speak of a former letter to me, but it has not come to hand, nor any
other of later date than the 14th of December. My last to you was of the
11th of May, by Mr. Adams, who went in the packet of that month. These
conveyances are now becoming deranged. We have had expectations of their
coming to Havre, which would infinitely facilitate the communication
between Paris and Congress; but their deliberations on the subject seem
to be taking another turn. They complain of the expense, and that their
commerce with us is too small to justify it. They therefore talk of
sending a packet every six weeks only. The present one, therefore, which
should have sailed about this time, will not sail till the 1st of July.
However, the whole matter is as yet undecided. I have hopes that when
Mr. St. John arrives from New York, he will get them replaced on
their monthly system. By the bye, what is the meaning of a very
angry resolution of Congress on his subject? I have it not by me, and
therefore cannot cite it by date, but you will remember it, and oblige
me by explaining its foundation. This will be handed you by Mr.
Otto, who comes to America as Charge, des Affaires, in the room of Mr.
Marbois, promoted to the Intendancy of Hispaniola, which office is next
to that of Governor. He becomes the head of the civil, as the Governor
is of the military department.
I am much pleased with Otto’s appointment; he is good-humored,
affectionate to America, will see things in a friendly light when they
admit of it, in a rational one always, and will not pique himself on
writing every trifling circumstance of irritation to his court. I
wish you to be acquainted with him, as a friendly intercourse between
individuals who do business together, produces a mutual spirit of
accommodation useful to both parties. It is very much our interest to
keep up the affection of this country for us, which is considerable.
A court has no affections; but those of the people whom they govern,
influence their decisions even in the most arbitrary governments.
The negotiations between the Emperor and Dutch are spun out to an
amazing length. At present there is no apprehension but that they will
terminate in peace. This court seems to press it with ardor, and the
Dutch are averse, considering the terms cruel and unjust, as they
evidently are. The present delays, therefore, are imputed to their
coldness and to their forms. In the mean time, the Turk is delaying the
demarcation of limits between him and the Emperor, is making the most
vigorous preparations for war, and has composed his ministry of warlike
characters, deemed personally hostile, to the Emperor. Thus time seems
to be spinning out, both by the Dutch and Turks, and time is wanting
for France. Every year’s delay is a great thing for her. It is not
impossible, therefore, but that she may secretly encourage the delays
of the Dutch, and hasten the preparations of the Porte, while she is
recovering vigor herself also, in order to be able to present such a
combination to the Emperor as may dictate to him to be quiet. But the
designs of these courts are unsearchable. It is our interest to pray
that this country may have no continental war, till our peace with
England is perfectly settled. The. merchants of this country continue as
loud and furious as ever against the _Arrêt_ of August, 1784, permitting
our commerce with their islands to a certain degree. Many of them have
actually abandoned their trade. The ministry are disposed to be firm;
but there is a point at which they will give way: that is, if the
clamors should become such as to endanger their places. It is evident
that nothing can be done by us, at this time, if we may hope it
hereafter. I like your removal to New York, and hope Congress will
continue there, and never execute the idea of building their Federal
town. Before it could be finished, a change of members in Congress, or
the admission of new States, would remove them some where else. It is
evident that when a sufficient number of the western states come in,
they will remove it to Georgetown. In the mean time, it is our interest
that it should remain where it is, and give no new pretensions to any
other place. I am also much pleased with the proposition to the States
to invest Congress with the regulation of their trade, reserving its
revenue to the States. I think it a happy idea, removing the only
objection which could have been justly made to the proposition. The time
too is the present, before the admission of the western States. I am
very differently affected towards the new plan of opening our land
office, by dividing the lands among the States, and selling them at
vendue. It separates still more the interests of the States, which ought
to be made joint in every possible instance, in order to cultivate the
idea of our being one nation, and to multiply the instances in which the
people should look up to Congress as their head. And when the States get
their portions they will either fool them away, or make a job of it to
serve individuals. Proofs of both these practices have been furnished,
and by either of them that invaluable fund is lost, which ought to pay
our public debt. To sell them at vendue, is to give them to the bidders
of the day, be they many or few. It is ripping up the hen which lays
golden eggs. If sold in lots at a fixed price, as first proposed, the
best lots will be sold first; as these become occupied, it gives a value
to the interjacent ones, and raises them, though of inferior quality, to
the price of the first. I send you by Mr. Otto, a copy of my book. Be so
good as to apologize to Mr. Thomson for my not sending him one by this
conveyance. I could not burthen Mr. Otto with more, on so long a road as
that from here to L’Orient. I will send him one by a Mr. Williams, who
will go ere long. I have taken measures to prevent its publication. My
reason is, that I fear the terms in which I speak of slavery, and of our
constitution, may produce an irritation which will revolt the minds of
our countrymen against reformation in these two articles, and thus do
more harm than good. I have asked of Mr. Madison to sound this matter as
far as he can, and if he thinks it will not produce that effect, I have
then copies enough printed to give one to each of the young men at the
College, and to my friends in the country.
I am sorry to see a possibility of * * being put into the Treasury.
He has no talents for the office, and what he has, will be employed in
rummaging old accounts to involve you in eternal war with * *, and he
will, in a short time, introduce such dissensions into the commission,
as to break it up. If he goes on the other appointment to Kaskaskia, he
will produce a revolt of that settlement from the United States. I
thank you for your attention to my outfit. For the articles of household
furniture, clothes, and a carriage, I have already paid twenty-eight
thousand livres, and have still more to pay. For the greatest part of
this, I have been obliged to anticipate my salary, from which, however,
I shall never be able to repay it. I find, that by a rigid economy,
bordering however on meanness, I can save perhaps, five hundred livres a
month, at least in the summer. The residue goes for expenses so much of
course and of necessity, that I cannot avoid them without abandoning
all respect to my public character. Yet I will pray you to touch this
string, which I know to be a tender one with Congress, with the utmost
delicacy. I had rather be ruined in my fortune, than in their esteem.
If they allow me half a year’s salary as an outfit, I can get through my
debts in time. If they raise the salary to what it was, or even pay our
house rent and taxes, I can live with more decency. I trust that Mr.
Adams’s house at the Hague, and Dr. Franklin’s at Passy,--the rent of
which has been always allowed him, will give just expectations of the
same allowance to me. Mr. Jay, however, did not charge it, but he lived
economically and laid up money.
I will take the liberty of hazarding to you some thoughts on the policy
of entering into treaties with the European nations, and the nature of
them. I am not wedded to these ideas, and, therefore, shall relinquish
them cheerfully when Congress shall adopt others, and zealously endeavor
to carry theirs into effect. First, as to the policy of making treaties.
Congress, by the Confederation, have no original and inherent power over
the commerce of the States. But by the 9th article, they are authorized
to enter into treaties of commerce. The moment these treaties are
concluded, the jurisdiction of Congress over the commerce of the States,
springs into existence, and that of the particular States is superseded
so far as the articles of the treaty may have taken up the subject.
There are two restrictions only, on the exercise of the power of treaty
by Congress. 1st. That they shall not, by such treaty, restrain the
legislatures of the States from imposing such duties on foreigners,
as their own people are subject to: nor 2ndly, from prohibiting the
exportation or importation of any particular species of goods. Leaving
these two points free, Congress may, by treaty, establish any system of
commerce they please; but, as I before observed, it is by treaty
alone they can do it. Though they may exercise their other powers by
resolution or ordinance, those over commerce can only be exercised by
forming a treaty, and this, probably, by an accidental wording of our
Confederation. If, therefore, it is better for the States that Congress
should regulate their commerce, it is proper that they should form
treaties with all nations with whom we may possibly trade. You see that
my primary object in the formation of treaties, is to take the commerce
of the States out of the hands of the States, and to place it under the
superintendence of Congress, so far as the imperfect provisions of our
constitution will admit, and until the States shall, by new compact,
make them more perfect. I would say then to every nation on earth,
by treaty, your people shall trade freely with us, and ours with you,
paying no more than the most favored nation in order to put an end to
the right of individual States, acting by fits and starts, to interrupt
our commerce or to embroil us with any nation. As to the terms of these
treaties, the question becomes more difficult. I will mention three
different plans. 1. That no duties shall be laid by either party on
the productions of the other. 2. That each may be permitted to equalize
their duties to those laid by the other. 3. That each shall pay in the
ports of the other, such duties only as the most favored nations pay.
1. Were the nations of Europe as free and unembarrassed of established
systems as we are, I do verily believe they would concur with us in the
first plan. But it is impossible. These establishments are fixed
upon them; they are interwoven with the body of their laws and the
organization of their government, and they make a great part of their
revenue; they cannot then get rid of them.
2. The plan of equal imposts presents difficulties insurmountable. For
how are the equal imposts to be effected? Is it by laying in the ports
of A, an equal per cent, on the goods of B, with that which B has laid
in his ports on the goods of A? But how are we to find what is that per
cent.? For this is not the usual form of imposts. They generally pay by
the-ton, by the measure, by the weight, and not by the value. Besides,
if A sends a million’s worth of goods to B, and takes back but the half
of that, and each pays the same per cent., it is evident that A pays
the double of what he recovers in the same way from B: this would be our
case with Spain. Shall we endeavor to effect equality, then, by saying
A may levy so much on the sum of B’s importations into his ports, as B
does on the sum of A’s importations into the ports of B.? But how
find out that sum? Will either party lay open their custom-house books
candidly to evince this sum? Does either keep their books so exactly as
to be able to do it? This proposition was started in Congress when our
instructions were formed, as you may remember, and the impossibility of
executing it occasioned it to be disapproved. Besides, who should have
a right of deciding when the imposts were equal. A would say to B, My
imposts do not raise so much as yours; I raise them therefore. B would
then say, You have made them greater than mine, I will raise mine; and
thus a kind of auction would be carried on between them, and a mutual
irritation, which would end in any thing, sooner than equality and
right.
3. I confess then to you, that I see no alternative left but that which
Congress adopted, of each party placing the other on the footing of
the most favored nation. If the nations of Europe, from their actual
establishments, are not at liberty to say to America, that she shall
trade in their ports duty free, they may say she may trade there paying
no higher duties than the most favored nation; and this is valuable in
many of these countries, where a very great difference is made between
different nations. There is no difficulty in the execution of this
contract, because there is not a merchant who does not know, or may not
know, the duty paid by every nation on every article. This stipulation
leaves each party at liberty to regulate their own commerce by
general rules, while it secures the other from partial and oppressive
discriminations. The difficulty which arises in our case is with
the nations having American territory. Access to the West Indies
is indispensably necessary to us. Yet how to gain it when it is the
established system of these nations to exclude all foreigners from their
colonies? The only chance seems to be this: our commerce to the mother
countries is valuable to them. We must indeavor, then, to make this the
price of an admission into their West Indies, and to those who refuse
the admission, we must refuse our commerce, or load theirs by odious
discriminations in our ports. We have this circumstance in our favor
too, that what one grants us in their islands, the others will not
find it worth their while to refuse. The misfortune is, that with this
country we gave this price for their aid in the war, and we have now
nothing more to offer. She being withdrawn from the competition, leaves
Great Britain much more at liberty to hold out against us. This is the
difficult part of the business of treaty, and I own it does not hold out
the most flattering prospects.
I wish you would consider this subject, and write me your thoughts on
it. Mr. Gerry wrote me on the same subject. Will you give me leave to
impose on you the trouble of communicating this to him? It is long, and
will save me much labor in copying. I hope he will be so indulgent as
to consider it as an answer to that part of his letter, and will give
me his further thoughts on it. Shall I send you so much of the
_Encyclopédie_ as is already published, or reserve it here till you
come? It is about forty volumes which is probably about half the work.
Give yourself no uneasiness about the money; perhaps I may find it
convenient to ask you to pay trifles occasionally for me in America. I
sincerely wish you may find it convenient to come here; the pleasure of
the trip will be less than you expect, but the utility greater. It will
make you adore your own country, its soil, its climate, its equality,
liberty, laws, people, and manners. My God! how little do my countrymen
know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no
other people on earth enjoy. I confess I had no idea of it myself. While
we shall see multiplied instances of Europeans going to live in America,
I will venture to say no man now living, will ever see an instance of
an American removing to settle in Europe, and continuing there. Come
then and see the proofs of this, and on your return add your testimony
to that of every thinking American, in order to satisfy our countrymen
how much it is their interest to preserve, uninfected by contagion,
those peculiarities in their governments and manners, to which they
are indebted for those blessings. Adieu, my dear friend; present me
affectionately to your colleagues. If any of them think me worth writing
to, they may be assured that in the epistolary account I will keep the
debit side against them. Once more, adieu.
Yours affectionately,
Th: Jefferson.
P.S. June 19. Since writing the above we have received the following
account: Monsieur Pilatre de Roziere, who had been waiting for some
months at Boulogne for a fair wind to cross the channel, at length took
his ascent with a companion. The wind changed after a while, and brought
him back on the French coast. Being at a height of about six thousand
feet, some accident happened to his balloon of inflammable air; it
burst, they fell from that height, and were crushed to atoms. There
was a montgolfier combined with the balloon of inflammable air. It is
suspected the heat of the montgolfier rarefied too much the inflammable
air of the other, and occasioned it to burst. The montgolfier came down
in good order.
T.J.
LETTER LXV.--TO CHARLES THOMSON, June 21, 1785
TO CHARLES THOMSON.
Paris, June 21, 1785.
Dear Sir,
Your favor of March the 6th has come duly to hand. You therein
acknowledge the receipt of mine of November the 11th; at that time you
could not have received my last, of February the 8th. At present there
is so little new in politics, literature, or the arts, that I write
rather to prove to you my desire of nourishing your correspondence
than of being able to give you any thing interesting at this time. The
political world is almost lulled to sleep by the lethargic state of the
Dutch negotiation, which will probably end in peace. Nor does this court
profess to apprehend, that the Emperor will involve this hemisphere
in war by his schemes on Bavaria and Turkey. The arts, instead of
advancing, have lately received a check, which will probably render
stationary for a while, that branch of them which had promised to
elevate us to the skies. Pilatre de Roziere, who had first ventured into
that region, has fallen a sacrifice to it. In an attempt to pass from
Boulogne over to England, a change in the wind having brought him
back on the coast of France, some accident happened to his balloon of
inflammable air, which occasioned it to burst, and that of rarefied
air combined with it being then unequal to the weight, they fell to the
earth from a height, which the first reports made six thousand feet, but
later ones have reduced to sixteen hundred. Pilatre de Roziere was dead
when a peasant, distant one hundred yards only, run to him; but Romain,
his companion, lived about ten minutes, though speechless, and without
his senses. In literature there is nothing new. For I do not consider as
having added any thing to that field, my own Notes, of which I have
had a few copies printed. I will send you a copy by the first safe
conveyance. Having troubled Mr. Otto with one for Colonel Monroe, I
could not charge him with one for you. Pray ask the favor of Colonel
Monroe, in page 5, line 17, to strike out the words ‘above the mouth of
Appamatox,’ which make nonsense of the passage; and I forgot to correct
it before I had enclosed and sent off the copy to him. I am desirous of
preventing the reprinting this, should any book-merchant think it worth
it, till I hear from my friends, whether the terms in which I have
spoken of slavery and the constitution of our State, will not, by
producing an irritation, retard that reformation which I wish, instead
of promoting it. Dr. Franklin proposes to sail for America about the
first or second week of July. He does not yet know, however, by what
conveyance he can go. Unable to travel by land, he must descend the
Seine in a boat to Havre. He has sent to England to get some vessel
bound for Philadelphia, to touch at Havre for him. But he receives
information that this cannot be done. He has been on the lookout ever
since he received his permission to return; but, as yet, no possible
means of getting a passage have offered, and I fear it is very uncertain
when any will offer. I am with very great esteem, Dear Sir,
your friend and servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER LXVI.--TO WILLIAM CARMICHAEL, June 22, 1785
TO WILLIAM CARMICHAEL.
Paris, June 22, 1785.
Sir,
Your letter of April the 4th came to my hands on the 16th of that month,
and was acknowledged by mine of May the 3rd. That which you did me the
honor to write me on the 5th of April, never came to hand until the 19th
of May, upwards of a month after the one of the day before. I have hopes
of sending the present by a Mr. Jarvis, who went from hence to Holland
some time ago. About this date, I suppose him to be at Brussels, and
that from thence he will inform me, whether, in his way to Madrid, he
will pass by this place. If he does, this shall be accompanied by a
cipher for our future use; if he does not, I must still await a safe
opportunity. Mr. Jarvis is a citizen of the United States from New-York,
a gentleman of intelligence, in the mercantile line, from whom you will
be able to get considerable information of American affairs. I think
he left America in January. He informed us that Congress were about to
appoint a Mr. Lambe, of Connecticut, their consul to Morocco, and to
send him to their ministers, commissioned to treat with the Barbary
powers, for instructions. Since that, Mr. Jay enclosed to Mr. Adams,
in London, a resolution of Congress deciding definitively on amicable
treaties with the Barbary States, in the usual way, and informing him
that he had sent a letter and instructions to us, by Mr. Lambe. Though
it is near three weeks since we received a communication of this from
Mr. Adams, yet we hear nothing further of Mr. Lambe. Our powers of
treating with the Barbary States are full, but in the amount of the
expense we are limited. I believe you may safely assure them, that they
will soon receive propositions from us, if you find such an assurance
necessary to keep them quiet. Turning at this instant to your letter
dated April 5th, and considering it attentively, I am persuaded it must
have been written on the 5th of May: of this little mistake I ought to
have been sooner sensible. Our latest letters from America are of the
middle of April, and are extremely barren of news. Congress had not yet
proposed a time for their recess, though it was thought a recess would
take place. Mr. Morris had retired, and the treasury was actually
administered by commissioners. Their land-office was not yet opened.
The settlements at Kaskaskia, within the territory ceded to them by
Virginia, had prayed the establishment of a regular government, and they
were about sending a commissioner to them. General Knox was appointed
their secretary of the war-office. These, I think, are the only facts
we have learned which are worth communicating to you. The inhabitants
of Canada have sent a sensible petition to their King, praying the
establishment of an Assembly, the benefits of the _habeas corpus_
laws, and other privileges of British subjects. The establishment of an
Assembly is denied, but most of their other desires granted. We are now
in hourly expectation of the arrival of the packet which should have
sailed from New York in May. Perhaps that may bring us matter which may
furnish the subject of a more interesting letter.
In the mean time, I have the honor to be, with the highest respect, Sir,
your most obedient
and most humble servant,
Th: Jefferson.
P.S. July 14. I have thus long waited, day after day, hoping to hear
from Mr. Jarvis, that I might send a cipher with this: but now give up
the hope. No news yet of Mr. Lambe. The packet has arrived, but brings
no intelligence, except that it is doubtful whether Congress will
adjourn this summer. The Assembly of Pennsylvania propose to suppress
their bank on principles of policy. T.J.
LETTER LXVII.--TO JOHN ADAMS, June 23, 1785
TO JOHN ADAMS.
Paris, June 23, 1785.
Dear Sir,
My last to you was of the 2nd instant, since which I have received
yours of the 3rd and 7th. I informed you in mine of the substance of our
letter to Baron Thulemeyer: last night came to hand his acknowledgment
of the receipt of it. He accedes to the method proposed for signing,
and has forwarded our despatch to the King. I enclose you a copy of
our letter to Mr. Jay, to go by the packet of this month. It contains a
statement of our proceedings since the preceding letter, which you
had signed with us. This statement contains nothing but what you had
concurred with us in; and, as Dr. Franklin expects to go early in July
to America, it is probable that the future letters must be written by
you and myself. I shall therefore take care that you be furnished with
copies of every thing which comes to hand on the joint business.