No better proof of the good faith of the United States could have been

given, than the vigor with which we have acted, and the expense incurred,

in suppressing the enterprise meditated lately by Burr against Mexico.

Although at first, he proposed a separation of the western country, and

on that ground received encouragement and aid from Yrujo, according to the

usual spirit of his government towards us, yet he very early saw that the

fidelity of the western country was not to be shaken, and turned himself

wholly towards Mexico. And so popular is an enterprise on that country

in this, that we had only to lie still, and he would have had followers

enough to have been in the city of Mexico in six weeks. You have doubtless

seen my several messages to Congress, which give a faithful narrative of

that conspiracy. Burr himself, after being disarmed by our endeavors of

all his followers, escaped from the custody of the court of Mississippi,

but was taken near Fort Stoddart, making his way to Mobile, by some

country people, who brought him on as a prisoner to Richmond, where he

is now under a course for trial. Hitherto we have believed our law to

be, that suspicion on probable grounds was sufficient cause to commit a

person for trial, allowing time to collect witnesses till the trial. But

the judges here have decided, that conclusive evidence of guilt must be

ready in the moment of arrest, or they will discharge the malefactor. If

this is still insisted on, Burr will be discharged; because his crimes

having been sown from Maine, through the whole line of the western waters,

to New Orleans, we cannot bring the witnesses here under four months. The

fact is, that the federalists make Burr's cause their own, and exert their

whole influence to shield him from punishment, as they did the adherents

of Miranda. And it is unfortunate that federalism is still predominant

in our judiciary department, which is consequently in opposition to the

legislative and executive branches, and is able to baffle their measures

often.

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

TO WILLIAM B. GILES.

MONTICELLO, April 20, 1807.

DEAR SIR,--Your favor of the 6th instant, on the subject of Burr's

offences, was received only four days ago. That there should be anxiety

and doubt in the public mind, in the present defective state of the proof,

is not wonderful; and this has been sedulously encouraged by the tricks of

the judges to force trials before it is possible to collect the evidence,

dispersed through a line of two thousand miles from Maine to Orleans.

The federalists, too, give all their aid, making Burr's cause their

own, mortified only that he did not separate the Union or overturn the

government, and proving, that had he had a little dawn of success, they

would have joined him to introduce his object, their favorite monarchy,

as they would any other enemy, foreign or domestic, who could rid them of

this hateful republic for any other government in exchange.

The first ground of complaint was the supine inattention of the

administration to a treason stalking through the land in open day. The

present one, that they have crushed it before it was ripe for execution,

so that no overt acts can be produced. This last may be true; though I

believe it is not. Our information having been chiefly by way of letter,

we do not know of a certainty yet what will be proved. We have set on

foot an inquiry through the whole of the country which has been the

scene of these transactions, to be able to prove to the courts, if they

will give time, or to the public by way of communication to Congress,

what the real facts have been. For obtaining this, we are obliged to

appeal to the patriotism of particular persons in different places, of

whom we have requested to make the inquiry in their neighborhood, and on

such information as shall be voluntarily offered. Aided by no process

or facilities from the _federal_ courts, but frowned on by their new

born zeal for the liberty of those whom we would not permit to overthrow

the liberties of their country, we can expect no revealments from the

accomplices of the chief offender. Of treasonable intentions, the judges

have been obliged to confess there is probable appearance. What loophole

they will find in the case, when it comes to trial, we cannot foresee.

Eaton, Stoddart, Wilkinson, and two others whom I must not name, will

satisfy the world, if not the judges, of Burr's guilt. And I do suppose

the following overt acts will be proved. 1. The enlistment of men, in

a regular way. 2. The regular mounting of guard round Blennerhasset's

island when they expected Governor Tiffin's men to be on them, _modo

guerrino arraiati_. 3. The rendezvous of Burr with his men at the mouth

of Cumberland. 4. His letter to the acting Governor of Mississippi,

holding up the prospect of civil war. 5. His capitulation regularly signed

with the aids of the Governor, as between two independent and hostile

commanders.

But a moment's calculation will show that this evidence cannot be

collected under four months, probably five, from the moment of deciding

when and where the trial shall be. I desired Mr. Rodney expressly to

inform the Chief Justice of this, inofficially. But Mr. Marshall says,

"More than five weeks have elapsed since the opinion of the Supreme Court

has declared the necessity of proving the overt acts, if they exist. Why

are they not proved?" In what terms of decency can we speak of this? As

if an express could go to Natchez, or the mouth of Cumberland, and return

in five weeks, to do which has never taken less than twelve. Again, "If,

in November or December last, a body of troops had been assembled on

the Ohio, it is impossible to suppose the affidavits establishing the

fact could not have been obtained by the last of March." But I ask the

judge where they should have been lodged? At Frankfort? at Cincinnati? at

Nashville? St. Louis? Natchez? New Orleans? These were the probable places

of apprehension and examination. It was not known at _Washington_ till

the 26th of March that Burr would escape from the Western tribunals, be

retaken and brought to an Eastern one; and in five days after, (neither

five months nor five weeks, as the judge calculated,) he says, it is

"impossible to suppose the affidavits could not have been obtained."

Where? At Richmond he certainly meant, or meant only to throw dust in the

eyes of his audience. But all the principles of law are to be perverted

which would bear on the favorite offenders who endeavor to overturn

this odious Republic. "I understand," says the judge, "_probable_ cause

of guilt to be a case made out by _proof_ furnishing good reason to

believe," &c. Speaking as a lawyer, he must mean legal proof, i. e., proof

on oath, at least. But this is confounding _probability_ and _proof_.

We had always before understood that where there was reasonable ground

to believe guilt, the offender must be put on his trial. That guilty

intentions were probable, the judge believed. And as to the overt acts,

were not the bundle of letters of information in Mr. Rodney's hands, the

letters and facts published in the local newspapers, Burr's flight, and

the universal belief or rumor of his guilt, probable ground for presuming

the facts of enlistment, military guard, rendezvous, threat of civil war,

or capitulation, so as to put him on trial? Is there a candid man in the

United States who does not believe some one, if not all, of these overt

acts to have taken place?

If there ever had been an instance in this or the preceding

administrations, of federal judges so applying principles of law as to

condemn a federal or acquit a republican offender, I should have judged

them in the present case with more charity. All this, however, will work

well. The nation will judge both the offender and judges for themselves.

If a member of the executive or legislature does wrong, the day is never

far distant when the people will remove him. They will see then and amend

the error in our Constitution, which makes any branch independent of the

nation. They will see that one of the great co-ordinate branches of the

government, setting itself in opposition to the other two, and to the

common sense of the nation, proclaims impunity to that class of offenders

which endeavors to overturn the Constitution, and are themselves protected

in it by the Constitution itself; for impeachment is a farce which will

not be tried again. If their protection of Burr produces this amendment,

it will do more good than his condemnation would have done. Against Burr,

personally, I never had one hostile sentiment. I never indeed thought

him an honest, frank-dealing man, but considered him as a crooked gun,

or other perverted machine, whose aim or shot you could never be sure

of. Still, while he possessed the confidence of the nation, I thought

it my duty to respect in him their confidence, and to treat him as if

he deserved it; and if his punishment can be commuted now for an useful

amendment of the Constitution, I shall rejoice in it. My sheet being

full, I perceive it is high time to offer you my friendly salutations, and

assure you of my constant and affectionate esteem and respect.

TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.

MONTICELLO, April 21st, 1807.

DEAR SIR,--Yours of the 13th came to hand only yesterday, and I now return

you the letters of Turreau and Woodward, and Mr. Gallatin's paper on

foreign seamen. I retain Monroe and Pinckney's letters, to give them a

more deliberate perusal than I can now before the departure of the post.

By the next they shall be returned. I should think it best to answer

Turreau at once, as he will ascribe delay to a supposed difficulty, and

will be sure to force an answer at last. I take the true principle to be,

that "for violations of jurisdiction, with the consent of the sovereign,

or his voluntary sufferance, indemnification is due; but that for others

he is bound only to use all _reasonable_ means to obtain indemnification

from the aggressor, which must be calculated on his circumstances,

and these endeavors _bonâ fide_ made; and failing, he is no further

responsible." It would be extraordinary indeed if we were to be answerable

for the conduct of belligerents through our whole coast, whether inhabited

or not.

Will you be so good as to send a passport to Julian Y. Niemcewicz, an

American citizen, of New Jersey, going to Europe on his private affairs?

I have known him intimately for twenty years, the last twelve of which

he has resided in the United States, of which he has a certificate of

citizenship. He was the companion of Kosciusko. Be so good as to direct

it to him at Elizabethtown, and without delay, as he is on his departure.

Mr. Gallatin's estimate of the number of foreign seamen in our employ

renders it prudent, I think, to suspend all propositions respecting our

non-employment of them. As, on a consultation when we were all together,

we had made up our minds on every article of the British treaty, and this

of not employing their seamen was only mentioned for further inquiry and

consideration, we had better let the negociations go on, on the ground

then agreed on, and take time to consider this supplementary proposition.

Such an addition as this to a treaty already so bad would fill up the

measure of public condemnation. It would indeed be making bad worse. I am

more and more convinced that our best course is, to let the negotiation

take a friendly nap, and endeavor in the meantime to practice on such

of its principles as are mutually acceptable. Perhaps we may hereafter

barter the stipulation not to employ their seamen for some equivalent to

our flag, by way of convention; or perhaps the general treaty of peace

may do better for us, if we shall not, in the meantime, have done worse

for ourselves. At any rate, it will not be the worse for lying three weeks

longer. I salute you with sincere affection.

P. S. Will you be so good as to have me furnished with a copy of Mr.

Gallatin's estimate of the number of foreign seamen? I think he overrates

the number of officers greatly.

TO MR. GALLATIN.

MONTICELLO, April 21, 1807.

Some very unusual delay has happened to the post, as I received

yesterday only my letter from Philadelphia, as far back as April 9th,

and Washington, April 11th. Of course yours of the 13th and 16th were

then only received, and being overwhelmed with such an accumulated

mail, I must be short, as the post goes out in a few hours. I return

you Huston's, Findlay's, and Governor Harrison's letters. J. Smith's is

retained because it is full of nominations. I had received, a week ago,

from a member of the Pennsylvania legislature, a copy of their act for the

Western road. I immediately wrote to Mr. Moore that we should consider

the question whether the road should pass through Uniontown, as now

decided affirmatively, and I referred to the commissioner to reconsider

the question whether it should also pass through Brownsville, and to

decide it according to their own judgment. I desired him to undertake the

superintendence of the execution, to begin the work in time to lay out the

whole appropriation this summer, and to employ it in making effectually

good the most difficult parts. I approve of Governor Harrison's lease

to Taylor, and of the conveying the salt water by pipes to the fuel and

navigation, rather than the fuel and navigation to the Saline. I think

it our indispensable duty to remove immediately all intruders from the

lands, the timber of which will be wanting for the Salines, and will sign

any order you will be so good as to prepare for that purpose. You are

hereby authorized to announce to the collector of Savannah, his removal,

if you judge it for the public good. I recollect nothing of Bullock,

the attorney, and not having my papers here, I am not able to refresh my

memory concerning him. I expect to leave this, on my return to Washington,

about three weeks hence. Your estimate of the number of foreign seamen

in our employ, renders it prudent, in my opinion, to drop the idea of

any proposition not to employ them. As we had made up our minds on every

article of the British treaty, when consulting together, and this idea

was only an after thought referred for enquiry and consideration, we had

better take more time for it. Time strengthens my belief that no equal

treaty will be obtained from such a higher as Lord Auckland, or from

the present ministry, Fox being no longer with them, and that we shall

be better without any treaty than an unequal one. Perhaps we may engage

them to act on certain articles, including their note on impressment, by

a mutual understanding, under the pretext of further time to arrange a

general treaty. Perhaps, too, the general peace will, in the meantime,

establish for us better principles than we can obtain ourselves.

I enclose a letter from Gideon Fitz. Affectionate salutes.

TO MR. NIEMCEWICZ.

MONTICELLO, April 22, 1807.

DEAR SIR,--I received on the 20th your favor of the 10th instant, and

yesterday I wrote to desire the Secretary of State to forward your

passport to Elizabethtown. In the visit you propose to make to your

native country, I sincerely wish you may find its situation, and your

own interests in it, satisfactory. On what it has been, is, or shall be,

however, I shall say nothing. I consider Europe, at present, as a world

apart from us, about which it is improper for us even to form opinions, or

to indulge any wishes but the general one, that whatever is to take place

in it, may be for its happiness. For yourself, however, personally, I may

express with safety as well as truth, my great esteem and the interest I

feel for your welfare. From the same principles of caution, I do not write

to my friend Kosciusko. I know he is always doing what he thinks is right,

and he knows my prayers for his success in whatever he does. Assure him,

if you please, of my constant affection, and accept yourself my wishes for

a safe and pleasant voyage, with my friendly salutations and assurances of

great esteem and respect.

TO MR. MADISON.

MONTICELLO, April 25, 1807.

DEAR SIR,--Yours of the 20th came to hand on the 23d, and I now return all

the papers it covered, to wit, Harris's, Maunce's, and General Smith's

letters, as also some papers respecting Burr's case, for circulation.

Under another cover is a letter from Governor Williams, confidential, and

for yourself alone, as yet. I expect we shall have to remove Meade. Under

still a different cover you will receive Monroe's and Pinckney's letters,

detained at the last post. I wrote you then on the subject of the British

treaty, which the more it is developed the worse it appears. Mr. Rodney

being supposed absent, I enclose you a letter from Mr. Reed, advising the

summoning Rufus Easton as a witness; but if he is at St. Louis, he cannot

be here by the 22d of May. You will observe that Governor Williams asks

immediate instructions what he shall do with Blennerhasset, Tyler, Floyd,

and Ralston. I do not know that we can do anything but direct General

Wilkinson to receive and send them to any place where the judge shall

decide they ought to be tried. I suppose Blennerhasset should come to

Richmond. On consulting with the other gentlemen, be so good as to write

to Williams immediately, as a letter will barely get there by the 4th

Monday of May. I enclose you a warrant for five thousand dollars for Mr.

Rodney, in the form advised by Mr. Gallatin.

We have had three great rains within the last thirteen days. It is just

now clearing off after thirty-six hours of rain, with little intermission.

Yet it is thought not too much. I salute you with sincere affection.

TO MR. THOMAS MOORE.

MONTICELLO, May 1,1807.

SIR,--On the 14th of April I wrote to you, on the presumption that a law

respecting the western road had passed the Legislature of Pennsylvania,

in the form enclosed by Mr. Dorsey, and which I enclosed to you. I have

now received from the Governor an authentic copy of the law, which agrees

with that I forwarded to you. You will therefore be pleased to consider

the contents of that letter as founded in the certainty of the fact that

the law did pass in that form, although not certainly known at that time,

and proceed on it accordingly. I shall be in Washington on the 16th and

17th inst., should you have occasion for further communication with me. I

salute you with esteem and respect.

TO MR. MADISON.

MONTICELLO, May 1, 1807.

DEAR SIR,--I return you Monroe's, Armstrong's, Harris's, and Anderson's

letters, and add a letter and act from Gov. McKean, to be filed in your

office. The proposition for separating the western country, mentioned

by Armstrong to have been made at Paris, is important. But what is the

declaration he speaks of? for none accompanies his letter, unless he means

Harry Grant's proposition. I wish our Ministers at Paris, London, and

Madrid, could find out Burr's propositions and agents there. I know few

of the characters of the new British administration. The few I know are

true Pittites, and anti-American. From them we have nothing to hope, but

that they will readily let us back out. Whether they can hold their places

will depend on the question whether the Irish propositions be popular

or unpopular in England. Dr. Sibley, in a letter to Gen. Dearborne,

corrects an error of fact in my message to Congress of December. He says

the Spaniards never had a single soldier at Bayou Pierre till after 1805.

Consequently it was not a keeping, but a taking of a military possession

of that post. I think Gen. Dearborne would do well to desire Sibley to

send us affidavits of that fact.

Our weather continues extremely seasonable, and favorable for vegetation.

I salute you with sincere affection.

P. S. The pamphlet and papers shall be returned by next post.

TO MR. OLIVER EVANS.

MONTICELLO, May 2, 1807.

SIR,--Your favor of the 18th came to hand two days ago. That the ingenuity

of an advocate, seeking for something to defend his client, should have

hazarded as an objection that it did not appear on the face of the patent

itself, that you had complied with the requisitions of the act authorizing

a patent for your invention, is not wonderful; but I do not expect that

such an objection can seriously embarrass the good sense of a judge. The

law requires, indeed, that certain acts shall be performed by the inventor

to authorize a monopoly of his invention, and, to secure their being done,

it has called in, and relied on, the agency of the Secretary of State,

the Attorney General, and President. When they are satisfied the acts

have been done, they are to execute a patent, granting to the inventor

the monopoly. But the law does not require that the patent itself should

bear the evidence that they should have been performed, any more than it

requires that in a judgment should be stated all the evidence on which it

is founded. The evidence of the acts on which the patent is founded, rests

with those whose duty it is to see that they are performed; in fact, it is

in the Secretary of State's office, where the interloper or inventor may

have recourse to it if wanting. If these high officers have really failed

to see that the acts were performed, or to preserve evidence of it, they

have broken their trust to the public, and are responsible to the public;

but their negligence cannot invalidate the inventor's right, who has been

guilty of no fault. On the contrary, the patent, which is a record, has

conveyed a right to him from the public, and that it was issued rightfully

ought to be believed on the signature of these high officers affixed

to the patent,--this being a solemn pledge on their part that the acts

had been performed. Would their assertion of the fact, in the patent

itself, pledge them more to the public? I do not think, then, that the

disinterested judgment of a court can find difficulty in this objection.

At any rate your right will be presumed valid, until they decide that

it is not. Their final decision alone can authorize your resort to any

remedial authority,--that is to say, to the Legislature, who alone can

provide a remedy. Certainly an inventor ought to be allowed a right to

the benefit of his invention for some certain time. It is equally certain

it ought not to be perpetual; for to embarrass society with monopolies

for every utensil existing, and in all the details of life, would be more

injurious to them than had the supposed inventors never existed; because

the natural understanding of its members would have suggested the same

things or others as good. How long the term should be is the difficult

question. Our Legislators have copied the English estimate of the term,

perhaps without sufficiently considering how much longer, in a country so

much more sparsely settled, it takes for an invention to become known,

and used to an extent profitable to the inventor. Nobody wishes more

than I do that ingenuity should receive a liberal encouragement: nobody

estimates higher the utility which society has derived from that displayed

by yourself; and I assure you with truth, that I shall always be ready

to manifest it by every service I can render you. To this assurance I add

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

TO J. MADISON.

MONTICELLO, May 5, 1807.

I return you the pamphlet of the author of War in Disguise. Of its first

half, the topics and the treatment of them are very commonplace; but from

page 118 to 130 it is most interesting to all nations, and especially

to us. Convinced that a militia of all ages promiscuously are entirely

useless for distant service, and that we never shall be safe until we have

a selected corps for a year's distant service at least, the classification

of our militia is now the most essential thing the United States have to

do. Whether, on Bonaparte's plan of making a class for every year between

certain periods, or that recommended in my message, I do not know, but

I rather incline to his. The idea is not new, as, you may remember, we

adopted it once in Virginia during the revolution, but abandoned it too

soon. It is the real secret of Bonaparte's success. Could H. Smith put

better matter into his paper than the twelve pages above mentioned, and

will you suggest it to him? No effort should be spared to bring the public

mind to this great point. I salute you with sincere affection.

TO THE HONORABLE JOHN SMITH.

MONTICELLO, May 7, 1807.

DEAR SIR,--Your two letters of March 27th and April 6th have been

received. Writing from this place, where I have not my papers to turn

to, I cannot even say whether I have received such as you ask copies of.

But I am sorry to answer any request of yours by saying that a compliance

would be a breach of trust. It is essential for the public interest that

I should receive all the information possible respecting either matters

or persons connected with the public. To induce people to give this

information, they must feel assured that when deposited with me it is

secret and sacred. Honest men might justifiably withhold information,

if they expected the communication would be made public, and commit them

to war with their neighbors and friends. This imposes the duty on me of

considering such information as mere suggestions for inquiry, and to put

me on my guard; and to injure no man by forming any opinion until the

suggestion be verified. Long experience in this school has by no means

strengthened the disposition to believe too easily. On the contrary, it

has begotten an incredulity which leaves no one's character in danger

from any hasty conclusion. I hope these considerations will satisfy you,

both as they respect you and myself, and that you will be assured I shall

always be better pleased with those cases which admit that compliance with

your wishes which is always pleasing to me. Accept my salutations, and

assurances of great esteem and respect.

TO MR. MADISON.

MONTICELLO, May 8, 1807.

I return you Monroe's letter of March 5th. As the explosion in the

British ministry took place about the 15th, I hope we shall be spared

the additional embarrassment of his convention. I enclose you a letter

of Michael Jones for circulation, and to rest with the Attorney General.

It contains new instances of Burr's enlistments. I received this from Mr.

Gallatin, so you can hand it to General Dearborne direct.

I expect to leave this on the 13th, but there is a possible occurrence

which may prevent it till the 19th, which however is not probable. Accept

affectionate salutations.

TO MR. HAY.

WASHINGTON, May 20, 1807.

DEAR SIR,--Dr. Bollman, on his arrival here in custody in January,

voluntarily offered to make communications to me, which he accordingly

did, Mr. Madison also being present. I previously and subsequently assured

him, (without, however, his having requested it,) that they should never

be used _against himself_. Mr. Madison on the same evening committed to

writing, by memory, what he had said; and I moreover asked of Bollman

to do it himself, which he did, and I now enclose it to you. The object

is, as he is to be a witness, that you may know how to examine him, and

draw everything from him. I wish the paper to be seen and known only to

yourself and the gentlemen who aid you, and to be returned to me. If

he should prevaricate, I should be willing you should go so far as to

ask him whether he did not say so and so to Mr. Madison and myself. In

order to let him see that his prevarications will be marked, Mr. Madison

will forward you a pardon for him, which we mean should be delivered

previously. It is suspected by some he does not intend to appear. If he

does not, I hope you will take effectual measures to have him immediately

taken into custody. Some other blank pardons are sent on to be filled

up at your discretion, if you should find a defect of evidence, and

believe that this would supply it, by avoiding to give them to the gross

offenders, unless it be visible that the principal will otherwise escape.

I send you an affidavit of importance received last night. If General

Wilkinson gets on in time, I expect he will bring Dunbaugh on with him.

At any rate it may be a ground for an arrest and commitment for treason.

Accept my friendly salutations, and assurances of great esteem and

respect.

TO MR. DE LA COSTE.

WASHINGTON, May 24, 1807.

SIR,--I received, in due time, your favor of April 10th, enclosing a

scheme and subscription for the establishment of a museum of natural

history, at Williamsburgh, by private contributions. Nobody can desire

more ardently than myself, to concur in whatever may promote useful

science, and I view no science with more partiality than natural history.

But I have ever believed that in this, as in most other cases, abortive

attempts retard rather than promote this object. To be really useful

we must keep pace with the state of society, and not dishearten it by

attempts at what its population, means, or occupations will fail in

attempting. In the particular enterprises for museums, we have seen

the populous and wealthy cities of Boston and New York unable to found

or maintain such an institution. The feeble condition of that in each

of these places sufficiently proves this. In Philadelphia alone, has

this attempt succeeded to a good degree? It has been owing there to

a measure of zeal and perseverance in an individual rarely equalled;

to a population, crowded, wealthy, and more than usually addicted to

the pursuit of knowledge. And, with all this, the institution does not

maintain itself. The proprietor has been obliged to return to the practice

of his original profession to help it on. I know, indeed, that there

are many individuals in Williamsburg, and its vicinity, who have already

attained a high degree of science, and many zealously pursuing it. But

after viewing all circumstances there as favorably as the most sanguine

of us could wish, I cannot find in them a rational ground for expecting

success in an undertaking to which the other positions have been found

unequal. I sincerely wish I may be mistaken, and that the success which

your zeal I am sure will merit, may be equal to your wishes, as well

as ours. But, for the present, I would rather reserve myself till its

prospects can be more favorably estimated; because the aid we would be

disposed to give to a promising enterprise, would be very different to

one we might offer to a desperate one. Although less sanguine on this

particular subject, I do entire justice to the zeal for the promotion of

science, which has excited your effort, and shall see it with uncommon

pleasure surmounting the present difficulties, or engaged in other

pursuits which may reward it with better success. Be assured that no one

is more sincere in wishing it, and accept my salutations and assurances of

great respect and consideration.

TO MR. CLINTON.

WASHINGTON, May 24, 1807.

Th: Jefferson presents his compliments to Mr. Clinton, and his thanks for

the pamphlet sent him. He recollects the having read it at the time with

a due sense of his obligation to the author, whose name was surmised,

though not absolutely known, and a conviction that he had made the most

of his matter. The ground of defence might have been solidly aided by

the assurance (which is the absolute fact) that the whole story fathered

on Mazzei, was an unfounded falsehood. Dr. Linn, as aware of that, takes

care to quote it from a dead man, who is made to quote from one residing

in the remotest part of Europe. Equally false was Dr. Linn's other story

about Bishop Madison's lawn sleeves, as the Bishop can testify, for

certainly Th: J. never saw him in lawn sleeves. Had the Doctor ventured to

name time, place, and person, for his third lie, (the government without

religion) it is probable he might have been convicted on that also. But

these are slander and slanderers, whom Th: Jefferson has thought it best

to leave to the scourge of public opinion. He salutes Mr. Clinton with

esteem and respect.

TO GEORGE HAY, ESQ.

WASHINGTON, May 26, 1807.

DEAR SIR,--We are this moment informed by a person who left Richmond since

the 22d, that the prosecution of Burr had begun under very inauspicious

symptoms by the challenging and rejecting two members of the Grand Jury,

as far above all exception as any two persons in the United States. I

suppose our informant is inaccurate in his terms, and has mistaken an

objection by the criminal and voluntary retirement of the gentlemen with

the permission of the court, for a challenge and rejection, which, in the

case of a Grand Jury, is impossible. Be this as it may, and the result

before the formal tribunal, fair or false, it becomes our duty to provide

that full testimony shall be laid before the Legislature, and through

them the public. For this purpose, it is necessary that we be furnished

with the testimony of every person who shall be with you as a witness.

If the Grand Jury find a bill, the evidence given in court, taken as

verbatim as possible, will be what we desire. If there be no bill, and

consequently no examination before court, then I must beseech you to

have every man privately examined by way of affidavit, and to furnish me

with the whole testimony. In the former case, the person taking down the

testimony as orally delivered in court, should make oath that he believes

it to be substantially correct. In the latter case, the certificate of the

magistrate administering the oath, and signature of the party, will be

proper; and this should be done before they receive their compensation,

that they may not evade examination. Go into any expense necessary for

this purpose, and meet it from the funds provided by the Attorney General

for the other expenses. He is not here, or this request would have gone

from him directly. I salute you with friendship and respect.

TO MR. HAY.

WASHINGTON, May 28, 1807.

DEAR SIR,--I have this moment received your letter of the 25th, and hasten

to answer it. If the grand jury do not find a bill against Burr, as there

will be no examination before a petty jury, Bollman's pardon need not in

that case to be delivered; but if a bill be found, and a trial had, his

evidence is deemed entirely essential, and in that case his pardon is to

be produced before he goes to the book. In my letter of the day before

yesterday, I enclosed you Bollman's written communication to me, and

observed you might go so far, if he prevaricated, as to ask him whether

he did not say so and so to Mr. Madison and myself. On further reflection

I think you may go farther, if he prevaricates grossly, and show the

paper to him, and ask if it is not his handwriting, and confront him by

its contents. I enclose you some other letters of Bollman to me on former

occasions, to prove by similitude of hand that the paper I enclosed on the

26th was of his handwriting. I salute you with esteem and respect.

TO COLONEL MONROE.

WASHINGTON, May 29, 1807.

DEAR SIR,--I have not written to you by Mr. Purviance, because he can give

you _vivâ voce_ all the details of our affairs here, with a minuteness

beyond the bounds of a letter, and because, indeed, I am not certain this

letter will find you in England. The sole object in writing it, is to add

another little commission to the one I had formerly troubled you with. It

is to procure for me "a machine for ascertaining the resistance of ploughs

or carriages, invented and sold by Winlaw, in Margaret street, Cavendish

Square." It will cost, I believe, four or five guineas, which shall be

replaced here instanter on your arrival. I had intended to have written

you to counteract the wicked efforts which the federal papers are making

to sow tares between you and me, as if I were lending a hand to measures

unfriendly to any views which our country might entertain respecting you.

But I have not done it, because I have before assured you that a sense

of duty, as well as of delicacy, would prevent me from ever expressing a

sentiment on the subject, and that I think you know me well enough to be

assured I shall conscientiously observe the line of conduct I profess.

I shall receive you on your return with the warm affection I have ever

entertained for you, and be gratified if I can in any way avail the public

of your services. God bless you and yours.

TO M. SILVESTRE, SECRETAIRE DE LA SOCIETE D'AGRICULTURE DE PARIS.

WASHINGTON, May 29, 1807.

SIR,--I have received, through the care of Gen. Armstrong, the medal of

gold by which the society of agriculture at Paris have been pleased to

mark their approbation of the form of a mould-board which I had proposed;

also the four first volumes of their memoirs, and the information that

they had honored me with the title of foreign associate to their society.

I receive with great thankfulness these testimonies of their favor, and

should be happy to merit them by greater services. Attached to agriculture

by inclination, as well as by a conviction that it is the most useful of

the occupations of man, my course of life has not permitted me to add

to its theories the lessons of practice. I fear, therefore, I shall be

to them but an unprofitable member, and shall have little to offer of

myself worthy their acceptance. Should the labors of others, however,

on this side the water, produce anything which may advance the objects

of their institution, I shall with great pleasure become the instrument

of its communication, and shall moreover execute with zeal any orders of

the society in this portion of the globe. I pray you to express to them

my sensibility for the distinctions they have been pleased to confer on

me, and to accept yourself the assurances of my high consideration and

respect.

TO GEORGE HAY.

WASHINGTON, June 2, 1807.

DEAR SIR,--While Burr's case is depending before the court, I will

trouble you, from time to time, with what occurs to me. I observe that

the case of Marbury v. Madison has been cited, and I think it material

to stop at the threshold the citing that case as authority, and to have

it denied to be law. 1. Because the judges, in the outset, disclaimed

all cognizance of the case, although they then went on to say what would

have been their opinion, had they had cognizance of it. This, then, was

confessedly an extrajudicial opinion, and, as such, of no authority. 2.

Because, had it been judicially pronounced, it would have been against

law; for to a commission, a deed, a bond, _delivery_ is essential to

give validity. Until, therefore, the commission is delivered out of

the hands of the executive and his agents, it is not his deed. He may

withhold or cancel it at pleasure, as he might his private deed in the

same situation. The Constitution intended that the three great branches

of the government should be co-ordinate, and independent of each other.

As to acts, therefore, which are to be done by either, it has given no

control to another branch. A judge, I presume, cannot sit on a bench

without a commission, or a record of a commission; and the Constitution

having given to the judiciary branch no means of compelling the executive

either to _deliver_ a commission, or to make a record of it, shows it

did not intend to give the judiciary that control over the executive,

but that it should remain in the power of the latter to do it or not.

Where different branches have to act in their respective lines, finally

and without appeal, under any law, they may give to it different and

opposite constructions. Thus, in the case of William Smith, the House of

Representatives determined he was a citizen; and in the case of William

Duane, (precisely the same in every material circumstance,) the judges

determined he was no citizen. In the cases of Callendar and others, the

judges determined the sedition act was valid under the Constitution,

and exercised their regular powers of sentencing them to fine and

imprisonment. But the executive determined that the sedition act was

a nullity under the Constitution, and exercised his regular power of

prohibiting the execution of the sentence, or rather of executing the real

law, which protected the acts of the defendants. From these different

constructions of the same act by different branches, less mischief

arises than from giving to any one of them a control over the others. The

executive and Senate act on the construction, that until delivery from

the executive department, a commission is in their possession, and within

their rightful power; and in cases of commissions not revocable at will,

where, after the Senate's approbation and the President's signing and

sealing, new information of the unfitness of the person has come to hand

before the _delivery_ of the commission, new nominations have been made

and approved, and new commissions have issued.

On this construction I have hitherto acted; on this I shall ever act,

and maintain it with the powers of the government, against any control

which may be attempted by the judges, in subversion of the independence

of the executive and Senate within their peculiar department. I presume,

therefore, that in a case where our decision is by the Constitution

the supreme one, and that which can be carried into effect, it is the

constitutionally authoritative one, and that that by the judges was

_coram non judice_, and unauthoritative, because it cannot be carried

into effect. I have long wished for a proper occasion to have the

gratuitous opinion in Marbury _v._ Madison brought before the public, and

denounced as not law; and I think the present a fortunate one, because

it occupies such a place in the public attention. I should be glad,

therefore, if, in noticing that case, you could take occasion to express

the determination of the executive, that the doctrines of that case were

given extrajudicially and against law, and that their reverse will be the

rule of action with the executive. If this opinion should not be your

own, I would wish it to be expressed merely as that of the executive.

If it is your own also, you would of course give to the arguments such a

development as a case, incidental only, might render proper. I salute you

with friendship and respect.

TO ALBERT GALLATIN.

June 3, 1807.

I gave you, some time ago, a project of a more equal tariff on wines than

that which now exists. But in that I yielded considerably to the faulty

classification of them in our law. I have now formed one with attention,

and according to the best information I possess, classing them more

rigorously. I am persuaded that were the duty on cheap wines put on the

same ratio with the dear, it would wonderfully enlarge the field of those

who use wine, to the expulsion of whiskey. The introduction of a very

cheap wine (St. George) into my neighborhood, within two years past, has

quadrupled in that time the number of those who keep wine, and will ere

long increase them tenfold. This would be a great gain to the treasury,

and to the sobriety of our country. I will here add my tariff, (_see

opposite page_,) wherein you will be able to choose any rate of duty you

please, and to decide whether it will not, on a fit occasion, be proper

for legislative attention. Affectionate salutations.

------------------------------------------+-------+---------+--------+-------------

| Cost | | |25 per cent.,

| per | 15 | 20 | being the

|gallon.|pr. cent.|pr.cent.| average

| | | | of present

| | | | duties.

+-------+---------+--------+-------------

Tokay, Cape, Malmesey, Hock | 4 00 | 60 | 80 | 1 00

| | | |

| | | |

Champagne, Burgundy, Claret,[1] Hermitage}| 2 75 | 41¼ | 55 | 68¾

| | | |

| | | |

| | | |

London particular Madeira | 2 20 | 33 | 44 | 55

All other Madeira | 1 80 | 27 | 36 | 45

Pacharetti, Sherry | 1 50 | 22½ | 30 | 37½

| | | |

[2]The wines of Medoc and Grave not} | | | |

before mentioned, those of Palus, } | 1 25 | 18¾ | 25 | 31¼

Coterotie, Condrieu, Moselle } | | | |

| | | |

St. Lucar and all of Portugal | 80 | 12 | 16 | 20

| | | |

Sicily, Teneriffe, Fayal, Malaga, St.} | 67 | 10 | 13 | 16¾

George, and other western islands} | | | |

All other wines | | | |

| | | |

------------------------------------------+-------+---------+--------+-------------

------------------------------------------+---------+---------

| |

| 30 | 35

|per cent.|per cent.

| |

| |

+---------+---------

Tokay, Cape, Malmesey, Hock | 1 20 | 1 40

| |

| |

Champagne, Burgundy, Claret,[1] Hermitage}| 82½ | 96¼

| |

| |

| |

London particular Madeira | 66 | 77

All other Madeira | 54 | 63

Pacharetti, Sherry | 45 | 52½

| |

[2]The wines of Medoc and Grave not} | |

before mentioned, those of Palus, } | 37½ | 43¾

Coterotie, Condrieu, Moselle } | |

| |

St. Lucar and all of Portugal | 24 | 28

| |

Sicily, Teneriffe, Fayal, Malaga, St.} | 20 | 23

George, and other western islands} | |

All other wines | |

| |

------------------------------------------+---------+---------

------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------

|

| present duty. per cent.

|

|

|

+-----------------------------------------

Tokay, Cape, Malmesey, Hock |{Tokay, 45 cents, which is 11¼

|{Malmesey, 58 " " 14½

|{Hock, 35 " " 25

Champagne, Burgundy, Claret,[1] Hermitage}|{Champagne,} 45 " " 16½

|{Burgundy, }

|{Claret, } 35 " " 12½

|{Hermitage,}

London particular Madeira | 58 " " 26½

All other Madeira | 50 " " 27½

Pacharetti, Sherry |{Pacharetti, 23 " " 15

|{Sherry, 40 " " 26½

[2]The wines of Medoc and Grave not} |

before mentioned, those of Palus, } | 35 " " 28

Coterotie, Condrieu, Moselle } |

|

St. Lucar and all of Portugal |{St. Lucar, 40 " " 50

|{Other Spanish, 23 " " 28¾

Sicily, Teneriffe, Fayal, Malaga, St.} |{Sicily, 23 " " 34

George, and other western islands} |{Teneriffe, &c.,28 " " 41

All other wines |{in bottles, 35} often 400 per ct.

|{{in casks, 23}

------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The term Claret should be abolished, because unknown in the country

where it is made, and because indefinite here. The four crops should

be enumerated here instead of Claret, and all other wines to which

that appellation has been applied, should fall into the ad valorem

class. The four crops are Lafitte, Latour and Margaux, in Medoc, and

Hautbrion, in Grave.

[2] Blanquefort, Oalon, Leoville, Cantenac, &c., are wines of Medoc.

Barsac, Sauterne, Beaume, Preignac, St. Bris, Carbonien, Langon,

Podensac, &c., are of Grave. All these are of the second order,

being next after the four crops.

TO GEORGE HAY.

WASHINGTON, June 5, 1807.

DEAR SIR,--Your favor of the 31st instant has been received, and I think

it will be fortunate if any circumstance should produce a discharge of

the present scanty grand jury, and a future summons of a fuller; though

the same views of protecting the offender may again reduce the number

to sixteen, in order to lessen the chance of getting twelve to concur.

It is understood, that wherever Burr met with subjects who did not

choose to embark in his projects, unless approved by their government,

he asserted that he had that approbation. Most of them took his word

for it, but it is said that with those who would not, the following

stratagem was practised. A forged letter, purporting to be from General

Dearborne, was made to express his approbation, and to say that I was

absent at Monticello, but that there was no doubt that, on my return, my

approbation of his enterprises would be given. This letter was spread open

on his table, so as to invite the eye of whoever entered his room, and he

contrived occasions of sending up into his room those whom he wished to

become witnesses of his acting under sanction. By this means he avoided

committing himself to any liability to prosecution for forgery, and gave

another proof of being a great man in little things, while he is really

small in great ones. I must add General Dearborne's declaration, that he

never wrote a letter to Burr in his life, except that when here, once in

a winter, he usually wrote him a billet of invitation to dine. The only

object of sending you the enclosed letters is to possess you of the fact,

that you may know how to pursue it, if any of your witnesses should know

anything of it. My intention in writing to you several times, has been

to convey facts or observations occurring in the absence of the Attorney

General, and not to make to the dreadful drudgery you are going through

the unnecessary addition of writing me letters in answer, which I beg

you to relieve yourself from, except when some necessity calls for it. I

salute you with friendship and respect.

TO MR. WEAVER.

WASHINGTON, June 7, 1807.

SIR,--Your favor of March 30th never reached my hands till May 16th.

The friendly views it expresses of my conduct in general give me great

satisfaction. For these testimonies of the approbation of my fellow

citizens, I know that I am indebted more to their indulgent dispositions

than to any peculiar claims of my own. For it can give no great claims

to any one to manage honestly and disinterestedly the concerns of others

trusted to him. Abundant examples of this are always under our eye. That I

should lay down my charge at a proper season, is as much a duty as to have

borne it faithfully. Being very sensible of bodily decays from advancing

years, I ought not to doubt their effect on the mental faculties. To do so

would evince either great self-love or little observation of what passes

under our eyes; and I shall be fortunate if I am the first to perceive and

to obey this admonition of nature. That there are in our country a great

number of characters entirely equal to the management of its affairs,

cannot be doubted. Many of them, indeed, have not had opportunities of

making themselves known to their fellow citizens; but many have had,

and the only difficulty will be to choose among them. These changes

are necessary, too, for the security of republican government. If some

period be not fixed, either by the Constitution or by practice, to the

services of the First Magistrate, his office, though nominally elective,

will, in fact, be for life; and that will soon degenerate into an

inheritance. Among the felicities which have attended my administration,

I am most thankful for having been able to procure coadjutors so able,

so disinterested, and so harmonious. Scarcely ever has a difference of

opinion appeared among us which has not, by candid consultation, been

amalgamated into something which all approved; and never one which in

the slightest degree affected our personal attachments. The proof we

have lately seen of the innate strength of our government, is one of

the most remarkable which history has recorded, and shows that we are a

people capable of self-government, and worthy of it. The moment that a

proclamation apprised our citizens that there were traitors among them,

and what was their object, they rose upon them wherever they lurked, and

crushed by their own strength what would have produced the march of armies

and civil war in any other country. The government which can wield the arm

of the people must be the strongest possible. I thank you for the interest

you are so kind as to express in my health and welfare, and return you the

same good wishes with my salutations, and assurance of respect.

TO DOCTOR HORATIO TURPIN.

WASHINGTON, June 10, 1807.

DEAR SIR,--Your favor of June the 1st has been received. To a mind like

yours, capable in any question of abstracting it from its relation to

yourself, I may safely hazard explanations, which I have generally avoided

to others on questions of appointment. Bringing into office no desires of

making it subservient to the advancement of my own private interests, it

has been no sacrifice, by postponing them, to strengthen the confidence

of my fellow citizens. But I have not felt equal indifference towards

excluding merit from office, merely because it was related to me. However,

I have thought it my duty so to do, that my constituents may be satisfied,

that, in selecting persons for the management of their affairs, I am

influenced by neither personal nor family interests, and especially, that

the field of public office will not be perverted by me into a family

property. On this subject, I had the benefit of useful lessons from my

predecessors, had I needed them, marking what was to be imitated and what

avoided. But in truth, the nature of our government is lesson enough.

Its energy depending mainly on the confidence of the people in the chief

magistrate, makes it his duty to spare nothing which can strengthen him

with that confidence.

* * * * *

Accept assurances of my constant friendship and respect.

TO JOHN NORVELL.

WASHINGTON, June 11, 1807.

SIR,--Your letter of May the 9th has been duly received. The subject it

proposes would require time and space for even moderate development. My

occupations limit me to a very short notice of them. I think there does

not exist a good elementary work on the organization of society into civil

government: I mean a work which presents in one full and comprehensive

view the system of principles on which such an organization should be

founded, according to the rights of nature. For want of a single work

of that character, I should recommend Locke on Government, Sidney,

Priestley's Essay on the first Principles of Government, Chipman's

Principles of Government, and the Federalist. Adding, perhaps, Beccaria

on crimes and punishments, because of the demonstrative manner in which

he has treated that branch of the subject. If your views of political

inquiry go further, to the subjects of money and commerce, Smith's Wealth

of Nations is the best book to be read, unless Say's Political Economy

can be had, which treats the same subjects on the same principles, but in

a shorter compass and more lucid manner. But I believe this work has not

been translated into our language.

History, in general, only informs us what bad government is. But as we

have employed some of the best materials of the British constitution in

the construction of our own government, a knowledge of British history

becomes useful to the American politician. There is, however, no general

history of that country which can be recommended. The elegant one of

Hume seems intended to disguise and discredit the good principles of the

government, and is so plausible and pleasing in its style and manner, as

to instil its errors and heresies insensibly into the minds of unwary

readers. Baxter has performed a good operation on it. He has taken the

text of Hume as his ground work, abridging it by the omission of some

details of little interest, and wherever he has found him endeavoring to

mislead, by either the suppression of a truth or by giving it a false

coloring, he has changed the text to what it should be, so that we may

properly call it Hume's history republicanised. He has moreover continued

the history (but indifferently) from where Hume left it, to the year

1800. The work is not popular in England, because it is republican; and

but a few copies have ever reached America. It is a single quarto volume.

Adding to this Ludlow's Memoirs, Mrs. M'Cauley's and Belknap's histories,

a sufficient view will be presented of the free principles of the English

constitution.

To your request of my opinion of the manner in which a newspaper should

be conducted, so as to be most useful, I should answer, "by restraining

it to true facts and sound principles only." Yet I fear such a paper would

find few subscribers. It is a melancholy truth, that a suppression of the

press could not more completely deprive the nation of its benefits, than

is done by its abandoned prostitution to falsehood. Nothing can now be

believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by

being put into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this state of

misinformation is known only to those who are in situations to confront

facts within their knowledge with the lies of the day. I really look with

commiseration over the great body of my fellow citizens, who, reading

newspapers, live and die in the belief, that they have known something of

what has been passing in the world in their time; whereas the accounts

they have read in newspapers are just as true a history of any other

period of the world as of the present, except that the real names of the

day are affixed to their fables. General facts may indeed be collected

from them, such as that Europe is now at war, that Bonaparte has been a

successful warrior, that he has subjected a great portion of Europe to

his will, &c., &c.; but no details can be relied on. I will add, that the

man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads

them; inasmuch as he who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he whose

mind is filled with falsehoods and errors. He who reads nothing will still

learn the great facts, and the details are all false.

Perhaps an editor might begin a reformation in some such way as this.

Divide his paper into four chapters, heading the 1st, Truths. 2d,

Probabilities. 3d, Possibilities. 4th, Lies. The first chapter would be

very short, as it would contain little more than authentic papers, and

information from such sources, as the editor would be willing to risk

his own reputation for their truth. The second would contain what, from

a mature consideration of all circumstances, his judgment should conclude

to be probably true. This, however, should rather contain too little than

too much. The third and fourth should be professedly for those readers

who would rather have lies for their money than the blank paper they would

occupy.

Such an editor too, would have to set his face against the demoralizing

practice of feeding the public mind habitually on slander, and the

depravity of taste which this nauseous aliment induces. Defamation is

becoming a necessary of life; insomuch, that a dish of tea in the morning

or evening cannot be digested without this stimulant. Even those who do

not believe these abominations, still read them with complaisance to their

auditors, and instead of the abhorrence and indignation which should fill

a virtuous mind, betray a secret pleasure in the possibility that some may

believe them, though they do not themselves. It seems to escape them, that

it is not he who prints, but he who pays for printing a slander, who is

its real author.

These thoughts on the subjects of your letter are hazarded at your

request. Repeated instances of the publication of what has not been

intended for the public eye, and the malignity with which political

enemies torture every sentence from me into meanings imagined by their

own wickedness only, justify my expressing a solicitude, that this hasty

communication may in nowise be permitted to find its way into the public

papers. Not fearing these political bull-dogs, I yet avoid putting myself

in the way of being baited by them, and do not wish to volunteer away that

portion of tranquillity, which a firm execution of my duties will permit

me to enjoy.

I tender you my salutations, and best wishes, for your success.

TO WILLIAM SHORT.

WASHINGTON, June 12, 1807.

DEAR SIR, * * * * *

The proposition in your letter of May the 16th, of adding an umpire to

our discordant negotiators at Paris, struck me favorably on reading it,

and reflection afterwards strengthened my first impressions. I made it

therefore a subject of consultation with my coadjutors, as is our usage.

For our government, although in theory subject to be directed by the

unadvised will of the President, is, and from its origin has been, a very

different thing in practice. The minor business in each department is done

by the Head of the department, on consultation with the President alone.

But all matters of importance or difficulty are submitted to all the

Heads of departments composing the cabinet; sometimes by the President's

consulting them separately and successively, as they happen to call on

him; but in the greatest cases, by calling them together, discussing the

subject maturely, and finally taking the vote, in which the President

counts himself but as one. So that in all important cases the executive

is, in fact, a directory, which certainly the President might control; but

of this there was never an example, either in the first or the present

administration. I have heard, indeed, that my predecessor sometimes

decided things against his council. * * * * * I adopted in the present

case the mode of separate consultation. The opinion of each member, taken

separately, was that the addition of a third negotiator was not at this

time advisable. For the present therefore, the question must rest. Mr.

Bowdoin, we know, is anxious to come home, and is detained only by the

delicacy of not deserting his post. In the existing temper between him and

his colleague, it would certainly be better that one of them should make

an opening for re-composing the commission more harmoniously.

I salute you with affection and respect.

TO GEORGE HAY.

WASHINGTON, June 12, 1807.

DEAR SIR,--Your letter of the 9th is this moment received. Reserving

the necessary right of the President of the United States to decide,

independently of all other authority, what papers, coming to him as

President, the public interests permit to be communicated, and to whom, I

assure you of my readiness under that restriction, voluntarily to furnish

on all occasions, whatever the purposes of justice may require. But

the letter of General Wilkinson, of October the 21st, requested for the

defence of Colonel Burr, with every other paper relating to the charges

against him, which were in my possession when the Attorney General went

on to Richmond in March, I then delivered to him; and I have always taken

for granted he left the whole with you. If he did, and the bundle retains

the order in which I had arranged it, you will readily find the letter

desired, under the date of its receipt, which was November the 25th; but

lest the Attorney General should not have left those papers with you, I

this day write to him to forward this one by post. An uncertainty whether

he is at Philadelphia, Wilmington, or New Castle, may produce delay in his

receiving my letter, of which it is proper you should be apprized. But, as

I do not recollect the whole contents of that letter, I must beg leave to

devolve on you the exercise of that discretion which it would be my right

and duty to exercise, by withholding the communication of any parts of the

letter, which are not directly material for the purposes of justice.

With this application, which is specific, a prompt compliance is

practicable. But when the request goes to "copies of the orders issued

in relation to Colonel Burr, to the officers at Orleans, Natchez, &c.

by the Secretaries of the War and Navy departments," it seems to cover

a correspondence of many months, with such a variety of officers, civil

and military, all over the United States, as would amount to the laying

open the whole executive books. I have desired the Secretary at War to

examine his official communications; and on a view of these, we may be

able to judge what can and ought to be done, towards a compliance with

the request. If the defendant alleges that there was any particular order,

which, as a cause, produced any particular act on his part, then he must

know what this order was, can specify it, and a prompt answer can be

given. If the _object_ had been specified, we might then have some guide

for our conjectures, as to what part of the executive records might be

useful to him; but, with a perfect willingness to do what is right, we are

without the indications which may enable us to do it. If the researches of

the Secretary at War should produce anything proper for communication, and

pertinent to any point we can conceive in the defence before the court, it

shall be forwarded to you.

I salute you with respect and esteem.

TO GEORGE HAY.

WASHINGTON, June 17, 1807.

SIR,--In answering your letter of the 9th, which desired a communication

of one to me from General Wilkinson, specified by its date, I informed

you in mine of the 12th that I had delivered it, with all other papers

respecting the charges against Aaron Burr, to the Attorney General,

when he went to Richmond; that I had supposed he had left them in your

possession, but would immediately write to him, if he had not, to forward

that particular letter without delay. I wrote to him accordingly on the

same day, but having no answer, I know not whether he has forwarded the

letter. I stated in the same letter, that I had desired the Secretary at

War to examine his office, in order to comply with your further request,

to furnish copies of the orders which had been given respecting Aaron

Burr and his property; and in a subsequent letter of the same day, I

forwarded to you copies of two letters from the Secretary at War, which

appeared to be within the description expressed in your letter. The

order from the Secretary of the Navy, you said, you were in possession

of. The receipt of these papers had, I presume, so far anticipated, and

others this day forwarded will have substantially fulfilled the object

of a subpœna from the District Court of Richmond, requiring that those

officers and myself should attend the Court in Richmond, with the letter

of General Wilkinson, the answer to that letter, and the orders of the

departments of War and the Navy, therein generally described. No answer

to General Wilkinson's letter, other than a mere acknowledgment of its

receipt, in a letter written for a different purpose, was ever written by

myself or any other. To these communications of papers, I will add, that

if the defendant supposes there are any facts within the knowledge of the

Heads of departments, or of myself, which can be useful for his defence,

from a desire of doing anything our situation will permit in furtherance

of justice, we shall be ready to give him the benefit of it, by way of

deposition, through any persons whom the Court shall authorize to take our

testimony at this place. I know, indeed, that this cannot be done but by

consent of parties; and I therefore authorize you to give consent on the

part of the United States. Mr. Burr's consent will be given of course, if

he supposes the testimony useful.

As to our personal attendance at Richmond, I am persuaded the Court

is sensible, that paramount duties to the nation at large control the

obligation of compliance with their summons in this case; as they would,

should we receive a similar one, to attend the trials of Blannerhassett

and others, in the Mississippi territory, those instituted at St. Louis

and other places on the western waters, or at any place, other than the

seat of government. To comply with such calls would leave the nation

without an executive branch, whose agency, nevertheless, is understood

to be so constantly necessary, that it is the sole branch which the

constitution requires to be always in function. It could not then mean

that it should be withdrawn from its station by any co-ordinate authority.

With respect to papers, there is certainly a public and a private side to

our offices. To the former belong grants of land, patents for inventions,

certain commissions, proclamations, and other papers patent in their

nature. To the other belong mere executive proceedings. All nations have

found it necessary, that for the advantageous conduct of their affairs,

some of these proceedings, at least, should remain known to their

executive functionary only. He, of course, from the nature of the case,

must be the sole judge of which of them the public interests will permit

publication. Hence, under our Constitution, in requests of papers from the

legislative to the executive branch, an exception is carefully expressed,

as to those which he may deem the public welfare may require not to be

disclosed; as you will see in the enclosed resolution of the House of

Representatives, which produced the message of January 22d, respecting

this case. The respect mutually due between the constituted authorities,

in their official intercourse, as well as sincere dispositions to do

for every one what is just, will always insure from the executive, in

exercising the duty of discrimination confided to him, the same candor

and integrity to which the nation has in like manner trusted in the

disposal of its judiciary authorities. Considering you as the organ for

communicating these sentiments to the Court, I address them to you for

that purpose, and salute you with esteem and respect.

TO GEORGE HAY.

WASHINGTON, June 19, 1807.

DEAR SIR,--Yours of the 17th was received last night. Three blank pardons

had been (as I expect) made up and forwarded by the mail of yesterday,

and I have desired three others to go by that of this evening. You ask

what is to be done if Bollman finally rejects his pardon, and the Judge

decides it to have no effect? Move to commit him immediately for treason

or misdemeanor, as you think the evidence will support; let the Court

decide where he shall be sent for trial; and on application, I will have

the marshall aided in his transportation, with the executive means. And

we think it proper, further, that when Burr shall have been convicted

of either treason or misdemeanor, you should immediately have committed

all those persons against whom you should find evidence sufficient,

whose agency has been so prominent as to mark them as proper objects of

punishment, and especially where their boldness has betrayed an inveteracy

of criminal disposition. As to obscure offenders and repenting ones, let

them lie for consideration.

I enclose you the copy of a letter received last night, and giving

singular information. I have inquired into the character of Graybell. He

was an old revolutionary captain, is now a flour merchant in Baltimore,

of the most respectable character, and whose word would be taken as

implicitly as any man's for whatever he affirms. The letter writer, also,

is a man of entire respectability. I am well informed, that for more than

a twelvemonth it has been believed in Baltimore, generally, that Burr was

engaged in some criminal enterprise, and that Luther Martin knew all about

it. We think you should immediately despatch a subpœna for Graybell; and

while that is on the road, you will have time to consider in what form

you will use his testimony; _e. g._ shall Luther Martin be summoned as a

witness against Burr, and Graybell held ready to confront him? It may be

doubted whether we could examine a witness to discredit our own witness.

Besides, the lawyers say that they are privileged from being forced to

breaches of confidence, and that no others are. Shall we move to commit

Luther Martin, as _particeps criminis_ with Burr? Graybell will fix upon

him misprison of treason at least. And at any rate, his evidence will

put down this unprincipled and impudent federal bull-dog, and add another

proof that the most clamorous defenders of Burr are all his accomplices.

It will explain why Luther Martin flew so hastily to the "aid of his

honorable friend," abandoning his clients and their property during a

session of a principal court in Maryland, now filled, as I am told, with

the clamors and ruin of his clients. I believe we shall send on Latrobe as

a witness. He will prove that Aaron Burr endeavored to get him to engage

several thousand men, chiefly Irish emigrants, whom he had been in the

habit of employing in the works he directs, under pretence of a canal

opposite Louisville, or of the Washita, in which, had he succeeded, he

could with that force alone have carried everything before him, and would

not have been where he now is. He knows, too, of certain meetings of Burr,

Bollman, Yrujo, and one other whom we have never named yet, but have him

not the less in our view.

I salute you with friendship and respect.

P. S. Will you send us half a dozen blank subpœnas?

Since writing the within I have had a conversation with Latrobe. He says

it was five hundred men he was desired to engage. The pretexts were, to

work on the Ohio canal, and be paid in Washita lands. Your witnesses will

some of them prove that Burr had no interest in the Ohio canal, and that

consequently this was a mere pretext to cover the real object from the men

themselves, and all others. Latrobe will set out in the stage of to-morrow

evening, and be with you Monday evening.

TO GOVERNOR SULLIVAN.

WASHINGTON, June 19, 1807.

DEAR SIR,--In acknowledging the receipt of your favor of the 3d instant,

I avail myself of the occasion it offers of tendering to yourself, to

Mr. Lincoln and to your State, my sincere congratulations on the late

happy event of the election of a republican executive to preside over

its councils. The harmony it has introduced between the legislative and

executive branches, between the people and both of them, and between

all and the General Government, are so many steps towards securing that

union of action and effort in all its parts, without which no nation can

be happy or safe. The just respect with which all the States have ever

looked to Massachusetts, could leave none of them without anxiety, while

she was in a state of alienation from her family and friends. Your opinion

of the propriety and advantage of a more intimate correspondence between

the executives of the several States, and that of the Union, as a central

point, is precisely that which I have ever entertained; and on coming into

office I felt the advantages which would result from that harmony. I had

it even in contemplation, after the annual recommendation to Congress of

those measures called for by the times, which the Constitution had placed

under their power, to make communications in like manner to the executives

of the States, as to any parts of them to which the legislatures might

be alone competent. For many are the exercises of power reserved to

the States, wherein an uniformity of proceeding would be advantageous

to all. Such are quarantines, health laws, regulations of the press,

banking institutions, training militia, &c., &c. But you know what was

the state of the several governments when I came into office. That a great

proportion of them were federal, and would have been delighted with such

opportunities of proclaiming their contempt, and of opposing republican

men and measures. Opportunities so furnished and used by some of the State

Governments, would have produced an ill effect, and would have insured

the failure of the object of uniform proceeding. If it could be ventured

even now (Connecticut and Delaware being still hostile) it must be on

some greater occasion than is likely to arise within my time. I look

to it, therefore, as a course which will probably be to be left to the

consideration of my successor.

I consider, with you, the federalists as completely vanquished, and never

more to take the field under their own banners. They will now reserve

themselves to profit by the schisms among republicans, and to earn favors

from minorities, whom they will enable to triumph over their more numerous

antagonists. So long as republican minorities barely accept their votes,

no great harm will be done; because it will only place in power one shade

of republicanism, instead of another. But when they purchase the votes

of the federalists, by giving them a participation of office, trust and

power, it is a proof that anti-monarchism is not their strongest passion.

I do not think that the republican minority in Pennsylvania has fallen

into this heresy, nor that there are in your State materials of which a

minority can be made who will fall into it.

With respect to the tour my friends to the north have proposed that I

should make in that quarter, I have not made up a final opinion. The

course of life which General Washington had run, civil and military,

the services he had rendered, and the space he therefore occupied in the

affections of his fellow citizens, take from his examples the weight of

precedents for others, because no others can arrogate to themselves the

claims which he had on the public homage. To myself, therefore, it comes

as a new question, to be viewed under all the phases it may present.

I confess that I am not reconciled to the idea of a chief magistrate

parading himself through the several States, as an object of public

gaze, and in quest of an applause which, to be valuable, should be purely

voluntary. I had rather acquire silent good will by a faithful discharge

of my duties, than owe expressions of it to my putting myself in the way

of receiving them. Were I to make such a tour to Portsmouth or Portland,

I must do it to Savannah, perhaps to Orleans and Frankfort. As I have

never yet seen the time when the public business would have permitted me

to be so long in a situation in which I could not carry it on, so I have

no reason to expect that such a time will come while I remain in office. A

journey to Boston or Portsmouth, after I shall be a private citizen, would

much better harmonize with my feelings, as well as duties; and, founded

in curiosity, would give no claims to an extension of it. I should see

my friends too more at our mutual ease, and be left more exclusively to

their society. However, I end as I began, by declaring I have made up no

opinion on the subject, and that I reserve it as a question for future

consideration and advice.

In the meantime, and at all times, I salute you with great respect and

esteem.

TO GEORGE HAY.

WASHINGTON, June 20, 1807.

DEAR SIR,--Mr. Latrobe now comes on as a witness against Burr. His

presence here is with great inconvenience dispensed with, as one hundred

and fifty workmen require his constant directions on various public works

of pressing importance. I hope you will permit him to come away as soon

as possible. How far his testimony will be important as to the prisoner, I

know not; but I am desirous that those meetings of Yrujo with Burr and his

principal accomplices, should come fully out, and judicially, as they will

establish the just complaints we have against his nation.

I did not see till last night the opinion of the Judge on the _subpœna

duces tecum_ against the President. Considering the question there as

_coram non judice_, I did not read his argument with much attention. Yet I

saw readily enough, that, as is usual where an opinion is to be supported,

right or wrong, he dwells much on smaller objections, and passes over

those which are solid. Laying down the position generally, that all

persons owe obedience to subpœnas, he admits no exception unless it can be

produced in his law books. But if the Constitution enjoins on a particular

officer to be always engaged in a particular set of duties imposed on him,

does not this supersede the general law, subjecting him to minor duties

inconsistent with these? The Constitution enjoins his constant agency

in the concerns of six millions of people. Is the law paramount to this,

which calls on him on behalf of a single one? Let us apply the Judge's own

doctrine to the case of himself and his brethren. The sheriff of Henrico

summons him from the bench, to quell a riot somewhere in his county. The

federal judge is, by the general law, a part of the _posse_ of the State

sheriff. Would the Judge abandon major duties to perform lesser ones?

Again; the court of Orleans or Maine commands, by subpœnas, the attendance

of all the judges of the Supreme Court. Would they abandon their posts

as judges, and the interests of millions committed to them, to serve the

purposes of a single individual? The leading principle of our Constitution

is the independence of the Legislature, executive and judiciary of each

other, and none are more jealous of this than the judiciary. But would

the executive be independent of the judiciary, if he were subject to the

_commands_ of the latter, and to imprisonment for disobedience; if the

several courts could bandy him from pillar to post, keep him constantly

trudging from north to south and east to west, and withdraw him entirely

from his constitutional duties? The intention of the Constitution, that

each branch should be independent of the others, is further manifested by

the means it has furnished to each, to protect itself from enterprises

of force attempted on them by the others, and to none has it given more

effectual or diversified means than to the executive. Again; because

ministers can go into a court in London as witnesses, without interruption

to their executive duties, it is inferred that they would go to a court

one thousand or one thousand five hundred miles off, and that ours are

to be dragged from Maine to Orleans by every criminal who will swear that

their testimony "may be of use to him." The Judge says, "_it is apparent_

that the President's duties as chief magistrate do not demand his whole

time, and are not unremitting." If he alludes to our annual retirement

from the seat of government, during the sickly season, he should be told

that such arrangements are made for carrying on the public business, at

and between the several stations we take, that it goes on as unremittingly

there, as if we were at the seat of government. I pass more hours in

public business at Monticello than I do here, every day; and it is much

more laborious, because all must be done in writing. Our stations being

known, all communications come to them regularly, as to fixed points. It

would be very different were we always on the road, or placed in the noisy

and crowded taverns where courts are held. Mr. Rodney is expected here

every hour, having been kept away by a sick child.

I salute you with friendship and respect.

TO DOCTOR WISTAR.

WASHINGTON, June 21, 1807.

DEAR SIR,--I have a grandson, the son of Mr. Randolph, now about fifteen

years of age, in whose education I take a lively interest. * * * * * I am

not a friend to placing young men in populous cities, because they acquire

there habits and partialities which do not contribute to the happiness

of their after life. But there are particular branches of science, which

are not so advantageously taught anywhere else in the United States as

in Philadelphia. The garden at the Woodlands for Botany, Mr. Peale's

Museum for Natural History, your Medical school for Anatomy, and the able

professors in all of them, give advantages not to be found elsewhere. We

propose, therefore, to send him to Philadelphia to attend the schools

of Botany, Natural History, Anatomy, and perhaps Surgery; but not of

Medicine. And why not of Medicine, you will ask? Being led to the subject,

I will avail myself of the occasion to express my opinions on that

science, and the extent of my medical creed. But, to finish first with

respect to my grandson, I will state the favor I ask of you, and which is

the object of this letter.

* * * * *

This subject dismissed, I may now take up that which it led to, and

further tax your patience with unlearned views of medicine; which, as in

most cases, are, perhaps, the more confident in proportion as they are

less enlightened.

We know, from what we see and feel, that the animal body is in its organs

and functions subject to derangement, inducing pain, and tending to its

destruction. In this disordered state, we observe nature providing for the

re-establishment of order, by exciting some salutary evacuation of the

morbific matter, or by some other operation which escapes our imperfect

senses and researches. She brings on a crisis, by stools, vomiting, sweat,

urine, expectoration, bleeding, &c., which, for the most part, ends in

the restoration of healthy action. Experience has taught us, also, that

there are certain substances, by which, applied to the living body,

internally or externally, we can at will produce these same evacuations,

and thus do, in a short time, what nature would do but slowly, and do

effectually, what perhaps she would not have strength to accomplish.

Where, then, we have seen a disease, characterized by specific signs

or phenomena, and relieved by a certain natural evacuation or process,

whenever that disease recurs under the same appearances, we may reasonably

count on producing a solution of it, by the use of such substances as we

have found produce the same evacuation or movement. Thus, fulness of the

stomach we can relieve by emetics; diseases of the bowels, by purgatives;

inflammatory cases, by bleeding; intermittents, by the Peruvian bark;

syphilis, by mercury; watchfulness, by opium; &c. So far, I bow to the

utility of medicine. It goes to the well-defined forms of disease, and

happily, to those the most frequent. But the disorders of the animal

body, and the symptoms indicating them, are as various as the elements

of which the body is composed. The combinations, too, of these symptoms

are so infinitely diversified, that many associations of them appear too

rarely to establish a definite disease; and to an unknown disease, there

cannot be a known remedy. Here then, the judicious, the moral, the humane

physician should stop. Having been so often a witness to the salutary

efforts which nature makes to re-establish the disordered functions, he

should rather trust to their action, than hazard the interruption of that,

and a greater derangement of the system, by conjectural experiments on a

machine so complicated and so unknown as the human body, and a subject

so sacred as human life. Or, if the appearance of doing something be

necessary to keep alive the hope and spirits of the patient, it should be

of the most innocent character. One of the most successful physicians I

have ever known, has assured me, that he used more bread pills, drops of

colored water, and powders of hickory ashes, than of all other medicines

put together. It was certainly a pious fraud. But the adventurous

physician goes on, and substitutes presumption for knowledge. From the

scanty field of what is known, he launches into the boundless region

of what is unknown. He establishes for his guide some fanciful theory

of corpuscular attraction, of chemical agency, of mechanical powers, of

stimuli, of irritability accumulated or exhausted, of depletion by the

lancet and repletion by mercury, or some other ingenious dream, which

lets him into all nature's secrets at short hand. On the principle which

he thus assumes, he forms his table of nosology, arrays his diseases into

families, and extends his curative treatment, by analogy, to all the cases

he has thus arbitrarily marshalled together. I have lived myself to see

the disciples of Hoffman, Boerhaave, Stahl, Cullen, Brown, succeed one

another like the shifting figures of a magic lantern, and their fancies,

like the dresses of the annual doll-babies from Paris, becoming, from

their novelty, the vogue of the day, and yielding to the next novelty

their ephemeral favor. The patient, treated on the fashionable theory,

sometimes gets well in spite of the medicine. The medicine therefore

restored him, and the young doctor receives new courage to proceed in

his bold experiments on the lives of his fellow creatures. I believe

we may safely affirm, that the inexperienced and presumptuous band of

medical tyros let loose upon the world, destroys more of human life in

one year, than all the Robinhoods, Cartouches, and Macheaths do in a

century. It is in this part of medicine that I wish to see a reform, an

abandonment of hypothesis for sober facts, the first degree of value set

on clinical observation, and the lowest on visionary theories. I would

wish the young practitioner, especially, to have deeply impressed on his

mind, the real limits of his art, and that when the state of his patient

gets beyond these, his office is to be a watchful, but quiet spectator

of the operations of nature, giving them fair play by a well-regulated

regimen, and by all the aid they can derive from the excitement of good

spirits and hope in the patient. I have no doubt, that some diseases not

yet understood may in time be transferred to the table of those known.

But, were I a physician, I would rather leave the transfer to the slow

hand of accident, than hasten it by guilty experiments on those who put

their lives into my hands. The only sure foundations of medicine are,

an intimate knowledge of the human body, and observation on the effects

of medicinal substances on that. The anatomical and clinical schools,

therefore, are those in which the young physician should be formed. If

he enters with innocence that of the theory of medicine, it is scarcely

possible he should come out untainted with error. His mind must be strong

indeed, if, rising above juvenile credulity, it can maintain a wise

infidelity against the authority of his instructors, and the bewitching

delusions of their theories. You see that I estimate justly that portion

of instruction which our medical students derive from your labors; and,

associating with it one of the chairs which my old and able friend,

Doctor Rush, so honorably fills, I consider them as the two fundamental

pillars of the edifice. Indeed, I have such an opinion of the talents

of the professors in the other branches which constitute the school of

medicine with you, as to hope and believe, that it is from this side of

the Atlantic, that Europe, which has taught us so many other things, will

at length be led into sound principles in this branch of science, the most

important of all others, being that to which we commit the care of health

and life.

I dare say, that by this time, you are sufficiently sensible that old

heads as well as young, may sometimes be charged with ignorance and

presumption. The natural course of the human mind is certainly from

credulity to scepticism; and this is perhaps the most favorable apology

I can make for venturing so far out of my depth, and to one too, to whom

the strong as well as the weak points of this science are so familiar. But

having stumbled on the subject in my way, I wished to give a confession of

my faith to a friend; and the rather, as I had perhaps, at times, to him

as well as others, expressed my scepticism in medicine, without defining

its extent or foundation. At any rate, it has permitted me, for a moment,

to abstract myself from the dry and dreary waste of politics, into which

I have been impressed by the times on which I happened, and to indulge

in the rich fields of nature, where alone I should have served as a

volunteer, if left to my natural inclinations and partialities.

I salute you at all times with affection and respect.

TO GENERAL WILKINSON.

WASHINGTON, June 21, 1807.

DEAR SIR,--I received last night yours of the 16th, and sincerely

congratulate you on your safe arrival at Richmond, against the impudent

surmises and hopes of the band of conspirators, who, because they are as

yet permitted to walk abroad, and even to be in the character of witnesses

until such a measure of evidence shall be collected as will place them

securely at the bar of justice, attempt to cover their crimes under noise

and insolence. You have indeed had a fiery trial at New Orleans, but it

was soon apparent that the clamorous were only the criminal, endeavoring

to turn the public attention from themselves and their leader upon any

other object.

Having delivered to the Attorney General all the papers I possessed,

respecting Burr and his accomplices, when he went to Richmond, I could

only write to him (without knowing whether he was at Philadelphia,

Wilmington, or Delaware) for your letter of October 21st, desired by the

court. If you have a copy of it, and choose to give it in, it will, I

think, have a good effect; for it was my intention, if I should receive

it from Mr. Rodney, not to communicate it without your consent, after I

learnt your arrival. Mr. Rodney will certainly either bring or send it

within the course of a day or two, and it will be instantly forwarded

to Mr. Hay. For the same reason, I cannot send the letter of J. P. D.,

as you propose, to Mr. Hay. I do not recollect what name these initials

indicate, but the paper, whatever it is, must be in the hands of Mr.

Rodney. Not so as to your letter to Dayton; for as that could be of no use

in the prosecution, and was reserved to be forwarded or not, according to

circumstances, I retained it in my own hands, and now return it to you.

If you think Dayton's son should be summoned, it can only be done from

Richmond. We have no subpœnas here. Within about a month we shall leave

this to place ourselves in healthier stations. Before that I trust you

will be liberated from your present attendance. It would have been of

great importance to have had you here with the Secretary at War, because I

am very anxious to begin such works as will render Plaquemine impregnable,

and an insuperable barrier to the passage of any force up or down the

river. But the Secretary at War sets out on Wednesday, to meet with some

other persons at New York, and determine on the works necessary to be

undertaken to put that place _hors d'insulte_, and thence he will have

to proceed northwardly, I believe. I must ask you, at your leisure, to

state to me in writing what you think will answer our views at Plaquemine,

within the limits of expense which we can contemplate, and of which you

can form a pretty good idea.

Your enemies have filled the public ear with slanders, and your mind with

trouble on that account. The establishment of their guilt will let the

world see what they ought to think of their clamors; it will dissipate the

doubts of those who doubted for want of knowledge, and will place you on

higher ground in the public estimate and public confidence. No one is more

sensible than myself of the injustice which has been aimed at you. Accept,

I pray you, my salutations, and assurances of respect and esteem.

TO THE SECRETARY OF WAR.

June 22, 1807.

I suggest to you the following, as some of the ideas which might be

expressed by General Wilkinson, in answering Governor Saludo's letter. The

introductory and concluding sentiments will best flow from the General's

own feelings of the personal standing between him and Governor Saludo:

"On the transfer of Louisiana by France to the United States, according

to its boundaries when possessed by France, the government of the United

States considered itself entitled as far west as the Rio Norte; but

understanding soon after that Spain, on the contrary, claimed eastwardly

to the river Sabine, it has carefully abstained from doing any act in

the intermediate country, which might disturb the existing state of

things, until these opposing claims should be explained and accommodated

amicably. But that the Red river and all its waters belonged to France,

that she made several settlements on that river, and held them as a part

of Louisiana until she delivered that country to Spain, and that Spain,

on the contrary, had never made a single settlement on the river, are

circumstances so well known, and so susceptible of proof, that it was

not supposed that Spain would seriously contest the facts, or the right

established by them. Hence our government took measures for exploring that

river, as it did that of the Missouri, by sending Mr. Freeman to proceed

from the mouth upwards, and Lieutenant Pike from the source downwards,

merely to acquire its geography, and so far enlarge the boundaries of

science. For the day must be very distant when it will be either the

interest or the wish of the United States to extend settlements into

the interior of that country. Lieutenant Pike's orders were accordingly

strictly confined to the waters of the Red river, and, from his known

observance of orders, I am persuaded that it must have been, as he himself

declares, by missing his way that he got on the waters of the Rio Norte,

instead of those of the Red river. That your Excellency should excuse

this involuntary error, and indeed misfortune, was expected from the

liberality of your character; and the kindnesses you have shown him are

an honorable example of those offices of good neighborhood on your part,

which it will be so agreeable to us to cultivate. Accept my thanks for

them, and be assured they shall on all occasions meet a like return. To

the same liberal sentiment Lieutenant Pike must appeal for the restoration

of his papers. You must have seen in them no trace of unfriendly views

towards your nation, no symptoms of any other design than of extending

geographical knowledge; and it is not in the nineteenth century, nor

through the agency of your Excellency, that science expects to encounter

obstacles. The field of knowledge is the common property of all mankind,

and any discoveries we can make in it will be for the benefit of yours and

of every other nation, as well as our own."

TO MR. HAY.

WASHINGTON, June 23, 1807.

DEAR SIR,--In mine of the 12th I informed you I would write to the

Attorney General to send on the letter of General Wilkinson of October

21st, referred to in my message of January 22d. He accordingly sent

me a letter of that date, but I immediately saw that it was not the

one desired, because it had no relation to the facts stated under that

reference. I immediately, by letter, apprized him of this circumstance,

and being since returned to this place, he yesterday called on me with

the whole of the papers remaining in his possession, and he assured me

he had examined carefully the whole of them, and that the one referred

to in the message was not among them, nor did he know where it would be

found. These papers have been recurred to so often, on so many occasions,

and some of them delivered out for particular purposes, that we find

several missing, without being able to recollect what has been done with

them. Some of them were delivered to the Attorney of this district, to be

used on the occasions which arose in the District Court, and a part of

them were filed, as is said, in their office. The Attorney General will

examine their office to day, and has written to the District Attorney to

know whether he retained any of them. No researches shall be spared to

recover this letter, and if recovered, it shall immediately be sent on

to you. Compiling the message from a great mass of papers, and pressed

in time, the date of a particular paper may have been mistaken, but

we all perfectly remember the one referred to in the message, and that

its substance is there correctly stated. General Wilkinson probably has

copies of all the letters he wrote me, and having expressed a willingness

to furnish the one desired by the Court, the defendant can still have

the benefit of it. Or should he not have the particular one on which

that passage in the message is founded, I trust that his memory would

enable him to affirm that it is substantially correct. I salute you with

friendship and respect.

TO GEORGE BLAKE, ESQ.

WASHINGTON, June 24, 1807.

SIR,--I enclose you a petition of John Partridge, which I perceive to have

been in your hands before, by a certificate endorsed on it. The petitioner

says the term of labor to which he was sentenced expired on the 14th

instant; that he is unable to pay the costs of prosecution, and therefore

prays to be discharged. But in such cases it is usual to substitute an

additional term of confinement equivalent to that portion of the sentence

which cannot be complied with. Pardons too for counterfeiting bank paper

are yielded with much less facility than others. However, in all cases

I have referred these petitions to the judges and prosecuting attorney,

who having heard all the circumstances of the case, are the best judges

whether any of them were of such a nature as ought to obtain for the

criminal a remission or abridgement of the punishment. I now enclose the

papers, and ask the favor of you to take the opinion of the judges on that

subject, and to favor me with your own, which will govern me in what I do,

and be my voucher for it. I salute you with esteem and respect.

TO GENERAL DEARBORNE.

WASHINGTON, June 25, 1807. 5.30 P. M.

DEAR SIR,--I am sincerely sorry that I am obliged to ask your attendance

here without a moment's avoidable delay. The capture of the Chesapeake

by a British ship of war renders it necessary to have all our Council

together. I do not suppose it will detain you long from rejoining Mrs.

Dearborne. The mail is closing. Affectionate salutations.

TO MR. GALLATIN.

WASHINGTON, June 25, 1807. 5.30 P. M.

DEAR SIR,--I am sorry to be obliged to hasten your return to this place,

and pray that it maybe without a moment's avoidable delay. The capture of

the Chesapeake by a British ship of war renders it necessary to have all

our Council together. The mail is closing. Affectionate salutations.

TO GOVERNOR CABELL.

WASHINGTON, June 29, 1807.

SIR,--Your favor by express was safely received on Saturday night, and I

am thankful to you for the attention of which it is a proof. Considering

the General and State governments as co-operators in the same holy

concerns, the interest and happiness of our country, the interchange

of mutual aid is among the most pleasing of the exercises of our duty.

Captain Gordon, the second in command of the Chesapeake, has arrived

here with the details of that affair. Yet as the precaution you took of

securing us against the accident of wanting information, was entirely

proper, and the expense of the express justly a national one, I have

directed him to be paid here, so that he is enabled to refund any money

you may have advanced him. Mr. Gallatin and General Dearborne happening

to be absent, I have asked their immediate attendance here, and I expect

them this day. We shall then determine on the course which the exigency

and our constitutional powers call for. Whether the outrage is a proper

cause of war, belonging exclusively to Congress, it is our duty not to

commit them by doing anything which would be to be retracted. We may,

however, exercise the powers entrusted to us for preventing future insults

within our harbors, and claim firmly satisfaction for the past. This will

leave Congress free to decide whether war is the most efficacious mode

of redress in our case, or whether, having taught so many other useful

lessons to Europe, we may not add that of showing them that there are

peaceable means of repressing injustice, by making it the interest of

the aggressor to do what is just, and abstain from future wrong. It is

probable you will hear from us in the course of the week. I salute you

with great esteem and respect.

TO MR. GALLATIN.

July 4, 1807.

If I understand the claim of the Creeks, it is that they shall have a

right of transit across our territories, but especially along our rivers

from the Spanish territories to their own, for goods _for their own use_,

without paying us a duty. I think they are in the right. This is exactly

what we are claiming of Spain, as to this very river, the Mobile. Our

doctrine is that different nations inhabiting the same river have all a

natural right to an innocent passage along it, just as individuals of the

same nation have of a river wholly within the territory of that nation. I

do not know whether our revenue law, justly construed, opposes this; but

if it does not, we ought to take the case into consideration, and do what

is right. It is here that the manner in which this right has been asserted

by Captain Isaac, is not agreeable. But can we blame it? and ought

not those who are in the wrong to put themselves in the right, without

listening to false pride?

Affectionate salutations.

TO THE VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

WASHINGTON, July 6, 1807.

DEAR SIR,--I congratulate you on your safe arrival with Miss Clinton

at New York, and especially on your escape from British violence. This

aggression is of a character so distinct from that on the Chesapeake, and

of so aggravated a nature, that I consider it as a very material one to

be presented with that to the British Government. I pray you, therefore,

to write me a letter, stating the transaction, and in such a form as that

it may go to that Government. At the same time, I must request you to

instruct Mr. Gelston, from me, to take the affidavits of the Captain of

the revenue cutter, and of such other persons as you shall direct, stating

the same affair, and to be forwarded, in like manner, to our Minister in

London.

You will have seen by the proclamation, the measures adopted. We act on

these principles, 1. That the usage of nations requires that we shall

give the offender an opportunity of making reparation and avoiding war.

2. That we should give time to our merchants to get in their property and

vessels and our seamen now afloat. And 3. That the power of declaring war

being with the Legislature, the executive should do nothing, necessarily

committing them to decide for war in preference of non-intercourse, which

will be preferred by a great many. They will be called in time to receive

the answer from Great Britain, unless new occurrences should render it

necessary to call them sooner.

I salute you with friendship and respect.

TO COLONEL TATHAM.

WASHINGTON, July 6, 1807.

SIR,--Your favor of the 1st instant has been received, and I thank you for

the communication. Considering the mass of false reports in circulation,

and the importance of being truly informed of the proceedings of the

British armed vessels in the Chesapeake and its vicinities, I should

be very glad, as you are on the spot, provided with a proper vessel and

men, if you could continue watching their motions constantly, and giving

me information of them. In that case it would be necessary you should

journalize everything respecting them which should fall within your

observation, and enclose daily to me a copy of the observations of the

day, forwarding them to the post-office of Norfolk, by every opportunity

occurring. Your allowance should be exactly on the same footing as when

you were surveying the coast, and for current expenses you may draw on

Mr. Bedinger, Navy Agent, at Norfolk, only accompanying each draught with

a letter explaining generally the purpose of it, which is a constant and

indispensable rule in all our departments. It will be necessary for me to

ask the continuance of this service from you only until I can ascertain

the course these officers mean to pursue.

I salute you with esteem and respect.

TO THE SECRETARY AT WAR.

WASHINGTON, July 7, 1807.

DEAR SIR,--I enclose you copies of two letters sent by express from

Captain Decatur. By these you will perceive that the British commanders

have their foot on the threshold of war. They have begun the blockade of

Norfolk; have sounded the passage to the town, which appears practicable

for three of their vessels, and menace an attack on the Chesapeake and

Cybele. These, with four gun-boats, form the present defence, and there

are four more gun-boats in Norfolk nearly ready. The four gun-boats at

Hampton are hauled up, and in danger, four in Mopjack bay are on the

stocks. Blows may be hourly possible. In this state of things I am sure

your own feelings will anticipate the public judgment, that your presence

here cannot be dispensed with. There is nobody here who can supply your

knowledge of the resources for land co-operation, and the means for

bringing them into activity. Still, I would wish you would stay long

enough at New York to settle with the V. P. and Colonel Williams, the plan

of defence for that place; and I am in hopes you will also see Fulton's

experiments tried, and see how far his means may enter into your plan. But

as soon as that is done, should matters remain in their present critical

state, I think the public interest and safety would suffer by your absence

from us. Indeed, if the present state of things continues, I begin to fear

we shall not be justifiable in separating this autumn, and that even an

earlier meeting of Congress than we had contemplated, may be requisite. I

salute you affectionately.

TO THE MASTERS AND OTHER OFFICERS SAILING TO AND FROM THE PORTS OF NORFOLK

AND PORTSMOUTH.

WASHINGTON, July 8, 1807.

The tender of your services for the erection and reparation of Fort

Norfolk and works on Craney Island, and for manning the gun-boats and

other vessels for the waters of Elizabeth and James rivers, are received

with great satisfaction. They are the more important, in proportion as

we have much to do in the least time possible. Knowing their peculiar

value for manning and managing the gun-boats and other vessels, it is in

that direction I am in hopes they will have been applied, and that the

necessary aid for erecting or repairing works on the land will have been

found in the zeal of other citizens, less qualified to be useful in the

employments on the water. I return, for your country, the thanks you so

justly deserve.

TO GOVERNOR CABELL.

WASHINGTON, July 8, 1807.

SIR,--You will have received from the Secretary at War a letter,

requesting that the quota of the State of Virginia of 100,000 militia

be immediately organized and put in readiness for service at the

shortest warning, but that they be not actually called out until further

requisition. The menacing attitudes which the British ships of war have

taken in Hampton Road, the actual blockade of Norfolk, and their having

sounded the entrance, as if with a view to pass up to the city, render it

necessary that we should be as well prepared there as circumstances will

permit. The Secretary at War being gone to New York to arrange a plan of

defence for that city, it devolves on me to request that, according to the

applications you may receive from the officers charged with the protection

of the place, and the information which you are more at hand to obtain

than we are here, you will order such portions of the militia as you shall

think necessary and most convenient to enter immediately on duty, for the

defence of the place and protection of the country, at the expense of the

United States. We have, moreover, four gun-boats hauled up at Hampton, and

four others on the stocks in Matthews county, under the care of Commodore

Samuel Barron, which we consider as in danger. I must request you also

to order such aids of militia, on the application of that officer, as you

shall think adequate to their safety. Any arms which it may be necessary

to furnish to the militia for the present objects, if not identically

restored to the State, shall be returned in kind or in value by the United

States. I have thought I could not more effectually provide for the safety

of the places menaced, than by committing it to your hands, as you are

nearer the scene of action, have the necessary powers over the militia,

can receive information, and give aid so much more promptly than can be

done from this place. I will ask communications from time to time of your

proceedings under this charge. I salute you with great esteem and respect.

TO CAPTAIN J. SAUNDERS, FORT NELSON.

WASHINGTON, July 8, 1807.

SIR,--The Secretary at War having proceeded to New York to make

arrangements for the defence of that place, your letter to him of July 4th

has been put into my hands. I see with satisfaction the promptitude with

which you have proceeded in mounting the guns of your fort, and I will

count on your continuing your utmost exertions for putting yourself in

the best condition of defence possible. With respect to the instructions

you ask for, you will consider the proclamation of July 2d as your general

instructions, but especially you are to contribute all the means in your

power towards the defence of the country, its citizens, and property,

against any aggressions which may be attempted by the British armed

vessels or any other armed force. I salute you with respect.

TO GENERAL MATTHEWS.

WASHINGTON, July 8, 1807.

SIR,--The Secretary at War having gone on to New York for the purpose of

having that place put into a state of defence, your letter of July 4th

to him has been put into my hands. I see with satisfaction that in an

emergency too sudden to have been provided for by orders from hence, you

have, under the guidance of your own judgment and patriotism, taken the

measures within your power towards supporting the rights of your country.

I will pray you to consider the proclamation of July 2d as laying down

the rule of action for all our citizens, in their several authorities and

stations; but that it is further desired of you to employ the means under

your command, for defence of the country, its citizens, and property,

against all aggressions attempted by the British armed vessels or other

force. The Governor of Virginia being in a situation to act with more

promptitude on any emergency which may arise, so far as respects the

militia of the State, I have authorized and requested him to order into

service such portions of the militia as he shall think necessary, on

application from any of the persons charged with the defence of Norfolk

or other places menaced. With him I recommend to you to communicate as

to the militia to be employed, approving most myself whatever shall be

most effectual for repelling aggression on our peace, and maintaining

the authority of the laws. Accept my salutations, and assurances of great

respect.

TO THE HONORABLE THOMAS COOPER.

WASHINGTON, July 9, 1807.

DEAR SIR,--Your favor of June 23d is received. I had not before learned

that a life of Dr. Priestley had been published, or I should certainly

have procured it; for no man living had a more affectionate respect

for him. In religion, in politics, in physics, no man has rendered more

service.

I had always expected that when the republicans should have put down

all things under their feet, they would schismatize among themselves. I

always expected, too, that whatever names the parties might bear, the real

division would be into moderate and ardent republicanism. In this division

there is no great evil,--not even if the minority obtain the ascendency

by the accession of federal votes to their candidate; because this gives

us one shade only, instead of another, of republicanism. It is to be

considered as apostasy only when they purchase the votes of federalists,

with a participation in honor and power. The gross insult lately received

from the English has forced the latter into a momentary coalition with the

mass of republicans; but the moment we begin to act in the very line they

have joined in approving, all will be wrong, and every act the reverse of

what it should have been. Still, it is better to admit their coalescence,

and leave to themselves their short-lived existence. Both reason and the

usage of nations required we should give Great Britain an opportunity

of disavowing and repairing the insult of their officers. It gives us at

the same time an opportunity of getting home our vessels, our property,

and our seamen,--the only means of carrying on the kind of war we should

attempt. The only difference, I believe, between your opinion and mine, as

to the protection of commerce, is the forcing the nation to take the best

road, and the letting them take the worse, if such is their will. I salute

you with great esteem and respect.

TO THE SECRETARY AT WAR.

WASHINGTON, July 9, 1807.

DEAR SIR,--Considering that gun-boats will enter very materially into the

system of defence for New York, I have thought that Commodore Rogers,

(who is proceeding to that place on other business,) from his peculiar

acquaintance with their operation and effect, might be useful as an

associate in your examinations of the place, and the determinations to

be formed. His opinions on that part of the subject will add weight

to whatever shall be concluded. I have therefore desired him to take

a part with yourself, the Vice-President, and Colonel Williams, in the

examinations and consultations.

I have just received a deputation from the Alexandrians, who are under

uneasiness for their own unprotected situation, and asking the loan of

a large number of muskets and cannon. I have convinced them that a very

small force at Digges' Point will defend them more effectually than a

very great one at their city, and that on your return we will have the

place examined, a battery established, and have small arms in readiness

to be given out to them in the moment they shall be wanted to support the

battery. Indeed I think a position to be taken there is indispensable

for the safety of the Navy Yard and its contents: say a battery and

block-house. Who can we get to examine the place, and give a proper

plan? This we must determine on your return. Nothing new from Norfolk.

Mr. Erskine has written pressingly to Commodore Douglass. Affectionate

salutations.

TO MR. GALLATIN.

July 10, 1807.

Something now occurs almost every day on which it is desirable to have the

opinions of the heads of departments, yet to have a formal meeting every

day would consume so much of their time as to seriously obstruct their

regular business. I have proposed to them, as most convenient for them,

and wasting less of their time, to call on me at any moment of the day

which suits their separate convenience, when, besides any other business

they may have to do, I can learn their opinions separately on any matter

which has occurred, also communicate the information received daily.

Perhaps you could find it more convenient, sometimes, to make your call

at the hour of dinner, instead of going so much further to dine alone.

You will always find a plate and a sincere welcome. In this way, that is,

successively, I have to-day consulted the other gentlemen on the question

whether letters of Marque were to be considered as written within our

interdict. We are unanimously of opinion they are not. We consider them

as essentially _merchant vessels_; that commerce is their main object, and

arms merely incidental and defensive. Affectionate salutations

TO MR. BOWDOIN.

WASHINGTON, July 10, 1807.

DEAR SIR,--I wrote you on the 10th of July, 1806, but supposing, from

your not acknowledging the receipt of the letter, that it had miscarried,

I sent a duplicate with my subsequent one of April the 2d. These having

gone by the Wasp, you will doubtless have received them. Since that, yours

of May the 1st has come to hand. You will see by the despatches from the

department of State, earned by the armed vessel the Revenge, into what

a critical state our peace with Great Britain is suddenly brought, by

their armed vessels in our waters. Four vessels of war (three of them two

deckers) closely blockade Norfolk at this instant. Of the authority under

which this aggression is committed, their minister here is unapprized.

You will see by the proclamation of July the 2d, that (while we are

not omitting such measures of force as are immediately necessary) we

propose to give Great Britain an opportunity of disavowal and reparation,

and to leave the question of war, non-intercourse, or other measures,

uncommitted, to the Legislature. This country has never been in such

a state of excitement since the battle of Lexington. In this state of

things, cordial friendship with France, and peace at least with Spain,

become more interesting. You know the circumstances respecting this last

power, which have rendered it ineligible that you should have proceeded

heretofore to your destination. But this obstacle is now removed by their

recall of Yrujo, and appointment of another minister, and in the meantime,

of a chargé des affaires, who has been received. The way now being open

for taking your station at Madrid, it is certainly our wish you should

do so, and that this may be more agreeable to you than your return home,

as is solicited in yours of May the 1st. It is with real unwillingness we

should relinquish the benefit of your services. Nevertheless, if your mind

is decidedly bent on that, we shall regret, but not oppose your return.

The choice, therefore, remains with yourself. In the meantime, your place

in the joint commission being vacated by either event, we shall take

the measures rendered necessary by that. We have seen, with real grief,

the misunderstanding which has taken place between yourself and General

Armstrong. We are neither qualified nor disposed to form an opinion

between you. We regret the pain which must have been felt by persons, both

of whom hold so high a place in our esteem, and we have not been without

fear that the public interest might suffer by it. It has seemed, however,

that the state of Europe has been such as to admit little to be done, in

matters so distant from them.

The present alarm has had the effect of suspending our foreign commerce.

No merchant ventures to send out a single vessel; and I think it probable

this will continue very much the case till we get an answer from England.

Our crops are uncommonly plentiful. That of small grain is now secured

south of this, and the harvest is advancing here.

Accept my salutations, and assurances of affectionate esteem and respect.

TO CAPTAIN BEATTY, FOR HIMSELF, THE OTHER OFFICERS AND PRIVATES OF THE

LIGHT INFANTRY COMPANY OF GEORGETOWN.

WASHINGTON, July 11, 1807.

SIR,--I have received your letter of yesterday, mentioning that you had,

on the 4th of July, made a tender of the services of the Light Infantry

Company of Georgetown. The circumstances of the day must apologize for its

having escaped my recollection. This tender of service in support of the

rights of our country merits and meets the highest praise; and whenever

the moment arrives in which these rights must appeal to the public arm for

support, the spirit from which your offer flows, that which animates our

nation, will be their sufficient safeguard.

To the Legislature will be rendered a faithful account of the events which

have so justly excited the sensibilities of our country, of the measures

taken to obtain reparation, and of their result; and to their wisdom will

belong the course to be ultimately pursued.

In the meantime it is our duty to pursue that prescribed by the existing

laws, towards which, should your services be requisite, this offer of them

will be remembered.

I tender for your country the thanks so justly due to yourself, the other

officers and privates of the company.

TO MR. BIDWELL.

WASHINGTON, July 11, 1807.