PART III.--CONTINUED.

LETTERS WRITTEN AFTER HIS RETURN TO THE U. S. DOWN TO THE TIME OF HIS

DEATH.

1790-1826.

TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS.--(_Confidential._)

WASHINGTON, March 24,1806.

DEAR SIR,--A last effort at friendly settlement with Spain is proposed

to be made at Paris, and under the auspices of France. For this purpose,

General Armstrong and Mr. Bowdoin (both now at Paris) have been appointed

joint commissioners; but such a cloud of dissatisfaction rests on General

Armstrong in the minds of many persons, on account of a late occurrence

stated in all the public papers, that we have in contemplation to add

a third commissioner, in order to give the necessary measure of public

confidence to the commission. Of these two gentlemen, one being of

Massachusetts and one of New York, it is thought the third should be

a southern man; and the rather, as the interests to be negotiated are

almost entirely southern and western. This addition is not yet ultimately

decided on; but I am inclined to believe it will be adopted. Under this

expectation, and my wish that you may be willing to undertake it, I give

you the earliest possible intimation of it, that you may be preparing

both your mind and your measures for the mission. The departure would be

required to be very prompt; though the absence I think will not be long,

Bonaparte not being in the practice of procrastination. This particular

consideration will, I hope, reconcile the voyage to your affairs and your

feelings. The allowance to an extra mission, is salary from the day of

leaving home, and expenses to the place of destination, or in lieu of the

latter, and to avoid settlements, a competent fixed sum may be given. For

the return, a continuance of the salary for three months after fulfilment

of the commission. Be so good as to make up your mind as quickly as

possible, and to answer me as early as possible. Consider the measure

as proposed provisionally only, and not to be communicated to any mortal

until we see it proper.

Affectionate salutations.

TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS.

WASHINGTON, April 13, 1806.

DEAR SIR,--The situation of your affairs certainly furnishes good cause

for your not acceding to my proposition of a special mission to Europe.

My only hope had been, that they could have gone on one summer without

you. An unjust hostility against General Armstrong will, I am afraid, show

itself whenever any treaty made by him shall be offered for ratification.

I wished, therefore, to provide against this, by joining a person who

would have united the confidence of the whole Senate. General Smith was

so prominent in the opposition to Armstrong, that it would be impossible

for them to act together. We conclude, therefore, to leave the matter

with Armstrong and Bowdoin. Indeed, my dear Sir, I wish sincerely you

were back in the Senate; and that you would take the necessary measures

to get yourself there. Perhaps, as a preliminary, you should go to our

Legislature. Giles' absence has been a most serious misfortune. A majority

of the Senate means well. But Tracy and Bayard are too dexterous for them,

and have very much influenced their proceedings. Tracy has been of nearly

every committee during the session, and for the most part the chairman,

and of course drawer of the reports. Seven federalists voting always

in phalanx, and joined by some discontented republicans, some oblique

ones, some capricious, have so often made a majority, as to produce very

serious embarrassment to the public operations; and very much do I dread

the submitting to them, at the next session, any treaty which can be

made with either England or Spain, when I consider that five joining the

federalists, can defeat a friendly settlement of our affairs. The House

of Representatives is as well disposed as I ever saw one. The defection

of so prominent a leader, threw them into dismay and confusion for a

moment; but they soon rallied to their own principles, and let them go

off with five or six followers only. One half of these are from Virginia.

His late declaration of perpetual opposition to this administration, drew

off a few others who at first had joined him, supposing his opposition

occasional only, and not systematic. The alarm the House has had from this

schism, has produced a rallying together and a harmony, which carelessness

and security had begun to endanger. On the whole, this little trial of

the firmness of our representatives in their principles, and that of

the people also, which is declaring itself in support of their public

functionaries, has added much to my confidence in the stability of our

government; and to my conviction, that, should things go wrong at any

time, the people will set them to rights by the peaceable exercise of

their elective rights. To explain to you the character of this schism,

its objects and combinations, can only be done in conversation; and must

be deferred till I see you at Monticello, where I shall probably be about

the 10th or 12th of May, to pass the rest of the month there. Congress has

agreed to rise on Monday, the 21st.

Accept my affectionate salutations.

TO MR. HARRIS.

WASHINGTON, April 18, 1806.

SIR,--It is now some time since I received from you, through the house

of Smith and Buchanan at Baltimore, a bust of the Emperor Alexander, for

which I have to return you my thanks. These are the more cordial, because

of the value the bust derives from the great estimation in which its

original is held by the world, and by none more than by myself. It will

constitute one of the most valued ornaments of the retreat I am preparing

for myself at my native home. Accept, at the same time, my acknowledgments

for the elegant work of Atkinson and Walker on the customs of the

Russians. I had laid it down as a law for my conduct while in office, and

hitherto scrupulously observed, to accept of no present beyond a book, a

pamphlet, or other curiosity of minor value; as well to avoid imputation

on my motives of action, as to shut out a practice susceptible of such

abuse. But my particular esteem for the character of the Emperor, places

his image in my mind above the scope of law. I receive it, therefore, and

shall cherish it with affection. It nourishes the contemplation of all the

good placed in his power, and of his disposition to do it.

A little before Dr. Priestley's death, he informed me that he had

received intimations, through a channel he confided in, that the Emperor

entertained a wish to know something of our Constitution. I have therefore

selected the two best works we have on that subject, for which I pray

you to ask a place in his library. They are too much in detail to occupy

his time; but they will furnish materials for an abstract, to be made by

others, on such a scale as may bring the matter within the compass of the

time which his higher callings can yield to such an object.

At a very early period of my life, contemplating the history of the

aboriginal inhabitants of America, I was led to believe that if there had

ever been a relation between them and the men of color in Asia, traces of

it would be found in their several languages. I have therefore availed

myself of every opportunity which has offered, to obtain vocabularies

of such tribes as have been within my reach, corresponding to a list

then formed of about two hundred and fifty words. In this I have made

such progress, that within a year or two more I think to give to the

public what I then shall have acquired. I have lately seen a report of

Mr. Volney's to the Celtic academy, on a work of Mr. Pallas, entitled

"Vocabulaires compares des langues de toute la terre;" with a list of one

hundred and thirty words, to which the vocabulary is limited. I find that

seventy-three of these words are common to that and to my vocabulary,

and therefore will enable us, by a comparison of language, to make the

inquiry so long desired, as to the probability of a common origin between

the people of color of the two continents. I have to ask the favor of you

to procure me a copy of the above work of Pallas, to inform me of the

cost, and permit me to pay it here to your use; for I presume you have

some mercantile correspondent here, to whom a payment can be made for

you. A want of knowledge what the book may cost, as well as of the means

of making so small a remittance, obliges me to make this proposition, and

to restrain it to the sole condition that I be permitted to reimburse it

here.

I enclose you a letter for the Emperor, which be pleased to deliver or

have delivered; it has some relation to a subject which the Secretary of

State will explain to you.

Accept my salutations, and assurances of esteem and consideration.

TO THE EMPEROR OF RUSSIA.

WASHINGTON, April 19, 1806.

I owe an acknowledgment to your Imperial Majesty for the great

satisfaction I have received from your letter of August the 20th, 1805,

and embrace the opportunity it affords of giving expression to the sincere

respect and veneration I entertain for your character. It will be among

the latest and most soothing comforts of my life, to have seen advanced

to the government of so extensive a portion of the earth, and at so early

a period of his life, a sovereign whose ruling passion is the advancement

of the happiness and prosperity of his people; and not of his own people

only, but who can extend his eye and his good will to a distant and infant

nation, unoffending in its course, unambitious in its views.

The events of Europe come to us so late, and so suspiciously, that

observations on them would certainly be stale, and possibly wide of their

actual state. From their general aspect, however, I collect that your

Majesty's interposition in them has been disinterested and generous,

and having in view only the general good of the great European family.

When you shall proceed to the pacification which is to re-establish

peace and commerce, the same dispositions of mind will lead you to think

of the general intercourse of nations, and to make that provision for

its future maintenance which, in times past, it has so much needed.

The northern nations of Europe, at the head of which your Majesty is

distinguished, are habitually peaceable. The United States of America,

like them, are attached to peace. We have then with them a common interest

in the neutral rights. Every nation indeed, on the continent of Europe,

belligerent as well as neutral, is interested in maintaining these rights,

in liberalizing them progressively with the progress of science and

refinement of morality, and in relieving them from restrictions which the

extension of the arts has long since rendered unreasonable and vexatious.

Two personages in Europe, of which your Majesty is one, have it in their

power, at the approaching pacification, to render eminent service to

nations in general, by incorporating into the act of pacification, a

correct definition of the rights of neutrals on the high seas. Such a

definition, declared by all the powers lately or still belligerent, would

give to those rights a precision and notoriety, and cover them with an

authority, which would protect them in an important degree against future

violation; and should any further sanction be necessary, that of an

exclusion of the violating nation from commercial intercourse with all the

others, would be preferred to war, as more analogous to the offence, more

easy and likely to be executed with good faith. The essential articles of

these rights, too, are so few and simple as easily to be defined.

Having taken no part in the past or existing troubles of Europe, we have

no part to act in its pacification. But as principles may then be settled

in which we have a deep interest, it is a great happiness for us that

they are placed under the protection of an umpire, who, looking beyond

the narrow bounds of an individual nation, will take under the cover of

his equity the rights of the absent and unrepresented. It is only by a

happy concurrence of good characters and good occasions, that a step can

now and then be taken to advance the well-being of nations. If the present

occasion be good, I am sure your Majesty's character will not be wanting

to avail the world of it. By monuments of such good offices, may your life

become an epoch in the history of the condition of man; and may He who

called it into being, for the good of the human family, give it length of

days and success, and have it always in His holy keeping.

TO COLONEL MONROE.

WASHINGTON, May 4, 1806.

DEAR SIR,--I wrote you on the 16th of March by a common vessel, and

then expected to have had, on the rising of Congress, an opportunity of

peculiar confidence to you. Mr. Beckley then supposed he should take

a flying trip to London, on private business. But I believe he does

not find it convenient. He could have let you into the _arcana rerum_,

which you have interests in knowing. Mr. Pinckney's pursuits having been

confined to his peculiar line, he has only that general knowledge of what

has passed here which the public possess. He has a just view of things

so far as known to him. Our old friend, Mercer, broke off from us some

time ago; at first professing to disdain joining the federalists, yet,

from the habit of voting together, becoming soon identified with them.

Without carrying over with him one single person, he is now in a state

of as perfect obscurity as if his name had never been known. Mr. J.

Randolph is in the same track, and will end in the same way. His course

has excited considerable alarm. Timid men consider it as a proof of the

weakness of our government, and that it is to be rent into pieces by

demagogues, and to end in anarchy. I survey the scene with a different

eye, and draw a different augury from it. In a House of Representatives

of a great mass of good sense, Mr. Randolph's popular eloquence gave him

such advantages as to place him unrivalled as the leader of the House;

and, although not conciliatory to those whom he led, principles of duty

and patriotism induced many of them to swallow humiliations he subjected

them to, and to vote as was right, as long as he kept the path of right

himself. The sudden defection of such a man could not but produce a

momentary astonishment, and even dismay; but for a moment only. The

good sense of the House rallied around its principles, and without any

leader pursued steadily the business of the session, did it well, and

by a strength of vote which has never before been seen. Upon all trying

questions, exclusive of the federalists, the minority of republicans

voting with him has been from four to six or eight, against from ninety

to one hundred; and although he yet treats the federalists with ineffable

contempt, yet, having declared eternal opposition to this administration,

and consequently associated with them in his votes, he will, like Mercer,

end with them. The augury I draw from this is, that there is a steady,

good sense in the Legislature, and in the body of the nation, joined

with good intentions, which will lead them to discern and to pursue the

public good under all circumstances which can arise, and that no _ignis

fatuus_ will be able to lead them long astray. In the present case, the

public sentiment, as far as declarations of it have yet come in, is,

without a single exception, in firm adherence to the administration. One

popular paper is endeavoring to maintain equivocal ground; approving the

administration in all its proceedings, and Mr. Randolph in all those which

have heretofore merited approbation, carefully avoiding to mention his

late aberration. The ultimate view of this paper is friendly to you; and

the editor, with more judgment than him who assumes to be at the head of

your friends, sees that the ground of opposition to the administration

is not that on which it would be advantageous to you to be planted.

The great body of your friends are among the firmest adherents to the

administration; and in their support of you, will suffer Mr. Randolph to

have no communications with them. My former letter told you the line which

both duty and inclination would lead me sacredly to pursue. But it is

unfortunate for you to be embarrassed with such a _soi-disant_ friend. You

must not commit yourself to him. These views may assist you to understand

such details as Mr. Pinckney will give you. If you are here at any time

before the fall, it will be in time for any object you may have, and by

that time the public sentiment will be more decisively declared. I wish

you were here at present, to take your choice of the two governments

of Orleans and Louisiana, in either of which I could now place you;

and I verily believe it would be to your advantage to be just that much

withdrawn from the focus of the ensuing contest, until its event should

be known. The one has a salary of five thousand dollars, the other of two

thousand dollars; both with excellent hotels for the Governor. The latter

at St. Louis, where there is good society, both French and American; a

healthy climate, and the finest field in the United States for acquiring

property. The former not unhealthy, if you begin a residence there in the

month of November. The Mrs. Trists and their connections are established

there. As I think you can within four months inform me what you say to

this, I will keep things in their present state till the last day of

August, for your answer.

The late change in the ministry I consider as insuring us a just

settlement of our differences, and we ask no more. In Mr. Fox, personally,

I have more confidence than in any man in England, and it is founded

in what, through unquestionable channels, I have had opportunities of

knowing of his honesty and his good sense. While he shall be in the

administration, my reliance on that government will be solid. We had

committed ourselves in a line of proceedings adapted to meet Mr. Pitt's

policy and hostility, before we heard of his death, which self-respect did

not permit us to abandon afterwards; and the late unparalleled outrage on

us at New York excited such sentiments in the public at large, as did not

permit us to do less than has been done. It ought not to be viewed by the

ministry as looking towards them at all, but merely as the consequences

of the measures of their predecessors, which their nation has called on

them to correct. I hope, therefore, they will come to just arrangements.

No two countries upon earth have so many points of common interest and

friendship; and their rulers must be great bunglers indeed, if, with such

dispositions, they break them asunder. The only rivalry that can arise

is on the ocean. England may, by petty larceny thwartings, check us on

that element a little, but nothing she can do will retard us there one

year's growth. We shall be supported there by other nations, and thrown

into their scale to make a part of the great counterpoise to her navy.

If, on the other hand, she is just to us, conciliatory, and encourages

the sentiment of family feelings and conduct, it cannot fail to befriend

the security of both. We have the seamen and materials for fifty ships

of the line, and half that number of frigates; and were France to give

us the money, and England the dispositions to equip them, they would

give to England serious proofs of the stock from which they are sprung,

and the school in which they have been taught; and added to the efforts

of the immensity of sea coast lately united under one power, would leave

the state of the ocean no longer problematical. Were, on the other hand,

England to give the money, and France the dispositions to place us on the

sea in all our force, the whole world, out of the continent of Europe,

might be our joint monopoly. We wish for neither of these scenes. We

ask for peace and justice from all nations; and we will remain uprightly

neutral in fact, though leaning in belief to the opinion that an English

ascendancy on the ocean is safer for us than that of France. We begin to

broach the idea that we consider the whole Gulf Stream as of our waters,

in which hostilities and cruising are to be frowned on for the present,

and prohibited so soon as either consent or force will permit us. We shall

never permit another privateer to cruise within it, and shall forbid our

harbors to national cruisers. This is essential for our tranquillity and

commerce. Be so good as to have the enclosed letters delivered, to present

me to your family, and be assured yourself of my unalterable friendship.

For fear of accidents, I shall not make the unnecessary addition of my

name.

TO GENERAL SMITH.

WASHINGTON, May 4, 1806.

DEAR SIR,--I received your favor covering some papers from General

Wilkinson. I have repented but of one appointment there, that of Lucas,

whose temper I see overrules every good quality and every qualification

he has. Not a single fact has appeared, which occasions me to doubt that

I could have made a fitter appointment than General Wilkinson. One qualm

of principle I acknowledge I do feel, I mean the union of the civil and

military authority. You remember that when I came into office, while

we were lodging together at Conrad's, he was pressed on me to be made

Governor of the Mississippi territory; and that I refused it on that very

principle. When, therefore, the House of Representatives took that ground,

I was not insensible to its having some weight. But in the appointment

to Louisiana, I did not think myself departing from my own principle,

because I consider it not as a civil government, but merely a military

station. The Legislature had sanctioned that idea by the establishment

of the office of Commandant, in which were completely blended the civil

and military powers. It seemed, therefore, that the Governor should be in

suit with them. I observed, too, that the House of Representatives, on the

very day they passed the stricture on this union of authorities, passed

a bill making the Governor of Michigan commander of the regular troops

which should at any time be within his government. However, on the subject

of General Wilkinson nothing is in contemplation at this time. We shall

see what turn things take at home and abroad in the course of the summer.

Monroe has had a second conversation with Mr. Fox, which gives me hopes

that we shall have an amicable arrangement with that government. Accept my

friendly salutations, and assurances of great esteem and respect.

TO MR. DIGGES.

July 1, 1806.

Thomas Jefferson salutes Mr. Digges with friendship and respect, and sends

him the newspapers received last night. He is sorry that only the latter

part of the particular publication which Mr. Digges wished to see, is in

them. He will be happy to see Mr. Digges and his friends on the fourth

of July, and to join in congratulations on the return of the day which

divorced us from the follies and crimes of Europe, from a dollar in the

pound at least of six hundred millions sterling, and from all the ruin

of Mr. Pitt's administration. We, too, shall encounter follies; but if

great, they will be short, if long, they will be light; and the vigor

of our country will get the better of them. Mr. Pitt's follies have been

great, long, and inflicted on a body emaciated with age, and exhausted by

excesses beyond its power to bear.

TO MR. BIDWELL.

WASHINGTON, July 5, 1806.

SIR,--Your favor of June the 21st has been duly received. We have not

as yet heard from General Skinner on the subject of his office. Three

persons are proposed on the most respectable recommendations, and under

circumstances of such equality as renders it difficult to decide between

them. But it shall be done impartially. I sincerely congratulate you on

the triumph of republicanism in Massachusetts. The Hydra of federalism

has now lost all its heads but two. Connecticut I think will soon follow

Massachusetts. Delaware will probably remain what it ever has been, a mere

county of England, conquered indeed, and held under by force, but always

disposed to counter-revolution. I speak of its majority only.

Our information from London continues to give us hopes of an accommodation

there on both the points of "accustomed commerce and impressment." In this

there must probably be some mutual concession, because we cannot expect

to obtain everything and yield nothing. But I hope it will be such an one

as may be accepted. The arrival of the Hornet in France is so recently

known, that it will yet be some time before we learn our prospects there.

Notwithstanding the efforts made here, and made professedly to assassinate

that negotiation in embryo, if the good sense of Bonaparte should prevail

over his temper, the present state of things in Europe may induce him

to require of Spain that she should do us justice at least. That he

should require her to sell us East Florida, we have no right to insist;

yet there are not wanting considerations which may induce him to wish a

permanent foundation for peace laid between us. In this treaty, whatever

it shall be, our old enemies the federalists, and their new friends, will

find enough to carp at. This is a thing of course, and I should suspect

error where they found no fault. The buzzard feeds on carrion only. Their

rallying point is "war with France and Spain, and alliance with Great

Britain:" and everything is wrong with them which checks their new ardor

to be fighting for the liberties of mankind; on the sea always excepted.

There one nation is to monopolize all the liberties of the others.

I read, with extreme regret, the expressions of an inclination on your

part to retire from Congress. I will not say that this time, more than all

others, calls for the service of every man; but I will say, there never

was a time when the services of those who possess talents, integrity,

firmness, and sound judgment, were more wanted in Congress. Some one of

that description is particularly wanted to take the lead in the House

of Representatives, to consider the business of the nation as his own

business, to take it up as if he were singly charged with it, and carry it

through. I do not mean that any gentleman, relinquishing his own judgment,

should implicitly support all the measures of the administration; but

that, where he does not disapprove of them, he should not suffer them

to go off in sleep, but bring them to the attention of the House, and

give them a fair chance. Where he disapproves, he will of course leave

them to be brought forward by those who concur in the sentiment. Shall

I explain my idea by an example? The classification of the militia was

communicated to General Varnum and yourself merely as a proposition,

which, if you approved, it was trusted you would support. I knew, indeed,

that General Varnum was opposed to anything which might break up the

present organization of the militia: but when so modified as to avoid

this, I thought he might, perhaps, be reconciled to it. As soon as I found

it did not coincide with your sentiments, I could not wish you to support

it; but using the same freedom of opinion, I procured it to be brought

forward elsewhere. It failed there, also, and for a time, perhaps, may

not prevail; but a militia can never be used for distant service on any

other plan; and Bonaparte will conquer the world, if they do not learn his

secret of composing armies of young men only, whose enthusiasm and health

enable them to surmount all obstacles. When a gentleman, through zeal for

the public service, undertakes to do the public business, we know that we

shall hear the cant of backstairs' councillors. But we never heard this

while the declaimer was himself a backstairs' man, as he calls it, but

in the confidence and views of the administration, as may more properly

and respectfully be said. But if the members are to know nothing but

what is important enough to be put into a public message, and indifferent

enough to be made known to all the world; if the Executive is to keep all

other information to himself, and the House to plunge on in the dark, it

becomes a government of chance and not of design. The imputation was one

of those artifices used to despoil an adversary of his most effectual

arms; and men of mind will place themselves above a gabble of this order.

The last session of Congress was indeed an uneasy one for a time; but as

soon as the members penetrated into the views of those who were taking a

new course, they rallied in as solid a phalanx as I have ever seen act

together. Indeed I have never seen a House of better dispositions.

* * * * * Perhaps I am not entitled to speak with so much frankness; but

it proceeds from no motive which has not a right to your forgiveness.

Opportunities of candid explanation are so seldom afforded me, that I must

not lose them when they occur.

The information I receive from your quarter agrees with that from the

south; that the late schism has made not the smallest impression on the

public, and that the seceders are obliged to give to it other grounds than

those which we know to be the true ones. All we have to wish is, that at

the ensuing session, every one may take the part openly which he secretly

befriends. I recollect nothing new and true, worthy communicating to you.

As for what is not true, you will always find abundance in the newspapers.

Among other things, are those perpetual alarms as to the Indians, for

no one of which has there ever been the slightest ground. They are the

suggestions of hostile traders, always wishing to embroil us with the

Indians, to perpetuate their own extortionate commerce. I salute you with

esteem and respect.

TO MR. BOWDOIN.

WASHINGTON, July 10, 1806.

DEAR SIR,--I believe that when you left America the invention of the

polygraph had not yet reached Boston. It is for copying with one pen while

you write with the other, and without the least additional embarrassment

or exertion to the writer. I think it the finest invention of the present

age, and so much superior to the copying machine, that the latter will

never be continued a day by any one who tries the polygraph. It was

invented by a Mr. Hawkins, of Frankford, near Philadelphia, who is now in

England, turning it to good account. Knowing that you are in the habit of

writing much, I have flattered myself that I could add acceptably to your

daily convenience by presenting you with one of these delightful machines.

I have accordingly had one made, and to be certain of its perfection I

have used it myself some weeks, and have the satisfaction to find it the

best one I have ever tried; and in the course of two years' daily use of

them, I have had opportunities of trying several. As a secretary, which

copies for us what we write without the power of revealing it, I find it a

most precious possession to a man in public business. I enclose directions

for unpacking and using the machine when you receive it; but the machine

itself must await a special and sure conveyance under the care of some

person going to Paris. It is ready packed, and shall go by the first

proper conveyance.

As we heard two or three weeks ago of the safe arrival of the Hornet

at L'Orient, we were anxiously waiting to learn from you the first

impressions on her mission. If you can succeed in procuring us Florida,

and a good western boundary, it will fill the American mind with joy.

It will secure to our fellow citizens one of the most ardent wishes,

a long peace with Spain and France. For be assured, the object of war

with them and alliance with England, which, at the last session of

Congress, drew off from the republican band about half a dozen of its

members, is universally reprobated by our _native_ citizens from north to

south. I have never seen the nation stand more firm to its principles,

or rally so firmly to its constituted authorities, and in reprobation

of the opposition to them. With England, I think we shall cut off the

resource of impressing our seamen to fight her battles, and establish the

inviolability of our flag in its commerce with her enemies. We shall thus

become what we sincerely wish to be, honestly neutral, and truly useful to

both belligerents. To the one, by keeping open market for the consumption

of her manufactures, while they are excluded from all the other countries

under the power of her enemy; to the other, by securing for her a safe

carriage of all her productions, metropolitan or colonial, while her own

means are restrained by her enemy, and may, therefore, be employed in

other useful pursuits. We are certainly more useful friends to France and

Spain as neutrals, than as allies. I hope they will be sensible of it,

and by a wise removal of all grounds of future misunderstanding to another

age, enable you to present us such an arrangement, as will insure to our

fellow-citizens long and permanent peace and friendship with them. With

respect to our western boundary, your instructions will be your guide. I

will only add, as a comment to them, that we are attached to the retaining

of the Bay of St. Bernard, because it was the first establishment of the

unfortunate La Sale, was the cradle of Louisiana, and more incontestibly

covered and conveyed to us by France, under that name, than any other

spot in the country. This will be secured to us by taking for our western

boundary the Guadaloupe, and from its head around the sources of all

waters eastward of it, to the highlands embracing the waters running into

the Mississippi. However, all these things I presume will be settled

before you receive this; and I hope so settled as to give peace and

satisfaction to us all.

Our crops of wheat are greater than have ever been known, and are now

nearly secured. A caterpillar gave for awhile great alarm, but did little

injury. Of tobacco, not half a crop has been planted for want of rain; and

even this half, with cotton and Indian corn, has yet many chances to run.

This summer will place our harbors in a situation to maintain peace and

order with them. The next, or certainly the one following that, will

so provide them with gun-boats and common batteries, as to be _hors

d'insulte_. Although our prospect is peace, our policy and purpose is

to provide for defence by all those means to which our resources are

competent.

I salute you with friendship, and assure you of my high respect and

consideration.

TO W. A. BURWELL.

MONTICELLO, September 17, 1806.

DEAR SIR,--Yours of August the 7th, from Liberty, never got to my hands

till the 9th instant. About the same time I received the Enquirer,

in which Decius was so judiciously answered. The writer of that paper

observed, that the matter of Decius consisted, first of facts; secondly,

of inferences from these facts: that he was not well enough informed to

affirm or deny his facts, and he therefore examines his inferences, and in

a very masterly manner shows that even were his facts true, the reasonable

inferences from them are very different from those drawn by Decius. But

his facts are far from truth, and should be corrected. It happened that

Mr. Madison and General Dearborne were here when I received your letter.

I therefore, with them, took up Decius and read him deliberately; and

our memories aided one another in correcting his bold and unauthorized

assertions. I shall note the most material of them in the order of the

paper.

1. It is grossly false that our ministers, as is said in a note, had

proposed to surrender our claims to compensation for Spanish spoliations,

or even for French. Their instructions were to make no treaty in which

Spanish spoliations were not provided for; and although they were

permitted to be silent as to French spoliations carried into Spanish

ports, they were not expressly to abandon even them. 2. It is not true

that our ministers, in agreeing to establish the Colorado as our western

boundary, had been obliged to exceed the authority of their instructions.

Although we considered our title good as far as the Rio Bravo, yet in

proportion to what they could obtain east of the Mississippi, they were

to relinquish to the westward, and successive sacrifices were marked

out, of which even the Colorado was not the last. 3. It is not true that

the Louisiana treaty was antedated, lest Great Britain should consider

our supplying her enemies with money as a breach of neutrality. After

the very words of the treaty were finally agreed to, it took some time,

perhaps some days, to make out all the copies in the very splendid

manner of Bonaparte's treaties. Whether the 30th of April, 1803, the

date expressed, was the day of the actual compact, or that on which it

was signed, our memories do not enable us to say. If the former, then it

is strictly conformable to the day of the compact; if the latter, then

it was postdated, instead of being antedated. The motive assigned too,

is as incorrect as the fact. It was so far from being thought, by any

party, a breach of neutrality, that the British minister congratulated

Mr. King on the acquisition, and declared that the King had learned it

with great pleasure; and when Baring, the British banker, asked leave

of the minister to purchase the debt and furnish the money to France,

the minister declared to him, that so far from throwing obstacles in the

way, if there were any difficulty in the payment of the money, it was

the interest of Great Britain to aid it. 4. He speaks of a double set of

opinions and principles; the one ostensible, to go on the journals and

before the public, the other efficient, and the real motives to action.

But where are these double opinions and principles? The executive informed

the legislature of the wrongs of Spain, and that preparation should be

made to repel them, by force, if necessary. But as it might still be

possible to negotiate a settlement, they asked such means as might enable

them to meet the negotiation, whatever form it might take. The first

part of this system was communicated publicly, the second privately; but

both were equally official, equally involved the responsibility of the

executive, and were equally to go on the journals. 5. That the purchase

of the Floridas was in direct opposition to the views of the executive,

as expressed in the President's _official_ communication. It was not in

opposition even to the public part of the communication, which did not

recommend war, but only to be prepared for it. It perfectly harmonized

with the private part, which asked the means of negotiation in such terms

as covered the purchase of Florida as evidently as it was proper to speak

it out. He speaks of secret communications between the executive and

members, of backstairs' influence, &c. But he never spoke of this while

he and Mr. Nicholson enjoyed it most solely. But when he differed from the

executive in a leading measure, and the executive, not submitting to him,

expressed their sentiments to others, the very sentiments (to wit, the

purchase of Florida) which he acknowledges they expressed to him, then he

roars out upon backstairs' influence. 6. The committee, he says, forbore

to recommend offensive measures. Is this true? Did not they recommend

the raising ---- regiments? Besides, if it was proper for the committee

to forbear recommending offensive measures, was it not proper for the

executive and Legislature to exercise the same forbearance? 7. He says

Monroe's letter had a most important bearing on our Spanish relations.

Monroe's letter related, almost entirely, to our British relations. Of

those with Spain he knew nothing particular since he left that country.

Accordingly, in his letter he simply expressed an opinion on our affairs

with Spain, of which he knew we had better information than he could

possess. His opinion was no more than that of any other sensible man; and

his letter was proper to be communicated with the English papers, and with

them only. That the executive did not hold it up on account of any bearing

on Spanish affairs, is evident from the fact that it was communicated

when the Senate had not yet entered on the Spanish affairs, and had not

yet received the papers relating to them from the other House. The moment

the Representatives were ready to enter on the British affairs, Monroe's

letter, which peculiarly related to them, and was _official_ solely as

to them, was communicated to both Houses, the Senate being then about

entering on Spanish affairs.

* * * * *

These, my dear Sir, are the principal facts worth correction. Make any

use of them you think best, without letting your source of information be

known. Can you send me some cones or seeds of the cucumber tree? Accept

affectionate salutations, and assurances of great esteem and respect.

TO ALBERT GALLATIN.

WASHINGTON, October 12, 1806.

DEAR SIR,--You witnessed in the earlier part of the administration, the

malignant and long-continued efforts which the federalists exerted in

their newspapers, to produce misunderstanding between Mr. Madison and

myself. These failed completely. A like attempt was afterwards made,

through other channels, to effect a similar purpose between General

Dearborne and myself, but with no more success. The machinations of the

last session to put you at cross questions with us all, were so obvious

as to be seen at the first glance of every eye. In order to destroy one

member of the administration, the whole were to be set to loggerheads

to destroy one another. I observe in the papers lately, new attempts to

revive this stale artifice, and that they squint more directly towards

you and myself. I cannot, therefore, be satisfied, till I declare to you

explicitly, that my affections and confidence in you are nothing impaired,

and that they cannot be impaired by means so unworthy the notice of candid

and honorable minds. I make the declaration, that no doubts or jealousies,

which often beget the facts they fear, may find a moment's harbor in

either of our minds. I have so much reliance on the superior good sense

and candor of all those associated with me, as to be satisfied they will

not suffer either friend or foe to sow tares among us. Our administration

now drawing towards a close, I have a sublime pleasure in believing

it will be distinguished as much by having placed itself above all the

passions which could disturb its harmony, as by the great operations by

which it will have advanced the well-being of the nation.

Accept my affectionate salutations, and assurances of my constant and

unalterable respect and attachment.

TO GENERAL WILKINSON.

WASHINGTON, January 3, 1807.

DEAR SIR,--I had intended yesterday to recommend to General Dearborne

the writing to you weekly by post, to convey information of our western

affairs, so long as they are interesting, because it is possible, though

not probable, you might sometimes get the information quicker this way

than down the river, but the General received yesterday information of

the death of his son in the East Indies, and of course cannot now attend

to business. I therefore write you a hasty line for the present week, and

send it in duplicates by the Athens and the Nashville routes.

The information in the enclosed paper, as to proceedings in the State

of Ohio, is correct. Blennerhasset's flotilla of fifteen boats and two

hundred barrels of provisions, is seized, and there can be no doubt that

Tyler's flotilla is also taken, because, on the 17th of December, we

know there was a sufficient force assembled at Cincinnati to intercept it

there, and another party was in pursuit of it on the river above. We are

assured that these two flotillas composed the whole of the boats, provided

Blennerhasset and Tyler had fled down the river. I do not believe that

the number of persons engaged for Burr has ever amounted to five hundred,

though some have carried them to one thousand or fifteen hundred. A part

of these were engaged as settlers of Bastrop's land, but the greater

part of these were engaged under the express assurance that the projected

enterprise was against Mexico, and secretly authorized by this government.

Many were expressly enlisted in the name of the United States. The

proclamation which reached Pittsburg, December 2d, and the other parts of

the river successively, undeceived both these classes, and of course drew

them off, and I have never seen any proof of their having assembled more

than forty men in two boats from Beaver, fifty in Tyler's flotilla, and

the boatmen of Blennerhasset's. I believe therefore, that the enterprise

may be considered as crushed, but we are not to relax in our attentions

until we hear what has passed at Louisville. If everything from that place

upwards be successfully arrested, there is nothing from below that is to

be feared. Be assured that Tennessee, and particularly General Jackson,

are faithful. The orders lodged at Massac and the Chickasaw bluffs, will

probably secure the interception of such fugitives from justice as may

escape from Louisville, so that I think you will never see one of them.

Still I would not wish, till we hear from Louisville, that you should

relax your preparations in the least, except so far as to dispense with

the militia of Mississippi and Orleans leaving their homes under our order

of November 25th. Only let them consider themselves under requisition, and

be in a state of readiness should any force, too great for your regulars,

escape down the river. You will have been sensible that those orders were

given while we supposed you were on the Sabine, and the supposed crisis

did not admit the formality of their being passed through you. We had

considered Fort Adams as the place to make a stand, because it covered the

mouth of the Red river. You have preferred New Orleans on the apprehension

of a fleet from the West Indies. Be assured there is not any foundation

for such an expectation, but the lying exaggerations of those traitors to

impose on others and swell their pretended means. The very man whom they

represented to you as gone to Jamaica, and to bring the fleet, has never

been from home, and has regularly communicated to me everything which

had passed between Burr and him. No such proposition was ever hazarded to

him. France or Spain would not send a fleet to take Vera Cruz; and though

one of the expeditions now near arriving from England, is probably for

Vera Cruz, and perhaps already there, yet the state of things between us

renders it impossible they should countenance an enterprise unauthorized

by us. Still I repeat that these grounds of security must not stop our

proceedings or preparations until they are further confirmed. Go on,

therefore, with your works for the defence of New Orleans, because they

will always be useful, only looking to what should be permanent rather

than means merely temporary. You may expect further information as we

receive it, and though I expect it will be such as will place us at our

ease, yet we must not place ourselves so until it be certain, but act on

the possibility that the resources of our enemy may be greater and deeper

than we are yet informed.

Your two confidential messengers delivered their charges safely. One

arrived yesterday only with your letter of November 12th. The oral

communications he made me are truly important. I beseech you to take the

most special care of the two letters which he mentioned to me, the one in

cypher, the other from another of the conspirators of high standing, and

to send them to me by the first conveyance you can trust. It is necessary

that all important testimony should be brought to one centre, in order

that the guilty may be convicted, and the innocent left untroubled. Accept

my friendly salutations, and assurances of great esteem and respect.

TO MR. GALLATIN.

January 4, 1807.

There is a vessel fitting out at New York, formerly called the Emperor,

now the James, or the Brutus (accounts differ), to carry 22 guns and

150 men, and to be commanded by Blakely, who went out Lieutenant of

the Leander. She is confidently believed to be destined for Burr at

New Orleans. The collector should be put on his guard; he can get much

information from the Mayor of New York on the subject. If Blakely went out

really with Miranda as Lieutenant, he should be immediately arrested and

put on his trial. Will you be so good as to take the necessary measures on

this subject?

* * * * *

TO MR. GALLATIN.

January 6, 1807.

Mr. Clarke left with me the papers I now send you, presenting the claim of

the Corporation of New Orleans to all the lands between the city and the

Bayou St. Jean, as a common. What is to be done? The subject is broader

than these papers present. I presume this claim would be proper for an

investigation and report by the commissioners. I believe it to be a plot

against Lafayette. That there should be left a reasonable common for them

we had directed; but they might as well claim to the ocean as to the Bayou

St. Jean. I am certain there is in some of Claiborne's letters information

that they never had a right to a common, but under a kind of lease or

permission for a term of years expired long since.

But I think we should go further, and direct the governor to report to us

in detail all the lots and buildings owned by the public in New Orleans,

stating the use they were applied to under the former government, and that

for which they would be proper now; to be laid before Congress at their

next session, for their determination. Indeed I am not certain but that

Claiborne has made such a report to the Secretary at War. Affectionate

salutations.

TO MR. CHARLES CLAY.

WASHINGTON, January 11, 1807.

DEAR SIR,--Yours of December 19th has been duly received, and I thank

you for your friendly attention to the offer of lands adjoining me for

sale. It is true that I have always wished to purchase a part of what was

Murray's tract, which would straiten the lines of the Poplar Forest, but

I really am not able to make a purchase. I had hoped to keep the expenses

of my office within the limits of its salary, so as to apply my private

income entirely to the improvement and enlargement of my estate; but I

have not been able to do it.

Our affairs with Spain, after which you inquire, do not promise the

result we wish. Not that war will take place immediately, but they may

go off without a settlement, and leave us in constant bickering about

indemnification for spoliations, the navigation of the Mobile and the

limits of Louisiana. Burr's enterprise is the most extraordinary since

the days of Don Quixotte. It is so extravagant that those who know his

understanding, would not believe it if the proofs admitted doubt. He has

meant to place himself on the throne of Montezuma, and extend his empire

to the Alleghany, seizing on New Orleans as the instrument of compulsion

for our western States. I think his undertaking effectually crippled by

the activity of Ohio. Whether Kentucky will give him the _coup de grace_

is doubtful; but if he is able to descend the river with any means, we

are sufficiently prepared at New Orleans. I hope, however, Kentucky will

do its duty, and finish the matter for the honor of popular government,

and the discouragement of all arguments for standing armies. Accept my

friendly salutations, and assurances of great esteem and respect.

TO JONATHAN WILLIAMS AND C. W. PEALE, JUDGES OF ELECTION FOR THE A. P.

SOCIETY.

WASHINGTON, January 12, 1807.

GENTLEMEN,--I am again to return the tribute of my thanks for the

continued proofs of favor from the American Philosophical Society; and I

ever do it with sincere gratitude, sensible it is the effect of their good

will, and not of any services I have it in my power to render them. I pray

you to convey to them these expressions of my dutiful acknowledgments, and

to accept yourselves thanks for the favorable terms in which your letter

of the 2d instant announces the suffrage of the Society.

I am happy at the same time to greet them on the safe return of a valuable

member of our fraternity, from a journey of uncommon length and peril. He

will ere long be with them, and present them with the additions he brings

to our knowledge of the geography and natural history of our country, from

the Mississippi to the Pacific.

Tendering them my humble respects, permit me to add for yourselves my

friendly salutations, and assurances of high consideration.

TO MR. GALLATIN.

January 12, 1807.

I return you the letter of Mr. Gelston respecting the Brutus. From what I

learn, she cannot be destined for the Mississippi, because she draws too

much water to enter it. However, considering the difficulty Congress finds

in enlarging the limits of our preventive powers, I think we should be

cautious how we step across those limits ourselves. She is probably bound

to St. Domingo. Could not Congress, while continuing that law, amend it so

as to prevent the abuse actually practised. Affectionate salutations.

TO JOHN DICKINSON.

WASHINGTON, January 13, 1807.

MY DEAR AND ANCIENT FRIEND,--I have duly received your favor of the 1st

instant, and am ever thankful for communications which may guide me in the

duties which I wish to perform as well as I am able. It is but too true

that great discontents exist in the territory of Orleans. Those of the

French inhabitants have for their sources, 1, the prohibition of importing

slaves. This may be partly removed by Congress permitting them to receive

slaves from the other States, which, by dividing that evil, would lessen

its danger; 2, the administration of justice in our forms, principles,

and language, with all of which they are unacquainted, and are the more

abhorrent, because of the enormous expense, greatly exaggerated by the

corruption of bankrupt and greedy lawyers, who have gone there from the

United States and engrossed the practice; 3, the call on them by the land

commissioners to produce the titles of their lands. The object of this

is really to record and secure their rights. But as many of them hold on

rights so ancient that the title papers are lost; they expect the land

is to be taken from them whenever they cannot produce a regular deduction

of title in writing. In this they will be undeceived by the final result,

which will evince to them a liberal disposition of the government towards

them. Among the American inhabitants it is the old division of federalists

and republicans. The former are as hostile there as they are everywhere,

and are the most numerous and wealthy. They have been long endeavoring

to batter down the Governor, who has always been a firm republican. There

were characters superior to him whom I wished to appoint, but they refused

the office: I know no better man who would accept of it, and it would not

be right to turn him out for one not better. But it is the second cause,

above mentioned, which is deep-seated and permanent. The French members

of the Legislature, being the majority in both Houses, lately passed

an act declaring that the civil, or French laws, should be the laws of

their land, and enumerated about fifty folio volumes, in Latin, as the

depositories of these laws. The Governor negatived the act. One of the

Houses thereupon passed a vote for self-dissolution of the Legislature

as a useless body, which failed in the other House by a single vote

only. They separated, however, and have disseminated all the discontent

they could. I propose to the members of Congress in conversation, the

enlisting thirty thousand volunteers, Americans by birth, to be carried

at the public expense, and settled immediately on a bounty of one hundred

and sixty acres of land each, on the west side of the Mississippi, on the

condition of giving two years of military service, if that country should

be attacked within seven years. The defence of the country would thus be

placed on the spot, and the additional number would entitle the territory

to become a State, would make the majority American, and make it an

American instead of a French State. This would not sweeten the pill to the

French; but in making that acquisition we had some view to our own good as

well as theirs, and I believe the greatest good of both will be promoted

by whatever will amalgamate us together.

I have tired you, my friend, with a long letter. But your tedium will

end in a few lines more. Mine has yet two years to endure. I am tired

of an office where I can do no more good than many others, who would

be glad to be employed in it. To myself, personally, it brings nothing

but unceasing drudgery and daily loss of friends. Every office becoming

vacant, every appointment made, _me donne un ingrat, et cent ennemis_. My

only consolation is in the belief that my fellow citizens at large give

me credit for good intentions. I will certainly endeavor to merit the

continuance of that good-will which follows well-intended actions, and

their approbation will be the dearest reward I can carry into retirement.

God bless you, my excellent friend, and give you yet many healthy and

happy years.

TO MR. HENING.

WASHINGTON, January 14, 1807.

SIR,--Your letter of December 26th, was received in due time. The only

object I had in making my collection of the laws of Virginia, was to save

all those for the public which were not then already lost, in the hope

that at some future day they might be republished. Whether this be by

public or private enterprise, my end will be equally answered. The book

divides itself into two very distinct parts; to wit, the printed and

the unprinted laws. The former begin in 1682, (Pervis' collection.) My

collection of these is in strong volumes, well bound, and therefore may

safely be transported anywhere. Any of these volumes which you do not

possess, are at your service for the purpose of republication, but the

unprinted laws are dispersed through many MS. volumes, several of them so

decayed that the leaf can never be opened but once without falling into

powder. These can never bear removal further than from their shelf to a

table. They are, as well as I recollect, from 1622 downwards. I formerly

made such a digest of their order, and the volumes where they are to be

found, that, under my own superintendence, they could be copied with once

handling. More they would not bear. Hence the impracticability of their

being copied but at Monticello. But independent of them, the printed laws,

beginning in 1682, with all our former printed collections, will be a most

valuable publication, and sufficiently distinct. I shall have no doubt of

the exactness of your part of the work, but I hope you will take measures

for having the typography and paper worthy of the work. I am lead to this

caution by the scandalous volume of our laws printed by Pleasants in 1803,

and those by Davis in 1796 were little better; both unworthy the history

of Tom Thumb. You can have them better and cheaper printed anywhere north

of Richmond. Accept my salutations and assurances of respect.

TO DANIEL CLARKE, ESQ.

WASHINGTON, January 14, 1807.

SIR,--I have examined the papers you left with me on the claim to the

common of New Orleans, and finding the subject to be within the cognizance

of the Board of Commissioners for that territory, they will be immediately

instructed to make full inquiry into the foundation of the claim, and to

report it for the decision of Congress.

With respect to the lots and buildings in the city of New Orleans, held by

the public, the Governor will be immediately instructed to report an exact

list of them, stating the uses to which they were applied under the former

government, and those for which he thinks them proper at present, which

shall be laid before Congress at their next session, the Legislature alone

being competent to their final disposition.

I have lodged in the Treasury Office the papers you left with me; but

if you wish their return, they will there be delivered to you. Accept my

salutations and assurances of respect.

TO GENERAL SHEE.

WASHINGTON, January 14, 1807.

SIR,--Your letter of the 16th ult. was duly received, conveying a tender

of the Philadelphia republican militia legion, of their voluntary

services, against either foreign or domestic foes. The pressure of

business, usual at this season, has prevented its earlier acknowledgment,

and the return of my thanks, on the public behalf, for this example of

patriotic spirit. Always a friend to peace, and believing it to promote

eminently the happiness and prosperity of nations, I am ever unwilling

that it should be disturbed, until greater and more important interests

call for an appeal to force. Whenever that shall take place, I feel a

perfect confidence that the energy and enterprise displayed by my fellow

citizens in the pursuits of peace, will be equally eminent in those of

war. The Legislature have now under consideration, in what manner, and

to what extent, the executive may be permitted to accept the service of

volunteers, should the public peace be disturbed, either from without or

within. In whatever way they shall give that authority, the legion may be

assured that no unreasonable use shall be made of the proffer which their

laudable zeal has prompted them to make. With my just acknowledgments

to them, I pray you to accept personally the assurance of my high

consideration and respect.

TO CAPTAIN CHRISTIAN.

WASHINGTON, January 14, 1807.

SIR,--I have duly received your letter of December 24th, conveying a

tender, by the officers, non-commissioned officers, and privates of the

Saratoga Rangers, of their voluntary services to support the Constitution,

laws, and integrity of our country, when the constitutional authorities

shall declare it necessary, and I now, on the public behalf, return them

thanks for this example of patriotic spirit. Always a friend to peace,

and believing it to promote eminently the happiness and prosperity of

mankind, I am ever unwilling that it should be disturbed until greater and

more imperious interests call for an appeal to force. Whenever that shall

take place, I feel a perfect confidence that the energy and enterprise

displayed by my fellow citizens in the pursuits of peace, will be equally

eminent in those of war. The Legislature have now under consideration, in

what manner, and to what extent, the executive may be permitted to accept

the service of volunteers, should the public peace be disturbed either

from without or within. In whatever way they shall give that authority,

the Saratoga Rangers may be assured that no unreasonable use shall be made

of the proffer which their laudable zeal has prompted them to make. With

my acknowledgments to them, I pray you to accept personally the assurance

of my high consideration and respect.

TO GOVERNOR PINCKNEY.

WASHINGTON, January 20, 1807.

DEAR SIR,--I received two days ago a letter from General Wilkinson, dated

at New Orleans, December 14th, in which he enclosed me an affidavit, of

which I now transmit you a copy. You will perceive that it authenticates

the copy of a letter from Colonel Burr to the General, affirming that

Mr. Alston, his son-in-law, is engaged in the unlawful enterprises he is

carrying on, and is to be an actor in them. I am to add, also, that I have

received information from another source, that Mr. Alston, while returning

from Kentucky last autumn through the upper part of your State, proposed

to a Mr. Butler of that part of the country, to join in Colonel Burr's

enterprise, which he represented as of a nature to make his fortune, and

is understood to have been explained as against Mexico, as well as for

separating the Union of these States. That Butler communicated this to a

person, of the same part of the country, called Span, who communicated it

to a Mr. Horan, the clerk of a court in that quarter; that Butler and Span

agreed to join in the enterprise, but Horan refused.

Nobody is a better judge than yourself whether any and what measures can

be taken on this information. As to General Wilkinson's affidavit, it

will be laid before the Legislature in a few days, and, of course, will

be public; but as to the other part, if no use can be made of it, your

own discretion and candor would lead you to keep it secret. It is further

well known here that Mr. Alston is an endorser to a considerable amount,

of the bills which have enabled Colonel Burr to prepare his treasons. A

message which I shall send into the Legislature two days hence, will give

a development of them. I avail myself with pleasure of this opportunity of

recalling myself to your recollection, and of assuring you of my constant

esteem and high consideration.

TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.

January 24, 1807.

Several French vessels of war, disabled from keeping the sea, by the

storms which some time since took place on our coast, put into the

harbors of the United States to avoid the danger of shipwreck. The

Minister of their nation states that their crews are without resources

for subsistence, and other necessaries, for the reimbursement of which he

offers bills on his government, the faith of which he pledges for their

punctual payment.

The laws of humanity make it a duty for nations, as well as individuals,

to succor those whom accident and distress have thrown upon them. By

doing this in the present case, to the extent of mere _subsistence and

necessaries_, and so as to aid no military equipment, we shall keep within

the duties of rigorous neutrality, which never can be in opposition to

those of humanity. We furnished, on a former occasion, to a distressed

crew of the other belligerent party, similar accommodations, and we have

ourselves received, from both those powers, friendly and free supplies

to the necessities of our vessels of war in their Mediterranean ports.

In fact, the governments of civilized nations generally are in the

practice of exercising these offices of humanity towards each other. Our

government having as yet made no regular provision for the exchange of

these offices of courtesy and humanity between nations, the honor, the

interest, and the duty of our country requires that we should adopt any

other mode by which it may legally be done on the present occasion. It

is expected that we shall want a large sum of money in Europe, for the

purposes of the present negotiation with Spain, and besides this we want

annually large sums there, for the discharge of our instalments of debt.

Under these circumstances, supported by the unanimous opinion of the heads

of departments, given on the 15th of December, and again about the 10th

inst., and firmly trusting that the government of France will feel itself

peculiarly interested in the punctual discharge of the bills drawn by

their Minister, for the sole subsistence of their people, I approve of the

Secretary of the Treasury's taking the bills of the Minister of France,

to an amount not exceeding sixty thousand dollars, which according to his

own, as well as our estimate, will subsist his people until he will have

had time to be furnished with funds from his own government.

TO MR. GALLATIN.

January 31st, 1807.

Satisfied that New Orleans must fall a prey to any power which shall

attack it, in spite of any means we now possess, I see no security for it

but in planting on the spot the force which is to defend it. I therefore

suggest to some members of the Senate to add to the volunteer bill now

before them, as an amendment, some such section as that enclosed, which

is on the principles of what we agreed on last year, except the omission

of the two years' service. If, by giving one hundred miles square of that

country, we can secure the rest, and at the same time create an American

majority before Orleans becomes a State, it will be the best bargain ever

made. As you are intimate with the details of the Land Office, I will

thank you to make any amendments to the enclosed in that part, or in any

other which you may think needs it. Affectionate salutations.

TO MR. MADISON.

Sunday, February 1st, 1807.

The more I consider the letter of our minister in London, the more

seriously it impresses me. I believe the _sine quâ non_ we made is that of

the nation, and that they would rather go on without a treaty than with

one which does not settle this article. Under this dilemma, and at this

stage of the business, had we not better take the advice of the Senate? I

ask a meeting at eleven o'clock to-morrow, to consult on this question.

TO H. D. GOVERNOR TIFFIN.

WASHINGTON, February 2d, 1807.

SIR,--The pressure of business during a session of the Legislature has

rendered me more tardy in addressing you than it was my wish to have been.

That our fellow citizens of the West would need only to be informed of

criminal machinations against the public safety to crush them at once, I

never entertained a doubt. I have seen with the greatest satisfaction that

among those who have distinguished themselves by their fidelity to their

country, on the occasion of the enterprise of Mr. Burr, yourself and the

Legislature of Ohio have been the most eminent. The promptitude and energy

displayed by your State has been as honorable to itself as salutary to

its sister States; and in declaring that you have deserved well of your

country, I do but express the grateful sentiment of every faithful citizen

in it. The hand of the people has given the mortal blow to a conspiracy

which, in other countries, would have called for an appeal to armies, and

has proved that government to be the strongest of which every man feels

himself a part. It is a happy illustration, too, of the importance of

preserving to the State authorities all that vigor which the Constitution

foresaw would be necessary, not only for their own safety, but for that

of the whole. In making these acknowledgments of the merit of having

set this illustrious example of exertion for the common safety, I pray

that they may be considered as addressed to yourself and the Legislature

particularly, and generally to every citizen who has availed himself of

the opportunity given of proving his devotion to his country. Accept my

salutations and assurances of great consideration and esteem.

TO GENERAL WILKINSON.

WASHINGTON, February 3d, 1807.

SIR,--A returning express gives me an opportunity of acknowledging the

receipt of your letters of November 12th, December 9th, 10th, 14th, 18th,

25th, 26th, and January 2d. I wrote to you January 3d, and through Mr.

Briggs, January 10th. The former being written while the Secretary at War

was unable to attend to business, gave you the state of the information

we then possessed as to Burr's conspiracy. I now enclose you a message,

containing a complete history of it from the commencement down to the

eve of his departure from Nashville; and two subsequent messages showed

that he began his descent of the Mississippi January 1st, with ten boats,

from eighty to one hundred men of his party, navigated by sixty oarsmen

not at all of his party. This, I think, is fully the force with which he

will be able to meet your gun-boats; and as I think he was uninformed of

your proceedings, and could not get the information till he would reach

Natchez, I am in hopes that before this date he is in your possession.

Although we at no time believed he could carry any formidable force out

of the Ohio, yet we thought it safest that you should be prepared to

receive him with all the force which could be assembled, and with that

view our orders were given; and we were pleased to see that without

waiting for them, you adopted nearly the same plan yourself, and acted

on it with promptitude; the difference between yours and ours proceeding

from your expecting an attack by sea, which we knew was impossible, either

by England or by a fleet under Truxton, who was at home; or by our own

navy, which was under our own eye. Your belief that Burr would really

descend with six or seven thousand men, was no doubt founded on what you

knew of the numbers which could be raised in the Western country for an

expedition to Mexico, _under the authority of the government_; but you

probably did not calculate that the want of that authority would take

from him every honest man, and leave him only the desperadoes of his

party, which in no part of the United States can ever be a numerous body.

In approving, therefore, as we do approve, of the defensive operations

for New Orleans, we are obliged to estimate them, not according to our

own view of the danger, but to place ourselves in your situation, and

only with your information. Your sending here Swartwout and Bollman, and

adding to them Burr, Blannerhassett, and Tyler, should they fall into

your hands, will be supported by the public opinion. As to Alexander,

who is arrived, and Ogden, expected, the evidence yet received will not

be sufficient to commit them. I hope, however, you will not extend this

deportation to persons against whom there is only suspicion, or shades of

offence not strongly marked. In that case, I fear the public sentiment

would desert you; because, seeing no danger here, violations of law are

felt with strength. I have thought it just to give you these views of

the sentiments and sensations here, as they may enlighten your path. I

am thoroughly sensible of the painful difficulties of your situation,

expecting an attack from an overwhelming force, unversed in law,

surrounded by suspected persons, and in a nation tender as to everything

infringing liberty, and especially from the military. You have doubtless

seen a good deal of malicious insinuation in the papers against you.

This, of course, begot suspicion and distrust in those acquainted with

the line of your conduct. We, who knew it, have not failed to strengthen

the public confidence in you; and I can assure you that your conduct, as

now known, has placed you on ground extremely favorable with the public.

Burr and his emissaries found it convenient to sow a distrust in your

mind of our dispositions towards you; but be assured that you will be

cordially supported in the line of your duties. I pray you to send me D.'s

original letter, communicated through Briggs, by the first entirely safe

conveyance. Accept my friendly salutations, and assurances of esteem and

respect.

TO GOVERNOR CLAIBORNE.

WASHINGTON, February 3, 1807.

DEAR SIR,--I pray you to read the enclosed letter, to seal and deliver

it. It explains itself so fully, that I need say nothing. I am sincerely

concerned for Mr. Reibelt, who is a man of excellent understanding

and extensive science. If you had any academical berth, he would be

much better fitted for that than for the bustling business of life.

I enclose to General Wilkinson my message of January 22d. I presume,

however, you will have seen it in the papers. It gives the history of

Burr's conspiracy, all but the last chapter, which will, I hope, be

that of his capture before this time, at Natchez. Your situations have

been difficult, and we judge of the merit of our agents there by the

magnitude of the danger as it appeared to them, not as it was known to

us. On great occasions every good officer must be ready to risk himself

in going beyond the strict line of law, when the public preservation

requires it; his motives will be a justification as far as there is any

discretion in his ultra-legal proceedings, and no indulgence of private

feelings. On the whole, this squall, by showing with what ease our

government suppresses movements which in other countries requires armies,

has greatly increased its strength by increasing the public confidence in

it. It has been a wholesome lesson too to our citizens, of the necessary

obedience to their government. The Feds, and the little band of Quids,

in opposition, will try to make something of the infringement of liberty

by the military arrest and deportation of citizens, but if it does not go

beyond such offenders as Swartwout, Bollman, Burr, Blennerhasset, Tyler,

&c., they will be supported by the public approbation. Accept my friendly

salutations, and assurances of esteem and respect.

TO MR. SMITH.

February 6, 1807.

A resolution of the House of Representatives of yesterday, asks from me

information as to the efficacy of the gun-boat defence, what particular

ports we propose to place them in, and how many in each. I will enumerate

the particular ports, but instead of saying literally how many to each, on

which there would be a thousand opinions, I will throw them into groups as

below, and say how many to each group. Will you be so good as to state how

many you would think necessary for each of the ports below mentioned, to

give then such a degree of protection as you think would be sufficiently

effectual in time of war? Also to strike out any of the ports here named,

and insert others as you shall think best:

Mississippi river, }

Lake Ponchartrain, }

Savannah, }

Beaufort, }

Charleston, }

Cape Fear, }

Ocracock, }

Chesapeake Bay and water,

Delaware Bay,

New York, }

New London, }

Newport, }

Boston, }

Newburyport,}

Portsmouth, }

Portland, }

Kennebeck, }

Penobscot, }

Passamaquoddy.

Send me also, if you please, copies of the opinions of certain officers

on the effect of gun-boats, which I believe, were formerly laid before a

committee.

A similar note in substance was sent to General Dearborne.

TO MR. GALLATIN.

February 9, 1807.

I thank you for the case in the Siman Sea, which escaped my recollection.

It was indeed a very favorable one. I have adopted your other amendments,

except as to the not building _now_; my own opinion being very strongly

against this for these reasons: 1st. The 127 gun-boats cannot be built

in one, two, or even six months. Commodore Preble told me he could

build those he undertook, in two months. They were but four, and though

he was preparing during the winter, was engaged in April, and pressed

to expedite them, they were not ready for sea till November. 2d. After

war commences they cannot be built in New York, Boston, Norfolk, or any

seaport, because they would be destroyed by the enemy, on the stocks.

They could then be built only in interior places, inaccessible to ships

and defended by the body of the country, where the building would be

slow. 3d. The first operation of war by an enterprising enemy would be

to sweep all our seaports, of their vessels at least. 4th. The expense

of their preservation would be all but nothing, because I have had the

opinion of, I believe, every captain of the navy, that the largest of our

gun-boats can be drawn up, out of the water, and placed under a shed with

great ease, by preparing ways and capstans proper for it, and always ready

to let her down again. Such of them as are built in suitable places may

remain on the stocks unlaunched. 5th. Full the half of the whole number

would be small, and not costing more than three-fifths of the large ones.

Affectionate salutations.

TO THOMAS SEYMOUR, ESQ.

WASHINGTON, February 11, 1807.

SIR,--The mass of business which occurs during a session of the

Legislature, renders me necessarily unpunctual in acknowledging the

receipt of letters, and in answering those which will admit of delay.

This must be my apology for being so late in noticing the receipt of the

letter of December 20th, addressed to me by yourself, and several other

republican characters of your State of high respectability. I have seen

with deep concern the afflicting oppression under which the republican

citizens of Connecticut suffer from an unjust majority. The truths

expressed in your letter have been long exposed to the nation through the

channel of the public papers, and are the more readily believed because

most of the States during the momentary ascendancy of kindred majorities,

in them have seen the same spirit of opposition prevail.

With respect to the countervailing prosecutions now instituted in the

Court of the United States in Connecticut, I had heard but little, and

certainly, I believe, never expressed a sentiment on them. That a spirit

of indignation and retaliation should arise when an opportunity should

present itself, was too much within the human constitution to excite

either surprise or censure, and confined to an appeal to truth only, it

cannot lessen the useful freedom of the press.

As to myself, conscious that there was not a _truth_ on earth which I

feared should be known, I have lent myself willingly as the subject of a

great experiment, which was to prove that an administration, conducting

itself with integrity and common understanding, cannot be battered down,

even by the falsehoods of a licentious press, and consequently still

less by the press, as restrained within the legal and wholesome limits

of truth. This experiment was wanting for the world to demonstrate

the falsehood of the pretext that freedom of the press is incompatible

with orderly government. I have never therefore even contradicted the

thousands of calumnies so industriously propagated against myself. But

the fact being once established, that the press is impotent when it

abandons itself to falsehood, I leave to others to restore it to its

strength, by recalling it within the pale of truth. Within that it is a

noble institution, equally the friend of science and of civil liberty.

If this can once be effected in your State, I trust we shall soon see

its citizens rally to the republican principles of our Constitution,

which unite their sister-States into one family. It would seem impossible

that an intelligent people, with the faculty of reading and right of

thinking, should continue much longer to slumber under the pupilage of

an interested aristocracy of priests and lawyers, persuading them to

distrust themselves, and to let them think for them. I sincerely wish that

your efforts may awaken them from this voluntary degradation of mind,

restore them to a due estimate of themselves and their fellow-citizens,

and a just abhorrence of the falsehoods and artifices which have seduced

them. Experience of the use made by federalism of whatever comes from me,

obliges me to suggest the caution of considering my letter as private. I

pray you to present me respectfully to the other gentlemen who joined in

the letter to me, and to whom this is equally addressed, and to accept

yourself my salutations, and assurances of great esteem and consideration.

TO GENERAL DEARBORNE.

February 14, 1807.

Thomas Jefferson salutes General Dearborne with friendship, and

communicates the following information from Captain Lewis, which may be

useful to Colonel Freeman, and our future explorers; and indeed may enable

us understandingly to do acceptable things to our Louisiana neighbors when

we wish to gratify them.

He says the following are the articles in highest value with them:

1. _Blue_ beads. This is a coarse cheap bead imported from China, and

costing in England 13d. the pound, in strands. It is far more valued by

the Indians than the _white_ beads of the same manufacture, and answers

all the purposes of money, being counted by the fathom. He says that were

his journey to be performed again, one-half or two-thirds of his stores

_in value_ should be of these.

2. Common brass buttons, more valued than anything except beads.

3. Knives.

4. Battleaxes and tomahawks.

5. Sadlers' seat awls, which answer for moccasin awls.

6. Some glovers' needles.

7. Some iron combs.

8. Some nests of camp kettles; brass is much preferred to iron, though

both are very useful to the Indians.

Arrow-points should have been added.

TO MR. NICHOLSON.

WASHINGTON, February 20, 1807.

DEAR SIR,--I did not receive your letter of the 18th till this morning. I

am as yet in possession of no evidence against Adair, which could convict

him. General Wilkinson writes me that he would send the evidence against

him and Ogden by the officer bringing them, and that officer informed

General Dearborne (from Baltimore) that he was in possession of a large

packet from General Wilkinson to me, which he was ordered to deliver into

my hands only; and, on that, he was ordered to come on with his prisoners,

that they and the evidence against them might be delivered up to the court

here. If the evidence, however, be found conclusive, they can be arrested

again, if it shall be worth while. Their crimes are defeated, and whether

they shall be punished or not belongs to another department, and is not

the subject of even a wish on my part. Accept my friendly salutations, and

assurances of great respect and esteem.

TO DR. WISTAR.

WASHINGTON, February 25, 1807.

DEAR SIR,--I enclose you a letter from Dr. Goforth on the subject of the

bones of the mammoth. Immediately on the receipt of this, as I found it

was in my power to accomplish the wishes of the society for the completion

of this skeleton with more certainty than through the channel proposed

in the letter, I set the thing into motion, so that it will be effected

without any expense to the society, or other trouble than to indicate

the particular bones wanting. Being acquainted with Mr. Ross, proprietor

of the big bone lick, I wrote to him for permission to search for such

particular bones as the society might desire, and I expect to receive it

in a few days. Captain Clarke (companion of Captain Lewis) who is now

here, agrees, as he passes through that country, to stop at the Lick,

employ laborers, and superintend the search at my expense, not that of

the society, and to send me the specific bones wanted, without further

trespassing on the deposit, about which Mr. Ross would be tender, and

particularly where he apprehended that the person employed would wish to

collect for himself. If therefore you will be so good as to send me a list

of the bones wanting (the one you formerly sent me having been forwarded

to Dr. Brown), the business shall be effected without encroaching at all

on the funds of the society, and it will be particularly gratifying to me

to have the opportunity of being of some use to them. But send me the list

if you please without any delay, as Captain Clarke returns in a few days,

and we should lose the opportunity. I send you a paper from Dr. Thornton

for the society. Accept my friendly salutations, and assurances of great

esteem and respect.

TO MR. CHANDLER PRICE.

WASHINGTON, February 28, 1807.

SIR,--Your favor of the 24th was received this morning. The greatest favor

which can be done me is the communication of the opinions of judicious

men, of men who do not suffer their judgments to be biassed by either

interests or passions. Of this character, I know Mr. Morgan to be. I

return you the original of the letter of January 15th, having copied it

to a mark in the 4th page, which you will see. I retain, as I understand,

with your permission, the copies of those of January 22d and 27th, because

they are copies; and the original of December 31st, because it relates

wholly to public matters. They shall be sacredly reserved to myself,

and for my own information only. The fortification of New Orleans will

be taken up on a sufficient footing; but the other part of Mr. Morgan's

wish, an additional regular force, will not prevail. The spirit of

this country is totally adverse to a large military force. I have tried

for two sessions to prevail on the Legislature to let me plant thirty

thousand well chosen volunteers on donation lands on the west side of the

Mississippi, as a militia always at hand for the defence of New Orleans;

but I have not yet succeeded. The opinion grows, and will perhaps ripen

by the next session. A great security for that country is, that there is

a moral certainty that neither France nor England would meddle with that

country, while the present state of Europe continues, and Spain we fear

not. Accept my salutations, and assurances of esteem and respect.

TO THE KING OF HOLLAND.

February 28, 1807.

GREAT AND GOOD FRIEND,--Having received your letter of September last,

which notifies your accession to the throne of Holland, I tender you in

behalf of the United States my congratulations on this event. Connected

with that nation by the earliest ties of friendship, and maintaining

with them uninterrupted relations of peace and commerce, no event which

interests their welfare can be indifferent to us. It is therefore with

great pleasure I receive the assurances of your majesty that you will

continue to cherish these ancient relations; and we shall, on our part,

endeavor to strengthen your good will by a faithful observance of justice,

and by all the good offices which occasion shall permit. Distant as we

are from the powers of Europe, and devoted to pursuits which separate

us from their affairs, we still look with brotherly concern on whatever

affects those nations, and offer constant prayers for their welfare. With

a friendly solicitude for your Majesty's person, I pray God, that he may

always have you, great and good friend, in His holy keeping. Done, &c.

TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS.

WASHINGTON, February 28, 1807.

DEAR SIR,--Your letter of January the 20th was received in due time. But

such has been the constant pressure of business, that it has been out of

my power to answer it. Indeed, the subjects of it would be almost beyond

the extent of a letter, and as I hope to see you ere long at Monticello,

it can then be more effectually done verbally. Let me observe, however,

generally, that it is impossible for my friends ever to render me so

acceptable a favor, as by communicating to me, without reserve, facts

and opinions. I have none of that sort of self-love which winces at it;

indeed, both self-love and the desire to do what is best, strongly invite

unreserved communication. There is one subject which will not admit a

delay till I see you. Mr. T. M. Randolph is, I believe, determined to

retire from Congress, and it is strongly his wish, and that of all here,

that you should take his place. Never did the calls of patriotism more

loudly assail you than at this moment. After excepting the federalists,

who will be twenty-seven, and the little band of schismatics, who will be

three or four (all tongue), the residue of the House of Representatives

is as well disposed a body of men as I ever saw collected. But there is no

one whose talents and standing, taken together, have weight enough to give

him the lead. The consequence is, that there is no one who will undertake

to do the public business, and it remains undone. Were you here, the whole

would rally round you in an instant, and willingly co-operate in whatever

is for the public good. Nor would it require you to undertake drudgery

in the House. There are enough, able and willing to do that. A rallying

point is all that is wanting. Let me beseech you then to offer yourself.

You never will have it so much in your power again to render such eminent

service.

Accept my affectionate salutations and high esteem.

TO MR. GALLATIN.

March 7, 1807.

In the case of Mr. Bloodworth, our first duty is to save the public

from loss; the second, to aid the securities in saving themselves. They

have not asked a dismission, which would probably do them injury, but an

examination. I should think it equally safe for the public, and better for

the securities, to send them a dismission of the collector, to be used

or not at their discretion. With this in their hand, they could compel

him to convey his property as a security to them, and to receive deputies

of their appointment, who should apply all the future emoluments of the

collector, or a given part of them, towards making up the deficit. But

in such case, faithful reports should be made to you from time to time,

that you may see that this operation is honestly going on, and no new

danger arising to the public. These ideas are submitted merely for your

consideration, as I am ready to sign a dismission as above proposed, or

make a new appointment at once, whichever you think best. Affectionate

salutations.

TO ROBERT BRENT, ESQ.

WASHINGTON, March 10, 1807.

SIR,--I have received your letter of yesterday, asking the application of

a part of a late appropriation of Congress, to certain avenues and roads

in this place.

The only appropriation ever before made by Congress to an object of

this nature, was "to the public buildings and the highways _between_

them." This ground was deliberately taken, and I accordingly restrained

the application of the money to the avenue between the Capitol and the

Executive buildings, and the roads round the two squares.

The last appropriation was in terms much more lax, to wit, "for avenues

and roads in the District of Columbia." This, indeed, would take in a

large field, but besides that we cannot suppose Congress intended to

tax the people of the United States at large, for all the avenues in

Washington and roads in Columbia; we know the fact to have been that

the expression was strongly objected to, and was saved merely from a

want of time to discuss, (the last day of the session,) and the fear of

losing the whole bill. But the sum appropriated (three thousand dollars)

shows they did not mean it for so large a field; for by the time the

Pennsylvania avenue, between the two houses, is widened, newly gravelled,

planted, brick tunnels instead of wood, the roads round the squares put

in order, and that in the south front of the war office dug down to its

proper level, there will be no more of the three thousand dollars left

than will be wanting for constant repairs. With this view of the just and

probable intention of the Legislature, I shall not think myself authorized

to take advantage of a lax expression, forced on by circumstances, to

carry the execution of the law into a region of expense which would merit

great consideration before they should embark in it. Accept my friendly

salutations, and assurances of great esteem and respect.

TO MR. GALLATIN.

March 20, 1807.

I think with you it is better to leave the leasing the Salt Springs to

Governor Harrison, who will do it according to general rules; and I am

averse to giving contracts of any kind to members of the Legislature. On

the subject of Latimer's letter, I gave him a general answer, that all

indulgence permitted by the spirit of the law would be used. I am unable

to give any particular opinion, because the law not having been printed

yet, I cannot turn to it; but I am ready to approve any proposition you

think best. Indeed, I have but a little moment in the morning in which I

can either read, write, or think; being obliged to be shut up in a dark

room from early in the forenoon till night, with a periodical head-ache.

Affectionate salutations.

TO THE GOVERNOR OF KENTUCKY, TENNESSEE, OHIO, AND MISSISSIPPI.

WASHINGTON, March 21, 1807.

SIR,--Although the present state of things on the western side of the

Mississippi does not threaten any immediate collision with our neighbors

in that quarter, and it is our wish they should remain undisturbed until

an amicable adjustment may take place; yet as this does not depend on

ourselves alone, it has been thought prudent to be prepared to meet any

movements which may occur. The law of a former session of Congress, for

keeping a body of 100,000 militia in readiness for service at a moment's

warning, is still in force. But by an act of the last session, a copy of

which I now enclose, the Executive is authorized to accept the services of

such volunteers as shall offer themselves on the conditions of the act,

which may render a resort to the former act unnecessary. It is for the

execution of this act that I am now to solicit your zealous endeavors. The

persons who shall engage will not be called from their homes until some

aggression, committed or intended, shall render it necessary. When called

into action, it will not be for a lounging, but for an active, and perhaps

distant, service. I know the effect of this consideration in kindling that

ardor which prevails for this service, and I count on it for filling up

the numbers requisite without delay. To yourself, I am sure, it must be as

desirable as it is to me, to transfer this service from the great mass of

our militia to that portion of them, to whose habits and enterprise active

and distant service is most congenial. In using, therefore, your best

exertions towards accomplishing the object of this act, you will render to

your constituents, as well as to the nation, a most acceptable service.

With respect to the organizing and officering those who shall be

engaged within your State, the act itself will be your guide; and as it

is desirable that we should be kept informed of the progress in this

business, I must pray you to report the same from time to time to the

Secretary at War, who will correspond with you on all the details arising

out of it.

I salute you with great consideration and respect.

TO JAMES MONROE.

WASHINGTON, March 21, 1807.

DEAR SIR,--A copy of the treaty with Great Britain came to Mr. Erskine's

hands on the last day of the session of Congress, which he immediately

communicated to us; and since that Mr. Purviance has arrived with

an original. On the subject of it you will receive a letter from the

Secretary of State, of about this date, and one more in detail hereafter.

I should not have written, but that I perceive uncommon efforts, and

with uncommon wickedness, are making by the federal papers to produce

mischief between myself, personally, and our negotiators; and also to

irritate the British government, by putting a thousand speeches into my

mouth, not one word of which I ever uttered. I have, therefore, thought

it safe to guard you, by stating the view which we have given out on the

subject of the treaty, in conversation and otherwise; for ours, as you

know, is a government which will not tolerate the being kept entirely in

the dark, and especially on a subject so interesting as this treaty. We

immediately stated in conversation, to the members of the Legislature and

others, that having, by a letter received in January, perceived that our

ministers might sign a treaty not providing satisfactorily against the

impressment of our seamen, we had, on the 3d of February, informed you,

that should such an one have been forwarded, it could not be ratified,

and recommending, therefore that you should resume negotiations for

inserting an article to that effect; that we should hold the treaty in

suspense until we could learn from you the result of our instructions,

which probably would not be till summer, and then decide on the question

of calling the Senate. We observed, too, that a written declaration of

the British commissioners, given in at the time of signature, would of

itself, unless withdrawn, prevent the acceptance of any treaty, because

its effect was to leave us bound by the treaty, and themselves totally

unbound. This is the statement we have given out, and nothing more of the

contents of the treaty has ever been made known. But depend on it, my dear

Sir, that it will be considered as a hard treaty when it is known. The

British commissioners appear to have screwed every article as far as it

would bear, to have taken everything, and yielded nothing. Take out the

eleventh article, and the evil of all the others so much overweighs the

good, that we should be glad to expunge the whole. And even the eleventh

article admits only that we may enjoy our right to the indirect colonial

trade, _during the present hostilities_. If peace is made this year, and

war resumed the next, the benefit of this stipulation is gone, and yet

we are bound for ten years, to pass no non-importation or non-intercourse

laws, nor take any other measures to restrain the unjust pretensions and

practices of the British. But on this you will hear from the Secretary of

State. If the treaty can not be put into acceptable form, then the next

best thing is to back out of the negotiation as well as we can, letting

that die away insensibly; but, in the meantime, agreeing informally, that

both parties shall act on the principles of the treaty, so as to preserve

that friendly understanding which we sincerely desire, until the one or

the other may be deposed to yield the points which divide us. This will

leave you to follow your desire of coming home, as soon as you see that

the amendment of the treaty is desperate. The power of continuing the

negotiations will pass over to Mr. Pinckney, who, by procrastinations, can

let it die away, and give us time, the most precious of all things to us.

The government of New Orleans is still without such a head as I wish. The

salary of five thousand dollars is too small; but I am assured the Orleans

legislature would make it adequate, would you accept it. It is the second

office in the United States in importance, and I am still in hopes you

will accept it. It is impossible to let you stay at home while the public

has so much need of talents. I am writing under a severe indisposition of

periodical headache, without scarcely command enough of my mind to know

what I write. As a part of this letter concerns Mr. Pinckney as well as

yourself, be so good as to communicate so much of it to him; and with

my best respects to him, to Mrs. Monroe and your daughter, be assured

yourself, in all cases, of my constant and affectionate friendship and

attachment.

TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON, ESQ.

WASHINGTON, March 24th, 1807.

DEAR SIR,--The two receipts of Poncin's have come safely to hand. The

account had been settled without difficulty. The federal papers appear

desirous of making mischief between us and England, by putting speeches

into my mouth which I never uttered. Perceiving, by a letter received

in January, that our commissioners were making up their mind to sign a

treaty which contained no provision against impressment, we immediately

instructed them not to do so; and if done, to consider the treaty as not

accepted, and to resume their negociations to supply an article against

impressment. We therefore hold the treaty in suspense, until we hear what

is done in consequence of our last instructions. Probably we shall not

hear till midsummer, and we reserve till that time the question of calling

the Senate. In the meantime, to show the continuance of a friendly spirit,

we continue the suspension of the non-importation act by proclamation.

Another cause for not accepting the treaty was a written declaration by

the British commissioner, at the time of signing, reserving a right, if

we did not oppose the French decree to their satisfaction, to retaliate

in their own way, however it might affect the treaty; so that, in fact,

we were to be bound, and they left free. I think, upon the whole, the

emperor cannot be dissatisfied at the present state of things between us

and England, and that he must rather be satisfied at our unhesitating

rejection of a proposition to make common cause against him, for such

in amount it was. Burr has indeed made a most inglorious exhibition of

his much over-rated talents. He is now on his way to Richmond for trial.

Accept my friendly salutations, and assurances of constant esteem and

respect.

TO ----.

WASHINGTON, March 25th, 1807.

DEAR SIR,-- * * * * * Burr is on his way to Richmond for trial. No man's

history proves better the value of honesty. With that, what might he

not have been! I expect you are at a loss to understand the situation

of the British treaty, on which the newspapers make so many speeches for

me which I never made. It is exactly this. By a letter received from our

negotiators in January, we found they were making up their minds to sign

a treaty containing no provision against the impressment of our seamen.

We instantly (February 3d) instructed them not to do so; and that if such

a treaty had been forwarded, it could not be ratified; that therefore

they must immediately resume the negociations to supply that defect,

as a _sine quâ non_. Such a treaty having come to hand, we of course

suspend it, until we know the result of the instructions of February 3d,

which probably will not be till midsummer. We reserve ourselves till

then to decide the question of calling the Senate. In the meantime, I

have, by proclamation continued the suspension of the non-importation

law, as a proof of the continuance of friendly dispositions. There was

another circumstance which would have prevented the acceptance of the

treaty. The British commissioners, at the time of signing, gave in a

written declaration, that until they knew what we meant to do in the

subject of the French decree, the king reserved to himself the right of

not ratifying, and of taking any measures retaliating on France which

he should deem proper, notwithstanding the treaty. This made the treaty

binding on us; while he was loose to regard it or not, and clearly

squinted at the expectation that we should join in resistance to France,

or they would not regard the treaty. We rejected this idea unhesitatingly.

I expected to have paid a short visit to Monticello before this, but have

been detained by the illness of my son-in-law, Mr. Randolph, and now by

an attack of periodical headache on myself. This leaves me but an hour

and a half each morning capable of any business at all. A part of this I

have devoted to write you this letter, and to assure you of my constant

friendship and respect.

TO COLONEL G. MORGAN.

WASHINGTON, March 26th, 1807.

SIR,--Your favors of January 19th and 20th came to hand in due time, but

it was not in my power to acknowledge their receipt during the session

of Congress. General Gage's paper I have filed with that on Pensacola,

in the War Office, and Mr. Hutchins' map, in the Navy Office, where they

will be useful. I tender you my thanks for this contribution to the public

service. The bed of the Mississippi and the shoals on the coast change

so frequently, as to require frequent renewals of the surveys. Congress

have authorized a new survey of our whole coast, by an act of the last

session. Burr is on his way to Richmond for trial; and if the judges do

not discharge him before it is possible to collect the testimony from

Maine to New Orleans, there can be no doubt where his history will end.

To what degree punishments of his adherents shall be extended, will be

decided when we shall have collected all the evidence, and seen who were

cordially guilty. The federalists appear to make Burr's cause their own,

and to spare no efforts to screen his adherents. Their great mortification

is at the failure of his plans. Had a little success dawned on him, their

openly joining him might have produced some danger. As it is, I believe

the undertaking will not be without some good effects, as a wholesome

lesson to those who have more ardor than principle. I believe there is

reason to expect that Blennerhasset will also be sent by the judges of

Mississippi to Virginia. Yours was the very first intimation I had of this

plot, for which it is but justice to say you have deserved well of your

country. Accept my friendly salutations, and assurances of great esteem

and respect.

TO MR. COXE.

WASHINGTON, March 27, 1807.

SIR,--I received on the 24th of January a communication, which from an

endorsement in your hand, I knew to have come from you. Others had been

received at different periods before, which candor obliges me frankly

to say, had not been answered because some of the earliest of them had

been of a character with which I thought it my duty to be dissatisfied.

Observing, however, that you have continued to turn your attention

assiduously to the public interests, and to communicate to the government

your ideas, which have often been useful, I expunge from my mind the

umbrage which had been taken, and wish it no more to be recollected or

explained on either side.

Your idea of providing as many arms as we have fighting men, is

undoubtedly a sound one. Its execution, however, depends on the

Legislature. Composed, indeed, of gentlemen of the best intentions, but

like all others collected in mass, requiring considerable time to receive

impressions, however useful, if new. Time and reflection will not fail in

the end to bring them to whatever is right. The session before the last I

proposed to them the classification of the militia, so that those in the

prime of life only, and unburthened with families, should ever be called

into distant service; and that every man should receive a stand of arms

the first year he entered the militia. This would have required 40,000

stands a year, and in a few years would have armed the whole, besides

the stock in the public arsenals, which is a good one. Converts to the

measure are daily coming over, and it will prevail in time. The same thing

will happen as to the employing the surplus of our revenues to roads,

rivers, canals, education. The proposition for building lock-docks for

the preservation of our navy, has local rivalries to contend against. Till

these can be overruled or compromised, the measure can never be adopted.

Yet there ought never to be another ship built until we can provide some

method of preserving them through the long intervals of peace which I hope

are to be the lot of our country. I understand that, employing private as

well as the public manufactories, we can make about 40,000 stand of arms

a year. But they come so much dearer than the imported of equal quality,

that we shall import also. From the beginning of my administration, I have

discouraged the laying in stores of powder, but have recommended great

stores of sulphur and salt-petre. I confess, however, I do not apprehend

that the dislike which I know the European governments have to our form,

will combine them in any serious attempts against it. They have too

many jealousies of one another, to engage in distant wars for a matter

of opinion only. I verily believe that it will ever be in our power to

keep so even a stand between England and France, as to inspire a wish in

neither to throw us into the scale of his adversary. But if we can do this

for a dozen years only, we shall have little to fear from them. Accept my

salutations, and assurances of esteem and respect.

TO LEVETT HARRIS, ESQ.

WASHINGTON, March 28, 1807.

SIR,--Your letters of August 10th and September 18th have been duly

received, and I have to thank you for the safe transmission of the four

volumes of the "Vocabulaires Comparés de Pallas," for which I am indebted,

through you, to the Minister of Commerce, Count Romanzoff. I must pray

you, in a particular manner, to express to his Excellency my sensibility

for this mark of his obliging attention, rendered the more impressive

from a high esteem for his personal character, and from the hope that an

interchange of personal esteem may contribute to strengthen the friendship

of the two nations, bound together by many similar interests. To this

I must add by anticipation my thanks for his work on the Commerce of

Russia, as well as to Count Potoski, for the two works from him, which you

mention to have been sent by Mr. A. Smith, and which, I doubt not, will

come safely to hand. Accept for yourself my salutations and assurances of

esteem and respect.

TO MR. GALLATIN.

March 29, 1807.

A doubt is entertained whether the Acts of Congress respecting claims

to lands in Orleans and Louisiana, and authorizing the commissioners

"to decide according to the laws and established usages and customs of

the French and Spanish governments, _upon all claims to lands within

their respective districts_," &c., meant to give that power as to _all

claims_, or to restrict it to those claims only which had been previously

recognized by Congress.

Were it necessary for us to decide that question, I should be of opinion

that it meant _all claims_, because the words are general. "_All claims

to lands within their respective districts_," and there are no other words

restricting them to those claims only, previously recognized by Congress;

and because the intention of the Act was to quiet and satisfy all the

minor claimants, and reserve only the great and fraudulent speculations

for rigorous examination.

But the Board of Commissioners, being a judiciary tribunal, I should think

it proper to leave them to the law itself, as their instructions, on the

meaning of which they are competent to decide, and, being on the spot, are

better informed of the nature of those claims than we are. Affectionate

salutations.

TO GENERAL DEARBORNE.

March 29, 1807.

Many officers of the army being involved in the offence of intending a

military enterprise against a nation at peace with the United States,

to remove the whole without trial, by the paramount authority of the

executive, would be a proceeding of unusual severity. Some line must

therefore be drawn to separate the more from the less guilty. The only

sound one which occurs to me is between those who believed the enterprise

was with the approbation of the government, open or secret, and those who

meant to proceed in defiance of the government. Concealment would be no

line at all, because all concealed it. Applying the line of _defiance_

to the case of Lieutenant Meade, it does not appear by any testimony I

have seen, that he meant to proceed in defiance of the government, but,

on the contrary, that he was made to believe the government approved

of the expedition. If it be objected that he concealed a part of what

had taken place in his communications to the Secretary at War, yet if a

concealment of the whole would not furnish a proper line of distinction,

still less would the concealment of a part. This too would be a removal

for _prevarication_, not for _unauthorized enterprise_, and could not be

a proper ground for exercising the extraordinary power of removal by the

President. On the whole, I think Lieutenant Meade's is not a case for its

exercise. Affectionate salutations.

TO MR. ROBERT PATTERSON.

WASHINGTON, March 29, 1807.

DEAR SIR,--I have duly received your letter of the 25th, proposing the

appointment of an assistant-engraver to the Mint, at a salary of $600, and

that Mr. Reich should be the assistant. You are so exclusively competent

to decide on the want of such an officer, that I approve the proposition

in the faith of your opinion. With respect to the person to be appointed,

my knowledge of the superior talents of Mr. Reich concurs with your

recommendation in the propriety of appointing him.

I should approve of your employing the Mint on small silver coins, rather

than on dollars and gold coins, as far as the consent of those who employ

it can be obtained. It would be much more valuable to the public to be

supplied with abundance of dimes and half dimes, which would stay among

us, than with dollars and eagles which leave us immediately. Indeed I

wish the law authorized the making two cent and three cent pieces of

silver, and golden dollars, which would all be large enough to handle, and

would be a great convenience to our own citizens. Accept my affectionate

salutations.

TO M. LE COMTE DIODATI.

WASHINGTON, March 29, 1807.

MY DEAR AND ANCIENT FRIEND,--Your letter of August the 29th reached me

on the 18th of February. It enclosed a duplicate of that written from

Brunswick five years before, but which I never received, or had notice of,

but by this duplicate. Be assured, my friend, that I was incapable of such

negligence towards you, as a failure to answer it would have implied. It

would illy have accorded with those sentiments of friendship I entertained

for you at Paris, and which neither time nor distance has lessened. I

often pass in review the many happy hours I spent with Madame Diodati

and yourself on the banks of the Seine, as well as at Paris, and I count

them among the most pleasing I enjoyed in France. Those were indeed days

of tranquillity and happiness. They had begun to cloud a little before I

left you; but I had no apprehension that the tempest, of which I saw the

beginning, was to spread over such an extent of space and time. I have

often thought of you with anxiety, and wished to know how you weathered

the storm, and into what port you had retired. The letters now received

give me the first information, and I sincerely felicitate you on your safe

and quiet retreat. Were I in Europe, _pax et panis_ would certainly be my

motto. Wars and contentions, indeed, fill the pages of history with more

matter. But more blest is that nation whose silent course of happiness

furnishes nothing for history to say. This is what I ambition for my own

country, and what it has fortunately enjoyed for now upwards of twenty

years, while Europe has been in constant volcanic eruption, I again, my

friend, repeat my joy that you have escaped the overwhelming torrent of

its lava.

At the end of my present term, of which two years are yet to come, I

propose to retire from public life, and to close my days on my patrimony

of Monticello, in the bosom of my family. I have hitherto enjoyed uniform

health; but the weight of public business begins to be too heavy for me,

and I long for the enjoyments of rural life, among my books, my farms and

my family. Having performed my _quadragena stipendia_, I am entitled to

my discharge, and should be sorry, indeed, that others should be sooner

sensible than myself when I ought to ask it. I have, therefore, requested

my fellow citizens to think of a successor for me, to whom I shall deliver

the public concerns with greater joy than I received them. I have the

consolation too of having added nothing to my private fortune, during my

public service, and of retiring with hands as clean as they are empty.

Pardon me these egotisms, which, if ever excusable, are so when writing

to a friend to whom our concerns are not uninteresting. I shall always

be glad to hear of your health and happiness, and having been out of the

way of hearing of any of our cotemporaries of the _corps diplomatique_

at Paris, any details of their subsequent history which you will favor me

with, will be thankfully received. I pray you to make my friendly respects

acceptable to Madame la Comtesse Diodati, to assure M. Tronchin of my

continued esteem, and to accept yourself my affectionate salutations, and

assurances of constant attachment and respect.

TO MR. BOWDOIN.

WASHINGTON, April 2, 1807.

DEAR SIR,--I wrote you on the 10th of July last; but neither your letter

of October the 20th, nor that of November the 15th mentioning the receipt

of it, I fear it has miscarried. I therefore now enclose a duplicate. As

that was to go under cover of the Secretary of State's despatches by any

vessel going from our distant ports, I retained the polygraph therein

mentioned for a safer conveyance. None such has occurred till now, that

the United States armed brig the Wasp, on her way to the Mediterranean is

to touch at Falmouth, with despatches for our ministers at London and at

Brest, with others for yourself and General Armstrong.

You heard in due time from London of the signature of a treaty there

between Great Britain and the United States. By a letter we received

in January from our ministers at London, we found they were making up

their minds to sign a treaty, in which no provision was made against the

impressment of our seamen, contenting themselves with a note received

in the course of their correspondence, from the British negotiators,

assuring them of the discretion with which impressments should be

conducted, which could be construed into a covenant only by inferences,

against which its omission in the treaty was a strong inference; and in

its terms totally unsatisfactory. By a letter of February the 3d, they

were immediately informed that no treaty, not containing a satisfactory

article on that head, would be ratified, and desiring them to resume the

negotiations on that point. The treaty having come to us actually in the

inadmissible shape apprehended, we, of course, hold it up until we know

the result of the instructions of February the 3d. I have but little

expectation that the British government will retire from their habitual

wrongs in the impressment of our seamen, and am certain, that without

that, we will never tie up our hands by treaty, from the right of passing

a non-importation or non-intercourse act, to make it her interest to

become just. This may bring on a war of commercial restrictions. To show,

however, the sincerity of our desire for conciliation, I have suspended

the non-importation act. This state of things should be understood at

Paris, and every effort used on your part to accommodate our differences

with Spain, under the auspices of France, with whom it is all important

that we should stand in terms of the strictest cordiality. In fact, we

are to depend on her and Russia for the establishment of neutral rights

by the treaty of peace, among which should be that of taking no persons

by a belligerent out of a neutral ship, unless they be the _soldiers_ of

an enemy. Never did a nation act towards another with more perfidy and

injustice than Spain has constantly practised against us: and if we have

kept our hands off of her till now, it has been purely out of respect to

France, and from the value we set on the friendship of France. We expect,

therefore, from the friendship of the Emperor, that he will either compel

Spain to do us justice, or abandon her to us. We ask but one month to be

in possession of the city of Mexico.