WASHINGTON, February 24, 1808.
SIR,--I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 16th. It
gave me the first information of the death of our distinguished fellow
citizen, John Dickinson. A more estimable man, or truer patriot, could
not have left us. Among the first of the advocates for the rights of
his country when assailed by Great Britain, he continued to the last the
orthodox advocate of the true principles of our new government, and his
name will be consecrated in history as one of the great worthies of the
revolution. We ought to be grateful for having been permitted to retain
the benefit of his counsel to so good an old age; still, the moment of
losing it, whenever it arrives, must be a moment of deep-felt regret. For
himself, perhaps, a longer period of life was less important, alloyed
as the feeble enjoyments of that age are with so much pain. But to his
country every addition to his moments was interesting. A junior companion
of his labors in the early part of our revolution, it has been a great
comfort to me to have retained his friendship to the last moment of his
life.
Sincerely condoling with his friends on this affecting loss, I beg leave
to tender my salutations to yourself, and assurances of my friendly
respects.
TO THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
WASHINGTON, February 27, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--I enclose you a copy of Armstrong's letter, covering the papers
sent to Congress. The date was blank, as in the copy; the letter was so
immaterial that I had really forgotten it altogether when I spoke with you
last night. I feel myself much indebted to you for having given me this
private opportunity of showing that I have kept back nothing material.
That the federalists and a few others should by their vote make such a
charge on me, is never unexpected. But how can any join in it who call
themselves friends? The President sends papers to the House, which he
thinks the public interest requires they should see. They immediately pass
a vote, implying irresistibly their belief that he is capable of having
kept back other papers which the same interest requires they should see.
They pretend to no direct proof of this. It must, then, be founded in
presumption; and on what act of my life or of my administration is such a
presumption founded? What interest can I have in leading the Legislature
to act on false grounds? My wish is certainly to take that course with
the public affairs which the body of the Legislature would prefer. It is
said, indeed, that such a vote is to satisfy the federalists and their
partisans. But were I to send twenty letters, they would say, "You have
kept back the twenty-first; send us that." If I sent one hundred, they
would say, "There were one hundred and one;" and how could I prove the
negative? Their malice can be cured by no conduct; it ought, therefore, to
be disregarded, instead of countenancing their imputations by the sanction
of a vote. Indeed I should consider such a vote as a charge, in the face
of the nation, calling for a serious and public defence of myself. I send
you a copy, that you may retain it, and make such use of it among our
friends as your prudence and friendship will deem best.
I salute you with great affection and respect.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
February 28, 1808.
There is no source from whence our fair commerce derives so much vexation,
or our country so much danger of war, as from forged papers and fraudulent
voyages. Nothing should, in my opinion, be spared, either of trouble or
expense on our part, to aid all nations in detecting and punishing them.
I would therefore certainly direct Mr. Gelston to furnish Heinecher with
every proof in his power, and to assure him that it shall be done on all
occasions. Would it not be well to give this assurance to all the foreign
consuls? It would at least show the world that this government does not
countenance those frauds; and should not instructions be given to all
the collectors to furnish all proofs in their power on demand? The three
Englishmen will, I presume, be punished by the laws of Holland, either
as spies, or prisoners of war. If their laws will not take hold of our
scoundrel, Gardner, of the Jane, perhaps that government would put him on
board a vessel, under the order of our consul, to be brought and punished
here for the forgery of papers. Would it not be well to put a summary
statement of this case, and of our orders on the occasion, into Smith's
paper? Would it be amiss even to send it to Congress by message, with a
recommendation to provide punishments against this practice? Affectionate
salutations.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
March 2, 1808.
On considering the papers which James Brown sent us, containing a
statement of the parcels of property in and adjacent to New Orleans, to
which the United States claims, we thought it safest to await the report
of the commissioners, with their list of the property. The papers received
yesterday by express from New Orleans, and now enclosed to you, give us a
list of the property, and grounds of claim from the common council of the
city. Having thus the statement, as it were, from both parties, I suppose
we may consider the list as complete. It would therefore be only losing
a year to wait for the report of the commissioners, and especially as the
property is suffering. What shall we do? There are two questions,--first,
which of these parcels do really belong to the United States? Second, how
shall they be disposed of? On the first question, I presume Congress will
not decide themselves, but either leave it to the present commissioners,
or appoint others of higher standing and abilities, at least for the
future, which is of too much value, and too much involved in prejudices
_there_, to be safely trusted to the present commissioners. On the second
question, perhaps Congress might now desire the Executive, so soon as
the titles are decided, to state to them the parcels which should be kept
for the government use, and then give to the city such as they need, and
dispose of the rest as they see best.
Will you favor me with your ideas what is best to be done? Affectionate
salutations.
TO HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR SULLIVAN.
WASHINGTON, March 3, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--Your favor of February 8th, covering the resolutions of
the Legislature of Massachusetts, was received in due time. It is
a circumstance of great satisfaction that the proceedings of the
government are approved by the respectable Legislature of Massachusetts,
and especially the late important measure of the embargo. The hearty
concurrence of the States in that measure, will have a great effect in
Europe. I derive great personal consolation from the assurances in your
friendly letter, that the electors of Massachusetts would still have
viewed me with favor as a candidate for a third presidential term. But
the duty of retirement is so strongly impressed on my mind, that it is
impossible for me to think of that. If I can carry into retirement the
good will of my fellow citizens, nothing else will be wanting to my
happiness.
Your letter of February 7th, with a recommendation for Salem, and that of
the 8th recalling it, were both received. I dare say you have found that
the solicitations for office are the most painful incidents to which an
executive magistrate is exposed. The ordinary affairs of a nation offer
little difficulty to a person of any experience; but the gift of office is
the dreadful burthen which oppresses him. A person who wishes to make it
an engine of self-elevation, may do wonders with it; but to one who wishes
to use it conscientiously for the public good, without regard to the ties
of blood or friendship, it creates enmities without numbers, many open,
but more secret, and saps the happiness and peace of his life.
I pray you to accept my friendly salutations, and assurances of great
esteem and respect.
TO COLONEL MONROE.
WASHINGTON, March 10, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--
* * * * *
From your letter of the 27th ultimo, I perceive that painful impressions
have been made on your mind during your late mission, of which I had never
entertained a suspicion. I must, therefore, examine the grounds, because
explanations between reasonable men can never but do good. 1. You consider
the mission of Mr. Pinckney as an associate, to have been in some way
injurious to you. Were I to take that measure on myself, I might say in
its justification, that it has been the regular and habitual practice of
the United States to do this, under every form in which their government
has existed. I need not recapitulate the multiplied instances, because you
will readily recollect them. I went as an adjunct to Dr. Franklin and Mr.
Adams, yourself as an adjunct first to Mr. Livingston, and then to Mr.
Pinckney, and I really believe there has scarcely been a great occasion
which has not produced an extraordinary mission. Still, however, it is
well known that I was strongly opposed to it in the case of which you
complain. A committee of the Senate called on me with two resolutions of
that body, on the subject of impressment and spoliations by Great Britain,
and requesting that I would demand satisfaction. After delivering the
resolutions, the committee entered into free conversation, and observed,
that although the Senate could not, in form, recommend any extraordinary
mission, yet that as individuals, there was but one sentiment among them
on the measure, and they pressed it. I was so much averse to it, and gave
them so hard an answer, that they felt it, and spoke of it. But it did not
end here. The members of the other House took up the subject, and set upon
me individually, and these the best friends to you, as well as myself, and
represented the responsibility which a failure to obtain redress would
throw on us both, pursuing a conduct in opposition to the opinion of
nearly every member of the Legislature. I found it necessary, at length,
to yield my own opinion to the general use of the national council, and
it really seemed to produce a jubilee among them; not from any want of
confidence in you, but from a belief in the effect which an extraordinary
mission would have on the British mind, by demonstrating the degree of
importance which this country attached to the rights which we considered
as infracted.
2. You complain of the manner in which the treaty was received. But what
was that manner? I cannot suppose you to have given a moment's credit to
the stuff which was crowded in all sorts of forms into the public papers,
or to the thousand speeches they put into my mouth, not a word of which
I had ever uttered. I was not insensible at the time of the views to
mischief, with which these lies were fabricated. But my confidence was
firm, that neither yourself nor the British government, equally outraged
by them, would believe me capable of making the editors of newspapers the
confidants of my speeches or opinions. The fact was this. The treaty was
communicated to us by Mr. Erskine on the day Congress was to rise. Two of
the Senators inquired of me in the evening, whether it was my purpose to
detain them on account of the treaty. My answer was, "that it was not:
that the treaty containing no provision against the impressment of our
seamen, and being accompanied by a kind of protestation of the British
ministers, which would leave that government free to consider it as a
treaty or no treaty, according to their own convenience, I should not
give them the trouble of deliberating on it." This was substantially,
and almost verbally, what I said whenever spoken to about it, and I
never failed when the occasion would admit of it, to justify yourself
and Mr. Pinckney, by expressing my conviction, that it was all that
could be obtained from the British government; that you had told their
commissioners that your government could not be pledged to ratify, because
it was contrary to their instructions; of course, that it should be
considered but as a project; and in this light I stated it publicly in my
message to Congress on the opening of the session. Not a single article of
the treaty was ever made known beyond the members of the administration,
nor would an article of it be known at this day, but for its publication
in the newspapers, as communicated by somebody from beyond the water, as
we have always understood. But as to myself, I can solemnly protest, as
the most sacred of truths, that I never, one instant, lost sight of your
reputation and favorable standing with your country, and never omitted
to justify your failure to attain our wish, as one which was probably
unattainable. Reviewing therefore, this whole subject, I cannot doubt
you will become sensible, that your impressions have been without just
ground. I cannot, indeed, judge what falsehoods may have been written or
told you; and that, under such forms as to command belief. But you will
soon find, my dear Sir, that so inveterate is the rancor of party spirit
among us, that nothing ought to be credited but what we hear with our
own ears. If you are less on your guard than we are here, at this moment,
the designs of the mischief-makers will not fail to be accomplished, and
brethren and friends will be made strangers and enemies to each other,
without ever having said or thought a thing amiss of each other. I presume
that the most insidious falsehoods are daily carried to you, as they are
brought to me, to engage us in the passions of our informers, and stated
so positively and plausibly as to make even _doubt_ a rudeness to the
narrator; who, imposed on himself, has no other than the friendly view
of putting us on our guard. My answer is, invariably, that my knowledge
of your character is better testimony to me of a negative, than any
affirmative which my informant did not hear _from yourself_ with his own
ears. In fact, when you shall have been a little longer among us, you
will find that little is to be believed which interests the prevailing
passions, and happens beyond the limits of our own senses. Let us not
then, my dear friend, embark our happiness and our affections on the ocean
of slander, of falsehood and of malice, on which our credulous friends
are floating. If you have been made to believe that I ever did, said, or
thought a thing unfriendly to your fame and feelings, you do me injury as
causeless as it is afflicting to me. In the present contest in which you
are concerned, I feel no passion, I take no part, I express no sentiment.
Whichever of my friends is called to the supreme cares of the nation, I
know that they will be wisely and faithfully administered, and as far as
my individual conduct can influence, they shall be cordially supported.
For myself I have nothing further to ask of the world, than to preserve
in retirement so much of their esteem as I may have fairly earned, and
to be permitted to pass in tranquillity, in the bosom of my family and
friends, the days which yet remain for me. Having reached the harbor
myself, I shall view with anxiety (but certainly not with a wish to be in
their place) those who are still buffetting the storm, uncertain of their
fate. Your voyage has so far been favorable, and that it may continue with
entire prosperity, is the sincere prayer of that friendship which I have
ever borne you, and of which I now assure you, with the tender of my high
respect and affectionate salutations.
TO RICHARD M. JOHNSON.
WASHINGTON, March 10, 1808.
SIR,--I am sure you can too justly estimate my occupations; to need
an apology for this tardy acknowledgment of your favor of February the
27th. I cannot but be deeply sensible of the good opinion you are pleased
to express of my conduct in the administration of our government. This
approbation of my fellow citizens is the richest reward I can receive. I
am conscious of having always intended to do what was best for them; and
never, for a single moment, to have listened to any personal interest of
my own. It has been a source of great pain to me, to have met with so many
among our opponents, who had not the liberality to distinguish between
political and social opposition; who transferred at once to the person,
the hatred they bore to his political opinions. I suppose, indeed, that in
public life, a man whose political principles have any decided character,
and who has energy enough to give them effect, must always expect to
encounter political hostility from those of adverse principles. But I
came to the government under circumstances calculated to generate peculiar
acrimony. I found all its offices in the possession of a political sect,
who wished to transform it ultimately into the shape of their darling
model, the English government; and in the meantime, to familiarize the
public mind to the change, by administering it on English principles, and
in English forms. The elective interposition of the people had blown all
their designs, and they found themselves and their fortresses of power and
profit put in a moment into the hands of other trustees. Lamentations and
invective were all that remained to them. This last was naturally directed
against the agent selected to execute the multiplied reformations, which
their heresies had rendered necessary. I became of course the butt of
everything which reason, ridicule, malice and falsehood could supply. They
have concentrated all their hatred on me, till they have really persuaded
themselves, that I am the sole source of all their imaginary evils. I
hope, therefore, that my retirement will abate some of their disaffection
to the government of their country, and that my successor will enter on a
calmer sea than I did. He will at least find the vessel of state in the
hands of his friends, and not of his foes. Federalism is dead, without
even the hope of a day of resurrection. The quondam leaders, indeed,
retain their rancor and principles; but their followers are amalgamated
with us in sentiment, if not in name. If our fellow citizens, now solidly
republican, will sacrifice favoritism towards men for the preservation of
principle, we may hope that no divisions will again endanger a degeneracy
in our government.
* * * * *
I pray you to accept my salutations, and assurances of great esteem and
respect.
TO MR. MADISON.
March 11, 1808.
I suppose we must despatch another packet by the 1st of April at farthest.
I take it to be an universal opinion that war will become preferable to
a continuance of the embargo after a certain time. Should we not then
avail ourselves of the intervening period to procure a retraction of the
obnoxious decrees peaceably, if possible? An opening is given us by both
parties, sufficient to form a basis for such a proposition.
I wish you to consider, therefore, the following course of proceeding, to
wit:
To instruct our ministers at Paris and London, by the next packet, to
propose immediately to both those powers a declaration on both sides that
these decrees and orders shall no longer be extended to vessels of the
United States, in which case we shall remain faithfully neutral; but,
without assuming the air of menace, to let them both perceive that if they
do not withdraw these orders and decrees, there will arrive a time when
our interests will render war preferable to a continuance of the embargo;
that when that time arrives, if one has withdrawn and the other not, we
must declare war against that other; if neither shall have withdrawn, we
must take our choice of enemies between them. This it will certainly be
our duty to have ascertained by the time Congress shall meet in the fall
or beginning of winter; so that taking off the embargo, they may decide
whether war must be declared, and against whom. Affectionate salutations.
TO GOVERNOR CABELL.
WASHINGTON, March 13, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--I received last night your favor of the 10th. There can
certainly be no present objection to the forwarding the letters therein
mentioned, according to their address.
We have nothing new of importance, except that at the last reading of
an amendatory bill a few days ago, the House of Representatives were
surprised into the insertion of an insidious clause permitting any
merchant having _property_ abroad, on proving it to the executive, to send
a ship for it. We are already overwhelmed with applications, and there is
real danger that the great object of the embargo in keeping our ships and
seamen out of harm's way, will be defeated; and every vessel and seaman
sent out under this pretext, and placed in the prize of the belligerent
tyrants. I salute you with friendship and respect.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
March 17, 1808.
I think it will be impossible to form general rules for carrying into
execution the seventh section of the law of March 12th, without a fuller
view of the number and nature of the cases which are to come under it.
I have waited in expectation the applications would multiply so as to
give one a general view, but I have received but about half a dozen. But,
indeed, nothing short of a knowledge of all the cases can enable us to
provide for them. I have been wishing, therefore, to converse with you on
this proposition; to wit, to direct the collectors to advertize in their
respective ports, that all persons desiring the benefit of that law, must
_immediately_ deliver to him a statement of the _place_ where they have
property, its _amount_, whether _cash_ or _goods_, and what _kind_ of
goods, and in whose _hands_, on oath, but without exhibiting other proofs
till further called on. These particulars may be stated in a tabular view;
for _cash_ we might authorize vessels to go immediately, but for goods
rules must be framed on a view of all circumstances.
With respect to the constitution of the act, there are cases in the books
where the word "may" has been adjudged equivalent to "shall," but the term
"is authorized," unless followed by "and required," was, I think, never so
considered. On the contrary, I believe it is the very term which Congress
always use toward the executive when they mean to give a power to him, and
leave the use of it to his discretion.
It is the very phrase on which there is now a difference in the House
of Representatives, on the bill for raising 6,000 regulars, which says
"there shall be raised," and some desire it to say "the President is
authorized to raise," leaving him the power with a discretion to use it
or not. It is to be observed also that the one construction puts it in
the power of individuals to defeat the embargo in a great measure, while
the other leaves a power to combine a due regard to the object of the law
with the interests of individuals. I like your idea of proportioning the
tonnage of the vessel to the value (in some degree) of the property, but
its bulk must also be taken into consideration. On the whole, I should
be for giving prompt permission to bring home money, because one vessel
will bring for all those who have cash at the same port; but the bringing
property in other forms, will require a fuller view and digest of rules.
Affectionate salutations.
TO W. C. NICHOLAS, ESQ.
WASHINGTON, March 20, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--Your favor of the 18th is duly received. Be assured that I
value no act of friendship so highly as the communicating facts to me,
which I am not in the way of knowing otherwise, and could not therefore
otherwise guard against. I have had too many proofs of your friendship not
to be sensible of the kindness of these communications, and to receive
them with peculiar obligation. The receipt of Mr. Rose's answer has
furnished the happiest occasion for me to present to Congress a complete
view of the ground on which we stand with the two principal belligerents,
and, with respect to France, to lay before them, _for the public_, every
communication received from that government since the last session,
including those heretofore sent, in order that they also may be published,
and let our constituents see whether these papers gave just ground for the
falsehoods which have been so impudently advanced. We shall hope to see
you to-day. Affectionate salutations.
TO DOCTOR WISTAR.
WASHINGTON, March 20, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--Yours of the 12th is received. Congress, I think, will rise in
about three weeks,--say about the 11th of April, and I shall leave this
five or six days after, on a visit of some length to Monticello. This
illy accords with your journey to the westward in May; but can you not
separate your excursion to this place from the western journey? Between
Philadelphia and this place is but two days, and the roads are already
fine. I would propose, therefore, that you should come a few days before
Congress rises, so as to satisfy that article of your curiosity. The
bones are spread in a large room, where you can work at your leisure,
undisturbed by any mortal, from morning till night, taking your breakfast
and dinner with us. It is a precious collection, consisting of upwards
of three hundred bones, few of them of the large kinds which are already
possessed. There are four pieces of the head, one very clear, and
distinctly presenting the whole face of the animal. The height of his
forehead is most remarkable. In this figure, the indenture at the eye
gives a prominence of six inches to the forehead. There are four jaw-bones
tolerably entire, with several teeth in them, and some fragments; three
tusks like elephants; one ditto totally different, the largest probably
ever seen, being now from nine to ten feet long, though broken off at both
ends; some ribs; an abundance of teeth studded, and also of those of the
striated or ribbed kind; a fore-leg complete; and then about two hundred
small bones, chiefly of the foot. This is probably the most valuable part
of the collection, for General Clarke, aware that we had specimens of the
larger bones, has gathered up everything of the small kind. There is one
horn of a colossal animal. The bones which came do not correspond exactly
with General Clarke's description; probably there were some omissions of
his packers. Having sent my books to Monticello, I have nothing here to
assist you but the Encyclopedie Methodique. I hope you will make this a
separate excursion; and come before Congress rises, whenever it best suits
you. I salute you with friendship and respect.
TO THE DEMOCRATIC CITIZENS OF THE COUNTY OF ADAMS, PENNSYLVANIA.
March 20, 1808.
I see with pleasure, fellow citizens, in your address of February 15th,
a sound recurrence to the first principles on which our government is
founded; an examination by that test of the rights we possess, and the
wrongs we have suffered; a just line drawn between a wholesome attention
to the conduct of rulers, and a too ready censure of that conduct on
every unfounded rumor; between the love of peace, and the determination
to meet war, when its evils shall be less intolerable than the wrongs it
is meant to correct. With so just a view of principles and circumstances,
your approbation of my conduct, under the difficulties which have beset us
on every side, is doubly valued by me, and offers high encouragement to
a perseverance in my best endeavors for the preservation of your peace,
so long as it shall be consistent with the preservation of your rights.
When this ceases to be practicable, I feel entire confidence in the
arduous exertions which you pledge in support of the measures which may be
called for by the exigencies of the times, and in the known energies and
enterprize of our countrymen in whatsoever direction they are pointed. If
these energies are embodied by an union of will, and by a confidence in
those who direct it, our nation, so favored in its situation, has nothing
to fear from any quarter. To that union of effort may our citizens ever
rally, minorities falling cordially, on the decision of a question, into
the ranks of the majority, and bearing always in mind that a nation ceases
to be republican only when the will of the majority ceases to be the law.
I thank you, fellow citizens, for the solicitude you kindly express for
my future welfare. A retirement from the exercise of my present charge is
equally for your good and my own happiness. Gratitude for past favors, and
affectionate concern for the liberty and prosperity of my fellow citizens,
will cease but with life to animate my breast.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
March 23, 1808.
It is a maxim of our municipal law, and, I believe, of universal law, that
he who permits the _end_, permits of course the _means_, without which
the end cannot be effected. The law permitting rum, molasses, and sugar,
to be imported from countries which have not packages for them, would be
construed in the most rigorous courts to permit them to be carried. They
would consider the restriction to ballast and provisions as a restriction
to necessaries, and merely equivalent to a declaration that they shall
carry out nothing for sale.
This is certainly one object of the law, and the second is to import the
property; and to these objects all constructions of it should be directed.
I have no doubt, therefore, that Messrs. Low and Wallace, and others,
should be allowed to carry out the necessary and sufficient packages. But
a right to take care that the law is not evaded, allows us to prescribe
that kind of package which can be best guarded against fraud. Boxes
ready-made could not, perhaps, be so easily probed, to discover if they
contained nothing for exportation. Casks filled with water can be easily
sounded from the bunghole. If you think, therefore, that one kind of
package is safer than another, it may be prescribed; for that nothing for
sale shall be exported is as much the object of the law, as that their
property shall be imported. Reasonable attention is due to each object.
Affectionate salutations.
TO M. LE VAVASSEUR.
WASHINGTON, March 23, 1807.
SIR,--I am sensible of the extraordinary ingenuity and merit of the work
which you offer to the acquisition of our government. It would certainly
be an ornament to any country. But with such an immense extent of country
before us, wanting common improvement to render it productive, the United
States have not thought the moment as yet arrived when it would be wise
in them to divert their funds to objects less pressing; no law has yet
authorized acquisitions of this character. The idea of rendering the Greek
and Latin languages living, has certainly some captivating points. The
experiment has, I believe, been tried in Europe as to the Latin language,
but with what degree of success I am not precisely informed. I suppose it
very possible to reform the language of the modern Greeks to the ancient
standard, and that this may one day take place. But in our infant country
objects more urgent force themselves on our attention, and call for the
aid of all our means. These peculiarities of our situation deprive us of
the advantage of availing our country of propositions which, in a more
advanced stage of improvement, might be entitled to consideration.
Permit me to tender my salutations, and assurances of respect.
TO LEVI LINCOLN.
WASHINGTON, March 23, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--Your letter on the subject of Mr. Lee came safely to hand.
You know our principles render federalists in office safe, if they do not
employ their influence in opposing the government, but only give their own
vote according to their conscience. And this principle we act on as well
with those put in office by others, as by ourselves.
We have received from your presses a very malevolent and incendiary
denunciation of the administration, bottomed on absolute falsehood from
beginning to end. The author would merit exemplary punishment for so
flagitious a libel, were not the torment of his own abominable temper
punishment sufficient for even as base a crime as this. The termination
of Mr. Rose's mission, _re infecta_, put it in my power to communicate
to Congress yesterday, everything respecting our relations with England
and France, which will effectually put down Mr. Pickering, and his worthy
coadjutor Mr. Quincy. Their tempers are so much alike, and really their
persons, as to induce a supposition that they are related. The embargo
appears to be approved, even by the federalists of every quarter except
yours. The alternative was between that and war, and in fact, it is
the last card we have to play, short of war. But if peace does not take
place in Europe, and if France and England will not consent to withdraw
the operation of their decrees and orders from us, when Congress shall
meet in December, they will have to consider at what point of time the
embargo, continued, becomes a greater evil than war. I am inclined to
believe, we shall have this summer and autumn to prepare for the defence
of our seaport towns, and hope that in that time, the works of defence
will be completed which have been provided for by the Legislature. I think
Congress will rise within three weeks.
I salute you with great affection and respect.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
March 26, 1808.
Mr. Madison happening to call on me just now, I consulted him on the
subject of Hoffman's letter. We both think that it would be neither just
nor expedient that the supplies necessary to the existence of the Indians
should be cut off from them; and that if no construction of the embargo
law will permit the passage of their commerce, and if that law could,
and did intend to control the treaty, (the last of which is hardly to be
believed,) then an amendment should be asked of Congress. I have no copy
of the law by me, and indeed am too unwell for very close exercise of the
mind. Affectionate salutations.
TO CHARLES PINCKNEY.
WASHINGTON, March 30, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--Your letter of the 8th was received on the 25th, and I
proceed to state to you my views of the present state and prospect of
foreign affairs, under the confidence that you will use them for your own
government and opinions only, and by no means let them get out as from
me. With France we are in no _immediate_ danger of war. Her future views
it is impossible to estimate. The immediate danger we are in of a rupture
with England, is postponed for this year. This is effected by the embargo,
as the question was simply between that and war. That may go on a certain
time, perhaps through the year, without the loss of their property to
our citizens, but only its remaining unemployed on their hands. A time
would come, however, when war would be preferable to a continuance of the
embargo. Of this Congress may have to decide at their next meeting. In the
meantime, we have good information, that a negotiation for peace between
France and England is commencing through the medium of Austria. The way
for it has been smoothed by a determination expressed by France (through
the Moniteur, which is their government paper) that herself and her allies
will demand from Great Britain no renunciation of her maritime principles;
nor will they renounce theirs. Nothing shall be said about them in the
treaty, and both sides will be left in the next war to act on their own.
No doubt the meaning of this is, that all the _Continental_ powers of
Europe will form themselves into an armed neutrality, to enforce their own
principles. Should peace be made, we shall have safely rode out the storm
in peace and prosperity. If we have anything to fear, it will be after
that. Nothing should be spared from this moment in putting our militia in
the best condition possible, and procuring arms. I hope, that this summer,
we shall get our whole seaports put into that state of defence, which
Congress has thought proportioned to our circumstances and situation;
that is to say, put _hors d'insulte_ from a maritime attack, by a moderate
squadron. If armies are combined with their fleets, then no resource can
be provided, but to meet them in the field. We propose to raise seven
regiments only for the present year, depending always on our militia for
the operations of the first year of war. On any other plan, we should
be obliged always to keep a large standing army. Congress will adjourn
in about three weeks. I hope Captain McComb is getting on well with your
defensive works. We shall be able by mid-summer, to give you a sufficient
number of gun-boats to protect Charleston from any vessel which can cross
the bar; but the militia of the place must be depended on to fill up the
complement of men necessary for action in the moment of an attack, as we
shall man them, in ordinary, but with their navigating crew of eight or
ten good seamen.
I salute you with great esteem and respect.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
March 31, 1808.
If, on considering the doubts I shall suggest, you shall still think your
draught of a supplementary embargo law sufficient, in its present form,
I shall be satisfied it is so, for I have but one hour in the morning in
which I am capable of thinking, and that is too much crowded with business
to give me time to think.
1. Is not the first paragraph against the Constitution, which says no
preference shall be given to the ports of one State over those of another?
You might put down those ports as ports of entry, if that could be made to
do.
2. Could not your second paragraph be made to answer by making it say that
no clearance shall be furnished to any vessel laden with _provisions_
or _lumber_, to go from one port to another of the United States,
without special permission, &c. In that case we might lay down rules for
the necessary removal of provisions and lumber, inland, which should
give no trouble to the citizens, but refuse licenses for all coasting
transportation of those articles but on such applications from a Governor
as may ensure us against any exportation but for the consumption of his
State. Portsmouth, Boston, Charleston, and Savannah, are the only ports
which cannot be supplied inland. I should like to prohibit _collections_,
also, made evidently for clandestine importation.
3. I would rather strike out the words "in conformity with treaty" in
order to avoid any express recognition at this day of that article of the
British treaty. It has been so flagrantly abused as to excite the Indians
to war against us, that I should have no hesitation in declaring it null,
as soon as we see means of supplying the Indians ourselves.
I should have no objections to extend the exception to the Indian furs
purchased by our traders and sent into Canada. Affectionate salutes.
TO MR. SMITH.
April 1, 1808.
I approve of your letter to Commodore Murray entirely, and in order to
settle what shall be our course for the summer (now that we are tolerably
clear, that no rupture with England is likely to take place during the
summer), I propose, the first day that I can be well enough, for a couple
of hours to ask a meeting of our colleagues to determine these questions.
Shall the proclamation be renewed or suffered to expire?
Shall the harbors of ordinary British resort (say New York, Lynhaven, and
Charleston) be furnished with their full quota of gun-boats, with their
_navigating_ crews?
Shall the residue of the 170 gun-boats be distributed among the other
ports, with their navigating crews, or be laid up or left on their stocks?
Shall the frigates and Wasp be unmanned?
Affectionate salutations.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
April 2, 1808.
SIR,--On the amendments to the embargo law, I am perfectly satisfied with
whatever you have concluded on after consideration of the subject. My view
was only to suggest for your consideration, not having at all made myself
acquainted with the details of that law. I therefore return you your bill,
and wish it to be proposed. I will this day nominate Elmer. The delegates
of North Carolina expect daily to receive information on the subject of
a Marshal. Is the Register's office at New Orleans vacant? Claiborne says
it is, and strongly recommends Robertson the Secretary. He will be found
one of the most valuable men we have brought into the public service for
integrity, talents and amiability. Affectionate salutations.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
April 8, 1808.
I suppose that Favre can carry his necessary provisions from New Orleans
across the lake in a periagua or some other vessel, which may come under
the exception of vessels under the immediate direction of the President,
and that being an agent of the United States for the transmission of
public intelligence, such a license is perfectly legitimate. If this were
a matter of doubt, its solution would be to be sought in the intention of
the Legislature, which was to keep our seamen and property from capture,
and to starve the offending nations. But Favre is our own agent, and we
may as well remit provisions to him as money to our other foreign agents.
It appears to me to be so clearly out of the scope of the prohibitions of
the embargo law, and within its exceptions, that I should be for allowing
him to take out his provisions for his family, under the superintendence
of the Collector. Affectionate salutations.
TO MR. JOHN JACOB ASTOR.
WASHINGTON, April 13, 1808.
SIR,--I have regretted the delay of this answer to your letter of February
27th, but it has proceeded from circumstances which did not depend on
me. I learn with great satisfaction the disposition of our merchants
to form into companies for undertaking the Indian trade within our own
territories. I have been taught to believe it an advantageous one for
the individual adventurers, and I consider it as highly desirable to have
that trade centred in the hands of our own citizens. The field is immense,
and would occupy a vast extent of capital by different companies engaging
in different districts. All beyond the Mississippi is ours exclusively,
and it will be in our power to give our own traders great advantages
over their foreign competitors on this side the Mississippi. You may be
assured that in order to get the whole of this business passed into the
hands of our own citizens, and to oust foreign traders, who so much abuse
their privilege by endeavoring to excite the Indians to war on us, every
reasonable patronage and facility in the power of the Executive will be
afforded. I salute you with respect.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
April 14, 1808.
I should think Mr. Woodside's application to send provisions for the
family of our consul at Madeira, admissible on the same ground as that
lately to Favre, were the necessity as evident, but I suppose it can
hardly be doubted that England will procure provisions for that island,
and there is danger of one precedent in our relaxations begetting another
till we may get out of the limits of the law and its object.
The application for the establishment of a packet on Lake Champlain cannot
be admitted. Such an establishment is by no means within the description
of those which we have proposed to license; it would give too great a
facility to evade the law, and the builder is in no worse situation than
the many others who began their vessels before the embargo law, and who
will not be permitted to use them till that is repealed. Affectionate
salutations.
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
April 19, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--Sincerely sympathizing in your distress, which much experience
in the same school has taught me to estimate, I could not have been
induced to intrude on it by anything short of the urgency of the case
stated by Penniman on Lake Champlain. Messrs. Robinson and Witherall tell
me the whole of the business will be over early in May, when the fall of
the water renders the rapids impassable for rafts. They think vessels
of any kind desired, can be had on the Lake at a moment's warning, and
guns of 6 lbs. ball, there also, mounted on them by procurement of the
collector, and that the governor would order any assistance of militia
on being written to. Believing it important to crush every example of
forcible opposition to the law, I propose to ask the other gentlemen to a
consultation immediately, and for their and my guide have to request any
ideas on the subject which you can hastily give me on paper, for which I
would not have troubled you, but from a confidence that your knowledge of
the character and means possessed by the collector there, and of the local
circumstances to be attended to, may enable us to decide on what will be
most proper and effectual. I salute you with affection.
P. S. Return me Penniman's letter if you please, to lay before the
gentlemen.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
April 19, 1808.
We have concluded as follows:
1st. That a letter from your department to the collector on Lake
Champlain, shall instruct him to equip and arm what vessels he can and
may think necessary, and luggage as many persons on board them as may
be necessary, and can be engaged _voluntarily_ by force of arms, or
otherwise, to enforce the law.
2d. The Secretary of State writes to the Marshall, if the opposition to
the law is too powerful for the collector, to raise his posse, (which, as
a peace officer, he is fully authorized to do on any forcible breach of
the peace,) and to aid in suppressing the insurrection or combination.
3d. The Secretary at War desires the Governor, if the posse is inadequate,
to publish a proclamation with which he is furnished, and to call on
the militia. He is further, by a private letter, requested to repair to
the place, and lend the aid of his counsel and authority according to
exigencies.
We have further determined to build two gun-boats at Skanesborough.
Affectionate salutations.
P. S. General Dearborne has Penniman's letter to copy for the Governor.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
April 22, 1808.
Did I lend you the Pennsylvania act permitting our Western road to pass
through that State? If I did, or if you have a copy of it, I shall be
very glad to see it. Mr. Hodge gave me notice yesterday that there would
be legal opposition to that road's passing in any other direction than
through Washington, their construction being, that if in fact a _good_
road can be got by Washington, the law obliges me to direct it through
that; and they have got a survey made on which they affirm the fact to
be that a _good_ road may be had. I know my determination was not to
yield to the example of a State's prescribing the direction of the road;
and I understood the law as leaving the route ultimately to me. If I
have misconstrued the law, I shall be sorry for the money spent on a
misconstruction, but that loss will be a lesser evil to the United States
than a single example of yielding to a State the direction of a road made
at the national expense and for national purposes. If you have not the
law, I must write by this day's post to Mr. Moore, to suspend all further
proceedings till we can see whether we are really at liberty to pursue the
route we have proposed, or must adopt another which shall not enter the
State of Pennsylvania.
Affectionate salutations.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
April 23, 1808.
My ideas on the questions relative to the active letter of Marque stated
in your letter of yesterday, are as follows:
1st. Letters of Marque have been considered, ever since the decisions
of 1703, to be of a mixed character, but that the commercial character
predominates; and as a commercial vessel of private property we have in
some cases since the proclamation of July, considered them as not included
in its restrictions.
2d. The law of 1794, June 5th, certainly exempts the enlistment of
foreigners in this country on board the vessels of their sovereign, from
the penalties of that law, and leaves the subject merely under the law of
nations. By that law the right of enlistment in a neutral country, given
to both belligerents if they can devise equal advantage from it, is no
breach of neutrality, but otherwise becomes questionable. We may, justly,
I think, permit a vessel of either nation to supply its desertions by new
engagements; but we should be cautious as to permitting them to increase
their number, to carry away more than they brought in.
3d. It is difficult to draw a line between the two cases where the
collector should consult the government, and where the district attorney.
Where a case is political, rather than legal, or where it arises even on
a _law_ whose object is rather political than municipal, the government
should be consulted; and where the district attorney is the proper resort,
still it should be on consultation by the collector, and not by the party
interested. Affectionate salutations.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
April 23, 1808.
Notes on the British claims in the Mississippi territory.
1803, March 3d, act of Congress gave to March 31, 1804, to exhibit their
claims on grants.
1804, March 27, act of Congress gave to November 30, 1804, and allowed
transcripts instead of originals, &c.
1805, March 2d, act of Congress gave to December 1, 1805, to file their
grants. And in fact to Jan 1, 1807, time when the sale might begin.
1807, December 15, the British claimants memorialize again.
On no one of the acts did the British claimant take any step towards
specifying his claim or its location, but remained inactive till the time
was expired, and then remonstrated to his government that we had not given
them time sufficient. And on the last of 1805, instead of having come
forward with his claims, ready to avail himself of the third term which
was then to be asked, and which was granted nominally to December 1, 1805,
but in effect to January 1, 1807, he stays at home inactive, and on the
15th of December, 1807, again gives in a memorial that we have not given
time enough, but still takes no step to inform us what and where his claim
is.
Although these titles may have been confirmed by treaty, yet they
could not thereby be intended to be withdrawn from the jurisdiction or
conditions on which lands are held even by citizens. It is evident that
these claimants are speculators, whose object is to make what profit they
can out of the patronage of the government, but to make no sacrifice of
themselves either of money or trouble. They are entitled, therefore, to
no further notice from either government. However, Mr. Erskine may be
informed _verbally_, that as the day of commencing sales of lands there
is now put off to January 1, 1809, if any of these claimants will, before
that day, file their claim, with its _precise location_, the executive
is authorized to suspend the sale of any particular parcels, and will as
to that, till the proper authority can decide on the title, but that the
settlement of that country in general, is too pressing to be delayed one
day by claims under the circumstances of these.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
April 23, 1808.
The leading object of the enclosed application from the owners of the
Topaz, is to send witnesses and documents to save the property of the
ship and cargo seized. But as the Topaz would be insufficient to bring
home the whole property if cleared, the permission of sending a vessel
may be on the ordinary ground of bringing home the property. But do the
restrictions of the embargo laws (for I have them not) inhibit the passing
from port to port as proposed in the enclosed? And do they admit, (in case
the Topaz and her cargo are condemned,) that the vessel sent out should
bring home other property to cover the expenses of the ineffectual voyage?
On these questions I must ask your opinion, as General Smith will call
on me to-morrow. The questions had been brought to me originally by Mr.
Taylor, because he happened to come at a moment when you were confined.
Affectionate salutes.
TO WM. RODNEY.
April 24, 1808.
Thomas Jefferson returns the enclosed to Mr. Rodney, with thanks for
the communication. It is very evident that our embargo, added to the
exclusions from the Continent, will be most heavily felt in England and
Ireland. Liverpool is remonstrating, and endeavoring to get the other
posts into motion. Yet the bill confirming the orders of council is
ordered to a third reading, which shows it will pass. Congress has just
passed an additional embargo law, on which if we act as boldly as I am
disposed to do, we can make it effectual. I think the material parts of
the enclosed should be published. It will show our people that while the
embargo gives us double rations, it is starving our enemies. This six
months' session has worn me down to a state of almost total incapacity for
business. Congress will certainly rise to-morrow night, and I shall leave
this for Monticello on the 5th of May, to be here again on the 8th of
June. I salute you with constant affection and respect.
TO COLONEL WASHINGTON.
WASHINGTON, April 24, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--So uncertain has been the situation of our affairs with
England, and yet so much bearing would they have on those with the
Indians, that I have delayed answering your favor of October 5th until I
could see a little way before me. At present I think a continuance of our
peace till the next meeting of Congress (November) probable. I have now
addressed a message to the Indians in the north-west, in which I inform
them of our differences with England, and of the uncertainty how they will
issue. Assure them of the continuance of our friendship, and advise them
in any event to remain quiet at home, taking no part in our quarrel, and
declaring unequivocally that if any nation takes up the hatchet against
us, we will drive them from the land of their fathers, and never more
permit their return. With respect to the prophet, I really believe the
opinion you formed of his views is correct. But we have heard so many
different stories since, that we are awaiting some information which
we expect to receive before we make up a definitive opinion. This much,
however, we determine; and he might know that if we become dissatisfied
that his views are friendly, we shall extend to him all the patronage
and good offices in our power, and shall establish a store in his new
settlement; and particularly if we find him endeavoring to reform the
morality of the Indians, and encourage them in industry and peace, we
shall do what we can to render his influence as extensive as possible.
I had been in hopes that a change in the British ministry would have
produced a revocation of the orders of council, which called for our
embargo, and an European peace, so as to have removed all danger of our
being dragged into the war. But our advices to the 14th of March show
they still retained a good majority in Parliament. Should they continue
in office, our peace will continue uncertain. Accept my salutations, and
assurances of great esteem and respect.
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
April 30, 1808.
_Case of the Fleusburg._
Our laws permit a foreigner to hold any property in our country, except
lands. A foreigner may contract for a ship to be built for him, so that
she will be his from the time of laying the keel; or he may contract so
as that she shall be his only when launched, or when rigged, &c. The act
of delivery to him or his agents fixes, in that case, the moment when she
becomes his property. If the Fleusburg was delivered to the agent of the
Danish merchant, by such an act of delivery as by our laws will transfer
personal property, before the 22d of December, she was then Danish
property. The statement says that a bill of building and sale, dated
December 10th, proved her to be then Danish property. If the collector
shall find that she was actually Danish property before December 22d, I
should think her entitled as a foreign vessel. I suppose she did not take
out an American register. This would be corroborative proof that, though
built in America, she was not meant to be, nor ever became, an American
bottom; for I presume the register is what completes the American bottom.
The matter of fact should be proved to the collector.
_Rhode Island Packets._
The pretension that the navigation from Newport to New York is entirely a
navigation of rivers, bays, and sounds, would take from language all kind
of certainty. There is not one point of the coast of Rhode Island, from
which a perpendicular line does not lead into the main ocean. A very small
proportion of these would lead across Block Island. But to say that Block
Island covers the whole coast from Martha's Vineyard to Long Island, so
as to make it a Sound, is too gross for any one who casts his eyes on the
maps. The difference of regulation, too, between bay-craft and coasting
vessels, since the act of April 25th, is very inconsiderable.
TO GENERAL DEARBORNE.
April 29, 1808.
Thomas Jefferson will thank General Dearborne to consider the enclosed.
The writer appears to have that sincere enthusiasm for his undertaking
which will ensure success. The education of the common people around
Detroit is a most desirable object, and the proposition of extending
their views to the teaching the Indian boys and girls to read and write,
agriculture and mechanic trades to the former, spinning and weaving to the
latter, may perhaps be acceded to by us advantageously for the Indians,
and the bounties paid for them be an aid to the other objects of the
institution. Affectionate salutations.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
April 30, 1808.
Notes on such parts of Fronda's letter of April 26th, 1808, as are worth
answering:--
I. I know of no recent orders to Governor Claiborne as to the navigation
of the Mississippi, Uberville, and Pontchartrain; he should specify them,
but he may be told that no order has ever been given contrary to the
rights of Spain. These rights are, 1st, a treaty right that "the ships
of Spain coming directly from Spain or her colonies, loaded only _with
the produce_ or manufactures of Spain or her colonies, shall be admitted
during the space of twelve years in the ports of New Orleans, and in all
other legal ports of entry within the ceded territory, in the same manner
as the ships of the United States, &c." 2d. A right of innocent passage
from the mouth of the Mississippi to 31° of latitude, exactly commensurate
with our right of innocent passage up the rivers of Florida to 31° of
latitude.
II. In answer to his question whether we consider Mobile among the ports
of the United States, he may be told that so long as we consider the
question whether the Perdido is not the eastern boundary of Louisiana, as
continuing in a train of amicable proceedings for adjustment, so long that
part only of the river Mobile, which is above 31° of latitude, will be
considered among the ports of the United States, withholding the exercise
of jurisdiction on our part within the disputed territory, on the general
principle of letting things remain in _statu quo pendente lite_.
There is nothing else in this letter worth answering.
TO WILLIAM LYMAN, ESQ.
WASHINGTON, April 30, 1803.
SIR,--Your favor of the 11th of July came to hand a little before
the meeting of Congress, and soon after I received the apparatus for
stylographic writing, which you were so kind as to send me, for which I
pray you to receive my particular thanks.
The invention is certainly very ingenious, and while it compares
advantageously with all others in other circumstances, it has an
unrivalled preference as being so much more profitable. I had never
heard of the invention till your letter announced it, for these novelties
reach us very late, which renders your attentions on the occasion more
acceptable, and more entitled to the acknowledgments which I now tender.
The decrees and orders of the belligerent nations having amounted nearly
to declarations that they would take our vessels wherever found. Congress
thought it best in the first instance to break off all intercourse with
them. They adjourned on Monday last, having passed an act authorizing
me to suspend the embargo whenever the belligerents should revoke their
decrees or orders as to us. The embargo must continue, therefore, till
they meet again in November, unless the measures of the belligerents
should change. When they meet again, if these decrees and orders still
continue, the question which they will have to decide will be, whether
a continuance of the embargo or war will be preferable. In the meantime
great advances are making in the establishment of manufactures. Those of
cotton will, I think, be so far proceeded on, that we shall never again
have to recur to the importation of cotton goods for our own use. I tender
you my salutations, and the assurances of my great respect.
TO GENERAL ARMSTRONG.
WASHINGTON, May 2, 1808.
DEAR GENERAL,--A safe conveyance offering by a special messenger to Paris,
I avail myself of it to bring up my arrears to my foreign correspondents.
I give them the protection of your cover, but to save the trouble of your
attention to their distribution, I give them an inner cover to Mr. Harden,
whose attentions heretofore have encouraged me to ask this favor of him.
But should he not be with you, I must pray you to open my packages to him,
and have them distributed, as it is of importance that some of them should
be delivered without delay. I shall say nothing to you on the subject
of our foreign relations, because you will get what is official on that
subject from Mr. Madison.
During the present paroxysm of the insanity of Europe, we have thought it
wisest to break off all intercourse with her. We shall, in the course of
this year, have all our seaports, of any note, put into a state of defence
against naval attacks. Against great land armies we cannot attempt it
but by equal armies. For these we must depend on a classified militia,
which will give us the service of the class from twenty to twenty-six,
in the nature of conscripts, composing a body of about 250,000, to be
specially trained. This measure, attempted at a former session, was passed
at the last, and might, I think, have been carried by a small majority.
But considering that great innovations should not be forced on a slender
majority, and seeing that the general opinion is sensibly rallying to
it, it was thought better to let it lie over to the next session, when,
I trust, it will be passed. Another measure has now twice failed, which I
have warmly urged, the immediate settlement by donation of lands, of such
a body of militia in the territories of Orleans and Mississippi, as will
be adequate to the defence of New Orleans. We are raising some regulars in
addition to our present force, for garrisoning our seaports, and forming
a nucleus for the militia to gather to. There will be no question who is
to be my successor. Of this be assured, whatever may be said by newspapers
and private correspondences. Local considerations have been silenced by
those dictated by the continued difficulties of the times. One word of
friendly request: be more frequent and full in your communications with
us. I salute you with great friendship and respect.
TO GENERAL KOSCIUSKO.
WASHINGTON, May 2, 1808.
MY VERY DEAR GENERAL,--A safe conveyance offering by a special messenger
to Paris, Mr. Barnes has requested me to avail you of it, by sending a
remittance of a thousand dollars, for which a draught is under cover. I
shall not write to you on the subject of our foreign relations, because of
the dangers by sea and the dangers by land. During the present paroxysm
of the insanity of Europe, we have thought it wisest to break off all
intercourse with her. We shall, in the course of this year, have all our
seaports of any note put into a state of defence against naval attacks.
Against great land armies we cannot attempt it but by equal armies.
For these we must depend on a classified militia, which will give us
the service of the class from twenty to twenty-six, in the nature of
conscripts, composing a body of about 250,000, to be specially trained.
This measure, attempted at a former session, was passed at the last, and
might, I think, have been carried by a small majority; but considering
that great innovations should not be forced on slender majorities, and
seeing that the public opinion is sensibly rallying to it, it was thought
better to let it lie over to the next session, when I trust it will be
passed. Another measure has now twice failed, which I have warmly urged,
the immediate settlement by donation of lands of such a body of militia
in the territories of Orleans and Mississippi, as will be adequate to the
defence of New Orleans. We are raising some regulars in addition to our
present force, for garrisoning our seaports, and forming a nucleus for the
militia to gather to. There will be no question who is to be my successor.
Of this be assured, whatever may be said by newspapers and private
correspondences; local considerations have been silenced by those dictated
by the continued difficulties of the times. I salute you with sincere and
constant friendship and great respect.
TO MR. SMITH.
May 3, 1808.
I enclose you a petition from a woman (Mary Barnett) who complains that
her son of thirteen years of age, is detained against her will in the
naval military service. Having never before received an application of the
kind in that department, I know not what are the rules there. But in the
land service we have had many cases of enlistments of infants, and there
the law is considered to be, and our practice in conformity, as follows:
An infant is considered as incapable of binding himself by enlistment,
and may at any time be reclaimed by a parent, guardian, next friend, or
may quit of his own accord, on complaint from a parent, &c. We direct
the officer to inquire into the fact of infancy, and if he believes him
under age he discharges him. If he believes him of full age, we advise the
parent, &c., that he may take out a Habeas Corpus, and have the fact tried
before an impartial judge: if enlisted with the consent of the parent,
&c., it must be by indentures as prescribed by law for an apprentice or
servant, this being the only mode of obligation in which the law will
compel _specific_ execution. In case of a verbal or a common written
subscription of engagement, even with consent of the parent, _damages_
only can be recovered for withdrawing from it. I presume the rules in the
Navy Department must be the same, as we must conform ourselves to the law
in all departments. I directed the woman to call on me again to-morrow.
Will you be so good as to enable me to give her an answer? Affectionate
salutations.
TO GOVERNOR TOMPKINS.
WASHINGTON, May 4, 1808.
SIR,--I duly received your favor of April 18th, covering an Act of the
legislature of New York, appropriating $100,000 to aid and expedite the
defence of the city and port of New York, and $20,000 to aid in and
contribute to the defence of the northern and western frontiers, and
expressing a desire to receive an opinion on the application of those
sums.
In carrying into execution the provisions of Congress, at their last
session, for fortifying on a just view of the relative importance of the
places, combined with their degree of exposure, and capability of defence,
and in such way as to require a moderate permanent force of regulars,
relying much, in case of sudden attack on the aid of the militia. Among
the objects of our care, New York stands foremost in the points of
importance and exposure; and, if permitted, we shall provide such defences
for it as, in our opinion, will render it secure against attacks by sea.
The particulars of what is proposed to be done can be made known to you by
Colonel Williams, as it is probable these may not comprehend everything
which the anxieties of the citizens might think of service in their
defence. I suggest for your consideration, the idea of applying the fund
appropriated to this object, by your legislature, to such supplementary
provisions as in your judgment might be necessary to render ours adequate
to fulfil the views and confidence of your citizens. Of this however, you
are the best judge. But I cannot omit to urge that no time should be lost
in deciding on so much of the plan proposed by the Secretary at War, as
depends on a cession from the State authorities.
It appears to me that it would be well to have a post on the Saint
Lawrence, as near our line as a commanding position could be found, that
it might afford some cover for our most advanced inhabitants. But if a
rupture takes place now, such a post would too soon lose all its value,
to be worth building at this time. It is only in the event of a solid
accommodation with Great Britain, and their retaining their present
possessions, that it might become worthy of attention. I do not know
that the $20,000 appropriated by the State of New York, "to aid in, and
contribute to, the defence of the northern and western frontiers," could
be better applied than as supplementary to our provisions in this quarter
also. We cannot, for instance, deliver out our arms to the militia, until
called into the field. Yet it would be a great security had every militia
man on these frontiers a good musket in his hands. However, here again
your Excellency is the best judge, and I have hazarded these ideas as to
the application of the appropriations, only on the wish you expressed that
I would do it, and on my own desire to interchange ideas with frankness,
and without reserve with those charged, in common with myself with the
public interests. I beg leave to tender you the assurances of my high
esteem and respect.
TO ----.
May 5, 1808.
GREAT AND GOOD FRIEND,--Having learnt the safe arrival of your Royal
Highness at the city of Rio Janeiro, I perform with pleasure the duty of
offering you my sincere congratulations by Mr. Hill, a respected citizen
of the United States, who is specially charged with the delivery of this
letter.
I trust that this event will be as propitious to the prosperity of
your faithful subjects as to the happiness of your Royal Highness, in
which the United States of America have ever taken a lively interest.
Inhabitants now of the same land, of that great continent which the genius
of Columbus has given to the world, the United States feel sensibly
that they stand in new and closer relations with your Royal Highness,
and that the motives which heretofore nourished the friendly relations
which have so happily prevailed, have acquired increased strength on the
transfer of your residence to their own shores. They see in prospect, a
system of intercourse between the different regions of this hemisphere of
which the peace and happiness of mankind may be the essential principle.
To this principle your long-tried adherence, for the benefit of those
you governed, in the midst of warring powers, is a pledge to the new
world that its peace, its free and friendly intercourse, will be your
chief concern. On the part of the United States I assure you, that these
which have hitherto been their ruling objects, will be most particularly
cultivated with your Royal Highness and your subjects at Brazil, and they
hope that that country so favored by the gifts of nature, now advanced to
a station under your immediate auspices, will find, in the interchange of
mutual wants and supplies, the true aliment of an unchanging friendship
with the United States of America.
I pray to God, great and good friend, that in your new abode you may enjoy
health, happiness, and the affections of your people, and that He will
always have you in His safe and holy keeping.
Done at Washington, &c.
TO THE GOVERNORS OF NEW ORLEANS, GEORGIA, SOUTH CAROLINA, MASSACHUSETTS
AND NEW HAMPSHIRE.
WASHINGTON, May 6, 1808.
SIR,--The evasions of the preceding embargo laws went so far towards
defeating their objects, and chiefly by vessels clearing out coast-wise,
that Congress, by their act of April 25th, authorized the absolute
detention of all vessels bound coast-wise with cargoes exciting suspicions
of an intention to evade those laws. There being few towns on our
sea-coast which cannot be supplied with flour from their interior country,
shipments of flour become generally suspicious and proper subjects of
detention. Charleston is one of the few places on our seaboard which need
supplies of flour by sea for its own consumption. That it may not suffer
by the cautions we are obliged to use, I request of your excellency,
whenever you deem it necessary that your present or any future stock
should be enlarged, to take the trouble of giving your certificate
in favor of any merchant in whom you have confidence, directed to the
collector of any port, usually exporting flour, from which he may choose
to bring it, for any quantity which you may deem necessary for consumption
beyond your interior supplies, enclosing to the Secretary of the Treasury
at the same time a duplicate of the certificate as a check on the
falsification of your signature. In this way we may secure a supply of the
real wants of our citizens, and at the same time prevent those wants from
being made a cover for the crimes against their country which unprincipled
adventurers are in the habit of committing. I trust, too, that your
excellency will find an apology for the trouble I propose to give you, in
that desire which you must feel in common with all our worthy citizens,
that inconveniences encountered cheerfully by them for the interests of
their country, shall not be turned merely to the unlawful profits of the
most worthless part of society. I salute your excellency with assurances
of my high respect and consideration.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
May 6, 1808.
In the outset of the business of detentions, I think it impossible to
form precise rules. After a number of cases shall have arisen they may
probably be thrown into groups and subjected to rules. The great leading
object of the Legislature was, and ours in execution of it ought to be, to
give complete effect to the embargo laws. They have bidden agriculture,
commerce, navigation, to bow before that object, to be nothing when in
competition with that. Finding all their endeavors at general rules to be
evaded, they finally gave us the power of detention as the panacea, and I
am clear we ought to use it freely that we may, by a fair experiment, know
the power of this great weapon, the embargo. Therefore, to propositions
to carry flour into the Chesapeake, the Delaware, the Hudson, and other
_exporting_ places, we should say boldly it is not wanted there for
consumption, and the carrying it there is too suspicious to be permitted.
In consequence of the letters to the Governors of the flour-importing
States, we may also say boldly that there being no application from the
Governor is a proof it is not wanting in those States, and therefore must
not be carried. As to shuffling of cotton, tobacco, flax seed, &c., from
one port to another, it may be some trifling advantage to individuals to
change their property out of one form into another, but it is not of a
farthing's benefit to the nation at large, and risks their great object
in the embargo. The want of these at a particular place should be very
notorious to the collector and others, to take off suspicion of illicit
intentions. Dry goods of Europe, coal, bricks, &c., are articles entirely
without suspicion. I hazard these things for your consideration, and I
send you a copy of the letter to the Governors, which may be communicated
in form to the collectors to strengthen the ground of suspicion. You will
be so good as to decide these cases yourself, without forwarding them to
me. Whenever you are clear either way, so decide; where you are doubtful,
consider me as voting for detention, being satisfied that individuals
ought to yield their private interests to this great public object.
TO THE SECRETARY AT WAR.
MONTICELLO, May 12, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--My journey and two days' detention on the road by high waters,
gave me time to reflect on our canal at New Orleans, on which I will
therefore hazard some thoughts.
I think it has been said that the Mississippi, at low water, is many
feet lower opposite New Orleans than Lake Pontchartrain. But the fact
is impossible, being in contradiction to the laws of nature; two beds
of dead water connected with the same ocean, in vicinity to one another,
must each be in the level of that ocean, and consequently of one another.
Although Pontchartrain receives the Amite and some other small streams,
they probably do little more than supply its evaporation. No doubt,
however, that the lake must receive the small ebb and flow of the sea.
The Mississippi, on the contrary, even at its lowest tide, always flows
downwards to and beyond its mouth; it must, then, at New Orleans, be
one, two, or three feet higher than the sea, and consequently than
Pontchartrain.
If a simple canal were cut from that of Carondelet to the Mississippi
without lock or gate, there would be two risks. 1. That in high water of
the Mississippi the current would be too strong for a gun-boat to ascend
or descend. This might perhaps be remedied by the draught of horses. 2.
The force of such a current, (unless the whole canal were lined with brick
or masonry,) might convert the canal into a bay, one of an unknown size,
and involve New Orleans in it.
On the whole, I suspect our plan is pretty obvious: suppose we want
six feet water; make a canal of that depth below the lowest ebb of
Pontchartrain from the lake to where the lock is to be placed,--then bring
a canal from the river to the lock, the depth of which shall be six feet
below the lowest water of the Mississippi ever known; at the back there
will be a descent, suppose of one, two or three feet, or any other number.
The lock remedies that. If the lock were near the lake it would lessen
the work by giving nearly the whole length to the shallowest canal, and
it would probably be in a more tranquil and safe situation. But it might
be inconvenient, perhaps unsafe, to the sides of the Mississippi canal,
to permit such a depth of water as would be in it, through its whole
length, at the time of the high water of that river. Of the best position,
therefore, of the lock, the superintendent must judge on the spot, as he
must indeed of the correctness of all the preceding conjectures, formed
without a knowledge of the localities. They are hazarded merely to give us
some fixed notions of the nature of the enterprize, and are submitted to
your consideration. I salute you with affectionate respect.
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
MONTICELLO, May 15, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--I received yesterday the enclosed letter from a Mr. Wood, of
New York. I should suppose the fruits of Europe stood nearly on the ground
of the dry goods of Europe, not tempting evasion by exorbitant prices,
nor defeating the object of the embargo in any important degree, even
if a deviation should take place. I send it to yourself for decision and
answer, in order that there may be an uniformity in the decisions. I am
really glad to find the collector so cautious, and hope others will be
equally so, and I place immense value in the experiment being fully made,
how far an embargo may be an effectual weapon in future as well as on this
occasion. I salute you with affection and respect.
P. S. Will you send me sixteen copies of my letters to the Governors of
Orleans, Georgia, &c., which I think you proposed to have printed? I will
enclose it to the other governors with explanations.
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
MONTICELLO, May 17, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--Yours of the 16th came to hand last night. As the lead mines do
not press in point of time, I would rather they should be the subject of a
conversation on my return. It is not merely a question about the terms we
have to consider, but the expediency of working them. As to the Savannah
revenue cutter, I approve of the proposition in your letter, or whatever
else you may think proper to be done. The regular traders to New Orleans
may be admitted to go as usual, the characters of the owners being known
to be safe, and provisions and lumber being excepted. Cotton perhaps may
be permitted to be brought back on the consideration that its price in
Europe is not likely to be such as that the adventurers may afford to pay
all the forfeitures. I presume Mr. Price's application, which I enclose
you, will fall under this general permission. Will you be so good as to
have the proper answer given him. If we change our rule of tonnage for
Mr. Murray's purpose, the next application will be for such a rate of
tonnage as will allow them to bring back their property in the form of
hay. General Dearborne has occasion to send a vessel to Passamaquoddy with
cannon for the batteries, and perhaps provision for the troops, and has
asked me to send him a blank license. But as these licenses are not signed
by me, I refer him to you for the necessary arrangements.
I shall sincerely lament Cuba's falling into any hands but those of its
present owners. Spanish America is at present in the best hands for us,
and "Chi sta bene, non si muove" should be our motto. I salute you with
affection.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
MONTICELLO, May 19, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--I now return you the papers reserved from the last post. Our
regular answer to Mr. Livingston may well be, that the Attorney General
having given an official opinion that the right to the batture is in the
United States, and the matter being now referred to Congress, it is our
duty to keep the grounds clear of any adversary possession, until the
Legislature shall decide on it. I have carefully read Mr. Livingston's
printed memoir. He has shaken my opinion as to the line within the road
having been intended as a line of _boundary_ instead of its being a line
of _admeasurement_ only. But he establishes another fact by the testimony
of Fendeau, very fatal to his claim; to wit, that the high-water mark,
"batture, ou viennent _battre_ les eaux lorsqu elles sont dans leurs plus
grandes croissances," is the universal boundary of private grants on the
river.
Your observations on his allegations that Gravier's grant must be under
the Spanish law, because after the cession of the province by France to
Spain, though before delivery of possession, are conclusive. To which may
be added, that Louis XIV. having established the Constumes de Paris as
the law of Louisiana, this was not changed by the mere act of transfer;
on the contrary, the laws of France continued and continue to be the law
of the land, except where specially altered by some subsequent edict of
Spain or act of Congress. He has not in the least shaken the doctrine
that the bed of the river, and all the atterrissements or banks which
arise on it by the depositions of the river, are the property of the King
by a peculiarity in the law of France; so that nothing quoted from those
of Spain or the Roman law is of authority on that point. Affectionate
salutations.
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
MONTICELLO, May 20, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--I return you the papers of Fanning, Lesdernier, and Sacket.
With respect to Fanning's case, the true key for the construction of
everything doubtful in a law, is the intention of the law-makers. This is
most safely gathered from the words, but may be sought also in extraneous
circumstances, provided they do not contradict the express words of the
law. We certainly know that the Legislature meant that vessels might
go out to bring home property, but not to commence a new career of
commerce. The bringing home the property being the main object, if it
be in an impracticable form, it expects the intention of the law to let
it be commuted into a practicable form; and so from an inconvenient to a
convenient form. To prevent any abuse of this accommodation, by entering
into a new operation of commerce with it, the discretionary permission
is left to the President. I think the conversion of the sandal wood into
a more portable form in this case, is fulfilling the object of the law,
and that it is immaterial whether that be done in the Friendly Islands,
where the wood now is, or wherever by the way it can be better done.
Consequently, that permission may be granted. I hope you will spare no
pains or expense to bring the rascals of Passamaquoddy to justice, and if
more force be necessary, agree on the subject with General Dearborne or
Mr. Smith, as to any aid they can spare, and let it go without waiting
to consult me. Let the successor to Sacket also be commissioned without
waiting for my opinion, which will be yours. Should a pardon be granted
to Russell, I generally but not invariably require a recommendation from
the judges. I shall be ready to consider any propositions you may make for
mitigating the embargo law of April 25th, but so only as not to defeat
the object of the law. I shall be ready to make a distinction between
provisions, timber, naval stores, and such things, as by the exaggerated
prices they have got to in foreign markets, would enable infactors to pay
all forfeitures and still make great profit, and cotton and such other
articles as have not got to such prices. I am for going substantially to
the object of the law, and no further; perhaps a little more earnestly
because it is the first expedient, and it is of great importance to know
its full effect.
I salute you with constant affection and respect.
TO THE SECRETARY AT WAR.
MONTICELLO, May 20, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--Yours of the 14th came to hand yesterday. I do not see that we
can avoid agreeing to estimates made by worthy men of our own choice for
the sites of fortifications, or that we could leave an important place
undefended because too much is asked for the site. And therefore we must
pay what the sites at Boston have been valued at. At the same time I do
not know on what principles of reasoning it is that good men think the
public ought to pay more for a thing than they would themselves if they
wanted it. I salute you with affection and respect.
TO GENERAL BENJAMIN SMITH.
MONTICELLO, May 20, 1808.
SIR,--I return you my thanks for the communication by your letter of
April 19th, of the resolutions of the Grand Jury of Brunswick, approving
of the embargo. Could the alternative of war or the embargo have been
presented to the whole nation, as it occurred to their representatives,
there could have been but the one opinion that it was better to take the
chance of one year by the embargo, within which the orders and decrees
producing it may be repealed, or peace take place in Europe, which
may secure peace to us. How long the continuance of the embargo may be
preferable to war, is a question we shall have to meet, if the decrees
and orders and war continue. I am sorry that in some places, chiefly on
our northern frontier, a disposition even to oppose the law by force has
been manifested. In no country on earth is this so impracticable as in
one where every man feels a vital interest in maintaining the authority
of the laws, and instantly engages in it as in his own personal cause.
Accordingly, we have experienced this spontaneous aid of our good citizens
in the neighborhoods where there has been occasion, as I am persuaded we
ever shall on such occasions. Through the body of our country generally
our citizens appear heartily to approve and support the embargo. I am also
to thank you for the communication of the Wilmington proceedings, and I
add my salutations and assurances of great respect.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
MONTICELLO, May 24, 1807.
DEAR SIR;-- * * * * * What has been already said on the subject of Casa
Calvo, Yrujo, Miranda, is sufficient, and that these should be seriously
brought up again argues extreme weakness in Cavallos, or a plan to keep
things unsettled with us. But I think it would not be amiss to take him
down from his high airs as to the right of the sovereign to hinder the
upper inhabitants from the use of the Mobile, by observing, 1st, that
we claim to be the sovereign, although we give time for discussion. But
2d, that the upper inhabitants of a navigable water have always a right
of innocent passage along it. I think Cavallos will not probably be
the minister when the letter arrives at Madrid, and that an eye to that
circumstance may perhaps have some proper influence on the style of the
letter, in which, if meant for himself, his hyperbolic airs might merit
less respect. I think too that the truth as to Pike's mission might
be so simply stated as to need no argument to show that (even during
the suspension of our claims to the eastern border of the Rio Norte)
his getting on it was mere error, which ought to have called for the
setting him right, instead of forcing him through the interior country.
[Sullivan's letter.] His view of things for some time past has been
entirely distempered.
Cathcart's, Ridgeley's, Navour's, Degen's, Appleton's, Lee's, and Baker's
letters, are all returned. I salute you with great affection and respect.
TO GENERAL DEARBORNE.
MONTICELLO, May 25, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--There is a subject on which I wished to speak with you before
I left Washington; but an apt occasion did not occur. It is that of your
continuance in office. Perhaps it is as well to submit my thoughts to you
by letter. The present summer is too important in point of preparation, to
leave your department unfilled, for any time, as I once thought might be
done; and it would be with extreme reluctance that, so near the time of
my own retirement, I should proceed to name any high officer, especially
one who must be of the intimate councils of my successor, and who ought
of course to be in his unreserved confidence. I think too it would make
an honorable close of your term as well as mine, to leave our country in
a state of substantial defence, which we found quite unprepared for it.
Indeed, it would for me be a joyful annunciation to the next meeting of
Congress, that the operations of defence are all complete. I know that
New York must be an exception; but perhaps even that may be closed before
the 4th of March, when you and I might both make our bow with approbation
and satisfaction. Nor should I suppose that under present circumstances,
anything interesting in your future office could make it important for
you to repair to its immediate occupation. In February my successor will
be declared, and may then, without reserve, say whom he would wish me
to nominate to the Senate in your place. I submit these circumstances to
your consideration, and wishing in all things to consult your interests,
your fame and feelings, it will give me sincere joy to learn that you will
"watch with me to the end." I salute you with great affection and respect.
TO MR. LIEPER.
MONTICELLO, May 25, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--I received your favor of April 22d a little before I was to
leave Washington, much engaged with despatching the business rendered
necessary by the acts of Congress just risen, and preparatory to a short
visit to this place. Here again I have been engrossed with some attentions
to my own affairs, after a long absence, added to the public business
which presses on me here as at Washington. I mention these things to
apologize for the long delay of an answer to the address of the Democratic
republicans of Philadelphia, enclosed in your letter, and which has
remained longer unanswered than I wished. I have been happy in my journey
through the country to this place, to find the people unanimous in their
preference of the embargo to war, and the great sacrifice they make,
rendered a cheerful one from a sense of its necessity.
Whether the pressure on the throne from the suffering people of England,
and of their Islands, the conviction of the dishonorable as well as
dishonest character of their orders of council, the strength of their
parliamentary opposition, and remarkable weakness of the defence of their
ministry, will produce a repeal of these orders and cessation of our
embargo, is yet to be seen. To nobody will a repeal be so welcome as to
myself. Give us peace till our revenues are liberated from debt, and then,
if war be necessary, it can be carried on without a new tax or loan, and
during peace we may chequer our whole country with canals, roads, &c. This
is the object to which all our endeavors should be directed. I salute you
with great friendship and respect.
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
MONTICELLO, May 27, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--I received yesterday yours of the 23d, and now return you
Woolsey's and Astor's letters. I send you one also which I have received
from a Mr. Thorne, on the evasions of the embargo on Lake Champlain. The
conduct of some of our officers there, and of some excellent citizens,
has been very meritorious, and I will thank you to express any degree
of approbation you think proper, in my name, for Captain Mayo. Woolsey
appears also to deserve assurances of approbation. If you think Thorne's
suggestion of some militia at Point au Fer necessary and proper, be so
good as to consult General Dearborne, who will give any order you and he
approve. With respect to the coasting trade, my wish is only to carry into
full effect the intentions of the embargo laws. I do not wish a single
citizen in any of the States to be deprived of a meal of bread, but I
set down the exercise of commerce, merely for profit, as nothing when
it carries with it the danger of defeating the objects of the embargo.
I have more faith, too, in the Governors. I cannot think that any one of
them would wink at abuses of that law. Still, I like your circular of the
20th, and the idea there brought forward of confining the shipment to so
small a proportion of the bond as may correspond with the exaggeration of
price and foreign markets, and thus restrain the adventurer from gaining
more than he would lose by dishonesty. Flour, by the latest accounts, I
have observed, sold at about eight times its cost here, while the legal
penalties are but about three prices--by restraining them to an eighth
they will be balanced. But as prices rise must not our rules be varied?
Had the practicability of this mode of restraint occurred before the
recurrence to the Governors, I should have preferred it, because it is
free from the objection of favoritism to which the Governors will be
exposed, and if you find it work well in practice, we may find means to
have the other course discontinued. Our course should be to sacrifice
everything to secure the effect of the law, and nothing beyond that.
I enclose you an application of Neilson & Son, to which you will please to
have given whatever answer is conformable to general rules. The petition
of Gardner and others, masters of the Rhode Island packet ships, which
I enclose you, does not specify the particular act required from us for
their relief. If it be to declare that the open sea in front of their
coast is a bay or a river, the matter of fact, as well as the law, renders
that impossible. I really think it desirable to relieve their case, in
any way which is lawful, because it is one, which though embraced by the
words of the law, is not within its object. You mention that a principal
method of evading the embargo is by loading secretly and going off without
clearance. The naval department must aid us against this. As I shall
leave this for Washington in about ten or twelve days, I now desire the
post-office there to send no letters to this place after receiving this
notice. All further matters relative to the embargo will therefore be
answered verbally as soon as they could by letter. I salute you with great
affection and respect.
TO MR. BOWDOIN.
MONTICELLO, May 29, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--I received the favor of your letter, written soon after your
arrival, a little before I left Washington, and during a press of business
preparatory to my departure on a short visit to this place; this has
prevented my earlier congratulations to you on your safe return to your
own country. There, judging from my own experience, you will enjoy much
more of the tranquil happiness of life, than is to be found in the noisy
scenes of the great cities of Europe. I am also aware that you had at
Paris additional causes of disquietude; these seem inseparable from public
life, and, indeed, are the greatest discouragements to entering into or
continuing in it. Perhaps, however, they sweeten the hour of retirement,
and secure us from all dangers of regret. On the subject of that
disquietude, it is proper for me only to say that, however unfortunate the
incident, I found in it no cause of dissatisfaction with yourself, nor of
lessening the esteem I entertain for your virtues and talents; and, had
it not been disagreeable to yourself, I should have been well pleased that
you could have proceeded on your original destination.
While I thank you for the several letters received from you during your
absence, I have to regret the miscarriage of some of those I wrote you.
Not having my papers here, I cannot cite their dates by memory; but they
shall be the subject of another letter on my return to Washington.
You find us on your return in a crisis of great difficulty. An embargo
had, by the course of events, become the only peaceable card we had to
play. Should neither peace, nor a revocation of the decrees and orders in
Europe take place, the day cannot be distant when that will cease to be
preferable to open hostility. Nothing just or temperate has been omitted
on our part, to retard or to avoid this unprofitable alternative. Our
situation will be the more singular, as we may have to choose between two
enemies, who have both furnished cause of war. With one of them we could
never come into contact; with the other great injuries may be mutually
inflicted and received. Let us still hope to avoid, while we prepare to
meet them.
Hoping you will find our cloudless skies and benign climate more favorable
to your health than those of Europe, I pray you to accept my friendly
salutations, and assurances of great esteem and consideration.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
MONTICELLO, May 31, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--I return you all the papers received from you by yesterday's
mail, except Mr. Burnley's, which I shall send by the Secretary at
War. Although all the appointments below field-officers are made, it is
possible some may decline, and open a way for new competition. I have
observed that Turreau's letters have for some time past changed their
style unfavorably. I believe this is the first occasion he has had to
complain of French deserters being enlisted by us, and if so, the tone
of his application is improper. The answer to him, however, is obvious as
to our laws and instructions, and the _discharge_, not _delivery_, of the
men, for which purpose I presume you will write a line to the Secretary at
War. Woodward's scruples are perplexing. And they are unfounded, because,
on his own principle, if a law requires an oath to be administered, and
does not say by whom, he admits it may be any judge; if, therefore, it
names a person no longer in existence, it is as if it named nobody.
On this construction all the territories have practised, and all the
authorities of the national government,--even the Legislature. It was
wrong on a second ground; no judge ever refusing to administer an oath in
any useful case, although he may not consider it as strictly judicial.
If it may be valid or useful, he administers "_ut valeat quantum valer
potest_." But what is to be done? Would it not be well for you to send
the case to the Attorney General, and get him to enclose his opinion to
Governor Hull, who will use it with Judge Witherall, or some territorial
judge or justice?
With the quarrel of Judge Vandeberg and his bar we cannot intermeddle.
Mercer's querulous letter is an unreasonable one. How could his offer of
service be acted on, but by putting it in the hands of those who were to
act on all others?
I shall to-day direct the post-rider not to continue his route to this
place after to-day, and to take your orders as to the time you would wish
him to continue coming to you. I salute you with affectionate esteem and
respect.
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY.
WASHINGTON, June 15, 1808.
SIR,--I have considered the letter of the director of the mint, stating
the ease with which the errors of Commodore Truxton's medal may be
corrected on the medal itself, and the unpracticability of doing it on
the die. In my former letter to you on this subject, I observed that to
make a new die would be a serious thing, requiring consideration. In fact,
the first die having been made by authority of the Legislature, the medal
struck, accepted, and acquiesced in for so many years, the powers given by
that law are executed and at an end, and a second law would be requisite
to make a second die or medal. But I presume it will be quite as agreeable
to Commodore Truxton to have his medal corrected in one way as another,
if done equally well, and it certainly may be as well or better done by
the graver, and with more delicate traits. I remember it was the opinion
of Doctor Franklin that where only one or a few medals were to be made, it
was better to have them engraved.
The medal being corrected, the die becomes immaterial. That has never been
delivered to the party, the medal itself being the only thing voted to
him. I say this on certain grounds, because I think this and Preble's are
the only medals given by the United States which have not been made under
my immediate direction. The dies of all those given by the old Congress,
and made at Paris, remain to this day deposited with our bankers at Paris.
That of General Lee, made in Philadelphia, was retained in the mint. I
mention this not as of consequence whether the die be given or retained,
but to show that there can be no claim of the party to it, or consequently
to its correction. I think, therefore, the medal itself should be
corrected by Mr. Reich; that this is as far as we can stretch our
authority, and I hope it will be satisfactory to the Commodore. I salute
you with constant affection and respect.
TO SHELTON GILLIAM, ESQ.
WASHINGTON, June 19, 1808.
SIR,--Your favor of the 4th was received on my return to this place, and
the proposition of your correspondent on the subject of fortification
was referred to the Secretary at War, where office and qualifications
make him the proper judge of it. I enclose you his answer. The same
prudence which in private life would forbid our paying our own money
for unexplained projects, forbids it in the dispensation of the public
moneys. It is not enough that an individual and an unknown one says and
even thinks he has made a discovery of the magnitude announced on this
occasion. Not only explanation, but the actual experiment must be required
before we can cease to doubt whether the inventor is not deceived by some
false or imperfect view of his subject. Still your patriotic attention
to bring such a proposition under our notice, that it might be applied to
the public good, if susceptible of it, is praiseworthy, and I return you
thanks for it with the assurances of my esteem and respect.
TO CHRISTOPHER COLLES.
WASHINGTON, June 19, 1808.
SIR,--I thank you for the pamphlet containing your ideas on the subject of
canals constructed of wood; but it is not in my power to give any definite
opinion of its national importance. If there exists a cement which used as
a lining for cisterns and aqueducts, renders them impermeable to water,
(and it is affirmed that in France they are in the possession and use of
such an one,) then it becomes the common question whether constructions of
wood, brick, or rough stone are cheapest in the end? A question on which
every man possesses materials for forming his judgment. I suspect it is
the supposed necessity of using hewn stone in works of this kind which has
had the greatest effect in discouraging their being undertaken. I tender
you my salutations and respects.
TO JAMES PEMBERTON.
WASHINGTON, June 21, 1808.
SIR,--Your favor of May 30th was delivered me on my return to this
place, and I now enclose the prospectus of Clarkson's history with my
subscription to it. I have perused with great satisfaction the Report
of the Committee for the African institution. The sentiments it breathes
are worthy of the eminent characters who compose the institution, as are
also the generous cares they propose to undertake. I wish they may begin
their work at the right end. Our experience with the Indians has proved
that letters are not the first, but the last step in the progression
from barbarism to civilization. Our Indian neighbors will occupy all the
attentions we may spare, towards the improvement of their condition. The
four great Southern tribes are advancing hopefully. The foremost are
the Cherokees, the upper settlements of whom have made to me a formal
application to be received into the Union as citizens of the United
States, and to be governed by our laws. If we can form for them a simple
and acceptable plan of advancing by degrees to a maturity for receiving
our laws, the example will have a powerful effect towards stimulating
the other tribes in the same progression, and will cheer the gloomy views
which have overspread their minds as to their own future history. I salute
you with friendship and great respect.
TO MR. FRANKLIN.
WASHINGTON, June 22d, 1808.
Thomas Jefferson returns his thanks to Mr. Franklin for the address to the
Society of Friends which he was so kind as to send him. The appeal both to
facts and principles is strong, and their consistency will require an able
advocate. Conscious that the present administration has been essentially
pacific, and that in all questions of importance it has been governed by
the identical principles professed by that Society, it has been quite at
a loss to conjecture the unknown cause of the opposition of the greater
part, and bare neutrality of the rest. The hope however that prejudices
would at length give way to facts, has never been entirely extinguished,
and still may be realized in favor of another administration.
TO DOCTOR LEIB.
WASHINGTON, June 23, 1808.
SIR,--I have duly received your favor covering a copy of the talk to the
Tammany society, for which I thank you, and particularly for the favorable
sentiments expressed towards myself. Certainly, nothing will so much
sweeten the tranquillity and comfort of retirement, as the knowledge that
I carry with me the good will and approbation of my republican fellow
citizens, and especially of the individuals in unison with whom I have so
long acted. With respect to the federalists, I believe we think alike; for
when speaking of them, we never mean to include a worthy portion of our
fellow citizens, who consider themselves as in duty bound to support the
constituted authorities of every branch, and to reserve their opposition
to the period of election. These having acquired the appellation of
federalists, while a federal administration was in place, have not cared
about throwing off their name, but adhering to their principle, are
the supporters of the present order of things. The other branch of the
federalists, those who are so in principle as well as in name, disapprove
of the republican principles and features of our Constitution, and would,
I believe, welcome any public calamity (war with England excepted) which
might lessen the confidence of our country in those principles and forms.
I have generally considered them rather as subjects for a mad-house. But
they are now playing a game of the most mischievous tendency, without
perhaps being themselves aware of it. They are endeavoring to convince
England that we suffer more by the embargo than they do, and if they will
but hold out awhile, we must abandon it. It is true, the time will come
when we must abandon it. But if this is before the repeal of the orders
of council, we must abandon it only for a state of war. The day is not
distant, when that will be preferable to a longer continuance of the
embargo. But we can never remove that, and let our vessels go out and be
taken under these orders, without making reprisal. Yet this is the very
state of things which these federal monarchists are endeavoring to bring
about; and in this it is but too possible they may succeed. But the fact
is, that if we have war with England, it will be solely produced by their
manœuvres. I think that in two or three months we shall know what will be
the issue.
I salute you with esteem and respect.
TO GENERAL WILKINSON.
June 24, 1808.
Thomas Jefferson presents his compliments to General Wilkinson, and in
answer to his letters of yesterday observes that during the course of the
Burr conspiracy, the voluminous communications he received were generally
read but once and then committed to the Attorney General, and were never
returned to him. It is not in his power, therefore, to say that General
Wilkinson did or did not denounce eminent persons to him, and still less
who they were. It was unavoidable that he should from time to time mention
persons known or supposed to be accomplices of Burr, and it is recollected
that some of these suspicions were corrected afterwards on better
information. Whether the undefined term _denunciation_ goes to cases of
this kind or not Thomas Jefferson does not know, nor could he now name
from recollection the persons suspected at different times. He salutes
General Wilkinson respectfully.
TO COLONEL D. C. BRENT.
June 24, 1808.
DEAR SIR,--The information given to me by Mrs. Paradise of letters to
me from her grandsons, is without foundation. I have not for many years
heard a tittle respecting the family at Venice. Should any information
respecting them come to me I will certainly communicate it to Mrs.
Paradise.
That the embargo is approved by the body of republicans through the Union,
cannot be doubted. It is equally known that a great proportion of the
federalists approve of it; but as they think it an engine which may be
used advantageously against the republican system, they countenance the
clamors against it. I salute you with great friendship and respect.
TO MR. GALLATIN.
July 4, 1808.
General Turreau's application for two vessels to carry French subjects to
France, must, I think, be granted, because under present circumstances we
ought not on slight grounds to dissatisfy either belligerent. The vessels
may be back before winter, and their only danger will be of stoppage
by the English, who, however, have no right but to take out the French
subjects.
At the same time, I think it would be well to say to General Turreau
that we reluctantly let our seamen be exposed to capture, or perhaps
to a voluntary engagement with one of the belligerents: that we rely,
therefore, on his so proportioning the vessels to the number of passengers
as merely to give them a reasonable accommodation. It would be well, too,
that he should inform us after their departure, of the number of persons
sent in them.
Affectionate salutes.
TO HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR CLAIBORNE.
WASHINGTON, July 9, 1808.
SIR,--I have lately seen a printed report of the committee of the Canal
company of New Orleans, stating the progress and prospects of their
enterprize. In this the United States feel a strong interest, inasmuch
as it will so much facilitate the passage of our armed vessels out of
the one water into the other. For this purpose, however, there must be at
least five and a half feet water through the whole line of communication
from the lake to the river. In some conversations with Mr. Clark on this
subject the winter before last, there was a mutual understanding that
the company would complete the canal, and the United States would make
the locks. This we are still disposed to do; and so anxious are we to get
this means of defence completed, that to hasten it we would contribute any
other encouragement within the limits of our authority which might produce
this effect. If, for instance, the completion of it within one year could
be insured by our contributing such a sum as one or two thousand dollars a
month to the amount of twenty thousand dollars, in the whole, we might do
it, requiring as a consideration for our justification that the vessels of
the United States should always pass toll-free. The object of this letter
is to sound the principal members, without letting them know you do it
by instruction from us, and to find out what moderate and reasonable aid
on our part would be necessary to get a speedy conclusion of the work,
and in what form that aid would be most useful, and to be so good as to
communicate it to me as soon as the knowledge is obtained by yourself.
I should be glad to learn, at the same time, what is the perpendicular
height of the top of the levee above the surface of the water in the
Mississippi in its lowest state. Five and a half feet below this would
be indispensable for our purposes. I salute you with great esteem and
respect.
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
July 12, 1808.
1. (Peyton Skipwith's letter.) I approve of the proposition to authorize
the collector of St. Mary's or Savannah to permit vessels to bring to
St. Mary's such supplies as in his opinion are really wanted for the
individuals applying, and where he has entire confidence no fraud will be
committed. But the vessels should be reasonably proportioned to the cargo.
Should this be extended to Passamaquoddy?
2. (The cases of detention by Gelston and Turner.) The Legislature
finding that no general rules could be formed which would not be evaded by
avarice and roguery, finally authorized the collector, if there were still
circumstances of suspicion, to detain the vessel. Wherever, therefore, the
collector is impressed with suspicion, from a view of all circumstances,
which are often indescribable, I think it proper to confirm his detention.
It would be only where, from his own showing, or other good information,
prejudice or false views biassed his judgment, that I should be disposed
to countermand his detention.
3. The declaration of the bakers of New York, that their citizens will
be dissatisfied, under the present circumstances of their country, to eat
bread of the flour of their own State, is equally a libel on the produce
and citizens of the State. The citizens have certainly a right to speak
for themselves on such occasions, and when they do we shall be able to
judge whether their numbers or characters are such as to be entitled to a
sacrifice of the embargo law. If this prevails, the next application will
be for vessels to go to New York for the pippins of that State, because
they are higher flavored than the same species of apples growing in other
States.
4. We should by all means appoint a new collector at Sackett's Harbor. If
the Governor knows nobody there who can be depended on, can he not find
some faithful man in the city or country who would consider the emoluments
acceptable, such as they are?
5. The seizure by Mr. Illsley not being under the embargo law, will take
its course. With respect to the aid of gun-boats, desired by him and
Mr. Holmes of Sunbury, or any military aid, that can always be settled
directly between Mr. Gallatin and the Secretaries of the Navy or War.
Both those gentlemen know our extreme anxiety to give a full effect to
the important experiment of the embargo, at any expense within the bounds
of reason, and will, on the application of Mr. Gallatin, yield the aid of
their departments without waiting the delay of consulting me.
I have gone a little into the grounds of these opinions, in order that
there being a mutual understanding on these subjects, Mr. Gallatin during
the time of our separation may decide on the cases occurring, without
the delay of consulting me at such a distance. My principle is that the
conveniences of our citizens shall yield reasonably, and their taste
greatly to the importance of giving the present experiment so fair a trial
that on future occasions our legislators may know with certainty how far
they may count on it as an engine for national purposes.
TO M. DE LA CAPEDE.
WASHINGTON, July 14, 1808.