this country which excites notice, I have supposed it would not be
disagreeable to you to learn its immediate objects, though no way
connected with our interests. The Assembly met yesterday: the King, in a
short but affectionate speech, informed them of his wish to consult
with them on the plans he had digested, and on the general good of his
people, and his desire to imitate the head of his family, Henry IV.,
whose memory is so dear to the nation. The _Garde des Sceaux_ then spoke
about twenty minutes, chiefly in compliment to the orders present. The
Comptroller General, in a speech of about an hour, opened the budget,
and enlarged on the several subjects which will be under their
deliberation. He explained the situation of the finances at his
accession to office, the expenses which their arrangement had rendered
necessary, their present state with the improvements made in them, the
several plans which had been proposed for their further improvement, a
change in the form of some of their taxes, the removal of the interior
Custom-houses to the frontiers, and the institution of Provincial
Assemblies. The Assembly was then divided into committees, with a prince
of the blood at the head of each. In this form they are to discuss
separately the subjects which will be submitted to them. Their decision
will be reported by two members to the minister, who, on view of the
separate decisions of all the committees, will make such changes in his
plans, as will best accommodate them to their views, without too much
departing from his own, and will then submit them to the vote (but
I believe not to the debate) of the General Assembly, which will
be convened for this purpose one day in every week, and will vote
individually.
The event ©f the Count de Vergennes’death, of which I had the honor to
inform you in a letter of the 14th instant, the appointment of the Count
Montmorin, and the propriety of my attending at his first audience,
which will be on the 27th, have retarded the journey I had proposed a
few days.
I shall hope, on my return, to meet here new powers for the consular
convention, as, under those I have, it will be impossible to make the
changes in the convention, which may be wished for.
I have the honor to be, with sentiments of the most perfect esteem and
respect, Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER LII.--TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE, February 28, 1787
TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE.
Paris, February 28, 1787.
Dear Sir,
I am just now in the moment of my departure. Monsieur de Montmorin
having given us audience at Paris yesterday, I missed the opportunity
of seeing you once more. I am extremely pleased with his modesty, the
simplicity of his manners, and his dispositions towards us. I promise
myself a great deal of satisfaction in doing business with him. I hope
he will not give ear to any unfriendly suggestions. I flatter myself I
shall hear from you sometimes. Send your letters to my hotel as usual,
and they will be forwarded to me. I wish you success in your meeting.
I should form better hopes of it, if it were divided into two Houses
instead of seven. Keeping the good model of your neighboring country
before your eyes, you may get on, step by step, towards a good
constitution. Though that model is not perfect, yet, as it would unite
more suffrages than any new one which could be proposed, it is better to
make that the object. If every advance is to be purchased by filling the
royal coffers with gold, it will be gold well employed. The King, who
means so well, should be encouraged to repeat these Assemblies. You see
how we republicans are apt to preach, when we get on politics. Adieu, my
dear friend.
Yours affectionately,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER LIII.--TO MADAME LA COMTESSE DE TESSE, March 20, 1787
TO MADAME LA COMTESSE DE TESSE.
Nismes, March 20, 1787.
Here I am, Madam, gazing whole hours at the _Maison Quarrée_, like a
lover at his mistress. The stocking-weavers and silk-spinners around it,
consider me as a hypochondriac Englishman, about to write with a pistol
the last chapter of his history. This is the second time I have been in
love since I left Paris. The first was with a Diana at the Chateau de
Lay-Epinaye in Beaujolois, a delicious morsel of sculpture, by M. A.
Slodtz. This, you will say, was in rule, to fall in love with a female
beauty: but with a house! It is out of all precedent. No, Madam, it
is not without a precedent, in my own history. While in Paris, I
was violently smitten with the Hotel de Salm, and used to go to the
Tuileries almost daily to look at it. The _loueuse des chaises_,
inattentive to my passion, never had the complaisance to place a chair
there, so that, sitting on the parapet, and twisting my neck round to
see the object of my admiration, I generally left it with a torticollis.
From Lyons to Nismes I have been nourished with the remains of Roman
grandeur. They have always brought you to my mind, because I know your
affection for whatever is Roman and noble. At Vienne I thought of you.
But I am glad you were not there; for you would have seen me more
angry than I hope you will ever see me. The Praetorian palace, as it is
called, comparable, for its fine proportions, to the _Maison Quarrée_,
defaced by the barbarians who have converted it to its present purpose,
its beautiful fluted Corinthian columns cut out in part to make space
for Gothic windows, and hewed down in the residue to the plane of
the building, was enough, you must admit, to disturb my composure. At
Orange, too, I thought of you. I was sure you had seen with pleasure
the sublime triumphal arch of Marius at the entrance of the city. I went
then to the Arena. Would you believe, Madam, that in this eighteenth
century, in France, under the reign of Louis XVI., they are at this
moment pulling down the circular wall of this superb remain to pave a
road? And that too from a hill which is itself an entire mass of stone,
just as fit, and more accessible? A former intendant, a M. de Basville,
has rendered his memory dear to the traveller and amateur, by the
pains he took to preserve and restore these monuments of antiquity. The
present one (I do not know who he is) is demolishing the object to make
a good road to it. I thought of you again, and I was then in great good
humor, at the _Pont du Gard_, a sublime antiquity, and well preserved.
But most of all here, where Roman taste, genius, and magnificence excite
ideas analogous to yours at every step. I could no longer oppose the
inclination to avail myself of your permission to write to you, a
permission given with too much complaisance by you, and used by me with
too much indiscretion. Madame de Tott did me the same honor.
But she being only the descendant of some of those puny heroes who
boiled their own kettles before the walls of Troy, I shall write to her
from a Grecian, rather than a Roman canton: when I shall find myself,
for example, among her Phocæan relations at Marseilles.
Loving, as you do, Madam, the precious remains of antiquity, loving
architecture, gardening, a warm sun, and a clear sky, I wonder you have
never thought of moving Chaville to Nismes. This, as you know, has
not always been deemed impracticable; and, therefore, the next time a
_Surintendant des bailments du roi_, after the example of M. Colbert,
sends persons to Nismes to move the _Maison Quarrée_ to Paris, that they
may not come empty-handed, desire them to bring Chaville with them to
replace it. _A propos_ of Paris. I have now been three weeks from there,
without knowing any thing of what has passed. I suppose I shall meet
it all at Aix, where I have directed my letters to be lodged, _poste
restante_. My journey has given me leisure to reflect on this _Assemblée
des Notables_. Under a good and a young King, as the present, I think
good may be made of it. I would have the deputies, then, by all means,
so conduct themselves as to encourage him to repeat the calls of this
Assembly. Their first step should be to get themselves divided into two
chambers instead of seven; the Noblesse and the Commons separately. The
second, to persuade the King, instead of choosing the deputies of the
Commons himself, to summon those chosen by the people for the Provincial
administrations. The third, as the Noblesse is too numerous to be all
of the Assemblée, to obtain permission for that body to choose its own
deputies. Two Houses, so elected, would contain a mass of wisdom, which
would make the people happy, and the King great; would place him in
history where no other act can possibly place him. They would thus put
themselves in the track of the best guide they can follow, they would
soon overtake it, become its guide in turn, and lead to the wholesome
modifications wanting in that model, and necessary to constitute a
rational government. Should they attempt more than the established
habits of the people are ripe for, they must lose all, and retard
indefinitely the ultimate object of their aim. These, Madam, are my
opinions; but I wish to know yours, which I am sure will be better.
From a correspondent at Nismes you will not expect news. Were I to
attempt to give you news, I should tell you stories one thousand years
old. I should detail to you the intrigues of the courts of the Cæsars,
how they affect us here, the oppressions of their praetors, prefects,
&c. I am immersed in antiquities from morning to night. For me the city
of Rome is actually existing in all the splendor of its empire. I am
filled with alarms for the event of the irruptions daily making on us
by the Goths, the Visigoths, Ostrogoths, and Vandals, lest they should
re-conquer us to our original barbarism. If I am sometimes induced to
look forward to the eighteenth century, it is only when recalled to
it by the recollection of your goodness and friendship, and by those
sentiments of sincere esteem and respect, with which I have the honor to
be,
Madam, your most obedient
and most humble servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER LIV.--TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE, April 11, 1787
TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE.
Nice, April 11, 1787.
Your head, my dear friend, is full of _Notable_ things; and being better
employed, therefore, I do not expect letters from you. I am constantly
roving about to see what I have never seen before, and shall never see
again. In the great cities, I go to see what travellers think alone
worthy of being seen; but I make a job of it, and generally gulp it
all down in a day. On the other hand, I am never satiated with rambling
through the fields and farms, examining the culture and cultivators with
a degree of curiosity, which makes some take me to be a fool, and others
to be much wiser than I am. I have been pleased to find among the people
a less degree of physical misery than I had expected. They are generally
well clothed, and have a plenty of food, not animal indeed, but
vegetable, which is as wholesome. Perhaps they are over-worked, the
excess of the rent required by the landlord obliging them to too many
hours of labor in order to produce that, and wherewith to feed and
clothe themselves. The soil of Champagne and Burgundy I have found more
universally good than I had expected, and as I could not help making a
comparison with England, I found that comparison more unfavorable to
the latter than is generally admitted. The soil, the climate, and the
productions are superior to those of England, and the husbandry as
good, except in one point; that of manure. In England, long leases for
twenty-one years, or three lives, to wit, that of the farmer, his wife,
and son, renewed by the son as soon as he comes to the possession, for
his own life, his wife’s, and eldest child’s, and so on, render the
farms there almost hereditary, make it worth the farmer’s while to
manure the lands highly, and give the landlord an opportunity of
occasionally making his rent keep pace with the improved state of the
lands. Here the leases are either during pleasure, or for three, six, or
nine years, which does not give the farmer time to repay himself for the
expensive operation of well manuring, and therefore, he manures ill,
or not at all. I suppose, that could the practice of leasing for three
lives be introduced in the whole kingdom, it would, within the term of
your life, increase agricultural productions fifty per cent.; or were
any one proprietor to do it with his own lands, it would increase his
rents fifty per cent, in the course of twenty-five years. But I am told
the laws do not permit it. The laws then, in this particular, are
unwise and unjust, and ought to give that permission. In the southern
provinces, where the soil is poor, the climate hot and dry, and there
are few animals, they would learn the art, found so precious in England,
of making vegetable manure, and thus improving the provinces in the
article in which nature has been least kind to them. Indeed, these
provinces afford a singular spectacle. Calculating on the poverty of
their soil, and their climate by its latitude only, they should have
been the poorest in France. On the contrary, they are the richest, from
one fortuitous circumstance. Spurs or ramifications of high mountains,
making down from the Alps, and, as it were, reticulating these
provinces, give to the vallies the protection of a particular inclosure
to each, and the benefit of a general stagnation of the northern winds
produced by the whole of them, and thus countervail the advantage of
several degrees of latitude. From the first olive fields of Pierrelatte,
to the orangeries of Hieres, has been continued rapture to me. I have
often wished for you. I think you have not made this journey. It is a
pleasure you have to come, and an improvement to be added to the many
you have already made. It will be a great comfort to you, to know, from
your own inspection, the condition of all the provinces of your own
country, and it will be interesting to them at some future day, to be
known to you. This is, perhaps, the only moment of your life in which
you can acquire that knowledge. And to do it most effectually, you must
be absolutely incognito, you must ferret the people out of their hovels
as I have done, look into their kettles, eat their bread, loll on their
beds under pretence of resting yourself, but in fact to find if they
are soft. You will feel a sublime pleasure in the course of this
investigation, and a sublimer one hereafter, when you shall be able to
apply your knowledge to the softening of their beds, or the throwing a
morsel of meat into their kettle of vegetables.
You will not wonder at the subjects of my letter: they are the only ones
which have been presented to my mind for some time past; and the waters
must always be what are the fountains from which they flow. According
to this, indeed, I should have intermixed, from beginning to end, warm
expressions of friendship to you. But, according to the ideas of our
country, we do not permit ourselves to speak even truths, when they may
have the air of flattery. I content myself, therefore, with saying once
for all, that I love you, your wife, and children. Tell them so, and
adieu.
Yours affectionately,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER LV.--TO WILLIAM SHORT, April 12, 1787
TO WILLIAM SHORT.
Nice, April 12, 1787,
Dear Sir,
At Marseilles, they told me I should encounter the rice fields of
Piedmont soon after crossing the Alps. Here they tell me there are none
nearer than Vercelli and Novara, which is carrying me almost to Milan. I
fear that this circumstance will occasion me a greater delay than I
had calculated on. However, I am embarked in the project, and shall go
through with it. To-morrow, I set out on my passage over the Alps, being
to pursue it ninety-three miles to Coni, on mules, as the snows are
not yet enough melted to admit carriages to pass. I leave mine here,
therefore, proposing to return by water from Genoa. I think it will
be three weeks before I get back to Nice. I find this climate quite
as delightful as it has been represented. Hieres is the only place in
France, which may be compared with it. The climates are equal. In favor
of this place, are the circumstances of gay and dissipated society,
a handsome city, good accommodations, and some commerce. In favor of
Hieres, are environs of delicious and extensive plains, a society more
contracted, and therefore more capable of esteem, and the neighborhood
of Toulon, Marseilles, and other places, to which excursions may be
made. Placing Marseilles in comparison with Hieres, it has extensive
society, a good theatre, freedom from military control, and the most
animated commerce. But its winter climate is far inferior. I am now in
the act of putting my baggage into portable form for my bat-mule; after
praying you, therefore, to let my daughter know I am well, and that I
shall not be heard of again in three weeks, I take my leave of you for
that time, with assurances of the sincere esteem with which I am, Dear
Sir, your friend and servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER LVI.--TO JOHN JAY, May 4, 1787
TO JOHN JAY.
Marseilles, May 4, 1787.
Sir,
I had the honor of receiving at Aix, your letter of February the 9th,
and immediately wrote to the Count de Montmorin, explaining the delay
of the answer of Congress to the King’s letter, and desired Mr. Short to
deliver that answer, with my letter, to Monsieur de Montmorin, which he
informs me he has accordingly done.
My absence prevented my noting to you, in the first moment, the
revolution which has taken place at Paris, in the department of finance,
by the substitution of Monsieur de Fourqueux in the place of Monsieur
de Calonne; so that you will have heard of it through other channels,
before this will have the honor of reaching you.
Having staid at Aix long enough to prove the inefficacy of the waters,
I came on to this place, for the purpose of informing myself here, as I
mean to do at the other seaport towns, of whatever may be interesting to
our commerce. So far as carried on in our own bottoms, I find it almost
nothing; and so it must probably remain, till something can be done with
the Algerines. Though severely afflicted with the plague, they have
come out within these few days, and showed themselves in force along the
coast of Genoa, cannonading a little town and taking several vessels.
Among other objects of inquiry, this was the place to learn something
more certain on the subject of rice, as it is a great emporium for that
of the Levant, and of Italy. I wished particularly to know, whether it
was the use of a different machine for cleaning, which brought European
rice to market less broken than ours, as had been represented to me, by
those who deal in that article in Paris. I found several persons who had
passed through the rice country of Italy, but not one who could explain
to me the nature of the machine. But I was given to believe, that I
might see it myself immediately on entering Piedmont. As this would
require but about three weeks, I determined to go, and ascertain this
point; as the chance only of placing our rice above all rivalship in
quality, as it is in color, by the introduction of a better machine, if
a better existed, seemed to justify the application of that much time to
it. I found the rice country to be in truth Lombardy, one hundred miles
further than had been represented, and that though called Piedmont rice,
not a grain is made in the country of Piedmont. I passed through the
rice-fields of the Vercellese and Milanese, about sixty miles, and
returned from thence last night, having found that the machine is
absolutely the same as ours, and of course, that we need not listen more
to that suggestion. It is a difference in the species of grain; of which
the government of Turin is so sensible, that, as I was informed, they
prohibit the exportation of rough rice, on pain of death. I have taken
measures, however, which I think will not fail, for obtaining a quantity
of it, and I bought on the spot a small parcel, which I have with me.
As further details on this subject to Congress would be misplaced, I
propose, on my return to Paris, to communicate them, and send the rice
to the society at Charleston for promoting agriculture, supposing that
they will be best able to try the experiment of cultivating the rice of
this quality, and to communicate the species to the two States of South
Carolina and Georgia, if they find it answers. I thought the staple of
these two States was entitled to this attention, and that it must be
desirable to them, to be able to furnish rice of the two qualities
demanded in Europe, especially, as the greater consumption is in the
forms for which the Lombardy quality is preferred. The mass of our
countrymen being interested in agriculture, I hope I do not err in
supposing, that in a time of profound peace, as the present, to enable
them to adapt their productions to the market, to point out markets for
them, and endeavor to obtain favorable terms of reception, is within the
line of my duty.
My journey into this part of the country has procured me information,
which I will take the liberty of communicating to Congress. In October
last, I received a letter, dated Montpelier, October the 2nd, 1786,
announcing to me that the writer was a foreigner, who had a matter
of very great consequence to communicate to me, and desired I would
indicate the channel through which it might pass safely. I did so.
I received soon after, a letter in the following words, omitting only
the formal parts. [_A translation of it is here given._]
‘I am a native of Brazil. You are not ignorant of the frightful
slavery under which my country groans. This continually becomes more
insupportable, since the epoch of your glorious independence; for
the cruel Portuguese omit nothing which can render our condition more
wretched, from an apprehension that we may follow your example. The
conviction, that these usurpers against the laws of nature and humanity
only meditate new oppressions, has decided us to follow the guiding
light which you have held out to us, to break our chains, to revive
our almost expiring liberty, which is nearly overwhelmed by that force,
which is the sole foundation of the authority that Europeans exercise
over America. But it is necessary that some power should extend
assistance to the Brazilians, since Spain would certainly unite herself
with Portugal; and in spite of our advantages for defence, we could not
make it effectual, or, at least, it would be imprudent to hazard the
attempt, without some assurance of success. In this state of affairs,
Sir, we can, with propriety, look only to the United States, not only
because we are following her example, but, moreover, because nature, in
making us inhabitants of the same continent, has in some sort united
us in the bonds of a common patriotism. On our part, we are prepared to
furnish the necessary supplies of money, and at all times to acknowledge
the debt of gratitude due to our benefactors. I have thus, Sir, laid
before you a summary of my views. It is in discharge of this commission
that I have come to France, since I could not effect it in America
without exciting suspicion. It now remains for you to decide whether
those views can be accomplished. Should you desire to consult your
nation on them, it is in my power to give you all the information you
may require.’