This being a case of personal as well as public interest, I thought

a private application not improper, and indeed preferable to a more

general one, with an executive needing no stimulus to do what is right;

and therefore, in May and June, 1813, I took the liberty of writing to

them on this subject, the defence of Chesapeake; and to what is before

stated I added some observations on the importance and pressure of the

case. A view of the map of the United States shows that the Chesapeake

receives either the whole or important waters of five of the most

producing of the Atlantic States, to wit: North Carolina, (for the Dismal

canal makes Albemarle Sound a water of the Chesapeake, and Norfolk its

port of exportation,) Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York. We

know that the waters of the Chesapeake, from the Genesee to the Sawra

towns and Albemarle Sound, comprehend two-fifths of the population of

the Atlantic States, and furnish probably more than half their exported

produce; that the loss of James river alone, in that year, was estimated

at two hundred thousand barrels of flour, fed away to horses or sold at

half-price, which was a levy of a million of dollars on a single one of

these numerous waters, and that levy to be repeated every year during

the war; that this important country can all be shut up by two or three

ships of the enemy, lying at the mouth of the bay; that an injury so vast

to us and so cheap to the enemy, must forever be resorted to by them,

and maintained constantly through every war; that this was a hard trial

of the spirit of the Middle States, a trial which, backed by impossible

taxes, might produce a demand for peace on any terms; that when it was

considered that the Union had already expended four millions of dollars

for the defence of the single city of Norfolk, and the waters of a

single river, the Hudson, (which we entirely approved, and now we might

probably add four more since expended on the same spot,) we thought it

very moderate for so great a portion of the country, the population, the

wealth, and contributing industry and strength of the Atlantic States,

to ask a few hundred thousand dollars, to save the harassment of their

militia, conflagrations of their towns and houses, devastations of their

farms, and annihilation of all the annual fruits of their labor. The idea

of defending the bay at its mouth was approved, but the necessary works

were deemed inexecutable during a war, and an answer more cogent was

furnished by the fact that our treasury and credit were both exhausted.

Since the war, I have learned (I cannot say how) that the Executive

has taken up the subject and sent on an engineer to examine and report

the localities, and that this engineer thought favorably of the middle

grounds. But my recollection is too indistinct but to suggest inquiry

to you. After having once taken the liberty of soliciting the Executive

on this subject, I do not think it would be respectful for me to do

it a second time, nor can it be necessary with persons who need only

suggestions of what is right, and not importunities to do it. If the

subject is brought before them, they can readily recall or recur to my

letters, if worth it. But would it not be advisable in the first place,

to have surveys made of the middle grounds and the grounds between the

tidewaters of Lynhaven and the Eastern branch, that your representations

may be made on known facts? These would be parts only of the surveys you

are authorized to make, and might, for so good a reason, be anticipated

and executed before the general work can be done.

Perhaps, however, the view is directed to a defence by frigates or ships

of the line, stationed at York or elsewhere. Against this, in my opinion,

both reason and experience declaim. Had we half a dozen seventy-fours

stationed at York, the enemy would place a dozen at the capes. This great

force called there would enable them to make large detachments against

Norfolk when it suited them, to harass and devastate the bay coasts

incessantly, and would oblige us to keep large armies of militia at York

to defend the ships, and at Norfolk to defend that. The experience of

New London proves how certain and destructive this blockade would be;

for New London owed its blockade and the depredations on its coasts to

the presence of a frigate sent there for its defence; and did the frigate

at Norfolk bring us defence or assault?

II. _Education._--The President and Directors of the literary fund are

desired to digest and report a system of public education, comprehending

the establishment of an university, additional colleges or academies,

and schools. The resolution does not define the portions of science to

be taught in each of these institutions, but the first and last admit no

doubt. The university must be intended for all useful sciences, and the

schools mean elementary ones, for the instruction of the people, answering

to our present English schools; the middle-term colleges or academies may

be more conjectural. But we must understand from it some middle-grade of

education. Now, when we advert that the ancient classical languages are

considered as the foundation preparatory for all the sciences; that we

have always had schools scattered over the country for teaching these

languages, which often were the ultimate term of education; that these

languages are entered on at the age of nine or ten years, at which age

parents would be unwilling to send their children from every part of

the State to a central and distant university, and when we observe that

the resolution supposes there are to be a plurality of them, we may well

conclude that the Greek and Latin are the objects of these colleges. It

is probable, also, that the legislature might have under their eye the

bill for the more general diffusion of knowledge, printed in the revised

code of 1779, which proposed these three grades of institution, to-wit:

an university, district colleges, or grammar schools, and county or ward

schools. I think, therefore, we may say that the object of these colleges

is the classical languages, and that they are intended as the portico

of entry to the university. As to their numbers, I know no better rule

to be assumed than to place one within a day's ride of every man's door,

in consideration of the infancy of the pledges he has at it. This would

require one for every eight miles square.

Supposing this the object of the Colleges, the Report will have to

present the plan of an University, analyzing the sciences, selecting

those which are useful, grouping them into professorships, commensurate

each with the time and faculties of one man, and prescribing the regimen

and all other necessary details. On this subject I can offer nothing

new. A letter of mine to Peter Carr, which was published during the last

Session of Assembly, is a digest of all the information I possess on

the subject, from which the Board will judge whether they can extract

anything useful; the professorship of the classical languages being of

course to be expunged, as more effectually supplied by the establishment

of the colleges.

As the buildings to be erected will also enter into their Report, 1

would strongly recommend to their consideration, instead of one immense

building, to have a small one for every professorship, arranged at proper

distances around a square, to admit extension, connected by a piazza,

so that they may go dry from one school to another. This village form is

preferable to a single great building for many reasons, particularly on

account of fire, health, economy, peace and quiet. Such a plan had been

approved in the case of the Albemarle college, which was the subject of

the letter above mentioned; and should the idea be approved by the Board,

more may be said hereafter on the opportunity these small buildings

will afford, of exhibiting models in architecture of the purest forms

of antiquity, furnishing to the student examples of the precepts he will

be taught in that art.

The Elementary or Ward schools is the last branch of this subject; on

this, too, my ideas have been long deposited in the Bill for the diffusion

of knowledge, before mentioned, and time and reflection have continued

to strengthen them as to the general principle, that of a division of

every county into wards, with a school in each ward. The details of the

bill will of course be varied as the difference of present circumstances

from those of that day will require.

My partiality for that division is not founded in views of education

solely, but infinitely more as the means of a better administration

of our government, and the eternal preservation of its republican

principles. The example of this most admirable of all human contrivances

in government, is to be seen in our Eastern States; and its powerful

effect in the order and economy of their internal affairs, and the

momentum it gives them as a nation, is the single circumstance which

distinguishes them so remarkably from every other national association.

In a letter to Mr. Adams a few years ago, I had occasion to explain to

him the structure of our scheme of education as proposed in the bill for

the diffusion of knowledge, and the views of this particular section of

it; and in another lately to Mr. Cabell, on the occasion of the bill for

the Albemarle College, I also took a view of the political effects of

the proposed division into wards, which being more easily copied than

thrown into new form here, I take the liberty of enclosing extracts from

them. Should the Board of Directors approve of the plan, and make ward

divisions the substratum of their elementary schools, their report may

furnish a happy occasion of introducing them, leaving all their other

uses to be adopted from time to time hereafter as occasions shall occur.

With these subjects I shall close the present letter, but that it may be

necessary to anticipate on the next one so far as respects proper persons

for carrying into execution the astronomical and geometrical surveys. I

know no one in the State equal to the first who could be engaged in it;

but my acquaintance in the State is very limited. There is a person near

Washington possessing every quality which could be desired, among our

first mathematicians and astronomers, of good bodily activity, used to

rough living, of great experience in field operations, and of the most

perfect integrity. I speak of Isaac Briggs, who was Surveyor-General

south of Ohio, and who was employed to trace the route from Washington

to New Orleans, below the mountains, which he did with great accuracy

by observations of longitude and latitude only, on a journey thither. I

do not know that he would undertake the present work, but I have learnt

that he is at this time disengaged; I know he is poor, and was always

moderate in his views. This is the most important of all the surveys,

and if done by him, I will answer for this part of your work standing

the test of time and criticism. If you should desire it, I could write

and press him to undertake it; but it would be necessary to say something

about compensation.

John Wood, of the Petersburg Academy, has written to me that he would be

willing to undertake the geometrical survey of the external boundaries,

and internal divisions. We have certainly no abler mathematician; and he

informs me he has had good experience in the works of the field. He is

a great walker, and is, therefore, probably equal to the bodily fatigue,

which is a material qualification. But he is so much better known where

you are, that I need only mention his readiness to undertake, and your

own personal knowledge or inquiries will best determine what should be

done. It is the part of the work above the tide waters which he would

undertake; that below, where soundings are to be taken, requiring nautical

apparatus and practice.

Whether he is a mineralogist or not, I do not know. It would be a

convenient and economical association with that of the geometrical survey.

I am obliged to postpone for some days the consideration of the remaining

subjects of your letter. Accept the assurance of my great esteem and

high consideration.

TO MR. JOSEPH MILLIGAN.

MONTICELLO, April 6, 1816.

SIR,--Your favor of March 6th did not come to hand until the 15th. I

then expected I should finish revising the translation of Tracy's book

within a week, and could send the whole together. I got through it, but,

on further consideration, thought I ought to read it over again, lest

any errors should have been left in it. It was fortunate I did so, for

I found several little errors. The whole is now done and forwarded by

this mail, with a title, and something I have written which may serve for

a Prospectus, and indeed for a Preface also, with a little alteration.

You will see from the face of the work what a horrible job I have had

in the revisal. It is so defaced that it is absolutely necessary you

should have a fair copy taken, and by a person of good understanding, for

that will be necessary to decipher the erasures, interlineations, &c.,

of the translation. The translator's orthography, too, will need great

correction, as you will find a multitude of words shamefully misspelt;

and he seems to have had no idea of the use of stops: he uses the comma

very commonly for a full stop; and as often the full stop, followed by a

capital letter, for a comma. Your copyist will, therefore, have to stop

it properly quite through the work. Still, there will be places where

it cannot be stopped correctly without reference to the original; for

I observed many instances where a member of a sentence might be given

either to the preceding or following one, grammatically, which would

yet make the sense very different, and could, therefore, be rectified

only by the original. I have, therefore, thought it would be better for

you to send me the proof sheets as they come out of the press. We have

two mails a week, which leave this Wednesdays and Saturdays, and you

should always receive it by return of the first mail. Only observe that

I set out for Bedford in five or six days, and shall not be back till

the first week in May.

The original construction of the style of the translation was so bungling,

that although I have made it render the author's sense faithfully, yet

it was impossible to change the structure of the sentences to anything

good. I have endeavored to apologize for it in the Prospectus; as also

to prepare the reader for the dry, and to most of them, uninteresting

character of the preliminary tracts, advising him to pass at once to the

beginning of the main work, where, also, you will see I have recommended

the beginning the principal series of pages. In this I have departed

from the order of pages adopted by the author.

My name must in nowise appear connected with the work. I have no objection

to your naming me _in conversation_, but not in print, as the person

to whom the original was communicated. Although the author puts his

name to the work, yet, if called to account for it by his government,

he means to disavow it, which its publication at such a distance will

enable him to do. But he would not think himself at liberty to do this

if avowedly sanctioned by me here. The best open mark of approbation I

can give is to subscribe for a dozen copies; or if you would prefer it,

you may place on your subscription paper a letter in these words: "Sir,

I subscribe with pleasure for a dozen copies of the invaluable book you

are about to publish on Political Economy. I should be happy to see it

in the hands of every American citizen."

The Ainsworth, Ovid, Cornelius Nepos and Virgil, as also of the two

books below mentioned,[15] and formerly written for. I fear I shall not

get the Ovid and Nepos I sent to be bound, in time for the pocket in my

Bedford trip. Accept my best wishes and respects.

TITLE.--"A Treatise on Political Economy by the Count Dustutt Tracy,

member of the Senate and Institute of France, and of the American

Philosophical Society, to which is prefixed a supplement to a preceding

work on the Understanding or Elements of Ideology, by the same author,

with an analytical table and an introduction on the faculty of the will,

translated from the unpublished French original."

_Prospectus._--Political economy in modern times assumed the form of

a regular science first in the hands of the political sect in France,

called the Economists. They made it a branch only of a comprehensive

system on the natural order of societies. Quesnai first, Gournay, Le

Frosne, Turgot and Dupont de Nemours, the enlightened, philanthropic,

and venerable citizen, now of the United States, led the way in these

developments, and gave to our inquiries the direction they have since

observed. Many sound and valuable principles established by them, have

received the sanction of general approbation. Some, as in the infancy of

a science might be expected, have been brought into question, and have

furnished occasion for much discussion. Their opinions on production, and

on the proper subjects of taxation, have been particularly controverted;

and whatever may be the merit of their principles of taxation, it is

not wonderful they have not prevailed; not on the questioned score of

correctness, but because not acceptable to the people, whose will must

be the supreme law. Taxation is in fact the most difficult function of

government--and that against which their citizens are most apt to be

refractory. The general aim is therefore to adopt the mode most consonant

with the circumstances and sentiments of the country.

Adam Smith, first in England, published a rational and systematic work

on Political Economy, adopting generally the ground of the Economists,

but differing on the subjects before specified. The system being novel,

much argument and detail seemed then necessary to establish principles

which now are assented to as soon as proposed. Hence his book, admitted

to be able, and of the first degree of merit, has yet been considered

as prolix and tedious.

In France, John Baptist Say has the merit of producing a very superior

work on the subject of political economy. His arrangement is luminous,

ideas clear, style perspicuous, and the whole subject brought within

half the volume of Smith's work. Add to this considerable advances in

correctness and extension of principles.

The work of Senator Tracy, now announced, comes forward with all the

lights of his predecessors in the science, and with the advantages of

further experience, more discussion, and greater maturity of subjects.

It is certainly distinguished by important traits; a cogency of logic

which has never been exceeded in any work, a rigorous enchainment of

ideas, and constant recurrence to it to keep it in the reader's view,

a fearless pursuit of truth whithersoever it leads, and a diction so

correct that not a word can be changed but for the worse; and, as happens

in other cases, that the more a subject is understood, the more briefly

it may be explained, he has reduced, not indeed all the details, but

all the elements and the system of principles within the compass of an

8vo, of about 400 pages. Indeed we might say within two-thirds of that

space, the one-third being taken up with some preliminary pieces now to

be noticed.

Mr. Tracy is the author of a treatise on the Elements of Ideology, justly

considered as a production of the first order in the science of our

thinking faculty, or of the understanding. Considering the present work

but as a second section to those Elements under the titles of Analytical

Table, Supplement, and Introduction, he gives in these preliminary

pieces a supplement to the Elements, shows how the present work stands

on that as its basis, presents a summary view of it, and, before

entering on the formation, distribution, and employment of property and

personality, a question not new indeed, yet one which has not hitherto

been satisfactorily settled. These investigations are very metaphysical,

profound, and demonstrative, and will give satisfaction to minds in the

habit of abstract speculation. Readers, however, not disposed to enter

into them, after reading the summary view, entitled, "on our actions,"

will probably pass on at once to the commencement of the main subject

of the work, which is treated of under the following heads:

Of Society.

Of Production, or the formation of our riches.

Of Value, or the measure of utility.

Of change of form, or fabrication.

Of change of place, or commerce.

Of money.

Of the distribution of our riches.

Of population.

Of the employment of our riches, or consumption.

Of public revenue, expenses and debts.

Although the work now offered is but a translation, it may be considered

in some degree as the original, that having never been published

in the country in which it was written. The author would there have

been submitted to the unpleasant alternative either of mutilating his

sentiments, where they were either free or doubtful, or of risking himself

under the unsettled regimen of the press. A manuscript copy communicated

to a friend here has enabled him to give it to a country which is afraid

to read nothing, and which may be trusted with anything, so long as its

reason remains unfettered by law.

In the translation, fidelity has been chiefly consulted. A more correct

style would sometimes have given a shade of sentiment which was not the

author's, and which, in a work standing in the place of the original,

would have been unjust towards him. Some gallicisms have, therefore, been

admitted, where a single word gives an idea which would require a whole

phrase of dictionary-English. Indeed, the horrors of Neologism, which

startle the purist, have given no alarm to the translator. Where brevity,

perspicuity, and even euphony can be promoted by the introduction of a

new word, it is an improvement to the language. It is thus the English

language has been brought to what it is; one half of it having been

innovations, made at different times, from the Greek, Latin, French, and

other languages. And is it the worse for these? Had the preposterous idea

of fixing the language been adopted by our Saxon ancestors, of Pierce

Plowman, of Chaucer, of Spenser, the progress of ideas must have stopped

with that of the language. On the contrary, nothing is more evident than

that as we advance in the knowledge of new things, and of new combinations

of old ones, we must have new words to express them. Were Van Helmont,

Stane, Scheele, to rise from the dead at this time, they would scarcely

understand one word of their own science. Would it have been better,

then, to have abandoned the science of Chemistry, rather than admit

innovations in its terms? What a wonderful accession of copiousness and

force has the French language attained, by the innovations of the last

thirty years! And what do we not owe to Shakspeare for the enrichment

of the language, by his free and magical creation of words? In giving

a loose to neologism, indeed, uncouth words will sometimes be offered;

but the public will judge them, and receive or reject, as sense or sound

shall suggest, and authors will be approved or condemned according to

the use they make of this license, as they now are from their use of

the present vocabulary. The claim of the present translation, however,

is limited to its duties of fidelity and justice to the sense of its

original; adopting the author's own word only where no term of our own

language would convey his meaning.

(_A Note communicated to the Editor._)

Our author's classification of taxes being taken from those practised in

France, will scarcely be intelligible to an American reader, to whom the

nature as well as names of some of them must be unknown. The taxes with

which we are familiar, class themselves readily according to the basis

on which they rest. 1. Capital. 2. Income. 3. Consumption. These may be

considered as commensurate; Consumption being generally equal to Income,

and Income the annual profit of Capital. A government may select either

of these bases for the establishment of its system of taxation, and so

frame it as to reach the faculties of every member of the society, and

to draw from him his equal proportion of the public contributions; and,

if this be correctly obtained, it is the perfection of the function of

taxation. But when once a government has assumed its basis, to select

and tax special articles from either of the other classes, is double

taxation. For example, if the system be established on the basis of

Income, and his just proportion on that scale has been already drawn

from every one, to step into the field of Consumption, and tax special

articles in that, as broadcloth or homespun, wine or whiskey, a coach or

a wagon, is doubly taxing the same article. For that portion of Income

with which these articles are purchased, having already paid its tax as

Income, to pay another tax on the thing it purchased, is paying twice

for the same thing, it is an aggrievance on the citizens who use these

articles in exoneration of those who do not, contrary to the most sacred

of the duties of a government, to do equal and impartial justice to all

its citizens.

How far it may be the interest and the duty of all to submit to this

sacrifice on other grounds, for instance, to pay for a time an impost

on the importation of certain articles, in order to encourage their

manufacture at home, or an excise on others injurious to the morals or

health of the citizens, will depend on a series of considerations of

another order, and beyond the proper limits of this note. The reader,

in deciding which basis of taxation is most eligible for the local

circumstances of his country, will, of course, avail himself of the

weighty observations of our author.

To this a single observation shall yet be added. Whether property

alone, and the whole of what each citizen possesses, shall be subject

to contribution, or only its surplus after satisfying his first wants,

or whether the faculties of body and mind shall contribute also from

their annual earnings, is a question to be decided. But, when decided,

and the principle settled, it is to be equally and fairly applied to

all. To take from one, because it is thought that his own industry and

that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others,

who, or whose fathers have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to

violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, "the _guarantee_

to every one of a free exercise of his industry, and the fruits acquired

by it." If the overgrown wealth of an individual be deemed dangerous to

the State, the best corrective is the law of equal inheritance to all

in equal degree; and the better, as this enforces a law of nature, while

extra-taxation violates it.

FOOTNOTE:

[15] Moore's Greek Grammar, translated by Ewen. Mair's Tyro's

Dictionary.

TO JOHN ADAMS.

MONTICELLO, April 8, 1816.

DEAR SIR,--I have to acknowledge your two favors of February the 16th

and March the 2d, and to join sincerely in the sentiment of Mrs. Adams,

and regret that distance separates us so widely. An hour of conversation

would be worth a volume of letters. But we must take things as they come.

You ask, if I would agree to live my seventy or rather seventy-three

years over again? To which I say, yea. I think with you, that it is

a good world on the whole; that it has been framed on a principle of

benevolence, and more pleasure than pain dealt out to us. There are,

indeed, (who might say nay) gloomy and hypochondriac minds, inhabitants

of diseased bodies, disgusted with the present, and despairing of the

future; always counting that the worst will happen, because it may happen.

To these I say, how much pain have cost us the evils which have never

happened! My temperament is sanguine. I steer my bark with Hope in the

head, leaving Fear astern. My hopes, indeed, sometimes fail; but not

oftener than the forebodings of the gloomy. There are, I acknowledge, even

in the happiest life, some terrible convulsions, heavy set-offs against

the opposite page of the account. I have often wondered for what good

end the sensations of grief could be intended. All our other passions,

within proper bounds, have an useful object. And the perfection of the

moral character is, not in a stoical apathy, so hypocritically vaunted,

and so untruly too, because impossible, but in a just equilibrium of all

the passions. I wish the pathologists then would tell us what is the use

of grief in the economy, and of what good it is the cause, proximate or

remote.

Did I know Baron Grimm while at Paris? Yes, most intimately. He was the

pleasantest and most conversable member of the diplomatic corps while

I was there; a man of good fancy, acuteness, irony, cunning and egoism.

No heart, not much of any science, yet enough of every one to speak its

language; his forte was Belles-lettres, painting and sculpture. In these

he was the oracle of society, and as such, was the Empress Catharine's

private correspondent and factor, in all things not diplomatic. It was

through him I got her permission for poor Ledyard to go to Kamschatka, and

cross over thence to the western coast of America, in order to penetrate

across our continent in the opposite direction to that afterwards

adopted for Lewis and Clarke; which permission she withdrew after he

had got within two hundred miles of Kamschatka, had him seized, brought

back, and set down in Poland. Although I never heard Grimm express

the opinion directly, yet I always supposed him to be of the school of

Diderot, D'Alembert, D'Holbach; the first of whom committed his system of

atheism to writing in "_Le bon sens_," and the last in his "_Systeme de

la Nature_." It was a numerous school in the Catholic countries, while

the infidelity of the Protestant took generally the form of theism. The

former always insisted that it was a mere question of definition between

them, the hypostasis of which, on both sides, was "_Nature_," or "_the

Universe_;" that both agreed in the order of the existing system, but

the one supposed it from eternity, the other as having begun in time.

And when the atheist descanted on the unceasing motion and circulation

of matter through the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms, never

resting, never annihilated, always changing form, and under all forms

gifted with the power of reproduction; the theist pointing "to the heavens

above, and to the earth beneath, and to the waters under the earth,"

asked, if these did not proclaim a first cause, possessing intelligence

and power; power in the production, and intelligence in the design and

constant preservation of the system; urged the palpable existence of

final causes; that the eye was made to see, and the ear to hear, and

not that we see because we have eyes, and hear because we have ears; an

answer obvious to the senses, as that of walking across the room, was

to the philosopher demonstrating the non-existence of motion. It was in

D'Holbach's conventicles that Rousseau imagined all the machinations

against him were contrived; and he left, in his Confessions, the most

biting anecdotes of Grimm. These appeared after I left France; but I

have heard that poor Grimm was so much afflicted by them, that he kept

his bed several weeks. I have never seen the Memoirs of Grimm. Their

volume has kept them out of our market.

I have lately been amusing myself with Levi's book, in answer to Dr.

Priestley. It is a curious and tough work. His style is inelegant and

incorrect, harsh and petulant to his adversary, and his reasoning flimsy

enough. Some of his doctrines were new to me, particularly that of his

two resurrections; the first, a particular one of all the dead, in body as

well as soul, who are to live over again, the Jews in a state of perfect

obedience to God, the other nations in a state of corporeal punishment

for the sufferings they have inflicted on the Jews. And he explains

this resurrection of the bodies to be only of the original stamen of

Leibnitz, or the human _calus_ in _semine masculino_, considering that

as a mathematical point, insusceptible of separation or division. The

second resurrection, a general one of souls and bodies, eternally to

enjoy divine glory in the presence of the Supreme Being. He alleges that

the Jews alone preserve the doctrine of the unity of God. Yet their God

would be deemed a very indifferent man with us; and it was to correct

their anamorphosis of the Deity, that Jesus preached, as well as to

establish the doctrine of a future state. However, Levi insists, that

that was taught in the Old Testament, and even by Moses himself and the

prophets. He agrees that an annointed prince was prophesied and promised;

but denies that the character and history of Jesus had any analogy with

that of the person promised. He must be fearfully embarrassing to the

Hierophants of fabricated Christianity; because it is their own armor in

which he clothes himself for the attack. For example, he takes passages

of scripture from their context, (which would give them a very different

meaning,) strings them together, and makes them point towards what object

he pleases; he interprets them figuratively, typically, analogically,

hyperbolically; he calls in the aid of emendation, transposition, ellipse,

metonymy, and every other figure of rhetoric; the name of one man is

taken for another, one place for another, days and weeks for months

and years; and finally, he avails himself all his advantage over his

adversaries by his superior knowledge of the Hebrew, speaking in the

very language of the divine communication, while they can only fumble on

with conflicting and disputed translations. Such is this war of giants.

And how can such pigmies as you and I decide between them? For myself,

I confess that my head is not formed _tantas componere lites_. And as

you began yours of March the 2d, with a declaration that you were about

to write me the most frivolous letter I had ever read, so I will close

mine by saying, I have written you a full match for it, and by adding

my affectionate respects to Mrs. Adams, and the assurance of my constant

attachment and consideration for yourself.

TO GOVERNOR NICHOLAS.

POPLAR FOREST, April 19, 1816.

DEAR SIR,--In my letter of the 2d instant, I stated, according to your

request, what occurred to me on the subjects of Defence and Education;

and I will now proceed to do the same on the remaining subject of yours

of March 22d, the construction of a general map of the State. For this

the legislature directs there shall be,

I. A topographical survey of each county.

II. A general survey of the outlines of the State, and its leading

features of rivers and mountains.

III. An astronomical survey for the correction and collection of the

others, and

IV. A mineralogical survey.

I. Although the topographical survey of each county is referred to its

court in the first instance, yet such a control is given to the Executive

as places it effectively under his direction; that this control must

be freely and generally exercised, I have no doubt. Nobody expects

that the justices of the peace in every county are so familiar with the

astronomical and geometrical principles to be employed in the execution

of this work, as to be competent to decide what candidate possesses

them in the highest degree, or in any degree; and indeed I think it

would be reasonable, considering how much the other affairs of the

State must engross of the time of the Governor and Council, for them to

make it a pre-requisite for every candidate to undergo an examination

by the mathematical professor of William and Mary College, or some

other professional character, and to ask for a special and confidential

report of the grade of qualification of each candidate examined. If one,

completely qualified, can be found for every half dozen counties, it

will be as much, perhaps, as can be expected.

Their office will be to survey the Rivers, Roads, and Mountains.

1. A proper division of the surveys of the Rivers between them and

the general surveyor, might be to ascribe to the latter so much as is

navigable, and to the former the parts not navigable, but yet sufficient

for working machinery, which the law requires. On these they should

note confluences, other natural and remarkable objects, towns, mills or

other machines, ferries, bridges, crossings of roads, passages through

mountains, mines, quarries, &c.

2. In surveying the Roads, the same objects should be noted, and every

permanent stream crossing them, and these streams should be laid down

according to the best information they can obtain, to their confluence

with the main stream.

3. The Mountains, others than those ascribed to the general surveyor,

should be laid down by their names and bases, which last will be generally

designated by the circumscription of water courses and roads on both

sides, without a special survey around them. Their gaps are also required

to be noted.

4. On the Boundaries, the same objects should be noted. Where a boundary

falls within the operations of the general surveyor, its survey by them

should be dispensed with, and where it is common to two counties, it might

be ascribed wholly to one, or divided between the surveyors respectively.

All these surveys should be delineated on the same scale, which the law

directs, I believe, (for I have omitted to bring the copy of it with

me to this place,) if it has not fixed the scale. I think about half an

inch to the mile would be a convenient one, because it would generally

bring the map of a county within the compass of a sheet of paper. And

here I would suggest what would be a great desideratum for the public,

to wit, that a single sheet map of each county separately, on a scale

of half an inch to the mile, be engraved and struck off. There are few

housekeepers who would not wish to possess a map of their own county,

many would purchase those of their circumjacent counties, and many

would take one of every county, and form them into an atlas, so that

I question if as many copies of each particular map would not be sold

as of the general one. But these should not be made until they receive

the astronomical corrections, without which they can never be brought

together and joined into larger maps, at the will of the purchaser.

Their instrument should be a Circumferentor, with cross spirit levels

on its face, a graduated rim, and a double index, the one fixed, the

other movable, with a nonius on it. The needle should never be depended

on for an angle.

II. The General Survey divides itself into two distinct operations; the

one on the tide waters, the other above them.

On the tide waters the State will have little to do. Some time before

the war, Congress authorized the Executive to have an accurate survey

made of the whole sea-coast of the United States, comprehending, as

well as I remember, the principal bays and harbors. A Mr. Hassler,

a mathematician of the first order from Geneva, was engaged in the

execution, and was sent to England to procure proper instruments. He has

lately returned with such a set as never before crossed the Atlantic,

and is scarcely possessed by any nation on the continent of Europe.

We shall be furnished, then, by the General Government, with a better

survey than we can make, of our sea-coast, Chesapeake Bay, probably the

Potomac, to the Navy Yard at Washington, and possibly of James' River

to Norfolk, and York River to Yorktown. I am not, however, able to say

that these, or what other, are the precise limits of their intentions.

The Secretary of the Treasury would probably inform us. Above these

limits, whatever they are, the surveys and soundings will belong to the

present undertaking of the State; and if Mr. Hassler has time, before

he commences his general work, to execute this for us, with the use of

the instruments of the United States, it is impossible we can put it

into any train of execution equally good; and any compensation he may

require, will be less than it would cost to purchase instruments of our

own, and have the work imperfectly done by a less able hand. If we are

to do it ourselves, I acknowledge myself too little familiar with the

methods of surveying a coast and taking soundings, to offer anything

on the subject approved by practice. I will pass on, therefore, to the

general survey of the Rivers above the tide waters, the Mountains, and

the external Boundaries.

I. _Rivers._--I have already proposed that the general survey shall

comprehend these from the tide waters as far as they are navigable only,

and here we shall find one-half of the work already done, and as ably

as we may expect to do it. In the great controversy between the Lords

Baltimore and Fairfax, between whose territories the Potomac, from its

mouth to its source, was the chartered boundary, the question was which

branch, from Harper's ferry upwards, was to be considered as the Potomac?

Two able mathematicians, therefore, were brought over from England at the

expense of the parties, and under the sanction of the sentence pronounced

between them, to survey the two branches, and ascertain which was to

be considered as the main stream. Lord Fairfax took advantage of their

being here to get a correct survey by them of his whole territory, which

was bounded by the Potomac, the Rappahanoc, as was believed, in the most

accurate manner. Their survey was doubtless filed and recorded in Lord

Fairfax's office, and I presume it still exists among his land papers.

He furnished a copy of that survey to Colonel Fry and my father, who

entered it, on a reduced scale, into their map, as far as latitudes and

admeasurements accurately horizontal could produce exactness. I expect

this survey is to be relied on. But it is lawful to doubt whether its

longitudes may not need verification; because at that day the corrections

had not been made in the lunar tables, which have since introduced the

method of ascertaining the longitude by the lunar distances; and that

by Jupiter's satellites was impracticable in ambulatory survey. The most

we can count on is, that they may have employed some sufficient means to

ascertain the longitude of the first source of the Potomac, the meridian

of which was to be Lord Baltimore's boundary. The longitudes, therefore,

should be verified and corrected, if necessary, and this will belong to

the Astronomical survey.

The other rivers only, then, from their tide waters up as far as

navigable, remain for this operator, and on them the same objects should

be noted as proposed in the county surveys; and, in addition, their

breadth at remarkable parts, such as the confluence of other streams,

falls, and ferries, the soundings of their main channels, bars, rapids,

and principal sluices through their falls, their current at various

places, and, if it can be done without more cost than advantage, their

fall between certain stations.

II. _Mountains._--I suppose the law contemplates, in the general survey,

only the principal continued ridges, and such insulated mountains as

being correctly ascertained in their position, and visible from many

and distant places, may, by their bearings, be useful correctives

for all the surveys, and especially for those of the counties. Of the

continued ridges, the Alleghany, North Mountain, and Blue Ridge, are

principal; ridges of partial lengths may be left to designation in the

county surveys. Of insulated mountains, there are the Peaks of Otter, in

Bedford, which I believe may be seen from about twenty counties; Willis'

Mountains, in Buckingham, which from their detached situation, and so

far below all other mountains, may be seen over a great space of country;

Peters' Mountain, in Albemarle, which, from its eminence above all others

of the south-west ridge, may be seen to a great distance, probably to

Willis' Mountain, and with that and the Peaks of Otter, furnishes a very

extensive triangle; and doubtless there are many unknown to me, which,

being truly located, offer valuable indications and correctives for the

county surveys. For example, the sharp peak of Otter being precisely

fixed in position by its longitude and latitude, a simple observation

of latitude taken at any place from which that peak is visible, and an

observation of the angle it makes with the meridian of the place, furnish

a right-angled spherical triangle, of which the portion of meridian

intercepted between the latitudes of the place and peak, will be on

one side. With this and the given angles, the other side, constituting

the difference of longitude, may be calculated, and thus by a correct

position of these commanding points, that of every place from which any

one of them is visible, may, by observations of latitude and bearing,

be ascertained in longitude also. If two such objects be visible from

the same place, it will afford, by another triangle, a double correction.

The gaps in the continued ridges, ascribed to the general surveyor,

are required by the law to be noted; and so also are their heights.

This must certainly be understood with some limitation, as the height

of every knob in these ridges could never be desired. Probably the law

contemplated only the eminent mountains in each ridge, such as would be

conspicuous objects of observation to the country at great distances,

and would offer the same advantages as the insulated mountains. Such

eminences in the Blue Ridge will be more extensively useful than those

of the more western ridges. The height of gaps also, over which roads

pass, were probably in view.

But how are these heights to be taken, and from what base? I suppose

from the plain on which they stand. But it is difficult to ascertain

the precise horizontal line of that plain, or to say where the ascent

above the general face of the country begins. Where there is a river or

other considerable stream, or extensive meadow plains near the foot of

a mountain, which is much the case in the valleys dividing the western

ridges, I suppose that may be fairly considered in the level of its base,

in the intendment of the law. Where there is no such term of commencement,

the surveyor must judge, as well as he can from his view, what point is

in the general level of the adjacent country. How are these heights to

be taken, and with what instrument? Where a good base can be found, the

geometrical admeasurement is the most satisfactory. For this, a theodolite

must be provided of the most perfect construction, by Ramsden, Troughton

if possible; and for horizontal angles it will be the better of two

telescopes. But such bases are rarely to be found. When none such, the

height may still be measured geometrically, by ascending or descending the

mountain with the theodolite, measuring its face from station to station,

noting its inclination between these stations, and the hypothenusal

difference of that inclination, as indicated on the vertical arc of

the theodolite. The sum of the perpendiculars corresponding with the

hypothenusal measures, is the height of the mountain. But a barometrical

admeasurement is preferable to this; since the late improvements in the

theory, they are to be depended on nearly as much as the geometrical,

and are much more convenient and expeditious. The barometer should have

a sliding nonius, and a thermometer annexed, with a screw at the bottom

to force up the column of mercury solidly. Without this precaution they

cannot be transported at all; and even with it they are in danger from

every severe jolt. They go more safely on a baggage-horse than in a

carriage. The heights should be measured on both sides, to show the rise

of the country at every ridge.

Observations of longitude and latitude should be taken by the surveyor

at all confluences of considerable streams, and on all mountains of

which he measures the heights, whether insulated or in ridges; for this

purpose, he should be furnished with a good Hadley's circle of Borda's

construction, with three limbs of nonius indexes; if not to be had, a

sextant of brass, and of the best construction, may do, and a chronometer;

to these is to be added a Gunter's chain, with some appendix for plumbing

the chain.

III. The External Boundaries of the State, to-wit: Northern, Eastern,

Southern and Western. The Northern boundary consists of, 1st, the

Potomac; 2d, a meridian from its source to Mason & Dixon's line; 3d, a

continuation of that line to the meridian of the north-western corner

of Pennsylvania, and 4th, of that meridian to its intersection with the

Ohio. 1st. The Potomac is supposed, as before mentioned, to be surveyed

to our hand. 2d, The meridian, from its source to Mason & Dixon's line,

was, I believe, surveyed by them when they run the dividing line between

Lord Baltimore and Penn. I presume it can be had from either Annapolis

or Philadelphia, and I think there is a copy of it, which I got from

Dr. Smith, in an atlas of the library of Congress. Nothing better can

be done by us. 3d. The continuation of Mason & Dixon's line and the

meridian from its termination to the Ohio, was done by Mr. Rittenhouse

and others, and copies of their work are doubtless in our offices as

well as in those of Pennsylvania. What has been done by Rittenhouse can

be better done by no one.

The Eastern boundary being the sea-coast, we have before presumed will

be surveyed by the general government.

The Southern boundary. This has been extended and marked in different

parts in the chartered latitude of 36° 31´ by three different sets of

Commissioners. The eastern part by Dr. Byrd and other commissioners

from Virginia and North Carolina: the middle by Fry and Jefferson from

Virginia, and Churton and others from North Carolina; and the western

by Dr. Walker and Daniel Smith, now of Tennessee. Whether Byrd's survey

now exists, I do not know. His journal is still in possession of some

one of the Westover family, and it would be well to seek for it, in

order to judge of that portion of the line. Fry and Jefferson's journal

was burnt in the Shadwell house about fifty years ago, with all the

materials of their map. Walker and Smith's survey is probably in our

offices; there is a copy of it in the atlas before mentioned; but that

survey was made on the spur of a particular occasion, and with a view to

a particular object only. During the revolutionary war, we were informed

that a treaty of peace was on the carpet in Europe, on the principle

of _uti possidetis_; and we despatched those gentlemen immediately to

ascertain the intersection of our Southern boundary with the Mississippi,

and ordered Colonel Clarke to erect a hasty fort on the first bluff

above the line, which was done as an act of possession. The intermediate

line, between that and the termination of Fry and Jefferson's line, was

provisionary only, and not made with any particular care. That, then,

requires to be re-surveyed as far as the Cumberland mountain. But the

eastern and middle surveys will only need, I suppose, to have their

longitudes rectified by the astronomical surveyor.

The Western boundary, consisting of the Ohio, Big Sandy and Cumberland

mountain, having been established while I was out of the country, I

have never had occasion to inquire whether they were actually surveyed,

and with what degree of accuracy. But this fact being well known to

yourself particularly, and to others who have been constantly present

in the State, you will be more competent to decide what is to be done

in that quarter. I presume, indeed, that this boundary will constitute

the principal and most difficult part of the operations of the General

Surveyor.

The injunctions of the act to note the magnetic variations merit diligent

attention. The law of those variations is not yet sufficiently known

to satisfy us that sensible changes do not sometimes take place at

small intervals of time and place. To render these observations of the

variations easy, and to encourage their frequency, a copy of a table of

amplitudes should be furnished to every surveyor, by which, wherever

he has a good Eastern horizon, he may, in a few seconds, at sunrise,

ascertain the variation. This table is to be found in the book called the

"Mariner's Compass Rectified;" but more exactly in the "Connaissance des

Tems" for 1778 and 1788, all of which are in the library of Congress.

It may perhaps be found in other books more easily procured, and will

need to be extracted only from 36½° to 40° degrees of latitude.

III. _The Astronomical Survey._ This is the most important of all

the operations; it is from this alone we are to expect real truth.

Measures and rhumbs taken on the special surface of the earth, cannot

be represented on a plain surface of paper without astronomical

corrections; and, paradoxical as it may seem, it is nevertheless true,

that we cannot know the relative position of two places on the earth,

but by interrogating the sun, moon, and stars. The observer must,

therefore, correctly fix, in longitude and latitude, all remarkable

points from distance to distance. Those to be selected of preference are

the confluences, rapids, falls and ferries of water courses, summits of

mountains, towns, court-houses, and angles of counties, and where these

points are more than a third or half a degree distant, they should be

supplied by observations of other points, such as mills, bridges, passes

through mountains, &c., for in our latitudes, half a degree makes a

difference of three-eighths of a mile in the length of the degree of

longitude. These points first laid down, the intermediate delineations

to be transferred from the particular surveys to the general map, are

adapted to them by contractions or dilatations. The observer will need a

best Hadley's circle of Broda's construction, by Troughton, if possible,

(for they are since Ramsden's time,) and a best chronometer.

Very possibly an equatorial may be needed. This instrument set to

the observed latitude, gives the meridian of the place. In the lunar

observations _at sea_ this element cannot be had, and in Europe _by

land_, these observations are not resorted to for longitudes, because

at their numerous fixed observations they are prepared for the better

method of Jupiter's satellites. But here, where our geography is still

to be fixed by a portable apparatus only, we are obliged to resort, as

at sea, to the lunar observations, with the advantage, however, of a

fixed meridian. And although the use of a meridian in these observations

is a novelty, yet, placed under new circumstances, we must countervail

their advantages by whatever new resources they offer. It is obvious

that the observed distance of the moon from the meridian of the place,

and her calculated distance from that of Greenwich at the same instant,

give the difference of meridians, without dependence on any measure of

time; by addition of the observations, if the moon be between the two

meridians, by subtraction if east or west of both; the association,

therefore, of this instrument with the circular one, by introducing

another element, another process and another instrument, furnishes a test

of the observations with the Hadley, adds to their certainty, and, by

its corroborations, dispenses with that multiplication of observations

which is necessary with the Hadley when used alone. This idea, however,

is suggested by theory only; and it must be left to the judgment of the

observer who will be employed, whether it would be practicable and useful.

To him, when known, I shall be glad to give further explanations. The

cost of the equatorial is about the same with that of the circle, when

of equal workmanship.

Both the surveyor and astronomer should journalize their proceedings

daily, and send copies of their journals monthly to the Executive, as

well to prevent loss by accident, as to make known their progress.

IV. _Mineralogical Survey._--I have never known in the United States but

one eminent mineralogist, who could have been engaged on hire. This was a

Mr. Goudon from France, who came over to Philadelphia six or seven years

ago. Being zealously devoted to the science, he proposed to explore the

new field which this country offered; but being scanty in means, as I

understood, he meant to give lectures in the winter which might enable

him to pass the summer in mineralogical rambles. It is long since I

have heard his name mentioned, and therefore do not know whether he is

still at Philadelphia, or even among the living. The literary gentlemen

of that place can give the information, or perhaps point out some other

equal to the undertaking.

I believe I have now, Sir, gone over all the subjects of your

letter,--which I have done with less reserve to multiply the chances of

offering here and there something which might be useful. Its greatest

merit, however, will be that of evidencing my respect for your commands,

and of adding to the proofs of my great consideration and esteem.

TO M. DUPONT DE NEMOURS.

POPLAR FOREST, April 24, 1816.

I received, my dear friend, your letter covering the constitution for

your Equinoctial republics, just as I was setting out for this place. I

brought it with me, and have read it with great satisfaction. I suppose

it well formed for those for whom it was intended, and the excellence of

every government is its adaptation to the state of those to be governed

by it. For us it would not do. Distinguishing between the structure

of the government and the moral principles on which you prescribe its

administration, with the latter we concur cordially, with the former we

should not. We of the United States, you know, are constitutionally and

conscientiously democrats. We consider society as one of the natural wants

with which man has been created; that he has been endowed with faculties

and qualities to effect its satisfaction by concurrence of others

having the same want; that when, by the exercise of these faculties, he

has procured a state of society, it is one of his acquisitions which

he has a right to regulate and control, jointly indeed with all those

who have concurred in the procurement, whom he cannot exclude from its

use or direction more than they him. We think experience has proved it

safer, for the mass of individuals composing the society, to reserve to

themselves personally the exercise of all rightful powers to which they

are competent, and to delegate those to which they are not competent

to deputies named, and removable for unfaithful conduct, by themselves

immediately. Hence, with us, the people (by which is meant the mass

of individuals composing the society) being competent to judge of the

facts occurring in ordinary life, they have retained the functions of

judges of facts, under the name of jurors; but being unqualified for the

management of affairs requiring intelligence above the common level, yet

competent judges of human character, they chose, for their management,

representatives, some by themselves immediately, others by electors chosen

by themselves. Thus our President is chosen by ourselves, directly in

_practice_, for we vote for A as elector only on the condition he will

vote for B, our representatives by ourselves immediately, our Senate

and judges of law through electors chosen by ourselves. And we believe

that this proximate choice and power of removal is the best security

which experience has sanctioned for ensuring an honest conduct in the

functionaries of society. Your three or four alembications have indeed

a seducing appearance. We should conceive, _primá facie_, that the last

extract would be the pure alcohol of the substance, three or four times

rectified. But in proportion as they are more and more sublimated, they

are also farther and farther removed from the control of the society;

and the human character, we believe, requires in general constant

and immediate control, to prevent its being biased from right by the

seductions of self-love. Your process produces therefore a structure of

government from which the fundamental principle of ours is excluded. You

first set down as zeros all individuals not having lands, which are the

greater number in every society of long standing. Those holding lands

are permitted to manage in person the small affairs of their commune or

corporation, and to elect a deputy for the canton; in which election,

too, every one's vote is to be an unit, a plurality, or a fraction, in

proportion to his landed possessions. The assemblies of cantons, then,

elect for the districts; those of districts for circles; and those of

circles for the national assemblies. Some of these highest councils,

too, are in a considerable degree self-elected, the regency partially,

the judiciary entirely, and some are for life. Whenever, therefore, an

_esprit de corps_, or of party, gets possession of them, which experience

shows to be inevitable, there are no means of breaking it up, for they

will never elect but those of their own spirit. Juries are allowed in

criminal cases only. I acknowledge myself strong in affection to our own

form, yet both of us act and think from the same motive, we both consider

the people as our children, and love them with parental affection. But

you love them as infants whom you are afraid to trust without nurses;

and I as adults whom I freely leave to self-government. And you are

right in the case referred to you; my criticism being built on a state

of society not under your contemplation. It is, in fact, like a critic

on Homer by the laws of the Drama.

But when we come to the moral principles on which the government is to be

administered, we come to what is proper for all conditions of society.

I meet you there in all the benevolence and rectitude of your native

character; and I love myself always most where I concur most with you.

Liberty, truth, probity, honor, are declared to be the four cardinal

principles of your society. I believe with you that morality, compassion,

generosity, are innate elements of the human constitution; that there

exists a right independent of force; that a right to property is founded

in our natural wants, in the means with which we are endowed to satisfy

these wants, and the right to what we acquire by those means without

violating the similar rights of other sensible beings; that no one has a

right to obstruct another, exercising his faculties innocently for the

relief of sensibilities made a part of his nature; that justice is the

fundamental law of society; that the majority, oppressing an individual,

is guilty of a crime, abuses its strength, and by acting on the law of

the strongest breaks up the foundations of society; that action by the

citizens in person, in affairs within their reach and competence, and

in all others by representatives, chosen immediately, and removable by

themselves, constitutes the essence of a republic; that all governments

are more or less republican in proportion as this principle enters more

or less into their composition; and that a government by representation

is capable of extension over a greater surface of country than one of

any other form. These, my friend, are the essentials in which you and I

agree; however, in our zeal for their maintenance, we may be perplexed

and divaricate, as to the structure of society most likely to secure them.

In the constitution of Spain, as proposed by the late Cortes, there

was a principle entirely new to me, and not noticed in yours, that

no person, born after that day, should ever acquire the rights of

citizenship until he could read and write. It is impossible sufficiently

to estimate the wisdom of this provision. Of all those which have

been thought of for securing fidelity in the administration of the

government, constant ralliance to the principles of the constitution,

and progressive amendments with the progressive advances of the human

mind, or changes in human affairs, it is the most effectual. Enlighten

the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will

vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day. Although I do not, with some

enthusiasts, believe that the human condition will ever advance to such

a state of perfection as that there shall no longer be pain or vice in

the world, yet I believe it susceptible of much improvement, and most

of all, in matters of government and religion; and that the diffusion

of knowledge among the people is to be the instrument by which it is

to be effected. The constitution of the Cortes had defects enough; but

when I saw in it this amendatory provision, I was satisfied all would

come right in time, under its salutary operation. No people have more

need of a similar provision than those for whom you have felt so much

interest. No mortal wishes them more success than I do. But if what I have

heard of the ignorance and bigotry of the mass be true, I doubt their

capacity to understand and to support a free government; and fear that

their emancipation from the foreign tyranny of Spain, will result in a

military despotism at home. Palacios may be great; others may be great;

but it is the multitude which possesses force; and wisdom must yield to

that. For such a condition of society, the constitution you have devised

is probably the best imaginable. It is certainly calculated to elicit

the best talents; although perhaps not well guarded against the egoism

of its functionaries. But that egoism will be light in comparison with

the pressure of a military despot, and his army of Janissaries. Like

Solon to the Athenians, you have given to your Columbians, not the best

possible government, but the best they can bear. By-the-bye, I wish you

had called them the Columbian republics, to distinguish them from our

American republics. Theirs would be the most honorable name, and they

best entitled to it; for Columbus discovered their continent, but never

saw ours.

To them liberty and happiness; to you the meed of wisdom and goodness

in teaching them how to attain them, with the affectionate respect and

friendship of,

TO MR. FR. ADR. VANDERKEMP.

POPLAR FOREST, April 25, 1816.

SIR,--Your favor of March 24th was handed to me just as I was setting out

on a journey of time and distance, which will explain the date of this

both as to time and place. The Syllabus, which is the subject of your

letter, was addressed to a friend to whom I had promised a more detailed

view. But finding I should never have time for that, I sent him what I

thought should be the outlines of such a work; the same subject entering

sometimes into the correspondence between Mr. Adams and myself, I sent

him a copy of it. The friend to whom it had been first addressed, dying

soon after, I asked from his family the return of the original, as a

confidential communication, which they kindly sent me. So that no copy

of it, but that in the possession of Mr. Adams, now exists out of my

own hands. I have used this caution lest it should get out in connection

with my name; and I was unwilling to draw on myself a swarm of insects,

whose buzz is more disquieting than their bite. As an abstract thing,

and without any intimation from what quarter derived, I can have no

objection to its being committed to the consideration of the world. I

believe it may even do good by producing discussion, and finally a true

view of the merits of this great reformer. Pursuing the same ideas after

writing the Syllabus, I made, for my own satisfaction, an extract from

the Evangelists of his morals, selecting those only whose style and

spirit proved them genuine, and his own; and they are as distinguishable

from the matter in which they are imbedded as diamonds in dunghills. A

more precious morsel in ethics was never seen. It was too hastily done,

however, being the work of one or two evenings only, while I lived at

Washington, overwhelmed with other business, and it is my intention to

go over it again at more leisure. This shall be the work of the ensuing

winter. I gave it the title of "the Philosophy of Jesus extracted from

the text of the Evangelists." To this Syllabus and extract, if a history

of his life can be added, written with the same view of the subject, the

world will see, after the fogs shall be dispelled, in which for fourteen

centuries he has been enveloped by jugglers to make money of him, when

the genuine character shall be exhibited, which they have dressed up

in the rags of an imposter, the world, I say, will at length see the

immortal merit of this first of human sages. I rejoice that you think

of undertaking this work. It is one I have long wished to see written

of the scale of a Laertius or a Nepos. Nor can it be a work of labor,

or of volume, for his journeyings from Judea to Samaria, and Samaria

to Galilee, do not cover much country; and the incidents of his life

require little research. They are all at hand, and need only to be put

into human dress; noticing such only as are within the physical laws

of nature, and offending none by a denial or even a mention of what is

not. If the Syllabus and Extract (which is short) either in substance,

or at large, are worth a place under the same cover with your biography,

they are at your service. I ask one only condition, that no possibility

shall be admitted of my name being even intimated with the publication.

If done in England, as you seem to contemplate, there will be the less

likelihood of my being thought of. I shall be much gratified to learn

that you pursue your intention of writing the life of Jesus, and pray

you to accept the assurances of my great respect and esteem.

TO M. CORREA DE SERRA.

POPLAR FOREST, April 26, 1816.

DEAR SIR,--Your favor of March 29th was received, just as I was setting

out for this place. I brought it with me to be answered hence. Since you

are so kind as to interest yourself for Captain Lewis' papers, I will

give you a full statement of them.

1. Ten or twelve such pocket volumes, morocco bound, as that you describe,

in which, in his own hand-writing, he had journalized all occurrences,

day by day, as he travelled. They were small 8vos, and opened at the

end for more convenient writing. Every one had been put into a separate

tin case, cemented to prevent injury from wet, but on his return the

cases, I presume, had been taken from them, as he delivered me the books

uncased. There were in them the figures of some animals, drawn with the

pen while on his journey. The gentleman who published his travels must

have had these MS. volumes, and perhaps now has them, or can give some

account of them.

2. Descriptions of animals and plants. I do not recollect whether there

was such a book or collection of papers, distinct from his journal,

although I am inclined to think there was one: because his travels as

published, do not contain all the new animals of which he had either

descriptions or specimens. Mr. Peale, I think, must know something of

this, as he drew figures of some of the animals for engraving, and some

were actually engraved. Perhaps Conrad, his bookseller, who was to have

published the work, can give an account of these.

3. Vocabularies. I had myself made a collection of about forty

vocabularies of the Indians on this side of the Mississippi, and Captain

Lewis was instructed to take those of every tribe beyond, which he

possibly could. The intention was to publish the whole, and leave the

world to search for affinities between these and the languages of Europe

and Asia. He was furnished with a number of printed vocabularies of the

same words and form I had used, with blank spaces for the Indian words.

He was very attentive to this instruction, never missing an opportunity

of taking a vocabulary. After his return, he asked me if I should have

any objection to the printing his separately, as mine were not yet

arranged as I intended. I assured him I had not the least; and I am

certain he contemplated their publication. But whether he had put the

papers out of his own hand or not, I do not know. I imagine he had not;

and it is probable that Doctor Barton, who was particularly curious on

this subject, and published on it occasionally, would willingly receive

and take care of these papers after Captain Lewis' death, and that they

are now among his papers.

4. His observations of longitude and latitude. He was instructed to

send these to the War-Office, that measures might be taken to have

the calculations made. Whether he delivered them to the War-Office, or

to Dr. Patterson, I do not know, but I think he communicated with Dr.

Patterson concerning them. These are all important, because although,

having with him the nautical almanacs, he could and did calculate some

of his latitudes, yet the longitudes were taken merely from estimates

by the log-line, time, and course. So that it is only as latitudes that

his map may be considered as tolerably correct; not as to its longitudes.

5. His Map. This was drawn on sheets of paper, not put together, but so

marked that they could be joined together with the utmost accuracy; not

as one great square map, but ramifying with the courses of the rivers.

The scale was very large, and the sheets numerous, but in perfect

preservation. This was to await publication, until corrected by the

calculations of longitude and latitude. I examined these sheets myself

minutely, as spread on a floor, and the originals must be in existence,

as the map published with his travels must have been taken from them.

These constitute the whole. They are the property of the government, the

fruits of the expedition undertaken at such expense of money, and risk of

valuable lives. They contain exactly the whole of the information which

it was our object to obtain, for the benefit of our own country and of the

world. But we were willing to give to Lewis and Clarke whatever pecuniary

benefits might be derived from the publication, and therefore left the

papers in their hands, taking for granted that their interests would

produce a speedy publication, which would be better if done under their

direction. But the death of Captain Lewis, the distance and occupations

of General Clarke, and the bankruptcy of their bookseller, have retarded

the publication, and rendered it necessary that the government should

attend to the reclamation and security of the papers; their recovery

is now become an imperious duty. Their safest deposit, as fast as they

can be collected, will be the Philosophical Society, who no doubt will

be so kind as to receive and preserve them, subject to the orders of

government; and their publication once effected in any way, the originals

will probably be left in the same deposit. As soon as I can learn their

present situation, I will lay the matter before the government to take

such order as they think proper. As to any claims of individuals to

these papers, it is to be observed that, as being the property of the

public, we are certain neither Lewis nor Clarke would undertake to convey

away the right to them, had they been capable of intending it. Yet no

interest of that kind is meant to be disturbed, if the individual can

give satisfactory assurance that he will promptly and properly publish

them; otherwise they must be restored to the government, and the claimant

left to settle with those on whom he has any claim. My interference,

will, I trust, be excused, not only from the portion which every citizen

has in whatever is public, but from the peculiar part I have had in the

design and execution of this expedition.

To you, my friend, apology is due for involving you in the trouble of

this inquiry. It must be found in the interest you take in whatever

belongs to science, and in your own kind offers to me of aid in this

research. Be assured always of my affectionate friendship and respect.

JOHN ADAMS TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

QUINCY, May 3, 1816.

DEAR SIR,--Yours of April 8th has long since been received.

_J._ "Would you agree to live your eighty years over again?"

_A._ ----.

_J._ "Would you agree to live your eighty years over again forever?"

_A._ I once heard our acquaintance, Chew, of Philadelphia, say, "he

should like to go back to twenty-five, to all eternity;" but I own my

soul would start and shrink back on itself at the prospect of an endless

succession of _Boules de Savon_, almost as much as at the certainty of

annihilation. For what is human life? I can speak only for one. I have

had more comfort than distress, more pleasure than pain ten to one,

nay, if you please, an hundred to one. A pretty large dose, however,

of distress and pain. But after all, what is human life? A vapor, a

fog, a dew, a cloud, a blossom, a flower, a rose, a blade of grass, a

glass bubble, a tale told by an idiot, a _Boule de Savon_, vanity of

vanities, an eternal succession of which would terrify me almost as much

as annihilation.

_J._ "Would you prefer to live over again, rather than accept the offer

of a better life in a future state?"

_A._ Certainly not.

_J._ "Would you live again rather than change for the worse in a future

state, for the sake of trying something new?"

_A._ Certainly yes.

_J._ "Would you live over again once or forever, rather than run the

risk of annihilation, or of a better or a worse state at or after death?"

_A._ Most certainly I would not.

_J._ "How valiant you are!"

_A._ Aye, at this moment, and at all other moments of my life that I

can recollect; but who can tell what will become of his bravery when

his flesh and his heart shall fail him? Bolingbroke said "his philosophy

was not sufficient to support him in his last hours." D'Alembert said:

"Happy are they who have courage, but I have none." Voltaire, the greatest

genius of them all, behaved like the greatest coward of them all at his

death, as he had like the wisest fool of them all in his lifetime. Hume

awkwardly affected to sport away all sober thoughts. Who can answer

for his last feelings and reflections, especially as the priests are in

possession of the custom of making them the greatest engines of their

craft. _Procul est prophani!_

_J._ "How shall we, how can we estimate the real value of human life?"

_A._ I know not; I cannot weigh sensations and reflections, pleasures and

pains, hopes and fears, in money-scales. But I can tell you how I have

heard it estimated by philosophers. One of my old friends and clients,

a mandamus counsellor against his will, a man of letters and virtues,

without one vice that I ever knew or suspected, except garrulity, William

Vassall, asserted to me, and strenuously maintained, that "_pleasure is

no compensation for pain_." "An hundred years of the keenest delights

of human life could not atone for one hour of bilious cholic that he

had felt." The sublimity of this philosophy my dull genius could not

reach. I was willing to state a fair account between pleasure and pain,

and give credit for the balance, which I found very great in my favor.

Another philosopher, who, as we say, believed nothing, ridiculed the

notion of a future state. One of the company asked, "Why are you an enemy

to a future state? Are you weary of life? Do you detest existence?" "Weary

of life? Detest existence?" said the philosopher. "No! I love life so

well, and am so attached to existence, that to be sure of immortality, I

would consent to be pitched about with forks by the devils, among flames

of fire and brimstone, to all eternity."

I find no resources in my courage for this exalted philosophy. I had

rather be blotted out.

_Il faut trancher cet mot!_ What is there in life to attach us to it

but the hope of a future and a better? It is a cracker, a rocket, a

fire-work at best.

I admire your navigation, and should like to sail with you, either in

your bark, or in my own along side of yours. Hope with her gay ensigns

displayed at the prow, fear with her hobgoblins behind the stern. Hope

springs eternal, and hope is all that endures. Take away hope and what

remains? What pleasure, I mean? Take away fear and what pain remains?

Ninety-nine one hundredths of the pleasures and pains of life are nothing

but hopes and fears.

All nations known in history or in travels, have hoped, believed and

expected a future and a better state. The Maker of the Universe, the

cause of all things, whether we call it _fate_, or _chance_, or God,

has inspired this hope. If it is a _fraud_, we shall never know it.

We shall never resent the imposition, be grateful for the illusion,

nor grieve for the disappointment. We shall be no more. Credit Grimm,

Diderot, Buffon, La Lande, Condorcet, D'Holbach, Frederick, Catharine;

_non ego_. Arrogant as it may be, I shall take the liberty to pronounce

them all _Idiologians_. Yet I would not persecute a hair of their heads.

The world is wide enough for them and me.

Suppose the cause of the universe should reveal to all mankind at once

a _certainty_ that they must all die within a century, and that death

is an eternal extinction of all living powers, of all sensation and

reflection. What would be the effect? Would there be one man, woman or

child existing on this globe, twenty years hence? Would not every human

being be a Madame Deffand, Voltaire's "Aveugle clairvoyante," all her

lifetime regretting her existence, bewailing that she had ever been

born, grieving that she had ever been dragged, without her consent, into

being. Who would bear the gout, the stone, the cholic, for the sake of a

_Boule de Savon_, when a pistol, a cord, a pond, or a phial of laudanum

was at hand? What would men say to their Maker? Would they thank him?

No; they would reproach him; they would curse him to his face. Voila!

A sillier letter than my last. For a wonder, I have filled a sheet, and

a greater wonder, I have read fifteen volumes of Grimm. _Digito comesse

labellum_. I hope to write you more upon this and other topics of your

letter. I have read also a History of the Jesuits, in four volumes. Can

you tell me the author, or anything of this work?

JOHN ADAMS TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

QUINCY, May 6, 1816.

DEAR SIR,--Neither eyes, fingers or paper held out to despatch all the

trifles I wished to write in my last letter.

In your favor of April 8th you "wonder for what good end the sensations

of grief could be intended?" "You wish the Pathologists would tell us,

what the use of grief in our economy, and of what good it is the cause

proximate or remote." When I approach such questions as this, I consider

myself, like one of those little eels in Vinaigre, or one of those

animalcules in black or red paper, or in the horse-radish root, that

bite our tongues so cruelly, reasoning upon the το παν. Of what use is

this sting upon the tongue? Why might we not have the benefit of these

stimulants, without the sting? Why might we not have the fragrance and

beauty of the rose without the thorn?

In the first place, however, we know not the connection between pleasure

and pain. They seem to be mechanical and inseparable. How can we conceive

a strong passion, a sanguine hope suddenly disappointed, without producing

pain, or grief? Swift at seventy, recollected the fish he had angled out

of water when a boy, which broke loose from his hook; and said I feel

the disappointment at this moment. A merchant places all his fortune

and all his credit in a single India or China ship. She arrives at the

vineyard with a cargo worth a million, in order. Sailing round a Cape

for Boston, a sudden storm wrecks her--ship, cargo and crew, all lost.

Is it possible that the merchant ruined, bankrupt, sent to prison by his

creditors--his wife and children starving--should not grieve? Suppose a

young couple, with every advantage of persons, fortunes and connections,

on the point of indissoluble union. A flash of lightning, or any one of

those millions of accidents which are allotted to humanity, proves fatal

to one of the lovers. Is it possible that the other, and all the friends

of both, should not grieve? It seems that grief, as a mere passion, must

be in proportion to sensibility.

Did you ever see a portrait, or a statue of a great man, without

perceiving strong traits of pain and anxiety? These furrows were all

ploughed in the countenance, by grief. Our juridical oracle, Sir Edward

Coke, thought that none were fit for legislators and magistrates, but

"_sad men_" And who were these sad men? They were aged men, who had been

tossed and buffeted in the vicissitudes of life--forced upon profound

reflection by grief and disappointments--and taught to command their

passions and prejudices.

But all this you will say is nothing to the purpose. It is only repeating

and exemplifying a _fact_, which my question supposed to be well known,

viz., the existence of grief; and is no answer to my question, "what

are the uses of grief." This is very true, and you are very right; but

may not the uses of grief be inferred, or at least suggested by such

exemplifications of known facts? Grief compels the India merchant to

think; to reflect upon the plans of his voyage. Have I not been rash,

to trust my fortune, my family, my liberty, to the caprices of winds and

waves in a single ship? I will never again give a loose to my imagination

and avarice. It had been wiser and more honest to have traded on a

smaller scale upon my own capital.

The desolated lover, and disappointed connections, are compelled by their

grief to reflect on the vanity of human wishes and expectations; to learn

the essential lesson of resignation; to review their own conduct towards

the deceased; to correct any errors or faults in their future conduct

towards their remaining friends, and towards all men; to recollect the

virtues of the lost friend, and resolve to imitate them; his follies

and vices if he had any, and resolve to avoid them.

Grief drives men into habits of serious reflection, sharpens the

understanding, and softens the heart; it compels them to arouse their

reason, to assert its empire over their passions, propensities and

prejudices; to elevate them to a superiority over all human events; to

give them the _felicis annimi immota tranquilitatum_; in short, to make

them stoics and Christians. After all, as grief is a pain, it stands in

the predicament of all other evil, and the great question occurs, what

is the origin, and what the final cause of evil. This perhaps is known

only to omniscience. We poor mortals have nothing to do with it--but

to fabricate all the good we can out of all inevitable evils--and to

avoid all that are avoidable, and many such there are, among which are

our own unnecessary apprehensions and imaginary fears. Though stoical

apathy is impossible, yet patience, and resignation, and tranquillity

may be acquired by consideration, in a great degree, very much for the

happiness of life.

I have read Grimm, in fifteen volumes, of more than five hundred pages

each. I will not say like uncle Toby, "You shall not die till you have

read him." But you ought to read him, if possible. It is the most

entertaining work I ever read. He appears exactly as you represent

him. What is most remarkable of all is his impartiality. He spares

no characters but Necker and Diderot. Voltaire, Buffon, D'Alembert,

Helvetius, Rousseau, Marmontel, Condorcet, La Harpe, Beaumarchais, and all

others, are lashed without ceremony. Their portraits as faithfully drawn

as possible. It is a complete review of French literature and fine arts

from 1753 to 1790. No politics. Criticisms very just. Anecdotes without

number, and very merry. One ineffably ridiculous, I wish I could send

you, but it is immeasurably long. D'Argens, a little out of health and

shivering with the cold in Berlin, asked leave of the King to take a ride

to Gascony, his native province. He was absent so long that Frederick

concluded the air of the south of France was like to detain his friend;

and as he wanted his society and services, he contrived a trick to bring

him back. He fabricated a mandement in the name of the Archbishop of

Aix, commanding all the faithful to seize the Marquis D'Argens, author

of Ocellus, Timæus and Julian, works atheistical, deistical, heretical

and impious in the highest degree. This mandement, composed in a style

of ecclesiastical eloquence that never was exceeded by Pope, Jesuit,

Inquisitor, or Sorbonite, he sent in print by a courier to D'Argens,

who, frightened out of his wit, fled by cross roads out of France and

back to Berlin, to the greater joy of the philosophical court; for the

laugh of Europe, which they had raised at the expense of the learned

Marquis.

I do not like the late resurrection of the Jesuits. They have a general

now in Russia, in correspondence with the Jesuits in the United States,

who are more numerous than everybody knows. Shall we not have swarms

of them here? In as many shapes and disguises as ever a king of the

Gypsies--Bamfield Morecarew himself, assumed? In the shape of printers,

editors, writers, schoolmasters, &c. I have lately read Pascal's letters

over again, and four volumes of the history of the Jesuits. If ever any

congregation of men could merit eternal perdition on earth and in hell,

according to these historians, though like Pascal true Catholics, it

is this company Loyola. Our system, however, of religious liberty must

afford them an asylum. But if they do not put the purity of our elections

to a severe trial, it will be a wonder.

TO JOHN TAYLOR.

MONTICELLO, May 28, 1816.

DEAR SIR,--On my return from a long journey and considerable absence from

home, I found here the copy of your "Enquiry into the principles of our

government," which you had been so kind as to send me; and for which I

pray you to accept my thanks. The difficulties of getting new works in

our situation, inland and without a single bookstore, are such as had

prevented my obtaining a copy before; and letters which had accumulated

during my absence, and were calling for answers, have not yet permitted

me to give to the whole a thorough reading; yet certain that you and I

could not think differently on the fundamentals of rightful government,

I was impatient, and availed myself of the intervals of repose from the

writing table, to obtain a cursory idea of the body of the work.

I see in it much matter for profound reflection; much which should confirm

our adhesion, in practice, to the good principles of our constitution,

and fix our attention on what is yet to be made good. The sixth section

on the good moral principles of our government, I found so interesting

and replete with sound principles, as to postpone my letter-writing to

its thorough perusal and consideration. Besides much other good matter,

it settles unanswerably the right of instructing representatives, and

their duty to obey. The system of banking we have both equally and ever

reprobated. I contemplate it as a blot left in all our constitutions,

which, if not covered, will end in their destruction, which is already

hit by the gamblers in corruption, and is sweeping away in its progress

the fortunes and morals of our citizens. Funding I consider as limited,

rightfully, to a redemption of the debt within the lives of a majority

of the generation contracting it; every generation coming equally, by the

laws of the Creator of the world, to the free possession of the earth he

made for their subsistence, unincumbered by their predecessors, who, like

them, were but tenants for life. You have successfully and completely

pulverized Mr. Adams' system of orders, and his opening the mantle of

republicanism to every government of laws, whether consistent or not with

natural right. Indeed, it must be acknowledged, that the term _republic_

is of very vague application in every language. Witness the self-styled

republics of Holland, Switzerland, Genoa, Venice, Poland. Were I to

assign to this term a precise and definite idea, I would say, purely and

simply, it means a government by its citizens in mass, acting directly

and personally, according to rules established by the majority; and that

every other government is more or less republican, in proportion as it

has in its composition more or less of this ingredient of the direct

action of the citizens. Such a government is evidently restrained to very

narrow limits of space and population. I doubt if it would be practicable

beyond the extent of a New England township. The first shade from this

pure element, which, like that of pure vital air, cannot sustain life

of itself, would be where the powers of the government, being divided,

should be exercised each by representatives chosen either _pro hac vice_,

or for such short terms as should render secure the duty of expressing

the will of their constituents. This I should consider as the nearest

approach to a pure republic, which is practicable on a large scale of

country or population. And we have examples of it in some of our State

constitutions, which, if not poisoned by priest-craft, would prove its

excellence over all mixtures with other elements; and, with only equal

doses of poison, would still be the best. Other shades of republicanism

may be found in other forms of government, where the executive, judiciary

and legislative functions, and the different branches of the latter,

are chosen by the people more or less directly, for longer terms of

years, or for life, or made hereditary; or where there are mixtures of

authorities, some dependent on, and others independent of the people. The

further the departure from direct and constant control by the citizens,

the less has the government of the ingredient of republicanism; evidently

none where the authorities are hereditary, as in France, Venice, &c.,

or self-chosen, as in Holland; and little, where for life, in proportion

as the life continues in being after the act of election.

The purest republican feature in the government of our own State, is the

House of Representatives. The Senate is equally so the first year, less

the second, and so on. The Executive still less, because not chosen by

the people directly. The Judiciary seriously anti-republican, because for

life; and the national arm wielded, as you observe, by military leaders,

irresponsible but to themselves. Add to this the vicious constitution of

our county courts (to whom the justice, the executive administration, the

taxation, police, the military appointments of the county, and nearly

all our daily concerns are confided), self-appointed, self-continued,

holding their authorities for life, and with an impossibility of breaking

in on the perpetual succession of any faction once possessed of the

bench. They are in truth, the executive, the judiciary, and the military

of their respective counties, and the sum of the counties makes the

State. And add, also, that one half of our brethren who fight and pay

taxes, are excluded, like Helots, from the rights of representation, as

if society were instituted for the soil, and not for the men inhabiting

it; or one half of these could dispose of the rights and the will of

the other half, without their consent.

"What constitutes a State?

Not high-raised battlements, or labor'd mound,

Thick wall, or moated gate;

Not cities proud, with spires and turrets crown'd;

No: men, high minded men;

Men, who their duties know;

But know their rights; and knowing, dare maintain.

These constitute a State."

In the General Government, the House of Representatives is mainly

republican; the Senate scarcely so at all, as not elected by the people

directly, and so long secured even against those who do elect them; the

Executive more republican than the Senate, from its shorter term, its

election by the people, in practice, (for they vote for A only on an

assurance that he will vote for B,) and because, _in practice also_,

a principle of rotation seems to be in a course of establishment; the

judiciary independent of the nation, their coercion by impeachment being

found nugatory.

If, then, the control of the people over the organs of their government be

the measure of its republicanism, and I confess I know no other measure,

it must be agreed that our governments have much less of republicanism

than ought to have been expected; in other words, that the people have

less regular control over their agents, than their rights and their

interests require. And this I ascribe, not to any want of republican

dispositions in those who formed these constitutions, but to a submission

of true principle to European authorities, to speculators on government,

whose fears of the people have been inspired by the populace of their

own great cities, and were unjustly entertained against the independent,

the happy, and therefore orderly citizens of the United States. Much I

apprehend that the golden moment is past for reforming these heresies.

The functionaries of public power rarely strengthen in their dispositions

to abridge it, and an unorganized call for timely amendment is not

likely to prevail against an organized opposition to it. We are always

told that things are going on well: why change them? "_Chi sta

bene, non si muove_," said the Italian, "let him who stands well, stand

still." This is true; and I verily believe they would go on well with

us under an absolute monarch, while our present character remains, of

order, industry and love of peace, and restrained, as he would be, by

the proper spirit of the people. But it is while it remains such, we

should provide against the consequences of its deterioration. And let

us rest in the hope that it will yet be done, and spare ourselves the

pain of evils which may never happen.

On this view of the import of the term _republic_, instead of saying, as

has been said, "that it may mean anything or nothing," we may say with

truth and meaning, that governments are more or less republican, as they

have more or less of the element of popular election and control in their

composition; and believing, as I do, that the mass of the citizens is the

safest depository of their own rights, and especially, that the evils

flowing from the duperies of the people, are less injurious than those

from the egoism of their agents, I am a friend to that composition of

government which has in it the most of this ingredient. And I sincerely

believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than

standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid

by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on

a large scale.

I salute you with constant friendship and respect.

INDEX TO VOL. VI.

ADAMS, JOHN--His friendly relations with Jefferson restored, 30,

31, 36, 125.

His political principles, 152, 162, 166, 208, 357, 473, 500.

Terrorism excited against him, 155.

His religious opinions, 150, 159, 168, 171, 172, 174, 204, 208,

251, 264, 325, 357, 473, 545, 599, 601.

Eighteenth and nineteenth centuries compared, 501, 545.

The French Encyclopedists, 555.

Different systems of philosophy, 556.

His views on aristocracy, 160, 222, 254, 360.

ALBEMARLE, COUNTY OF--Its climate, soil, and natural advantages, 431.

ALMANACS--Improvements in, suggested, 29.

ARISTOCRACY--Views on, 160, 222, 254, 360.

ASTRONOMY--Astronomical observations, 27, 28.

BANK, NATIONAL--Views of the one proposed in 1813, 228.

BANKS--Evil of the system of, 295, 300, 381, 434, 498, 515.

Jefferson's hostility to, 305, 381, 605.

Suspension of, in 1814, 381.

Number of, at different periods, 434.

BOLLANDISTS, THE--Their collection, 475, 489.

BONAPARTE--Views of his character and career, 283, 352, 358.

His fall, 352, 421.

His restoration, 458, 463, 480, 490.

His final abdication, 467, 490, 492, 553.

His feelings towards U. States, 464.

CANADA--Attack on, 130.

CAPITOL--Burnt by English, 383.

CARR, MR.--His character, 529.

CHARITIES--Principle on which should be dispensed, 44.

CHEMISTRY--The science of, 73.

CHESAPEAKE BAY--Defence of mouth of, 111, 123, 134, 561.

COLUMBUS--Portrait of, 343, 373.

COMMITTEES OF CORRESPONDENCE--Origin of, 527.

CONGRESS--Power of States to prescribe new qualifications for

members of, 309.

CONTRACTS--Law impairing obligation of, 461.

CURRENCY--Relative merits of paper and metallic currency, 231.

DEBT, PUBLIC--Evils of, 239.

ECLIPSE, Solar--16, 28.

ECONOMY, POLITICAL--New work on, 261.

EDINBURGH REVIEW--Merits of, 345.

EDUCATION--Views on, 355, 362, 510, 517.

System of common schools, 512.

General system of, 564.

ELOQUENCE--Specimens of, 346.

EMBARGO, THE--48, 50.

ENGLAND--Her maritime encroachments, 5.

Death of King of, 15.

Condition of, 33, 52.

Jefferson's sentiments towards, 53, 463.

Character of government of, 346, 468.

Social condition of, compared with that of U. States, 376.

Tendency to revolution in, 423.

Relations of with U. States, 467, 470.

EUROPE--Condition of, 114, 497, 503.

Relations with U. States, 114.

Moral condition of 18th and 19th centuries contrasted, 524.

EXPORTS--Why exempted from taxation, 483.

FEDERALISTS--Their opposition to the war, 63.

FINANCE--Views on, by Mr. Jefferson, 136, 194.

FRANCE--French revolution, 41, 162, 227, 421.

Restoration of Bourbons, 428, 499.

Her revolutions, 499, 507, 520.

Prospects of, 526.

GENERATIONS--Right of one to bind another, 138, 196.

GLEBES--Monies arising from sale of, 389.

GOVERNMENT--Principles of, 45.

Views on, 222, 413, 543, 589, 604.

Should be local, 543.

Definition of republican government, 605.

GRAMMAR--Views on, 184.

GRANGER, GIDEON--Relative to certain charges against, 329.

GRIEF--Its uses, 601.

GRIMM, BARON--His character, 576.

GUN-BOATS--133.

HARTFORD CONVENTION--425.

HEMP-BREAKER--New invention, 506.

HENRY--His mission to eastern States, 50.

HENRY, PATRICK--Early reminiscences of, 364, 368, 369.

Resolutions of, 1765, by, 366.

Case of Josiah Philips, 369.

His manners and habits, 487.

HISTORY, NATURAL--Systems of classification, 319.

HULL'S DEFEAT--101, 103.

IMPRESSMENT--420, 426, 428, 467.

INDIANS--The Wabash prophet, 49.

Traditions of, 59.

Their religion, 60, 147.

Civilization of, 62.

Origin of, 120, 146.

Our policy towards, 269.

Languages of, 529.

JEFFERSON, THOMAS--His bodily decay, 4, 519.

His devotion to agriculture, 6.

Efforts to extort money from, 9, 10.

His declining faculties, 107, 403.

His relations with Mr. Adams, 125.

Complains of publication of his letters, 282.

His views of merchants, priests, and lawyers, 334.

Made member of Agronomic Society of Bavaria, 363.

Tenders his library to Congress, 384, 387.

Resigns Presidency of Philosophical Society, 396, 397.

His feelings towards England, 449.

Estimate of his public services, 455.

Calumnies against, 465.

His estimate of life, 575.

JUDICIARY--Limits between powers of State and federal, 494.

Cannot bind legislature or executive by its decisions, 462.

KINGS--Character of European Kings, 271.

LA FAYETTE--His journal of his campaign in Virginia, 426.

LANGUAGE--Introduction of new words in, 185, 572.

Is progressive, 185, 572.

LAW, COMMON--Christianity no part of common law, 303, 311.

Interpolation on, 311.

How far binding, 65.

Works on, 291.

LEWIS AND CLARKE--Publication of their journal delayed, 270.

Journal of their western expedition, 595.

LINCOLN, LEVI--Declines seat on bench of Supreme Court, 8.

MANUFACTURES--Domestic, in U. States, 36, 69, 94, 472.

Growth of, during war, 430.

Mr. Jefferson's views on manufacturing system, 521, 553.

MEDICINE--Science of, 33, 105.

MINISTERS--Should not preach on politics, 445.

MONROE, JAMES--Made Secretary of War, 410.

MORALITY--Its basis, 348.

MORAL SENSE--The existence of, 349.

MOUNTAINS--Method of measuring the height of, 492, 510.

MULATTO--Who mulattos under our laws, 437.

NAPIER, LORD--His theorem, 335.

NAVY--Success of, 122, 211.

ORDERS IN COUNCIL--Repeal of, 78, 117.

ORLEANS, NEW--Case of the Batture, 42.

Battle of, 420.

ORTHOGRAPHY--Improvements in, 190.

PACIFIC OCEAN--American settlements on shore of, 55, 248.

PARTIES IN UNITED STATES--95, 96.

Original division of, 143.

PATENTS--When should be granted, 175, 181, 295, 297, 372.

How long should last, 180, 295.

PERPETUAL MOTION--83.

PHILIPS, JOSIAH--His case, 439.

PHILOSOPHY--The true, 531.

Of the ancients, 147, 277.

PLATO--His writings, 354, 360.

POISONS--164.

PORTRAITS--Of Columbus and Americus Vespucius, 343, 373.

Of Jefferson, 344.

PRESS--Corruption of, 285.

Censorship of, intolerable, 340.

PRESIDENT--Should be elected for four years, 213.

PRIVATEERING--Success of, 409.

RELIGION--Views of J. Adams on, 150, 159, 168, 171, 172, 174, 204,

208, 251, 264, 325, 357, 473, 545, 599, 601.

Views of Jefferson on, 191, 210, 217, 302, 305, 387, 519.

The Christian system, 217, 412.

Platonic Christianity, 354.

The Jewish creed, 577.

The character of Jesus, 593.

REVOLUTION--History of American, 489, 492.

Revolutionary men and documents, 249, 484.

Of South American States, 268, 274.

Reminiscences of, 364, 412, 484, 527.

Committees of correspondence, 527.

RITTENHOUSE, DR.--His character, 324.

RIVANNA RIVER--Navigation of, 514, 541.

RIVERS--Right to navigate, 541.

SAINTS--Lives of, 479.

SAY, M.--Contemplates emigrating to U. States, 405.

SCIENCE, POLITICAL--160.

SLAVERY--How to be abolished, 456.

SOUTH AMERICAN PROVINCES--Independence of, recognized, 550.

SPAIN--Her new constitution, 341.

Our relations with, 550.

Revolt of her South American colonies, 550.

STEAM-ENGINES--504.

SURVEYING--New method of platting, 338.

TAXATION--Principles of, 573.

TERRORISM--The era of, 155.

TEXAS--Included in the Louisiana purchase, 551.

THEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES--Should not be incorporated, 533.

TRACY, DESTUTT--His works, 109.

Prospectus of his works, 568.

TREATIES--With European nations, 453.

Power of Senate over, 557.

UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA--Establishment of, 193, 371.

What chairs should be established, 389.

Organization of, 537.

UNITED STATES--Social condition of, compared with that of

England, 376.

Relations of, with Europe, 13, 430.

Survey and census of, 548.

VIRGINIA--Relative powers of Governor and Council, 38.

Aristocracy of, 225, 485.

New edition of notes on Virginia contemplated, but not executed,

403.

Invasion of, by Arnold and Cornwallis, 410.

Patrick Henry's resolutions, 485.

Height of her mountains, 496.

Survey of, 578.

WAR--With England inevitable, 51, 57, 91, 215.

Efforts to avoid, 215.

Declared against England, 67, 215.

Causes for which declared, 398, 481, 452, 470.

Benefits resulting from, 444, 452.

Popularity of, and means of maintaining, 70, 391, 394.

Progress and History of, 76, 81, 100, 128, 211, 275, 307,

385, 408, 418, 423, 438.

Opposition to, in N. England, 79, 213.

Defection of Massachusetts, 402, 414, 451.

Hull's surrender, 80, 83.

Financial arrangements to meet expenses of, 137, 391, 395,

406, 408, 419.

Prospects of termination of, 353.

Purposes for which waged, 391, 394, 403, 452.

Internal effects produced by, 399.

Peace declared, 420, 426, 428, 438, 450.

Successful termination of, 453, 466.

Upon what principles war is justifiable, 539.

WASHINGTON, GEN.--His political principles, 97.

Adams' view of his administration, 157.

A sketch of his character by Jefferson, 186.

Statue of, for North Carolina, 534.

WASHINGTON CITY--Attack on, by English, 424.

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES--Standard of, 11, 17, 26.

WILKINSON, GEN.--His relations with Mr. Jefferson, 34.