Anne Ramsay (for Fairfax), one half joe, three guineas,

three pistereens, one bit.

Do. for do. paper money, bundle No. 1, twenty thousand dollars,

No. 2, twenty-seven thousand dollars, No. 3, fifteen thousand

dollars, No. 4, thirteen thousand five hundred and eighteen

dollars and one-third.

Mrs. Lewis (for Albermarle), £1559 8s. paper money.

Mrs. Weldon, £39 18s. new, instead of £1600, old paper money.

Mrs. Blackburn (for Prince William), seven thousand five hundred

and six dollars, paper money.

Mrs. Randolph, the younger, of Chatsworth, eight hundred dollars.

Mrs. Fitzhugh and others, £558.

[89] [This letter has no direction, but was probably

addressed to General Gates, then commanding the Southern

army. It was written by Mr. Jefferson in his character of

Governor of Virginia, to which office he was elected on the

1st of June, 1779.--ED.]

[90] [The circumstances of the defeat of General Gates's

army, near Camden, in August, 1780, being of historical

notoriety, this statement is omitted.]

[91] [Battle of Camden, August 16th, 1780.]

[92] TO LIEUTENANT COLONEL NISBET BALFOUR, COMMANDER AT

NINETY-SIX.

I have the happiness to inform you, that on Wednesday the

16th instant, I totally defeated General Gates's army. One

thousand were killed and wounded, about eight hundred taken

prisoners. We are in possession of eight pieces of brass

cannon, all they had in the field, all their ammunition

wagons, a great number of arms, and one hundred and thirty

baggage wagons; in short, there never was a more complete

victory. I have written to Lieutenant Colonel Turnbull,

whom I sent to join Major Johnson on Little river, to push

on after General Sumpter to the Waxhaws, whose detachment

is the only collected force of rebels in all this country.

Colonel Tarleton is in pursuit of Sumpter. Our loss is about

three hundred killed and wound, chiefly of the thirty-third

regiment and volunteers, of Ireland. I have given orders that

all the inhabitants of this province, who have subscribed

and taken part in this revolt, should be punished with the

greatest rigor; also, that those who will not turn out, may

be imprisoned, and their whole property taken from them,

and destroyed. I have also ordered that satisfaction should

be made for their estates, to those who have been injured

and oppressed by them. I have ordered, in the most positive

manner, that every militia man who has borne arms with us and

afterwards joined the enemy, shall be immediately hanged. I

desire you will take the most rigorous measures to punish the

rebels in the district in which you command, and that you

will obey, in the strictest manner, the directions I have

given in this letter, relative to the inhabitants of this

country.

CORNWALLIS.

August, 1780.

[93] [About the 22d of Oct. 1780, a British fleet made its

appearance in the Chesapeake, having on board some three

thousand troops, under the command of General Leslie.

Different detachments were landed near Portsmouth, Hampton,

and on the bay-side of Princess Anne. The whole force was

subsequently collected at Portsmouth; but Leslie, probably

disappointed in his expectation of forming a juncture with

Cornwallis, suddenly re-embarked for South Carolina. On the

29th of the following December, Arnold made his appearance,

with twenty-seven sail of vessels, within the Virginian

capes, and commenced his invasion. On 26th of March, 1781, he

was superseded in his command by General Phillips, who joined

him at Portsmouth with some two thousand troops.--ED.]

[94] TO LORD CORNWALLIS.

PORTSMOUTH, Virginia, November 4th, 1780.

MY LORD,--I have been here near a week, establishing a post.

I wrote to you to Charleston, and by another messenger, by

land. I cannot hear, for a certainty, where you are: I wait

your orders. The bearer is to be handsomely rewarded, if he

brings me any note or mark from your Lordship.

A. L.

[95] [Probably addressed to General Gates.]

[96] [After the battle of Camden--August 16th, 1780--Congress

removed General Gates from the command of the Southern army,

and placed General Green at its head. In December, 1780, he

assumed the command.]

[97] [One of the Convention prisoners, in Albemarle.]

[98] [This letter has no address, but it was probably to

General Muhlenburg.]

[99] [Governor of North Carolina.]

[100] [General Greene, after taking command of the Southern

army, divided his force, and sent one division of it, under

General Morgan, to the western part of South Carolina.

Cornwallis, who was now nearly prepared to invade North

Carolina, unwilling to leave Morgan in his rear, sent

Tarleton in pursuit of him. The two detachments met on the

17th of January, 1781, when the battle of Cowpens was fought,

and Tarleton defeated. Cornwallis, after the defeat of

Tarleton, abandoned the invasion of North Carolina for the

present, and started in pursuit of Morgan. Greene, suspecting

his intention, hastened to join Morgan, and, after a

fatiguing march, effected a junction at Guilford Court House.

During this march he was closely pursued by Cornwallis,

who, as stated in the above letter, "burnt his own wagons in

order to enable himself to move with greater facility." After

this junction at Guilford Court House, Greene crossed the

Dan, into Virginia--again narrowly escaping the pursuit of

Cornwallis, who now retired to Hillsborough, where, erecting

the royal standard, he issued his proclamation, inviting the

loyalists to join him, and sent Tarleton with a detachment to

support a body of them collected between the Havre and Deep

Rivers. Greene, having despatched Generals Pickens and Lee to

watch the movements of Tarleton, and having been reinforced

in Virginia, now returned into North Carolina, and fought

the battle of Guilford Court House on the 8th of March,

1781.--ED.]

[101] [M. de Marbois was attached to the French Legation in

Philadelphia.--ED.]

[102] [On the 15th of June, 1781, Mr. Jefferson was

appointed, with Mr. Adams, Dr. Franklin, Mr. Jay, and Mr.

Laurens, Minister Plenipotentiary for negotiating peace, then

expected to be effected through the mediation of the Empress

of Russia--ED.]

[103] [In 1781, the depredations of the enemy, and the

public and private losses which they occasioned, produced the

ordinary effect of complaint against those who had charge of

the public defence, and especially against Mr. Jefferson (the

Governor of Virginia). A popular clamor was excited against

him, and, under the impulses of the moment, Mr. George

Nicholas, a member from Albermarle, moved his impeachment.

The charges were, 1. That he had not, as soon as advised

by General Washington of the meditated invasion, put the

country in a state of preparation and defence; 2. That

during the invasion, he did not use the means of resistance

which were at his command; 3. That he too much consulted

his personal safety, when Arnold first entered Richmond,

by which others were dispirited and discouraged; 4. That

he ignominiously fled from Monticello to the neighboring

mountain on Tarleton's approach to Charlottesville; and 5.

That he abandoned the office of Governor as soon as it became

one of difficulty and danger.

Mr. Jefferson has been long since acquitted of these charges

by the almost unanimous voice of his countrymen.--ED.]

[104] [The battle of Yorktown.]

[105] [The title of Virginia to the Northwestern territory

was controverted, as early as 1779, by some of the other

States, upon the ground that all lands, the title of

which had originally been in the crown and had never been

alienated, were the common property of the Confederation,

by right of conquest--the revolution having transferred the

title from the British sovereign to the Confederation. This

view was resisted by Virginia in an able remonstrance to

Congress in October, 1779. The question, however, never came

to an issue; for Virginia, moved by a patriotic impulse, and

ready to sacrifice her individual interest to the general

good, made a voluntary cession of the whole territory to the

Confederation.]

[106] [Mr. Jefferson's reasons for now accepting this

appointment, which he had previously declined, are thus

explained by himself:--"I had, about two months before,

lost the cherished companion of my life [his wife], in whose

affection, unabated on both sides, I had lived the last ten

years in unchequered happiness." On the 19th of December,

1782, he left Monticello for Philadelphia, where he intended

to embark for Europe; but the French Minister Luzerne,

offering him a passage in the French frigate Romulus, then

lying below Baltimore, he accepted the offer. The sailing

of this frigate being delayed by ice, and a British fleet

on the coast, information, in the meantime, reached America

that a provisional treaty of peace had been signed by the

American Commissioners, to become absolute on the conclusion

of peace between France and England. On the arrival of this

information, Mr. Jefferson was released from his mission, and

returned to his home in Virginia on the 15th May, 1783.--ED.]

[107] [The death of Mrs. Jefferson.]

[108] BY THE UNITED STATES IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED:

February 14, 1783.

The committee consisting of Mr. Jones, Mr. Rutledge, and

Mr. Wilson, to whom was referred a letter of the 7th from

the Honorable Thomas Jefferson, reported thereon, whereupon

on motion of Mr. Gorham, seconded by Mr. Wolcott, ordered:

That the Secretary for Foreign Affairs inform Mr. Jefferson,

that it is the pleasure of Congress, considering the advices

lately received in America and the probable situation of

affairs in Europe, that he do not proceed on his intended

voyage until he shall receive their further instructions.

CHARLES THOMPSON, (copied)

_Secretary_.

[109] [The following resolution was passed by Congress

relative to Mr. Jefferson's mission to Europe.--ED.]

BY THE UNITED STATES IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED:

April 1st, 1783.

_Resolved_, That the Secretary for Foreign Affairs inform the Hon.

Thomas Jefferson, in answer to his letter of the 13th of March,

that Congress consider the object of his appointment so far

advanced as to render it unnecessary for him to pursue his voyage,

and that Congress are well satisfied with the readiness he has

shown in undertaking a service which from the present situation

of affairs they apprehend can be dispensed with.

Extracts from the minutes,

CHARLES THOMPSON, (copied)

_Secretary_.

[110] [Mr. Jefferson being released from his mission to

Europe on account of the news of peace, and having returned

to Virginia, was again appointed by the Legislature a

delegate to Congress on the 6th of June, 1783. On the 3d

of the following November he arrived at Trenton, where

Congress was then sitting, and took his seat on the 4th, on

which day that body adjourned to meet at Annapolis on the

26th. Mr. Jefferson remained in the discharge of his duties

as a delegate until the 7th of May, 1784, when Congress,

having determined to add a third minister plenipotentiary

to Mr. Adams and Dr. Franklin, conferred the appointment

on him. On the 6th of August, 1784, he reached Paris. The

purpose for which he had been associated with Mr. Adams

and Dr. Franklin was to negotiate commercial treaties with

the European nations. In June, 1785, Mr. Adams removed

to London as our minister at that court, and Dr. Franklin

obtained permission to return to America, thus leaving Mr.

Jefferson our only representative at Paris in the character

of minister plenipotentiary. Here he remained until the 26th

of September, 1789, something more than five years, when he

took leave of Paris, and landed at Norfolk in the latter part

of November.--ED.]

PART II.

LETTERS WRITTEN WHILE IN EUROPE, 1784-1790.

TO COLONEL URIAH FORREST.

PARIS, CUL-DE-SAC TETEBOUT, October 20th, 1784.

SIR,--I received yesterday your favor of the 8th instant, and this

morning went to Auteuil and Passy, to consult with Mr. Adams and Dr.

Franklin on the subject of it. We conferred together, and think it is

a case in which we could not interpose (were there as yet cause for

interposition), without express instructions from Congress. It is,

however, our private opinion, which we give as individuals only, that

Mr. McLanahan, while in England, is subject to the laws of England;

that, therefore, he must employ counsel, and be guided in his defence

by their advice. The law of nations, and the treaty of peace, as

making a part of the law of the land, will undoubtedly be under the

consideration of the judges who pronounce on Mr. McLanahan's case;

and we are willing to hope, that in their knowledge and integrity,

he will find certain resources against injustice, and a reparation of

all injury to which he may have been groundlessly exposed. A final and

palpable failure on their part, which we have no reason to apprehend,

might make the case proper for the consideration of Congress.

I have the honor to be, with sentiments of great respect and esteem,

for Mr. McLanahan, as well as yourself, Sir, your most obedient humble

servant.

TO JOHN JAY.

PARIS, May 11th, 1785.

SIR,--I was honored, on the 2d instant, with the receipt of your

favor of March the 15th, enclosing the resolution of Congress of the

10th of the same month, appointing me their Minister Plenipotentiary

at this court, and also of your second letter of March 22d, covering

the commission and letter of credence for that appointment. I beg

permission through you, Sir, to testify to Congress my gratitude for

this new mark of their favor, and my assurance of endeavoring to merit

it by a faithful attention to the discharge of the duties annexed to

it. Fervent zeal is all which I can be sure of carrying into their

service, and, where I fail through a want of those powers which

nature and circumstances deny me, I shall rely on their indulgence,

and much also on that candor with which your goodness will present my

proceedings to their eye. The kind terms in which you are pleased to

notify this honor to me, require my sincere thanks. I beg you to accept

them, and to be assured of the perfect esteem, with which I have the

honor to be, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant,

TO GENERAL CHASTELLUX.

PARIS, June 7th, 1785.