knowledge requisite for man to conduct them to the best advantage is so
extensive, that no human being can acquire the whole himself, and much
less in that degree necessary for the instruction of others. It has of
necessity, then, been distributed into different departments, each
of which, singly, may give occupation enough to the whole time and
attention of a single individual. Thus we have teachers of Languages,
teachers of Mathematics, of Natural Philosophy, of Chemistry, of
Medicine, of Law, of History, of Government, &c. Religion, too, is a
separate department, and happens to be the only one deemed requisite
for all men, however high or low. Collections of men associate together,
under the name of congregations, and employ a religious teacher of the
particular sect of opinions of which they happen to be, and contribute
to make up a stipend as a compensation for the trouble of delivering
them, at such periods as they agree on, lessons in the religion they
profess. If they want instruction in other sciences or arts, they apply
to other instructers; and this is generally the business of early life.
But I suppose there is not an instance of a single congregation which
has employed their preacher for the mixt purpose of lecturing them
from the pulpit, in Chemistry, in Medicine, in Law, in the science and
principles of Government, or in any thing but Religion exclusively.
Whenever, therefore, preachers, instead of a lesson in religion,
put them off with a discourse on the Copernican system, on chemical
affinities, on the construction of government, or the characters or
conduct of those administering it, it is a breach of contract, depriving
their audience of the kind of service for which they are salaried, and
giving them, instead it, what they did not want, or if wanted, would
rather seek from better sources in that particular art or science. In
choosing our pastor we look to his religious qualifications, without
inquiring into his physical or political dogmas, with which we mean to
have nothing to do. I am aware that arguments may be found, which may
twist a thread of politics into the cord of religious duties. So may
they for every other branch of human art or science. Thus, for example,
it is a religious duty to obey the laws of our country: the teacher of
religion, therefore, must instruct us in those laws, that we may know
how to obey them. It is a religious duty to assist our sick neighbors:
the preacher must, therefore, teach us medicine, that we may do it
understandingly. It is a religious duty to preserve our own health: our
religious teacher, then, must tell us what dishes are wholesome, and
give us recipes in cookery, that we may learn how to prepare them. And
so ingenuity, by generalizing more and more, may amalgamate all the
branches of science into any one of them, and the physician who is
paid to visit the sick, may give a sermon instead of medicine; and
the merchant to whom money is sent for a hat, may send a handkerchief
instead of it. But not withstanding this possible confusion of all
sciences into one, common sense draws lines between them sufficiently
distinct for the general purposes of life, and no one is at a loss to
understand that a recipe in medicine or cookery, or a demonstration in
geometry, is not a lesson in religion. I do not deny that a congregation
may, if they please, agree with their preacher that he shall instruct
them in Medicine also, or Law, or Politics. Then, lectures in these,
from the pulpit, become not only a matter of right, but of duty also.
But this must be with the consent of every individual; because the
association being voluntary, the mere majority has no right to apply the
contributions of the minority to purposes unspecified in the agreement
of the congregation. I agree, too, that on all other occasions the
preacher has the right, equally with every other citizen, to express his
sentiments, in speaking or writing, on the subjects of Medicine, Law,
Politics, he, his leisure time being his own, and his congregation not
obliged to listen to his conversation, or to read his writings; and no
one would have regretted more than myself, had any scruple as to this
right, withheld from us the valuable discourses which have led to the
expression of an opinion as to the true limits of the right. I feel
my portion of indebtment to the reverend author, for the distinguished
learning, the logic, and the eloquence, with which he had proved that
religion, as well as reason, confirms the soundness of those principles
on which our government has been founded and its rights asserted.
These are my views of this question. They are in opposition to those
of the highly respected and able preacher, and are therefore the more
doubtingly offered. Difference of opinion leads to inquiry, and inquiry
to truth; and that, I am sure, is the ultimate and sincere object of us
both. We both value too much the freedom of opinion sanctioned by our
constitution, not to cherish its exercise even where in opposition to
ourselves.
Unaccustomed to reserve or mystery in the expression of my opinions, I
have opened myself frankly on a question suggested by your letter and
present. And although I have not the honor of your acquaintance, this
mark of attention, and still more the sentiments of esteem so kindly
expressed in your letter, are entitled to a confidence that observations
not intended for the public will not be ushered to their notice, as has
happened to me sometimes. Tranquillity, at my age, is the balm of life.
While I know I am safe in the honor and charity of a McLeod, I do not
wish to be cast forth to the Marats, the Dantons, and the Robespierres
of the priesthood: I mean the Parishes, the Osgoods, and the Gardiners
of Massachusetts.
I pray you to accept the assurances of my esteem and respect.
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER CXXIII.--TO CÆSAR A. RODNEY, March 16, 1815
TO CÆSAR A. RODNEY.
Monticello, March 16, 1815.
My Dear Friend and Ancient Colleague,
Your letter of February the 19th has been received with very sincere
pleasure. It recalls to memory the sociability, the friendship, and the
harmony of action which united personal happiness with public duties,
during the portion of our lives in which we acted together. Indeed,
the affectionate harmony of our cabinet is among the sweetest of my
recollections. I have just received a letter of friendship from General
Dearborn. He writes me that he is now retiring from every species of
public occupation, to pass the remainder of life as a private citizen;
and he promises me a visit in the course of the summer. As you hold out
a hope of the same gratification, if chance or purpose could time your
visits together, it would make a real jubilee. But come as you will, or
as you can, it will always be joy enough to me. Only you must give me a
month’s notice; because I go three or four times a year to a possession
ninety miles southwestward, and am absent a month at a time, and the
mortification would be indelible of losing such a visit by a mistimed
absence. You will find me in habitual good health, great contentedness,
enfeebled in body, impaired in memory, but without decay in my
friendships.
Great, indeed, have been the revolutions in the world, since you and I
have had any thing to do with it. To me they have been like the howlings
of the winter storm over the battlements, while warm in my bed. The
unprincipled tyrant of the land is fallen, his power reduced to its
original nothingness, his person only not yet in the mad-house, where
it ought always to have been. His equally unprincipled competitor, the
tyrant of the ocean, in the mad-house indeed, in person, but his
power still stalking over the deep. ‘_Quem deus vult perdere, prius
dementat_.’ The madness is acknowledged; the perdition of course
impending. Are we to be the instruments? A friendly, a just, and a
reasonable conduct on their part, might make us the main pillar of their
prosperity and existence. But their deep-rooted hatred to us seems to
be the means which Providence permits to lead them to their final
catastrophe. ‘_Nullam enim in terris gentem esse, nullum infestiorem
populum, nomini Romano_, said the General who erased Capua from the list
of powers. What nourishment and support would not England receive from
an hundred millions of industrious descendants, whom some of her people
now born will live to see here. What their energies are, she has lately
tried. And what has she not to fear from an hundred millions of such
men, if she continues her maniac course of hatred and hostility to them.
I hope in God she will change. There is not a nation on the globe
with whom I have more earnestly wished a friendly intercourse on equal
conditions. On no other would I hold out the hand of friendship to
any. I know that their creatures represent me as personally an enemy to
England. But fools only can believe this, or those who think me a
fool. I am an enemy to her insults and injuries. I am an enemy to the
flagitious principles of her administration, and to those which govern
her conduct towards other nations. But would she give to morality some
place in her political code, and especially would she exercise decency,
and at least neutral passions towards us, there is not, I repeat it, a
people on earth with whom I would sacrifice so much to be in friendship.
They can do us, as enemies, more harm than any other nation; and in
peace and in war, they have more means of disturbing us internally.
Their merchants established among us, the bonds by which our own are
chained to their feet, and the banking combinations interwoven with the
whole, have shown the extent of their control, even during a war with
her. They are the workers of all the embarrassments our finances have
experienced during the war. Declaring themselves bankrupt, they have
been able still to chain the government to a dependence on them; and
had the war continued, they would have reduced us to the inability to
command a single dollar. They dared to proclaim that they would not pay
their own paper obligations, yet our government could not venture to
avail themselves of this opportunity of sweeping their paper from the
circulation, and substituting their own notes bottomed on specific taxes
for redemption, which every one would have eagerly taken and trusted,
rather than the baseless trash of bankrupt companies; our government,
I say, have still been overawed from a contest with them, and have
even countenanced and strengthened their influence, by proposing new
establishments, with authority to swindle yet greater sums from our
citizens. This is the British influence to which I am an enemy, and
which we must subject to our government, or it will subject us to that
of Britain.
*****
Come and gratify, by seeing you once more, a friend, who assures you
with sincerity of his constant and affectionate attachment and respect.
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER CXXIV.--TO GENERAL DEARBORN, March 17, 1815
TO GENERAL DEARBORN.
Monticello, March 17, 1815.
My Dear General, Friend, and Ancient Colleague,
I have received your favor of February the 27th, with very great
pleasure, and sincerely reciprocate congratulations on the late events.
Peace was indeed desirable; yet it would not have been as welcome
without the successes of New Orleans. These last have established
truths too important not to be valued; that the people of Louisiana are
sincerely attached to the Union; that their city can be defended; that
the western States make its defence their peculiar concern; that the
militia are brave; that their deadly aim countervails the manoeuvring
skill of their enemy; that we have officers of natural genius now
starting forward from the mass; and that, putting together all our
conflicts, we can beat the British, by sea and by land, with equal
numbers. All this being now proved, I am glad of the pacification of
Ghent, and shall still be more so, if, by a reasonable arrangement
against impressment, they will make it truly a treaty of peace, and not
a mere truce, as we must all consider it, until the principle of the
war is settled. Nor, among the incidents of the war, will we forget your
services. After the disasters produced by the treason or the cowardice,
or both, of Hull, and the follies of some others, your capture of York
and Fort George first turned the tide of success in our favor; and the
subsequent campaigns sufficiently wiped away the disgraces of the
first. If it were justifiable to look to your own happiness only, your
resolution to retire from all public business could not but be approved.
But you are too young to ask a discharge as yet, and the public counsels
too much needing the wisdom of our ablest citizens, to relinquish their
claim on you. And surely none needs your aid more than your own State.
Oh, Massachusetts! how have I lamented the degradation of your apostacy!
Massachusetts, with whom I went with pride in 1776, whose vote was
my vote on every public question, and whose principles were then the
standard of whatever was free or fearless. But then she was under the
counsels of the two Adamses; while Strong, her present leader, was
promoting petitions for submission to British power and British
usurpation. While under her present counsels, she must be contented to
be nothing; as having a vote, indeed, to be counted, but not respected.
But should the State once more buckle on her republican harness, we
shall receive her again as a sister, and recollect her wanderings among
the crimes only of the parricide party, which would have basely sold
what their fathers so bravely won from the same enemy. Let us look
forward, then, to the act of repentance, which, by dismissing her
venal traitors, shall be the signal of return to the bosom and to the
principles of her brethren; and if her late humiliation can just give
her modesty enough to suppose that her southern brethren are somewhat on
a par with her in wisdom, in information, in patriotism, in bravery,
and even in honesty, although not in psalm-singing, she will more
justly estimate her own relative momentum in the Union. With her ancient
principles, she would really be great, if she did not think herself the
whole. I should be pleased to hear that you go into her councils,
and assist in bringing her back to those principles, and to a sober
satisfaction with her proportionable share in the direction of our
affairs.
Be so good as to lay my homage at the feet of Mrs. Dearborn, and to be
assured that I am ever and affectionately yours.
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER CXXV.--TO THE PRESIDENT, March 23,1815
TO THE PRESIDENT.
Monticello, March 23,1815.
Deak Sir,
I duly received your favor of the 12th, and with it the pamphlet on the
causes and conduct of the war, which I now return. I have read it
with great pleasure, but with irresistible desire that it should be
published. The reasons in favor of this are strong, and those against it
are so easily gotten over, that there appears to me no balance between
them. 1. We need it in Europe. They have totally mistaken our character.
Accustomed to rise at a feather themselves, and to be always fighting,
they will see in our conduct, fairly stated, that acquiescence under
wrong, to a certain degree, is wisdom, and not pusillanimity; and
that peace and happiness are preferable to that false honor, which,
by eternal wars, keeps their people in eternal labor, want, and
wretchedness. 2. It is necessary for the people of England, who have
been deceived as to the causes and conduct of the war, and do not
entertain a doubt, that it was entirely wanton and wicked on our part,
and under the order of Bonaparte. By rectifying their ideas, it will
tend to that conciliation which is absolutely necessary to the peace and
prosperity of both nations. 3. It is necessary for our own people, who,
although they have known the details as they went along, yet have been
so plied with false facts and false views by; the federalists, that some
impression has been left that all has not been right. It may be said
that it will be thought unfriendly. But truths necessary for our own
character, must not be suppressed out of tenderness to its calumniators.
Although written, generally, with great moderation, there may be some
things in the pamphlet which may perhaps irritate. The characterizing
every act, for example, by its appropriate epithet, is not necessary to
show its deformity to an intelligent reader. The naked narrative
will present it truly to his mind, and the more strongly, from its
moderation, as he will perceive that no exaggeration is aimed
at. Rubbing down these roughnesses (and they are neither many nor
prominent), and preserving the original date, might, I think, remove all
the offensiveness, and give more effect to the publication. Indeed,
I think that a soothing postscript, addressed to the interests,
the prospects, and the sober reason of both nations, would make it
acceptable to both. The trifling, expense of reprinting it ought not
to be considered a moment. Mr. Gallatin could have it translated into
French, and suffer it to get abroad in Europe without either avowal or
disavowal. But it would be useful to print some copies of an appendix,
containing all the documents referred to, to be preserved in libraries,
and to facilitate to the present and future writers of history, the
acquisition of the materials which test the truths it contains.
I sincerely congratulate you on the peace, and more especially on the
eclat with which the war was closed. The affair of New Orleans was
fraught with useful lessons to ourselves, our enemies, and our friends,
and will powerfully influence our future relations with the nations of
Europe. It will show them we mean to take no part in their wars, and
count no odds when engaged in our own. I presume, that, having spared
to the pride of England her formal acknowledgment of the atrocity of
impressment in an article of the treaty, she will concur in a convention
for relinquishing it. Without this, she must understand that the present
is but a truce, determinable on the first act of impressment of an
American citizen, committed by any officer of hers. Would it not be
better that this convention should be a separate act, unconnected with
any treaty of commerce, and made an indispensable preliminary to all
other treaty? If blended with a treaty of commerce, she will make it the
price of injurious concessions. Indeed, we are infinitely better without
such treaties with any nation. We cannot too distinctly detach ourselves
from the European system, which is essentially belligerent, nor too
sedulously cultivate an American system, essentially pacific. But if we
go into commercial treaties at all, they should be with all, at the same
time, with whom we have important commercial relations. France, Spain,
Portugal, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Russia, all should proceed _pari
passu_. Our ministers marching in phalanx on the same line, and
intercommunicating freely, each will be supported by the weight of the
whole mass, and the facility with which the other nations will agree to
equal terms of intercourse, will discountenance the selfish higglings of
England, or justify our rejection of them. Perhaps with all of them
it would be best to have but the single article _gentis amicissimæ_,
leaving every thing else to the usages and courtesies of civilized
nations. But all these things will occur to yourself, with their counter
considerations.
Mr. Smith wrote to me on the transportation of the library, and
particularly, that it is submitted to your direction. He mentioned also,
that Dougherty would be engaged to superintend it. No one will more
carefully and faithfully execute all those duties which would belong to
a wagon-master. But it requires a character acquainted with books, to
receive the library. I am now employing as many hours of every day as my
strength will permit, in arranging the books, and putting every one in
its place on the shelves, corresponding with its order in the catalogue,
and shall have them numbered correspondently. This operation will employ
me a considerable time yet. Then I should wish a competent agent to
attend, and, with the catalogue in his hand, see that every book is on
the shelves, and have their lids nailed on, one by one, as he proceeds.
This would take such a person about two days; after which, Dougherty’s
business would be the mere mechanical removal, at convenience. I enclose
you a letter from Mr. Milligan, offering his service, which would not
cost more than eight or ten days’ reasonable compensation. This is
necessary for my safety, and your satisfaction, as a just caution for
the public. You know there are persons, both in and out of the public
councils, who will seize every occasion of imputation on either of us,
the more difficult to be repelled in this case, in which a negative
could not be proved. If you approve of it, therefore, as soon as I am
through the review, I will give notice to Mr. Milligan, or any other
person whom you will name, to come on immediately. Indeed it would be
well worth while to add to his duty, that of covering the books with a
little paper (the good bindings at least), and filling the vacancies
of the presses with paper-parings, to be brought from Washington. This
would add little more to the time, as he could carry on both operations
at once.
Accept the assurance of my constant and affectionate friendship and
respect,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER CXXVI.--TO JOHN ADAMS, June 10,1815
TO JOHN ADAMS.
Monticello, June 10,1815.
Dear Sir,
It is long since we have exchanged a letter, and yet what volumes might
have been written on the occurrences even of the last three months. In
the first place, peace, God bless it! has returned, to put us all
again into a course of lawful and laudable pursuits: a new trial of the
Bourbons has proved to the world their incompetence to the functions
of the station they have occupied: and the recall of the usurper has
clothed him with the semblance of a legitimate autocrat. If adversity
should have taught him wisdom, of which I have little expectation,
he may yet render some service to mankind, by teaching the ancient
dynasties that they can be changed for misrule, and by wearing down the
maritime power of England to limitable and safe dimensions. But it is
not possible he should love us; and of that our commerce had sufficient
proofs during his power. Our military achievements, indeed, which he
is capable of estimating, may in some degree moderate the effect of his
aversions; and he may perhaps fancy that we are to become the natural
enemies of England, as England herself has so steadily endeavored to
make us, and as some of our own over-zealous patriots would be willing
to proclaim; and in this view, he may admit a cold toleration of some
intercourse and commerce between the two nations. He has certainly
had time to see the folly of turning the industry of France from the
cultures for which nature has so highly endowed her, to those of sugar,
cotton, tobacco, and others, which the same creative power has given to
other climates: and, on the whole, if he can conquer the passions of his
tyrannical soul, if he has understanding enough to pursue from motives
of interest, what no moral motives lead him to, the tranquil happiness
and prosperity of his country, rather than a ravenous thirst for human
blood, his return may become of more advantage than injury to us. And if
again some great man could arise in England, who could see and correct
the follies of his nation in their conduct as to us, and by exercising
justice and comity towards ours, bring both into a state of temperate
and useful friendship, it is possible we might thus attain the place we
ought to occupy between these two nations, without being degraded to the
condition of mere partisans of either.