which might have been long, and even fatally felt in a moment of crisis,
induced me to take advantage of Mr. Adams’s journey to take leave at
the Hague, to meet him there, get him to go on to Amsterdam, and try to
avert the impending danger. The moment of paying a great sum of annual
interest was approaching. There was no money on hand; the board of
treasury had notified that they could not remit any; and the progress
of the loan, which had been opened there, had absolutely stopped.
Our bankers there gave me notice of all this; and that a single day’s
failure in the payment of interest, would have the most fatal effect
on our credit. I am happy to inform you, we were able to set the loan
a going again, and that the evil is at least postponed. Indeed, I am
tolerably satisfied, that if the measures we proposed, are ratified
by Congress, all European calls for money (except the French debt)
are secure enough, till the end of the year 1790; by which time, we
calculated that the new government might be able to get money into
the treasury. Much conversation with the bankers, brokers, and
money-holders, gave me insight into the state of national credit there,
which I had never before been able satisfactorily to get. The English
credit is the first, because they never open a loan, without laying and
appropriating taxes for the payment of the interest, and there has never
been an instance of their failing one day, in that payment. The Emperor
and Empress have good credit, because they use it little, and have
hitherto been very punctual. This country is among the lowest, in point
of credit. Ours stands in hope only. They consider us as the surest
nation on earth for the repayment of the capital; but as the punctual
payment of interest is of absolute necessity in their arrangements,
we cannot borrow but with difficulty and disadvantage. The monied
men, however, look towards our new government with a great degree of
partiality, and even anxiety. If they see that set out on the English
plan, the first degree of credit will be transferred to us. A favorable
occasion will arise to our new government of asserting this ground to
themselves. The transfer of the French debt, public and private,
to Amsterdam, is certainly desirable. An act of the new government,
therefore, for opening a loan in Holland for the purpose, laying taxes
at the same time for paying annually the interest and a part of the
principal, will answer the two valuable purposes, of ascertaining the
degree of our credit, and of removing those causes of bickering and
irritation, which should never be permitted to subsist with a nation,
with which it is so much our interest to be on cordial terms as with
France. A very small portion of this debt, I mean that part due to the
French officers, has done us an injury, of which those in office in
America cannot have an idea. The interest is unpaid for the last three
years; and these creditors, highly connected, and at the same time
needy, have felt and communicated hard thoughts of us. Borrowing, as we
have done, three hundred thousand florins a year, to pay our interest
in Holland, it would have been worth while to have added twenty thousand
more, to suppress those clamors. I am anxious about every thing which
may affect our credit. My wish would be, to possess it in the highest
degree, but to use it little. Were we without credit, we might be
crushed by a nation of much inferior resources, but possessing higher
credit. The present system of war renders it necessary to make exertions
far beyond the annual resources of the State, and consume in one year
the efforts of many. And this system we cannot change. It remains, then,
that we cultivate our credit with the utmost attention.
I had intended to have written a word to your Excellency on the subject
of the new constitution, but I have already spun out my letter to an
immoderate length. I will just observe, therefore, that according to
my ideas, there is a great deal of good in it. There are two things,
however, which I dislike strongly, 1. The want of a declaration of
rights. I am in hopes the opposition in Virginia will remedy this,
and produce such a declaration. 2. The perpetual re-eligibility of the
President. This, I fear, will make that an office for life, first, and
then hereditary. I was much an enemy to monarchies before I came to
Europe. I am ten thousand times more so, since I have seen what they
are. There is scarcely an evil known in these countries, which may not
be traced to their king, as its source, nor a good, which is not derived
from the small fibres of republicanism existing among them. I can
further say, with safety, there is not a crowned head in Europe, whose
talents or merits would entitle him to be elected a vestryman by the
people of any parish in America. However, I shall hope, that before
there is danger of this change taking place in the office of President,
the good sense and free spirit of our countrymen will make the changes
necessary to prevent it. Under this hope, I look forward to the general
adoption of the new constitution with anxiety, as necessary for us under
our present circumstances. I have so much trespassed on your patience
already, by the length of this letter, that I will add nothing further,
than those assurances of sincere esteem and attachment, with which I
have the honor to be, your Excellency’s most obedient and most humble
servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER CXXXIII.--TO JAMES MADISON, May 3,1788
TO JAMES MADISON.
Paris, May 3,1788.
Dear Sir,
Mine of February the 6th acknowledged the receipt of yours of December
the 9th and 20th; since that, those of February the 19th and 20th have
come to hand. The present will be delivered you by Mr. Warville, whom
you will find truly estimable, and a great enthusiast for liberty. His
writings will have shown you this.
For public news, I must refer you to my letters to Mr. Jay. Those
I wrote to him from Amsterdam will have informed you of my journey
thither. While there, I endeavored to get, as well as I could, into the
state of national credit there; for though I am an enemy to the using
our credit but under absolute necessity, yet the possessing a good
credit I consider as indispensable, in the present system of carrying on
war. The existence of a nation having no credit, is always precarious.
The credit of England is the best. Their paper sells at par on the
exchange of Amsterdam, the moment any of it is offered, and they can
command there any sum they please. The reason is, that they never
borrow, without establishing taxes for the payment of the interest, and
they never yet failed one day in that payment. The Emperor and Empress
have good credit enough. They use it little and have been ever punctual.
This country cannot borrow at all there; for though they always pay
their interest within the year, yet it is often some months behind. It
is difficult to assign to our credit its exact station in this scale.
They consider us as the most certain nation on earth for the principal;
but they see that we borrow of themselves to pay the interest, so that
this is only a conversion of their interest into principal. Our paper,
for this reason, sells for from four to eight per cent, below par, on
the exchange, and our loans are negotiated with the Patriots only.
But the whole body of money-dealers, Patriot and Stadtholderian, look
forward to our new government with a great degree of partiality and
interest. They are disposed to have much confidence in it, and it was
the prospect of its establishment, which enabled us to set the loan of
last year into motion again. They will attend steadfastly to its first
money operations. If these are injudiciously begun, correction, whenever
they shall be corrected, will come too late. Our borrowings will always
be difficult and disadvantageous. If they begin well, our credit will
immediately take the first station. Equal provision for the interest,
adding to it a certain prospect for the principal, will give us a
preference to all nations, the English not excepted. The first act of
the new government should be some operation, whereby they may assume to
themselves this station. Their European debts form a proper subject for
this. Digest the whole, public and private, Dutch, French, and Spanish,
into a table, showing the sum of interest due every year, and the
portions of principal payable the same year. Take the most certain
branch of revenue, and one which shall suffice to pay the interest, and
leave such a surplus as may accomplish all the payments of the capital,
as terms somewhat short of those, at which they will become due. Let the
surpluses of those years, in which no reimbursement of principal falls,
be applied to buy up our paper on the exchange of Amsterdam, and thus
anticipate the demands of principal. In this way our paper will be kept
up at par; and this alone will enable us to command in four and twenty
hours, at any time, on the exchange of Amsterdam, as many millions as
that capital can produce. The same act which makes this provision for
the existing debts, should go on to open a loan to their whole amount;
the produce of that loan to be applied, as fast as received, to the
payment of such parts of the existing debts as admit of payment. The
rate of interest to be as the government should privately instruct their
agent, because it must depend on the effect these measures would have on
the exchange. Probably it could be lowered from time to time. Honest and
annual publications of the payments made, will inspire confidence, while
silence would conceal nothing from those interested to know.
You will perceive by the _comte rendu_ which I send you, that this
country now calls seriously for its interest at least. The nonpayment
of this, hitherto, has done our credit little injury, because the
government here, saying nothing about it, the public have supposed they
wished to leave us at our ease as to the payment. It is now seen that
they call for it, and they will publish annually the effect of that
call. A failure here, therefore, will have the same effect on our credit
hereafter, as a failure at Amsterdam. I consider it, then, as of a
necessity not to be dispensed with, that these calls be effectually
provided for. If it shall be seen, that the general provision before
hinted at cannot be in time, then it is the present government which
should take on itself to borrow in Amsterdam what may be necessary. The
new government should by no means be left by the old to the necessity of
borrowing a stiver, before it can tax for its interest. This will be
to destroy the credit of the new government in its birth. And I am of
opinion, that if the present Congress will add to the loan of a million
(which Mr. Adams and myself have proposed this year) what may be
necessary for the French calls to the year 1790, the money can be
obtained at the usual disadvantage. Though I have not at this
moment received such authentic information from our bankers as I may
communicate to Congress, yet I know privately from one of them (Mr.
Jacob Van Staphorst, who is here), that they had on Hand a fortnight ago
four hundred thousand florins, and the sale going on well. So that the
June interest, which had been in so critical a predicament, was already
secured. If the loan of a million on Mr. Adams’s bonds of this year be
ratified by Congress, the applications of the money on hand may go on
immediately, according to the statement I sent to Mr. Jay. One article
in this I must beg you to press on the treasury board; that is, an
immediate order for the payment of the three years’ arrearages to the
French officers. They were about holding a meeting to take desperate
measures on this subject, when I was called to Holland. I desired them
to be quiet till my return, and since my return I have pressed a further
tranquillity till July, by which time I have given them reason to hope I
may have an answer from the treasury board to my letters of March. Their
ill humor can be contained no longer; and as I know no reason why
they may not be paid at that time, I shall have nothing to urge in our
defence after that.
*****
You remember the report, drawn by Governor Randolph, on the navigation
of the Mississippi. When I came to Europe, Mr. Thomson was so kind as to
have me a copy of it made out. I lent it to Dr. Franklin, and he mislaid
it, so that it could never be found. Could you make interest with him
to have me another copy made, and send it to me? By Mr. Warville I send
your pedometer. To the loop at the bottom of it you must sew a tape, and
at the other end of the tape a small hook (such as we use under the
name of hooks and eyes), cut a little hole in the bottom of your left
watch-pocket, pass the hook and tape through it, and down between the
breeches and drawers, and fix the hook on the edge of your knee-band,
an inch from the knee-buckle; then hook the instrument itself by its
swivel-hook on the upper edge of the watch-pocket. Your tape being well
adjusted in length, your double steps will be exactly counted by the
instrument, the shortest hand pointing out the thousands, the flat hand
the hundreds, and the long hand the tens and units. Never turn the hands
backward; indeed, it is best not to set them to any given place, but to
note the number they stand at when you begin to walk. The adjusting the
tape to its exact length is a critical business, and will cost you many
trials. But once done, it is done for ever. The best way is to have a
small buckle fixed on the middle of the tape, by which you can take
it up, and let it out at pleasure. When you choose it should cease to
count, unhook it from the top of the watch-pocket, and let it fall down
to the bottom of the pocket.
*****
I am, with sentiments of the most sincere esteem and attachment, Dear
Sir, your affectionate friend and servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER CXXXIV.--TO JOHN JAY, May 4, 1788
TO JOHN JAY.
Paris, May 4, 1788.
Sir,
I had the honor of addressing you in two letters of the 13th and 16th of
March from Amsterdam, and have since received Mr. Ramson’s of February
the 20th. I staid at Amsterdam about ten or twelve days after the
departure of Mr. Adams, in hopes of seeing the million of the last year
filled up. This, however, could not be accomplished on the spot. But
the prospect was so good as to have dissipated all fears; and since my
return here, I learn (not officially from our bankers, but) through a
good channel, that they have received near four hundred thousand florins
since the date of the statement I sent you in my letter of March the
16th; and I presume we need not fear the completion of that loan, which
will provide for all our purposes of the year 1788, as stated in
that paper. I hope, therefore, to receive from the treasury orders in
conformity thereto, that I may be able to proceed to the redemption of
our captives. A provision for the purposes of the years 1789 and 1790,
as stated in the same paper, will depend on the ratification by Congress
of Mr. Adams’s bonds of this year for another million of florins. But
there arises a new call from this government, for its interest at least.
Their silence hitherto has made it be believed in general, that they
consented to the nonpayment of our interest to them, in order to
accommodate us. You will perceive in the seventy-fifth and seventy-sixth
pages of the _compte rendu_, which I have the honor to send you, that
they call for this interest, and will publish whether it be paid or not;
and by No. 25, page eighty-one, that they count on its regular receipt
for the purposes of the year. These calls, for the first days of
January, 1789 and 1790, will amount to about a million and a half of
florins more; and if to be raised by loan, it must be for two millions,
as well to cover the expenses of the loan, as that loans are not opened
for fractions of millions. This publication seems to render a provision
for this interest as necessary as for that of Amsterdam.
I had taken measures to have it believed at Algiers, that our government
withdrew its attention from our captives there. This was to prepare
their captors for the ransoming them at a reasonable price. I find,
however, that Captain O’Bryan is apprized that I have received some
authority on this subject. He writes me a cruel letter, supposing me the
obstacle to their redemption. Their own interest requires that I should
leave them to think thus hardly of me. Were the views of government
communicated to them, they could not keep their own secret, and such
a price would be demanded for them, as Congress, probably, would
think ought not to be given, lest it should be the cause of involving
thousands of others of their citizens in the same condition. The moment
I have money, the business shall be set in motion.
By a letter from Joseph Chiappe, our agent at Mogadore, I am notified of
a declaration of the Emperor of Morocco, that if the States General
of the United Netherlands do not, before the month of May, send him an
ambassador, to let him know whether it is war or peace between them, he
will send one to them with five frigates; and that if their dispositions
be unfavorable, their frigates shall proceed to America to make prizes
on the Dutch, and to sell them there. It seems to depend on the Dutch,
therefore, whether the Barbary powers shall learn the way to our coasts,
and whether we shall have to decide the question of the legality of
selling in our ports vessels taken from them. I informed you, in a
former letter, of the declaration made by the court of Spain to that of
London, relative to its naval armament, and also of the declaration of
the Count de Montmorin to the Russian minister here on the same subject.
I have good information, that the court of Spain has itself made a
similar and formal declaration to the minister of Russia at Madrid.
So that Russia is satisfied she is not the object. I doubt whether the
English are equally satisfied as to themselves. The season has hitherto
prevented any remarkable operation between the Turks and the two
empires. The war, however, will probably go on, and the season now
admits of more important events. The Empress has engaged Commodore Paul
Jones in her service. He is to have the rank of rear-admiral, with
a separate command, and it is understood that he is in no case to be
commanded. He will probably be opposed to the Captain Pacha on the Black
Sea. He received this invitation at Copenhagen, and as the season for
commencing the campaign, was too near to admit time for him to ask
and await the permission of Congress, he accepted the offer, only
stipulating, that he should be always free to return to the orders of
Congress whenever called for, and that he should not be expected to bear
arms against France. He conceived, that the experience he should gain
would enable him to be more useful to the United States, should they
ever have occasion for him. It has been understood, that Congress had
had it in contemplation to give him the grade of rear-admiral, from the
date of the action of the Serapis, and it is supposed, that such a mark
of their approbation would have a favorable influence on his fortune in
the north. Copies of the letters which passed between him and the Danish
minister are herewith transmitted. I shall immediately represent to
Count Bernstorff, that the demand for our prizes can have no connection
with a treaty of commerce; that there is no reason why the claims of
our seamen should await so distant and uncertain an event; and press the
settlement of this claim.
This country still pursues its line of peace. The ministry seem now all
united in it; some from a belief of their inability to carry on a war;
others from a desire to arrange their internal affairs, and improve
their constitution. The differences between the King and parliaments
threaten a serious issue. Many symptoms indicate that the government has
in contemplation some act of highhanded authority. An extra number of
printers have for several days been employed, the apartment wherein they
are at work being surrounded by a body of guards, who permit no body
either to come out or go in. The commanders of the provinces, civil and
military, have been ordered to be at their stations on a certain day
of the ensuing week. They are accordingly gone: so that the will of the
King is probably to be announced through the whole kingdom on the same
day. The parliament of Paris, apprehending that some innovation is to
be attempted, which may take from them the opportunity of deciding on it
after it shall be made known, came last night to the resolution of
which I have the honor to enclose you a manuscript copy. This you will
perceive to be, in effect, a declaration of rights. I am obliged to
close here the present letter, lest I should miss the opportunity of
conveying it by a passenger who is to call for it. Should the delay of
the packet admit any continuation of these details, they shall be the
subject of another letter, to be forwarded by post. The gazettes of
Leyden and France accompany this.
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 CXXXV.--TO THE COUNT DE MOUSTIER, May 17, 1788
TO THE COUNT DE MOUSTIER.
Paris, May 17, 1788.
Dear Sir,
I have at length an opportunity of acknowledging the receipt of your
favors of February, and March the 14th, and congratulating you on your
resurrection from the dead, among whom you had been confidently entombed
by the news-dealers of Paris. I am sorry that your first impressions
have been disturbed by matters of etiquette, where surely they
should least have been expected to occur. These disputes are the most
insusceptible of determination, because they have no foundation in
reason. Arbitrary and senseless in their nature, they are arbitrarily
decided by every nation for itself. These decisions are meant to prevent
disputes, but they produce ten, where they prevent one. It would have
been better, therefore, in a new country, to have excluded etiquette
altogether; or if it must be admitted in some form or other, to have
made it depend on some circumstance founded in nature, such as the age
or station of the parties. However, you have got over all this, and I
am in hopes have been able to make up a society suited to your own
dispositions. Your situation will doubtless be improved by the adoption
of the new constitution, which I hope will have taken place before
you receive this. I see in this instrument a great deal of good.
The consolidation of our government, a just representation, an
administration of some permanence, and other features of great value,
will be gained by it. There are, indeed, some faults, which revolted me
a good deal in the first moment; but we must be contented to travel on
towards perfection, step by step. We must be contented with the ground
which this constitution will gain for us, and hope that a favorable
moment will come for correcting what is amiss in it. I view in the same
light the innovations making here. The new organization of the judiciary
department is undoubtedly for the better. The reformation of the
criminal code is an immense step taken towards good. The composition
of the Plenary court is indeed vicious in the extreme; but the basis of
that court may be retained, and its composition changed. Make of it a
representative of the people, by composing it of members sent from
the Provincial Assemblies, and it becomes a valuable member of the
constitution. But it is said, the court will not consent to do this:
the court, however, has consented to call the States General, who will
consider the Plenary court but as a canvass for them to work on. The
public mind is manifestly advancing on the abusive prerogatives of
their governors, and bearing them down. No force in the government can
withstand this, in the long run. Courtiers had rather give up power than
pleasures; they will barter, therefore, the usurped prerogatives of
the King for the money of the people. This is the agent by which modern
nations will recover their rights. I sincerely wish that, in this
country, they may be contented with a peaceable and passive opposition.
At this moment we are not sure of this; though as yet it is difficult
to say what form the opposition will take. It is a comfortable
circumstance, that their neighboring enemy is under the administration
of a minister disposed to keep the peace. Engage in war who will, may
my country long continue your peaceful residence, and merit your good
offices with that nation, whose affections it is their duty and interest
to cultivate.
Accept these and all other the good wishes of him, who has the honor to
be, with sincere esteem and respect, Dear Sir, your most obedient and
most humble servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER CXXXVI.--TO JOHN JAY, May 23,1788
TO JOHN JAY.
Paris, May 23,1788.
Sir,