be appointed, who shall have in charge to communicate the preceding
resolutions to the Legislatures of the several States; to assure them
that this commonwealth continues in the same esteem of their friendship
and union which it has manifested from that moment at which a common
danger first suggested a common union: that it considers union, for
specified national purposes, and particularly to those specified in
their late federal compact, to be friendly to the peace, happiness and
prosperity of all the States: that faithful to that compact, according
to the plain intent and meaning in which it was understood and acceded
to by the several parties, it is sincerely anxious for its preservation:
that it does also believe, that to take from the States all the powers
of self-government and transfer them to a general and consolidated
government, without regard to the special delegations and reservations
solemnly agreed to in that compact, is not for the peace, happiness
or prosperity of these States; and that therefore this commonwealth is
determined, as it doubts not its co-States are, to submit to undelegated,
and consequently unlimited powers in no man, or body of men on earth: that
in cases of an abuse of the delegated powers, the members of the general
government, being chosen by the people, a change by the people would
be the constitutional remedy; but, where powers are assumed which have
not been delegated, a nullification of the act is the rightful remedy:
that every State has a natural right in cases not within the compact,
(casus non fœderis,) to nullify of their own authority all assumptions
of power by others within their limits: that without this right, they
would be under the dominion, absolute and unlimited, of whosoever
might exercise this right of judgment for them: that nevertheless, this
commonwealth, from motives of regard and respect for its co-States, has
wished to communicate with them on the subject: that with them alone it
is proper to communicate, they alone being parties to the compact, and
solely authorized to judge in the last resort of the powers exercised
under it, Congress being not a party, but merely the creature of the
compact, and subject as to its assumptions of power to the final judgment
of those by whom, and for whose use itself and its powers were all
created and modified: that if the acts before specified should stand,
these conclusions would flow from them; that the general government
may place any act they think proper on the list of crimes, and punish
it themselves whether enumerated or not enumerated by the constitution
as cognizable by them: that they may transfer its cognizance to the
President, or any other person, who may himself be the accuser, counsel,
judge and jury, whose _suspicions_ may be the evidence, his _order_ the
sentence, his _officer_ the executioner, and his breast the sole record
of the transaction: that a very numerous and valuable description of
the inhabitants of these States being, by this precedent, reduced, as
outlaws, to the absolute dominion of one man, and the barrier of the
Constitution thus swept away from us all, no rampart now remains against
the passions and the powers of a majority in Congress to protect from
a like exportation, or other more grievous punishment, the minority of
the same body, the legislatures, judges, governors and counsellors of
the States, nor their other peaceable inhabitants, who may venture to
reclaim the constitutional rights and liberties of the States and people,
or who for other causes, good or bad, may be obnoxious to the views,
or marked by the suspicions of the President, or be thought dangerous
to his or their election, or other interests, public or personal: that
the friendless alien has indeed been selected as the safest subject of
a first experiment; but the citizen will soon follow, or rather, has
already followed, for already has a sedition act marked him as its prey:
that these and successive acts of the same character, unless arrested
at the threshold, necessarily drive these States into revolution and
blood, and will furnish new calumnies against republican government,
and new pretexts for those who wish it to be believed that man cannot
be governed but by a rod of iron: that it would be a dangerous delusion
were a confidence in the men of our choice to silence our fears for
the safety of our rights: that confidence is everywhere the parent of
despotism--free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence;
it is jealousy and not confidence which prescribes limited constitutions,
to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power: that our
Constitution has accordingly fixed the limits to which, and no further,
our confidence may go; and let the honest advocate of confidence read the
Alien and Sedition acts, and say if the Constitution has not been wise
in fixing limits to the government it created, and whether we should be
wise in destroying those limits. Let him say what the government is, if
it be not a tyranny, which the men of our choice have conferred on our
President, and the President of our choice has assented to, and accepted
over the friendly strangers to whom the mild spirit of our country and
its laws have pledged hospitality and protection: that the men of our
choice have more respected the bare _suspicions_ of the President, than
the solid right of innocence, the claims of justification, the sacred
force of truth, and the forms and substance of law and justice. In
questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but
bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution. That this
commonwealth does therefore call on its co-States for an expression of
their sentiments on the acts concerning aliens, and for the punishment of
certain crimes herein before specified, plainly declaring whether these
acts are or are not authorized by the federal compact. And it doubts
not that their sense will be so announced as to prove their attachment
unaltered to limited government, whether general or particular. And that
the rights and liberties of their co-States will be exposed to no dangers
by remaining embarked in a common bottom with their own. That they will
concur with this commonwealth in considering the said acts as so palpably
against the Constitution as to amount to an undisguised declaration
that that compact is not meant to be the measure of the powers of the
General Government, but that it will proceed in the exercise over these
States, of all powers whatsoever: that they will view this as seizing the
rights of the States, and consolidating them in the hands of the General
Government, with a power assumed to bind the States, (not merely as the
cases made federal, (casus fœderis,) but) in all cases whatsoever, by
laws made, not with their consent, but by others against their consent:
that this would be to surrender the form of government we have chosen,
and live under one deriving its powers from its own will, and not from
our authority; and that the co-States, recurring to their natural right
in cases not made federal, will concur in declaring these acts void, and
of no force, and will each take measures of its own for providing that
neither these acts, nor any others of the General Government not plainly
and intentionally authorized by the Constitution, shall be exercised
within their respective territories.
9th, _Resolved_, That the said committee be authorized to communicate by
writing or personal conferences, at any times or places whatever, with
any person or persons who may be appointed by any one or more co-States
to correspond or confer with them; and that they lay their proceedings
before the next session of Assembly.
FOOTNOTE:
[20] [Two copies of these resolutions are preserved among
the manuscripts of the author, both in his own handwriting.
One is a rough draught, and the other very neatly and
carefully prepared. The probability is, that they are the
original of the celebrated Kentucky Resolutions on the
same subject.--ED.]
XL.
_Dr. Stevens' case._[21] _June 12th, 1804._
I consider the annual act which appropriates a given sum to the expenses
of intercourse with foreign nations, as a sufficient authority to the
President (the constitutional organ of foreign intercourse) to expend
that sum for the purposes of foreign intercourse at his discretion. If
he abuses that discretion, he is responsible for it in a constitutional
way. The legal restrictions on this power are, 1. That for outfit or
compensation for personal services and expenses to certain specified
grades (which are those chiefly used by the United States), not more than
specified sums shall be allowed. 2. That the whole expenses shall not
exceed the sum appropriated. 3. That an account of the expenditure shall
be rendered. The sum on which these restrictions leave the executive
discretion to act, is too small to excite any rational jealousy, or
to render it useful to restrict it further by rigorous and unusual
constructions. The executive, therefore, is believed to be free to make
allowance to the specified grades for any object than those (for personal
services and expenses), and to employ any unspecified grade on such
salary and allowance as he thinks proper within the limits of the whole
appropriation. Nor is any law, or principle of law known, which would
forbid the superadding these agencies and allowances for them to the
ordinary functions of a court minister, &c. I consider the appointment,
therefore, and allowance to Dr. Stevens to have been within the limits
of the Executive authority.
Whenever it is agreed between two parties that certain services shall
be performed by the one for the other, and no special compensation is
stipulated, the law understands their intention to be that a _quantum
meruit_, or a reasonable compensation shall be allowed. Such an agreement
will therefore be implied by law in the case of Dr. Stevens. What is
that reasonable compensation? Not his expenses, however extravagant,
even if a contract could be proved that his expenses were to be paid.
The law understands such a promise to mean his reasonable expenses only.
His functions were in a certain degree of a diplomatic nature. Yet the
government to which he was sent, not being independent, he could not be
invested formally with any diplomatic grade. If we place him, therefore,
on the level of the lowest grade, that of a chargé des affaires, and make
that the measure of his _quantum meruit_, we shall do him full justice.
No circumstance justifies his assuming a higher place.
But shall he be considered as a permanent agent, and therefore entitled
to an outfit, or only as an occasional one to be allowed the reasonable
expenses of his passage, which is the rule with occasional diplomatic
agents? His not having been nominated to the Senate clearly excludes him
from the character of a permanent agent, if it does not take from him
all legal character after their first session following his appointment.
To draw such a line as will admit the Executive, during the recess of
the Senate, to despatch a special agent for a particular purpose without
awaiting their approbation, and yet not enable him, by continuing that
agent permanently, to evade the constitutional approbation of the Senate,
and to keep up a separate corps of diplomacy of his own, will require
great consideration, caution and candor, and until it be done, great
attention in the Executive to keep within unquestionable bounds. I do
not think, however, that the right of Dr. Stevens ought to depend on
that definition. An individual who is employed by the highest public
functionary to do a public service within the line of his authority, is
bound to consider him as acting with legal powers, and as alone charged
with all the responsibility if he transcends his powers. Dr. Stevens
had a right to expect the Executive would nominate him to the Senate
for approbation, if that nomination was necessary. He proceeds in his
duty, and supposes the Executive does the same, and ought not to lose
his right by the failure of the latter. The public in such case should
pay the individual, and take on themselves the measures necessary to
prevent similar infractions of the Constitution in future.
Questions meriting great consideration, have been made as to the
sufficiency of the evidence offered in support of Dr. Stevens' claims.
The settling by a _quantum meruit_, the claim (for personal services and
expenses) gets rid of this question so far. For that the services were
performed is notorious, and that it was by public authority, results from
the whole correspondence. It has been suspected, indeed, that there was
no contract, nor any other reward intended than certain privileges of
commerce. But this is not the way the United States pay their servants.
Monopolizing compensations are among the most fatal abuses which some
governments practice from false economy. They are not the usage here,
and if suggested, the _onus probandi_ is thrown on the party suggesting
it. The law will presume a fair and usual contract, but not one which
is improper and unusual.
The claim for travelling expenses within the limits of his agency, would
require proof of positive contract. When an agent for a limited district,
is sent into another, his expenses have been usually allowed; but never
those of travelling to and from places within his regular care, and for
the regular purposes of that care. His general allowance compensates
his general superintendence over the whole, and to pay him for visiting
each particular part also, would be a double payment. This would lead
to endless claims and difficulties.
The hire of despatch vessels has been attended with such singular
circumstances as excite almost invincible suspicion that they came on
the ordinary business of the mercantile house. This means of conveying
information is so expensive, that it is not allowed even to diplomatic
agencies, but on great and important emergencies, on each of which as it
arises, the Department of State will decide, at the risk of the agent
venturing on it. Whether these despatch vessels came purely on public
account, and whether the matter they were charged with justified the
expense, should be strictly inquired into.
Inquiry will doubtless also be made, 1, whether Mr. Yard's connection
in interest with Dr. Stevens will admit him to be a witness in this
case; and 2, if it does, his testimony will be estimated, as every other
man's is which is given under circumstances of bias of which he is not
sensible himself.
In deciding on these questions of evidence, we are bound to proceed
by the same laws of evidence which govern the courts of justice. These
are the laws of the land, admitting no exceptions of person, public or
private. The laws in refusing an appeal to the ordinary tribunals in
questions between an individual and the public, and leaving the decision
in the executive department, has changed the judge in this instance,
but not the law. It has given judiciary but not legislative powers; and
the laws of the land are the inheritance and the right of every man,
before whatever tribunal he is brought. For instance, that a contract
need not be on record; that it may be by parol as well as in writing,
that a written contract may be controlled by verbal agreement or other
intrinsic matter, are principles of law to which Dr. Stevens is entitled
on the one hand, as it is our duty, on the other, to bring his claims
to the test of law, to sift the facts on which they rest by the common
rules of evidence, and to decide according to these on every item of his
accounts, not weakly to relieve an individual by giving him the public
money, nor arbitrarily to withhold by public power what is justly due to
an individual. This investigation cannot be better trusted than to the
justice and judgment of the comptroller, to whom therefore it is referred.
FOOTNOTE:
[21]
June 12th, 1804.
MR. GALLATIN,--On the subject of Dr. Stevens' case, I had,
before receiving your letter, endeavored to form as correct
a judgment as I could, and had made some notes, keeping
them open till I might see whether anything further should
be added. I have this morning put them into some form.
Of the purity of the motives of your objections, it was
impossible I should ever entertain a moment's doubt. Of
my opinion of their solidity, you will see a proof in the
conclusions I have drawn, and which will probably condemn
more than the half of Dr. Stevens' claims. I enclose you a
copy of my opinion on the subject, which may serve as the
direction of the Department of State to the comptroller.
Accept my affectionate salutations.
XLI.
_Notes on a Draught for a second Inaugural Address._
The former one was an exposition of the principles on which I thought
it my duty to administer the government. The second, then, should
naturally be a _compte rendu_, or a statement of facts showing that I
have conformed to those principles. The former was _promise_: this is
_performance_. Yet the nature of the occasion requires that detail should
be avoided; that the most prominent heads only should be selected, and
these placed in a strong light, but in as few words as possible. These
heads are foreign affairs, domestic ditto, viz.: Taxes, Debts, Louisiana,
Religion, Indians, the Press. None of these heads need any commentary
but that of Indians. This is a proper topic, not only to promote the
work of humanizing our citizens towards these people, but to conciliate
to us the good opinion of Europe on the subject of the Indians. This,
however, might have been done in half the compass it here occupies. But
every respecter of science, every friend to political reformation, must
have observed with indignation the hue and cry raised against philosophy
and the rights of man; and it really seems as if they would be overborne,
and barbarism, bigotry, and despotism, would recover the ground they
have lost by the advance of the public understanding. I have thought the
occasion justified some discountenance of these anti-social doctrines,
some testimony against them. But not to commit myself in direct warfare
on them, I have thought it best to say what is directly applied to the
Indians only, but admits by inference a more general extension.
XLII.
_Farewell Address to Th: Jefferson. President of the United States._
[Agreed to by both Houses, Feb. 7, 1809.]
Sir,--The General Assembly of your native State cannot close their
session, without acknowledging your services in the office which you are
just about to lay down, and bidding you a respectful and affectionate
farewell.
We have to thank you for the model of an administration conducted on
the purest principles of republicanism; for pomp and state laid aside;
patronage discarded; internal taxes abolished; a host of superfluous
officers disbanded; the monarchic maxim "that a national debt is a
national blessing," renounced, and more than thirty-three millions of
our debt discharged; the native right to nearly one hundred millions
of acres of our national domain extinguished; and, without the guilt or
calamities of conquest, a vast and fertile region added to our country,
far more extensive than her original possessions, bringing along with it
the Mississippi and the port of Orleans, the trade of the west to the
Pacific Ocean, and in the intrinsic value of the land itself, a source
of permanent and almost inexhaustible revenue. These are points in your
administration which the historian will not fail to seize, to expand,
and teach posterity to dwell upon with delight. Nor will he forget our
peace with the civilized world, preserved through a season of uncommon
difficulty and trial; the good will cultivated with the unfortunate
aborigines of our country, and the civilization humanely extended among
them; the lesson taught the inhabitants of the coast of Barbary, that we
have the means of chastising their piratical encroachments, and awing them
into justice; and that theme, on which, above all others, the historic
genius will hang with rapture, the liberty of speech and of the press
preserved inviolate, without which genius and science are given to man
in vain.
In the principles on which you have administered the government, we see
only the continuation and maturity of the same virtues and abilities,
which drew upon you in your youth the resentment of Dunmore. From the
first brilliant and happy moment of your resistance to foreign tyranny,
until the present day, we mark with pleasure and with gratitude the same
uniform, consistent character, the same warm and devoted attachment
to liberty and the republic, the same Roman love of your country, her
rights, her peace, her honor, her prosperity.
How blessed will be the retirement into which you are about to go! How
deservedly blessed will it be! For you carry with you the richest of all
rewards, the recollection of a life well spent in the service of your
country, and proofs the most decisive, of the love, the gratitude, the
veneration of your countrymen.
That your retirement may be as happy as your life has been virtuous and
useful; that our youth may see in the blissful close of your days, an
additional inducement to form themselves on your model, is the devout and
earnest prayer of your fellow citizens who compose the General Assembly
of Virginia.
XLIII.
_Notes on Fifth Volume of Marshall's Life of Washington._
Page 2. _"The practicability of perpetuating his authority," &c._ I
am satisfied that General Washington had not a wish to perpetuate his
authority; but he who supposes it was practicable, had he wished it,
knows nothing of the spirit of America, either of the people or of those
who possessed their confidence. There was indeed a cabal of the officers
of the army who proposed to establish a monarchy and to propose it to
General Washington. He frowned indignantly at the proposition, [according
to the information which got abroad,] and Rufus King and some few civil
characters, chiefly [indeed, I believe, to a man] north of Maryland, who
joined in this intrigue. But they never dared openly to avow it, knowing
that the spirit which had produced a change in the form of government
was alive to the preservation of it.
Page 28. The member of Congress here alluded to was myself, and the
extracts quoted, was part of a letter from myself in answer to one
General Washington wrote. (See both.) General Washington called on me at
Annapolis (where I then was as a member of Congress), on his way to the
meeting of the Cincinnati in Philadelphia. We had much conversation on the
institution, which was chiefly an amplification of the sentiments in our
letters, and, in conclusion, after I had stated to him the modifications
which I thought might remove all jealousies, as well as dangers, and the
parts which might still be retained, he appeared to make up his mind, and
said: "No! not a fibre of it must be retained--no half-way reformation
will suffice. If the thing be bad, it must be totally abolished." And
he declared his determination to use his utmost endeavors to have it
entirely abolished. On his return from Philadelphia he called on me
again at Annapolis, and sat with me until a very late hour in the night,
giving me an account of what passed in their convention. The sum of it
was that he had exerted his whole influence in every way in his power
to procure an abolition; that the opposition to it was extreme, and
especially from some of the younger members; but that after several days
of struggle within doors and without, a general sentiment was obtained
for its entire abolition. Whether any vote had been taken on it or not,
I do not remember; but his affirmation to me was, that within a few days
(I think he said two or three) it would have been formally abolished.
Just in that moment arrived Major L'Enfant, who had been sent to France
to procure the Eagles, and to offer the order to the French officers who
had served in America. He brought the King's permission to his officers
to accept it, the letters of thanks of these officers accepting it,
letters of solicitation from other officers to obtain it, and the Eagles
themselves. The effect of all this on the minds of the members was to
undo much of what had been done; to rekindle all the passions which had
produced the institution, and silence all the dictates of prudence, which
had been operating for its abolition. After this, the General said, the
utmost that could be effected was the modification which took place, and
which provided for its extinction with the death of the existing members.
He declined the Presidency, and, I think, Baron Steuben was appointed. I
went soon after to France. While there, M. de Munier, charged with that
part of the Encyclopedie Methodique which relates to economy politique
and diplomatique, called on me with the article of that dictionary,
"Etats Unis," which he had prepared ready for the press, and begged I
would revise it and make any notes on it which I should think necessary
towards rendering it correct. I furnished him most of the matter of his
fifth, sixth, eighth, ninth, and tenth sections of the article "Etats
Unis," with which, however, he intermixed some of his own. The ninth is
that which relates to the Cincinnati. On this subject, the section, as
prepared by him, was an unjust and incorrect Philippic against General
Washington and the American officers in general. I wrote a substitute
for it, which he adopted, but still retaining considerable of his own
matter, and interspersing it in various parts.
Page 33. _"In a government constituted," &c._ Here begins the artful
complexion he has given to the two parties, Federal and Republican. In
describing the first by their views and motives, he implies an opposition
to those motives in their opponents which is totally untrue. The real
difference consisted in their different degrees of inclination to Monarchy
or Republicanism. The Federalists wished for everything which would
approach our new government to a Monarchy. The Republicans to preserve
it essentially Republican. This was the true origin of the division,
and remains still the essential principle of difference between the two
parties.
XLIV.
_Scheme for a system of Agricultural Societies. March, 1811._
Several persons, farmers and planters of the county of Albemarle, having,
during their visits and occasional meetings together, in conversations
on the subjects of their agricultural pursuits, received considerable
benefits from an intercommunication of their plans and processes in
husbandry, they have imagined that these benefits might be usefully
extended by enlarging the field of communication so as to embrace the
whole dimensions of the State. Were practical and observing husbandmen
in each county to form themselves into a society, commit to writing
themselves, or state in conversations at their meetings to be written
down by others, their practices and observations, their experiences
and ideas, selections from these might be made from time to time by
every one for his own use, or by the society or a committee of it, for
more general purposes. By an interchange of these selections among the
societies of the different counties, each might thus become possessed of
the useful ideas and processes of the whole; and every one adopt such
of them as he should deem suitable to his own situation. Or to abridge
the labor of such multiplied correspondences, a central society might
be agreed on to which, as a common deposit, all the others should send
their communications. The society thus honored by the general confidence,
would doubtless feel and fulfil the duty of selecting such papers as
should be worthy of entire communication, of extracting and digesting
from others whatever might be useful, and of condensing their matter
within such compass as might reconcile it to the reading, as well as to
the purchase of the great mass of practical men. Many circumstances would
recommend, for the central society, that which should be established in
the county of the seat of government. The necessary relations of every
county with that would afford facilities for all the transmissions which
should take place between them. The annual meeting of the legislature at
that place, the individuals of which would most frequently be members of
their county societies, would give opportunities of informal conferences
which might promote a general and useful understanding among all the
societies; and presses established there offer conveniences entirely
peculiar to that situation.
In a country, of whose interests agriculture forms the basis, wherein the
sum of productions is limited by the quantity of the labor it possesses,
and not of its lands, a more judicious employment of that labor would be a
clear addition of gain to individuals as well as to the nation, now lost
to both by a want of skill and information in its direction. Every one
must have seen farms otherwise equal, the one producing the double of the
other by the superior culture and management of its possessor; and every
one must have under his eye numerous examples of persons setting out in
life with no other possession than skill in agriculture, and speedily,
by its sole exercise, acquire wealth and independence. To promote,
therefore, the diffusion of this skill, and thereby to procure, with the
same labor now employed, greater means of subsistence and of happiness
to our fellow citizens, is the ultimate object of this Association; and
towards effecting it, we consider the following particulars among those
most worthy of the attention of the societies proposed.
1st. And principally the cultivation of our primary staples of wheat,
tobacco, and hemp, for market.
2d. All subsidiary articles for the support of the farm, the food, the
clothing and the comfort of the household, as Indian corn, rye, oats,
barley, buckwheat, millet, the family of peas and beans, the whole family
of grasses, turnips, potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes, and other useful
roots, cotton and flax, the garden and orchard.
3d. The care and services of useful animals for the saddle or draught,
for food or clothing, and the destruction of noxious quadrupeds, fowls,
insects, and reptiles.
4th. Rotations of crops, and the circumstances which should govern or
vary them, according to the varieties of soil, climate, and markets, of
our different counties.
5th. Implements of husbandry and operations with them, among which
the plough and all its kindred instruments for dividing the soil,
holds the first place, and the threshing machine an important one, the
simplification of which is a great desideratum. Successful examples,
too, of improvement in the operations of these instruments would be
an excitement to correct the slovenly and unproductive practices too
generally prevalent.
6th. Farm buildings and conveniences, inclosures, roads, fuel, timber.
7th. Manures, plaster, green-dressings, fallows, and other means of
ameliorating the soil.
8th. Calendars of works, showing how a given number of laborers and of
draught animals are to be employed every day in the year so as to perform
within themselves, and in their due time, according to the usual course
of seasons, all the operations of a farm of given size. This being
essential to the proportioning the labor to the size of the farm.
9th. A succinct report of the different practices of husbandry in the
county, including the bad as well as the good, that those who follow the
former may read and see their own condemnation in the same page which
offers better examples for their adoption. It is believed that a judicious
execution of this article alone, might nearly supersede every other duty
of the society, inasmuch as it would present every good practice which
has occurred to the mind of any cultivator of the State for imitation,
and every bad one for avoidance. And the choicest processes culled from
every farm, would compose a course probably near perfection.
10th. The county communications being first digested in their respective
societies, a methodical and compact digest and publication of these would
be the duty of the central society; and on the judicious performance of
this, would in a great degree depend the utility of the institutions,
and extent of improvement flowing from them.
11th. That we may not deter from becoming members, those practical and
observing husbandmen whose knowledge is the most valuable, and who are
mostly to be found in that portion of citizens with whom the observance
of economy is necessary, all duties of every kind should be performed
gratis; and to defray the expenses of the central publication alone,
each member should pay at the first stated meeting of his society in
every year, ---- dollars, for which he should be entitled to receive a
copy of the publication bound in boards.
12th. The first association of ---- persons in any county notifying
themselves as constituted to the central society, should be received
as the society of the county making a part of the general establishment
here proposed; but every county society should be free to adopt associate
members, although residents of other counties, and to receive and avail
the institution of communications from persons not members, whether in
or out of their county.
We are far from presuming to offer this organization and these principles
of constitution as complete, and worthy the implicit adoption of other
societies. They are suggested only as propositions for consideration
and amendment, and we shall readily accede to any others more likely to
effect the purposes we have in view. We know that agricultural societies
are already established in some counties; but we are not informed of
their particular constitutions. We request these to be admitted into
their brotherhood, and to make with them parts of one great whole. We
have learned that such a society is formed or forming at the seat of our
government. We ask their affiliation, and give them our suffrage for the
station of central society. We promise to all our zealous co-operation in
promoting the objects of the institution, and to contribute our mite in
exchange for the more abundant information we shall receive from others.
For these purposes we now constitute ourselves an agricultural society
of the county of Albemarle, and adopt as rules for present observance,
the principles before stated.
Our further organization shall be a President, Secretary and Treasurer,
to be chosen at the first stated meeting to be held in every year, by a
majority of the members present, provided those present be a majority of
the existing members, and to continue in office until another election
shall be made.
There shall be four stated meetings in ever year, to wit: on the first
Mondays in January, April, July and October.
The place of meeting, and rules of the society, shall be established,
revoked or altered, and new members admitted, at any of the stated
meetings, by a majority of the attending members, if they be a majority
of those present, not being less than one-fourth of the whole. And, lest
the powers given to the greater quorum of a majority of the whole, should
at any time remain unexercised from insufficient attendance, the same
may be exercised by a resolution of the lesser quorum of one-fourth,
passed at a stated meeting: provided it be confirmed at the next stated
meeting, by either a greater or lesser quorum, and in the meantime have
no force.
Those who for two whole years shall not have attended any stated meeting
shall, _ipso facto_, cease to be members. And to ascertain at all times
who are the existing members, the names of those attending every meeting
shall be regularly entered in the journals of the society.
The President shall preside at all meetings when present, and when
absent, a president _pro tempore_ may be appointed for that purpose _by
those present_.
XLV.
_Observations on the force and obligation of the common law in the
United States, on the occasion of Hardin's case, in Kentucky. November
11th, 1812._
The _common law of England_ is that system of law which was established
in that country anterior to the Magna Charta, 9 H. 3, before which period
no statutes are extant of record. It is used in contradistinction to
the term _statute law_, which comprehends all the laws passed by their
Parliament from the Magna Charta down to this day.
The term _common law_ is used also in contradistinction to the _chancery_,
as when we speak of the doctrines or courts of the common law, the
doctrines or courts of chancery, and then include the _statute law_ also.
In which sense the term is used, must always depend on the subject matter.
On the settlement of the colonies now composing the United States, and
the establishment of a legislature in each of them, that legislature,
in some cases, finding that the enacting a complete code of laws, which
should reach every transaction needing legislative regulation, would
be far beyond their time and abilities, adopted, by an express act of
their own, the laws of England as they stood at that date, comprehending
the common law, statutes to that period, and the chancery law. In other
cases, instead of adopting them by an express statute of their own, they
considered themselves as having brought with them, and been, even on
their passage, under the constant obligation of the laws of the mother
country, and on their arrival they continued to practice them without
any act of adoption, which practice or usage is evidence that there was
an adoption by general consent. In the case of Connecticut, they did not
adopt the common law of England at all as their basis, but declared by an
act of their own, that the law of God, as it stood revealed in the Old
and New Testament, should be the basis of their laws, to be subject to
such alterations as they should make. In all the cases where the common
law, or laws of England, were adopted either expressly or tacitly, the
legislatures held of course, and exercised the power of making additions
and alterations.
As the different States were settled at very different periods, and
the adoption for each State was the laws of England as they stood at
the moment of the adoption by the State, it is evident that the system
as adopted in 1607 by Virginia, was one thing, as by Pennsylvania was
another thing, as by Georgia, in 1759, was still a different one. And
when to this is added the very diversified modifications of the adoptive
code, produced by the subsequent laws passed by the legislatures of the
different States, the system of common law in force in any one State on
the 24th of September, 1789, when Congress assumed the jurisdiction given
them by the Constitution, was very different from the systems in force
at the same moment in the several other States: that in all of these the
common law was in force by virtue of the adoption of the State, express
or tacit, and that it was not in force in Connecticut, because they had
never adopted it.
Having settled, by way of preliminary, to what extent, and by what
authority, the common law of England is the law of each of the States,
we will proceed to consider how far, and by what authority, it is the
law of the United States as a national government.
By the Constitution, the General Government has jurisdiction in all cases
arising under the Constitution, under the (constitutional) laws of the
United States, and under treaties; in all cases, too, of ambassadors,
of admiralty jurisdiction, where the United States is a party, between
a State or its citizens, or another State or its citizens, or a foreign
State or its citizens.
The General Government, then, had a right to take under their cognizance
all these cases, and no others. This might have been done by Congress, by
passing a complete code, assuming the whole field of their jurisdiction,
and applying uniformly to every State, without any respect to the laws
of that State. But, like the State legislatures, who had been placed
before in a similar situation, they felt that it was a work of too much
time and difficulty to be undertaken. Observing, therefore, that (except
cases of piracy and murder on the high seas) all the cases within their
jurisdiction must arise in some of the States, they declared by the act
Sept. 24, 1789, c. 20, § 34, "That the laws of the several States, except
where the Constitution, treaties, or statutes of the United States shall
otherwise provide, shall be regarded as rules of decision in trials
at _common law_ in the courts of the United States in cases where they
apply."
Here, then, Congress adopt for each State the laws of that State; and
among the laws so adopted were portions of the common law, greater or
less in different States, and in force, not by any innate authority of
its own, but by the adoption or enacting of it by the State authority.
Now what was the opinion to which this was opposed? Several judges
of the General Government declared that "the common law of England is
the unwritten law of the United States in their national and federal
capacity." A State judge, in a printed work, lays it down as "certainly
wrong to say that the judiciary power of the nation can exercise no
authority but what depends for its principle on acts of the national
legislature." And then quoting the preamble to the Constitution of
the United States, which says that its object is "to insure domestic
tranquillity, promote the general welfare," &c., he adds, that "what
is here expressed is the _common law_ of the whole country," and that
"whatever is in opposition to it, whether treason, insurrection, sedition,
murder, riot, assaults, batteries, thefts or robberies, may be punished
as crimes, independent of any act of Congress." And opinions equivalent
to this were declared by one party on the floor of Congress. This is
the doctrine which the republicans declared heretical. They deny that
Congress can pass any law not authorized by the Constitution, and that
the judges can act on any law not authorized by Congress, or by the
Constitution in very direct terms.
If the true doctrine then be, that certain portions of the common and
statute law of England be in force in the different States by virtue of
the adoption of that State, and in the federal courts of the same State
by virtue of the adoption by Congress of the laws of that State within
its limits, then whenever a case is presented to a federal court, they
are to ask themselves the following questions:
1. Is this case within any of the definitions of jurisdiction given by
the Constitution to the General Government? If it be decided that it
is, then
2. Has Congress by any positive statute assumed cognizance of this case
as permitted them by the Constitution? To determine this question, the
judge must first look into the statutes of Congress generally; if he
finds it not there, he must look into the laws of the State, as well as
that portion of the English code which the State may have adopted, as
the acts passed specially by the legislature. If the case be actually
found provided for in these laws, another question still remains, viz.:
3. Is the law of the State applicable to the analogous case of the
General Government? for it may happen that a law of the State, adapted
perfectly to its own organization and local circumstances, may not
tally with the different organization or circumstances of the federal
government. If the difference be such as to defeat the application,
it must be considered as a case unprovided for by Congress, and not
cognizable in their courts. Just so parts of the common or statute law
of England are found by the State judges inapplicable to their State
from a difference of circumstance. These differences of circumstance
will be shaded off from nothing to direct inconsistence, and it will be
only by many decisions on a great variety of cases that the line will
at length be drawn.
Let us apply these questions to Hardin's case, which is simply this:
Congress, by an express statute, 1802, c. 13, § 6, have made the murder
of an Indian within the territory of the United States punishable by
death. A murder is committed on an Indian in that territory. The murderers
fly to Kentucky. They are demanded by the Governor of Indiana of the
Governor of Kentucky; under whose authority our officer attempting to
take them, they are protected by Hardin and others in arms.
1. Is this case within the jurisdiction of Congress? _Answer._ Congress
having a right "to make all rules and regulations respecting the territory
of the United States," have declared this to be a case of murder. As
they can "make all laws necessary and proper for carrying their powers
into execution," they can make the protecting a murderer criminal in
any part of the United States.
2. Has Congress assumed cognizance of the offence of Hardin? We must
first examine whether the act of Congress, 1790, c. 9, § 22, takes in
this offence. Then whether the laws of Kentucky, common, statute, or
State law, as adopted by Congress, comprehend this offence.
3. Whether any difference of organization or other circumstance renders
the law of Kentucky inapplicable to this offence, can be decided by
those only who are particularly acquainted with that law.
XLVI.
_Plan for Elementary Schools._
POPLAR FOREST, Sept 9th, 1817.
DEAR SIR,--I promised you that I would put into the form of a bill my
plan of establishing the Elementary Schools, without taking a cent from
the Literary fund. I have had leisure at this place, to do this, and now
send you the result. If twelve or fifteen hundred schools are to be placed
under one general administration, an attention so divided will amount
to a dereliction of them to themselves. It is surely better, then, to
place each school at once under the care of those most interested in its
conduct. In this way the Literary fund is left untouched to complete at
once the whole system of education, by establishing a college in every
district of about eighty miles square, for the second grade of education,
to wit: languages, ancient and modern, and for the third grade a single
University, in which the sciences shall be taught in their highest degree.
I should apologize, perhaps, for the style of this bill. I dislike the
verbose and intricate style of the English statutes, and in our revised
code I endeavored to restore it to the simple one of the ancient statutes,
in such original bills as I drew in that work. I suppose the reformation
has not been acceptable, as it has been little followed. You, however,
can easily correct this bill to the taste of my brother lawyers, by
making every other word a "said" or "aforesaid," and saying everything
over two or three times, so that nobody but we of the craft can untwist
the diction, and find out what it means; and that, too, not so plainly
but that we may conscientiously divide one half on each side. Mend it,
therefore, in form and substance to the orthodox taste, and make it what
it should be; or, if you think it radically wrong, try something else,
and let us make a beginning in some way. No matter how wrong, experience
will amend it as we go along, and make it effectual in the end.
I shall see you of course at our stated visitation, and hope all the
gentlemen will consider Monticello as the rendezvous of the preceding
day or evening.
I salute you with friendship and respect.
* * * * *
_An Act for establishing Elementary Schools._
1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, that at the first
session of the Superior Court in every county within this commonwealth,
next ensuing the passage of this act, the judge thereof shall appoint
three discreet and well-informed persons, residents of the county, and
not being ministers of the gospel[22] of any denomination, to serve
as visitors of the Elementary Schools in the said county; of which
appointment the sheriff shall, within fifteen days thereafter deliver a
certificate, under the hand of the clerk of the said court, to each of
the persons so appointed.
2. The said visitors shall meet at the court-house of their county on
the first county court day after they shall have received notice of
their appointment, and afterwards at such times and places as they, or
any two of them, with reasonable notice to the third, shall have agreed;
and shall proceed to divide their county into wards,[23] by metes and
bounds so designated as to comprehend each, about the number of militia
sufficient for a company, and so also as not to divide, and throw into
different wards[24] the lands of any one person held in one body; which
division into wards shall, within six months from the date of their
appointment, be completely designated, published, and reported, by their
metes and bounds, to the office of the clerk of the Superior Court,
there to be recorded, subject, however, to such alterations, from time
to time afterwards, as changes of circumstances shall, in the opinion
of the said visitors or their successors, with the approbation of the
said court, render expedient.
3. The original division into wards being made, the visitors shall
appoint days for the first meeting of every ward, at such place as they
shall name within the same, of which appointment notice shall be given
at least two weeks before the day of meeting, by advertisement at some
public place within the ward, requiring every free, white male citizen,
of full age, resident within the ward, to meet at the place, and by the
hour of twelve of the day so appointed, at which meeting some one of the
visitors shall also attend, and a majority of the said warders being
in attendance, the visitor present shall propose to them to decide by
a majority of their votes,--1. The location of a school-house for the
ward, and a dwelling-house for the teacher, (the owner of the ground
consenting thereto.) 2. The size and structure of the said houses; and
3. Whether the same shall be built by the joint labor of the warders,
or by their pecuniary contributions; and also 4. To elect by a plurality
of their votes a warden, resident, who shall direct and superintend the
said buildings, and be charged with their future care.
4. And if they decide that the said buildings[25] shall be erected by
the joint labor of the warders, then all persons within the said ward
liable to work in the highways, shall attend at the order of the warden,
and, under his direction, shall labor thereon until completed, under
the same penalties as provided by law to enforce labor on the highways.
And if they decide on erection by pecuniary contributions, the residents
and owners of property within the ward shall contribute toward the cost,
each in proportion to the taxes they last paid to the State for their
persons and for the same property: of which the sheriff or commissioners
shall furnish a statement to the warden, who, according to the ratio of
that statement, shall apportion and assess the quota of contribution
for each, and be authorized to demand, receive, and apply the same to
the purposes of the contribution, and to render account thereof, as in
all other his pecuniary transactions for the school, to the visitors;
and on failure of payment by any contributor, the sheriff, on the order
of the warden, shall collect and render the same under like powers and
regulations as provided for the collection of the public taxes. And
in every case it shall be the duty of the warden to have the buildings
completed within six months from the date of his election.
5. It shall be the duty of the said visitors to seek and to employ for
every ward,[26] whenever the number and ages of its children require it,
a person of good moral character, qualified to teach reading, writing,
numeral arithmetic and geography, whose subsistence shall be furnished by
the residents and proprietors of the ward, either in money or in kind, at
the choice of each contributor, and in the ratio of their public taxes,
to be apportioned and levied as on the failures before provided for. The
teacher shall also have the use of the house and accommodations provided
for him, and shall moreover receive annually such standing wages as the
visitors shall have determined to be proportioned on the residents and
proprietors of the ward, and to be paid, levied and applied as before
provided in other cases of pecuniary contribution. At this school shall
be received and instructed gratis, every infant of competent age who has
not already had three years schooling. And it is declared and enacted,
that no person unborn or under the age of twelve years at the passing
of this act, and who is _compos mentis_, shall, after the age of fifteen
years, be a citizen of this commonwealth until he or she can read readily
in some tongue, native or acquired.
6. To keep up a constant succession of visitors, the judge of the Superior
Court of every county shall at his first session in every bissextile year,
appoint visitors as before characterized, either the same or others, at
his discretion. And in case of the death or resignation of any visitor
during the term of his appointment, or of his removal by the said judge
for good cause, moral or physical, he shall appoint another to serve
until the next bissextile appointment. Which visitors shall have their
first meeting at their court house on the county court day next ensuing
their appointment, and afterwards at such times and places as themselves
or any two of them with reasonable notice to the third shall agree.
But the election of wardens shall be annually, at the first meeting of
the ward after the month of March, until which election the warden last
elected shall continue in office.
7. All ward meetings shall be at their school house, and on a failure
of the meeting of a majority of the wardens on the call of a visitor,
or of their warden, such visitor or warden may call another meeting.
8. At all times when repairs or alterations of the buildings before
provided for shall be wanting, it shall be the duty of the warden or of
a visitor, to call a ward meeting and to take the same measures towards
such repairs or alterations as are herein before authorized for the
original buildings.
9. When, on the application of any warden, authorized thereto by the
vote of his ward, the judge of the Superior Court shall be of opinion
that the contributors of any particular ward are disproportionably
and oppressively overburthened with an unusual number of children of
non-contributors of their ward, he may direct an order to the county
court to assess in their next county levy the whole or such part of the
extra burthen as he shall think excessive and unreasonable, to be paid
to the warden for its proper use, to which order the said county court
is required to conform.
10. The said teachers shall, in all things relating to the education and
government of their pupils, be under the direction and control of the
visitors; but no religious reading, instruction or exercise, shall be
prescribed or practiced inconsistent with the tenets of any religious
sect or denomination.
11. Some one of the visitors, once in every year at least, shall visit
the several schools: shall inquire into the proceedings and practices
thereat: shall examine the progress of the pupils, and give to those
who excel in reading, in writing, in arithmetic, or in geography, such
honorary marks and testimonies of approbation, as may encourage and
excite to industry and emulation.
12. All decisions and proceedings of the visitors relative to the original
designation of wards at any time before the buildings are begun, or
changes of wards at any time after, to the quantum of subsistence, or
wages allowed to the teacher, and to the rules prescribed to him for the
education and government of his pupils, shall be subject to be controlled
and corrected by the judge of the Superior Court of the county, on the
complaint of any individual aggrieved or interested.
FOOTNOTES:
[22] § 1. Ministers of the Gospel are excluded to avoid
jealousy from the other sects, were the public education
committed to the ministers of a particular one; and with
more reason than in the case of their exclusion from the
legislative and executive functions.
[23] § 2. This designation of the size of a ward is
founded on these considerations: 1st. That the population
which furnishes a company of militia will generally about
furnish children enough for a school. 2d. That in most
instances, at present, the militia captaincies being laid
off compactly by known and convenient metes and bounds, many
will be adopted without change, and others will furnish a
canvas to work on and to reform. 3d. That these wards once
established, will be found convenient and salutary aids
in the administration of government, of which they will
constitute the organic elements, and the first integral
members in the composition of the military.
[24] § 3. The prohibition to place among different wards
the lands of a single individual, held in a body is, 1st.
To save the proprietor from the perplexity of multiplied
responsibilities; and 2. To prevent arbitrary and inconsistent
apportionments, by different wardens, of the comparative
values of the different portions of his lands in their
respective wards.
[25] § 4. It is presumed that the wards will generally
build such log-houses for the school and teacher as they
now do, and will join force and build them themselves,
experience proving them to be as comfortable as they
are cheap. Nor would it be advisable to build expensive
houses in the country wards, which, from changes in their
population, will be liable to changes of their boundaries
and consequent displacements of their centre, drawing
with it a removal of their school-house. In towns, better
houses may be more safely built, or rented for both purposes.
[26] § 5. Estimating eight hundred militia to a county,
there will be twelve captaincies or wards in a county on
an average. Suppose each of these, three years in every
six, to have children enough for a school, who have not
yet had three years schooling; such a county will employ
six teachers, each serving two wards by alternate terms.
These teachers will be taken from the laboring classes, as
they are now, to wit: from that which furnishes mechanics,
overseers and tillers of the earth; and they will chiefly
be the cripples, the weakly and the old, of that class, who
will have been qualified for these functions by the ward
schools themselves. If put on a footing then, for wages and
subsistence, with the young and the able of their class,
they will be liberally compensated: say with one hundred
and fifty dollars wages and the usual allowance of meat
and bread. The subsistence will probably be contributed in
kind by the warders, out of their family stock. The wages
alone will be a pecuniary tax of about nine hundred dollars.
To a county, this addition would be of about one-fifth of
the taxes we now pay to the State, or about one-fifth of
one per cent, on every man's taxable property; if tax can
be called that which we give to our children in the most
valuable of all forms, that of instruction. Were those
schools to be established on the public funds, and to be
managed by the Governor and council, or the commissioners
of the Literary fund, brick houses to be built for the
schools and teachers, high wages and subsistence given
them, they would be badly managed, depraved by abuses,
and would exhaust the whole Literary fund. While under the
eye and animadversion of the wards, and the control of the
wardens and visitors, economy, diligence, and correctness
of conduct, will be enforced, the whole Literary fund will
be spared to complete the general system of education,
by colleges in every district for instruction in the
languages, and an university for the whole of the higher
sciences; and this, by an addition to our contributions
almost insensible, and which, in fact, will not be felt
as a burthen, because applied immediately and visibly to
the good of our children.
A question of some doubt might be raised on the latter
part of this section, as to the rights and duties of
society towards its members, infant and adult. Is it a
right or a duty in society to take care of their infant
members in opposition to the will of the parent? How far
does this right and duty extend?--to guard the life of
the infant, his property, his instruction, his morals?
The Roman father was supreme in all these: we draw a line,
but where?--public sentiment does not seem to have traced
it precisely. Nor is it necessary in the present case.
It is better to tolerate the rare instance of a parent
refusing to let his child be educated, than to shock the
common feelings and ideas by the forcible asportation and
education of the infant against the will of the father. What
is proposed here is to remove the objection of expense,
by offering education gratis, and to strengthen parental
excitement by the disfranchisement of his child while
uneducated. Society has certainly a right to disavow him
whom they offer, and are not permitted to qualify for the
duties of a citizen. If we do not force instruction, let
us at least strengthen the motives to receive it when offered.
XLVII.
_The solemn Declaration and Protest of the Commonwealth of Virginia,
on the principles of the Constitution of the United States of America,
and on the violations of them._
We, the General Assembly of Virginia, on behalf, and in the name of the
people thereof, do declare as follows:
The States in North America which confederated to establish their
independence of the government of Great Britain, of which Virginia was
one, became, on that acquisition, free and independent States, and as
such, authorized to constitute governments, each for itself, in such
form as it thought best.
They entered into a compact, (which is called the Constitution of the
United States of America,) by which they agreed to unite in a single
government as to their relations with each other, and with foreign
nations, and as to certain other articles particularly specified. They
retained at the same time, each to itself, the other rights of independent
government, comprehending mainly their domestic interests.
For the administration of their federal branch, they agreed to appoint,
in conjunction, a distinct set of functionaries, legislative, executive,
and judiciary, in the manner settled in that compact: while to each,
severally, and of course, remained its original right of appointing, each
for itself, a separate set of functionaries, legislative, executive,
and judiciary, also, for administering the domestic branch of their
respective governments.
These two sets of officers, each independent of the other, constitute thus
a _whole_ of government, for each State separately; the powers ascribed
to the one, as specifically made federal, exercised over the whole, the
residuary powers, retained to the other, exercisable exclusively over
its particular State, foreign herein, each to the others, as they were
before the original compact.
To this construction of government and distribution of its powers, the
commonwealth of Virginia does religiously and affectionately adhere,
opposing, with equal fidelity and firmness, the usurpation of either
set of functionaries on the rightful powers of the other.
But the federal branch has assumed in some cases, and claimed in others,
a right of enlarging its own powers by constructions, inferences, and
indefinite deductions from those directly given, which this assembly
does declare to be usurpations of the powers retained to the independent
branches, mere interpolations into the compact, and direct infractions
of it.
They claim, for example, and have commenced the exercise of a right to
construct roads, open canals, and effect other internal improvements
within the territories and jurisdictions exclusively belonging to the
several States, which this assembly does declare has not been given to
that branch by the constitutional compact, but remains to each State
among its domestic and unalienated powers, exercisable within itself
and by its domestic authorities alone.
This assembly does further disavow and declare to be most false and
unfounded, the doctrine that the compact, in authorizing its federal
branch to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises to pay
the debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the
United States, has given them thereby a power to do whatever _they_ may
think, or pretend, would promote the general welfare, which construction
would make that, of itself, a complete government, without limitation
of powers; but that the plain sense and obvious meaning were, that they
might levy the taxes necessary to provide for the general welfare, by
the various acts of power therein specified and delegated to them, and
by no others.
Nor is it admitted, as has been said, that the people of these States, by
not investing their federal branch with all the means of bettering their
condition, have denied to themselves any which may effect that purpose;
since, in the distribution of these means they have given to that branch
those which belong to its department, and to the States have reserved
separately the residue which belong to them separately. And thus by the
organization of the two branches taken together, have completely secured
the first object of human association, the full improvement of their
condition, and reserved to themselves all the faculties of multiplying
their own blessings.
Whilst the General Assembly thus declares the rights retained by the
States, rights which they have never yielded, and which this State
will never voluntarily yield, they do not mean to raise the banner of
disaffection, or of separation from their sister States, co-parties
with themselves to this compact. They know and value too highly the
blessings of their Union as to foreign nations and questions arising
among themselves, to consider every infraction as to be met by actual
resistance. They respect too affectionately the opinions of those
possessing the same rights under the same instrument, to make every
difference of construction a ground of immediate rupture. They would,
indeed, consider such a rupture as among the greatest calamities which
could befall them; but not the greatest. There is yet one greater,
submission to a government of unlimited powers. It is only when the
hope of avoiding this shall become absolutely desperate, that further
forbearance could not be indulged. Should a majority of the co-parties,
therefore, contrary to the expectation and hope of this assembly, prefer,
at this time, acquiescence in these assumptions of power by the federal
member of the government, we will be patient and suffer much, under
the confidence that time, ere it be too late, will prove to them also
the bitter consequences in which that usurpation will involve us all.
In the meanwhile, we will breast with them, rather than separate from
them, every misfortune, save that only of living under a government of
unlimited powers. We owe every other sacrifice to ourselves, to our
federal brethren, and to the world at large, to pursue with temper
and perseverance the great experiment which shall prove that man is
capable of living in society, governing itself by laws self-imposed, and
securing to its members the enjoyment of life, liberty, property, and
peace; and further to show, that even when the government of its choice
shall manifest a tendency to degeneracy, we are not at once to despair
but that the will and the watchfulness of its sounder parts will reform
its aberrations, recall it to original and legitimate principles, and
restrain it within the rightful limits of self-government. And these
are the objects of this Declaration and Protest.
Supposing then, that it might be for the good of the whole, as some of
its co-States seem to think, that the power of making roads and canals
should be added to those directly given to the federal branch, as more
likely to be systematically and beneficially directed, than by the
independent action of the several States, this commonwealth, from respect
to these opinions, and a desire of conciliation with its co-States, will
consent, in concurrence with them, to make this addition, provided it be
done regularly by an amendment of the compact, in the way established by
that instrument, and provided also, it be sufficiently guarded against
abuses, compromises, and corrupt practices, not only of possible, but
of probable occurrence.
And as a further pledge of the sincere and cordial attachment of this
commonwealth to the union of the whole, so far as has been consented
to by the compact called "The Constitution of the United States of
America," (constructed according to the plain and ordinary meaning
of its language, to the common intendment of the time, and of those
who framed it;) to give also to all parties and authorities, time for
reflection and for consideration, whether, under a temperate view of
the possible consequences, and especially of the constant obstructions
which an equivocal majority must ever expect to meet, they will still
prefer the assumption of this power rather than its acceptance from the
free will of their constituents; and to preserve peace in the meanwhile,
we proceed to make it the duty of our citizens, until the legislature
shall otherwise and ultimately decide, to acquiesce under those acts
of the federal branch of our government which we have declared to be
usurpations, and against which, in point of right, we do protest as null
and void, and never to be quoted as precedents of right.
We therefore do enact, and be it enacted by the General Assembly of
Virginia, that all citizens of this commonwealth, and persons and
authorities within the same, shall pay full obedience at all times to
the acts which may be passed by the Congress of the United States, the
object of which shall be the construction of post roads, making canals of
navigation, and maintaining the same in any part of the United States,
in like manner as if said acts were, _totidem verbis_, passed by the
Legislature of this Commonwealth.
XLVIII.
_Thoughts on Lotteries. February, 1826._
It is a common idea that games of chance are immoral. But what is
chance? Nothing happens in this world without a cause. If we know the
cause, we do not call it chance; but if we do not know it, we say it was
produced by chance. If we see a loaded die turn its lightest side up,
we know the cause, and that it is not an effect of chance; but whatever
side an unloaded die turns up, not knowing the cause, we say it is
the effect of chance. Yet the morality of a thing cannot depend on our
knowledge or ignorance of its cause. Not knowing why a particular side
of an unloaded die turns up, cannot make the act of throwing it, or of
betting on it, immoral. If we consider games of chance immoral, then
every pursuit of human industry is immoral; for there is not a single
one that is not subject to chance, not one wherein you do not risk a
loss for the chance of some gain. The navigator, for example, risks
his ship in the hope (if she is not lost in the voyage) of gaining an
advantageous freight. The merchant risks his cargo to gain a better
price for it. A landholder builds a house on the risk of indemnifying
himself by a rent. The hunter hazards his time and trouble in the hope
of killing game. In all these pursuits, you stake some one thing against
another which you hope to win. But the greatest of all gamblers is the
farmer. He risks the seed he puts into the ground, the rent he pays for
the ground itself, the year's labor on it, and the wear and tear of his
cattle and gear, to win a crop, which the chances of too much or too
little rain, and general uncertainties of weather, insects, waste, &c.,
often make a total or partial loss. These, then, are games of chance.
Yet so far from being immoral, they are indispensable to the existence
of man, and every one has a natural right to choose for his pursuit such
one of them as he thinks most likely to furnish him subsistence. Almost
all these pursuits of chance produce something useful to society. But
there are some which produce nothing, and endanger the well-being of the
individuals engaged in them, or of others depending on them. Such are
games with cards, dice, billiards, &c. And although the pursuit of them
is a matter of natural right, yet society, perceiving the irresistible
bent of some of its members to pursue them, and the ruin produced by
them to the families depending on these individuals, consider it as a
case of insanity, _quoad hoc_, step in to protect the family and the
party himself, as in other cases of insanity, infancy, imbecility, &c.,
and suppress the pursuit altogether, and the natural right of following
it. There are some other games of chance, useful on certain occasions,
and injurious only when carried beyond their useful bounds. Such are
insurances, lotteries, raffles, &c. These they do not suppress, but
take their regulation under their own discretion. The insurance of
ships on voyages is a vocation of chance, yet useful, and the right to
exercise it therefore is left free. So of houses against fire, doubtful
debts, the continuance of a particular life, and similar cases. Money is
wanting for a useful undertaking, as a school, &c., for which a direct
tax would be disapproved. It is raised therefore by a lottery, wherein
the tax is laid on the willing only, that is to say, on those who can
risk the price of a ticket without sensible injury for the possibility
of a higher prize. An article of property, insusceptible of division
at all, or not without great diminution of its worth, is sometimes of
so large value as that no purchaser can be found while the owner owes
debts, has no other means of payment, and his creditors no other chance
of obtaining it but by its sale at a full and fair price. The lottery
is here a salutary instrument for disposing of it, where many run small
risks for the chance of obtaining a high prize. In this way the great
estate of the late Colonel Byrd (in 1756) was made competent to pay his
debts, which, had the whole been brought into the market at once, would
have overdone the demand, would have sold at half or quarter the value,
and sacrificed the creditors, half or three-fourths of whom would have
lost their debts. This method of selling was formerly very much resorted
to, until it was thought to nourish too much a spirit of hazard. The
legislature were therefore induced not to suppress it altogether, but
to take it under their own special regulation. This they did for the
first time by their act of 1769, c. 17, before which time every person
exercised the right freely; and since which time, it is made unlawful
but when approved and authorized by a special act of the legislature.
Since then this right of sale, by way of lottery, has been exercised only
under the jurisdiction of the legislature. Let us examine the purposes
for which they have allowed it in practice, not looking beyond the date
of our independence.
1. It was for a long time an item of the standing revenue of the State.
1813. c. 1, § 3. An act imposing taxes for the support of government,
and c. 2, § 10.
1814. Dec. c. 1, § 3.
1814. Feb. c. 1, § 3.
1818. c. 1, § 1.
1819. c. 1.
1820. c. 1.
This, then, is a declaration by the nation, that an act was not immoral,
of which they were in the habitual use themselves as a part of the regular
means of supporting the government; the tax on the vender of tickets was
their share of the profits, and if their share was innocent, his could
not be criminal.
2. It has been abundantly permitted to raise money by lottery for the
purposes of schools; and in this, as in many other cases, the lottery
has been permitted to retain a part of the money (generally from ten to
fifteen per cent.) for the use to which the lottery has been applied.
So that while the adventurers paid one hundred dollars for tickets, they
received back eighty-five or ninety dollars only in the form of prizes,
the remaining ten or fifteen being the tax levied on them, with their
own consent. Examples are,
1784. c. 34. Authorizing the city of Williamsburg to raise £2,000
for a grammar school.
1789. c. 68. For Randolph Academy, £1,000.
1789. c. 73. For Fauquier Academy, £500.
c. 74. For the Fredericksburg Academy, £4,000.
1790. c. 46. For the Transylvanian Seminary, £500.
For the Southampton Academy, £300.
1796. c. 82. For the New London Academy. }[27]
1803. c. 49. For the Fredericksburg Charity School. }
c. 50. For finishing the Strasburg Seminary. }
c. 58. For William and Mary College. }
c. 62. For the Bannister Academy. }
c. 79. For the Belfield Academy. }
c. 82. For the Petersburg Academy. }
1804. c. 40. For the Hotsprings Seminary. }
c. 76. For the Stevensburg Academy. }
c. 100. For William and Mary College. }
1805. c. 24. For the Rumford Academy. }
1812. c. 10. For the Literary Fund. To sell the privilege for
$30,000 annually, for seven years.
1816. c. 80. For Norfolk Academy, $12,000.
Norfolk Female Society, $2,000.
Lancastrian School, $6,000.
3. The next object of lotteries has been rivers.
1790. c. 46. For a bridge between Gosport and Portsmouth,
£400.
1796. c. 83. For clearing Roanoke River.
1804. c. 62. For clearing Quantico Creek.
1805. c. 42. For a toll bridge over Cheat River.
1816. c. 49. For the Dismal Swamp, $50,000.
4. For roads.
1790. c. 46. For a road to Warminster, £200.
For cutting a road from Rockfish gap to Scott's
and Nicholas's landing, £400.
1796. c. 85. To repair certain roads.
1803. c. 60. For improving roads to Snigger's and Ashby's
gaps.
c. 61. For opening a road to Brock's gap.
c. 65. For opening a road from the town of Monroe to
Sweet Springs and Lewisburg.
c. 71. For improving the road to Brock's gap.
1805. c. 5. For improving the road to Clarksburg.
c. 26. For opening a road from Monongalia Glades to
Fishing Creek.
1813. c. 44. For opening a road from Thornton's gap.
5. Lotteries for the benefit of counties.
1796. c. 78. To authorize a lottery in the county of Shenandoah.
c. 84. To authorize a lottery in the county of Gloucester.
6. Lotteries for the benefit of towns.
1782. c. 31. Richmond, for a bridge over Shockoe, amount not
limited.
1789. c. 75. Alexandria, to pave its streets, £1,500.
1790. c. 46. do. do. £5,000.
1796. c. 79. Norfolk, one or more lotteries authorized.
c. 81. Petersburg, a lottery authorized.
1803. c. 12. Woodstock, do.
c. 48. Fredericksburg, for improving its main street.
c. 73. Harrisonburg, for improving its streets.
7. Lotteries for religious congregations.
1785. c. 111. Completing a church in Winchester.
For rebuilding a church in the parish of Elizabeth
River.
1791. c. 69. For the benefit of the Episcopal society.
1790. c. 46. For building a church in Warminster, £200.
in Halifax, £200.
in Alexandria, £500.
in Petersburg, £750.
in Shepherdstown, £250.
8. Lotteries for private societies.
1790. c. 46. For the Amicable Society in Richmond, £1,000.
1791. c. 70. For building a Freemason's Hall in Charlotte,
£750.
9. Lotteries for the benefit of private individuals. [To raise money
for them.]
1796. c. 80. For the sufferers by fire in the town of Lexington.
1781. c. 6. For completing titles under Byrd's lottery.
1790. c. 46. To erect a paper mill in Staunton, £300.
To raise £2,000 for Nathaniel Twining.
1791. c. 73. To raise £4,000 for William Tatham, to enable
him to complete his geographical work.
To enable ---- to complete a literary work.[28]
We have seen, then, that every vocation in life is subject to the
influence of chance; that so far from being rendered immoral by the
admixture of that ingredient, were they abandoned on that account,
man could no longer subsist; that, among them, every one has a natural
right to choose that which he thinks most likely to give him comfortable
subsistence; but that while the greater number of these pursuits are
productive of something which adds to the necessaries and comforts of
life, others again, such as cards, dice, &c., are entirely unproductive,
doing good to none, injury to many, yet so easy, and so seducing in
practice to men of a certain constitution of mind, that they cannot
resist the temptation, be the consequences what they may; that in this
case, as in those of insanity, idiocy, infancy, &c., it is the duty of
society to take them under its protection, even against their own acts,
and to restrain their right of choice of these pursuits, by suppressing
them entirely; that there are others, as lotteries particularly, which,
although liable to chance also, are useful for many purposes, and are
therefore retained and placed under the discretion of the Legislature, to
be permitted or refused according to the circumstances of every special
case, of which they are to judge; that between the years 1782 and 1820,
a space of thirty-eight years only, we have observed seventy cases, where
the permission of them has been found useful by the Legislature, some of
which are in progress at this time. These cases relate to the emolument
of the whole State, to local benefits of education, of navigation, of
roads, of counties, towns, religious assemblies, private societies, and
of individuals under particular circumstances which may claim indulgence
or favor. The latter is the case now submitted to the Legislature, and
the question is, whether the individual soliciting their attention, or
his situation, may merit that degree of consideration which will justify
the Legislature in permitting him to avail himself of the mode of selling
by lottery, for the purpose of paying his debts.
That a fair price cannot be obtained by sale in the ordinary way, and
in the present depressed state of agricultural industry, is well known.
Lands in this State will now sell for more than a third or fourth of what
they would have brought a few years ago, perhaps at the very time of the
contraction of the debts for which they are now to be sold. The low price
in foreign markets, for a series of years past, of agricultural produce,
of wheat generally, of tobacco most commonly, and the accumulation of
duties on the articles of consumption not produced within our State, not
only disable the farmer or planter from adding to his farm by purchase,
but reduces him to sell his own, and remove to the western country,
glutting the market he leaves, while he lessens the number of bidders.
To be protected against this sacrifice is the object of the present
application, and whether the applicant has any particular claim to this
protection, is the present question.
Here the answer must be left to others. It is not for me to give it. I
may, however, more readily than others, suggest the offices in which I
have served. I came of age in 1764, and was soon put into the nomination
of justice of the county in which I live, and at the first election
following I became one of its representatives in the Legislature.
I was thence sent to the old Congress.
Then employed two years with Mr. Pendleton and Mr. Wythe, on the revisal
and reduction to a single code of the whole body of the British statutes,
the acts of our Assembly, and certain parts of the common law.
Then elected Governor.
Next to the Legislature, and to Congress again.
Sent to Europe as Minister Plenipotentiary.
Appointed Secretary of State to the new government.
Elected Vice-President, and
President. And lastly, a Visitor and Rector of the University. In these
different offices, with scarcely any interval between them, I have been
in the public service now sixty-one years; and during the far greater
part of the time, in foreign countries or in other States. Every one
knows how inevitably a Virginia estate goes to ruin, when the owner is
so far distant as to be unable to pay attention to it himself; and the
more especially, when the line of his employment is of a character to
abstract and alienate his mind entirely from the knowledge necessary to
good, and even to saving management.
If it were thought worth while to specify any particular services
rendered, I would refer to the specification of them made by the
Legislature itself in their Farewell Address, on my retiring from
the Presidency, February, 1809. [This will be found in 2 Pleasant's
Collection, page 144.] There is one, however, not therein specified, the
most important in its consequences, of any transaction in any portion of
my life; to wit, the head I personally made against the federal principles
and proceedings, during the administration of Mr. Adams. Their usurpations
and violations of the constitution at that period, and their majority in
both Houses of Congress, were so great, so decided, and so daring, that
after combating their aggressions, inch by inch, without being able in
the least to check their career, the republican leaders thought it would
be best for them to give up their useless efforts there, go home, get
into their respective Legislatures, embody whatever of resistance they
could be formed into, and if ineffectual, to perish there as in the last
ditch. All, therefore, retired, leaving Mr. Gallatin alone in the House
of Representatives, and myself in the Senate, where I then presided as
Vice-President. Remaining at our posts, and bidding defiance to the brow
beatings and insults by which they endeavored to drive us off also, we
kept the mass of republicans in phalanx together, until the Legislature
could be brought up to the charge; and nothing on earth is more certain,
than that if myself particularly, placed by my office of Vice-President
at the head of the republicans, had given way and withdrawn from my post,
the republicans throughout the Union would have given up in despair,
and the cause would have been lost forever. By holding on, we obtained
time for the Legislature to come up with their weight; and those of
Virginia and Kentucky particularly, but more especially the former, by
their celebrated resolutions, saved the constitution at its last gasp.
No person who was not a witness of the scenes of that gloomy period, can
form any idea of the afflicting persecutions and personal indignities we
had to brook. They saved our country however. The spirits of the people
were so much subdued and reduced to despair by the X Y Z imposture, and
other stratagems and machinations, that they would have sunk into apathy
and monarchy, as the only form of government which could maintain itself.
If Legislative services are worth mentioning, and the stamp of liberality
and equality, which was necessary to be imposed on our laws in the
first crisis of our birth as a nation, was of any value, they will find
that the leading and most important laws of that day were prepared by
myself, and carried chiefly by my efforts; supported, indeed, by able
and faithful coadjutors from the ranks of the House, very effective as
seconds, but who would not have taken the field as leaders.
The prohibition of the further importation of slaves was the first of
these measures in time.
This was followed by the abolition of entails, which broke up the
hereditary and high-handed aristocracy, which, by accumulating immense
masses of property in single lines of families, had divided our country
into two distinct orders, of nobles and plebeians.
But further to complete the equality among our citizens so essential to
the maintenance of republican government, it was necessary to abolish
the principle of primogeniture. I drew the law of descents, giving equal
inheritance to sons and daughters, which made a part of the revised code.
The attack on the establishment of a dominant religion, was first made
by myself. It could be carried at first only by a suspension of salaries
for one year, by battling it again at the next session for another year,
and so from year to year, until the public mind was ripened for the
bill for establishing religious freedom, which I had prepared for the
revised code also. This was at length established permanently, and by
the efforts chiefly of Mr. Madison, being myself in Europe at the time
that work was brought forward.
To these particular services, I think I might add the establishment of
our University, as principally my work, acknowledging at the same time,
as I do, the great assistance received from my able colleagues of the
Visitation. But my residence in the vicinity threw, of course, on me
the chief burthen of the enterprise, as well of the buildings as of the
general organization and care of the whole. The effect of this institution
on the future fame, fortune and prosperity of our country, can as yet
be seen but at a distance. But an hundred well-educated youths, which
it will turn out annually, and ere long, will fill all its offices with
men of superior qualifications, and raise it from its humble state to
an eminence among its associates which it has never yet known; no, not
in its brightest days. That institution is now qualified to raise its
youth to an order of science unequalled in any other State; and this
superiority will be the greater from the free range of mind encouraged
there, and the restraint imposed at other seminaries by the shackles
of a domineering hierarchy, and a bigoted adhesion to ancient habits.
Those now on the theatre of affairs will enjoy the ineffable happiness of
seeing themselves succeeded by sons of a grade of science beyond their
own ken. Our sister States will also be repairing to the same fountains
of instruction, will bring hither their genius to be kindled at our fire,
and will carry back the fraternal affections which, nourished by the same
_alma mater_, will knit us to them by the indissoluble bonds of early
personal friendships. The good Old Dominion, the blessed mother of us
all, will then raise her head with pride among the nations, will present
to them that splendor of genius which she has ever possessed, but has
too long suffered to rest uncultivated and unknown, and will become a
centre of ralliance to the States whose youth she has instructed, and,
as it were, adopted.
I claim some share in the merits of this great work of regeneration. My
whole labors, now for many years, have been devoted to it, and I stand
pledged to follow it up through the remnant of life remaining to me.
And what remuneration do I ask? Money from the treasury? Not a cent. I
ask nothing from the earnings or labors of my fellow citizens. I wish
no man's comforts to be abridged for the enlargement of mine. For the
services rendered on all occasions, I have been always paid to my full
satisfaction. I never wished a dollar more than what the law had fixed
on. My request is, only to be permitted to sell my own property freely
to pay my own debts. To _sell_ it, I say, and not to _sacrifice_ it, not
to have it gobbled up by speculators to make fortunes for themselves,
leaving unpaid those who have trusted to my good faith, and myself without
resource in the last and most helpless stage of life. If permitted to
sell it in a way which will bring me a fair price, all will be honestly
and honorably paid, and a competence left for myself, and for those who
look to me for subsistence. To sell it in a way which will offend no moral
principle, and expose none to risk but the willing, and those wishing
to be permitted to take the chance of gain. To give me, in short, that
permission which you often allow to others for purposes not more moral.
Will it be objected, that although not evil in itself, it may, as a
precedent, lead to evil? But let those who shall quote the precedent
bring their case within the same measure. Have they, as in this case,
devoted three-score years and one of their lives, uninterruptedly, to
the service of their country? Have the times of those services been
as trying as those which have embraced our Revolution, our transition
from a colonial to a free structure of government? Have the stations of
their trial been of equal importance? Has the share they have borne in
holding their new government to its genuine principles, been equally
marked? And has the cause of the distress, against which they seek a
remedy, proceeded, not merely from themselves, but from errors of the
public authorities, disordering the circulating medium, over which they
had no control, and which have, in fact, doubled and trebled debts, by
reducing, in that proportion, the value of the property which was to pay
them? If all these circumstances, which characterize the present case,
have taken place in theirs also, then follow the precedent. Be assured,
the cases will be so rare as to produce no embarrassment, as never to
settle into an injurious habit. The single feature of a sixty years'
service, as no other instance of it has yet occurred in our country, so
it probably never may again. And should it occur, even once and again,
it will not impoverish your treasury, as it takes nothing from that, and
asks but a simple permission, by an act of natural right, to do one of
moral justice.
FOOTNOTES:
[27] The acts not being at hand, the sums allowed are not known.
[28] I found such an act, but not noting it at the time,
I have not been able to find it again. But there is such
an one.
XLIX.
_Mr. Jefferson's Will._
I, Thomas Jefferson, of Monticello, in Albemarle, being of sound mind
and in my ordinary state of health, make my last will and testament in
manner and form as follows:
I give to my grandson Francis Eppes, son of my dear deceased daughter
Mary Eppes, in fee simple, all that part of my lands at Poplar Forest
lying west of the following lines, to wit: beginning at Radford's upper
corner, near the double branches of Bear Creek and the public road, and
running thence in a straight line to the fork of my private road, near
the barn; thence along that private road, (as it was changed in 1817,)
to its crossing of the main branch of North Tomahawk Creek; and from
that crossing, in a direct line over the main ridge which divides the
North and South Tomahawk, to the South Tomahawk, at the confluence of
two branches where the old road to the Waterlick crossed it, and from
that confluence up the northernmost branch, (which separate M'Daniels'
and Perry's fields,) to its source; and thence by the shortest line
to my western boundary. And having, in a former correspondence with
my deceased son-in-law John W. Eppes, contemplated laying off for him,
with remainder to my grandson Francis, a certain portion in the southern
part of my lands in Bedford and Campbell, which I afterwards found to be
generally more indifferent than I had supposed, and therefore determined
to change its location for the better; now to remove all doubt, if
any could arise on a purpose merely voluntary and unexecuted, I hereby
declare that what I have herein given to my said grandson Francis, is
instead of, and not additional to, what I had formerly contemplated. I
subject all my other property to the payment of my debts in the first
place. Considering the insolvent state of the affairs of my friend and
son-in-law Thomas Mann Randolph, and that what will remain of my property
will be the only resource against the want in which his family would
otherwise be left, it must be his wish, as it is my duty, to guard that
resource against all liability for his debts, engagements or purposes
whatsoever, and to preclude the rights, powers, and authorities over
it, which might result to him by operation of law, and which might,
independently of his will, bring it within the power of his creditors,
I do hereby devise and bequeath all the residue of my property, real
and personal, in possession or in action, whether held in my own right,
or in that of my dear deceased wife, according to the powers vested
in me by deed of settlement for that purpose, to my grandson Thomas J.
Randolph, and my friends Nicholas P. Trist and Alexander Garrett, and
their heirs, during the life of my said son-in-law Thomas M. Randolph,
to be held and administered by them, in trust, for the sole and separate
use and behoof of my dear daughter Martha Randolph, and her heirs; and
aware of the nice and difficult distinction of the law in these cases,
I will further explain by saying, that I understand and intend the
effect of these limitations to be, that the legal estate and actual
occupation shall be vested in my said trustees, and held by them in
base fee, determinable on the death of my said son-in-law, and the
remainder during the same time be vested in my said daughter and her
heirs, and of course disposable by her last will, and that at the death
of my said son-in-law, the particular estate of the trustees shall be
determined, and the remainder, in legal estate, possession, and use,
become vested in my said daughter and her heirs, in absolute property
forever. In consequence of the variety and indescribableness of the
articles of property within the house at Monticello, and the difficulty
of inventorying and appraising them separately and specifically, and
its inutility, I dispense with having them inventoried and appraised;
and it is my will that my executors be not held to give any security for
the administration of my estate. I appoint my grandson Thomas Jefferson
Randolph, my sole executor during his life, and after his death, I
constitute executors my friends Nicholas P. Trist and Alexander Garrett,
joining to them my daughter Martha Randolph, after the death of my said
son-in-law Thomas M. Randolph. Lastly, I revoke all former wills by me
heretofore made; and in witness that this is my will, I have written
the whole with my own hand on two pages, and have subscribed my name
to each of them this sixteenth day of March, one thousand eight hundred
and twenty-six.
* * * * *
I, Thomas Jefferson, of Monticello, in Albemarle, make and add the
following codicil to my will, controlling the same so far as its
provisions go:
I recommend to my daughter Martha Randolph, the maintenance and care
of my well beloved sister Anne Scott, and trust confidently that from
affection to her, as well as for my sake, she will never let her want a
comfort. I have made no specific provision for the comfortable maintenance
of my son-in-law Thomas M. Randolph, because of the difficulty and
uncertainty of devising terms which shall vest any beneficial interest
in him, which the law will not transfer to the benefit of his creditors,
to the destitution of my daughter and her family, and disablement of
her to supply him: whereas, property placed under the exclusive control
of my daughter and her independent will, as if she were a femme sole,
considering the relation in which she stands both to him and his children,
will be a certain resource against want for all.
I give to my friend James Madison, of Montpelier, my gold-mounted
walking staff of animal horn, as a token of the cordial and affectionate
friendship which for nearly now an half century, has united us in the
same principles and pursuits of what we have deemed for the greatest
good of our country.
I give to the University of Virginia my library, except such particular
books only, and of the same edition, as it may already possess, when this
legacy shall take effect; the rest of my said library, remaining after
those given to the University shall have been taken out, I give to my two
grandsons-in-law Nicholas P. Trist and Joseph Coolidge. To my grandson
Thomas Jefferson Randolph, I give my silver watch in preference of the
golden one, because of its superior excellence. My papers of business
going of course to him, as my executor, all others of a literary or
other character I give to him as of his own property.
I give a gold watch to each of my grandchildren, who shall not have
already received one from me, to be purchased and delivered by my executor
to my grandsons, at the age of twenty-one, and granddaughters at that
of sixteen.
I give to my good, affectionate, and faithful servant Burwell, his
freedom, and the sum of three hundred dollars, to buy necessaries to
commence his trade of glazier, or to use otherwise, as he pleases.
I give also to my good servants John Hemings and Joe Fossett, their
freedom at the end of one year after my death; and to each of them
respectively, all the tools of their respective shops or callings; and
it is my will that a comfortable log-house be built for each of the three
servants so emancipated, on some part of my lands convenient to them with
respect to the residence of their wives, and to Charlottesville and the
University, where they will be mostly employed, and reasonably convenient
also to the interests of the proprietor of the lands, of which houses
I give the use of one, with a curtilage of an acre to each, during his
life or personal occupation thereof.
I give also to John Hemings the service of his two apprentices Madison
and Eston Hemings, until their respective ages of twenty-one years, at
which period respectively, I give them their freedom; and I humbly and
earnestly request of the legislature of Virginia a confirmation of the
bequest of freedom to these servants, with permission to remain in this
State, where their families and connections are, as an additional instance
of the favor, of which I have received so many other manifestations in
the course of my life, and for which I now give them my last, solemn,
and dutiful thanks.
In testimony that this is a codicil to my will of yesterday's date, and
that it is to modify so far the provisions of that will, I have written
it all with my own hand in two pages, to each of which I subscribe my
name, this seventeenth day of March, one thousand eight hundred and
twenty-six.
GENERAL INDEX.
(A.)
_Aborigines of America._--
Vol. iii.--
The origin of, 109.
Vol. viii., 344.
_Adams, John._--
Vol. i.--
His views of the Articles of Confederation, 33.
Appointed Minister to England, 63.
His presentation at the Court of St. James, 436.
Vol. ii.--
Views of character of, 107.
Vol. ix., 97.
His recall from England, 110.
Mr. Jefferson's views of his new work, 128, 282.
Vol. iii.--
His alienation from Mr. Jefferson, 257.
His anonymous contributions to newspapers, 267.
Letters from Jefferson, explaining the difference between them,
270.
Vol. iv., 545, 555, 560.
Friendly relations with Jefferson restored, 292.
Vol. v., 559, 560.
Vol. vi., 30, 31, 36, 125.
Vol. iv.--
Opposition to his administration on the question of war with
France, 229.
The effects of his war policy, 234, 235.
Expenses of his administration, 259.
State of parties during his administration, 262, 263.
His appointments to office, 356, 383, 386.
Relations between him and Jefferson, 545, 555, 560.
Policy of his administration relative to French war, 290, 291,
298.
Vol. v.--
Difference between his political opinions and Hamilton's, 551.
Vol. vi.--
His views of Washington's administration, 157.
His political principles, 152, 162, 166, 208, 357, 473, 500.
Vol. ix., 189, 194.
Terrorism excited against him, 155.
His religious opinions, 150, 159, 168, 171, 174, 172, 204, 208,
251, 264, 325, 357, 473, 545, 599, 601.
Vol. vii., 59, 68, 219, 280.
[See Religion.]
His views of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, 501, 545.
The French encyclopedists, 555.
His views of different systems of philosophy, 556.
His views on aristocracy, 160, 222, 254, 260.
Vol. vii.--
His estimate of life, 30.
His reading, 59, 69.
Calumnies of Pickering against, 58, 62.
His views of metaphysics, 71.
His views of Bonaparte, 71.
Letter of condolence to, from Mr. Jefferson, 107.
Oldest signer of the Declaration of Independence, 218, 219.
Vol. ix.--
In favor of a strong government, 189, 194.
Believes disunion inevitable, 203.
_Adams, John Q._--
Vol. vii.--
Made Secretary of State, 85.
_Adams, Samuel._--
Vol. i.--
His character, 121.
_Advice._--
Vol. vii.--
Letter of, 401.
_Agriculture._--
Vol. i.--
Superiority to all other pursuits, 403, 465.
That of England and France compared, 549.
Vol. ii.--
Condition of, in the South of France, 135.
Vol. iv.--
Profits of, in Virginia, 1.
Vol. v.--
The science of, 224.
Implements of, 226.
Products of, adapted to U. States, 314.
Jefferson's partiality for.
[See Jefferson, Thomas.]
Vol. ix.--
Scheme for general system of agricultural societies.
_Albemarle County._--
Vol. vi.--
Its climate, soil and natural advantages, 431.
_Albinos._--
Vol. viii.--
Description of, 318.
_Alexander, Emperor._--
Vol. v.--
Bust of, presented to Jefferson, 6.
His character, 7, 526.
Vol. vii., 20.
His intervention in favor of neutral rights, 8.
Vol. vii.--
His views, 20.
[See Russia.]
_Aliens._--
Vol. i.--
Who are and who are not aliens, 530.
Vol. ix.--
The rights and privileges of, 262.
_Alien and sedition laws (The)._--
Vol. iv.--
Proposal of, 237, 242, 244.
Objections to, 258.
Copy of Kentucky resolutions sent to Mr. Madison, 258.
Resolutions on, by Kentucky, 305.
[See Kentucky.]
Vol. ix.--
Resolutions relative to, 464.
_Algiers._--
[See Barbary States.]--
War with, the best policy.
Vol. iii., 164.
_Almanacs._--
Vol. vi.--
Improvements in suggested, 29.
_America, United States of._--
Vol. i.--
Imperfections of articles of confederation, 78.
A new constitution for, necessary, 78.
Views of, prevalent in Europe, 407, 413.
Views of public affairs in U. States in the year 1785, 423.
English calumnies against, 427.
Hostile feeling of England against, 429, 464, 541, 550, 563,
604.
Low reputation of, in Europe, 513.
Extravagance of people of, 550.
Summary of news from, 349.
[See U. States.]
Vol. iii.--
Origin of the Aborigines of, 109.
Vol. viii., 344.
Vol. viii.--
Whether men and animals degenerate in, 312.
_Anas (The)._--
Vol. ix.--
Explanation of, 87.
_Anatomy._--
Vol. vii.--
Experiments in, 388.
_Anglo-Saxon._--
Vol. vii.--
The language, 416.
_Antiquities._--
Vol. ii.--
Monuments of in South of France, 132, 133, 134.
In Western America, 176.
_Antoinette, Maria._--
Vol. i.--
Her character, 88, 101.
Vol. ii., 154, 310.
_Apocalypse (The)._--
Vol. vii.--
Views of, 394.
_Apportionment._--
Vol. iii.--
Bill apportioning representation, 384.
_Aristocracy._--
Vol. vi.--
Views on, 160, 222, 254, 360.
[See Virginia.]
[See Adams, J.]
_Arms._--
Vol. i.--
Supply of, for Congress, 603.
Vol. v.--
When loaned by government, 168, 238, 240.
Vol. ix.--
Application for, by governor of Pennsylvania, 159.
_Army._--
Vol. iv.--
Reduction of, 430.
Vol. viii.--
Objections to standing army, 11.
Vol. ix.--
Pickering's views on, 194.
_Army, Revolutionary._--
Vol. i.--
Virginia troops in, 235.
Continental troops in, 235.
Disasters of, in the South, 241, 249.
Success in Canada, 202.
Supplies of men, provisions and ammunition from Virginia for
Southern army, 243, 244, 245, 246, 247, 249, 251, 252,
253, 260, 262, 263, 273, 274, 285, 288, 302, 304.
[See Virginia.]
The movements of the Southern Army, 291, 294, 296, 298, 299,
300, 302, 303, 309.
Expedition against Canada, 206.
Military movements in Virginia, 207.
Progress of the war, 211.
Vol. ix.--
False accounts of our battles circulated in Europe, 207.
Mutiny in, 258.
_Arnold, Benedict._--
Vol. vii.--
His invasion of Virginia, 144.
Vol. ix., 212, 320.
_Articles of Confederation._--
[See Confederation.]
_Asquith Lister._--
Vol. i.--
Relative to his imprisonment in France on charge of being
engaged in contraband trade, 583.
_Assumption._--
[See Debts, State.]
_Astronomy._--
Vol. i.--
Discoveries in, 447, 516.
Vol. v.--
Its application to navigation, 374.
Vol. vi.--
Astronomical observations, 27, 28.
Vol. vii.--
New method of finding longitude, 223, 226.
_Aubaine, Droit d'._--
Vol. iii.--
Law of, in France, relative to citizens in new States, 189.
Its abolition in France, 259.
_Austria._--
Vol. i.--
Relations between the Emperor of, and the Dutch, 346, 353,
355, 358, 365, 400, 405.
Relations between Austria, Russia and Turkey, 400.
Treaty of commerce with, 510, 523, 566, 571.
Vol. ii.--
Our commercial relations with, 28.
Relations of, with the Netherlands, 289.
" " with Prussia and France, 315, 344, 371.
" " with Turkey, 392, 396, 510, 531, 552.
(B.)
_Bacon's Rebellion._--
Vol. iv.--
View of, 528.
_Baily, M._--
Vol. iii.--
Made Mayor of Paris, 78.
_Balls, Birth-night._--
Vol. iv.--
Dissensions about, 218.
_Balloons._--
Vol. i.--
Experiments with, in France, 54, 441.
_Banks._--
Vol. ii.--
Jefferson's view of the English banking system, 405.
Vol. v.--
Excess of, 516.
Vol. vi.--
Evils of the system of, 295, 300, 381, 434, 498, 515.
Vol. vii., 64, 111, 115.
Jefferson's hostility to, 305, 381, 605.
Suspension of, in 1814, 381.
Vol. vii., 142.
Number of, at different periods, 434.
Vol. vii.--
Suspension of, 142.
Distress resulting therefrom, 151.
Jefferson's plan for reducing circulating medium, 146.
_Bank of Philadelphia._--
Vol. ii.--
Charter of, 24.
_Bank, U. States (The)._--
Vol. iii.--
Shares in, taken immediately, 268.
Vol. v.--
Question of its constitutionality, 412.
Vol. ix., 191.
Vol. vi.--
Views of the plan for, proposed in 1813, 228.
Vol. ix.--
The origin of, 95.
_Bankrupt Bills._--
Vol. iii.--
Views on, 495.
Vol. ix., 431.
_Barbary States._--
Vol. i.--
Naval alliance against, proposed, 65, 591, 606.
It fails, 67.
Disposition of, towards U. States, 401, 413, 428.
Relations of U. States with, 376, 393, 557, 560, 565, 570,
572, 575, 584, 591, 601.
Vol. viii., 8, 30, 31, 33, 35, 51, 65, 96, 97.
A minister should be sent to, 406.
Mr. Barclay sent as minister to Morocco, 416, 474.
Vol. iii., 261.
Letter to Emperor of, 418.
Vol. iii., 264.
Instructions to Mr. Barclay, 420.
Inquiries to be made by him, 421.
Mr. Lambe sent on mission to Algiers, 376, 438, 457, 474, 581.
Embarrassments occasioned by his delay, 376, 385.
Remanded to America to give information relative to his
mission, 581.
His equivocal conduct, 605.
Passports for ministers to, 471.
American prisoners in, 439, 477, 601.
Negotiations with the Tripoline minister, 551.
Naval war against, advisable, 591.
Vol. ii.--
Hostile relations of, with U. States, 10, 26, 27, 85.
Treaty with Morocco, 72, 94, 125.
Its ratification, 264.
Treaty with Algiers fails, 85.
Intervention of the Mathurin Monks in favor of our Algerine
prisoners, 93, 113, 270, 307, 386.
Redemption of our Algerine prisoners, 307, 380, 464, 564.
Vol. iii.--
Provision for our Algerine prisoners, 209, 436, 533.
Vol. iv.--
War with Tripoli, 574.
Vol. viii., 7, 17.
Vol. vii.--
Piracies of, 520.
Efforts to redeem Algerine prisoners, 532.
Vol. viii.--
Peace with, restored, 50.
Case of Hamet Caramalli, ex-bashaw of Tripoli, 54.
Difficulties with Tunis, 61.
Vol. ix.--
Plan for an European alliance against, 307.
How best to secure peace with, 424.
Question of ransom of captives, 424.
_Barclay, Thomas._--
Vol. ii.--
His arrest at Bordeaux, 155, 158, 159, 226.
His return to U. States, 183.
His pecuniary embarrassments, 183, 210.
His character, 210, 211.
Vol. iii.--
His second mission to Morocco, 261.
_Barlow, Joel._--
Vol. v.--
His Columbiad, 238.
His History of the U. States, 496.
His departure for Paris, 587.
_Bastrop's Case._--
Vol. v.--
An account of, 231.
_Beds of Justice._--
Vol. ii.--
Held to force parliament to register decrees, 258.
_Berlin and Milan Decrees._--
Vol. viii.--
Character of, 100.
[See Neutrality.]
_Berceau (The)._--
Vol. iv.--
Case of, 405.
_Billon._--
Vol. iii.--
Report of National Assembly of France on, 207.
_Bills of Rights._--
Vol. ii.--
Jefferson's views of, 329, 358.
Vol. iii.--
Federal Constitution should be amended by inserting a bill
of rights, 3, 13.
Arguments for and against bills of rights, 4, 13, 201.
Amendments to, proposed by Jefferson, 100, 101.
_Bloodworth, Mr._--
Vol. v.--
His bankruptcy, 49.
_Bolingbroke, Lord._--
Vol. vii.--
His writings, 197.
_Bollandists (The)._--
Vol. vi.--
Their collection, 475, 489.
_Bonaparte._--
Vol. iv.--
His expedition to Egypt, 278, 280.
Establishment of Consular government by, 315, 320.
His administrative talents, 320.
His character and purposes, 322.
Jerome Bonaparte's marriage with Miss Patterson, 510.
Vol. v.--
His great victories, 173.
His plans of conquest, 512.
His character, 601.
Vol. vii., 275.
Vol. vi.--
Views of his character and career, 283, 352, 358.
His fall, 352, 421.
His restoration, 480, 490, 458, 463.
His final abdication, 467, 490, 492, 553.
His feelings towards U. States, 464.
_Books._--
Vol. vii.--
Should be imported free of duty, 220.
_Boston Port Bill._--
Vol. i.--
Effects of its passage on colonies, 6.
Proceedings thereon in Virginia, 6.
A day of fasting, humiliation and prayer appointed, 7.
_Botta, M._--
Vol. v.--
His History of American Revolution, 527.
_Boundary._--
Vol. i.--
Between Pennsylvania and Virginia, 399.
Vol. iii.--
Difficulties on our Eastern boundary, 230.
Vol. iv.--
Difficulties between Virginia and Maryland, reference to, 162.
_Brabant._--
Vol. ii.--
Revolutionary movements in, 212.
_Brazil._--
Vol. ii.--
Revolutionary movements in, 140.
Jefferson's views relative thereto, 143.
Character of population of, 140.
Vol. v.--
Emperor of, 285.
_Brienne, Cardinal._--
Vol. ii.--
His influence over the queen, 310.
_His character_, 311, 316.
His want of popularity, 316.
His dismissal, 471.
_Brittany._--
Vol. ii.--
Difficulties between Noblesse and people, 577.
_Bunker Hill._--
Vol. ix.--
Account of the battle of, 293.
_Burgesses, Virginia house of._--
Vol. i.--
Proceedings in, on stamp act, 4.
Distinguished members of, 4.
Tone and political views of members, 5.
Proceedings on Boston Port Bill, 6.
Dissolution of, by Governor, 7.
Recommends sending men to Continental Congress, 7.
Also election of delegates to meet at Williamsburg, 7.
The action of, 8, 9.
_Burr, Aaron._--
Vol. v.--
His conspiracy, 24, 26, 28, 38, 40.
Vol. viii., 71, 78, 87.
His accomplices, 34, 45, 60, 99, 305.
Efforts in Ohio to suppress his conspiracy, 37.
His arrest and trial, 55, 65, 57, 66, 81, 84, 86, 95, 96, 98,
174.
His views and objects, 64, 128, 129, 130.
Federalists come to his rescue, 64, 65, 66, 67.
Proofs and witnesses against, 72, 78, 81, 95, 96, 112, 190.
His forgeries, 86.
His acquittal, 187, 199.
Vol. ix.--
Intrigues of, 202, 204.
Wishes his friends to unite on a federalist for president, 204.
Explanations between him and Jefferson, 204, 205, 208.
Jefferson's disgust of, 207, 208.
Relations of, with Jefferson, 204, 205, 208, 209.
(C.)
_Cabinet, Executive._--
Vol. v.--
Mode of transacting business in, 94.
Of Washington and Jefferson, 568, 569.
_Callender._--
Vol. iv.--
Mr. Jefferson's relations with, 445, 447, 448.
_Calonnes, M. de._--
Vol. ii.--
His administration of French finances, 298.
_Camden._--
Vol. i.--
The battle of, 263.
_Campbell, Col._--
Vol. vii.--
The hero of King's Mountain, 268.