Versailles, on the 27th of April. This country is entirely occupied
in its elections, which go on quietly and well. The Duke d’Orleans is
elected for Villers Cotterets. The Prince of Conde has lost the election
he aimed at; nor is it certain he can be elected any where. We have
no news from Auvergne, whither the Marquis de la Fayette is gone. In
general, all the men of influence in the country are gone into
the several provinces, to get their friends elected, or be elected
themselves. Since my letter to you, a tumult arose in Bretagne, in which
four or five lives were lost. They are now quieter, and this is the only
instance of a life lost, as yet, in this revolution. The public mind is
now so far ripened by time and discussion, that there seems to be but
one opinion on the principal points. The question of voting by persons
or orders is the most controverted; but even that seems to have gained
already a majority among the Nobles. I fear more from the number of
the Assembly, than from any other cause. Twelve hundred persons are
difficult to keep to order, and will be so, especially, till they shall
have had time to frame rules of order. Their funds continue stationary,
and at the level they have stood at for some years past. We hear
so little of the parliaments for some time past, that one is hardly
sensible of their existence. This unimportance is probably the
forerunner of their total re-modification by the nation. The article
of legislation is the only interesting one on which the court has not
explicitly declared itself to the nation. The Duke d’Orleans has given
instructions to his proxies in the _bailliages_, which would be deemed
bold in England, and are reasonable beyond the reach of an Englishman,
who, slumbering under a kind of half reformation in politics and
religion, is not excited by any thing he sees or feels, to question the
remains of prejudice. The writers of this country, now taking the field
freely, and unrestrained, or rather revolted by prejudice, will rouse us
all from the errors in which we have been hitherto rocked.
We had, at one time, some hope, that an accommodation would have been
effected between the Turks and two empires. Probably the taking Oczakow,
while it has attached the Empress more to the Crimea, is not important
enough to the Turks, to make them consent to peace. These hopes are
vanishing. Nor does there seem any prospect of peace between Russia
and Sweden. The palsied condition of England leaves it probable, that
Denmark will pursue its hostilities against Sweden. It does not
seem certain whether the King of Prussia has advanced so far in that
mediation, and in the troubles he has excited in Poland, as to be
obliged to become a party. Nor will his becoming a party draw in this
country, the present year, if England remains quiet. Papers which have
lately passed between this court and the government of Holland, prove
that this nourishes its discontent, and only waits to put its house in
order, before it interposes. They have recalled their ambassador from
the Hague, without naming a successor. The King of Sweden, not thinking
that Russia and Denmark are enough for him, has arrested a number of his
Nobles, of principal rank and influence. It is a bold measure, at least,
and he is too boyish a character to authorize us to presume it a wise
one, merely because he has adopted it. His army was before disgusted. He
now puts the Nobles and all their dependants on the same side, and they
are sure of armed support, by Russia on the north, and Denmark on the
south. He can have no salvation but in the King of Prussia.
I have received two letters from Ledyard, the one dated Alexandria,
August the 15th, the other Grand Cairo, September the 10th; and one
lately from Admiral Paul Jones, dated St. Petersburg, January the 31st.
He was just arrived there, on the call of the Empress, and was uncertain
where he should be employed the next campaign. Mr. Littlepage has
returned from the Black Sea to Warsaw, where he has been perfectly
received by the King. I saw this from under the King’s own hand, and was
pleased with the parental expressions towards him.
We have no news from America later than the middle of January. My
letters inform me, that even the friends of the new constitution have
come over to the expediency of adding a declaration of rights. There
is reason to hope that this will be proposed by Congress to the
several legislatures, and that the plan of New York for calling a new
convention, will be rejected. Hitherto, no State had acceded to it but
Virginia, in which Henry and anti-federalism had got full possession of
their legislature. But the people are better disposed. My departure for
America is likely to be retarded, by the want of a Congress to give me
permission. I must attend it from the new government. I am anxious
to know how much we ought to believe of the recovery of the King of
England. By putting little facts together, I see that he is not well.
Mr. Rumsey (who came in while I was writing the preceding page) tells me
you have a long letter ready for me. I shall be happy to receive it.
I am, with great and sincere attachment, Dear Sir, your affectionate
friend and servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER CXIII.--TO COLONEL HUMPHREYS, March 18, 1789
TO COLONEL HUMPHREYS.
Paris, March 18, 1789.
Dear Sir,
Your favor of November the 29th, 1788, came to hand the last month. How
it happened that mine of August, 1787, was fourteen months on its way,
is inconceivable. I do not recollect by what conveyance I sent it. I
had concluded, however, either that it had miscarried, or that you
had become indolent, as most of our countrymen are, in matters of
correspondence.
The change in this country since you left it, is such as you can form
no idea of. The frivolities of conversation have given way entirely to
politics. Men, women, and children talk nothing else: and all, you know,
talk a great deal. The press groans with daily productions, which, in
point of boldness, make an Englishman stare, who hitherto has thought
himself the boldest of men. A complete revolution in this government,
has, within the space of two years (for it began with the _Notables_
of 1787), been effected merely by the force of public opinion, aided,
indeed, by the want of money, which the dissipations of the court had
brought on. And this revolution has not cost a single life, unless we
charge to it a little riot lately in Bretagne, which began about the
price of bread, became afterwards political, and ended in the loss of
four or five lives. The assembly of the States General begins the 27th
of April. The representation of the people will be perfect. But they
will be alloyed by an equal number of nobility and clergy. The first
great question they will have to decide, will be, whether they shall
vote by orders or persons. And I have hopes, that the majority of the
Nobles are already disposed to join the _Tiers-Etat_, in deciding
that the vote shall be by persons. This is the opinion _a la mode_ at
present, and mode has acted a wonderful part in the present instance.
All the handsome young women, for example, are for the _Tiers-Etat_ and
this is an army more powerful in France, than the two hundred thousand
men of the King. Add to this, that the court itself is for the
_Tiers-Etat_, as the only agent which can relieve their wants: not by
giving money themselves (they are squeezed to the last drop), but by
pressing it from the non-contributing orders. The King stands engaged
to pretend no more to the power of laying, continuing, or appropriating
taxes; to call the States General periodically; to submit _lettres de
cachet_ to legal restrictions; to consent to freedom of the press; and
that all this shall be fixed by a fundamental constitution, which
shall bind his successors. He has not offered a participation in the
legislature, but it will surely be insisted on. The public mind is
so ripened on all these subjects, that there seems to be now but one
opinion. The clergy, indeed, think separately, and the old men among the
Nobles: but their voice is suppressed by the general one of the
nation. The writings published on this occasion are, some of them, very
valuable; because, unfettered by the prejudices under which the English
labor, they give a full scope to reason, and strike out truths, as
yet unperceived and unacknowledged on the other side the channel. An
Englishman, dozing under a kind of half reformation, is not excited
to think by such gross absurdities as stare a Frenchman in the face,
wherever he looks, whether it be towards the throne or the altar. In
fine, I believe this nation will, in the course of the present year,
have as full a portion of liberty dealt out to them, as the nation can
bear at present, considering how uninformed the mass of their people is.
This circumstance will prevent the immediate establishment of the trial
by jury. The palsied state of the executive in England is a fortunate
circumstance for France, as it will give her time to arrange her
affairs internally. The consolidation and funding their debts, will give
government a credit which will enable them to do what they please.
For the present year the war will be confined to the two empires and
Denmark, against Turkey and Sweden. It is not yet evident, whether
Prussia will be engaged. If the disturbances of Poland break out into
overt acts, it will be a power divided in itself, and so of no weight.
Perhaps by the next year England and France may be ready to take the
field. It will depend on the former principally, for the latter, though
she may be then able, must wish still a little time to see her new
arrangements well under way. The English papers and English ministry
say the King is well. He is better, but not well: no malady requires a
longer time to insure against its return than insanity. Time alone can
distinguish accidental insanity from habitual lunacy.
The operations which have taken place in America lately fill me with
pleasure. In the first place, they realize the confidence I had, that,
whenever our affairs go obviously wrong, the good sense of the people
will interpose, and set them to rights. The example of changing a
constitution, by assembling the wise men of the State, instead of
assembling armies, will be worth as much to the world as the former
examples we had given them. The constitution, too, which was the result
of our deliberations, is unquestionably the wisest ever yet presented to
men, and some of the accommodations of interest which it has adopted
are greatly pleasing to me, who have before had occasions of seeing how
difficult those interests were to accommodate. A general concurrence of
opinion seems to authorize us to say it has some defects. I am one of
those who think it a defect, that the important rights, not placed in
security by the frame of the constitution itself, were not explicitly
secured by a supplementary declaration. There are rights which it is
useless to surrender to the government, and which governments have
yet always been fond to invade. These are the rights of thinking,
and publishing our thoughts by speaking or writing; the right of free
commerce; the right of personal freedom. There are instruments for
administering the government so peculiarly trust-worthy, that we
should never leave the legislature at liberty to change them. The
new constitution has secured these in the executive and legislative
departments; but not in the judiciary. It should have established trials
by the people themselves, that is to say, by jury. There are instruments
so dangerous to the rights of the nation, and which place them so
totally at the mercy of their governors, that those governors, whether
legislative or executive, should be restrained from keeping such
instruments on foot, but in well defined cases. Such an instrument is a
standing army. We are now allowed to say, such a declaration of rights,
as a supplement to the constitution, where that is silent, is wanting,
to secure us in these points. The general voice has legitimated this
objection. It has not, however, authorized me to consider as a
real defect, what I thought, and still think one, the perpetual
re-eligibility of the President. But three States out of eleven having
declared against this, we must suppose we are wrong, according to the
fundamental law of every society, the _lex majoris partis_, to which we
are bound to submit. And should the majority change their opinion, and
become sensible that this trait in their constitution is wrong, I would
wish it to remain uncorrected, as long as we can avail ourselves of
the services of our great leader, whose talents and whose weight of
character, I consider as peculiarly necessary to get the government
so under way, as that it may afterwards be carried on by subordinate
characters.
I must give you sincere thanks for the details of small news contained
in your letter. You know how previous that kind of information is to a
person absent from his country, and how difficult it is to be procured.
I hope to receive soon permission to visit America this summer, and to
possess myself anew, by conversation with my countrymen, of their spirit
and their ideas. I know only the Americans of the year 1784. They tell
me this is to be much a stranger to those of 1789. This renewal of
acquaintance is no indifferent matter to one, acting at such a
distance, as that instructions cannot be received hot and hot. One of my
pleasures, too, will be that of talking over the old and new with you.
In the mean time, and at all times, I have the honor to be, with great
and sincere esteem. Dear Sir, your friend and servant,
Th: Jefferson,
LETTER CXCIV.--TO DOCTOR WILLARD, March 24, 1789
TO DOCTOR WILLARD.
Paris, March 24, 1789.
Sir,
I have been lately honored with your letter of September the 24th, 1788,
accompanied by a diploma for a Doctorate of Laws, which the University
of Harvard has been pleased to confer on me. Conscious how little I
merit it, I am the more sensible of their goodness and indulgence to
a stranger, who has had no means ef serving or making himself known to
them. I beg you to return them my grateful thanks, and to assure them
that this notice from so eminent a seat of science is very precious to
me.
The most remarkable publications we have had in France, for a year
or two past, are the following. _Les Voyages d’Anacharsis, par Abbe
Barthelemi_, seven volumes, octavo. This is a very elegant digest of
whatever is known of the Greeks; useless, indeed, to him who has read
the original authors, but very proper for one who reads modern languages
only. The works of the King of Prussia. The Berlin edition is in sixteen
volumes, octavo. It is said to have been gutted at Berlin; and here
it has been still more mangled. There are one or two other editions
published abroad, which pretend to have rectified the maltreatment both
of Berlin and Paris. Some time will be necessary to settle the public
mind as to the best edition.
Montignot has given us the original Greek, and a French translation of
the seventh book of Ptolemy’s great work, under the title of _Etat des
Etoiles fixes au second siecle_, in quarto. He has given the designation
of the same stars by Flamsteed and Bayer, and their position in the
year 1786. A very remarkable work is the _Mechanique Analytique of La
Grange_, in quarto. He is allowed to be the greatest mathematician now
living, and his personal worth is equal to his science. The object of
his work is to reduce all the principles of mechanics to the single one
of the equilibrium, and to give a simple formula applicable to them
all. The subject is treated in the algebraic method, without diagrams to
assist the conception. My present occupations not permitting me to read
any thing which requires a long and undisturbed attention, I am not able
to give you the character of this work from my own examination. It has
been received with great approbation in Europe. In Italy, the works of
Spallanzani on Digestion and Generation are valuable. Though, perhaps,
too minute, and therefore tedious, he has developed some useful truths,
and his book is well worth attention; it is in four volumes, octavo.
Clavigero, an Italian also, who has resided thirty-six years in Mexico,
has given us a History of that country, which certainly merits more
respect than any other work on the same subject. He corrects many errors
of Dr. Robertson; and though sound philosophy will disapprove many of
his ideas, we must still consider it as an useful work, and assuredly
the best we possess on the same subject. It is in four thin volumes,
small quarto. De la Lande has not yet published a fifth volume.
The chemical dispute about the conversion and reconversion of air and
water, continues still undecided. Arguments and authorities are so
balanced, that we may still safely believe, as our fathers did before
us, that these principles are distinct. A schism of another kind has
taken place among the chemists. A particular set of them here have
undertaken to remodel all the terms of the science, and to give to every
substance a new name, the composition, and especially the termination of
which, shall define the relation in which it stands to other substances
of the same family. But the science seems too much in its infancy as
yet, for this reformation; because, in fact, the reformation of this
year must be reformed again the next year, and so on, changing the names
of substances as often as new experiments develope properties in them
undiscovered before. The new nomenclature has, accordingly, been already
proved to need numerous and important reformations. Probably it will
not prevail. It is espoused by the minority only here, and by very few,
indeed, of the foreign chemists. It is particularly rejected in England.
In the arts, I think two of our countrymen have presented the most
important inventions. Mr. Paine, the author of ‘Common Sense,’ has
invented an iron bridge, which promises to be cheaper by a great deal
than stone, and to admit of a much greater arch. He supposes it may be
ventured for an arch of five hundred feet. He has obtained a patent for
it in England, and is now executing the first experiment with an arch
of between ninety and one hundred feet. Mr. Rumsey has also obtained
a patent for his navigation by the force of steam in England, and is
soliciting a similar one here. His principal merit is in the improvement
of the boiler, and instead of the complicated machinery of oars and
paddles, proposed by others, the substitution of so simple a thing
as the reaction of a stream of water on his vessel. He is building
a sea-vessel at this time in England, and she will be ready for an
experiment in May. He has suggested a great number of mechanical
improvements in a variety of branches, and, upon the whole, is the most
original and the greatest mechanical genius I have ever seen. The return
of La Peyrouse (whenever that shall happen) will probably add to our
knowledge in Geography, Botany, and Natural History. What a field have
we at our doors to signalize ourselves in! The Botany of America is
far from being exhausted, its Mineralogy is untouched, and its Natural
History or Zoology totally mistaken and misrepresented. As far as I have
seen, there is not one single species of terrestrial birds common to
Europe and America, and I question if there be a single species of
quadrupeds. (Domestic animals are to be excepted.) It is for such
institutions as that over which you preside so worthily, Sir, to do
justice to our country, its productions, and its genius. It is the work
to which the young men, whom you are forming, should lay their hands.
We have spent the prime of our lives in procuring them the precious
blessing of liberty. Let them spend theirs in showing that it is the
great parent of science and of virtue; and that a nation will be great
in both, always in proportion as it is free. Nobody wishes more warmly
for the success of your good exhortations on this subject, than he who
has the honor to be, with sentiments of great esteem and respect, Sir,
your most obedient, humble servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER CXCV.--TO J. SARSFIELD, April 3, 1789
TO J. SARSFIELD.
Paris, April 3, 1789.
Sir,
I could not name to you the day of my departure from Paris, because I
do not know it. I have not yet received my _congé_, though I hope to
receive it soon, and to leave this some time in May, so that I may be
back before the winter.
Impost is a duty paid on any imported article, in the moment of its
importation, and of course, it is collected in the sea-ports only.
Excise is a duty on any article, whether imported or raised at home,
and paid in the hands of the consumer or retailer; consequently, it is
collected through the whole country. These are the true definitions of
these words as used in England, and in the greater part of the United
States. But in Massachusetts, they have perverted the word excise to
mean a tax on all liquors, whether paid in the moment of importation or
at a later moment, and on nothing else. So that in reading the debates
of the Massachusetts convention, you must give this last meaning to the
word excise.
Rotation is the change of officers required by the laws at certain
epochs, and in a certain order: thus, in Virginia, our justices of the
peace are made sheriffs one after the other, each remaining in office
two years, and then yielding it to his next brother in order of
seniority. This is the just and classical meaning of the word. But in
America we have extended it (for want of a proper word) to all cases of
officers who must be necessarily changed at a fixed epoch, though the
successor be not pointed out in any particular order, but comes in
by free election. By the term rotation in office, then, we mean an
obligation on the holder of that office to go out at a certain period.
In our first Confederation, the principle of rotation was established
in the office of President of Congress, who could serve but one year in
three, and in that of a member of Congress, who could serve but three
years in six.
I believe all the countries in Europe determine their standard of money,
in gold as well as silver. Thus, the laws of England direct that a pound
Troy of gold, of twenty-two carats fine, shall be cut into forty-four
and a half guineas, each of which shall be worth twenty-one and a
half shillings, that is, into 956 3/4 shillings. This establishes the
shilling at 5.518 grains of pure gold. They direct that a pound of
silver, consisting of 11 1/10 ounces of pure silver, and 9/10 of an
ounce alloy, shall be cut into sixty-two shillings. This establishes
the shilling at 85.93 grains of pure silver, and, consequently, the
proportion of gold to silver as 85.93 to 5.518, or as 15.57 to 1. If
this be the true proportion between the value of gold and silver at the
general market of Europe, then the value of the shilling, depending
on two standards, is the same, whether a payment be made in gold or
in silver. But if the proportion at the general market of Europe be as
fifteen to one, then the Englishman who owes a pound weight of gold
at Amsterdam, if he sends the pound of gold to pay it, sends 1043.72
shillings; if he sends fifteen pounds of silver, he sends only 1030.5
shillings; if he pays half in gold and half in silver, he pays only
1037.11 shillings. And this medium between the two standards of gold
and silver, we must consider as furnishing the true medium value of
the shilling. If the parliament should now order the pound of gold (of
one-twelfth alloy as before) to be cut into a thousand shillings instead
of nine hundred and fifty-six and three fourths, leaving the silver as
it is, the medium or true value of the shilling would suffer a change of
half the difference; and in the case before stated, to pay a debt of a
pound weight of gold, at Amsterdam, if he sent the pound weight of gold,
he would send 1090.9 shillings; if he sent fifteen pounds of silver,
he would send 1030.5 shillings; if half in gold and half in silver,
he would send 1060.7 shillings; which shows, that this parliamentary
operation would reduce the value of the shilling in the proportion of
1060.7 to 1037.11.
Now this is exactly the effect of the late change in the quantity of
gold contained in your louis. Your _marc d’argent fin_ is cut into 53.45
livres (fifty-three livres and nine sous), the _marc de l’or fin_
was cut, heretofore, by law, into 784.6 livres (seven hundred and
eighty-four livres and twelve sous); gold was to silver, then, as 14.63
to 1. And if this was different from the proportion at the markets of
Europe, the true value of your livre stood half way between the two
standards. By the ordinance of October the 30th, 1785, the marc of pure
gold has been cut into 828.6 livres. If your standard had been in gold
alone, this would have reduced the value of the livre, in the proportion
of 828.6 to 784.6. But as you had a standard of silver as well as gold,
the true standard is the medium between the two; consequently, the value
of the livre is reduced only one half the difference, that is, as 806.6
to 784.6, which is very nearly three per cent. Commerce, however, has
made a difference of four per cent., the average value of the pound
sterling, formerly twenty-four livres, being now twenty-five livres.
Perhaps some other circumstance has occasioned an addition of one per
cent, to the change of your standard.
I fear I have tired you by these details. I did not mean to be so
lengthy when I began. I beg you to consider them as an appeal to your
judgment, which I value, and from which I will expect a correction, if
they are wrong.
I have the honor to be, with very great esteem and attachment, Dear Sir,
your most obedient and most humble servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER CXCVI.--TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE, May 6,1789
TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE.
Paris, May 6,1789.
My Dear Friend,