DEAR SIR,--Your favor of the 12th has been duly received, and with that

pleasure which the approbation of the good and the wise must ever give.

The sentiments it impresses are far beyond my merits or pretensions; they

are precious testimonies to me however, that my sincere desire to do

what is right and just is viewed with candor. That it should be handed

to the world under the authority of your name is securing its credit

with posterity. In the great work which has been effected in America, no

individual has a right to take any great share to himself. Our people in

a body are wise, because they are under the unrestrained and unperverted

operation of their own understanding. Those whom they have assigned to

the direction of their affairs, have stood with a pretty even front.

If any one of them was withdrawn, many others entirely equal, have been

ready to fill his place with as good abilities. A nation, composed of such

materials, and free in all its members from distressing wants, furnishes

hopeful implements for the interesting experiment of self-government;

and we feel that we are acting under obligations not confined to the

limits of our own society. It is impossible not to be sensible that we

are acting for all mankind; that circumstances denied to others, but

indulged to us, have imposed on us the duty of proving what is the degree

of freedom and self-government in which a society may venture to leave

its individual members. One passage, in the paper you enclosed me, must

be corrected. It is the following, "and all say it was yourself more

than any other individual, that planned and established it," _i. e._ the

Constitution. I was in Europe when the Constitution was planned, and never

saw it till after it was established. On receiving it I wrote strongly to

Mr. Madison, urging the want of provision for the freedom of religion,

freedom of the press, trial by jury, habeas corpus, the substitution of

militia for a standing army, and an express reservation to the States of

all rights not specifically granted to the Union. He accordingly moved in

the first session of Congress for these amendments, which were agreed to

and ratified by the States as they now stand. This is all the hand I had

in what related to the Constitution. Our predecessors made it doubtful

how far even these were of any value; for the very law which endangered

your personal safety, as well as that which restrained the freedom of

the press, were gross violations of them. However, it is still certain

that though written constitutions may be violated in moments of passion

or delusion, yet they furnish a text to which those who are watchful

may again rally and recall the people; they fix too for the people the

principles of their political creed. We shall all absent ourselves from

this place during the sickly season; say from about the 22d of July to the

last of September. Should your curiosity lead you hither either before or

after that interval, I shall be very happy to receive you, and shall claim

you as my guest. I wish the advantages of a mild over a winter climate

had been tried for you before you were located where you are. I have ever

considered this as a public as well as personal misfortune. The choice you

made of our country for your asylum was honorable to it; and I lament that

for the sake of your happiness and health its most benign climates were

not selected. Certainly it is a truth that climate is one of the sources

of the greatest sensual enjoyment. I received in due time the letter of

April 10th referred to in your last, with the pamphlet it enclosed, which

I read with the pleasure I do everything from you. Accept assurances of my

highest veneration and respect.

TO RUFUS KING.

WASHINGTON, July 13, 1802.

DEAR SIR,--The course of things in the neighboring islands of the West

Indies, appear to have given a considerable impulse to the minds of the

slaves in different parts of the United States. A great disposition to

insurgency has manifested itself among them, which, in one instance, in

the State of Virginia, broke out into actual insurrection. This was easily

suppressed; but many of those concerned (between twenty and thirty, I

believe) fell victims to the law. So extensive an execution could not

but excite sensibility in the public mind, and begat a regret that the

laws had not provided for such cases, some alternative, combining more

mildness with equal efficacy. The Legislature of the State at a subsequent

meeting took the subject into consideration, and have communicated to

me through the Governor of the State, their wish that some place could

be provided, out of the limits of the United States, to which slaves

guilty of insurgency might be transported; and they have particularly

looked to Africa as offering the most desirable receptacle. We might,

for this purpose, enter into negotiations with the natives, on some part

of the coast, to obtain a settlement; and, by establishing an African

company, combine with it commercial operations, which might not only

reimburse expenses, but procure profit also. But there being already such

an establishment on that coast by the English Sierra Leone company, made

for the express purpose of colonizing civilized blacks to that country,

it would seem better, by incorporating our emigrants with theirs, to

make one strong, rather than two weak colonies. This would be the more

desirable because the blacks settled at Sierra Leone having chiefly gone

from the States, would often receive among those we should send, their

acquaintances and relatives. The object of this letter therefore is to

ask the favor of you to enter into conference with such persons private

and public as would be necessary to give us permission to send thither

the persons under contemplation. It is material to observe that they are

not felons, or common malefactors, but persons guilty of what the safety

of society, under actual circumstances, obliges us to treat as a crime,

but which their feelings may represent in a far different shape. They are

such as will be a valuable acquisition to the settlement already existing

there, and well calculated to co-operate in the plan of civilization.

As the expense of so distant a transportation would be very heavy, and

might weigh unfavorably in deciding between the modes of punishment, it

is very desirable that it should be lessened as much as practicable. If

the regulations of the place would permit these emigrants to dispose of

themselves, as the Germans and others do who come to this country poor,

by giving their labor for a certain time to some one who will pay their

passage; and if the master of the vessel could be permitted to carry

articles of commerce from this country and take back others from that,

which might yield him a mercantile profit sufficient to cover the expenses

of the voyage, a serious difficulty would be removed. I will ask your

attention therefore to arrangements necessary for this purpose.

The consequences of permitting emancipations to become extensive, unless

the condition of emigration be annexed to them, furnish also matter of

solicitation to the Legislature of Virginia, as you will perceive by

their resolution enclosed to you. Although provision for the settlement of

emancipated negroes might perhaps be obtainable nearer home than Africa,

yet it is desirable that we should be free to expatriate this description

of people also to the colony of Sierra Leone, if considerations respecting

either themselves or us should render it more expedient. I will pray you

therefore to get the same permission extended to the reception of these

as well as the first mentioned. Nor will there be a selection of bad

subjects; the emancipations, for the most part, being either of the whole

slaves of the master, or of such individuals as have particularly deserved

well: the latter is most frequent.

The request of the Legislature of Virginia having produced to me the

occasion of addressing you, I avail myself of it to assure you of my

perfect satisfaction with the manner in which you have conducted the

several matters confided to you by us; and to express my hope that through

your agency we may be able to remove everything inauspicious to a cordial

friendship between this country and the one in which you are stationed;

a friendship dictated by too many considerations not to be felt by the

wise and the dispassionate of both nations. It is therefore with the

sincerest pleasure I have observed on the part of the British government

various manifestations of just and friendly disposition towards us. We

wish to cultivate peace and friendship with all nations, believing that

course most conducive to the welfare of our own. It is natural that these

friendships should bear some proportion to the common interests of the

parties. The interesting relations between Great Britain and the United

States, are certainly of the first order; and as such are estimated,

and will be faithfully cultivated by us. These sentiments have been

communicated to you from time to time in the official correspondence of

the Secretary of State; but I have thought it might not be unacceptable

to be assured that they perfectly concur with my own personal convictions,

both in relation to yourself and the country in which you are. I pray you

to accept assurances of my high consideration and respect.

TO GOVERNOR MONROE.

WASHINGTON, July 15, 1802.

DEAR SIR,--Your favor of the 7th has been duly received. I am really

mortified at the base ingratitude of Callendar. It presents human nature

in a hideous form. It gives me concern, because I perceive that relief,

which was afforded him on mere motives of charity, may be viewed under

the aspect of employing him as a writer. When the Political Progress of

Britain first appeared in this country, it was in a periodical publication

called the Bee, where I saw it. I was speaking of it in terms of strong

approbation to a friend in Philadelphia, when he asked me if I knew that

the author was then in the city, a fugitive from prosecution on account of

that work, and in want of employ for his subsistence. This was the first

of my learning that Callendar was the author of the work. I considered him

as a man of science fled from persecution, and assured my friend of my

readiness to do whatever could serve him. It was long after this before

I saw him; probably not till 1798. He had, in the meantime, written a

second part of the Political Progress, much inferior to the first, and

his History of the United States. In 1798, I think, I was applied to by

Mr. Lieper to contribute to his relief. I did so. In 1799, I think, S. T.

Mason applied for him. I contributed again. He had, by this time, paid me

two or three personal visits. When he fled in a panic from Philadelphia to

General Mason's, he wrote to me that he was a fugitive in want of employ,

wished to know if he could get into a counting-house or a school, in my

neighborhood or in that of Richmond; that he had materials for a volume,

and if he could get as much money as would buy the paper, the profit of

the sale would be all his own. I availed myself of this pretext to cover

a mere charity, by desiring him to consider me a subscriber for as many

copies of his book as the money enclosed (fifty dollars) amounted to; but

to send me two copies only, as the others might lay till called for. But

I discouraged his coming into my neighborhood. His first writings here had

fallen far short of his original Political Progress, and the scurrilities

of his subsequent ones began evidently to do mischief. As to myself,

no man wished more to see his pen stopped; but I considered him still

as a proper object of benevolence. The succeeding year, he again wanted

money to buy paper for another volume. I made his letter, as before, the

occasion of giving him another fifty dollars. He considers these as proofs

of my approbation of his writings, when they were mere charities, yielded

under a strong conviction that he was injuring us by his writings. It is

known to many that the sums given to him were such, and even smaller than

I was in the habit of giving to others in distress, of the federal as well

as the republican party, without attention to political principles. Soon

after I was elected to the government, Callendar came on here, wishing to

be made postmaster at Richmond. I knew him to be totally unfit for it;

and however ready I was to aid him with my own charities, (and I then

gave him fifty dollars,) I did not think the public offices confided

to me to give away as charities. He took it in mortal offence, and from

that moment has been hauling off to his former enemies, the federalists.

Besides the letter I wrote him in answer to the one from General Mason's,

I wrote him another, containing answers to two questions he addressed

to me. 1. Whether Mr. Jay received salary as Chief Justice and Envoy at

the same time; and 2, something relative to the expenses of an embassy

to Constantinople. I think these were the only letters I ever wrote him

in answer to volumes he was perpetually writing to me. This is the true

state of what has passed between him and me. I do not know that it can be

used without committing me in controversy, as it were, with one too little

respected by the public to merit that notice. I leave to your judgment

what use can be made of these facts. Perhaps it will be better judged of,

when we see what use the tories will endeavor to make of their new friend.

I shall leave this on the 21st, and be at Monticello probably on the 24th,

or within two or three days of that, and shall hope, ere long, to see you

there.

Accept assurances of my affectionate attachment.

TO GOVERNOR MONROE.

WASHINGTON, July 17, 1802.

DEAR SIR,--After writing you on the 15th, I turned to my letter file to

see what letters I had written to Callendar, and found them to have been

of the dates of 1798, October the 11th, and 1799, September the 6th,

and October the 6th; but on looking for the letters, they were not in

their places, nor to be found. On recollection, I believe I sent them

to you a year or two ago. If you have them, I shall be glad to receive

them at Monticello, where I shall be on this day se'nnight. I enclose

you a paper which shows the tories mean to pervert these charities to

Callendar as much as they can. They will probably first represent me as

the patron and support of the Prospect before us, and other things of

Callender's; and then picking out all the scurrilities of the author

against General Washington, Mr. Adams, and others, impute them to me.

I, as well as most other republicans who were in the way of doing it,

contributed what I could afford to the support of the republican papers

and printers, paid sums of money for the Bee, the Albany Register, &c.,

when they were staggering under the sedition law; contributed to the fines

of Callendar himself, of Holt, Brown and others, suffering under that law.

I discharged, when I came into office, such as were under the persecution

of our enemies, without instituting any prosecutions in retaliation.

They may, therefore, with the same justice, impute to me, or to every

republican contributor, everything which was ever published in those

papers or by those persons. I must correct a fact in mine of the 15th.

I find I did not enclose the fifty dollars to Callendar himself while at

General Mason's, but authorized the general to draw on my correspondent at

Richmond, and to give the money to Callendar. So the other fifty dollars

of which he speaks were by order on my correspondent at Richmond.

Accept assurances of my affectionate esteem and respect.

TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON.

WASHINGTON, October 10, 1802.

DEAR SIR,--The departure of Madame Brugnard for France furnishes me a safe

conveyance of a letter, which I cannot avoid embracing, although I have

nothing particular for the subject of it. It is well, however, to be able

to inform you, generally, through a safe channel, that we stand completely

corrected of the error, that either the government or the nation of France

has any remains of friendship for us. The portion of that country which

forms an exception, though respectable in weight, is weak in numbers. On

the contrary, it appears evident, that an unfriendly spirit prevails in

the most important individuals of the government, towards us. In this

state of things, we shall so take our distance between the two rival

nations, as, remaining disengaged till necessity compels us, we may haul

finally to the enemy of that which shall make it necessary. We see all

the disadvantageous consequences of taking a side, and shall be forced

into it only by a more disagreeable alternative; in which event, we must

countervail the disadvantages by measures which will give us splendor

and power, but not as much happiness as our present system. We wish,

therefore, to remain well with France. But we see that no consequences,

however ruinous to them, can secure us with certainty against the

extravagance of her present rulers. I think, therefore, that while we

do nothing which the first nation on earth would deem crouching, we had

better give to all our communications with them a very mild, complaisant,

and even friendly complexion, but always independent. Ask no favors,

leave small and irritating things to be conducted by the individuals

interested in them, interfere ourselves but in the greatest cases, and

then not push them to irritation. No matter at present existing between

them and us is important enough to risk a breach of peace; peace being

indeed the most important of all things for us, except the preserving an

erect and independent attitude. Although I know your own judgment leads

you to pursue this line identically, yet I thought it just to strengthen

it by the concurrence of my own. You will have seen by our newspapers,

that with the aid of a lying renegado from republicanism, the federalists

have opened all their sluices of calumny. They say we lied them out of

power, and openly avow they will do the same by us. But it was not lies or

arguments on our part which dethroned them, but their own foolish acts,

sedition laws, alien laws, taxes, extravagances and heresies. Porcupine,

their friend, wrote them down. Callendar, their new recruit, will do

the same. Every decent man among them revolts at his filth; and there

cannot be a doubt, that were a Presidential election to come on this day,

they would certainly have but three New England States, and about half a

dozen votes from Maryland and North Carolina; these two States electing

by districts. Were all the States to elect by a general ticket, they

would have but three out of sixteen States. And these three are coming up

slowly. We do, indeed, consider Jersey and Delaware as rather doubtful.

Elections which have lately taken place there, but their event not yet

known here, will show the present point of their varying condition.

_My_ letters to you being merely private, I leave all details of business

to their official channel.

Accept assurances of my constant friendship and high respect.

P. S. We have received your letter announcing the arrival of Mr. Dupont.

TO ALBERT GALLATIN.

October 13, 1802.

You know my doubts, or rather convictions, about the unconstitutionality

of the act for building piers in the Delaware, and the fears that it

will lead to a bottomless expense, and to the greatest abuses. There

is, however, one intention of which the act is susceptible, and which

will bring it within the Constitution; and we ought always to presume

that the real intention which is alone consistent with the Constitution.

Although the power to regulate commerce does not give a power to build

piers, wharves, open ports, clear the beds of rivers, dig canals, build

warehouses, build manufacturing machines, set up manufactories, cultivate

the earth, to all of which the power would go if it went to the first, yet

a power to provide and maintain a navy, is a power to provide receptacles

for it, and places to cover and preserve it. In choosing the places

where this money should be laid out, I should be much disposed, as far

as contracts will permit, to confine it to such place or places as the

ships of war may lie at, and be protected from ice; and I should be for

stating this in a message to Congress, in order to prevent the effect of

the present example. This act has been built on the exercise of the power

of building light houses, as a regulation of commerce. But I well remember

the opposition, on this very ground, to the first act for building a light

house. The utility of the thing has sanctioned the infraction. But if on

that infraction we build a second, on that second a third, &c., any one

of the powers in the Constitution may be made to comprehend every power

of government. Will you read the enclosed letters on the subject of New

Orleans, and think what we can do or propose in the case?

Accept my affectionate salutations.

TO LEVI LINCOLN.

WASHINGTON, October 25, 1802.

DEAR SIR,--Your favor of the 16th is received, and that of July the 24th

had come to hand while I was at Monticello. I sincerely condole with

you on the sickly state of your family, and hope this will find them

re-established with the approach of the cold season. As yet, however,

we have had no frost in this place, and it is believed the yellow fever

still continues in Philadelphia, if not in Baltimore. We shall all be

happy to see you here whenever the state of your family admits it. You

will have seen by the newspapers that we have gained ground generally

in the elections, that we have lost ground in not a single district of

the United States, except Kent county in Delaware, where a religious

dissension occasioned it. In Jersey the elections are always carried

by small majorities, consequently the issue is affected by the smallest

accidents. By the paper of the last night we have a majority of three in

their Council, and one in their House of Representatives; another says

it is only of one in each House: even the latter is sufficient for every

purpose. The opinion I originally formed has never been changed, that

such of the body of the people as thought themselves federalists, would

find that they were in truth republicans, and would come over to us by

degrees; but that their leaders had gone too far ever to change. Their

bitterness increases with their desperation. They are trying slanders now

which nothing could prompt but a gall which blinds their judgments as well

as their consciences. I shall take no other revenge, than, by a steady

pursuit of economy and peace, and by the establishment of republican

principles in substance and in form, to sink federalism into an abyss from

which there shall be no resurrection for it. I still think our original

idea as to office is best: that is, to depend, for the obtaining a just

participation, on deaths, resignations, and delinquencies. This will

least affect the tranquillity of the people, and prevent their giving into

the suggestion of our enemies, that ours has been a contest for office,

not for principle. This is rather a slow operation, but it is sure if we

pursue it steadily, which, however, has not been done with the undeviating

resolution I could have wished. To these means of obtaining a just share

in the transaction of the public business, shall be added one other,

to wit, removal for electioneering activity, or open and industrious

opposition to the principles of the present government, legislative and

executive. Every officer of the government may vote at elections according

to his conscience; but we should betray the cause committed to our care,

were we to permit the influence of official patronage to be used to

overthrow that cause. Your present situation will enable you to judge of

prominent offenders in your State, in the case of the present election. I

pray you to seek them, to mark them, to be quite sure of your ground, that

we may commit no error or wrong, and leave the rest to me. I have been

urged to remove Mr. Whittemore, the surveyor of Gloucester, on grounds of

neglect of duty and industrious opposition. Yet no facts are so distinctly

charged as to make the step sure which we should take in this. Will you

take the trouble to satisfy yourself on this point? I think it not amiss

that it should be known that we are determined to remove officers who

are active or open mouthed against the government, by which I mean the

legislature as well as the executive. Accept assurances of my sincere

friendship and high respect.

TO THOMAS COOPER, ESQ.

WASHINGTON, November 29, 1802.

DEAR SIR,--Your favor of October 25th was received in due time, and I

thank you for the long extract you took the trouble of making from Mr.

Stone's letter. Certainly the information it communicates as to Alexander

kindles a great deal of interest in his existence, and strong spasms of

the heart in his favor. Though his means of doing good are great, yet the

materials on which he is to work are refractory. Whether he engages in

private correspondences abroad, as the King of Prussia did much, and his

grandfather sometimes, I know not; but certainly such a correspondence

would be very interesting to those who are sincerely anxious to see

mankind raised from their present abject condition. It delights me to find

that there are persons who still think that all is not lost in France:

that their retrogradation from a limited to an unlimited despotism, is

but to give themselves a new impulse. But I see not how or when. The

press, the only tocsin of a nation, is completely silenced there, and all

means of a general effort taken away. However, I am willing to hope, and

as long as anybody will hope with me; and I am entirely persuaded that

the agitations of the public mind advance its powers, and that at every

vibration between the points of liberty and despotism, something will be

gained for the former. As men become better informed, their rulers must

respect them the more. I think you will be sensible that our citizens are

fast returning, from the panic into which they were artfully thrown to the

dictates of their own reason; and I believe the delusions they have seen

themselves hurried into will be useful as a lesson under similar attempts

on them in future. The good effects of our late fiscal arrangements will

certainly tend to unite them in opinion, and in confidence as to the

views of their public functionaries, legislative and executive. The path

we have to pursue is so quiet that we have nothing scarcely to propose to

our Legislature. A noiseless course, meddling with the affairs of others,

unattractive of notice, is a mark that society is going on in happiness.

If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people,

under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy. Their

finances are now under such a course of application as nothing could

derange but war or federalism. The gripe of the latter has shown itself

as deadly as the jaws of the former. Our adversaries say we are indebted

to their providence for the means of paying the public debt. We never

charged them with the want of foresight in providing money, but with the

misapplication of it after they had provided it. We say they raised not

only enough, but too much; and that after giving back the surplus we do

more with a part than they did with the whole.

Your letter of November 18th is also received. The places of midshipman

are so much sought that (being limited) there is never a vacancy. Your son

shall be set down for the 2d, which shall; the 1st being anticipated. We

are not long generally without vacancies happening. As soon as he can be

appointed you shall know it. I pray you to accept assurances of my great

attachment and respect.

TO GOVERNOR MONROE.

WASHINGTON, January 13, 1803.

DEAR SIR,--I dropped you a line on the 10th, informing you of a nomination

I had made of you to the Senate, and yesterday I enclosed you their

approbation, not then having time to write. The agitation of the public

mind on occasion of the late suspension of our right of deposit at New

Orleans is extreme. In the western country it is natural, and grounded

on honest motives. In the sea ports it proceeds from a desire for war,

which increases the mercantile lottery: in the federalists, generally,

and especially those of Congress, the object is to force us into war if

possible, in order to derange our finances, or if this cannot be done,

to attach the western country to them, as their best friends, and thus

get again into power. Remonstrances, memorials, &c., are now circulating

through the whole of the western country, and signed by the body of

the people. The measures we have been pursuing, being invisible, do not

satisfy their minds. Something sensible, therefore, has become necessary;

and indeed our object of purchasing New Orleans and the Floridas is a

measure liable to assume so many shapes, that no instructions could

be squared to fit them. It was essential then, to send a minister

extraordinary, to be joined with the ordinary one, with discretionary

powers; first, however, well impressed with all our views, and therefore

qualified to meet and modify to these every form of proposition which

could come from the other party. This could be done only in full and

frequent oral communications. Having determined on this, there could not

be two opinions among the republicans as to the person. You possessed the

unlimited confidence of the administration and of the western people; and

generally of the republicans everywhere; and were you to refuse to go, no

other man can be found who does this. The measure has already silenced

the federalists here. Congress will no longer be agitated by them; and

the country will become calm fast as the information extends over it. All

eyes, all hopes are now fixed on you; and were you to decline, the chagrin

would be universal, and would shake under your feet the high ground

on which you stand with the public. Indeed, I know nothing which would

produce such a shock. For on the event of this mission depend the future

destinies of this republic. If we cannot by a purchase of the country,

insure to ourselves a course of perpetual peace and friendship with all

nations, then as war cannot be distant, it behooves us immediately to be

preparing for that course, without, however, hastening it; and it may

be necessary (on your failure on the continent) to cross the channel.

We shall get entangled in European politics, and figuring more, be much

less happy and prosperous. This can only be prevented by a successful

issue to your present mission. I am sensible after the measures you have

taken for getting into a different line of business, that it will be

a great sacrifice on your part, and presents from the season and other

circumstances serious difficulties. But some men are born for the public.

Nature by fitting them for the service of the human race on a broad scale,

has stamped them with the evidences of her destination and their duty.

But I am particularly concerned, that, in the present case, you have

more than one sacrifice to make. To reform the prodigalities of our

predecessors is understood to be peculiarly our duty, and to bring the

government to a simple and economical course. They, in order to increase

expense, debt, taxation and patronage, tried always how much they could

give. The outfit given to ministers resident to enable them to furnish

their house, but given by no nation to a temporary minister, who is never

expected to take a house or to entertain, but considered on the footing of

a _voyageur_, they gave to their extraordinary ministers by wholesale. In

the beginning of our administration, among other articles of reformation

in expense, it was determined not to give an outfit to ministers

extraordinary, and not to incur the expense with any minister of sending

a frigate to carry or bring him. The Boston happened to be going to the

Mediterranean, and was permitted, therefore, to take up Mr. Livingston,

and touch in a port of France. A frigate was denied to Charles Pinckney,

and has been refused to Mr. King for his return. Mr. Madison's friendship

and mine to you being so well known, the public will have eagle eyes to

watch if we grant you any indulgences out of the general rule; and on the

other hand, the example set in your case will be more cogent on future

ones, and produce greater approbation to our conduct. The allowance,

therefore, will be in this, and all similar cases, all the expenses of

your journey and voyage, taking a ship's cabin to yourself, nine thousand

dollars a year from your leaving home till the proceedings of your mission

are terminated, and then the quarter's salary for the expenses of your

return, as prescribed by law. As to the time of your going, you cannot too

much hasten it, as the moment in France is critical. St. Domingo delays

their taking possession of Louisiana, and they are in the last distress

for money for current purposes. You should arrange your affairs for an

absence of a year at least, perhaps for a long one. It will be necessary

for you to stay here some days on your way to New York. You will receive

here what advance you choose.

Accept assurances of my constant and affectionate attachment.

TO M. DUPONT.

WASHINGTON, February 1, 1803.

DEAR SIR,--I have to acknowledge the receipt of your favors of August

the 16th and October the 4th. The latter I received with peculiar

satisfaction; because, while it holds up terms which cannot be entirely

yielded, it proposes such as a mutual spirit of accommodation and

sacrifice of opinion may bring to some point of union. While we were

preparing on this subject such modifications of the propositions of your

letter of October the 4th, as we could assent to, an event happened

which obliged us to adopt measures of urgency. The suspension of the

right of deposit at New Orleans, ceded to us by our treaty with Spain,

threw our whole country into such a ferment as imminently threatened

its peace. This, however, was believed to be the act of the Intendant,

unauthorized by his government. But it showed the necessity of making

effectual arrangements to secure the peace of the two countries against

the indiscreet acts of subordinate agents. The urgency of the case, as

well as the public spirit, therefore induced us to make a more solemn

appeal to the justice and judgment of our neighbors, by sending a minister

extraordinary to impress them with the necessity of some arrangement.

Mr. Monroe has been selected. His good dispositions cannot be doubted.

Multiplied conversations with him, and views of the subject taken in

all the shapes in which it can present itself, have possessed him with

our estimates of everything relating to it, with a minuteness which no

written communication to Mr. Livingston could ever have attained. These

will prepare them to meet and decide on every form of proposition which

can occur, without awaiting new instructions from hence, which might

draw to an indefinite length a discussion where circumstances imperiously

oblige us to a prompt decision. For the occlusion of the Mississippi is a

state of things in which we cannot exist. He goes, therefore, joined with

Chancellor Livingston, to aid in the issue of a crisis the most important

the United States have ever met since their independence, and which is

to decide their future character and career. The confidence which the

government of France reposes in you, will undoubtedly give great weight

to your information. An equal confidence on our part, founded on your

knowledge of the subject, your just views of it, your good dispositions

towards this country, and my long experience of your personal faith

and friendship, assures me that you will render between us all the

good offices in your power. The interests of the two countries being

absolutely the same as to this matter, your aid may be conscientiously

given. It will often perhaps, be possible for you, having a freedom

of communication, _omnibus horis_, which diplomatic gentlemen will be

excluded from by forms, to smooth difficulties by representations and

reasonings, which would be received with more suspicion from them. You

will thereby render great good to both countries. For our circumstances

are so imperious as to admit of no delay as to our course; and the use

of the Mississippi so indispensable, that we cannot hesitate one moment

to hazard our existence for its maintenance. If we fail in this effort to

put it beyond the reach of accident, we see the destinies we have to run,

and prepare at once for them. Not but that we shall still endeavor to go

on in peace and friendship with our neighbors as long as we can, _if our

rights of navigation and deposit are respected_; but as we foresee that

the caprices of the local officers, and the abuse of those rights by our

boatmen and navigators, which neither government can prevent, will keep

up a state of irritation which cannot long be kept inactive, we should

be criminally improvident not to take at once eventual measures for

strengthening ourselves for the contest. It may be said, if this object

be so all-important to us, why do we not offer such a sum to as to insure

its purchase? The answer is simple. We are an agricultural people, poor

in money, and owing great debts. These will be falling due by instalments

for fifteen years to come, and require from us the practice of a rigorous

economy to accomplish their payment; and it is our principle to pay to a

moment whatever we have engaged, and never to engage what we cannot, and

mean not faithfully to pay. We have calculated our resources, and find

the sum to be moderate which they would enable us to pay, and we know from

late trials that little can be added to it by borrowing. The country, too,

which we wish to purchase, except the portion already granted, and which

must be confirmed to the private holders, is a barren sand, six hundred

miles from east to west, and from thirty to forty and fifty miles from

north to south, formed by deposition of the sands by the Gulf Stream in

its circular course round the Mexican Gulf, and which being spent after

performing a semicircle, has made from its last depositions the sand bank

of East Florida. In West Florida, indeed, there are on the borders of

the rivers some rich bottoms, formed by the mud brought from the upper

country. These bottoms are all possessed by individuals. But the spaces

between river and river are mere banks of sand; and in East Florida there

are neither rivers, nor consequently any bottoms. We cannot then make

anything by a sale of the lands to individuals. So that it is peace alone

which makes it an object with us, and which ought to make the cession of

it desirable to France. Whatever power, other than ourselves, holds the

country east of the Mississippi becomes our natural enemy. Will such a

possession do France as much good, as such an enemy may do her harm? And

how long would it be hers, were such an enemy, situated at its door, added

to Great Britain? I confess, it appears to me as essential to France to

keep at peace with us, as it is to us to keep at peace with her; and that,

if this cannot be secured without some compromise as to the territory in

question, it will be useful for both to make some sacrifices to effect the

compromise.

You see, my good friend, with what frankness I communicate with you on

this subject; that I hide nothing from you, and that I am endeavoring

to turn our private friendship to the good of our respective countries.

And can private friendship ever answer a nobler end than by keeping two

nations at peace, who, if this new position which one of them is taking

were rendered innocent, have more points of common interest, and fewer

of collision, than any two on earth; who become natural friends, instead

of natural enemies, which this change of position would make them. My

letters of April the 25th, May the 5th, and this present one have been

written, without any disguise, in this view; and while safe in your hands

they can never do anything but good. But you and I are now at that time

of life when our call to another state of being cannot be distant, and

may be near. Besides, your government is in the habit of seizing papers

without notice. These letters might thus get into hands, which, like the

hornet which extracts poison from the same flower that yields honey to

the bee, might make them the ground of blowing up a flame between our two

countries, and make our friendship and confidence in each other effect

exactly the reverse of what we are aiming it. Being yourself thoroughly

possessed of every idea in them, let me ask from your friendship an

immediate consignment of them to the flames. That alone can make all safe,

and ourselves secure.

I intended to have answered you here, on the subject of your agency in the

transacting what money matters we may have at Paris, and for that purpose

meant to have conferred with Mr. Gallatin. But he has, for two or three

days, been confined to his room, and is not yet able to do business. If he

is out before Mr. Monroe's departure, I will write an additional letter on

that subject. Be assured that it will be a great additional satisfaction

to me to render services to yourself and sons by the same acts which shall

at the same time promote the public service. Be so good as to present my

respectful salutations to Madame Dupont, and to accept yourself assurances

of my constant and affectionate friendship and great respect.

TO CHANCELLOR LIVINGSTON.

WASHINGTON, February 3, 1803.

DEAR SIR,--My last to you was by Mr. Dupont. Since that I received

yours of May 22d. Mr. Madison supposes you have written a subsequent

one which has never come to hand. A late suspension by the Intendant of

New Orleans of our right of deposit there, without which the right of

navigation is impracticable, has thrown this country into such a flame of

hostile disposition as can scarcely be described. The western country was

peculiarly sensible to it as you may suppose. Our business was to take the

most effectual pacific measures in our power to remove the suspension,

and at the same time to persuade our countrymen that pacific measures

would be the most effectual and the most speedily so. The opposition

caught it as a plank in a shipwreck, hoping it would enable them to tack

the Western people to them. They raised the cry of war, were intriguing

in all quarters to exasperate the Western inhabitants to arm and go down

on their own authority and possess themselves of New Orleans, and in the

meantime were daily reiterating, in new shapes, inflammatory resolutions

for the adoption of the House. As a remedy to all this we determined to

name a minister extraordinary to go immediately to Paris and Madrid to

settle this matter. This measure being a visible one, and the person named

peculiarly proper with the Western country, crushed at once and put an

end to all further attempts on the Legislature. From that moment all has

become quiet; and the more readily in the Western country, as the sudden

alliance of these new federal friends had of itself already began to make

them suspect the wisdom of their own course. The measure was moreover

proposed from another cause. We must know at once whether we can acquire

New Orleans or not. We are satisfied nothing else will secure us against

a war at no distant period; and we cannot press this reason without

beginning those arrangements which will be necessary if war is hereafter

to result. For this purpose it was necessary that the negotiators should

be fully possessed of every idea we have on the subject, so as to meet

the propositions of the opposite party, in whatever form they may be

offered; and give them a shape admissible by us without being obliged to

await new instructions hence. With this view, we have joined Mr. Monroe

with yourself at Paris, and to Mr. Pintency at Madrid, although we believe

it will be hardly necessary for him to go to this last place. Should we

fail in this object of the mission, a further one will be superadded for

the other side of the channel. On this subject you will be informed by

the Secretary of State, and Mr. Monroe will be able also to inform you

of all our views and purposes. By him I send another letter to Dupont,

whose aid may be of the greatest service, as it will be divested of the

shackles of form. The letter is left open for your perusal, after which

I wish a wafer stuck in it before it be delivered. The official and the

verbal communications to you by Mr. Monroe will be so full and minute,

that I need not trouble you with an inofficial repetition of them. The

future destinies of our country hang on the event of this negotiation,

and I am sure they could not be placed in more able or more zealous hands.

On our parts we shall be satisfied that what you do not effect, cannot be

effected. Accept therefore assurances of my sincere and constant affection

and high respect.

TO MR. PICTET.

WASHINGTON, February 5, 1803.

DEAR SIR,--It is long since I might have acknowledged your favor of May

20, 1801, which however I did not receive till January, 1802. My incessant

occupations on matters which will not bear delay, occasion those which

can be put off to lie often for a considerable time. I rejoice that the

opinion which I gave you on the removal hither proved useful. I knew

it was not safe for you to take such a step until it would be done on

sure ground. I hoped at that time that some canal shares, which were

at the disposal of General Washington, might have been applied towards

the establishment of a good seminary of learning; but he had already

proceeded too far on another plan to change their direction. I have still

had constantly in view to propose to the legislature of Virginia the

establishment of one on as large a scale as our present circumstances

would require or bear. But as yet no favorable moment has occurred. In

the meanwhile I am endeavoring to procure materials for a good plan.

With this view I am to ask the favor of you to give me a sketch of the

branches of science taught in your college, how they are distributed among

the professors, that is to say, how many professors there are, and what

branches of science are allotted to each professor, and the days and hours

assigned to each branch. Your successful experience in the distribution of

business will be a valuable guide to us, who are without experience. I am

sensible I am imposing on your goodness a troublesome task; but I believe

every son of science feels a strong and disinterested desire of promoting

it in every part of the earth, and it is the consciousness as well as

confidence in this which emboldens me to make the present request.

In the line of science we have little new here. Our citizens almost

all follow some industrious occupation, and therefore have little

time to devote to abstract science. In the arts, and especially in the

mechanical arts, many ingenious improvements are made in consequence

of the patent-right giving exclusive use of them for fourteen years.

But the great mass of our people are agricultural; and the commercial

cities, though, by the command of newspapers, they make a great deal

of noise, have little effect in the direction of the government. They

are as different in sentiment and character from the country people as

any two distinct nations, and are clamorous against the order of things

established by the agricultural interest. Under this order, our citizens

generally are enjoying a very great degree of liberty and security in the

most temperate manner. Every man being at his ease, feels an interest in

the preservation of order, and comes forth to preserve it at the first

call of the magistrate. We are endeavoring too to reduce the government

to the practice of a rigorous economy, to avoid burthening the people,

and arming the magistrate with a patronage of money, which might be used

to corrupt and undermine the principles of our government. I state these

general outlines to you, because I believe you take some interest in our

fortune, and because our newspapers for the most part, present only the

caricatures of disaffected minds. Indeed the abuses of the freedom of

the press here have been carried to a length never before known or borne

by any civilized nation. But it is so difficult to draw a clear line of

separation between the abuse and the wholesome use of the press, that

as yet we have found it better to trust the public judgment, rather than

the magistrate, with the discrimination between truth and falsehood. And

hitherto the public judgment has performed that office with wonderful

correctness. Should you favor me with a letter, the safest channel of

conveyance will be the American minister at Paris or London. I pray you to

accept assurances of my great esteem, and high respect and consideration.

TO GENERAL JACKSON.

WASHINGTON, February 16, 1803.

DEAR SIR,--Your favor of the 14th was received on the same day, and will

be duly attended to in the course of our affairs with the Creeks. In

keeping agents among the Indians, two objects are principally in view: 1.

The preservation of peace; 2. The obtaining lands. Towards effecting the

latter object, we consider the leading the Indians to agriculture as the

principal means from which we can expect much effect in future. When they

shall cultivate small spots of earth, and see how useless their extensive

forests are, they will sell, from time to time, to help out their personal

labor in stocking their farms, and procuring clothes and comforts from

our trading houses. Towards the attainment of our two objects of peace

and lands, it is essential that our agent acquire that sort of influence

over the Indians which rests on confidence. In this respect, I suppose

that no man has ever obtained more influence than Colonel Hawkins. Towards

the preservation of peace, he is omnipotent; in the encouragement of

agriculture, he is indefatigable and successful. These are important

portions of his duty. But doubts are entertained by some whether he is not

more attached to the interests of the Indians than of the United States;

whether he is willing they should cede lands, when they are willing to do

it. If his own solemn protestations can command any faith, he urges the

ceding lands as far as he finds it practicable to induce them. He only

refuses to urge what he knows cannot be obtained. He is not willing to

destroy his own influence by pressing what he knows cannot be obtained.

This is his representation. Against this I should not be willing to

substitute suspicion for proof; but I shall always be open to any proofs

that he obstructs cessions of land which the Indians are willing to make;

and of this, Sir, you may be assured, that he shall be placed under as

strong a pressure from the executive to obtain cessions as he can feel

from any opposite quarter to obstruct. He shall be made sensible that

his value will be estimated by us in proportion to the benefits he can

obtain for us. I am myself alive to the obtaining lands from the Indians

by all _honest and peaceable means_, and I believe that the honest and

peaceable means adopted by us will obtain them as fast as the expansion

of our settlements, with due regard to compactness, will require. The war

department, charged with Indian affairs, is under the impression of these

principles, and will second my views with sincerity. And, in the present

case, besides the official directions which will go to Colonel Hawkins,

immediately to spare no efforts from which any success can be hoped to

obtain the residue of the Oconee and Oakmulgee fork, I shall myself write

to Colonel Hawkins, and possess him fully of my views and expectations;

and this with such explanations as I trust will bring him cordially into

them, as they are unquestionably equally for the interest of the Indians

and ourselves.

I have availed myself of the occasion furnished by your letter

of explaining to you my views on this subject with candor, and of

assuring you they shall be pursued unremittingly. When speaking of

the Oakmulgee fork, I ought to have added, that we shall do whatever

can be done properly in behalf of Wafford's settlement; and that as to

the South-Eastern road, it will be effected, as we consider ourselves

entitled, on principles acknowledged by all men, to an innocent passage

through the lands of a neighbor, and to admit no refusal of it. Accept

assurances of my great esteem and high consideration.

TO COLONEL HAWKINS.

WASHINGTON, February 18, 1803.

DEAR SIR,--Mr. Hill's return to you offers so safe a conveyance for a

letter, that I feel irresistibly disposed to write one, though there is

but little to write about. You have been so long absent from this part of

the world, and the state of society so changed in that time, that details

respecting those who compose it are no longer interesting or intelligible

to you. One source of great change in social intercourse arose while

you were with us, though its effects were as yet scarcely sensible on

society or government. I mean the British treaty, which produced a schism

that went on widening and rankling till the years '98, '99, when a final

dissolution of all bonds, civil and social, appeared imminent. In that

awful crisis, the people awaked from the phrenzy into which they had been

thrown, began to return to their sober and ancient principles, and have

now become five-sixths of one sentiment, to wit, for peace, economy, and a

government bottomed on popular election in its legislative and executive

branches. In the public counsels the federal party hold still one-third.

This, however, will lessen, but not exactly to the standard of the people;

because it will be forever seen that of bodies of men even elected by the

people, there will always be a greater proportion aristocratic than among

their constituents. The present administration had a task imposed on it

which was unavoidable, and could not fail to exert the bitterest hostility

in those opposed to it. The preceding administration left ninety-nine out

of every hundred in public offices of the federal sect. Republicanism

had been the mark on Cain which had rendered those who bore it exiles

from all portion in the trusts and authorities of their country. This

description of citizens called imperiously and justly for a restoration

of right. It was intended, however, to have yielded to this in so moderate

a degree as might conciliate those who had obtained exclusive possession;

but as soon as they were touched, they endeavored to set fire to the four

corners of the public fabric, and obliged us to deprive of the influence

of office several who were using it with activity and vigilance to destroy

the confidence of the people in their government, and thus to proceed in

the drudgery of removal farther than would have been, had not their own

hostile enterprises rendered it necessary in self-defence. But I think

it will not be long before the whole nation will be consolidated in their

ancient principles, excepting a few who have committed themselves beyond

recall, and who will retire to obscurity and settled disaffection.

Although you will receive, through the official channel of the War Office,

every communication necessary to develop to you our views respecting

the Indians, and to direct your conduct, yet, supposing it will be

satisfactory to you, and to those with whom you are placed, to understand

my personal dispositions and opinions in this particular, I shall avail

myself of this private letter to state them generally. I consider the

business of hunting as already become insufficient to furnish clothing

and subsistence to the Indians. The promotion of agriculture, therefore,

and household manufacture, are essential in their preservation, and I

am disposed to aid and encourage it liberally. This will enable them to

live on much smaller portions of land, and indeed will render their vast

forests useless but for the range of cattle; for which purpose, also,

as they become better farmers, they will be found useless, and even

disadvantageous. While they are learning to do better on less land, our

increasing numbers will be calling for more land, and thus a coincidence

of interests will be produced between those who have lands to spare, and

want other necessaries, and those who have such necessaries to spare, and

want lands. This commerce, then, will be for the good of both, and those

who are friends to both ought to encourage it. You are in the station

peculiarly charged with this interchange, and who have it peculiarly in

your power to promote among the Indians a sense of the superior value

of a little land, well cultivated, over a great deal, unimproved, and

to encourage them to make this estimate truly. The wisdom of the animal

which amputates and abandons to the hunter the parts for which he is

pursued should be theirs, with this difference, that the former sacrifices

what is useful, the latter what is not. In truth, the ultimate point of

rest and happiness for them is to let our settlements and theirs meet

and blend together, to intermix, and become one people. Incorporating

themselves with us as citizens of the United States, this is what the

natural progress of things will of course bring on, and it will be better

to promote than to retard it. Surely it will be better for them to be

identified with us, and preserved in the occupation of their lands, than

be exposed to the many casualties which may endanger them while a separate

people. I have little doubt but that your reflections must have led you

to view the various ways in which their history may terminate, and to

see that this is the one most for their happiness. And we have already

had an application from a settlement of Indians to become citizens of

the United States. It is possible, perhaps probable, that this idea may

be so novel as that it might shock the Indians, were it even hinted to

them. Of course, you will keep it for your own reflection; but, convinced

of its soundness, I feel it consistent with pure morality to lead them

towards it, to familiarize them to the idea that it is for their interest

to cede lands at times to the United States, and for us thus to procure

gratifications to our citizens, from time to time, by new acquisitions

of land. From no quarter is there at present so strong a pressure on

this subject as from Georgia for the residue of the fork of Oconee and

Oakmulgee; and indeed I believe it will be difficult to resist it. As it

has been mentioned that the Creeks had at one time made up their minds

to sell this, and were only checked in it by some indiscretion of an

individual, I am in hopes you will be able to bring them to it again. I

beseech you to use your most earnest endeavors; for it will relieve us

here from a great pressure, and yourself from the unreasonable suspicions

of the Georgians which you notice, that you are more attached to the

interests of the Indians than of the United States, and throw cold

water on their willingness to part with lands. It is so easy to excite

suspicion, that none are to be wondered at; but I am in hopes it will be

in your power to quash them by effecting the object.

Mr. Madison enjoys better health since his removal to this place than

he had done in Orange. Mr. Giles is in a state of health feared to be

irrecoverable, although he may hold on for some time, and perhaps be

re-established. Browze Trist is now in the Mississippi territory, forming

an establishment for his family, which is still in Albemarle, and will

remove to the Mississippi in the spring. Mrs. Trist, his mother, begins

to yield a little to time. I retain myself very perfect health, having not

had twenty hours of fever in forty-two years past. I have sometimes had a

troublesome headache, and some slight rheumatic pains; but now sixty years

old nearly, I have had as little to complain of in point of health as most

people. I learn you have the gout. I did not expect that Indian cookery

or Indian fare would produce that; but it is considered as a security for

good health otherwise. That it may be so with you, I sincerely pray, and

tender you my friendly and respectful salutations.

TO ----.

WASHINGTON, February 25, 1803.

SIR,--In compliance with a request of the House of Representatives of the

United States, as well as with a sense of what is necessary, I take the

liberty of urging on you the importance and indispensable necessity of

vigorous exertions, on the part of the State governments, to carry into

effect the militia system adopted by the national Legislature, agreeable

to the powers reserved to the States respectively, by the Constitution of

the United States, and in a manner the best calculated to ensure such a

degree of military discipline, and knowledge of tactics, as will under the

auspices of a benign providence, render the militia a sure and permanent

bulwark of national defence.

None but an armed nation can dispense with a standing army; to keep ours

armed and disciplined, is therefore at all times important, but especially

so at a moment when rights the most essential to our welfare have been

violated, and an infraction of treaty committed without color or pretext;

and although we are willing to believe that this has been the act of a

subordinate agent only, yet is it wise to prepare for the possibility that

it may have been the leading measure of a system. While, therefore, we

are endeavoring, and with a considerable degree of confidence, to obtain

by friendly negotiation a peaceable redress of the injury, and effectual

provision against its repetition, let us array the strength of the nation,

and be ready to do with promptitude and effect whatever a regard to

justice and our future security may require.

In order that I may have a full and correct view of the resources of our

country in all its different parts, I must desire you, with as little

delay as possible, to have me furnished with a return of the militia, and

of the arms and accoutrements of your State, and of the several counties,

or other geographical divisions of it.

Accept assurances of my high consideration and respect.

TO DR. BARTON.

WASHINGTON, February 27, 1803.

DEAR SIR,--I enclose to you a copy of two discourses sent you by Mr.

Lalepida through the hands of Mr. Paine, who delivered them with some sent

me. What follows in that letter is strictly confidential. You know we have

been many years wishing to have the Missouri explored, and whatever river,

heading with that, runs into the western ocean. Congress, in some secret

proceedings, have yielded to a proposition I made them for permitting

me to have it done. It is to be undertaken immediately, with a party of

about ten, and I have appointed Captain Lewis, my Secretary, to conduct

it. It was impossible to find a character who, to a complete science in

Botany, Natural History, Mineralogy and Astronomy, joined the firmness of

constitution and character, prudence, habits adapted to the woods, and

familiarity with the Indian manners and character, requisite for this

undertaking. All the latter qualifications Captain Lewis has. Although

no regular botanist, &c., he possesses a remarkable store of accurate

observation on all the subjects of the three kingdoms, and will therefore

readily single out whatever presents itself new to him in either; and

he has qualified himself for taking the observations of longitude and

latitude necessary to fix the geography of the line he passes through.

In order to draw his attention at once, to the objects most desirable, I

must ask the favor of you to prepare for him a note of those in the lines

of botany, zoology, or of Indian history, which you think most worthy of

enquiry and observation. He will be with you in Philadelphia in two or

three weeks, and will wait on you, and receive thankfully on paper, and

any verbal communications which you may be so good as to make to him. I

make no apology for this trouble, because I know that the same wish to

promote science which has induced me to bring forward this proposition,

will induce you to aid in promoting it. Accept assurances of my friendly

esteem and high respect.

TO GOVERNOR HARRISON.

WASHINGTON, February 27, 1803.

DEAR SIR,--While at Monticello in August last I received your favor of

August 8th, and meant to have acknowledged it on my return to the seat of

government at the close of the ensuing month, but on my return I found

that you were expected to be on here in person, and this expectation

continued till winter. I have since received your favor of December 30th.

In the former you mentioned the plan of the town which you had done me the

honor to name after me, and to lay out according to an idea I had formerly

expressed to you. I am thoroughly persuaded that it will be found handsome

and pleasant, and I do believe it to be the best means of preserving

the cities of America from the scourge of the yellow fever, which being

peculiar to our country, must be derived from some peculiarity in it.

That peculiarity I take to be our cloudless skies. In Europe, where the

sun does not shine more than half the number of days in the year which it

does in America, they can build their town in a solid block with impunity;

but here a constant sun produces too great an accumulation of heat to

admit that. Ventilation is indispensably necessary. Experience has taught

us that in the open air of the country the yellow fever is not only not

generated, but ceases to be infectious. I cannot decide from the drawing

you sent me, whether you have laid off streets round the squares thus: or

only the diagonal streets therein marked. The former was my idea, and is,

I imagine, most convenient.

[Illustration: Pattern of squares.]

You will receive herewith an answer to your letter as President of

the Convention; and from the Secretary of War you receive from time

to time information and instructions as to our Indian affairs. These

communications being for the public records, are restrained always to

particular objects and occasions; but this letter being unofficial and

private, I may with safety give you a more extensive view of our policy

respecting the Indians, that you may the better comprehend the parts

dealt out to you in detail through the official channel, and observing

the system of which they make a part, conduct yourself in unison with it

in cases where you are obliged to act without instruction. Our system is

to live in perpetual peace with the Indians, to cultivate an affectionate

attachment from them, by everything just and liberal which we can do

for them within the bounds of reason, and by giving them effectual

protection against wrongs from our own people. The decrease of game

rendering their subsistence by hunting insufficient, we wish to draw

them to agriculture, to spinning and weaving. The latter branches they

take up with great readiness, because they fall to the women, who gain

by quitting the labors of the field for those which are exercised within

doors. When they withdraw themselves to the culture of a small piece of

land, they will perceive how useless to them are their extensive forests,

and will be willing to pare them off from time to time in exchange for

necessaries for their farms and families. To promote this disposition to

exchange lands, which they have to spare and we want, for necessaries,

which we have to spare and they want, we shall push our trading uses,

and be glad to see the good and influential individuals among them run

in debt, because we observe that when these debts get beyond what the

individuals can pay, they become willing to lop them off by a cession of

lands. At our trading houses, too, we mean to sell so low as merely to

repay us cost and charges, so as neither to lessen or enlarge our capital.

This is what private traders cannot do, for they must gain; they will

consequently retire from the competition, and we shall thus get clear of

this pest without giving offence or umbrage to the Indians. In this way

our settlements will gradually circumscribe and approach the Indians, and

they will in time either incorporate with us as citizens of the United

States, or remove beyond the Mississippi. The former is certainly the

termination of their history most happy for themselves; but, in the whole

course of this, it is essential to cultivate their love. As to their

fear, we presume that our strength and their weakness is now so visible

that they must see we have only to shut our hand to crush them, and that

all our liberalities to them proceed from motives of pure humanity only.

Should any tribe be fool-hardy enough to take up the hatchet at any time,

the seizing the whole country of that tribe, and driving them across

the Mississippi, as the only condition of peace, would be an example to

others, and a furtherance of our final consolidation.

Combined with these views, and to be prepared against the occupation of

Louisiana by a powerful and enterprising people, it is important that,

setting less value on interior extension of purchases from the Indians,

we bend our whole views to the purchase and settlement of the country

on the Mississippi, from its mouth to its northern regions, that we may

be able to present as strong a front on our western as on our eastern

border, and plant on the Mississippi itself the means of its own defence.

We now own from 31' to the Yazoo, and hope this summer to purchase what

belongs to the Choctaws from the Yazoo up to their boundary, supposed

to be about opposite the mouth of Acanza. We wish at the same time

to begin in your quarter, for which there is at present a favorable

opening. The Cahokias extinct, we are entitled to their country by our

paramount sovereignty. The Piorias, we understand, have all been driven

off from their country, and we might claim it in the same way; but as we

understand there is one chief remaining, who would, as the survivor of

the tribe, sell the right, it is better to give him such terms as will

make him easy for life, and take a conveyance from him. The Kaskaskias

being reduced to a few families, I presume we may purchase their whole

country for what would place every individual of them at his ease, and be

a small price to us,--say by laying off for each family, whenever they

would choose it, as much rich land as they could cultivate, adjacent to

each other, enclosing the whole in a single fence, and giving them such

an annuity in money or goods forever as would place them in happiness;

and we might take them also under the protection of the United States.

Thus possessed of the rights of these tribes, we should proceed to the

settling their boundaries with the Poutewatamies and Kickapoos; claiming

all doubtful territory, but paying them a price for the relinquishment

of their concurrent claim, and even prevailing on them, if possible, to

_cede_, for a price, such of their own unquestioned territory as would

give us a convenient northern boundary. Before broaching this, and while

we are bargaining with the Kaskaskies, the minds of the Poutewatamies and

Kickapoos should be soothed and conciliated by liberalities and sincere

assurances of friendship. Perhaps by sending a well-qualified character

to stay some time in Decoigne's village, as if on other business, and to

sound him and introduce the subject by degrees to his mind and that of the

other heads of families, inculcating in the way of conversation, all those

considerations which prove the advantages they would receive by a cession

on these terms, the object might be more easily and effectually obtained

than by abruptly proposing it to them at a formal treaty. Of the means,

however, of obtaining what we wish, you will be the best judge; and I

have given you this view of the system which we suppose will best promote

the interests of the Indians and ourselves, and finally consolidate our

whole country to one nation only; that you may be enabled the better

to adapt your means to the object, for this purpose we have given you

a general commission for treating. The crisis is pressing: whatever can

now be obtained must be obtained quickly. The occupation of New Orleans,

hourly expected, by the French, is already felt like a light breeze by the

Indians. You know the sentiments they entertain of that nation; under the

hope of their protection they will immediately stiffen against cessions of

lands to us. We had better, therefore, do at once what can now be done.

I must repeat that this letter is to be considered as private and

friendly, and is not to control any particular instructions which you may

receive through official channel. You will also perceive how sacredly it

must be kept within your own breast, and especially how improper to be

understood by the Indians. For their interests and their tranquillity it

is best they should see only the present age of their history. I pray you

to accept assurances of my esteem and high consideration.

TO DR. PRIESTLEY.

WASHINGTON, April 9, 1803.

DEAR SIR,--While on a short visit lately to Monticello, I received from

you a copy of your comparative view of Socrates and Jesus, and I avail

myself of the first moment of leisure after my return to acknowledge the

pleasure I had in the perusal of it, and the desire it excited to see

you take up the subject on a more extended scale. In consequence of some

conversation with Dr. Rush, in the year 1798-99, I had promised some

day to write him a letter giving him my view of the Christian system. I

have reflected often on it since, and even sketched the outlines in my

own mind. I should first take a general view of the moral doctrines of

the most remarkable of the ancient philosophers, of whose ethics we have

sufficient information to make an estimate, say Pythagoras, Epicurus,

Epictetus, Socrates, Cicero, Seneca, Antoninus. I should do justice to the

branches of morality they have treated well; but point out the importance

of those in which they are deficient. I should then take a view of the

deism and ethics of the Jews, and show in what a degraded state they were,

and the necessity they presented of a reformation. I should proceed to

a view of the life, character, and doctrines of Jesus, who sensible of

incorrectness of their ideas of the Deity, and of morality, endeavored

to bring them to the principles of a pure deism, and juster notions of

the attributes of God, to reform their moral doctrines to the standard

of reason, justice and philanthropy, and to inculcate the belief of a

future state. This view would purposely omit the question of his divinity,

and even his inspiration. To do him justice, it would be necessary to

remark the disadvantages his doctrines had to encounter, not having been

committed to writing by himself, but by the most unlettered of men, by

memory, long after they had heard them from him; when much was forgotten,

much misunderstood, and presented in every paradoxical shape. Yet such

are the fragments remaining as to show a master workman, and that his

system of morality was the most benevolent and sublime probably that has

been ever taught, and consequently more perfect than those of any of the

ancient philosophers. His character and doctrines have received still

greater injury from those who pretend to be his special disciples, and who

have disfigured and sophisticated his actions and precepts, from views

of personal interest, so as to induce the unthinking part of mankind to

throw off the whole system in disgust, and to pass sentence as an impostor

on the most innocent, the most benevolent, the most eloquent and sublime

character that ever has been exhibited to man. This is the outline; but

I have not the time, and still less the information which the subject

needs. It will therefore rest with me in contemplation only. You are the

person of all others would do it best, and most promptly. You have all the

materials at hand, and you put together with ease. I wish you could be

induced to extend your late work to the whole subject. I have not heard

particularly what is the state of your health; but as it has been equal

to the journey to Philadelphia, perhaps it might encourage the curiosity

you must feel to see for once this place, which nature has formed on a

beautiful scale, and circumstances destine for a great one. As yet we

are but a cluster of villages; we cannot offer you the learned society

of Philadelphia; but you will have that of a few characters whom you

esteem, and a bed and hearty welcome with one who will rejoice in every

opportunity of testifying to you his high veneration and affectionate

attachment.

TO EDWARD DOWSE, ESQ.

WASHINGTON, April 19, 1803.

DEAR SIR,--I now return the sermon you were so kind as to enclose me,

having perused it with attention. The reprinting it by me, as you have

proposed, would very readily be ascribed to hypocritical affectation, by

those who, when they cannot blame our acts, have recourse to the expedient

of imputing them to bad motives. This is a resource which can never fail

them, because there is no act, however virtuous, for which ingenuity may

not find some bad motive. I must also add that though I concur with the

author in considering the moral precepts of Jesus as more pure, correct,

and sublime than those of the ancient philosophers, yet I do not concur

with him in the mode of proving it. He thinks it necessary to libel and

decry the doctrines of the philosophers; but a man must be blinded indeed

by prejudice, who can deny them a great degree of merit. I give them

their just due, and yet maintain that the morality of Jesus, as taught by

himself, and freed from the corruptions of latter times, is far superior.

Their philosophy went chiefly to the government of our passions, so far

as respected ourselves, and the procuring our own tranquillity. In our

duties to others they were short and deficient. They extended their cares

scarcely beyond our kindred and friends individually, and our country in

the abstract. Jesus embraced with charity and philanthropy our neighbors,

our countrymen, and the whole family of mankind. They confined themselves

to actions; he pressed his sentiments into the region of our thoughts, and

called for purity at the fountain head. In a pamphlet lately published in

Philadelphia by Dr. Priestley, he has treated, with more justice and skill

than Mr. Bennet, a small portion of this subject. His is a comparative

view of Socrates only with Jesus. I have urged him to take up the subject

on a broader scale.

Every word which goes from me, whether verbally or in writing, becomes the

subject of so much malignant distortion, and perverted construction, that

I am obliged to caution my friends against admitting the possibility of

my letters getting into the public papers, or a copy of them to be taken

under any degree of confidence. The present one is perhaps of a tenor to

silence some calumniators, but I never will, by any word or act, bow to

the shrine of intolerance, or admit a right of inquiry into the religious

opinions of others. On the contrary, we are bound, you, I, and every one,

to make common cause, even with error itself, to maintain the common right

of freedom of conscience. We ought with one heart and one hand to hew

down the daring and dangerous efforts of those who would seduce the public

opinion to substitute itself into that tyranny over religious faith which

the laws have so justly abdicated. For this reason, were my opinions up to

the standard of those who arrogate the right of questioning them, I would

not countenance that arrogance by descending to an explanation. Accept my

friendly salutations and high esteem.

TO MR. GALLATIN.

April 21, 1803.

The Act of Congress 1789, c. 9, assumes on the General Government the

maintenance and repair of all lighthouses, beacons, buoys, and public

piers then existing, and provides for the building a new lighthouse.

This was done under the authority given by the Constitution "to regulate

commerce," was contested at the time as not within the meaning of these

terms, and yielded to only on the urgent necessity of the case. The

Act of 1802, c. 20, f. 8, for repairing and erecting public piers in

the Delaware, does not take any new ground--it is in strict conformity

with the Act of 1789. While we pursue, then, the construction of the

Legislature, that the repairing and erecting lighthouses, beacons, buoys,

and piers, is authorized as belonging to the regulation of commerce,

we must take care not to go ahead of them, and strain the meaning of

the terms still further to the clearing out the channels of all the

rivers, &c. of the United States. The removing a sunken vessel is not the

repairing of a pier.

How far the authority "to levy taxes to provide for the common defence,"

and that "for providing and maintaining a navy," may authorize the

removing obstructions in a river or harbor, is a question not involved in

the present case.

TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN RUSH.

WASHINGTON, April 21, 1803.

DEAR SIR,--In some of the delightful conversations with you, in the

evenings of 1798-99, and which served as an anodyne to the afflictions

of the crisis through which our country was then laboring, the Christian

religion was sometimes our topic; and I then promised you, that one day or

other, I would give you my views of it. They are the result of a life of

inquiry and reflection, and very different from that anti-Christian system

imputed to me by those who know nothing of my opinions. To the corruptions

of Christianity I am indeed opposed; but not to the genuine precepts of

Jesus himself. I am a Christian, in the only sense in which he wished

any one to be; sincerely attached to his doctrines, in preference to all

others; ascribing to himself every _human_ excellence; and believing he

never claimed any other. At the short intervals since these conversations,

when I could justifiably abstract my mind from public affairs, the subject

has been under my contemplation. But the more I considered it, the more

it expanded beyond the measure of either my time or information. In

the moment of my late departure from Monticello, I received from Doctor

Priestley, his little treatise of "Socrates and Jesus compared." This

being a section of the general view I had taken of the field, it became

a subject of reflection while on the road, and unoccupied otherwise.

The result was, to arrange in my mind a syllabus, or outline of such an

estimate of the comparative merits of Christianity, as I wished to see

executed by some one of more leisure and information for the task, than

myself. This I now send you, as the only discharge of my promise I can

probably ever execute. And in confiding it to you, I know it will not be

exposed to the malignant perversions of those who make every word from me

a text for new misrepresentations and calumnies. I am moreover averse to

the communication of my religious tenets to the public; because it would

countenance the presumption of those who have endeavored to draw them

before that tribunal, and to seduce public opinion to erect itself into

that inquisition over the rights of conscience, which the laws have so

justly proscribed. It behoves every man who values liberty of conscience

for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others; or their

case may, by change of circumstances, become his own. It behoves him,

too, in his own case, to give no example of concession, betraying the

common right of independent opinion, by answering questions of faith,

which the laws have left between God and himself. Accept my affectionate

salutations.

_Syllabus of an Estimate of the Merit of the Doctrines of Jesus, compared

with those of others._

In a comparative view of the Ethics of the enlightened nations of

antiquity, of the Jews and of Jesus, no notice should be taken of the

corruptions of reason among the ancients, to wit, the idolatry and

superstition of the vulgar, nor of the corruptions of Christianity by the

learned among its professors.

Let a just view be taken of the moral principles inculcated by the most

esteemed of the sects of ancient philosophy, or of their individuals;

particularly Pythagoras, Socrates, Epicurus, Cicero, Epictetus, Seneca,

Antoninus.

I. Philosophers. 1. Their precepts related chiefly to ourselves, and

the government of those passions which, unrestrained, would disturb our

tranquillity of mind.[17] In this branch of philosophy they were really

great.

2. In developing our duties to others, they were short and defective.

They embraced, indeed, the circles of kindred and friends, and inculcated

patriotism, or the love of our country in the aggregate, as a primary

obligation: towards our neighbors and countrymen they taught justice, but

scarcely viewed them as within the circle of benevolence. Still less have

they inculcated peace, charity and love to our fellow men, or embraced

with benevolence the whole family of mankind.

II. Jews. 1. Their system was Deism; that is, the belief in one only God.

But their ideas of him and of his attributes were degrading and injurious.

2. Their Ethics were not only imperfect, but often irreconcilable with

the sound dictates of reason and morality, as they respect intercourse

with those around us; and repulsive and anti-social, as respecting other

nations. They needed reformation, therefore, in an eminent degree.

III. Jesus. In this state of things among the Jews, Jesus appeared. His

parentage was obscure; his condition poor; his education null; his natural

endowments great; his life correct and innocent: he was meek, benevolent,

patient, firm, disinterested, and of the sublimest eloquence.

The disadvantages under which his doctrines appear are remarkable.

1. Like Socrates and Epictetus, he wrote nothing himself.

2. But he had not, like them, a Xenophon or an Arrian to write for him. I

name not Plato, who only used the name of Socrates to cover the whimsies

of his own brain. On the contrary, all the learned of his country,

entrenched in its power and riches, were opposed to him, lest his labors

should undermine their advantages; and the committing to writing his life

and doctrines fell on unlettered and ignorant men; who wrote, too, from

memory, and not till long after the transactions had passed.

3. According to the ordinary fate of those who attempt to enlighten and

reform mankind, he fell an early victim to the jealousy and combination of

the altar and the throne, at about thirty-three years of age, his reason

having not yet attained the _maximum_ of its energy, nor the course of his

preaching, which was but of three years at most, presented occasions for

developing a complete system of morals.

4. Hence the doctrines which he really delivered were defective as

a whole, and fragments only of what he did deliver have come to us

mutilated, misstated, and often unintelligible.

5. They have been still more disfigured by the corruptions of

schismatizing followers, who have found an interest in sophisticating

and perverting the simple doctrines he taught, by engrafting on them the

mysticisms of a Grecian sophist, frittering them into subtleties, and

obscuring them with jargon, until they have caused good men to reject the

whole in disgust, and to view Jesus himself as an impostor.

Notwithstanding these disadvantages, a system of morals is presented to

us, which, if filled up in the style and spirit of the rich fragments he

left us, would be the most perfect and sublime that has ever been taught

by man.

The question of his being a member of the Godhead, or in direct

communication with it, claimed for him by some of his followers, and

denied by others, is foreign to the present view, which is merely an

estimate of the intrinsic merits of his doctrines.

1. He corrected the Deism of the Jews, confirming them in their belief

of one only God, and giving them juster notions of his attributes and

government.

2. His moral doctrines, relating to kindred and friends, were more pure

and perfect than those of the most correct of the philosophers, and

greatly more so than those of the Jews; and they went far beyond both

in inculcating universal philanthropy, not only to kindred and friends,

to neighbors and countrymen, but to all mankind, gathering all into one

family, under the bonds of love, charity, peace, common wants and common

aids. A development of this head will evince the peculiar superiority of

the system of Jesus over all others.

3. The precepts of philosophy, and of the Hebrew code, laid hold of

actions only. He pushed his scrutinies into the heart of man; erected his

tribunal in the region of his thoughts, and purified the waters at the

fountain head.

4. He taught, emphatically, the doctrines of a future state, which was

either doubted, or disbelieved by the Jews; and wielded it with efficacy,

as an important incentive, supplementary to the other motives to moral

conduct.

FOOTNOTE:

[17] To explain, I will exhibit the heads of Seneca's and

Cicero's philosophical works, the most extensive of any we have

received from the ancients. Of ten heads in Seneca, seven relate

to ourselves, viz. _de ira_, _consolatio_, _de tranquilitate_,

_de constantia sapientis_, _de otio sapientis_, _de vita beata_,

_de brevitate vitae_; two relate to others, _de elementia_, _de

beneficiis_; and one relates to the government of the world, _de

providentia_. Of eleven tracts of Cicero, five respect ourselves,

viz. _de finibus_, _Tusculana_, _academica_, _paradoxa_, _de

Senectute_; one, _de officiis_, relates partly to ourselves,

partly to others; one, _de amicitia_, relates to others; and

four are on different subjects, to wit, _de natura deorum_, _de

divinatione_, _de fato_, and _somnium Scipionis_.

TO DOCTOR HUGH WILLIAMSON.

WASHINGTON, April 30, 1803.

DEAR SIR,--I thank you for the information on the subject of navigation

of the Herville contained in yours of the 10th. In running the late line

between the Choctaws and us, we found the Amite to be about thirty miles

from the Mississippi where that line crossed it, which was but a little

northward of our southern boundary. For the present we have a respite on

that subject, Spain having without delay restored our infracted right,

and assured us it is expressly saved by the instrument of her cession

of Louisiana to France. Although I do not count with confidence on

obtaining New Orleans from France for money, yet I am confident in the

policy of putting off the day of contention for it till we have lessened

the embarrassment of debt accumulated instead of being discharged by

our predecessors, till we obtain more of that strength which is growing

on us so rapidly, and especially till we have planted a population on

the Mississippi itself sufficient to do its own work without marching

men fifteen hundred miles from the Atlantic shores to perish by fatigue

and unfriendly climates. This will soon take place. In the meantime we

have obtained by a peaceable appeal to justice, in four months, what

we should not have obtained under seven years of war, the loss of one

hundred thousand lives, an hundred millions of additional debt, many

hundred millions worth of produce and property lost for want of market,

or in seeking it, and that demoralization which war superinduces on the

human mind. To have seized New Orleans, as our federal maniacs wished,

would only have changed the character and extent of the blockade of our

western commerce. It would have produced a blockade, by superior naval

force, of the navigation of the river as well as of the entrance into

New Orleans, instead of a paper blockade from New Orleans alone while the

river remained open, and I am persuaded that had not the deposit been so

quickly rendered we should have found soon that it would be better now to

ascend the river to Natchez, in order to be clear of the embarrassments,

plunderings, and irritations at New Orleans, and to fatten by the benefits

of the depôt a city and citizens of our own, rather than those of a

foreign nation. Accept my friendly and respectful salutations.

P. S. Water line of the Herville, Amite, and to Ponchartrain, becoming

a boundary between France and Spain, we have a double chance of an

acknowledgment of our right to use it on the same ground of national right

on which we claim the navigation of the Mobile and other rivers heading in

our territory and running through the Floridas.

TO MR NICHOLSON.

WASHINGTON, May 13, 1803.

DEAR SIR,--I return you the letter of Captain Jones, with thanks for the

perusal. While it is well to have an eye on our enemy's camp it is not

amiss to keep one for the movements in our own. I have no doubt that the

agitation of the public mind on the continuance of tories in office is

excited in some degree by those who want to get in themselves. However,

the mass of those affected by it can have no views of that kind. It

is composed of such of our friends as have a warm sense of the former

intolerance and present bitterness of our adversaries, and they are not

without excuse. While it is best for our own tranquillity to see and

hear with apathy the atrocious calumnies of the presses which our enemies

support for the purpose of calumny, it is what we have no right to expect;

nor can we consider the indignation they excite in others as unjust, or

strongly censure those whose temperament is not proof against it. Nor

are they protected in their places by any right they have to more than

a just proportion of them, and still less by their own examples while in

power; but by considerations respecting the public mind. This tranquillity

seems necessary to predispose the candid part of our fellow-citizens who

have erred and strayed from their ways, to return again to them, and

to consolidate once more that union of will, without which the nation

will not stand firm against foreign force and intrigue. On the subject

of the particular schism at Philadelphia, a well-informed friend says,

"The fretful, turbulent disposition which has manifested itself in

Philadelphia, originated, in some degree, from a sufficient cause, which I

will explain when I see you. A re-union will take place, and in the issue

it will be useful. Their resolves will be so tempered as to remove most of

the unpleasant feelings which have been experienced." I shall certainly be

glad to receive the explanation and modification of their proceedings; for

they were taking a form which could not be approved on true principles.

We laid down our line of proceedings on mature inquiry and consideration

in 1801, and have not departed from it. Some removals, to wit, sixteen to

the end of our first session of Congress were made on political principles

alone, in very urgent cases; and we determined to make no more but for

delinquency, or active and bitter opposition to the order of things

which the public will had established. On this last ground nine were

removed from the end of the first to the end of the second session of

Congress; and one since that. So that sixteen only have been removed in

the whole for political principles, that is to say, to make room for some

participation for the republicans. These were a mere fraud not suffered

to go into effect. Pursuing our object of harmonizing all good people of

whatever description, we shall steadily adhere to our rule, and it is with

sincere pleasure I learn that it is approved by the more moderate part of

our friends.

We have received official information that, in the instrument of cession

of Louisiana to France, were these words, "Saving the rights acquired by

other powers in virtue of treaties made with them by Spain;" and cordial

acknowledgments from this power for our temperate forbearance under the

misconduct of her officer. The French prefect too has assured Governor

Claiborne that if the suspension is not removed before he takes his place

he will remove it. But the Spanish Intendant has before this day received

the positive order of his government to do it, sent here by a vessel of

war, and forwarded by us to Natchez.

Although there is probably no truth in the stories of war actually

commenced, yet I believe it inevitable. England insists on a

re-modification of the affairs of Europe, so much changed by Bonaparte

since the treaty of Amiens. So that we may soon expect to hear of

hostilities. You must have heard of the extraordinary charge of Chace to

the Grand Jury at Baltimore. Ought this seditious and official attack on

the principles of our Constitution, and on the proceedings of a State, to

go unpunished? and to whom so pointedly as yourself will the public look

for the necessary measures? I ask these questions for your consideration,

for myself it is better that I should not interfere. Accept my friendly

salutations and assurances of great esteem and respect.

TO GOVERNOR CLAIBORNE.

WASHINGTON, May 24, 1803.

DEAR SIR,--The within being for communication to your House of

Representatives, when it meets, I enclose it in this which is of a private

character. The former I think had better be kept up until the meeting

of the Representatives, lest it should have any effect on the present

critical state of things beyond the Atlantic. Although I have endeavored

to make it as inoffensive there as was compatible with the giving an

answer to the Representatives. Pending a negotiation, and with a jealous

power, small matters may excite alarm, and repugnance to what we are

claiming. I consider war between France and England as unavoidable. The

former is much averse to it, but the latter sees her own existence to

depend on a remodification of the face of Europe, over which France has

extended its sway much farther since than before the treaty of Amiens.

That instrument is therefore considered as insufficient for the general

security; in fact, as virtually subverted, by the subsequent usurpations

of Bonaparte on the powers of Europe. A remodification is therefore

required by England, and evidently cannot be agreed to by Bonaparte, whose

power, resting on the transcendent opinion entertained of him, would sink

with that on any retrograde movement. In this conflict, our neutrality

will be cheaply purchased by a cession of the island of New Orleans and

the Floridas; because taking part in the war, we could so certainly seize

and securely hold them and more. And although it would be unwise in us

to let such an opportunity pass by of obtaining the necessary accession

to our territory even by force, if not obtainable otherwise, yet it is

infinitely more desirable to obtain it with the blessing of neutrality

rather than the curse of war. As a means of increasing the security, and

providing a protection for our lower possessions on the Mississippi, I

think it also all important to press on the Indians, as steadily and

strenuously as they can bear, the extension of our purchases on the

Mississippi from the Yazoo upwards; and to encourage a settlement along

the whole length of that river, that it may possess on its own banks the

means of defending itself, and presenting as strong a frontier on our

western as we have on our eastern border. We have therefore recommended

to Governor Dickinson taking on the Tombigbee only as much as will cover

our actual settlements, to transfer the purchase from the Choctaws to

their lands westward of the Big Black, rather than the fork of Tombigbee

and Alabama, which has been offered by them in order to pay their debt

to Ponton and Leslie. I have confident expectations of purchasing this

summer a good breadth on the Mississippi, from the mouth of the Illinois

down to the mouth of the Ohio, which would settle immediately and thickly;

and we should then have between that settlement and the lower one, only

the uninhabited lands of the Chickasaws on the Mississippi; on which we

could be working at both ends. You will be sensible that the preceding

views, as well those which respect the European powers as the Indians,

are such as should not be formally declared, but be held as a rule of

action to govern the conduct of those within whose agency they lie; and it

is for this reason that instead of having it said to you in an official

letter, committed to records which are open to many, I have thought it

better that you should learn my views from a private and confidential

letter, and be enabled to act upon them yourself, and guide others into

them. The elections which have taken place this spring, prove that the

spirit of republicanism has repossessed the whole mass of our country from

Connecticut southwardly and westwardly. The three New England States of

New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Connecticut, alone hold out. In these,

though we have not gained the last year as much as we had expected, yet

we are gaining steadily and sensibly. In Massachusetts we have gained

three senators more than we had the last year, and it is believed our gain

in the lower House will be in proportion. In Connecticut we have rather

lost in their Legislature, but in the mass of the people, where we had

on the election of Governor the last year, but twenty-nine republican

out of every hundred votes, we this year have thirty-five out of every

hundred; with the phalanx of priests and lawyers against us, republicanism

works up slowly in that quarter; but in a year or two more we shall have

a majority even there. In the next House of Representatives there will

be about forty-two federal and a hundred republican members. Be assured

that, excepting in this north-eastern and your south-western corner of

the Union, monarchism, which has been so falsely miscalled federalism,

is dead and buried, and no day of resurrection will ever dawn upon that;

that it has retired to the two extreme and opposite angles of our land,

from whence it will have ultimately and shortly to take its final flight.

While speaking of the Indians, I omitted to mention that I think it would

be good policy in us to take by the hand those of them who have emigrated

from ours to the other side of the Mississippi, to furnish them generously

with arms, ammunition, and other essentials, with a view to render a

situation there desirable to those they have left behind, to toll them

in this way across the Mississippi, and thus prepare in time an eligible

retreat for the whole. We have not as yet however began to act on this.

I believe a considerable number from all the four southern tribes have

settled between the St. Francis and Akanza, but mostly from the Cherokees.

I presume that with a view to this object we ought to establish a factory

on the eastern bank of the Mississippi, where it would be most convenient

for them to come and trade. We have an idea of running a path in a direct

line from Knoxville to Natchez, believing it would save 200 miles in the

carriage of our mail. The consent of the Indians will be necessary, and it

will be very important to get individuals among them to take each a white

man into partnership, and to establish at every nineteen miles a house

of entertainment, and a farm for its support. The profits of this would

soon reconcile the Indians to the practice, and extend it, and render the

public use of the road as much an object of desire as it is now of fear;

and such a horsepath would soon, with their consent, become a wagon-road.

I have appointed Isaac Briggs of Maryland, surveyor of the lands south of

Tennessee. He is a Quaker, a sound republican, and of a pure and unspotted

character. In point of science, in astronomy, geometry and mathematics,

he stands in a line with Mr. Ellicot, and second to no man in the United

States. He set out yesterday for his destination, and I recommend him

to your particular patronage; the candor, modesty and simplicity of his

manners cannot fail to gain your esteem. For the office of surveyor, men

of the first order of science in astronomy and mathematics are essentially

necessary. I am about appointing a similar character for the north-western

department, and charging him with determining by celestial observations

the longitude and latitude of several interesting points of lakes

Michigan and Superior, and an accurate survey of the Mississippi, from St.

Anthony's Falls to the mouth of the Ohio, correcting his admeasurements

by observations of longitude and latitude. From your quarter Mr. Briggs

will be expected to take accurate observations of such interesting points

as Mr. Ellicot has omitted, so that it will not be long before we shall

possess an accurate map of the outlines of the United States. Your country

is so abundant in everything which is good, that one does not know what

there is here of that description which you have not, and which could be

offered in exchange for a barrel of fresh peccans every autumn. Yet I will

venture to propose such an exchange, taking information of the article

most acceptable from home, either from yourself or such others as can

inform me. I pray you to accept my friendly salutations and assurances of

great esteem and respect.

TO SIR JOHN SINCLAIR.

WASHINGTON, June 30, 1803.

DEAR SIR,--It is so long since I have had the pleasure of writing to you,

that it would be vain to look back to dates to connect the old and the

new. Yet I ought not to pass over my acknowledgments to you for various

publications received from time to time, and with great satisfaction

and thankfulness. I send you a small one in return, the work of a very

unlettered farmer, yet valuable, as it relates plain facts of importance

to farmers. You will discover that Mr. Binns is an enthusiast for the

use of gypsum. But there are two facts which prove he has a right to be

so: 1. He began poor, and has made himself tolerably rich by his farming

alone. 2. The county of Loudon, in which he lives, had been so exhausted

and wasted by bad husbandry, that it began to depopulate, the inhabitants

going Southwardly in quest of better lands. Binns' success has stopped

that emigration. It is now becoming one of the most productive counties

of the State of Virginia, and the price given for the lands is multiplied

manifold.

We are still uninformed here whether you are again at war. Bonaparte

has produced such a state of things in Europe as it would seem difficult

for him to relinquish in any sensible degree, and equally dangerous for

Great Britain to suffer to go on, especially if accompanied by maritime

preparations on his part. The events which have taken place in France

have lessened in the American mind the motives of interest which it felt

in that revolution, and its amity towards that country now rests on its

love of peace and commerce. We see, at the same time, with great concern,

the position in which Great Britain is placed, and should be sincerely

afflicted were any disaster to deprive mankind of the benefit of such a

bulwark against the torrent which has for some time been bearing down all

before it. But her power and powers at sea seem to render everything safe

in the end. Peace is our passion, and the wrongs might drive us from it.

We prefer trying _ever_ other just principles, right and safety, before we

would recur to war.

I hope your agricultural institution goes on with success. I consider

you as the author of all the good it shall do. A better idea has never

been carried into practice. Our agricultural society has at length

formed itself. Like our American Philosophical Society, it is voluntary,

and unconnected with the public, and is precisely an execution of the

plan I formerly sketched to you. Some State societies have been formed

heretofore; the others will do the same. Each State society names two

of its members of Congress to be their members in the Central society,

which is of course together during the sessions of Congress. They are to

select matter from the proceedings of the State societies, and to publish

it; so that their publications may be called _l'esprit des sociétes

d'agriculture_, &c. The Central society was formed the last winter only,

so that it will be some time before they get under way. Mr. Madison, the

Secretary of State, was elected their President.

Recollecting with great satisfaction our friendly intercourse while I was

in Europe, I nourish the hope it still preserves a place in your mind;

and with my salutations, I pray you to accept assurances of my constant

attachment and high respect.

TO CAPTAIN MERIWETHER LEWIS.

WASHINGTON, United States of America, July 4, 1803.

DEAR SIR,--In the journey which you are about to undertake, for the

discovery of the course and source of the Missouri, and of the most

convenient water communication from thence to the Pacific Ocean,

your party being small, it is to be expected that you will encounter

considerable dangers from the Indian inhabitants. Should you escape those

dangers, and reach the Pacific Ocean, you may find it imprudent to hazard

a return the same way, and be forced to seek a passage round by sea, in

such vessels as you may find on the Western coast; but you will be without

money, without clothes, and other necessaries, as a sufficient supply

cannot be carried from hence. Your resource, in that case, can only be in

the credit of the United States; for which purpose I hereby authorize you

to draw on the Secretaries of State, of the Treasury, of War, and of the

Navy of the United States, according as you may find your draughts will

be most negociable, for the purpose of obtaining money or necessaries for

yourself and men; and I solemnly pledge the faith of the United States,

that these draughts shall be paid punctually at the date at which they are

made payable. I also ask of the consuls, agents, merchants, and citizens

of any nation with which we have intercourse or amity, to furnish you

with those supplies which your necessities may call for, assuring them

of honorable and prompt retribution; and our own consuls in foreign

parts, where you may happen to be, are hereby instructed and required

to be aiding and assisting to you in whatsoever may be necessary for

procuring your return back to the United States. And to give more entire

satisfaction and confidence to those who may be disposed to aid you, I,

Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States of America, have written

this letter of general credit for you with my own hand, and signed it with

my name.

TO EARL OF BUCHAN.

WASHINGTON, July 10, 1803.

MY LORD,--I received, through the hands of Mr. Lenox, on his return

to the United States, the valuable volume you were so good as to send

me on the life and writings of Fletcher, of Saltoun. The political

principles of that patriot were worthy the purest periods of the British

Constitution; they are those which were in vigor at the epoch of the

American emigration. Our ancestors brought them here, and they needed

little strengthening to make us what we are. But in the weakened condition

of English whigism at this day, it requires more firmness to publish and

advocate them than it then did to act on them. This merit is peculiarly

your Lordship's; and no one honors it more than myself. While I freely

admit the right of a nation to change its political principles and

constitution at will, and the impropriety of any but its own citizens

censuring that change, I expect your Lordship has been disappointed,

as I acknowledge I have been, in the issue of the convulsions on the

other side the channel. This has certainly lessened the interest which

the philanthropist warmly felt in those struggles. Without befriending

human liberty, a gigantic force has risen up which seems to threaten the

world. But it hangs on the thread of opinion, which may break from one

day to another. I feel real anxiety on the conflict to which imperious

circumstances seem to call your nation, and bless the Almighty Being, who,

in gathering together the waters under the heavens into one place, divided

the dry land of your hemisphere from the dry lands of ours, and said, at

least be there peace. I hope that peace and amity with all nations will

long be the character of our land, and that its prosperity under the

Charter will react on the mind of Europe, and profit her by the example.

My hope of preserving peace for our country is not founded in the greater

principles of non-resistance under every wrong, but in the belief that a

just and friendly conduct on our part will procure justice and friendship

from others. In the existing contest, each of the combatants will find

an interest in our friendship. I cannot say we shall be unconcerned

spectators of this combat. We feel for human sufferings, and we wish the

good of all. We shall look on, therefore, with the sensations which these

dispositions and the events of the war will produce.

I feel a pride in the justice which your Lordship's sentiments render to

the character of my illustrious countryman, Washington. The moderation of

his desires, and the strength of his judgment, enabled him to calculate

correctly, that the road to that glory which never dies is to use power

for the support of the laws and liberties of our country, not for their

destruction; and his will accordingly survives the wreck of everything now

living.

Accept, my lord, the tribute of esteem, from one who renders it with

warmth to the disinterested friend of mankind, and assurances of my high

consideration and respect.

TO GENERAL GATES.

WASHINGTON, July 11, 1803.

DEAR GENERAL,--I accept with pleasure, and with pleasure reciprocate your

congratulations on the acquisition of Louisiana; for it is a subject

of mutual congratulation, as it interests every man of the nation. The

territory acquired, as it includes all the waters of the Missouri and

Mississippi, has more than doubled the area of the United States, and

the new parts is not inferior to the old in soil, climate, productions

and important communications. If our Legislature dispose of it with the

wisdom we have a right to expect, they may make it the means of tempting

all our Indians on the east side of the Mississippi to remove to the

west, and of condensing instead of scattering our population. I find our

opposition is very willing to pluck feathers from Monroe, although not

fond of sticking them into Livingston's coat. The truth is, both have a

just portion of merit; and were it necessary or proper, it would be shown

that each has rendered peculiar services, and of important value. These

grumblers, too, are very uneasy lest the administration should share some

little credit for the acquisition, the whole of which they ascribe to the

accident of war. They would be cruelly mortified could they see our files

from May, 1801, the first organization of the administration, but more

especially from April, 1802. They would see, that though we could not say

when war would arise, yet we said with energy what would take place when

it should arise. We did not, by our intrigues, produce the war; but we

availed ourselves of it when it happened. The other party saw the case now

existing, on which our representations were predicated, and the wisdom of

timely sacrifice. But when these people make the war give us everything,

they authorize us to ask what the war gave us in their day? They had a

war; what did they make it bring us? Instead of making our neutrality

the ground of gain to their country, they were for plunging into the

war. And if they were now in place, they would now be at war against the

atheists and disorganizers of France. They were for making their country

an appendage to England. We are friendly, cordially and conscientiously

friendly to England. We are not hostile to France. We will be rigorously

just and sincerely friendly to both. I do not believe we shall have as

much to swallow from them as our predecessors had.

* * * * *

Present me respectfully to Mrs. Gates, and accept yourself my affectionate

salutations, and assurances of great respect and esteem.

TO M. CABANIS.

WASHINGTON, July 12, 1803.