SIR,--Your letter of September the 22d waited here for my return, and it

is not till now that I have been able to acknowledge it. The explanation

of his principles given you by the French Emperor, in conversation, is

correct as far as it goes. He does not wish us to go to war with England,

knowing we have no ships to carry on that war. To submit to pay to England

the tribute on our commerce which she demands by her orders of council,

would be to aid her in the war against him, and would give him just

ground to declare war with us. He concludes, therefore, as every rational

man must, that the embargo, the only remaining alternative, was a wise

measure. These are acknowledged principles, and should circumstances

arise which may offer advantage to our country in making them public,

we shall avail ourselves of them. But as it is not usual nor agreeable

to governments to bring their conversations before the public, I think

it would be well to consider this on your part as confidential, leaving

to the government to retain or make it public, as the general good may

require. Had the Emperor gone further, and said that he condemned our

vessels going voluntarily into his ports in breach of his municipal laws,

we might have admitted it rigorously legal, though not friendly. But his

condemnation of vessels taken on the high seas, by his privateers, and

carried involuntarily into his ports, is justifiable by no law, is piracy,

and this is the wrong we complain of against him.

Supposing that you may be still at Clermont, from whence your letter is

dated, I avail myself of this circumstance to request your presenting my

friendly respects to Chancellor Livingston. I salute you with esteem and

respect.

TO MR. GALLATIN.

WASHINGTON, October 16, 1808.

* * * * *

_Massey's Commission._--A half-sighted lawyer might, perhaps, say that a

commission signed with a blank for the name,--afterwards filled up, was

a nullity, because, in legal instruments, any change in a material part

of a bond, deed, &c., after sealing and delivery, nullifies it. But I am

not certain whether there are not cases, even in ordinary transactions

at law, where it is otherwise,--_e. g._, a power of attorney sent to a

distance, with a blank for the name, a blank commission, a blank subpœna,

&c. But in matters of government, there can be no question but that the

commission sealed and signed, with a blank for the name, date, place, &c.,

is good; because government can in no country be carried on without it.

The most vital proceedings of our own government would become null were

such a construction to prevail, and the _argumentum ab inconvenienti_,

which is one of the great foundations of the law, will undoubtedly sustain

the practice, and sanction it by the maxim "_qui facit per alterum, facit

per se_." I would not therefore give the countenance of the government to

so impracticable a construction by issuing a new commission. Affectionate

salutations.

TO GEORGE BLAKE, ESQ.

WASHINGTON, October 17, 1808.

SIR,--However favorably the enclosed papers represent the case of

Alexander Frost, yet it would be against every rule of prudence for me

to undertake to revise the verdict of a jury on _ex parte_ affidavits and

recommendations. If the judges and yourself who were present at the trial

think the defendant a proper object of pardon, I shall be ready, on such

a recommendation, to issue it. I ask the favor of your information on this

subject, and salute you with esteem and respect.

TO MR. GALLATIN.

October 18, 1808.

I think that none of the circumstances, preceding the passage of the

embargo law, stated by Mr. Lorent, make any part of his case. The

misfortunes entering into the preceding history of that property, not

flowing from any act of this government, authorizes no claims on it. The

embargo law excepted from its own operation articles then laden on board

a foreign ship, without distinguishing between articles of foreign or

national property. It subjected to its operation all articles, whether

foreign or national property, not then laden on board any foreign ship.

Mr. Lorent's property was not then laden on board of any foreign ship,

is therefore within the words of the law, and as certainly within its

purview. It is not one of those cases which, though within the _words_

of the law, were notoriously not within its intention, and are therefore

relievable by an equitable exercise of discretionary power. Affectionate

salutations.

TO MR. SMITH.

October 19, 1808.

I enclose you a petition of the widow Bennet for the liberation of her

son at Boston, a minor, or for a moiety of three months' pay, to enable

her to go to another son. I think when her case was formerly before us,

she was said to be a woman of ill fame, and that her son did not wish to

return to her. Still, however, the mother, if there be no father, is the

natural guardian, and is legally entitled to the custody and the earnings

of her son. If she were to make her demand legally for both or either,

she would prevail. May it not be for the benefit of the son and of the

service, to compromise by paying the sixteen dollars, and taking a regular

relinquishment or transfer of her rights to the body of her son, and his

earnings in future, so that we may have no more to do with her. This is

referred to Mr. Smith's consideration. Affectionate salutations.

TO MR. GALLATIN.

October 19, 1808.

Is the case proposed by Mr. Wolcott left by the law at the discretion

of anybody? The law makes it the duty of the Collector to detain if he

_suspects_ an intention to export to a foreign market, _à fortiori_ if

that intention be _avowed_. It is true that the first step proposed is

only to go to another district, but declared to be preparatory to an

exportation to the West Indies. It is true also that they say they do not

mean to export until the law is repealed. But ought we under that cover

to facilitate those illegal views which our experience has proved to be

so general? Still, if there be any sound ground on which the permission

can be given, I would rather make it the subject of consultation with you,

than to have the present understood to be a final decision. Affectionate

salutations.

TO MR. JAMES MAIN.

WASHINGTON, October 19, 1808.

SIR,--Your favor of the 10th has been duly received. Certainly I would

with great pleasure contribute anything in my power to render the

history you propose to write a faithful account of the period it will

comprehend. Nothing is so desirable to me, as that after mankind shall

have been abused by such gross falsehoods as to events while passing,

their minds should at length be set to rights by genuine truth. And I

can conscientiously declare that as to myself, I wish that not only no

act but no thought of mine should be unknown. But, Sir, my other and more

imperious duties put it out of my power. So totally is my time engrossed

by the public concerns, that for mere want of time, many of them which I

ought to attend to myself, if my time sufficed, I am obliged, for want

of it, to refer to others. To withdraw myself from still more of them

for any voluntary object would be a failure in duty. If you shall think

proper, as you say, to commit to me the perusal of the manuscript before

it goes to the press, I shall then probably be in a private station, and

master of my own time, and I will carefully examine, and faithfully offer

any corrections or supplements which I may think will render it a true

representation of events. I salute you with esteem and respect.

TO CAPTAIN GROVE.

WASHINGTON, October 19, 1808.

SIR,--Your two letters of the 11th inst. have been received, and I am

obliged to observe that so wholly do the indispensable duties of my

office engross my whole time, that I could not give a deliberate reading

to two letters so voluminous as these, and not relating to my particular

functions, without withdrawing time from objects having stricter claims

on me. I have run over them hastily, and perceive that you are still

engaged in the pursuit of the method of finding the longitude at sea

by an observation of Jupiter and his satellites, brought to the horizon

by a double reflection, as in Hadley's quadrant. That you have written

a play to raise funds for prosecuting this, and wish me to circulate a

subscription for it and print your letters. I will willingly subscribe

myself for a number of copies to help you, but I have never permitted

myself to be the circulator of any subscription, or to have agency in

printing anything, conceiving it improper in my present office. And

however wishful of your success in raising funds, I confess I should think

them better applied to the comfort of your family. After so many better

opinions it may be superfluous to offer mine. Yet justified by my friendly

motives in doing so, I will observe, that to get the longitude at sea

by observation of the eclipses of Jupiter's satellites, two desiderata

are wanting: 1st, a practicable way of keeping the planet and satellite

in the field of a glass magnifying sufficiently to show the satellites;

2d, a time-piece which will give the instant of time with sufficient

accuracy to be useful. The bringing the planet and satellite to the

horizon does not sensibly facilitate the observation, because the planet

in his ascending and descending course is at such heights as admit the

direct observation with entire convenience. On the other hand, so much

light is lost by the double reflection as to dim the objects and lessen

the precision with which the moment of ingress and egress may be marked.

This double reflection also introduces a new source of error from the

inaccuracy of the instrument; 2d, the desideratum of a time-piece which,

notwithstanding the motion of the ship, shall keep time during a whole

voyage with sufficient accuracy for these observations, has not yet been

supplied. Fine time-keepers have been invented, but not equal to what is

requisite, all of them deriving their motion from a spring, and not from

a pendulum. Indeed these pursuits have lost much of their consequence

since the improvement of the lunar tables has given the motion of the moon

so accurately, as to make that a foundation for estimating the longitude

by her relative position at a given moment with the sun or fixed stars.

Every captain of a ship now understands the method of taking these lunar

observations, and of calculating his longitude by them.

I have gone into these details with the most friendly view of dissuading

you from wasting time, which you represent as so much needed for your

family, in a pursuit which has baffled every human endeavor as yet, and

has lost so much of its importance. I return you your letters, because

you wish to have them published, and conclude with my best wishes for

the success of your endeavors to raise the funds you desire, and for the

application of them which shall be best for yourself and your family.

TO MR. GALLATIN.

October 21, 1808.

_The case of the Martinique Petitioners._

I think it wrong to detain foreigners caught here by the embargo; but in

permitting them to take our vessels to return in, we do what is a matter

of favor, not of right. Of course we can restrict them to a tonnage

proportioned to their numbers. In the transport service I believe the

allowance is two tons to every person. We may allow a little more room;

but there ought to be an end to this, and I think it high time to put an

end to it. What would you think of advertising that after a certain day,

no American vessel will be permitted to go out for the purpose of carrying

persons. Perhaps this should be communicated by the Secretary of State to

the foreign ministers.

* * * * *

Fronda states that a proprietor of Amelia Island, in Florida, shipped his

crop for a foreign port on board an American vessel. The vessel was taken

by the Argus, carried into Savannah, and condemned for a breach of the

embargo laws; the cargo pronounced clear. Probably the vessel had left our

harbors without a clearance, though that is not stated, nor the cause of

her condemnation specified. Permission is asked to send away the cargo. If

the Spanish proprietor had no agency in drawing the vessel away contrary

to the embargo laws, his employment of her was innocent, and he ought to

be permitted to send his cargo out; because for us to take his property

and bring it in by force, and against his will, and then to detain it

under pretext of an embargo, would be equivalent to piracy or war. A

vessel driven involuntarily into a port by weather, or an enemy, with

prohibited goods, is always allowed to depart, and even to sell as much

of the goods as will make the vessel sea-worthy, if disabled. I do not

know, however, that in the present case we are bound to do any more than

let one of our vessels be engaged to replace the cargo in Amelia Island,

and certainly we ought not to let it go to any distant port; but if the

proprietor enticed or engaged the vessel to break the embargo law, he was

_particeps criminis_, and must submit to the loss which he has brought

on himself. I send you Fronda's note, which should be returned to Mr.

Madison, with information of the order you shall give for inquiring into

the facts, and permission or refusal as they shall turn out. Affectionate

salutations.

TO THOMAS COOPER, ESQ.

WASHINGTON, October 27, 1808.

DEAR SIR,--When I received your letter of the 16th, I thought I had not

a copy of my report on measures, weights, and coins, except one bound up

in a volume with other reports; but on carefully searching a bundle of

duplicates, I found the one I now enclose you, being the only detached

one I possess. It is defective in one article. The report was composed

under a severe attack of periodical headache, which came on every day at

sunrise, and never left me till sunset. What had been ruminated in the day

under a paroxysm of the most excruciating pain, was committed to paper by

candlelight, and then the calculations were made. After delivering in the

report, it was discovered that in calculating the money unit § 5 page 49,

there was a small error in the third or fourth column of decimals, the

correction of which however brought the proposed unit still nearer to the

established one. I reported the correction in a single leaf to Congress.

The copy I send you has not that leaf.

The first question to be decided is between those who are for units of

measures, weights, and coins, having, a known relation to something in

nature of fixed dimension, and those who are for an arbitrary standard.

On this "dice vexata quaestio" it is useless to say a word, every one

having made up his mind on a view of all that can be said. Mr. Dorsey

was so kind as to send me his pamphlet, by which I found he was for the

arbitrary standard of one-third of the standard yard of H. G. of England,

supposed to be in the Exchequer of that nation, a fac simile of which was

to be procured and lodged in Philadelphia. I confess myself to be of the

other sect, and to prefer an unit bearing a given relation to some fixed

subject of nature, and of preference to the pendulum, because it may be

in the possession of every man, so that he may verify his measures for

himself. You will observe that I proposed alternative plans to Congress,

that they might take the one or the other, according to the degree of

courage they felt. The first is from page 18 to 38; the second from page

39 to 44. Were I now to decide, it would be in favor of the first, with

this single addition, that each of the denominations there adopted, should

be divisible decimally at the will of every individual. The iron-founder

deals in tons; let him take the ton for his unit, and divide it into

10ths, 100ths, and 1000ths. The dry-goods merchant deals in pounds and

yards; let him divide them decimally. The land-measurer deals in miles and

poles; divide them decimally, only noting over his figures what the unit

is, thus:

Tons. Lbs. Yds. Miles.

18.943, 18.943, 1.8943, 189.43, &c.

I have lately had a proof how familiar this division into dimes, cents,

and mills, is to the people when transferred from their money to anything

else. I have an odometer fixed to my carriage, which gives the distances

in miles, dimes, and cents. The people on the road inquire with curiosity

what exact distance I have found from such a place to such a place; I

answer, so many miles, so many cents. I find they universally and at once

form a perfect idea of the relation of the cent to the mile as an unit.

They would do the same as to yards of cloth, pounds of shot, ounces of

silver, or of medicine. I believe, therefore, they are susceptible of this

degree of approximation to a standard rigorously philosophical; beyond

this I might doubt. However, on this too every one has an opinion, and

I am open to compromise, as I am also to other plans of reformation, of

which multitudes have been published. I can conclude, therefore, candidly

with the "si quid novisti rectius," &c., and sincerely with assurances of

my constant esteem and respect.

TO DOCTOR JAMES BROWN.

WASHINGTON, October 27, 1808.

DEAR SIR,--You will wonder that your letter of June the 3d should not be

acknowledged till this date. I never received it till September the 12th,

and coming soon after to this place, the accumulation of business I found

here has prevented my taking it up till now. That you ever participated

in any plan for a division of the Union, I never for one moment believed.

I knew your Americanism too well. But as the enterprise against Mexico

was of a very different character, I had supposed what I heard on that

subject to be possible. You disavow it; that is enough for me, and I

forever dismiss the idea. I wish it were possible to extend my belief of

innocence to a very different description of men in New Orleans; but I

think there is sufficient evidence of there being there a set of foreign

adventurers, and native malcontents, who would concur in any enterprise

to separate that country from this. I did wish to see these people get

what they deserved; and under the maxim of the law itself, that _inter

arma silent leges_, that in an encampment expecting daily attack from a

powerful enemy, self-preservation is paramount to all law, I expected

that instead of invoking the forms of the law to cover traitors, all

good citizens would have concurred in securing them. Should we have ever

gained our Revolution, if we had bound our hands by manacles of the law,

not only in the beginning, but in any part of the revolutionary conflict?

There are extreme cases where the laws become inadequate even to their own

preservation, and where the universal resource is a dictator, or martial

law. Was New Orleans in that situation? Although we knew here that the

force destined against it was suppressed on the Ohio, yet we supposed this

unknown at New Orleans at the time that Burr's accomplices were calling in

the aid of the law to enable them to perpetrate its suppression, and that

it was reasonable, according to the state of information there, to act on

the expectation of a daily attack. Of this you are the best judge.

Burr is in London, and is giving out to his friends that that government

offers him two millions of dollars the moment he can raise an ensign of

rebellion as big as a handkerchief. Some of his partisans will believe

this, because they wish it. But those who know him best will not believe

it the more because he says it. For myself, even in his most flattering

periods of the conspiracy, I never entertained one moment's fear. My long

and intimate knowledge of my countrymen, satisfied and satisfies me, that

let there ever be occasion to display the banners of the law, and the

world will see how few and pitiful are those who shall array themselves in

opposition. I as little fear foreign invasion. I have indeed thought it a

duty to be prepared to meet even the most powerful, that of a Bonaparte,

for instance, by the only means competent, that of a classification of the

militia, and placing the junior classes at the public disposal; but the

lesson he receives in Spain extirpates all apprehensions from my mind. If

in a peninsula, the neck of which is adjacent to him and at his command,

where he can march any army without the possibility of interception

or obstruction from any foreign power, he finds it necessary to begin

with an army of three hundred thousand men, to subdue a nation of five

millions, brutalized by ignorance, and enervated by long peace, and should

find constant reinforcements of thousands after thousands, necessary to

effect at last a conquest as doubtful as deprecated, what numbers would

be necessary against eight millions of free Americans, spread over such

an extent of country as would wear him down by mere marching, by want

of food, autumnal diseases, &c.? How would they be brought, and how

reinforced across an ocean of three thousand miles, in possession of a

bitter enemy, whose peace, like the repose of a dog, is never more than

momentary? And for what? For nothing but hard blows. If the Orleanese

Creoles would but contemplate these truths, they would cling to the

American Union, soul and body, as their first affection, and we should

be as safe there as we are everywhere else. I have no doubt of their

attachment to us in preference of the English.

I salute you with sincere affection and respect.

TO ----.

WASHINGTON, October 28, 1808.

SIR,--I thank you for the copy of General Kosciusko's treatise on

the flying artillery. It is a branch of the military art which I wish

extremely to see understood here, to the height of the European level.

Your letter of September 20th was received in due time. I never received

the letter said to have been written to me by Mr. Malesherbe, in favor

of Mr. Masson. The fact of such a letter having been written by Mr.

Malesherbe, is sufficient ground for my desiring to be useful to Mr.

Masson on any occasion which may arise. No man's recommendation merits

more reliance than that of M. de Malesherbe. The state and interest of

the military academy shall not be forgotten. I salute you with esteem and

respect.

TO GOVERNOR CLAIBORNE.

WASHINGTON, October 29, 1808.

SIR,--I send the enclosed letter under the benefit of your cover, and

open, because I wish you to know its contents. I thought the person to

whom it is addressed a very good man when here,--he is certainly a very

learned and able one. I thought him peculiarly qualified to be useful

with you. But in the present state of my information, I can say no more

than I have to him. When you shall have read the letter, be so good as

to stick a wafer in it, and not let it be delivered till it is dry, that

he may not know that any one but himself sees it. The Spanish paper you

enclosed me is an atrocious one. I see it has been republished in the

Havanna. The truth is that the patriots of Spain have no warmer friends

than the administration of the United States, but it is our duty to say

nothing and to do nothing for or against either. If they succeed, we

shall be well satisfied to see Cuba and Mexico remain in their present

dependence; but very unwilling to see them in that of either France or

England, politically or commercially. We consider their interests and ours

as the same, and that the object of both must be to exclude all European

influence from this hemisphere. We wish to avoid the necessity of going to

war, till our revenue shall be entirely liberated from debt. Then it will

suffice for war, without creating new debt or taxes. These are sentiments

which I would wish you to express to any proper characters of either of

these two countries, and particularly that we have nothing more at heart

than their friendship. I salute you with great esteem and respect.

TO MR. GALLATIN.

November 3, 1808.

A press of business here prevented my sooner taking up the three bundles

of papers now returned; and even now I judge of them from the brief you

have been so good as to make so fully. This is an immense relief to me.

_The Warbash Saline._

I think the applications from Nashville, &c., for a share of the salt

had better not be complied with. I suspect we did wrong in yielding a

similar privilege to Kentucky. There would be no end to the details of

the partitionary plan, and it will only shift the gains into other hands,

adding the unavoidable inequalities of distribution. Better leave the

distribution to its former and ordinary course, and the benefits will

taper off from the centre till lost by distance.

_Indiana Lead Mines._

I think it would be well to authorize Governor Harrison to lease them to

the present applicants,--the former ones declining.

_Intrusions on Public Lands._

I suspect you have partly forgotten what was agreed on the other day.

1. Notice was agreed to be given by a register to be appointed to all

intruders on the Tennessee purchase, to disclaim or remove; and _in the

spring_ troops are to be sent to remove all non-compliers. Those on the

Indian lands (except Double-heads) to be absolutely removed without the

privilege of disclaimer. 2. As to the intruders on Red River, we agreed to

leave them and get Congress to extend the land law to them.

I think it will be better you should write to Governor Williams about the

appointment of officers. Things casually incidental to a main business

belonging to another department, had better be made the subject of a

single instruction. I am sure the Secretary of State will thank you to

take the trouble. Affectionate salutations.

TO GENERAL DEARBORNE.

November 5, 1808.

I enclose you a charge by Mr. Hanson against Captain Smith and Lieutenants

Davis and Dobbins of the militia, as having become members of an organized

company, calling themselves the Tar Company, avowing their object to

be the tarring and feathering citizens of some description. Although

in some cases the animadversions of the law may be properly relied on

to prevent what is unlawful, yet with those clothed with authority from

the executive, and being a part of the executive, other preventives are

expedient. These officers should be warned that the executive cannot

tamely look on and see its officers threaten to become the violators

instead of the protectors of the rights of our citizens. I presume,

however, that all that is necessary will be that their commanding

officer, (General Mason,) finding the fact true, should give them a

_private_ admonition, either written or verbal, as he pleases, to withdraw

themselves from the illegal association; at the same time I would rather

it should be stated to General Mason only "that information has been

received," &c., without naming Mr. Hanson as the informer. My reason is

that some disagreeable feuds have arisen at the Navy Yard which I would

rather allay than foment. No proof will be necessary to be called for;

because if the officers disavow the fact, it will be a proof they have

that sense of propriety to which only an admonition would be intended to

bring them. I salute you with constant affection.

TO HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR PINCKNEY.

WASHINGTON, November 8, 1808.

DEAR SIR,--I have to acknowledge the receipt of your two letters September

10th and of blank date, probably about the middle of October, and to

thank you for the communications therein made. They were handed to the

two persons therein named. I seize the first moment it is in my power to

answer your question as to our foreign relations, which I do by enclosing

you a copy of my message this moment delivered to the two houses of

Congress, in which they are fully stated. It is evident we have before us

three only alternatives; 1, embargo; 2, war; 3, submission and tribute.

This last will at once be put out of question by every American, and the

two first only considered. By the little conversation I have had with

the members, I perceive there will be some division on this among the

republicans; but what will be its extent cannot be known till they shall

have heard the message and documents, and had some days to confer and make

up their opinions. Being now all in the hurry and bustle of visits and

business, incident to the first days of the meeting, I must here close

with my salutations of friendship and respect.

TO MR. LETUE.

WASHINGTON, November 8, 1808.

SIR,--I have to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of October 14th,

and to thank you for the information it contained. While the opposition to

the late laws of embargo has in one quarter amounted almost to rebellion

and treason, it is pleasing to know that all the rest of the nation has

approved of the proceedings of the constituted authorities. The steady

union which you mention of our fellow citizens of South Carolina, is

entirely in their character. They have never failed in fidelity to their

country and the republican spirit of its constitution. Never before was

that union more needed or more salutary than under our present crisis. I

enclose you my message to both houses of Congress, this moment delivered.

You will see that we have to choose between the alternatives of embargo

and war; there is indeed one and only one other, that is submission

and tribute. For all the federal propositions for trading to the places

permitted by the edicts of the belligerents, result in fact in submission,

although they do not choose to pronounce the naked word. I do not believe,

however, that our fellow citizens of that sect with you will concur

with those to the east in this paricide purpose, any more than in the

disorganizing conduct which has disgraced the latter. I conclude this from

their conduct in your legislature in its vote on that question. Accept my

salutations and assurances of respect.

TO HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR CABELL.

WASHINGTON, November 13, 1808.

DEAR SIR,--Between three and four years ago, I received the enclosed

petitions praying for the pardon or the enlargement of Thomas

Logwood, then and still confined in the penitentiary of Richmond, for

counterfeiting the bank notes of the United States. I consulted Governor

Page on the subject, who, after conferring with his council, informed me

that though he was for a pardon himself, he found a division of opinion

on the question, and therefore could not advise it. Between three and four

years have since been added to his confinement, and if his conduct during

that time has been such as to lessen his claims to a mitigation of his

sentence, they must certainly stand now on higher ground, and the more

so as two of his accomplices confined here, have by a very general wish

been pardoned more than a year ago. Will you be so good as to give me your

opinion on the subject, as you are in a situation to know what his conduct

has been? His wife is represented as a very meritorious character, and her

connections respectable; probably they may be known to you. His neighbors,

you will observe, ask his restoration to them. Whether would it be best

to pardon him absolutely, or on condition of giving security for his good

behavior? or shall we open the prison door and let him go out, notifying

him that if he will continue on his own farm or those next adjoining,

and keep himself from all suspicious intercourse and correspondence, he

will not be molested; otherwise, that he will be retaken and replaced in

his present situation? Your advice on this subject will much oblige me. I

salute you with great esteem and respect.

TO MR. GALLATIN.

November 13, 1808.

1st. The ship Aurora, Captain Rand. Provisions, lumber and naval stores

being the articles on which we rely most for effect during our embargo.

Rand's landing, as to the great mass of its articles, seems not to render

his case suspicious. Keeping therefore the articles of provisions, lumber

and naval stores, within their regular limits, I see no objection to a

permit in the character of his cargo; and the objection drawn from his

dislike and disapprobation of the embargo, has never been considered as an

obstacle where the person has not actually been guilty of its infraction.

I think a permit should be granted under the regular limitations as to the

proportion of provisions, &c.

2d. The schooner Concord, property of John Bell of Petersburg. Wherever a

person has once been guilty of breaking the embargo laws, we can no longer

have confidence in him, and every shipment made by him becomes suspicious.

No permit should be granted him; the fact of a prior breach being

sufficient without the formality of its being found by jury.

3d. The schooner Caroline, belonging to Brown and Pilsbury of Buckstown.

Where every attempt, the Collector says, has been made and still

continues to be made to evade the embargo laws, the nature of the cargo is

sufficient to refuse the permit, being wholly of provisions and lumber.

This is the first time the character of the place has been brought under

consideration as an objection. Yet a general disobedience to the laws in

any place must have weight towards refusing to give them any facilities

to evade. In such a case we may fairly require positive proof that the

individual of a town tainted with a general spirit of disobedience, has

never said or done anything himself to countenance that spirit. But the

first cause of refusal being sufficient, an inquiry into character and

conduct is unnecessary.

TO LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR LINCOLN.

WASHINGTON, November 13, 1808.

DEAR SIR,--I enclose you a petition from Nantucket, and refer it for

your decision. Our opinion here is, that that place has been so deeply

concerned in smuggling, that if it wants, it is because it has illegally

sent away what it ought to have retained for its own consumption. Be

so good as to bear in mind that I have asked the favor of you to see

that your State encounters no real want, while, at the same time, where

applications are made merely to cover fraud, no facilities towards that be

furnished. I presume there can be no want in Massachusetts as yet, as I am

informed that Governor Sullivan's permits are openly bought and sold here

and in Alexandria, and at other markets. The congressional campaign is

just opening: three alternatives alone are to be chosen from. 1. Embargo.

2. War. 3. Submission and tribute. And, wonderful to tell, the last will

not want advocates. The real question, however, will lie between the two

first, on which there is considerable division. As yet the first seems

most to prevail; but opinions are by no means yet settled down. Perhaps

the advocates of the second may, to a formal declaration of war, prefer

_general_ letters of mark and reprisal, because, on a repeal of their

edicts by the belligerent, a revocation of the letters of mark restores

peace without the delay, difficulties, and ceremonies of a treaty. On this

occasion, I think it is fair to leave to those who are to act on them,

the decisions they prefer, being to be myself but a spectator. I should

not feel justified in directing measures which those who are to execute

them would disapprove. Our situation is truly difficult. We have been

pressed by the belligerents to the very wall, and all further retreat is

impracticable.

I salute you with sincere friendship.

TO THE HON. JOSEPH VARNUM.

WASHINGTON, November 18, 1808.

SIR,--You will perceive in the enclosed petitions, a request that I

will lay them before Congress. This I cannot do consistently with my

own opinion of propriety, because where the petitioners have a right

to petition their immediate representatives in Congress directly, I

have deemed it neither necessary nor proper for them to pass their

petition through the intermediate channel of the Executive. But as the

petitioners may be ignorant of this, and, confiding in it, may omit the

proper measure, I have usually put such petitions into the hands of the

Representatives of the State, informally to be used or not as they see

best, and considering me as entirely disclaiming any agency in the case.

With this view, I take the liberty of placing these papers in your hands,

not as Speaker of the House, but as one of the Representatives from

the State from which they came. Whether they should be handed on to the

Representatives of the particular districts, (which are unknown to me,)

yourself will be the best judge. I salute you with affection, esteem, and

respect.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON RANDOLPH.

WASHINGTON, November 24, 1808.

MY DEAR JEFFERSON, * * * * *

Your situation, thrown at such a distance from us, and alone, cannot but

give us all great anxieties for you. As much has been secured for you,

by your particular position and the acquaintance to which you have been

recommended, as could be done towards shielding you from the dangers

which surround you. But thrown on a wide world, among entire strangers,

without a friend or guardian to advise, so young too, and with so little

experience of mankind, your dangers are great, and still your safety must

rest on yourself. A determination never to do what is wrong, prudence

and good humor, will go far towards securing to you the estimation of the

world. When I recollect that at fourteen years of age, the whole care and

direction of myself was thrown on myself entirely, without a relation or

friend qualified to advise or guide me, and recollect the various sorts

of bad company with which I associated from time to time, I am astonished

I did not turn off with some of them, and become as worthless to society

as they were. I had the good fortune to become acquainted very early with

some characters of very high standing, and to feel the incessant wish that

I could ever become what they were. Under temptations and difficulties,

I would ask myself what would Dr. Small, Mr. Wythe, Peyton Randolph do

in this situation? What course in it will insure me their approbation?

I am certain that this mode of deciding on my conduct, tended more to

correctness than any reasoning powers I possessed. Knowing the even and

dignified line they pursued, I could never doubt for a moment which of two

courses would be in character for them. Whereas, seeking the same object

through a process of moral reasoning, and with the jaundiced eye of youth,

I should often have erred. From the circumstances of my position, I was

often thrown into the society of horse racers, card players, fox hunters,

scientific and professional men, and of dignified men; and many a time

have I asked myself, in the enthusiastic moment of the death of a fox, the

victory of a favorite horse, the issue of a question eloquently argued at

the bar, or in the great council of the nation, well, which of these kinds

of reputation should I prefer? That of a horse jockey? a fox hunter? an

orator? or the honest advocate of my country's rights? Be assured, my dear

Jefferson, that these little returns into ourselves, this self-catechising

habit, is not trifling nor useless, but leads to the prudent selection and

steady pursuit of what is right.

I have mentioned good humor as one of the preservatives of our peace and

tranquillity. It is among the most effectual, and its effect is so well

imitated and aided, artificially, by politeness, that this also becomes

an acquisition of first rate value. In truth, politeness is artificial

good humor, it covers the natural want of it, and ends by rendering

habitual a substitute nearly equivalent to the real virtue. It is the

practice of sacrificing to those whom we meet in society, all the little

conveniences and preferences which will gratify them, and deprive us of

nothing worth a moment's consideration; it is the giving a pleasing and

flattering turn to our expressions, which will conciliate others, and

make them pleased with us as well as themselves. How cheap a price for

the good will of another! When this is in return for a rude thing said by

another, it brings him to his senses, it mortifies and corrects him in the

most salutary way, and places him at the feet of your good nature, in the

eyes of the company. But in stating prudential rules for our government

in society, I must not omit the important one of never entering into

dispute or argument with another. I never saw an instance of one of two

disputants convincing the other by argument. I have seen many, on their

getting warm, becoming rude, and shooting one another. Conviction is the

effect of our own dispassionate reasoning, either in solitude, or weighing

within ourselves, dispassionately, what we hear from others, standing

uncommitted in argument ourselves. It was one of the rules which, above

all others, made Doctor Franklin the most amiable of men in society,

"never to contradict anybody." If he was urged to announce an opinion, he

did it rather by asking questions, as if for information, or by suggesting

doubts. When I hear another express an opinion which is not mine, I say to

myself, he has a right to his opinion, as I to mine; why should I question

it? His error does me no injury, and shall I become a Don Quixotte, to

bring all men by force of argument to one opinion? If a fact be misstated,

it is probable he is gratified by a belief of it, and I have no right to

deprive him of the gratification. If he wants information, he will ask

it, and then I will give it in measured terms; but if he still believes

his own story, and shows a desire to dispute the fact with me, I hear him

and say nothing. It is his affair, not mine, if he prefers error. There

are two classes of disputants most frequently to be met with among us.

The first is of young students, just entered the threshold of science,

with a first view of its outlines, not yet filled up with the details and

modifications which a further progress would bring to their knowledge. The

other consists of the ill-tempered and rude men in society, who have taken

up a passion for politics. (Good humor and politeness never introduce into

mixed society, a question on which they foresee there will be a difference

of opinion.) From both of those classes of disputants, my dear Jefferson,

keep aloof, as you would from the infected subjects of yellow fever or

pestilence. Consider yourself, when with them, as among the patients of

Bedlam, needing medical more than moral counsel. Be a listener only, keep

within yourself, and endeavor to establish with yourself the habit of

silence, especially on politics. In the fevered state of our country, no

good can ever result from any attempt to set one of these fiery zealots to

rights, either in fact or principle. They are determined as to the facts

they will believe, and the opinions on which they will act. Get by them,

therefore, as you would by an angry bull; it is not for a man of sense

to dispute the road with such an animal. You will be more exposed than

others to have these animals shaking their horns at you, because of the

relation in which you stand with me. Full of political venom, and willing

to see me and to hate me as a chief in the antagonist party, your presence

will be to them what the vomit grass is to the sick dog, a nostrum for

producing ejaculation. Look upon them exactly with that eye, and pity them

as objects to whom you can administer only occasional ease. My character

is not within their power. It is in the hands of my fellow citizens at

large, and will be consigned to honor or infamy by the verdict of the

republican mass of our country, according to what themselves will have

seen, not what their enemies and mine shall have said. Never, therefore,

consider these puppies in politics as requiring any notice from you, and

always show that you are not afraid to leave my character to the umpirage

of public opinion. Look steadily to the pursuits which have carried you to

Philadelphia, be very select in the society you attach yourself to, avoid

taverns, drinkers, smokers, idlers, and dissipated persons generally; for

it is with such that broils and contentions arise; and you will find your

path more easy and tranquil. The limits of my paper warn me that it is

time for me to close with my affectionate adieu.

P. S. Present me affectionately to Mr. Ogilvie, and, in doing the same to

Mr. Peale, tell him I am writing with his polygraph, and shall send him

mine the first moment I have leisure enough to pack it.

TO THE VICE-PRESIDENTS OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.

WASHINGTON, November 30, 1808.

GENTLEMEN,--Being to remove within a few months from my present residence

to one still more distant from the seat of the meetings of the American

Philosophical Society, I feel it a duty no longer to obstruct its

service by keeping from the chair members whose position as well as

qualifications, may enable them to discharge its duties with so much more

effect. Begging leave, therefore, to withdraw from the Presidency of the

Society at the close of the present term, I avail myself of the occasion

gratefully to return my thanks to the Society for the repeated proofs

they have been pleased to give of their favor and confidence in me, and

to assure them, in retiring from the honorable station in which they

have been pleased so long to continue me, that I carry with me all the

sentiments of an affectionate member and faithful servant of the Society.

Asking the favor of you to make this communication to the Society, I

beg leave to tender to each of you personally the assurances of my great

esteem and respect.

TO MR. SAMUEL HAWKINS, KINGSTON.

WASHINGTON, November 30, 1808.

SIR,--Business and indisposition have prevented my sooner acknowledging

the receipt of your letter of the 3d instant, which came to hand on the

10th. Mr. Granger, before that, had sent here the very elegant ivory staff

of which you wished my acceptance. The motives of your wish are honorable

to me, and gratifying, as they evidence the approbation of my public

conduct by a stranger who has not viewed it through the partialities of

personal acquaintance. Be assured, Sir, that I am as grateful for the

testimony, as if I could have accepted the token of it which you have

so kindly offered. On coming into public office, I laid it down as a

law of my conduct, while I should continue in it, to accept no present

of any sensible pecuniary value. A pamphlet, a new book, or an article

of new curiosity, have produced no hesitation, because below suspicion.

But things of sensible value, however innocently offered in the first

examples, may grow at length into abuse, for which I wish not to furnish

a precedent. The kindness of the motives which led to this manifestation

of your esteem, sufficiently assures me that you will approve of my

desire, by a perseverance in the rule, to retain that consciousness of a

disinterested administration of the public trusts, which is essential to

perfect tranquillity of mind. Replacing, therefore, the subject of this

letter in the hands of Mr. Granger, under your orders, and repeating that

the offer meets the same thankfulness as if accepted, I tender you my

salutations and assurances of respect.

TO DOCTOR WATERHOUSE.

WASHINGTON, December 1, 1808.

SIR,---In answer to the inquiries of the benevolent Dr. De Carro on the

subject of the upland or mountain rice, Oryza Mutica, I will state to

you what I know of it. I first became informed of the existence of a rice

which would grow in uplands without any more water than the common rains,

by reading a book of Mr. De Porpre, who had been Governor of the Isle of

France, who mentions it as growing there and all along the coast of Africa

successfully, and as having been introduced from Cochin-China. I was at

that time (1784-89) in France, and there happening to be there a Prince

of Cochin-China, on his travels, and then returning home, I obtained his

promise to send me some. I never received it however, and mention it only

as it may have been sent, and furnished the ground for the inquiries of

Dr. De Carro, respecting my receiving it from China. When at Havre on my

return from France, I found there Captain Nathaniel Cutting, who was the

ensuing spring to go on a voyage along the coast of Africa. I engaged him

to inquire for this; he was there just after the harvest, procured and

sent me a thirty-gallon cask of it. It arrived in time the ensuing spring

to be sown. I divided it between the Agricultural Society of Charleston

and some private gentlemen of Georgia, recommending it to their care,

in the hope which had induced me to endeavor to obtain it, that if it

answered as well as the swamp rice, it might rid them of that source of

their summer diseases. Nothing came of the trials in South Carolina, but

being carried into the upper hilly parts of Georgia, it succeeded there

perfectly, has spread over the country, and is now commonly cultivated;

still, however, for family use chiefly, as they cannot make it for sale in

competition with the rice of the swamps. The former part of these details

is written from memory, the papers being at Monticello which would enable

me to particularize exactly the dates of times and places. The latter

part is from the late Mr. Baldwin, one of those whom I engaged in the

distribution of the seed in Georgia, and who in his annual attendance on

Congress, gave me from time to time the history of its progress. It has

got from Georgia into Kentucky, where it is cultivated by many individuals

for family use. I cultivated it two or three years at Monticello, and

had good crops, as did my neighbors, but not having conveniences for

husking it, we declined it. I tried some of it in a pot, while I lived in

Philadelphia, and gave seed to Mr. Bartram. It produced luxuriant plants

with us both, but no seed; nor do I believe it will ripen in the United

States as far north as Philadelphia. Business and an indisposition of some

days must apologize for this delay in answering your letter of October

24th, which I did not receive till the 6th of November. And permit me here

to add my salutations and assurances of esteem and respect.

TO THOMAS MONROE.

December 4, 1808.

The case of the sale of city lots under a decree of the Chancellor of

Maryland.

The deed of the original owners of the site of the city of Washington to

certain trustees, after making provisions for streets, public squares,

&c., declares that the residue of the ground, laid off in building lots,

shall one moiety belong to the original proprietors, and the other moiety

shall be sold on such terms and conditions as the President of the United

States shall direct, the proceeds, after certain specified payments, to

be paid to the President as a grant of money, and to be applied for the

purposes, and according to the Act of Congress; which Act of Congress

(1790, c. 28) had authorized the President to accept grants of money,

to purchase or to accept land for the use of the United States, to

provide suitable buildings, &c. Of these residuary building lots, one

thousand were sold by the Commissioner to Greenleaf for $80,000, who

transferred them to Morris and Nicholson, with an express lien on them

for the purchase money due to the city. Under this lien the Chancellor

of Maryland has decreed that they shall be sold immediately for whatever

they will bring; that the proceeds shall be applied first to the costs

of suit and sale, and the balance towards paying the original purchase

money. The sale has now proceeded, for some days, at very low prices,

and must proceed till the costs of suit and sale are raised. It is well

understood that under no circumstances of sale, however favorable, can

they pay five in the pound of the original debt; and that if the whole

are now forced into sale, at what they will bring, they will not pay

one in the pound; and being the only fund from which a single dollar of

the debt can ever be recovered, (on account of the bankruptcy of all the

purchasers,) of $25,000 which the lots may bring if offered for sale from

time to time _pari passu_ with the growing demand, $20,000 will be lost

by a forced sale. To save this sum is desirable. And the interest in it

being ultimately that of the United States, I have consulted with the

Secretary of the Treasury and Comptroller, and after due consideration,

I am of opinion it is for the public interest, and within the powers of

the President, under the deed of trust and laws, to repurchase under the

decree, at the lowest prices obtainable, such of these lots as no other

purchaser shall offer to take at what the Superintendent shall deem

their real value, that is to say, what they will in his judgment sell

for hereafter, if only offered from time to time as purchasers shall

want them. The sums so to be allowed for them by the Superintendent

to be passed to the credit of Greenleaf, and retaining a right to the

unsatisfied balance as damages due for non-compliance with his contract;

a matter of form only, as not a cent of it is expected ever to be

obtained. I consider the reconveyance of these lots at the price which

the Superintendent shall nominally allow for them, as replacing them in

our hands, in _statu quo_ prices, as if the title had never been passed

out of us; and that thereafter they will be in the condition of all other

lots, sold, but neither conveyed nor paid for; that is to say, liable to

be resold for the benefit of the city; as has been invariably practised in

all other cases. The Superintendent is instructed to proceed accordingly.

TO MR. GALLATIN.

December 7, 1808.

1. D. W. Coxe and the ship Comet. The application to send another vessel

to the Havanna, to bring home the proceeds of the cargo of the Comet,

charged with a breach of embargo, must be rejected for three reasons,

each insuperable. 1st. The property was not shipped from the United States

prior to December 22d, 1807, and therefore is not within the description

of cases in which a permission by the executive is authorized by law.

2d. The limitation of time for permissions has been long expired. 3d.

Although in an action on the bond of the Comet, the fabricated testimony

of distress may embarrass judges and juries, tramelled by legal rules

of evidence, yet it ought to have no weight with us to whom the law

has referred to decide according to our discretion, well knowing that

it was impossible to build up fraud by general rules. We know that the

fabrication of proofs of leaky ships, stress of weather, cargoes sold

under duress, are a regular part of the system of infractions of the

embargo, with the manufacture of which every foreign port is provided, and

that their oaths and forgeries are a regular merchandise in every port.

We must therefore consider them as nothing, and that the act of entering a

foreign port and selling the cargo is decisive evidence of an intentional

breach of embargo, not to be countervailed by the letters of all the

Charles Dixeys in the world; for every vessel is provided with a Charles

Dixey.

My opinion is therefore that no permission ought ever to be granted for

any vessel to leave our ports (while the embargo continues) in which any

person is concerned either in interest or in navigating her, who has ever

been concerned in interest, or in the navigation of a vessel which has

at any time before entered a foreign port contrary to the views of the

embargo laws, and under any pretended distress or duress whatever. This

rule will not lead us wrong once in a hundred times.

2. I send you the case of Mr. Mitchell and the ship Neutrality, merely

as a matter of form; for I presume it must be rejected on the ground of

limitation. These petitioners are getting into the habit of calling on me

personally in the first instance. These personal solicitations being very

embarrassing, I am obliged to tell them I will refer the case to you, and

they will receive a written answer. But I hope, in your amendments to the

law, you will propose a repeal of the power to give permissions to go for

property.

TO MR. GALLATIN.

December 8, 1808.

The idea of regulating the coasting trade (to New Orleans for instance)

by the quantity of tonnage sufficient for each port, is new to me, and

presents difficulties through which I cannot see my way. To determine how

much tonnage will suffice for the coasting trade of Boston, New York,

Philadelphia, and the other ports great and small, and to divide this

tonnage impartially among the competitors of each place, would embarrass

us infinitely, and lead to unavoidable errors and irregularities. Is it

not better to let it regulate itself as to all innocent articles, and to

continue our attentions and regulations to the articles of provisions and

lumber? If the rule of the _one-eighth_ carries too much to New Orleans,

and I am sure it does, why not confine it to the ports between St. Mary's

and Passamaquoddy, (excluding these two,) and trust for New Orleans to

the western supplies and Governor Claiborne's permits? I suppose them

sufficient, because Governor Claiborne has assured us that the Western

supplies are sufficient for the consumption of New Orleans, and we see

that New Orleans has exported flour the last six months, and that too

to the West Indies, whither will go also whatever flour the rule of the

_one-eighth_ carries there, or its equivalent in Western flour. These

ideas on the subject are of the first impression; and I keep the decision

open for any further light which can be thrown on it.

TO MR. GALLATIN.

December 8, 1808.

Mr. Harrison will continue in office till the 3d of March. I send you tit

for tat, one lady application for another. However our feelings are to

be perpetually harrowed by these solicitations, our course is plain, and

inflexible to right or left. But for God's sake get us relieved from this

dreadful drudgery of refusal. Affectionate salutations.

TO MR. GALLATIN.

December 20, 1808.

_The case of the schooner Concord, sold by J. Bell of Petersburg, to M. W.

Hancock of Richmond._

I think it may be concluded from the letters of Hancock and the collector,

that the purchase of the schooner has been a _bonâ fide_ one; but it is

not even alleged that he has purchased the cargo, but it appears on the

contrary that Bell has the same concern in that as before. As, where

a person has once evaded the embargo laws, we consider all subsequent

shipments and proposed voyages by him to be with the fraudulent intention;

the present shipment of the cargo of tobacco, before refused, being still

the concern of Bell, must of course be still suspicious, and refused a

permit. But the request of the purchaser of the schooner, that, after

taking out the cargo, he may have a clearance for her to go in ballast to

the district of Richmond, may be granted.

TO MR. GALLATIN.

December 22, 1808.

The answer to the petition of Percival and others, praying that they may

be permitted to send a vessel or vessels to take up their men from the

desolate islands of the Indian Ocean, and thence to proceed on a trading

voyage to Canton, &c., cannot but be a thing of course, that days having

been publicly announced after which no permissions to send vessels to

bring home property would be granted, which days are past long since,

and the rule rigorously adhered to, it cannot now be broken through.

If Congress continue the power, it will show that they mean it shall be

exercised, and we may then consider on what new grounds permissions may be

granted. Affectionate salutations.

TO MR. NICHOLAS.

WASHINGTON, December 22, 1808.

DEAR SIR,--I always consider it as the most friendly office which can be

rendered me, to be informed of anything which is going amiss, and which I

can remedy. I had known that there had been a very blamable failure in the

clothing department, which had not become known so as to be remedied till

the beginning of October; but I had believed that the remedy had then been

applied with as much diligence as the case admitted. After the suggestions

from General Smith and Mr. Giles the other day, I made inquiry into the

fact, and have received the enclosed return, which will show exactly what

has been done. Can I get the favor of you to show it to General Smith

and Mr. Giles, to whom I am sure it will give as much satisfaction as to

myself, and to re-enclose it to me? I salute you and them with sincere

friendship and respect.

TO GOVERNOR HARRISON.

WASHINGTON, December 22, 1808.

SIR,--By the treaty of 1803, we obtained from the Kaskaskias the country

as far as the ridge dividing the waters of the Kaskaskias from those

of the Illinois River; by the treaty of 1804, with the Sacs and Foxes,

they ceded to us from the Illinois to the Ouisconsin. Between these two

cessions is a gore of country, to wit, between the Illinois River and

Kaskaskias line, which I understand to have belonged to the Piorias, and

that that tribe is now extinct; if both these facts be true, we succeed

to their title by our being proprietors paramount of the whole country.

In this case it is interesting to settle our boundary with our next

neighbors the Kickapoos. Where their western boundary is, I know not;

but they cannot come lower down the Illinois River than the Illinois

Lake, on which stood the old Pioria fort, and perhaps not so low. The

Kickapoos are bounded to the south-east, I presume, by the ridge between

the waters of the Illinois and Wabash, to which the Miamis claim, and

north-east by the Pottewatamies. Of course it is with the Kickapoos

alone we have to settle a boundary. I would therefore recommend to you to

take measures for doing this. You will of course first endeavor with all

possible caution to furnish yourself with the best evidence to be had, of

the real location of the south-west boundary of the Kickapoos, and then

endeavor to bring them to an acknowledgment of it formally, by a treaty

of limits. If it be nothing more, the ordinary presents are all that will

be necessary, but if they cede a part of their own country, then a price

proportioned will be proper. In a letter to you of February 27th, 1803,

I mentioned that I had heard there was still one Pioria man living, and

that a compensation making him easy for life should be given him, and his

conveyance of the country by a regular deed be obtained. If there be such

a man living, I think this should still be done. The ascertaining the

line between the Kickapoos and us is now of importance, because it will

close our possessions on the hither bank of the Mississippi from the Ohio

to the Ouisconsin, and give us a broad margin to prevent the British from

approaching that river, on which, under color of their treaty, they would

be glad to hover, that they might smuggle themselves and their merchandise

into Louisiana. Their treaty can only operate on the country so long as

it is Indian; and in proportion as it becomes ours exclusively, their

ground is narrowed. It makes it easier too for us to adopt on this side

of the Mississippi a policy we are beginning on the other side, that of

permitting no traders, either ours or theirs, to go to the Indian towns,

but oblige them all to settle and be stationary at our factories, where

we can have their conduct under our observation and control. However, our

first object must be to blockade them from the Mississippi, and to this I

ask the favor of your attention; and salute you with great friendship and

respect.

TO MR. BARLOW.

WASHINGTON, December 25, 1808.

DEAR SIR,--I return you Doctor Maese's letter, which a pressure of

business has occasioned me to keep too long. I think an account of

the manufactures of Philadelphia would be really useful, and that the

manufactures of other places should be added from time to time, as

information of them should be received. To give a perfect view of the

whole, would require a report from every county or township of the

United States. Perhaps the present moment would be premature, as they

are, in truth, but just now in preparation. The government could not

aid the publication by the subscription suggested by Doctor Maese,

without a special law for it. All the purposes for which they can pay

a single dollar, are specified by law. The advantage of the veterinary

institution proposed, may perhaps be doubted. If it be problematical

whether physicians prevent death where the disease, unaided, would have

terminated fatally,--oftener than they produce it, where order would have

been restored to the system by the process, if uninterrupted, provided

by nature, and in the case of a man who can describe the seat of his

disease, its character, progress, and often its cause, what might we

expect in the case of the horse,--mute, &c., yielding no sensible and

certain indications of his disease? They have long had these institutions

in Europe; has the world received as yet one iota of valuable information

from them? If it has, it is unknown to me. At any rate, it may be doubted

whether, where so many institutions of obvious utility are yet wanting, we

should select this one to take the lead. I return you Gibbon, with thanks.

I send you, also, for your shelf of pamphlets, one which gives really a

good historical view of our funding system, and of federal transactions

generally, from an early day to the present time. I salute you with

friendship and respect.

TO CHARLES THOMSON, ESQ.

WASHINGTON, December 25, 1808.

I thank you, my dear and ancient friend, for the two volumes of your

translation, which you have been so kind as to send me. I have dipped into

it at the few moments of leisure which my vocations permit, and I perceive

that I shall use it with great satisfaction on my return home. I propose

there, among my first employments, to give to the Septuagint an attentive

perusal, and shall feel the aid you have now given me. I am full of plans

of employment when I get there,--they chiefly respect the active functions

of the body. To the mind I shall administer amusement chiefly. An only

daughter and numerous family of grandchildren, will furnish me great

resources of happiness. I learn with sincere pleasure that you have health

and activity enough to have performed the journey to and from Lancaster

without inconvenience. It has added another proof that you are not wearied

with well-doing. Although I have enjoyed as uniform health through life

as reason could desire, I have no expectation that, even if spared to

your age, I shall at that period be able to take such a journey. I am

already sensible of decay in the power of walking, and find my memory not

so faithful as it used to be. This may be partly owing to the incessant

current of new matter flowing constantly through it; but I ascribe to

years their share in it also. That you may be continued among us to the

period of your own wishes, and that it may be filled with continued health

and happiness, is the sincere prayer of your affectionate friend.

TO MR. GALLATIN.

December 27, 1808.

The enclosed petition, from Deville, was handed me by Gen. Turreau. I told

him at once it was inadmissible; that days had been long ago announced,

after which no vessel would be permitted to depart; that in favor of

emigrants we had continued indulgences till very lately; but as there

must be an end to it, that time had come, and we had determined to give

no more permissions. They had had a complete year to depart, and had not

availed themselves of it. He appeared satisfied, and perhaps will himself

give the answer. However, an answer of the above purport may be given from

your office. I have referred the case of the British boats to the Attorney

General for his opinion. Affectionate salutations.

TO DOCTOR LOGAN.

WASHINGTON, December 27, 1808.

DEAR SIR,--Your favor of the 8th, by Mr. Cunow, was duly received, and I

now return you the letter it covered. Mr. Cunow's object was so perfectly

within our own views, that it was readily obtained, and I am in hopes

he has left us with a more correct opinion of the dispositions of the

administration than his fraternity has generally manifested. I have

within a few days had visits from the Pottowatamies, Miamis, Chippewas,

Delawares, and Cherokees, and there arrived some yesterday, of, I believe,

the Ottoways, Wiandots, and others of that neighborhood. Our endeavors are

to impress on them all profoundly, temperance, peace, and agriculture; and

I am persuaded they begin to feel profoundly the soundness of the advice.

Congress seems as yet to have been able to make up no opinion. Some are

for taking off the embargo before they separate; others not till their

meeting next autumn; but both with a view to substitute war, if no change

takes place with the powers of Europe. A middle opinion is to have an

extra session in May, to come then to a final decision. I have thought

it right to take no part myself in proposing measures, the execution of

which will devolve on my successor. I am therefore chiefly an unmeddling

listener to what others say. On the same ground, I shall make no new

appointments which can be deferred till the 4th of March, thinking it fair

to leave to my successor to select the agents for his own administration.

As the moment of my retirement approaches, I become more anxious for its

arrival, and to begin at length to pass what yet remains to me of life

and health in the bosom of my family and neighbors, and in communication

with my friends, undisturbed by political concerns or passions. Permit me

to avail myself of this occasion to assure Mrs. Logan and yourself of my

continued friendship and attachment, and that I shall ever be pleased to

hear of your happiness and prosperity, saluting you both with affection

and respect.

TO MR. GALLATIN.

December 28, 1808.

I enclose you the petition of Jacob Smith of Newport, in the case

of the ship Triumph, which is a new case to me. Perhaps the practice

as to foreign ships arriving since the embargo laws, with which I am

unacquainted, may facilitate the solution. What should be done?

_The Atalanta._

Is not the collector the person who is to search into the fact charged? I

do not know who it is that does this in case of seizure. However, I will

send the case to Mr. Smith.

The petition of Manuel Valder for a vessel to carry off Spanish subjects,

is rejected.

The cases from St. Mary are really embarrassing. I sent the papers to

Mr. Madison to ask his opinion. He had read only one when he called on

me this morning. He seemed strongly of opinion that it would be most

advisable to send some person to the Governor of East Florida, to enter

into some friendly arrangements with him. He has the papers still under

consideration; in the meantime we may consider as further means, how it

might do to destroy all boats and canoes on our side the river, paying

for them? To arrest impression, and bring to regular trial every negro

taken in the act of violating the laws? This for mere consideration.

Affectionate salutations.

TO E. RANDOLPH, ESQ.

WASHINGTON, December 28, 1808.

DEAR SIR,--I received yesterday your favor of the 22d. It was the first

information I had had of the sentence against Moss, the district attorney

not having written to me as you supposed. I referred the case to the Post

Master General, who in his answer says, "His is not a single crime, but

a series of crimes, for months if not years. There were found upon him

between $1,300 and $1,500, which he had robbed in small sums."

You are sensible that the Legislature having made stripes a regular part

of the punishment, that the pardoning them cannot be a thing of course,

as that would be to repeal the law, but that extraordinary and singular

considerations are necessary to entitle the criminal to that remission.

The information of the Post Master General marks such an habitual

depravity of mind, as leaves little room to suppose that any facts can

countervail it; and the robbery of the mail has now become so frequent

and great an evil, that the moment is unfavorable to propositions of

relaxation. Still I shall be ready to receive and consider any testimony

in his favor, which his friends may bring forward, and will do it on

whatever I may believe to have been the intention of the Legislature in

confiding the power of pardon to the executive. The opinion of the judges

who sat in the cause, I have ever required as indispensable to ground

a pardon. A copy of the judgment is also necessary. I have taken the

liberty of troubling you with these observations, because I have received

no application but your letter, and lest, on the contrary supposition,

his case might suffer for want of information. Accept my salutations and

assurances of friendly esteem and respect.

TO ----.

WASHINGTON, December 31, 1808.

SIR,--The General Government of the United States has considered it their

duty and interest to extend their care and patronage over the Indian

tribes within their limits, and to endeavor to render them friends, and

in time perhaps useful members of the nation. Perceiving the injurious

effects produced by their inordinate use of spirituous liquors, they

passed laws authorizing measures against the vending or distributing

such liquors among them. Their introduction by traders was accordingly

prohibited, and for some time was attended with the best effects. I am

informed, however, that latterly the Indians have got into the practice

of purchasing such liquors themselves in the neighboring settlements of

whites, and of carrying them into their towns, and that in this way our

regulations so salutary to them, are now defeated. I must, therefore,

request your Excellency to submit this matter to the consideration of your

legislature. I persuade myself that in addition to the moral inducements

which will readily occur, they will find it not indifferent to their

own interests to give us their aid in removing, for their neighbors,

this great obstacle to their acquiring industrious habits, and attaching

themselves to the regular and useful pursuits of life; for this purpose

it is much desired that they should pass effectual laws to restrain their

citizens from vending and distributing spirituous liquors to the Indians.

I pray your Excellency to accept the assurances of my great esteem and

respect.

TO MR. HENRY GUEST.

WASHINGTON, January 4, 1809.

SIR,--A constant pressure of business must be my apology for being so late

in acknowledging the receipt of your favor of November 25th. I am sensible

of the kindness of your rebuke on my determination to retire from office

at a time when our country is laboring under difficulties truly great.

But if the principle of rotation be a sound one, as I conscientiously

believe it to be with respect to this office, no pretext should ever be

permitted to dispense with it, because there never will be a time when

real difficulties will not exist, and furnish a plausible pretext for

dispensation. You suppose I am "in the prime of life for rule." I am

sensible I am not; and before I am so far declined as to become insensible

of it, I think it right to put it out of my own power. I have the comfort

too of knowing that the person whom the public choice has designated to

receive the charge from me, is eminently qualified as a safe depository by

the endowments of integrity, understanding, and experience. On a review

therefore of the reasons for my retirement, I think you cannot fail to

approve them.

Your proposition for preventing the effect of splinters in a naval action,

will certainly merit consideration and trial whenever our vessels shall

be called into serious service; till then the perishable nature of the

covering, would render it an unnecessary expense. I tender you my best

wishes for the continuance of your life and health, and salute you with

great esteem and respect.

TO MR. GALLATIN.

January 9, 1809.

I do not recollect the instructions to Governor Lewis respecting

squatters. But if he had any they were unquestionably to prohibit them

rigorously. I have no doubt, if he had not written instructions, that he

was verbally so instructed. Carr's story has very much the air of an idle

rumor, willingly listened to. It shows some germ of discontent existing.

* * * * *

TO THE SECRETARY AT WAR.

WASHINGTON, January 12, 1809.

SIR,--I have read with pleasure the letter of Captain Davidson, by which,

according to unanimous resolves of the company of light infantry of the

first legion of the militia of Columbia commanded by him, he tenders their

services as volunteers under the Act of Congress of February 24th, 1807.

I accept the offer, and render to Captain Davidson and the other officers

and privates of the company, that praise to which their patriotism so

justly entitles them. So long urged by the aggressions of the belligerent

powers, and every measure of forbearance at length exhausted, our country

must see with sincere satisfaction the alacrity with which persons will

flock to her standard whenever her constituted authorities shall declare

that we take into our own hands the redress of our wrongs. Be so good as

to communicate in behalf of the public my thanks to Captain Davidson, the

other officers and privates of his company, and be assured yourself of my

affectionate respect.

TO GENERAL DEARBORNE.

January 12, 1809.

I suppose that in answering Governor Drayton we should compliment his

ardor, and smooth over our noncompliance with his request; that he might

be told that the President sees, in his present application, a proof

of his vigilance and zeal in whatever concerns the public safety, and

will count with the more confidence on his future attentions and energy

whenever circumstances shall call for them. That he considers that the

power entrusted to him for calling out the 100,000 militia, was meant to

be exercised only in the case of some great and general emergency, and by

no means to be employed merely as garrisons or guards in ordinary cases:

that there is no apprehension that England means either to declare or to

commence war on us at the present moment, and that if the declaration

shall be intended to originate with us, he may be assured of receiving

timely notice, with the powers and the means of placing everything in

safety before a state of actual danger commences; that nevertheless it is

of great urgency that the quota of his state be prepared with all possible

diligence, to be ready to march at a moment's warning, because by that

time it is very possible, and scarcely improbable, that their services may

have become actually requisite. Affectionate salutations.

TO DOCTOR EUSTIS.

WASHINGTON, January 14, 1809.

SIR,--I have the pleasure to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of

December the 24th, and of the resolutions of the republican citizens

of Boston, of the 19th of that month. These are worthy of the ancient

character of the sons of Massachusetts, and of the spirit of concord

with her sister States, which, and which alone, carried us successfully

through the revolutionary war, and finally placed us under that national

government, which constitutes the safety of every part, by uniting for

its protection the powers of the whole. The moment for exerting these

united powers, to repel the injuries of the belligerents of Europe,

seems likely to be pressed upon us. They have interdicted our commerce

with nearly the whole world. They have declared it shall be carried on

with such places, in such articles, and in such measure only, as they

shall dictate; thus prostrating all the principles of right which have

hitherto protected it. After exhausting the cup of forbearance and

conciliation to its dregs, we found it necessary, on behalf of that

commerce, to take time to call it home into a state of safety, to put

the towns and harbors which carry it on into a condition of defence, and

to make further preparation for enforcing the redress of its wrongs, and

restoring it to its rightful freedom. This required a certain measure of

time, which, although not admitting specific limitation, must, from its

avowed objects, have been obvious to all; and the progress actually made

towards the accomplishment of these objects, proves it now to be near its

term. While thus endeavoring to secure, and preparing to vindicate that

commerce, the absurd opinion has been propagated, that this temporary and

necessary arrangement was to be a permanent system, and was intended for

its destruction. The sentiments expressed in the paper you were so kind as

to enclose to me, show that those who have concurred in them have judged

with more candor the intentions of their government, and are sufficiently

aware of the tendency of the excitements and misrepresentations which

have been practised on this occasion. And such, I am persuaded, will be

the disposition of the citizens of Massachusetts at large, whenever truth

can reach them. Associated with her sister States in a common government,

the fundamental principle of which is, that the will of the majority is

to prevail, sensible that, in the present difficulty, that will has been

governed by no local interests or jealousies, that, to save permanent

rights, temporary sacrifices were necessary, that these have fallen as

impartially on all, as in a situation so peculiar they could be made to

do, she will see in the existing measures a legitimate and honest exercise

of the will and wisdom of the whole. And her citizens, faithful to

themselves and their associates, will not, to avoid a transient pressure,

yield to the seductions of enemies to their independence, foreign or

domestic, and take a course equally subversive of their well-being, as of

that of their brethren.

The approbation expressed by the republican citizens of the town of

Boston, of the course pursued by the national government, is truly

consoling to its members; and, encouraged by the declaration of the

continuance of their confidence, and by the assurance of their support,

they will continue to pursue the line of their high duties according to

the best of their understandings, and with undeviating regard to the good

of the whole. Permit me to avail myself of this occasion of tendering you

personally the assurances of my great esteem and respect.

TO MR. THOMAS C. JAMES, SECRETARY OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.

WASHINGTON, January 14, 1809.

SIR,-I have received your favor of the 6th inst., informing me that the

American Philosophical Society had been pleased, at their late election,

unanimously to re-elect me president of the society. In desiring, in my

letter to the vice-presidents, that I might be permitted to withdraw

from that honor, I acted from a conscientious persuasion that I was

keeping from that important station members whose position, as well as

qualifications, would enable them to render more effectual services to

the institution. But the society having thought proper again to name me,

I shall obey it with dutifulness, and be ever anxious to avail myself of

every occasion of being useful to them. I pray you to be so good as to

communicate my thanks to them, with assurances of my devotion to their

service, and to accept those of great esteem and respect for yourself

personally.

TO DOCTOR MAESE.

WASHINGTON, January 15, 1809.

SIR,-The constant pressure of such business as will admit no delay, has

prevented my sooner acknowledging the receipt of your letter of the 2d,

and even now will confine me to the single question, for the answer to

which you wait, before you take any step towards bringing forward the

institution you propose for the advancement of the arts. That question is

whether Congress would grant a charter of incorporation, and a sum for

premiums annually? It has always been denied by the republican party in

this country, that the Constitution had given the power of incorporation

to Congress. On the establishment of the Bank of the United States,

this was the great ground on which that establishment was combatted;

and the party prevailing supported it only on the argument of its being

an incident to the power given them for raising money. On this ground

it has been acquiesced in, and will probably be again acquiesced in, as

subsequently confirmed by public opinion. But in no other instance have

they ever exercised this power of incorporation out of this district, of

which they are the ordinary legislature.

It is still more settled that among the purposes to which the Constitution

permits them to apply money, the granting premiums or bounties is not

enumerated, and there has never been a single instance of their doing it,

although there has been a multiplicity of applications. The Constitution

has left these encouragements to the separate States. I have in two or

three messages recommended to Congress an amendment to the Constitution,

which should extend their power to these objects. But nothing is yet

done in it. I fear, therefore, that the institution you propose must rest

on the patronage of the State in which it is to be. I wish I could have

answered you more to my own mind; as well as yours; but truth is the first

object. I salute you with esteem and respect.

CIRCULAR LETTER FROM THE SECRETARY OF WAR, TO THE GOVERNORS,--PREPARED BY

THOMAS JEFFERSON.

January 17, 1809.

SIR,--The pressure of the embargo, although sensibly felt by every

description of our fellow citizens, has yet been cheerfully borne by

most of them, under the conviction that it was a temporary evil, and

a necessary one to save us from greater and more permanent evils,--the

loss of property and surrender of rights. But it would have been more

cheerfully borne, but for the knowledge that, while honest men were

religiously observing it, the unprincipled along our sea-coast and

frontiers were fraudulently evading it; and that in some parts they had

even dared to break through it openly, by an armed force too powerful to

be opposed by the collector and his assistants. To put an end to this

scandalous insubordination to the laws, the Legislature has authorized

the President to empower proper persons to employ militia, for preventing

or suppressing armed or riotous assemblages of persons resisting the

custom-house officers in the exercise of their duties, or opposing or

violating the embargo laws. He sincerely hopes that, during the short time

which these restrictions are expected to continue, no other instances

will take place of a crime of so deep a die. But it is made his duty to

take the measures necessary to meet it. He therefore requests you, as

commanding officer of the militia of your State, to appoint some officer

of the militia, of known respect for the laws, in or near to each port of

entry within your State, with orders, when applied to by the collector of

the district, to assemble immediately a sufficient force of his militia,

and to employ them efficaciously to maintain the authority of the laws

respecting the embargo, and that you notify to each collector the officer

to whom, by your appointment, he is so to apply for aid when necessary. He

has referred this appointment to your Excellency, because your knowledge

of characters, or means of obtaining it, will enable you to select one

who can be most confided in to exercise so serious a power, with all the

discretion, the forbearance, the kindness even, which the enforcement

of the law will possibly admit,--ever to bear in mind that the life of a

citizen is never to be endangered, but as the last melancholy effort for

the maintenance of order and obedience to the laws.

TO MR. BOYD.

WASHINGTON, January 20, 1809.

Thomas Jefferson presents his compliments to Mr. Boyd, and observes that

the enclosed petition of Nicholas Kosieg, has been addressed to Judge

Cranch, and yet is not recommended by him or the other judges who sat

on the trial. They are so particularly qualified by having heard the

evidence, to decide on the merits of the petition, that Thomas Jefferson

has generally made the recommendation of judges the foundation of pardon,

and sees no reason in the present case to depart from that rule. He

assures Mr. Boyd of his esteem and respect.

TO HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR TYLER.

WASHINGTON, January 20, 1809.

SIR,--The Secretary at War has put into my hand your Excellency's letter

of January 9th, covering one of December 15th from Captain Henry St.

John Dixon, of the volunteer riflemen of the 105th regiment, offering the

service of his company for one year. The term for which the offer is made

shows it intended to be under the Act of Congress of February 24th, 1807,

and not under that of March 30th, 1805, which is only for a service of six

months under the law of 1807. The Governors were authorized and requested,

on behalf of the President, to accept the offers made under that act,

and to organize the corps when ready for it, officering it according to

the laws of their State. This authority was given to your predecessor,

and was considered as devolving on yourself. The authority and request

are now renewed to you, and the letter of Captain Dixon returned for that

purpose. To this I will add another request, that you will be so good as

to endeavor to have a return made to the War Office of all the corps of

twelve-month volunteers which have been accepted in Virginia. They began

immediately after the attack on the Chesapeake. I salute you with esteem

and respect.

TO COLONEL HUMPHREYS.

WASHINGTON, January 20, 1809.

SIR,--I have to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of December 12th,

and to return you my thanks for the cloth furnished me. It came in good

time, and does honor to your manufactory, being as good as any one would

wish to wear in any country. Amidst the pressure of evils with which the

belligerent edicts have afflicted us, some permanent good will arise; the

spring given to manufactures will have durable effects. Knowing most of my

own State, I can affirm with confidence that were free intercourse opened

again to-morrow, she would never again import one-half of the coarse goods

which she has done down to the date of the edicts. These will be made in

our families. For finer goods we must resort to the larger manufactories

established in the towns. Some jealousy of this spirit of manufacture

seems excited among commercial men. It would have been as just when we

first began to make our own ploughs and hoes. They have certainly lost

the profit of bringing these from a foreign country. My idea is that we

should encourage home manufactures to the extent of our own consumption

of everything of which we raise the raw material. I do not think it fair

in the ship-owners to say we ought not to make our own axes, nails, &c.,

here, that they may have the benefit of carrying the iron to Europe,

and bringing back the axes, nails, &c. Our agriculture will still afford

surplus produce enough to employ a due proportion of navigation. Wishing

every possible success to your undertaking, as well for your personal

as the public benefit. I salute you with assurances of great esteem and

respect.

TO MR. LEIPER.

WASHINGTON, January 21, 1809.

DEAR SIR,--Your letter of the 15th was duly received, and before that,

Towers' book, which you had been so kind as to send me, had come to hand,

for which I pray you to receive my thanks. You judge rightly that _here_

I have no time to read. A cursory view of the book shows me that the

author is a man of much learning in his line. I have heard of some other

late writer, (the name I forget,) who has undertaken to prove contrary

events from the same sources; and particularly that England is not to

be put down; and that this is the favorite author in that country. As to

myself, my religious reading has long been confined to the moral branch

of religion, which is the same in all religions; while in that branch

which consists of dogmas, all differ, all have a different set. The former

instructs us how to live well and worthily in society; the latter are made

to interest our minds in the support of the teachers who inculcate them.

Hence, for one sermon on a moral subject, you hear ten on the dogmas of

the sect. However, religion is not the subject for you and me; neither of

us know the religious opinions of the other; that is a matter between our

Maker and ourselves. We understand each other better in politics, to which

therefore I will proceed. The House of Representatives passed last night

a bill for the meeting of Congress on the 22d of May. This substantially

decides the course they mean to pursue; that is, to let the embargo

continue till then, when it will cease, and letters of marque and reprisal

be issued against such nations as shall not then have repealed their

obnoxious edicts. The great majority seem to have made up their minds

on this, while there is considerable diversity of opinion on the details

of preparation; to wit: naval force, volunteers, army, non-intercourse,

&c. I write freely to you, because I know that in stating facts, you

will not quote names. You know that every syllable uttered in my name

becomes a text for the federalists to torment the public mind on by their

paraphrases and perversions. I have lately inculcated the encouragement

of manufactures to the extent of our own consumption at least, in all

articles of which we raise the raw material. On this the federal papers

and meetings have sounded the alarm of Chinese policy, destruction of

commerce, &c.; that is to say, the iron which we make must not be wrought

here into ploughs, axes, hoes, &c., in order that the ship-owner may

have the profit of carrying it to Europe, and bringing it back in a

manufactured form, as if after manufacturing our own raw materials for

own use, there would not be a surplus produce sufficient to employ a due

proportion of navigation in carrying it to market and exchanging it for

those articles of which we have not the raw material. Yet this absurd hue

and cry has contributed much to federalize New England, their doctrine

goes to the sacrificing agriculture and manufactures to commerce; to the

calling all our people from the interior country to the sea-shore to turn

merchants, and to convert this great agricultural country into a city

of Amsterdam. But I trust the good sense of our country will see that

its greatest prosperity depends on a due balance between agriculture,

manufactures and commerce, and not in this protuberant navigation which

has kept us in hot water from the commencement of our government, and

is now engaging us in war. That this may be avoided, if it can be done

without a surrender of rights, is my sincere prayer. Accept the assurances

of my constant esteem and respect.

TO COLONEL CHARLES SIMMS, COLLECTOR.

WASHINGTON, January 22, 1809.

SIR,--I received last night your letter of yesterday, and this being a

day in which all the offices are shut, and the case admitting no delay, I

enclose you a special order, directly from myself, to apply for aid of the

militia adjacent to the vessel, to enable you to do your duty as to the

sloop loading with flour. But I must desire that, so far as the agency of

the militia be employed, it may be with the utmost discretion, and with no

act of force beyond what shall be necessary to maintain obedience to the

laws, using neither deeds nor words unnecessarily offensive. I salute you

with respect.

[_The Order enclosed._]

THOMAS JEFFERSON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

January, 1809.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA TO WIT,--Information being received that a sloop,

said to be of one of the eastern States, of about 1,500 barrels burthen,

is taking in flour in the Bay of Occoquan in Virginia, with intention

to violate the several embargo laws, and the urgency of the case not

admitting the delay of the ordinary course of proceeding through the

orders of the Governors of the States, I have therefore thought proper

to issue these my special orders to the militia officers of the counties

of Fairfax, Prince William, or of any other county of Virginia, or of

Maryland, adjacent to the river Potomak or any of its waters, wherein the

said vessel may be found, and to such particular officer especially to

whom these my orders shall be presented by any collector of the customs,

for any district on the said river or its waters, or by any person acting

under their authority, forthwith on receiving notice, to call out such

portion of the militia under his or their command as shall be sufficient,

and to proceed with the same, in aid of the said collector, to take

possession of the said sloop and her cargo, wheresoever found in the said

waters, and to detain the same until she shall be liberated according to

law, for which this shall be his and their warrant.

Given under my hand at Washington, this 22d day of January, 1809.

TO COLONEL MONROE.

WASHINGTON, January 28, 1809.

DEAR SIR,--Your favor of the 18th was received in due time, and the answer

has been delayed as well by a pressure of business, as by the expectation

of your absence from Richmond.

The idea of sending a special mission to France or England is not

entertained at all here. After so little attention to us from the former,

and so insulting an answer from Canning, such a mark of respect as an

extraordinary mission, would be a degradation against which all minds

revolt here. The idea was hazarded in the House of Representatives a

few days ago, by a member, and an approbation expressed by another, but

rejected indignantly by every other person who spoke, and very generally

in conversation by all others; and I am satisfied such a proposition

would get no vote in the Senate. The course the Legislature means to

pursue, may be inferred from the act now passed for a meeting in May, and

a proposition before them for repealing the embargo in June, and then

resuming and maintaining by force our right of navigation. There will

be considerable opposition to this last proposition, not only from the

federalists, old and new, who oppose everything, but from sound members

of the majority. Yet it is believed it will obtain a good majority, and

that it is the only proposition which can be devised that could obtain

a majority of any kind. Final propositions will, therefore, be soon

despatched to both the belligerents through the resident ministers, so

that their answers will be received before the meeting in May, and will

decide what is to be done. This last trial for peace is not thought

desperate. If, as is expected, Bonaparte should be successful in Spain,

however every virtuous and liberal sentiment revolts at it, it may induce

both powers to be more accommodating with us. England will see here the

only asylum for her commerce and manufactures, worth more to her than her

orders of council. And Bonaparte, having Spain at his feet, will look

immediately to the Spanish colonies, and think our neutrality cheaply

purchased by a repeal of the illegal parts of his decrees, with perhaps

the Floridas thrown into the bargain. Should a change in the aspect of

affairs in Europe produce this disposition in both powers, our peace and

prosperity may be revived and long continue. Otherwise, we must again take

the tented field, as we did in 1776 under more inauspicious circumstances.

There never has been a situation of the world before, in which such

endeavors as we have made would not have secured our peace. It is probable

there never will be such another. If we go to war now, I fear we may

renounce forever the hope of seeing an end of our national debt. If we can

keep at peace eight years longer, our income, liberated from death, will

be adequate to any war, without new taxes or loans, and our position and

increasing strength put us _hors d'insulte_ from any nation. I am now so

near the moment of retiring, that I take no part in affairs beyond the

expression of an opinion. I think it fair that my successor should now

originate those measures of which he will be charged with the execution

and responsibility, and that it is my duty to clothe them with the forms

of authority. Five weeks more will relieve me from a drudgery to which I

am no longer equal, and restore me to a scene of tranquillity, amidst my

family and friends, more congenial to my age and natural inclinations.

In that situation, it will always be a pleasure to me to see you, and to

repeat to you the assurances of my constant friendship and respect.

TO HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR SEVIER.

WASHINGTON, January 31, 1809.

SIR,--The extraordinary and critical situation of our foreign relations

rendering it necessary, in the opinion of the National Legislature, that

their next recess should be short, they have passed an act for meeting on

the fourth Monday of May, of which I enclose you a copy. As the election

of representatives for the State of Tennessee would not, in the ordinary

course, be in time for this meeting, I have thought it my duty to make

you a special communication of this law. That every State should be

represented in the great council of the nation, is not only the interest

of each, but of the whole united, who have a right to be aided by the

collective wisdom and information of the whole, in questions which are to

decide on their future well-being. I trust that your Excellency will deem

it incumbent on you to call an immediate meeting of your legislature, in

order to put it in their power to fulfil this high duty, by making special

and timely provision for the representation of their State at the ensuing

meeting of Congress; to which measures I am bound earnestly to exhort

yourself and them. I am not insensible of the personal inconvenience of

this special call to the members composing the legislature of so extensive

a State; but neither will I do them the injustice to doubt their being

ready to make much greater sacrifices for the common safety, should

the course of events still lead to a call for them. I tender to your

Excellency the assurances of my high respect and consideration.

TO M. AMELOT DE LA CROIX, BOSTON.

WASHINGTON, February 3, 1809.

SIR,--I received in due time your favor of December 28th, covering

the tragedy of the unfortunate Louis XVI., and I am sure you are too

reasonable not to have ascribed the delay of answer which has intervened,

to its true cause, the never-ceasing pressure of business which cannot

be deferred. I have read the piece with great satisfaction. I recognize

in Louis that purity of virtue and sincere patriotism which I knew made a

part of his real character. The sound good sense and exalted sentiments he

is made to utter, were proper to his character, whether actually a part of

it or not. I say nothing of style, not doubting its merit, and conscious

I am no judge of it in a foreign language. I believe it impossible, in

any but our native tongue, to be so thoroughly sensible of the delicacy of

style, which constitutes an essential merit in poetical composition, as to

criticise them with correctness.

I wish that, in the prefatory piece, the character which is the subject

of it, did not fall still further short of its representation than that of

the principal personage in the main piece. I have never claimed any other

merit than of good intentions, sensible that in the choice of measures,

error of judgment has too often had its influence; and with whatever

indulgence my countrymen as well as yourself, have been so kind as to

view my course, yet they would certainly not know me in the picture here

drawn, and would, I fear, say in the words of the poet, "Praise undeserved

is satire in disguise." Were, therefore, the piece to be prepared for the

press, I should certainly entreat you to revise that part with a severe

eye.

I believe I mentioned to you, on a former occasion, that the late act of

Congress for raising additional troops required that the officers should

all be citizens of the United States. Should there be war, however, I am

persuaded this policy must be abandoned, and that we must avail ourselves

of the experience of other nations, in certain lines of service at least.

In that expectation I shall leave with my successor the papers in my

possession, from which he may be sensible of the benefits he may receive

from your aid.

I pray you to accept my salutations and assurances of respect.

TO CAPTAIN ARMISTEAD T. MASON.

WASHINGTON, February 3d, 1809.

SIR,--Your letter of January 7th came to my hand on the 23d only of that

month, since which the pressure of business which could not be delayed,

has prevented my sooner acknowledging its receipt. The offer of service

therein made by the subscribing members of the troop of cavalry, attached

to the 57th regiment of Virginia militia under your command, is worthy of

that ardent love of our country which, I am persuaded, will distinguish

its citizens, whenever its wrongs shall call them to the field. I tender,

therefore, to the subscribing officers and members of the troop that

acknowledgment of their merit which is so justly due. At the same time,

I must observe that, considering their offer of service as made under the

law of 1808, the power of accepting it is thereby given to the governor of

the State, to whom their address for acceptance is of course to be made.

A bill for raising a body of volunteers is now on its progress through

Congress. Should that be passed, which will soon be known, it may perhaps

be more eligible for the subscribing members to place themselves under the

conditions of that law. I pray you to accept, for them and yourself, the

assurances of my esteem and respect.

TO CAPTAIN ARMISTEAD T. MASON.

WASHINGTON, February 3d, 1809.

SIR,--I enclose you a letter in answer to that in which you offer the

services of the subscribing members of your troop of cavalry. I make this

separate and private answer to the very friendly letter addressed to me in

your own name only, and which accompanied the former. The relation which

you bear to my most valued and worthy friend Stevens T. Mason, gives you

a just title to communicate your wishes to me, and will insure to you any

services I can render you. The time of my continuance in office is now

so short, that it will scarcely fall to my lot to be useful to you, but

I shall leave your letter in the hands of my successor, than whom nobody

cherishes more the memory of your father. If the bill mentioned in my

other letter passes, there will be little difficulty in your obtaining

appointment. The engagements that proposes are to be for one year from the

time the volunteers are called on, which will not be till war is declared,

or inevitable, and from that corps a transfer will be easy into the

regular troops, which in that case will be to be raised.

I am happy in every testimony from my fellow citizens, that my conduct in

the discharge of my duties to them, has given them satisfaction. Accept my

thanks for the very kind terms in which you have been pleased to express

your dispositions towards myself, and with a request that you will be

so good as to present my high respects to Mrs. Mason, with whom I have

had the happiness of some acquaintance, I salute you with friendship and

esteem.

TO THOMAS MANN RANDOLPH.

WASHINGTON, February 7, 1809.

DEAR SIR,--I thought Congress had taken their ground firmly for continuing

their embargo till June, and then war. But a sudden and unaccountable

revolution of opinion took place the last week, chiefly among the New

England and New York members, and in a kind of panic they voted the 4th

of March for removing the embargo, and by such a majority as gave all

reason to believe they would not agree either to war or non-intercourse.

This, too, was after we had become satisfied that the Essex Junto had

found their expectation desperate, of inducing the people there to

either separation or forcible opposition. The majority of Congress,

however, has now rallied to the removing the embargo on the 4th of March,

non-intercourse with _France_ and _Great Britain_, trade everywhere else,

and continuing war preparations. The further details are not yet settled,

but I believe it is perfectly certain that the embargo will be taken off

the 4th of March. Present my warmest affections to my dearest Martha, and

the young ones, and accept the assurances of them to yourself.

TO HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR TYLER.

WASHINGTON, February 16, 1809.

SIR,--I have duly received your favor of the 11th, covering resolutions of

the General Assembly of Virginia on our foreign relations, and an address

to myself, on my approaching retirement; and I ask leave, through the same

channel, to return the enclosed answer. Nothing can give me more sincere

satisfaction than this kind and honorable testimony from the General

Assembly of my native State,--a State in which I have drawn my first and

shall draw my latest breath, and to which I retire with inexpressible

pleasure. I am equally sensible of your goodness, in the approving terms

in which you have made this communication. The concurrence of a veteran

patriot, who from the first dawn of the revolution to this day has pursued

unchangeably the same honest course, cannot but be flattering to his

fellow laborers. I pray you to accept the assurances of my sincere esteem

and respect.

TO MR. STODDART.

WASHINGTON, February 18, 1809.

SIR,--Your favor of January 25th had been duly received, and I was waiting

in the hope I might find a moment of less pressure in which I might answer

it somewhat in detail, when that of the 14th inst. came to hand. Finding

that, instead of any relaxation of business, it crowds more on me as I

approach my departure, I can only indulge myself in a very brief reply. As

to the rights of the United States as a neutral power, our opinions are

very different, mine being that when two nations go to war, it does not

abridge the rights of neutral nations but in the two articles of blockade

and contraband of war. But on this subject we have both probably read and

thought so much as to have made up our minds, and it is not likely that

either can make a convert of the other. With respect to the interests of

the United States in this exuberant commerce which is now bringing war on

us, we concur perfectly. It brings us into collision with other powers in

every sea, and will force us into every war of the European powers. The

converting this great agricultural country into a city of Amsterdam,--a

mere head-quarters for carrying on the commerce of all nations with

one another, is too absurd. Yet this is the real object of the drawback

system,--it enriches a few individuals, but lessens the stock of native

productions, by withdrawing from them all the hands thus employed; it is

essentially interesting to us to have shipping and seamen enough to carry

our surplus produce to market; but beyond that, I do not think we are

bound to give it encouragement by drawbacks or other premiums. I wish you

may be right in supposing that the trading States would now be willing

to give up the drawbacks, and to denationalize all ships taking foreign

articles on board for any other destination than the United States, on

being secured by discriminating duties, or otherwise in the exclusive

carryage of the produce of the United States. I should doubt it. Were such

a proposition to come _from them_, I presume it would meet with little

difficulty. Otherwise, I suppose it must wait till peace, when the right

of drawback will be less valued than the exclusive carryage of our own

produce.

No apology was necessary for the letters you were so kind as to write me

on this subject. I have always received with thankfulness the ideas of

judicious persons on subjects interesting to the public. In the present

case, I thought I should better fulfil your objects by communicating your

letters to my successor, to whose views I have thought it my duty to give

the lead, ever since his designation, as to all matters which he would

have to execute. Nothing will probably be done on this subject in the

few days between this and my retirement; and in that situation I shall

certainly divorce myself from all part in political affairs. To get rid

of them is the principal object of my retirement, and the first thing

necessary to the happiness which, you justly observe, it is in vain to

look for in any other situation. I pray you to accept my salutations, and

assurances of respect.

TO JOHN HOLLINS.

WASHINGTON, February 19, 1809.

DEAR SIR,--A little transaction of mine, as innocent a one as I ever

entered into, and where an improper construction was never less expected,

is making some noise, I observe, in your city. I beg leave to explain

it to you, because I mean to ask your agency in it. The last year, the

Agricultural Society of Paris, of which I am a member, having had a plough

presented to them, which, on trial with a graduated instrument, did equal

work with half the force of their best ploughs, they thought it would

be a benefit to mankind to communicate it. They accordingly sent one to

me, with a view to its being made known here, and they sent one to the

Duke of Bedford also, who is one of their members, to be made use of for

England, although the two nations were then at war. By the Mentor, now

going to France, I have given permission to two individuals in Delaware

and New York, to import two parcels of Merino sheep from France, which

they have procured there, and to some gentlemen in Boston, to import a

very valuable machine which spins cotton, wool, and flax equally. The last

spring, the Society informed me they were cultivating the cotton of the

Levant and other parts of the Mediterranean, and wished to try also that

of our southern States. I immediately got a friend to have two tierces

of seed forwarded to me. They were consigned to Messrs. Falls and Brown

of Baltimore, and notice of it being given me, I immediately wrote to

them to re-ship them to New York, to be sent by the Mentor. Their first

object was to make a show of my letter, as something very criminal, and

to carry the subject into the newspapers. I had, on a like request, some

time ago, (but before the embargo,) from the President of the Board of

Agriculture of London, of which I am also a member, to send them some of

the genuine May wheat of Virginia, forwarded to them two or three barrels

of it. General Washington, in his time, received from the same Society

the seed of the perennial succory, which Arthur Young had carried over

from France to England, and I have since received from a member of it the

seed of the famous turnip of Sweden, now so well known here. I mention

these things, to show the nature of the correspondence which is carried on

between societies instituted for the benevolent purpose of communicating

to all parts of the world whatever useful is discovered in any one of

them. These societies are always in peace, however their nations may be at

war. Like the republic of letters, they form a great fraternity spreading

over the whole earth, and their correspondence is never interrupted by

any civilized nation. Vaccination has been a late and remarkable instance

of the liberal diffusion of a blessing newly discovered. It is really

painful, it is mortifying, to be obliged to note these things, which are

known to every one who knows anything, and felt with approbation by every

one who has any feeling. But we have a faction, to whose hostile passions

the torture even of right into wrong is a delicious gratification. Their

malice I have long learned to disregard, their censure to deem praise.

But I observe that some republicans are not satisfied (even while we are

receiving liberally from others) that this small return should be made.

They will think more justly at another day; but, in the meantime, I wish

to avoid offence. My prayer to you, therefore, is, that you will be so

good, under the enclosed order, as to receive these two tierces of seed

from Falls and Brown, and pay them their disbursements for freight, &c.,

which I will immediately remit you on knowing the amount. Of the seed,

when received, be so good as to make manure for your garden. When rotted

with a due mixture of stable manure or earth, it is the best in the world.

I rely on your friendship to excuse this trouble, it being necessary I

should not commit myself again to persons of whose honor, or the want of

it, I know nothing.

Accept the assurances of my constant esteem and respect.

TO M. GREGOIRE, EVEQUE ET SENATEUR A PARIS.

WASHINGTON, February 25, 1809.

SIR,--I have received the favor of your letter of August 17th, and with it

the volume you were so kind as to send me on the "Literature of Negroes."

Be assured that no person living wishes more sincerely than I do, to

see a complete refutation of the doubts I have myself entertained and

expressed on the grade of understanding allotted to them by nature, and

to find that in this respect they are on a par with ourselves. My doubts

were the result of personal observation on the limited sphere of my own

State, where the opportunities for the development of their genius were

not favorable, and those of exercising it still less so. I expressed them

therefore with great hesitation; but whatever be their degree of talent

it is no measure of their rights. Because Sir Isaac Newton was superior

to others in understanding, he was not therefore lord of the person or

property of others. On this subject they are gaining daily in the opinions

of nations, and hopeful advances are making towards their re-establishment

on an equal footing with the other colors of the human family. I pray you

therefore to accept my thanks for the many instances you have enabled me

to observe of respectable intelligence in that race of men, which cannot

fail to have effect in hastening the day of their relief; and to be

assured of the sentiments of high and just esteem and consideration which

I tender to yourself with all sincerity.

TO M. RUELLE, ANCIEN AGENT DIPLOMATIQUE, RUE D'ARGENTINE, NO. 38, A PARIS.

WASHINGTON, February 25, 1809.

SIR,--I have duly received your favors of May 29th and July 11th, and

with this last a copy of your Constitution with the new augmentations. Our

usages not permitting me to present it formally to the Legislature of the

nation, I have deposited it in their library, where all its members will

have an opportunity of profiting of its truths, and it will be, as you

desire, in a depôt beyond the reach of violence. No interests are dearer

to men than those which ought to be secured to them by their form of

government, and none deserve better of them than those who contribute to

the amelioration of that form. The consciousness of having deserved well

of mankind for your endeavors to be useful to them in this line, will be

itself a high reward, to which will be added the homage of those who shall

have reaped the benefits of them. I ask permission on my part to tender

you the assurances of my esteem and great respect.

TO THOMAS MANN RANDOLPH.

WASHINGTON, February 28, 1809.

MY DEAR SIR,--By yesterday's mail I learn that it would be the desire

of many of the good citizens of our country to meet me on the road on

my return home, as a manifestation of their good will. But it is quite

impossible for me to ascertain the day on which I shall leave this. The

accumulated business at the close of a session will prevent my making any

preparation for my departure till after the 4th of March. After that, the

arrangement of papers and business to be delivered over to my successor,

the winding up my own affairs, and clearing out from this place, will

employ me for several days, (I cannot conjecture even how many,) so as to

render the commencement, and consequently the termination of my journey,

altogether uncertain. But it is a sufficient happiness to me to know

that my fellow-citizens of the country generally entertain for me the

kind sentiments which have prompted this proposition, without giving to

so many the trouble of leaving their homes to meet a single individual.

I shall have opportunities of taking them individually by the hand at

our court-house and other public places, and of exchanging assurances of

mutual esteem. Certainly it is the greatest consolation to me to know,

that in returning to the bosom of my native country, I shall be again

in the midst of their kind affections: and I can say with truth that my

return to them will make me happier than I have been since I left them.

Nothing will be wanting on my part to merit the continuance of their

good will. The House of Representatives passed yesterday, by a vote

of 81 to 40, the bill from the Senate repealing the embargo the 4th of

March, except against Great Britain and France and their dependencies,

establishing a non-intercourse with them, and having struck out the

clause for letters of marque and reprisal, which it is thought the Senate

will still endeavor to reinstate. I send you a paper containing the last

Spanish news. Yours affectionately.

TO MESSRS. GREGG AND LEIB, SENATORS OF PENNSYLVANIA.--MR. SMILIE.

WASHINGTON, March 2, 1809.

GENTLEMEN,--I have just received the enclosed with a request that I would

lay it before both Houses of Congress. But I have never presumed to place

myself between the Legislative Houses and those who have a constitutional

right to address them directly. I take the liberty therefore of enclosing

the paper to you, that you may do therein what in your judgment shall best

comport with expediency and propriety.

I pray you to be assured of my high consideration.