executive, will probably not be assented to here. When our present
government was first established, we had many doubts on this question,
and many leanings towards a supreme executive council. It happened that
at that time the experiment of such an one was commenced in France,
while the single executive was under trial here. We watched the motions
and effects of these two rival plans, with an interest and anxiety
proportioned to the importance of a. choice between them. The experiment
in France failed after a short course, and not from any circumstance
peculiar to the times or nation, but from those internal jealousies and
dissensions in the Directory, which will ever arise among men equal in
power, without a principal to decide and control their differences. We
had tried a similar experiment in 1784, by establishing a committee of
the States, composed of a member from every State, then thirteen, to
exercise the executive functions during the recess of Congress. They
fell immediately into schisms and dissensions, which became at length so
inveterate as to render all co-operation among them impracticable:
they dissolved themselves, abandoning the helm of government, and it
continued without a head, until Congress met the ensuing winter. This
was then imputed to the temper of two or three individuals; but the wise
ascribed it to the nature of man. The failure of the French Directory,
and from the same cause, seems to have authorized a belief that the form
of a plurality, however promising in theory, is impracticable with men
constituted with the ordinary passions. While the tranquil and steady
tenor of our single executive, during a course of twenty-two years of
the most tempestuous times the history of the world has ever presented,
gives a rational hope that this important problem is at length solved.
Aided by the counsels of a cabinet of Heads of departments, originally
four, but now five, with whom the President consults, either singly or
all together, he has the benefit of their wisdom and information, brings
their views to one centre, and produces an unity of action and
direction in all the branches of the government. The excellence of this
construction of the executive power has already manifested itself here
under very opposite circumstances. During the administration of our
first President, his cabinet of four members was equally divided, by as
marked an opposition of principle, as monarchism and republicanism could
bring into conflict. Had that cabinet been a directory, like positive
and negative quantities in Algebra, the opposing wills would have
balanced each other, and produced a state of absolute inaction. But the
President heard with calmness the opinions and reasons of each, decided
the course to be pursued, and kept the government steadily in it,
unaffected by the agitation. The public knew well the dissensions of the
cabinet, but never had an uneasy thought on their account; because they
knew also they had provided a regulating power, which would keep the
machine in steady movement. I speak with an intimate knowledge of these
scenes, _quorum pars fui_; as I may of others of a character entirely
opposite. The third administration, which was of eight years, presented
an example of harmony in a cabinet of six persons, to which perhaps
history has furnished no parallel. There never arose, during the whole
time, an instance of an unpleasant thought or word between the members.
We sometimes met under differences of opinion, but scarcely ever failed,
by conversing and reasoning, so to modify each other’s ideas, as to
produce an unanimous result. Yet, able and amiable as these members
were, I am not certain this would have been the case, had each possessed
equal and independent powers. Ill defined limits of their respective
departments, jealousies, trifling at first, but nourished and
strengthened by repetition of occasions, intrigues without doors of
designing persons to build an importance to themselves on the divisions
of others, might, from small beginnings, have produced persevering
oppositions. But the power of decision in the President left no object
for internal dissension, and external intrigue was stifled in embryo by
the knowledge which incendiaries possessed, that no divisions they
could foment would change the course of the executive power. I am not
conscious that my participations in executive authority have produced
any bias in favor of the single executive; because the parts I have
acted have been in the subordinate, as well as superior stations, and
because, if I know myself, what I have felt, and what I have wished, I
know that I have never been so well pleased, as when I could shift power
from my own, on the shoulders of others; nor have I ever been able to
conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from
the exercise of power over others.
I am still, however, sensible of the solidity of your principle, that,
to insure the safety of the public liberty, its depository should be
subject to be changed with the greatest ease possible, and without
suspending or disturbing for a moment the movements of the machine of
government. You apprehend that a single executive, with, eminence of
talent, and destitution of principle, equal to the object, might, by
usurpation, render his powers hereditary. Yet I think history furnishes
as many examples of a single usurper arising out of a government by a
plurality, as of temporary trusts of power in a single hand rendered
permanent by usurpation. I do not believe, therefore, that this danger
is lessened in the hands of a plural executive. Perhaps it is greatly
increased, by the state of inefficiency to which they are liable from
feuds and divisions among themselves. The conservative body you propose
might be so constituted, as, while it would be an admirable sedative in
a variety of smaller cases, might also be a valuable sentinel and check
on the liberticide views of an ambitious individual. I am friendly to
this idea. But the true barriers of our liberty in this country are our
State governments: and the wisest conservative power ever contrived by
man, is that of which our Revolution and present government found us
possessed. Seventeen distinct States, amalgamated into one as to their
foreign concerns, but single and independent as to their internal
administration, regularly organized with a legislature and governor
resting on the choice of the people, and enlightened by a free press,
can never be so fascinated by the arts of one man, as to submit
voluntarily to his usurpation. Nor can they be constrained to it by any
force he can possess. While that may paralyze the single State in which
it happens to be encamped, sixteen others, spread over a country of
two thousand miles diameter, rise up on every side, ready organized for
deliberation by a constitutional legislature, and for action by their
governor, constitutionally the commander of the militia of the State,
that is to say, of every man in it, able to bear arms; and that militia,
too, regularly formed into regiments and battalions, into infantry,
cavalry, and artillery, trained under officers general and subordinate,
legally appointed, always in readiness, and to whom they are already
in habits of obedience. The republican government of France was lost
without a struggle, because the party of ‘_un et indivisible_’ had
prevailed: no provincial organizations existed to which the people
might rally under authority of the laws, the seats of the directory were
virtually vacant, and a small force sufficed to turn the legislature out
of their chamber and to salute its leader chief of the nation. But
with us, sixteen out of seventeen States rising in mass, under regular
organization and legal commanders, united in object and action by their
Congress, or, if that be in duresse, by a special convention, present
such obstacles to an usurper as for ever to stifle ambition in the first
conception of that object.
Dangers of another kind might more reasonably be apprehended from this
perfect and distinct organization, civil and military, of the States; to
wit, that certain States, from local and occasional discontents, might
attempt to secede from the Union. This is certainly possible; and would
be befriended by this regular organization. But it is not probable that
local discontents can spread to such an extent, as to be able to face
the sound parts of so extensive an union: and if ever they could reach
the majority, they would then become the regular government, acquire the
ascendancy in Congress, and be able to redress their own grievances by
laws peaceably and constitutionally passed. And even the States in which
local discontents might engender a commencement of fermentation, would
be paralyzed and self-checked by that very division into parties into
which we have fallen, into which all States must fall wherein men are at
liberty to think, speak, and act freely, according to the diversities
of their individual conformations, and which are, perhaps, essential
to preserve the purity of the government, by the censorship which these
parties habitually exercise over each other.
You will read, I am sure, with indulgence, the explanations of the
grounds on which I have ventured to form an opinion differing from
yours. They prove my respect for your judgment, and diffidence of my
own, which have forbidden me to retain, without examination, an opinion
questioned by you. Permit me now to render my portion of the general
debt of gratitude, by acknowledgments in advance for the singular
benefaction which is the subject of this letter, to tender my wishes
for the continuance of a life so usefully employed, and to add the
assurances of my perfect esteem and respect.
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER XCVI.--TO COLONEL MONROE, May 5, 1811
TO COLONEL MONROE.
Monticello, May 5, 1811.
Dear Sir,
Your favor on your departure from Richmond came to hand in due time.
Although I may not have been among the first, I am certainly with the
sincerest, who congratulate you on your re-entrance into the national
councils. Your value there has never been unduly estimated by those
whom personal feelings did not misguide. The late misunderstandings at
Washington have been a subject of real concern to me. I know that
the dissolutions of personal friendships are among the most painful
occurrences in human life. I have sincere esteem for all who have been
affected by them, having passed with them eight years of great harmony
and affection. These incidents are rendered more distressing in our
country than elsewhere, because our printers ravin on the agonies of
their victims, as wolves do on the blood of the lamb. But the printers
and the public are very different personages. The former may lead the
latter a little out of their track, while the deviation is insensible:
but the moment they usurp their direction and that of their government,
they will be reduced to their true places. The two last Congresses have
been the theme of the most licentious reprobation for printers thirsting
after war, some against France, and some against England. But the people
wish for peace with both. They feel no incumbency on them to become
the reformers of the other hemisphere, and to inculcate, with fire and
sword, a return to moral order. When, indeed, peace shall become more
losing than war, they may owe to their interest, what these Quixottes
are clamoring for on false estimates of honor. The public are unmoved by
these clamors, as the re-election of their legislators shows, and they
are firm to their executive on the subject of the more recent clamors.
We are suffering here both in the gathered and the growing crop. The
lowness of the river, and great quantity of produce brought to Milton
this year, render it almost impossible to get our crops to market.
This is the case of mine as well as yours: and the Hessian fly appears
alarmingly in our growing crop. Every thing is in distress for the want
of rain.
Present me respectfully to Mrs. Monroe, and accept yourself assurances
of my constant and affectionate esteem.
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER XCVII.--TO GENERAL DEARBORN, August 14, 1811
TO GENERAL DEARBORN.
Poplar Forest, August 14, 1811.
Dear General and Friend,
*****
I am happy to learn that your own health is good, and I hope it will
long continue so. The friends we left behind us have fallen out by the
way. I sincerely lament it, because I sincerely esteem them all, and
because it multiplies schisms where harmony is safety. As far as I have
been able to judge, however, it has made no sensible impression against
the government. Those who were murmuring before are a little louder now;
but the mass of our citizens is firm and unshaken. It furnishes, as an
incident, another proof that they are perfectly equal to the purposes of
self-government, and that we have nothing to fear for its stability. The
spirit, indeed, which manifests itself among the tories of your quarter,
although I believe there is a majority there sufficient to keep it down
in peaceable times, leaves me not without some disquietude. Should the
determination of England, now formally expressed, to take possession of
the ocean, and to suffer no commerce on it but through her ports, force
a war upon us, I foresee a possibility of a separate treaty between
her and your Essex men, on the principles of neutrality and commerce.
Pickering here, and his nephew Williams there, can easily negotiate
this. Such a lure to the quietists in our ranks with you, might recruit
theirs to a majority. Yet, excluded as they would be from intercourse
with the rest of the Union and of Europe, I scarcely see the gain they
would propose to themselves, even for the moment. The defection would
certainly disconcert the other States, but it could not ultimately
endanger their safety. They are adequate, in all points, to a defensive
war. However, I hope your majority, with the aid it is entitled to, will
save us from this trial, to which I think it possible we are advancing.
The death of George may come to our relief; but I fear the dominion
of the sea is the insanity of the nation itself also. Perhaps, if some
stroke of fortune were to rid us at the same time from the Mammoth of
the land as well as the Leviathan of the ocean, the people of England
might lose their fears, and recover their sober senses again. Tell my
old friend, Governor Gerry, that I gave him glory for the rasping with
which he rubbed down his herd of traitors. Let them have justice
and protection against personal violence, but no favor. Powers and
pre-eminences conferred on them are daggers put into the hands of
assassins, to be plunged into our own bosoms in the moment the thrust
can go home to the heart. Moderation can never reclaim them. They deem
it timidity, and despise without fearing the tameness from which it
flows. Backed by England, they never lose the hope that their day is to
come, when the terrorism of their earlier power is to be merged in the
more gratifying system,of deportation and the guillotine. Being now
_hors de combat_ myself, I resign to others these cares. A long attack
of rheumatism has greatly enfeebled me, and warns me, that they will not
very long be within my ken. But you may have to meet the trial, and in
the focus of its fury. God send you a safe deliverance, a happy issue
out of all afflictions, personal and public, with long life, long
health, and friends as sincerely attached, as yours affectionately,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER XCVIII.--TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN RUSH
TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN RUSH.
Poplar Forest, December 5, 1811.
Dear Sir,
While at Monticello I am so much engrossed by business or society, that
I can only write on matters of strong urgency. Here I have leisure, as
I have every where the disposition, to think of my friends. I recur,
therefore, to the subject of your kind letters relating to Mr. Adams
and myself, which a late occurrence has again presented to me. I
communicated to you the correspondence which had parted Mrs. Adams and
myself, in proof that I could not give friendship in exchange for such
sentiments as she had recently taken up towards myself, and avowed and
maintained in her letters to me. Nothing but a total renunciation of
these could admit a reconciliation, and that could be cordial only in
proportion as the return to ancient opinions was believed sincere. In
these jaundiced sentiments of hers I had associated Mr. Adams, knowing
the weight which her opinions had with him, and notwithstanding she
declared in her letters that they were not communicated to him. A late
incident has satisfied me that I wronged him as well as her in not
yielding entire confidence to this assurance on her part. Two of the Mr.
------, my neighbors and friends, took a tour to the northward during
the last summer. In Boston they fell into company with Mr. Adams, and by
his invitation passed a day with him at Braintree. He spoke out to
them every thing which came uppermost, and as it occurred to his mind,
without any reserve, and seemed most disposed to dwell on those things
which happened during his own administration. He spoke of his masters,
as he called his Heads of departments, as acting above his control, and
often against his opinions. Among many other topics, he adverted to
the unprincipled licentiousness of the press against myself, adding, ‘I
always loved Jefferson, and still love him.’
This is enough for me. I only needed this knowledge to revive towards
him all the affections of the most cordial moments of our lives.
Changing a single word only in Dr. Franklin’s character of him, I
knew him to be always an honest man, often a great one, but sometimes
incorrect and precipitate in his judgments: and it is known to those who
have ever heard me speak of Mr. Adams, that I have ever done him justice
myself, and defended him when assailed by others, with the single
exception as to his political opinions. But with a man possessing so
many other estimable qualities, why should we be dissocialized by mere
differences of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, or any
thing else. His opinions are as honestly formed as my own. Our different
views of the same subject are the result of a difference in our
organization and experience. I never withdrew from the society of any
man on this account, although many have done it from me; much less
should I do it from one with whom I had gone through, with hand and
heart, so many trying scenes. I wish, therefore, but for an apposite
occasion to express to Mr. Adams my unchanged affections for him. There
is an awkwardness which hangs over the resuming a correspondence so
long discontinued, unless something could arise which should call for a
letter. Time and chance may perhaps generate such an occasion, of which
I shall not be wanting in promptitude to avail myself. From this fusion
of mutual affections, Mrs. Adams is of course separated. It will only be
necessary that I never name her. In your letters to Mr. Adams, you can,
perhaps, suggest my continued cordiality towards him, and knowing this,
should an occasion of writing first present itself to him, he will
perhaps avail himself of it, as I certainly will, should it first occur
to me. No ground for jealousy now existing, he will certainly give fair
play to the natural warmth of his heart. Perhaps I may open the way
in some letter to my old friend Gerry, who I know is in habits of the
greatest intimacy with him.
I have thus, my friend, laid open my heart to you, because you were so
kind as to take an interest in healing again revolutionary affections,
which have ceased in expression only, but not in their existence. God
ever bless you, and preserve you in life and health.
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER XCIX.--TO JOHN ADAMS, January 21, 1812
TO JOHN ADAMS.
Monticello, January 21, 1812.
Dear Sir,
I thank you beforehand (for they are not yet arrived) for the specimens
of homespun you have been so kind as to forward me by post. I doubt not
their excellence, knowing how far you are advanced in these things
in your quarter. Here we do little in the fine way, but in coarse
and middling goods a great deal. Every family in the country is a
manufactory within itself, and is very generally able to make within
itself all the stouter and middling stuffs for its own clothing and
household use. We consider a sheep for every person in the family as
sufficient to clothe it, in addition to the cotton, hemp, and flax,
which we raise ourselves. For fine stuff we shall depend on your
northern manufactories. Of these, that is to say, of company
establishments, we have none. We use little machinery. The spinning
jenny, and loom with the flying shuttle, can be managed in a family; but
nothing more complicated. The economy and thriftiness resulting from
our household manufactures are such that they will never again be laid
aside; and nothing more salutary for us has ever happened than the
British obstructions to our demands for their manufactures. Restore free
intercourse when they will, their commerce with us will have totally
changed its form, and the articles we shall in future want from them
will not exceed their own consumption of our produce.
A letter from you calls up recollections very dear to my mind. It
carries me back to the times when, beset with difficulties and dangers,
we were fellow-laborers in the same cause, struggling for what is most
valuable to man, his right of self-government. Laboring always at the
same oar, with some wave ever ahead threatening to overwhelm us, and yet
passing harmless under our bark, we knew not how, we rode through the
storm with heart and hand, and made a happy port. Still we did not
expect to be without rubs and difficulties; and we have had them. First
the detention of the western posts: then the coalition of Pilnitz,
outlawing our commerce with France, and the British enforcement of the
outlawry. In your day, French depredations: in mine, English, and the
Berlin and Milan decrees: now, the English orders of council, and
the piracies they authorize. When these shall be over, it will be the
impressment of our seamen, or something else: and so we have gone on,
and so we shall go on, puzzled and prospering beyond example in
the history of man. And I do believe we shall continue to growl, to
multiply, and prosper, until we exhibit an association, powerful, wise,
and happy, beyond what has yet been seen by men. As for France and
England, with all their pre-eminence in science, the one is a den of
robbers, and the other of pirates. And if science produces no better
fruits than tyranny, murder, rapine, and destitution of national
morality, I would rather wish our country to be ignorant, honest,
and estimable, as our neighboring savages are. But whither is senile
garrulity leading me? Into politics, of which I have taken final leave.
I think little of them, and say less. I have given up newspapers in
exchange for Tacitus and Thucydides, for Newton and Euclid, and I
find myself much the happier. Sometimes, indeed, I look back to former
occurrences, in remembrance of our old friends and fellow-laborers,
who have fallen before us. Of the signers of the Declaration of
Independence, I see now living not more than half a dozen on your side
of the Potomac, and on this side, myself alone. You and I have
been wonderfully spared, and myself with remarkable health, and a
considerable activity of body and mind. I am on horseback three or four
hours of every day; visit three or four times a year a possession I have
ninety miles distant, performing the winter journey on horseback. I walk
little, however, a single mile being too much for me; and I live in the
midst of my grandchildren, one of whom has lately promoted me to be a
great-grandfather. I have heard with pleasure that you also retain good
health, and a greater power of exercise in walking than I do. But I
would rather have heard this from yourself, and that, writing a letter
like mine, full of egotisms, and of details of your health, your habits,
occupations, and enjoyments, I should have the pleasure of knowing, that
in the race of life, you do not keep, in its physical decline, the
same distance ahead of me, which you have done in political honors and
achievements. No circumstances have lessened the interest I feel in
these particulars respecting yourself; none have suspended for one
moment my sincere esteem for you, and I now salute you with unchanged
affection and respect.
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER C.--TO JOHN ADAMS, April 20, 1812
TO JOHN ADAMS.
Monticello, April 20, 1812.
Dear Sir,