agreeable not to press our commercial regulations at this moment, the
ministry being too much occupied with the difficulties surrounding them,
to spare a moment on any subject which will admit of delay. Our business
must, therefore, be suspended for a while. To press it out of season,
would be to defeat, it. It would be felt as a vital benefit here, could
we relieve their finances, by paying what we owe. Congress will judge
by Mr. Adams’s letters, how far the transferring all our debts in this
country to Holland is practicable. On the replenishing their treasury
with our principal and interest, I should not be afraid to ask
concessions in favor of our West India trade. It would produce a great
change of opinion as to us and our affairs. In the _Assemblée des
Notables_, hard things were said of us. They were induced, however,
in committing us to writing, to smother their ideas a little. In their
votes, now gone to be printed, our debt is described in these words.
The twenty-first article of the account, formed of the interest of the
claims of his Majesty on the United States of America, cannot be drawn
out for the present, except as a document. The recovery of these claims,
as well principal as perhaps even interest, although they appear to
rest on the most solid security, may, nevertheless, be long delayed, and
should not, consequently, be taken into account in estimating the annual
revenue. This article amounts to one million and six hundred thousand
livres.’ Above all things, it is desirable to hush the foreign officers
by payment. Their wants, the nature of their services, their access
to high characters, and connections with them, bespeak the reasons for
this. I hear also that Mr. Beaumarchais means to make himself heard,
if a memorial which he sends by an agent in the present packet is not
attended to, as he thinks it ought to be. He called on me with it,
and desired me to recommend his case to a decision, and to note in my
despatch, that it was the first time he had spoken to me on the
subject. This is true, it being the first time I ever saw him; but my
recommendations would be as displaced as unnecessary. I assured him
Congress would do in that business what justice should require, and
their means enable them. The information sent me by Mr. Montgomery
from Alicant, of the death of the Dey of Algiers, was not true. I had
expressed my doubt of it in my last, when I communicated it. I send
herewith the newspapers to this date, and a remonstrance of the
parliament, to show you in what language the King can be addressed at
this day. I have received no journal of Congress since the beginning of
November last, and will thank you for them, if printed.
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.
P. S. August 7. The parliament were received yesterday very harshly
by the King. He obliged them to register the two edicts for the _impôt
territorial_ and stamp tax. When speaking in my letter of the reiterated
orders and refusals to register, which passed between the King and
parliament, I omitted to insert the King’s answer to a deputation of
parliament, which attended him at Versailles. It may serve to show
the spirit which exists between them. It was in these words, and these
only:--‘_Je vous ferai savoir mes intentions. Allez-vous-en. Qu’on ferme
la porte._’
LETTER LXXXII.--TO JOHN CHURCHMAN, August 8, 1787
TO JOHN CHURCHMAN.
Paris, August 8, 1787.
Sir,
I have duly received your favor of June the 6th, and immediately
communicated its contents to a member of the Academy. He told me that
they had received the other copy of your memorial, which you mention to
have sent through another channel; that your ideas were not conveyed so
explicitly, as to enable them to decide finally on their merit, but that
they had made an entry in their journals, to preserve to you the claim
of the original idea. As far as we can conjecture it here, we imagine
you make a table of variations of the needle, for all the different
meridians whatever. To apply this table to use in the voyage between
America and Europe, suppose the variation to increase a degree in every
one hundred and sixty miles. Two difficulties occur; 1. a ready and
accurate method of finding the variation of the place; 2. an instrument
so perfect, as that (though the degree on it shall represent one hundred
and sixty miles) it shall give the parts of the degree so minutely, as
to answer the purpose of the navigator. The variation of the needle
at Paris, actually, is 21° west. I make no question you have provided
against the doubts entertained here, and I shall be happy that our
country may have the honor of furnishing the old world, what it has so
long sought in vain.
I am with much respect, Sir, your most obedient, humble servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER LXXXIII.--TO MONSIEUR L HOMMANDE, August 9, 1787
TO MONSIEUR L HOMMANDE.
Paris, August 9, 1787.
Sir,
At the time you honored me with your letter of May the 31st, I was not
returned from a journey I had taken into Italy. This circumstance,
with the mass of business which had accumulated during my absence, must
apologize for the delay of my answer. Every discovery, which multiplies
the subsistence of man, must be a matter of joy to every friend to
humanity. As such, I learn with great satisfaction, that you have
found the means of preserving flour more perfectly than has been done
hitherto. But I am not authorized to avail my country of it, by making
any offer for its communication. Their policy is to leave their citizens
free, neither restraining nor aiding them in their pursuits. Though the
interposition of government in matters of invention has its use, yet it
is in practice so inseparable from abuse, that they think it better
not to meddle with it. We are only to hope, therefore, that those
governments, who are in the habit of directing all the actions of their
subjects by particular law, may be so far sensible of the duty they
are under of cultivating useful discoveries, as to reward you amply for
yours, which is among the most interesting to humanity.
I have the honor to be, with great consideration and respect, Sir, your
most obedient and most humble servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER LXXXIV.--TO PETER CARR, August 10, 1787
TO PETER CARR.
Paris, August 10, 1787.
Dear Peter,
I have received your two letters of December the 30th and April the
18th, and am very happy to find by them, as well as by letters from Mr.
Wythe, that you have been so fortunate as to attract his notice and
good will: I am sure you will find this to have been one of the most
fortunate events of your life, as I have ever been sensible it was of
mine. I enclose you a sketch of the sciences to which I would wish you
to apply, in such order as Mr. Wythe shall advise: I mention also the
books in them worth your reading, which submit to his correction. Many
of these are among your father’s books, which you should have brought
to you. As I do not recollect those of them not in his library, you must
write to me for them, making out a catalogue of such as you think you
shall have occasion for in eighteen months from the date of your letter,
and consulting Mr. Wythe on the subject. To this sketch I will add a few
particular observations.
1. Italian. I fear the learning this language will confound your French
and Spanish. Being all of them degenerated dialects of the Latin, they
are apt to mix in conversation. I have never seen a person speaking the
three languages, who did not mix them. It is a delightful language, but
late events having rendered the Spanish more useful, lay it aside to
prosecute that.
2. Spanish. Bestow great attention on this, and endeavor to acquire an
accurate knowledge of it. Our future connections with Spain and Spanish
America, will render that language a valuable acquisition. The ancient
history of a great part of America, too, is written in that language. I
send you a dictionary.
3. Moral Philosophy. I think it lost time to attend lectures on this
branch. He who made us would have been a pitiful bungler, if he had
made the rules of our moral conduct a matter of science. For one man
of science, there are thousands who are not. What would have become of
them? Man was destined for society. His morality, therefore, was to be
formed to this object. He was endowed with a sense of right and wrong,
merely relative to this. This sense is as much a part of his nature,
as the sense of hearing, seeing, feeling; it is the true foundation of
morality, and not the [Greek: no alon]
[Illustration: Greek phrase page216]
truth, &c, as fanciful writers have imagined. The moral sense, or
conscience, is as much a part of man, as his leg or arm. It is given to
all human beings, in a stronger or weaker degree, as force of members
is given them in a greater or less degree. It may be strengthened
by exercise, as may any particular limb of the body. This sense is
submitted, indeed, in some degree, to the guidance of reason; but it is
a small stock which is required for this: even a less one than what we
call common sense. State a moral case to a ploughman and a professor.
The former will decide it as well, and often better than the latter,
because he has not been led astray by artificial rules. In this branch,
therefore, read good books, because they will encourage, as well as
direct your feelings. The writings of Sterne, particularly, form the
best course of morality that ever was written. Besides these, read the
books mentioned in the enclosed paper: and, above all things, lose no
occasion of exercising your dispositions to be grateful, to be generous,
to be charitable, to be humane, to be true, just, firm, orderly,
courageous, &c. Consider every act of this kind, as an exercise which
will strengthen your moral faculties, and increase your worth.
4. Religion, Your reason is now mature enough to examine this object.
In the first place, divest yourself of all bias in favor of novelty and
singularity of opinion. Indulge them in any other subject rather than
that of religion. It is too important, and the consequences of error may
be too serious. On the other hand, shake off all the fears and servile
prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason
firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion.
Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be
one, he must more approve the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded
fear. You will naturally examine, first, the religion of your own
country. Read the Bible, then, as you would read Livy or Tacitus. The
facts which are within the ordinary course of nature, you will believe
on the authority of the writer, as you do those of the same kind in Livy
and Tacitus. The testimony of the writer weighs in their favor, in one
scale, and their not being against the laws of nature, does not weigh
against them. But those facts in the Bible, which contradict the laws of
nature, must be examined with more care, and under a variety of faces.
Here you must recur to the pretensions of the writer to inspiration from
God. Examine upon what evidence his pretensions are founded, and
whether that evidence is so strong, as that its falsehood would be more
improbable than a change of the laws of nature, in the case he relates.
For example, in the book of Joshua we are told the sun stood still
several hours. Were we to read that fact in Livy or Tacitus, we should
class it with their showers of blood, speaking of statues, beasts, &c.
But it is said, that the writer of that book was inspired. Examine,
therefore, candidly, what evidence there is of his having been inspired.
The pretension is entitled to your inquiry, because millions believe it.
On the other hand, you are astronomer enough to know, how contrary it
is to the law of nature, that a body revolving on its axis, as the earth
does, should have stopped, should not, by that sudden stoppage, have
prostrated animals, trees, buildings, and should after a certain
time have resumed its revolution, and that without a second general
prostration. Is this arrest of the earth’s motion, or the evidence which
affirms it, most within the law of probabilities? You will next read the
New Testament. It is the history of a personage called Jesus. Keep in
your eye the opposite pretensions, 1. of those who say he was begotten
by God, born of a virgin, suspended, and reversed the laws of nature at
will, and ascended bodily into heaven: and, 2. of those who say he was
a man, of illegitimate birth, of a benevolent heart, enthusiastic mind,
who set out without pretensions to divinity, ended in believing them,
and was punished capitally for sedition, by being gibbeted, according
to the Roman law, which punished the first commission of that offence by
whipping, and the second by exile or death _in furca_. See this law in
the Digest, Lib. 48, tit. 19, § 28. 3. and Lipsius, Lib. 2. _De Cruce_,
cap. 2. These questions are examined in the books I have mentioned,
under the head of Religion, and several others. They will assist you in
your inquiries; but keep your reason firmly on the watch in reading
them all. Do not be frightened from this inquiry by any fear of its
consequences. If it ends in a belief that there is no God, you will find
incitements to virtue in the comfort and pleasantness you feel in its
exercise, and the love of others which it will procure you. If you find
reason to believe there is a God, a consciousness that you are acting
under his eye, and that he approves you, will be a vast additional
incitement: if that there be a future state, the hope of a happy
existence in that, increases the appetite to deserve it: if that Jesus
was also a God, you will be comforted by a belief of his aid and love.
In fine, I repeat, you must lay aside all prejudice on both sides,
and neither believe nor reject any thing, because any other person, or
description of persons, have rejected or believed it. Your own reason is
the only oracle given you by Heaven, and you are answerable not for the
rightness, but uprightness of the decision. I forgot to observe, when
speaking of the New Testament, that you should read all the histories
of Christ, as well of those whom a council of ecclesiastics have decided
for us to be Pseudo-evangelists, as those they named Evangelists.
Because these Pseudo-evangelists pretended to inspiration as much as the
others, and you are to judge their pretensions by your own reason, and
not by the reason of those ecclesiastics. Most of these are lost. There
are some, however, still extant, collected by Fabricius, which I will
endeavor to get and send you.
5. Travelling. This makes men wiser, but less happy. When men of sober
age travel, they gather knowledge, which they may apply usefully for
their country; but they are subject ever after to recollections mixed
with regret; their affections are weakened by being extended over more
objects; and they learn new habits, which cannot be gratified when
they return home. Young men who travel are exposed to all these
inconveniences in a higher degree, to others still more serious, and do
not acquire that wisdom for which a previous foundation is requisite, by
repeated and just observations at home. The glare of pomp and pleasure
is analogous to the motion of the blood; it absorbs all their affection
and attention; they are torn from it as from the only good in this
world, and return to their home as to a place of exile and condemnation.
Their eyes are for ever turned back to the object they have lost, and
its recollection poisons the residue of their lives. Their first and
most delicate passions are hackneyed on unworthy objects here, and they
carry home the dregs, insufficient to make themselves or any body else
happy. Add to this, that a habit of idleness, an inability to apply
themselves to business is acquired, and renders them useless to
themselves and their country. These observations are founded in
experience. There is no place where your pursuit of knowledge will be
so little obstructed by foreign objects, as in your own country, nor any
wherein the virtues of the heart will be less exposed to be weakened. Be
good, be learned, and be industrious, and you will not want the aid
of travelling, to render you precious to your country, dear to your
friends, happy within yourself. I repeat my advice, to take a great deal
of exercise, and on foot. Health is the first requisite after morality.
Write to me often, and be assured of the interest I take in your
success, as well as the warmth of those sentiments of attachment with
which I am, Dear Peter, your affectionate friend,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER LXXXV.--TO DR. GILMER, August 11, 1787
TO DR. GILMER.
Paris, August 11, 1787.
Dear Doctor,
Your letter of January the 9th, 1787, came safely to hand in the month
of June last. Unluckily you forgot to sign it, and your hand-writing is
so Protean, that one cannot be sure it is yours. To increase the causes
of incertitude, it was dated Pen-Park, a name which I only know, as the
seat of John Harmer. The hand-writing, too, being somewhat in his style,
made me ascribe it hastily to him, indorse it with his name, and let
it lie in my bundle to be answered at leisure. That moment of leisure
arriving, I sat down to answer it to John Harmer, and now, for the
first time, discover marks of its being yours, and particularly those
expressions of friendship to myself and family, which you have ever been
so good as to entertain, and which are to me among the most precious
possessions. I wish my sense of this, and my desires of seeing you rich
and happy, may not prevent my seeing any difficulty in the case you
state of George Harmer’s wills; which, as you state them, are thus.
1. A will, dated December the 26th, 1779, written in his own hand, and
devising to his brother the estates he had received from him.
2. Another will, dated June the 25th, 1782, written also in his own
hand, devising his estate to trustees, to be conveyed to such of his
relations, I. H., I. L., or H. L., as should become capable of acquiring
property, or, on failure of that, to be sold, and the money remitted
them.
3. A third will, dated September the 12th, 1786, devising all his estate
at Marrowbone, and his tracts at Horse-pasture and Poison-field to you;
which will is admitted to record, and of course has been duly executed.
You say the learned are divided on these wills. Yet I see no cause of
division, as it requires little learning to decide, that ‘the first
deed and last will must always prevail.’ I am afraid, therefore, the
difficulty may arise on the want of words of inheritance in the devise
to you: for you state it as a devise to ‘George Gilmer’ (without adding
‘and to his heirs’) of ‘all the _estate_ called Marrowbone,’ ‘the
_tract_ called Horse-pasture,’ and ‘the tract called Poison-field.’ If
the question is on this point, and you have copied the words of the will
exactly, I suppose you take an estate in fee simple in Marrowbone, and
for life only in Horse-pasture and Poison-field; the want of words of
inheritance in the two last cases, being supplied as to the first, by
the word ‘estate,’ which has been repeatedly decided to be descriptive
of the quantum of interest devised, as well as of its locality. I am in
hopes, however, you have not copied the words exactly, that there are
words of inheritance to all the devises, as the testator certainly
knew their necessity, and that the conflict only will be between the
different wills, in which case, I see nothing which can be opposed to
the last. I shall be very happy to eat at Pen-park some of the good
mutton and beef of Marrowbone, Horse-pasture, and Poison-field, with
yourself and Mrs. Gilmer, and my good old neighbors. I am as happy no
where else, and in no other society, and all my wishes end, where I hope
my days will end, at Monticello. Too many scenes of happiness mingle
themselves with all the recollections of my native woods and fields, to
suffer them to be supplanted in my affection by any other. I consider
myself here as a traveller only, and not a resident. My commission
expires next spring, and if not renewed, I shall of course return then.
If renewed, I shall remain here some time longer. How much, I cannot
say; yet my wishes shorten the period. Among the strongest inducements,
will be that of your society and Mrs. Gilmer’s, which I am glad to find
brought more within reach, by your return to Pen-park. My daughters are
importunate to return also. Patsy enjoys good health, and is growing
to my stature. Maria arrived here about a month ago, after a favorable
voyage, and in perfect health. My own health has been as good as ever,
after the first year’s probation. If you knew how agreeable to me are
the details of the small news of my neighborhood, your charity would
induce you to write frequently. Your letters lodged in the post-office
at Richmond (to be forwarded to New York) come with certainty. We are
doubtful yet, whether there will be war or not. Present me with warm
affection to Mrs. Gilmer, and be assured yourself of the unvarying
sentiments of esteem and attachment, with which I am, Dear Doctor, your
sincere friend and servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER LXXXVI.--TO JOSEPH JONES, August 14, 1787
TO JOSEPH JONES.
Paris, August 14, 1787.
Dear Sir,
I have never yet thanked you, but with the heart, for the act of
Assembly confirming the agreement with Maryland, the pamphlet, and
papers, I received from you a twelvemonth ago. Very soon after their
receipt, I got my right wrist dislocated, which prevented me long from
writing, and as soon as that was able to bear it, I took a long journey,
from which I am but lately returned. I am anxious to hear what
our federal convention recommends, and what the States will do in
consequence of their recommendation. * * * * With all the defects of
our constitution, whether general or particular, the comparison of our
governments with those of Europe, is like a comparison of heaven and
hell. England, like the earth, may be allowed to take the intermediate
station. And yet I hear there are people among you, who think the
experience of our governments has already proved, that republican
governments will not answer. Send those gentry here, to count the
blessings of monarchy. A king’s sister, for instance, stopped in the
road, and on a hostile journey, is sufficient cause for him to march
immediately twenty thousand men to revenge this insult, when he had
shown himself little moved by the matter of right then in question.
*****
From all these broils we are happily free, and that God may keep us long
so, and yourself in health and happiness, is the prayer of,
Dear Sir, your most obedient
and most humble servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER LXXXVII.--TO GENERAL WASHINGTON, August 14, 1787
TO GENERAL WASHINGTON.
Paris, August 14, 1787.
Dear Sir,
I was happy to find, by the letter of August the 1st, 1786, which you
did me the honor to write to me, that the modern dress for your statue,
would meet your approbation. I found it strongly the sentiment of
West, Copely, Trumbull, and Brown, in London; after which it would be
ridiculous to add, that it was my own. I think a modern in an antique
dress, as just an object of ridicule, as a Hercules or Marius with a
periwig and chapeau bras.
I remember having written to you, while Congress sat at Annapolis, on
the water communication between ours and the western country, and to
have mentioned, particularly, the information I had received of
the plain face of the country between the sources of Big-beaver and
Cayohoga, which made me hope that a canal, of no great expense, might
unite the navigation of Lake Erie and the Ohio. You must since have had
occasion of getting better information on this subject, and if you have,
you would oblige me by a communication of it. I consider this canal, if
practicable, as a very important work.
I remain in hopes of great and good effects from the decision of the
Assembly over which you are presiding. To make our States one as to all
foreign concerns, preserve them several as to all merely domestic,
to give to the federal head some peaceable mode of enforcing its just
authority, to organize that head into legislative, executive, and
judiciary departments, are great desiderata in our federal constitution.
Yet with all its defects, and with all those of our particular
governments, the inconveniences resulting from them are so light, in
comparison with those existing in every other government on earth, that
our citizens may certainly be considered as in the happiest political
situation which exists.