am much comforted by the appearance of a change of opinion in your State;
for though we may obtain, and I believe shall obtain, a majority in the
Legislature of the United States, attached to the preservation of the
federal Constitution according to its obvious principles, and those on
which it was known to be received; attached equally to the preservation
to the States of those rights unquestionably remaining with them; friends
to the freedom of religion, freedom of the press, trial by jury and to
economical government; opposed to standing armies, paper systems, war, and
all connection, other than commerce, with any foreign nation; in short,
a majority firm in all those principles which we have espoused and the
federalists have opposed uniformly; still, should the whole body of New
England continue in opposition to these principles of government, either
knowingly or through delusion, our government will be a very uneasy one.
It can never be harmonious and solid, while so respectable a portion of
its citizens support principles which go directly to a change of the
federal Constitution, to sink the State governments, consolidate them
into one, and to monarchize that. Our country is too large to have all
its affairs directed by a single government. Public servants at such a
distance, and from under the eye of their constituents, must, from the
circumstance of distance, be unable to administer and overlook all the
details necessary for the good government of the citizens, and the same
circumstance, by rendering detection impossible to their constituents,
will invite the public agents to corruption, plunder and waste. And I
do verily believe, that if the principle were to prevail, of a common
law being in force in the United States, (which principle possesses the
General Government at once of all the powers of the State governments,
and reduces us to a single consolidated government,) it would become
the most corrupt government on the earth. You have seen the practises
by which the public servants have been able to cover their conduct, or,
where that could not be done, delusions by which they have varnished it
for the eye of their constituents. What an augmentation of the field for
jobbing, speculating, plundering, office-building and office-hunting would
be produced by an assumption of all the State powers into the hands of
the General Government. The true theory of our Constitution is surely the
wisest and best, that the States are independent as to everything within
themselves, and united as to everything respecting foreign nations. Let
the General Government be reduced to foreign concerns only, and let our
affairs be disentangled from those of all other nations, except as to
commerce, which the merchants will manage the better, the more they are
left free to manage for themselves, and our General Government may be
reduced to a very simple organization, and a very unexpensive one; a few
plain duties to be performed by a few servants. But I repeat, that this
simple and economical mode of government can never be secured, if the
New England States continue to support the contrary system. I rejoice,
therefore, in every appearance of their returning to those principles
which I had always imagined to be almost innate in them. In this State,
a few persons were deluded by the X. Y. Z. duperies. You saw the effect
of it in our last Congressional representatives, chosen under their
influence. This experiment on their credulity is now seen into, and our
next representation will be as republican as it has heretofore been. On
the whole, we hope, that by a part of the Union having held on to the
principles of the Constitution, time has been given to the States to
recover from the temporary frenzy into which they had been decoyed, to
rally round the Constitution, and to rescue it from the destruction with
which it had been threatened even at their own hands. I see copied from
the American Magazine two numbers of a paper signed Don Quixotte, most
excellently adapted to introduce the real truth to the minds even of the
most prejudiced.
I would, with great pleasure, have written the letter you desired in
behalf of your friend, but there are existing circumstances which render a
letter from me to that magistrate as improper as it would be unavailing. I
shall be happy, on some more fortunate occasion, to prove to you my desire
of serving your wishes.
I sometime ago received a letter from a Mr. M'Gregory of Derby, in your
State; it is written with such a degree of good sense and appearance of
candor, as entitles it to an answer. Yet the writer being entirely unknown
to me, and the stratagems of the times very multifarious, I have thought
it best to avail myself of your friendship, and enclose the answer to you.
You will see its nature. If you find from the character of the person to
whom it is addressed, that no improper use would probably be made of it,
be so good as to seal and send it. Otherwise suppress it.
How will the vote of your State and Rhode Island be as to A. and P.?
I am, with great and sincere esteem, dear Sir, your friend and servant.
TO URIAH M'GREGORY.
MONTICELLO, August 13, 1800.
SIR,--Your favor of July the 19th has been received, and received with the
tribute of respect due to a person, who, unurged by motives of personal
friendship or acquaintance, and unaided by particular information, will so
far exercise his justice as to advert to the proofs of approbation given a
public character by his own State and by the United States, and weigh them
in the scale against the fatherless calumnies he hears uttered against
him. These public acts are known even to those who know nothing of my
private life, and surely are better evidence to a mind disposed to truth,
than slanders which no man will affirm on his own knowledge, or ever saw
one who would. From the moment that a portion of my fellow citizens looked
towards me with a view to one of their highest offices, the floodgates of
calumny have been opened upon me; not where I am personally known, where
their slanders would be instantly judged and suppressed, from a general
sense of their falsehood; but in the remote parts of the Union, where
the means of detection are not at hand, and the trouble of an inquiry is
greater than would suit the hearers to undertake. I know that I might have
filled the courts of the United States with actions for these slanders,
and have ruined perhaps many persons who are not innocent. But this would
be no equivalent to the loss of character. I leave them, therefore, to the
reproof of their own consciences. If these do not condemn them, there will
yet come a day when the false witness will meet a judge who has not slept
over his slanders. If the reverend Cotton Mather Smith of Shena believed
this as firmly as I do, he would surely never have affirmed that "I had
obtained my property by fraud and robbery; that in one instance, I had
defrauded and robbed a widow and fatherless children of an estate to which
I was executor, of ten thousand pounds sterling, by keeping the property
and paying them in money at the nominal rate, when it was worth no more
than forty for one; and that all this could be proved." Every tittle of
it is fable; there not having existed a single circumstance of my life to
which any part of it can hang. I never was executor but in two instances,
both of which having taken place about the beginning of the revolution,
which withdrew me immediately from all private pursuits, I never meddled
in either executorship. In one of the cases only, were there a widow
and children. She was my sister. She retained and managed the estate in
her own hands, and no part of it was ever in mine. In the other, I was
a copartner, and only received on a division the equal portion allotted
me. To neither of these executorships therefore, could Mr. Smith refer.
Again, my property is all patrimonial, except about seven or eight hundred
pounds' worth of lands, purchased by myself and paid for, not to widows
and orphans, but to the very gentleman from whom I purchased. If Mr.
Smith, therefore, thinks the precepts of the gospel intended for those who
preach them as well as for others, he will doubtless some day feel the
duties of repentance, and of acknowledgment in such forms as to correct
the wrong he has done. Perhaps he will have to wait till the passions of
the moment have passed away. All this is left to his own conscience.
These, Sir, are facts, well known to every person in this quarter, which
I have committed to paper for your own satisfaction, and that of those
to whom you may choose to mention them. I only pray that my letter may
not go out of your own hands, lest it should get into the newspapers,
a bear-garden scene into which I have made it a point to enter on no
provocation.
I am, Sir, your most obedient humble servant.
TO DOCTOR RUSH.
MONTICELLO, September 23, 1800.
DEAR SIR,--I have to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of August
the 22d, and to congratulate you on the healthiness of your city. Still
Baltimore, Norfolk and Providence admonish us that we are not clear of our
new scourge. When great evils happen, I am in the habit of looking out
for what good may arise from them as consolations to us, and Providence
has in fact so established the order of things, as that most evils are the
means of producing some good. The yellow fever will discourage the growth
of great cities in our nation, and I view great cities as pestilential to
the morals, the health and the liberties of man. True, they nourish some
of the elegant arts, but the useful ones can thrive elsewhere, and less
perfection in the others, with more health, virtue and freedom, would be
my choice.
I agree with you entirely, in condemning the mania of giving names to
objects of any kind after persons still living. Death alone can seal
the title of any man to this honor, by putting it out of his power to
forfeit it. There is one other mode of recording merit, which I have often
thought might be introduced, so as to gratify the living by praising the
dead. In giving, for instance, a commission of Chief Justice to Bushrod
Washington, it should be in consideration of his integrity, and science in
the laws, and of the services rendered to our country by his illustrious
relation, &c. A commission to a descendant of Dr. Franklin, besides being
in consideration of the proper qualifications of the person, should add
that of the great services rendered by his illustrious ancestor, Benjamin
Franklin, by the advancement of science, by inventions useful to man, &c.
I am not sure that we ought to change all our names. And during the regal
government, sometimes, indeed, they were given through adulation; but
often also as the reward of the merit of the times, sometimes for services
rendered the colony. Perhaps, too, a name when given, should be deemed a
sacred property.
I promised you a letter on Christianity, which I have not forgotten. On
the contrary, it is because I have reflected on it, that I find much
more time necessary for it than I can at present dispose of. I have
a view of the subject which ought to displease neither the rational
Christian nor Deists, and would reconcile many to a character they have
too hastily rejected. I do not know that it would reconcile the _genus
irritabile vatum_ who are all in arms against me. Their hostility is
on too interesting ground to be softened. The delusion into which the
X. Y. Z. plot showed it possible to push the people; the successful
experiment made under the prevalence of that delusion on the clause of the
Constitution, which, while it secured the freedom of the press, covered
also the freedom of religion, had given to the clergy a very favorite hope
of obtaining an establishment of a particular form of Christianity through
the United States; and as every sect believes its own form the true one,
every one perhaps hoped for his own, but especially the Episcopalians and
Congregationalists. The returning good sense of our country threatens
abortion to their hopes, and they believe that any portion of power
confided to me, will be exerted in opposition to their schemes. And they
believe rightly: for I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility
against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. But this is all they
have to fear from me: and enough too in their opinion. And this is the
cause of their printing lying pamphlets against me, forging conversations
for me with Mazzei, Bishop Madison, &c., which are absolute falsehoods
without a circumstance of truth to rest on; falsehoods, too, of which I
acquit Mazzei and Bishop Madison, for they are men of truth.
But enough of this: it is more than I have before committed to paper on
the subject of all the lies that have been preached and printed against
me. I have not seen the work of Sonnoni which you mention, but I have seen
another work on Africa, (Parke's,) which I fear will throw cold water
on the hopes of the friends of freedom. You will hear an account of an
attempt at insurrection in this State. I am looking with anxiety to see
what will be its effect on our State. We are truly to be pitied. I fear we
have little chance to see you at the federal city or in Virginia, and as
little at Philadelphia. It would be a great treat to receive you here. But
nothing but sickness could effect that; so I do not wish it. For I wish
you health and happiness, and think of you with affection. Adieu.
TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON.
WASHINGTON, December 14, 1800.
DEAR SIR,--Your former communications on the subject of the steam engine,
I took the liberty of laying before the American Philosophical Society,
by whom they will be printed in their volume of the present year. I have
heard of the discovery of some large bones, supposed to be of the mammoth,
at about thirty or forty miles distance from you; and among the bones
found, are said to be some of which we have never been able to procure.
The first interesting question is, whether they are the bones of the
mammoth? The second, what are the particular bones, and could I possibly
procure them? The bones I am most anxious to obtain, are those of the head
and feet, which are said to be among those found in your State, as also
the ossa innominata, and the scapula. Others would also be interesting,
though similar ones may be possessed, because they would show by their
similarity that the set belong to the mammoth. Could I so far venture
to trouble you on this subject, as to engage some of your friends near
the place, to procure for me the bones above mentioned? If they are
to be bought I will gladly pay for them whatever you shall agree to as
reasonable; and will place the money in New York as instantaneously after
it is made known to me, as the post can carry it, as I will all expenses
of package, transportation, &c., to New York and Philadelphia, where they
may be addressed to John Barnes, whose agent (he not being on the spot)
will take care of them for me.
But I have still a more important subject whereon to address you. Though
our information of the votes of the several States be not official,
yet they are stated on such evidence as to satisfy both parties that
the republican vote has been successful. We may, therefore, venture to
hazard propositions on that hypothesis without being justly subjected
to raillery or ridicule. The Constitution to which we are all attached
was meant to be republican, and we believe to be republican according
to every candid interpretation. Yet we have seen it so interpreted and
administered, as to be truly what the French have called, a _monarchie
masque_. Yet so long has the vessel run on this way and been trimmed to
it, that to put her on her republican tack will require all the skill,
the firmness and the zeal of her ablest and best friends. It is a crisis
which calls on them, to sacrifice all other objects, and repair to her aid
in this momentous operation. Not only their skill is wanting, but their
names also. It is essential to assemble in the outset persons to compose
our administration, whose talents, integrity and revolutionary name and
principles may inspire the nation at once, with unbounded confidence,
and impose an awful silence on all the maligners of republicanism; as
may suppress in embryo the purpose avowed by one of their most daring
and effective chiefs, of beating down the administration. These names do
not abound at this day. So few are they, that yours, my friend, cannot
be spared among them without leaving a blank which cannot be filled. If
I can obtain for the public the aid of those I have contemplated, I fear
nothing. If this cannot be done, then are we unfortunate indeed! We shall
be unable to realize the prospects which have been held out to the people,
and we must fall back into monarchism, for want of heads, not hands to
help us out of it. This is a common cause, my dear Sir, common to all
republicans. Though I have been too honorably placed in front of those
who are to enter the breach so happily made, yet the energies of every
individual are necessary, and in the very place where his energies can
most serve the enterprise. I can assure you that your colleagues will be
most acceptable to you; one of them, whom you cannot mistake, peculiarly
so. The part which circumstances constrain us to propose to you is, the
secretaryship of the navy. These circumstances cannot be explained by
letter. Republicanism is so rare in those parts which possess nautical
skill, that I cannot find it allied there to the other qualifications.
Though you are not nautical by profession, yet your residence and your
mechanical science qualify you as well as a gentleman can possibly be, and
sufficiently to enable you to choose under-agents perfectly qualified,
and to superintend their conduct. Come forward then, my dear Sir, and
give us the aid of your talents and the weight of your character towards
the new establishment of republicanism: I say, for its new establishment;
for hitherto we have only seen its travestie. I have urged thus far, on
the belief that your present office would not be an obstacle to this
proposition. I was informed, and I think it was by your brother, that
you wished to retire from it, and were only restrained by the fear that a
successor of different principles might be appointed. The late change in
your council of appointment will remove this fear. It will not be improper
to say a word on the subject of expense. The gentlemen who composed
General Washington's first administration took up, too universally, a
practice of general entertainment, which was unnecessary, obstructive of
business, and so oppressive to themselves, that it was among the motives
for their retirement. Their successors profited by the experiment, and
lived altogether as private individuals, and so have ever continued to do.
Here, indeed, it cannot be otherwise, our situation being so rural, that
during the vacations of the Legislature we shall have no society but of
the officers of the government, and in time of sessions the Legislature is
become and becoming so numerous, that for the last half dozen years nobody
but the President has pretended to entertain them. I have been led to make
the application before official knowledge of the result of our election,
because the return of Mr. Van Benthuysen, one of your electors and
neighbors, offers me a safe conveyance at a moment when the post offices
will be peculiarly suspicious and prying. Your answer may come by post
without danger, if directed in some other hand writing than your own; and
I will pray you to give me an answer as soon as you can make up your mind.
Accept assurances of cordial esteem and respect, and my friendly
salutations.
TO COLONEL BURR.
WASHINGTON, December 15, 1800.
DEAR SIR,--Although we have not official information of the votes for
President and Vice President, and cannot have until the first week
in February, yet the state of the votes is given on such evidence, as
satisfies both parties that the two republican candidates stand highest.
From South Carolina we have not even heard of the actual vote; but we have
learned who were appointed electors, and with sufficient certainty how
they would vote. It is said they would withdraw from yourself one vote. It
has also been said that a General Smith, of Tennessee, had declared that
he would give his second vote to Mr. Gallatin, not from any indisposition
towards you, but extreme reverence to the character of Mr. Gallatin. It
is also surmised that the vote of Georgia will not be entire. Yet nobody
pretends to know these things of a certainty, and we know enough to
be certain that what it is surmised will be withheld, will still leave
you four or five votes at least above Mr. Adams. However, it was badly
managed not to have arranged with certainty what seems to have been left
to hazard. It was the more material, because I understand several of the
high-flying federalists have expressed their hope that the two republican
tickets may be equal, and their determination in that case to prevent a
choice by the House of Representatives, (which they are strong enough to
do,) and let the government devolve on a President of the Senate. Decency
required that I should be so entirely passive during the late contest that
I never once asked whether arrangements had been made to prevent so many
from dropping votes intentionally, as might frustrate half the republican
wish; nor did I doubt, till lately, that such had been made.
While I must congratulate you, my dear Sir, on the issue of this contest,
because it is more honorable, and doubtless more grateful to you than any
station within the competence of the chief magistrate, yet for myself, and
for the substantial service of the public, I feel most sensibly the loss
we sustain of your aid in our new administration. It leaves a chasm in
my arrangements, which cannot be adequately filled up. I had endeavored
to compose an administration whose talents, integrity, names, and
dispositions, should at once inspire unbounded confidence in the public
mind, and insure a perfect harmony in the conduct of the public business.
I lose you from the list, and am not sure of all the others. Should the
gentlemen who possess the public confidence decline taking a part in their
affairs, and force us to take persons unknown to the people, the evil
genius of this country may realize his avowal that "he will beat down the
administration." The return of Mr. Van Benthuysen, one of your electors,
furnishes me a confidential opportunity of writing this much to you, which
I should not have ventured through the post office at this prying season.
We shall of course see you before the 4th of March. Accept my respectful
and affectionate salutations.
TO JUDGE BRECKENRIDGE.
WASHINGTON, December 18, 1800.
DEAR SIR,--I received, while at home, the letter you were so kind as
to write me. The employments of the country have such irresistible
attractions for me, that while I am at home, I am not very punctual
in acknowledging the letters of my friends. Having no refuge here from
my room and writing-table, it is my regular season for fetching up the
lee-way of my correspondence.
Before you receive this, you will have understood that the State of South
Carolina (the only one about which there was uncertainty) has given a
republican vote, and saved us from the consequences of the annihilation
of Pennsylvania. But we are brought into dilemma by the probable equality
of the two republican candidates. The federalists in Congress mean to
take advantage of this, and either to prevent an election altogether, or
reverse what has been understood to have been the wishes of the people,
as to the President and Vice President; wishes which the Constitution
did not permit them specially to designate. The latter alternative still
gives us a republican administration. The former, a suspension of the
federal government, for want of a head. This opens to us an abyss, at
which every sincere patriot must shudder. General Davie has arrived here
with the treaty formed (under the name of a convention) with France. It
is now before the Senate for ratification, and will encounter objections.
He believes firmly that a continental peace in Europe will take place, and
that England also may be comprehended.
Accept assurances of the great respect of, dear Sir, your most obedient
servant.
TO JAMES MADISON.
WASHINGTON, December 19, 1800.
DEAR SIR,--Mr. Brown's departure for Virginia enables me to write
confidentially what I could not have ventured by the post at this prying
season. The election in South Carolina has in some measure decided
the great contest. Though as yet we do not know the actual votes of
Tennessee, Kentucky, and Vermont, yet we believe the votes to be on the
whole, J. seventy-three, B. seventy-three, A. sixty-five, P. sixty-four.
Rhode Island withdrew one from P. There is a possibility that Tennessee
may withdraw one from B., and Burr writes that there may be one vote
in Vermont for J. But I hold the latter impossible, and the former not
probable; and that there will be an absolute parity between the two
republican candidates. This has produced great dismay and gloom on the
republican gentlemen here, and exultation in the federalists, who openly
declare they will prevent an election, and will name a President of the
Senate, _pro tem._ by what they say would only be a _stretch_ of the
Constitution. The prospect of preventing this, is as follows: Georgia,
North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Vermont, Pennsylvania, and New York,
can be counted on for their vote in the House of Representatives, and it
is thought by some that Baer of Maryland, and Linn of New Jersey will
come over. Some even count on Morris of Vermont. But you must know the
uncertainty of such a dependence under the operation of caucuses and other
federal engines. The month of February, therefore, will present us storms
of a new character. Should they have a particular issue, I hope you will
be here a day or two, at least, before the 4th of March. I know that your
appearance on the scene before the departure of Congress, would assuage
the minority, and inspire in the majority confidence and joy unbounded,
which they would spread far and wide on their journey home. Let me beseech
you then to come with a view of staying perhaps a couple of weeks, within
which time things might be put into such a train, as would permit us
both to go home for a short time, for removal. I wrote to R. R. L. by a
confidential hand three days ago. The person proposed for the Treasury has
not come yet.
Davie is here with the Convention, as it is called; but it is a real
treaty, and without limitation of time. It has some disagreeable
features, and will endanger the compromising us with Great Britain. I
am not at liberty to mention its contents, but I believe it will meet
with opposition from both sides of the House. It has been a bungling
negotiation. Ellsworth remains in France for the benefit of his health.
He has resigned his office of Chief Justice. Putting these two things
together, we cannot misconstrue his views. He must have had great
confidence in Mr. Adams' continuance to risk such a certainty as he
held. Jay was yesterday nominated Chief Justice. We were afraid of
something worse. A scheme of government for the territory is cooking
by a committee of each House, under separate authorities, but probably
a voluntary harmony. They let out no hints. It is believed that the
judiciary system will not be pushed, as the appointments, if made by the
present administration, could not fall on those who create them. But I
very much fear the road system will be urged. The mines of Peru would not
supply the moneys which would be wasted on this object, nor the patience
of any people stand the abuses which would be incontrollably committed
under it. I propose, as soon as the state of the election is perfectly
ascertained, to aim at a candid understanding with Mr. Adams. I do not
expect that either his feelings or his views of interest will oppose it.
I hope to induce in him dispositions liberal and accommodating. Accept my
affectionate salutations.
TO JAMES MADISON.
WASHINGTON, December 26, 1800.
DEAR SIR,--All the votes have now come in, except of Vermont and
Kentucky, and there is no doubt that the result is a perfect parity
between the two republican characters. The federalists appear determined
to prevent an election, and to pass a bill giving the government to
Mr. Jay, appointed Chief Justice, or to Marshall as Secretary of State.
Yet I am rather of opinion that Maryland and Jersey will give the seven
republican majorities. The French treaty will be violently opposed by the
federalists; the giving up the vessels is the article they cannot swallow.
They have got their judiciary bill forwarded to commitment. I dread this
above all the measures meditated, because appointments in the nature of
freehold render it difficult to undo what is done. We expect a report for
a territorial government which is to pay little respect to the rights of
man.
* * * * *
Cordial and affectionate salutations. Adieu.
TO TENCHE COXE, ESQ.
December 31, 1800.
I shall neither frank nor subscribe my letter, because I do not choose to
commit myself to the fidelity of the post-office. For the same reason,
I have avoided putting pen to paper through the whole summer, except on
mere business, because I knew it was a prying season. I received from time
to time papers under your superscription, which showed that our friends
were not inattentive to the great operation which was agitating the
nation. You are by this time apprised of the embarrassment produced by the
equality of votes between the two republican candidates. The contrivance
in the Constitution for marking the votes works badly, because it does
not enounce precisely the true expression of the public will. We do not
see what is to be the issue of the present difficulty. The federalists,
among whom those of the republican section are not the strongest, propose
to prevent an election in Congress, and to transfer the government by
an act to the C. J. (Jay) or Secretary of State, or to let it devolve on
the President _pro tem._ of the Senate, till next December, which gives
them another year's predominance, and the chances of future events. The
republicans propose to press forward to an election. If they fail in this,
a concert between the two higher candidates may prevent the dissolution
of the government and danger of anarchy, by an operation, bungling indeed
and imperfect, but better than letting the Legislature take the nomination
of the Executive entirely from the people. Excuse the infrequency of my
acknowledgments of your kind attentions. The danger of interruption makes
it prudent for me not to indulge my personal wishes in that way. I pray
you to accept assurances of my great esteem.
TO DR. WILLIAMSON.
WASHINGTON, January 10, 1801.
DEAR SIR,--I should sooner have acknowledged your favor of December
8th, but for a growing and pressing correspondence which I can scarcely
manage. I was particularly happy to receive the diary of Quebec, as
about the same time I happened to receive one from the Natchez, so as
to be able to make a comparison of them. The result was a wonder that
any human being should remain in a cold country who could find room in
a warm one,--should prefer 32º to 55º. Harry Hill has told me that the
temperature of Madeira is generally from 55º to 65º, its extreme about
50º and 70º. If I ever change my climate for health, it should be for
that Island. I do not know that the coincidence has ever been remarked
between the new moon and the greater degrees of cold, or the full moon and
the lesser degrees; or that the reflected beams of the moon attemper the
weather at all. On the contrary, I think I have understood that the most
powerful concave mirror presented to the moon, and throwing its focus on
the bulb of a thermometer, does not in the least effect it. I suppose the
opinion to be universal that the turkey is a native of America. Nobody,
as far as I know, has ever contradicted it but Daines Barrington; and the
arguments he produces are such as none but a head, entangled and kinked as
his is, would ever have urged. Before the discovery of America, no such
bird is mentioned in a single author, all those quoted by Barrington,
by description referring to the crane, hen, pheasant or peacock; but the
book of every traveller, who came to America soon after its discovery, is
full of accounts of the turkey and its abundance; and immediately after
that discovery we find the turkey served up at the feasts of Europe, as
their most extraordinary rarity. Mr. William Strickland, the eldest son
of St. George Strickland, of York, in England, told me the anecdote.
Some ancestor of his commanded a vessel in the navigations of Cabot.
Having occasion to consult the Herald's office concerning his family, he
found a petition from that ancestor to the crown, stating that Cabot's
circumstances being slender, he had been rewarded by the bounties he
needed from the crown; that as to himself, he asked nothing in that way,
but that as a consideration for his services in the same way, he might
be permitted to assume for the crest of his family arms, the turkey, an
American bird; and Mr. Strickland observed that their crest is actually a
turkey. You ask whether we may be quoted. In the first place, I now state
the thing from memory, and may be inexact in some small circumstances. Mr.
Strickland too, stated it to me in a conversation, and not considering
it of importance, might be inexact too. We should both dislike to be
questioned before the public for any little inaccuracy of style or
recollection. I think if you were to say that the Herald's office may
be referred to in proof of the fact, it would be authority sufficient,
without naming us. I have at home a note of Mr. Strickland's information,
which I then committed to paper. My situation does not allow me to refresh
my memory from this. I shall be glad to see your book make its appearance;
and I am sure it will be well received by the Philosophical part of
the world, for I still dare to use the word philosophy, notwithstanding
the war waged against it by bigotry and despotism. Health, respect and
friendly salutations.
TO WILLIAM DUNBAR, ESQ.
WASHINGTON, January 12, 1801.
DEAR SIR,--Your favor of July 14th, with the papers accompanying it,
came safely to hand about the last of October. That containing remarks on
the line of demarcation I perused according to your permission, and with
great satisfaction, and then enclosed to a friend in Philadelphia, to be
forwarded to its address. The papers addressed to me, I took the liberty
of communicating to the Philosophical Society. That on the language by
signs is quite new. Soon after receiving your meteorological diary, I
received one of Quebec; and was struck with the comparison between -32 and
19¾ the lowest depression of the thermometer at Quebec and the Natchez. I
have often wondered that any human being should live in a cold country who
can find room in a warm one. I have no doubt but that cold is the source
of more sufferance to all animal nature than hunger, thirst, sickness, and
all the other pains of life and of death itself put together. I live in a
temperate climate, and under circumstances which do not expose me often
to cold. Yet when I recollect on one hand all the sufferings I have had
from cold, and on the other all my other pains, the former preponderate
greatly. What then must be the sum of that evil if we take in the vast
proportion of men who are obliged to be out in all weather, by land and by
sea, all the families of beasts, birds, reptiles, and even the vegetable
kingdom! for that too has life, and where there is life there may be
sensation. I remark a rainbow of a great portion of the circle observed
by you when on the line of demarcation. I live in a situation which has
given me an opportunity of seeing more than the semicircle often. I am
on a hill five hundred feet perpendicularly high. On the west side it
breaks down abruptly to the base, where a river passes through. A rainbow,
therefore, about sunset, plunges one of its legs down to the river, five
hundred feet below the level of the eye on the top of the hill. I have
twice seen bows formed by the moon. They were of the color of the common
circle round the moon, and were very near, being within a few paces of
me in both instances. I thank you for the little vocabularies of Bedais,
Tankawis and Teghas. I have it much at heart to make as extensive a
collection as possible of the Indian tongues. I have at present about
thirty tolerably full, among which the number radically different, is
truly wonderful. It is curious to consider how such handfuls of men, came
by different languages, and how they have preserved them so distinct. I at
first thought of reducing them all to one orthography, but I soon become
sensible that this would occasion two sources of error instead of one. I
therefore think it best to keep them in the form of orthography in which
they were taken, only noting whether that were English, French, German, or
what. I have never been a very punctual correspondent, and it is possible
that new duties may make me less so. I hope I shall not on that account
lose the benefit of your communications. Philosophical vedette at the
distance of one thousand miles, and on the verge of the terra incognito of
our continent, is precious to us here. I pray you to accept assurances of
my high consideration and esteem, and friendly salutations.
TO COLONEL BURR.
WASHINGTON, February 1, 1801.
DEAR SIR,--It was to be expected that the enemy would endeavor to sow
tares between us, that they might divide us and our friends. Every
consideration satisfies me you will be on your guard against this, as I
assure you I am strongly. I hear of one stratagem so imposing and so base
that it is proper I should notice it to you. Mr. Munford, who is here,
says he saw at New York before he left it, an original letter of mine to
Judge Breckenridge, in which are sentiments highly injurious to you. He
knows my hand writing, and did not doubt that to be genuine. I enclose
you a copy taken from the press copy of the only letter I ever wrote to
Judge Breckenridge in my life: the press copy itself has been shown to
several of our mutual friends here. Of consequence, the letter seen by
Mr. Munford must be a forgery, and if it contains a sentiment unfriendly
or disrespectful to you, I affirm it solemnly to be a forgery; as also
if it varies from the copy enclosed. With the common trash of slander I
should not think of troubling you; but the forgery of one's handwriting is
too imposing to be neglected. A mutual knowledge of each other furnishes
us with the best test of the contrivances which will be practised by the
enemies of both.
Accept assurances of my high respect and esteem.
TO GOVERNOR M'KEAN.
WASHINGTON, February 2d, 1801.
DEAR SIR,--I have long waited for an opportunity to acknowledge the
receipt of your favor of December the 15th, as well as that by Dr.
Mendenhall. None occurring, I shall either deliver the present to General
Muhlenburg or put it under cover to Doctor Wistar, to whom I happen
to be writing, to be sent to your house in Philadelphia, or forwarded
confidentially to Lancaster.
The event of the election is still _in dubio_. A strong portion in the
House of Representatives will prevent an election if they can. I rather
believe they will not be able to do it, as there are six individuals of
moderate character, any one of whom coming over to the republican vote
will make a ninth State. Till this is known, it is too soon for me to
say what should be done in such atrocious cases as those you mention of
federal officers obstructing the operation of the State governments. One
thing I will say, that as to the future, interferences with elections,
whether of the State or General Government, by officers of the latter,
should be deemed cause of removal; because the constitutional remedy
by the elective principle becomes nothing, if it may be smothered by
the enormous patronage of the General Government. How far it may be
practicable, prudent or proper, to look back, is too great a question
to be decided but by the united wisdom of the whole administration when
formed. Our situation is so different from yours, that it may render
proper some differences in the practice. Your State is a single body, the
majority clearly one way. Ours is of sixteen integral parts, some of them
all one way, some all the other, some divided. Whatever may be decided
as to the past, they shall give no trouble to the State governments in
future, if it shall depend on me; and be assured, particularly as to
yourself, that I should consider the most perfect harmony and interchange
of accommodations and good offices with those governments as among the
first objects.
Accept assurances of my high consideration, respect and esteem.
TO DR. WISTAR.
WASHINGTON, February 3, 1801.
DEAR SIR,--According to your desire I wrote to Chancellor Livingston on
the subject of the bones. The following is an extract from his letter
dated January 7th. "I have paid the earliest attention to your request
relative to the bones found at Shawangun, and have this day written to
a very intelligent friend in that neighborhood. I fear however that
till they have finished their search, there will be some difficulty
in procuring any part of the bones, because when I first heard of the
discovery I made some attempts to possess myself of them, but found they
were a kind of common property, the whole town having joined in digging
for them till they were stopped by the autumnal rains. They entertain
well-grounded hopes of discovering the whole skeleton, since these bones
are not, like all those they have hitherto found in that county, placed
within the vegetable world, but are covered with a stratum of clay,--that
being sheltered from the air and water they are more perfectly preserved.
Among the bones I have heard mentioned, are the vertebra, part of the jaw,
with two of the grinders, the tusks, which some have called the horns,
the sternum, the scapula, the tibia and fibula, the tarsus and metatarsus.
Whether any of the phalanges or innominata are found, I have not heard. A
part of the head, containing the socket of the tusks, is also discovered.
From the bones of the feet, it is evidently a claw-footed animal, and from
such parts of the shoulder bones as have been discovered, it appears that
the arm or fore-leg, had a greater motion than can possibly belong to the
elephant or any of the large quadrupeds with which we are acquainted.
Since bog-earth has been used by the farmers of Ulster county for a
manure, which is subsequent to the war, fragments of at least eight or ten
have been found, but in a very decayed state in the same bog."
From this extract, and the circumstance that the bones belong to the
town, you will be sensible of the difficulty of obtaining any considerable
portion of them. I refer to yourself to consider whether it would not be
better to select such only of which we have no specimens, and to ask them
only. It is not unlikely they would with common consent yield a particular
bone or bones, provided they may keep the mass for their own town. If you
will make the selection and communicate it to me, I will forward it to the
Chancellor, and the sooner the better.
Accept assurances of my high consideration and attachment.
TO TENCHE COXE.
WASHINGTON, February 11, 1801.
DEAR SIR,--Your favor of January the 25th came to hand some days ago, and
yesterday a gentleman put into my hand, at the door of the Senate chamber,
the volume of the American Museum for 1798. As no letter accompanied it,
I took it for granted it was to bring under my eye some of its contents. I
have gone over it with satisfaction.
This is the morning of the election by the House of Representatives.
For some time past a single individual had declared he would by his vote
make up the ninth State. On Saturday last he changed, and it stands at
present eight one way, six the other, and two divided. Which of the two
will be elected, and whether either, I deem perfectly problematical: and
my mind has long been equally made up for either of the three events. If
I can find out the person who brought me the volume from you, I shall
return it by him, because I presume it makes one of a set. If not by
him, I will find some other person who may convey it to Philadelphia if
not to Lancaster. Very possibly it may go by a different conveyance from
this letter. Very probably you will learn before the receipt of either,
the result, or progress at least, of the election. We see already at the
threshold, that if it falls on me, I shall be embarrassed by finding the
offices vacant, which cannot be even temporarily filled but with advice
of Senate, and that body is called on the fourth of March, when it is
impossible for the new members of Kentucky, Georgia and South Carolina
to receive notice in time to be here. The summons for Kentucky, dated,
as all were, January the 31st, could not go hence till the 5th, and that
for Georgia did not go till the 6th. If the difficulties of the election,
therefore, are got over, there are more and more behind, until new
elections shall have regenerated the constituted authorities. The defects
of our Constitution under circumstances like the present, appear very
great. Accept assurances of the esteem and respect of, dear Sir, your most
obedient servant.
TO DR. B. S. BARTON.
WASHINGTON, February 14, 1801.
DEAR SIR,--Your favor of January 18th is duly received. The subject of
it did not need apology. On the contrary, should I be placed in office,
nothing would be more desirable to me than the recommendations of those
in whom I have confidence, of persons fit for office; for if the good
withhold their testimony, we shall be at the mercy of the bad. If the
question relative to Mr. Zantzinger had been merely that of remaining in
office, your letter would have placed him on very safe ground. Besides
that, no man who has conducted himself according to his duties would have
anything to fear from me, as those who have done ill would have nothing
to hope, be their political principles what they might. The obtaining an
appointment presents more difficulties. The republicans have been excluded
from all offices from the first origin of the division into Republican and
Federalist. They have a reasonable claim to vacancies till they occupy
their due share. My hope however is that the distinction will be soon
lost, or at most that it will be only of republican and monarchist: that
the body of the nation, even that part which French excesses forced over
to the federal side, will rejoin the republicans, leaving only those who
were pure monarchists, and who will be too few to form a sect. This is
the fourth day of the ballot, and nothing done; nor do I see any reason to
suppose the six and a half States here will be less firm, as they call it,
than your thirteen Senators; if so, and the government should expire on
the 3d of March by the loss of its head, there is no regular provision for
reorganizing it, nor any authority but in the people themselves. They may
authorize a convention to reorganize and even amend the machine. There are
ten individuals in the House of Representatives, any one of whom changing
his vote may save us this troublesome operation. Be pleased to present my
friendly respects to Mrs. Barton, Mrs. Sarjeant, and Mrs. Waters, and to
accept yourself my affectionate salutations.
TO JAMES MONROE.
WASHINGTON, February 15, 1801.
DEAR SIR,--I have received several letters from you which have not
been acknowledged. By the post I dare not, and one or two confidential
opportunities have passed me by surprise. I have regretted it the less,
because I know you could be more safely and fully informed by others. Mr.
Tyler, the bearer of this, will give you a great deal more information
personally than can be done by letter. Four days of balloting have
produced not a single change of a vote. Yet it is confidently believed by
most that to-morrow there is to be a coalition. I know of no foundation
for this belief. However, as Mr. Tyler waits the event of it, he will
communicate it to you. If they could have been permitted to pass a law for
putting the government into the hands of an officer, they would certainly
have prevented an election. But we thought it best to declare openly and
firmly, one and all, that the day such an act passed, the middle States
would arm, and that no such usurpation, even for a single day, should be
submitted to. This first shook them; and they were completely alarmed at
the resource for which we declared, to wit, a convention to re-organize
the government, and to amend it. The very word convention gives them
the horrors, as in the present democratical spirit of America, they fear
they should lose some of the favorite morsels of the Constitution. Many
attempts have been made to obtain terms and promises from me. I have
declared to them unequivocally, that I would not receive the government
on capitulation, that I would not go into it with my hands tied. Should
they yield the election, I have reason to expect in the outset the
greatest difficulties as to nominations. The late incumbents running away
from their offices and leaving them vacant, will prevent my filling them
without the _previous_ advice of Senate. How this difficulty is to be
got over I know not. Accept for Mrs. Monroe and yourself my affectionate
salutations. Adieu.
TO JAMES MADISON.
WASHINGTON, February 18, 1801.
DEAR SIR,--Notwithstanding the suspected infidelity of the post, I must
hazard this communication. The minority in the House of Representatives,
after seeing the impossibility of electing Burr, the certainty that a
legislative usurpation would be resisted by arms, and a recourse to a
convention to re-organize and amend the government, held a consultation
on this dilemma, whether it would be better for them to come over in a
body and go with the tide of the times, or by a negative conduct suffer
the election to be made by a bare majority, keeping their body entire and
unbroken, to act in phalanx on such ground of opposition as circumstances
shall offer; and I know their determination on this question only by
their vote of yesterday. Morris of Vermont withdrew, which made Lyon's
vote that of his State. The Maryland federalists put in four blanks,
which made the positive ticket of their colleagues the vote of the State.
South Carolina and Delaware put in six blanks. So there were ten States
for one candidate, four for another, and two blanks. We consider this,
therefore, as a declaration of war, on the part of this band. But their
conduct appears to have brought over to us the whole body of federalists,
who, being alarmed with the danger of a dissolution of the government,
had been made most anxiously to wish the very administration they had
opposed, and to view it when obtained, as a child of their own. * * * * *
Mr. A. embarrasses us. He keeps the offices of State and War vacant,
but has named Bayard Minister Plenipotentiary to France, and has called
an unorganized Senate to meet the fourth of March. As you do not like to
be here on that day, I wish you would come within a day or two after. I
think that between that and the middle of the month we can so far put
things under way, as that we may go home to make arrangements for our
final removal. Come to Conrad's, where I will bespeak lodgings for you.
Yesterday Mr. A. nominated Bayard to be Minister Plenipotentiary of the
United States to the French republic; to-day, Theophilus Parsons, Attorney
General of the United States in the room of C. Lee, who, with Keith Taylor
_cum multis aliis_, are appointed judges under the new system. H. G. Otis
is nominated a district attorney. A vessel has been waiting for some
time in readiness to carry the new minister to France. My affectionate
salutations to Mrs. Madison.
TO LIEUTENANT DEARBORN.
WASHINGTON, February 18, 1801.
DEAR SIR,--The House of Representatives having yesterday concluded their
choice of a person for the chair of the United States and willed me that
office, it now becomes necessary to provide an administration composed
of persons whose qualifications and standing have possessed them of the
public confidence, and whose wisdom may ensure to our fellow-citizens
the advantages they sanguinely expect. On a review of the characters
in the different States proper for the different departments, I have
had no hesitation in considering you as the person to whom it would be
most advantageous to the public to confide the Department of War. May
I therefore hope, Sir, that you will give your country the aid of your
talents as Secretary of War? The delay which has attended the election
has very much abridged our time, and rendered the call more sudden and
pressing than I could have wished. I am in hopes our administration may
be assembled during the first week of March, except yourself, and that
you can be with us in a few days after. Indeed it is probable we shall be
but a few days together (perhaps to the middle of the month) to make some
general and pressing arrangements, and then go home, for a short time,
to make our final removal hither. I mention these circumstances that you
may see the urgency of setting out for this place with the shortest delay
possible, which may be the shorter as you can return again to your family,
as we shall, to make your final arrangements for removal. I hope we shall
not be disappointed in counting on your aid, and that you will favor us
with an answer by return of post. Accept assurances of sincere esteem and
high respect from, dear Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.
TO MAJOR WILLIAM JACKSON.
WASHINGTON, February 18, 1801.
DEAR SIR,--Your favor of the 3d instant has been duly received. I perceive
in it that frankness which I ever found in your character, and which
honors every character in which it is found. I feel indebted also for
the justice you do me as to opinions which others, with less candor,
have imputed to me. I have received many letters stating to me in the
spirit of prophesy, caricatures which the writers, it seems, know are
to be the principles of my administration. To these no answer has been
given, because the prejudiced spirit in which they have been written
proved the writers not in a state of mind to yield to truth or reason. To
the friendly style of your letter I would gladly answer in detail were
it in my power; but I have thought that I ought not to permit myself
to form opinions in detail, until I can have the counsel of those, of
whose services I wish to avail the public in the administration of their
affairs. Till this can be done, you have justly resorted to the only
proper ground, that of estimating my future by my past conduct. Upwards
of thirty years passed on the stage of public life and under the public
eye, may surely enable them to judge whether my future course is likely
to be marked with those departures from reason and moderation, which the
passions of men have been willing to foresee. One imputation in particular
has been remarked till it seems as if some at least believe it: that I
am an enemy to commerce. They admit me as a friend to agriculture, and
suppose me an enemy to the only means of disposing of its produce. I might
appeal too to evidences of my attention to the commerce and navigation of
our country in different stations connected with them, but this would lead
to details not to be expected. I have deferred answering your letter till
this day lest the motives for these explanations should be mistaken. You
will be so good as to consider this communication so far confidential as
not to put it in the power of any person committing it to the press. I am
with great esteem, dear Sir, your most obedient servant.
TO N. R----.
WASHINGTON, February 19, 1801.
After exactly a week's balloting there at length appeared ten States for
me, four for Burr, and two voted blanks. This was done without a single
vote coming over. Morris of Vermont withdrew, so that Lyon's vote became
that of the State. The four Maryland federalists put in blanks, so then
the vote of the four Republicans became that of their State. Mr. Hager of
South Carolina (who had constantly voted for me) withdrew by agreement,
his colleagues agreeing in that case to put in blanks. Bayard, the sole
member of Delaware, voted blank. They had before deliberated whether they
would come over in a body, when they saw they could not force Burr on
the republicans, or keep their body entire and unbroken to act in phalanx
on such ground of opposition as they shall hereafter be able to conjure
up. Their vote showed what they had decided on, and is considered as a
declaration of perpetual war; but their conduct has completely left them
without support. Our information from all quarters is that the whole body
of federalists concurred with the republicans in the last elections, and
with equal anxiety. They had been made to interest themselves so warmly
for the very choice, which while before the people they opposed, that when
obtained it came as a thing of their own wishes, and they find themselves
embodied with the republicans, and their quondam leaders separated from
them, and I verily believe they will remain embodied with us, so that
this conduct of the minority has done in one week what very probably could
hardly have been effected by years of mild and impartial administration.
A letter from Mr. Eppes informs me that Maria is in a situation which
induces them not to risk a journey to Monticello, so we shall not have the
pleasure of meeting them here. I begin to hope I may be able to leave this
place by the middle of March. My tenderest love to my ever dear Martha,
and kisses to the little ones. Accept yourself sincere and affectionate
salutation. Adieu.
TO THE HON. SAMUEL DEXTER, SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 20, 1801.
DEAR SIR,--The liberality of the conversation you honored me with
yesterday evening has given me great satisfaction, and demands my sincere
thanks. It is certain that those of the Cabinet Council of the President
should be of his bosom confidence. Our geographical position has been an
impediment to that, while I can with candor declare that the imperfect
opportunities I have had of acquaintance with you, have inspired an entire
esteem for your character, and that you will carry with you that esteem
and sincere wish to be useful to you. The accommodation you have been so
kind as to offer as to the particular date of retiring from office, is
thankfully accepted, and shall be the subject of a particular letter to
you, as soon as circumstances shall enable me to speak with certainty. In
the meantime accept assurances of my high respect and consideration.
TO THE HON. BENJAMIN STODDART, SECRETARY OF THE NAVY.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 21, 1801.
SIR,--Your favor of the 18th did not get to my hand till yesterday.
I thank you for the accommodation in point of time therein offered.
Circumstances may render it a convenience; in which case I will avail
myself of it, without too far encroaching on your wishes. At this instant
it is not in my power to say anything certain on the subject of time.
The declarations of support to the administration of our government
are such as were to be expected from your character and attachment to
our Constitution. I wish support from no quarter longer than my object
candidly scanned, shall merit it; and especially, not longer than I shall
rigorously adhere to the Constitution. I am with respect, Sir, your most
obedient humble servant.
TO CHANCELLOR LIVINGSTON.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 24, 1801.
DEAR SIR,--It has occurred to me that possibly you might be willing
to undertake the mission as Minister Plenipotentiary to France. If so,
I shall most gladly avail the public of your services in that office.
Though I am sensible of the advantages derived from your talent to your
particular State, yet I cannot suppress the desire of adding them to the
mass to be employed on the broader scale of the nation at large. I will
ask the favor of an immediate answer, that I may give in the nomination to
the Senate, observing at the same time, that the period of your departure
can't be settled until we get our administration together, and may perhaps
be delayed till we receive the ratification of the Senate, which would
probably be four months; consequently, the commission would not be made
out before then. This will give you ample time to make your departure
convenient. In hopes of hearing from you as speedily as you can form your
resolution, and hoping it will be favorable, I tender you my respectful
and affectionate salutations.
TO THOMAS LOMAX, ESQ.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 25, 1801.
DEAR SIR,--Your favor of the 5th came to hand on the 20th, and I have but
time to acknowledge it under the present pressure of business. I recognize
in it those sentiments of virtue and patriotism which you have ever
manifested. The suspension of public opinion from the 11th to the 17th,
the alarm into which it threw all the patriotic part of the federalists,
the danger of the dissolution of our Union, and unknown consequences
of that, brought over the great body of them to wish with anxiety and
solicitation for a choice to which they had before been strenuously
opposed. In this state of mind they separated from their congressional
leaders, and came over to us; and the manner in which the last ballot
was given, has drawn a fixed line of separation between them and their
leaders. When the election took effect, it was as the most desirable
of events to them. This made it a thing of their choice, and finding
themselves aggregated with us accordingly, they are in a state of mind to
be consolidated with us, if no intemperate measures on our part revolt
them again. I am persuaded that weeks of ill-judged conduct here, has
strengthened us more than years of prudent and conciliatory administration
could have done. If we can once more get social intercourse restored to
its pristine harmony, I shall believe we have not lived in vain; and that
it may, by rallying them to true republican principles, which few of them
had thrown off, I sanguinely hope. Accept assurances of the high esteem
and respect of, dear Sir, your friend and servant.
TO GENTLEMEN OF THE SENATE.
To give the usual opportunity of appointing a President _pro tempore_,
I now propose to retire from the chair of the Senate; and, as the time
is near at hand when the relations will cease which have for some time
subsisted between this honorable house and myself, I beg leave before
I withdraw, to return them my grateful thanks for all the instances of
attention and respect with which they have been pleased to honor me. In
the discharge of my functions here, it has been my conscientious endeavor
to observe impartial justice, without regard to persons or subjects, and
if I have failed in impressing this on the mind of the Senate, it will be
to me a circumstance of the deepest regret. I may have erred at times--no
doubt I have erred; this is the law of human nature. For honest errors,
however, indulgence may be hoped. I owe to truth and justice at the same
time to declare that the habits of order and decorum, which so strongly
characterize the proceedings of the Senate, have rendered the umpirage
of their President an office of little difficulty, that in times and on
questions which have severely tried the sensibilities of the house, calm
and temperate discussion has rarely been disturbed by departures from
order.
Should the support which I have received from the Senate, in the
performance of my duties here, attend me into the new station to which the
public will has transferred me, I shall consider it as commencing under
the happiest auspices.
With these expressions of my dutiful regard to the Senate, as a body, I
ask leave to mingle my particular wishes for the health and happiness
of the individuals who compose it, and to tender them my cordial and
respectful adieus.
TO M. DE LA FAYETTE.
WASHINGTON, March 1, 1801.
MY DEAR FRIEND,--I received a letter from you the last year, and it
has been long since I wrote one to you. During the earlier part of the
period it would never have got to your hands, and during the latter,
such has been the state of politics on both sides of the water, that no
communications were safe. Nevertheless, I have never ceased to cherish
a sincere friendship for you, and to take a lively interest in your
sufferings and losses. It would make me happy to learn that they are to
have an end. We have passed through an awful scene in this country. The
convulsion of Europe shook even us to our centre. A few hardy spirits
stood firm to their post, and the ship has breasted the storm. The details
of this cannot be put on paper. For the astonishing particulars I refer
you to the bearer of this, Mr. Dorson, my friend, fully possessed of
everything, as being a Member of Congress, and worthy of confidence. From
him you must learn what America is now, or was, and what it has been;
for now I hope it is getting back to the state in which you knew it. I
will only add that the storm we have passed through proves our vessel
indestructible. I have heard with great concern of the delicacy of Mrs. de
La Fayette's health, and with anxiety to learn that it is getting better.
Having been at Monticello all the time your son was in America, I had not
an opportunity of seeing him and of proving my friendship to one in whom I
have an interest. Present the homage of my respects and attachment to Mrs.
La Fayette, and accept yourself assurances of my constant and affectionate
friendship.
P. S. _March 18._ This moment Mr. Pickon arrived, and delivered me your
letter, of which he was the bearer.
TO THE PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE OF THE SENATE.
WASHINGTON, March 2, 1801.
SIR,--I beg leave through you to inform the Honorable the Senate of the
United States, that I propose to take the oath which the Constitution
prescribes to the President of the United States, before he enters on the
execution of his office, on Wednesday, the 4th inst., at twelve o'clock,
in the Senate chamber.
I have the honor to be, with the greatest respect, Sir, your most
obedient, and most humble servant.
TO THE HONORABLE JOHN MARSHALL.
WASHINGTON, March 2, 1801.
I was desired two or three days ago to sign some sea letters, to be
dated on or after the 4th of March, but in the meantime to be forwarded
to the different ports; and I understood you would countersign them as
the person appointed to perform the duties of Secretary of State, but
that you thought a re-appointment, to be dated the 4th of March, would
be necessary. I shall with pleasure sign such a re-appointment _nunc pro
tunc_, if you can direct it to be made out, not being able to do it myself
for want of a knowledge of the form.
I propose to take the oath or oaths of office as President of the United
States, on Wednesday the 4th inst., at 12 o'clock, in the Senate chamber.
May I hope the favor of your attendance to administer the oath? As the
two Houses have notice of the hour, I presume a precise punctuality to it
will be expected from me. I would pray you in the meantime to consider
whether the oath prescribed in the Constitution be not the only one
necessary to take? It seems to comprehend the substance of that prescribed
by the Act of Congress to all officers, and it may be questionable
whether the Legislature can require any new oath from the President. I do
not know what has been done in this heretofore; but I presume the oaths
administered to my predecessors are recorded in the Secretary of State's
office.
Not being yet provided with a private secretary, and needing some person
on Wednesday to be the bearer of a message or messages to the Senate, I
presume the chief clerk of the department of State might be employed with
propriety. Permit me through you to ask the favor of his attendance on me
to my lodgings on Wednesday, after I shall have been qualified.
I have the honor to be with great respect, Sir, your most obedient, humble
servant.
TO THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
WASHINGTON, March 3, 1801.
SIR,--I beg leave through you to inform the Honorable the House of
Representatives of the United States, that I shall take the oath which
the Constitution prescribes to the President of the United States, before
he enters on the execution of his office, on Wednesday, the 4th inst., at
twelve o'clock, in the Senate chamber.
I have the honor to be, with the greatest respect, Sir, your most
obedient, and most humble servant.
TO JOHN DICKINSON.
WASHINGTON, March 6, 1801.
DEAR SIR,--No pleasure can exceed that which I received from reading your
letter of the 21st ultimo. It was like the joy we expect in the mansions
of the blessed, when received with the embraces of our forefathers,
we shall be welcomed with their blessing as having done our part not
unworthily of them. The storm through which we have passed, has been
tremendous indeed. The tough sides of our Argosie have been thoroughly
tried. Her strength has stood the waves into which she was steered, with
a view to sink her. We shall put her on her republican tack, and she
will now show by the beauty of her motion the skill of her builders.
Figure apart, our fellow citizens have been led hood-winked from their
principles, by a most extraordinary combination of circumstances. But
the band is removed, and they now see for themselves. I hope to see
shortly a perfect consolidation, to effect which, nothing shall be
spared on my part, short of the abandonment of the principles of our
revolution. A just and solid republican government maintained here, will
be a standing monument and example for the aim and imitation of the
people of other countries; and I join with you in the hope and belief
that they will see, from our example, that a free government is of
all others the most energetic; that the inquiry which has been excited
among the mass of mankind by our revolution and its consequences, will
ameliorate the condition of man over a great portion of the globe. What a
satisfaction have we in the contemplation of the benevolent effects of our
efforts, compared with those of the leaders on the other side, who have
discountenanced all advances in science as dangerous innovations, have
endeavored to render philosophy and republicanism terms of reproach, to
persuade us that man cannot be governed but by the rod, &c. I shall have
the happiness of living and dying in the contrary hope. Accept assurances
of my constant and sincere respect and attachment, and my affectionate
salutations.
TO COLONEL MONROE.
WASHINGTON, March 7, 1801.
DEAR SIR,--I had written the enclosed letter to Mrs. Trist, and was
just proceeding to begin one to you, when your favor of the 6th was put
into my hands. I thank you sincerely for it, and consider the views of
it so sound, that I have communicated it to my coadjutors as one of our
important evidences of the public sentiment, according to which we must
shape our course. I suspect, partly from this, but more from a letter
of J. Taylor's which has been put into my hands, that an incorrect idea
of my views has got abroad. I am in hopes my inaugural address will in
some measure set this to rights, as it will present the leading objects
to be conciliation and adherence to sound principle. This I know is
impracticable with the leaders of the late faction, whom I abandon as
incurables, and will never turn an inch out of my way to reconcile them.
But with the main body of the federalists, I believe it very practicable.
You know that the manœuvres of the year X. Y. Z. carried over from us a
great body of the people, real republicans, and honest men under virtuous
motives. The delusion lasted a while. At length the poor arts of tub
plots, &c. were repeated till the designs of the party became suspected.
From that moment those who had left us began to come back. It was by their
return to us that we gained the victory in November, 1800, which we should
not have gained in November, 1799. But during the suspension of the public
mind from the 11th to the 17th of February, and the anxiety and alarm
lest there should be no election, and anarchy ensue, a wonderful effect
was produced on the mass of federalists who had not before come over.
Those who had before become sensible of their error in the former change,
and only wanted a decent excuse for coming back, seized that occasion
for doing so. Another body, and a large one it is, who from timidity of
constitution had gone with those who wished for a strong executive, were
induced by the same timidity to come over to us rather than risk anarchy:
so that, according to the evidence we receive from every direction, we
may say that the whole of that portion of the people which were called
federalists, were made to desire anxiously the very event they had just
before opposed with all their energies, and to receive the election which
was made, as an object of their earnest wishes, a child of their own.
These people (I always exclude their leaders) are now aggregated with
us, they look with a certain degree of affection and confidence to the
administration, ready to become attached to it, if it avoids in the outset
acts which might revolt and throw them off. To give time for a perfect
consolidation seems prudent. I have firmly refused to follow the counsels
of those who have desired the giving offices to some of their leaders, in
order to reconcile. I have given, and will give only to republicans, under
existing circumstances. But I believe with others, that deprivations of
office, if made on the ground of political principles alone, would revolt
our new converts, and give a body to leaders who now stand alone. Some,
I know, must be made. They must be as few as possible, done gradually,
and bottomed on some malversation or inherent disqualification. Where we
shall draw the line between retaining all and none, is not yet settled,
and will not be till we get our administration together; and perhaps even
then, we shall proceed _à talons_, balancing our measures according to the
impression we perceive them to make.
This may give you a general view of our plan. Should you be in Albemarle
the first week in April, I shall have the pleasure of seeing you there,
and of developing things more particularly, and of profiting by an
intercommunication of views. Dawson sails for France about the 15th, as
the _bearer_ only of the treaty to Elsworth and Murray. He has probably
asked your commands, and your introductory letters.
Present my respects to Mrs. Monroe, and accept assurances of my high and
affectionate consideration and attachment.
TO GOVERNOR M'KEAN.
WASHINGTON, March 9, 1801.
DEAR SIR,--I have to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of February
the 20th, and to thank you for your congratulations on the event of the
election. Had it terminated in the elevation of Mr. Burr, every republican
would, I am sure, have acquiesced in a moment; because, however it might
have been variant from the intentions of the voters, yet it would have
been agreeable to the Constitution. No man would more cheerfully have
submitted than myself, because I am sure the administration would have
been republican, and the chair of the Senate permitting me to be at home
eight months in the year, would, on that account, have been much more
consonant to my real satisfaction. But in the event of an usurpation, I
was decidedly with those who were determined not to permit it. Because
that precedent once set, would be artificially reproduced, and end soon
in a dictator. Virginia was bristling up I believe. I shall know the
particulars from Governor Monroe, whom I expect to meet in a short visit
I must make home, to select some books, &c. necessary here, and make other
domestic arrangements.
* * * * *
Accept assurances of my high esteem and regard.
TO JOEL BARLOW.
WASHINGTON, March 14, 1801.
DEAR SIR,--Not having my papers here, it is not in my power to acknowledge
the receipt of your letters by their dates, but I am pretty certain I
have received two in the course of the last twelve months, one of them
covering your excellent second letter. Nothing can be sounder than the
principles it inculcates, and I am not without hopes they will make their
way. You have understood that the revolutionary movements in Europe had,
by industry and artifice, been wrought into objects of terror even to
this country, and had really involved a great portion of our well-meaning
citizens in a panic which was perfectly unaccountable, and during the
prevalence of which they were led to support measures the most insane.
They are now pretty thoroughly recovered from it, and sensible of the
mischief which was done, and preparing to be done, had their minds
continued a little longer under that derangement. The recovery bids fair
to be complete, and to obliterate entirely the line of party division
which had been so strongly drawn. Not that their late leaders have come
over, or ever can come over. But they stand, at present, almost without
followers. The principal of them have retreated into the judiciary as a
strong hold, the tenure of which renders it difficult to dislodge them.
For all the particulars I must refer you to Mr. Dawson, a member of
Congress, fully informed and worthy of entire confidence. Give me leave to
ask for him your attentions and civilities, and a verbal communication of
such things on your side the water as you know I feel a great interest in,
and as may not with safety be committed to paper. I am entirely unable to
conjecture the issue of things with you.
Accept assurances of my constant esteem and high consideration.
TO THOMAS PAINE.
WASHINGTON, March 18, 1801.
DEAR SIR,--Your letters of October the 1st, 4th, 6th and 16th, came
duly to hand, and the papers which they covered were, according to your
permission, published in the newspapers and in a pamphlet, and under
your own name. These papers contain precisely our principles, and I hope
they will be generally recognized here. Determined as we are to avoid,
if possible, wasting the energies of our people in war and destruction,
we shall avoid implicating ourselves with the powers of Europe, even
in support of principles which we mean to pursue. They have so many
other interests different from ours, that we must avoid being entangled
in them. We believe we can enforce those principles, as to ourselves,
by peaceable means, now that we are likely to have our public councils
detached from foreign views. The return of our citizens from the phrenzy
into which they had been wrought, partly by ill conduct in France, partly
by artifices practised on them, is almost entire, and will, I believe,
become quite so. But these details, too minute and long for a letter, will
be better developed by Mr. Dawson, the bearer of this, a member of the
late Congress, to whom I refer you for them. He goes in the Maryland, a
sloop of war, which will wait a few days at Havre to receive his letters,
to be written on his arrival at Paris. You expressed a wish to get a
passage to this country in a public vessel. Mr. Dawson is charged with
orders to the captain of the Maryland to receive and accommodate you
with a passage back, if you can be ready to depart at such short warning.
Robert R. Livingston is appointed Minister Plenipotentiary to the republic
of France, but will not leave this till we receive the ratification of
the convention by Mr. Dawson. I am in hopes you will find us returned
generally to sentiments worthy of former times. In these it will be your
glory to have steadily labored, and with as much effect as any man living.
That you may long live to continue your useful labors, and to reap their
reward in the thankfulness of nations, is my sincere prayer.
Accept assurances of my high esteem and affectionate attachment.
TO M. DE REYNEVAL.
WASHINGTON, March 20, 1801.
DEAR SIR,--Mr. Pichon, who arrived two days ago, delivered me your favor
of January the 1st, and I had before received one by Mr. Dupont, dated
August the 24th, 1799, both on the subject of lands, claimed on behalf
of your brother, Mr. Girard, and that of August the 24th, containing a
statement of the case. I had verbally explained to Mr. Dupont, at the
time, what I presumed to have been the case, which must, I believe, be
very much mistaken in the statement sent with that letter; and I expected
he had communicated it to you.
During the regal government, two companies, called the Loyal and the Ohio
companies, had obtained grants from the crown for eight hundred thousand,
or one million of acres of land, each, on the Ohio, on condition of
settling them in a given number of years. They surveyed some, and settled
them; but the war of 1755 came on, and broke up the settlements. After it
was over, they petitioned for a renewal. Four other large companies then
formed themselves, called the Mississippi, the Illinois, the Wabash, and
the Indiana companies, each praying for immense quantities of land, some
amounting to two hundred miles square; so that they proposed to cover
the whole country north between the Ohio and Mississippi, and a great
portion of what is south. All these petitions were depending, without any
answer whatever from the crown, when the Revolutionary war broke out. The
petitioners had associated to themselves some of the nobility of England,
and most of the characters in America of great influence. When Congress
assumed the government, they took some of their body in as partners, to
obtain their influence; and I remember to have heard, at the time, that
one of them took Mr. Girard as a partner, expecting by that to obtain
the influence of the French court, to obtain grants of those lands which
they had not been able to obtain from the British government. All these
lands were within the limits of Virginia, and that State determined,
peremptorily, that they never should be granted to large companies, but
left open equally to all; and when they passed their land law, (which I
think was in 1778,) they confirmed only so much of the lands of the Loyal
company as they had actually surveyed, which was a very small proportion,
and annulled every other pretension. And when that State conveyed the
lands to Congress, (which was not till 1784,) so determined were they
to prevent their being granted to these or any other large companies,
that they made it an express condition of the cession, that they should
be applied first towards the soldiers' bounties, and the residue sold
for the payment of the national debt, and for no other purpose. This
disposition has been, accordingly, rigorously made, and is still going on;
and Congress considers itself as having no authority to dispose of them
otherwise.
* * * * *
I sincerely wish, Sir, it had been in my power to have given you a more
agreeable account of this claim. But as the case actually is, the most
substantial service is to state it exactly, and not to foster false
expectations. I remember with great sensibility all the attentions you
were so good as to render me while I resided in Paris, and shall be made
happy by every occasion which can be given me of acknowledging them; and
the expressions of your friendly recollection are particularly soothing to
me.
Accept, I pray you, the assurances of my high consideration and constant
esteem.
TO DOCTOR JOSEPH PRIESTLEY.
WASHINGTON, March 21, 1801.
DEAR SIR,--I learned some time ago that you were in Philadelphia, but that
it was only for a fortnight; and I supposed you were gone. It was not till
yesterday I received information that you were still there, had been very
ill, but were on the recovery. I sincerely rejoice that you are so. Yours
is one of the few lives precious to mankind, and for the continuance of
which every thinking man is solicitous. Bigots may be an exception. What
an effort, my dear Sir, of bigotry in politics and religion have we gone
through! The barbarians really flattered themselves they should be able to
bring back the times of Vandalism, when ignorance put everything into the
hands of power and priestcraft. All advances in science were proscribed
as innovations. They pretended to praise and encourage education, but
it was to be the education of our ancestors. We were to look backwards,
not forwards, for improvement; the President himself declaring, in one
of his answers to addresses, that we were never to expect to go beyond
them in real science. This was the real ground of all the attacks on
you. Those who live by mystery and _charlatanerie_, fearing you would
render them useless by simplifying the Christian philosophy,--the most
sublime and benevolent, but most perverted system that ever shone on
man,--endeavored to crush your well-earned and well-deserved fame. But
it was the Lilliputians upon Gulliver. Our countrymen have recovered from
the alarm into which art and industry had thrown them; science and honesty
are replaced on their high ground; and you, my dear Sir, as their great
apostle, are on its pinnacle. It is with heartfelt satisfaction that, in
the first moments of my public action, I can hail you with welcome to our
land, tender to you the homage of its respect and esteem, cover you under
the protection of those laws which were made for the wise and good like
you, and disdain the legitimacy of that libel on legislation, which, under
the form of a law, was for some time placed among them.[14]
As the storm is now subsiding, and the horizon becoming serene, it is
pleasant to consider the phenomenon with attention. We can no longer
say there is nothing new under the sun. For this whole chapter in the
history of man is new. The great extent of our Republic is new. Its sparse
habitation is new. The mighty wave of public opinion which has rolled over
it is new. But the most pleasing novelty is, its so quietly subsiding
over such an extent of surface to its true level again. The order and
good sense displayed in this recovery from delusion, and in the momentous
crisis which lately arose, really bespeak a strength of character in our
nation which augurs well for the duration of our Republic; and I am much
better satisfied now of its stability than I was before it was tried. I
have been, above all things, solaced by the prospect which opened on us,
in the event of a non-election of a President; in which case, the federal
government would have been in the situation of a clock or watch run down.
There was no idea of force, nor of any occasion for it. A convention,
invited by the republican members of Congress, with the virtual President
and Vice President, would have been on the ground in eight weeks, would
have repaired the Constitution where it was defective, and wound it up
again. This peaceable and legitimate resource, to which we are in the
habit of implicit obedience, superseding all appeal to force, and being
always within our reach, shows a precious principle of self-preservation
in our composition, till a change of circumstances shall take place, which
is not within prospect at any definite period.
But I have got into a long disquisition on politics, when I only meant
to express my sympathy in the state of your health, and to tender you all
the affections of public and private hospitality. I should be very happy
indeed to see you here. I leave this about the 30th instant, to return
about the 25th of April. If you do not leave Philadelphia before that, a
little excursion hither would help your health. I should be much gratified
with the possession of a guest I so much esteem, and should claim a right
to lodge you, should you make such an excursion.
Accept the homage of my high consideration and respect, and assurances of
affectionate attachment.
FOOTNOTE:
[14] [In the margin is written by the author, "Alien law."]
TO GENERAL WARREN.
WASHINGTON, March 21, 1801.
I am much gratified by the receipt of your favor of the 4th instant, and
by the expressions of friendly sentiment it contains. It is pleasant for
those who have just escaped threatened shipwreck, to hail one another when
landed in unexpected safety. The resistance which our republic has opposed
to a course of operation, for which it was not destined, shows a strength
of body which affords the most flattering presage of duration. I hope we
shall now be permitted to steer her in her natural course, and to show
by the smoothness of her motion the skill with which she has been formed
for it. I have seen with great grief yourself and so many other venerable
patriots, retired and weeping in silence over the rapid subversion of
those principles for the attachment of which you had sacrificed the
ease and comforts of life; but I rejoice that you have lived to see
us revindicate our rights, and regain manfully the ground from which
fraud, not force, had for a moment driven us. The character which our
fellow-citizens have displayed on this occasion, gives us everything
to hope for the permanence of our government. Its extent has saved us.
While some parts were laboring under the paroxysm of delusion, others
retained their senses, and time was thus given to the affected parts to
recover their health. Your portion of the Union is longest recovering,
because the deceivers there wear a more imposing form; but a little more
time, and they too will recover. I pray you to present the homage of my
great respect to Mrs. Warren. I have long possessed evidences of her high
station in the ranks of genius; and have considered her silence as a proof
that she did not go with the current. Accept yourself, assurances of my
high consideration and respect.
TO NATHANIEL NILES, ESQ.
WASHINGTON, March 22, 1801.
DEAR SIR,--Your favor of February 12th, which did not get to my hands till
March 2d, is entitled to my acknowledgments. It was the more agreeable as
it proved that the esteem I had entertained for you while we were acting
together on the public stage, had not been without reciprocated effect.
What wonderful scenes have passed since that time! The late chapter
of our history furnishes a lesson to man perfectly new. The times have
been awful, but they have proved an useful truth, that the good citizen
must never despair of the commonwealth. How many good men abandoned the
deck, and gave up the vessel as lost. It furnishes a new proof of the
falsehood of Montesquieu's doctrine, that a republic can be preserved
only in a small territory. The reverse is the truth. Had our territory
been even a third only of what it is, we were gone. But while frenzy and
delusion like an epidemic, gained certain parts, the residue remained
sound and untouched, and held on till their brethren could recover from
the temporary delusion; and that circumstance has given me great comfort.
There was general alarm during the pending of the election in Congress,
lest no President should be chosen, the government be dissolved and
anarchy ensue. But the cool determination of the really patriotic to call
a convention in that case, which might be on the ground in eight weeks,
and wind up the machine again which had only run down, pointed out to my
mind a perpetual and peaceable resource against * * * * * in whatever
extremity might befall us; and I am certain a convention would have
commanded immediate and universal obedience. How happy that our army had
been disbanded! What might have happened otherwise seems rather a subject
of reflection than explanation. You have seen your recommendation of Mr.
Willard duly respected. As to yourself, I hope we shall see you again in
Congress. Accept assurances of my high respect and attachment.
TO J. PAGE.
WASHINGTON, March 22, 1801.
MY DEAR FRIEND,--Yours of February 1st did not reach me till February
28th, and a pressing business has retarded my acknowledging it. I
sincerely thank you for your congratulations on my election; but this
is only the first verse of the chapter. What the last may be nobody
can tell. A consciousness that I feel no desire but to do what is best,
without passion or predilection, encourages me to hope for an indulgent
construction of what I do. I had in General Washington's time proposed
you as director of the mint, and therefore should the more readily have
turned to you, had a vacancy now happened; but that institution continuing
at Philadelphia, because the Legislature have not taken up the subject
in time to decide on it, it will of course remain there until this time
twelvemonths. Should it then be removed, the present Director would
probably, and the Treasurer certainly resign. It would give me great
pleasure to employ the talents and integrity of Dr. Foster, in the latter
office.
I am very much in hopes we shall be able to restore union to our country.
Not indeed that the federal leaders can be brought over. They are
invincibles; but I really hope their followers may. The bulk of these
last were real republicans, carried over from us by French excesses. This
induced me to offer a political creed, and to invite to conciliation
first; and I am pleased to hear, that these principles are recognized
by them, and considered as no bar of separation. A moderate conduct
throughout, which may not revolt our new friends, and which may give them
tenets with us, must be observed.
* * * * *
Present my respects to Mrs. Page, and accept evidences of my constant and
affectionate esteem.
TO BENJAMIN WARING, ESQ., AND OTHERS.
WASHINGTON, March 23, 1801.
GENTLEMEN,--The reliance is most flattering to me which you are pleased
to express in the character of my public conduct, as is the expectation
with which you look forward to the inviolable preservation of our national
Constitution, deservedly the boast of our country. That peace, safety,
and concord may be the portion of our native land, and be long enjoyed
by our fellow-citizens, is the most ardent wish of my heart, and if I can
be instrumental in procuring or preserving them, I shall think I have not
lived in vain. In every country where man is free to think and to speak,
differences of opinion will arise from difference of perception, and the
imperfection of reason; but these differences, when permitted, as in this
happy country, to purify themselves by free discussion, are but as passing
clouds overspreading our land transiently, and leaving our horizon more
bright and serene. That love of order and obedience to the laws, which
so remarkably characterize the citizens of the United States, are sure
pledges of internal tranquillity; and the elective franchise, if guarded
as the act of our safety, will peaceably dissipate all combinations to
subvert a Constitution dictated by the wisdom, and resting on the will of
the people. That will is the only legitimate foundation of any government,
and to protect its free expression should be our first object. I offer
my sincere prayers to the Supreme ruler of the Universe, that he may
long preserve our country in freedom and prosperity, and to yourselves,
Gentlemen, and the citizens of Columbia and its vicinity, the assurances
of my profound consideration and respect.
TO MOSES ROBINSON.
WASHINGTON, March 23, 1801.
DEAR SIR,--I have to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of the 3d
instant, and to thank you for the friendly expressions it contains. I
entertain real hope that the whole body of your fellow citizens (many
of whom had been carried away by the X. Y. Z. business) will shortly
be consolidated in the same sentiments. When they examine the real
principles of both parties, I think they will find little to differ
about. I know, indeed, that there are some of their leaders who have
so committed themselves, that pride, if no other passion, will prevent
their coalescing. We must be easy with them. The eastern States will
be the last to come over, on account of the dominion of the clergy, who
had got a smell of union between Church and State, and began to indulge
reveries which can never be realized in the present state of science. If,
indeed, they could have prevailed on us to view all advances in science as
dangerous innovations, and to look back to the opinions and practices of
our forefathers, instead of looking forward, for improvement, a promising
groundwork would have been laid. But I am in hopes their good sense will
dictate to them, that since the mountain will not come to them, they
had better go to the mountain; that they will find their interest in
acquiescing in the liberty and science of their country, and that the
Christian religion, when divested of the rags in which they have enveloped
it, and brought to the original purity and simplicity of its benevolent
institutor, is a religion of all others most friendly to liberty, science,
and the freest expansion of the human mind.
I sincerely wish with you, we could see our government so secured as to
depend less on the character of the person in whose hands it is trusted.
Bad men will sometimes get in, and with such an immense patronage, may
make great progress in corrupting the public mind and principles. This is
a subject with which wisdom and patriotism should be occupied.
I pray you to accept assurances of my high respect and esteem.
TO WILLIAM B. GILES.
WASHINGTON, March 23, 1801.
DEAR SIR,--I received two days ago your favor of the 16th, and thank
you for your kind felicitations on my election; but whether it will be a
subject of felicitation, permanently, will be for the chapters of future
history to say. The important subjects of the government I meet with some
degree of courage and confidence, because I do believe the talents to be
associated with me, the honest line of conduct we will religiously pursue
at home and abroad, and the confidence of my fellow citizens dawning on
us, will be equal to these objects.
But there is another branch of duty which I must meet with courage
too, though I cannot without pain; that is, the appointments and
disappointments as to offices. Madison and Gallatin being still absent,
we have not yet decided on our rules of conduct as to these. That some
ought to be removed from office, and that all ought not, all mankind
will agree. But where to draw the line, perhaps no two will agree.
Consequently, nothing like a general approbation on this subject can be
looked for. Some principles have been the subject of conversation, but
not of determination; _e. g._ 1, all appointments to _civil_ offices
_during pleasure_, made after the event of the election was certainly
known to Mr. Adams, are considered as nullities. I do not view the persons
appointed as even candidates for the office, but make others without
noticing or notifying them. Mr. Adams' best friends have agreed this is
right. 2. Officers who have been guilty of _official_ mal-conduct are
proper subjects of removal. 3. Good men, to whom there is no objection
but a difference of political principle, practised on only as far as
the right of a private citizen will justify, are not proper subjects of
removal, except in the case of attorneys and marshals. The courts being
so decidedly federal and irremovable, it is believed that republican
attorneys and marshals, being the doors of entrance into the courts, are
indispensably necessary as a shield to the republican part of our fellow
citizens, which, I believe, is the main body of the people.
These principles are yet to be considered of, and I sketch them to you in
confidence. Not that there is objection to your mooting them as subjects
of conversation, and as proceeding from yourself, but not as matters
of executive determination. Nay, farther, I will thank you for your own
sentiments and those of others on them. If received before the 20th of
April, they will be in time for our deliberation on the subject. You know
that it was in the year X. Y. Z. that so great a transition from us to the
other side took place, and with as real republicans as we were ourselves;
that these, after getting over that delusion, have been returning to us,
and that it is to that return we owe a triumph in 1800, which in 1799
would have been the other way. The week's suspension of the election
before Congress, seems almost to have completed that business, and to have
brought over nearly the whole remaining mass. They now find themselves
with us, and separated from their quondam leaders. If we can but avoid
shocking their feelings by unnecessary acts of severity against their late
friends, they will in a little time cement and form one mass with us, and
by these means harmony and union be restored to our country, which would
be the greatest good we could effect. It was a conviction that these
people did not differ from us in principle, which induced me to define
the principles which I deemed orthodox, and to urge a reunion on those
principles; and I am induced to hope it has conciliated many. I do not
speak of the desperadoes of the quondam faction in and out of Congress.
These I consider as incurables, on whom all attentions would be lost, and
therefore will not be wasted. But my wish is, to keep their flock from
returning to them.
On the subject of the marshal of Virginia, I refer you confidentially to
Major Egglestone for information. I leave this about this day se'nnight,
to make some arrangements at home preparatory to my final removal to this
place, from which I shall be absent about three weeks.
Accept assurances of my constant esteem and high consideration and respect.
TO DOCTOR RUSH.
WASHINGTON, March 24, 1801
DEAR SIR,--I have to acknowledge the receipt of your friendly favor of the
12th, and the pleasing sensations produced in my mind by its affectionate
contents. I am made very happy by learning that the sentiments expressed
in my inaugural address gave general satisfaction, and holds out a ground
on which our fellow citizens can once more unite. I am the more pleased,
because these sentiments have been long and radically mine, and therefore
will be pursued honestly and conscientiously. I know there is an obstacle
which very possibly may check the confidence which would otherwise
have been more generally reposed in my observance of these principles.
This obstacle does not arise from the measures to be pursued, as to
which I am in no fear of giving satisfaction, but from appointments and
disappointments as to office. With regard to appointments, I have so much
confidence in the justice and good sense of the federalists, that I have
no doubt they will concur in the fairness of the position, that after they
have been in the exclusive possession of all offices from the very first
origin of party among us, to the 3d of March, at 9 o'clock in the night,
no republican ever admitted, and this doctrine newly avowed, it is now
perfectly just that the republicans should come in for the vacancies which
may fall in, until something like an equilibrium in office be restored.
But the great stumbling block will be removals, which though made on
those just principles only on which my predecessor ought to have removed
the same persons, will nevertheless be ascribed to removal on party
principles. 1st. I will expunge the effects of Mr. A.'s indecent conduct,
in crowding nominations after he knew they were not for himself, till 9
o'clock of the night, at 12 o'clock of which he was to go out of office.
So far as they are during pleasure, I shall not consider the persons
named, even as candidates for the office, nor pay the respect of notifying
them that I consider what was done as a nullity. 2d. Some removals must
be made for misconduct. One of these is of the marshal in your city,
who being an officer of justice, intrusted with the function of choosing
impartial judges for the trial of his fellow citizens, placed at the awful
tribunal of God and their country, selected judges who either avowed, or
were known to him to be predetermined to condemn; and if the lives of the
unfortunate persons were not cut short by the sword of the law, it was not
for want of _his_ good-will. In another State I have to perform the same
act of justice on the dearest connection of my dearest friend, for similar
conduct, in a case not capital. The same practice of packing juries, and
prosecuting their fellow citizens with the bitterness of party hatred,
will probably involve several other marshals and attorneys. Out of this
line I see but very few instances where past misconduct has been in a
degree to call for notice. Of the thousands of officers therefore, in the
United States, a very few individuals only, probably not twenty, will be
removed; and these only for doing what they ought not to have done. Two
or three instances indeed where Mr. A. removed men because they would not
sign addresses, &c., to him, will be rectified--the persons restored. The
whole world will say this is just. I know that in stopping thus short in
the career of removal, I shall give great offence to many of my friends.
That torrent has been pressing me heavily, and will require all my force
to bear up against; but my maxim is "_fiat justitia, ruat cælum._" After
the first unfavorable impressions of doing too much in the opinion of
some, and too little in that of others, shall be got over, I should
hope a steady line of conciliation very practicable, and that without
yielding a single republican principle. A certainty that these principles
prevailed in the breasts of the main body of federalists, was my motive
for stating them as the ground of reunion. I have said thus much for your
private satisfaction, to be used even in private conversation, as the
presumptive principles on which we shall act, but not as proceeding from
myself declaredly. Information lately received from France gives a high
idea of the progress of science there; it seems to keep pace with their
* * * * *. I have[15] just received from the A. P. Society, two volumes of
Comparative Anatomy, by Cuvier, probably the greatest work in that line
that has ever appeared. His comparisons embrace every organ of the animal
carcass; and from man to the * * * * *. Accept assurances of my sincere
friendship, and high consideration and respect.
TO DON JOSEPH YZNARDI.
WASHINGTON, March 26, 1801.
DEAR SIR,--The Secretary of State is proceeding in the consideration
of the several matters which have been proposed to us by you, and will
prepare answers to them, and particularly as to our vessels taken by
French cruisers, and carried into the ports of Spain, contrary, as we
suppose, to the tenor of the convention with France. Though ordinary
business will be regularly transacted with you by the Secretary of State,
yet considering what you mentioned as to our minister at Madrid to have
been private and confidential, I take it out of the official course, and
observe to you myself that under an intimate conviction of long standing
in my mind, of the importance of an honest friendship with Spain, and
one which shall identify her American interests with our own, I see in a
strong point of view the necessity that the organ of communication which
we establish near the King should possess the favor and confidence of
that government. I have therefore destined for that mission a person whose
accommodating and reasonable conduct, which will be still more fortified
by instructions, will render him agreeable there, and an useful channel
of communication between us. I have no doubt the new appointment by that
government to this, in the room of the Chevalier d'Yrujo, has been made
under the influence of the same motives; but still, the Chevalier d'Yrujo
being intimately known to us, the integrity, sincerity, and reasonableness
of his conduct having established in us a perfect confidence, in nowise
diminished by the bickerings which took place between him and a former
Secretary of State, whose irritable temper drew on more than one affair
of the same kind, it will be a subject of regret if we lose him. However,
if the interests of Spain require that his services should be employed
elsewhere, it is the duty of a friend to acquiesce; and we shall certainly
receive any successor the King may choose to send, with every possible
degree of favor and friendship. Our administration will not be collected
till the end of the ensuing month; and consequently, till then, no other
of the mutual interests of the two nations will be under our views,
except those general assurances of friendship which I have before given
you verbally, and now repeat. Accept, I pray you, assurances of my high
consideration and respect.
FOOTNOTE:
[15] [The manuscript here is illegible.]
TO GENERAL KNOX.
WASHINGTON, March 27, 1801.