New Hampshire, 82,200 52,708
Massachusetts, 350,000 224,427
Rhode Island, 50,400 32,318
Connecticut, 206,000 132,091
New York, 200,000 128,243
New Jersey, 130,000 83,358
Pennsylvania, 320,000 205,189
Delaware, 35,000 22,443
Maryland, 220,700 141,517
Virginia, 400,000 256,487
North Carolina, 170,000 109,006
South Carolina, 150,000 96,183
Georgia, 25,000 16,030
--------- ---------
2,339,300 1,500,000
Still, however, Congress refused to give the enumeration the sanction
of a place on their journals, because it was not formed on such evidence
as a strict attention to accuracy and truth required. They used it from
necessity, because they could get no better rule, and they entered on
their journals only the apportionment of money. The members, however,
as before, took copies of the enumeration, which was the groundwork
of the apportionment, sent them to their States, and thus this second
enumeration got into the public papers, and was by the English ascribed
to Congress as their declaration of their present numbers. To get at the
real numbers which this enumeration supposes, we must add twenty thousand
to the number on which South Carolina was quoted; we must consider
that seven hundred thousand slaves are counted but as four hundred
and twenty thousand persons, and add, on that account, two hundred and
eighty thousand. This will give us a total of two millions six hundred
and thirty-nine thousand three hundred inhabitants of every condition
in the thirteen States, being two hundred and twenty-one thousand three
hundred more than the enumeration of 1775, instead of seven hundred
and ninety-eight thousand five hundred and nine less, which the English
papers asserted to be the diminution of numbers in the United States,
according to the confession of Congress themselves.
Page 272. "Comportera peut etre une population de thirty millions."
The territory of the United States contains about a million of square
miles, English. There is, in them, a greater proportion of fertile
lands than in the British dominions in Europe. Suppose the territory of
the United States, then, to attain an equal degree of population with
the British European dominions, they will have an hundred millions of
inhabitants. Let us extend our views to what may be the population of
the two continents of North and South America, supposing them divided at
the narrowest part of the isthmus of Panama. Between this line and that
of 50' of north latitude, the northern continent contains about five
millions of square miles, and south of this line of division the southern
continent contains about seven millions of square miles. I do not pass the
50th degree of northern latitude in my reckoning, because we must draw a
line somewhere, and considering the soil and climate beyond that, I would
only avail my calculation of it, as a make weight, to make good what the
colder regions within that line may be supposed to fall short in their
future population. Here are twelve millions of square miles, then, which,
at the rate of population before assumed, will nourish twelve hundred
millions of inhabitants, a number greater than the present population
of the whole globe is supposed to amount to. If those who propose medals
for the resolution of questions, about which nobody makes any question,
those who have invited discussion on the pretended problem, Whether the
discovery of America was for the good of mankind? if they, I say, would
have viewed it only as doubling the numbers of mankind, and, of course,
the quantum of existence and happiness, they might have saved the money
and the reputation which their proposition has cost them. The present
population of the inhabited parts of the United Stated is of about ten
to the square mile; and experience has shown us, that wherever we reach
that, the inhabitants become uneasy, as too much compressed, and go off
in great numbers to search for vacant country. Within forty years their
whole territory will be peopled at that rate. We may fix that, then, as
the term beyond which the people of those States will not be restrained
within their present limits; we may fix that population, too, as the
limit which they will not exceed till the whole of those two continents
are filled up to that mark, that is to say, till they shall contain one
hundred and twenty millions of inhabitants. The soil of the country on
the western side of the Mississippi, its climate, and its vicinity to the
United States, point it out as the first which will receive population
from that nest. The present occupiers will just have force enough to
repress and restrain the emigrations to a certain degree of consistence.
We have seen lately a single person go and decide on a settlement in
Kentucky, many hundred miles from any white inhabitant, remove thither
with his family and a few neighbors; and though perpetually harassed by
the Indians, that settlement in the course of ten years has acquired
thirty thousand inhabitants. Its numbers are increasing while we are
writing, and the State, of which it formerly made a part, has offered
it independence.
Page 280, line five. "Huit des onze Etats," &c. Say, "There were ten
States present; six voted unanimously for it, three against it, and one
was divided; and seven votes being requisite to decide the proposition
affirmatively, it was lost. The voice of a single individual of the State
which was divided, or of one of those which were of the negative, would
have prevented this abominable crime from spreading itself over the new
country. Thus we see the fate of millions unborn hanging on the tongue
of one man, and heaven was silent in that awful moment! But it is to be
hoped it will not always be silent, and that the friends to the rights
of human nature will in the end prevail.
"On the 16th of March, 1785, it was moved in Congress that the same
proposition should be referred to a committee, and it was referred by
the votes of eight States against three. We do not hear that anything
further is yet done on it."
Page 286. "L'autorité du Congrés etoit necessaire." The substance of
the passage alluded to in the journal of Congress, May the 26th, 1784,
is, "That the authority of Congress to make _requisitions_ of troops
during peace is questioned; that such an authority would be dangerous,
combined with the acknowledged one of emitting or borrowing money; and
that a few troops only being wanted to guard magazines and garrison the
frontier posts, it would be more proper at present to _recommend_ than
to require."
* * * * *
Mr. Jefferson presents his compliments to M. de Meusnier, and sends him
copies of the thirteenth, twenty-third, and twenty-fourth articles of
treaty between the King of Prussia and the United States.
If M. de Meusnier proposes to mention the facts of cruelty of which
he and Mr. Jefferson spoke yesterday, the twenty-fourth article will
introduce them properly, because they produced a sense of the necessity
of that article. These facts are, 1. The death of upwards of eleven
thousand American prisoners in one prison ship (the Jersey), and in the
space of three years. 2. General Howe's permitting our prisoners, taken
at the battle of Germantown, and placed under a guard in the yard of the
Statehouse of Philadelphia, to be so long without any food furnished them
that many perished with hunger. Where the bodies laid, it was seen that
they had eaten all the grass around them within their reach, after they
had lost the power of rising, or moving from their place. 3. The second
fact was the act of a commanding officer; the first, of several commanding
officers, and for so long a time as must suppose the approbation of
government. But the following was the act of government itself. During the
periods that our affairs seemed unfavorable, and theirs successful, that
is to say, after the evacuation of New York, and again, after the taking
of Charleston, in South Carolina, they regularly sent our prisoners,
taken on the seas and carried to England, to the East Indies. This is
so certain, that in the month of November or December, 1785, Mr. Adams
having officially demanded a delivery of the American prisoners sent to
the East Indies, Lord Cærmarthen answered, officially, "That orders were
immediately issued for their discharge." M. de Meusnier is at liberty to
quote this fact. 4. A fact to be ascribed not only to the government, but
to the parliament, who passed an act for that purpose in the beginning
of the war, was the obliging our prisoners taken at sea, to join them,
and fight against their countrymen. This they effected by starving and
whipping them. The insult on Captain Stanhope, which happened at Boston
last year, was a consequence of this. Two persons, Dunbar and Lowthorp,
whom Stanhope had treated in this manner (having particularly inflicted
twenty-four lashes on Dunbar), meeting him at Boston, attempted to beat
him. But the people interposed and saved him. The fact is referred to
in that paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, which says, "He
has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high seas, to
bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their
friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands." This was
the most afflicting to our prisoners of all the cruelties exercised on
them. The others affected the body only, but this the mind; they were
haunted by the horror of having, perhaps, themselves shot the ball by
which a father or a brother fell. Some of them had constancy enough to
hold out against half allowance of food and repeated whippings. These
were generally sent to England, and from thence to the East Indies. One
of them escaped from the East Indies, and got back to Paris, where he
gave an account of his sufferings to Mr. Adams, who happened to be then
at Paris.
M. de Meusnier, where he mentions that the slave law has been passed in
Virginia, without the clause of emancipation, is pleased to mention, that
neither Mr. Wythe, nor Mr. Jefferson was present, to make the proposition
they had meditated; from which, people, who do not give themselves
the trouble to reflect or inquire, might conclude hastily, that their
absence was the cause why the proposition was not made; and, of course,
that there were not in the Assembly, persons of virtue and firmness
enough to propose the clause for emancipation. This supposition would
not be true. There were persons there, who wanted neither the virtue to
propose, nor talents to enforce the proposition, had they seen that the
disposition of the legislature was ripe for it. These worthy characters
would feel themselves wounded, degraded, and discouraged by this idea.
Mr. Jefferson would therefore be obliged to M. de Meusnier, to mention it
in some such manner as this. "Of the two commissioners, who had concerted
the amendatory clause for the gradual emancipation of slaves, Mr. Wythe
could not be present, he being a member of the judiciary department, and
Mr. Jefferson was absent on the legation to France. But there were not
wanting in that Assembly, men of virtue enough to propose, and talents
to vindicate this clause. But they saw, that the moment of doing it with
success was not yet arrived, and that an unsuccessful effort, as too
often happens, would only rivet still closer the chains of bondage, and
retard the moment of delivery to this oppressed description of men. What
a stupendous, what an incomprehensible machine is man! who can endure
toil, famine, stripes, imprisonment, and death itself, in vindication
of his own liberty, and, the next moment be deaf to all those motives
whose power supported him through his trial, and inflict on his fellow
men a bondage, one hour of which is fraught with more misery, than ages
of that which he rose in rebellion to oppose. But we must await, with
patience, the workings of an overruling Providence, and hope that that
is preparing the deliverance of these, our suffering brethren. When
the measure of their tears shall be full, when their groans shall have
involved heaven itself in darkness, doubtless, a God of justice will
awaken to their distress, and by diffusing light and liberality among
their oppressors, or, at length, by his exterminating thunder, manifest
his attention to the things of this world, and that they are not left
to the guidance of a blind fatality."
[The following are the articles of the treaty with Prussia,
referred to in the preceding observations.]
Article 13. And in the same case, of one of the contracting parties being
engaged in war with any other power, to prevent all the difficulties
and misunderstandings, that usually arise respecting the merchandise
heretofore called contraband, such as arms, ammunition, and military
stores of every kind, no such articles, carried in the vessels, or by the
subjects or citizens of one of the parties, to the enemies of the other,
shall be deemed contraband, so as to induce confiscation or condemnation,
and a loss of property to individuals. Nevertheless, it shall be lawful
to stop such vessels and articles, and to detain them for such length of
time, as the captors may think necessary to prevent the inconvenience
or damage that might ensue from their proceeding, paying, however, a
reasonable compensation for the loss such arrest shall occasion to the
proprietors; and it shall further be allowed to use, in the service of
the captors, the whole or any part of the military stores so detained,
paying the owners the full value of the same, to be ascertained by the
current price at the place of its destination. But in the case supposed,
of a vessel stopped for articles heretofore deemed contraband, if the
master of the vessel stopped, will deliver out the goods supposed to
be of contraband nature, he shall be admitted to do it, and the vessel
shall not, in that case, be carried into any port, nor further detained,
but shall be allowed to proceed on her voyage.
Article 23. If war should arise between the two contracting parties,
the merchants of either country, then residing in the other, shall be
allowed to remain nine months to collect their debts, and settle their
affairs, and may depart freely, carrying off all their effects, without
molestation or hindrance; and all women and children, scholars of every
faculty, cultivators of the earth, artizans, manufacturers, and fishermen,
unarmed, and inhabiting unfortified towns, villages, or places, and in
general, all others whose occupations are for the common subsistence
and benefit of mankind, shall be allowed to continue their respective
employments, and shall not be molested in their persons, nor shall their
houses be burned or otherwise destroyed, nor their fields wasted by the
armed force of the enemy, into whose power, by the events of war, they may
happen to fall; but if anything is necessary to be taken from them, for
the use of such armed force, the same shall be paid for at a reasonable
price And all merchant and trading vessels, employed in exchanging the
products of different places, and thereby rendering the necessaries,
conveniences, and comforts of human life more easy to be obtained, and
more general, shall be allowed to pass free and unmolested. And neither
of the contracting parties shall grant, or issue any commission to any
private armed vessels, empowering them to take or destroy such trading
vessels, or interrupt such commerce.
Article 24. And to prevent the destruction of prisoners of war, by
sending them into distant and inclement countries, or by crowding them
into close and noxious places, the two contracting parties solemnly
pledge themselves to each other and the world, that they will not adopt
any such practice; that neither will send the prisoners whom they may
take from the other, into the East Indies or any other parts of Asia or
Africa; but that they shall be placed in some part of their dominions
in Europe or America, in wholesome situations, that they shall not be
confined in dungeons, prison ships, nor prisons, nor be put into irons,
nor bound, nor otherwise restrained in the use of their limbs. That
the officers shall be enlarged, on their paroles, within convenient
districts, and have comfortable quarters, and the common men be disposed
in cantonments, open and extensive enough for air and exercise, and lodged
in barracks as roomy and good, as are provided by the party in whose
power they are, for their own troops; that the officers shall be daily
furnished by the party, in whose power they are, with as many rations,
and of the same articles and quality, as are allowed by them, either in
kind or by commutation, to officers of equal rank in their own army;
and all others shall be daily furnished by them, with such rations as
they allow to a common soldier in their own service; the value whereof
shall be paid by the other party, on a mutual adjustment of accounts
for the subsistence of prisoners, at the close of the war; and the said
accounts shall not be mingled with, or set off against any others, nor
the balances due on them, be withheld as a satisfaction or reprisal for
any other article, or for any other cause, real or pretended, whatever.
That each party shall be allowed to keep a commissary of prisoners, of
their own appointment, with every separate cantonment of prisoners in
possession of the other, which commissary shall see the prisoners as
often as he pleases, shall be allowed to receive and distribute whatever
comforts may be sent to them by their friends, and shall be free to make
his reports in open letters, to those who employ him. But if any officer
shall break his parole, or any other prisoners shall escape from the
limits of his cantonment, after they shall have been designated to him,
such individual officer, or other prisoner, shall forfeit so much of
the benefit of this article, as provides for his enlargement on parole
or cantonment. And it is declared, that either the pretence that war
dissolves all treaties, nor any other whatever, shall be considered as
annulling or suspending this, or the next preceding article, but, on
the contrary, that the state of war is precisely that for which they
are provided, and during which they are to be as sacredly observed, as
the most acknowledged articles in the law of nature and nations.
FOOTNOTE:
[15] The sum actually voted was 50,000,400, but part of it
was for exchange of old bills, without saying how much. It is
presumed that these exchanges absorbed $25,552,783, because
the remainder, 24,447,620, with all the other emissions
preceding Sept. 2, 1779, will amount to 159,918,800, the
sum which Congress declared to be then in circulation.
VI.
_Answers to questions propounded by M. de Meusnier, Jan. 24th, 1786._
1. On the original establishment of the several States, the civil code
of England, from whence they had emigrated, was adopted. This of course
could extend only to general laws, and not to those which were particular
to certain places in England only. The circumstances of the new States
obliged them to add some new laws, which their special situation required,
and even to change some of the general laws of England in cases which did
not suit their circumstances or ways of thinking. The law of descents,
for instance, was changed in several States. On the late revolution, the
changes which their new form of government rendered necessary were easily
made. It was only necessary to say that the powers of legislation, the
judiciary, and the executive powers, heretofore exercised by persons of
such and such description, shall henceforth be exercised by persons to
be appointed in such and such manners. This was what their constitution
did. Virginia thought it might be necessary to examine the whole code
of law, to reform such parts of it as had been calculated to produce
a devotion to monarchy, and to reduce into smaller volume such useful
parts as had become too diffuse. A committee was appointed to execute
this work; they did it; and the Assembly began in October, 1785, the
examination of it, in order to change such parts of the report as might
not meet their approbation, and to establish what they should approve.
We may expect to hear the result of their deliberations about the last
of February next.
I have heard that Connecticut undertook a like work; but I am not sure
of this, nor do I know whether any other of the States have or have not
done the same.
2. The constitution of New Hampshire, established in 1776, having been
expressly made to continue only during the contest with Great Britain,
they proceeded, after the close of that, to form and establish a permanent
one, which they did. The Convention of Virginia which organized their
new government, had been chosen before a separation from Great Britain
had been thought of in their State. They had, therefore, none but the
ordinary powers of legislation. This leaves their act for organizing
the government subject to be altered by every legislative assembly; and
though no general change in it has been made, yet its effect has been
controlled in several special cases. It is therefore thought that that
State will appoint a convention for the special purpose of forming a
stable constitution. I think no change has been made in any other of
the States.
3. The following is a rough estimate of the particular debts of some of
the States as they existed in the year 1784:
New Hampshire $500,000
Rhode Island 5,000,000
Massachusetts 430,000
Connecticut 3,439,086⅔
Virginia 2,300,000.
United States' principal of Foreign
debt nearly $7,000,000.
The principal of the Domestic
debt is somewhere between 27½
millions and 35¼ millions, call
it therefore 31,300,000.
------------
$38,300,000.
The other States not named here, are probably indebted in the same
proportion to their abilities. If so, and we estimate their abilities
by the rule of quotaing them those eight States will owe about fourteen
millions, and consequently the particular debts of all the States will
amount to twenty-five or twenty-six millions of dollars.
5. A particular answer to this question would lead to very minute
details: one general idea, however, may be applied to all the States.
Each having their separate debt, and a determinate proportion of the
Federal debt, they endeavor to lay taxes sufficient to pay the interest
of both of these, and to support their own and the Federal Government.
These taxes are generally about one or one and a-half per cent. on the
value of property; and from two and a-half to five per cent. on foreign
merchandise imported. But the payment of this interest regularly, is not
accomplished in many of the States. The people are as yet not recovered
from the depredations of the war. When that ended their houses were
in ruin, their farms waste, themselves distressed for clothing and
necessaries for their households. They cannot as yet, therefore, bear
heavy taxes. For the payment of the principal no final measures are yet
taken. Some States will have land for sale, the produce of which may
pay the principal debt. Some will endeavor to have an exceeding of their
taxes to be applied as a sinking fund; and all of them look forward to
the increase of population, and of course an increase of productions in
their present taxes, to enable them to be sinking their debt. This is
a general view. Some of the States have not yet made even just efforts
for satisfying either the principal or interest of their public debt.
6. By the close of the year 1785 there had probably passed over about
50,000 emigrants. Most of these were Irish. The greatest number of the
residue were Germans. Philadelphia receives most of them, and next to
that, Baltimore and New York.
7. Nothing is decided as to Vermont. The four northernmost States wish
it to be received into the Union. The Middle and Southern States are
rather opposed to it. But the great difficulty arises with New York,
which claims that territory. In the beginning every individual revolted
at the idea of giving them up. Congress therefore only interfered from
time to time, to prevent the two parties from coming to an open rupture.
In the meanwhile the minds of the New Yorkers have been familiarizing to
the idea of a separation, and I think it will not be long before they
will consent to it. In that case, the Southern and Middle States will
doubtless acquiesce, and Vermont will be received into the Union.
8. LeMaine, a part of the government of Massachusetts, but detached from
it, (the State of New Hampshire lying between,) begins to desire to be
separated. They are very weak in numbers as yet: but whenever they shall
attain a certain degree of population, there are circumstances which
render it highly probable they will be allowed to become a separate
member of the Union.
9. It is believed that the State of Virginia has by this time made a
second cession of lands to Congress, comprehending all those between
the meridian of the mouth of the Great Kanhaway, the Ohio, Mississippi,
and Carolina boundary. Within this lies Kentucky. I believe that their
numbers are sufficient already to entitle them to come into Congress. And
their reception there will only increase the delay necessary for taking
the consent of the several Assemblies. There is no other new State as
yet approaching the time of its reception.
10. The number of Royalists which left New York, South Carolina and
Georgia, when they were evacuated by the British army was considerable,
but I am absolutely unable to conjecture their numbers. From all the
other States, I suppose perhaps two thousand may have gone.
11. The Confederation is a wonderfully perfect instrument, considering
the circumstances under which it was formed. There are, however, some
alterations which experience proves to be wanting. These are principally
three. 1. To establish a general rule for the admission of new States
into the Union. By the confederation no new States, except Canada,
can be permitted to have a vote in Congress without first obtaining
the consent of all the thirteen legislatures. It becomes necessary to
agree what districts may be established into separate States, and at
what period of their population they may come into Congress. The act of
Congress of April 23, 1784, has pointed out what ought to be agreed on,
to say also what number of votes must concur when the number of voters
shall be thus enlarged. 2. The Confederation, in its eighth article,
decides that the quota of money to be contributed by the several States
shall be proportioned to the value of the landed property in the State.
Experience has shown it impracticable to come at this value. Congress
have therefore recommended to the States to agree that their quotas
shall be in proportion to the number of their inhabitants, counting five
slaves, however, but as equal to three free inhabitants. I believe all
the States have agreed to this alteration except Rhode Island. 3. The
Confederation forbids the States individually to enter into treaties of
commerce, or of any other nature, with foreign nations: and it authorizes
Congress to establish such treaties, with two reservations however,
viz., that they shall agree to no treaty which would, 1. restrain the
legislatures from imposing such duties on foreigners as natives are
subject to; or 2., from prohibiting the exportation or importation of
any species of commodities. Congress may therefore be said to have a
power to regulate commerce so far as it can be effected by conventions
with other nations, and by conventions which do not infringe the two
fundamental reservations before mentioned. But this is too imperfect.
Because, till a convention be made with any particular nation, the
commerce of any one of our States with that nation may be regulated by
the State itself, and even when a convention is made, the regulation
of the commerce is taken out of the hands of the several States only so
far as it is covered or provided for by that convention or treaty. But
treaties are made in such general terms, that the greater part of the
regulations would still result to the legislatures. Let us illustrate
these observations by observing how far the commerce of France and
England can be affected by the State Legislatures. As to England, any
one of the legislatures may impose on her goods double the duties which
are paid other nations; may prohibit their goods altogether; may refuse
them the usual facilities for recovering their debts or withdrawing
their property; may refuse to receive their Consuls or to give those
Consuls any jurisdiction. But with France, whose commerce is protected
by a treaty, no State can give any molestation to that commerce which is
defended by the treaty. Thus, though a State may exclude the importation
of all wines (because one of the reservations aforesaid is that they
may prohibit the importation of any species of commodities), yet they
cannot prohibit the importation of French wines, particularly while they
allow wines to be brought in from other countries. They cannot impose
heavier duties on French commodities than on those of other nations. They
cannot throw peculiar obstacles in the way of their recovery of debts
due to them, &c., &c., because those things are provided for by treaty.
Treaties, however, are very imperfect machines for regulating commerce
in the detail. The principal objects in the regulation of our commerce
would be: 1. to lay such duties, restrictions, or prohibitions on the
goods of any particular nation, as might oblige that nation to concur in
just and equal arrangements of commerce. 2. To lay such uniform duties
on the articles of commerce throughout all the States, as may avail
them of that fund for assisting to bear the burthen of public expenses.
Now, this cannot be done by the States separately, because they will not
separately pursue the same plan. New Hampshire cannot lay a given duty
on a particular article unless Massachusetts will do the same, because
it will turn the importation of that article from her ports into those
of Massachusetts, from whence they will be smuggled into New Hampshire by
land. But though Massachusetts were willing to concur with New Hampshire
in laying the same duty, yet she cannot do it for the same reason, unless
Rhode Island will also, nor can Rhode Island without Connecticut, nor
Connecticut without New York, nor New York without New Jersey, and so
on quite to Georgia. It is visible, therefore, that the commerce of the
States cannot be regulated to the best advantage but by a single body,
and no body so proper as Congress. Many of the States have agreed to add
an article to the Confederation for allowing to Congress the regulation
of their commerce, only providing that the revenues to be raised on it
shall belong to the States in which they are levied. Yet it is believed
that Rhode Island will prevent this also. An everlasting recurrence to
this same obstacle will occasion a question to be asked. How happens it
that Rhode Island is opposed to every useful proposition? Her geography
accounts for it, with the aid of one or two observations. The cultivators
of the earth are the most virtuous citizens, and possess most of the
amor patriæ. Merchants are the least virtuous, and possess the least of
the amor patriæ. The latter reside principally in the seaport towns, the
former in the interior country. Now, it happened that of the territory
constituting Rhode Island and Connecticut, the part containing the
seaports was erected into a State by itself, called Rhode Island, and
that containing the interior country was erected into another State
called Connecticut. For though it has a little sea-coast, there are no
good ports in it. Hence it happens that there is scarcely one merchant
in the whole State of Connecticut, while there is not a single man in
Rhode Island who is not a merchant of some sort. Their whole territory is
but a thousand square miles, and what of that is in use is laid out in
grass farms almost entirely. Hence they have scarcely any body employed
in agriculture. All exercise some species of commerce. This circumstance
has decided the characters of these two States. The remedies to this
evil are hazardous. One would be to consolidate the two States into
one. Another would be to banish Rhode Island from the Union. A third, to
compel her submission to the will of the other twelve. A fourth, for the
other twelve to govern themselves according to the new propositions, and
to let Rhode Island go on by herself according to the ancient articles.
But the dangers and difficulties attending all these remedies are obvious.
These are the only alterations proposed to the confederation, and the
last of them is the only additional power which Congress is thought to
need.
12. Congress have not yet ultimately decided at what rates they will
redeem the paper money in the hands of the holders. But a resolution of
1784 has established the principle, so that there can be little doubt but
that the holders of paper money will receive as much real money as the
paper was actually worth at the time they received it, and an interest
of six per cent. from the time they received it. Its worth will be found
in the depreciation table of the State wherein it was received; these
depreciation tables having been formed according to the market price of
the paper money at different epochs.
13. Those who talk of the bankruptcy of the United States, are of two
descriptions: 1. Strangers who do not understand the nature and history
of our paper money. 2. Holders of that paper money who do not wish that
the world should understand it. Thus, when in March, 1780, the paper
money being so far depreciated that forty dollars of it would purchase
only one silver dollar, Congress endeavored to correct the progress of
that depreciation by declaring they would emit no more, and would redeem
what was in circulation at the rate of one dollar of silver for forty of
paper; this was called by the brokers in paper money, a bankruptcy. Yet
these very people who had only given one dollar's worth of provisions,
of manufactures, or perhaps of silver, for their forty dollars, were
displeased that they could not in a moment multiply their silver into
forty. If it were decided that the United States should pay a silver
dollar for every paper dollar they emitted, I am of opinion (conjecturing
from loose data of my memory only as to the amount and true worth of the
sums emitted by Congress and by the several States) that a debt, which
in its just amount is not more, perhaps, than six millions of dollars,
would amount up to four hundred millions, and instead of assessing every
inhabitant with a debt of about two dollars, would fix on him thirty
guineas, which is considerably more than the national debt of England
affixes on each of its inhabitants, and would make a bankruptcy where
there is none. The real just debts of the United States, which were
stated under the third query, will be easily paid by the sale of their
lands, which were ceded on the fundamental condition of being applied
as a sinking fund for this purpose.
14. The whole army of the United States was disbanded at the close of
the war. A few guards only were engaged for their magazines. Lately they
have enlisted some two or three regiments to garrison the posts along
the Northern boundary of the United States.
16. The United States do not own, at present, a single vessel of war;
nor has Congress entered into any resolution on that subject.
17. I conjecture there are six hundred and fifty thousand negroes in
the five southernmost States, and not fifty thousand in the rest. In
most of these latter, effectual measures have been taken for their
future emancipation. In the former, nothing is done towards that. The
disposition to emancipate them is strongest in Virginia. Those who
desire it, form, as yet, the minority of the whole State, but it bears
a respectable portion to the whole in numbers and weight of character,
and it is continually recruiting by the addition of nearly the whole of
the young men as fast as they come into public life. I flatter myself
it will take place there at some period of time not very distant. In
Maryland and North Carolina a very few are disposed to emancipate. In
South Carolina and Georgia, not the smallest symptom of it, but, on the
contrary, these two States, and North Carolina, continue importations
of negroes. These have been long prohibited in all the other States.
18. In Virginia, where a great proportion of the legislature consider the
constitution but as other acts of legislation, laws have been frequently
passed which controlled its effects. I have not heard that in the other
States they have ever infringed their constitution, and I suppose they
have not done it, as the Judges would consider any law as void which was
contrary to the constitution. Pennsylvania is divided into two parties
very nearly equal, the one desiring to change the constitution, the
other opposing a change. In Virginia there is a part of the State which
considers the act for organizing their government as a constitution, and
are content to let it remain; there is another part which considers it
only as an ordinary act of the legislature, who, therefore, wish to form
a real constitution, correcting some defects which have been observed in
the act now in force. Most of the young people as they come into office
arrange themselves on this side, and I think they will prevail ere long.
But there are no heats on this account. I do not know that any of the
other States propose to change their constitution.
19. I have heard of no malversations in office which have been of any
consequence, unless we consider as such some factious transactions in the
Pennsylvania Assembly; or some acts of the Virginia Assembly which have
been contrary to their constitution. The causes of these were explained
in the preceding article.
20. Broils among the States may happen in the following ways: 1. A State
may be embroiled with the other twelve by not complying with the lawful
requisitions of Congress. 2. Two States may differ about their boundaries.
But the method of settling these is fixed by the confederation, and most
of the States which have any differences of this kind, are submitting
them to this mode of determination, and there is no danger of opposition
to the decree by any State. The individuals interested may complain, but
this can produce no difficulty. 3. Other contestations may arise between
two States, such as pecuniary demands, affrays among their citizens, and
whatever else may arise between any two nations, with respect to these,
there are two opinions. One that they are to be decided according to the
ninth article of the confederation, which says that Congress shall be the
last resort in all differences between two or more States, concerning
boundary jurisdiction, _or any other cause whatever_; and prescribes
the mode of decision, and the weight of reason is undoubtedly in favor
of this opinion, yet there are some who question it.
It has been often said that the decisions of Congress are impotent because
the confederation provides no compulsory power. But when two or more
nations enter into compact, it is not usual for them to say what shall
be done to the party who infringes it. Decency forbids this, and it is
as unnecessary as indecent, because the right of compulsion naturally
results to the party injured by the breach. When any one State in the
American Union refuses obedience to the confederation by which they
have bound themselves, the rest have a natural right to compel them to
obedience. Congress would probably exercise long patience before they
would recur to force; but if the case ultimately required it, they would
use that recurrence. Should this case ever arise, they will probably
coerce by a naval force, as being more easy, less dangerous to liberty,
and less likely to produce much bloodshed.
It has been said, too, that our governments, both federal and particular,
want energy; that it is difficult to restrain both individuals and States
from committing wrong. This is true, and it is an inconvenience. On the
other hand, that energy which absolute governments derive from an armed
force, which is the effect of the bayonet constantly held at the breast
of every citizen, and which resembles very much the stillness of the
grave, must be admitted also to have its inconveniences. We weigh the two
together, and like best to submit to the former. Compare the number of
wrongs committed with impunity by citizens among us with those committed
by the sovereign in other countries, and the last will be found most
numerous, most oppressive on the mind, and most degrading of the dignity
of man.
22. The States differed very much in their proceedings as to British
property, and I am unable to give the details. In Virginia, the sums
sequestered in the treasury remain precisely as they did at the conclusion
of the peace. The British having refused to make satisfaction for the
slaves they carried away, contrary to the treaty of peace, and to deliver
up the ports within our limits, the execution of that treaty is in some
degree suspended. Individuals, however, are paying off their debts to
British subjects, and the laws even permit the latter to recover them
judicially. But as the amount of these debts are twenty or thirty times
the amount of all the money in circulation in that State, the same laws
permit the debtor to pay his debts in seven equal and annual payments.
VII.
_Notes on M. Soulés' work._
PARIS, Sept. 13th, 1786.
SIR,--Before the receipt of your favor of the 11th inst. I had
written the enclosed short notes on such parts of your work
as I have been yet able to go over. You will perceive that
the corrections are very trifling. Such as they are, I will
continue them, and forward them to you from time to time as I
get along. I will endeavor also to answer such of the queries
you propose in your letter as my memory will enable me to
do with certainty. Some of them I shall be unable to answer,
having left in America all my notes, memorandums, &c., which
might have enabled me to give you the information you desire.
I have the honor to be, with the most esteem and respect, sir,
Your most obedient humble servant.
M. SOULÉS. TH: JEFFERSON.
_Answers to the queries of M. Soulés._
I am unable to say what was the number of Americans engaged in the affair
of Bunker's Hill. I am able, however, to set right a gross falsehood of
Andrews. He says the Americans there engaged were constantly relieved by
fresh hands. This is entirely untrue. Bunker's Hill (or rather Breed's
hill whereon the action was) is a peninsular joined to the main land by
a neck of land almost level with the water, a few paces wide, and about
one or two hundred toises long. On one side of this neck lay a vessel
of war, and on the other several gun-boats. The body of our army was on
the main land, and only a detachment had been sent into the peninsular.
When the enemy determined to make the attack, they sent the vessel of
war and gun-boats to take the position, before mentioned, to cut off all
reinforcements, which they effectually did. Not so much as a company
could venture to the relief of the men engaged, who therefore fought
through the whole action, and at length were obliged to retire across
the neck through the cross-fire of the vessels before mentioned.
"On the fall of Montgomery and his aids at Quebec, there were present
Colonel Campbell and Major Dubois. Campbell, though having the rank of
colonel, was only of the staff; Dubois was of the line. The usage of
all nations, therefore, authorized the latter to take the command. But
it was a case for which Congress had not yet provided. Campbell availed
himself of this; and believing, on the sight of blood, that all was
lost, ordered a retreat."
The speech to the Indians, in Andrews', page 357, is a little altered
and abridged. You will find the genuine one in the Journal of Congress,
of July, 1775. I do not distinctly enough recollect the anecdote of the
old man's company, related by Andrews, to affirm it in all its parts.
I think I recollect in general that there was such a company.
The questions relative to General Thomas, I could only have answered
indistinctly from my own memory: but fortunately there came to Paris a
few days ago, and will yet continue there a few days, a Colonel Blackden,
an American officer of good understanding and of truth, and who was
at the latter part of the affair of Quebec. He was at the surprise of
Ticonderoga by Allen, and continued with the army until 1781. I have
spoken with him on this subject, and find that he possesses treasures
of details, which will be precious to M. Soulés. Any day that M. Soulés
will do me the honor to come and take a _famille soupe_ with me, (after
the 16th instant,) if he will give me notice in the morning, I will ask
Colonel Blackden to meet him here, and will make them acquainted. He is
perfectly disposed to give all the information in his power to M. Soulés,
and whatever he gives may be relied on. To him, then, I shall refer M.
Soulés for answers to his military questions, and will wait his orders,
recommending despatch, as Colonel Blackden has not long to stay.
The Stamp Act was passed in February, 1765.
What powers the Parliament might rightfully exercise over us, and whether
any, had never been declared either by them or us. They had very early
taken the gigantic step of passing the Navigation Act. The colonies
remonstrated violently against it, and one of them, Virginia, when she
capitulated to the commonwealth of England, expressly capitulated for a
free trade. [See the articles on the Notes on Virginia, p. 201.] This
capitulation, however, was as little regarded as the original right,
restored by it, had been. The navigation act was re-enacted by Charles,
and was enforced. And we had been so long in the habit of seeing them
consider us merely as objects for the extension of their _commerce_, and
of submitting to every duty or regulation imposed with that view, that
we had ceased to complain of them. But when they proposed to consider us
as objects of _taxation_, all the States took the alarm. Yet so little
had we attended to this subject, that our advocates did not at first
know on what ground to take their stand. Mr. Dickenson, a lawyer of
more ingenuity than sound judgment, and still more timid than ingenious,
not daring to question the authority to regulate commerce so as best to
answer their own purpose, to which we had so long submitted, admitted
that authority in its utmost extent. He acknowledged * * * * * that they
could levy duties, internal or external, payable in Great Britain or in
the States. He only required that these duties should be bonâ fide for
the _regulation_ of commerce, and not to raise a solid _revenue_. He
admitted, therefore, that they might control our commerce, but not tax
us. This mysterious system took, for a moment, in America as well as in
Europe. But sounder heads saw in the first moment, that he who could put
down the loom, could stop the spinning wheel, and he who could stop the
spinning wheel could tie the hands which turned it. They saw that this
flimsey fabric could not be supported. Who were to be judges whether
duties were imposed with a view to burthen and suppress a branch of
manufacture, or to raise a revenue? If either party, exclusively of the
other, it was plain where that would end. If both parties, it was plain
where that would end also. They saw, therefore, no sure clue to lead
them out of their difficulties but reason and right. They dared to follow
them, assured that they alone could lead them to defensible ground. The
first elements of reason showed that the members of Parliament could have
no power which the people of the several counties had not. That these
had naturally a power over their own farms, and, collectively, over all
England. That if they had any power over counties out of England, it must
be founded on compact or force. No compact could be shown, and neither
party chose to bottom their pretensions on force. It was objected that
this annihilated the navigation act. True, it does. The navigation act,
therefore, becomes a proper subject of treaty between the two nations.
Or if Great Britain does not choose to have its basis questioned, let
us go on as we have done. Let no new shackles be imposed, and we will
continue to submit to the old. We will consider the restrictions on
our commerce, now actually existing, as compensations yielded by us for
the protection and privileges we actually enjoy, only trusting that if
Great Britain, on a revisal of these restrictions, is sensible that some
of them are useless to her and oppressive to us, she will repeal them.
But on this she shall be free. Place us in the condition we were when
the king came to the throne, let us rest so, and we will be satisfied.
This was the ground on which all the States very soon found themselves
rallied, and that there was no other which could be defended.
I will now proceed with remarks on the history. I do not think that M.
Soulés mentioned the affair of the Cedars, which happened in April, 1775.
This was an affair of no small importance. A committee was appointed by
Congress to institute inquiries concerning it, as may be seen by the
journal of June 14, 1776. The report of that committee is inserted in
the journal of July the 10th, and I can assure M. Soulés, that the facts
therein stated were proved unhesitatingly to the committee by witnesses
present at the transactions, and who were on watch. I have the originals
of that inquiry in my possession in America. The Captain Foster therein
mentioned, was afterwards taken with Burgoyne's army, though permitted
to go at large on his parole. He was not received into any American
company, nor did the British officers, his fellow-prisoners, choose to
be seen in company with him--so detestable had been the transaction,
&c. Vol. i. p. 324. I have been very well informed, that during all
the latter part of the defence, the garrison were obliged to return the
cannon balls of the enemy, with which, indeed, the ground was covered,
having none of their own left.
Page 325. "Il Peut un Serjent," &c. This particular truly related in
Andrews.
Page 5. "Ils en vinrent," &c. See the journal of Congress. That it was
on that day put off to the 1st of July. This was done at the instance
of the members opposed to it. The friends of the resolution objected,
that if it were not agreed to till the 1st of July, they would after
that have to frame a Declaration of Independence, and that more time
would then be lost. It was therefore agreed between the two, that the
resolution should be put off till the 1st of July; and that a committee
should be immediately appointed to draw a Declaration of Independence,
conformable to the resolution, should it be adopted. A committee was
accordingly appointed the next day. On the 1st of July the resolution
was proposed, and when ready for a vote, a State required it to be put
off till the next day. It was done, and was passed the next day, 2d of
July. The Declaration of Independence was debated the 2d, 3d and 4th
days of July, and on the last of these was passed and signed.
Page 6th. A "se retirèrent ensuite du Congres." I do not remember that
the delegates of Maryland retired from Congress, and I think I could not
have forgotten such a fact. On the contrary, I find by the journal of
Congress, that they were present, and acting on the 11th, 12th, 17th,
18th and 24th of June.
Page 7. A "la plus grande partie." It should rather be the most important
parts.
Page 7, 6. "Les états ferraient encore aujourd'hui partie de l'empire
Britannique." M. Soulés may be assured that the submission of the States
could not have been effected but by a long course of disasters, and such,
too, as were irreparable in their nature. Their resources were great,
and their determination so rooted, that they would have tried the last
of them. I am as satisfied as I can be of anything, that the conjecture
here stated would not have been verified by the event.
Page 14. "Provinces unis," should not this always be "états unis?"
Page 15. "Mais qu'on pouvoir aussi les interpreter," &c. His exact answer
was, "That it was true the, &c. might include _anything_, but that might
also include _nothing_."
Page 16. "Tant de confiance," &c. Their main confidence was in their own
resources. They considered foreign aid as probable and desirable, but
not essential. I believe myself, from the whole of what I have seen of
our resources and perseverance, that had we never received any foreign
aid, we should not have obtained our independence. But that we should
have made a peace with Great Britain on any terms we pleased short of
that, which would have been a subjection to the same king, a union of
force in war, &c. 2. That had France supplied us plentifully with money,
suppose about four millions of guineas a year, without entering into the
war herself at all, we should have established our independence, but it
would have cost more time and blood, but less money. 3. That France,
aiding us as she did, with money and forces, shortened much the time,
lessened the expense of blood, but at a greater expense of money to her
than would have otherwise been requisite.
Page 18. "_L'extremité_ septentrional," &c. I think the word "cotè"
would be better adapted than "extremité" to the form of the island.
Page 21. "3000 hommes," inquire of Colonel Blackden.
Perhaps the propositions of Congress to the Hessians may be worth
mentioning. See their journals, 1776, Aug. 14.
I will make a general observation here on the events of Long Island,
New York, &c., at this time. The maxim laid down by Congress to their
generals was, that not a foot of territory was to be ceded to their
enemies where there was a possibility of defending it. In consequence
of these views, and against his own judgment, General Washington was
obliged to fortify and attempt to defend the city of New York. But that
could not be defended without occupying the heights on Long Island which
commanded the city of New York. He was therefore obliged to establish
a strong detachment in Long Island to defend those heights. The moment
that detachment was routed, which he had much expected, his first object
was to withdraw them, and his second to evacuate New York. He did this,
therefore, immediately, and without waiting any movement of the enemy.
He brought off his whole baggage, stores and other implements, without
leaving a single article except the very heaviest of his cannon and
things of little value. I well remember his letter to Congress, wherein
he expressed his wonder that the enemy had given him this leisure, as,
from the heights they had got possession of, they might have compelled
him to a very precipitate retreat. This was one of the instances where
our commanding officers were obliged to conform to popular views, though
they foresaw certain loss from it. Had he proposed at first to abandon
New York, he might have been abandoned himself. An obedience to popular
will cost us an army in Charleston in the year 1779.
Page 30. "Une fuite precipiteé." It was a leisurely retreat as I have
before observed.
Page 41. "Que je n'ai prie obtener que d'un anglais." Colonel Blackden
can probably give M. Soulés good intelligence on this affair. I think
I recollect the slaughter on Kniphauser's side to have been very great.
Volume 3. "Si dans son institution," &c.
This is a luminous idea, and worthy of being a little more developed.
It places the question between Great Britain and America in the simplest
form possible. No Englishman will pretend that a right to participate in
government can be derived from any other source than a personal right,
or a right of property. The conclusion is inevitable that he, who had
neither his _person_ nor _property_ in America, could rightfully assume
a participation in its government.
Page 17. The seeds of the war are here traced to their true source. The
tory education of the King was the first preparation for that change
in the British government which that party never ceases to wish. This
naturally ensured tory administrations during his life. At the moment
he came to the throne and cleared his hands of his enemies by the peace
of Paris, the assumptions of unwarrantable right over America commenced.
They were so signal, and followed one another so close, as to prove they
were part of a system, either to reduce it under absolute subjection,
and thereby make it an instrument for attempts on Britain itself, or
to sever it from Britain, so that it might not be a weight in the whig
scale. This latter alternative, however, was not considered as the one
which would take place. They knew so little of America, that they thought
it unable to encounter the little finger of Great Britain. M. de Soulés
has well developed this subject. He is best judge whether anything more
need be said on this subject.
Page 43. "Se le ministere anglais avoit eu la patience d'attendre," &c.
Having seen and intimately known the positions of the Americans at that
moment, I am certain that this conjecture would not have been verified.
The determined resolution with which they met every effort of the
ministry, whether made in the form of force, fraud, or persuasion, gives
us a moral certainty they would have been equally immoveable, if tried
in the way of privation here proposed.
Page 51. The substitution of Gage for Hutchinson was not intended as
a favor, but, by putting the civil government into military hands, was
meant to show they would enforce their measures by arms. See page 109,
where Congress makes it one of their grievances.
Page 102. "Plusieurs criminals," &c. Notwithstanding the laws the English
made, I think they never ventured to carry a single person to be tried
in England. They knew that reprisals would be made, and probably on the
person of the governor who ventured on the measure.
Page 149. The fact that the English commenced hostilities at Lexington
being proved beyond question by us, and even acknowledged by the English,
justice requires it should be plainly asserted and left clear of doubt.
Few of the facts which history asserts and relies on, have been so well
established.
Page 150. "L'humanité des Britons." I doubt whether this is the character
of the nation in general. But this history, and every one which is
impartial, must in its relation of this war show, in such repeated
instances, that they conducted it, both in theory and practice, on the
most barbarous principles, that the expression here cited will stand
in contradiction to the rest of the work. As examples of their theory,
recollect the act of Parliament for constraining our prisoners, taken
on the sea, to bear arms against their fathers, brothers, &c. For their
practice, recollect the exciting the savages against us, insurrections
of our slaves, sending our prisoners to the East Indies, killing them in
prison ships, keeping them on half rations, and of the most unwholesome
quality, cruel murders of unarmed individuals of every sex, massacres
of those in arms after they had asked quarters, &c., &c.
Page 150. "A cé que l'on dét à 20,000 hommes." It was of 22,000 men.
I was in a situation to know the fact from General Washington's own
information.
Page 158. 1. 8. Strike out "ét probablement," and insert "mais
veritablement." I remember the fact well, and the leading persons of
Connecticut, and particularly their delegates in Congress made no secret,
that their object was to overawe New York into its duty. Page 159. "Et
fut resolvè de la reduire [_i. e._, nouvelle York] en cendre." This was
proposed and considered in Congress, but they refused to come to this
resolution, nor do I recollect that any other body resolved it.
Page 163. _Doctor_ Franklin has been called by that title as early as
1760, within my own knowledge; I do not know how much longer.
His quality in France was that of Minister Plenipotentiary, and not as
Ambassador. We have never appointed an Ambassador. France offered to
receive one.
Page 166. The English set fire to Charleston. Query, as to the number
of their killed.
Page 180. 181. Gates was and still is an inhabitant of Virginia. He
never lived in any other State.
Page 190. "M. Arnold avoit formé une entreprise," &c. I never understood
that he formed this enterprise, nor do I believe he did. I heard and
saw all General Washington's letters on this subject. I do not think he
mentioned Arnold as author of the proposition, yet he was always just
in ascribing to every officer the merit of his own works; and he was
disposed particularly in favor of Arnold. This officer is entitled to
great merit in the execution, but to ascribe to him that of having formed
the enterprise, is probably to ascribe to him what belongs to General
Washington or some other person.
Page 209. "Et qu' il ne leur fut plus permis de lever la milice, &c." They
had formerly had a law on the subject of invasions and insurrections,
which was of a perpetual tenor. They altered this law by one which was
to be in force for a certain term of years only. That term of years
effluxed at this time, the altering law expired, and therefore, the
old one resumed its vigor. It was very imperfect, yet they chose to act
under the color of that rather than without any color of law.
Page 216. "Dont elles se plaignorent." This seems to be the proper place
to rectify a small error in the arrangement of facts, and to state the
answer to the conciliatory proposition, which was, in truth, the first
work of the Assembly. I have not here the journals of the Assembly,
but there are certain circumstances which render it impossible for my
memory to lead me astray. I was under appointment to attend the general
Congress; but knowing the importance of the answer to be given to the
conciliatory proposition, and that our leading whig characters were
then in Congress, I determined to attend on the Assembly, and, though
a young member, to take on myself the carrying through an answer to the
proposition. The Assembly met the 1st of June. I drew and proposed the
answer, and carried it through the house with very little alteration,
against the opposition of our timid members who wish to speak a different
language. This was finished before the 11th of June, because on that
day, I set out from Williamsburg to Philadelphia, and was the bearer of
an authenticated copy of this instrument to Congress. The effect it had
in fortifying their minds, and in deciding their measures, renders its
true date important; because only Pennsylvania had as yet answered the
proposition. Virginia was the second. It was known how Massachusetts
would answer it, and the example of these three principal colonies would
determine the measures of all the others, and of course the fate of the
proposition. Congress received it therefore, with much satisfaction. The
Assembly of Virginia did not deliver the answer to Lord Dunmore till
late in the session. They supposed it would bring on a dissolution of
their body whenever they should deliver it to him; and they wished
previously to get some important acts passed. For this reason they kept
it up. I think that Lord Dunmore did not quit the Metropolis till he
knew that the answer framed by the house was a rejection of the
proposition, though that answer was not yet communicated to him regularly.
Page 231. "Quelques certaines de blancs." These were composed principally
of Scotch merchants and factors, and some few English, who had settled
in the country. I doubt whether there was a single native among them. If
M. Soulés could therefore characterize more particularly who they were
who joined Lord Dunmore, it would be an agreeable act of justice to the
natives.
Page 283. "Les Americains qui avoit joint Milord Dunmore." The same
observation applies to this.
Page 245. "Pendant l'eté, le congres general avoit eté occupé à dresser
un plan pour former une confederation." It is necessary to set to rights
here a fact which has been mistaken by every person who has written on
this subject. I will do it from a perfect recollection of facts, but my
memory does not enable me to state the date exactly. I was absent from
Congress from the beginning of January, 1776, to the middle of May.
Either just before I left Congress, or immediately on my return to it,
(I rather think it was the former,) Doctor Franklin put into my hands
the draught of a plan of Confederation, desiring me to read it, and
tell him what I thought of it. I approved it highly. He showed it to
others. Some thought as I did; others were revolted at it. We found it
could not be passed, and the proposing it to Congress as the subject for
any vote whatever would startle many members so much, that they would
suspect we had lost sight of reconciliation with Great Britain, and that
we should lose much more ground than we should gain by the proposition.
Yet, that the idea of a more firm bond of union than the undefined one
under which we then acted might be suggested and permitted to grow,
Doctor Franklin informed Congress that he had sketched the outlines of an
instrument which might become necessary at a future day, if the minority
continued pertinacious, and would ask leave for it to lay on the table of
Congress, that the members might in the meantime be turning the subject
in their minds, and have something more perfect prepared by the time it
should become necessary. This was agreed to by the timid members, only
on condition, that no entry whatever should be made in the journals of
Congress relative to this instrument. This was to continue in force only
till a reconciliation with Great Britain. This was all that ever was done
or proposed in Congress on the subject of a Confederation before June
1776, when the proposition was regularly made to Congress, a committee
appointed to draw an instrument of Confederation, who accordingly drew
one, very considerably differing from the sketch of Doctor Franklin.
Page 294. "Il est á croire qu'il y avoit quelque convention." It is well
known that there was such a convention. It was never made a secret of,
on our part. I do not exactly recollect its terms, but I believe they
were what M. Soulés states.
Page 301. "La petite verole." I have been informed by officers who were
on the spot, and whom I believe myself, that this disorder was sent into
our army designedly by the commanding officer in Quebec. It answered
his purpose effectually.
VIII.
_Observations on the letter of Monsieur de Calonnes, to Monsieur
Jefferson, dated Fontainebleau, October 22d, 1786._
A committee was appointed, in the course of the last year, to take a
view of the subjects of commerce which might be brought from the United
States of America, in exchange for those of France, and to consider what
advantages and facilities might be offered to encourage that commerce.
The letter of Monsieur de Calonnes was founded on their report. It
was conclusive as to the articles on which satisfactory information
had been then obtained, and reserved for future consideration certain
others needing further enquiry. It is proposed, now, to review those
unfinished articles, that they also may be comprehended in the Arrêt,
and the regulations on this branch of commerce be rendered complete.
1st. The letter promises to diminish the Droits du roi et d'amirauté,
payable by an American vessel entering into a port of France, and to
reduce what should remain into a single duty, which shall be regulated by
the draught of the vessel, or her number of masts. It is doubted whether
it will be expedient to regulate the duty in either of these ways. If by
the draught of water, it will fall unequally on us as a Nation; because
we build our vessels sharp-bottomed, for swift sailing, so that they draw
more water than those of other nations, of the same burthen; if by the
number of masts, it will fall unequally on individuals, because we often
see ships of one hundred and eighty tons, and brigs of three hundred
and sixty. This, then, would produce an inequality among individuals of
six to one. The present principle is the most just, to regulate by the
burthen.
It is certainly desirable that these duties should be reduced to a single
one. Their names and numbers perplex and harass the merchant more than
their amount, subject him to imposition, and to the suspicion of it where
there is none. An intention of general reformation in this article has
been accordingly announced[16] with augmentation as to foreigners. We
are in hopes that this augmentation is not to respect us; because it is
proposed as a measure of reciprocity; whereas, in some of our States no
such duties exist, and in others they are extremely light; because we have
been made to hope a diminution instead of augmentation; and because this
distinction cannot draw on France any just claims from other nations, the
_Jura gentis amicissimæ_ conferred by her late treaties having reference
expressly to the nations of Europe only; and those conferred by the
more ancient ones not being susceptible of any other interpretation, nor
admitting a pretension of reference to a nation which did not then exist,
and which has come into existence under circumstances distinguishing
its commerce from that of all other nations. Merchandise received from
them take employment from the poor of France; ours give it; theirs is
brought in the last stage of manufacture, ours in the first; we bring
our tobaccoes to be manufactured into snuff, our flax and hemps into
linen and cordage, our furs into hats, skins into saddlery, shoes, and
clothing; we take nothing till it has received the last hand.
2d. Fish-oils. The Hanseatic treaty was the basis on which the diminution
of duty on this article was asked and granted. It is expressly referred
to as such in the letter of Monsieur de Calonnes. Instead, however, of
the expression "huile et graisse de baleine and d'autres poissons" used
in that treaty, the letter uses the terms "huiles de baleine, spermaceti,
et tout ce qui est compris sous ces denominations." And the farmers have
availed themselves of this variation to refuse the diminution of duty on
the oils of the vache marine, chien de mer, esturgeon, and other fish.
It is proposed, therefore, to re-establish in the Arrêt the expressions
of the Hanseatic treaty, and to add from the same treaty the articles
"baleine coupee et fanon de baleine."
The letter states these regulations as finally made by the King. The
merchants on this supposition entered into speculations. But they found
themselves called on for the old duties, not only on other fish oils, but
on the whale oil. Monsieur de Calonnes always promised that the Arrêt
should be retrospective to the date of the letter, so as to refund to
them the duties they had thus been obliged to pay. To this attention
is prayed in forming the Arrêt. His majesty having been pleased, as
an encouragement to the importation of our fish oils, to abolish the
Droits de fabrication, it is presumed that the purpose [17]announced of
continuing those duties on foreign oils will not be extended to us.
3d. Rice. The duty on this is only seven and a half deniers the quintal,
or about one-quarter per cent. on its first cost. While this serves to
inform the government of the quantities imported, it cannot discourage
that importation. Nothing further, therefore, is necessary on this
article.
4th. Potash. This article is of principal utility to France in her
bleacheries of linen, glass-works, and soap-works; and the potash of
America, being made of green wood, is known to be the best in the world.
All duty on it was therefore abolished by the King. But the city of Rouen
levies on it a duty of twenty sols the quintal, which is very sensible
in its price, brings it dearer to the bleacheries near Paris, to those
of Beauvais, Laval Company, and to the glass-works, and encourages them
to give a preference to the potash or soda of other nations. This is a
counteraction of the views of the King expressed in the letter, which
it is hoped will be prevented.
5th. Turpentine, tar, and pitch, were not decided on the former occasion.
Turpentine (Terebenthine) pays ten sols the quintal, and ten sols the
livre, making fifteen sols the quintal; which is ten per cent. on its
prime cost. Tar, (goudron, braigras) pays eight livres the leth of twelve
barrels, and ten sols the livre, amounting to twenty sols the barrel,
which is twelve and a half per cent. on its prime cost. Pitch (brai
sec) pays ten sols the quintal, and ten sols the livre, making fifteen
sols the quintal, which is twenty per cent. on its prime cost. Duties
of from ten to twenty per cent. on articles of heavy carriage, prevent
their importation. They eat up all the profits of the merchant, and
often subject him to loss. This has been much the case with respect to
turpentine, tar, and pitch, which are a principal article of remittance
for the State of North Carolina. It is hoped that it will coincide with
the views of government in making the present regulations, to suppress
the duties on these articles, which of all others can bear them least.
FOOTNOTES:
[16] Memoires presentées à l'assemblée des Notables, page 53.
[17] Memoires presentées ex. page 51, 52.
IX.
[18]_Proposals for concerted operation among the powers at war with
the piratical States of Barbary, November 1786._
1. It is proposed that the several powers at war with the piratical
States of Barbary, (or any two or more of them who shall be willing,)
shall enter into a convention to carry on their operations against those
States in concert, beginning with the Algerines.
2. This convention shall remain open to any other power who shall, at
any future time, wish to accede to it: the parties reserving a right to
prescribe the conditions of such accession according to the circumstances
existing at the time it shall be proposed.
3. The object of the convention shall be to compel the piratical States
to perpetual peace, without price, and to guarantee that peace to each
other.
4. The operations for obtaining that peace shall be constant cruises
on their coast, with a naval force to be agreed on. It is not proposed
that this force shall be so considerable as to be inconvenient to any
party. It is believed that half a dozen frigates, with as many tenders,
or xebecks, one half of which shall be on cruise while the other half
is at rest, will suffice.
5. The force agreed to be necessary, shall be furnished by the parties
in certain quotas now to be fixed: it being expected that each will be
willing to contribute in such proportion as circumstances may render
reasonable.
6. As miscarriages often proceed from the want of harmony among officers
of different nations, the parties shall now consider and decide, whether
it shall not be better to contribute their quotas in money, to be employed
in fitting out and keeping on duty, a single fleet of the force agreed
on.
7. The difficulties and delays too, which will attend the management
of these operations, if conducted by the parties themselves separately,
distant as their courts may be from one another, and incapable of meeting
in consultation, suggest a question whether it will not be better
for them to give full powers for that purpose to their ambassador or
other minister resident at some one court of Europe, who shall form a
committee or council for carrying this convention into effect; wherein
the vote of each member shall be computed in proportion to the quota
of his sovereign, and the majority, so computed, shall prevail in all
questions within the view of this convention. The court of Versailles
is proposed, on account of its neighborhood to the Mediterranean, and
because all those powers are represented there who are likely to become
parties to this convention.
8. To save to that council the embarrassment of personal solicitations
for office, and to assure the parties that their contributions will be
applied solely to the object for which they are destined, there shall be
no establishment of officers for the said council, such as Commissaries,
Secretaries, or of any other kind, with either salaries or perquisites,
nor any other lucrative appointments, but such as whose functions are
to be exercised on board of the said vessels.
9. Should war arise between any two of the parties to this convention,
it shall not extend to this enterprise, nor interrupt it; but as to this
they shall be reputed at peace.
10. When Algiers shall be reduced to peace, the other piratical States,
if they refuse to discontinue their piracies, shall become the objects
of this convention either successively or together, as shall seem best.
11. Where this convention would interfere with treaties actually existing
between any of the parties and of the said States of Barbary, the treaty
shall prevail, and such party shall be allowed to withdraw from the
operations against that State.
FOOTNOTE:
[18] [This plan was approved by Portugal, Naples, the
two Sicilies, Venice, Denmark, and Sweden. France seemed
favorably disposed. Spain alone, having just concluded
a treaty with Algiers, was indisposed. In this state of
things, the plan was communicated to Congress, together
with information that we would be expected to maintain a
frigate towards its execution. Unfortunately, the supplies
of the Treasury were so uncertain, that Congress were not
willing to enter into an engagement which they might not
be able to fulfil, and thus the plan failed.--ED.]
X.
_To the Editor of the Journal de Paris._
PARIS, August 29, 1787
SIR,--I am a citizen of the United States of America, and have passed in
those States almost the whole of my life. When young, I was passionately
fond of reading books of history and travels. Since the commencement of
the late revolution which separated us from Great Britain, our country
too, has been thought worthy to employ the pens of historians and
travellers. I cannot paint to you, Sir, the agonies which these have
cost me, in obliging me to renounce these favorite branches of reading,
and in discovering to me at length, that my whole life has been employed
in nourishing my mind with fables and falsehoods. For thus I reason. If
the histories of d'Auberteuil and of Longchamps, and the travels of the
Abbé Robin can be published in the face of the world, and can be read
and believed by those who are cotemporary with the events they pretend
to relate, how may we expect that future ages shall be better informed?
Will those rise from their graves to bear witness to the truth, who would
not, while living, lift their voices against falsehood? If cotemporary
histories are thus false, what will future compilations be? And what are
all those of preceding times? In your journal of this day, you announce
and criticise a book under the title of "les ligues Acheenne, Suisse,
& Hollandoise, et revolution des etats unis d'e l'Amerique par M. de
Mayer." I was no part of the Achaean, Swiss or Dutch confederacies, and
have therefore nothing to say against the facts related of them. And
you cite only one fact from his account of the American revolution. It
is in these words: "Monsieur Mayer assure qu'une seule voix, un seul
homme, prononça l'independance des Etats unis. Ce fut, dit il, John
Dickinson, un des Deputés de la Pensilvanie au Congrés. La veille, il
avoit vôté pour la soumission. L'egalité des suffrages avoit suspendu
la resolution; s'il eut persisté, le Congrés ne deliberoit point, il
fut foible: il ceda aux instances de ceux qui avoient plus d'energie,
plus d'eloquence, et plus de lumieres; il donna sa voix: l'Amerique lui
doit une reconnaissance eternelle; c'est Dickinson qui l'a affranchie."
The modesty and candor of Mr. Dickinson himself, Sir, would disavow
every word of this paragraph, except these--"il avoit voté pour la
soumission." These are true, every other tittle false. I was on the
spot, and can relate to you this transaction with precision. On the
7th of June, 1776, the delegates from Virginia moved, in obedience to
instructions from their constituents, that Congress should declare the
thirteen united colonies to be independent of Great Britain, that a
confederation should be formed to bind them together, and measures be
taken for procuring the assistance of foreign powers. The House ordered
a punctual attendance of all their members the next day at ten o'clock,
and then resolved themselves into a committee of the whole and entered
on the discussion. It appeared in the course of the debates that seven
States: viz., New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut,
Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia, were decided for a separation;
but that six others still hesitated, to wit: New York, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and South Carolina. Congress, desirous
of unanimity, and seeing that the public mind was advancing rapidly to
it, referred the further discussion to the first of July, appointing,
in the mean time, a committee to prepare a declaration of independence,
a second to form articles for the confederation of the States, and a
third to propose measures for obtaining foreign aid. On the 28th of
June, the Declaration of Independence was reported to the House, and was
laid on the table for the consideration of the members. On the first
day of July, they resolved themselves into a committee of the whole,
and resumed the consideration of the motion of June 7th. It was debated
through the day, and at length was decided in the affirmative by the
vote of nine States: viz., New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island,
Connecticut, _New Jersey_, _Maryland_, Virginia, North Carolina, and
Georgia. Pennsylvania and South Carolina voted against it. Delaware,
having but two members present, was divided. The delegates from New
York declared they were for it, and their constituents also; but that
the instructions against it which had been given them a twelvemonth
before, were still unrepealed; that their convention was to meet in a
few days, and they asked leave to suspend their vote till they could
obtain a repeal of their instructions. Observe that all this was in a
committee of the whole Congress, and that according to the mode of their
proceedings, the resolution of that committee to declare themselves
independent, was to be put to the same persons re-assuming their form as
a Congress. It was now evening, the members exhausted by a debate of nine
hours, during which all the powers of the soul had been distended with
the magnitude of the object--without refreshment, without a pause--and
the delegates of South Carolina desired that the final decision might
be put off to the next morning, that they might still weigh in their
own minds their ultimate vote. It was put off, and in the morning of
the second of July they joined the other nine States in voting for it.
The members of the Pennsylvania delegation too, who had been absent
the day before, came in and turned the vote of their State in favor of
independence; and a third member of the State of Delaware, who, hearing
of the division in the sentiments of his two colleagues, had travelled
post to arrive in time, now came in and decided the vote of that State
also for the resolution. Thus twelve States voted for it at the time
of its passage, and the delegates of New York, the thirteenth State,
received instructions within a few days to add theirs to the general
vote: so that, instead of the "egalité des suffrages" spoken of by M.
Mayer, there was not a dissenting voice. Congress proceeded immediately
to consider the Declaration of Independence which had been reported by
their committee on the 28th of June. The several paragraphs of that were
debated for three days: viz., the second, third, and fourth of July. In
the evening of the fourth they were finally closed, and the instrument
approved by an unanimous vote and signed by every member, _except Mr.
Dickinson_. Look into the Journal of Congress of that day, Sir, and
you will see the instrument and the names of the signers, and that Mr.
Dickinson's name is not among them. Then read again those words of your
paper: "il (M. Mayer) assure qu'une seule voix, un seul homme, prononça
l'independance des etats unis, ce fut John Dickinson--l'Amerique lui
doit une reconnoissance eternel; c'est Dickinson qui l'a affranchie."
With my regrets, and my adieus to history, to travels, to Mayer, and
to you, Sir, permit me to mingle assurances of the great respect with
which I have the honor to be, Sir, your most obedient and most humble
servant.
XI.
_Memoranda taken on a journey from Paris into the southern parts of
France, and northern of Italy, in the year 1787._
CHAMPAGNE. March 3. _Sens_ to _Vermanton_. The face of the country is
in large hills, not too steep for the plough, somewhat resembling the
Elk hill, and Beaver-dam hills of Virginia. The soil is generally a rich
mulatto loam, with a mixture of coarse sand and some loose stone. The
plains of the Yonne are of the same color. The plains are in corn, the
hills in vineyard, but the wine not good. There are a few apple trees,
but none of any other kind, and no inclosures. No cattle, sheep, or
swine; fine mules.
Few châteaux; no farm-houses, all the people being gathered in villages.
Are they thus collected by that dogma of their religion, which makes them
believe, that to keep the Creator in good humor with his own works, they
must mumble a mass every day? Certain it is, that they are less happy
and less virtuous in villages, than they would be insulated with their
families on the grounds they cultivate. The people are illy clothed.
Perhaps they have put on their worst clothes at this moment, as it is
raining. But I observe women and children carrying heavy burthens, and
laboring with the hoe. This is an unequivocal indication of extreme
poverty. Men, in a civilized country, never expose their wives and
children to labor above their force and sex, as long as their own labor
can protect them from it. I see few beggars. Probably this is the effect
of a police.
BURGUNDY. March 4. _Lucy le bois._ _Cussy les forges._ _Rouvray._
_Maison-neuve._ _Vitteaux._ _La Chaleure._ _Pont de Panis._ _Dijon._ The
hills are higher and more abrupt. The soil, a good red loam and sand,
mixed with more or less grit, small stone, and sometimes rock. All in
corn. Some forest wood here and there, broom, whins and holly, and a
few inclosures of quick hedge. Now and then a flock of sheep.
The people are well clothed, but it is Sunday. They have the appearance
of being well fed. The Château de Sevigny, near Cussy les forges, is
a charming situation. Between Maisonneuve and Vitteaux the road leads
through an avenue of trees, eight American miles long, in a right line.
It is impossible to paint the ennui of this avenue. On the summits of the
hills which border the valley in which Vitteaux is, there is a parapet
of rock, twenty, thirty, or forty feet perpendicular, which crowns the
hills. The tops are nearly level, and appear to be covered with earth.
Very singular. Great masses of rock in the hills between la Chaleure
and Pont de Panis, and a conical hill in the approach to the last place.
_Dijon._ The tavern price of a bottle of the best wine (_e. g._ of Vaune)
is four livres. The best round potatoes here I ever saw. They have begun
a canal thirty feet wide, which is to lead into the Saone at ----. It
is fed by springs. They are not allowed to take any water out of the
riviere d'Ouche, which runs through this place, on account of the mills
on that river. They talk of making a canal to the Seine, the nearest
navigable part of which at present is fifteen leagues from hence. They
have very light wagons here for the transportation of their wine. They
are long and narrow; the fore wheels as high as the hind. Two pieces
of wine are drawn by one horse in one of these wagons. The road in this
part of the country is divided into portions of forty or fifty feet by
stones, numbered, which mark the task of the laborers.
March 7 and 8. From _la Baraque_ to _Chagny_. On the left are plains
which extend to the Saone, on the right the ridge of mountains called
the Cote. The plains are of a reddish-brown, rich loam, mixed with much
small stone. The Cote has for its basis a solid rock, on which is about
a foot of soil and small stone, in equal quantities, the soil red and of
middling quality. The plains are in corn; the Cote in vines. The former
have no inclosures, the latter is in small ones of dry stone wall. There
is a good deal of forest. Some small herds of small cattle and sheep.
Fine mules, which come from Provence, and cost twenty louis. They break
them at two years old, and they last to thirty.
The corn lands here rent for about fifteen livres the arpent. They are
now planting, pruning, and sticking their vines. When a new vineyard is
made, they plant the vines in gutters about four feet apart. As the vines
advance, they lay them down. They put out new shoots, and fill all the
intermediate space, till all trace of order is lost. They have ultimately
about one foot square to each vine. They begin to yield good profit at
five or six years old, and last one hundred, or one hundred and fifty
years. A vigneron at Voulenay carried me into his vineyard, which was
of about ten arpents. He told me that some years it produced him sixty
pieces of wine, and some, not more than three pieces. The latter is the
most advantageous produce, because the wine is better in quality, and
higher in price in proportion as less is made, and the expenses at the
same time diminish in the same proportion. Whereas, when much is made,
the expenses are increased, while the price and quality become less.
In very plentiful years, they often give one half the wine for casks
to contain the other half. The cask for two hundred and fifty bottles,
costs six livres in scarce years, and ten in plentiful. The Feuillette
is of one hundred and twenty-five bottles, the Piece of two hundred and
fifty, and the Queue or Botte, of five hundred. An arpent rents at from
twenty to sixty livres. A farmer of ten arpents has about three laborers
engaged by the year. He pays four louis to a man, and half as much to a
woman, and feeds them. He kills one hog, and salts it, which is all the
meat used in the family during the year. Their ordinary food is bread
and vegetables. At Pommard and Voulenay, I observed them eating good
wheat bread; at Meursault, rye. I asked the reason of this difference.
They told me that the white wines fail in quality much oftener than the
red, and remain on hand. The farmer, therefore, cannot afford to feed his
laborers so well. At Meursault, only white wines are made, because there
is too much stone for the red. On such slight circumstances depends the
condition of man! The wines which have given such celebrity to Burgundy,
grow only on the Cote, an extent of about five leagues long, and half a
league wide. They begin at Chambertin, and go through Vougeau, Romanie,
Veaune, Nuys, Beaune, Pommard, Voulenay, Meursault, and end at Monrachet.
Those of the two last are white, the others red. Chambertin, Vougeau
and Neaune are strongest, and will bear transportation and keeping. They
sell, therefore, on the spot for twelve hundred livres the queue, which
is forty-eight sous the bottle. Voulenay is the best of the other reds,
equal in flavor to Chambertin, &c., but being lighter, will not keep,
and therefore sells for not more than three hundred livres the queue,
which is twelve sous the bottle. It ripens sooner than they do, and
consequently is better for those who wish to broach at a year old. In
like manner of the white wines, and for the same reason, Monrachet sells
for twelve hundred livres the queue (forty-eight sous the bottle), and
Meursault of the best quality, viz., the Goutte d'or, at only one hundred
and fifty livres (six sous the bottle). It is remarkable, that the best
of each kind, that is, of the red and white, is made at the extremities
of the line, to wit, at Chambertin and Monrachet. It is pretended that
the adjoining vineyards produce the same qualities, but that belonging
to obscure individuals, they have not obtained a name, and therefore
sell as other wines. The aspect of the Cote is a little south of east.
The western side is also covered with vines, and is apparently of the
same soil, yet the wines are of the coarsest kinds. Such, too, are those
which are produced in the plains; but there the soil is richer and less
strong. Vougeau is the property of the monks of Citeaux, and produces
about two hundred pieces. Monrachet contains about fifty arpents, and
produces, one year with another, about one hundred and twenty pieces.
It belongs to two proprietors only, Monsieur de Clarmont, who leases to
some wine merchants, and the Marquis de Sarsnet, of Dijon, whose part
is farmed to a Monsieur de la Tour, whose family for many generations
have had the farm. The best wines are carried to Paris by land. The
transportation costs thirty-six livres the piece. The more indifferent
go by water. Bottles cost four and a half sous each.
March 9. _Chalons._ _Sennecy._ _Tournus._ _St. Albin._ _Macon._ On the
left are the fine plains of the Saone; on the right, high lands, rather
waving than hilly, sometimes sloping gently to the plains, sometimes
dropping down in precipices, and occasionally broken into beautiful
vallies by the streams which run into the Saone. The plains are a dark
rich loam, in pasture and corn; the heights more or less red or reddish,
always gritty, of middling quality only, their sides in vines, and their
summits in corn. The vineyards are inclosed with dry stone walls, and
there are some quick hedges in the corn grounds. The cattle are few and
indifferent. There are some good oxen, however. They draw by the head.
Few sheep, and small. A good deal of wood lands.
I passed three times the canal called le Charollois, which they are
opening from Chalons on the Saone to Dijon on the Loire. It passes near
Chagny, and will be twenty-three leagues long. They have worked on it
three years, and will finish it in four more. It will re-animate the
languishing commerce of Champagne and Burgundy, by furnishing a water
transportation for their wines to Nantes, which also will receive new
consequence by becoming the emporium of that commerce. At some distance
on the right are high mountains, which probably form the separation
between the waters of the Saone and Loire. Met a malefactor in the hands
of one of the Marechausée; perhaps a dove in the talons of the hawk. The
people begin now to be in separate establishments, and not in villages.
Houses are mostly covered with tile.
BEAUJOLOIS. _Maison blanche._ _St. George._ _Château de Laye-Epinaye._
The face of the country is like that from Chalons to Macon. The plains
are a dark rich loam, the hills a red loam of middling quality, mixed
generally with more or less coarse sand and grit, and a great deal of
small stone. Very little forest. The vineyards are mostly inclosed with
dry stone wall. A few small cattle and sheep. Here, as in Burgundy, the
cattle are all white.
This is the richest country I ever beheld. It is about ten or twelve
leagues in length, and three, four, or five in breadth; at least, that
part of it which is under the eye of the traveller. It extends from
the top of a ridge of mountains, running parallel with the Saone, and
sloping down to the plains of that river, scarcely any where too steep
for the plough. The whole is thick set with farm-houses, chateaux, and
the Bastides of the inhabitants of Lyons. The people live separately, and
not in villages. The hill sides are in vine and corn; the plains in corn
and pasture. The lands are farmed either for money, or on half-stocks.
The rents of the corn lands, farmed for money, are about ten or twelve
livres the arpent. A farmer takes, perhaps, about one hundred and fifty
arpents, for three, six, or nine years. The first year they are in corn;
the second in other small grain, with which he sows red clover. The third
is for the clover. The spontaneous pasturage is of green sward, which
they call fromenteau. When lands are rented on half-stocks, the cattle,
sheep, &c., are furnished by the landlord. They are valued, and must be
left of equal value. The increase of these, as well as the produce of
the farm, is divided equally. These leases are only from year to year.
They have a method of mixing beautifully the culture of vines, trees,
and corn. Rows of fruit trees are planted about twenty feet apart.
Between the trees, in the row, they plant vines four feet apart, and
espalier them. The intervals are sowed alternately in corn, so as to
be one year in corn, the next in pasture, the third in corn, the fourth
in pasture, &c. One hundred toises of vines in length, yield generally
about four pieces of wine. In Dauphiné, I am told, they plant vines only
at the roots of the trees, and let them cover the whole trees. But this
spoils both the wine and the fruit. Their wine when distilled, yields
but one-third its quantity in brandy. The wages of a laboring man here,
are five louis; of a woman, one half. The women do not work with the
hoe; they only weed the vines, the corn, &c., and spin. They speak a
Patois very difficult to understand. I passed some time at the Château de
Laye-Epinaye. Monsieur de Laye has a seignory of about fifteen thousand
arpents, in pasture, corn, vines, and wood. He has over this, as is
usual, a certain jurisdiction, both criminal and civil. But this extends
only to the first crude examination, which is before his judges. The
subject is referred for final examination and decision, to the regular
judicatures of the country. The Seigneur is keeper of the peace on his
domains. He is therefore subject to the expenses of maintaining it. A
criminal prosecuted to sentence and execution, costs M. de Laye about five
thousand livres. This is so burthensome to the Seigneurs, that they are
slack in criminal prosecutions. A good effect from a bad cause. Through
all Champagne, Burgundy, and the Beaujolois, the husbandry seems good,
except that they manure too little. This proceeds from the shortness of
their leases. The people of Burgundy and Beaujolois are well clothed,
and have the appearance of being well fed. But they experience all the
oppressions which result from the nature of the general government, and
from that of their particular tenures, and of the seignorial government
to which they are subject. What a cruel reflection, that a rich country
cannot long be a free one. M. de Laye has a Diana and Endymion, a very
superior morsel of sculpture by Michael Angelo Slodtz, done in 1740.
The wild gooseberry is in leaf; the wild pear and sweet briar in bud.
_Lyons._ There are some feeble remains here, of an amphitheatre of two
hundred feet diameter, and of an aqueduct in brick. The Pont d'Ainay
has nine arches of forty feet from centre to centre. The piers are of
six feet. The almond is in bloom.
DAUPHINE. From _St. Fond_ to _Mornas_. March 15, 16, 17, 18. The Rhone
makes extensive plains, which lie chiefly on the eastern side, and are
often in two stages. Those of Montelimart are three or four miles wide,
and rather good. Sometimes, as in the neighborhood of Vienne, the hills
come in precipices to the river, resembling then very much our Susquehanna
and its hills, except that the Susquehanna is ten times as wide as the
Rhone. The highlands are often very level. The soil, both of hill and
plain, where there is soil, is generally tinged, more or less, with
red. The hills are sometimes mere masses of rock, sometimes a mixture
of loose stone and earth. The plains are always stony, and, as often as
otherwise, covered perfectly with a coat of round stones, of the size
of the fist, so as to resemble the remains of inundations, from which
all the soil has been carried away. Sometimes they are middling good,
sometimes barren. In the neighborhood of Lyons, there is more corn than
wine. Towards Tains, more wine than corn. From thence, the plains, where
best, are in corn, clover, almonds, mulberries, walnuts; where there
is still some earth, they are in corn, almonds, and oaks. The hills are
in vines. There is a good deal of forest-wood near Lyons, but not much
afterwards. Scarcely any inclosures. There are a few small sheep before
we reach Tains; there the number increases.
Nature never formed a country of more savage aspect, than that on both
sides the Rhone. A huge torrent, rushes like an arrow between high
precipices, often of massive rock, at other times of loose stone, with
but little earth. Yet has the hand of man subdued this savage scene,
by planting corn where there is a little fertility, trees where there
is still less, and vines where there is none. On the whole, it assumes
a romantic, picturesque, and pleasing air. The hills on the opposite
side of the river, being high, steep, and laid up in terraces, are of
a singular appearance. Where the hills are quite in waste, they are
covered with broom, whins, box, and some clusters of small pines. The
high mountains of Dauphiné and Languedoc are now covered with snow. The
almond is in general bloom, and the willow putting out its leaf. There
were formerly olives at Pains; but a great cold, some years ago, killed
them, and they have not been replanted. I am told at Montelimart, that
an almond tree yields about three livres profit a year. Supposing them
three toises apart, there will be one hundred to the arpent, which gives
three hundred livres a year, besides the corn growing on the same ground.
A league below Vienne, on the opposite side of the river, is Cote Rotie.
It is a string of broken hills, extending a league on the river, from the
village of Ampuys to the town of Condrieux. The soil is white, tinged
a little, sometimes, with yellow, sometimes with red, stony, poor, and
laid up in terraces. Those parts of the hills only, which look to the
sun at mid-day, or the earlier hours of the afternoon, produce wines
of the first quality. Seven hundred vines, three feet apart, yield a
feuillette, which is about two and a half pieces, to the arpent. The best
red wine is produced at the upper end, in the neighborhood of Ampuys;
the best white, next to Condrieux. They sell of the first quality and
last vintage, at one hundred and fifty livres the piece, equal to twelve
sous the bottle. Transportation to Paris is sixty livres, and the bottle
four sous; so it may be delivered at Paris in bottles, at twenty sous.
When old, it costs ten or eleven louis the piece. There is a quality
which keeps well, bears transportation, and cannot be drunk under four
years. Another must be drunk at a year old. They are equal in flavor
and price.
The wine called Hermitage is made on the hills impending over the village
of Tains; on one of which is the hermitage, which gives name to the hills
for about two miles, and to the wine made on them. There are but three
of those hills which produce wine of the first quality, and of these,
the middle regions only. They are about three hundred feet perpendicular
height, three-quarters of a mile in length, and have a southern aspect.
The soil is scarcely tinged red, consists of small rotten stone, and
is, where the best wine is made, without any perceptible mixture of
earth. It is in sloping terraces. They use a little dung. An homme
de vignes, which consists of seven hundred plants, three feet apart,
yields generally about three quarters of a piece, which is nearly four
pieces to the arpent. When new, the piece is sold at about two hundred
and twenty-five livres; when old, at three hundred. It cannot be drunk
under four years, and improves fastest in a hot situation. There is so
little white made in proportion to the red, that it is difficult to buy
it separate. They make the white sell the red. If bought separately, it
is from fifteen to sixteen louis the piece, new, and three livres the
bottle, old. To give quality to the red, they mix one eighth of white
grapes. Portage to Paris is seventy-two livres the piece, weighing six
hundred pounds. There are but about one thousand pieces of both red and
white, of the first quality, made annually. Vineyards are never rented
here, nor are laborers in the vineyard hired by the year. They leave buds
proportioned to the strength of the vine; sometimes as much as fifteen
inches. The last hermit died in 1751.
In the neighborhood of Montelimart, and below that, they plant vines in
rows, six, eight, or ten feet apart, and two feet asunder in the row,
filling the intervals with corn. Sometimes the vines are in double rows,
two feet apart. I saw single asses in ploughs proportioned to their
strength. There are few chateaux in this province. The people, too, are
mostly gathered into villages. There are, however, some scattering farm
houses. These are made either of mud, or of round stone and mud. They
make inclosures also, in both those ways. Day laborers receive sixteen or
eighteen sous the day, and feed themselves. Those by the year receive,
men three louis, women half that, and are fed. They rarely eat meat; a
single hog salted, being the year's stock for a family. But they have
plenty of cheese, eggs, potatoes and other vegetables, and walnut oil
with their salad. It is a trade here, to gather dung along the road for
their vines. This proves they have few cattle. I have seen neither hares
nor partridges since I left Paris, nor wild fowl on any of the rivers.
The roads from Lyons to St. Rambert, are neither paved nor gravelled.
After that, they are coated with broken flint. The ferry boats on the
Rhone and the Isere, are moved by the stream, and very rapidly. On
each side of the river is a moveable stage, one end of which is on an
axle and two wheels, which, according to the tide, can be advanced or
withdrawn, so as to apply to the gunwale of the boat. The Prætorian
palace at Vienne is forty-four feet wide, of the Corinthian order, four
columns in front, and four in flank. It was begun in the year 400, and
finished by Charlemagne. The Sepulchral pyramid, a little way out of the
town, has an order for its basement, the pedestal of which, from point
to point of its cap, is twenty-four feet one inch. At each angle, is a
column, engaged one fourth in the wall. The circumference of the three
fourths disengaged, is four feet four inches; consequently, the diameter
is twenty-three inches. The base of the column indicates it to be Ionic,
but the capitals are not formed. The cornice, too, is a bastard Ionic,
without modillions or dentils. Between the columns, on each side, is an
arch of eight feet four inches, opening with a pilaster on each side of
it. On the top of the basement is a zocle, in the plane of the frieze
below. On that is the pyramid, its base in the plane of the collarins of
the pilaster below. The pyramid is a little truncated on its top. This
monument is inedited.
March 18th. _Principality of Orange._ The plains on the Rhone here are
two or three leagues wide, reddish, good, in corn, clover, almonds,
olives. No forests. Here begins the country of olives, there being very
few till we enter this principality. They are the only tree which I see
planted among vines. Thyme grows wild here on the hills. Asses, very
small, sell here for two or three louis. The high hills in Dauphiné are
covered with snow. The remains of the Roman aqueduct are of brick: a
fine piece of Mosaic, still on its bed, forming the floor of a cellar.
Twenty feet of it still visible. They are taking down the circular wall
of the amphitheatre to pave a road.
March 19th to 23d. LANGUEDOC. _Pont St. Esprit._ _Bagnols._ _Connault._
_Valignieres._ _Remoulins._ _St. Gervasy._ _Nismes._ _Pont d'Arles._ To
Remoulins, there is a mixture of hill and dale. Thence to Nismes, hills
on the right, on the left, plains extending to the Rhone and the sea.
The hills are rocky. Where there is soil, it is reddish and poor. The
plains, generally reddish and good, but stony. When you approach the
Rhone, going to Arles, the soil becomes a dark gray loam with some sand,
and very good. The culture is corn, clover, St. foin, olives, vines,
mulberries, willow, and some almonds. There is no forest. The hills are
inclosed in dry stone wall. Many sheep.
From the summit of the first hill, after leaving Pont St. Esprit, there
is a beautiful view of the bridge at about two miles distance, and
a fine landscape of the country both ways. From thence, an excellent
road, judiciously conducted, through very romantic scenes. In one part,
descending the face of a hill, it is laid out in serpentine, and not
zigzag, to ease the descent. In others, it passes through a winding
meadow, from fifty to one hundred yards, walled, as it were, on both
sides, by hills of rock; and at length issues into plain country. The
waste hills are covered with thyme, box, and chene-vert. Where the
body of the mountains has a surface of soil, the summit has sometimes a
crown of rock, as observed in Champagne. At Nismes, the earth is full
of lime-stone. The horses are shorn. They are now pruning the olive.
A very good tree produces sixty pounds of olives, which yield fifteen
pounds of oil: the best quality sells at twelve sous the pound, retail,
and ten sous, wholesale. The high hills of Languedoc still covered with
snow. The horse chestnut and mulberry are leafing; apple trees and peas
blossoming. The first butterfly I have seen. After the vernal equinox,
they are often six or eight months without rain. Many separate farm
houses, numbers of people in rags, and abundance of beggars. The mine
of wheat, weighing thirty pounds, costs four livres and ten sous. Wheat
bread, three sous the pound. Vin ordinaire, good, and of a strong body,
two or three sous the bottle. Oranges, one sous a piece. They are nearly
finishing at Nismes, a great mill, worked by a steam engine, which
pumps water from a lower into an upper cistern, from whence two overshot
wheels are supplied, each of which turns two pair of stones. The upper
cistern being once filled with water, it passes through the wheels into
the lower one, from whence it is returned to the upper by the pumps. A
stream of water of one quarter or one half inch diameter, supplies the
waste of evaporation, absorption, &c. This is furnished from a well by
a horse. The arches of the Pont St. Esprit are of eighty-eight feet.
Wild figs, very flourishing, grow out of the joints of the Pont du Gard.
The fountain of Nismes is so deep, that a stone was thirteen seconds
descending from the surface to the bottom.
March 24th. From _Nismes_ to _Arles_. The plains extending from Nismes
to the Rhone, in the direction of Arles, are broken in one place by a
skirt of low hills. They are red and stony at first, but as you approach
the Rhone, they are of a dark gray mould, with a little sand, and very
good. They are in corn and clover, vines, olives, almonds, mulberries,
and willow. There are some sheep, no wood, no inclosures.
The high hills of Languedoc are covered with snow. At an ancient church,
in the suburbs of Arles, are some hundreds of ancient stone coffins,
along the road side. The ground is thence called les champs elysées. In
a vault in a church, are some curiously wrought, and in a back yard are
many ancient statues, inscriptions, &c. Within the town, are a part of
two Corinthian columns, and of the pediment with which they were crowned,
very rich, having belonged to the ancient capitol of the place. But the
principal monument here, is an amphitheatre, the external portico of which
is tolerably complete. How many porticoes there were, cannot be seen:
but at one of the principal gates, there are still five, measuring, from
out to in, seventy-eight feet ten inches, the vault diminishing inwards.
There are sixty-four arches, each of which is, from centre to centre,
twenty feet six inches. Of course, the diameter is of four hundred and
thirty-eight feet; or of four hundred and fifty feet, if we suppose the
four principal arches a little larger than the rest. The ground-floor
is supported on innumerable vaults. The first story, externally, has
a tall pedestal, like a pilaster, between every two arches: the upper
story, a column, the base of which would indicate it Corinthian. Every
column is truncated as low as the impost of the arch, but the arches
are all entire. The whole of the upper entablature is gone, and of the
Attic, if there was one. Not a single seat of the internal is visible.
The whole of the inside, and nearly the whole of the outside, is masked
by buildings. It is supposed there are one thousand inhabitants within
the amphitheatre. The walls are more entire and firm than those of the
amphitheatre at Nismes. I suspect its plan and distribution to have been
very different from that.
_Terrasson._ The plains of the Rhone from Arles to this place, are
a league or two wide: the mould is of a dark gray, good, in corn and
lucerne. Neither wood, nor inclosures. Many sheep.
_St. Remis._ From Terrasson to St. Remis, is a plain of a league or two
wide, bordered by broken hills of massive rock. It is gray and stony,
mostly in olives. Some almonds, mulberries, willows, vines, corn, and
lucerne. Many sheep. No forest, nor inclosures.
A laboring man's wages here, are one hundred and fifty livres, a woman's
half, and fed. Two hundred and eighty pounds of wheat sell for forty-two
livres. They make no butter here. It costs, when bought, fifteen sous the
pound. Oil is ten sous the pound. Tolerably good olive trees yield, one
with another, about twenty pounds of oil. An olive tree must be twenty
years old before it has paid its own expenses. It lasts forever. In 1765,
it was so cold, that the Rhone was frozen over at Arles for two months.
In 1767, there was a cold spell of a week, which killed all the olive
trees. From being fine weather, in one hour there was ice hard enough to
bear a horse. It killed people on the road. The old roots of the olive
trees put out again. Olive grounds sell for twenty-four livres a tree,
and lease at twenty-four sous the tree. The trees are fifteen pieds
apart. But lucerne is a more profitable culture. An arpent yields one
hundred quintals of hay a year, worth three livres the quintal. It is
cut four or five times a year. It is sowed in the broadcast, and lasts
five or six years. An arpent of ground for corn, rents at from thirty
to thirty-six livres. Their leases are for six or nine years. They plant
willow for fire-wood, and for hoops to their casks. It seldom rains here
in summer. There are some chateaux, many separate farm-houses, good,
and ornamented in the small way, so as to show that the tenant's whole
time is not occupied in procuring physical necessaries.
March 25th. _Orgon._ _Pontroyal._ _St. Cannat._ From Orgon to Pontroyal,
after quitting the plains of the Rhone, the country seems still to be
a plain, cut into compartments by chains of mountains of massive rock,
running through it in various directions. From Pontroyal to St. Cannat,
the land lies rather in basins. The soil is very various, gray and
clay, gray and stony, red and stony; sometimes good, sometimes middling,
often barren. We find some golden willows. Towards Pontroyal, the hills
begin to be in vines, and afterwards, in some pasture of green sward and
clover. About Orgon are some inclosures of quick set, others of conical
yews planted close. Towards St. Cannat, they begin to be of stone.
The high mountains are covered with snow. Some separate farm-houses of
mud. Near Pontroyal is a canal for watering the country; one branch goes
to Terrasson, the other to Arles.
March 25th, 26th, 27th, 28th. _Aix._ The country is waving in vines,
pasture of green sward and clover, much inclosed with stone, and abounding
with sheep.
On approaching Aix, the valley which opens from thence towards the
mouth of the Rhone and the sea, is rich and beautiful; a perfect grove
of olive trees, mixed among which, are corn, lucerne, and vines. The
waste grounds throw out thyme and lavender. Wheat bread is three sous
the pound. Cow's milk sixteen sous the quart, sheep's milk six sous,
butter of sheep's milk twenty sous the pound. Oil, of the best quality,
is twelve sous the pound, and sixteen sous if it be virgin oil. This
is what runs from the olive when put into the press, spontaneously;
afterwards they are forced by the press and by hot water. Dung costs ten
sous the one hundred pounds. Their fire-wood is chene-vert and willow.
The latter is lopped every three years. An ass sells for from one to
three louis; the best mules for thirty louis. The best asses will carry
two hundred pounds; the best horses three hundred pounds; the best mules
six hundred pounds. The temperature of the mineral waters of Aix, is
90° of Farenheit's thermometer, at the spout. A mule eats half as much
as a horse. The allowance to an ass for the day, is a handful of bran
mixed with straw. The price of mutton and beef, about six and a half
sous the pound. The beef comes from Auvergne, and is poor and bad. The
mutton is small, but of excellent flavor. The wages of a laboring man
are one hundred and fifty livres the year, a woman's sixty to sixty-six
livres, and fed. Their bread is half wheat, half rye, made once in three
or four weeks, to prevent too great a consumption. In the morning, they
eat bread with an anchovy, or an onion. Their dinner in the middle of
the day, is bread, soup, and vegetables. Their supper the same. With
their vegetables, they have always oil and vinegar. The oil costs about
eight sous the pound. They drink what is called piquette. This is made
after the grapes are pressed, by pouring hot water on the pumice. On
Sunday they have meat and wine. Their wood for building comes mostly
from the Alps, down the Durance and Rhone. A stick of pine, fifty feet
long, girting sixty feet and three inches at one end, and three feet
three inches at the other, costs, delivered here, from fifty-four to
sixty livres. Sixty pounds of wheat cost seven livres. One of their
little asses will travel with his burthen about five or six leagues a
day, and day by day; a mule from six to eight leagues.[19]
March 29. _Marseilles._ The country is hilly, intersected by chains of
hills and mountains of massive rock. The soil is reddish, stony, and
indifferent where best. Wherever there is any soil, it is covered with
olives. Among these are corn, vines, some lucerne, mulberry, some almonds
and willow. Neither inclosures, nor forest. A very few sheep.
On the road I saw one of those little whirlwinds which we have in
Virginia, also some gullied hill sides. The people are in separate
establishments. Ten morning observations of the thermometer, from the
20th to the 31st of March inclusive, made at Nismes, St. Renny, Aix
and Marseilles, give me an average of 52 1-2° and 46° and 61°, for the
greatest and least morning heats. Nine afternoon observations, yield an
average of 62 2-3° and 57° and 66°, the greatest and least. The longest
day here, from sunrise to sunset, is fifteen hours and fourteen minutes;
the shortest is eight hours and forty-six minutes; the latitude being
----. There are no tides in the Mediterranean. It is observed to me,
that the olive tree grows no where more than thirty leagues distant
from that sea. I suppose, however, that both Spain and Portugal furnish
proofs to the contrary, and doubt its truth as to Asia, Africa, and
America. They are six or eight months at a time, here, without rain.
The most delicate figs known in Europe, are those growing about this
place, called figues Marcelloises, or les veritables Marcelloises, to
distinguish them from others of inferior quality growing here. These
keep any length of time. All others exude a sugar in the spring of the
year, and become sour. The only process for preserving them, is drying
them in the sun, without putting any thing to them whatever. They sell
at fifteen sous the pound, while there are others as cheap as five sous
the pound. I meet here a small dried grape from Smyrna without a seed.
There are few of the plants growing in this neighborhood. The best grape
for drying known here, is called des Panses. They are very large, with
a thick skin and much juice. They are best against a wall of southern
aspect, as their abundance of juice requires a great deal of sun to
dry it. Pretty good fig trees are about the size of the apricot tree,
and yield about twenty pounds of figs when dry, each. But the largest
will yield the value of a louis. They are sometimes fifteen inches in
diameter. It is said the Marseilles fig degenerates when transported
into any other part of the country. The leaves of the mulberry tree will
sell for about three livres, the purchaser gathering them. The caper is
a creeping plant. It is killed to the roots every winter. In the spring
it puts out branches, which creep to the distance of three feet from the
centre. The fruit forms on the stem, as that extends itself, and must be
gathered every day as it forms. This is the work of women. The pistache
grows in this neighborhood also, but not very good. They eat them in
their milky state. Monsieur de Bergasse has a wine cellar two hundred
and forty pieds long, in which are one hundred and twenty tons, of from
fifty to one hundred pieces each. These tons are twelve pieds diameter;
the staves four inches thick, the heading two and a half pouces thick.
The temperature of his cellar is of 9 1-2 of Reaumur. The best method
of packing wine, when bottled, is to lay the bottles on their side, and
cover them with sand. The 2nd of April, the young figs are formed; the
4th we have Windsor beans. They have had asparagus ever since the middle
of March. The 5th, I see strawberries and the Guelder rose in blossom.
To preserve the raisin, it is first dipped into ley and then dried in
the sun. The aloe grows in the open ground. I measured a mule, not the
largest, five feet and two inches high. Marseilles is in an amphitheatre,
at the mouth of the Vaune, surrounded by high mountains of naked rock,
distant two or three leagues. The country within that amphitheatre is
a mixture of small hills, vallies and plains. The latter are naturally
rich. The hills and vallies are forced into production. Looking from
the Château de Notre dame de la garde, it would seem as if there was
a Bastide for every arpent. The plain land sells for one hundred louis
the caterelle, which is less than an acre. The ground of the arsenal in
Marseilles, sold for from fifteen to forty louis the square verge, being
nearly the square yard English. In the fields open to the sea, they are
obliged to plant rows of canes, every here and there, to break the force
of the wind. Saw at the Château Borelli, pumps worked by the wind.
April 6. From _Marseilles_ to _Aubagne_. A valley on the Vaune, bordered
on each side by high mountains of massive rock, on which are only some
small pines. The interjacent valley is of small hills, vallies and
plains, reddish, gravelly, and originally poor, but fertilized by art,
and covered with corn, vines, olives, figs, almonds, mulberries, lucerne
and clover. The river is twelve or fifteen feet wide, one or two feet
deep and rapid.
From _Aubagne_ to _Cuges_, _Beausset_, _Toulon_. The road quitting
the Vaune and its wealthy valley, a little after Aubagne, enters those
mountains of rock, and is engaged with them about a dozen miles. Then
it passes six or eight miles through a country still very hilly and
stony, but laid up in terraces, covered with olives, vines and corn. It
then follows for two or three miles, a hollow between two of those high
mountains, which has been found or made by a small stream. The mountains
then, reclining a little from their perpendicular, and presenting a coat
of soil, reddish and tolerably good, have given place to the little
village of Olioules, in the gardens of which are oranges in the open
ground. It continues hilly till we enter the plain of Toulon. On different
parts of this road there are figs in the open fields. At Cuges, is a
plain of about three-fourths of a mile in diameter, surrounded by high
mountains of rock. In this, the caper is principally cultivated. The soil
is mulatto, gravelly, and of middling quality, or rather indifferent.
The plants are set in quincunx, about eight feet apart. They have been
covered during winter by a hill of earth a foot high. They are now
inclosing, pruning and ploughing them.
_Toulon._ From Olioules to Toulon, the figs are in the open fields. Some
of them have stems of fifteen inches diameter. They generally fork near
the ground, but sometimes have a single stem of five feet long. They
are as large as apricot trees. The olive trees of this day's journey
are about the size of large apple trees. The people are in separate
establishments. Toulon is in a valley at the mouth of the Goutier, a
little river of the size of the Vaune; surrounded by high mountains of
naked rock, leaving some space between them and the sea. This space is
hilly, reddish, gravelly, and of middling quality, in olives, vines,
corn, almonds, figs and capers. The capers are planted eight feet apart.
A bush yields, one year with another, two pounds, worth twelve sous the
pound. Every plant then, yields twenty-four sous, equal to one shilling
sterling. An acre containing six hundred and seventy-six plants, would
yield thirty-three pounds sixteen shillings sterling. The fruit is
gathered by women, who can gather about twelve pounds a day. They begin
to gather about the last of June, and end about the middle of October.
Each plant must be picked every day. These plants grow equally well in
the best or worst soil, or even in the walls where there is no soil.
They will last the life of a man or longer. The heat is so great at
Toulon in summer, as to occasion very great cracks in the earth. Where
the caper is in a soil that will admit it, they plough it. They have
peas here through the winter, sheltering them occasionally; and they
have had them ever since the 25th of March without shelter.
April 6. _Hieres._ This is a plain of two or three miles diameter, bounded
by the sea on one side, and mountains of rock on the other. The soil
is reddish, gravelly, tolerably good and well watered. It is in olives,
mulberries, vines, figs, corn, and some flax. There are also some cherry
trees. From Hieres to the sea, which is two or three miles, is a grove
of orange trees, olives, and mulberries. The largest orange tree is of
two feet diameter one way, and one foot the other, (for the section of
all the larger ones would be an oval, not a round,) and about twenty
feet high. Such a tree will yield about six thousand oranges a year.
The garden of M. Fille, has fifteen thousand six hundred orange trees.
Some years they yield forty thousand livres, some only ten thousand;
but generally about twenty-five thousand. The trees are from eight to
ten feet apart. They are blossoming and bearing all the year, flowers
and fruit in every stage, at the same time. But the best fruit is that
which is gathered in April and May. Hieres is a village of about five
thousand inhabitants, at the foot of a mountain which covers it from
the north, and from which extends a plain of two or three miles to the
sea shore. It has no port. Here are palm trees twenty or thirty feet
high, but they bear no fruit. There is also a botanical garden kept by
the King. Considerable salt ponds here. Hieres is six miles from the
public road. It is built on a narrow spur of the mountain. The streets
in every direction are steep, in steps of stairs, and about eight feet
wide. No carriage of any kind can enter it. The wealthiest inhabitants
use _chaises a porteurs_. But there are few wealthy, the bulk of the
inhabitants being laborers of the earth. At a league's distance in the
sea, is an island on which is the Château de Geans, belonging to the
Marquis de Pontoives; there is a cause-way leading to it. The cold of the
last November killed the leaves of a great number of the orange trees,
and some of the trees themselves.
From Hieres to _Cuers_, _Pignans_, _Luc_, is mostly a plain, with
mountains on each hand, at a mile or two distance. The soil is generally
reddish, and the latter part very red and good. The growth is, olives,
figs, vines, mulberries, corn, clover, and lucerne. The olive trees are
from three to four feet in diameter. There are hedges of pomegranates,
sweetbriar, and broom. A great deal of thyme growing wild. There are
some inclosures of stone; some sheep and goats.
April 9th. From Luc to _Vidauban_, _Muy_, _Frejus_, the road leads
through vallies, and crosses occasionally the mountains which separate
them. The vallies are tolerably good, always red and stony, gravelly or
gritty. Their produce as before. The mountains are barren.
_Lesterelle_, _Napoule_. Eighteen miles of ascent and descent, of a very
high mountain. Its growth, where capable of any, two-leaved pine, very
small, and some chene vert.
_Antibes_, _Nice_. From Napoule, the road is generally near the sea,
passing over little hills or strings of vallies, the soil stony, and
much below mediocrity in its quality. Here and there, is a good plain.
There is snow on the high mountains. The first frogs I have heard, are
of this day (the 9th.) At Antibes are oranges in the open ground, but
in small inclosures; palm trees also. From thence to the Var, are the
largest fig trees and olive trees I have seen. The fig trees are eighteen
inches in diameter, and six feet, stem; the olives, sometimes six feet
in diameter, and as large heads as the largest low ground apple trees.
This tree was but a shrub where I first fell in with it, and has become
larger and larger to this place. The people are mostly in villages. The
several provinces, and even cantons are distinguished by the form of the
women's hats, so that one may know of what canton a woman is, by her hat.
_Nice._ The pine bur is used here for kindling fires. The people are in
separate establishments. With respect to the orange, there seems to be no
climate on this side of the Alps, sufficiently mild in itself to preserve
it without shelter. At Olioules, they are between two high mountains;
at Hieres, covered on the north by a very high mountain; at Antibes and
Nice, covered by mountains, and also within small high enclosures. Quære.
To trace the true line from east to west, which forms the northern and
natural limit of that fruit? Saw an elder tree (sambucus) near Nice,
fifteen inches in diameter, and eight feet stem. The wine made in this
neighborhood is good, though not of the first quality. There are one
thousand mules, loaded with merchandise, which pass every week between
Nice and Turin, counting those coming as well as going.
April 13th. _Scarena._ _Sospello._ There are no orange trees after we
leave the environs of Nice. We lose the olive after rising a little
above the village of Scarena, on Mount Braus, and find it again on the
other side, a little before we get down to Sospello. But wherever there
is soil enough, it is terraced, and in corn. The waste parts are either
in two-leaved pine and thyme, or of absolutely naked rock. Sospello is
on a little torrent, called Bevera, which runs into the river Roia, at
the mouth of which is Ventimiglia. The olive trees on the mountain, are
now loaded with fruit; while some at Sospello are in blossom. Firewood
here and at Scarena, costs fifteen sous the quintal.
April 14th. _Ciandola._ _Tende._ In crossing Mount Brois, we lose the
olive tree after getting to a certain height, and find it again on the
other side at the village of Breglio. Here we come to the river Roia,
which, after receiving the branch on which is Sospello, leads to the
sea at Ventimiglia. The Roia is about twelve yards wide, and abounds
with speckled trout. Were a road made from Breglio, along the side of
the Roia, to Ventimiglia, it might turn the commerce of Turin to this
last place instead of Nice; because it would avoid the mountains of
Braus and Brois, leaving only that of Tende; that is to say, it would
avoid more than half the difficulties of the passage. Further on, we
come to the Château di Saorgio, where a scene is presented, the most
singular and picturesque I ever saw. The castle and village seem hanging
to a cloud in front. On the right, is a mountain cloven through, to
let pass a gurgling stream; on the left, a river, over which is thrown
a magnificent bridge. The whole forms a basin, the sides of which are
shagged with rocks, olive trees, vines, herds, &c. Near here, I saw a
tub wheel without a ream; the trunk descended from the top of the water
fall to the wheel, in a direct line, but with the usual inclination.
The produce along this passage, is most generally olives, except on
the heights as before observed; also corn, vines, mulberries, figs,
cherries, and walnuts. They have cows, goats, and sheep. In passing on
towards Tende, olives fail us ultimately at the village of Fontan, and
there the chesnut trees begin in good quantity. Ciandola consists of
only two houses, both taverns. Tende is a very inconsiderable village,
in which they have not yet the luxury of glass windows; nor in any of
the villages on this passage, have they yet the fashion of powdering the
hair. Common stone and limestone are so abundant, that the apartments
of every story are vaulted with stone, to save wood.
April 15th. _Limone._ _Coni._ I see abundance of limestone as far as the
earth is uncovered with snow; _i. e._ within half or three-quarters of
an hour's walk of the top. The snows descend much lower on the eastern
than the western side. Wherever there is soil, there is corn quite to
the commencement of the snows, and I suppose under them also. The waste
parts are in two-leaved pine, lavender and thyme. From the foot of the
mountain to Coni, the road follows a branch of the Po, the plains of which
begin narrow, and widen at length into a general plain country, bounded
on one side by the Alps. They are good, dark colored, sometimes tinged
with red, and in pasture, corn, mulberries, and some almonds. The hill
sides bordering these plains, are reddish, and where they admit of it,
are in corn, but this is seldom. They are mostly in chesnut, and often
absolutely barren. The whole of the plains are plentifully watered from
the river, as is much of the hill side. A great deal of golden willow
all along the rivers, on the whole of this passage through the Alps.
The southern parts of France, but still more the passage through the
Alps, enable one to form a scale of the tenderer plants, arranging them
according to their several powers of resisting cold. Ascending three
different mountains, Braus, Brois, and Tende, they disappear one after
another; and descending on the other side, they show themselves again one
after another. This is their order, from the tenderest to the hardiest.
Caper, orange, palm, aloe, olive, pomegranate, walnut, fig, almond. But
this must be understood of the plant; for as to the fruit, the order
is somewhat different. The caper, for example, is the tenderest plant,
yet being so easily protected, it is the most certain in its fruit. The
almond, the hardiest plant, loses its fruit the oftenest, on account of
its forwardness. The palm, hardier than the caper and the orange, never
produces perfect fruit in these parts. Coni is a considerable town, and
pretty well built. It is walled.
April 16th. _Centale._ _Savigliano._ _Racconigi._ _Poerino._ _Turin._
The Alps, as far as they are in view from north to south, show the
gradation of climate, by the line which terminates the snows lying on
them. This line begins at their foot northwardly, and rises, as they
pass on to the south, so as to be half way up their sides on the most
southern undulations of the mountain, now in view. From the mountains
to Turin, we see no tree tenderer than the walnut. Of these, as well
as of almonds and mulberries, there are a few; somewhat more of vines,
but most generally, willows and poplars. Corn is sowed with all these.
They mix with them also clover and small grass. The country is a general
plain; the soil dark, and sometimes, though rarely, reddish. It is rich,
and much infested with wild onions. At Racconigi, I see the tops and
shocks of maize, which prove it is cultivated here; but it can be in
small quantities only, because I observe very little ground, but what
has already something else in it. Here and there, are small patches
prepared, I suppose, for maize. They have a method of planting the vine,
which I have not seen before. At intervals of about eight feet, they
plant from two to six plants of vine in a cluster. At each cluster they
fix a forked staff, the plane of the prongs of the fork at a right angle
with the row of vines. Athwart these prongs they lash another staff,
like a handspike, about eight feet long, horizontally, seven or eight
feet from the ground. Of course, it crosses the rows at right angles.
The vines are brought from the foot of the fork up to this cross piece,
turned over it, and conducted along over the next, the next, and so
on, as far as they will extend, the whole forming an arbor eight feet
wide and high, and of the whole length of the row, little interrupted
by the stems of the vines, which being close around the fork, pass up
through hoops, so as to occupy a space only of smaller diameter. All the
buildings in this country are of brick, sometimes covered with plaster,
sometimes not. There is a very large and handsome bridge of seven arches,
over the torrent of Sangone. We cross the Po, in swinging batteaux. Two
are placed side by side, and kept together by a plank floor, common to
both, and lying on the gunwales. The carriage drives on this, without
taking out any of the horses. About one hundred and fifty yards up the
river, is a fixed stake, and a rope tied to it, the other end of which
is made fast to one side of the batteaux, so as to throw them oblique to
the current. The stream then acting on them, as on an inclined plane,
forces them cross the current in the portion of a circle of which the
rope is the radius. To support the rope in its whole length, there are
two intermediate canoes, about fifty yards apart, in the heads of which
are short masts. To the top of these, the rope is lashed, the canoes
being free otherwise to concur with the general vibration, in their
smaller arcs of circles. The Po is there, about fifty yards wide, and
about one hundred in the neighborhood of Turin.
April 17th, 18th. _Turin._ The first nightingale I have heard this year,
is to-day (18th.) There is a red wine of Nebiule made in the neighborhood,
which is very singular. It is about as sweet as the silky Madeira, as
astringent on the palate as Bourdeaux, and as brisk as Champagne. It
is a pleasing wine. At Moncaglieri, about six miles from Turin, on the
right side of the Po, begins a ridge of mountains, which, following the
Po by Turin, after some distance, spreads wide, and forms the duchy of
Montferrat. The soil is mostly red, and in vines, affording a wine called
Montferrat, which is thick and strong.
April 19th. _Settimo._ _Chivasco._ _Ciliano._ _S. Germano._ _Vercelli._
The country continues plain and rich, the soil black. The culture, corn,
pasture, maize, vines, mulberries, walnuts, some willow and poplar. The
maize bears a very small proportion to the small grain. The earth is
formed into ridges from three to four feet wide, and the maize sowed in
the broad cast on the higher parts of the ridge, so as to cover a third
or half of the whole surface. It is sowed late in May. This country is
plentifully and beautifully watered at present. Much of it is by torrents
which are dry in summer. These torrents make a great deal of waste ground,
covering it with sand and stones. These wastes are sometimes planted
in trees, sometimes quite unemployed. They make hedges of willows, by
setting the plants from one to three feet apart. When they are grown
to the height of eight or ten feet, they bend them down, and interlace
them one with another. I do not see any of these, however, which are
become old. Probably, therefore, they soon die. The women here smite on
the anvil, and work with the maul and spade. The people of this country
are ill dressed in comparison with those of France, and there are more
spots of uncultivated ground. The plough here is made with a single
handle, which is a beam twelve feet long, six inches in diameter below,
and tapered to about two inches at the upper end. They use goads for
the oxen, not whips. The first swallows I have seen, are to-day. There
is a wine called Gatina, made in the neighborhood of Vercelli, both red
and white. The latter resembles Calcavallo. There is also a red wine
of Salusola which is esteemed. It is very light. In the neighborhood of
Vercelli begin the rice fields. The water with which they are watered is
very dear. They do not permit rice to be sown within two miles of the
cities on account of the insalubrity. Notwithstanding this, when the
water is drawn off the fields in August, the whole country is subject
to agues and fevers. They estimate that the same measure of ground
yields three times as much rice as wheat, and with half the labor. They
are now sowing. As soon as sowed, they let on the water, two or three
inches deep. After six weeks, or two months, they draw it off to weed;
then let it on again, and it remains till August, when it is drawn off,
about three or four weeks before the grain is ripe. In September they
cut it. It is first threshed, then beaten in the mortar to separate the
husk, then by different siftings it is separated into three qualities.
Twelve rupes, equal to three hundred pounds of twelve ounces each, sell
for sixteen livres, money of Piedmont, where the livre is exactly the
shilling of England. Twelve rupes of maize sell for nine livres. The
machine for separating the husk is thus made. In the axis of a water
wheel are a number of arms inserted, which, as they revolve, catches
each the cog of a pestle, lifts it to a certain height, and lets it
fall again. These pestles are five and a quarter inches square, ten
feet long, and at their lower end formed into a truncated cone of three
inches diameter, where cut off. The conical part is covered with iron.
The pestles are ten and a half inches apart in the clear. They pass
through two horizontal beams, which string them, as it were, together,
and while the mortises in the beams are so loose, as to let the pestles
work vertically, it restrains them to that motion. There is a mortar of
wood, twelve or fifteen inches deep, under each pestle, covered with a
board, the hole of which is only large enough to let the pestle pass
freely. There are two arms in the axis for every pestle, so that the
pestle gives two strokes for every revolution of the wheel. Poggio, a
muleteer, who passes every week between Vercelli and Genoa, will smuggle
a sack of rough rice for me to Genoa; it being death to export it in that
form. They have good cattle, and in good number, mostly cream-colored;
and some middle-sized sheep. The streams furnish speckled trout.