power, at the approaching pacification, to render eminent service to
nations in general, by incorporating into the act of pacification, a
correct definition of the rights of neutrals on the high seas. Such
a definition, declared by all the powers lately or still belligerent,
would give to those rights a precision and notoriety, and cover them
with an authority, which would protect them in an important degree
against future violation; and should any further sanction be necessary,
that of an exclusion of the violating nation from commercial intercourse
with all the others, would be preferred to war, as more analogous to
the offence, more easy and likely to be executed with good faith. The
essential articles of these rights, too, are so few and simple as easily
to be defined.
Having taken no part in the past or existing troubles of Europe, we have
no part to act in its pacification. But as principles may then be settled
in which we have a deep interest, it is a great happiness for us that
they are placed under the protection of an umpire, who, looking beyond
the narrow bounds of an individual nation, will take under the cover of
his equity the rights of the absent and unrepresented. It is only by a
happy concurrence of good characters and good occasions, that a step
can now and then be taken to advance the well being of nations. If the
present occasion be good, I am sure your Majesty’s character will not be
wanting to avail the world of it. By monuments of such good offices may
your life become an epoch in the history of the condition of man, and
may He who called it into being for the good of the human family, give
it length of days and success, and have it always in his holy keeping.
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER XXXI.--TO COLONEL MONROE, May 4, 1806
TO COLONEL MONROE.
Washington, May 4, 1806.
Dear Sir,
I wrote you on the 16th of March by a common vessel, and then expected
to have had, on the rising of Congress, an opportunity of peculiar
confidence to you. Mr. Beckley then supposed he should take a flying
trip to London, on private business. But I believe he does not find it
convenient. He could have let you into the _arcana rerum_, which you
have interests in knowing. Mr. Pinckney’s pursuits having been confined
to his peculiar line, he has only that general knowledge of what has
passed here, which the public possess. He has a just view of things so
far as known to him. Our old friend, Mercer, broke off from us some time
ago, at first professing to disdain joining the federalists, yet from
the habit of voting together, becoming soon identified with them.
Without carrying over with him one single person, he is now in a state
of as perfect obscurity as if his name had never been known. Mr. J.
Randolph is in the same track, and will end in the same way. His course
has excited considerable alarm. Timid men consider it as a proof of the
weakness of our government, and that it is to be rent into pieces by
demagogues and to end in anarchy. I survey the scene with a different
eye, and draw a different augury from it. In a House of Representatives
of a great mass of good sense, Mr. Randolph’s popular eloquence gave him
such advantages as to place him unrivalled as the leader of the House;
and, although not conciliatory to those whom he led, principles of duty
and patriotism induced many of them to swallow humiliations he subjected
them to, and to vote as was right, as long as he kept the path of right
himself. The sudden defection of such a man could not but produce a
momentary astonishment, and even dismay; but for a moment only. The
good sense of the House rallied around its principles, and, without any
leader, pursued steadily the business of the session, did it well, and
by a strength of vote which has never before been seen. Upon all trying
questions, exclusive of the federalists, the minority of republicans
voting with him, has been from four to six or eight, against from
ninety to one hundred; and although he yet treats the federalists with
ineffable contempt, yet having declared eternal opposition to this
administration, and consequently associated with them in his votes, he
will, like Mercer, end with them. The augury I draw from this is that
there is a steady good sense in the legislature, and in the body of the
nation, joined with good intentions, which will lead them to discern and
to pursue the public good under all circumstances which can arise, and
that no _ignis faiuus_ will be able to lead them long astray. In the
present case, the public sentiment, as far as declarations of it have
yet come in, is, without a single exception, in firm adherence to the
administration. One popular paper is endeavoring to maintain equivocal
ground; approving the administration in all its proceedings, and
Mr. Randolph in all those which have heretofore merited approbation,
carefully avoiding to mention his late aberration. The ultimate view of
this paper is friendly to you, and the editor, with more judgment than
him who assumes to be at the head of your friends, sees that the ground
of opposition to the administration is not that on which it would be
advantageous to you to be planted. The great body of your friends are
among the firmest adherents to the administration, and in their support
of you will suffer Mr. Randolph to have no communications with them. My
former letter told you the line which both duty and inclination would
lead me sacredly to pursue. But it is unfortunate for you, to be
embarrassed with such a _soi-disant_ friend. You must not commit
yourself to him. These views may assist you to understand such details
as Mr. Pinckney will give you. If you are here at any time before the
fall, it will be in time for any object you may have, and by that time
the public sentiment will be more decisively declared. I wish you were
here at present, to take your choice of the two governments of Orleans
and Louisiana, in either of which I could now place you; and I verily
believe it would be to your advantage to be just that much withdrawn
from the focus of the ensuing contest, until its event should be known.
The one has a salary of five thousand dollars, the other of two thousand
dollars; both with excellent hotels for the Governor. The latter at St.
Louis, where there is good society, both French and American, a healthy
climate, and the finest field in the United States for acquiring
property. The former not unhealthy, if you begin a residence there
in the month of November. The Mrs. Trists and their connections are
established there. As I think you can within four months inform me what
you say to this, I will keep things in their present state till the last
day of August, for your answer.
The late change in the ministry I consider as insuring us a just
settlement of our differences, and we ask no more. In Mr. Fox,
personally, I have more confidence than in any man in England, and it
is founded in what, through unquestionable channels, I have had
opportunities of knowing of his honesty and his good sense. While he
shall be in the administration, my reliance on that government will be
solid. We had committed ourselves in a line of proceedings adapted to
meet Mr. Pitt’s policy and hostility, before we heard of his death,
which self-respect did not permit us to abandon afterwards; and the late
unparalleled outrage on us at New York excited such sentiments in the
public at large, as did not permit us to do less than has been done. It
ought not to be viewed by the ministry as looking towards them at all,
but merely as the consequences of the measures of their predecessors,
which their nation has called on them to correct. I hope, therefore,
they will come to just arrangements. No two countries upon earth have so
many points of common interest and friendship; and their rulers must
be great bunglers indeed, if, with such dispositions, they break them
asunder. The only rivalry that can arise, is on the ocean. England
may by petty larceny thwartings check us on that element a little, but
nothing she can do will retard us there one year’s growth. We shall be
supported there by other nations, and thrown into their scale to make a
part of the great counterpoise to her navy. If, on the other hand, she
is just to us, conciliatory, and encourages the sentiment of family
feelings and conduct, it cannot fail to befriend the security of both.
We have the seamen and materials for fifty ships of the line, and half
that number of frigates, and were France to give us the money, and
England the dispositions to equip them, they would give to England
serious proofs of the stock from which they are sprung, and the
school in which they have been taught, and added to the efforts of the
immensity of sea-coast lately united under one power, would leave the
state of the ocean no longer problematical. Were, on the other hand,
England to give the money, and France the dispositions to place us
on the sea in all our force, the whole world, out of the continent
of Europe, might be our joint monopoly. We wish for neither of these
scenes. We ask for peace and justice from all nations, and we will
remain uprightly neutral in fact, though leaning in belief to the
opinion that an English ascendancy on the ocean is safer for us than
that of France. We begin to broach the idea that we consider the whole
Gulf Stream as of our waters, in which hostilities and cruising are to
be frowned on for the present, and prohibited so soon as either consent
or force will permit us. We shall never permit another privateer to
cruise within it, and shall forbid our harbors to national cruisers.
This is essential for our tranquillity and commerce. Be so good as to
have the enclosed letters delivered, to present me to your family, and
be assured yourself of my unalterable friendship.
For fear of accidents I shall not make the unnecessary addition of my
name.
LETTER XXXII.--TO GENERAL SMITH, May 4,1806
TO GENERAL SMITH.
Washington, May 4,1806.
Dear Sir,
I received your favor covering some papers from General Wilkinson. I
have repented but of one appointment there, that of Lucas, whose temper
I see overrules every good quality and every qualification he has. Not a
single fact has appeared, which occasions me to doubt that I could have
made a fitter appointment than General Wilkinson. One qualm of principle
I acknowledge I do feel, I mean the union of the civil and military
authority. You remember that when I came into office, while we were
lodging together at Conrad’s, he was pressed on me to be made Governor
of the Mississippi territory; and that I refused it on that very
principle. When, therefore, the House of Representatives took that
ground, I was not insensible to its having some weight. But in the
appointment to Louisiana, I did not think myself departing from my own
principle, because I consider it not as a civil government, but merely
a military station. The legislature had sanctioned that idea by the
establishment of the office of Commandant, in which were completely
blended the civil and military powers. It seemed, therefore, that the
Governor should be in suit with them. I observed too, that the House of
Representatives, on the very day they passed the stricture on this union
of authorities, passed a bill making the Governor of Michigan, commander
of the regular troops which should at any time be within his government.
However, on the subject of General Wilkinson nothing is in contemplation
at this time. We shall see what turn things take at home and abroad in
the course of the summer. Monroe has had a second conversation with Mr.
Fox, which gives me hopes that we shall have an amicable arrangement
with that government. Accept my friendly salutations, and assurances of
great esteem and respect.
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER XXXIII.--TO MR DIGGES, July 1, 1806
THOMAS JEFFERSON TO MR DIGGES.
Thomas Jefferson salutes Mr. Digges with friendship and respect, and
sends him the newspapers received last night. He is sorry that only the
latter part of the particular publication which Mr. Digges wished to
see, is in them. He will be happy to see Mr. Digges and his friends on
the fourth of July, and to join in congratulations on the return of
the day which divorced us from the follies and crimes of Europe, from a
dollar in the pound at least of six hundred millions sterling, and from
all the ruin of Mr. Pitt’s administration. We, too, shall encounter
follies; but if great, they will be short, if long, they will be light:
and the vigor of our country will get the better of them. Mr. Pitt’s
follies have been great, long, and inflicted on a body emaciated with
age, and exhausted by excesses beyond its power to bear. July 1, 1806.
LETTER XXXIV.--TO MR. BIDWELL, July 5, 1806
TO MR. BIDWELL.
Washington, July 5, 1806.
Sir,
Your favor of June the 21st has been duly received. We have not as yet
heard from General Skinner on the subject of his office. Three persons
are proposed on the most respectable recommendations, and under
circumstances of such equality as renders it difficult to decide between
them. But it shall be done impartially. I sincerely congratulate you on
the triumph of republicanism in Massachusetts. The Hydra of Federalism
has now lost all its heads but two. Connecticut I think will soon follow
Massachusetts. Delaware will probably remain what it ever has been, a
mere county of England, conquered indeed, and held under by force, but
always disposed to counter-revolution. I speak of its majority only.
Our information from London continues to give us hopes of an
accommodation there on both the points of ‘accustomed commerce and
impressment.’ In this there must probably be some mutual concession,
because we cannot expect to obtain every thing and yield nothing. But
I hope it will be such an one as may be accepted. The arrival of the
Hornet in France is so recently known, that it will yet be some time
before we learn our prospects there. Notwithstanding the efforts made
here, and made professedly to assassinate that negotiation in embryo, if
the good sense of Bonaparte should prevail over his temper, the present
state of things in Europe may induce him to require of Spain, that she
should do us justice at least. That he should require her to sell us
East Florida, we have no right to insist: yet there are not wanting
considerations which may induce him to wish a permanent foundation for
peace laid between us. In this treaty, whatever it shall be, our old
enemies the federalists, and their new friends, will find enough to carp
at. This is a thing of course, and I should suspect error where they
found no fault. The buzzard feeds on carrion only. Their rallying point
is ‘war with France and Spain, and alliance with Great Britain’:
and every thing is wrong with them which checks their new ardor to be
fighting for the liberties of mankind; on the sea always excepted. There
one nation is to monopolize all the liberties of the others.
I read, with extreme regret, the expressions of an inclination on your
part to retire from Congress. I will not say that this time, more than
all others, calls for the service of every man; but I will say,
there never was a time when the services of those who possess talents,
integrity, firmness, and sound judgment, were more wanted in Congress.
Some one of that description is particularly wanted to take the lead in
the House of Representatives, to consider the business of the nation as
his own business, to take it up as if he were singly charged with it,
and carry it through. I do not mean that any gentleman, relinquishing
his own judgment, should implicitly support all the measures of the
administration; but that, where he does not disapprove of them, he
should not suffer them to go off in sleep, but bring them to the
attention of the House, and give them a fair chance. Where he
disapproves, he will of course leave them to be brought forward by those
who concur in the sentiment. Shall I explain my idea by an example? The
classification of the militia was communicated to General Varnum and
yourself merely as a proposition, which, if you approved, it was trusted
you would support. I knew, indeed, that General Varnum was opposed to
any thing which might break up the present organization of the militia:
but when so modified as to avoid this, I thought he might, perhaps,
be reconciled to it. As soon as I found it did not coincide with your
sentiments, I could not wish you to support it; but using the same
freedom of opinion, I procured it to be brought forward elsewhere.
It failed there also, and for a time, perhaps, may not prevail: but a
militia can never be used for distant service on any other plan; and
Bonaparte will conquer the world, if they do not learn his secret of
composing armies of young men only, whose enthusiasm and health enable
them to surmount all obstacles. When a gentleman, through zeal for the
public service, undertakes to do the public business, we know that we
shall hear the cant of backstairs counsellors. But we never heard this
while the declaimer was himself a backstairs man, as he calls it, but in
the confidence and views of the administration, as may more properly and
respectfully be said. But if the members are to know nothing but what is
important enough to be put into a public message, and indifferent enough
to be made known to all the world; if the executive is to keep all
other information to himself, and the House to plunge on in the dark, it
becomes a government of chance and not of design. The imputation was one
of those artifices used to despoil an adversary of his most effectual
arms; and men of mind will place themselves above a gabble of this
order. The last session of Congress was indeed an uneasy one for a time:
but as soon as the members penetrated into the views of those who were
taking a new course, they rallied in as solid a phalanx as I have
ever seen act together. Indeed I have never seen a House of better
dispositions.
*****
Perhaps I am not entitled to speak with so much frankness; but it
proceeds from no motive which has not a right to your forgiveness.
Opportunities of candid explanation are so seldom afforded me, that I
must not lose them when they occur. The information I receive from your
quarter agrees with that from the south; that the late schism has made
not the smallest impression on the public, and that the seceders are
obliged to give to it other grounds than those which we know to be the
true ones. All we have to wish is, that, at the ensuing session, every
one may take the part openly which he secretly befriends. I recollect
nothing new and true, worthy communicating to you. As for what is not
true, you will always find abundance in the newspapers. Among other
things, are those perpetual alarms as to the Indians, for no one of
which has there ever been the slightest ground. They are the suggestions
of hostile traders, always wishing to embroil us with the Indians, to
perpetuate their own extortionate commerce. I salute you with esteem and
respect.
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER XXXV.--TO MR. BOWDOIN, July 10, 1806
TO MR. BOWDOIN.
Washington, July 10, 1806.
Dear Sir,
I believe that when you left America, the invention of the polygraph had
not yet reached Boston. It is for copying with one pen while you write
with the other, and without the least additional embarrassment or
exertion to the writer. I think it the finest invention of the present
age, and so much superior to the copying machine, that the latter will
never be continued a day by any one who tries the polygraph. It was
invented by a Mr. Hawkins of Frankford, near Philadelphia, who is now in
England, turning it to good account. Knowing that you are in the habit
of writing much, I have flattered myself that I could add acceptably to
your daily convenience by presenting you with one of these delightful
machines. I have accordingly had one made, and to be certain of its
perfection I have used it myself some weeks, and have the satisfaction
to find it the best one I have ever tried; and in the course of two
years’ daily use of them, I have had opportunities of trying several.
As a secretary, which copies for us what we write without the power
of revealing it, I find it a most precious possession to a man in
public-business. I enclose directions for unpacking and using the
machine when you receive it; but the machine itself must await a special
and sure conveyance under the care of some person going to Paris. It is
ready packed, and shall go by the first proper conveyance.
As we heard two or three weeks ago of the safe arrival of the Hornet
at L’Orient, we are anxiously waiting to learn from you the first
impressions on her mission. If you can succeed in procuring us Florida,
and a good western boundary, it will fill the American mind with joy.
It will secure to our fellow-citizens one of their most ardent wishes, a
long peace with Spain and France. For be assured, the object of war with
them and alliance with England, which, at the last session of Congress,
drew off from the republican band about half a dozen of its members,
is universally reprobated by our native citizens from north to south. I
have never seen the nation stand more firm to its principles, or rally
so firmly to its constituted authorities, and in reprobation of the
opposition to them. With England, I think we shall cut off the resource
of impressing our seamen to fight her battles, and establish the
inviolability of our flag in its commerce with her enemies.
We shall thus become what we sincerely wish to be, honestly neutral, and
truly useful to both belligerents. To the one, by keeping open a market
for the consumption of her manufactures, while they are excluded
from all the countries under the power of her enemy; to the other, by
securing for her a safe carriage of all her productions, metropolitan
or colonial, while her own means are restrained by her enemy, and may,
therefore, be employed in other useful pursuits. We are certainly more
useful friends to France and Spain as neutrals, than as allies. I hope
they will be sensible of it, and by a wise removal of all grounds of
future misunderstanding to another age, enable you to present us such
an arrangement, as will insure to our fellow-citizens long and permanent
peace and friendship with them. With respect to our western boundary,
your instructions will be your guide. I will only add, as a comment
to them, that we are attached to the retaining the Bay of St. Bernard,
because it was the first establishment of the unfortunate La Sale, was
the cradle of Louisiana, and more incontestibly covered and conveyed to
us by France, under that name, than any other spot in the country. This
will be secured to us by taking for our western boundary the Guadaloupe,
and from its head around the sources of all waters eastward of it,
to the highlands embracing the waters running into the Mississippi.
However, all these things I presume will be settled before you receive
this; and I hope so settled as to give peace and satisfaction to us all.
Our crops of wheat are greater than have ever been known, and are now
nearly secured. A caterpillar gave for a while great alarm, but did
little injury. Of tobacco, not half a crop has been planted for want
of rain; and even this half, with cotton and Indian corn, has yet many
chances to run.
This summer will place our harbors in a situation to maintain peace and
order within them. The next, or certainly the one following that, will
so provide them with gunboats and common batteries, as to be _hors
d’insulte_. Although our prospect is peace, our policy and purpose is
to provide for defence by all those means to which our resources are
competent.
I salute you with friendship, and assure you of my high respect and
consideration.
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER XXXVI.--TO W. A. BURWELL, September 17, 1806
TO W. A. BURWELL.
Monticello, September 17, 1806.
Dear Sir,