PARIS, December 16, 1786.
DEAR SIR,--After a very long silence, I am at length able to write to
you. An unlucky dislocation of my right wrist, has disabled me from
using that hand, three months. I now begin to use it a little, but with
great pain; so that this letter must be taken up at such intervals as
the state of my hand will permit, and will probably be the work of some
days. Though the joint seems to be well set, the swelling does not
abate, nor the use of it return. I am now, therefore, on the point of
setting out to the south of France, to try the use of some mineral
waters there, by immersion. This journey will be of two or three
months.
I enclose you herein a copy of the letter from the Minister of Finance
to me, making several advantageous regulations for our commerce. The
obtaining this has occupied us a twelve month. I say _us,_ because I
find the Marquis de La Fayette so useful an auxiliary, that
acknowledgments for his co-operation are always due. There remains
still something to do for the articles of rice, turpentine, and ship
duties. What can be done for tobacco, when the late regulation expires,
is very uncertain. The commerce between the United States and this
country being put on a good footing, we may afterwards proceed to try
if anything can be done, to favor our intercourse with her colonies.
Admission into them for our fish and flour, is very desirable; but,
unfortunately, both those articles would raise a competition against
their own.
I find by the public papers, that your commercial convention failed in
point of representation. If it should produce a full meeting in May,
and a broader reformation, it will still be well. To make us one nation
as to foreign concerns, and keep us distinct in domestic ones, gives
the outline of the proper division of powers between the general and
particular governments. But, to enable the federal head to exercise the
powers given it to best advantage, it should be organized as the
particular ones are, into legislative, executive, and judiciary. The
first and last are already separated. The second should be. When last
with Congress, I often proposed to members to do this, by making of the
committee of the States, an executive committee during the recess of
Congress, and, during its sessions, to appoint a committee to receive
and despatch all executive business, so that Congress itself should
meddle only with what should be legislative. But I question if any
Congress (much less all successively) can have self-denial enough to go
through with this distribution. The distribution, then, should be
imposed on them. I find Congress have reversed their division of the
western States, and proposed to make them fewer and larger. This is
reversing the natural order of things. A tractable people may be
governed in large bodies; but, in proportion as they depart from this
character, the extent of their government must be less. We see into
what small divisions the Indians are obliged to reduce their societies.
This measure, with the disposition to shut up the Mississippi, gives me
serious apprehensions of the severance of the eastern and western parts
of our confederacy. It might have been made the interest of the western
States to remain united with us, by managing their interests honestly,
and for their own good. But, the moment we sacrifice their interests to
our own, they will see it better to govern themselves. The moment they
resolve to do this, the point is settled. A forced connection is
neither our interest, nor within our power.
The Virginia act for religious freedom has been received with infinite
approbation in Europe, and propagated with enthusiasm. I do not mean by
the governments, but by the individuals who compose them. It has been
translated into French and Italian, has been sent to most of the courts
of Europe, and has been the best evidence of the falsehood of those
reports which stated us to be in anarchy. It is inserted in the new
"Encyclopédie," and is appearing in most of the publications respecting
America. In fact, it is comfortable to see the standard of reason at
length erected, after so many ages, during which the human mind has
been held in vassalage by kings, priests, and nobles; and it is
honorable for us, to have produced the first legislature who had the
courage to declare, that the reason of man may be trusted with the
formation of his own opinions.
* * * * * * * *
I thank you for your communications in Natural History. The several
instances of trees, &c., found far below the surface of the earth, as
in the case of Mr. Hay's well, seem to set the reason of man at
defiance.