MONTICELLO, January 21, 1810.

SIR,--I have duly received your favor of the 8th inst., informing me that

the American Philosophical Society had been pleased again unanimously to

re-elect me their President. For these continued testimonials of their

favor, I can but renew the expressions of my continued gratitude, and

the assurances of my entire devotion to their service. If, in my present

situation, I can in any wise forward their laudable pursuits for the

information and benefit of mankind, all other duties shall give place to

that.

I pray you to be the channel of communicating these sentiments, with

the expressions of my dutiful respects to the Society, and to accept,

yourself, the assurance of my great esteem and respect.

TO THE HONORABLE PAUL HAMILTON.

MONTICELLO, January 23, 1810.

SIR,--The enclosed letter would have been more properly addressed to

yourself, or perhaps to the Secretary of War. I have no knowledge at all

of the writer; but suppose the best use I can make of his letter, as to

himself or the public, is to enclose it to you for such notice only as

the public utility may entitle it to; perhaps I should ask the favor of

you to communicate it, with the samples, and with my friendly respects,

to the Secretary of War, who may know something of the writer. I recollect

that his predecessor made some trial of cotton tenting, and found it good

against the water. Its combustibility, however, must be an objection to

it for that purpose, and perhaps even on shipboard. I avail myself of

the occasion which this circumstance presents of expressing my sincere

anxieties for the prosperity of the administration in all its parts, which

indeed involves the prosperity of us all, and of tendering to yourself in

particular the assurances of my high respect and consideration.

TO MR. BARLOW.

MONTICELLO, January 24, 1810.

DEAR SIR,--Yours of the 15th is received, and I am disconsolate on

learning my mistake as to your having a dynamometer. My object being to

bring a plough to be made here to the same standard of comparison by which

Guillaume's has been proved, nothing less would be satisfactory than an

instrument made by the same standard. I must import one, therefore, but

how, in the present state of non-intercourse, is the difficulty. I do

not know * * * personally, but by character well. He is the most red-hot

federalist, famous, or rather infamous for the lying and slandering

which he vomited from the pulpit in the political harangues with which

he polluted the place. I was honored with much of it. He is a man who

can prove everything if you will take his word for proof. Such evidence

of Hamilton's being a republican he may bring; but Mr. Adams, Edmund

Randolph, and myself, could repeat an explicit declaration of Hamilton's

against which * * proofs would weigh nothing.

I am sorry to learn that your rural occupations impede so much the

progress of your much to be desired work. You owe to republicanism,

and indeed to the future hopes of man, a faithful record of the _march_

of this government, which may encourage the oppressed to go and do so

likewise. Your talents, your principles, and your means of access to

public and private sources of information, with the leisure which is at

your command, point you out as the person who is to do this act of justice

to those who believe in the improvability of the condition of man, and

who have acted on that behalf, in opposition to those who consider man

as a beast of burthen made to be rode by him who has genius enough to

get a bridle into his mouth. The dissensions between two members of the

Cabinet are to be lamented. But why should these force Mr. Gallatin to

withdraw? They cannot be greater than between Hamilton and myself, and

yet we served together four years in that way. We had indeed no personal

dissensions. Each of us, perhaps, thought well of the other as a man,

but as politicians it was impossible for two men to be of more opposite

principles. The method of separate consultation, practised sometimes in

the Cabinet, prevents disagreeable collisions.

You ask my opinion of Maine. I think him a most excellent man. Sober,

industrious, intelligent and conscientious. But, in the difficulty

of changing a nursery establishment, I suspect you will find an

insurmountable obstacle to his removal. Present me respectfully to Mrs.

Barlow, and be assured of my constant and affectionate esteem.

P. S. The day before yesterday the mercury was at 5½° with us, a very

uncommon degree of cold here. It gave us the first ice for the ice house.

TO GIDEON GRANGER, ESQ.

MONTICELLO, January 24, 1810.

DEAR SIR,--I was sorry, by a letter from Mr. Barlow the other day, to

learn the ill state of your health, and I sincerely wish that this may

find you better. Young, temperate and prudent as you are, great confidence

may be reposed in the provision nature has made for the restoration of

order in your system when it has become deranged; she effects her object

by strengthening the whole system, towards which medicine is generally

mischevous. Nor are the sedentary habits of office friendly to it. But

of all this your own good understanding, instructed by your experience,

is the best judge. * * * * * I cannot pass over this occasion of writing

to you, the first presented me since retiring from office, without

expressing to you my sense of the important aid I received from you in

the able and faithful direction of the office committed to your charge.

With such auxiliaries, the business and burthen of government becomes all

but insensible, and its painful anxieties are relieved by the certainty

that all is going right. In no department did I feel this sensation more

strongly than in yours, and though at this time of little significance

to yourself, it is a relief to my mind to discharge the duty of bearing

this testimony to your valuable services. I must add my acknowledgments

for your friendly interference in setting the public judgment to rights

with respect to the Connecticut prosecutions, so falsely and maliciously

charged on me. I refer to a statement of the facts in the National

Intelligencer of many months past, which I was sensible came from your

hand. I pray you to be assured of my great and constant attachment, esteem

and respect.

TO MR. J. GARLAND JEFFERSON.

MONTICELLO, January 25, 1810.

DEAR SIR,--Your favor of December 12th was long coming to hand. I am much

concerned to learn that any disagreeable impression was made on your mind,

by the circumstances which are the subject of your letter. Permit me first

to explain the principles which I had laid down for my own observance.

In a government like ours, it is the duty of the Chief Magistrate, in

order to enable himself to do all the good which his station requires,

to endeavor, by all honorable means, to unite in himself the confidence

of the whole people. This alone, in any case where the energy of the

nation is required, can produce a union of the powers of the whole, and

point them in a single direction, as if all constituted but one body

and one mind, and this alone can render a weaker nation unconquerable

by a stronger one. Towards acquiring the confidence of the people, the

very first measure is to satisfy them of his disinterestedness, and that

he is directing their affairs with a single eye to their good, and not

to build up fortunes for himself and family, and especially, that the

officers appointed to transact their business, are appointed because

they are the fittest men, not because they are his relations. So prone

are they to suspicion, that where a President appoints a relation of his

own, however worthy, they will believe that favor and not merit, was the

motive. I therefore laid it down as a law of conduct for myself, never to

give an appointment to a relation. Had I felt any hesitation in adopting

this rule, examples were not wanting to admonish me what to do and what

to avoid. Still, the expression of your willingness to act in any office

for which you were qualified, could not be imputed to you as blame. It

would not readily occur that a person qualified for office ought to be

rejected merely because he was related to the President, and the then more

recent examples favored the other opinion. In this light I considered the

case as presenting itself to your mind, and that the application might

be perfectly justifiable on your part, while, for reasons occurring to

none perhaps, but the person in my situation, the public interest might

render it unadvisable. Of this, however, be assured that I considered the

proposition as innocent on your part, and that it never lessened my esteem

for you, or the interest I felt in your welfare.

My stay in Amelia was too short, (only twenty-four hours,) to expect the

pleasure of seeing you there. It would be a happiness to me any where,

but especially here, from whence I am rarely absent. I am leading a

life of considerable activity as a farmer, reading little and writing

less. Something pursued with ardor is necessary to guard us from the

_tedium-vitæ_, and the active pursuits lessen most our sense of the

infirmities of age. That to the health of youth you may add an old age of

vigor, is the sincere prayer of

Yours, affectionately.

TO JUDGE DAVID CAMPBELL.

MONTICELLO, January 28, 1810.

DEAR SIR,--Your letter of November 5th, was two months on its passage to

me. I am very thankful for all the kind expressions of friendship in it,

and I consider it a great felicity, through a long and trying course of

life, to have retained the esteem of my early friends unaltered. I find in

old age that the impressions of youth are the deepest and most indelible.

Some friends, indeed, have left me by the way, seeking, by a different

political path, the same object, their country's good, which I pursued

with the crowd along the common highway. It is a satisfaction to me that

I was not the first to leave them. I have never thought that a difference

in political, any more than in religious opinions, should disturb the

friendly intercourse of society. There are so many other topics on which

friends may converse and be happy, that it is wonderful they would select,

of preference, the only one on which they cannot agree. I am sensible

of the mark of esteem manifested by the name you have given to your son.

Tell him from me, that he must consider as essentially belonging to it,

to love his friends and wish no ill to his enemies. I shall be happy to

see him here whenever any circumstance shall lead his footsteps this way.

You doubt, between law and physic, which profession he shall adopt. His

peculiar turn of mind, and your own knowledge of things will best decide

this question. Law is quite overdone. It is fallen to the ground, and

a man must have great powers to raise himself in it to either honor or

profit. The mob of the profession get as little money and less respect,

than they would by digging the earth. The followers of Esculapius are

also numerous. Yet I have remarked that wherever one sets himself down

in a good neighborhood, not pre-occupied, he secures to himself its

practice, and if prudent, is not long in acquiring whereon to retire and

live in comfort. The physician is happy in the attachment of the families

in which he practices. All think he has saved some one of them, and he

finds himself everywhere a welcome guest, a home in every house. If, to

the consciousness of having saved some lives, he can add that of having

at no time, from want of caution, destroyed the boon he was called on to

save, he will enjoy, in age, the happy reflection of not having lived in

vain; while the lawyer has only to recollect how many, by his dexterity,

have been cheated of their right and reduced to beggary. After all, I end

where I began, with the observation that your son's disposition and your

prudence, are the best arbiters of this question, and with the assurances

of my great esteem and respect.

TO CÆSAR A. RODNEY.

MONTICELLO, February 10, 1810.

MY DEAR SIR,--I have to thank you for your favor of the 31st ultimo,

which is just now received. It has been peculiarly unfortunate for

us, personally, that the portion in the history of mankind, at which

we were called to take a share in the direction of their affairs, was

such an one as history has never before presented. At any other period,

the even-handed justice we have observed towards all nations, the

efforts we have made to merit their esteem by every act which candor or

liberality could exercise, would have preserved our peace, and secured

the unqualified confidence of all other nations in our faith and probity.

But the hurricane which is now blasting the world, physical and moral,

has prostrated all the mounds of reason as well as right. All those

calculations which, at any other period, would have been deemed honorable,

of the existence of a moral sense in man, individually or associated,

of the connection which the laws of nature have established between his

duties and his interests, of a regard for honest fame and the esteem of

our fellow men, have been a matter of reproach on us, as evidences of

imbecility. As if it could be a folly for an honest man to suppose that

others could be honest also, when it is their interest to be so. And when

is this state of things to end? The death of Bonaparte would, to be sure,

remove the first and chiefest apostle of the desolation of men and morals,

and might withdraw the scourge of the land. But what is to restore order

and safety on the ocean? The death of George III? Not at all. He is only

stupid; and his ministers, however weak and profligate in morals, are

ephemeral. But his nation is permanent, and it is that which is the tyrant

of the ocean. The principle that force is right, is become the principle

of the nation itself. They would not permit an honest minister, were

accident to bring such an one into power, to relax their system of lawless

piracy. These were the difficulties when I was with you. I know they are

not lessened, and I pity you.

It is a blessing, however, that our people are reasonable; that they

are kept so well informed of the state of things as to judge for

themselves, to see the true sources of their difficulties, and to maintain

their confidence undiminished in the wisdom and integrity of their

functionaries. _Macte virtute_ therefore. Continue to go straight forward,

pursuing always that which is right, as the only clue which can lead us

out of the labyrinth. Let nothing be spared of either reason or passion,

to preserve the public confidence entire, as the only rock of our safety.

In times of peace the people look most to their representatives; but in

war, to the executive solely. It is visible that their confidence is even

now veering in that direction; that they are looking to the executive

to give the proper direction to their affairs, with a confidence as

auspicious as it is well founded.

I avail myself of this, the first occasion of writing to you, to express

all the depth of my affection for you; the sense I entertain of your

faithful co-operation in my late labors, and the debt I owe for the

valuable aid I received from you. Though separated from my fellow laborers

in place and pursuit, my affections are with you all, and I offer daily

prayers that ye love one another, as I love you. God bless you.

TO REV. MR. KNOX.

MONTICELLO, February 12, 1810.

SIR,--Your favor of January 22d loitered on the way somewhere, so as not

to come to my hand until the 5th inst. The title of the tract of Buchanan

which you propose to translate, was familiar to me, and I possessed the

tract; but no circumstance had ever led me to look into it. Yet I think

nothing more likely than that, in the free spirit of that age and state

of society, principles should be avowed, which were felt and followed,

although unwritten in the Scottish constitution. Undefined powers had

been entrusted to the crown, undefined rights retained by the people, and

these depended for their maintenance on the spirit of the people, which,

in that day was dependence sufficient. I shall certainly, after what you

say of it, give it a serious reading. His latinity is so pure as to claim

a place in school reading, and the sentiments which have recommended the

work to your notice, are such as ought to be instilled into the minds of

our youth on their first opening. The boys of the rising generation are

to be the men of the next, and the sole guardians of the principles we

deliver over to them. That I have acted through life on those of sincere

republicanism I feel in every fibre of my constitution. And when men who

feel like myself, bear witness in my favor, my satisfaction is complete.

The testimony of approbation implied in the desire you express of coupling

my name with Buchanan's work, and your translation of it, cannot but be

acceptable and flattering; and the more so as coming from one of whom

a small acquaintance had inspired me with a great esteem. This I am now

happy in finding an occasion to express. The times which brought us within

mutual observation were awfully trying. But truth and reason are eternal.

They have prevailed. And they will eternally prevail, however, in times

and places they may be overborne for a while by violence, military, civil,

or ecclesiastical. The preservation of the holy fire is confided to us by

the world, and the sparks which will emanate from it will ever serve to

rekindle it in other quarters of the globe, _numinibus secundis_.

Amidst the immense mass of detraction which was published against me,

when my fellow citizens proposed to entrust me with their concerns, and

the efforts of more candid minds to expose their falsehood, I retain a

remembrance of the pamphlet you mention. But I never before learned who

was its author; nor was it known to me that Mr. Pechin had ever published

a copy of the Notes on Virginia. But had all this been known, I should

have seen myself with pride by your side. Wherever you lead, we may all

safely follow, assured that it is in the path of truth and liberty. Mr.

Pechin knew well that your introduction would plead for his author, and

only erred in not asking your leave. Wishing every good effect which may

follow your undertaking, I tender you the assurances of my high esteem and

respect.

TO W. D. G. WORTHINGTON, ESQ.

MONTICELLO, February 24, 1810.

SIR,--I have to thank you for the pamphlet you have been so kind as

to send me, and especially for its contents so far as they respect

myself personally. I had before read your speech in the newspapers,

with great satisfaction, and the more, as, besides the able defence of

the government, I saw that an absent and retired servant would still

find, in the justice of the public counsellors, friendly advocates who

would not suffer his name to be maligned without answer or reproof.

If, brooding over past calamities, the attentions of federalism can, by

abusing me, be diverted from disturbing the course of government, they

will make me useful longer than I had expected to be so. Having served

them faithfully for a term of twelve or fourteen years, in the terrific

station of Rawhead and Bloodybones, it was supposed that, retired from

power, I should have been _functus officio_, of course, for them also.

If, nevertheless, they wish my continuance in that awful office, I yield,

and the rather as it may be exercised at home, without interfering with

the tranquil enjoyment of my farm, my family, my friends and books. In

truth, having never felt a pain from their abuse, I bear them no malice.

Contented with our government, elective as it is in three of its principal

branches, I wish not, on Hamilton's plan, to see two of them for life;

and still less, hereditary, as others desire. I believe that the yeomanry

of the Federalists think on this subject with me. They are substantially

republican. But some of their leaders, who get into the public councils,

would prefer Hamilton's government, and still more the hereditary one.

_Hinc illæ lachrymæ_, I wish them no harm, but that they may never get

into power, not _for their harm_, but for the good of our country. I hope

the friends of republican government will keep strict watch over them, and

not let them want, when they need it, the wholesome discipline of which

you have sent me a specimen. I commit them with entire confidence to your

care, and salute you with esteem and respect.

TO MR. BURWELL.

MONTICELLO, February 25, 1810.

DEAR SIR,--Yours of the 16th, has given me real uneasiness. I was

certainly very unfortunate in the choice of my expression, when I hit

upon one which could excite any doubt of my unceasing affections for

you. In observing that you might use the information as you should find

proper, I meant merely that you might communicate it to the President, the

Secretaries of State or War, or to young Mr. Lee, as should be judged by

yourself most proper. I meant particularly, to permit its communication

to Mr. Lee, to enlighten his enquiries, for I do not know that his

father received the medal. I could only conduct the information to the

completion of the dye and striking off a proof. With such assurances as

I have of your affection, be assured that nothing but the most direct and

unequivocal proofs can ever make me suspect its abatement, and conscious

of as warm feelings towards yourself, I hope you will ever be as unready

to doubt them. Let us put this, then, under our feet.

I like your convoy bill, because although it does not assume the

maintenance of all our maritime rights, it assumes as much as it is our

interest to maintain. Our coasting trade is the first and most important

branch, never to be yielded but with our existence. Next to that is the

carriage of our own productions in our own vessels, and bringing back the

returns for our own consumption; so far I would protect it, and force

every part of the Union to join in the protection at the point of the

bayonet. But though we have a right to the remaining branch of carrying

for other nations, its advantages do not compensate its risks. Your bill

first rallies us to the ground the constitution ought to have taken,

and to which we ought to return without delay; the moment is the most

favorable possible, because the Eastern States, by declaring they will not

protect that cabotage by war, and forcing us to abandon it, have released

us from every future claim for its protection on that part. Your bill is

excellent in another view: it presents still one other ground to which we

can retire before we resort to war; it says to the belligerents, rather

than go to war, we will retire from the brokerage of other nations, and

confine ourselves to the carriage and exchange of our own productions; but

we will vindicate that in all its rights--if you touch it, it is war.

The present delightful weather has drawn us all into our farms and

gardens; we have had the most devastating rain which has ever fallen

within my knowledge. Three inches of water fell in the space of about

an hour. Every hollow of every hill presented a torrent which swept

everything before it. I have never seen the fields so much injured. Mr.

Randolph's farm is the only one which has not suffered; his horizontal

furrows arrested the water at every step till it was absorbed, or at least

had deposited the soil it had taken up. Everybody in this neighborhood is

adopting his method of ploughing, except tenants who have no interest in

the preservation of the soil.

Present me respectfully to Mrs. Burwell, and be assured of my constant

affection.

TO GENERAL KOSCIUSKO.

MONTICELLO, February 26, 1810.

MY DEAR GENERAL AND FRIEND,--I have rarely written to you; never but by

safe conveyances; and avoiding everything political, lest coming from

one in the station I then held, it might be imputed injuriously to our

country, or perhaps even excite jealousy of you. Hence my letters were

necessarily dry. Retired now from public concerns, totally unconnected

with them, and avoiding all curiosity about what is done or intended,

what I say is from myself only, the workings of my own mind, imputable to

nobody else.

The anxieties which I know you have felt, on seeing exposed to the

justlings of a warring world, a country to which, in early life, you

devoted your sword and services when oppressed by foreign dominion, were

worthy of your philanthropy and disinterested attachment to the freedom

and happiness of man. Although we have not made all the provisions

which might be necessary for a war in the field of Europe, yet we

have not been inattentive to such as would be necessary here. From the

moment that the affair of the Chesapeake rendered the prospect of war

imminent, every faculty was exerted to be prepared for it, and I think

I may venture to solace you with the assurance, that we are, in a good

degree, prepared. Military stores for many campaigns are on hand, all

the necessary articles (sulphur excepted), and the art of preparing them

among ourselves, abundantly; arms in our magazines for more men than will

ever be required in the field, and forty thousand new stand yearly added,

of our own fabrication, superior to any we have ever seen from Europe;

heavy artillery much beyond our need; an increasing stock of field pieces,

several foundries casting one every other day each; a military school of

about fifty students, which has been in operation a dozen years; and the

manufacture of men constantly going on, and adding forty thousand young

soldiers to our force every year that the war is deferred; at all our

seaport towns of the least consequence we have erected works of defence,

and assigned them gunboats, carrying one or two heavy pieces, either

eighteen, twenty-four, or thirty-two pounders, sufficient in the smaller

harbors to repel the predatory attacks of privateers or single armed

ships, and proportioned in the larger harbors to such more serious attacks

as they may probably be exposed to. All these were nearly completed, and

their gunboats in readiness, when I retired from the government. The works

of New York and New Orleans alone, being on a much larger scale, are not

yet completed. The former will be finished this summer, mounting four

hundred and thirty-eight guns, and, with the aid of from fifty to one

hundred gunboats, will be adequate to the resistance of any fleet which

will ever be trusted across the Atlantic. The works for New Orleans are

less advanced. These are our preparations. They are very different from

what you will be told by newspapers, and travellers, even Americans. But

it is not to them the government communicates the public condition. Ask

one of them if he knows the exact state of any particular harbor, and you

will find probably that he does not know even that of the one he comes

from. You will ask, perhaps, where are the proof of these preparations

for one who cannot go and see them. I answer, in the acts of Congress,

authorizing such preparations, and in your knowledge of me, that, if

authorized, they would be executed.

Two measures have not been adopted, which I pressed on Congress repeatedly

at their meetings. The one, to settle the whole ungranted territory of

Orleans, by donations of land to able-bodied young men, to be engaged

and carried there at the public expense, who would constitute a force

always ready on the spot to defend New Orleans. The other was, to class

the militia according to the years of their birth, and make all those

from twenty to twenty-five liable to be trained and called into service

at a moment's warning. This would have given us a force of three hundred

thousand young men, prepared by proper training, for service in any part

of the United States; while those who had passed through that period would

remain at home, liable to be used in their own or adjacent States. These

two measures would have completed what I deemed necessary for the entire

security of our country. They would have given me, on my retirement from

the government of the nation, the consolatory reflection, that having

found, when I was called to it, not a single seaport town in a condition

to repel a levy of contribution by a single privateer or pirate, I

had left every harbor so prepared by works and gunboats, as to be in a

reasonable state of security against any probable attack; the territory

of Orleans acquired, and planted with an internal force sufficient for its

protection; and the whole territory of the United States organized by such

a classification of its male force, as would give it the benefit of all

its young population for active service, and that of a middle and advanced

age for stationary defence. But these measures will, I hope, be completed

by my successor, who, to the purest principles of republican patriotism,

adds a wisdom and foresight second to no man on earth.

So much as to my country. Now a word as to myself. I am retired to

Monticello, where, in the bosom of my family, and surrounded by my books,

I enjoy a repose to which I have been long a stranger. My mornings are

devoted to correspondence. From breakfast to dinner, I am in my shops,

my garden, or on horseback among my farms; from dinner to dark, I give

to society and recreation with my neighbors and friends; and from candle

light to early bed-time, I read. My health is perfect; and my strength

considerably reinforced by the activity of the course I pursue; perhaps

it is as great as usually falls to the lot of near sixty-seven years of

age. I talk of ploughs and harrows, of seeding and harvesting, with my

neighbors, and of politics too, if they choose, with as little reserve as

the rest of my fellow citizens, and feel, at length, the blessing of being

free to say and do what I please, without being responsible for it to

any mortal. A part of my occupation, and by no means the least pleasing,

is the direction of the studies of such young men as ask it. They place

themselves in the neighboring village, and have the use of my library and

counsel, and make a part of my society. In advising the course of their

reading, I endeavor to keep their attention fixed on the main objects of

all science, the freedom and happiness of man. So that coming to bear a

share in the councils and government of their country, they will keep ever

in view the sole objects of all legitimate government.

* * * * *

Instead of the unalloyed happiness of retiring unembarrassed and

independent, to the enjoyment of my estate, which is ample for my limited

views, I have to pass such a length of time in a thraldom of mind never

before known to me. Except for this, my happiness would have been perfect.

That yours may never know disturbance, and that you may enjoy as many

years of life, as health and ease to yourself shall wish, is the sincere

prayer of your constant and affectionate friend.

TO DOCTOR JONES.

MONTICELLO, March 5, 1810.

DEAR SIR,--I received duly you favor of the 19th ultimo, and I salute

you with all ancient and recent recollections of friendship. I have

learned, with real sorrow, that circumstances have arisen among our

executive counsellors, which have rendered foes those who once were

friends. To themselves it will be a source of infinite pain and vexation,

and therefore chiefly I lament it, for I have a sincere esteem for both

parties. To the President it will be really inconvenient; but to the

nation I do not know that it can do serious injury, unless we were to

believe the newspapers, which pretend that Mr. Gallatin will go out.

That indeed would be a day of mourning for the United States; but I hope

that the position of both gentlemen may be made so easy as to give no

cause for either to withdraw. The ordinary business of every day is done

by consultation between the President and the Head of the department

alone to which it belongs. For measures of importance or difficulty, a

consultation is held with the Heads of departments, either assembled,

or by taking their opinions separately in conversation or in writing.

The latter is most strictly in the spirit of the constitution. Because

the President, on weighing the advice of all, is left free to make up an

opinion for himself. In this way they are not brought together, and it

is not necessarily known to any what opinion the others have given. This

was General Washington's practice for the first two or three years of

his administration, till the affairs of France and England threatened to

embroil us, and rendered consideration and discussion desirable. In these

discussions, Hamilton and myself were daily pitted in the cabinet like two

cocks. We were then but four in number, and, according to the majority,

which of course was three to one, the President decided. The pain was

for Hamilton and myself, but the public experienced no inconvenience.

I practised this last method, because the harmony was so cordial among

us all, that we never failed, by a contribution of mutual views on the

subject, to form an opinion acceptable to the whole. I think there never

was one instance to the contrary, in any case of consequence. Yet this

does, in fact, transform the executive into a directory, and I hold the

other method to be more constitutional. It is better calculated too to

prevent collision and irritation, and to cure it, or at least suppress its

effects when it has already taken place. It is the obvious and sufficient

remedy in the present ease, and will doubtless be resorted to.

Our difficulties are indeed great, if we consider ourselves alone.

But when viewed in comparison to those of Europe, they are the joys of

Paradise. In the eternal revolution of ages, the destinies have placed

our portion of existence amidst such scenes of tumult and outrage, as no

other period, within our knowledge, had presented. Every government but

one on the continent of Europe, demolished, a conqueror roaming over the

earth with havoc and destruction, a pirate spreading misery and ruin over

the face of the ocean. Indeed, my friend, ours is a bed of roses. And the

system of government which shall keep us afloat amidst the wreck of the

world, will be immortalized in history. We have, to be sure, our petty

squabbles and heart burnings, and we have something of the blue devils

at times, as to these raw heads and bloody bones who are eating up other

nations. But happily for us, the Mammoth cannot swim, nor the Leviathan

move on dry land; and if we will keep out of their way, they cannot get

at us. If, indeed, we choose to place ourselves within the scope of their

tether, a gripe of the paw, or flounce of the tail, may be our fortune.

Our business certainly was to be still. But a part of our nation chose

to declare against this, in such a way as to control the wisdom of the

government. I yielded with others, to avoid a greater evil. But from that

moment, I have seen no system which could keep us entirely aloof from

these agents of destruction. If there be any, I am certain that you, my

friends, now charged with the care of us all, will see and pursue it. I

give myself, therefore, no trouble with thinking or puzzling about it.

Being confident in my watchmen I sleep soundly. God bless you all, and

send you a safe deliverance.

TO GOVERNOR LANGDON.

MONTICELLO, March 5, 1810.

Your letter, my dear friend, of the 18th ultimo, comes like the refreshing

dews of the evening on a thirsty soil. It recalls ancient as well as

recent recollections, very dear to my heart. For five and thirty years

we have walked together through a land of tribulations. Yet these have

passed away, and so, I trust, will those of the present day. The toryism

with which we struggled in '77, differed but in name from the federalism

of '99, with which we struggled also; and the Anglicism of 1808, against

which we are now struggling, is but the same thing still in another form.

It is a longing for a King, and an English King rather than any other.

This is the true source of their sorrows and wailings.

The fear that Bonaparte will come over to us and conquer us also, is

too chimerical to be genuine. Supposing him to have finished Spain and

Portugal, he has yet England and Russia to subdue. The maxim of war was

never sounder than in this case, not to leave an enemy in the rear; and

especially where an insurrectionary flame is known to be under the embers,

merely smothered, and ready to burst at every point. These two subdued,

(and surely the Anglomen will not think the conquest of England alone a

short work,) ancient Greece and Macedonia, the cradle of Alexander, his

prototype, and Constantinople, the seat of empire for the world, would

glitter more in his eye than our bleak mountains and rugged forests.

Egypt, too, and the golden apples of Mauritania, have for more than half

a century fixed the longing eyes of France; and with Syria, you know, he

has an old affront to wipe out. Then come "Pontus and Galatia, Cappadocia,

Asia and Bithynia," the fine countries, on the Euphrates and Tigris, the

Oxus and Indus, and all beyond the Hyphasis, which bounded the glories of

his Macedonian rival; with the invitations of his new British subjects

on the banks of the Ganges, whom, after receiving under his protection

the mother country, he cannot refuse to visit. When all this done and

settled, and nothing of the old world remains unsubdued, he may turn to

the new one. But will he attack us first, from whom he will get but hard

knocks and no money? Or will he first lay hold of the gold and silver of

Mexico and Peru, and the diamonds of Brazil? A _republican_ Emperor, from

his affection to republics, independent of motives of expediency, must

grant to ours the Cyclop's boon of being the last devoured. While all this

is doing, we are to suppose the chapter of accidents read out, and that

nothing can happen to cut short or to disturb his enterprises.

But the Anglomen, it seems, have found out a much safer dependence than

all these chances of death or disappointment. That is, that we should

first let England plunder us, as she has been doing for years, for fear

Bonaparte should do it; and then ally ourselves with her, and enter into

the war. A conqueror, whose career England could not arrest when aided

by Russia, Austria, Prussia, Sweden, Spain and Portugal, she is now to

destroy, with all these on his side, by the aid of the United States

alone. This, indeed, is making us a mighty people. And what is to be

our security, that when embarked for her in the war, she will not make a

separate peace, and leave us in the lurch? Her good faith! The faith of a

nation of merchants! The _Punica fides_ of modern Carthage! Of the friend

and protectress of Copenhagen! Of the nation who never admitted a chapter

of morality into her political code! And is now boldly avowing that

whatever power can make hers, is hers of right. Money, and not morality,

is the principle of commerce and commercial nations. But, in addition to

this, the nature of the English Government forbids, of itself, reliance

on her engagements; and it is well known she has been the least faithful

to her alliances of any nation of Europe, since the period of her history

wherein she has been distinguished for her commerce and corruption, that

is to say, under the houses of Stuart and Brunswick. To Portugal alone

she has steadily adhered, because, by her Methuen treaty, she had made

it a colony, and one of the most valuable to her. It may be asked, what,

in the nature of her government, unfits England for the observation of

moral duties? In the first place, her King is a cypher; his only function

being to name the oligarchy which is to govern her. The parliament is,

by corruption, the mere instrument of the will of the administration. The

real power and property in the government is in the great aristocratical

families of the nation. The nest of office being too small for all of them

to cuddle into at once, the contest is eternal, which shall crowd the

other out. For this purpose, they are divided into two parties, the Ins

and the Outs, so equal in weight that a small matter turns the balance. To

keep themselves in, when they are in, every stratagem must be practised,

every artifice used which may flatter the pride, the passions or power of

the nation. Justice, honor, faith must yield to the necessity of keeping

themselves in place. The question whether a measure is moral, is never

asked; but whether it will nourish the avarice of their merchants, or

the piratical spirit of their navy, or produce any other effect which

may strengthen them in their places. As to engagements, however positive,

entered into by the predecessors of the Ins, why, they were their enemies;

they did everything which was wrong; and to reverse everything which they

did, must, therefore, be right. This is the true character of the English

government in practice, however different its theory; and it presents the

singular phenomenon of a nation, the individuals of which are as faithful

to their private engagements and duties, as honorable, as worthy, as those

of any nation on earth, and whose government is yet the most unprincipled

at this day known. In an absolute government there can be no such

equiponderant parties. The despot is the government. His power suppressing

all opposition, maintains his ministers firm in their places. What he has

contracted, therefore, through them, he has the power to observe with good

faith; and he identifies his own honor and faith with that of his nation.

When I observed, however, that the King of England was a cypher, I did

not mean to confine the observation to the mere individual now on that

throne. The practice of Kings marrying only in the families of Kings, has

been that of Europe for some centuries. Now, take any race of animals,

confine them in idleness and inaction, whether in a stye, a stable

or a state-room, pamper them with high diet, gratify all their sexual

appetites, immerse them in sensualities, nourish their passions, let

everything bend before them, and banish whatever might lead them to think,

and in a few generations they become all body and no mind; and this, too,

by a law of nature, by that very law by which we are in the constant

practice of changing the characters and propensities of the animals we

raise for our own purposes. Such is the regimen in raising Kings, and in

this way they have gone on for centuries. While in Europe, I often amused

myself with contemplating the characters of the then reigning sovereigns

of Europe. Louis the XVI. was a fool, of my own knowledge, and in despite

of the answers made for him at his trial. The King of Spain was a fool,

and of Naples the same. They passed their lives in hunting, and despatched

two couriers a week, one thousand miles, to let each other know what game

they had killed the preceding days. The King of Sardinia was a fool. All

these were Bourbons. The Queen of Portugal, a Braganza, was an idiot by

nature. And so was the King of Denmark. Their sons, as regents, exercised

the powers of government. The King of Prussia, successor to the great

Frederick, was a mere hog in body as well as in mind. Gustavus of Sweden,

and Joseph of Austria, were really crazy, and George of England, you know,

was in a straight waistcoat. There remained, then, none but old Catharine,

who had been too lately picked up to have lost her common sense. In

this state Bonaparte found Europe; and it was this state of its rulers

which lost it with scarce a struggle. These animals had become without

mind and powerless; and so will every hereditary monarch be after a few

generations. Alexander, the grandson of Catharine, is as yet an exception.

He is able to hold his own. But he is only of the third generation. His

race is not yet worn out. And so endeth the book of Kings, from all of

whom the Lord deliver us, and have you, my friend, and all such good men

and true, in his holy keeping.

TO ABBE SALIMANKIS.

MONTICELLO, March 14, 1810.

SIR,--I have duly received your favor of February 27th and am very

thankful for the friendly sentiments therein expressed towards myself, as

well as for the pamphlet enclosed. That it contains many serious truths

and sound admonitions every reader will be sensible. At the same time it

is a comfort that the medal has two sides. I do not myself contemplate

human nature in quite so sombre a view. That there is much vice and

misery in the world, I know; but more virtue and happiness I believe,

at least in our part of it; the latter being the lot of those employed

in agriculture in a greater degree than of other callings. That we are

overdone with banking institutions, which have banished the precious

metals, and substituted a more fluctuating and unsafe medium, that these

have withdrawn capital from useful improvements and employments to nourish

idleness, that the wars of the world have swollen our commerce beyond the

wholesome limits of exchanging our own productions for our own wants, and

that, for the emolument of a small proportion of our society, who prefer

these demoralizing pursuits to labors useful to the whole, the peace

of the whole is endangered, and all our present difficulties produced,

are evils more easily to be deplored than remedied. They should lead

us to direct our prayers, if our philanthropy fails to do it, for the

re-establishment of peace in Europe, when our commerce must of course

return to its proper objects, and the idle to habits of industry. To these

prayers, in which you will not fail to join, let me add my best wishes and

respects for yourself.

TO MR. FULTON.

MONTICELLO, March 17, 1810.

DEAR SIR,--I have duly received your favor of February 24th covering

one of your pamphlets on the Torpedo. I have read it with pleasure.

This was not necessary to give them favor in my eye. I am not afraid

of new inventions or improvements, nor bigoted to the practices of our

forefathers. It is that bigotry which keeps the Indians in a state of

barbarism in the midst of the arts, would have kept us in the same state

even now, and still keeps Connecticut where their ancestors were when they

landed on these shores. I am much pleased that Congress is taking up the

business. Where a new invention is supported by well-known principles,

and promises to be useful, it ought to be tried. Your torpedoes will be

to cities what vaccination has been to mankind. It extinguishes their

greatest danger. But there will still be navies. Not for the destruction

of cities, but for the plunder of commerce on the high seas. That the

tories should be against you is in character, because it will curtail the

power of their idol, England.

I am thankful to you for the trouble you have taken in thinking of the

felier hydraulique. To be put into motion by the same power which was to

continue the motion was certainly wanting to that machine, as a better

name still is. I would not give you the trouble of having a model made, as

I have workmen who can execute from the drawing. I pray you to accept the

assurances of my great esteem and respect.

TO G. VOOLIF, PERPETUAL SECRETARY OF THE FIRST CLASS OF THE ROYAL

INSTITUTE OF SCIENCES, OF LITERATURE AND OF FINE ARTS, AT AMSTERDAM.

MONTICELLO, May 2d, 1810.

SIR,--Your letter of the 10th of May of the last year came but lately

to my hands. I am duly sensible of the honor done me by the first class

of the Royal Institute of sciences, of literature, and of fine arts, in

associating me to their class, and by the approbation which his majesty

the king of Holland has condescended to give to their choice. His

patronage of institutions for extending among mankind the boundaries of

information, proves his just sense of the cares devolved on him by his

high station, and commands the approving voice of all the sons of men. If

mine can be heard from this distance among them, it will be through the

benefit of the special communication which your position may procure it,

and which I am to request. I pray you to present also my thanks to the

first class for this mark of their distinction, which I receive with due

sensibility and gratitude. Sincerely a friend to science, and feeling the

fraternal relation it establishes among the whole family of its votaries,

wheresoever dispersed through nations friendly or hostile, I shall be

happy at all times in fulfilling any particular views which the society

may extend to this region of the globe, and in being made useful to them

in any special services they will be pleased to give me an opportunity

of rendering. To yourself, Sir, I tender the assurances of my particular

respect and high consideration.

TO HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR CLAIBORNE.

MONTICELLO, May 3d, 1810.

SIR, Your favor of February 1st lately came to my hands. It brings me new

proofs, in the resolutions it enclosed, of the indulgence with which the

legislature of Orleans has been pleased to view my conduct in the various

duties assigned to me by our common country. The times in which we have

lived have called for all the services which any of its citizens could

render, and if mine have met approbation they are fully rewarded.

The interposition noticed by the Legislature of Orleans was an act of

duty of the office I then occupied. Charged with the care of the general

interest of the nation, and among these with the preservation of their

lands from intrusion, I exercised, on their behalf, a right given by

nature to all men, individual or associated, that of rescuing their

own property wrongfully taken. In cases of forcible entry on individual

possessions, special provisions, both of the common and civil law, have

restrained the right of rescue by private force, and substituted the aid

of the civil power. But no law has restrained the right of the nation

itself from removing by its own arm, intruders on its possessions. On

the contrary, a statute recently passed, had required that such removals

should be diligently made. The Batture of New Orleans, being a part of the

bed contained between the two banks of the river, a naked shoal indeed

at low water, but covered through the whole season of its regular full

tides, and then forming the ground of the port and harbor for the upper

navigation, over which vessels ride of necessity when moored to the bank,

I deemed it public property, in which all had a common use. The removal,

too, of the force which had possessed itself of it, was the more urgent

from the interruption it might give to the commerce, and other lawful

uses, of the inhabitants of the city and of the Western waters generally.

If this aid from the public authority was particularly interesting

to the territory of Orleans, it certainly adds new satisfaction to my

consciousness of having done what was right.

I ask the favor of you to convey to the Legislature of Orleans, my

gratitude for the interest they are so kind as to express in my future

happiness; and I pray to the Governor of the Universe, that He may always

have them and our country in his holy keeping.

TO HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR CLAIBORNE.

MONTICELLO, May 3, 1810.

DEAR SIR,--Your letters of January 12th and February 1st, came to hand

only a fortnight ago. The enclosed contains my answer to the latter, for

communication to the Legislature. So many false views on the subject of

the batture have been presented in and out of Congress, that duty to

myself, as well as justice to the citizens of New Orleans and of the

western country generally, required that I should avail myself of the

occasion these resolutions presented, of stating, in the fewest words

possible, the true ground of my conduct, and, as I think, of the rights

of the western country. But the occasion also restricted me to the limits

of a short text only, every word of which would be matter for copious

commentary, in a dilated discussion of the subject. Has Moreau de l'Isle's

opinion ever been printed? I wish it were possible to get a copy of it.

Perhaps I might be able to make good use of it.

Before the receipt of your letter of Jan. 12th, I had heard of your great

loss, and been impressed with the depth of it. Long tried in the same

school of affliction, no loss which can rend the human heart is unknown to

mine; and a like one particularly, at about the same period of life, had

taught me to feel the sympathies of yours. The same experience has proved

that time, silence and occupation are its only medicines. Of occupation,

you have enough and of the highest order; that of continuing to make a

worthy people happy by a just and parental government, and of protecting

them from the wolves prowling around to devour them. Your own example

will be the best lesson for the son which has been left to comfort you,

to whose course in life I hope it will give a shape which shall make him

truly a comfort and support to your latter days, protracted to your own

wishes.

I really wish effect to the hints in my letter to you for so laying off

the additions to the city of New Orleans, as to shield it from yellow

fever. My confidence in the idea is founded in the acknowledged experience

that we have never seen the _genuine_ yellow fever extend itself into the

country, nor even to the outskirts or open parts of a close-built city. In

the plan I propose, every square would be surrounded, on every side, by

open and pure air, and would, in fact, be a separate town with fields or

open suburbs around it.

TO MESSRS. HUGH L. WHITE, THOMAS M'CORRY, JAMES CAMPBELL, ROBERT

CRAIGHEAD, JOHN N. GAMBLE, TRUSTEES FOR THE LOTTERY OF EAST TENNESSEE

COLLEGE.

MONTICELLO, May 6, 1810.

GENTLEMEN,--I received, some time ago, your letter of February 28th,

covering a printed scheme of a lottery for the benefit of the East

Tennessee College, and proposing to send tickets to me to be disposed

of. It would be impossible for them to come to a more inefficient hand.

I rarely go from home, and consequently see but a few neighbors and

friends, who occasionally call on me. And having myself made it a rule

never to engage in a lottery or any other adventure of mere chance, I

can, with the less candor or effect, urge it on others, however laudable

or desirable its object may be. No one more sincerely wishes the spread

of information among mankind than I do, and none has greater confidence

in its effect towards supporting free and good government. I am sincerely

rejoiced, therefore, to find that so excellent a fund has been provided

for this noble purpose in Tennessee. Fifty-thousand dollars placed in a

safe bank, will give four thousand dollars a year, and even without other

aid, must soon accomplish buildings sufficient for the object in its

early stage. I consider the common plan followed in this country, but not

in others, of making one large and expensive building, as unfortunately

erroneous. It is infinitely better to erect a small and separate lodge

for each separate professorship, with only a hall below for his class,

and two chambers above for himself; joining these lodges by barracks for

a certain portion of the students, opening into a covered way to give a

dry communication between all the schools. The whole of these arranged

around an open square of grass and trees, would make it, what it should

be in fact, an academical village, instead of a large and common den of

noise, of filth and of fetid air. It would afford that quiet retirement so

friendly to study, and lessen the dangers of fire, infection and tumult.

Every professor would be the police officer of the students adjacent to

his own lodge, which should include those of his own class of preference,

and might be at the head of their table, if, as I suppose, it can be

reconciled with the necessary economy to dine them in smaller and separate

parties, rather than in a large and common mess. These separate buildings,

too, might be erected successively and occasionally, as the number of

professorships and students should be increased, or the funds become

competent.

I pray you to pardon me if I have stepped aside into the province of

counsel; but much observation and reflection on these institutions have

long convinced me that the large and crowded buildings in which youths are

pent up, are equally unfriendly to health, to study, to manners, morals

and order; and, believing the plan I suggest to be more promotive of

these, and peculiarly adapted to the slender beginnings and progressive

growth of our institutions, I hoped you would pardon the presumption,

in consideration of the motive which was suggested by the difficulty

expressed in your letter, of procuring funds for erecting the building.

But, on whatever plan you proceed, I wish it every possible success, and

to yourselves the reward of esteem, respect and gratitude due to those who

devote their time and efforts to render the youths of every successive age

fit governors for the next. To these accept, in addition, the assurances

of mine.

TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

MONTICELLO, May 13, 1810.

DEAR SIR,--I thank you for your promised attention to my portion of the

Merinos, and if there be any expenses of transportation, &c., and you

will be so good as to advance my portion of them with yours and notify the

amount, it shall be promptly remitted. What shall we do with them? I have

been so disgusted with the scandalous extortions lately practised in the

sale of these animals, and with the description of patriotism and praise

to the sellers, as if the thousands of dollars apiece they have not been

ashamed to receive were not reward enough, that I am disposed to consider

as right, whatever is the reverse of what they have done. Since fortune

has put the occasion upon us, is it not incumbent upon us so to dispense

this benefit to the farmers of our country, as to put to shame those who,

forgetting their own wealth and the honest simplicity of the farmers, have

thought them fit objects of the shaving art, and to excite, by a better

example, the condemnation due to theirs? No sentiment is more acknowledged

in the family of Agriculturists than that the few who can afford it should

incur the risk and expense of all new improvements, and give the benefit

freely to the many of more restricted circumstances. The question then

recurs, What are we to do with them? I shall be willing to concur with

you in any plan you shall approve, and in order that we may have some

proposition to begin upon, I will throw out a first idea, to be modified

or postponed to whatever you shall think better.

Give all the full-blooded males we can raise to the different counties

of our State, one to each, as fast as we can furnish them. And as there

must be some rule of priority for the distribution, let us begin with our

own counties, which are contiguous and nearly central to the State, and

proceed, circle after circle, till we have given a ram to every county.

This will take about seven years, if we add to the full descendants those

which will have past to the fourth generation from common ewes, to make

the benefit of a single male as general as practicable to the county,

we may ask some known character in each county to have a small society

formed which shall receive the animal and prescribe rules for his care

and government. We should retain ourselves all the full-blooded ewes, that

they may enable us the sooner to furnish a male to every county. When all

shall have been provided with rams, we may, in a year or two more, be in a

condition to give an ewe also to every county, if it be thought necessary.

But I suppose it will not, as four generations from their full-blooded ram

will give them the pure race from common ewes.

In the meantime we shall not be without a profit indemnifying our trouble

and expense. For if of our present stock of common ewes, we place with

the ram as many as he may be competent to, suppose fifty, we may sell the

male lambs of every year for such reasonable price as, in addition to the

wool, will pay for the maintenance of the flock. The first year they will

be half bloods, the second three-quarters, the third seven-eights, and

the fourth full-blooded, if we take care in selling annually half the ewes

also, to keep those of highest blood, this will be a fund for kindnesses

to our friends, as well as for indemnification to ourselves; and our

whole State may thus, from this small stock, so dispersed, be filled in

a very few years with this valuable race, and more satisfaction result

to ourselves than money ever administered to the bosom of a shaver. There

will be danger that what is here proposed, though but an act of ordinary

duty, may be perverted into one of ostentation, but malice will always

find bad motives for good actions. Shall we therefore never do good? It

may also be used to commit us with those on whose example it will truly

be a reproof. We may guard against this perhaps by a proper reserve,

developing our purpose only by its execution.

Vive, vale, et siquid novisti rectius istis

Candidus imperti sinon, his ulere mecum.

TO GOVERNOR TYLER.

MONTICELLO, May 26, 1810.

DEAR SIR,--Your friendly letter of the 12th has been duly received.

Although I have laid it down as a law to myself, never to embarrass the

President with my solicitations, and have not till now broken through

it, yet I have made a part of your letter the subject of one to him, and

have done it with all my heart, and in the full belief that I serve him

and the public in urging that appointment. We have long enough suffered

under the base prostitution of law to party passions in one judge, and the

imbecility of another. In the hands of one the law is nothing more than an

ambiguous text, to be explained by his sophistry into any meaning which

may subserve his personal malice. Nor can any milk-and-water associate

maintain his own dependence, and by a firm pursuance of what the law

really is, extend its protection to the citizens or the public. I believe

you will do it, and where you cannot induce your colleague to do what is

right, you will be firm enough to hinder him from doing what is wrong, and

by opposing sense to sophistry, leave the juries free to follow their own

judgment.

I have long lamented with you the depreciation of law science. The

opinion seems to be that Blackstone is to us what the Alcoran is to

the Mahometans, that everything which is necessary is in him, and what

is not in him is not necessary. I still lend my counsel and books to

such young students as will fix themselves in the neighborhood. Coke's

institutes and reports are their first, and Blackstone their last book,

after an intermediate course of two or three years. It is nothing more

than an elegant digest of what they will then have acquired from the

real fountains of the law. Now men are born scholars, lawyers, doctors;

in our day this was confined to poets. You wish to see me again in the

legislature, but this is impossible; my mind is now so dissolved in

tranquillity, that it can never again encounter a contentious assembly;

the habits of thinking and speaking off-hand, after a disuse of five and

twenty years, have given place to the slower process of the pen. I have

indeed two great measures at heart, without which no republic can maintain

itself in strength. 1. That of general education, to enable every man to

judge for himself what will secure or endanger his freedom. 2. To divide

every county into hundreds, of such size that all the children of each

will be within reach of a central school in it. But this division looks

to many other fundamental provisions. Every hundred, besides a school,

should have a justice of the peace, a constable and a captain of militia.

These officers, or some others within the hundred, should be a corporation

to manage all its concerns, to take care of its roads, its poor, and its

police by patroles, &c., (as the select men of the Eastern townships.)

Every hundred should elect one or two jurors to serve where requisite,

and all other elections should be made in the hundreds separately, and

the votes of all the hundreds be brought together. Our present Captaincies

might be declared hundreds for the present, with a power to the courts to

alter them occasionally. These little republics would be the main strength

of the great one. We owe to them the vigor given to our revolution in

its commencement in the Eastern States, and by them the Eastern States

were enabled to repeal the embargo in opposition to the Middle, Southern

and Western States, and their large and lubberly division into counties

which can never be assembled. General orders are given out from a centre

to the foreman of every hundred, as to the sergeants of an army, and the

whole nation is thrown into energetic action, in the same direction in

one instant and as one man, and becomes absolutely irresistible. Could

I once see this I should consider it as the dawn of the salvation of

the republic, and say with old Simeon, "nune dimittas Domine." But our

children will be as wise as we are, and will establish in the fulness

of time those things not yet ripe for establishment. So be it, and to

yourself health, happiness and long life.

TO HIS EXCELLENCY, COUNT PAHLEN, ENVOY EXTRAORDINARY AND MINISTER

PLENIPOTENTIARY OF RUSSIA.

MONTICELLO, July 13, 1810.

SIR,--I have been honored with your letter of the 25th ult., and have to

return you my thanks for those of Madame de Tessé and General Lafayette,

and for the print of Baron Humboldt, all of which are come safely to

hand, and present to me the proofs and recollections of their much-valued

friendships. To these acknowledgments, permit me to add my congratulations

on your safe arrival in the United States, after journeys and voyages

which, from their length, cannot have been pleasant. If, after this, it

shall be found that a change of twenty degrees of latitude shall have

no unfavorable influence on your health, it will furnish double cause of

felicitation.

I am much flattered by the kind notice of the Emperor, which you have

been so obliging as to communicate to me. The approbation of the good is

always consoling; but that of a sovereign whose station and endowments are

so pre-eminent, is received with the sensibility which the veneration for

his character inspires. Among other motives of commiseration which the

calamities of Europe cannot fail to excite in every virtuous mind, the

interruption which these have given to the benevolent views of the Emperor

is prominent. The accession of a sovereign, with the dispositions and

qualifications to improve the condition of a great nation, and to place

its happiness on a permanent basis, is a phenomenon so rare in the annals

of mankind, that, when the blessing occurs, it is lamentable that any

portion of it should be usurped by occurrences of the character of those

we have seen. If, separated from these scenes by an ocean of a thousand

leagues breadth, they have required all our cares to keep aloof from their

desolating effects, I can readily conceive how much more they must occupy

those to whose territories they are contiguous.

That the Emperor may be able, whenever a pacification takes place, to show

himself the father and friend of the human race, to restore to nations the

moral laws which have governed their intercourse, and to prevent, forever,

a repetition of those ravages by sea and land, which will distinguish the

present as an age of Vandalism, I sincerely pray.

I consider as a happy augury, the choice which the Emperor has made of a

person to reside near our government, so distinguished by his dispositions

and qualifications to cherish the friendship and the interests of both

nations. With my best wishes that your residence among us may be rendered

entirely agreeable, and be accompanied with the blessing of health, accept

the assurances of my great respect and consideration.

TO MR. BOTTA.

MONTICELLO, July 15, 1810.

SIR,--I am honored with your letter of the 12th of January, and although

the work you therein mention is not yet come to hand, I avail myself of

an occasion, now rendered rare and precarious between our two countries,

of anticipating the obligation I shall owe for the pleasure I shall have

in perusing it, and of travelling over with you the important scenes,

_quorum pars minima fui_, scenes which have given an impulsion to the

world, which, as to ourselves, has been a great blessing, but whether to

Europe or not, can only be estimated by him who sees the future as well

as the present and past. We are certainly indebted to those who think our

revolution worthy of their pen, and who will do justice to our actions and

motives; and to yourself I have no doubt we shall owe this obligation, and

I now make you my acknowledgments with confidence and pleasure. It will

be a worthy preface to the history of this age of revolutions, to be ended

we know not when nor how. I pray you to accept the assurances of my great

respect and consideration.

TO MR. LAMBERT.

MONTICELLO, July 16, 1810.

SIR,--An indispensable piece of business which has occupied me for a

month past, obliged me to suspend all correspondence during that time.

This must apologize for my late acknowledgment of your favor of May 19th,

and for the tardy expression of my thanks for so much of the papers you

enclosed as respected myself. The approbation of my political conduct by

my republican countrymen generally, is a pillow of sweet repose to me,

undisturbed by the noise of the enemies to our form of government. The

political sentiments expressed by your society are in the pure spirit of

the principles of our revolution; so long as these prevail, we are safe

from everything which can assail us from without or within.

Your several communications on the first meridian, have been regularly

handed to the Philosophical Society; not corresponding regularly with

any of the members, I have received no information respecting them. I

have formerly observed to you that while I entertain no doubt of their

accuracy, my own familiarity with the subject had been too long suspended,

to enable me to render a critical opinion on them. My occupations here are

almost exclusively given to my farm and affairs. They furnish me exercise,

health and amusement, and with the recreations of family and neighborly

society, fill up most of my time, and give a tranquillity necessary to

my time of life. With my best wishes for your prosperity, accept the

assurances of my esteem and respect.

TO GENERAL DEARBORNE.

MONTICELLO, July 16, 1810.

DEAR GENERAL AND FRIEND,--Your favor of May the 31st was duly received,

and I join in congratulations with you on the resurrection of republican

principles in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and the hope that the

professors of these principles will not again easily be driven off

their ground. The federalists, during their short-lived ascendency, have

nevertheless, by forcing us from the embargo, inflicted a wound on our

interests which can never be cured, and on our affections which will

require time to cicatrize. I ascribe all this to one pseudo-republican,

Story. He came on (in place of Crowningshield, I believe) and staid only

a few days; long enough, however, to get complete hold of Bacon, who,

giving in to his representations, became panic-struck, and communicated

his panic to his colleagues, and they to a majority of the sound members

of Congress. They believed in the alternative of repeal or civil war,

and produced the fatal measure of repeal. This is the immediate parent of

all our present evils, and has reduced us to a low standing in the eyes

of the world. I should think that even the federalists themselves must

now be made, by their feelings, sensible of their error. The wealth which

the embargo brought home safely, has now been thrown back into the laps

of our enemies, and our navigation completely crushed, and by the unwise

and unpatriotic conduct of those engaged in it. Should the orders prove

genuine, which are said to have been given against our fisheries, they too

are gone; and if not true as yet, they will be true on the first breeze

of success which England shall feel, for it has now been some years that

I am perfectly satisfied her intentions have been to claim the ocean as

her conquest, and prohibit any vessel from navigating it, but on such a

tribute as may enable her to keep up such a standing navy as will maintain

her dominion over it. She has hauled in, or let herself out, been bold

or hesitating, according to occurrences, but has in no situation done

anything which might amount to a relinquishment of her intentions. I

have ever been anxious to avoid a war with England, unless forced by a

situation more losing than war itself. But I did believe we could coerce

her to justice by peaceable means, and the embargo, evaded as it was,

proved it would have coerced her had it been honestly executed. The proof

she exhibited on that occasion, that she can exercise such an influence in

this country as to control the will of its government and three-fourths

of its people, and oblige the three-fourths to submit to one-fourth,

is to me the most mortifying circumstance which has occurred since the

establishment of our government. The only prospect I see of lessening

that influence, is in her own conduct, and not from anything in our power.

Radically hostile to our navigation and commerce, and fearing its rivalry,

she will completely crush it, and force us to resort to agriculture, not

aware that we shall resort to manufactures also, and render her conquests

over our navigation and commerce useless, at least, if not injurious to

herself in the end, and perhaps salutary to us, as removing out of our way

the chief causes and provocations to war.

But these are views which concern the present and future generation,

among neither of which I count myself. You may live to see the change in

our pursuits, and chiefly in those of your own State, which England will

effect. I am not certain that the change on Massachusetts, by driving her

to agriculture, manufactures and emigration, will lessen her happiness.

But once more to be done with politics. How does Mrs. Dearborne do? How do

you both like your situation? Do you amuse yourself with a garden, a farm,

or what? That your pursuits, whatever they be, may make you both easy,

healthy and happy, is the prayer of your sincere friend.

TO JUDGE COOPER.

MONTICELLO, August 6, 1810.

DEAR SIR,--The tardiness of acknowledging the receipt of your favor of May

10th will I fear induce a presumption that I have been negligent of its

contents, but I assure you I lost not a moment in endeavoring to fulfil

your wishes in procuring a good geological correspondent in this State.

I could not offer myself, because of all the branches of science it was

the one I had the least cultivated. Our researches into the texture of

our globe could be but so superficial, compared with its vast interior

construction, that I saw no safety of conclusion from the one, as to the

other; and therefore have pointed my own attentions to other objects in

preference, as far as a heavy load of business would permit me to attend

to anything else. Looking about, therefore, among my countrymen for some

one who might answer your views, I fixed on Mr. Joseph C. Cabell, not

long since returned from France, where he had attended particularly to

chemistry, and had also attended Mr. Maclure in some of his geological

expeditions, as best qualified. I wrote to him; unfortunately he was

from home, and did not return till the latter end of July. I received his

answer since our last post only. A diffidence in his qualifications to be

useful to you, has induced him to decline the undertaking, having, as he

assures me, paid no particular attention to that branch of science. I have

in vain looked over our State for some other person who might contribute

to your views. As yet I can think of nobody; and whatever may be the

result of further inquiry, I have thought I ought not longer to delay

informing you of my unsuccessful efforts so far. Should I be able to find

a subject worthy of your correspondence, I shall not fail to engage him in

it, and to give you notice. I thank you for the case of Dempsy _v._ the

Insurers, which I have read with great pleasure, and entire conviction.

Indeed it is high time to withdraw all respect from courts acting under

the arbitrary orders of governments who avow a total disregard to those

moral rules which have hitherto been acknowledged by nations, and have

served to regulate and govern their intercourse. I should respect just

as much the rules of conduct which governed Cartouche or Blackbeard, as

those now acted on by France or England. If your argument is defective

in anything, it is in having paid to the antecedent decisions of the

British courts of Admiralty, the respect of examining them on grounds of

reason; and the not having rested the decision at once on the profligacy

of those tribunals, and openly declared against permitting their sentences

to be ever more quoted or listened to until those nations return to the

practice of justice, to an acknowledgment that there is a moral law which

ought to govern mankind, and by sufficient evidences of contrition for

their present flagitiousness, make it safe to receive them again into the

society of civilized nations. I hope this will still be done on a proper

occasion. Yet knowing that religion does not furnish grosser bigots than

law, I expect little from old judges. Those now at the bar may be bold

enough to follow reason rather than precedent and may bring that principle

on the bench when promoted to it; but I fear this effort is not for my

day. It has been said that when Harvey discovered the circulation of the

blood, there was not a physician of Europe of forty years of age, who

ever assented to it. I fear you will experience Harvey's fate. But it

will become law when the present judges are dead. Wishing you health and

happiness at all times, accept the assurances of my constant and great

esteem and respect.

TO MR. DUANE.

MONTICELLO, August 12, 1810.

SIR,--Your letter of July 16th has been duly received, with the paper

it enclosed, for which accept my thanks, and especially for the kind

sentiments expressed towards myself. These testimonies of approbation,

and friendly remembrance, are the highest gratifications I can receive

from any, and especially from those in whose principles and zeal for

the public good I have confidence. Of that confidence in yourself the

military appointment to which you allude was sufficient proof, as it was

made, not on the recommendations of others, but on our own knowledge

of your principles and qualifications. While I cherish with feeling

the recollections of my friends, I banish from my mind all political

animosities which might disturb its tranquillity, or the happiness

I derive from my present pursuits. I have thought it among the most

fortunate circumstances of my late administration that, during its

eight years continuance, it was conducted with a cordiality and harmony

among all the members, which never were ruffled on any, the greatest

or smallest occasion. I left my brethren with sentiments of sincere

affection and friendship, so rooted in the uniform tenor of a long and

intimate intercourse, that the evidence of my own senses alone ought to be

permitted to shake them. Anxious, in my retirement, to enjoy undisturbed

repose, my knowledge of my successor and late coadjutors, and my entire

confidence in their wisdom and integrity, were assurances to me that I

might sleep in security with such watchmen at the helm, and that whatever

difficulties and dangers should assail our course, they would do what

could be done to avoid or surmount them. In this confidence I envelope

myself, and hope to slumber on to my last sleep. And should difficulties

occur which they cannot avert, if we follow them in phalanx, we shall

surmount them without danger.

I have been long intending to write to you as one of the associated

company for printing useful works.

Our laws, language, religion, politics and manners are so deeply laid in

English foundations, that we shall never cease to consider their history

as a part of ours, and to study ours in that as its origin. Every one

knows that judicious matter and charms of style have rendered Hume's

history the manual of every student. I remember well the enthusiasm with

which I devoured it when young, and the length of time, the research and

reflection which were necessary to eradicate the poison it had instilled

into my mind. It was unfortunate that he first took up the history of

the Stuarts, became their apologist, and advocated all their enormities.

To support his work, when done, he went back to the Tudors, and so

selected and arranged the materials of their history as to present their

arbitrary acts only, as the genuine samples of the constitutional power

of the crown, and, still writing backwards, he then reverted to the early

history, and wrote the Saxon and Norman periods with the same perverted

view. Although all this is known, he still continues to be put into the

hands of all our young people, and to infect them with the poison of his

own principles of government. It is this book which has undermined the

free principles of the English government, has persuaded readers of all

classes that these were usurpations on the legitimate and salutary rights

of the crown, and has spread universal toryism over the land. And the

book will still continue to be read here as well as there. Baxter, one

of Horne Tooke's associates in persecution, has hit on the only remedy

the evil admits. He has taken Hume's work, corrected in the text his

misrepresentations, supplied the truths which he suppressed, and yet has

given the mass of the work in Hume's own words. And it is wonderful how

little interpolation has been necessary to make it a sound history, and

to justify what should have been its title, to wit, "Hume's history of

England abridged and rendered faithful to fact and principle." I cannot

say that his amendments are either in matter or manner in the fine style

of Hume. Yet they are often unperceived, and occupy so little of the whole

work as not to depreciate it. Unfortunately he has _abridged_ Hume, by

leaving out all the less important details. It is thus reduced to about

one half its original size. He has also continued the history, but very

summarily, to 1801. The whole work is of 834 quarto pages, printed close,

of which the continuation occupies 283. I have read but little of this

part. As far as I can judge from that little, it is a mere chronicle,

offering nothing profound. This work is so unpopular, so distasteful to

the present Tory palates and principles of England, that I believe it

has never reached a second edition. I have often inquired for it in our

book shops, but never could find a copy in them, and I think it possible

the one I imported may be the only one in America. Can we not have it

re-printed here? It would be about four volumes 8vo.

I have another enterprise to propose for some good printer. I have in my

possession a MS. work in French, confided to me by a friend, whose name

alone would give it celebrity were it permitted to be mentioned. But

considerations insuperable forbid that. It is a Commentary and Review of

Montesquieu's Spirit of Laws. The history of that work is well known.

He had been a great reader, and had commonplaced everything he read.

At length he wished to undertake some work into which he could bring

his whole commonplace book in a digested form. He fixed on the subject

of his Spirit of Laws, and wrote the book. He consulted his friend

Helvetius about publishing it, who strongly dissuaded it. He published it,

however, and the world did not confirm Helvetius' opinion. Still, every

man who reflects as he reads, has considered it as a book of paradoxes;

having, indeed, much of truth and sound principle, but abounding also

with inconsistencies, apochryphal facts and false inferences. It is a

correction of these which has been executed in the work I mention, by way

of commentary and review; not by criticising words or sentences, but by

taking a book at a time, considering its general scope, and proceeding

to confirm or confute it. And much of confutation there is, and of

substitution of true for false principle, and the true principle is ever

that of republicanism. I will not venture to say that every sentiment in

the book will be approved, because, being in manuscript, and the French

characters, I have not read the whole, but so much only as might enable

me to estimate the soundness of the author's way of viewing his subject;

and, judging from that which I have read, I infer with confidence that

we shall find the work generally worthy of our high approbation, and that

it everywhere maintains the preëminence of representative government, by

showing that its foundations are laid in reason, in right, and in general

good. I had expected this from my knowledge of the other writings of the

author, which have always a precision rarely to be met with. But to give

you an idea of the manner of its execution, I translate and enclose his

commentary on Montesquieu's eleventh book, which contains the division

of the work. I wish I could have added his review at the close of the

twelve first books, as this would give a more complete idea of the

extraordinary merit of the work. But it is too long to be copied. I add

from it, however, a few extracts of his reviews of some of the books, as

specimens of his plan and principles. If printed in French, it would be

of about 180 pages 8vo, or 23 sheets. If any one will undertake to have

it translated and printed on their own account, I will send on the MS.

by post, and they can take the copyright as of an original work, which it

ought to be understood to be. I am anxious it should be ably translated by

some one who possesses style as well as capacity to do justice to abstruse

conceptions. I would even undertake to revise the translation if required.

The original sheets must be returned to me, and I should wish the work to

be executed with as little delay as possible.

I close this long letter with assurances of my great esteem and respect.

TO ALBERT GALLATIN, ESQ.

MONTICELLO, August 16, 1810.

DEAR SIR,--Yours of July 14th, with the welcome paper it covered, has

been most thankfully received. I had before received from your office

and that of State, all the printed publications on the subject of the

batture, that is to say, the opinion of the Philadelphia lawyers and of G.

Livingston himself, the publications of Derbigny, Thierry, Poydras, and

the _pièces probantes_. I had been very anxious to get Moreau's memoire,

which is only in manuscript, having heard it was the best of all. After

waiting long and in vain for it, I was informed by my counsel that they

were ruled to plead, and must be furnished with the grounds of defence. I

was obliged, therefore, to take up the subject--had got through it and put

it into the hands of Mr. Hay, when the observations you were so kind as

to furnish, came to hand. Although it was too late to give to everything

its shape which these, at an earlier stage, might have suggested, I

was still enabled to avail myself of them usefully. The question of the

chancery jurisdiction of the Orleans judges had particularly escaped me,

and entirely. When Mr. Hay returned the paper therefore, I was enabled, by

re-copying a sheet or two at the close, to introduce this question in its

proper place. I had also, till then, been uninformed of the circumstances

under which Bertrand Gravier left France, and therefore had not been aware

of the reasons for which John Gravier had chosen to come in by purchase.

This information enabled me to extend and strengthen much of what I had

before said on that subject; and by interleaving and recopying a part, to

get that also into its proper place. On the whole, you will see, with the

benefit of these amendments, what I had conceived to be a true statement

of the fact and law of the case. But the paper is very voluminous, and I

could not shorten it. It is now in the hands of the President, who will

enclose it to you by the same post which carries this; when you shall have

perused it, be so good as to re-enclose it to me, as I wish to submit

it to our other fellow-laborers, after such amendments as Mr. Madison

and yourself will be so good as to suggest. I wish the ground I take to

meet all your approbations. The uninformed state in which the debates of

the last session proved Congress to be, as to this case, makes me fear

they may, at the next, under the intrigues and urgency of Livingston,

be induced to take some step which might have an injurious effect on

the opinion of a jury. I think, therefore, to ask a member or two of

each house to read this statement, merely to make themselves masters

of the subject, and be enabled to prevent any unfavorable interference

of Congress. Perhaps, if they see the case in the light I do, they may

think of doing more--of having the Attorney General desired to attend to

the case as of public concern: for really it is so. I have no concern

at all in maintaining the title to the batture. It would be totally

unnecessary for me to employ counsel to go into the question at all for

my own defence. That is solidly built on the simple fact, that if I were

in error, it was honest, and not imputable to that gross and palpable

corruption or injustice which makes a public magistrate responsible to a

private party. I know that even a federal jury could not find a verdict

against me on this head. But I go fully into the question of title,

because our characters are concerned in it, and because it involves a most

important right of the citizens, and one which, if decided against them,

would be a precedent of incalculable evil. The detention, too, has been

so long the act of Congress itself, that for this reason I have supposed

they might think it entitled to their attention, and direct the Attorney

General to take care of the public interest in it, as has lately been done

by the House of Commons, in the action of Sir Francis Burdett against

their Speaker. But on this subject I wish to be advised by yourself and

my other friends, rather than trust to my own judgment, too likely to be

under bias. If I send the case to be perused by two or three members, it

will be under a strong injunction not to let its contents get into other

hands, my counsel having strongly advised against apprizing them of the

topics of defence, as well from apprehensions of subornation of witnesses

as to material facts, as from other considerations. Pray advise me on this

head. My counsel are Hay, Wist and Janewell.

I have seen with infinite grief the set which is made at you in the public

papers, and with the more as my name has been so much used in it. I hope

we both know one another too well to receive impression from circumstances

of this kind. A twelve years' intimate and friendly intercourse must be

better evidence to each of the dispositions of the other than the letters

of foreign ministers to their courts, or tortured influences from facts

true or false. I have too thorough a conviction of your cordial good will

towards me, and too strong a sense of the faithful and able assistance

I received from you, to relinquish them on any evidence but of my own

senses. With entire faith in your assurance of these truths, I shall add

those only of my constant affection and high respect.

TO COLONEL WM. DUANE.

MONTICELLO, September 16, 1810.

DEAR SIR,--Your favor of August 17th arrived the day after I had left

this place on a visit to one I have near Lynchburg, from whence I am

but lately returned. The history of England you describe is precisely

Baxter's, of which I wrote you; and if you compare him with Hume, you

will find the text preserved verbatim, with particular exceptions only.

The French work will accompany this letter. Since writing to you I have

gone over the whole, and can assure you it is the most valuable political

work of the present age. In some details we all may differ from him or

from one another, but the great mass of the work is highly sound. Its

title would be "A Commentary on Montesquieu's Spirit of Laws;" perhaps

the words "and Review" might be inserted at the----. Helvetius' letter

on the same work should be annexed, if it can possibly be procured. It

was contained in a late edition of the works of Helvetius published by

the Abbé de la Roche. Probably that edition might be found. I never

before heard of Williams' lectures on Montesquieu, but I am glad to

hear of everything which reduces that author to his just level, as his

predilection for monarchy, and the English monarchy in particular, has

done mischief everywhere, and here also, to a certain degree. With respect

to the Notes on Virginia, I do contemplate some day the making additions

and corrections to them; but I am inclined to take the benefit of my whole

life to make collections and observations, and let the editing them be

posthumous. The anecdote respecting the paper put into my hands by Dr.

Franklin has not been handed to you with entire correctness. I returned

from France in December 1789, and in March following I went on to New

York to take the post assigned me in the new government. On my way through

Philadelphia I called on Dr. Franklin, who was then confined to his bed.

As the revolution had then begun, indeed was supposed to be closed by

the completion of a constitution, and he was anxious to know the part

all his acquaintances had taken, he plied me with questions for an hour

or two with a vivacity and earnestness which astonished me. When I had

satisfied his inquiries, I observed to him that I had heard, and with

great pleasure, that he had began the history of his own life, and had

brought it down to the revolution, (for so I had heard while in Europe.)

"Not exactly so," said he, "but I will let you see the manner in which

I do these things." He then desired one of his small grand-children who

happened to be in the room, to bring him such a paper from the table. It

was brought, and he put it into my hands and said, "there, put that into

your pocket and you will see the manner of my writing." I thanked him and

said "I should read it with great pleasure, and return it to him safely."

"No," said he, "keep it." I took it with me to New York. It was, as well

as I recollect, about a quire of paper, in which he had given, with great

minuteness, all the details of his negotiations (informal) in England,

to prevent their pushing us to extremities. These were chiefly through

Lord Howe and a lady, I think the sister of Lord Howe, but of this I am

not certain; but I remember noting the particulars of her conversation

as marking her as a woman of very superior understanding. He gave all the

conversations with her and Lord Howe, and all the propositions he passed

through them to their minister, the answers and conversations with the

minister reported through them, his endeavors used with other characters,

whether with the ministers directly I do not recollect; but I remember

well that it appeared distinctly from what was brought to him from the

ministers, that the real obstacle to their meeting the various overtures

he made was the prospect of great confiscations to provide for their

friends, and that this was the real cause of the various shiftings and

shufflings they used to evade his propositions. Learning, on his death,

which happened soon after, that he had bequeathed all his unpublished

writings to his grandson, W. T. Franklin, with a view to the emolument he

might derive from their publication, I thought this writing was fairly

his property, and notified to him my possession of it, and that I would

deliver it to his order. He soon afterwards called on me at New York,

and I delivered it to him. He accepted it, and, while putting it into his

pocket, observed that his grandfather had retained another copy which he

had found among his papers. I did not reflect on this till suspicions

were circulated that W. T. F. had sold these writings to the British

Minister. I then formed the belief that Dr. Franklin had meant to deposit

this spare copy with me in confidence that it would be properly taken

care of, and sincerely repented the having given it up; and I have little

doubt that this identical paper was the principal object of the purchase

by the British government, and the unfortunate cause of the suppression

of all the rest. I do not think I have any interesting papers or facts

from Dr. Franklin. Should any occur at any time, I will communicate them

freely, nobody wishing more ardently that the public could be possessed

of everything that was his or respected him, believing that a greater

or better character has rarely existed. I am happy to learn that his

blood shows itself in the veins of the two of his great grandchildren

whom you mention. But I should think medicine the best profession for

a genius resembling his, as that of the elder is supposed to do. I have

received information of Pestalozzi's mode of education from some European

publications, and from Mr. Keefe's book which shows that the latter

possesses both the talents and the zeal for carrying it into effect. I

sincerely wish it success, convinced that the information of the people at

large can alone make them the safe, as they are the sole depository of our

political and religious freedom. The idea of antimony in this neighborhood

is, I believe, without foundation. Some twenty or thirty years ago a

mineral was found about ten miles from this place, which one of those idle

impostors, who call themselves mine-hunters, persuaded the proprietor was

gold ore. The poor man lost a crop in digging after it. After fruitless

assays of the mineral, some other person, knowing as little of the matter,

fancied it must be antimony. A third idea was that it was black lead. It

was abandoned, and the mine hole filled up, nor can we at this day hear of

any piece of the mineral in possession of any one.

You say in your letter that you will send me the _proofs_ of the

commentary on Montesquieu for revisal. It is only the _translation_

I should wish to revise. I feel myself answerable to the author for a

correct publication of his ideas. The translated sheets may come by post

as they are finished off; they shall be promptly returned, the originals

coming with them. Accept the assurances of my esteem and respect.

TO J. B. COLVIN.

MONTICELLO, September 20, 1810.

SIR,--Your favor of the 14th has been duly received, and I have to thank

you for the many obliging things respecting myself which are said in

it. If I have left in the breasts of my fellow citizens a sentiment of

satisfaction with my conduct in the transaction of their business, it will

soften the pillow of my repose through the residue of life.

The question you propose, whether circumstances do not sometimes occur,

which make it a duty in officers of high trust, to assume authorities

beyond the law, is easy of solution in principle, but sometimes

embarrassing in practice. A strict observance of the written laws is

doubtless _one_ of the high duties of a good citizen, but it is not _the

highest_. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our

country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by

a scrupulous adherence to written law, would be to lose the law itself,

with life, liberty, property and all those who are enjoying them with us;

thus absurdly sacrificing the end to the means. When, in the battle of

Germantown, General Washington's army was annoyed from Chew's house, he

did not hesitate to plant his cannon against it, although the property of

a citizen. When he besieged Yorktown, he leveled the suburbs, feeling that

the laws of property must be postponed to the safety of the nation. While

the army was before York, the Governor of Virginia took horses, carriages,

provisions and even men by force, to enable that army to stay together

till it could master the public enemy; and he was justified. A ship at sea

in distress for provisions, meets another having abundance, yet refusing

a supply; the law of self-preservation authorizes the distressed to take

a supply by force. In all these cases, the unwritten laws of necessity,

of self-preservation, and of the public safety, control the written laws

of _meum_ and _tuum_. Further to exemplify the principle, I will state

an hypothetical case. Suppose it had been made known to the Executive of

the Union in the autumn of 1805, that we might have the Floridas for a

reasonable sum, that that sum had not indeed been so appropriated by law,

but that Congress were to meet within three weeks, and might appropriate

it on the first or second day of their session. Ought he, for so great an

advantage to his country, to have risked himself by transcending the law

and making the purchase? The public advantage offered, in this supposed

case, was indeed immense; but a reverence for law, and the probability

that the advantage might still be _legally_ accomplished by a delay of

only three weeks, were powerful reasons against hazarding the act. But

suppose it foreseen that a John Randolph would find means to protract the

proceeding on it by Congress, until the ensuing spring, by which time

new circumstances would change the mind of the other party. Ought the

Executive, in that case, and with that foreknowledge, to have secured

the good to his country, and to have trusted to their justice for the

transgression of the law? I think he ought, and that the act would have

been approved. After the affair of the Chesapeake, we thought war a very

possible result. Our magazines were illy provided with some necessary

articles, nor had any appropriations been made for their purchase. We

ventured, however, to provide them, and to place our country in safety;

and stating the case to Congress, they sanctioned the act.

To proceed to the conspiracy of Burr, and particularly to General

Wilkinson's situation in New Orleans. In judging this case, we are bound

to consider the state of the information, correct and incorrect, which he

then possessed. He expected Burr and his band from above, a British fleet

from below, and he knew there was a formidable conspiracy within the city.

Under these circumstances, was he justifiable, 1st, in seizing notorious

conspirators? On this there can be but two opinions; one, of the guilty

and their accomplices; the other, that of all honest men. 2d. In sending

them to the seat of government, when the written law gave them a right to

trial in the territory? The danger of their rescue, of their continuing

their machinations, the tardiness and weakness of the law, apathy of

the judges, active patronage of the whole tribe of lawyers, unknown

disposition of the juries, an hourly expectation of the enemy, salvation

of the city, and of the Union itself, which would have been convulsed to

its centre, had that conspiracy succeeded; all these constituted a law of

necessity and self-preservation, and rendered the _salus populi_ supreme

over the written law. The officer who is called to act on this superior

ground, does indeed risk himself on the justice of the controlling powers

of the constitution, and his station makes it his duty to incur that risk.

But those controlling powers, and his fellow citizens generally, are bound

to judge according to the circumstances under which he acted. They are not

to transfer the information of this place or moment to the time and place

of his action; but to put themselves into his situation. We knew here that

there never was danger of a British fleet from below, and that Burr's band

was crushed before it reached the Mississippi. But General Wilkinson's

information was very different, and he could act on no other.

From these examples and principles you may see what I think on the

question proposed. They do not go to the case of persons charged with

petty duties, where consequences are trifling, and time allowed for a

legal course, nor to authorize them to take such cases out of the written

law. In these, the example of overleaping the law is of greater evil than

a strict adherence to its imperfect provisions. It is incumbent on those

only who accept of great charges, to risk themselves on great occasions,

when the safety of the nation, or some of its very high interests are at

stake. An officer is bound to obey orders; yet he would be a bad one who

should do it in cases for which they were not intended, and which involved

the most important consequences. The line of discrimination between cases

may be difficult; but the good officer is bound to draw it at his own

peril, and throw himself on the justice of his country and the rectitude

of his motives.

I have indulged freer views on this question, on your assurances that

they are for your own eye only, and that they will not get into the

hands of newswriters. I met their scurrilities without concern, while in

pursuit of the great interests with which I was charged. But in my present

retirement, no duty forbids my wish for quiet.

Accept the assurances of my esteem and respect.

TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.

MONTICELLO, September 22, 1810.

DEAR SIR,--I have wanted the occasion of the present enclosure to perform

the duty of my thanks for the kind communication of papers from your

office in the question between Livingston and myself. These have mainly

enabled me to give a correct statement of facts. I deferred proceeding

to a particular consideration of the case in hopes of the aid of Moreau's

Memoire, which I have understood to be the ablest which has been written.

But I was at length forced to proceed without it, my counsel informing me

they were ruled to plead, and must therefore know the grounds of defence.

You will see what I have made of it by the enclosed, which I forward in

the hope you will consider and correct it. I have done this the rather

because I presume all my fellow laborers feel an interest in what all

approved, and because I think I should urge nothing which they disapprove.

Will you then do me the favor to put on paper such corrections as you

would advise, and forward them to me, handing on the enclosed paper at

the same time to Mr. Rodney? I wrote him by this post that he may expect

it from you, and I ask the same favor of correction from him, and above

all to delay as little as possible, because time presses to give to this

paper its ultimate form. My counsel press me earnestly not to let the

topics of defence get out, so as to be known to the adversary. Although I

know Congress will be strongly urged, yet I hope they will take no measure

which may impress a jury unfavorably, by inferences not intended. And were

the case to be thought to belong to the public, still I believe it better

they should let it come on, on the footing of a private action. I pray you

to be assured of my constant affection and respect.

September 26th. Sent a P. S. verbatim, the same as that to Mr. Rodney.

TO THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES.

MONTICELLO, September 25, 1810.

DEAR SIR,--I have to thank you for your kind letter of June 8th, and the

suggestions it furnished on the question whether Livingston could maintain

an action in Richmond for a trespass committed in Orleans. This being

a question of common law, I leave it to my counsel so much more recent

than I am in that branch of law. I have undertaken to furnish them with

the grounds of my defence under the _lex loci_. I wished for the aid

of Moreau's Memoire because it is understood to be the ablest of any.

However, my counsel being ruled to plead, and pressing me for the grounds

of defence, I proceeded to consider the case, meaning at first only an

outline, but I got insensibly into the full discussion, which became very

voluminous, and the more so as it was necessary not only to enter all

the authorities at large in the text, because few possess them, but also

translations of them, because all do not understand all the languages in

which they are. Believing my late associates in the executive would feel

an interest in the justification of a conduct in which all concurred,

and also in the issue of it, I have thought it a duty to consult them as

to the grounds to be taken, and to take none against their advice. My

statement has therefore been submitted to the President, Mr. Smith and

Mr. Gallatin, and will be forwarded to you by Mr. Smith as soon as he

shall have read it. I have to request your consideration and corrections

of it, and that you will be so good as to furnish them on a separate

paper. I am obliged also to ask an immediate attention to them, because

time presses to give to this paper its ultimate shape, to plead, and

collect the evidence. Its early return to me therefore is urging. I do

not know whether my counsel (Hay, Wist and Tazewell) have pleaded to the

jurisdiction. * * * * * The death of Cushing is opportune, as it gives

an opening for at length getting a republican majority on the supreme

bench. Ten years has the anti-civism of that body been bidding defiance

to the spirit of the whole nation, after they had manifested their will by

reforming every other branch of the government. I trust the occasion will

not be lost; Bidwell's disgrace withdraws the ablest man of the section in

which Cushing's successor must be named. The pure integrity, unimpeachable

conduct, talents and republican firmness of Lincoln, leave him now, I

think, without a rival. He is thought not an able common lawyer. But there

is not and never was an able one in the New England States. Their system

is _sui generis_, in which the _common_ law is little attended to. Lincoln

is one of the ablest in their system, and it is among them he is to

execute the great portion of his duties. Nothing is more material than to

complete the reformation of the government by this appointment, which may

truly be said to be putting the keystone into the arch. In my statement of

the law of Livingston's case, I do not pretend to consider every argument

as perfectly sound. I have, as is usual, availed myself of some views,

which may have a weight with others which they have not with me. I have no

right to assume infallibility, and I present them, therefore, _ut valcant

ubi possint_. Accept the assurances of my constant and affectionate

esteem.

P. S., September 26. In my letter of yesterday, I have omitted to observe,

with respect to the arrangement of materials in the paper it speaks

of, that it is not such as counsel would employ in pleading a cause. It

was determined by other considerations. I thought it very possible the

case might be dismissed out of court by a plea to the jurisdiction. I

determined, on this event, to lay it before the public, either directly or

through Congress. Respect for my associates, for myself, for our nation,

would not permit me to come forward, as a criminal under accusation, to

plead and argue a cause. This was not my situation. This would naturally

be by way of narrative or statement of the facts in their order of

time, establishing these facts as they occur, and bringing forward the

law arising on them, and pointing to the Executive the course he was

to pursue. I supposed it more dignified to present it as a history and

explanation of what had taken place. It does not, indeed, in that form,

display the subject in one great whole, but it brings forward successively

a number of questions, solving themselves as they arise, and leaving no

one unexamined. And the mind, after travelling over the whole case, and

finding as it goes along that all has been considered and all is right,

rests in that state of satisfaction which it is our object to produce.

In truth, I have never known a case which presented so many distinct

questions, having no dependence on one another, nor belonging even to the

same branches of jurisprudence.

TO MR. GALLATIN.

MONTICELLO, September 27, 1810.

DEAR SIR,--Yours of the 10th came safely to hand, and laid me under new

obligations for the valuable observations it contained. The error of

twelve feet instead of seven, for the rise of the batture, really _sautoit

aux yeux_, and how I could have committed it at first, or passed it over

afterwards without discovery, and having copied Pelletier's plan myself,

is unaccountable. I have adopted also most of your other corrections.

You observe that the arguments proving the batture public, yet prove it

of such a character that it could not be within the scope of the law of

March 4th, against squatters. I should so adjudge myself; yet I observe

many opinions otherwise, and in defence against a spadassin, it is lawful

to use all weapons. Besides, I have no pretensions to be exclusively the

judge of what arguments are sound and what not. I give them, therefore,

that they may weigh with those who think they have weight and have a right

to decide for themselves. That act of Congress, moreover, was evidently

respected, particularly in the order under which the removal was made.

With respect to the arrangement of materials in my statement, I know it

is not such as counsel would employ in pleading such a cause; it is not

such as I would have made myself in that character; it was determined by

other considerations. I thought it possible the case might be dismissed

out of court by a plea to the jurisdiction. I determined, on this event,

to lay it before the public, either directly or through Congress. Respect

for my associates, for myself, for our nation, would not permit me to

come forward, as a criminal under accusation, to plead and argue a cause.

This was not my situation. I had only to state to my constituents a common

transaction. This would naturally be by way of narrative or statement of

the facts, in their order of time, establishing these facts as they occur,

and bringing forward the law arising on them and pointing to the Executive

the course he was to pursue. I suppose it more self-respectful to present

it as a history and explanation of what had taken place. It does not,

indeed, in that form, display the subject in one great whole, but it

brings forward successively a number of questions, solving themselves as

they arise, and leaving no one unexamined. And the mind, after travelling

over the whole case, and finding as it goes along that all has been

considered, and all is right, rests in that state of satisfaction which

it is our object to produce. In truth, I have never known a case which

presented so many distinct questions, having no dependence on one another,

nor belonging even to the same branches of jurisprudence. After all, I

offer this as explanation, not justification of the order adopted.

* * * * *

At length, then, we have a chance of getting a republican majority in the

Supreme Judiciary. For ten years has that branch braved the spirit and

will of the nation, after the nation had manifested its will by a complete

reform in every branch depending on them. The event is a fortunate one,

and so timed as to be a God-send to me. I am sure its importance to the

nation will be felt, and the occasion employed to complete the great

operation they have so long been executing, by the appointment of a

decided republican, with nothing equivocal about him. But who will it

be? The misfortune of Bidwell removes an able man from the competition.

Can any other bring equal qualifications to those of Lincoln? I know he

was not deemed a profound common lawyer; but was there ever a profound

common lawyer known in any of the Eastern States? There never was, nor

never can be one from those States. The basis of their law is neither

common nor civil; it is an original, if any compound can so be called.

Its foundation seems to have been laid in the spirit and principles of

Jewish law, incorporated with some words and phrases of common law, and an

abundance of notions of their own. This makes an _amalgam sui generis_,

and it is well known that a man, first and thoroughly initiated into the

principles of one system of law, can never become pure and sound in any

other. Lord Mansfield was a splendid proof of this. Therefore, I say,

there never was, nor can be a profound common lawyer from those States.

Sullivan had the reputation of preëminence there as a common lawyer.

But we have his history of land titles, which gives us his measure. Mr.

Lincoln is, I believe, considered as learned in their laws as any one

they have. Federalists say that Parsons is better. But the criticalness

of the present nomination puts him out of question. As the great mass of

the functions of the new judge are to be performed in his own district,

Lincoln will be most unexceptionable and acceptable there; and on the

supreme bench equal to any one who can be brought from thence; add to

this his integrity, political firmness and unimpeachable character, and

I believe no one can be found to whom there will not be more serious

objections.

You seem to think it would be best to ascertain the probable result

before making a proposition to Congress to defend Livingston's suit. On

mature consideration I think it better that no such proposition should

be made. The debates there would fix the case as a party one, and we are

the minority in the judiciary department, and especially in the federal

branch of it here. Till Congress can be thoroughly put in possession of

all the points in the case, it is best they should let it lie. Livingston,

by removing it into the Judiciary, has fairly relinquished all claims

on their interference. I am confident that Congress will act soundly,

whenever we can give them a knowledge of the whole case. But I tire you

with this business, and end therefore with repeating assurances of my

constant attachment and respect.

TO CAPTAIN ISAAC HILLARD.

MONTICELLO, October 9, 1810.

SIR,--I duly received your letter of September 10th, and return you

thanks for that and the pamphlet you were so kind as to enclose me.

The health you enjoy at so good an old age, and the strength of mind

evidenced in your pamphlet, are subjects of congratulation to yourself

and of thankfulness to him who gives them. I am sorry that a professor of

religion should have given occasion for such a censure. It proves he has

much to conquer in his own uncharitableness, and that it is not from him

his flock are to learn not to bear false witness against their neighbor.

But as to so much of his pulpit philippic as concerns myself I freely

forgive him; for I feel no falsehood and fear no truth. That you may

long continue to enjoy health, happiness and a sound mind, is my sincere

prayer.

TO COLONEL DUANE.

MONTICELLO, November 13, 1810.

DEAR SIR,--Your third packet is received before the second had been

returned. It is now enclosed, and the other shall go by the next post.

I find, as before, nothing to correct but those errors of the copyist

which you would have corrected yourself before committed to the press. If

it were practicable to send me the original sheets with the translated,

perhaps my equal familiarity with both languages might enable me sometimes

to be of some advantage; but I presume that might be difficult, and of

little use, scarcely perhaps of any. I thank you for the copy of Williams.

I have barely dipped into it a little. Enough, however, to see he is far

short of the luminous work you are printing. Indeed I think that the most

valuable work of the present age. I received from Williams, some years

ago, his book on the claims of authors. I found him to be a man of sound

and true principles, but not knowing how to go at them, and not able to

trace or develop them for others. I believe with you that the crisis of

England is come. What will be its issue it is vain to prophesy; so many

thousand contingencies may turn up to affect its direction. Were I to

hazard a guess, it would be that they will become a military despotism.

Their recollections of the portion of liberty they have enjoyed will

render force necessary to retain them under pure monarchy. Their pressure

upon us has been so severe and so unprincipled, that we cannot deprecate

their fate, though we might wish to see their naval power kept up to

the level of that of the other principal powers separately taken. But

may it not take a very different turn? Her paper credit annihilated, the

precious metals must become her circulating medium. The taxes which can

be levied on her people in these will be trifling in comparison with what

they could pay in paper money; her navy then will be unpaid, unclothed,

unfed. Will such a body of men suffer themselves to be dismissed and to

starve? Will they not mutiny, revolt, embody themselves under a popular

Admiral, take possession of Western and Bermuda islands, and act on the

Algerine system? If they should not be able to act on this broad scale,

they will become individual pirates; and the modern Carthage will end as

the old one has done. I am sorry for her people, who are individually as

respectable as those of other nations--it is her government which is so

corrupt, and which has destroyed the nation--it was certainly the most

corrupt and unprincipled government on earth. I should be glad to see

their farmers and mechanics come here, but I hope their nobles, priests,

and merchants will be kept at home to be moralized by the discipline of

the new government. The young stripling whom you describe is, probably, as

George Nicholas used to say, "in the plenitude of puppyism." Such coxcombs

do not serve even as straws to show which way the wind blows. Alexander

is unquestionably a man of an excellent heart, and of very respectable

strength of mind; and he is the only sovereign who cordially loves us.

Bonaparte hates our government because it is a living libel on his. The

English hate us because they think our prosperity filched from theirs.

Of Alexander's sense of the merits of our form of government, of its

wholesome operation on the condition of the people, and of the interest he

takes in the success of our experiment, we possess the most unquestionable

proofs; and to him we shall be indebted if the rights of neutrals, to

be settled whenever peace is made, shall be extended beyond the present

belligerents; that is to say, European neutrals, as George and Napoleon,

of mutual consent and common hatred against us, would concur in excluding

us. I thought it a salutary measure to engage the powerful patronage of

Alexander at conferences for peace, at a time when Bonaparte was courting

him; and although circumstances have lessened its weight, yet it is

prudent for us to cherish his good dispositions, as those alone which

will be exerted in our favor when that occasion shall occur. He, like

ourselves, sees and feels the atrociousness of both the belligerents. I

salute you with great esteem and respect.

TO MR. JAMES RONALDSON.

MONTICELLO, December 3, 1810.

SIR,--I now return you the paper you were so kind as to enclose to me. The

hint to the two belligerents of disarming each other of their auxiliaries,

by opening asylums to them and giving them passages to this country,

is certainly a good one. Bonaparte has mind enough to adopt it, but not

the means. England, again, has the means but not mind enough; she would

prefer losing an advantage over her enemy to giving one to us. It is an

unhappy state of mind for her, but I am afraid it is the true one. She

presents a singular phenomenon of an honest people whose constitution,

from its nature, must render their government forever dishonest; and

accordingly, from the time that Sir Robert Walpole gave the constitution

that direction which its defects permitted, morality has been expunged

from their political code. I think the paper might do good if published,

and could do no harm. It cannot lessen our means of availing ourselves of

the same resource in case of our being at war with either belligerent. The

only difficulty in these cases (and in the revolutionary war we found it

a great one) is the conveying the invitation to the adverse troops. Accept

my salutations and assurances of respect.

TO DAVID HOWELL, ESQ.

MONTICELLO, December 15, 1810.

DEAR SIR,--Our last post brought me your friendly letter of November

27th. I learn with pleasure that republican principles are predominant in

your State, because I conscientiously believe that governments founded

in these are more friendly to the happiness of the people at large, and

especially of a people so capable of self-government as ours. I have been

ever opposed to the party so falsely called federalists, because I believe

them desirous of introducing into our government authorities hereditary

or otherwise independent of the national will. These always consume the

public contributions, and oppress the people with labor and poverty.

No one was more sensible than myself, while Governor Fenner was in the

Senate, of the soundness of his political principles, and rectitude of his

conduct. Among those of my fellow laborers of whom I had a distinguished

opinion, he was one, and I have no doubt those among whom he lives, and

who have already given him so many proofs of their unequivocal confidence

in him, will continue so to do. It would be impertinent in me, a stranger

to them, to tell them what they all see daily. My object too, at present,

is peace and tranquillity, neither doing nor saying anything to be quoted,

or to make me the subject of newspaper disquisitions. I read one or two

newspapers a week, but with reluctance give even that time from Tacitus

and Horace, and so much other more agreeable reading; indeed, I give more

time to exercise of the body than of the mind, believing it wholesome to

both. I enjoy, in recollection, my ancient friendships, and suffer no

new circumstances to mix alloy with them. I do not take the trouble of

forming opinions on what is passing among them, because I have such entire

confidence in their integrity and wisdom as to be satisfied all is going

right, and that every one is doing his best in the station confided to

him. Under these impressions, accept sincere assurances of my continued

esteem and respect for yourself personally, and my best wishes for your

health and happiness.

TO MR. LAW.

MONTICELLO, January 15, 1811.

DEAR SIR,--An absence from home of some length has prevented my sooner

acknowledging the receipt of your letter, covering the printed pamphlet,

which the same absence has as yet prevented me from taking up, but which I

know I shall read with great pleasure. Your favor of December the 22d, is

also received.

Mr. Wagner's malignity, like that of the rest of his tribe of brother

printers, who deal out calumnies for federal readers, gives me no pain.

When a printer cooks up a falsehood, it is as easy to put it into the

mouth of a Mr. Fox, as of a smaller man, and safer into that of a dead

than a living one. Your sincere attachment to this country, as well as

to your native one, was never doubted by me; and in that persuasion, I

felt myself free to express to you my genuine sentiments with respect

to England. No man was more sensible than myself of the just value of

the friendship of that country. There are between us so many of those

circumstances which naturally produce and cement kind dispositions,

that if they could have forgiven our resistance to their usurpations,

our connections might have been durable, and have insured duration to

both our governments. I wished, therefore, a cordial friendship with

them, and I spared no occasion of manifesting this in our correspondence

and intercourse with them; not disguising, however, my desire of

friendship with their enemy also. During the administration of Mr.

Addington, I thought I discovered some friendly symptoms on the part of

that government; at least, we received some marks of respect from the

administration, and some of regret at the wrongs we were suffering from

their country. So, also, during the short interval of Mr. Fox's power.

But every other administration since our Revolution has been equally

wanton in their injuries and insults, and have manifested equal hatred

and aversion. Instead, too, of cultivating the government itself, whose

principles are those of the great mass of the nation, they have adopted

the miserable policy of teazing and embarrassing it, by allying themselves

with a faction here, not a tenth of the people, noisy and unprincipled,

and which never can come into power while republicanism is the spirit of

the nation, and that must continue to be so, until such a condensation of

population shall have taken place as will require centuries. Whereas, the

good will of the government itself would give them, and immediately, every

benefit which reason or justice would permit it to give. With respect to

myself, I saw great reason to believe their ministers were weak enough

to credit the newspaper trash about a supposed personal enmity in myself

towards England. This wretched party imputation was beneath the notice of

wise men. England never did me a personal injury, other than in open war;

and for numerous individuals there, I have great esteem and friendship.

And I must have had a mind far below the duties of my station, to have

felt either national partialities or antipathies in conducting the affairs

confided to me. My affections were first for my own country, and then,

generally, for all mankind; and nothing but minds placing themselves

above the passions, in the functionaries of this country, could have

preserved us from the war to which their provocations have been constantly

urging us. The war interests in England include a numerous and wealthy

part of their population; and their influence is deemed worth courting

by ministers wishing to keep their places. Continually endangered by a

powerful opposition, they find it convenient to humor the popular passions

at the expense of the public good. The shipping interest, commercial

interest, and their janizaries of the navy, all fattening on war, will

not be neglected by ministers of ordinary minds. Their tenure of office

is so infirm that they dare not follow the dictates of wisdom, justice,

and the well-calculated interests of their country. This vice in the

English constitution, renders a dependence on that government very unsafe.

The feelings of their King, too, fundamentally adverse to us, have added

another motive for unfriendliness in his ministers. This obstacle to

friendship, however, seems likely to be soon removed; and I verily believe

the successor will come in with fairer and wiser dispositions towards us;

perhaps on that event their conduct may be changed. But what England is to

become on the crush of her internal structure, now seeming to be begun, I

cannot foresee. Her monied interest, created by her paper system, and now

constituting a baseless mass of wealth equal to that of the owners of the

soil, must disappear with that system, and the medium for paying great

taxes thus failing, her navy must be without support. That it shall be

supported by permitting her to claim dominion of the ocean, and to levy

tribute on every flag traversing that, as lately attempted and not yet

relinquished, every nation must contest, even _ad internecionem_. And yet,

that retiring from this enormity, she should continue able to take a fair

share in the necessary equilibrium of power on that element, would be the

desire of every nation.

I feel happy in withdrawing my mind from these anxieties, and resigning

myself, for the remnant of life, to the care and guardianship of others.

Good wishes are all an old man has to offer to his country or friends.

Mine attend yourself, with sincere assurances of esteem and respect,

which, however, I should be better pleased to tender you in person, should

your rambles ever lead you into the vicinage of Monticello.