being transferred to Troyes. To put an end to the tumults in Paris,
some regiments were brought nearer, the patroles were strengthened and
multiplied, some mutineers punished by imprisonment: it produced the
desired effect. It is confidently believed, however, that the parliament
will be immediately recalled, the stamp tax and land tax repealed, and
other means devised of accommodating their receipts and expenditures.
Those supposed to be in contemplation, are, a rigorous levy of the old
tax of the _deux vingtiemes_, on the rich, who had, in a great measure,
withdrawn their property from it, as well as on the poor, on whom it had
principally fallen. This will greatly increase the receipts: while they
are proceeding on the other hand, to reform their expenses far beyond
what they had promised. It is said these reformations will amount to
eighty millions. Circumstances render these measures more and more
pressing. I mentioned to you in my last letter, that the officer
charged by the ministry to watch the motion of the British squadron, had
returned with information that it had sailed westwardly. The fact was
not true. He had formed his conclusion too hastily, and thus led the
ministry into error. The King of Prussia, urged on by England, has
pressed more and more the affairs of Holland and lately has given to the
States General of Holland four days only to comply with his demand.
This measure would, of itself, have rendered it impossible for France
to proceed longer in the line of accommodation with Prussia. In the
same moment, an event takes place, which seems to render all attempt at
accommodation idle. The Turks have declared war against the Russians,
and that under circumstances which exclude all prospect of preventing
its taking place. The King of Prussia having deserted his ancient
friends, there remain only France and Turkey, perhaps Spain also,
to oppose the two empires, Prussia and England. By such a piece of
Quixotism, France might plunge herself into ruin with the Turks and
Dutch, but would save neither. But there is certainly a confederacy
secretly in contemplation, of which the public have not yet the smallest
suspicion; that is between France and the two empires. I think it
sure that Russia has desired this, and that the Emperor, after some
hesitation, has acceded. It rests on this country to close. Her
indignation against the King of Prussia will be some spur. She will
thereby save her party in Holland, and only abandon the Turks to that
fate she cannot ward off, and which their precipitation has brought on
themselves, by the instigation of the English ambassador at the Porte,
and against the remonstrances of the French ambassador. Perhaps this
formidable combination, should it take place, may prevent the war of the
western powers, as it would seem that neither England nor Prussia would
carry their false calculations so far, as, with the aid of the Turks
only, to oppose themselves to such a force. In that case, the Patriots
of Holland would be peaceably established in the powers of their
government, and the war go on against the Turks only, who would probably
be driven from Europe. This new arrangement would be a total change
of the European system, and a favorable one for our friends. The
probability of a general war, in which this country would be engaged
on one side, and England on the other, has appeared to me sufficient to
justify my writing to our agents in the different ports of France, to
put our merchants on their guard, against risking their property in
French or English bottoms. The Emperor, instead of treading back his
steps in Brabant, as was expected, has pursued the less honorable plan
of decoying his subjects thence by false pretences, to let themselves
be invested by his troops, and this done, he dictates to them his own
terms. Yet it is not certain the matter will end with that.
The Count De Moustier is nominated Minister Plenipotentiary to America;
and a frigate is ordered to Cherbourg, to carry him over. He will
endeavor to sail by the middle of the next month, but if any delay
should make him pass over the whole of October, he will defer his voyage
to the spring, being unwilling to undertake a winter passage. Monsieur
de St. Priest is sent ambassador to Holland, in the room of Monsieur
de Verac, appointed to Switzerland. The Chevalier de Luzerne might,
I believe,have gone to Holland, but he preferred a general promise of
promotion, and the possibility that it might be to the court of London.
His prospects are very fair. His brother, the Count de la Luzerne, (now
Governor in the West Indies) is appointed minister of the marine, in
the place of Monsieur de Castries, who has resigned. The Archbishop of
Toulouse is appointed ministre principal, and his brother Monsieur
de Brienne, minister of war, in the place of Monsieur de Segur. The
department of the Comptroller has had a very rapid succession of
tenants. From Monsieur de Calonne it passed to Monsieur de Forqueux,
from him to Villedeuil, and from him to Lambert, who holds it at
present, but divided with a Monsieur Cabarrus (whom I believe you knew
in Spain), who is named _Directeur du tresor royal_, the office into
which M. Necker came at first. I had the honor to inform you, that
before the departure of the Count de Luzerne to his government in the
West Indies, I had pressed on him the patronage of our trade with the
French islands; that he appeared well disposed, and assured me he would
favor us as much as his instructions, and the laws of the colonies,
would permit. I am in hopes, these dispositions will be strengthened by
his residence in the islands, and that his acquaintance among the people
there will be an additional motive to favor them. Probably they will
take advantage of his appointment, to press indulgences in commerce with
us. The ministry is of a liberal complexion, and well disposed to
us. The war may add to the motives for opening their islands to other
resources for their subsistence, and for doing what may be agreeable to
us. It seems to me at present, then, that the moment of the arrival of
the Count de la Luzerne will be the moment for trying to obtain a
freer access to their islands. It would be very material to do this, if
possible, in a permanent way, that is to say, by treaty. But I know of
nothing we have to offer in equivalent. Perhaps the payment of our
debt to them might be made use of as some inducement, while they are
so distressed for money. Yet the borrowing the money in Holland will
be rendered more difficult by the same event, in proportion as it will
increase the demand for money by other powers.
The gazettes of Ley den and France, to this date, are enclosed, together
with some pamphlets on the internal affairs of this country.
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 XCIII.--TO CHARLES THOMSON, September 20, 1787
TO CHARLES THOMSON.
Paris, September 20, 1787.
Dear Sir,
Your favor of April the 28th did not come to my hands till the 1st
instant. Unfortunately, the boxes of plants, which were a day too late
to come by the April packet, missed the packet of June the 10th also,
and only came by that of July the 25th. They are not yet arrived at
Paris, but I expect them daily. I am sensible of your kind attention to
them, and that as you were leaving New York, you took the course which
bade fair to be the best. That they were forgotten in the hands in
which you placed them, was probably owing to much business, and more
important. I have desired Mr. Madison to refund to you the money,
you were so kind as to advance for me. The delay of your letter will
apologize for this delay of the repayment. I thank you also, for the
extract of the letter you were so kind as to communicate to me, on the
antiquities found in the western country. I wish that the persons who
go thither, would make very exact descriptions of what they see of that
kind, without forming any theories. The moment a person forms a theory,
his imagination sees in every object, only the traits which favor that
theory. But it is too early to form theories on those antiquities.
We must wait with patience till more facts are collected. I wish your
Philosophical Society would collect exact descriptions of the several
monuments as yet known, and insert them naked in their Transactions, and
continue their attention to those hereafter to be discovered. Patience
and observation may enable us, in time, to solve the problem, whether
those who formed the scattering monuments in our western country, were
colonies sent off from Mexico or the founders of Mexico itself; whether
both were the descendants or the progenitors of the Asiatic red men.
The Mexican tradition, mentioned by Dr. Robertson, is an evidence, but
a feeble one, in favor of the one opinion. The number of languages
radically different, is a strong evidence in favor of the contrary one.
There is an American by the name of Ledyard, he who was with Captain
Cook on his last voyage, and wrote an account of that voyage, who has
gone to St. Petersburg; from thence he was to go to Kamtschatka; to
cross over thence to the northwest coast of America, and to penetrate
through the main continent, to our side of it. He is a person of
ingenuity and information. Unfortunately, he has too much imagination.
However, if he escapes safely, he will give us new, curious, and useful
information. I had a letter from him, dated last March, when he was
about to leave St. Petersburg on his way to Kamtschatka.
With respect to the inclination of the strata of rocks, I had observed
them between the Blue Ridge and North Mountains in Virginia, to be
parallel with the pole of the earth. I observed the same thing in most
instances in the Alps, between Cette and Turin: but in returning along
the precipices of the Apennines, where they hang over the Mediterranean,
their direction was totally different and various: and you mention, that
in our western country, they are horizontal. This variety proves they
have not been formed by subsidence, as some writers of theories of the
earth have pretended; for then they should always have been in circular
strata, and concentric. It proves, too, that they have not been formed
by the rotation of the earth on its axis, as might have been suspected,
had all these strata been parallel with that axis. They may, indeed,
have been thrown up by explosions, as Whitehurst supposes, or have been
the effect of convulsions. But there can be no proof of the explosion,
nor is it probable that convulsions have deformed every spot of the
earth. It is now generally agreed that rock grows, and it seems that it
grows in layers in every direction, as the branches of trees grow in
all directions. Why seek further the solution of this phenomenon? Every
thing in nature decays. If it were not reproduced then by growth, there
would be a chasm.
I remember you asked me in a former letter, whether the steam-mill
in London was turned by the steam immediately, or by the intermediate
agency of water raised by the steam. When I was in London, Boulton
made a secret of his mill. Therefore, I was permitted to see it only
superficially. I saw no water-wheels, and therefore supposed none.
I answered you, accordingly, that there were none. But when I was at
Nismes, I went to see the steam-mill there, and they showed it to me in
all its parts. I saw that their steam raised water, and that this
water turned a wheel. I expressed my doubts of the necessity of the
inter-agency of water, and that the London mill was without it. But they
supposed me mistaken; perhaps I was so: I have had no opportunity since
of clearing up the doubt.
*****
I had a letter from Mr. Churchman, but not developing his plan of
knowing the longitude, fully. I wrote him what was doubted about it, so
far as we could conjecture what it was.
I am with very great and sincere esteem, Dear Sir, your friend and
servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER XCIV.--TO JOHN JAY, September 22,1787
TO JOHN JAY.
Paris, September 22,1787.
Sir,
The letters of which the inclosed are copies, are this moment received,
and as there is a possibility that they may reach Havre before the
packet sails, I have the honor of enclosing them to you. They contain a
promise of reducing the duties on tar, pitch, and turpentine, and that
the government will interest itself with the city of Rouen, to reduce
the local duty on potash. By this you will perceive, that we are getting
on a little in this business, though under their present embarrassments,
it is difficult to procure the attention of the ministers to it. The
parliament has enregistered the edict for a rigorous levy of the _deux
vingtièmes_. As this was proposed by the King in lieu of the _impôt
territorial_, there is no doubt now, that the latter, with the stamp
tax, will be immediately repealed. There can be no better proof of the
revolution in the public opinion, as to the powers of the monarch,
and of the force, too, of that opinion. Six weeks ago, we saw the King
displaying the plenitude of his omnipotence, as hitherto conceived, to
enforce these two acts. At this day, he is forced to retract them by the
public voice; for as to the opposition of the parliamemt, that body is
too little esteemed to produce this effect in any case, where the public
do not throw themselves into the same scale.
I have the honor to be, with the most perfect esteem and respect, Sir,
your most obedient and most humble servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER XCV.--TO JOHN JAY, September 22, 1787
TO JOHN JAY.
Paris, September 22, 1787.
Sir,
When I had the honor of addressing you this morning, intelligence
was handing about, which I did not think well enough authenticated to
communicate to you. As it is now ascertained, I avail myself of the
chance that another post may yet reach Havre, before the departure of
the packet. This will depend on the wind, which has for some days
been unfavorable. I must premise that this court, about ten days
ago, declared, by their _Chargé des Affaires_ in Holland, that if
the Prussian troops continued to menace Holland with an invasion, his
Majesty was determined, in quality of ally, to succor that province. An
official letter from the Hague, of the 18th instant, assures that the
Prussian army entered the territory of Holland on the 15th, that most
of the principal towns had submitted, some after firing a gun or two,
others without resistance: that the Rhingrave de Salm had evacuated
Utrecht, with part of the troops under his command, leaving behind him
one hundred and forty-four pieces of cannon, with great warlike stores:
that the standard of Orange was hoisted every where: that no other
cockade could be worn at the Hague: that the States General were to
assemble that night for reinstating the Stadtholder in all his rights.
The letter concludes, ‘We have this moment intelligence that Woerden
has capitulated; so that Amsterdam remains without defence.’ So far the
letter. We know, otherwise, that Monsieur de St. Priest, who had set
out on his embassy to the Hague, has stopped at Antwerp, not choosing
to proceed further till new orders. This Court has been completely
deceived, first by its own great desire to avoid a war, and secondly by
calculating that the King of Prussia would have acted on principles
of common sense, which would surely have dictated, that a power, lying
between the jaws of Russia and Austria, should not separate itself from
France, unless, indeed, he had assurances of dispositions in those
two powers, which are not supposed to exist. On the contrary, I am
persuaded that they ask the alliance of France, whom we suppose to
be under hesitations between her reluctance to abandon the Turks, her
jealousy of increasing by their spoils the power of the two empires, and
her inability to oppose them. If they cannot obtain her alliance, they
will surely join themselves to England and Prussia.
Official advices are received, that the first division of the Russian
army has passed the Borysthenes into the Polish Ukraine, and is marching
towards the frontiers of Turkey. Thus, we may consider the flames of
war as completely kindled in two distinct parts of this quarter of
the globe, and that though France and England have not yet engaged
themselves in it, the probabilities are that they will do it.
I have the honor to be, with the most perfect esteem and respect, Sir,
your most obedient and most humble servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER XCVI.--TO MR. CARNES, September 22, 1787
TO MR. CARNES.
Paris, September 22, 1787.
Sir,
I am honored by your favor of the 17th instant. A war between France and
England does not necessarily engage America in it; and I think she
will be disposed rather to avail herself of the advantages of a neutral
power. By the former usage of nations, the goods of a friend were safe,
though taken in an enemy bottom, and those of an enemy were lawful
prize, though found in a free bottom. But in our treaties with France,
&c. we have established the simpler rule, that a free bottom makes free
goods, and an enemy bottom, enemy goods. The same rule has been adopted
by the treaty of armed neutrality between Russia, Sweden, Denmark,
Holland, and Portugal, and assented to by France and Spain. Contraband
goods, however, are always excepted, so that they may still be
seized; but the same powers have established that naval stores are not
contraband: and this may be considered now as the law of nations. Though
England acquiesced under this during the late war, rather than draw on
herself the neutral powers, yet she never acceded to the new principle,
and her obstinacy on this point is what has prevented the late renewal
of her treaty with Russia. On the commencement of a new war, this
principle will probably be insisted on by the neutral powers, whom we
may suppose to be Sweden, Denmark, Portugal, America, and perhaps Spain.
_Quere_; if England will again acquiesce. Supposing these details
might be useful to you, I have taken the liberty of giving them, and
of assuring you of the esteem with which I am, Sir, your very humble
servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER XCVII.--TO JOHN JAY, September 24, 1787
TO JOHN JAY.
Paris, September 24, 1787.
Sir,
The times are now so critical, that every day brings something new
and important, not known the day before. Observing the wind still
unfavorable, I am in hopes the packet may not sail to-morrow, and that
this letter may be at Havre in time for that conveyance. Mr. Eden has
waited on Count Montmorin to inform him, officially, that England must
consider its convention with France, relative to the giving notice of
its naval armaments, as at an end, and that they are arming generally.
This is considered here as a declaration of war. The Dutch ambassador
told me yesterday, that he supposed the Prussian troops probably in
possession of the Hague. I asked him if it would interrupt the course of
business, commercial or banking, in Amsterdam; and particularly, whether
our depot of money there was safe. He said, the people of Amsterdam
would be surely so wise as to submit, when they should see that they
could not oppose the Stadtholder: therefore he supposed our depot safe,
and that there would be no interruption of business. It is the hour of
the departure of the post: so I have only time to add assurances of the
respect and esteem, with which I have the honor to be, Sir, your most
obedient, humble servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER XCVIII,--TO JOHN ADAMS, September 28, 1787
TO JOHN ADAMS.
Paris, September 28, 1787.
Dear Sir,
I received your favor by Mr. Cutting, and thank you sincerely for the
copy of your book. The departure of a packet-boat, which always gives me
full employment for some time before, has only permitted me to look into
it a little. I judge of it from the first volume, which I thought formed
to do a great deal of good. The first principle of a good government,
is certainly a distribution of its powers into executive, judiciary, and
legislative, and a subdivision of the latter into two or three
branches. It is a good step gained, when it is proved that the English
constitution, acknowledged to be better than all which have preceded
it, is only better, in proportion as it has approached nearer to this
distribution of powers. From this, the last step is easy, to show by
a comparison of our constitutions with that of England, how much more
perfect they are. The article of Confederations is certainly worthy of
your pen. It would form a most interesting addition, to show, what has
been the nature of the Confederations which have existed hitherto, what
were their excellencies, and what their defects.
A comparison of ours with them would be to the advantage of ours,
and would increase the veneration of our countrymen for it. It is
a misfortune, that they do not sufficiently know the value of their
constitutions, and how much happier they are rendered by them, than any
other people on earth, by the governments under which they live.
You know all that has happened in the United Netherlands. You know
also that our friends, Van Staphorsts, will be among the most likely to
become objects of severity, if any severities should be exercised. Is
the money in their hands entirely safe? If it is not, I am sure you have
already thought of it. Are we to suppose the game already up, and that
the Stadtholder is to be reestablished, perhaps erected into a monarch,
without the country lifting a finger in opposition to it? If so, it is a
lesson the more for us. In fact, what a crowd of lessons do the present
miseries of Holland teach us? Never to have an hereditary officer of any
sort: never to let a citizen ally himself with kings: never to call in
foreign nations to settle domestic differences: never to suppose that
any nation will expose itself to war for us, &c. Still I am not without
hopes, that a good rod is in soak for Prussia, and that England will
feel the end of it. It is known to some, that Russia made propositions
to the Emperor and France, for acting in concert; that the Emperor
consents, and has disposed four camps of one hundred and eighty
thousand men, from the limits of Turkey to those of Prussia. This court
hesitates, or rather its Premier hesitates; for the Queen, Montmorin,
and Breteuil are for the measure. Should it take place, all may yet come
to rights, except for the Turks, who must retire from Europe, and this
they must do, were France Quixotic enough to undertake to support them.
We, I hope, shall be left free to avail ourselves of the advantages of
neutrality: and yet, much I fear, the English, or rather their stupid
King, will force us out of it. For thus I reason. By forcing us into the
war against them, they will be engaged in an expensive land war, as well
as a sea war. Common sense dictates, therefore, that they should let
us remain neuter: ergo, they will not let us remain neuter. I never yet
found any other general rule for foretelling what they will do, but that
of examining what they ought not to do.
*****
I have the honor to be, with my best respects to Mrs. Adams, and
sentiments of perfect esteem and regard to yourself, Sir, your most
obedient and most humble servant,
Th: Jefferson
LETTER XCIX.--TO COLONEL SMITH, September 28,1787
TO COLONEL SMITH.
Paris, September 28,1787.
Dear Sir,